So the last post I did of the books I had read was LAST JULY! Granted, this was right before I went on my cruise with my mom, and you all know what happened after that...I came home from vacation, met Dillon that weekend, and then started neglecting all kinds of stuff, including y reading and blog.
So here is an update on what I have read from vacation to now:
Sisterhood Everlasting - Book 5 of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series written by Ann Brashares.I don't know how many of you guys read these when you were younger, but I ATE THEM UP. I loved following the lives of Lena, Bee, Tibby, and Carmen. I personally felt like I could relate a little bit of myself in each of the four of them, but honestly Carmen was never my favorite. I won't go into details about it all, but I'm sure that you if you read them you would know why.
This book meets up with the four of them quite some time after the last time we saw them in Forever in Blue. It is very much like the previous four stories: Lots of drama, lots of heartache, but most of all, LOVE. Because pants = love. love yourself, love your friends. And the love between these friends, even though they are nowhere near as close as they used to be, is still the constant in this book.
Other than that, I really wish I could divulge more information, just because it is SUCH a good finale to the series, but it just gives entirely too much away. I cried within like 5 chapters. But don't let that turn you away from reading the last of this series. Do it.
During my weeklong cruise, I giggled along to these three reads. WARNING, they are very crude and very inappropriate and filled with curse words, sex scandals, and drinking. But if you can look past all that, it's actually a little entertaining. Behind all the stories of how bad girls in college can get, is a story about a girl named Alexa that has some serious mommy issues, trust issues, and issues with staying sober. I personally think it's a pretty funny set of books, just because she never seems to stop constantly sticking her foot in her mouth. She's always constantly battling for her best friend TA's attention with her best frenemy Taylor. The stuff she gets herself into is entertaining to me. They are cheap books for your reader (or reader apps like kindle), and really easy reads.
The Fifth Vial - Michael PalmerI was introduced to this book by my sorority sister Kaitlin last February when I was visiting Norman. She said that she loved it because it was a medical mystery, and since I studied health and exercise sciences and loved mysteries, that she thought I would like it. (Feel free to correct that run-on sentence.) Well you know what, she was right. I really liked this book.
This is one of those books that follows the lives of a three different characters whose lives are intertwined and they just don't know it yet. Each of the three are victims of a 5th vial of blood that has been taken against their will in an international blood testing/blood typing facility. The fifth vial gives a lot of their information to a secret society, who has taken on a god-like personality to choose who lives and who doesn't. This secret society is a very complex structure that spans across the continents and truly believe they are doing the world good. This book touches on the very serious issue of illegal organ harvesting that seems to be a growing crime.
Although I think the story is a bit far-fetched and extreme in the world of organ harvesting, I still think it is a really good read if you enjoy mysteries. About halfway through, you can see how two of the three lives are related, but the third one takes almost to the end of the book to see how he is intertwined with the other too. The very serious subject matter actually has a really good happy ending, and it's definitely worth checking out!
After I finished The Fifth Vial, I decided to start picking up my Christmas presents as my next read. Dillon, being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, bought me three very. awesome. gifts. for Christmas: The Nashville Soundtrack CD, the Pitch Perfect on Blu-Ray, and the complete set of Harry Potter!! Between the end of January and the beginning of March I read the first three in these series: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Originally, my intentions were to read all 7 of them at this time, but after I finished book 3, I decided that I wanted a break and come back to them before they start getting really dark. After I finished book 3, my brother, my roommate, and I all decided to take a day trip to the Tulsa City-County Library. While I was there, I stumbled across a book I had marked as "To-Read" on my good reads profile, so I picked that up:
Man in the Blue Moon by Michael MorrisI believe that I marked this as to-read as part of a giveaway, but the summary that was on goodreads was enough to keep me intrigued, even if I didn't win the book.
This book is set in Florida during World War I. We follow the story of a family whose husband has left them due to a drug addiction. The mother, Ella Wallace, was left to man the shop and land he left her, land that has been in her family for as long as she remembers. In fact, her father's parting lands with her were to never sell the land that is her birthright.
Then a man stumbles upon her doorstep, claiming to be her husband's relative. He agrees to help her out with maintaining all of her property. The man, Lanier, is a very mysterious man who doesn't reveal much about his past, his family, or how he stumbled into Ella and her family's lives. Just claims it was an arrangement previously set up with her husband. Along the way, we find that Lanier seems to have some kind of extra ability that allows him to heal people who are suffering by simply praying over them. This ability also stirs some trouble in the small town in Florida, and there is lots of speculation about the kind of man he is. Being in the small town, there is also lots of speculation of the manner of his relationship with Ella.
Throughout the book, we watch Ella struggle with money, feelings, and keeping a good image for her sons, no matter what is being spread about her throughout the town. Then the Flu plagues the town and almost completely decimates the town.
The book is very intriguing. It keeps you guessing the whole time about Lanier, about the corrupt banker Clive, and about a reverend who makes a brief appearance in the book. If you enjoy historical fiction, it's definitely worth a read!
So that is what I have read. Not near as many as I would like, but it's starting to change. I do love having the option of what I own and being able to walk a few blocks to my local library. It's definitely helping my relationships with books.
I think I'm going to make this a quarterly thing. Definitely a lot better for remembering specifics of books to be able to summarize them.
Anything good on your bookshelf lately? I love suggestions!! And as always, you can find me on goodreads.com here: http://www.goodreads.com/mbattiest
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