Q2 2014 Readings

Three to Get Deadly, Janet Evanovich - completed May 27, 2014

So after I read Two for the Dough, I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to continue the series or if I just wanted to quit at book #2. I'm glad that I went ahead and decided to pick this one up.

Where two was lacking in comedy, Three to Get Deadly started it right back up!

Of course it follows the same basic concept as one and two-Stephanie Plum gets handed a big case that everyone thinks is too much for her to handle. She calls on Morelli and Ranger to help her out of tough situations, and Lula is the best character of them all.

It was funny enough for me to definitely want to pick up Four to Score. Rated 5/5 on goodreads.

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands, Chelsea Handler - completed June 11, 2014

I had been wanting to read some of Chelsea Handler's books for quite some time. Then I found Books-A-Million at the Tulsa Hills shopping center here in Tulsa, and they have a really awesome Millionaire's Club that gives you all kinds of discounts on all purchases. Plus I went in there about 3 days after I got dumped, and I cannot be trusted in a book store when I'm emotional. Needless to say, I bought about 8 books that day, this being one of them.

My Horizontal Life is Chelsea's first book, and it's pretty dang funny. She seems to be completely honest in how she's telling the stories, as it doesn't seem she is holding anything back. Some of these stories are even embarrassing, I'm sure. She even admits to not being able to complete the deed at the end of the book.

The stories make you laugh right out loud as she is telling them. And the fact that she calls one of her roommates Dumb Dumb made me laugh every single time. Again, seeing as how I had recently been dumped, this laugh-out-loud book was definitely what I needed. Rated 4/5 stars on goodreads.

Desert Drop, Rex Kusler - completed June 13, 2014

This is book #3 in the Las Vegas mystery series that I picked up last summer. If you haven't figured out by now, I love good kindle book bargains from amazon. Amazon had a special last summer that allowed you to buy books for $1 from a certain list of books. This series was on that list, and I decided to go ahead and purchase all three.

I read the first two last summer, but decided I wanted to wait a little on the third (and I believe there is actually more than 3 now as well). This book was a little similar to the first two, in that Alice and Jim get introduced to their case within the first few pages of the book. Then the rest of the book is about them trying to crack the case before Las Vegas homicide does. Both P.I.'s are former detectives, who both gave up the life because they decided it wasn't for them anymore.

The story is pretty good, as the big plot twist in this one is that the person who was murdered was Alice's half sister, who was supposed to be meeting Alice for the first time before she was murdered.

Who the killers are was enough of a plot twist that I guessed the entire time as to who was the second person in the conspiracy. I do not know for sure if I will look into the fourth book yet, but These first three were definitely interesting enough that I enjoyed reading all three of them. Rated 4/5 stars on goodreads.

The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han - completed June 17, 2014

I decided to pick this series up after Katy told me she accidentally read the third book first, and that she liked it fairly well. I read the summaries on all three of the books and decided they would most likely be pretty good summer reads.

I finished this book in less than a week. I was correct in assuming the book would be a good summer read.

The main character's name is Isabel, Belly for short. She measures her life in summers, and summers at Cousins Beach. For as long as Belly can remember, she's been in love with Conrad, who is the son of her mother's long-time friend Susannah. Belly's whole existence of summers have been spent being an outsider to Conrad, his brother Jeremiah, and her brother Steven. But this summer is one that she hopes everything will change. This summer, "Belly is all grown up," and she's hoping that Conrad will be able to see just that.

But as the summer progresses, Conrad distances himself even more, and Belly finds a new boy to spend time with. And for the first time for as long as she can remember, she is growing irritated with Conrad, and doesn't want to "love" him anymore.

At the end of the summer, startling news is revealed about one of the summer family members, and it causes their whole world to be turned upside down. Belly goes back to her real life full of uncertainty. The epilogue is pretty great though! Rated 4/5 stars on goodreads.

The Line, J.D. Horn - completed June 18, 2014

I read this book in about 24 hours. This was another one I picked up from amazon's kindle first books. (SERIOUSLY, GO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS SERVICE!)

This book is set in modern-day Savannah, Georgia. I have been to this location one time and I of course loved the history, the verandas, the Spanish Moss, the cobblestone streets, the MILLIONS of pillars on colonial homes! So when I got this particular month's options, a book set in Savannah seemed the perfect choice!

The Savannah Taylors are a group of witches who all possess different powers-all except Mercy. Mercy is a twin, and her twin Maisie was the child born with all the powers. The ancient history of the family is that they are one of 13 families who helped to separate our world from the demons, and now each of them are set up to hep protect "The Line," that is, the line between our world and theirs.

All Mercy has ever wanted out of life was to feel like she belonged in the family. So she approaches Mother Jilo in the hopes that she will help her cast a love spell to hide her feelings from Maisie's soon-to-be fiancee. She knows it's wrong, because Mother Jilo does not possess natural magic like the Taylors do. She tries to take it back, but Jilo cackles and Mercy knows that (for lack of a better term) something wicked this way comes.

Mercy's great-aunt Ginny is found murdered the next day. What happens for the remainder of the book is a series of events that keep you turning page after page. The families are now faced with finding someone to succeed Ginny in holding their part of the line. Mercy battles with her feelings between two men. Mercy goes back and forth to Mother Jilo, trying to discover truth and answers. The families descend upon Savannah to mourn the loss of Ginny and to help provide a little guidance to the turbulent Taylor family.

Mercy receives borrowed power for 1 day from her uncle Oliver, and discovers more truth in that borrowed time than she could ever have imagined. There's also two MAJOR plot twists at the end that help decide Mercy's fate...

This book was really easy to read. I enjoyed it because it is a book about mythical things, but set in a very real place that I've seen with my own eyes. It doesn't copy every other witch book either, and we all know there are plenty of those out there right now. The storyline was unique enough to keep me entertained throughout the whole book. I rated this book 3/5 stars on goodreads, mostly because I was in complete shock at the conclusion of the book.


It's Not Summer Without You, Jenny Han - completed June 19, 2014

This is the second book of the trilogy by Jenny Han. This one I thought was a little better than the first. In this one, we meet up with Belly in the middle of her summer, but for once it's not at Cousins. She is stuck at home with her best friend Taylor. She attempts to make it a great summer despite not spending time with the Fishers, when she suddenly gets a call from the younger brother Jeremiah that Conrad (love of her life) has gone missing.

Jeremiah and Belly go on a little trip to attempt to find Conrad, all while wrestling with their feelings over the loss of Susannah. What I really liked about this book is that we got to see a little bit from Jeremiah's perspective intermittently. It was a nice little curve ball. The crazy thing about throwing this in there though, was that you could see that Jeremiah has loved Belly almost as long as Belly has loved Conrad. Totally cliche love triangle, but totally fitting into the story. Obviously, Jeremiah's feelings cause issues for all three of them.

Even though the triangle was cliche, it was a pretty good story still. Worth the read to continue Belly's story. Rated 4/5 stars on goodreads.


Timebound, Rysa Walker - completed June 20, 2014

This is yet another book I picked up through amazon's kindle first. This one is a great story about time traveling.

I don't know how many of you are into time travel/sci-fi books, but this is a pretty decent young adult one for it. We meet Kate, whose eccentric grandmother comes around when she is either 15 or 16 and reveals to her that their family has a gene that allows them to time travel. However, Kate's grandfather and missing aunt have somehow gotten their hands on certain points of history, and have completely changed the timeline of the world.

Honestly, this book was a little difficult for me to wrap my head around at first. When Katherine (grandmother) first started explaining things and the CHRONOS key, it was very difficult for me to keep straight and understand. As the book continued to progress, I could follow the thoughts a lot better and actually began to enjoy it. And then it started making me think quite a bit.

My only big issue was that I felt Kate was too trusting throughout the entire book. I feel like if this time traveling thing were a real thing, she definitely should not be spilling her guts about anything that is going on. But all she does is spill spill spill. Despite that, I felt the book was very well written, just a couple hiccups with the spilling of the secrets. Rated it 3/5 on goodreads. Would have been 3.5 stars if that were a possibility.


The Fault in Our Stars, John Green - completed June 21, 2014

Remember in my Q1 readings post I said that Hidden had shattered my soul a little bit? Yeah this one did too. But I'm sure I'm one of the last people on Earth that has read this, so I'm sure you don't need me to give a detailed summary about it. So here's the skinny:
Hazel Grace has cancer and meets an amazing guy named Agustus Waters at a Cancer support group. The entire book is full of their quick and strong romance. Of course, because they both have previously had cancer, you know something terrible is going to happen to their relationship.

What I loved most about this book is how they treated each other. Yes there were a few dark moments (like Cancer Perks), but for the most part they just lived in their own world of happiness. This book. This book is just horribly beautiful. Soul shattering. So wonderful. Definitely a must read. Especially if you want to see the movie (but I always prefer to read the book before seeing the movie.) I do love just how witty both the characters are. It was an awesome part of the book.

Also, I didn't cry. Trust me I wanted to, but I made myself stop, calm down a bit, then continued. It was just a beautiful book. Rated 5/5 stars on goodreads.



We'll Always Have Summer, Jenny Han - completed June 22, 2014

This book rounded out the series of Summer books by Jenny Han. I thought this one was pretty good as well, but slightly over-dramatic. But I also know that's what happens when you follow the love life of a 19 year old.

It's been almost two years since we last saw Conrad, Jeremiah, and Belly. We learn that Belly and Jeremiah have been together this whole time, through Belly's first year in college. It's the last week, and we find out Jeremiah is not near as perfect as we think, and they get all crazy and decide to get married.

I can't say that I necessarily liked what happened between Belly and Jeremiah, but I guess everything worked out the way it was supposed to. It was a cute little YA series. Rated 4/5 stars on goodreads.



Make Lemonade, Virginia Euwer Wolff - completed June 25, 2014

I picked this one up from my library after seeing a couple of my college friends read and love this book. I had a sorority sister that had an internship at World Literature Today - a bi-monthy magazine about literature worldwide. One of their cover authors was Virginia Euwer Wolff, and the sorority sister read this series due to the interview featured in the magazine.

This was another young adult novel, told from Verna's point of view. Verna is bound and determined to go to college, to give herself a better life. She decides to get an after-school job, and calls Jolly, who posted a paper stating "BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD." The actual text is a little unconventional, and the lines are broken up into almost normal conversation. Jolly has two young children, and this story is a kind of coming-of-age story on all the hardships young mothers can face when they have children really young. Very easy to read, a little difficult to read, and a great story! Rated 5/5 stars on goodreads.



If anybody was keeping count, that is nine books I finished in the month of June. The reason for this? I didn't read any in April, and then I got dumped in May. So I guess I just decided I wanted to drown in books for the month of June. OBVIOUSLY, they were mostly young adult books, so it's not that big of an accomplishment, but I'm definitely glad to be reading constantly again. I may not finish that many books for Q3 because I decided that I wanted read the rest of the Game of Thrones series. I'm tired of being surprised at who gets killed!!

What books have you gotten into lately?

Q1 2014 Readings

Here is the first quarter readings, almost in time for second quarter! ha ha.

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen - completed January 6, 2014


I FINALLY finished this book! It only took me two years to finish!

I first picked this up trying to read it on my kindle, and I YAWNED almost the whole time. Seriously. SOOOOOO many people told me it was their favorite classic and that I should read it. BUT, most people also read this while they were in high school. I on the other hand, did not.

SO, what did I think. It was meh. I didn't LOOOOOVE it like so many of you did (I assume you did), but I didn't hate it either. It was just so-so. And I think I confused myself because I definitely thought Jane was going to be the main character. Well that's what I get for thinking.

You have sisters whose mother wants them all married off (as is normal for this time period). A father who is kind of cheeky, and a cousin(?) who is pushy and jerk. Then enter two men from a different part of the countryside and that's where I got my story confused because first it was Jane then it was all Lizzy (I think). AND I don't even know what to think about the officer that stole one of them away.

Anyways, glad it's over. Rated 3/5 stars on goodreads.

Uglies, Scott Westerfeld - completed January 22, 2014

I had read this book previously while my mother was an elementary teacher at a small school here in Oklahoma. I remember reading it and thinking it was pretty good, but not all that great. I attempted to read the second in the series (Pretties), but didn't make it too far before losing interest.

Throw in a couple years and many dystopian novels later, and I decided to go ahead and borrow them again from my mom and attempt to finish out the series. These are also set in a dystopian society, but I believe this books were a little ahead of their time. Dystopian novels definitely were not yet as popular as they are now.

These are interesting novels. In this first novel, we're introduced to Tally Youngblood, and a society that is obsessed with the idea of ugly vs pretty. Once the young people of the society come of age, each go through a surgery to make them pretty. Seems fair enough right? Then comes Shay. She turns Tally's thoughts upside down about "the surge." Soon Tally begins to question all things within her society thanks to Shay. The ending was a definite plot twist and cliffhanger, setting you up for Pretties perfectly.

Pretty easy read. 4/5 stars on goodreads.

Pretties, Scott Westerfeld - completed January 28, 2014

Book 2 of the series. I actually liked this book much better than Uglies upon completion. In this book, we learn that Tally has had the operation to become pretty. She is fitting along well into Prettyville until someone from her past arrives and turns her new world upside down (seems to be a common theme).

Once this happens, Tally is in constant struggle with trying to find herself, and trying to remember everything she learned in Uglies pertaining to the operation and the changes it makes to a person. You can definitely start to understand her inner struggle with finding herself.

The relationship between her and Zane is wonderful, and he is immensely supportive of everything crazy she thinks needs to be done in order to make them normal again. However, all these actions bring in Special Circumstances, a government agency that is thought to be only a rumor. Special Circumstances is headed by crazy Dr. Cable. But Tally's determination to find the truth behind the operations causes them to have Tally-and her friends-on their radar. Again, Westerfeld leaves this one on a cliffhanger, setting you up for Specials, book 3.

My issue with this is that these books require Tally to have a man around in order to "find herself." Can't we have a heroine be strong on her own? 5/5 stars on goodreads.

Specials, Scott Westerfeld - completed February 3, 2014

I liked this one least of the original trilogy. I just felt like Westerfeld put too much things for speculation between each book. Not much time passed between book 2 and book 3, but it was very confusing. We learn that Shay has banded together a group of people in trying to be more and more like Tally, but she is going about it all the wrong ways.

Because Dr. Cable likes this new power group, she has made them into a special group of Special Circumstances, headed by Shay. Shay is crazy about making sure that Tally knows she is in charge and though of more highly than Tally. They have made themselves kind of protectors over the town as well. 

Shay goes stupid crazy in the whole book. No wonder why Tally gets sick of her and ditches her.
Not the best of the original 3. The fourth book was written as a kind of after thought. Rated 3/5 stars on goodreads.

Extras, Scott Westerfeld - completed March 4, 2014

This one was just meh. It wasn't part of the author's original series, and it takes place quite some time after the end of the 3rd book, Specials. The way things work in this other Prettytown is that everything you do is based on your fame. Everyone has a personal camera attached and everyone is trying to earn more merits. This might be why I didn't find it near as interesting. The whole story is about a character named Aya. (It took me over half the book to realize that this world was either in China or Japan.) Enter Aya craving to be one of the most popular people in the world, where she stumbles across a secret that is bigger than she ever realized would be. Once she exposes this truth, she is put on the radar of all of the officials...including Tally Youngblood.

Tally then takes Aya and friends on the ride of their life to try to fix the problem. It was a good twist on a similar story, but I just felt like the storyline had been beaten like a dead horse--Tally tries to save humanity, someone or something gets in the way, then the whole world corrects itself just before it implodes. I was definitely glad to finish the series and move on to the next book. Rated 2/5 stars on goodreads.

Hidden, Catherine McKenzie - completed March 6, 2014

I picked up this book from either February's or March's amazon first list. If you haven't subscribed to this yet, you should definitely look into it. Each month, amazon sends you an email of four books that you can buy for your kindle at a reduced price. These books are pre-releases, they won't be released to the public until the next month. It's an AWESOME deal if you have a kindle or the kindle app!

Anyways, I picked up this book, and honestly it shattered my soul JUST a little bit. The book starts off with Jeff getting tragically hit by a car on the way home from work one Friday. Two women in his life are completely devastated, his wife Claire and a coworker named Tish.

The book is told through three different points of view-Claire, Tish, and Jeff. Claire and Tish tell their story post-accident: how Jeff's death has affected both of these women. Jeff's point of view is told as more of a flashback of things that went on in each of their three's past. It was interjected just enough into the story that it provided great history to the story to where it made everything flow so much better.

The entire story made you wonder "did they or didn't they?" in regards to Jeff and Tish. They had great chemistry but it never really revealed whether or not they had an affair until the epilogue. And I will just let you decide if you want to read it or not. I hate spoiling endings. But it is definitely hard to put down. I WILL give you that. Rated 5/5 on goodreads.

Si-Cology 101: Tales and Wisdom from Duck Dynasty's Favorite Uncle, Si Robertson with Mark Schlabach - completed March 29

If you are a fan of Duck Dynasty, this one is a fun semi-autobiography. Uncle Si is my favorite character, so it was great to read more about his personal life, his family, and his faith. He talked about his early life-the trouble he and Phil used to get into as kids and what it was like growing up in Louisiana.

You can definitely tell that he is a man of faith, as he also talks about how he found Christ and how he tries to live a life living for Him. He does admit that it hasn't always been easy (like any Christian would), but he still tries to do his best to serve.

He also talks about his children and how it was raising them, and the difficulties he and his wife had while he was in the military. It's also told in a language that is just like the way Si talks on the show. It's definitely a good read if you're a fan of the show. RAted 4/5 stars on goodreads.

Recent(ish) Readings

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.

Sorry I'm not Sorry, Sorry I'm not Sorry: Sucks to Suck, and Sorry I'm not Sorry: Shitshow Part 1 - first three novellas written by the infamous twitter author @SororityProblem. I started following this twitter handle after months of watching my sorority sisters retweet some of the funny ones pertaining to wine and wanting to be like Adele. I mean how could you not love an honest person who likes to tweet about these things?

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 Palmer

I 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 Morris

I 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

On 2012's Resolutions

For as long as I can remember, neither I nor any one family member has been to keen on committing to a New Year's Resolution. I know that this is typically when people decide they want to exercise more, eat healthier, quit smoking, etc., but I also know that most resolutions never make it out of February. And sometimes even January! So I never really had any intentions of creating "resolutions" for the year of 2012. (As a side note, for all of those health-related things, I know they are difficult. I also know you won't stick to them until you are TRULY ready to make LIFESTYLE changes. That takes some time.)

But last year, I decided, to heck with it. I'm going to do it! Because I have some fun ones that I've been wanting to do for some time now!!

The result: C-

Let's recap what my 2012 resolutions were:

1 new local restaurant each month, totaling 12 new local restaurants for the year.

The Result: 9 new restaurants.

Blogged: 7

9/12 not so bad. Fail on blogging and picture taking.

See them here:

January. February. March. April. June. August. August part 2 to try to catch up.

1 book each month, totaling having read 12 books the entire year.

The Result: 4 out of 12 of the books I intended to read.

According to my "Reading List" page: 8 books.

According to mygoodreads.com profile: 12 books

Blogged: 5

FOUR OUT OF TWELVE?! I'm ashamed!

Apparently the only 5 I blogged about, I put all in one post here:

Recent Readings.

Overall, I'm really not too disappointed in reaching 9/12 and 4/12. Guess that just comes with never really having done resolutions before.

So what did I learn?

+I apparently really like American bistros and barbecue. and Mexican food, because one of the restaurants I didn't blog about was also Mexican.

+I tend to read A LOT less when I have people to hang out with.

+These types of resolutions are fun and not once did I feel guilty about not meeting a month.

+Sometimes, you start a book with good intentions. Then it's like torture trying to finish it (Pride and Prejudice.)

+I didn't meet everything I wanted to do in 2012, but it was still a pretty kick ass year!

I never decided on anything I wanted to try to accomplish in 2013. In all honesty, it may just be "read as many books as possible," "do as many tourist-y things I can in Tulsa," and "try to eat at lots of different restaurants when we go out instead of the same ol' stuff every time (not that same ol' is bad!)."

So far, I think I've done a fairly good job of just those!

p.s. Are you on goodreads? Find me here! goodreads profile

Book Review: More recent readings

After I finished up Wicked, it took me quite a while to finish another book. I attempted to read Pride and Prejudice for quite a while (and I'm still attempting to read it). Once I realized I was going nowhere fast with that book, I started picking up other books to try to read in the midst of trying to get through Pride and Prejudice (and I know there are probably quite a few of you that love it, and I'm sorry. I'm trying.)

So here's a list of books that I have completed (while only getting through 60% of Pride and Prejudice):

The Scorch Trials is book two of The Maze Runner trilogy.

Guys, I'm not kidding, if you like The Hunger Games trilogy, and you like young adult novels, you should definitely check this series out.

In The Maze Runner, we learn "The Gladers" are save from the maze, or so they think. It only took a couple of chapters into the second book to realize that the kids were nowhere near as safe as they had hoped to be. Testing had to continue, and Tom is still confused by the phrase he saw in the maze, "EVIL IS GOOD."

The kids go through trials of almost zombie-like towns to get to the other side of the scorch to get the vaccine for the flare. And there is also a new guy that joins the gladers.

And at the end of the book, Dashner wants his readers to think the gladers are safe. But Thomas has his doubts.

After The Scorch Trials I think I decided I needed a little trash novels to read quickly. So I read book two of the Gossip Girl series.

In it was what you would expect: scandals, lies, teenage drinking.

I'm pretty sure I had read this one before, but I read it again. It's just not as good as I remember it being when I originally read it many years ago. I guess that just shows I'm actually growing up a little bit. So. Weird.









Then, I'm not sure if you were aware or not, but this badass book-made-movie came out in March, so I decided that I wanted to read the books again. So I read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire again. I read both of them in three days. I would have read Mockingjay, but I loaned my copy to my aunt.

Once I got done with The Hunger Games, I decided that I wanted to go ahead and finish out The Maze Runner trilogy.

Just like Thomas' fears at the end of book two, we quickly learn that The Gladers are not as safe as they hoped to be.

They go through more trials, and then, it just kind of ended. I had invested so much into each of these characters, and I'm not really sure that I was expecting more of a flourish for the end or not. It wasn't a terrible ending, and it was definitely kind of an unexpected ending. But it was a happy ending.

And just like the first two books, every chapter was a cliffhanger. Definitely hard to put down.

Book Two of the what seems never-ending series by Janet Evanovich.

I had attempted to read Two for the Dough a couple years ago, but then had to go off to college and ended up leaving it here.

So what did I think of this one? It was funny, but not quite as funny as the first. The plot was pretty much the same, Stephanie Plum had a big case that would earn her pretty good money, and had a little bit of a hard time getting it taken care of by herself.

I still want her and Ranger to end up together, but who knows.

Will I continue reading the series? You betcha. But I expect the same basic concept for all of the remaining 16 books so far in the series. So don't expect me to get too hyped up about them.

This one I decided to read kind of on a whim. You see, my mom told me that I needed to update my library card because you could check out ebooks for your nook/kindle from the library and this is what we needed to do before our upcoming vacation.

So I started exploring through all of the ebooks that I knew I wanted to read, and got waitlisted for most of them. So then I started browsing the books by genre, then author.

Now, I have read The Dating Game by Danielle Steel, and I enjoyed it. It was a romance novel without getting to graphic. So I decided to pick out a few more Danielle Steel novels to read and stumbled across this one.

I actually just finished this book yesterday, and I loved it. It too was a little predictable, but overall I thought it was a pretty good story line. Two people, one a politician's wife, the other the husband of a woman whose father runs a big pharmaceutical company, meet by chance in Paris (well, he kind of stalked her) and spent the whole night talking to each other, each giving the other an emotional relationship that their marriages had been lacking for a number of years.

Now I'm not saying that I approve of emotional affairs (I actually feel like they are worse than physical ones), but I really enjoyed reading about their lives after they left Paris and didn't keep in touch with each other. Each person had so much self discovery that I really ended up liking the story overall. But it was a predictable romantic story. And I think I'll read a couple more Danielle Steel novels as well, even if her writing will be like Evanovich's and super predictable throughout them all.



Anything good you guys have read lately? Any advice for getting through Pride and Prejudice? I'm hoping to finish it up during my vacation...

Book Review: my two most recent finished books

whoa, whoa, WHOA. Where are my manners?! My BFF Katy introduced me to this site called good reads, and in doing so, I realized that I NEVER gave a review over One Day.

Well now you get a two-for!
That's right party people. Now you get an update on the last two books that I've read :)
Let's go way back to October/November for an update on One Day:


I decided I wanted to read this book after Valerie and Sam reviewed it.

Okay to start off, you probably know by now, but it follows the lives of two friends, Emma and Dexter, throughout their lives starting with the day of graduation from college and throughout the next 20 years. It only tells the story of ONE DAY though, and it is just creative enough that it lets you fill in the blanks of what happened on the other 364 days since the last time you saw Em and Dex, Dex and Em.

This book takes enough twists and turns that it makes the story completely believable. Throughout the entire book, the pair are friends, enemies, and on the brink of being in love. I really don't want to give too much of this book away. It's really a good book. I don't know if you've seen the movie or not, but the movie is also good. It just leaves out some very vital pieces of the book. You should definitely read the book if you haven't already.

Like my two friends before me, I must warn you, this is not the ending you expect. I refuse to tell you if they end up together or not, but you should really spend some time with this book. The end will get you. For real.


I have never read this book. I know that may shock some of you, but it's true. I have been told by many people that this is a very good book and a pretty good musical adaptation as well.

I liked this book up until the end. I feel like that's blasphemous, because everyone who's watched The Wizard of Oz knows how this story ends: she gets water spilled on her and she dies. So there's no spoiler there.

The story leading up to the non-climactic ending is amazing though. It begins with the birth of the green-skinned Elphaba, and follows her journey through life as a student at Shiz, leading up to being the Wicked Witch of the East.

Throughout the book, she struggles with the thought of not having a soul and wanting to fight for what she thinks is moral. Elphaba does wrong and tries to right them, sees wrong and tries to right it, all while struggling with trying to figure out if she really does have a soul.

The book does jump forward in time quite a bit, but it gives you lots of intriguing characters, Fiyero being my favorite. I feel like the book ended way too quickly, with a whole lot of build up, build up, build up, and then it was over. But overall, I really liked this book, and am glad that I decided to read it. I look forward to picking up the sequel, Son of a Witch.

Book Review: What I Read in September

This is actually a review of the one book I attempted to read in August and the two books I read in September. If you remember from this post, I told you guys that I failed in August and didn't finish one book.

So here goes:

I started off the month of August with high hopes for Eat Pray Love. I watched the movie early this year, and a friend told me I should definitely read the book because it was just as good as the movie.

Usually I read books before I watch movies, just because I know movies will never have as much detail as books. I don't know what it was about this book in particular, but I COULD NOT get through it.

The book is divided into three parts, and I got through the first part (Italy) before I finally gave up on it. I'm not giving up on it completely, but I had to read something else because the book just completely bored me to death.

I know there have been other people who have loved this book. It just wasn't to my liking. And I know I will definitely finish it at some point, just not now.

This book is the third book in the Millenium trilogy. It follows The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire.


I personally thought the book was pretty good until it got to the ending. The entire book was filled with twists in the story that constantly had you wondering if Lisbeth Salander was going to make it through the trial for her actions in book two.

The book had a little bit of a conspiracy theory too, in that the person who attempted to kill Salander was kept in Switzerland during the Cold War, when everyone was thought to be a Russian spy.

The book had some very good parts in it and some very boring parts. The ending was terrible. I just felt like there were so many loose ends that could have led to another book or two. But anyone who knows anything about these three books knows that more books are not possible because Stieg Larsson has since passed away.

This book is definitely worth reading if you read the first two books, just because the second book leaves you at a cliffhanger.

This is book three of the Pretty Little Liars series. I decided that since it took me almost the entire month of September to read The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, then I needed to pick up something that was a pretty easy read.

Just like the first two books in this series, each of the "liars" are being haunted by the mysterious A.

This book goes into a little bit more detail about how each of their secrets are affecting the girls personally. Each of the girls start to open up more about having someone haunt them, without any of them getting too much into detail before they receive a text from A.

I hope you just keep reading along the series with me so we can figure out who it is that is terrorizing these girls!




Well there you have it. I think coming up next will be One Day, a recent book-made-movie (that I will definitely be seeing because I'm in love with Jim Sturgess), and also reviewed by the lovely ladies I know, Valerie and Sam; followed by some more Pretty Little Liars. Check back next month!

Book Review: What I read in July

I actually finished this book in the last couple of days in June.

If you like the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you will love this one as well.

This book was not as difficult to get into as the first book for me. Just like the first one, it is filled with dark secrets and twists in the plot that can keep you guessing the entire time! This time, Lisbeth Salander is the central character, with all of the controversy surrounding her life since the first book. It also digs a little deeper into her past, and we learn more about how much she cares for certain characters.

I'm anxiously awaiting my copy of The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest to come into my favorite local bookstore and wrap up this series of books. I like a good mystery!



I tried to start this series last summer before I went back to Norman for school. My friend Jessie had read the books that were out up to that point, and had been trying to get me and her aunt to read them all summer. Then the TV show came out, and I became addicted. So we all picked up the books, and I read what I could before I left. I finished this book last summer, along with the first few chapters of the second book.

However, I have done a lot of reading, sleeping, drinking, and studying since last summer, so when I decided that I wanted to read them again, I figured I should probably start all over again.

If you watch the series, you should definitely pick up the books. Granted, I haven't really watched the TV show since probably a month or so into it, but I can say that the first episode follows the first book really well. As far as the rest of the books go, I'll also be reading them to finish up the series.

This book, just like the TV show, has you wondering who the mysterious "A" is that has all the girls of Rosewood squirming in their seats. Each has a secret that they don't want anyone to know, and this "A" knows all of them and is torturing them every day. A Young Adult book, it's a pretty easy read and it only took me about a week to finish.

This is book two of the Pretty Little Liars series. I'm pretty sure that I read a little over half of this book in my quest to try to read as many of them as possible last summer. However, I enjoyed it just as much the second time around, and it was nice to refresh my memory as to what was going on with the liars....I haven't really watched the show much either since I went back to school.

In this book, the plot thickens as the liars think they have figured out who A is...but for any of you who follow anything about this series, you know that's impossible because there are like 9 books, or something like that. This book seriously took me 4 days to complete for two reasons: 1 it's a pretty easy read; 2 I couldn't put it down. Seriously. I mean, I finished the book before I even had time to update the "Current Read(s)" box with this cover. The awful thing about these books is that every chapter is a cliffhanger, and each chapter is told from the perspective of a different liar. So it makes it hard to put down. If you have a little bit of free time to devote to these books, go do it. Now. And thank me later.

This WONDERFUL book was a recommendation from my friend Sam. She will tell you that she recommends this book to every woman until she is blue in the face, and I'm about to join her on that one.

Have you ever felt insecure? Have you ever wanted a beautiful man and thought you didn't deserve him? Have you ever felt like the world wanted you to be with a person but you didn't want that at all? If you answered yes to any or all of these, this book is for you.

It jumps around a little bit, and some characters are miniscule and then get dumped on you randomly, and so you try to remember who the heck Shanna is and then you remember while you're in the shower that she's the bartender and next door neighbor (and now you're going to remember that when you read this book. Not if, WHEN). But it's definitely one of the best love stories I've ever read, and it's not super sappy like all the Nicholas Sparks books. It has parts that are hilarious, parts that make you want to punch her mother for being a rude ass, parts that are very closely x-rated, and parts that make you feel all warm and ooey inside.

This definitely was not one that was slow to start, like so many have seemed recently. So if you read any of these books, this is a good one to start with. It was great from the beginning, and the only reason why it took me a week to finish is because I was always exhausted by the time I crawled into bed to curl up with it.

First book of August's Book Review: Eat Pray Love

book review

I've finished another book, and it was suggested that I review the books as I finish instead of a huge entry.

This book is kind of odd. The main character, Harry Dresden, is a wizard. It's a mystery-type of book with some really weird parts to the story. It also has some very hilarious parts that made me laugh out loud. I was recommended this series by my best friend Sean, and he says that this is the worst one so far. I think it has 9 or so books of the series. As you can see, it also says as seen on SciFi...well SciFi is now SyFy, so I don't really know if it's still a show on it or not, but it was a pretty decent book.

I would recommend this book if you like some dark mysteries and are not afraid to laugh out loud if you're reading it in public. Because he is a wizard, he has some mishaps that are freaking hilarious.

I will most likely continue on with the series, but not before reading other books on my book shelf.

Up next, The Girl Who Played With Fire, book two of the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Actually, I already started it and am about 200 pages in. It's great :)

Job Update + Reading List

I have applied to be a full-time bank teller at a bank here in Tulsa. I've gone through a phone interview, a bank teller simulation, and a first-round interview. I am waiting to see when my second interview with the branch manager will be able to meet with me. It will be a full time hourly paid job, but it will be plenty of money for me to start looking for a place to be on my own. I'm nervous and excited! Nervous because this is my first "big girl job," and excited for the potential of being on my own. Wish me luck!

I also realized that I read A LOT, but I don't ever write about what I'm reading. So with that being said, here is a list of books I have finished since January (in the order read):
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
After I saw the first part of The Deathly Hallows movies, I decided I needed to read the book again. A lot of times when I am reading, I want to know what happens so bad that I speed through books and read them as quickly as possible. It was just as good the second time around :)

2. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! No seriously, it is SO ADDICTING! It took me a little bit to get into the book because I was dealing with packing stuff up to head back to Norman for my final semester, but we got snow days and I had to wait to get the second and third book in the series. They didn't get here fast enough!

3. Awakened (House of Night Series), Kristen and P.C. Cast
This is book 8 in the series. It's set in Tulsa, so naturally I LOVE the series, but I'm beginning to wonder if it'll ever get wrapped up. Each chapter is a cliffhanger, and each book is a cliffhanger. It surprisingly also takes place over a span of about 4 months (from what I can tell). If you want a pretty easy read, you should check these out. I'm going to love them because it's set in a place I know :)
I whizzed through this book while waiting to receive Catching Fire.
First book is titled Marked. 

4. Catching Fire (Hunger Games Trilogy), Suzanne Collins
Book two of The Hunger Games, and it throws a curveball right in the middle of it. Seriously, I couldn't put this one down either. I took it with me to meals to read while I was eating. So addicting!

5. Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy), Suzanne Collins
The final chapter of The Hunger Games, and it's just as addicting as the first two. I really want to talk about them a lot, but I want to encourage you to read them because they are totally worth it!

6. The Maze Runner, James Dashner
This is the first book of a trilogy. It was recommended to me by a couple of people, especially because I liked The Hunger Games.It was really hard for me to get into, and then my appendix surgery happened while I was trying to read it. But once I got into it, I couldn't put it down!

7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
I was a little apprehensive about this book because so many people told me it was awful and they hated it. I took it with me and started it during spring break on our way back from Florida. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this book. It was another one of those that was kind of difficult to get into at first but I couldn't put it down once it started to pick up. I thought it was so good that bought the second book The Girl Who Played with Fire about 10 chapters before I finished this one. Loved it.

8. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
Again, this was recommended to me by quite a few people. I also wanted to see the movie, but I like to read books before I watch movies. I LOVED THIS BOOK. It was absolutely beautifully written. I even teared up a little bit during it.

9. The Giver, Lois Lowry
This was given to me by my aunt who is an English teacher for middle school. She couldn't believe I hadn't read it. It was another one that took a while to get into, just because it was so far into the future that my mind couldn't comprehend it. I liked the book, but the ending was a little bit of a disappointment.


As you can see, my book tastes are all over the place.
I feel like I'm missing some stuff here and there, but this may be all that I've read...I feel like that's not very many books for 5 months. I'm kind of slacking here.

Right now, I'm reading Storm Front by James Butcher, and rotating in with it The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.

I've got quite a few more books on the bookshelf that I intend to read, including The Scorch Trials (James Dashner), Eat Pray Love, The Kite Runner, and starting three separate series: Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood on HBO is based off these books), The Gossip Girl series, and the Pretty Little Liars books.

I also plan on buying Bet Me by Jenifer Crusie, per recommendation of my friend Sam.

I LOVE READING. I'll read just about anything. And I'm the type of person that will finish a book no matter how hard it is for me to get through it.  Any recommendations? Have you read any of these and loved them? I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Thursday Morning Ramblings

I woke up at 8:30 today. I don't really know why, but I woke up on my own at this time. I guess it's a good thing to prepare me for when classes start next week, seeing as my Monday/Wednesday classes start at 8 and my Tuesday/Thursday classes start at 8:30. I can't believe I am about to head back to school for what will be my final semester as a college undergrad. I never thought I'd be excited to graduate, but at this point I truly feel that it is time to move on. I've loved being a student and I've loved learning, but I'm ready to experience something else. Kind of. I'll still be taking classes and everything, but I won't be in Norman anymore. I'm sure once I'm away from it, I'll be itching to get back.

On the agenda for today:

• I've rented Inception and Eat. Pray. Love. on amazon.com and plan on trying to watch one of them today. I rented them last week and had plenty of time to watch in Arizona, but I would have much rather spent the time playing Lego HP and such :)
• Begin reading The Hunger Games. I'm very excited to start this trilogy!
• It's basketball time in Oklahoma. Tonight's game: Sperry at Berryhil. I will be watching both the varsity girls and varsity boys play, cousins Edith & MacKenzie for the girls, and baby brother Jacob for the boys. (see their mugs pictured below) GOOD LUCK TONIGHT EVERYONE. I think all 3 will be starting tonight so woop woop!

I personally think I have a pretty family.
By the way, Edith is the HARDEST person to find a good photo of her mug on fb.

Things to come soon:

• Tomorrow I am going to write a "Everything I did while on Vacation" page. Because I have more pictures I want to share :)
• 30 Days of Truth to commence in TWO days! The list is tough, but I'm excited about it

Hope you all have an exciting Thursday planned! It's almost Friday!

It's Thirsty Thursday on FTLOB

p.s. It's also my friend Bobby's 21st birthday! Happy Birthday!

holy crap this picture is old! I had long hair, and it took me FOREVER to find this on my comp! (taken in the fall of 2008)

bloggers, I'm afraid I'm stuck in a horrible rut.

Ok, so I know that I don't have many followers so I'm hoping to get some random stumbles for this one. During finals week, I typically like to have a book to read for pleasure to help me keep my wits about me. I love reading for pleasure, and a lot of times this little mental escape at the end of the day just before I fall asleep is what calms me down and quiets my mental static. However, being the creature of habit that I am, I find it difficult to just pick up a random book without first hearing others' opinions on them. Currently, I am reading this book for my book report/final project in my Human Sexuality class:

Now, this book was very interesting, but it was slightly redundant in the information. I mean, how many times can an author say that girls mature so much faster than they did in the 1700's? Anyways, finals week is in two weeks, and I am afraid that if I don't find a new book that is something other than out of this series,:

this series,:or this series:

then I might possibly go stark raving mad. So I am begging you bloggers, please save my from my pre-teen novel misery and give me something that I might possibly enjoy reading during my mental health breaks. Not saying that I don't thoroughly enjoy all three of these series, but there are only so many times I can read each of these books without looking like an obsessed freak.

Another thing that I would LOVE for you to help me out with is finding where I can update my blog layout! The template I have on it now is a nice change from the boring black I had before, but I want to expand my blogging look even more. I may not have the time to completely update the layout now, but I'm open to new suggestions to tinker with it over the upcoming Christmas break.

To my fellow bloggers, I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Sit back, curl up on the couch, pop in my personal favorite Christmas movie (seen below), have a cup of hot tea (/hot cocoa/hot coffee), and ENJOY THE WEEKEND! I will try to update some more this weekend, but again, I can't really guarantee much because I will be going to the Big XII Championship tomorrow evening to watch my SOONERS take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers for what will most likely be the last Big XII Championship in history. BOOMER SOONER!

And again, pop in this favorite Christmas movie of mine and think of me when you do!: