i'm in love

Have you met Lauren? She's the amazing girl with freckles who like to run and eat ice cream. She also introduced me to Phillippa Gregory. Now she's my hero. She mentioned this fantastic author when I went through my English phase. I found The White Queen and The Other Queen for $4 a piece at Books a Million. Sold! The Red Queen I found at Kroger. It was pricier, but worth it. Lauren sent me a message this weekend that she was coming home from D.C. and was prepared to loan me some books! I'm so excited and can't wait to get my hands on them.

*sources

Thank you Lauren!! You're the best!

29 + Enzo

Today was your average day. I got up, showered, got dressed and then ate breakfast. This afternoon I went to the grocery store with one of my favorite people in the world, and now I am waiting on Mark to get home so he can grill some chicken for the Mexican Fiesta I am making. Just a regular day. : )

I did get to work on the bookshelf last night, and in record time, I finished The Art of Racing in the Rain. So, so good, people. The book is written from a TV watching dog named Enzo's perspective. It's light hearted with some really deep stuff in it, made simple to read and understand because it comes from a canine perspective. Think Marley and Me but not so sad at the end. I cried for days over Marley and Me. The book is thought provoking, but obviously a very easy read. I chewed through it and would reread it, I liked it so much.

My favorite quote from the book is:


"That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves"

— Garth Stein
 
 
*Be Good to Yourself- Journey

bookshelf and light

14 days down....Today has been a really good day. I didn't really do a whole lot, but my time was spent wisely today and that seems so rare. I took Holly and Ryan to visit with my mom. She is doing so much better today and she has no bruising somehow, even though all of the airbags in her car deployed. It's a possibility that the bruises my not show until tomorrow, but for now she seems to be doing so well. I am so happy and grateful. I spent some time with my grandparents today, just us and Ryan while mom and Holly went to survey the damage to the car. The four of us ate brownies and made animal shapes from play-doh at the kitchen table that I used to sit and play at as a child. It was just a really nice afternoon. After dropping Holly at work, Ryan and I came back to my house and made sandwiches and watched 'Megamind'. After his other sweet Aunt, Mary Ann, came to pick him up I sat and read until Mark got home. We sat quietly together in the office, me reading and him checking emails and returning messages. A little while later he spoke saying "Heather, look at the sun hitting those bushes... they look like like neon...only on fire..."

and so they do....

I was so glad Mark glanced up at just the right moment and spoke. Not only would I have missed that beautiful scene, I wouldn't have been able to share it with him.  After taking pictures, we got up and together made one of our favorite suppers...one we like to call BRINNER (breakfastfordinner). He made the bacon, because he does it best. I made the eggs, scrambled soft, just the way we like them. We had toast and fruit and orange juice. Mark went to bed shortly after brinner. I, up until about 20 minutes ago, plowed my way through the rest of The Help. 

*Source

This book is one of the most inspiring books I've read since Eat Pray Love. It's just a beautiful book. The short version of what its about would be a women who dares to write a book about the lives of "the help" during the early 1960's. "THe Help" actually helps her write the book and somehow the find a kind of friendship somewhere in the middle. The maids were black women who weren't treated well back then by most. It's hard to believe that those times aren't so far behind us, and that some people still treat not only women of color and all other nationalities this way, but they mistreat the men, too. I can't even wrap my head around the concept well enough to tell anyone properly, but if you want to read something informative, slightly thrilling and at the same time uplifting, this book is going to make it's mark on your soul. I really really loved it. I love Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter SO MUCH right now.

*Don't Go Breakin' My Heart- Jesse McCartney

The Girl That Played With Fire

Today I finished The Girl That Played With Fire and it was sooooo good. I actually liked it more than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and for several reasons. First off, the book just flowed better. In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it started slow and ended that way too. I realize some people may criticize me for saying that, and don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, but the mystery was solved a good 100 pages before the book actually ended. Not until the last three pages did I again get excited. That said, The Girl That Played With Fire was slow in places too, but was thrilling right up until the end. That's one of the best parts of a book for me. It leaves you wanting more. The other thing that made me like "fire"  better, was that I already had a sense of Larsson's flow and wording. He's Swiss and they speak a little differently, so that was hard to get a grip on in the beginning. The Girl That Played With Fire was one of the best reads I've seen in a while. I highly recommend you go out and get it. Then stay up all night reading it, just like I did. : )

This afternoon I plan to wash my sheets, do a little painting project for a friend and then start The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (third book in the Millennium Trilogy). Super thrilling, no? Well, I'm excited. Day 8 is chugging right along!

*Starship- We Built This City

power nap

Day five and today I finished The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo and took a nice long power nap. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo was a wonderful read. I got through it fairly quickly considering the number of times I had to put it down. Stieg Larsson was a phenomenal writer. The book centers around sexual violence against women and parts of it are really twisted. (Right up my alley.- the weirder the better, I say!) An author is trying to find out what happened back in the sixties with a wealthy buisness mans neice who mysteriously dissapears. It's pretty thrilling! I'm starting The Girl Who Played with Fire tonight. I expect it will be pretty awesome as well.

I realized today when I had nothing better to report than my nap and finishing of a great book, that not everyday can be something fantastically special. That's part of life, and I accept that. That said, today was a pretty great day. Even though it rained, it was the perfect day to nap and read and eat too much.

I hope your weekend was amazing....


*Mr. Roboto- Styx

Italy, India and Indonesia

The three i's. Eat, Pray, Love is the newest addition to my bookshelf. If you haven't read this book, may I suggest with the sincerest hope that you go and get it as soon as you are done reading this post? OK. Good. Glad we're clear on that. Eat, Pray, Love is basically about a woman's journey across Italy, India and Indonesia to find herself. The author, Elizabeth 'Liz' Gilbert captured my heart immediately by describing her love for food and God. Two things I love more than anything as well.

Reading this book was really a moving, thoughtful and religous experience. Go get it. Quickly.

I mean, look at the cover art! pasta, prayer beads and flower petals. How can you go wrong?

my favorite author

Since I have been reading like crazy since Christmas, I can't help but share some of my favorite selections. Jennifer Weiner (pronounced Wy-ner), is one of my favorite authors. She write predominately about women, and most of her heroines are plus sized. -Score one for the big, curvy girls! I received her two newest books for Christmas, Certain Girls and Best Friends Forever.

Certain Girls I read first, and I just started Best Friends Forever, so more on that one later.  Certain Girls is a sequel to Good in Bed. Cannie Shapiro is married and her daughter, Joy is getting ready for her bat mitzvah. She's a little bratty and sort of hates her mom. Cannie has tried to keep her writing about Joy's "Bruce" underwraps, but Joy decides to read her mother's book and begins a bit of a quest for the truth about her family. A must read for chicks.

Tolkien

I have finally started my adventure with hobbits. I just finished The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and I loved it (as predicted). I believe I may have read this in 6th or 7th grade, but for some reason, I couldn't remember what the hell it was about, save the hobbits.

Anyway, if this sounds like you, you should re-read, and if you have definately never read it, go find it, or come borrow mine.

In short, it's the prelude to the Lord of the Rings. It's how Bilbo Baggins finds his love for adventure, the ring and even the shire. The style that The Hobbit is written in is certainly captivating. When I read aloud to Mark from it, I told him it sounded like I was reading to children. It's not all warm and fuzzy, but was delightful. It's about stepping away from your comfort zone and feeling pleasantly suprised with the end result.

Thank you to Jackson for gifting me with this classic for Christmas and for stringing me out on fantasy fiction again.

Snuff

This Christmas I got about 10 books. I read the shortest one first, just to get into my groove. Man, if you can stand sexual deviancy and some seriously bad language, try "Snuff," by Chuck Palaniuk. It's weird and different, and something you should try.

Chuck Palahniuk didn't dissapoint this round. "Snuff," one of his more recent books, was well, totally dirty and sexually charged. There were seriously jacked up parts and parts that actually sounded a lot like discussions I've had with girlfriends. Not a read for everyone. It's sad and twisted. And dark. Did I mention dirty?

Reading Rut

Does this happen to you? In the past two months, I have reread the entire Harry Potter Series and am almost finished (again) with the Twilight Saga.

Mark and I leave for the beach in 8 days. I want to take something NEW! Can you please, please make some suggestions? I have a library card!

Open to suggestions....

Brain Waves

About a week ago, I started reading a book called "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life." It's written by Doctor Daniel G. Amen. The appeal for me is dealing with Panic Disorder. I recently found a new doctor. A doctor who appears to care more about my health than how fast he can see myself and the 32 other patients waiting in his lobby. Ahem... ranting completed. This new doctor switched me from one medication to another, (which seems to be working wonderfully) and then wrote me two other prescriptions: the first for a book and the second for some relaxation DVDs. Hot Damn! This man is combining Eastern and Western Medicine! I think I'll keep him.

So far, so good. I feel much less like the rubber ball that I was; bouncing around and letting nothing make me "feel" anything. This is a huge plus. Feels nice to care again! I found the DVDs much more easily than the book. Walmart had a decent selection of Relaxation DVDs, so I picked one out and started using it. Holy Cow, it worked! The first couple of times I fell asleep. Apparently, this is a good thing because I was able to relax enough to pass out. I am getting better and better at making time for it, so hopefully this will become a more routine part of my day sometime in the very near future.

The book is FANTASTIC. I am purposefully reading it slowly. Pacing myself with it. (I have incorporated it into my "relaxation time" and this seems to be a really good thing for me.) The books' purpose is to teach people how to conquer Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger and Impulsiveness. There are at least 2 chapters devoted to each topic. The first explaining what each thing is and how it affects different parts of our brains and the second teaches ways to break through negative thought patterns and how to deal with problems more effectively. There are exercises as well to boost your brain function.

The book has really helped me better understand anxiety for myself and problems other people have with anger and impulsiveness. I won't lie, there is some medical jarnagin in the book, but I think Doctor Amen deals with these phrases and terms in a way so that they are very well explained and easier for the layperson to understand. I would recommend this book to anyone dealing with any one or all of these issues or knows someone who might be.

Here's to the power of positivity!

February's Loves

Things that I am enjoying this month:

1. The freakishly warm weather, but technically its only been warm yesterday and today
2. Rereading some old favorites: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn
3. The small boom in Massage Business
4. The idea that spring is just around the corner
5. Tanning- always makes me feel good.
6. Saving Abel- Addicted: it's vaguely dirty
7. Liam Neeson in "Taken"
8. Grey's Anatomy. It's finally getting interesting again.
9. My favorite pair of old jeans. They almost have holes in the knees.
10. Homemade Double Chocolate Brownies with Icing. Mmmmm...

What are you enjoying?

The verdict is in...

It took me a few days to decide if I liked my recent bookshelf selection, Chuck Palaniuk's Survivor. The answer: Yes. I did. This book is about a man who is one of few survivors in a Creedish Cult Group. He's in on an airplane that has been recently hijacked, and he is telling his story to the black box- which he describes as an orange box. Alas, this all sounds very fueling and exciting, but the book has a very slow, morbid start. Hang in there if you do decide to read this one, because it picks up speed at the end, and turns into a pretty good read.

Next on my list:

A Cure for Dreams by Kaye Gibbons
Charms for the Easy Life, also by Kaye Gibbons
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas by Chuck Klosterman IV

I know, I know. It's a lot. Hopefully, they will all be fantastic and I will breeze right through them. Anyone know of a good series to start? I am all ears. I need a series follow up to this list of randoms.

I've come undone...

I started Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone last night around 4:00. I finished it today around 5:30. The book is around 350 pages long. Do you think I liked it? Yes, I did. A LOT.

This book is all together one of the BEST books I have ever read in my entire life. (And that's a lot of books!) It follows a girl from childhood, when her parents divorce and her mother is sent to a state mental institution; to her grandma's house where her mother returns not all together well, but much better than when she was sent away. Time passes again and the girl, Delores arrives in adolescence at 257 pounds, self loathing, self destructive and an all together hateful human being. College is not the experience it is supposed to be, and neither is the subsequent marriage or other things that happen down the road. This books' message spoke to me though. It's to be happy with what you have, not what you think or thought you wanted. To not only love, but allow yourself to be loved as well... one of the hard things I have had to overcome (and am still overcoming) in my life.

Encouragement to read this novel is bursting out of me. I will read it to you if you are illiterate, blind or don't enjoy reading. You should seriously make the time.

Do books really have worms? I've never noticed...

Good reads! I have spent the majority of my "off" time catching up on my reading and thought I would share the love.

Woman Warrior was the first book I came upon after spouting off my list.
Woman Warrior is a nonfictional memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston. It's divided into 5 separate, but interlinked stories about women and ghosts (not the jump out and scare you kind...) in the writers life. She added elements of fiction to really give each story an elaborate, rich backdrop. (Things like following a bird across a mountaintop into a world where this child grows up only catching glimpses of her family from an old mans cup.) Kingston is Asian American and in the book she tells stories from her own and her mothers point of view. The characters are amazing. There is even a story about a girl who becomes a "warrior" of sort and her mother and father carve the names of those who have wronged them onto her back with a knife. She avenges those evil ones.

The stories, separately, are beautifully woven and I truly enjoyed this read, even though I am not sure how many others might find it as fascinating as I did.

Next, I came upon The Secret Life of Bees. This story is set in South Carolina during the Integration Act. Our main character Lily, lives with her awful father T. Ray and she and her housekeeper Rosaleen, escape possible death and a lifetime of kneeling on grits, after a run in with some of the towns' nastiest racists. They escape to Tiberon, SC. where they are taken in by the marvelous beekeeping Boatwright sisters to discover more about Lily's dead mother and her past there in Tiberon.

This story was inspiring and I would tell anyone who loves a heartwarming, quick read to go out and find it. It's truly an amazing story.

I just started Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, and I am already loving it. Stay tuned for more book reviews!

Not even Jack Daniels can fix this.

The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood, is all about a woman named Mariam. When we first meet her, she is working for a survey company who does testing on products before they hit the shelves. Mariam ends up engaged and afterwards, she begins having adverse reactions to food. First it's meat, then eggs, veggies, cake and so on. She has a roommate who is completely different than she is. Speaking up, and out of term, basically living her life the way she wants to. Mariam meets a man in the Laundromat who basically forces her to take a good look at her life, her future life in particular, and decide if right now is where she wants to be in 10 years.

The book is set in London in the 60's. The setting itself is what made me think I would love the book, but after I read it, I felt only the following: I wanted to eat the damn book. I thought it was boring. Maybe because we don't live in the same world that Mariam is living in. I didn't really think it was all that well developed either. I had to force it down with several glasses of whiskey, and when I was done, I felt hungover.

Perhaps you can stomach it a little better than I did.

Must Read: Invisible Strangers

Chuck Palaniuk's Invisible Monsters is about a catwalk model who has it all. Career, boyfriend, friends. She gets into a terrible accident which leaves her terribly disfigured and kind of warped. She meets a "lady" Brandy Alexander, who's One operation shy of actually being a lady. Brandy Teaches her to reinvent herself, forget about her past and make something better up. She ends up trying to get revenge on her best friend and fiance and learning things about Brandy Alexander that she never weanted to know.

This story is FAR from heartwarming. But, if you have warped sense of humor and are the kind of person who can wait it out for a suspenseful ending. You really need to read this. Its only 297 pages long. It took me 3 days to read. (lots of interruptions- dont judge!) Palaniuk also wrote Fight Club, which was made into a movie. Brad Pitt anyone? and Choke. I haven't read either one, but I think I might now.

Next on my reading list:

The Secret Life of Bee's
The Edible Woman
The Woman Warrior
She's Come Undone
The Beetle and The Bard
Eat Pray love
and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

As you can see... I am soooooo Far behind.