January Books

I was going to upload pictures...but I can't figure out how to get the pictures from either my phone or camera onto any computer besides my temporary laptop which isn't working and Stephen wants to completely wipe so I can use it again.  Fun, fun.  It makes me sound like such a technology impaired person, but really I know how to use a computer...it's just syncing my pictures up to the computer is difficult.  And I've been busy. 

Anyway, so I am doing really well on my New Year's Resolutions.  I made lots of them to keep me busy.  I find that the more stuff I have going on, the more stuff I am able to accomplish.  Most of my goals have been documented through pictures...which you can't see, but I can show you what books I have read so far!

Keeping in mind that I haven't read for fun in a while I really didn't know how many books was reasonable for me to read in a month.  The first day I came home from the library with 3 books in hand.  I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to finish them all before they were due back at the library.   haha.  I guess I had forgotten how quickly I am able to read books.  The first two books were finished the day after I checked them out, and since then I have gotten more. 

1.  The Snow Angel and The Christmas Sweater both by Glenn Beck.

 

I have to say that I am NOT a fan of Glenn Beck.  I cannot stand his show and don't really have too many good things to say about him.  The Christmas Sweater was my book club's December book.  So I decided to read them both.  Honestly?  They were super easy reads but I didn't really care for either of them.  I certainly will not be reading them ever again.  They weren't super awful, I just found them to be lacking...and I disagreed with some of the situations presented in the books.  I'd probably give them 1 out of 5 stars.  

2.  The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

 

This book was sooo hard to get into.  It's on the long side and I persevered through about 40 pages before it finally held my attention.   It definitely paid off.  I didn't know what to expect with this book but I LOVED it!  It had a lovely romance or two throughout, but there was no inappropriate content.  Honestly I feel sometimes reading that stuff is worse than seeing it in a movie, you can divert your eyes in a movie but in a book you can't do the same.  I so wish that books had a rating system like we do with movies, but that's another issue altogether.  I was so delighted with this book.  4 out of 5 stars only because the beginning was agonizing to read.

4.  Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

This is one of a series that sounded interesting.  Recipes and a murder mystery?  That is right up my alley.  Too bad the recipes are more semi-homemade than from scratch.  Also too bad that I didn't plan ahead and randomly grabbed one from the series of 14.  As luck would have it I chose the most recent a.k.a. the last one to be published.  Luckily for me the author did a great job reintroducing the characters (which is something I normally hate when reading a series start to finish), but I saw the benefit when you don't read them in order.  Also I dislike that the series wasn't numbered.  Seriously.  But it was light and fluffy enough that I could figure out most of the mystery and it kept me entertained.  I will probably read all 14.  Maybe.  4 out of 5 stars.

P.S.  If you haven't heard of whatshouldireadnext.com then you should check it out now.  This is where I find new books to read.  You just enter a favorite book and it will pull up other books for you to read.  I love it.