Read this Book

A list of books you have to read because they are absolutely ahhh-ma-zing.

1. The Hunger Games

2. The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Don't Read this Book

As an avid reader, I hate hearing the hype about books that are supposed to be "so good" or "#1 New York Times Best Sellers" and then they turn out to be pure garbage.

For instance, Witch & Wizard by James Patterson.

It literally pains me to use the name James Patterson and the word garbage in the same blog post. Really, it does because I quite literally worship the typewriter that man creates captivating tales on. I am a huge fan, I've read just about every book he's ever written (except the Maximum Ride books). But this book, this book is horrible.

It's a YA book, I get that, but really?

Really?!?!

It's so bad. Like, for reals. (I know, hard to take anyone seriously who uses phrases such as "like, for reals" but really).

Okay, my first issue with Witch & Wizard.

There is no character development at all. You meet these two kids, Whit & Wisty, you have no idea who they are, what their deal is, or even why the things that are happening to them are happening.

Well, supposedly, they are a witch and a wizard. You are introduced to a girlfriend, who, once met in some kind of alternative world, you never hear about her again.

Then the pace of the book is like, boom, boom, boom, it all happens so quickly without much building up or anything. It feels rushed, like it was being written in a hurry. I mean, I get it, sometimes those plot bunnies gnaw away at your brain until you absolutely have to get it written, but really?

Then there are the pop culture references that are...lame, at best. Ron Sayer (John Mayer) Lay-Z (Jay Z). The Firegirl Saga (Twilight). It's like get real, if you're going to reference pop culture at least do it with some spunk, not make up rhyming names.

I had a whole list of other reasons why this book sucked, but seeing as how the slaughter of a football game on TV is distracting me, I've completely forgotten the rest.

So anyway, my recommendation?

Don't read this book.

tunes i heart...the november version

ahh the holidays...how fun.

just kidding. holidays are not fun..neither are pissed off parents and screaming babies. which are pretty much my life now. at least until december 26th. so with that, i have like, no time (literally) for anything else. so that being said, im going to throw my favorite tunes as of late at you in rapid succession...get ready, get set, go!

1. Mumford And Sons - After The Storm - rando indie folk rock band of sorts, i guess is what they are...who really cares..i totally dig their sound and this song is wicked.

these next few are from some recent episodes of the vampire diaries...they are cranking out some good tunes lately...

2. The Afters - Ocean Wide - rando band i've never heard of...might be christian rock, prolly not, but either way..good song.

3. Andrew Belle - In My Veins - again from VD...loving this season.

4. Sleeperstar -  I Was Wrong - omgomgomg damon and elena...this played when he told her that he loved her and i went, *huge breathy sigh* and *tear* im so lame..lol

5. Alexi Murdoch - Wait - totally heard this on someone's tumblr and LOVED it...reminded me of something from some lame ass story i'd write...really good and slightly miserable..just the way i love my tunage.

6. Bad City - Fire In The Pouring Rain - totes sounds like something from the days of classic rock - ala Poison or Def Leppard or Guns-n-Roses...interesting if you can dig that kind of sound, which i can...

7. Ben Harper - Amen Omen - heard it on a show, loved it, 'nuff said.

8. Glee - Teenage Dream - no idea who the dude is that sings it, but OMG it freaking rocks so hard it should be illegal...currently my ringtone...i love getting phone calls so i can hear the beatbox/acapella, "let you put your hands on me in my skin tight jeans be your teenage dream tonight." woot

9. ok im almost embarassed to admit this one - Usher ft Jay-Z - Hot Toddy - um yeah...this song is so bad ass...i almost want a hot toddy..whatever the eff that is...lol

10. Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch - dear 2010 Colbalt I drove for a week..you were awesome for playing this song one night on my way home from work...never heard of this band but i like this song

11. Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown - i love this whole cd...i mean, i loved KOL before, but theres something about this cd...its like they've finally peaked...its epically awesome...and the tunage on here is the most delicious ear candy i think my ears have ever feasted on...fav songs? the end, radioactive, and pyro

12. Katy Perry - Firework - i hated this song at first, but it sort of grew on me, then i saw the video and was like, oh wow..i love this song...


okay so thats it...i think...now im turning the tunes off and going to pick up Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins...and dear Suzanne Collins, I totally want to be you...these books, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay are brilliant, gripping and engrossing, I cannot tell you how much sleep I lost and groggy days I spent at work because I absolutely COULD NOT put them down. If you have not read these books, please do, you won't be disappointed. And if you are, you're a weenie.

11 Days of Halloween - Scariest Book You've Ever Read

We've watched movies that have literally scared us so bad that it instills a lifelong fear in us. for me, that fear is clowns, for others it could be dolls or monsters, what have you.

Then there are books that are so scary, you're afraid to put it down because you want to know if the bad guy gets caught, or if the mysterious monster has been captured. these kinds of books are few and far between...sure, they are scary books out there, but most of them don't keep you up at night, not like these on my list do.

When I was a freshman in high school, I found this book on the bookshelf of a lady I babysat for. I picked up and started reading it after the kids were in bed.
I was up all night reading it, mostly because I was too afraid to sleep and if I wasn't going to sleep then I should just read it and be done. To this day its still one of the most freakishly good books I've ever read.

another book from high school, I was always a huge fan of R.L.Stine's work..the Goosebumps books, then later the Fear Street books..gah I loved them. Then I found this book in the back of the dusty stacks in the school library.

first of all, this book is SO not proper for a school. The sexuality and sex scenes in it...wow, if my parent's would have known that, I'm sure they would've had a hissy fit. Just saying. Moving on, the story is good, the plot is just freaky...it freaked me out a bit...I'm not sure it still would, but as a teenager, it did.

I don't remember much about this book, but what I do remember was that it skeeved me out. One of my friends and I read it together and would spend hours on the phone at night discussing the grody factor. Yes, I said grody. lol. I went on to read just about every John Saul book after completing this one and each one was just as, if not more, freaky as this one.

okay, tell me you read these books when you were a kid. 

This was where my, well I guess you could call it obsession started with all things scary. Somehow we ended up with these books in our house, I don't know if they came from the library or if my parents bought them, but I used to read them to my younger siblings to try and scare them. I loved these stories when i was a kid, they were scary without being too scary. It spawned my obsession with urban legends and horror movies. 

I'm kinda sad now, I wish I had a copy in my house.

I went to get Steve's favorite scary book, but he said he's  never read one. I gasped in horror and called him a weenie. He laughed at me and said he didn't like scary stuff. Sometimes I wonder...lol

So there ya have folks. My favorite scary books. Have you ever read a book that scared you so bad you couldn't sleep?

Dear all those who care....

I finished reading The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud...you might know it as a little movie called Charlie St. Cloud, starring none other than recent hottie Zac Efron (I totally didn't find him attractive before, but boy let me tell you, lately he is pretty hunky...however, that's a post of a different color).

I read the book because, one, the book I was reading was uber lame and the cover lied...fans of Twilight do not like this book....and by fans I mean me of course. So while I was in Walmart the other day I saw smexy old Efron starring up at me from the cover of the book and thought, eh, why not. I'll probably see the movie and then when I do, I'll have read the book and I can pick apart what they did right and what they did wrong.

That being said I DID NOT expect the book to be as good as it was. It had praise from two of my favorite authors, Nicholas Sparks and Sue Monk Kidd....but, boy let me tell you...that book was sooooo good. It had the right mix of romance and heartbreak, perfectly blended to make the perfect novel. I am in total green monster mode over the author's talent. He did a great job writing a book that takes the unimaginable and makes it real.

Okay, I'm done being a groupie, lol. So that being said, if you read nothing else this year, read Charlie St. Cloud...I promise you won't regret it.

And if you do, you can throw your book at me.

(No, not really, just read it, I promise, you won't be disappointed.)

I picked up Stieg Larson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tonight...I hope it's good.

Until next time...have a great weekend!

The Coast of Somewhere Beautiful

Okeedokee so I said I wasn't going to start this until I finished Unattached. Yeah, see how well that worked out...it's like a Lady Gaga song, stuck in my head, forcing me to listen to the idea evolve until I write it down. sometimes I hate that part of my brain, the part that is constantly writing something. It drives me absolutely batty sometimes. So to silence it, I sat down and tried to write the first chapter of the new idea I had, The Coast and four tries later I think I have something that will definitely reach out and pique your interest. Take a peek and tell me what you think.

Prologue

My mother always said that everything happened for a reason. She also said that sometimes the reason is unclear and before we can understand the reason, we have to understand why it was happening.

Truthfully, that never made any sense to me. 

Reason is unpredictable, it’s an event set in motion by a person’s actions and my actions are what led me here today, back to the place where it all started and staring into the chocolate eyes of the one person I’d hurt the most in my entire life. I never thought I’d see him again, didn’t expect him to still be here after all these years, but there he stood, staring at me like a man seeing the sun for the first time.

I turned away, turning my back on him – again, clinging to my two whining children. I glanced down at them. Focus, I ordered myself, focus on the kids, he’s the past, this is your life now, not him. I couldn’t stop the tears that pricked my eyes, stinging, making it hard to see anything but the shimmering memories of the past. 

How different my life had been then, for those two short weeks I was someone else, someone I didn’t recognize, someone I wasn’t and would never be again.

My story is so many women’s story. It’s the story of the things we sacrifice, the pieces of ourselves we give away for someone else’s happiness, the things we do to please others while we ourselves are so dissatisfied and discontent it pushes us to the edge of insanity – a place where things happen that we never envisioned happening. Choices are made; events are set in motion, the consequences of which will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

I risked a glance over my shoulder. He was still staring at me, tears shining in his eyes, silently begging me to come back to him, to come back to the life we could have had here in this tiny seaside town on the coast of somewhere beautiful.

I felt my heart breaking, tiny slivers of pieces shattering in my chest, spiraling down into the depths of the darkest part of my soul.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed at him and turned away. Looking down at my children with a voice full of false cheer I said, “Who wants an ice cream cone?”

Maggie and Grace looked up, eagerly nodding. “I want a chocolate one,” Maggie said, her tears instantly drying. “I want a banilla one,” replied Grace.

I clasped their tiny hands in mine and with my husband by my side, walked away from the greatest love I’d ever known.