Why Not?

I had forgotten that I had pre-ordered this book, so when I pulled my Kindle up on Mother's Day, I got an amazing surprise for myself!

(You should just go ahead and order this one now...)

While I didn't laugh out loud with this one as much as I have her other memoirs, there is a sentiment from the book that has stuck with me. 

What if the reason that we can't do things is because we tell ourselves we can't do them. 

Mind blown. 

I've been telling myself that I can't run. Before I got pregnant, I had gotten into running. I didn't enjoy it like I enjoy cheesecake, but it was a nice escape and gave my Pandora ap a good workout. I'll always be slow, and my running will always be more of a jog/walk combo, but I liked participating in road races. I even ran a half marathon while I was pregnant. 

So where along the way did I decide I'm no longer a runner? The point my brain told me I wasn't. 

I decided to stop listening to my brain and started running again this week. I've actually been excited to wake up in the morning for my runs. 

Proof that my brain doesn't always know what it's talking about. Maybe I should stop listening to it in other areas to so I , like Lancaster, can regret nothing. 

A Trilogy...Started?

I've never really been a fan of trilogies or series when it comes to books because that requires a large time commitment. However, in my effort to knock the trilogy challenge out early on, I decided to take to Pinterest in search of a trilogy to read. This one was recommended, and let me tell you, this first book was a little tough to get through for me.

A Book Based On or Turned Into a TV Show

To be honest, I didn't even know this was the series that True Blood was based on until my co-worker told me. I began reading it based on a recommendation and am now anxiously awaiting the next book in the series from my library.

A Book Set Somewhere You've Always Wanted to Visit

My mom and I keep talking about going to Savannah, Georgia, one day. It hasn't happened, so I went vicariously for a little bit in this book.

A Book By a Female Author

I really wish there was a category on this sheet called "A Book That Gave You An Honest Look At Your Life", but since there isn't, I'll go with the category in the title.

A Book Based Entirely On It's Cover

I've been in a bit of a book rut lately. Every book that I start hasn't held my interest and I was beginning to wonder if I would even fund another book this month to begin, much less finish. I was scrolling through my Kindle and decided that I would pick the first book that drew me in by the cover.

I wasn't disappointed.

A Memoir

Have I mentioned that my mom jokes about me going on The Bachelor to find a man?

Have I mentioned that I've started filling out an application, knowing full well I would NEVER make it on the show, so the next time she mentions it, I can tell her that I've applied?

Have I mentioned how hard filling out that application is? (Ok, now I'm getting off topic...)

This book, that I waited very impatiently for, proves that I'll never be on the show.

A Classic Romance

I'm not exactly sure what defines a romance novel as a classic romance. Is it age? Is it a particular story line? This had me confused and praying that I wouldn't have to read anything by Jane Austin.

Sorry females everywhere! I know I'm a disgrace to our gender, but I'm not a fan of Jane Austin.

I read this book on a whim, and couldn't decide if I should count it toward the Reading Adventure or not. Part of me wanted to because I read it, and if that's not the point of a "Reading Adventure" than what is? Part of me didn't feel it really fell into any categories that I didn't want to save.

Until I looked at the cover again.

A Book From an Author You Love That You Haven't Read Yet

I love Stacey Ballis.

I think it's a shame that my library doesn't have ANY of her books available, even an electronic format!

As I've mentioned before, it's hard for me to pay lots of money for an electronic book. so when there was an e-book deal on one of her books that I hadn't read yet, I snatched it up!

After reading it, I realized I would have paid full price for this book if I had it all to do over again.

A Popular Author's First Book

This is a book that my co-worker found on Tumblr and I immediately downloaded it from my library.

A Book Written by Someone Under 30

I've been waiting to read this book for a long time. I've seen it all over multiple lists of "Books You Should Read (insert most things here)" all through 2014.

Since I'm opposed to paying over $3 for a digital copy of a book, buying it for my Kindle was out of the question.

I figured if it was as popular as the internet led me to believe, then my library would have it. No such luck.

At Christmas, my brother gave me an Amazon gift card. Before we could finish unwrapping presents, my purchase was made.

A Book That Became a Movie

When I saw this category on the reading challenge list, I knew exactly which book I wanted to read. I knew the movie was based on a book and I wanted to read the book before the movie comes out next month (I'm a nerd.)

If Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence weren't enough to draw me into seeing this movie, the book sealed the deal.

A Book With Antonyms in the Title (-ish)

This is one of the categories I knew I would struggle with. So I made it antonym-ish. I know antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, and I felt this was close enough to count.

A Book A Friend Recommended to You

A former coworker had been talking about this book on her Facebook page before it was published, and I kept mental tabs to keep checking because I wanted to read it when it was published. It was published last summer, and I just happened to see an article on it a few weeks ago. 

Since I still have some credit on the Amazon gift card that my brother gave me for Christmas, I looked into purchasing the e-book. However, the price was a little steeper than what I am willing to pay for an e-book. 

I then decided to check and see if my library had it. They had an e-book version, and I was able to finally read this book and achieve a library right of passage all at once. 

This book takes you on the journey of Gary Stewart as he uncovers clues of his biological father. Based on things that he has found out, he believes that his father is the Zodiac Killer. 

A Book Set During Christmas

I've had this book downloaded on my phone since the Christmas holidays and just never got around to reading it. Since this challenge was accepted with the plan to read through the massive amount of books on my Kindle, I decided to knock this one out.

A Book With a Color In The Title

Confession: I checked this book out from the library because it met the color in the title criteria. I also checked it out because it wasn't very long. I never imagined that I would fall in love with this book.

A Nonfiction Book

If someone would have told me that I would end up so in love with a book from the library that I would want to run out and buy a copy for myself, I would have laughed at you. Maybe not laughed at you when you said I would love a book so much I would want it for myself, but maybe when you told me what the first library find I wish I owned was. 

I passed by this book a few times, and something kept drawing me back to it. I read the inside flaps and after much debate finally decided to just bring it home. If I read it, great. If I didn't read it, no harm done. 

Many people may not consider this book a quality professional development read, but I think that it is. 

A Book Your Mom Loves

My mom is horrible with remembering the names of books that she loves. She can recognize the cover, sometimes. This made the "book your mom loves" box a little more difficult to check off. She told me that I knew that she would love any Amish romance novel, so I set out to find one.

Apparently, Amish romance is HUGE in my area. I had plenty of selections to chose from, but eventually picked this book because every time I walked by, someone had turned it around. After a few times of fixing it, I just went ahead and checked it out.

We follow Caleb as he battles his demons from the English life in his return to the Amish. Caleb falls in love with Jodie and can't understand how she seems so unphased and unconcerned about his past. He butts heads with his father, who is not only his bishop, but also his boss on a construction crew. Caleb finds his true purpose as he begins helping a family who refuse to accept charity. We watch Caleb face his demons, we watch his father come to respect him as a man, and we watch Jodie continue to show him what it means to love someone unconditionally. 

This is my mom's idea of a great read. For me, it wasn't bad. It's not something I would have picked up without some prodding. It wasn't a bad read, just not my cup of tea. (And that is the only reason it gets such a low star rating from me.) 

B Star Rating: 

A Book You Can Finish In A Day

It took me a while to decide which category I wanted to place this book under. Did I want to put it under the author I never read or a book by a female author? I couldn't decide how to classify this book, so I went with what was the most accurate statement. A book you can finish in a day. 

Because I did finish it in a day. 

I've walked by this book many times at my library and have toyed with the idea of checking it out. For almost a year now, debating over this book at become part of my routine. I finally pulled the trigger on it, and I was NOT expecting the lesson that I got from it! 

First, this book is a Christian novel. This wasn't something that I gathered from the cover, but to me this fact isn't a turn off. In fact, I feel as if God may have led me to pick up this book because it had a message he wanted me to hear. 

The general story line is that Meg, the eldest in her group of sisters, finds out she has a brain tumor. She has to have surgery, which leaves her in a moody, angry, all around fowl disposition for a month or so. The doctors had told them that this may happen, and that she needed time to recover and eventually she would return to some sense of normal, or perhaps she wouldn't. Funny how brain surgery can mess with your brain!

Her husband ends up taking care of her and the kids, and he gets to the point where he needs a distraction. He ends up at a diner in another city where the waitress/owner looks JUST like Meg did before surgery and has the same attitude that Meg did before surgery. He continues going to the diner and flirting with the waitress, getting caught in the act once by his step-mother-in-law and eventually caught in the act by Meg herself.  

He doesn't realize he's been caught though. 

The SMIL tells her husband, Meg's dad, aka the town preacher about what they saw. He then preaches a sermon on affairs. Not just of the physical nature, but affairs of the emotional nature. He discusses in the sermon how many people will justify emotional affairs by saying they did nothing wrong since no sex was had. However, emotional affairs are just as volatile to a relationship as a physical one. 

I sure know that from personal experience. My ex spent a solid portion of our relationship investing his intimacy emotional with other women and by the time he realized it was a problem and not something he should have been doing, I didn't trust him not to do it. However, God didn't want to remind me of my ex's mistakes. 

After a powwow with her sisters and SMIL, Meg realizes that she also made the mistake of asking her husband to be God to her when she was recovering. In the end, Meg tells him that she forgives him of his transgressions and everyone lives happily ever after. 

The message God wanted to send me? I haven't forgiven my ex for what he did. If I'm being honest, I'm having a hard time forgiving him for it. The fact that he never complimented me, but saved those for other women has left me the most insecure I've been in a long time. 

My ex wants to be friends, and I'm trying to be a friend to him because he's going through a rough patch right now.

 But if I'm honest with myself, I'm not putting forth the effort of a true friend because I won't let myself forgive him. When he talks to me, I want to tell him to go run to all those women that he spent so much time fawning over when he was with me. He wanted attention from them over attention from me when we were together, so why would he come to me? 

I can't answer that last question. All I know, is that I need to get myself to a place where I can forgive him. Not for him. I learned a long time ago that you don't forgive someone for them, you forgive them for yourself. With this book, God gave me the nudge that until I can forgive E, I'll never experience the next level of happiness. 

Looks like I have some work to do. 

Thanks, book. 

B Star Rating      

A Book With Nonhuman Characters

I set the goal of this Reading Adventure as a way to work down my Kindle library of free e-books that I've managed to download over the past two years. However, it's also going to be a way to explore my library.

The first book I've read in 2015 is a book that I carried around the library for an hour before deciding to finally check it out. The teaser on the back of the book didn't fully prepare for what the book was going to be about, and that helped keep me reading.

Maybe the title should have led me to believe that this book involved clones, but I thought that perhaps Prototype was a metaphor.

The back of the book teases that Emma is looking to let go of her past - both of them. (Intrigue!) But her past comes back to haunt her. She returns to face the past, and realizes that she is more afraid of the present and the future it potentially represents. (So it's basically like my life, only she's a clone and I'm not.)

Running away from one husband, while running back to the other leads Emma on a journey toward a new life that I couldn't fully see coming from any angle. I still saw it as a tossup on which life she would end up choosing, but I'm glad she chose the one that she did. All any of us want from our past is a little closure, and I was glad that Emma was able to get that.

There was only one twist in this book that I expected, but the many that I didn't expect made this book an amazing library find. I normally don't enjoy books with nonhuman characters, but I'm glad that I didn't know about that part until I was well into the story.



B Rating: