French Women Don't Get Fat

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

Finished June 29th, 2007

Rating: 8/10

Non-Fiction Five Challenge Book #3



This book is about learning to achieve a healthy weight through balancing food, exercise, sleep, etc. in life and was specifically written for women. It is a good mix between a memoir and self-help. The author tells about her experience gaining weight while living in the US as a 1 year student exchange and how she took off the weight upon her return to France. She also provides stories of how she has helped friends lose weight.

She provides simple suggestions that are commen sense that one can easily adapt to and also provides some of her favourite recipes.

I will take the following lessons from this book:

Manage my portions;
Do not eat while doing other things;
Go for quality ingredients;
Eat food when it is in season;
Drink more water.

The focus of the book is on eating habits although she does touch on the benefits of exercise. I would recommend this book for all women who want to lose a few pounds and start living a balanced lifestyle.

The Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge

Lesley located at A Life in Books is holding The Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge.

The challenge runs from July 1 through December 31, 2007 during which time you must read six books that fall under the ‘armchair traveling’ theme.

• Fiction or non-fiction works are fine, and do not need to be specifically travel related, as long as the location is integral to the book - I’ll leave that to your discretion. Locations must be actual places that you could visit, so no Middle Earths or galaxies far, far away.
  


• Books may be cross-posted to other challenges, but you cannot count any books read prior to July 1st.
  


• To join, make a post outlining your six choices and link to that post below. Because I like to have a little wiggle room, you can opt to switch out books throughout the challenge.
  


• And yes, there will be prizes!

I think this is the last challenge that I will join for a while until I complete some of my other challenges. My books for this challenge are:

Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith

A is for Alibi

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Finished June 24th, 2007

Rating: 6/10

2007 Summer Mystery Reading Challenge Book #2



This was another new author to me that I read for the 2007 Summer Mystery Reading Challenge. This was the first book in a series of books about a private dectective named Kinsey Millhone.

This particular book was about a murder that took place 8 years ago. The suspect that went away for the murder of her husband is out on parole and hires Kinsey to find out who really killed her husband.

I prefer my mystery novels to be a little more fast paced as I didn't find this book to be as fast paced as I normally like. I also found that Graften when into too much description in the book when I didn't think it was really necessary as it didn't really add anything to the book. This book was written in 1982 however it is interesting that the only item I read about that really dated the book was reference to a typewriter.

The writing style reminded me of Janet Evanovich so if you like her books you may enjoy Sue Grafton books as well. I found the ending a little bit predictable but I am interested to read more from the author and see how the character of Kinsey develops over time.

Harvest

Harvest by Tess Gerritsen

Finished June 21st, 2007

Rating: 9/10

Medical Mystery Madness Challenge Book #2

2007 Summer Mystery Reading Challenge Book #1


I killed two birds with one stone with this book as it overlapped between two challenges. This was a new author to me that I found by signing up for the Medical Mystery Madness Challenge and I have to say I really enjoyed this book and will be reading more from this author. The author kept my interest with the twist and turns without going over the top.

From the Publisher

Medical resident Dr. Abby Matteo is elated when the elite cardiac transplant team at Boston''s Bayside Hospital taps her as a potential recruit. But faced with a tormenting life-and-death decision, Abby helps direct a crash victim''s harvested heart to a dying teenager -- instead of the wealthy older woman who was supposed to receive it. The repercussions leave Abby shaken and plagued with self-doubt.

Suddenly, a new heart appears, and the woman''s transplant is completed. Then Abby makes a terrible discovery. The donor records have been falsified -- the new heart has not come through the proper channels. Defying the hospital''s demands for silence, she begins her own investigation that reveals a murderous, unthinkable conspiracy. Every move Abby makes spawns a vicious backlash...and on a ship anchored in the waters of Boston harbor, the grisly truth lies waiting.

2nds Challenge

Joy at Thoughts of Joy is holding another challenge to take place after the Non-Fiction Five Challenge called the 2nds Challenge.

WHAT: Read 3 books by authors that you have only read one other

WHERE: Mister Linky will keep track of monthly books read on Joy's blog

WHEN: October, November and December, 2007

Before I decide on my books for this challenge I have decided to make a list of those authors who I have only read 1 book by to help me finalize my list for the challenge.

Margaret Atwood (haven't read any books by this author yet but will likely read one before this challenge begins)
Elizabeth Berg
Ann Brashares
Pearl S. Buck
Meg Cabot (haven't read any books by this author yet but will likely read one before this challenge begins)
Michael Connelly (haven't read any books by this author yet but will likely read one before this challenge begins)
Janet Evanovich
Tess Gerritsen (haven't read any books by this author yet but will likely read one before this challenge begins)
Jane Hamilton
Khaled Hosseini
Robert Ludlum
Cormac McCarthy (haven't read any books by this author yet but will likely read one before this challenge begins)
Ian McEwan
Rohinton Mistry
George Orwell
John Sandford
Dani Shapiro

I will post my choices closer to the challenge date.

A Passage to India

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Finished June 17th, 2007

Rating: 6/10

Decades Challenge Book #5 (1920s)


I read the first 25 pages and said to myself uh-oh I don't think I am going to like this book so when I picked it up again to continue reading I decided to jot down all the characters and their relationships to each other as I was getting confused and that seemed to help.

The theme of the book is the relationship between the English and the Indians in the 1920s which is when the book was written and how each regards the behaviour of the other. There was a party being hosted by an English couple at the beginning of the book where the Indians are on one side of the lawn and the English on the other side which I couldn't help but compare to school dances where boys are on one side and girls on the other.

The book was not plot-driven but rather focused on utilizing the events that happened to emphasize the relationships between the English and the Indians.

After reading this book, I realize that I am more of a plot-driven reader however am starting to learn to appreciate character-driven books.

Shock

Shock by Robin Cook

Finished June 14th, 2007

Rating: 4/10

Medical Mystery Madness Challenge Book#1


From the Editors

Hoping to help infertile couples and looking for hard cash, two graduate school friends decide to become egg donors. But science students Debbie Cochrane and Joanna Meissner discover that somewhere behind the high walls of the North Shore fertility clinic, their little good deed is being transformed into a ghastly great crime.


So I thought this book had some potential but then it abruptly ended in such a way that the reader wonders whether there is a sequel to the book. There were many times when the book proved to be unrealistic based on some of the decisions made by the girls and many other unrealistic details such as no work reference checks at the Infertility Clinic where the girls are hired when the clinic is so concerned with keeping everything a secret, doesn't seem very realistic to me.

I did find the book entertaining although I often had to roll my eyes at all the unrealistic parts however the ending just killed the book for me so all in all I would not recommend this book to others.

Have You Read Any of these Books?

I have seen the following book list on almost everyone's blog but haven't participated in this exercise yet so I finally decided to participate since after reading Crazy Cozy Murders blog I was tagged.

Look at the list of books below:
* Bold the ones you’ve read (I didn't bold those books that I have read prior to 2002 when I starting keeping a record)
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

I have also followed Crazy Cozy Murder's example and highlighted in red the books I have never heard of.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugges (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much Is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Non-Fiction Five Challenge Update

UPDATE: I have decided to update one of my picks for this challenge and replace Dreams of my Father by Barack Obama to Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper based on the great review by Lesley in March 2007 at Lesley's Book Nook Blog.

I have decided to participate in Thoughts of Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge taking place from May 1st to September 30th, 2007. The Five Non-Fiction Books I have decided to read are:

1. Sidney Poitier - Measure of a Man [completed June 10th, 2007]

2. Jon Krakauer - Eiger Dreams

3. Mireille Guiliano - French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure

4. Sarah Ban Breathnach - Something More - Excavating Your Authentic Self [completed May 5th, 2007]

5. Anderson Cooper - Dispatches from the Edge

I really enjoy reading memoirs however wanted to try to include other types of non-fiction books into the challenge and I think the above is a good mix.

Measure of a Man

Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

Finished June 10th, 2007

Rating: 5/10

Non-Fiction Five Challenge Book #2



I was expecting this book to be different then what it was. I guess I should have had a clue based on the subtitle "a spiritual autobiography" that it wasn't going to be a true memoir. The book started out very good as Poitier discusses his childhood in the Bahamas however the book lost me in the middle and end as Poitier talks about a variety of topics and his philosophy on those topics such as religion, racisim and mostly about the art of acting (which didn't really interest me). The book jumps from topic to topic as it is not in chronological order as a typical autobiography.

There were some really interesting stories mentioned however he chose to not go into much detail which was disappointing as I would really have liked to read more of those stories.

I finished the book with a better understanding of his views on various topics however I still feel like I never got to know him by reading this book which was my intent in choosing it.

Although I gave the book a rating of 5/10 as it was average to me, I would recommend it to others who are already familiar with Poitier and are interested in reading more about Poitier's views rather than a biography about his life.

I have never actually seen any movies that Sidney Poitier has starred in so I will have to make a point to rent some of his movies.

Book Awards Reading Challenge

Well I held off for as long as I could in signing up for the Book Awards Reading Challenge however finally cracked yesterday and decided to join after taking a look at different book award lists and realizing that I owned many books that have won awards but hadn't gotten around to reading yet.

The rules are to read any 12 award-winning books from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Examples of book awards are the Pulitzer Prize, Orange Prize, Booker Prize, Newbery Award, etc. The challenge also allows the participants to read any book from an author who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. However, at least SIX of the twelve books must be actual book prize winners. Books may also be cross-posted with other challenges.

There is a blog set up for this challenge at Book Awards Challenge that allows participants to post to or participants can choose instead to post on their own blog.

My tenative list for the challenge is:

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - 1997 Pulitzer (Biography/Autobiography)

B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton - 1986 Anthony

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly - 1992 Edgar Award (First Novel)

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - 2007 Book Sense (Children's Lit)

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - 2001 National Book Award

Eldest by Christopher Paolini - 2006 Quill Awards (Young Adult/Teen)

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald - 1997 Commonwealth Writers (First Book)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 2007 Pulitzer (Fiction)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - 1990 Newbery Award

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 1962 Nobel Prize

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky - 2004 Prix Renaudot

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - 2007 Alex Award

The Pact

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Finished June 6th, 2007

Rating: 8/10







From the Publisher
Until the phone calls came at three o''clock on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily is dead—shot with a gun her beloved and devoted Chris pilfered from his father''s cabinet as part of an apparent suicide pact—leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.

Like all Jodi Picoult reads this one too sucked me in and was hard to put down. The effect of suicide on the parents of Emily and Chris was the central theme in the book as each parent handled and reacted to the devastation differently.

Picoult had me guessing until the end as to how Emily died as I was unable to predict the ending. Even though I typically prefer to have some closure at the end of the books and most of my questions answered after finishing a book I ended up with a lot of questions at the end of The Pact and that was okay with me. I still wonder why Emily had this need to commit suicide as it was touched upon but never spelled out for the reader. I wonder why Emily put Chris in such a difficult position if she loved him so much.


SPOILER ALERT
I found myself very angry at Emily for putting Chris in an awful position of asking for help with her suicide and am also frustrated at Chris for not telling anyone about Emily's preoccupation with suicide to try to get her some professional help.

Summer Sisters

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Finished June 2nd, 2007

Rating: 8/10





It has been about 20 years since I last read a Judy Blume novel but do remember that I enjoyed her books when I was younger and I ended up really enjoying this book.

I read this book on my vacation in Hawaii and I have to say that it is a perfect book for a beach read. It is a story that spans over 20 years about 2 girls named Victoria and Caitlin that form a lifelong friendship while spending their summers together at Martha's Vineyard. The book is mostly narrated by Victoria however it also provides short narration from the other characters which I liked as it provided some insight as to how the other characters were feeling although it never did provide a narration by Caitlin which I find interesting since she was the most mysterious character.

I enjoyed this light read and would recommend it to others wanting an easy read about coming of age, friendship and love.

The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries
by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Finished May 31st, 2007

Rating: 7/10



I had previously read Citizen Girl by these authors and hated it but thought I would give them another try with this book as I know a movie is coming out this summer based on the book which doesn't look half bad.

This book was written by two former nannies about you guessed it being a nanny to a particular upper class family in New York. The nanny in the novel is named Nan and she is a nanny to a four year old boy named Grayer, who she has nicknamed Grover. I loved the character of Grayer, what a wonderfully funny little boy as the parts that he was in the book would make me just smile.

I found the storyline to be very similar to The Devil Wears Prada although it was not as funny. It was actually quite sad at times as the father is a workaholic and is having an affair and the mother simply ignores Grayer and is so busy trying to get the father to pay attention to her.

I wish there was more of a confrontation at the end of the book rather than the abrupt ending as I felt like I needed more closure than I received.

It will be interesting to watch the movie to see if they try to spin this as more of a comedy as I really found that the book was more sad than funny.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Finished May 26th, 2007

Rating: 7/10

Decades Challenge Book #4 (1960s)





I had great expectations for this book since it won a Pulitzer and so many people name this book as one of their all-time favourite books, however the book did not live up to my expectations.

SPOILER ALERT

The story as told by a young white girl named Scout tells the tales of growing up in Alabama in the 1930s while surrounded by discrimination. In the book Scout's father Atticus is the defense lawyer for a black man accused of raping a white woman in a time and place when a white woman's word means much more than any evidence to the contrary. The most poignant line from the book for me was: "Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. And I though to myself well, we're making a step --it's just a baby-step, but it's a step."

I think the reason for my disappointment could be that sometimes when you expect so much from a book you can't help but be disappointed. Unfortunately the book just did not touch a chord with me as it has with other people so I am thinking that I will have to read reviews on other people's blogs to try to understand why people love this book so much and maybe give it another read in the future and hopefully I will get more out of it the second time around.

Vacation

I have been a bit of a slacker posting on my blog as I have been on vacation for the last two weeks but the good news is that while on vacation I finished 4 books. I see that there have been a couple of new challenges posted and I will have to spend some time tomorrow perusing these challenges in order to see if they are something I am interested in joining although I am not sure if I will have the time right now with some of the other challenges I have going on but we will see.

Decades Challenge

I have signed up for another Challenge over at 3M's Blog. It is a Decades Challenge which runs from January 1st - December 31st, 2007 where you are to read as many books as you want in consecutive decades. I have decided to do 9 decades. The books I have chosen are:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls - 2000s [completed March 17th, 2007]
The Loop by Nicholas Evans - 1990s [completed March 27th, 2007]
Love in the Time of Chloera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 1980s [completed April 14th, 2007]
The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton - 1970s
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - 1960s [completed May 26th, 2007]
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 1950s
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - 1940s
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 1930s
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster - 1920s [completed June 17th, 2007]

May 2007 Reads

23. Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self by Sarah Ban Breathnach - Rating: 2 [Non-Fiction Five Challenge]

24. Rage by Jonathan Kellerman - Rating: 5

25. 1984 by George Orwell - Rating: 8 [Dystopian Challenge]

26. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Rating: 7 [Decades Challenge]

27. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - Rating: 7

New Authors Read = 2
Male Authors = 2
Female Authors = 3