#0070A Love Wins - Rob Bell

OMG CONTROVERSIAL BOOK AHEAD. Seriously though, people should actually read the books before bashing the author. That's why I always told people that I wouldn't discuss this book with them until after we BOTH read it. And really, if it wasn't a close religious war that broke out on my facebook, I probably wouldn't have read it. So, thanks, Seth for recommending it :)

I probably should have read some of Rob Bell's older stuff, just to get a feel of what he is about. But, alas, I didn't and that's just too bad. Anyway, Love Wins. A book about HEAVEN, HELL, and the fate of every person who ever lives. Yep, the book is about that. Really, to me, there is a lot of verses in the Bible. You could probably take everything out of it and have it say whatever you want it to say. Believe me, Christians do that. Just as long as you come out on top then it's fine, right? We are all quick to judge everyone about everything and if you are not "good enough" or "Christian enough" or what have you, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL. Fire, brimstone, the devil, the whole nine yards. I like this book as it has put some of my own feelings into words. (Now, maybe not everything he says in there I believe) I do believe that God can do whatever He wants and if he wants to save everyone, then by all means he will. I'm not going to waste my time and damning people to hell just because they look, act, or even believe differently. Jesus was all about love and God is all about love so why can't we be all about love too? I'm not going to say anything else. If you want to discuss, I'll be happy to talk when you've read this book as well. If we agree then good, and if we don't agree, that's fine too. 4 stars

#0069A This is a Book - Demetri Martin

This is a review of Demetri Martin's This is a Book by Demetri Martin. (This is a crappy review, if you want to call it that. Go buy and read this book)

I preordered this baby in February and totally flipped out when it came in the mail. I'm a HUGE Demetri Martin fan.

This is his first book and I cannot wait for more. I laughed throughout the whole entire thing. Of course, you have to enjoy a very dry sense of humor. The book is basically one of his stand up shows, written out. His drawings, stories, and charts are throughout the book and I seriously could not put it down once I started. I even read it in 2 days. I was a record for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone and if you don't think it's funny, you don't know what a sense of humor is. 5 stars

#0068A Skin Tight - Carl Hiaasen

Another borrowed book. Don't let the name fool you. This book is a murder mystery involving a plastic surgeon. Make sense now? I have heard good things about Hiaasen before and one of his kiddie books turned into a movie so the public likes him? I actually didn't know that he wrote other stuff other thank kid books.

I really like how the main character is a smart ass. It's like he does not care what he has to do to figure out this case. It's like he's flying by the seat of his pants, but yet he's has total control over the situation and everything that comes up, he handles it with ease. I liked the nice little Epilogue at the end. Nice touch.

This book was a nice relaxing book to where I didn't have to think much for a change. It's fast paced and stuff is happening constantly and it's pretty funny as well. 4 stars

#0067A Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

I bought this book a few years back and I just now got around to it. My big HUGE problem of buying books is still on going, but is it really such a "bad" problem? I called up Krissy one day, while I was working at Borders, and asked her what book I should buy, since I had a 40% off coupon and "Borders Bucks" Of course, she suggested a Vonnegut book. And that's how I came to purchase this one.

I laughed throughout the whole thing. I'm a pretty sarcastic person and Vonnegut's writing fits me perfectly. Throughout the book he adds more and more of himself in the book and at the end he actually interacts with his characters. I love how he can tell a story and go off on a tangent and still keep you up with what is going on. I can't wait until I can get my hands on another Vonnegut book. I believe he's been added to my favorite authors list. And so on. 5 stars

#0066A Eye of the World - Robert Jordan

Arg. Here, I started another series. It's not that I don't finish the other ones, I just get excited about other books and come back to series way later. For this particular series, I'll have to wait until after this year to even begin to think about starting the next book. Well, I might read the second one if I get really far ahead of my goal of a book a week. This book put me behind. I was ahead by 3 days and since Robert Jordan likes to have a million pages with tiny, tiny writing, I would need to be a week ahead to read 700+ pages.

Anyway, this is the first book of his Wheel of Time series. I really liked how Jordan started out with seven characters and when they get separated you get three different stories going on at once and they all get pulled together at the end. I know that a lot of people have compared Jordan to Tolkien. I'm not going to. They are too completely different writers and they just so happen to write in the same genre. I like both writers.

Now, you know how I feel about unrealistic happenings and when there are so many characters, how come none of them die? An author FINALLY gets it. Well, by the end you aren't sure about one, but errr I can't really explain it. Maybe because when they got away from danger, it wasn't like something appeared out of thin air and saved them. He kept within the boundaries of this world that he made up.

The only bad thing that I could say is that this is a really long book. BUT Jordan did what he had to and really it's not a bad thing. You write until the story is finished. So, how many more books are in the series? I believe it's twelve more. I'll get around to the rest one day. 4 stars

#0065A Youth In Revolt - C.D. Payne

Oh, Micheal Cera. How I love you and your awkward nerdiness. So, I completely confess that I only read this book because the movie came out with Cera in it and trying to be a good little nerd, I read the book first. Reading 500 pages in one week is hard and I did it!

14 year old Nick Twisp hates his last name, loves Frank Sinatra, and apparently will do anything he can just to be with Sheeni Sanders. I really could have done without all the sex talk. I know that when a boy is 14 that's all he thinks of, but it shouldn't be the main goal in a book if you ask me, unless you are reading one of those Harlequin romance novels.

The book really could have ended like 10 times and the true ending left it wide open with so many possibilities to happen still. Arg. Also, a 14 year old does NOT have a vocabulary like that. There were so many words I couldn't pronounce, let alone know what they were. And now, I still couldn't tell you what they were. This book was addicting and maybe that's why I got through it so quickly.

The movie...okay this isn't a movie blog, so never mind. (It wasn't great and the ending was more appropriate then the book had) 4 stars

#0064A Time Machine - H.G. Wells

Another free Kindle book. Big surprise though because it's out of copyright law. Short, short book. Nothing like the newest movie, but no surprise there.

I didn't really like how the story was told. This all took place in a matter of hours. The Time Traveler came back and sat around with some "important" people and told what happened to him. I rather venture in with him in his present day. Maybe I'm just too picky, but I have a right to an opinion. I didn't like the ending either and I noticed that if I don't like the ending I rate the book lower than I should. I mean, it is good to read old literature. 2.5 stars (see? Didn't like the ending = lower score) I shouldn't do it this way.

#0063A The Lovely Bones - Alice Seabold

I'm a terrible reading nut who accidentally watched the movie first before reading the book. Usually when this happens, I don't know that it's a book until after the movie, when it tells me.

The movie wasn't too great, the book was better, but I'm not exactly a hardcore fan. Main character girl gets murdered by her next door neighbor that people don't know much about, except that he's weird. (They tell you all this in the beginning, so I'm not giving away things) It's really depressing to me how she just sits, where ever she is at, and watches her friends and family grow up while she just stays the same.

There's not much to say from my stand point, the book didn't bore me and I read through it quick, eh, maybe I forget things in books too quickly. 3.5 stars

#0062A Imaginary Jesus - Matt Mikalatos

Finally got my Kindle back at this point. Amazon sometimes has Kindle books for free for a limited time and this one was one, and now it's back up to like eight bucks! Score.

What a wonderful way to start out a book. Matt Mikalatos is in a vegetarian restaurant eating and chatting along with Jesus (this is in present day btw) and then this "Pete" guy comes up and punches Jesus in the face.

It's about how people imagine Jesus to be, instead of what he really is. Conservative Jesus, Liberal Jesus, Hippie Jesus, Mormon Jesus, Testosterone Jesus, Model Jesus, Football Jesus, Super Jesus, CEO Jesus, Perpetually Angry Jesus, Liberation Theology Jesus, New Age Jesus, Baptist Jesus, Health Nut Jesus...and the list goes on. They all attack Mikalatos at once at one part in the book. The book is pretty humorous with some sap to it. I was definitely worth being free and it's probably worth 5 bucks too, I'm just really cheap. Soooo 3.5 stars

#0061A The Weirdo - Theodore Taylor

Here is another book that read when I was in middle school. Being a part of Battle of the Books was probably what started my fascination with reading. My mother was a good role model by reading to me all the time and encouraging me to read myself and she read all the time too. But just being a part of that group in middle school and figuring out it was okay to be a reading nerd just helped me grow a little bit into who I am today.

Along with Island of the Blue Dolphins, this book was much different to me this time then it was over 10 years ago. I remember skipping over the parts where "the weirdo" wrote essays for his college. I also thought that when the police were trying to figure out what happened to the Weirdo's friend that they blamed him at one point, but that wasn't the case the second time I read it. I believe my imagination ran wild when I got to a boring part of a book, back then, to make it more interesting for myself. Not that this book was boring this time. It wasn't by far.

Taylor also had a nice moral to where no matter how you look on the outside, you can still be wonderful and beautiful on the inside. You should stand up and be yourself and no care what people think of you. (The Weirdo was in a horrible crash when he was younger, scarring his face.)There is no reason to hide. 4 stars

#0060A Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card

Book #2 of the Alvin Maker series. I think I read the first one two years ago. This one had more action and less magic. It was more about making the storyline more meaty and less about Alvin. There was a scene or two that rose up again from the end of the first book, just being told by a different character this time. It gave more background of the natives and Alvin is more aware of what all he can do. I bought the 3rd book and the end of last year and I hope to read it soon.

My list of books keep getting longer and longer and I seem to start more and more book series which I think, isn't completely good. Hopefully I won't get some of these confused. 4 stars

#0059A Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

I have never been into nonfiction books, especially ones that does not have a story line. Errr, like a "self help" book like this one is. People kept pushing this book so I gave it a shot.

It was extremely interesting. It's about doing things on the spur of the moment, you know...in the "blink of an eye"! See what I did there? heh.

There was one thing that stood out for me. Gladwell was talking about how you act when your heart rate gets to a certain rate. If it is a certain speed then your adrenaline can kick in an help you out with whatever, like lift heavier things, or make you run faster/longer. If your heart rate gets above that then it can actually make your brain act like your are autistic. You can't function well, you don't say things correctly, you stop hearing things or you don't speak, and it impairs your judgment to the extreme. This makes total sense to me and it happens on certain occasions with me even recently. I recommend it. 4 stars.

#0058A The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Potzsch

This is where I play catch up. I have been reading a book every week still. I've just been lazy about updating the blog. Anyway, I'll do the best I can since I have forgotten some things in the books.

My father made me buy this Kindle book because it looked interesting to him and he wanted me to read it first before he tackled it. (He doesn't read period). It was perfect for him. Full of death and blood and not really too much about the hangman's daughter. It was more about her father and the younger physician.

Orphan children started to disappear and the town blamed it on the lady that delivered babies, that she was a witch. It's up to the Hangman and the physician to find out who or what is taking the kiddies before they torture this poor lady to death. 4 stars

On a side note, this book is almost 500 pages. I pushed through and read it in a week while it took my father 5 weeks to read this one. And he also read it on my kindle so I was without it for awhile. But I'm still proud that he was interested in a book since I took up this goal so yay for him.