100 Books in 2010: Books 21-25

What do flying across the country, being sick, and having a husband in finals have in common? A lot of free time to read books. I'm actually on book #28 in my 100 in 2010 challenge so this post is a little behind, but that's okay. Here are books #21-25.

#21 - Fifteen Years by Kendra Bellamy (Number)
A book about a man with a troubled childhood that left his favorite foster family fifteen years ago. In this fifteenth year he decides it is finally time to find them. A decent read. 3 stars.

#22 - The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (Movie)
I've read a lot of Nicholas Sparks' books, and this one followed the same typical Nicholas Sparks' route for me. Add that to the fact that I had Miley Cyrus in my head (who I don't particularly like) as the main character from seeing the movie, and this book was good but not great. I prefer The Lucky One. 3 stars.

#23 - Take Three by Karen Kingsbury (Number)
If you've never read a Karen Kingsbury book, check out my review of her first series - Redemption - and then go buy it. But realize that you'll be sucked in for a total of like 20 books that follow the Baxter family. I liked this book, but it wasn't my favorite of hers. 4 stars

#24 - Palace Circle by Rebecca Dean (Historical Fiction)
A book that was supposed to be like a Phillipa Gregory novel (The Other Boleyn Girl), this book highly disappointed me. It was split into three smaller stories that followed different main characters (that were all related) and just lost me somewhere in between part 1 and 2. 2 stars.

#25 - Kissing Frogs in Cyberspace by Dianne Sweeney (Review)
If you've ever experienced online dating, I'd pick this one up for a good laugh. It definitely had me chuckling and glad that I haven't had to go through the horror stories that others have. This book is a quick read, quirky, and a lot of fun. 4 stars.

My favorite out of those five is hard to pick because I liked them all but didn't love any of them. I would probably have to choose Kissing Frogs because it was quirky, and I like quirky. Or Take Three just because of Bailey and Cody.

Living Rich with #8

A couple of years ago one of my family's friends Rich Lloyd found out he had terminal brain cancer. Before he passed away his family started the "Live Rich Team," to promote living our lives as richly as he had. I may not actually have ever met Rich, but I ran in his honor this weekend and wore my Live Rich t-shirt proudly. And the rest of the weekend, I lived richly.

It all started with one of my best friends Cate who picked me up at the airport and took me to play volleyball and then to a sleepover at her house.

We had some very fun company for the sleepover (I got to sleep in a bed and not a cage).

Then Friday we drove around, did some shopping, and saw some great scenery that I've been missing for the past three years.

And then ate my favorite salad ever - berries, candied nuts, and poppy seed dressing. Yum!

After hanging out all day, Cate dropped me off to go meet up with my family for a Live Rich picnic and carb-loading. Grandma and Grandpa came down to cheer us (or in Grandpa's case - make fun of me) on during the race.

Saturday was finally race time. There's something special about wearing matching shirts. I draw the line at tutus, but the matching shirts was kind of fun. Somehow my dad didn't make it into any of my pictures, but he was living richly as well.

And we finished the race looking almost as happy.

If you are looking for good after-race treats, you should definitely run Salt Lake. They had creamsicles, cold apples and bananas, fresh rolls and cookies, and chocolate milk. Add that all to a downhill race and cheap pedicures, and it was definitely one to remember.

We finished the weekend off with a BYU volleyball game, some light shopping, seeing some great friends, and just hanging out as a family. I came home with two new t-shirts, a great bathing suit, altitude sickness, and a determination to start living my life more richly than before. So far I'm failing miserably but it's an every day thing right? And something we can do together :)

At least for this weekend, try it out - live rich.

Review and Giveaway: The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

Meet Karla, Kelly, Marilyn, Jane, Jenny, Karen, Cathy, Angela, Sally, Diana, and Sheila. Eleven girls that all grew up together in Ames, Iowa and forty years later are still friends today. Jeffrey Zaslow spent a year visiting each of these women in their homes and listening to their stories. Voted as one of the top 10 books of the year by People Magazine, The Girls from Ames is a true story about these women and the lives they have shared together from childhood to now into their forties.

I loved this book. Because they are real women, I could relate to each one of them in their own way. Zaslow throws in a well-balanced mix of the triumphs, heartbreaks, and miniscule details that don't seem to really matter but are what really make up a great friendship. I laughed at moments and cried at others. And I fell in love with the girls from Ames.

On top of the stories about the women, he also random information about studies on friendships between women and how having close friends can have a very positive impact on your life. And how as great as it is to have friends that know you now, sometimes it's just nice to see those "old friends" who knew you when you were just getting started in becoming who you were. It definitely made me want to put down the book the moment I was done and pick up the phone to start calling all of my best girl friends. 5 stars.

I highly recommend this book to everyone and luckily enough, TLC book tours has offered to giveaway one copy to one of my readers just for leaving a comment on this post with your favorite thing about your best friends. Giveaway ends Sunday, April 25th at midnight EST.

**I was given this book to review as part of TLC book tours. This is my honest opinion.

And the Light Gets Brighter

Richie finished his last ever law school class today. Two more weeks, and he will be officially done.

90% Syndrome

At home, there is one thing I'm really good at - starting projects. And one thing I'm really bad at - finishing them. I get really excited about something and want to start right away. The problem is that before I finish a project, I typically get really excited about something else and start that. Some call it being easily distracted; I call it 90% syndrome.

Do you know how much shorter my to-do list would be if I could just get through that last 10% of everything? Like when I make dinner, washing the dishes right away. Or instead of just addressing graduation announcements, I'd actually stamp and send them. And instead of doing laundry and leaving it on the couch, I'd actually fold it and put it away.

Anyone else have a problem finishing things you start? Any great ideas for getting through that last 10%?

100 Books in 2010: Books 16-20

Last week I realized that I'd only read one book since my last post three weeks ago and was way behind on my goal to hit 100. So over the weekend while my city was overrun with tourists (have I mentioned how much I hate tourists), I decided to catch up and finished five books over the weekend. I'm still a little behind but I'll get there. This time the books are all very different, but other than one, I thouroughly enjoyed them all.

#16 - Cardboard: a Woman Left for Dead by Fiona Place (Review)
A ficticious but very realistic portrayal of a woman struggling with an eating disorder and other social disorder. Very insightful and thought-provoking. 5 stars.

#17 - Love Mercy by Lisa and Ty Samson (Partially set in DC)
A non-fiction account of Lisa Samson and her daughter Ty on their journey in the United States and Africa (a lot of info about the AIDS problem) to follow Christ in their everyday lives. I honestly found this one to be somewhat dry and boring, but someone else might love it. 3 stars.

#18 - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (Best Seller)
This one has been coming up on the "need to read" list for a while now so I finally decided to pick it up. It wasn't the best book I've read in the past year as it may have been for others, but I did enjoy it. I loved the idea of a literary society and want to form my own. It was an easy read and a book I would recommend for anyone that enjoys historical fiction, stories about relationships, and/or novels written through letters. 4 stars.

#19 - The 7 Gifts that Came to Earth by John Mellor (Number)
"Seven precious gifts are bestowed on the Earth but not revealed. A young boy is charged with finding them." This book reminded me a lot of The Little Prince or the Alchemist. It was broken into seven books that each contained a gift that was given to the earth. The books themselves are intriguing, and I found myself constantly trying to figure out the gift. A short and interesting read. 3 stars.

#20 - The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow (Best Seller)
Named as one of People Magazine's top 10 books of 2009, this is a heartwarming non-fiction look into the lives of eleven girls from Ames, Iowa that met during their childhood and have stayed friends for the 40 years since. This book reminded me of everything I love about female friends and why I make an effort to stay in touch with the "old friends." It made me laugh, cry (a lot), and want to pick up the phone to call every friend I've ever had. I definitely recommend to any woman. 5 stars.

It's hard to pick my favorite book out of these five because they are all so good and different, but I would have to say The Girls from Ames.

Some Much Needed Motivation

It's official. Half marathon #8 is in 10 days, and I'm finally registered. I was really hoping that my dad would let me just skip the race and go visit with my friends all weekend. Not so much.

Since I couldn't get out of the half-marathon, I decided I needed to find some sort of motivation to get me running since nothing, even the cherry blossoms, has worked so far. This week I found the perfect motivation.

I got season two (already watched season 1) of Grey's Anatomy from NetFlix. The catch? I can only watch while I run. So far this week I've run more than in the past three total.

Anyone have any great suggestions for my next series once I finish Grey's? I'm thinking now that it's almost over, it's about time I watch my first episode of Lost.

On Being a Mom - Someday

I'll preface this post by saying no I'm not pregnant and no I'm not planning to get pregnant anytime soon. That's not what this post is about. Now that we've got that straight here goes.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about being a mom and what kind of mom I'll be. What will we teach our kids and how we will help them understand the difference between "right" and "wrong?" Richie and I got into a long conversation last night about how we were raised and how that contributed to the decisions we each personally make in our daily lives. I won't go into the specifics, but it was very eye-opening.

Then this weekend, our church had its semiannual general conference where leaders of the church give talks that are broadcast to the millions of members across the world. I felt like one of the main themes today was on the importance of teaching your children and being an example to them so that they without a doubt know who you are and what you believe. That when your kid has to make a decision about what's right or wrong, they'll be able to say I know what my mom would do in this situation. I'm not saying that they will always make that decision but wouldn't it be great if they didn't have a doubt about the choice that you would make?

That's a lot of pressure, but it's a good pressure. People say that if you wait until you think you're ready to have kids you'll never have them. I may never really be ready but there are a lot of things I could do to be more prepared today. Start learning more, strengthening my own beliefs, and making better choices. And maybe that way when it is time for me to have kids of my own, it won't quite as big of a leap - and don't worry, I know it'll be huge - to put the routines in place and to be that good example I want to be.

Book Review - Cardboard: A Woman Left for Dead

When Fiona contacted me about reviewing Cardboard, I was a little hesitant because it covers such a sensitive subject - anorexia. As I'm sure we all have, I had a couple of friends during high school that struggled with eating disorders so I decided that I would give this book a chance.

It's been a long time since I've read a book that really put me into a life I've never known, into the shoes of someone whose path I've never traveled, and into a mind that I could both relate to and not understand at all. That's what Cardboard did for me. The book is written in what feels like stream of consciousness narrative from a woman who struggles with anorexia, which leads to other psychological and social disorders (e.g., afraid of employment, afraid of relationships with men). Parts of the narrative are written in paragraph form and other pieces are written in short chunks of what really feels like a random thought in the woman's mind. The different types of narrative mixed together perfectly matched what I imagined the main character's mind to be like. I love modern literature, and this fascinated me.

This is also one of those books that is both hard to read and hard to put down. I kept getting caught up in Lucy's almost recovery and then heartbroken as she continued to falter on that path. Even though it was fiction, the story felt very real, like it was written about someone in particular or from the author's own personal experiences. And even though I personally don't have an eating disorder or suffer from any other psychological disorders (that I know of), I could relate to Lucy's desire for control and her nervousness and fear when she sensed a loss of control. I probably wouldn't pick this book up to read again but I'm glad I read it in the first place because it was eye-opening, insightful, and definitely worth reading. 5 stars