My Family

My Family
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

January's Book List - 12 Books

Today, I'd like to post my list of books that I read in January. I decided to keep track of the books I read this year, so I'm recording them in a word document on my desktop. Easy, right? January was a good reading month for me. I read a TON! Some of the books good, and some were great...

Last year, I started reading the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. I liked the first book - The Lightening Thief. It had an interesting premise, and I enjoyed learning more about Greek mythology. So, in January I decided to try to finish the series. Not only did I finish that series, but I also read the 2 books in Rick Riordan's next series, Heroes of Olympus.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan

Book 2 - The Sea of Monsters


In this book, 13-year-old demigod, Percy Jackson, and some friends, must rescue his satyr friend, Grover, from the Cyclops Polyphemus, and save Camp Half Blood from a Titan's attack by bringing back the Golden Fleece to cure Thalia's poisoned pine tree.

Book 3 - The Titan's Curse


Now 14 years old, Percy leads a group of friends to rescue Annabeth and the Goddess Artemis, who have both been kidnapped.

Book 4 - The Battle of the Labyrinth


Percy tries to stop Luke Castellan and his evil army from invading Camp Half-Blood through Daedalus's labyrinth. He tries to find Daedalus and convince him not to give Luke Ariadne's string, which would help Luke through the Labyrinth.

Book 5 - The Last Olympians


Percy leads his friends, including a mortal who can see through the mist, in a last battle to protect Olympus. The battle takes place in New York City, at the Empire State Building - the entrance to Olympus. (I bet you didn't know that!)

Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Book 1 - The Lost Hero


A new group of teenage demigods star in this novel, which still has many of the characters from Camp Half Blood. Jason wakes up as a demigod, and has no idea where he's come from. The group at Camp Half Blood welcome him and two other demigods into camp. These new demigods have Roman mythology parents instead of Greek. The three are sent on a quest to rescue Hera, queen of the Gods.

Book 2 - The Son of Neptune


This story follows Percy Jackson, the demigod son of Poseidan, after he disappears. He ends up in a completely different camp of halfbloods, where Roman myths rule. He goes to Alaska to free the Greek god of death, Thanatos, and save the world from Gaia.

This series is even better than the last series- it has the characters from the Percy Jackson series, but adds several more. Riordan adds the Roman Gods/myths to the story in these books. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Beautifully written - jumps between modern day and the Salem witch trials. A woman who is pursuing her graduate degree in Early American History, stumbles on a book of "spells", and discovers that her early ancestor was one of the women tried and convicted of being a witch in Salem, MA - an unknown, undocumented witch. Interesting story.

The Litigators by John Grisham

As story about mass tort lawyers - amazing how much money and corruption is out there! A lawyer who works for a huge law firm, and makes lots of money, gets tired of working so many hours and never having time for his family. One day he just leaves. After "having lunch" at a bar, he drunkenly stumbles into a small law firm. The story unfolds as he starts to work for this law firm, which is run by 2 semi-corrupt, bumbling lawyers... the type that literally chase ambulances. As one of the partners jumps into a mass tort case, things quickly begin to unravel. Typical Grisham novel - engrossing. One of his better novels.

Book of a Thousand Day by Shannon Hale

Retold story from the Brothers Grimm - loved this book! A young princess refuses to marry someone she doesn't love, and she and her maid are banished to a tower for 7 years. This is a story about falling in love, loyalty, perseverance, friendship, honesty. Wonderful story! This book is in the Young Adult Fiction genre - one I read quite a bit. If you are only shopping in the Adult sections of the bookstore, you'll miss out on some great books.

Bitten by Robert Smith

This is an LDS fiction, a story about a missionary who is called to Tennessee and thinks his life is over. He serves almost his whole mission in Thelma's Way - a geniune back-woods town, meets the girl of his dreams, and after his mission, returns to claim her. This book was hilarious! I laughed out loud many times! A good, clean, fun story - with some great life lessons.

Fearless in High Heels by Gemma Halliday

This is the 5th book in the series. I read the other 4 last year. It's a fun series about a girl (Maddie) who designs shoes in Hollywood. Her best friend, Dana, is an actress. Her mom is married to a guy who owns a salon. It seems like Maddie is a magnet for dead bodies. She and her friends try to solve murders, and earlier in the series, she meets a detective named Ramirez. They end up getting married. In this book, she is pregnant with their first baby. I love the characters in this series. It's just a fun, entertaining read.

Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors

I thought this was a fun idea for a book. The book cover is what attracted me to the book. An actress who plays Juliet on stage at her family's theater, gets whisked back in time to Verona - and Juliet and Romeo's lives. The actor who plays Romeo also travels back in time. They save Romeo and Juliet, and fall in love themselves. Fun!

12 Books! I told you January was a good reading month!! I also started a book called Bad Buys of the Book of Mormon by Dennis Gaunt.



I'm planning on reading a chapter each Sunday, so it will take a couple of months to finish. So far, it's very entertaining.

So, that's it. If you live by me, and want to borrow some of these books, be my guest. The only books I can't lend out are the books owned by my kids - the Percy Jackson books are Matthew's.

Stay tuned next month for February's books...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

So many books... so little time!

I was reading through the post that I'm putting up tomorrow on my Incredible Women blog - it's about DeNae Handy's favorite authors. I commented on how much I love to read. Then, while I was standing upstairs in the hallway, trying (like I do every night), to beg my teenagers to go to bed, I started looking through the books on one of my many bookcases. These things prompted me to take a walking tour around my house, looking at all of my bookcases. I decided that I just had to post pictures of my bookcases here - you will not believe how many books I've got! I think maybe I should clean up these bookcases, straighten the books, look for books that I haven't yet read, etc. So, that's my next "project" in my house. Here are the before pictures... (and suggestions for some great reads on each of those bookcases)

Ok, this is the book case in my office - it's WAY too small. It holds mostly my "bookclub" books. I've read probably 95% of the books on these shelves. Some of my favorites here?
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
1776 by David McCullough
Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares



This is a small set of shelves that I bought for my business, but it's slowly being taken over by my books - yikes!
Favorites here?
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Fablehaven Series by Brandon Mull
Complete Food and Nutrition Guide - 3rd Edition
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
My Fair(y) Godmother by Janette Rallison



This bookcase is in my living room, and it holds mostly church books - or fiction by LDS authors. Some of the best books here?
Jesus the Christ by James Talmage
Prelude to Glory series by Ron Carter (about the Revolutionary War)
Rachel & Leah, Rebekah, and Sarah - books by Orson Scott Card
Righteous Warriors by John Bytheway
Glimpses in the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley by Virginia H. Pearce



This bookcase houses my overflow of book club books, plus more church books, and some of my favorite fiction series. (Notice the statue of Dumbledore on the top shelf!)...
Harry Potter collection by J.K. Rowling
The Dangerous Book for Boys by Hal Iggulden (comes in handy with 4 boys!)
It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong (read this while I was fighting breast cancer)
Shakespeare Stories, I and II by Leon Garfied and Michael Foreman (if you want Shakespeare that's a little easier for kids to read - the stories without all the hard to understand words - these books are perfect)
Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead-Ferro (one of my all-time favorites)




When I was newly married, I went to a used bookstore and bought tons of classics - I really felt like I wanted these books out where my kids could see them - so the top two shelves are stuffed with classics. This shelf also includes some collections by favorite authors, along with Rick's college textbooks.
A few of my favorites?
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Lots of Agatha Christie books
My wonderful Jane Austen collection, of course
Several Ayn Rand books - among them... Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged
Several books by one of my family's favorite authors - Orson Scott Card... Ender's Game (and all the subsequent novels), the Red Prophet series, Homebody, Stone Tables, etc., etc.


This bookcase - my third upstairs, has books by authors such as Tom Clancy, Sue Grafton, John Grisham, etc. Plus, it has my entire children's picture book collection. Here are some favorites...
The Jericho Sanction, Mission Compromised, and The Assassins by Oliver North (that's right, THE Oliver North - excellent books!)
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter
Eat Smart, Walk Smart and Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansone




This last bookcase is my "children's books" bookcase. It also holds lots of CDs, DVDs, and VHS videos. I LOVE children's books. My youngest is almost 13, and I just can't bring myself to get rid of any of these kids' books. Here are a few favorites...
Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne
Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein
Flipped by Van Draanen
Jolly Postman books by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Castle in the Attic (and Battle for the Castle) by Elizabeth Winthrop



Of course, there are boxes downstairs full of Dr. Seuss, and Mercer Mayer, etc.

I hope this has given you some good ideas for books to read. Reading is one of life's greatest pleasures. Now, I've got some time - it's midnight and everyone else is in bed, so I'm off to continue reading one of the books I'm in the middle of... either A Patriot's History of the United States OR Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova - oh, which one?! Eeny, meeny, miny, mo...
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My Gorgeous Boys

My Gorgeous Boys