On My Wish List


As of this week, my wishlist contains two main authors - Bill Bryson and Jon Krakauer. This week I'll feature Jon Krakauer because I probably have at least four for Bill Bryson on my list.

Jon Krakauer
Into The Wild - Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, Krakauer searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled 24-year-old Chris McCandless to leave civilization behind and head into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Four months later, McCandless's emaciated corpse was found at his campsite by a hunter. Mesmerizing and heartbreaking, Krakauer's powerful and luminous storytelling blaze through every page.

Into Thin Air - A beautiful, lush, fully illustrated edition of a true publishing phenomenon, Into Thin Air: The Illustrated Edition contains hundreds of never-before-seen photographs in a magnificently produced volume and includes a new Afterword by the author. 350 halftone illustrations.

Prophet's Prey - Prophet's Prey offers the gripping, behind-the-scenes account of a bizarre world from the only man who knows the full story.
Despite considerable press coverage and a lengthy trial, the full story has remained largely untold. Only one man can reveal the whole, astounding truth: Sam Brower, the private investigator who devoted years of his life to breaking open the secret practices of the FLDS and bringing Warren Jeffs and his inner circle to justice. In Prophet's Prey, Brower implicates Jeffs in his own words, bringing to light the contents of Jeffs's personal priesthood journal, discovered in a hidden underground vault, and revealing to readers the shocking inside world of FLDS members, whose trust he earned and who showed him the staggering truth of their lives.
From the private investigator who cracked open the case that led to the arrest of Warren Jeffs, the maniacal prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), comes the page-turning, horrifying story of how a rogue sect used sex, money, and power disguised under a favßade of religion to further criminal activities and a madman's vision.







Review - Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman

Title: Babe in Boyland
Author: Jody Gehrman
Publisher: February 17, 2011
Publish Date: Dial

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I have been wanting to read this book since it came out. I love the cover and it really makes me want to pick this book up. Reading a book about a girl wanting to be a writer is even more fun!

I read this book in a few hours. It was a fun, fast read. Incredibly funny parts that had me laughing out loud. Wonderful, heart warming parts that made me want to find these people and give them a hug. And horribly mean people that I wanted to beat up, but Nat did a good job giving them what they deserved.

Natalie is trying to become a real writer. Her friends are making fun of her for writing her Dr. Aphrodite article that answers questions girls send in. They feel she is not answering them well and the comments are even worse. Her friends challenge her to find a topic that is real enough to enter into a writing contest. When she cannot get the answers she wants, she goes undercover at a local boys school to get the reality. She falls head over heels for her hunky roommate, she ends up in a very compromising position with her best girl friends and she is using her acting skills the entire time. Her voice changes and she forgets occasionally that she is supposed to be a boy. Hilarious how she compares the two sexes. So much fun!!

Summary -
When high school junior Natalie - or Dr. Aphrodite, as she calls herself when writing the relationship column for her school paper - is accused of knowing nothing about guys and giving girls bad relationship advice, she decides to investigate what guys really think and want. But the guys in her class won't give her straight or serious answers. The only solution? Disguising herself as a guy and spending a week at Underwood Academy, the private all-boy boarding school in town. There she learns a lot about guys and girls in ways she never expected - especially when she falls for her dreamy roommate, Emilio. How can she show him she likes him without blowing her cover?

Review - How to Sleep Alone in a Kingsize Bed by Theo Pauline Nester

Title: How to Sleep Alone in a King-size Bed
Author: Theo Pauline Nestor
Publish Date: April 15, 2008
Publisher: Crown

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I really enjoyed this book. It was similar to Eat, Pray Love but without all the laying on the floor sobbing in misery. (Not that that is bad, mind you) Theo uncovers her husband's gambling problem which she is sure she should have seen coming, but it is too late by the time she gets to the heart of the matter. She goes through the normal phases, but the entire time questioning if she is doing them correctly. How many times have we chided ourselves for living through a tough point in our lives and thinking we are doing it wrong? Theo embraces her heart and learns to live through each emotion wondering the entire time if she is making the right decisions for her and her children.

Summary -
“I feel like I’ve joined an enormous club, something like the Veterans of Foreign Wars. We are weary with battle fatigue and sometimes even gripped by nostalgia for the good old, bad old days, but our numbers are large,” writes Theo Pauline Nestor in this wry, fiercely honest chronicle of life after divorce.

Less than an hour after confronting her husband over his massive gambling losses, Theo banishes him from their home forever. With two young daughters to support and her life as a stay-at-home mother at an abrupt end, Nestor finds herself slipping from “middle-class grace” as she attends a court-ordered custody class, stumbles through job interviews, and–much to her surprise–falls in love once again. As Theo rebuilds her life and recovers her sense of self, she’s forced to confront her own family’s legacy of divorce. “I’m from a long line of stock market speculators, artists of unmarketable talents, and alcoholics,” writes Nestor. “The higher, harder road is not our road. We move, we divorce, we drink, or we disappear.”

Nestor’s journey takes her deep into her family’s past, to a tiny village in Mexico, where she discovers the truth about how her sister ended up living in a convent there after their parents divorced in the early sixties. What she learns ultimately brings her closer to understanding her own divorce and its impact on her two daughters. “I knew from experience that for children divorce means half the world is constantly eclipsed. When you’re with one parent, the other must always slip out of view,” Nestor writes.

Funny, openhearted, and brave, How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed will speak to anyone who has passed through the halls of divorce court or risked tenderness after loss. It marks the debut of an enchanting, deeply truthful voice.

Wordless Wednesday - Google Map Car


Wordless Wedneday

Tuesday - Tune In & Teaser


Heard this song on the radio today and even though it's a bit corny, I immediately felt I knew what the lyrics were saying. I miss my boyfriend like mad. I wish to high hell we lived together. It is horrible only seeing him once a month. I want to hold him, touch him, see his smile, sleep next to him and the list goes on. So here's to all the romantics out there.

Jet Lag
by Simple Plan






"To be honest, I dig having a secret identity, even if it is kind of a misnomer. I think everyone should have at least a part of them that's self-invented; in fact the world would be much more interesting if we all created our own identities afresh whenever we felt like it."

Babe in Boyland
Jody Gehrman

Review - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver
The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1
Author: Maggie Steifvater
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Publish Date: Aug 1, 2009
Hardcover, 400 pages
(my version audio book)

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I have no idea what I expected with this book. I think I bought it as an audio book because I remember seeing the cover at work and thought it looked good. It was also my first audio book in about a decade so I wasn't so hip to the voices. They just didn't sound like what I would figure if I read the book.

HOWEVER, I did enjoy the book. I like the story line. I liked Grace and I thought Sam was surprising. Grace's thoughts and feelings were moving. Sam was very thoughtful and pervasive. I was so intrigued that I looking forward to the next book. I will be reading it this time rather than listening to it. It was romantic. It was different and I liked that the story line was new and fresh. I usually don't enjoy books with little to no conversation, but this one held up considerably with thoughts and feelings.

Funny thing about audio books, they can make or break the book depending on the voice and inflections. In my head, I create my own, so I know I will like them.

Summary -
Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance.