falling behind...

As behind as I've gotten in my quest for 100 books, I've fallen even further behind in blogging about the books I've read. Apparently, my emotional ties to books are a lot to overcome and I had a difficult time figuring out how to talk about the next book I read...so I waited until I'd read even more after that to write the blog.

I finished The Time Traveler's Wife quite a while back. I did cry my eyes out...for a LONG time. Basically, I was inconsolable. I knew what was going to happen because I had seen the movie. I'd even heard that in some instances, the book was not as good as the movie. This is always hard for me to believe because I love the written word, but I can see that point of view after reading the book. Typically I hate watching movies if I haven't read books, but in this case I'm glad I did. For one, if I hadn't watched the movie I would not have been at all prepared for what was coming at the end of the book and I can't imagine how upset I would've been. For two, watching the movie helped me understand the jumps in time that you see in the book. It was much easier for me to understand what it meant that Henry was 33 and 42 (random example, not necessarily accurate) at a certain point in time because I could picture it from the movie. **Added bonus** Who doesn't want to picture Eric Bana multiple times a night? I know I sure do.

The book was awesome. I know a lot of people couldn't get as emotionally involved with this novel as with some others, but I was reeled in hook, line, and sinker. I thought it was well written and I appreciated that the book referenced the characters' hobbies/careers more. For example, Henry is a librarian and the book has excerpts and quotes from books, poems, songs, etc throughout. I really love that. Really. Love it. I just felt like the book had a lot of things that I generally love as a human being...and also a bunch of things I love in a book. I realize that may be the most vague way to describe the book. I liked Niffenegger's writing. Even though the time traveling bit was still confusing, she handled it well and after a while it made sense. I love the whole element of time travel because anything slightly supernatural makes me excited. 

As a love story, holy. crap. Claire & Henry are the stuff my dreams are made of. Unfortunately, I have bad dreams too. They fulfilled all of those quite well. Anyone who knows me very personally knows I have crazy concerns about tragic endings to life. Not like, "Oh, man, what a sad way to go. It would be so sad to lose my husband/boyfriend/significant other like that..." but like, "I feel like one of us will tragically die before the age of 35." Yeah. Paranoia strikes again. 

So the fact that Henry dies in his 40s, all of his biggest fears/worries come true, and they have limited time together due to the history of time traveling? Yeah. Basically cut straight to my heart. 

Again. Inconsolable. Ask Chris. He listened to me on the phone while I finished because I was too upset to finish alone. 

Next up! Bleachers by John Grisham

I read Grisham's book Playing for Pizza and talked about it here, and I really enjoyed it. It was light, simple, and not super emotional. I had heard I would like Bleachers even more-- and I did. It's about a high school quarterback 15 years later who comes back because his jerk of a coach has finally died. However, the jerk of a coach was the best coach the town had ever seen and the town revolved around football. I'm not a huge football fan by any means, but I am a huge fan of homecoming stories. I really liked it. That's about all I can say. I thought it really discussed the character's feelings without being overly mushy. I liked that it was about a guy because so many novels I read are about girls...and I thought the guy sounded kinda hot, not gonna lie. I also love old people, even if they're jerks. Needless to say an old man dying still gets me interested. I like a good back story. Grisham also did well explaining where the late coach was coming from after the fact, making everyone feel better about who he was as a person and a coach. Well done. Also--super easy to read. 

Last up for now...

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

Oh. Man. This book was unexpectedly good. Lisa Scottoline is a new author for me, I've never read any of her books but plan to start a.s.a.p. My lovely school nurse, Mary Poole, recommended this book to me and I literally couldn't put it down. I started reading it on a Sunday, got a crazy case of insomnia that night, and finished it at 3 a.m. Monday. Awesome. The basic plot is that a single mom has adopted a little boy and loves him dearly, however, gets a "Missing Child" flyer with his picture on it and realizes her child might not have been hers to take. Anyway, that sounds boring and super -esque...but it's not. It involves crime and murder and high drama. I love that crap. 

I super recommend it for anyone who likes crime/secrets/hot bosses/cute kids. I, fortunately, like them all. Great beach read too, now that it's the FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!!!!!!!! :-)

Happy Reading! I also apologize for the long wait...I'm reading a book that I'm pretty sure will make me cry. I'll be sure to post about it soon.