June's Group Read

May was definitely a flop for posting as well.  The end of the school year and parenting got the best of me.  I did hit some good good books so that was positive, but my life balance not so good.

Since I was a little crazy I never did write a suggestion post for June and since we didn't do one for May I made an executive decision.  Lisa had suggested Eleanor & Park for May and it was the only suggestion and I got that book for my birthday.  So, winner winner, chicken dinner!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell will be our book.

Description: Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Hope you will join us!

Blossoms and Bayonet's

Oh my goodness.  You know when a book brings you out of a reading rut? Wow.  I was interested in the book when I heard about it but then I started it and man, I didn't want the story to end. 

It is set in South Korea during WWII.  It changes perspectives between two brothers and their mother.  At first the mixture of Korean words had me checking the cheat sheet at the front of the book but then I got it.  It was never hard to tell the narrator's apart and I appreciated the different viewpoints.  My only complaint was that we didn't get to follow along with the oldest, He-Seung while he worked for the Japanese doing grunt work during the war.  I think that story would have been interesting if not disgusting to hear.  However, it is based off the life of one of the author's and he was not the brother who was conscripted so that may be why.

This was a chapter in WWII history that I have not read a lot about. It was very interesting to learn about how the Japanese treated the Koreans and how people's lives were ruined in South Korea during this time.  It was just a beautiful story and my words cannot do it justice.  I find it harder to glow about books that I enjoy than books I didn't really care for!  And one of my favorite signs of a good book, I was SO not ready for it to end!

Description: Hi-Dong Chai and Jana McBurney-Lin, the award-winning author of My Half of the Sky, turn their hands to a remarkable story of a family and country torn apart by outside forces. The time is 1942, the place, Japanese-occupied Seoul, Korea. Fifteen-year-old He-Seung is full of fire, ready to take on these Japanese...if only he could convince his father, a Christian minister more concerned about saving his flock in a time when Emperor-worship has become mandatory. Since occupation, the Japanese have eradicated the Korean language, names, even the country's flower. Now they are seeking Korean boys as volunteers for their army. When his father is arrested by the Japanese, however, He-Seung must swallow his hatred of the enemy and volunteer for the military. Even harder, he must leave his mother and baby brother He-Dong to fend for themselves. Based on a true story, Blossoms & Bayonets is suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period. The story lends an eyewitness perspective to events as they unfold. revealing an era of nuance and complexity. The result is a work that speaks volumes about the power of faith.

I found the religious aspects of the book very interesting as well.  Especially since the narrator's were Christian and that was what got them into their predicaments as they Japanese were promoting emperor worship only.  I also liked reading the quotes at each chapter beginning from different sources throughout the time period on the state of the war. 

Highly recommend it! I just can't really say it any better than that!

Have you read any books set in Korea before? About the Koreans during WWII?

I received this book from TLC tours, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

A Life Less Ordinary

Description:
For the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good girl. She turned her back on her youthful fancies and focused on her career. But now, at the age of 45, she’s questioning her choices and feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she’s passed over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny’s life will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she’s quit her job, sold her house and cashed in her pension, and she’s leaving town on a six month road trip.

After placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she’s joined in her mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke’s true goal is to expose Manny’s journey as a pitiful and desperate attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the same time. Leaving it all behind for six months is just an added bonus.

Now, armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny’s on a quest to rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.

Manny basically decides to change her entire life in one moment and head out on a road trip with a companion that she does not know, Zeke.  Oh, and her imaginary friend Harvey. (whaaat?) I'm sorry but a 45 year old woman with an imaginary friend is hard to take seriously.  Anywhoo, off they go across the country to do whatever. 

Zeke starts the trip with some very unsavory motives and it's interesting to see how that plays out.

Definitely a light read and minus jumping from charactrer to character and a few too many plot lines, it would be something to read this summer on vacation!

Have you ever traveled with someone you just met?

I received this book free in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own!

Fail

So, I'm sure nobody noticed that I posted May Group Read Suggestions and then didn't post a selection. ER.. hum.. whoops. 

April kicked my arse.  I am taking on May with a vengeance but that vengeance is without a May Group Read.  I do apologize and I will put up the Jane Eyre questions this Friday.  So, let's take a break for May and regroup in June. 

On tap for this week

- lots of working out.  I am back on the wagon after a HORRIBLE April.  I came back from vacation and my body/eating apparently just kept myself there because our weather sucked and I just had a crappy month overall.  So, yes lots of working out.  I've started a Wednesday Pound class with people I work with and it's a lot of fun and kicking my butt!  I'm also trying to restart the couch to 5k and other things.

- better eating.  I made a meal plan and I WILL STICK TO IT.  The last two weeks have been god awful and I didn't meal plan for the whole month of April and I really think I set myself up for some awful failure after I'd been doing sooo well.  So, I've learned that for me, that monthly plan is so needed.  I haven't fully planned out May but I have the first two weeks and next weekend I will finish out the month.

- cleaning.  I really feel like I was in a black hole all of April.  Work kicked my butt, my kid kicked my butt and just general life kicked my butt.  My house needs work.  I have been doing better in some spots but cleaning/decluttering needs to be hit hard again.  Especially since I am hosting two rather large parties in the next few months in my house.  AHHH.

Anyway, I do apologize for the absence from here posting and my absence from reading blogs.  I've been trying to do a once a week catch up but that is no fun.  Here's to better time management!

The Idea of Him

Description: Allie Crawford is a once aspiring screenwriter turned successful public relations executive, mother of two young children, and wife of a hotshot magazine editor whose power base spans the worlds of finance, fashion, culture, entertainment, and society. At 34, she finds herself at a crossroads: between the office and her home, her life has become an endless rotation of people pleasing-whether pulling rabbits out of hats for her mogul boss, entertaining advertisers and phony A-listers for her husband's magazine, or making elaborate costumes for children's school plays. At least, that is, until she meets a head turning, traffic stopping beauty at the bar of the famed Four Seasons Grill Room-where many of the novel's players regularly convene-and shortly thereafter finds the same woman and her husband in an apparently compromising position in her own apartment.

And so begins the story of two very different women bound by similar missions-to uncover the crimes and betrayals of various men in their lives and finally put their own interests front and center. For Allie this ultimately means leaving a husband who is ideal in theory but not in practice, and deciding to risk security for self-fulfillment and a new life on her own. Like so many women, Allie fell for the man she married when she was in her twenties only to realize years later that it wasn't him she fell for as much as it was the idea of him-the idea of a savior who would protect and provide and ferry her from her past into the future. But the guy who seemed so right at the time turned out to be nothing more than a fantasy.

The moral of this story is you don't need a man to do what you want and love and that I can get behind. 

Allie is in marriage on the brink from the beginning of this book and clearly has her heart stuck back with her first love, James.  Her husband is a cheat and even though she was destroyed the first time she finds out, it doesn't stop her from longing after her first love or after a guy in her screenwriting class.

Basically, she is in search of a man to fix her.. Or searching for,  her 'idea of him.'  And none of the men in her life currently are that guy.

Sadly, this book didn't really click for me and it took me like 3 weeks or so to read it because I just never felt a pull.  I think if she HAD gotten together with one of the guys or the drama that is the entire premise of the book was more believable or clicked more I could have fallen in, but it just was so so for me. 

I do, think it would make an interesting movie.

If you are into chick lit, check it out.

What's the last book you read that you thought you'd rather seen on screen than read?

I received this book from TLC Tours but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

What the Almost 3 year old is reading..

My kid loves books.  She will sit and read to herself and it is so dang cute.  She has picked the same book to read to us before bed for the last week and it's adorable.  Also? I like pulling out an old favorite, But Not the Hippopotamus for her oh nos! And then when she tries to say armadillo at the end.  Adorable. 

Truck Stop by Anne Rockwell - Perfect for those who love trucks.  It's a cute story about a little boy who works at a truck stop that his family owns and all the regulars that come in.  They regulars are referred to by the trucks they drive and the family always remembers their orders.  Beautiful illustrations.

Pete the Cat I love My White Shoes - Love Pete and so does Isla.  She can basically read this book too.  It's perfect for color recognition and repetitive pre reading practice.  It's adorable listening to her read it with me. Pete has some white shoes and he walks always and steps into different things and they keep changing his shoes colors! But in the end, it's all good no matter what you step in.

Fox in Socks by Dr Seuss - I am a bit over this one.  I think I've read it before bed every night for the last week.  But I do enjoy the tongue twisters.  It's a great rhyming book and a favorite at our house currently.

Put Me in the Zoo  by Robert Lopshire.  This is the one she picks me to read to us most frequently.  She talks about the different colored 'dots' instead of the spots and my favorite is at the end when she'll say, no zoo, go to circus! ;) Super cute, it's been a fave for awhile.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle On vacation we read this non-stop.  She loves it.  She likes putting her fingers in the holes of the food and counting them and saying the food and the days of the week.  I'm a bit over it and it's not my most favorite, but she loves it.

I'm thinking of starting some chapter books with her before bed soon.  Any recommendations?

Code Name Verity

I'm a sucker for WWII books.  I had heard about Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein from a couple people so I put it on my wish list and got it for my birthday.  I took it with us on vacation and started after I finished Black & Blue.  It was soo hard to get into.  I read it for two days on vacation and then it sat for over a week when I got home and then I picked it up again for a couple pages on Thursday night, read a few chapters on Friday and then finished a big chunk of it on Saturday.  I was really hoping to be hooked from the get go but that just wasn't the case.  I will say, that I found the second half / last third of the book to fly by and that seems to be the consensus from other reviews on goodreads.  So, if you do pick it up, give it a shot.  Kind of like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, if you can get through the first 100 pages,  it will be a good story. 

Description:  I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team. 

So, it sounds good, right? It is good.  The parts that dragged for me were the in depth parts about planes and types of planes and flying and paths and stuff like that.  But when Queenie was giving her accounts or it was 'real' time or when the second narrator is doing their part.  It was much better.  The details about the flights? I had to fight through them.  The author even says she wrote this book about planes for pilots so there is a lot of detail.  Not to let it scare you away because there is a GOOD story with a great friendship and so many connections that WORK that makes it a great WWII story.

It focuses on Queenie's, captured by the Ormaie Gestapo after parachuting into France, friendship with Maddie.  Queenie is tasked with telling the Gestapo everything she knows through her position as a second officer or something or other (i'm telling you those details I skimmed over because I was getting bogged down and I still can't tell you exactly what her position was but let's say it was in Intelligence because that is true).  She is an incredible storyteller and she uses it to buy more time before they decide to execute her.

There is a lot about British women involvement in WWII and the French Resistance.  I found all of those things interesting as well as the secret missions and how people came together to collaborate against the Gestapo and how the organized themselves to not get caught.

If you are in a rut, this might not be the best as I think it is slow at times but otherwise, it's a book you should read at some point if you are fascinated by WWII.

Have you read this book? What is your favorite YA historical fiction book? What is your favorite WWII book?

May's Group Read Suggestions

That time of the month again! I'm so excited that it's FINALLY spring and soon that means SUMMER VACATION AND ALL THE READING TIME IN THE WORLD, err that a 3 year old will allow this summer!!

What we've read..

Jane Eyre
The Rent Collector
Labor Day
Orphan Train
The Death of Bees
Liberating Paris
Life Sentences
Looking for Me
Ladder of Years
Where'd You Go Bernadette?
Beach Music
The Dinner
The End of Your Life Book Club
Still Alice 
The Song Remains the Same
Those Who Save Us
We Are All Welcome Here
Gone Girl
Prisoner of Tehran
The Wednesday Sisters
Looking for Alaska
Cutting for Stone
One Summer
The Year of Fog
Winter Garden
The Violets of March
Rebecca
State of Wonder
The Invisible Bridge
The Postmistress
The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Still Missing
The Sandalwood Tree
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Something Borrowed
The Blue Orchard
Sammy's Hill
In the Woods
Shanghai Girls
The Weight of Water
Water for Elephants
The Color Purple
The One That I Want
The Secret Garden
House Rules
American Wife
Firefly Lane
Middlesex
The Reader
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
The Awakening
Pride & Prejudice
I See You Everywhere

What do you want to read? Suggestions open until the 18th! Then I will use random.org to pick a winner!

What we did on Vacation

Ate, drank, laid on the beach, played Cards Against Humanity (BEST GAME EVER!!!!), and repeat.

Seriously, we spent almost all of our time in the sand on the beach or on the awesome deck looking at the beach/water, taking walks, drinking, eating or hanging with our friends playing games or catching Big Bang Theory reruns.  So relaxing, so enjoyable.  I want to be on vacation for ever.

Basically, we woke up around 7:15ish courtesy of the 2.5 year old.  Then we'd try to keep her quiet for awhile and feed her a bit and then head off on a walk.  Then do some playing inside or on the deck until it was time for the beach.  We'd go down to the beach and spend about 2-3 hours with the kid until it was her nap time.  Then we'd head up and get her ready and then make a quick lunch for ourselves and head back down to the beach for awhile or head to the deck and enjoy some alone time reading and laying in the sun.  Then shower and get dressed for the day.  When the kid got up, we'd get dinner around and then we played outside for a bit or out for ice cream or a nightly walk.  Then we sat around and drank, played games, watched tv, read books and then passed out early every night.  It was amazing.

approximately 30 minutes after we got to the beach house

 the little blob is my husband in his kayak

 my nap time reading view from our deck

 doing her thing

my model cheesing it up.. of course for the ACTUAL real picture time she was having NONE of it

I love this picture

 cheeeeeese

she stayed here for over an hour doing this.  by herself and with the occasional adult helper.  her favorite game was taking turns running into the waves and back again.

 

the life..

<3 p="">



 the perfect view from the perfect house on the perfect vacation..

 

 

 

Okay, now I need to plan our next spring break trip! We got insanely lucky and only had to split a cleaning fee with our friends to stay here.  Probably will never beat the price of this vacation but now that we've done it, I don't think I can stop! Where would you recommend for a family friendly spring break destination? Must have a beach.  Ideally, I'd love to hit up Key West but that probably will not be happening for awhile!

 





Vacation Eats

Now, if I was a food blogger or one that routinely shares photos, I would have captured pictures of the awesome food I ate in my travels, but, I'm not so you get some links, some info and a few pictures of my kid. ;)

We left on Friday around 12:30 and neither my husband nor I had eaten lunch but my daughter fell asleep right away and slept for 5 straight hours that day, so we didn't want to stop.  We did briefly stop about 4 1/2 hours in because we needed to use the bathroom and were hungry.  So we stopped at a Culvers somewhere in Indiana.  I was not really impressed with the bathroom there nor was I with the people who were working there who saw us (the only people in the restaurant) standing at the counter and ignored us for 5 minutes.  We got a large order of cheese curds to share on the road and they were yummy. 

We spent that night in Franklin, Indiana with a cousin who made us a yummy dinner of steak, roasted veggies, crusty bread and beer! Yum.  We also did a bourbon tasting with him that night and watched MSU and UofM win.  And then immediately crashed.  We ALL slept in until 9:15 the next morning, whoops.  But we hit up Ann's Restaurant in Franklin.  It was packed.  And we all really enjoyed our food.  Mine took longer to get (all of it took awhile but mine longer) so I got 10 percent off my sausage, eggs and toast breakfast.  The pancakes were AMAZING and my husband really liked his omelet.  The French toast also looked amazing and I'd get that if I am ever back.

From there we headed to Nashville and got in around 4ish.  We hit up some honky tonks to listen to live music and it went a lot better than I envisioned with a 2.5 year old!  We went to Second Fiddle and Layla's and enjoyed some really good live music and some Yeunglings! And Isla enjoyed dancing to the music.  Then we hit up Margaritaville for dinner since it appeared to be a quick wait and child friendly.  Which, it was on both accounts.  Isla got a balloon hat that she adored until it popped a day later in Alabama and we all three split the Volcano Nachos for dinner and they were delicious!

 

Second Fiddle in Nashville

 

Sunday we stopped in Birmingham, Alabama at Dreamland BBQ.  It was delicious! I had a pulled pork sandwich with a side of mac and cheese and my husband had ribs and a side of beans.  I really enjoyed the sandwich and the large sweet tea I drank with it. ;) It was very quick service which was great with a two year old and then when we walked outside we noticed a park across the street so we played there for about 15 minutes before we hit the road again.

 

 



Both of my loves enjoying lunch at Dreamland BBQ

 

 

That night we stopped in Opp, Alabama which we affectionately have been calling O P P since we found the hotel in January.  My husband and researched some places he wanted to try and besides our google directions being wrong, it was easy to find on the main stretch.  Sadly, a few of the places we had wanted to try were no longer open.  We ended up eating at B&B Family Restaurant.  It was a dive.  But we love dives.  Very small town feel and a lot of locals in when we were there.  My husband said it was the best fried chicken he ever had and I most say it was very juicy when I tried a bite and his meal had a TON of food.  I got shrimp stuffed with jalapenos and cheese and it was delicious.  The chicken breast smothered in cheese that came with my meal was very overdone and I didn't eat it.  The inside of the restaurant was a little scary but it was a good experience. 

 

We only went out to eat twice in Panama City Beach and the rest of the time we ate at our beach house.  Which was good and bad.  There were soo many places I wish I could have checked out and should have adjusted to do so, but eh, you learn these things.

 

Captain Andersons was a recommended place for seafood and I ended up being a little disappointed.  The prices were a bit much and my meal was a disappointment, my husband's was just so so and my friends with the grilled grouper was probably the best at our table.  The rolls were good and our waiter was awesome.  Probably should have checked out some of the 'divey' looking places since we probably would have enjoyed them more.

 

 



At Captain Anderson's

 

Thanks to restaurants.com our other meal was picked.  Time Out's Sports Bar.  Talk about divey.  We pulled up and it was attached to a gas station.  However, when you got inside, you'd never know.  And I've ate in other restaurants INSIDE gas stations and this was probably the best of them.  You probably wonder where I eat, but when you travel, you try random things. ha.  So,we got a coupon from restraunts.com so we checked it out.  I got grilled fish tacos which were AWESOME and my husband got chicken tenders that he liked.  I got onion rings but eh, they weren't that great.  Yummy yuengling and their children's meals come with a small ice cream cup. 

 

Milk And Honey Frozen Yogurt was a good after dinner stop.  Every vacation needs ice cream/frozen yogurt! Isla and I really enjoyed the sea salt caramel yogurt mixed with pecan praline.  Yum.  And of course a ton of toppings.  I used yelp and got a 25 percent off coupon for checking in.

 

We planned on driving straight through but about 8:30 Friday night after driving for about 12 hours we decided that we could make it to Indiana but were fading fast.  And we hit one lane traffic for awhile so we found a hotel on hotels.com and booked it and got points. (GOT TO LOVE TECHNOLOGY AND TRAVELING!) It just happened to be in the town I have an old family friend so I texted with him and got a recommendation for pick up pizza.  Bearno's Pizza was delicious!  We ate it in our hotel room and yum, it was good.

 

We finished out our vacation in Marshall, Michigan and enjoyed Charlie's Grill & BBQ.   We split a three meat platter with two sides.  So we got to try the brisket (blah), bbq chicken (decent) and the bbq chicken (yum!).  I'm glad I talked my husband into the chicken because it was my favorite.  The rub on it was great and I loved dipping it into their bbq sauce.  The mac and cheese was super cheesy and I wasn't really a fan after the first couple of bites but my kid who doesn't normally eat mac and cheese ate it up! Their corn muffin's were excellent and the baked beans were good.  Definitely beat a random chain for a quick lunch. 

 

Overall, we ate very well. I'm so glad we had our smartphones to help plot out better stops along the way than the typical fast food since we tried planning ahead of time but there were toooo many choices.  So we basically went with yelp reviews when we got closer.

 

Do you research places to eat before vacations? Do you just drive until a sign sparks your interest? How do you pick?