Around the World in Stilettos by Natalie-Jane Revell
Narrator: Cori Samuel
Length: 6 hours and 12 minutes
Publisher: Iambik Audio Inc
Release Date: October 13, 2011
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sophie is a 23 year-old travel writer who loves shoes. She’s also extremely clumsy and flighty. She has a secret crush on her writing and traveling partner Dan. Unfortunately, he has a serious girlfriend even though it seems at times that he is interested in Sophie. Things get complicated for Sophie when she meets James. Should she wait for Dan to come to his senses and leave his girlfriend for her or should she pursue a relationship with James?
This book is written by a British author and set in England. I felt like it was trying too hard to be like Bridget Jones’s Diary or the Shopaholic books. Sophie was charming and I found her antics mildly amusing but the humor seemed forced at times. I was confused because Dan kept telling Sophie that James was a jerk and she was too good for him in a manner that suggested he knew something about James that Sophie didn’t. Sophie’s roommate also acted like she knew something about James. Nothing about James was ever revealed though.
I listened to the audio version of this book which was narrated by Cori Samuel. She did a great job even with the voices of the male characters. This was a good book to listen to in the car because it didn’t require a lot of concentration.
By this book at:
Amazon
Powell’s Books
(I received this audio book courtesy of the Solid Gold Reviewers program at Audio Jukebox.)
December 1st, 2011 in
Books |
No Comments
Whew! I can’t believe I came up with something to post every day in November! I don’t think I can keep up posting every single day long term but I would like to post Monday-Friday from now on. Next week I’ll be at the Mayo Clinic* and I have no idea what kind of tests they’ll be running on me or what kind of drugs I’ll be on (hopefully lots of good ones!) so I might have to wait til after that to try and post five days a week.
*I have Crohn’s disease and I’m going to the Mayo Clinic on the recommendation of my local GI doctor to see if they have any new or revolutionary treatments for me since the medicine that used to work so fabulously for me has quit working.
November 30th, 2011 in
Uncategorized |
2 Comments
Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Warning: This review assumes that you have read the first two books in the Queen of Babble series and may have spoilers for them if you have not.
The Queen of Babble Gets Hitched picks up right where the last book left off. Lizzie has woken up in her apartment next to Chaz and Luke is pounding on the door. Luke has come to propose to Lizzie – and she accepts! She starts to prepare for her wedding but something doesn’t seem quite right. In the meantime, she is in high demand at Chez Henry bridal gown restorations after doing a fantastic job restoring a wedding dress for Jill Higgins who was marrying into high New York society.
I thought this book wrapped up the series beautifully. Lizzie is growing and becoming a serious business woman but she is still just as charming and funny as ever. I can’t really go into too many details about the plot without giving too much away.
I listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by Justine Eyre as the other two are. She does a wonderful job as usual. She had a great, quirky voice for Ava Geck, a Paris Hilton type character introduced in this book.
Queen of Babble (Book 1)
Queen of Babble in the Big City (Book 2)
Buy this book at:
Amazon
The Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
November 29th, 2011 in
Books |
No Comments
I had med school gigs on both Monday night and Tuesday morning this week which were fun but made getting ready for Thanksgiving even more hectic. (I’m a standardized patient at two local medical schools.)
Tuesday I made homemade dinner rolls for Thanksgiving. I was going to make buttermilk rolls but my grocery store was out of wheat germ so I just made regular white. Is wheat germ a popular Thanksgiving item?
Wednesday I made the mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole. The boys were off school and super wound up about Thanksgiving. I’m lucky I got anything done. That afternoon the boys and I picked up my very best friend since kindergarten at the airport. She was just in for a short weekend with her family so I was able to spend time with her by picking her up and then driving her the hour and a half to our home town. (I dropped the boys off at Travis’s office on the way.) I hadn’t seen her in about four years!
On Thursday we had my mom and brothers, Travis’s mom and sister and my mom’s boyfriend and his mother over for Thanksgiving. Since West doesn’t take an afternoon nap anymore, I scheduled dinner a little later and I didn’t have to get up til 8am to get the turkey in. My mom’s boyfriend’s mom, Norma, is sort of senile. She told us that she has a Stradivarius violin worth millions of dollars which I do not think is true. At one point she cornered my mom and was badgering her about when my mom, who is in her sixties, was going to get married to her boyfriend (Norma’s son). I thought that was hilarious! Even when you’re in your sixties, you can’t escape the pressure to get married!
Friday was a day for relaxation! You could not pay me enough to get out there in the Black Friday craziness. We did leave the house to watch The Muppets in the afternoon. That was a great movie – we all liked it. Even West, who is VERY easily scared by most movies (even Finding Nemo), thought that it was good and didn’t get scared at all.
Saturday we decorated our tree and then we went on a journey looking for Santa. First we went to a shopping center just about a mile from our house that has a great Santa, only to find out that Santa doesn’t come there until December 3. We resigned ourselves to going to the pathetic Santa at a dead mall a couple of miles in the other direction when one of my friends reminded me that there is a good Santa at Bass Pro Shop. We headed over there and found the line was two hours long! Luckily they have a “Bass Pass” that lets you cut to the front of the line if you come back later, like the Fast Pass at Walt Disney World. We came back after we went out to dinner and didn’t have to wait at all.
Sunday I woke up feeling worse than usual so I spent most of the day after church in bed snuggled up with my new electric blanket. (Why have I never had one before – it’s awesome!) I’m so glad that my Mayo Clinic visit is only a week away now.
I didn’t get very much reading in today because I took a VERY long nap after church. I did start on Soulless but I’m not even close to being finished with it. I think I still read more than I would have if I wouldn’t have had this event to make me conscious of getting reading time in. Thanks to Jenn’s Bookshelves for hosting!
November 27th, 2011 in
Books |
No Comments
I just wanted to pop in quickly with an update – it’s been a long day and I’m exhausted! I finished The Girl With The Pearl Earring this morning and I will probably start Soulless tonight. I’ll post details and pictures of decorating the tree and visiting Santa soon!
November 26th, 2011 in
Books |
No Comments
Today is the kick-off of Thankfully Reading Weekend. I haven’t mapped out a reading plan, I’m just going to pick up what looks good to me. I think I’m going to start with The Girl With the Pearl Earring. I’ve been re-reading Breaking Dawn because of the movie coming out and I’m not finished with it yet so I may read that as well. I wish it wasn’t 800 pages long!
Yesterday was a great day. Cash and West spent to morning before everyone arrived making Thanksgiving decorations. This is a life-sized turkey that West made:
While waiting for dinner to be ready, the boys took full advantage of Grandma time, playing games and reading stories.
November 25th, 2011 in
Books,
Family |
1 Comment
From me and my little turkeys:
November 24th, 2011 in
Cash,
Family,
West |
2 Comments
As I was putting West to put last night, he said, “My teacher said that we couldn’t write down that we were thankful for toys.”
“Well, she probably wanted you to think of other things that you were thankful for.”
“Yeah, so I said I was thankful for money.”
Me, thinking to myself: Yikes, that’s even worse than being thankful for a toy – talk about materialistic. Me, out loud, “West that’s so silly!”
To which West responded, “I’m thankful for money because I can share it with others and they can use it to buy food.”
My heart melted into a big puddle right there on the spot.
November 23rd, 2011 in
Family,
West |
1 Comment
Papertoy Monsters: Make Your Very Own Amazing Papertoys! by Brian Castleforte
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book has 50 paper monsters that you punch out, fold and glue. Cash (seven years old) and West (five years old) had a blast putting these together with the help of their dad. Cash could put some of the easier monsters together almost all by himself but West needed a lot of help with all the monsters he put together.
The book recommends using glue to adhere the tabs together but that requires patience to hold the tabs together while the glue dries before moving on the next step. Since patience is not a virtue my boys have mastered, they used scotch tape. The monsters still turned out looking just fine.
This book is great to pull out on a rainy day to have fun projects to work on with your kids.
Here is Cash and West’s little army of monsters:
By this book at:
Amazon
Powell’s Books
November 22nd, 2011 in
Books |
No Comments
