Book Twenty Six - A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind

Halfway there!!! I might just make it if I read like a madwoman for the next two months!

The tag line for "A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind" by Karen Scalf Linamen is "Loving your body, accepting yourself and living without regret". This appealed to me quite a bit as I have struggled with my weight since I was quite young. After I had my son I was well over 200 lbs, when he was around 2 years old I lost 50 lbs, most of it due to the fact that my ex husband didn't have a job and I had no money for food. We would watch the Food Network just so we could remember what food looked like, food porn indeed. After my divorce I lost those same lbs again and I have managed to stick to that weight, give or take a few ever since. This spring I decided to get back on the health wagon to lose the rest of the pounds I have been lugging around. I have had success so far and I feel that I have the right attitude.

Book Twenty Five - How I Became a Famous Novelist

I picked up "How I Became a Famous Novelist" by Steve Hely in the new fiction section of my library and I found it to be quite an humorous and entertaining read. Who among us has not imagined showing up an ex, and at their own wedding nonetheless. That is the basic premise of this novel, written by a Letterman staffer (and though I won't hold it against him, he also writes for American Dad).

Tackling Under the Dome Again

So a while back I took Under the Dome out on a 7 day Superloan from the library. I tried to take it on but I think the deadline intimidated me and I only read a pitiful 200 pages in that time. I returned the book, gave up for a while and mostly forgot about it. Then today while out at the grocery store a beautiful sight came upon me. It was a smooth soft new copy of Under the Dome. I snatched one into my arms and gave it an embrace, now you are mine. Budget, what budget, this is important!

Now that I can take my time I am going to enjoy reading it when I have time to read it. I am also working on a couple more books and I am hoping to at least get close to my quota by Halloween. I have a 7 day holiday in Disneyworld coming up so I am sure I will be able to get some quality reading done while I am there. I am also having surgery mid september (nothing serious, and no it is not a boob job) so when recovering for a few days I will also be sure I have a lot of books beside my bed.

I have been working real hard in other areas of my life, I have lost 17 lbs since May 31 and I have been getting lots of exercise in the summer sun. We have had excellent weather here. Today it is raining a lot but it is a nice break after all the sun. It has given me the time to clean the house since I have been outside so much it was neglected.

Check out my other blog if you are interested

Book Twenty Four - Clown Girl

I decided to read Clowngirl by Monica Drake since I read that it was being made into a movie and the concept seemed interesting so I thought I would check it out. Overall I was underwhelmed. I think that it was built up too high, there is an introduction by Chuck Palahniuk that hypes the book up to the point where it may have been difficult for anything to deserve such praise. The book was a decent read, but I spent most of the book waiting for something interesting to happen.

Book Twenty Three - Worst Laid Plans

I am on a roll! Worst Laid Plans is a compilation of stories of sexual misadventures. Most of them are written by people in the entertainment industry as it is based on a comedy show performance. I found it quite entertaining and I enjoyed the fact that all of the stories were concise and to the point. I was very much glad that most of these scenarios did not happen to me, and I was laughing out loud at many points and reading sections aloud to my boyfriend.

All of the tales are separated into sections such as: virginity nightmares, rebound tales and trying to play for the wrong team, just to name a few. There is also a cute little glossary at the end, complete with a crossword to test your knowledge of new words.

I have a feeling that Worst Laid Plans will be a book I recommend to a lot of friends, I may even lend out my copy to a few of them myself. It was a fun quick read and if you want a smile and some cautionary tales, check it out.

Book Twenty Two - I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone

Since I haven't finished a book in over a month (BAD!) I decided to read another book by Stephanie Kuehnert. I really loved her second novel, "Ballads of Suburbia" and so I ordered hew debut outing, "I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone" a while back from Chapters.

I dove right into this book, it is a tale about a small town girl haunted by the memory of the mother who left her as an infant. Emily Black was raised on music, and was even told that her mother left to follow the music around the country. Eventually Emily forms a band and achieves success, all the while hoping to attract the attention of her long lost mother.

Along the way we learn a lot about these characters, as well as about the father that was the only family that Emily had left. Through the descriptive voice we are transported to rock shows in an abandoned warehouse in the Midwest. As Emily uses performing to cope with her difficult life, we can imagine what it would feel like to be up there with her.

I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I will now be watching Kuehnert's website for news of a third novel that I will probably read as fast as I did the first two.

Now let's hope that I can finish a few more books off my shelf before too much time passes. I am starting to lose hope that I will finish all 52, but I will do my best dangit!

I Suck

Well I have fallen off the reading wagon. I went to the library and took out "Under the Dome" on a 7 day superloan. Sometimes when I take on an ambitious task I feel defeated too fast and give up entirely. Anyhow, I failed at reading that book in 7 days (I only got a couple hundred pages in) but I will try to read it again when it is available on a 3 week loan.

Right now I am reading a book called "Twinkie, Deconstructed" which is about food additives. It is a humorous take on it and I am looking forward to getting more into it. I am working hard on my health so it should be enlightening to read more about additives and give me the strength to continue to avoid them.

I am also almost halfway through a book called "His Illegal Self" which is also quite good. I was reading it before I picked up "Under the Dome" and I got sucked into the Twinkie book so I want to try and read that one first. I should have some quality reading time tomorrow.