After a long hiatus...

of this blog that I suppose never really appropriately got started, I'm bringing it back. I have a lot of reviews that I want to share with you, and I need that extra little push to keep reading. Please bear with me as I work on turning this book blog into what it was supposed to be.

Reviews on deck:

1. The Help
2. Breakfast at Tiffany's
3. Belle Weather
4. Something Borrowed

Review: Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen spent months researching circuses that traveled by trains and they paid off in the realistic Water for Elephants that she turned into fiction. The novel begins with main character Jacob Jankowski, a 93-year-old man in a nursing home, when the circus comes to town. This begins his flashback of his time with the Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth in the summer of 1931.While it focuses on the cirucs, the novel weaves back and forth between a 23-year-old Jacob on the circus and present-day Jacob with his nursing home struggles.

Jacob had never intended to end up on the circus, but once he does he is caught in a whirlwind of romance and drama. He has to learn the ropes of a struggling circus that can't always afford to pay its employees. Each character has his/her own unique qualities that make each seem as real and relatable as the next. Even the circus's animals take on personalities that make them seem real.

After the great reviews I wanted to give it a shot and I had trouble putting it down. The novel has a little something for every kind of reader as it falls into multiple genres of mystery, romance and adventure. Gruen continuously surprised me through the last page. Each page was as compelling as the next. I would absolutely recommend this novel to everyone.

Buy Water for Elephants: A Novel  on Amazon

Reading through my bookshelf

I'm that person who buys too many books at a time or asks for too many for a holiday. I guess over the years I've become more of a collector than a reader with bookshelves filled with unread books, though many have been read. I was inspired recently to look through those shelves and pick out the novels that I still wanted to read but hadn't. I found over 50 books that I had left unread over the years and still have an interest in reading.

Those books range from classic literature like Jane Austin's Persuasion to current novels like David Sedaris's Naked. They include novels I wanted to read when I was younger and never did like Gossip Girl and A Wrinkle in Time. I have so many books at home to read that there's no reason to check books out from a library or buy/ask for new ones until I've finished this lovely collection of books that I already have. So this just turned into a book blog with a twist; reading and reviewing books from my own shelves.

I'm starting with Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants.

Review: Sideways

Sideways by Rex Pickett chronicles a week-long vacation of two friends, Miles and Jack, filled with wine tastings, adventure, and women. Jack is getting married at the end of the week and wants to have one last hurrah with his best friend and best man Miles.

Miles is the narrator of the novel, a recently divorced aspiring writer. He is a unique character damaged by the divorce and the many rejections from publishers. He has his extreme ups and downs throughout the novel.

Pickett is very knowledgeable about wine and the novel focuses on that knowledge with the detailed descriptions and expertise of each tasting.

As a 20-year-old, I wasn't the target audience for this novel. As I read I was occasionally bored by the wine descriptions and the antics of older men, but I enjoyed the novel nonetheless. It was funny and exciting and at times even a little bit suspenseful. The relationships are interesting and the dialogue honest.

I have read that the movie that was made from this novel is better than novel itself. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the chemistry between the actors supposedly adds more to the movie than Pickett can put on paper.

Buy Sideways on Amazon

Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

In Maureen Johnson’s second young adult novel, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, 17-year-old Ginny Blackstone receives a package from her recently deceased Aunt Peg who had left New York City for London without any notice several years before her death. In this package Ginny is given one thousand dollars and 13 little blue envelopes, the first letter instructing her to buy a one-way ticket to London and telling her to open the second envelope on the plane. With a little bit of convincing her parents to let her leave, Ginny begins the journey that her aunt has laid out for her.

Ginny is a relatable character for young women. She is an average girl with low self-esteem who discovers over time that she is worth more than she originally believed and that she can make her own adventures. She is not allowed to have any contact with anyone from home per her aunt’s instructions and has to rely on herself and new friends she meets along the way. Ginny goes on a journey of self-discovery guided by her aunt’s instructions. Even the most confident girls will find a little of Ginny in themselves.

13 Little Blue Envelopes is a page turner. Johnson has a suspenseful style of writing that makes readers want to keep reading to find out what happens next. The highlight of the novel is the letters. Readers will have trouble stopping between letters so that they can find out what the next letter brings. They make the novel a quick read and keep the suspense high. Each letter brings a little bit of life to Aunt Peg and the adventures that she once had before leading Ginny in the same direction.

I would highly recommend this book for all young women. It is an inspiring attention-grabber that is hard to put down that young women will find a lot of themselves in.

Buy 13 Little Blue Envelopes on Amazon.