Yikes!  I really need to pick it up if I’m going reach my 52 book goal.  Leave any book recommendations in the comments – I need some real page turners that I can fly through.  Here’s what I read lately:

16.  by Laura Bates

I enjoyed this book.  Laura Bates is an amazing woman who spent hours and hours volunteering her time teaching Shakespeare to prisoners in maximum security prisons and even those that had been in years of solitary confinement.  It was an eye-opening look at the prison system and also amazing to read about how Shakespeare helped some of these prisoners turn their lives around.

17.  by Curtis Sittenfeld

I couldn’t put this book down.  I don’t want to give anything away but basically a psychic predicts a natural disaster and drama ensues.  Although I have to say the ending left me a bit unsettled. If anyone else has read this book, let me know what you thought about the ending.  It’s possible I was so attached to the characters I just wanted to know more about what continued to happen to them.

18. by Rebecca Skloot

This book was interesting.  It was all about the woman who was the origin of the famous HeLa cells.  HeLa cells were instrumental in the development of the polio vaccine, virology, cancer research, and many more science advancements.  The cells were derived from an African American woman in 1951 without her knowledge or her family’s knowledge and the book is all about how that affected their lives.  It is a bit sciency in parts but not so much that it wasn’t still entertaining.

19. By Amy Poehler

I wanted to love love this book but I only enjoyed parts of it.  I struggled through the chapters about Amy’s (first name basis because we are name twins!) early days doing improv and all the SNL references.  Maybe because I have never been a big SNL fan.  But I did love the parts about Parks and Rec and hearing about Amy’s relationship with all of my favorite characters.

Past 52 Books Posts:

Update #1

Update #2

Update #3

Update #4

Update #5

 

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Be Healthy, Be Happy!

Yikes!  I’m going to have to pick up the pace if I want to make it to my goal of 52 books this year.  Hopefully this summer will include some lazy beach days where I can do a little catching up.  Here are the books I have finished lately.

8.  – This might be my favorite book so far this year which is surprising given the topic.  I started reading this without any clue about the plot or subject matter. I read a lot on my Kindle so I didn’t even really see the cover or read the back of the book.  I had just heard it was going to be made into a movie so that’s why I checked it out of the library.  It is set in the future and involves videogames which are two things that I would probably put at the bottom of my list of interests.  But I ended up loving it.  I couldn’t put it down!  I would recommend it to anyone looking for a real page turner.

9. by Anita Diamant – I enjoyed reading The Red Tent by the same author so I had high hopes for this book.  I would say I enjoyed it and it was easy to read but it wasn’t anything too exciting.

10. The Life Changing Method of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – This book has been all over the internet lately.  It is a book about organization which I was hoping would help me calm the clutter in our house.  I haven’t gone through our house using her exact decluttering method but I plan to.  Her main message is that you should only keep things that cause you joy and everything else goes.  I took away some good tips but some of the suggestions were a little extreme.  I don’t think my life is changed after reading this book but it does make you think about possessions and clutter in a different light.

11. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult – Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors.  I have read almost all her books and have enjoyed most of them.  This book did not disappoint.  It is about family living on an elephant santucuary and delves into elephant cognition.  The book isn’t completely about elephants and there are some great plot twists too.  This would be a great summer read!

Of course, I got totally sucked into the world of elephants and ended up adopting an elephant from a real-life sanctuary that is mentioned in the book.  The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is a place for captive elephants that are rescued or retired from the circus or show business.  It is a natural habitat that isn’t open to the public so the elephants can roam free.

I adopted Tarra.  Isn’t she the cutest?

via

If you have some time, check out The Elephant Sanctuary’s website: http://www.elephants.com.  You can read about all the elephants’ backstories (heartbreaking but with mostly happy endings!), check out the Elecam, or make a donation and feed an elephant for a day or adopt one like I did.   It looks like the sanctuary is doing an amazing job helping elephants live out their days in a safe and happy environment.

If you have any book recommendations, please leave them in the comments!

Past 52 Books Posts:

Update #1

Update #2

Update #3

Be Happy, Be Healthy!