Candy's Raves (and Rants)

The author sent me this book and asked if I would be interested in reading it. Since I enjoyed her first book, Is It Just Me? or Is Everyone a Little Nuts!, I thought I would give it a chance. She did tell me it was completely different, but I was not prepared for just HOW different this book was. It’s a complete 180 from her first offering. And wow. What a great book!

The thing that struck me most about this book was the location. The author does an amazing job of bringing this small vacation town to life right on the page. I felt like I knew the people there, the places, the hideaways, and the “feel” that only that town can probably pull off. While reading it, I found out it’s actually a real place and it kind of makes me want to go visit, spend some time in that small beach community and soak it up.

In some ways this was a “typical” mystery/suspense/thriller in that it has all the inner workings and formulas needed to make it great. In other ways, it’s a bit atypical because of the setting, the characters and the back story. The author, again, does an amazing job of setting us up for what is to come. The characters have a wonderful depth to them; we get to know them and care about them – yes, even the one “whodunnit”.

Which leads me to the next point… this is a great “whodunnit” book. I knew who did it about 1/3 of the way through. Then I knew who REALLY did it. And then I realized that was just a red herring and I knew who REALLY REALLY did it. But then maybe not… I honestly had it whittled down to three people by the time I reached the end… not telling you if it was one of the three or not though! I was disappointed in myself though, I usually can quickly figure out who did it pretty easily, but this one kept me scratching my head a bit.

Overall, this a wonderfully written and edited book, it’s fast-paced, but detailed enough to bring the reader fully into the story.I would recommend this for a Fall beach read or to those who enjoy a good suspense mystery read.

Rating:

Book count for 2011: 50

As someone that suffers from food and environmental allergies, when this book became available, I jumped at the chance to read it. Like the author, many foods cause anaphylaxis for me. Unlike the author, mine are all related to Oral Allergy Syndrome and I’m not allergic to near the number of things that she is. So, I’m coming from a place of mostly understanding while reading it. No one can explain the amount of panic that occurs when you realize your throat is closing up and your mouth is on fire from itching.

I’ll be honest and say that I was expecting a real “woe is me” tale here. I expected her to stomp her foot and want the entire world to revolve around her and her allergies and expect that all restaurants should ban beef just because she was in the area. I expected this to be one big whine fest with the author on a quest to ban tree nuts from the entire continent. We’ve all read books where the author is on a mission and I somehow thought this would be one of them.

Imagine my surprise when it was none of those things. Oh, she’s definitely a bit of an activist, but I think Sandra leads more to wanting people to understand and wanting restaurants to give full disclosure. What struck me the most is that while she has some REAL issues with food – seriously scary stuff – she understands that the world doesn’t revolve around her problems. She is understanding when she realizes that a chef cut cantaloupe with the same knife as her strawberries or whatever. Not once did I hear her rail against others, but it was more of internal monologue. She talked about how she needed to adapt her life to fit around others.

At the same time, you can tell that her friends and family genuinely appreciate the way she chooses to live her life. They try to make things that she can eat too, to cook around her allergies. I enjoyed hearing about her life, especially as a child. My allergies didn’t show up until adulthood, so it kind of made me also realize what the parents must go through of children who have serious food allergies – and multiple ones on top of that.

I also absolutely loved that she took time to go through some of the science of allergies – mast cells – proteins, etc etc. While I knew most of it, it felt really nice to have someone explain on it a “real life” level instead of using big words and making my eyes cross.

Most of all, I enjoyed her attitude, as I’ve mentioned. She truly has a great way of handling things and a great way of looking at the way she chooses to lead her life. I’d recommend this for anyone with allergies or for someone with a loved one in their lives that has allergies. It gives you a true look into what it’s like to live your daily life with severe food allergies. It’d be great for a fan of memoirs in general as well.

Rating:

Book count for 2011: 49

I have a confession. I have a gadget problem. A REALLY big gadget problem, actually. I love toys. I was expecting the tablet annoucement and had read all the rumors so kinda knew what to expect today from Amazon’s press release. But DUDE. I was not expecting a $79 Kindle. Yeah. You heard me right. I ordered one, it’ll be here tomorrow. I also pre-ordered the Kindle Touch (11/21) and the new Kindle Fire (11/15).

Here’s the links to the new toys:

Kindle Fire – $199 – Ships 11/15 – 7″ tablet, dual core processor, hooks up with all of Amazon’s services, streaming, etc etc. Music, movies, books. Want. Ordered. I also ordered a lime green sleeve for it. It’s wifi only. I suspect the rumored 10″ one for Q1 2012 will have a 3G option, not sure if I will find that useful or not as I have a hotspot.

Kindle Touch – $99 – ships 11/21 – I ordered the one with special offers and no 3G. I’ve rarely ran into a time I needed 3G for this. I will never admit this to my husband, but I ordered this bad boy simply because it has a purple cover that I pre-ordered with it. Oh, and it’s a new toy. Duh.

Kindle – $79 – Ships today – Whoa! I ordered this one just because I’m curious how they will handle the keyboard with no touch screen and no keyboard. And, well, it’s a new toy. I didn’t order a cover with it because I couldn’t figure out what to order, but if they have a purple one, I’m ALL over it.

Toys!!!!!!!!!!!

I ran across this book while trying to find something to read that was funny. I honestly only opened this one randomly. It had come in from the author asking for a review and was pretty far down in my pile. I am SO glad that this one caught my eye on that day. I read it on my Kindle and used that “share” button so much, my Facebook friends were both intrigued and really annoyed with me. But there were so many funny stories and quips in this book that it kept me giggling madly.

This book was about getting older (I think I busted a stitch with the “shapewear” essay) and about various family funnies that happen. There’s nothing here that’s Earth shattering; it’s a cute, funny, and well written collection of essays about being a woman over the age of forty. I’m not quite there yet myself, but I found myself identifying with so many of the first essays.

I think it did lose a little steam towards the last few essays, but they were still funny and heartwarming. Overall, this is a very well thought-out, portrayed and written collection. I’d recommend this for woman over the age of 33 or so. I suspect those in their late 40s would enjoy it even more.

Rating:

Book count for 2011: 48

Cows Can’t Jump is a sweet and endearing book that I truly believe will become a classic of early childhood literature. The book is simply written with colorful illustrations that are guaranteed to keep a child’s attention. While there isn’t a story, there is a moral: we are all different and it is those differences that make us special.

This book reminds me of the simple, colorful books in my grandmother’s house when I was a young child. 1/2 a sentence per page, illustrations that perfectly match the text, and a simple meaning that has a more profound effect.

Cows Can’t Jump is a new title in a classical style of early childhood literature. This book should be a part of every parents library for their preschooler to enjoy.

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What if the world was turned upside down tomorrow? Whether it be by a natural disaster, by disease, or by economic collapse just how much could you count on your neighbors? The government? Your church? What if the change wasn’t just about how people lived but also about what it meant to be human?

This is the story that “The God Virus” tells. The two main characters in this book come from opposing view points: one is a scientist, the other is highly religious. As they change and as the world changes around them they must come to grips not only with the changes, but also how their different beliefs can be reconciled. Religion and science clash, combine, and come out as a sort of understanding of how perhaps the two are not as incompatible as some people believe.

I highly recommend this book for anyone that enjoys a good post-apocalyptic read. Additionally, the thoughts on religion and science would make it a good read for anyone that would like to see just how compatible they really are even with our limited amount of knowledge today.

Rating:

If such a rating existed, I would give this one 3.5 stars. I’m rounding up because I like the way the author has laid out the next book in this series of trilogies. She seems to be taking us on a journey to somewhere.

First, let me say that it’s a bit too meandering for me. I kinda wanted her to get to the point, it was really overly wordy. I think a good content editor could have gotten the book down about 10% and it would have been for the better. While I understand these are stand alone trilogies, I still missed the magic of Cain and Felicity. My hope is to follow the author and trust her to make it all okay in the end. *laughing*

The good news is that, at the end of it all, I did honestly care about all of the characters and am interested enough to want to see where the 5th book is going to take us.

I recommend this book for paranormal romance fans, but know it’s quite long, so get ready to settle in. I could see this being great for those long Winter nights of reading.

Rating:

Book count for 2011: 47

I guess I’ve read one too many kid detective books lately. I wasn’t really expecting much from this one after reading the description. It sounded cute, but not anything to rah rah me. And then I read it.

This is an absolutely delightful well-written children’s hard-boiled mystery. Somehow the author has managed to not only give us a good story for adults and children alike, but he also managed to keep the story on pace for both age groups.

I read this myself and when I was done was telling my kids about it. Both my 8 and 10 year old read it and both thought it was really cute. My 8-year-old, in particular, was sure to tell me that it was funny and she really was trying to figure out who the bad guy was.

For myself, I really enjoyed the story and, even more importantly, I enjoyed sharing the laughs, giggles and thoughts about the book with my kiddos.

I would recommend this for 2nd graders on up to great great grandparents. Also for families of book nerds (like mine) who really want to enjoy a book together.

Rating:

Book count for 2011: 46

History books for kids are usually very narrowly focused. They take a look at one snippet in time and unfortunately, they usually don’t go very in depth on their subject matter. I was afraid that “Just Fine the Way They Are” was going to fall into this same trap, but even worse. A history of transportation in the United States spanning 200 years? I envisioned pretty pictures with little text. I was very happy to be surprised!

The illustrations are indeed very pretty. Each page captures not only the time in history that it represents but also the energy and excitement of change. While many characters in the book are quoted as “Things are just fine, why should they change?” They are always, thankfully, in the minority and progress marches on. I love how the pictures often span two pages, adding a sort of “epic” feel to the text as you read about both the reasoning for change and the opposition.

The writing is also top notch. Both sides are represented: both those wanting things to stay the same and those proponents for change. I love how the book ended with both the facts about how we have changed our world and why we need to continue to develop new transportation technology.

I look forward to presenting this in my classroom. This will make a great crossover between social studies and science as we look at how transportation has affected our world.

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Memoirs are my favorite genre. I love learning about people’s lives, hearing their stories, digging into themselves with them. I find the whole genre fascinating. I first heard about this author when I stumbled on a post on his blog and bought his book, Learn Me Good, after reading a funny and heart-filled blog post. I got distracted and it took almost a year before I finally read it. I won’t rehash it, but I absolutely loved it. Heck, I even bought a paperback copy for the teachers at my kid’s school to read and pass around (they continue passing it around and giggling madly).

John’s latest offering is one of the best made follow ups that I have ever read. In some ways, it’s more of the same, but in other ways, it’s an expansion into John’s life as a teacher, his life as a writer, his trademark humor and his heart. I believe there are several ways you could take this book after reading it. You could take away that it’s a group of humorous stories by a teacher. That’s that. BUT I think if you are truly reading this book (and especially if you know anything about the teaching profession and/or have read his first book), you’re going to walk away with so much more of Mr. Pearson.

I laughed when I read this book. It’s no secret that the author has an amazing sense of humor. He’s just downright funny. Yeah, sometimes he tries too hard – but he’s a bit of a geek, so he pulls it off very well.

I also smiled when I read this book. You can feel the genuine love that he has for his students. He actually cares about them and their welfare and he enjoys every minute of his career (well, okay maybe not ALL of it – but every moment in the classroom!).

I also cried when I read this book. Cried with laughter, of course, but also for a few tender moments when the author’s heart really shined through. Oh, he keeps throwing humor at us to try to hide it, but it’s there and you cannot help but feel honored that he’s sharing this with us.

I also was confused when I read this book. This is a tough one for me because I get the memoir thing. His memoirs are about his time in the classroom. But I love that he gives us insight into his personal life a little as well (his dating life, etc). What I really am confused about here is that I want more. I realize that borders on prying, but I feel like there’s more to HIS story and it makes me curious. But I also don’t want him to spoil it and take himself too far out of the classroom. I think this may be why the email format of these books work so well, he’s able to drop notes about what he does with his buddy as well as what’s going on in his life and quickly move on to his teacher life again before we get too bogged down. As I said, I’m confused on what I want here.

At the end of the day, this is a hilariously written, absolutely beautiful memoir that makes me realize that not all books are straight forward. Sometimes you have to dig down into them to read between the lines.

I highly highly recommend this book to just about anyone. If you’re looking for a teacher gift, I think this would be a great idea to give someone (well, the set of two). If you want something funny to read, this is it. If you just want something to read that is easy to put down and pick up, yet un-put-down-able, well, this is the book for you as well. Seriously. Just go read it. This book falls onto my “Must Read” list for the year.

Mr. Pearson – you done good.

Note: John did offer me a preview copy, which I did indeed read. I still bought a fresh copy, with my own funds, to have in my Kindle account. It really was just THAT good.

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Book count for 2011: 45