Books (reviews)

Not much of a review anymore, but just a running list of what I've been reading over the past two + months.

Saturday Morning by Lauraine Snelling

Recommended by a patron at the library, I never should have listened. While the book read like a poor imitation of Neta Jackson's Yada Yada House of Hope complete with a battered women's shelter, it was published five years ago. Maybe Neta copied Lauraine. Whatever the case, this was boring; Yada Yada rocks!

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler

Handler is a best selling author, with two books to reach #1 on the NY Times Best Seller List. On March 28, 2010, her three books took the #1, #2, and #3 spots on that same list. This inane, insipid, stupid book is the only one of the three I've read (yes, mildly funny too--once or twice).

"Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought." Harry S. Truman

If this is a best-selling author in our country, we are doomed. Seriously.

Broken Things
Hidden Things
Precious Things by Andrea Boeshaar

Light Christian fiction about a woman who goes back to her hometown and reconnects with old friends, including an old boyfriend. The series continues and expands into the lives of peripheral characters. Nothing remarkable, but interesting enough to continue reading the series.

Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels

I chose because of a conversation about Bill's Willow Creek Church. I have mixed feelings about the book, so I hesitate to label it shallow.

Peony in Love by Lisa See

I have always enjoyed Lisa See, and I particularly have long been enamored with Chinese historical fiction. When Peony pines away (literally, she dies) over a love that can never be, the tale turns to the Chinese afterlife--but I really don't know more than that because I stopped reading prior. Certainly does not live up to See's other works, a disappointment. Oh, there's much more to the story, but I had enough.

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You by Anita Renfroe

The problem with comedians writing books is that the material is good for only a few chapters. They may be entertaining to watch but get boring while reading. I shortened the title of this book--it's all you need to know, similarly to what it's like to read the book.

Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

When this book was first published, I joined the waitlist to read it, and then passed when my turn came up. I'm tired of reading whiny autobiographies of famous has-beens and expected this to be more of the same.

I picked it up again recently. The book is written in present tense--although that was hugely annoying, I was able to get past that. It was a good read, telling of Agassi's childhood with an overbearing father who seemed impossible to please. Even hating tennis at a young age, Agassi was sent to a tennis school at age 13, where "schooling" was a distant second priority. I appreciated his honestly in how he looks back on his life and career, both the highs (to him, very few) and lows. The book ends shortly after his retirement from tennis. He seems to have found peace in his marriage to Steffi Graf, as a father, and through founding a charter school for disadvantaged children in Las Vegas.

I continue to be surprised that I liked it.

This Stranger, My Father by Robert Hawks

Part of our library's young adult fiction collection, I read this book based on the storyline and reviews on Amazon. Twenty years after escaping federal prison, teenager Patty's father is rearrested. He escapes a second time, and with Patty, and together they attempt to escape the U.S. Marshals in pursuit.

Boring, completely unbelievable, and definitely not worth suggesting to my kids.

A Woman's Place by Lynn Austin

Lynn Austin is the author of the riveting Chronicles of the Kings series. A Woman's Place follows the burgeoning friendship of four very different women through their factory work as electricians during World War II. A pleasant read, it also provided insight into the women who provided support on the home front at this time in our country's history.