Adrienne's review of "I am a Mother" by Jane Clayson Johnson

I've had this book on my to read list for a while and was thinking it was time I checked it off that list. I've also been trying really hard to be a more patient mother and to enjoy motherhood more. I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick, easy read. I didn't necessarily feel like I gained any great insights, but it touched my heart and helped inspire me to be a better mother and also helped me put into better prospective how important being a mother is. I would definitely recommend it and would give it 4 stars.

Adrienne's review of "Eat, Pray, Love"

This book is written by Elizabeth Gilbert and is her memoir of the year she spent living in Italy, India, and Indonesia. She goes on this journey as a kind of search for healing after a messy divorce followed by a period of deep depression. She spent four months in each country and splits the books up into the three parts, one for each of the countries she visited. She goes to Italy first to study the art of pleasure through food and the Italian language. Then she goes to India to spend four months in her Guru's Ashram to study the art of devotion. Lastly, she goes to Indonesia to find out how to balance pleasure and devotion in her life with the help of a local medicine man.

While I enjoyed reading this book I did not feel that it was life changing in any way, which I think is supposed to be the point of the book. I had a hard time with how hard it seemed for Gilbert to let go of things and be happy with her life and herself. I personally don't feel like life should be this much work. I also didn't agree with a lot of her opinions on religion and God, but that is not really that surprising. I would recommend it if you are just going into it for a fun read, but don't expect it to have much substance to it. I would give this book 3 stars.

Shannan's Review of "Catching Fire"

Okay, if you haven't read "The Hunger Games" yet, you must!!! (Here is the link to my first review, if you can't remember what it is about.) It is an amazing book. (Erin, if you can't find it in the next little while, you can borrow my copy when you are out here!) "Catching Fire" is the next book in the series. It was just released last week, so I don't know how hard it would be to get from the library. But I do know that I found "The Hunger Games" at Sam's Club a couple of weeks ago in hardback for $11.40. I haven't seen if the new book is for sale there yet or not.

This book has the same energy and pace as the first book, but is about what happens after the games. I don't want to give anything away, but I will tell you that I was could not put this book down and read it in a 24 hour period. It is intense and the story moves along quickly. I would highly recommend both of these books. So good!!!

Shannan's Thoughts on "The Glass Castle"

This is the book we are reading for book club this month, and I just finished it yesterday. I know everyone else has read it, but I just wanted to share my thoughts. While it was a quick read and very engaging, the more I have thought about it since I finished it, the more it makes me so mad! I cannot believe how selfish her parents were! I cannot imagine that they even loved their children to make them live like that. Personally, I think they both had mental problems, because their reasoning and thought processes were so far from reality. I still don't get how her and her siblings ended up successful and somewhat normal. It is even amazing that they actually made it to adulthood and didn't end up dying from who knows how many things that they were exposed to as children. Anyway, it was an interesting book, but makes me mad that there are people like that treating their children that way, with no thought or concern about them, and are only focused on themselves and what needs they have.

Shannan's Review of "Rachel and Leah"

This book was written by Orson Scott Card and is the third in the Women of Genesis series after "Sarah" and "Rebekah". It reminds me of other biblical fiction series, like "The Hero and the Crown". Card has taken the story or Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and now Jacob and Rachel and Leah and created the rest of the story from what we know in the Bible.

Usually when reading books like this, I am constantly asking myself, could this have really happened, and what parts are actually real. But I do enjoy reading them and find myself able to picture these as real people in real life. He stays true to the facts in the Bible, but since there aren't too many, most of it I think is what the author thinks might have happened. Leah is quite whiny, and just when you have had enough, she ends up changing.

The only thing that bothered me about this book is that it didn't finish the story, which Card himself says that he knew he wouldn't be able to fit everything into one book. So there is another book planned, but no plans for when it will actually be published, if ever. So that is a little frustrating, since it ends after Jacob marries Rachel, and I was looking forward to seeing how the handmaidens fit into everything.

All in all, it was a quick and light read. I would recommend it, especially if you have already read the first two books in the series, and give it 3 1/2 stars. (Sorry my review is so choppy! I have been interrupted about 700 times.)

Adrienne's review of "The Only Alien on the Planet"

This is a young adult book written by Kristin D. Randle. It's about a girl, Ginny, whose parents decide to move their family across the country right before her senior year of high school. Ginny is less than thrilled about this move, especially since she is already having a hard time with her older brother being gone away to college. In her new town she ends up becoming friends with a boy called Smitty, who doesn't speak. No one is really sure what is wrong with Smitty, since he was a normal little boy until he almost drowned when he was two. He doesn't talk or look at anyone, but is brilliant in school. The other kids at school refer to him as The Alien. Ginny decided to become friends with Smitty, along with her good friend Caulder, but having friends might be more than Smitty can handle.

This book was an easy read and was pretty enjoyable. I loved the people in Ginny's life. She has great friends and a close, loving family which I really enjoyed given the way teen life is portrayed in the media these days. I would give it 3.5 stars.

Adrienne's review of "Magic Hour"

We read the book "Magic Hour" by Kristin Hannah a couple of months ago for my book club and I loved it. It's the story of Dr. Julia Cates who has been forced out of her practice working with troubled children in California after one of her patients goes on a killing spree and then kills herself. Shortly after this happens, an abandoned, mute girl is found in her small hometown in Washington State by her sister, who is the town sheriff. Julia goes back to her hometown to work with this young girl and to try and help her sister figure out who she is and where she came from.

One of the things I loved about this book was the subject matter. The young girl has been living in the woods for several years and is what is referred to as a feral child. It isn't a subject that you really come across very often and it was very interesting to learn about these children and how living in the wild without other humans affects them. I give it 4.5 stars.