Monday Recommendations

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler
2. Only With Your Love by Lisa Kleypas
3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
4. A World of Curiosities by John Oldale
5. Gabby by Gabrielle Giffords
6. Ketchup is a Vegetable by Robin O’Bryant
7. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll
8. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
9. Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong
10. Night by Elie Wiesel

Monday Recommendations (On Tuesday!)

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz
2. Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
3. Guts Kristen Johnston
4. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll
5. The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
6. Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
7. Don’t Know Much About the Bible by Kenneth Davis
8. Game Change by John Heilemann
9. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
10. Ten Degrees of Reckoning by Hester Rumberg

Monday Recommendations

Monday Recommendation List

I am trying something new this week. As this blog grows, old recommendations seems to get lost in the shuffle. Therefore, I’m going to post a random list of 10 books each Monday. Each book on this list will be one that I have read and enjoyed enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase. As you have most likely deduced, my taste is quite varied, so there should be something for everyone.

Be bold and just choose randomly! Or stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

Let me know what you think!!

This weeks 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1.      Fun for the health conscious food lover: Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko (several variations of this book)

2.      An emotional, contemporary romance: Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

3.      An inspiring memoir: Gabby by Gabrielle Giffords

4.      Surprisingly insightful and wrenching: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

5.      Beautiful read for animal lovers: The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll

6.      Thoughtful and spiritual: Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong

7.      For the historian: At Home by Bill Bryson

8.      Genre bending: The Green Mile by Stephen King

9.      Historical, character based romance series: The Hathaway Series by Lisa Kleypas (First book is Mine Till Midnight) 

10. Hilarious. Just hilarious. READ this before going to the movie that just premiered! Hurry!!!!: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll

A raw, moving look at the lives of emotionally and physically damaged chimpanzees. Westoll recounts his time spent with Gloria Grew at her Canadian chimp rehab center. Grew rescues chimpanzees from horrid situations. After many years of abuse, cruelty and shocking treatment she attempts to give these creatures the freedom to live in peace. Each profiled chimp is fighting his or her own heartbreaking battle to heal.

I loved this story, kudos to Westoll for bringing these chimps to life on the page. One of my early dreams in life was to become a veterinarian specializing in primatology. Unfortunately, that was not to be and I regret that I didn’t choose to continue on that path. Always an avid activist, in college I did extensive research on biomedical research and it is absolutely horrifying. Those images will never leave my head. 

Gloria Grew is simply an angel. I appreciated this quote “I believe we can make miracles happen every day if we just help someone in need,’ says Gloria, ‘I think that’s why we’re here on Earth. We need to be of service, or our lives will be empty. God put us here for a reason, and I believe that reason is service.” If only there were more Gloria’s in the world! I admire her.

You can see more about this amazing operation at Faunasancturay.org.