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. How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper
2. Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie
3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
4. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
5. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
6. Cry No More by Linda Howard
7. Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
8. Spirited by Rebecca Rosen
9. What it is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
10. The Orchard by Theresa Weir

Jeneration X

Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster

My rating (out of 5 stars):

2 stars—It was okay.

My Thoughts:

I’m over Jen Lancaster. I can’t take anymore of her memoirs. She ruined it by writing so many!! At this point she is just recycling and making broad generalizations that aren’t even funny. No more for me. I don't think I'll even try her fiction at this point. Blah.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“…Jen is finally ready to put away childish things (except her Barbie Styling Head, of course) and embrace the investment-making, mortgage-carrying, life-insurance-having adult she’s become. From getting a mammogram to volunteering at a halfway house, she tackles the grown-up activities she’s resisted for years, and with each rite of passage she completes, she’ll uncover a valuable—and probably humiliating—life lesson that will ease her path to full-fledged, if reluctant, adulthood.”

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. Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
2. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
3. The Devil Who Tamed Her by Johanna Lindsey
4. Random Family  by Adrian Leblanc
5. Stitches  by David Small
6. Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
7. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
8. The Informant by James Grippando
9. An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones
10. Talking to Heaven  by James Van Praagh

My Fair Lazy

My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster

My Rating (out of 5 stars):

3 stars—I liked it. (Though it bordered on 2 stars)

Amazon Description:

“Readers have followed Jen Lancaster through job loss, sucky city living, weight loss attempts, and 1980s nostalgia. Now Jen chronicles her efforts to achieve cultural enlightenment, with some hilarious missteps and genuine moments of inspiration along the way. And she does so by any means necessary: reading canonical literature, viewing classic films, attending the opera, researching artisan cheeses, and even enrolling in etiquette classes to improve her social graces.

In Jen's corner is a crack team of experts, including Page Six socialites, gourmet chefs, an opera aficionado, and a master sommelier. She may discover that well-regarded, high-priced stinky cheese tastes exactly as bad as it smells, and that her love for Kraft American Singles is forever. But one thing's for certain: Eliza Doolittle's got nothing on Jen Lancaster-and failure is an option.”

My Thoughts:

Here is Jen Lancaster’s 5^th (no seriously…5^th) book about herself. Think about the type of person who could write this many books about their own life. Have that vision? For me, I’m just bored at this point. Maybe if I hadn’t read the previous four I would have been more engaged. But, alas, I was not engaged and didn’t really care. I didn’t find this one funny, at all, either.

I really like Lancaster’s witty style. And she writes very well. I’m just sort of over her at this point. How many books can I read about nonsense (really, shallow nonsense) that goes on in one woman’s life?

I looked at her book list and she has even MORE “nonfiction” after this one. I’m going to try the next, but I’m starting to YAWN really wide with this author.

Who Should Read:

If you haven’t read Lancaster start with ONE of her books about herself (Maybe “Bitter is the New Black"). I wouldn’t suggest reading all of them, however…

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 weeks 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. For the brains: The Intellectual Devotional by David Kidder
2. Moving tribute: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
3. Surprisingly insightful: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
4. My favorite short story: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
5. Suspense: Cry No More by Linda Howard
6. Humorous: Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
7. Sarcastic: The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper
8. Young Romance: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
9. Motivational: Love Your Life by Victoria Osteen
10. Fun Chick Lit: The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot