Friday, February 10, 2012

Alotta Books Read

Have read quite a few books and haven't posted any...have to keep up or I will be repeating books again!
The Wedding Quilt   Jennifer Chiaverini     good book, easy read
Love Come to Me Lisa Kleypas   a "no thinking" book...it was ok
Parenting the Office  Davidhoffs....ummmm quite a few interesting perspectives on employee/employer relationships...as well as siblings...wanted to copy a few to give to our office manager. (I did refrain :)).
Never Be Lied to Again   David Lieberman    yeah right!
The Burning Soul   John Connolly    good book, I have read most of his...

The BEST!!  The Hunger Games   Catching Fire  Mockingjay   Suzanne Collins
OH MY GOODNESS!! These books were written for "youth" readers....wow! Really looking forward to the movies (hopefully the movie doesn't ruin the book (s)) Hope to go with my daughter to see the movie.. there are some aspects of the movie I dread ..(I am so bad about "visual" versus mental).
If you haven't read these books....what you waiting on?? Hard to put down...will re-read but not right away.

Got a Nook from my husband but haven't gotten into the reading on the reader yet...part of it is that I am "cheap" and haven't bought any books to read on it...so the "free" books that are offered and loaded are not
my choices. Guess I need to find a book I want to buy and try it then..

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Hunger Games

Oh wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is an amazing book.....can't wait to read the next ones.....perhaps that is why
sales are good.....library has NO books to lend....the "hold" list is RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
guess I have to decide if I want to buy or wait...............hmmmm...guess if I buy, I can lend?
that is a thought...will contemplate for a while.......

Saturday, January 7, 2012

A Bigger List

It has been a while since I have posted about the books I have read....didn't read for awhile due to stressors in my life that kept me from focusing on anything! Enough of that!
Books I have read in the last few days:
2 by Elin Hilderbrand and 2 by Kristin Hannah
The Castaways and Barefoot are both enjoyable reads. Elin is definitely an author I will be reading for pleasure.
True Colors and Winter Garden are very very good reads. True Colors, I enjoyed but related to perhaps a bit more than I liked! Winter Garden made me sad but glad....this is a book I will probably read again.
Next on my list is one by Tom Clancy  Against All Enemies.....I plan to begin this one tonight. I have had it long enough I can not renew it from the library again....as this is a very long book 700+ pages, perhaps I should not start it and check it out again at a later date.
Part of my "problem" is that my husband bought me a Nook....I can't decide if I like it or not...so far just going with the "free" Friday downloads so I don't have anything I personally have chosen to read. Time will tell.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Two More Books Read Before Work Tomorrow!

Two good easy reads....
Judith Michael  Acts of Love   (Wife and husband co-author)
Elin Hilderbrand   Silver Girl   a new author to me and I will get getting more of her works.
Left to read in my book bag,
The Way We Eat Why Our Food Choices Matter    Peter Singer
Coffin Man  James D. Doss
Dead Last   James W. Hall   these are new authors to me
The Paid Companion   Amanda Quick   this is a no thinking reading book..
Against All Enemies   Tom Clancy  (756 pages! my kind of book!!) and I have read lots of his work already
Perhaps I will start another book before bed....yeah I have time! See ya!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Two Books Read

I have read 2 more books this week, as well as baked cookies, bread and banana bread....lots and lots!
Enough of the baking...
Nothing Left to Lose by Allan G. Johnson
 This book was a good read, not a happy read, but a good one. Will most likely look into his other works.
Kindred Spirits by Sarah Strohmeyer
This book was also a good read but also not a happy read. I really do think the author intended readers to find comfort and happiness in her story, but overall I found it rather depressing. There were good things in this book, not all bad things, good martini recipes!! She also wrote The Cinderella Pact which I may look at but then she has a series of books Bubbles Betrothed, Bubbles A Broad etc....who knows? Another drink book or a character called Bubbles?  May pass on these.....who knows

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Broken Music

Broken Music by Marjorie Eccles
A Mystery....a new author to me and one I enjoyed tremendously. I definitely will be looking for her other works. Enjoyed to the last page!

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Road Less Travelled

This homework from my therapist and the following statements, excerpts are for me to be able to look back and re-read if wanted. Don't want to buy this book. According to my therapist, this is his best book, has written several. He is M.Scott Peck MD
Life is difficult. Once we truly know life is difficult, once we truly understand and accept it, then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult, no longer matters. ((I am having difficulty with that statement!))
Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning.
What are these tools, these techniques of suffering, these means of experiencing the pain of problems constructively that I call discipline. There are four: delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing. The problem lies not in the complexity of these tools, but the will to use them.
Yet more important than role modeling is love. When we love something, it is of value to us, and when we value something, we spend time with it. Good discipline requires time. The feeling of being valuable is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone  of self discipline. When one considers oneself valuable, one will take care of oneself in all ways that are necessary.
Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. We must accept responsibility for a problem before we can solve it.
The neurotic assumes too much responsibility; the person with a character disorder not enough. When neurotics are in conflict they assume they are at fault. The character disorder person assumes the world is at fault. Neurotics make themselves miserable; those with character disorders make everyone else miserable.
It is only through a vast amount of experience and a lengthy and successful maturation that we gain the capacity to see the world and our place in it realistically, and thus are enabled to realistically assess our responsibility for ourselves and our world.
Lying can be divided into two types; white and black. A black lie is a statement we make that we know is false. A white lie is a statement that is not in itself false, but that leaves out a significant part of the truth. The fact that a lie is white does not in itself make it any less of a lie or any more excusable. The more honest one is, the easier it is to continue being honest, just as the more lies one has told, the more necessary it is to lie again.
We are incapable of loving another unless we love ourselves.  We cannot be a source of strength unless we nurture our own strength.
No matter whom we fall "in love" with, we sooner or later fall "out" of love, if the relationship continues long enough. This is not to say we invariably cease loving the person with whom we fell in love. But it is to say the feeling of estatic lovingness that characterizes the experience of falling love always passes. The honeymoon always ends. The bloom of romance always fades. Real love often occurs in a context in which the feeling of love is lacking, when we act lovingly despite the fact we don't feel loving.  Love is not a dependency. When you require another individual for your survival , you are a parasite to that individual. There is no choice, no freedom involved in your relationship. It's a matter of necessity rather than love. Love is free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other.  If being loved is your only goal, you will fail to achieve it. The only way to be assured of being loved is to be a person worthy of love. The person who truly loves does so because of a decision to love, this person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present.
The principal form that the work of love takes is attention. Having to beg for attention won't make a person feel valuable.
The need for one's parents to listen is never outgrown. While it is true one's capacity to truly listen may improve with practice, it never becomes an effortless process.
People handle their fear of change in different ways but the fear is inescapable if they are in fact to change. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is acting in spite of fear.
GRACE---It is hardly remarkable that we sicken and die, what is truly remarkable is that we don't sicken often and we don't die very quickly. It is a major thesis of this section that grace, manifested in part by "valuable or agreeable thing not sought for" is available to everyone, but that while some take advantage of it, others do not. A powerful force originating outside of human consciousness which nurtures spiritual growth of human beings. This force has been consistently recognized by religions who have applied to it the name of grace. Goodness of God is ever whole. Love is conscious, grace is not. Many are called, few are chosen...(his interpretation of that statement is as follows) all are called to and by grace but few choose to listen to the call.
To be aware of grace, to personally experience its constant presence, to know one's nearness  to God, is to know and continually experience an inner tranquility and peace few possess. This knowledge and awareness brings with it enormous responsibility...to experience the obligation to be the agent of His power and Love.
For the existence of this force (once we perceive it) indicates with incontrovertible certainty that our human spiritual growth is of utmost importance to something(one) greater than ourselves.
Whew!! that is a long post!! I did get through it this time before it went to "save" as I have not figured out how to edit posts!!