summer reading

i've read some great books this summer. here are my favorites:

#1: Alice Ozma, The Reading Promise

my dad gave me this book which makes it extra meaningful. the book is about a promise alice made with her dad to read aloud together every day from the time she was nine until her first day of college. what an accomplishment!

she writes, "We called it The Reading Streak, but it was really more of a promise. A promise to each other, a promise to ourselves. A promise to always be there and to never give up. It was a promise of hope in hopeless times. It was a promise of comfort when things got uncomfortable. And we kept our promise to each other. But more than that, it was a promise to the world: a promise to remember the power of the printed word, to take time to cherish it, to protect it at all costs. He promised to explain, to anyone and everyone he meets, the life-changing ability literature can have. He promised to fight for it. So that’s what he’s doing."

this is a sweet read about the relationship between a dad, a daughter, and their books. you'll finish it with the belief that books are essential for a parent/child relationship. while my dad and i didn't make it eight years of reading together every day, he made reading with me a priority and this book reaffirmed how lucky i am that he did.

#2: Pat Conroy, My Reading Life

i'm fascinated by books authors write about writing (and in this case, reading). i know that nearly every author tries to de-romantacize his profession, but still, there's something unduly romantic about the life of a writer. my favorite chapters are the ones about his mother's love of gone with the wind and the English teacher who "pointed him onto the path of letters." several times conroy states that books saved his life; his books make you believe that is true.

favorite lines:

*writing is the only way i have to explain my own life to myself.

*i reach for a story to save my own life.

*turn me into something else, writers of the world. tell me everything i must know. hold nothing back.

*the most powerful words in english are "tell me a story."

and saving the best for last....

#3: John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

this novel did exactly what conroy believes a novel should: changed my life, turned me into something else, left me changed.

it is incredible.

i don't really know what else to say about it. i cried and cried and cried some more. any summary i try to offer will do the book injustice. it's worth the read and might just leave you a better person. the writing is witty, tragic, hopeful, honest, and downright brilliant.

favorite lines....(all images from pinterest)





















*the fault, dear brutus, is not in our stars / but in ourselves...there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars.

*it seemed like forever ago, like we'd had this brief but still infinite forever. some infinities are bigger than other infirmities.

*it's hard as hell to hold on to your dignity when the risen sun is too bright in your losing eyes.

*grief does not change you, it reveals you.

what else would add? what are your must-reads this summer?

"Christ's Atonement elevates us on our best days and comforts and heals us on our worst days."

-David Vandagriff, I Need Thee Every Hour

i bought this book because it has a pretty cover. and because i love the title. it was a good thing i judged this book by its cover; it was incredible. i have marked and highlighted and flagged something on nearly every page of the book. some books on the Atonement feel so heavy and overwhelming. this book simply discusses our day-to-day difficulties and how the Atonement not only gets us through, but helps us become better. if you're looking for an uplifting read (or a mother's day gift), this book is a great choice.

the time traveler's wife

is it sad that i went to a movie by myself tonight? mike had to work late, and i knew he didn't really want to see the movie anyway, so i just went. maybe the saddest part is that i left the theater as a mascara-smeared, snot-dripping mess, and i was alone.

i finished the book on wednesday and haven't stopped thinking about it since. it took me a while to figure out what was going on with the whole time travel thing, but it was worth plowing through. it's the kind of book that makes you hate it has to end, that makes you cry with the characters, that makes you think how you would react in their shoes, and whether you'd really like to know the future. the book reminded me what a sacred relationship marriage can be, and after i finished, i felt zeal and excitement to live life as it is right now instead of always wondering or worrying about what's next.

sadly, the movie lacked character development, and i was really hoping they would show some of the art clare created. rachel mcadams is adorable and perfect as clare. eric bana, however, should probably stick to providing his voice only for movies because he can't act. i was disappointed. read the book instead. it's wonderful.

today, my mary engelbreit calendar told me "believe that you have it, and you have it." i seem to be repeating that to myself a lot lately. self confidence has never been one of my strong points. even my high school choir teacher noticed this, and told me once that i wasn't confident enough to play the piano. it didn't really hurt my feelings, but i did purchase some crest toothpaste that promised to increase my self confidence if i used it a few times every day. then i played the piano at a church choir event he attended and he gave me a half compliment/half apology for his doubting my abilities. anyway, there's your motivational thought for today. believe that you have it, and you have it.

i've been pretty productive so far this summer. finished a couple books. first, atonement by ian mcewan. i didn't like it at all. i really wanted to like it because i thought the movie looked really good. but the book wasn't great. the writing was very arrogant which made it hard for me to read. did anyone see the movie and enjoy it? i also finished love walked in by marisa de los santos. some times it really irritated me, but i loved how it ended. so i give it my approval and thought it was pretty cute. i added my favorite quote to the sidebar.

i've also been working on some scrapbook projects. here's a few pictures from my this is me journal-
and a few pictures from our best two years album. (when mike saw the cover, he was stoked because he thought it was about his mission. i had to remind him that his best two years have been the two years we've been MARRIED.)

book review

in praise of stay-at-home-moms
dr. laura schlessinger

this book was a quick, easy, and light-hearted read. i think the main thing i got from this book was that no one can take the place of a mother! kids need to be raised by their parents, not babysitters or day-care workers or even other family members. the book had lots of positive letters, resources for stay-at-home-moms, and of course, dr. laura's opinions about how much kids benefit from having their mommas at home with them. it reiterated to me that the sacrifices to be at home with your kids are worth it. one of my favorite quotes says, "one day [your little one] can't walk, the next day they're running. one day they can't talk, the next day they won't stop. everything they see, smell, hear, and do is a new miracle--enjoy the ride, even though the house isn't perfect and your neighbor has more jewelry."

gone with the wind
margaret mitchell

this book is definitely on my list of favorites. of course my favorite quotes may be the cheesy sounding ones, but none of this book was about happy ever after or a silly love story. the book encompassed southern life before, during, and after the civil war, and the struggles that came because of it. it was a great, great book, and i'm pretty sad to be done with it.

a few favorite quotes:
"she whispered yes before she even thought. it was almost as if he had willed the word and she had spoken it without her own volition. it seemed very natural that she had said yes, almost as if by divine intervention, a hand stronger than hers was about her affairs, settling her problems for her."

"did it ever occur to you that i loved you as much as a man can love a woman? loved you for years before i finally got you? i loved you but i couldn't let you know it. you're so brutal to those who love you. you take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip."

and the ever-famous line which still makes me cry a little inside, "my dear, i don't give a damn."

not too much to say today, but for some reason i can't go a week without posting something on the blog. what's wrong with me?

i was too lazy to fold the laundry on thursday night, so i took it out of the dryer, put it in the laundry basket, and set it in our room so i could fold it friday. i came home on friday to a very proud husband who had started the clean laundry sitting in the basket. the funniest part is that he can probably count the loads of laundry he's done during our marriage on one hand but he saw the basket sitting there and figured he'd wash it. he was pretty proud of himself for starting that laundry. so was i. and we had extra clean Gs this week since they got washed twice :]

*

i'm on a reading kick still. i have a couple hours of free time between classes so instead of studying i have used the time to read. my sister-in-law recommended The Book Thief; i'm so glad i listened to her and read it. there is a quote on the cover that says this is the kind of book that is life-changing. it truly was. and that's all i can say about it.

*

61 days left until graduation. i don't know if i should be excited or scared. the more people ask what i want to do once i graduate, the more i have no idea.

*

thanks for all the advice on the ipod. i remain undecided. mine still works, so i will probably keep using it until it stops playing music. maybe by then there will be another version out and my decision will be even harder to make.

two in one

Finished with 2 books that I must post about because they were both wonderful.

First, Anna Karenina. I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation and recommend it, I’ve heard it’s one of the best.

My complaints:
1) Sections of the book seemed to drag on and on and on. I had a really hard time caring about Russian farming and the politics of being in a government position and the Slavs and so I skipped over a lot of pages.
2) Anna Karenina. She drove me crazy. She was extremely selfish and I wanted to hit her for basically every decision she made throughout the book, especially concerning her son. I hated how she professed how much she loved him but acted the opposite.

What I liked:
Despite Anna's selfishness, she was a complex and well-written character. All of his characters were complex and unpredictable and real. Tolstoy takes you right into the lives of people (thank heavens I had a list of characters in the front of my book because it was hard to keep them all apart and they all have at least 3 names plus a nickname). But you experience a lot through these characters: death, love, relationships, affairs, religion, faith, arguments, marriage, pretty much everything that is important in the grand scheme of things. I loved that.

It wasn’t an easy 800 pages to get through but it was worth it.

Favorite Quotes:
"For me there is only one thing – your love."
"Her love outweighed all that is good in life."
"He understood not only that she was close to him, but that he no longer knew where she ended and he began."
"Good is outside the chain of cause and effect."
"The place where she stood seemed to him a holy shrine, unapproachable, and there was one moment when he was almost retreating, so overwhelmed was he with terror. He walked down, for a long while avoiding looking at her as at the sun, but seeing her, as one does the sun, without looking."
"What doubt can you have of the Creator when you behold His creation?"
"When you love someone, you love the whole person, as they are, and not as you’d like them to be."
And one of my favorites because I hate when when people think they deserve respect without having to earn it, "Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be."

Mike was getting a little worried about me reading books that largely revolved around divorce or affairs, so I decided for some lighter reading once I finished AK. I started Marley & Me about 2 weeks ago and finished today. It was a quick read, highly entertaining, and filled with little life gems. It was sad, which I knew from watching the movie. We always had dogs growing up, and now that we have our own dog, I loved the message about how influential animals are. They really become part of the family.

Favorite Quotes:
"in every dog owner's life a few cherished family heirlooms must fall" [my wedding ring almost became a fallen heriloom which at the time wasn't very funny]
"no matter how complicated life became, he reminded me of its simple joys. no matter how many demands were placed on me, he never let me forget that willful disobedience is sometimes worth the price."
"he was part of our family, and, for all his flaws, he had returned our affection one hundredfold. devotion such as his could not be bought for any price."
"in a dog's life, some plaster would fall, some cushions would open, some rugs would shred. like any relationship, this one had its costs. we could have bought a small yacht with what we spent on our dog and all the things he destroyed. then again, how many yachts wait by the door all day for your return?"
"he taught us what really matters in life. loyalty. courage. devotion. simplicity. joy. and the things that did not matter, too. a dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. status symbols mean nothing to him. give him your heart, and he will give you his."
"he was a central player in some of the happiest chapters of our lives."

we love our crazy little coco!

Marley & Me

Mike and I went to this movie over the weekend and LOVED it. Take tissues- it'll make you cry- but anyone who has had a puppy or loves dogs will enjoy this movie. And if you wonder why some people are so crazy about their pets, this movie will explain that, too. It was great.

the weekend: a recap

-I'm seriously so blessed. For the first time in my life, I won something! It was a gift card from TAMN to the Sonora Grill. We went with my parents. I had Carne Asada tacos, Mike had some chicken thing that I can't pronounce. It was delish and we had great company.-My new favorite thing to cook: waffle cookies. I especially hate cooking in the summer because when I turn on the oven, it honestly adds an extra 20 degrees to our already heated home. You don't have to use the oven for waffle cookies. And they are so yummy.
-I liked the lighting in this shot and was thinking I could boost it a little in photoshop. But my photoshop is broken. Sad. I still like the lighting though.
This little girl wasn't intended to be an inside dog, but she hates her outside kennel. She whines and yelps the whole time she's in it. So for at least a couple more months, she'll be sleeping in her kennel inside. She thinks she owns the whole house. Her favorite places to sleep are under the bed and in the pile of laundry.
PS- I finally finished Breaking Dawn. Umm.... Renesmee? Nessie for short? Seriously?? I can't think of anything I liked about the book. It was everything I wasn't expecting and I hated it. I think the reason I liked Twilight in the first place is because Meyer wrote it so that it seemed believable. It seemed like something that could happen. I think she threw any believability out the window in the final book. The characters weren't consistent with how they acted in the other books. And she needs a good editor- 800 pages is way too long for the story she was telling. Half of it could have been cut out. I'm glad it's over and I might have to re-read Twilight to remind myself why I liked the series in the first place.

Jane Eyre

Why have I never read this book before? It was fabulous. Plus Mr. Rochester's name is Edward. I think Toby Stephens makes a perfect Mr. Rochester, and I can almost see the resemblance between him and Mr. Cullen himself:



(on an unrelated note, I don't want to read Breaking Dawn because I'm afraid of the outcome)


Back to Jane Eyre, I had to share a few of my favorite quotes. I love quotes- I use them when I scrapbook and my purse is filled with random scraps of paper that have quotes I've heard and liked on them.

"Yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him."

"Men and women die; philosophers falter in wisdom, and Christians in goodness: if anyone you know has suffered and erred, let him look higher than his equals for strength to ammend and solace to heal."

"Every nerve I have is unstrung--for a moment I am beyond my own mastery. I did not think I should tremble in this way when I saw him, or lose my voice or the power of motion in his presence."


"It is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communication would be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion that I should take to bleeding inwardly."


"I loved him very much, more than I could trust myself to say--more than words had power to express."


"Never may you, gentle reader, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love."


"In his presence I thoroughly lived, and he lived in mine."

sigh. sorry for the cheesy quotes. . . but this is such a great book. highly recommended.

Finished

I finally finished The Host. I'm still kind of undecided about it. I didn't get into the book until page 300 but I did enjoy the last half quite a bit. Stephanie Meyer is a good writer and I liked the idea behind the book, but parts of it seemed inconsistent and confusing. If any of you have read it, I'd love to hear what you think. Mike and I have kind of been reading nerds lately. It seems that every night we come home to our books and don't even talk to each other until we're going to bed. Mike has read the first 2 Harry Potter books in the last week. Sadly he starts school soon so he won't be able to finish them all this summer. I had to beg Mike to take this picture with me. He hates getting his picture taken. Instead of smiling normal, he makes some weird shape with his lips. Then I get frustrated and plead with him to just smile, puh-lease, so he gives me a major cheese picture.

2 things

#1: i've never quit reading a book in the middle of it, but i am so done with "love in the time of cholera." i was hoping for a sweet love story, passionate characters, or something of substance- the book won a nobel prize so i was sure it would be good. but it's not. 150 pages in, nothing has happened. i don't know who the characters are. i've only ready 2 chapters because they are each 75 pages long. the whole story is told in summary. i would not recommend this book. stephanie meyer- i hope your new book can pull me out of the reading rut i'm in.




#2: itunes has made some money off me this week. here's what i'm loving right now-

For You- Duncan Sheik
Reasons to Love You- Meiko
Today- Jeremy Larson
From My Heart to Yours- Laura Izibor
Follow Through (acoustic)- Gavin DeGraw
Sweeter Than This- Katie Herzig
Gotta Have You- The Weepies
Won't Go Home Without You- Maroon 5
Samson- Regina Spektor
Dreaming With a Broken Heart- John Mayer
If Work Permits- The Format
Just a Ride- Jem
Oh, It Is Love- Hellogoodbye
Come to Me- Koop
Parantheses- The Blow

we had a busy busy weekend and i'm lame and didn't take pictures. . .

• watching Kennedy play basektball at Orion. i want to be Kennedy when i grow up. she's very good at sports, especially basketball, she isn't socially retarded like i am sometimes, she is a 4.0 student, she wins the science fair, basically she's good at everything she does. i love this girl!


• 2 baby showers, one for my brother in law's girlfriend Carrie, and another for my friend Amy. it seems like everyone i know is having a baby in march! however- congrats to mark and emily who had their second baby boy yesterday. we're going to see the little guy tonight.


• catching up with family that we hadn't seen for a while. i love when we have time to just hang out and visit.


• and you've gotta love ward parties- we had a chili cookoff saturday night. Lots of good soup, little kids running around the gym, and a sweet western scene accompanied by hats, guns, and bandanas to dress up for pictures. the sombrero i bought in Mexico was a big hit for people who got their pictures taken :)


• because i'd hate to leave you without a picture of some sort, i am pretty stoked to see this movie. i finished the book a couple weeks ago. i love reading about England and found this book very interesting. i'm curious to see how they portray it in the movie.

i love the weekend

had a lovely weekend.

writing thank you notes for the sweet stuff we got for christmas.

playing with my cute cousin, aunt, and family. i love it when they're in town.

watching National Treasure 2.

staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish reading this book:

I really enjoyed it, cried my little heart out, but if anyone is interested in reading it, BEWARE- it has terrible language.

eating lunch with an old friend.

chasing Bella, the cutest puppy ever, around my parent's house:

making this planner cause i slept through stake conference (oops).

I feel all organized and ready for school now. Does anyone know someplace online to print cute planner pages?