Book Review...

If you are like me, you are always on the look out for a good book to read. I just started going to the book club in my ward a few month's ago and I have loved it. We do it a little different than most. It's more of a book exchange where we all bring different books we have read and enjoyed and we take turns checking them out. So much fun and it saves a lot of money and hassle-filled trips to the library!

Anyway- I never really know what's gonna be worth my time to read, So--

These are some books I have read in the past month or 2 that I have really liked!

This was a really inspiring story about a lady that struggles her whole like with different health problems and physical deformities. If you are feeling down or discouraged, this lady's attitude on life will definitely put things in perspective!

This book is short. Only about 65 pages. Not a must-read, but it was definitely good! Kind of along the same lines as the first book I listed. It is a fictional story about a man that is born with only one arm and with a crooked spine. It goes through his whole lifetime and talks about his challenges and his desire to leave a legacy behind.

I LOVE this author! His two books, "Recovering Charles" and "The Wednesday Letters" are always on sale for $1.99 each at Seagull. WHAT A STEAL, right?!? So- I didn't know anything about this guy and honestly just bought his books because they were cheap and looked decent enough. I read "The Wednesday Letters" first and just fell in love with it! I had to read another of his, so I bought this one too! It was good. About a man whose estranged father is one of the many people missing after Hurricane Katrina. He goes down to New Orleans to find him.... And I cannot say more. Again- not necessarily a must-read, but I liked it!

"The Wednesday Letters" I would classify as a must-read! I ABSOLUTELY loved it! It is about an elderly couple, the husband is battling cancer and is expected to pass on any day now, when insted the wife dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. The husband ends up dying a few hours later and they are found dead in each other's arms. Their 3 kids come together for the funeral services where they find boxes and boxes of letters from their dad to their mom, written every Wednesday for their whole marriage. Upon reading the letters, they find out a lot about their parents, including a HUGE family secret that could tear them apart!!!!!
When it got to the part about the secret, I almost stopped reading. But, I decided to keep trucking and I LOVED how it ended!

This book my mother and sister-in-law recommended to me over and over. Every time I went to the book store or library, I could not find it. Turns out, I was looking in the wrong section. The way it was explained to me, I thought it was a novel. But, it is actually in the "Motivation and self-improvement" section.

It is written like a novel, but each chapter is a life lesson. VERY GOOD! Another MUST-READ! It is similar to "It's a Wonderful Life." About a man, down on his luck and desperate. He has a near-death experience and everything changes for him. He ends up taking a trip through history where in each chapter, he meets a different historical figure who teaches him a different life lesson. VERY GOOD!

This book I had heard about, but never read. Finally, I borrowed it from someone in book club and read it. It is an easy read. Only about 165 pages. It is about a community where EVERYTHING is decided for you. Your job, your spouse, your clothes, your children even. Everything is the same. No one is better than anyone else. You learn that years ago, everyone chose to take on this life style. It looks like a Utopian community. Then 11-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's new "Receiver." Someone that holds all the memories before the community chose "sameness." VERY GOOD! MUST READ! A little disturbing, but very thought- provoking!

This is one of my FAVORITE books! I have actually read it a few times, but just recently re-read it. It is about a 15-year-old girl attending her first year in high school. You learn that something happened at a party over the summer that made everyone in school, including her best friend, hate her. Whatever happened to her, is so traumatic that she cannot talk to anyone. It takes the whole book for her to find her strength, her voice, and her ability to speak and tell her story...

MUST -READ!!!!

This was honestly, the first Mormon fiction book I have ever read. It was really cute! Not a must-read, but definitely cute and worth your time if you are looking for a good romantic comedy. It is about a girl who was raised Mormon, but because of something that happened, renounced the church several years ago. She just had a play she wrote open on Broadway and flop after only a week. And she caught her boyfriend with another woman. So- she is ready to start life anew. Jokingly, her brothers suggests throwing a dart at a map and moving wherever it lands. The dart just happens to land on Brigham City, UT. She decides she will only take fate seriously if she can also find a job there. She ends up finding a job as a "gardening columnist." Thinking, "how hard can it be to write about flowers?" she agrees to the job and moves to Utah. Only to find out, the she is actually supposed to be writing a "vegetable garden column." Something she knows nothing about. Luckily, she meets a boy and has lots of help along the way!

Very cute!

MUST READ! I am ashamed to say I had never read this before! I guess I thought it sounded kind of cheesy, but it was definitely not! About a man who, at one point was very close to his college professor, but allowed life and money to get the better of him, and lost track of his favorite teacher and himself. When he hears that his teacher is dying of Lou Gherrig's Disease, he goes to pay him a visit. He ends up visiting him every Tuesday for the remainder of his teacher's life. Every Tuesday, he learns a new lesson on life. This was a true story and was SO GOOD!! I LOVED IT!

OKAY- If you have not read "The Hunger Games," you have to read it! Seriously- get off the computer RIGHT NOW and go read it. It is definitely a cultural phenomenon, much like the "Twilight" series, but I am one of the few people on earth that ABSOLUTELY HATES "Twilight" (I admit and am horribly ashamed to say, I was addicted to "Twilight" while reading them, but have since come to my senses! Thank goodness!), but these books are not at all "guilty pleasures" like "Twilight" is.... They are SO much better!

They take place in what used to be America. But now, all that is left is the Capitol, "Panem" and 12 Districts. The Capitol controls everything. Each district is a fenced community that you cannot leave. Each district is a different kind of industry; agriculture, coal-mining etc. but everything the inhabitants work for only goes to The Capitol for it's gain. You learn that 75 years ago, District 13 rose up and tried to rebel against The Capitol. Instead, District 13 was completely blown off the map. And to remind all the other districts that no one can rise up against The Capitol, they have the annual "Hunger Games." A boy and girl from each district is chosen from a lottery to participate in the games and must fight to the death to remind everyone that The Capitol is in control..

I cannot imagine that there is anyone out there who STILL had not read these books, but if there is, SERIOUSLY- GO READ THEM! I just finished the series, but don't want to say anything more than the first one is by far my favorite! GO READ! NOW!