Take Time for Your Life - Book Review 4 Stars

Take Time for Your Life by Cheryl Richardson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In all honesty, I would rather rate this a 3 1/2. However, Goodreads does not allow that option and I am leaning more towards the 4 mark. While the main principles Richardson uses to guide the readers into taking care of themselves are basic, they are practical none the less.

The biggest thing that helped me was identifying my energy drains and setting my "must do list." With a world in which faster is better and quantity often beats quality, it is nice to reaffirm yourself that you do not need to do/have it all. Taking stock and setting your priorities allow you to get the most out of life without stressing yourself to the point that you cannot enjoy it.

I recommend this book for people who feel that there life is moving to fast and have a difficult time juggling everything all at once. Set all of those balls you are juggling down, grab your spouse/partner/child/friend, and focus on them. Your relationships will give you a satisfaction that cannot be obtained by material objects (yes, I mean money too!)

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Dear John - Nicholas Sparks - 4 Stars

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Tug at your heartstrings kind of books are not my typical cuppa tea. I usually go for fantasy, sci-fi, or even the occasional contemporary fiction.

Give me blood, guts, chilling humanoid or even nonhumanoid creatures that threaten the common good or societies constructs. Give me blood oozing out of crypts, 30 foot poisonous spiders waiting in anticipation around the corner, vile war lords that oppress, plot, and scheme. Anyone that knows me will also attest that I am a sucker for the underdog and the unexpected.

I need an escape. I deal with enough "real world" stuff to fill my day (and even beyond). Needless to say, the drama and heartbrake that I encounter as I help others leaves me drained and desiring to go far far away.

So far I have ranted for 3 paragraphs about why I should not like/typically would not chose to pick up a book like Dear John. The story came into my possession through a book giveaway on one of my fellow book worshipers blogs. Having won an audio version, I figured it wouldn't hurt to pop it into my cd player on my hour and a half trip (each way) to grad school.

I have never listened to a book on tape/cd (elementary school doesn't count). I wasn't sure what to expect, but thought I could at least listen to the first disc and go from there. My initial thought was that they should have gotten a female to portray Savanah. That was my only grip.

I was easily dragged into the story. Wanting to hate it and chalk it up to the evil, despised "chic lit," I was left with wanting to know how it was all going to work out.

While some of the story line was transparent, it was interesting. Like I said, I made it through all 8 cd's not just the first one. And yes, I admit...I cried on multiple occasions towards the end. That is precisely the reason why I tend to avoid these types of situations.

Overall, I was treated with a good story line and found out that I really like books on cd.

Happy Reading!

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Masquerade by Gayle Lynds ** 2 Stars

Masquerade by Gayle Lynds


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
In a nut shell, I would say that if you are at one of those camp grounds that has a lending library and you are without a really good book, this book is finishable.

In it's honor the last 1/3 was pretty good and did keep me coming back to the end. If a book is all out horrible I quickly move on to something better. However the good part was working to wrap up and make sense out of the first 2/3 of the book.

For me a book revolves around the characters and the plot. While the book did start off as promising, the characters seemed too random as the story tried to include them all for the big reveal at the end. To me it seemed as though the book was written with the end in mind and then the characters were worked in through out the book so they could be used later. As the ancillary characters pop up in the book, it's not very clear as to why you would even care about these people and then they get dragged into the whole conspiracy at the end.

The plot has an interesting premise, but was not fully executed in a way that builds much suspense or great intrigue. Scenes seemed a bit pat and already done and lead me to understand much of it in the first half. However, it was an easy read and I was curious to see exactly how it would work out. Although I was hoping for a surprise ending (which I didn't get) it wasn't the worst book I have ever read.

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Challenge Stats:
100 Book Reading Challenge: 1
Mystery/Thriller Challenge: 1
Read Your Bookshelf Challenge: 1 (gave me the inspiration to keep going, typically I would have jumped ship)
Genre Challenge: 1 Mystery

Read Your Bookshelf Challenge

I am a horrid book hoarder! I am starting with this particular challenge as many of the books over lap and I am tired of seeing them laying around on my bookshelf. Time to polish them off so that I may add new ones.

I just added a few more to my "have and need to read" shelf at good ol' good reads. As I sort through those that still need to be read that are still about the house, this collection will continue to grow.

Through out the challenge, I will update this post to include the ones that I have read and links to the reviews.

Happy Reading!
Heather