[REVIEW] To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Book Title: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Author: Jenny Han
Series: To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Genre: Young Adult, contemporary, romance, chick lit

Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. One for every boy she's ever loved. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control...

What's Your Pleasure?

Something at our Weight Watchers meetings we will cover a nonfood related topic because there are other ways to make us healthy other than food. July 6th's meeting was all about finding our pleasure in nonfood ways. We are working to start taking care of ourselves to make us happy. We knot that happy people make healthier decisions. This week was a take to find something to ourselves. Sometimes we forget that we need to take five minutes. A lot of the time responsibilities will get in the way or cause us to forget about ourselves. What would you do if you had five or ten minutes of free time? I read my books at any free moment that I can grab. I'm currently in the process of fixing up a house for us to move into. Right now a lot of my time that I would spend reading is either spent at the house fixing something or at home making a list of things that need to be done at the new house. It is not as pleasurable as I thought it would be. Once the house is finished and we move it the pleasure of my hard work will begin. We were asked to make room in our days for those little moments. I was able to identify my pleasures and I was even able to do some of them. My favorite thing to do right now is make stickers for my planner. I am one of those weird people that has a paper planner and I fill it with stickers and sorts. I like to use it as a scrapbook later for how the year went for us. I am going to continue to find these little moments are really make the most of them. I know that I need to take better care of myself so that I can truly provide for my family.

Overcoming Time Bandits

Last week at Weight Watchers we discussed ways of how to outsmart our time bandits. Time bandits are something that typically happen daily and if we are just take a few extra minutes in the day to be mindful of where out time is going we are beat the time bandits. I know during the summer I struggle the most with managing my time because i have a four year old who doesn't really understand that mommy needs five or ten minutes to just close her eyes and think. The first thing we focused on was identifying our own time bandits. The challenge for the week was the identify and change our time bandits. Many common culprits are channel surfing, the internet in general, checking email, Facebook, or other social medias, playing video games, and checking the news. My main culprit is the internet. I can get lost on Facebook, Youtube, and Reddit. The next thing to do is eliminate the time bandit. For me that would be setting a timer for me to be online and say, "When I finish this, I get so much time online before I should start this." It just takes a little more time for you to be aware that you should be doing something else. Once you start to recognize those time bandits and you are able to change them, it will slowly become a habit. A habit that will turn into something so easy you will never understand why you didn't do it all along.

Dear Allie | vol. 18

You are amazing. You just spent four days at the beach with your mother-in-law. You enjoyed the time at the beach, building sandcastles with your son, and even swimming in the ocean. Now that you have signed up for the Tallahassee Half Marathon you are going to have to be very diligent with your training runs and sacrifice a few things. I know that you are worried about the route for the race but you are capable of finishing it. You ran the same race in 2013 and finished in 3 hours and 45 minutes or so. Yes, the route for the race is going to be very hilly but you have 28 weeks to train for this race. You have a 20 week training program that you are beginning this week so you will be prepared for the race. It will also be nice because you will have at least 2 friends running the race with you. Cheer up about this. You will start to love running and then you will eventually want to run the race every year, maybe one day you will decide to train and run the full marathon. Who knows, the possibilities are endless for you.

Friday Reads | 13

This Friday I am reading Howl's Moving Castle. I was told I had to read this book by my 16 year old cousin. She is pushy when it comes to books I need to read. I am excited to try and finish it this weekend. If I do finish that book I plan to start either Postal Service by Terry Pratchett or Outlander. I honestly haven't decided yet!

[REVIEW] The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Book Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Mark Haddeon
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Psychological

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally. 

[REVIEW] Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

Book Title: Under the Egg
Author: Laura Marx Fitzgerald
Series: N/A
Genre: Children's/ middle school/ mystery

When Theodora Tenpenny spills a bottle of rubbing alcohol on her late grandfather’s painting, she discovers what seems to be an old Renaissance masterpiece underneath. That’s great news for Theo, who’s struggling to hang onto her family’s two-hundred-year-old townhouse and support her unstable mother on her grandfather’s legacy of $463. There’s just one problem: Theo’s grandfather was a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she worries the painting may be stolen.
With the help of some unusual new friends, Theo's search for answers takes her all around Manhattan, and introduces her to a side of the city—and her grandfather—that she never knew. To solve the mystery, she'll have to abandon her hard-won self-reliance and build a community, one serendipitous friendship at a time.

Friday Reads | week 12

This Friday I am still reading To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. I hope to finish this before the weekend is up. I will either pick up Deathworld 1 by Harry Harrison or A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin. I haven't really decided between the two though. I also have to read Howl's Moving Castle per request of my 16 year old cousin.

[Review] Sold by Patricia McCormick

Book Title: Sold
Author: Patricia McCormick
Series: N/A
Genre: Fiction, culture, young adult, abuse

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt—then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words— Simply to endure is to triumph—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision—will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?
Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.