"The Accidental Bestseller" by Wendy Wax

A very fun read! I had forgotten why Wendy Wax was on my list of authors to read again, but now I remember. She just has a way with telling the story that keeps you engaged and invested with the characters. The characters often have tough problems, but reading about them doesn't weigh you down. Her books are worth checking out.

A fun excerpt from the book:

Sometimes when you have to eat an elephant, the biggest problem is finding someone to take that very first bite.” A smile took over her voice, the first Lacy had ever heard from her. “Bon appétit!” – Wendy Wax in "The Accidental Bestseller"

"Meditations of John Muir: Nature's Temple" By Chris Highland

I liked about 50% of this book. I can think of people I know that would like it more than me. It's very poetic. Some of the entries made me think deep/reflective thoughts, others I found boring or I didn't relate. It was nice having Juhn Muir's words summed up with a quote from someone else. I found I enjoyed those quotes as much as or more than John Muir's words, but perhaps that is because they were simple, short, and easy to understand.

An excerpt:

"Bathed in such beauty, watching the expressions ever varying on the faces of the mountains, watching the stars, which here have a glory that the lowlander never dreams of, watching the circling seasons, listening to the songs of the waters and winds and birds, would be endless pleasure. And what glorious cloudlands I should see, storms and calms—a new heaven and a new earth every day, aye and new inhabitants. And how many visitors I should have." - John Muir

One of the quotes in the book from someone other than John Muir:

“[Our task is to widen] our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature.” ~Albert Einstein 

"The Language of Flowers" By Vanessa Diffenbaugh

A very different read for me. I picked it for a book club read since it was recommended on a top books list. Everyone in the group that read it seemed to have a similar reaction. Many said it wasn't a book they would have picked up on their own, but they ended up liking it. I think it would be interesting to translate flowers that people give me, but I don't get flowers often and never from people that know the language of flowers. :) It would be fun to occasionally buy a bouquet because of its meaning.

I find it hard to know what quote to share from this book. I've chosen this one because it sort-of sums up the book in its own way:

"In that moment, we were the same, each of us destroyed by our limited understanding of reality." – Vanessa Diffenbaugh in "The Language of Flowers"

A few of the flower definition quotes...

"Misanthropy means hatred or mistrust of humankind." – Vanessa Diffenbaugh in "The Language of Flowers"

"a daffodil—new beginnings" – Vanessa Diffenbaugh in "The Language of Flowers"

"The Big Over Easy" By Jasper Fforde

I read this with my book club. We were looking for something light to read. While I found the references to nursery rhymes and other stories/subtitle suggestions to be clever, I found the writing style to be sort of distracting. I finally got use to it 1/3-1/2 of the way through the book and fell into a reading rhythm from there. The newspaper clippings at the beginning of each chapter were sometimes relevant, sometimes funny, and other times annoying since they didn't add to the story. Overall, I was happy with the main story and I'd read a sequel probably. I'd say that everyone in the book club had fun with the book whether they liked it or not.

A very secondary character in the book was the 1 year old son of Inspector Jack Spratt (a main character). The boy, Stevie, really had nothing to do with the main story, but since I currently have a 1 year old, I found these lines in the book to be amusing and true-to-life:

“Da-woo!” screamed Stevie, waving a spoon as he scattered food around the room, much to the pleasure of the cat, with whom, it was generally agreed, Stevie had an “understanding.”

“Da-woo!!” yelled Stevie, jumping up and down. In the absence of anything more productive to do, he grasped large handfuls of scrambled egg and squeezed until it oozed between his fingers like yellow toothpaste.

Stevie then stared at Prometheus with all the seriousness that one-year-olds can muster, which is quite a lot. “Da-woo,” he said at length.

Stevie screamed “Da-woo!” enthusiastically and hurled his spoon on the floor because he could.

"The Quick and The Dead" By Louis L'amour

Not much to say about this book. L'amour is a master at writing westerns and I don't think I've yet to read a book by him and not like it. It's an easy, fun, quick read.

I really like this quote that is in the L'amour books (about L'amour):

“I think of myself in the oral tradition— as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of the campfire. That’s the way I’d like to be remembered as a storyteller. A good storyteller.” – Louis L'amour

Here are a few good quotes from the book:

"You never learn anything when you’re talkin’, boy, only when you’re listenin’.” – Louis L'amour in "The Quick and The Dead"

"I’ve learned something, he told himself. I’ve learned that it is better to move than just to sit. One has to act." – Louis L'amour in "The Quick and The Dead"

“No, ma’am, but you have to fight for most of the things worth havin’…or somebody does.” – Louis L'amour in "The Quick and The Dead"

"Lottery" By Patricia Wood

I'm not really sure how to begin describing this book. I really enjoyed reading it – well, listening to it –since my library only had it for Kindle in an audio version. I read it as part of a book club. Here is the summary of the book from the author's website:

"Perry’s IQ is only 76, but he’s not stupid. His grandmother taught him everything he needs to know to survive: She taught him to write things down so he won’t forget them. She taught him to play the lottery every week. And, most important, she taught him whom to trust. When Gram dies, Perry is left orphaned and bereft at the age of thirty-one. Then his weekly Washington State Lottery ticket wins him 12 million dollars, and he finds he has more family than he knows what to do with. Peopled with characters both wicked and heroic who leap off the pages, Lottery is a deeply satisfying, gorgeously rendered novel about trust, loyalty, and what distinguishes us as capable."

The author keeps you amused throughout the book. It isn't all laughter, but sometimes it's the ups and downs that make the book so good. The main character is more intelligent than many people with higher IQs. Another quote from the book that I liked:

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

"My Fair Lazy" By Jen Lancaster

This type of book is apparently not my cup of tea. I would read a few chapters and be bored out of my mind, then read a page that would me have me laughing really hard, then back to board, repeat. The parts that had me laughing reminded me of my sister for some reason (she should read this book in all of her spare time!) I think I may have been more interested in the story if it didn't read so much like a normal person's life? I don't know.

"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" By Helen Simonson

A good book, but definitely a big change from the books I read before it. I went from steamy romances in a Texas bar to a proper courting in England. I really appreciated reading this book on my Kindle since I can click on unfamiliar words and get a definition instantly. It's a pretty easy read overall. This would be a good book for a book club with plenty of subjects to discuss.

A quote I enjoyed from the book...

“I don’t believe the greatest views in the world are great because they are vast or exotic,” she said. “I think their power comes from the knowledge that they do not change. You look at them and you know they have been the same for a thousand years.”

Romance Marathon

I got a Kindle for Christmas! I love paper books and I never thought I'd go for electronic, but I have to admit it has made my reading habit easier. I no longer have to go to the library to pick up books or remember to return them... well, unless I pick a book that isn't available digitally.

At any rate, the first digital books that were recommended to me by the library website were holiday romances. Thus began a long list of romance books... a genre I haven't read in a long time.

First I read "Mischief & Mistletoe" By Tanya Anne Crosby. It was a decent book, but it wasn't so good that I wanted to read another of hers right away. It was fairly short, well written and entertaining.

Next, I read a slew of Carolyn Brown's books (in order of how I read them, but not in order of the story line): "Honky Tonk Christmas", "Darn Good Cowboy Christmas", "Billion Dollar Cowboy",  and "My Give-A-Damn's Busted". You'll notice they started with a Christmas theme, but then just stuck to a Cowboy theme. Rather than tell you about each of them, I can say I enjoyed each one enough to read another of her books right away. There is a bit of repetition in the books which isn't needed... I'm talking about a character repeats the same information about themselves over and over in each book. Like, in "Honky Tonk Christmas", the main character has nightmares and they seem to be the same and they become repetitive. There was a different repetitive thing/character for each book. Otherwise, the author does a great job at making the characters and scenarios different. I will say though, that a lot of the characters seem to have large amounts of money which doesn't seem too realistic. I guess we read books to escape reality though.

If you're thinking of reading one of Carolyn Brown's steamy novels, I'd say to do it in a different order than I did. All of the books I've read thus far were part of a different series. I think it'd be best to read these in order, though you don't have to. Here are the 4 series I've dabbled in (highlighted in gray the books I have read) and the books are listed in order... I think... I pulled the list from the author's website. (I have to say that I'm impressed with the sheer number of series and books by this author – this isn't the entire list by any means!)

Honky Tonk Series
"I Love This Bar"
"Hell, Yeah"
"My Give-A-Damn's Busted"
"Honky Tonk Christmas"

Spikes & Spurs Series
"Love Drunk Cowboy"
"Red's Hot Cowboy"
"Darn Good Cowboy Christmas"
"One Hot Cowboy Wedding"
"Mistletoe Cowboy"
"Just a Cowboy"
"Cowboy Seeks Bride"

Cowboys & Brides Series
"The Billion Dollar Cowboy"
"The Cowboy's Christmas Baby"
"The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride"
"How to Marry a Cowboy"

UPDATES: I finished the "Honky Tonk" series and I have to say that "Hell, Yeah" really broke out of the slight formula I was starting to feel after reading so many of these books back to back. "I Love This Bar" was good too. I'll read more of this author's books someday, but for now, I'm moving on. :)

UPDATES AGAIN: I thought I'd read an easy, relaxing read after getting through some more thought-provoking novels. I found myself back in Texas. "Red's Hot Cowboy" was a fun read. I won't say unpredictable, but I enjoyed it. I'm going to try another Carolyn Brown next, but it isn't part of any of the series above. 

UPDATES AGAIN: Decided I needed to try to finish another series I guess. "One Hot Cowboy Wedding" was pretty steaming and also broke from the formula. I really liked having the characters from the other books interacting with each other in this book. It'd be even better if I read these in order I bet. ;) Just finished "Love Drunk Cowboy" and "Mistletoe Cowboy" and enjoyed both. 2 more to read in this series!

"The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride"... I think this was my favorite book by this author thus far. The older lady's in the book have their own agenda that makes for humor and I actually cried at one point. A+