A Ghost for Maggie

A Ghost for Maggie
By Emily Carmichael
1402538200 (book on CD)

There were many things I liked about this book- the characters, especially Robbie. The romance/non-romance between Katherine and Tom (how adorable were they?). The animals- cat and birds. The house. What I didn't like, however, was the sexism of the book. Maggie is a complete idiot when it comes to men, thank goodness she has a big, strong man to rescue her. She is wrong on who to trust, when I so much wanted her to be right. She knew her former boyfriend for 3 years, friends for 2, with him for 1, still keeps in touch with letters apparently. Yet she ends up being completely wrong about the mans character. I'd make a rude noise, but frankly that phrase became too overused. Then Colby doesn't believe in her ghost, okay fine but does he have to go on about it? He expects her to believe some pretty crazy things- like that he's trustworthy- yet he can't even consider the possibility that she's telling him the truth? Maybe because he seems to have such a problem with the truth. The first half of this book, I would give a 9/10. But the total character assassination of Maggie, (and women in general) who apparently is not too smart so who knows how her future with Colby will turn out! That drove me nuts.
7/10

The Runaway Quilt

The Runaway Quilt
By Jennifer Chiaverini
0743222261

4th in the series, they only seem to get better as the characters become more and more real to me. These books are quick reads without too many twists, just comfortable interesting characters who all seem like women I would want to be friends with. I could figure out most of what would happen as soon as Sylvia started reading the memoir and grew concerned, but there still was a twist I wasn't expecting! I can't wait to read the next book in the series!
9/10

Fire and Ice: A Life on the Edge

Fire and Ice: A Life on the Edge
By Patty Wagstaff
1556523106

Since I desperately want to learn how to fly (and have since I was about 14), I wandered around online checking for books I should read. This was one of them. Patty Wagstaff had an amazing life so far, at least when this was published 10 years ago. She is amusing as a writer and I love her attitude towards everything- flying, her own life and relationships, things that happen to her and her loved ones.
9/10

Medieval Culture and Society

Medieval Culture and Society
Edited By David Herlihy
0881337471

Will be some help to my thesis, but was overall a well-written and interesting book. Most of it was fragments of books from the middle ages, with introductions to place the pieces in their proper context. Nice round-up of important documents from the time period.
8/10

The Burning

The Burning
By Thomas Legendre
031615380X

To be honest, some of the gambling stuff lost me. I'm not a big gambler, understood quite a bit of it but not all of it. Followed some of the economic stuff, but not all of that either. Didn't understand the relationship between Dallas and Logan. Part of the time I was rooting for them, but for the most part: why were they married in the first place? You'd think all those weekends together, all their talking, would have shown them they were incompatible? The supporting characters were my favorite, which is always sad: Sophie, Ozzy, Erin, Silverson, and of course Puffy. Couldn't work up much sympathy for Logan, even less for Dallas.
7/10

This is Our War

This is Our War: Servicemen's Photographs of Life in Iraq
by Devin Friedman
157965309X

Beautiful, haunting book. The introduction says something about these photographs not being professional photographs, the photographers not professional photographers. No, as the author says, they're much better than that. This is the real war, the day-to-day stuff. There is death but there is life. Laughter, fear, sadness, smiles. A young Iraq boy smiling broadly, with a gun aimed at him. If he makes a wrong move, there will be problems. A huge truck, military issued everything, surrounding a man sleeping on the hood. An opulent palace reduced to dust, with the lingering wonderings of what happened at that beautiful place under it's former leader. In short, breathtaking in it's simplicity and it's depth.

10/10

Looking Back

Looking Back
By Belva Plain
1402520689 (book on CD)

This was supposed to be a book about a group of three girls who graduate college together and go off into the world, their friendship as the years pass and their lives inevitably change. Instead, it is a book about one of the girls, the others are just supporting characters. We never know enough about anyone other than Amanda for the last few chapters to 1) make sense or 2) be cared about. Once the main character is gone, the rest just seems empty. Not that the story was wonderful when Amanda was there. Her motivations made no sense and her incessant internal ramblings were, quite frankly, boring. I'll spoil the story, although most people will see the plot coming around page 50. I never understood how her affair could consume all her thoughts. Didn't she have a life? Yes, love is all-encompassing and all that, but it seemed that she did nothing but obsess over her feelings. Were we supposed to feel sorry for her? I wasn't ever sure, because I didn't. I'll try another book by this author, since she's highly respected, but this one fell very short of the mark.

6/10

50 Jobs Worse than Yours

50 Jobs Worse than Yours
By Justin Racz
1582344922

Cute and funny. Very short though, actually might have been better to have more details on each job or something. Pictures were amusing and the categories were also.
7/10

Inside Bartlet's White House

Inside Bartlet's White House
By Keith Topping
0753508281

Yes, I am a huge West Wing fan. Yes, even though the show is off the air now. This is a good book, giving the overview of the episodes 1 through 74, a little over 3 seasons worth. Obviously, he is in love with Donna, which is very funny! Each write up for each episode has a little thing about Donna and what she did or said during that episode. I liked the categories, they were interesting and sometimes funny. The little "Did You Know?" sections frequently told me something that I hadn't known! Always nice to learn new things about your favorite show, I think.

9/10

50 Boyfriends Worse than Yours

50 Boyfriends Worse than Yours
By Justin Racz
1596910569

Cute. Very quick read, short book. Amusing descriptions of stereotypes, all kinds of crazy men who you probably shouldn't date!
7/10