Sick days

My sweet little princess was sick this week with Bronchitis, she stayed home from school quite a bit the last 2 weeks, the one thing she loves to do when she's sick is read with mommy. Her and I spent about four of her sick days in bed with tons of books, we read all of the "Olivia" books, 4 Fancy Nancy books and also a book called,"A Dog's Life" by, Ann Martin. It's a higher level of reading but Olivia really enjoyed it since is was the story of a stray dog and in the dogs words. I also started to read her "The Babysitter's Club" series. I believe these were first published in 1986. My older sister loved these books and had them all. I brought out a box of her old stuff and Olivia caught a glimpse and wanted to start reading them.

When I saw that we would be keeping a reading blog I was excited, especially since we got to choose our reading. I love to read but sometimes I slack and get wrapped up in my everyday stress that sometimes I feel like I don't or shouldn't have time for it. I was still reading just not as many books. The Prabes reflection gave me a chance to make sure I get my personal time in each week doing what I love, reading. Not only am I reading more but my daughter sees me reading a lot and wants to do the same and that's a great feeling!

The Mercy of Thin Air

I started to read a new book this week. "The Mercy of Thin Air" by, Ronlyn Domingue.
I just about half way through and I LOVE it! The story takes place in present day and flashes back to the 1920's. A couple find and old bookcase at an estate sale and purchased it for their home. 
Razi drowned in 1929, in the pool of her first and only love, Andrew, she was now a ghost traveling the in between. The bookcase once belonged to Andrew and when it opened, Andrews essence was released and prompted Razi to follow the bookcase back to Scott and Amy's house. Razi watches the couple and plays a few tricks on them. I get so sad to think of Razi, not being able to really communicate with the living, and the way she loved Andrew. When she died and met a friend in the "in between" she was told she shouldn't see Andrew, to just leave him alone to heal, so she lost track of him through the years, then goes on a search for him. I'm not giving anything else away with this one. I love how the book tells two powerful stories at once and how they become linked. Great book!
Reading log:
Monday 1:00pm-2:00pm
Tuesday 8:00pm-10:00pm
Thursday 10:00am-12:00pm 

The Notebook

Well, I switched it up this week. I feel like lately I have been reading a lot of dark and sort of negative books. When I do this, all it takes to get me to snap out of it and brighten up is" The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks. Sometimes I just need to read about the incredible love Nicholas Sparks writes about. I'm sure most of you have probably watched the movie or read the book, I don't know about all of you, but this book never gets old. I always cry, it never fails. The book is slightly different from the movie but they are both amazing. I'm a happy ending kind of person, a movie or book can be great throughout but if there isn't a happy ending, it's no good to me. In my opinion, we deal with horrible things on a daily basis. Most people don't get a happy ending, nothing in reality happens as it does in great books or movies, so if I'm going to escape into a different world when I read at night, I want a happy ending to smile at when I'm finished.
Reading Log
Monday-8:30pm-10:30pm
Wednesday-9:00pm-10:30pm
Thursday-5:00pm-6:00pm

I haven't read a whole lot of the book I started this week. Instead, I did a lot of reading on the chemicals and hormones that are in our food. Now, I'm a pretty healthy eater. I try to eat organic as much as possible, we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and all the good stuff. I was catching up on my DR. Oz and caught an episode from a while ago about fish. Apparently when we go to the grocery store and buy fish, or order lets say Tuna from a restaurant we are only getting what we order about 10% of the time! We're actually purchasing something lower grade and sometimes fish that's extremely unhealthy for us. So after that I have been reading everything from organic living magazines, to tons of websites about what is in our food. Here are a few super crazy facts I found: Aspartame, found in artificial sweeteners is made form genetically modified bacteria and can cause neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraines. The BPA that if in most of the plastic packaging food comes in has been known to cause cancer, infertility, hormone disorders, and promotes male breast growth. Sodium Nitrate is added to every kind of processed meat we purchase, bacon, sausage, lunch meat, and so on. Sodium Nitrate is strongly linked to brain tumors, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer! That's just to name a few, I have learned about a couple of these in a nutrition class about 6 years ago but completely forgot how horrible our food is for our health. I so glad that my family and I have chosen to not only eat organic but also most of our household cleaners, soaps, and shampoo are also organic!

Reading log
Monday 1:00-2:30
Wednesday 9:00 am- 11:00 am
Saturday 4:00-5:00

Somebody Else's Daughter

I finally went to the Goodwill to purchase a few books, I picked up three to keep me occupied for the next couple weeks. I just started reading, "Somebody Else's Daughter". The story starts off a father narrating a story for his daughter that he and his wife gave up for adoption. The beginning is really sad, Cat, the baby's mother and her father were heroin addicts and meet at a crack house. When she got pregnant she discovered she had HIV. The nurses told her she wouldn't know if the baby had it for a few months. Her father describes the disgusting apartment they lived in and how social workers kept coming over urging them to give their baby up. When they finally decided to give her up for adoption Cat insists on driving to Massachusetts to meet her new parents. On the way there Cat was so sick and could hardly move while the baby cried in the back seat and the father stopped to score some heroin. When they finally arrived to the new parents' house, Cat wouldn't go inside, when he came out Cat was dead in the car. This story makes me  sad, I know that this sort of thing happens everyday in real life, people using drugs, getting sick and selfishly having babies. I'm also sad for Cat, having to give up her child and knowing she will soon be dead. My husband and I are lucky enough to have a beautiful, healthy daughter, but we also suffer from secondary infertility. When I hear stories of drug abusers having babies it makes me a little upset, but glad that they gave her up to someone who struggles with getting pregnant. I think  I'll enjoy getting deeper into this book, and I'll get some more reading time this weekend!

Reading Log
Tuesday 7:00pm-8:00pm
Friday 9:00am- 10:00am

Gone Girl

My family and I were stuck in Nebraska all day yesterday. We left the house at 9:00 am and didn't get home until 1:00 am the next morning. I was stuck in a strange town without my laptop and without cell service! Thankfully I remembered to bring "Gone Girl" with me and was able to spend the entire day reading, with the wonderful and frequent interruptions from my husband and daughter. I read the whole thing, every time I put it down and needed a break, I would have to pick it back up. This book was amazing, every time you knew what was going on the story changed, my kind of book. I believe we left off where Nick's wife, Amy went missing. The book is made up of Amy's journal entries and then Nick's narrations. I would really hate to give key events away for those of you who might start reading it but here are some good parts. Amy's journal started off with her loving Nick, Nick is brilliant, Nick is such a good man, then starts going into, Nick got really mad and pushed me, I was so afraid that I went to go purchase a gun. The whole town believes Nick murdered his wife, the cops discovered the crime scene in their living room had been staged and blood had been moped up in the kitchen. All the evidence points to him but then something crazy happens. I won't say but, I would recommend this books to anyone who loves a good psychological thriller/mystery.

Gone Girl

This week I have started a new Gillian Flynn book, "Gone Girl". I chose another book from this author because her novels keep me engaged and I really love the way she is able to describe things to her readers. This book starts off with a husband and wife that fell out of love, they were writers in New York but lost their jogs and moved back to Missouri. Nick (the husband) and his sister opened a bar and when nick gets a call from his neighbor telling him his door is wide open, he rushes home to find his wife, Amy, gone with signs of struggle in the house. So far there are no leads but I am very anxious to get back to my reading tonight before bed. My love of Gillian's novels make me seem all dark and twisty, but I am not. I just really admire her work and her unique imagination. I'm not aware of any other books written by her so I'm already wondering what I will read next and if I will be interested the same as I am in these books. I've read every book I have at home at least twice so I think a trip to the bookstore is in order. I would love some recommendations from anyone who enjoys similar taste in reading, so if you have any feel free to reply!

Reading log
Friday 3/22 - 6:00-8:00
Saturday 3/23- 8:00-9:15

Finished

Well, I finished "Sharp Objects" this book was very good and a little unexpected. I won't say the end but it gets pretty crazy and if you like the dark mystery kinds of books I encourage you to read this one if you haven't already. In an odd way I can relate to the main character, Camille. Her sister passed away and has a very strained relationship with her mother, I've also dealt with those issues. For whatever other reasons I felt close with her and felt very sad for the life she had to live in her mother's house. I believe there is a new Gillian Flynn book out and want to buy it for my pleasure read next week. I've also read her book, "Bad things Happen" I loved that one as well! The way she describes things is amazing and paints a clear picture for her readers. I used to want to be a writer but I'm not sure if I could come up with some of the stuff I read in her books. She's a pretty amazing writer!

Reading Log
Monday, March 11- 7:00pm-8:00pm
Tuesday, March 12- 5:30pm-7:00pm
Wednesday, March 13- 8:00pm-10:15pm

Getting good

Well "Sharp Objects" is officially getting good! A couple who owns a diner found Natalie's(the missing girl) body in between 2 buildings, her teeth were also gone. It seems to me like these 2 little girls were killed for their teeth but, I'm not sure at this point. I also discovered a few about Camille and why she had such a hard time going back home to Wind Gap. On her 13th birthday her sister died. I haven't found out how yet, just that she was sick. Also, Camille cuts herself, she doesn't just slice her skin open though, she carves word into her skin. Her body is filled with scars and scrachings of words from head to toe. She stopped after she carved one last word into her neck and went to an institution for twelve weeks. Her younger step sister seem peculiar. She has a doll house or Adora(her mother) changes her color scheme, she gets very upset and frustrated. When she's around Adora she acts like a small child and gets rocked but when she out of the house she changes her clothes and bullies others with her group of friends, there is something off about her. I believe Camille may be starting a fling with the Kansas City detective who is helping with the investigation of the murders, we shall see.

Reading log-
Monday- 8:30 pm-9:00 pm
Thursday- 9:00 pm-10:00 pm
Sunday-6:00 pm-6:45 pm

I started reading Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn. Great author, I love her novels!
Camille Preaker is from a small town in Missouri, Wind Gap. she works in Chicago as a writer and is sent back to her old town to snoop around and get a good story about a young girl who was murdered and one who went missing there. She's dreading going back to where she's from. She doesn't have a good relationship with her mother and barely knows her kid sister. When she arrives in town she doesn't go straight to her Mother's house, which she will be staying at during her investigation. She heads to the police department, they give her no details.
She quickly joined the search party for the missing girl, she recovered from a fellow searcher a few details about the murder that also took place there, her teeth were all missing when she was found in the woods.
I'm eager to pick it up again, to learn about why Camille is so nervous and hesitant to return to her home and what happened with the girls. I've been traveling this week so it's been hard to read as much as I would like to.