the lightning thief

One of my students recommended this book and even lent me a copy, so I felt kind of obliged to read it.  It was a quick read and I was not at all disappointed.  The story of Percy Jackson's quest to return Zeus's lightning bolt is an exciting young adult read.  The gods of Greek myths are alive and as powerful as ever in Rick Riordan's engaging adventure.  My "To Read" list is a bit long right now, so I'm not going to grab the next book in the series, but I know some day I will!

the geography of bliss

"Using the ancient philosophers and the much more recent "science of happiness" as his guide, Weiner travels the world in search of the happiest places. Many authors have attempted to describe what happiness is; fewer have shown us where it is, and what we can learn from the inhabitants of different cultures.

As Weiner makes his way from Iceland (one of the world's happiest countries) to Bhutan (where the king has made Gross National Happiness a national priority) to Moldova (not a happy place), he calls upon the collective wisdom of "the self-help industrial complex" to help him navigate the path to contentment. "

I really enjoyed this book.  Nice change of pace from 2000 pages of Stieg Larsson.  It got me thinking about what constitutes happiness and how I can declutter my life.  It made me want to do a clean sweep of each room of our house, in an effort to make it more of a home.  I laughed on many occasions as I read The Geography of Bliss.  Eric Weiner's sarcasm and wit remind me of Dave Barry, and for those of you who are Barry fans, you know this is a compliment.

stieg larsson's trilogy

I have managed to completely ignore this space for months now.  And honestly, I'm not backtracking.  Instead, here are the 2000 pages that have monopolized my attention for the last few weeks.  The Lisbeth Salander trilogy is absolutely enthralling, in spite of how twisted and disturbing parts of the books are.  Loved them. 

purple heart

Finally read a book, and unfortunately, I wasn't engaged by it.  Purple Heart is the One Book One School choice for HC, so I felt I should give it a try.  At least it was a quick read.  It deals with one boy's experiences as a soldier in Iraq and his recovery after a roadside bomb injures him.  He is awarded a purple heart but has mixed feeling about the events of the day.  I guess it is a decent teen read; however, it lacks rich characters and a layered plot.  It just felt flat.

mockingjay

I preordered this book so I received it the day it came out.  Pretty cool.  Now that school has started, finding time to read it posed a problem, but I finally found a couple days.  Loved the concept of this final book in the trilogy, but I'm not sure I like the ending.  I'm still digesting it all so I may change my mind down the road.  Overall this series of books was amazing.  Although they are young adult, it would be difficult to find an adult who wouldn't enjoy them.

the promise

This is the story of one woman's promise to send a class of first-graders to college.  While I admire all her hard work and the fact that she was successful in following through on her promise, I was bored by the book.  The writing lacked sophistication and flair, and I was thoroughly annoyed by her self-promoting.  Not one I would recommend.

the power of half

The summary of this book made me want to read it, but it ended up being a disappointment.  The writing was not engaging and I was quite annoyed with this family.  Basically, the Salwen family decides to sell their house and donate half of the profit to the Hunger Project.  They visit Ghana to see where their money will go and become a closer family in the process. 

Here are my problems with this book: 1) The family sells their 2 million dollar, 6500 square foot house to move to one half the size.  Is this really a sacrifice?  I do admire the thought behind their "project" but had a hard time reading about what a life-changing downgrade their new house was (Dan and I live in a 1150 square foot home!)  2) The family came off as holier than thou the entire book...very annoying.  The daughter was described as the perfect, do-good child.  3)  The writing was so basic to the point of boring.  Only a short section even discussed their trip to Ghana and we never ever hear about their actual project.  The entire book was about the process of trying to sell the house and deciding to which project they will donate the money.

Overall, not my favorite book...far from it!