23/100

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Dear Melissa,

Stop reading short stories. You don't like them. You never will like them. Regardless of how catchy the title may be, you are still going to hate the book. Stop wasting your time.


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22/100

Smart Vs. Pretty by Valerie Frankel

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I chose this book because I was interested in one of Frankel's other books and I wanted to check her out. I thought this book was pretty pointless. It was like an unfunny early Janet Evanovich novel. The title didn't really make sense since the whole smart vs. pretty thing was rarely touched on and I didn't connect with any of the characters. I didn't really care what happened to them, and that is rare for me. I am very skeptical about trying the other book now.


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21/100

Geek Love: A Novel by Katherine Dunn

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Let me start by saying I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked this book up. I was under the impression that geek was synonymous with nerd. I thought it would be some light, entertaining reading after some books I didn't particularly like. Boy, was I wrong. I was quite surprised when the first page started talking about biting chickens heads off.



The book is more or less about a circus family who look down upon "norms." The weirder you are, the higher your stature. The mother takes various drugs to try and make the most screwed up children she can. Now I know some people could be disturbed by this. I was okay with the concept, but a boy with flippers, conjoined twins and a hunchback just weren't that entertaining to me. I could not get into the book AT ALL. I know people who love it draw parallels to the world and how normalcy is overrated but I just thought it was annoying drivel. I skimmed through a lot of it just to finish the book.


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20/100

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
The title of this book got me hook, line, and sinker. It sounds like my ideal day. And while I did enjoy that particular story, and the other ones about weight, I could not get into any of the others. I just kept thinking, what is the point of this story? Safe to say, I was not a fan at all.


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19/100

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love this series. As mentioned before, I just listened to The Constant Princess on audiobook so I decided to order The Boleyn Inheritance and listen to it was well.

The story is told from the perspective of 3 people: Anne of Cleves (who becomes King Henry's 4th wife), Jane Boleyn (who was married to George Boleyn and was Anne Boleyn's sister-in-law), and Katherine Howard (who becomes Henry's 5th wife).

It is easy to love Anne because she seems like a down-to-Earth person who has just been down on her luck for her entire life. You just really feel sorry for her. Although in the audio book, I hated how the speaker would spit out "ANNE!" whenever it was her time to tell her story.

I didn't like Jane Boleyn at all. From TOBG it seemed like she was against George and Anne and now all of a sudden she misses them so much and is so sad about their deaths. It sort of becomes clearer towards the end, but I still thought that was a little weird.

I thought Katherine Howard was annoying at first, but then I grew to like her. She was funny at times, and you just feel for her for being so very young.

The end of the book was heart wrenching, especially since I was hearing it all play out. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.


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18/100

Please Stop Laughing at Me: One Woman's Inspirational Story by Jodee Blanco

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Let me start by saying that I am a special education teacher and my brother was constantly teased because of a physical disability. With that being said, I thought this book was just annoying.



The story is about a girl who moves through school after school after school and continues to be tormented by her classmates for various reason. And by tormented, I mean physically assaulted on a daily basis. The kids were downright evil, the teachers were nasty, and her parents seemed like morons.



I honestly have a hard time believing the responses that she got. She wrote the part of a martyr, basically constantly sticking up for the little guy, while she was tormented for no reason by heinous people. Teachers laughed at her and sided with tormentors. Her parents sent HER to a shrink.



I felt like the whole time, she wanted people to tell her how wonderful she was. There was constant foreshadowing of, "But they never knew just how wrong they were" or "who knew it would almost cost me my life" and stuff like that. And her mom called her "Angel" probably half a million times. Obviously, I was not a fan.


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17/100

Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have always like Emily Giffin and maybe that is why this book is getting 4 stars instead of 3. The story is about a newlywed woman who runs into the love of her life who she broke up with 8 years prior. From there we see her struggle with what could have been and what she currently has with her husband and new life. I think it was almost disconcerting because it was so easy to relate to. It made it uncomfortable to think of being in her situation. This was a good, quick read and I look forward to more Giffin in the future.


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