#27: Love Wins by Rob Bell

I have not finished this book, but am reading it little by little.  I think my head might explode if I read it all at once. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Love Wins, it's a book about Heaven and Hell.  It challenges most of the traditional ideas and beliefs about Heaven and Hell and forces readers to think about these "places" a bit differently.  For most of my life, I have questioned what I was taught about Heaven and Hell.  Finally, through this book I am getting some answers that make sense to me. 

I am not sure how long it will take me to finish this book, but I'll blog as I go.  I have read the chapter about Heaven and am about to imbark upon Hell (right around the time of SOLs, what a funny coincidence).   As my mother said, she's been there and back.  She has no idea how much this one statement would make Rob Bell giddy with understanding.  She's living proof that his ideas are on the mark in some ways. 

#26 Something Blue by Emily Giffin

I went to see Something Borrowed last week with a friend and loved the movie.  It was based on the book by the same name and left me wondering what happens next.  The funny part of that is that I should know what happened next because I have read the sequel, Something Blue.  I read both books during a beach vacation about 5 years ago, but I could not remember anything specific about the books other than that I really liked them.  So, after finishing The Calhouns, I set out to re-read Something Blue.  I finished the re-read about an hour or so ago and had to touch up my eye makeup before going out to dinner.  The last few chapters had me in tears; it was such a good story. 

If you read Something Borrowed, or even if you see the movie, you might leave the story not liking Darcy Rhone very much.  Be warned: Something Blue is an entire book devoted to Darcy.  She's dealt some pretty crummy cards in Something Borrowed, but most of us don't feel badly for her because she kind of gets what she deserves.  The beginning of Something Blue reminds us of her saga and again, you might not feel too much sympathy for her.  But, there's a point in Something Blue where your opinion of Darcy might change and then I dare you not to like her from that point on.  Her transformation in this novel is remarkable.  I would like to be her friend and I certainly would never have said that after reading Something Borrowed.  I liked Rachel and Dex in that book, never Darcy. 

I almost wish that there was just one more book.  A trilogy would've been nice so that I could find out what happens with Darcy, Ethan, John, and Thomas.  Oh well, I will just have to imagine the rest of the story in my head. 

#25: The Calhouns: Suzanne and Megan by Nora Roberts

I didn't think this book would ever arrive from Barnes and Noble and when it finally did I couldn't read it fast enough.  The problem is that work got in the way of reading and has for the past 3 weeks, so it took me a while to finish this book. 

This second installation into the life and times of the Calhoun family was just as wonderfully tasteful as the first.  The mystery of the emeralds was solved in quite a clever way, the new male characters were just as amazing as the first 3, and there was even a new mystery to be solved during the section of the book dedicated to Megan. 

This book and the one before reminded me so much of Wuthering Heights, but without all of the doom and gloom.  I wish The Towers was a real place because I'd be checked into the resort part of the mansion in a flash! 

This is another great read by Nora Roberts.  I wonder what book she's going to have out next.  I just love her characters! 

#24 Knitting by Anne Bartlett

I love reading books about knitters and knitting.  I love the descriptions about different yarns and how they feel in your hands as you knit.  I love reading the conversations that occur during knitting groups and the friendships that develop.  So, when I saw Knitting, I could not resist reading it.  But, now that I am finished, I have to say that this book was a bit strange.  The characters were strange and I had a hard time relating to them.  The plot was strange (they were knitting some very bizarre items) and I had a hard time relating to it. As a result, I'm not sure that I would recommend this book to anyone, even people who love to knit as much as I do and who love to read about knitting groups and friends who knit.  I am not sure that even they would like this book. 

This book was a bit of a disappointment to me.  Maybe I need to keep a list of my top 5 reads of 2011 along with a list of the top 5 disappointments.  Knitting would definitely be on the latter.