#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. 

#23: Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult never fails to bring amazing characters, plot twists and turns, and a "No way!" moment to each and every book she writes.  Salem Falls was no different.  I read 434 pages in a day and a half because I could not put this book down.  I was delighted with each and every page and event (even though some were a bit odd, the plot was compelling) until the last paragraph of the book which left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I can not in good conscience recommend this book to anyone.  Even if you can handle witches and spells and a story that reminds us all of the Salem Witch Trials with a modern day spin, I doubt you will be able to stomach that last paragraph.  But, I suppose it's writing paragraphs like the last one of this book that makes Jodi Picoult such an amazing author. She doesn't sugar coat anything and she makes us look at the world from a different angle.  I'm not sure that there were any angles at all in this last paragraph, though. Unless you count head-on as an angle. 

For fear of sounding like one of the main characters of Salem Falls...read this book, IF YOU DARE...

#22: The Knitting Diaries: Macomber, Mallery, and Skye

Well...I am not sure what to say about this one except that perhaps I should've saved it for the beach.  The stories were very light and I was tempted to skip over the descriptions in order to get to the dialogue, which I did too often I am afraid.  The stories were good, don't get me wrong, but after reading The Walk and Miles to Go and some of the other hard-hitters I've read so far this year, this one did not mentally challenge me.  Good grief, did I just type that?

The book was composed of 3 stories, the first by one of my favorite author's Debbie Macomber.  She's a knitter and got together with two other knitter/authors to create this book.  Each story centered around a knitter and, of course, romance.  Macomber's story, always a light and easy read, reintroduced some of my favorite characters from Blossom Street and got me excited about a new full-length hardcover book that comes out on Tuesday.  Mission accomplished.

The second story was by Susuan Mallery, who is also a favorite author of mine.  Her story was not as steamy as her books, which was appropriate for this collection, and it was my favorite of the three, but that could very well be because of my affinity for Texas Cowboys.  Couple one of those with a knitting store and I am hooked! 

The last story was kind of sad and was written by an author with whom I am not familiar: Christina Skye.  It is also the only story about which I have a criticism.  It's not a fully developed story, in my opinion.  The plot was developing nicely and steadily when I realized I had 10 pages left in the story to read.  It was nicely and neatly wrapped up in those last 10 pages, but I think there could've been a lot more to it.  Maybe this story should've been in the middle and balanced out by the other 2.  Unfortunately, because I read this one last, it made me not think so highly of the book overall.

So, after reading 2 consecutive Nook books, my next one is coming off of the good old-fashioned bookshelf.  It's a Jodi Picoult called Salem Falls.  Her books are never light, I'd never consider her to be a beach bag author, and her books definitely challenge me.  Here I go.

#21: Miles to Go, Richard Paul Evans

I now have MILES TO WAIT as I will not be able to read the next installment of this book until April 2012.  And, of course, Mr. Evans left me hanging from a cliff in the last two sentences of Miles to Go.  That man is good at his work.

Miles to Go was AMAZING!  For those of you who were inspired by The Walk, you need to read on.  The Walk introduced readers to several main characters and a lot of characters who Alan met as he was walking.  Miles to Go has a bit of a different focus due to the stabbing that occurred at the end of The Walk.  In Miles to Go, we meet "Angel," Bill, and Christine, and Kailamai (who tells the FUNNIEST jokes!) and we get to know them all quite well.  As I have said before, I would love to know these people.  They are the sort of people who just might only exist in books, but we hope are real and really hope are our neighbors. 

I'm not quite sure what else to say about Miles to Go.  The lessons I learned from this book are too numerous to list.  Here are the ones that stand out... Be kind to others, stick your neck out when it's important, and if you think you might be able to help someone in a way that no one ever has done before, you should try.  Even if your help is shot down, give it a try.  The effort sometimes is all a person might need. 

It's a long time until April 2012.  I guess maybe this is RPE's attempt at getting us to feel what Alan is feeling.  He's walking from Washington State to Key West Florida.  If he has to wait to achieve his goal, I guess the least I can do is wait to read about it.  So off I go to wait and to read a bunch of other books in the meantime.