Author: Nicholas Sparks

Genre:  Romance/Fiction

ISBN: 0-4466-53243-6

Intended Audience:  Middle aged women or any die-hard Nicholas Sparks fans

Summary:  Jeremy Marsh writes a column for Scientific American, and gets a big break with a national TV appearance.  While scientific writing isn’t what he really loves doing, he takes a bite at another offer for a TV special on the supernatural happenings in the little town of Boone Creek, North Carolina.  The small town atmosphere is a big change and takes a lot of adjusting from Jeremy’s usual New York lifestyle.  His sour attitude makes for a rough start to his trip, but the people of Boone Creek eventually rub off on him and he starts to see how small town America can be so charming.  He meets Lexie Darnell while doing research for the special, and is instantly mesmerized by her beauty and strength, and is in awe of how different she is from the city girls.  He begins to see Lexie daily, during research because she runs the town library, but goes out of his way to see her other places as well.  As their relationship grows, Lexie helps him see things in a different way, and even changes his views on the supernatural, the very thing that brought him to Boone Creek. 

Review:  This book has completely turned me sour to any future readings of Nicholas Sparks.  I’ve read about 5 or 6 of his novels, and reading this was like watching a really bad lifetime movie.  It’s like he has used up all of his good romantic story lines, and is now just making up any kind of garbage plot to go along with his knack for relationship chemistry writing.  There was absolutely zero creativity, nothing unexpected, and the climax was laughable.  The story was so completely predictable and expected I could have finished it myself after just the first two chapters.  While I was disappointed in the plot, literary content, and lack of creativity, I can’t rate this book at a zero because he did do a fine job at developing a relationship and putting the emotion into the pages.  Overall, the plot, climax, and characters were all very two-dimensional, lacking any real substance or interest, but the romantic relationship (which is why all girls read Nicholas Sparks!) was developed nicely, making the book finish-able, but not recommend-worthy.

Rating: 0.5 out of 5

Sometimes in life there really are bonds formed that can never be broken. Sometimes you really can find that one person who will stand by you no matter what. Maybe you’ll find it in a spouse and celebrate it with your dream wedding. But there’s also the chance that the one person you can count on for a lifetime, the one person who knows you sometimes better than you know yourself, is the same person who’s been standing beside you all along.

The personal philosophies of remarkable men and women

Forward: Studs Terkel

Edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman

Genre:  Inspiration

ISBN:  978-0-8050-8658-4

Intended Audience:  Aged 14 and up, just because of the nature of the stories.  Suitable for all ages, but under 14 might not fully understand or grasp the concept of ones belief or care to read about it.

Summary:  The book is a collection of essays written by people who represent all walks of life.  Every essay is between 350 and 500 words, and is the writers’ individual response to the statement: This I Believe.  The book is based on the NPR series popular in the 1950s, and contains essays from the original series as well as new essays from figures today.  From Albert Einstein to John McCain to Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller, every essay digs deep into the soul of the author’s beliefs, and makes you think about your own personal beliefs.

Review:  I suggest everyone read this book one essay at a time, one day at a time.  In order to truly digest each essay as an individual piece of work, they need to be pondered on for at least a day.  You will find yourself thinking of the essays, and coming back to certain ones that stick out to you, and in order to absorb them all individually they need to be read separately.  I love the concept of getting someone as famous as Bill Gates and a normal high school student and having them write an essay based on the same question and publishing them together to see the differences and similarities.  This is something every person can do, and after reading, I think you’ll be inspired to write your own “This I Believe” essay.  

Rating:  4 out of 5

“All is maya, illusion.  Things are not as they seem.  We humans do not know a damn thing.  About anything.  A scary thought, but also, in a way, a liberating one.  Our highs, our accomplishments, are not real.  But neither are our setbacks, our mushkala.  They are not real either.”  -Eric Weiner, The Geography of Bliss

What if your imaginary friend from childhood was your one true love?

Authors: James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet

Genre:  Fiction

ISBN: 978-0-446-19944-5

Intended Audience:  Females aged 30 +

Summary:  Jane Margaux’s mother, a famous Broadway producer, only makes time for her daughter once a week for their Sunday trips to admire the jewelry at Tiffany’s.  Being the classic attention-deprived child, Jane seeks attention and friendship through her imaginary friend, a handsome, caring, and funny man named Michael.  Michael “leaves” Jane on her 9th birthday, promising that she’ll soon forget all about him, but Jane, even in her twenties, is unable to forget her perfect imaginary friend.  One day Michael re-enters her life, and their bond is as great as it ever was, but Michael has come back for a reason, which Jane will eventually find out. 

Review: Let me just start by saying that I love James Patterson novels.  With that being said, this was the worst book I’ve ever read in my entire 22 years of living.  I was a bit turned off by the un-original title, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt since James Patterson is (generally) a good author.  Upon reading, not only did he basically copy the title, but he also stole the entire idea of finding solace and comfort in the jewelry store from Truman Capote!  It is literally exactly the same idea as in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  

My dislike of the book is probably partly my fault because I didn’t read the byline before purchasing.  ”What if your imaginary friend from childhood was your one true love?”  The closest I ever got to an imaginary friend was when pet rocks were cool in the 4th grade, and that lasted about a week.  I’m not a big fan of those things that can never, will never happen, so therefore, find it nearly impossible to enjoy an entire novel about an imaginary friend/lover.  

My third severe issue with the novel is Michael and Jane’s friendship when she was a child.  Michael is a grown adult, and Jane is under the age of 9, but yet they’re best friends and Jane never wants to be without him.  Alright.  I know we’re delving into the complete absurd here, but if you’re going to have an imaginary friend, wouldn’t he be your same age, and not the age of your parents?  The 20 year age gap just takes the novel to a new level of creepy. 

Overall, the novel had a weak storyline, unoriginal ideas, and was poorly written.  This could have been classified as a young adult novel based on the structure and vocabulary.  While it’s nice to have an easy read every once in awhile, teetering the border of 3rd grade reading competency levels just leaves you feeing ignorant and unfulfilled.

Rating:  0 out of 5

The question is:  Are you happy?

As simply as I can put it, yes and no.  Somedays I feel like I could probably be the most unhappy person in the world, and other days I feel near contentment with my life, which is the closest to happiness I’ve felt in a long time.  I think happiness is such a simple thing that seems nearly impossible to obtain, and we spend our entire lives in its pursuit.  I don’t think anything changes in my life to make me  wake up and feel happy or unhappy, it’s just my state of mind on that particular day.  I have felt, though, that I feel more extremely now that I am not in a relationship.  When I’m happier, it’s more intense than it was when I was in a relationship, and when I’m unhappy, it’s much more extreme.  I think that’s just related to the fact that I’m dealing with my emotions on my own, and I don’t have anyone to pawn my unhappiness on or to console me when I’m upset. 

On days that I wake up and feel near contentment (I say ‘near’ because I have yet to feel complete and utter contentment ever in my entire life), I feel like everything is alright, and I am for the most part happy.  I’m thankful that I have a job, and friends, and a family that loves me, and I just generally view life optimistically.  I would rate my happiness on these days at about a 7.

On the days that I wake up and feel unhappy (more often than the latter), I feel like my life is pathetic and has no meaning, and I just contemplate over and over again all the things that are “wrong” about my life.  So these thoughts just fester in my head all day, and I have no one to vent to, which just adds salt to the wound.  And even if I did call someone up to discuss my current state of mind, I don’t know what I would say because 90% of the time I can’t even pinpoint one thing that I’m unhappy about.  On days like these (today), I just have a pessimistic outlook on everything, and I feel like nothing I do is really going to change anything about my life because everything is just so far out of my reach.  These days I would rate my happiness at about a 3.  

So how do you alter your current situation when you feel unhappy and terrible?  Here’s what I’ve found.  Surround yourself with happy people.  Force yourself to be happy around them, and try as hard as you can to have a good time when you’re with them.  Try to think positively about the ways you can change your situations that you’re thinking negatively about.  And as corny as it sounds, listen to happy music and read positive books.  Jack Johnson is my artist of preference.

Here’s what it comes down to.  I don’t really know what true happiness is.  I was telling my sister just the other day that one of the happiest memories I have was a Memorial Day weekend when we were in Siesta Key, and Teresa Loucks and I were swimming in the water, and a dolphin came up and was swimming less than 10 feet away from us.  Don’t ask me why this is one of my happiest memories, but I remember it so vividly, and I remember wanting nothing more than to just stay there in the water with the dolphin.  But can that really be considered happiness?  Because the moment faded in about 20 minutes, and real life resumed, and I don’t remember my state of happiness the rest of the day, or even the rest of the weekend.  I think happiness is relative, and life’s too short to spend your life doing things that make you unhappy.  Complaining and whining doesn’t do anything but spread the unhappiness.  Be proactive and change the things that need to be changed.  And start searching for what makes you happy, and seize any moment to have to do something that will make you happy.  Even if it is just for a moment.  

A modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together

Authors: Ron Hall & Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent

Genre: Memoir

ISBN: 978-0-8499-1910-7

Intended Audience:  I obviously did not realize this at the time of purchase, but this book would be most enjoyed by those those of the age 40 and up, and with strong religious beliefs.  

Summary:  Same Kind of Different As Me is two different stories told by two different men, who meet one day and begin to share with each other and create a new story together.  Ron Hall is an art dealer living in an upscale neighborhood, working to fund his lavish lifestyle, and Denver Moore is a homeless man who frequents local shelters and soup kitchens, just working to make it through the day.  Debbie Moore drags Ron along to help in the soup kitchen, and feels a calling from God that Ron and Denver need to be friends.  With her urging, the two begin a lasting friendship that changes both their lives drastically.

Review:  Ron and Denver both wrote the novel as two separate writers with two separate stories.  This was a good technique to use because Denver wrote in his negro slang and told his stories of slavery and racism, and Ron wrote from his perspective, which helped to show how completely different their lives were.  I think this also hurt the novel because Ron’s perspective completely dominated the novel and left Denver with fewer chapters and less of an impact on the reader.  I think they also went off the focus of their amazing and unlikely friendship, and went into too much depth with Debbie, the person who brought them together.  They didn’t properly utilize their pages, and they often lost focus of the story.  Apart from the actual novel and writing technique, there was one aspect of the story I wish they had left out.  Debbie was a die-hard Christian, and they mention several times her “callings” and “experiences” with God that are described as nothing short of bizarre.  There’s one particular instance when she claimed to have actually felt God’s presence with her, and her reactions and the entire situation were just written as if she were a crazed lunatic.  This is still a good story, but a little less Ron, Debbie, and God and it could have been a great novel.

Rating:  2 out of 5

Author: Jennifer Weiner

Genre: Fiction/Romance

ISBN: 0-7434-1817-4

Intended Audience: With a title like “Good In Bed,” what more do you expect than your classic female comedy/romance novel.  An easy read, any female would appreciate this brain-candy, but girls under the age of about 16 might not be able to relate to the story.

Summary:  Cannie Shapiro has the classic life of every main character in female-oriented novels.  She’s in her twenties, is (surprise!) a writer, is overweight, and happy with her life.  Until her ex-boyfriend writes an article about “Loving a Larger Woman” and all of America reads about his experiences in their plus-size relationship.  Cannie struggles with her ex-boyfriend’s betrayal, and her life falls apart.  When she begins picking up the pieces, she emerges a completely different person, with a completely different life.

Review:  The novel is obviously not one to challenge your vocabulary or make you think philosophically, but sometimes it’s nice to read and just vacate the brain for awhile.  I always say these types of girly novels are better than “chick-flicks” because they’re more than 2 hours long, and you get to create the people involved in the relationship.  This novel, however, did not live up to these relatively low standards of a simple comedy/love movie in the form of a book.  The love interest was old and kinda creepy, the main character just loses it and goes mental for a period of time, and the ex-boyfriend is completely non-existent.  I don’t know why Weiner even bothered to write him in, because for being the main antagonist, he didn’t really do much.  Now I know that all novels are subjective, so someone else could read it and see Andy Baldwin with Jessica Biel and hearts and flowers and la-de-da, but it just wasn’t there for me.  Aside from the character issues, I feel the novel was also poorly organized.  It starts off slow and steady, with the plot moving along at a slow but consistent pace, and then it’s as if Weiner were running low on paper and had to quickly solve issues, make ammends, and unite the happy couple before she ran out.  The ending just seemed so sloppy and botched that it took away from the rest of the somewhat decent novel.  The story line is not original, so to be anything noteworthy, the novel had to shine like the Isadora diamond in “How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days.”  And it most certainly did not. 

Rating:  1 out of 5

“When you’re a kid you assume your parents are soulmates. My kids are going to be right about that.”

There Is No God

By Penn Jillette

I believe that there is no god. I’m beyond Atheism. Atheism is not believing in god. Not believing in god is easy, you can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t prove that there isn’t an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word “elephant” includes mystery, order, goodness, love, and a spare tire?
So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in god and then look for evidence of god. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The Atheism part is easy.
But, this “This I Believe” thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by. So, I’m saying, “This I believe-I believe there is no god.”
Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I’m not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows, and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it’s everything in the world, and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I’m raising now is enough that I don’t need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery, and I get joy every day.
Believing there’s no god means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
Believing there’s no god stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without god, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles where people say, “I have faith, I believe this in my heart, and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.” That’s just a long-winded religious way to say, “shut up,” or another two words that the FCC likes less. But, all obscenity is less insulting than, “How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.” So, believing there is no god lets me be proven wrong and that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.
Believing there is no god means the suffering I’ve seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn’t caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No god means the possibility of less suffering in the future.
Believing there is no god gives me more room for belief in family, people, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O, and all the other things I can prove that make this life the best life I will ever have.

“This I Believe” is a fantastic collection of essays written by some of America’s most revered, unusual, and normal, average-Joes. This particular essay was written by Penn of the “Penn and Teller” comedy/magic show in Vegas. Crazy as he may seem, his “This I Believe” essay stood out to me more than Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Bill Gate’s. To genuinely understand and have an appreciation for what he has to say, I feel you need to read, contemplate, question, and then re-read. I may not completely agree with everything he believes, but I feel he has a lot of interesting insight and ideas, and his essay makes me contemplate what I believe. And so begins my essay…