Heartless

I read this book with my book club and I loved it! It was a cute romance filled with Alice in Wonderland throwbacks. It’s the story of the queen of hearts before she became queen. It leaves you guessing and wondering how she could ever become an evil head offing person! She loves to bake and dreams of having a bakery one day so that was fun. A good clean action romance.

Geekerella

I listened to this book recently and I loved it! It was predictable because it is based on Cinderella. It is set in the south in modern day and revolves around a sci fi tv show that is being remaked into a movie. I loved all the adaptations and cosplay and insights into the worlds of sci fi fans and famous actors. There was little swearing and they even use a different sci fi made up word for some. It was cute and I enjoyed listening to it. For young girls: there is one minor character who is hinted at being a lesbian and she likes a girl and holds her hand in the end. It is very subtle and they could just be friends, not affection is mentioned other than they spend time together and hold hands. 

I bought this book for Nonny for Christmas. We decided to read it for my book club and I was overjoyed! It is a really fast and interesting story set in non other than Florence, Italy. On her mothers death bed she begs her to go meet this man who was her friend the exact same years ago as she is old...so...its got to be her long lost father she has never met or known about. She goes to Florence and has a crazy time trying to piece together her mothers life while she was living there 15 years ago. Along the way she finds love, and GELATO!!!

It was so fun to read because I recently went to Florence and when she talked about the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and the obscure gelato place that was heavenly I reminisced about when I experienced them. It was like I was back there. I just HAD to eat some gelato while I read this book, although it is not the same frozen from the grocery store as it is in Italy.

All in all, a very fun book, albeit a bit predictable. Maybe I've just read too many romance books, but I figured out all the secrets in an instant. It was still very fun to read. She is coming out with a new book "Love and Luck" in May about a girl who travels to Ireland. So...MosleyGirlsTrip 2019 to Dublin???

My Lady Jane

I LOVED this book! I enjoy learning about English royalty, and romance, and fantasy books and this one has all of those. It is a hilarious and frustrating story about Lady Jane Gray, if she had lived and lived in a world that had people who could turn in to animals at will. There were several references to Monty Python and the Holy Grail as well as quotes from Shakespeare (attributed in the book to one of the main characters, hey he could have been Williams inspiration right?!). It was a fun read and although I said it was frustrating, it all came together in the end.

It is written by three authors with each one taking a main character and telling the story from their point of view. It was seriously fun and enjoyable. Pick it up or borrow my copy because I bought it!

Far From the Madding Crowd

This book is by Thomas Hardy, an English novelist of the early 20th century.  The heroine is Bathsheba, but she is a tragic character, struggling against her passions and social circumstances, a favorite topic for writers of this time.  Three different men love her and want her as their wife, but her capricious folly and skewed ideas of what love means cause her to make tragic choices.  The writing style is very descriptive and I especially admired his description of a stormy night where I could feel and wind and cold and see and hear the lightning, etc.  It is also a lesson in the agrarian life of its characters.  The societal dos and don'ts limit the desires of the people and cause scandal and distress to the townspeople.  Bathsheba is a strong, independent woman, but succumbs to her misled passions, realizing too late the consequences of her rash choices.  I enjoyed the book.  If you've read it, tell me what you think the title represents!!

This book was just lovely. It saved me on my 9 hour flight from Venice to Canada where I hadn't downloaded the app to watch movies on the plane. I freaked out for a minute then realized I had this book to read!

It is set in Ireland as the author is a famous Irish novelist. Chicky is a girl who leaves her homeland for New York and returns years later. She buys an old house and sets up a bed and breakfast. The story begins with her story, and then each chapter is the background and story of characters who come to stay at her bed and breakfast for a week in winter. It really is like reading a bunch of short stories, but they all connect somehow. Characters are mentioned in others chapters and then you get to learn their background during their own chapter. Well written and an easy read. It was fun and made me think about going to Ireland someday, but not in winter!

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I listened to this book while cleaning at night and during the day (thanks Poppy!)  She starts by giving some background on what a happiness project is. Then she lays out her happiness project and what she did and learned throughout the year. She has lots of research on happiness and has several quotes that are very enlightening. I plan to get the physical copy of the book for Christmas so I can underline and highlight it. There is even a coloring book with some of her best quotes on Amazon!

What she did was pick 12 general areas to work on each month. January was Energy, February was Marriage, one month was Work, etc, etc. Each month she had smaller checklist goals that she would follow. For her energy month it was declutter, get more sleep, etc. Her goal was to make them habits and continue doing each months goals in addition to the current month she was in.

I found it very interesting to listen to. She had some good points, but here were some of my favorite/ones I remember:

-Be yourself. Sometimes we think, I shouldn't feel this way or need this, but I do, and thats ok. (She mentioned she loves getting gold stars for anything she does. She shouldn't need them, but she wants them)

-50% of your happiness is genetic. The other 50% is your life. So you do have a lot of control.

-Realize that you might be doing things "for other people" but you are really doing it for yourself. And that's ok.

-Kids DO bring happiness. She sighted some article that said having kids lowers your happiness because you lose freedom. She called BS and said she is able to enjoy more things that she would not do or experience if she didn't have kids. (Go to zoos, watch silly cartoons, etc)

Thats all for now. A great book with great ideas. It motivated me to clean out my closet and be a better mom.