My Favorite Shopaholic

I have been reading the Shopaholic series since college. I love everything about them. They are hilarious and a really light and easy read -- which is perfect for airplane travel. On all my flights this week, I read the newest Shopaholic book, Mini Shopaholic.

Yes, the antics of Becky Bloomwood (now Becky Brandon), are totally unrealistic and far-fetched, but that's what makes it so entertaining. It's like watching a sitcom. You know that kind of stuff never, ever happens in real life, but it's still freakin' hilarious. Take, for example, the show Friends. My favorite TV show of all time. I've watched the entire series about a million times, and I die laughing every single time I watch an episode. It doesn't matter that six people would never really spend THAT MUCH time together in real life, let alone experience all those crazy things that they do, but it's just so awesome that they're acting it out on TV for me.

Anyway, back to Shopaholic. It's just simple pleasure to read one of these books. Becky is now a mother of two year old Minnie (how clever a name). She has made a promise to her husband to not buy any new clothes, or shoes or accessories, until she has worn everything in her wardrobe at least three times. Of course, this is extremely difficult for our favorite shopaholic and at one point she almost gets around the promise by nearly purchasing a woman-sized dress for her daughter as a 21st birthday present. Because it was "okay" to buy necessities for their daughter. I mean, who would think of these things! I'm not allowed to go shopping for myself, but I'll buy a dress for my two year-old daughter to wear in 20 years, but in the meantime, I'll just try it out for her! Ah, comedy.

Poor Becky gets in over her head again trying to plan a surprise party for her husband, and of course the lies she makes up to cover everything are so unbelievably ridiculous, you just can't help laughing.

I'm a Sophie Kinsella fan, I've read all her books, and will read any more and all others that come out, so I definitely recommend this one and all of them. Granted, you can't expect Classic English Literature here (even though the heroines are always lovely young British lassies) but you CAN expect a highly entertaining and lovable read. Trust me. Now go read Shopaholic.

The Book Thief

I just finished The Book Thief and I didn't want it to end! I was on the airplane when it ended and was embarrassed that I was sobbing like a baby. The flight attendant was like, "Would you like something to drink, Oh My! Are you okay?"

It was a very good book.

At first, I had a very hard time getting into it, and I actually had to put it down for two weeks, try to start another 6 books without any luck because I felt guilty for putting down this supposedly amazing, award winning book, and I finally picked it back up and fell in love with the story.

It's a ravaged world war 2 Germany, and Death narrates the story of young Leisel and her foster family as they try to survive under Hitler's Regime.

The back of the book says it should be compared to The Diary of Anne Frank, and I agree. I'll add some favorite quotes, but I already let a coworker borrow it, so I'll add those later.

fangs and blood and supernatural occurences

I've become like those infatuated teenage girls and their vampire lovers selling their souls and crossing over to the other side... or transitioning.

I am now obsessed with Vampire Culture. Books, movies, TV shows, the whole gamut.

I know, I know; I'm about four years too late and 15 years too old. And I'll admit, when this whole vampire craze started, I refused to participate in the trend. I had read the original vampire story --DRACULA-- and was not going to enter into this frivolous modern-day vampire romance nonsense. (Also, I'm not a 13 year old girl.)

So how did this new obsession come to be?

Well, to make a long story short, I was deeply grieving after my LOST marathon on Netlix ended, so I had to find a new "thing." (Again, I was late with the whole Lost thing, but that's another story. Needless to say, a year after the show officially ended, I finally finished the series and was suffering from withdrawal. So onto Vampires!)

I have already watched the first three Twilight movies, but hadn't actually read the books, so I requested the audio versions of them from my library, and now my commute completely flies by because I am entranced in this ridiculous story! Also ridiculous is the CW show, The Vampire Diaries...but I do admit I'm kinda hooked on it. And as you can see from the previous post, I just got two Vampire Diary books from the library. What is going on?

When that True Blood show started on HBO, I was actually watching it in real time. That was the only vampire thing I was following. But then HBO was cancelled and I've missed everything after season 1. Then! A year ago, JT told me about the books! Finally, I got the first book of the series and will somehow start to read that along with The Vampire Diaries and all those other books I got from the library.

Maybe I'm overdoing it a little bit?

vampire books

I am currently listening to the entire Twilight series on audio books while I commute. Disclaimer: I know these are teeny-bopper, silly vampire romance books and that's why I've refused to read them until now.

The first one was good. I was captivated. The second one was okay too. The real love triangle has started. Corny? Yes, but it was fine. An easy story to listen to while I drive and don't have to concentrate to hard on what they're saying.

Now I'm on chapter 10 (disc five) of the third one, Eclipse. Can I just say it is a yawn-fest! I mean, what is going on? There is absolutely no point to this story so far. Edward and Jacob hate each other, and of course Bella is torn between the two because Jacob is her "best friend" and Edward is her lover; she is desperate to turn into a vampire but then Jacob and his pack will kill her because the treaty is off... blah, blah, blah. BOR-ing.

The Vampire Diaries book is a completely different, horrific, situation. First of all, I couldn't even get past chapter one. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of children's and YA literature, but this is just terrible, juvenile writing. Maybe if I was a 9 year old girl, I'd appreciate it a bit more. To the books defense, I'm sure that was the exact audience it is aimed for. However, I am not wasting my time on any more sentences that include the main character talking about how the outfit she picked for the first day of school makes her look like a raspberry sundae, or how important boys are to her life and that's basically the only reason she lives -- to impress boys.

Um, hello? This is what pre-teen girls are reading? When I was 9, I was reading The Baby Sitter's Club books or Pollyanna.

The Vampire Diaries books will be promptly returned to the library without further ado.

With the Twilight books, I'll keep going. At least with those, they are written a little better and I kinda have to find out with happens with this vampire baby I keep hearing rumors about.

the library

I was super excited when I went to the library today and saw that I had twelve of my requested books on hold! Also, I'm a little overwhelmed. How in the world am I going to read twelve books in three weeks, when I'm only half-way through the book I'm reading for my book club right now?!

Oh the giddy conundrum.

I seriously felt like it was Christmas morning or something when I left the library juggling my gigantic pile of books. So two of them are audio books which is helpful because I can listen to those during my commute while actually reading others at the same time. Oh and one of them is a vegan cook book, so that doesn't really count either. The problem right now is that I've started four books in the past month and I haven't finished any of them. And now add nine. What was I thinking? Can I just not work for the next month so I can read? That would be great, thanks.

Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) I have a trip coming up. This means a lot of sitting in airports and airplanes and hotel rooms. I always get a lot of reading done on trips because there are no distractions of the husband, doing the laundry, vegan cooking, bowling league, socializing, etc. Just hours and hours of reading time. Yes!

No spoilers please! I'll review upon completion of reading.