I finished the Opposite of Maybe and found it to be good, not great, but good. I read it mostly during my lunch breaks at work (oh those were great...I miss lunch breaks!) and it was a great way to unwind and destress at work. I love reading because it allows me to focus in on one thing and I just completely forget about everything else. It's quite nice. :) Anyhoo, back to the book. It ended how I wanted it to, but not before a twist. Girls can be foolish....but the main character finally came around. Phew!
One of our summer events was to visit our good friends Emily and Blair in Selah, WA. Their sweet son, Tucker, is our Godson. We love that little guy to pieces. This year Tucker turned two and since we were on our honeymoon for his first birthday, we definitely wanted to be there for his second. Emily is one of my friends who also loves to read and coincidentally, we have very similar tastes in books. She actually inspired me to go through our books and purge, which we took to Hastings to see if they would buy some back, which they did, and the rest we let friends go through then donated to Goodwill. Emily and I always share book recommendations and books. I left that weekend with three books of hers: The Fault in Our Stars, Philomena and What Happened to Goodbye. I decided to read The Fault in Our Stars since everyone I have talked to raved about this book.
Then I found out why.
It.Was.Good. I loved this book! It didn't have a "Happy Ending" per se, but it had a good ending and I couldn't have pictured it any other way. The story is about a Hazel, a girl who has terminal cancer. Cancer sucks. Enough said. She meets a boy named Augustus at a group therapy session and her life is changed. I think it was so awesome to see how positive an influence Augustus was on Hazel and to read about their adventures. I cannot do this book justice, but it's a must read for all! I was warned that it has many sad parts, one in particular, so Emily tried to warn me not to read it in public. Oops. I failed. I finished reading this book when I was on my flight to Seattle to see family. I cried. My eyes were so blurry with tears I couldn't read. Yeah, I am THAT girl.
When we were in Selah, Judy B. (Emily's mom) was there too. We had a long discussion about books and created a list for each other to read. One of the ones I asked to borrow from her was 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. It was a book that she read for a church small group that my sister Marin was in. I had heard about their discussions and I thought this would be right up my alley. So here she is, my current read:
Now, I have just started this book and unfortunately, have not been reading lately. Working on changing that STAT! This book actually has workbook components to it, but since it is not MY book, I am not doing the workbook writing activities. That is why I have a blog ;) So far I love the author and I love the book. It has been heart-warming to hear about how her and her husband adopted two kids from Africa, opened up their house to twelve strangers after a hurricane and how they ultimately looked at their life and realized how much excess stuff they have and how a lifestyle transformation would change their lives. They chose seven areas of their life and focused on one each month for seven months.....I have a feeling that this is going to be a HUGE eye opener for my own life...
