Girls in Trouble - Caroline Leavitt

This book made me angry several times. Just when I thought I knew where it was going, it completely changed directions. The plot is good - 16-year-old girl has a baby and puts it up for adoption but clings to the adopting family, only to have them uproot themselves to get rid of the birth mother- which started out great but you can imagine how complicated the situation became. And rather quickly.

Sara Rothman gives birth at 16 and looses contact with the baby shortly thereafter (after an attempted kidnapping), but comes to realize she wants to know her daughter after all. She sets out looking for her, finds her, is reunited with the father of the child, whom she has not seen in 16 years- and who, as it turns out, didn't know the baby was ever even born- and realizes her love for him has not faded. Enter confused now 16-year-old girl who never knew she was adopted, and you have quite an interesting situation.

I did enjoy the book; it was a rather quick read, but there are some things I would like to have seen turn out differently.

Back to books!

After a brief hiatus, I'm back to reading for fun - yay!! I'm getting into the 8-5 workday groove so it's time to bust out the books again :)

I just finished The Picker Who Perished, a To Good To Be Threw consignment shop mystery, and for some reason it took me a couple weeks to finish. It wasn't even a hard read, I just kept going from thinking I knew what was going to happen to being totally confused that I had to stop reading. I think being sick the entire time I read it forced me to lose concentration easily, not something that usually happens to me.

This weekend I borrowed a great stack of books from my reading pal Kay:

• Jodi Picoult's newest, Change of Heart, which I've heard MANY good things about
• Caroline Leavitt's Girls In Trouble
• Dr. Judy Goldstein and Sebastian Stuart's 24-Karat Kids, which looks like a fun, easy read
• and a Memoir about autism, Running with Walker by Robert Hughes

Today I started Girls In Trouble, and I'm going to try my hardest to finish it by the end of the week..wish me luck!

Sick!

I've had a horrible time the past week with these darn allergies, and unfortunately I've been hitting the sheets early every night, which really cuts into my reading time. So, no real updates on the book front, except that I have one chapter remaining in Good to Great, and I just started The Picker Who Perished.

Lately I've been reading many business related articles, books and the like since I started my new job last Monday. I've got to get my mind to transition more easily from business to fluff, because lately I can only concentrate on one or the other, and business usually wins! I imagine once I get more accustomed to my job responsibilities, I'll have more time for the easy reading.

Happy reading to all!

My book stack!

I've stacked a pile of books by my bedside in hopes to get my booty in gear! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm into a lot of business books of late because of my new career. However, I don't want to get overloaded, so I'm adding some fun books in there as well.

Here's what's in my bedside stack:

• Good to Great by Jim Collins (nope, still haven't finished it!)
• Winning Nice: How to Succeed in Business and Life Without Waging War by Dawna Stone
• The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
• The Picker Who Perished by Kate Holmes (my autographed copy of this To Good To Be Threw Consignment Shop Mystery!)
• The Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway

And remember my 101 Books list? I think I may have to scrap the list and just read whatever is in front of me at the moment! Following the list is hard for me, since I share books with friends and tend to buy impulsively from used book stores. I will read 101 books in 1,001 days, I'm sure of it - I just can't follow my list :)

First unfinishable read of 2008

I've abandoned Spooning by Darri Stephens and Megan DeSales. Once upon a time this book about college graduates starting out in NYC would have grabbed me much faster. I stopped reading after page 124. How I even got that far, I don't know.

What I have been reading lately is Good to Great by Jim Collins. It's a fabulous business book, and a great one to kick-off my new career. New career? Yup! I will start a new job on Monday, March 24, and I'm very excited! I will be working for the local Chamber of Commerce and my job title will be along the lines of a Marketing Research Analyst.

Business books may clutter this blog in the next couple months, although I do hope it doesn't completely stop my pleasure reading. I still need to read The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond, which was loaned to me a couple weeks ago and I've yet to open it. I also need to catch up on some memoirs for my challenge. Oh, the choices. Happy Easter everyone!

Time flies!

It's been a week since my last post - eek! Where did the time go? Actually, I have been quite busy. I am starting a new job on Monday (very exciting!) so I've been getting things done and preparing for the corporate world!

In honor of my new job, I picked up a new business book - Winning Nice: How to Succeed in Business and Life Without Waging War by Dawna Stone. And I've been reading Good To Great by Jim Collins for a couple days now.

I'm also still trying to finish my current fluff book - Spooning. It's okay, but it's been really hard to pick it up. Not the best read for me at the moment because I have so much going on that I find it not worth my time to read something subpar.

Challenge Updates, Etc.

What can I say? Reading challenges might be taking the fun out of reading for me. I don't like the feeling that I need to read my books in order because then I cannot accommodate for those that friends lend me or that I pick up on a whim.

I just started the 10th book from my list of 101 books, and I've only completed 2 memoirs out of the 10 I want to finish by December 31, 2008 for the In Their Shoes Challenge.

In other news, I just picked up Stephanie Meyer's Twilight - I've heard many good reviews of this book and I want to see for myself. Not sure when I'll get to it though :) Also, my favorite author is, of course, Jodi Picoult, and her newest novel, A Change of Heart, was released on March 4. My reading buddy Kay actually bought the book and I'm sure she'll loan it to me when she finishes - so exciting!!

And that book I just started? Spooning, by Darri Stephens and Megan DeSales.