April Book Reviews

You may recall that I promised reviews of the three books I actually read in April. This is sure to be a riveting post. That's not true. But I'm posting them anyway, so here you are:


1. The Fiery Cross, the fifth installment of Diana Gabaldon's excellent Outlander series, started out slow for me and took me a couple months to get through (whereas I've been able to finish the other books in the series in just a couple weeks), but once it finally picked up, a little over halfway through, I remained interested throughout and couldn't wait to start the sixth, which I'm currently reading. Gabaldon does a great job making each book stand alone yet seamlessly weaving in events and characters from previous books. Plus, I still love Jaime and Claire, even after five books and about 5,000 pages (seriously, each book is, like, 900 pages). I think I'd get tired of myself after that long, so point for Diana.

2. HeartSick is a riveting thriller about a beautiful female serial killer and her last victim, whom she kidnapped and tortured for ten days before turning herself in. My dear friend and fellow Criminal Minds lover Aubrey recommended this series to me, and I love it. I finished this book in two days. The main character (besides Gretchen, the serial killer), Archie, is seriously flawed (who wouldn't be, after being brutally tortured for a week and a half) and easy to relate to. I mean, I've never been kidnapped and tortured (knock on wood), but I understand the psychological issues he deals with as a result of his traumatic experience.

I've since finished the second and third books of the series. HeartSick remains my favorite, but Archie really grows throughout the next two books. My main complaint with the third book is that we don't see Archie's family---an ex-wife and two kids---at all. They were major players in the second book because Gretchen threatens them, so we got to see Archie as a family man, a man who still loves his ex-wife but won't allow himself to be with her anymore. But in the third book, they're just gone. We know where they are, but we don't really know how Archie feels about them being gone. Maybe we'll hear more about them in the fourth book, The Night Season. Mustang library doesn't have this book, though, which is why I haven't read it yet.

3. For those of you who don't know, Seriously...I'm Kidding is one of Ellen DeGeneres's books. For those of you who don't care, we can't be friends. I saw several bad reviews of the book on Goodreads, but I laughed out loud many times (just ask my brother)---and I think Ellen can do no wrong---so I gave the book four stars. This book was set up in much the same way Bossypants is organized, which is to say there was no real or clear organization. I could have done without some of the chapters (namely, the one in which she simply makes sounds like "mememememeeme" and "bwabwabwa" and the extremely short story about a woman who walks down the beach and sees waves). But I am sure these chapters were a hoot on the audio book. So I won't complain about them. They took, like, two seconds to read, so it's no skin off my back.


And that's what part of my April looked like. May is on track to be a bit more successful, as I'm currently reading three books, have finished three, and have another waiting on my coffee table. We'll see if I can finish these last four in approximately two weeks, though...

A Glance Back at April and a Peek into May

Wow, it's been a while, huh? If you didn't even notice, I'm hurt. If you did miss me, thanks for caring, and I'll try to be better about updating you on my glamorous life in the future. [Please note: my life isn't actually glamorous, despite what my posts about my adorable dog, gym time, and work (not to mention the fact that I just said it was) may lead you to believe.]

There's a reason my last post was written over a month ago. I've been ridiculously busy. I'm not talking "I work eight hours a day, hit up the gym occasionally, and spend the evening catching up on my shows" busy. I'm talking legit busy. Let me just break it down for you.

At the beginning of April, I started freelance blogging for three radio stations' websites. I kinda feel like I've been cheating on my faithful five (or so) readers, but trust me, you wouldn't care about what I've been blogging about (unless, of course, you're just so hungry for my writing that you'd be willing to read about what to do when your house is destroyed by a tornado, six educational and fun websites for kids, and my book reviews of books I haven't read and therefore BS'd my way through). I write about five posts a week, so that takes up a significant amount of my time.

I also started teaching another class at the gym, a hip-hop class. So when I'm not teaching on Monday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings, I'm either practicing (these moves don't come easy, folks) or taking other classes.

Oh yeah...and I also still work full time.

So as you can see, I've been quite the busy bee, as Randel would say. Now, I'm not bemoaning this fact or hoping you'll be super impressed with my ability to juggle all these things while still managing to find time to save the world. Oh wait...that's not me, that's Superman. But anyway. I simply say all this to justify for myself why I've been neglecting my own blog.

Another thing I neglected in April was my reading goal (I plan to read 52 books this year, not including the books I edit for work). I'm still ahead of my goal, at 21 books so far, but this is surprising because I only finished three books last month: The Fiery Cross (the fifth "Outlander" book), HeartSick, and Seriously...I'm Kidding. I've got more to say, though, so I'll save my reviews and recommendations for another post. I will tell you, though, that May is already shaping up to be more successful, book wise, than April was.

My April goal was to not eat out weekdays and weekends the entire month. I couldn't believe it myself, but I did it! I actually did even better than I thought I would, because the only time I ate out at all was with a friend on a Friday night, and it wasn't fast food. I haven't even been too tempted to eat out since then, with the exception of yesterday. A couple friends had been talking about how amazing the Doritos Locos taco at Taco Bell is, so I finally had to try it for myself. It did not disappoint. But I plan to continue with that goal this month, along with my actual May goal: take Deuce for a walk every day.

So far so good on that front. Deuce and I have walked a mile around our neighborhood every day this month. My hope is that daily walks will not only help me tone up and lose those few pounds I've wanted to rid myself of for months, but that Deuce will get the exercise he needs and the fun he deserves.

Okay, so this post ran rather long, so thank you for your patience. Stay tuned for book and dog-walking updates. It shouldn't take a month this time.