Spartan Up!

Looking for something new to read to get inspired this spring? Check out this one by Spartan Race founder/owner Joe De Sena: Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life

The book will be released in May, but I received advanced information and will be reviewing the book on this site closer to the release date. In the meantime, you can learn more about Joe and the book, and place a pre-order if you're interested!

Enjoy!

Grain Brain challenge wrap-up.

 The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Grain Brain. Opinions expressed are entirely my own!

Four weeks ago, I started the Grain Brain Challenge and now I'm here to let you know how I fared.

But first, let me give you a little reminder of what Dr. David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain, recommends for optimal brain health:

Good fats from eating olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, fish, grass-fed beef, goat cheese, and fish oils are fundamental for health, while carb-derived calories as one might get from things like bread, pasta, potatoes, below-ground veggies, fruit and fruit juices are things you want to avoid on a brain-healthy diet. -- Dr. David Perlmutter (via Facebook)

I started on the challenge 4 weeks ago, focusing on food, sleep, exercise and supplements, as laid out in the book.

For me, the challenge wasn't all that hard. I've been following a Paleo diet for a while now and the recommendations in Grain Brain are similar. There are differences, of course, but I didn't have to make the same sort of changes as someone who has been eating grains on the reg.

Basically, I stuck to eating lots of vegetables and high-quality protein and good fat.

Avocados! Such good fat.

I also experimented with . . . READ MORE -------> http://happyrunnergiveaways.blogspot.com/2013/11/grain-brain-challenge-wrap-up.html

Good-bye to Grain Brain!

The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Grain Brain. Opinions expressed are entirely my own!


Have you heard of Grain Brain? The full title is Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar -- Your Brain's Silent Killers, a new book by Dr. David Perlmutter, outlining lifestyle changes you can make today to keep your brain healthy, vibrant and sharp. Last week I received a copy to read and review. I also received an invitation to join Dr. Perlmutter's Grain Brain Challenge, a 4-week challenge designed to improve brain health through some diet, exercise and sleep recommendations.

I gladly accepted the invitation and agreed to take on the challenge.

The timing couldn't be more perfect because I'm not training for any races right now, so I don't need to freak out about changing up my diet. And, as you'll see, Dr. Perlmutter's dietary recommendations really aren't that different from what I'm doing now anyway . . .

READ MORE -----> http://happyrunnergiveaways.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-bye-to-grain-brain.html

Honey, Do You Need a Ride? (review and giveaway)

Honey, Do You Need a Ride? Confessions of a fat runner is a new memoir by Jennifer Graham that will make you chuckle, whether you're a runner or not.

Yes, Jennifer is a runner. A self-proclaimed fat runner (which, if you take a look at her photos, is totally not true, in my opinion). She is also a divorced mom. And one heck of a funny woman.

Her whole package works in this book. She writes in that fast, funny style that makes the book easy to read and hard to put down, simply because you're having so much fun reading. She writes about how "skinny people . . . have no idea what a gift it is to move around with your thighs rubbing together like a couple of superglued hams." And in a chapter titled, "How Nike Made Me a Terrorist" she writes:

"I might be a redneck, not only because I consider Walmart a vacation destination, but because I run with a second-generation iPod strapped to my arm. Also, I own, and sometimes use, a heart-rate monitor even though an eleven-minute miler needs a heart-rate monitor like a single mother of four needs a donkey.

"I am running white trash, a smashed Gatorade cup on the sidelines of life."

But the book is not just about her weight as it relates to running. She also writes about going through her divorce and other ups-and-downs of life and how running has been with her throughout. Graham doesn't run to lose weight -- although she repeatedly talks about how it would be nice if all those miles she's logged would result in weight loss. Instead, she runs for what running gives her: a sense of achievement.

"At its core, Pre said, running gave him a sense of achievement. Here, all these years, I've been thinking I haven't achieved anything because I haven't lost any weight, but there it is. A sense of achievement that didn't come from my children, or my writing, or my oft-admired ability to remember birthdays. A sense of achievement that comes from the simple fact that I run."

I enjoyed this book. True, I enjoy most running books, but this one had the added feature of an interesting story and Graham's light, relate-able writing style. I recommend it!

Would you like to enjoy a copy of the book?

Lucky, lucky. I have a giveaway for you! One reader will win a free copy of the book. To enter, just leave me a comment and let me know you'd like to win!

If you share this giveaway (twitter, pinterest, facebook, etc.), let me know in another comment for an extra entry.

This giveaway will run through Tuesday, May 14th and the winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Good luck!


Thanks for stopping by!

Review disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review but was not otherwise compensated. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened.

You know how people are always saying they have crazy families? And then they go on to tell you something that sounds exactly like your family?

Yeah, that's not at all how it goes in Jenny Lawson's new book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir). Lawson really does have a crazy family. And tons of crazy stuff happened during her childhood in rural Texas.

Crazy, laugh-out-loud funny stuff.

It's nuts.

And Lawson's telling of it -- from the whack-o stories about her taxidermist father's antics to cow fertility lessons -- is really, truly funny. And often a little gross.

(Mind you, I can be a tad squeamish so even the funniest stories about animal insides might gross me out. A little.)

Lawson has a great writing voice and is, obviously, a born story-teller. I hadn't read her blog before reading her book (she blogs at super-popular site, The Bloggess) but I must try to do so now that I know how funny she is.

Because, like most people, I could always use a little more funny in my life.

Check out the book. It's a bestseller for a reason. And, believe me, after reading the book you'll probably think your family is a little less crazy than you originally thought.

Have you read Let's Pretend This Never Happened? 

What did you think? Are you a regular reader of The Bloggess?

Have a great day!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own

A Good American (review).

A Good American, by Alex George, is a sweeping story of the Meisenheimer family in America.

Told by James Meisenheimer, the book begins in Germany with the story of how Jette and Frederick -- James' grandparents -- met and fell in love. It follows the young couple on their journey out of Germany and to America, finally settling in Missouri in 1904. And that is where the bulk of the story takes place: the farming town of Beatrice, Missouri.

James tells the story of Jette and Frederick settling in Beatrice and having their first child, Joseph (James' father), and then their second, Rosa. They work hard and establish themselves in the town, slowly becoming more American. Just as they change, so does the world -- we see them deal with WWI, prohibition, racism, WWII, floods, and lots and lots of death.

Family members die, as happens in life. Since James is telling the story of his family from his vantage point of an elderly man, it makes sense that he tells of all those who die along the way. You might think the book would be sad with all this death but it isn't. A Good American is not an in-depth character study by any means. So we don't really get to know characters well enough to be saddened by their deaths. Even the two deaths that the most tragic weren't all that sad.

I thought the story of the Meisenheimer family and the immigrant experience in mid-western America was an interesting one and really did enjoy the book. Alex George is a good storyteller and that storytelling made me want to keep reading. Overall, I give this book a thumbs-up and recommend it!

Have you read A Good American? 

Have a great weekend!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Touch and Go (review).

Holy cow.

I just finished reading Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner and . . . holy cow. What a book. What a crazy thriller of a book.

I don't read many thrillers. I've stated before that I tend to read, well, running books mostly. And the last book I read was Here I Go Again, 180-degrees from Touch & Go.

Apparently, I've been missing out. The thriller, it seems, is where its at.

I loved this book. So much, that I read it at night, right before bed, when I really had no business reading such a thriller-to-the-point-of-being-almost-scary book.

Yes, this book sucked me in right from the start.

I won't give away too much of the story because most of the enjoyment comes from turning the page and learning something new. But, the book takes place in Boston and New Hampshire and centers on a crime and the subsequent investigation that unfolds over the course of the book. It is told from the vantage points of a wealthy wife, Libby Denbe; a private investigator, Tessa Leoni; and Wyatt, a New Hampshire sheriff.

Of course, everyone has their secrets and they are doled out a little here, a little there.

The book is quite the page-turner and, really, I had a hard time putting it down. As a testament to the suck-me-in factor, I've already requested a few of Lisa Gardner's other books from the library. I'm hooked.

My one little complaint with the book is that it really lost steam toward the end and I was disappointed with how some of the loose ends were tied up. But, overall, I enjoyed it and, as I said, will be going back for more!

Do you read thrillers? Who is your favorite author?

Thanks for stopping by!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Here I Go Again! (review)

I was totally sucked into Here I Go Again, a new book by Jen Lancaster.

And that's not a bad thing. I needed a light, fun book because I've been all running books, all the time around here and sometimes you just need to shake it up.

Here I Go Again takes the ultimate high school mean girl, Lissy Ryder, and gives her a chance to right her (many, many) wrongs. But not before having her life come crashing down around her and being completely shown-up at her 20th reunion. Lissy travels back in time, thanks to a hippie classmate, and is a little less mean her second time around. Only, by doing so, she screws up the future of a lot of people who were spurred to greatness by her mean high school ways. So, she goes back again and fixes the changes to make things better once again.

As she travels back and forth, she learns about herself and why she was such a teen meanie.

Of course, at the end, it all ties up nicely and things end up all hunky-dory. But that's the nature of the book and, as I said, it was light and fun and I enjoyed it.

My one main problem with the book is that the narration (Lissy) was pretty annoying but that was probably the point. All in all, it was fun and I thought it would make a great vacation beach book.

Have you read Here I Go Again? 

Any of Jen Lancaster's other books? What did you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

My Life Map.

You can't love every book you read. And, unfortunately, I didn't love My Life Map, which I was invited to review for the BlogHer Book Club.

Now, before you stop reading and think, "OK, I'll cross that one off my list," let me say that I totally see the value in a book like My Life Map -- I just probably wasn't the ideal reader. At least not right now.

Ten years ago? Or three years from now? Well, yes. Then I would be an ideal reader. Most likely. But not so much right now.

My Life Map: A Journal to Help You Shape Your Future is designed to help readers "reflect on the past, evaluate the present, map your future." All good things. The book uses three types of maps to help you map your life: Subject maps, a ten-year map and a whole-life map. The authors provide a series of questions to help readers get thinking about their past, present and future and complete the maps. The questions are useful and I can see how answering them and mapping out one's life could be beneficial.

I guess I wasn't in the reflective frame of mind when I got the book. Which surprised me because I thought I would be. But, when I sat down to use the book, I felt like it was geared toward people in the 20s (and maybe early 30s) who are just starting out -- and those in their late 50s or 60s who are starting out again. As I mentioned earlier, it seemed to me like I wasn't the ideal reader.

However, if you are looking for a book that can help you sort out where you've been so you can make better decisions about where you are going, this may be a great book for you!

Have you used My Life Map? Did you like it? 

Have a great day, everyone!

~ Felice


This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Matched.

Apparently, Matched, the book by Ally Condie, has been out for over a year. I guess I live under a rock because I didn't know about it until I was invited to read and review it for the BlogHer Book Club.

And now, after reading it, I'm itching like crazy to get my hands on the next two books in the series.

Series? But you don't like series!

It is true. I don't like series. Especially trilogies. And yet . . . this book got me. It hooked me and . . . well . . . here I am, hooked.

The fact that I'm hooked on a trilogy is irrelevant. Sorta. My point today is to let you know that Matched was quite the read.

I enjoyed it. Sure, it was super easy YA reading so I breezed through it in no time. But it was also thought-provoking. Matched is the story of Cassie Reyes who, because she is turning 17, is being "matched" to her future husband. Matches are made by the Society -- in this world people don't pick who they can marry. Nor do they pick what they eat, how much they exercise, where they work, what they can read . . . it goes on and on. Lives are controlled by Society.

It is scary stuff.

But Cassie is perfectly happy, until something goes a bit wrong with her match. I won't give away too much of the story because you should go out and read this book and I don't want to ruin it for you. Let me just say that the mistake -- along with a glimpse of two poems that are not among the official, Society-approved poems -- sets off a series of events that makes Cassie question Society in a way she never has. There is plenty that is formulaic about the story as it unfolds but, still, it got me and at times I couldn't put the book down.

After reading Matched, I feel a little techno-phobic. Just a little. I still love my phone and my laptop and all the great gadgets that we have today to make our lives simpler. But Matched shows a world where people can no longer write with pen and paper -- they can only type on their scribes. And they only read electronic books.

Yuck.

Again, scary stuff.

Before I get into more details about the story, I'll stop. You should check the book out for yourself. And if you've already read Matched, what did you think? Did you like it? Have you read the other books in the trilogy? 

~ Felice

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Daring Greatly.

There is so much that I liked about Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, which I read as part of the BlogHer Book Club. First, there's the quote from Theodore Roosevelt that inspired the title:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…” -- Theodore Roosevelt

I love it.

And then there's the author, Brené Brown. I'd never heard of her before reading this book but now I think I love her. She's a Ph.D. researcher from Texas (she currently does her research at the University of Houston) who gave the most-viewed TED presentation. She's a shame and vulnerability researcher who talks about living wholeheartedly. And she does so in a non-selfhelpy way.

She rocks.

And so does this book.

The idea is this: People are afraid of feeling vulnerable. We're afraid of getting hurt, of being criticized and made-fun-of. We're afraid of not being enough, of not being perfect. And we're all kinds of afraid of messing up our kids and our relationships. This fear of vulnerability stops us from daring greatly -- from doing the big (and the little) things that create full, rich lives. What we fear holds us back from living wholeheartedly.

I'm not going to go in to all that Brown writes about in this book because this review would be pages and pages long and no one wants that. Instead, I'll say this: Daring Greatly is worth reading. Brown provides information about how to come to terms with vulnerability and the negative cultural pressures that make people feel like they are never enough -- and that they never have enough (time, money, whatever).

It's a great book. For real.

Have you read Daring Greatly or any of Brown's other books? What did you think? 

How do you dare greatly in your life?

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Felice




This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns (review).

What is it with me and titles? I'm not sure but I'll tell you one thing: There are many titles that simply don't do their books any favors. The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, which I read as part of the BlogHer Book Club, is one such title. The book -- by Margaret Dilloway -- is good. But the title? Yawn . . .

Title aside, I enjoyed this book. The narrator, Galilee "Gal" Garner, is a unique character. A biology teacher at a Catholic school, Gal is still single at 36 and pretty much in love with roses. She's an amateur rose breeder, and she'd love to become a professional one. She also has kidney disease and is in need of a kidney transplant (her third). As she waits for a donor, she goes for dialysis every other day.

Gal's life is turned upside-down when her troubled niece, Riley, shows up to live with her. After that, a series of things happen that shake up Gal's ordered life even more. The shake-up causes Gal to reflect on her relationships, her stubbornness, and her perceptions of her life and the lives of those around her.

There were some weak points to the story and I found a good bit of the dialog stilted and not believable -- even after making concessions for Gal's difficult nature. But, I also found the book and many of the characters interesting. I loved reading about the details of rose breeding and, after I warmed up to her, I was rooting hard for Gal to get her new kidney. Overall, I enjoyed the book, read through it quickly, and would recommend it.

You can read more about the book at the BlogHer Book Club.

Have you read The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, or Margaret Dilloway's first book, How to be an American Housewife? What did you think?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~ Felice

Review disclaimer: This is a compensated review for the BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are entirely my own. 

You Have No Idea (review).

Taking a break from running, I have a BlogHer Book Club book review for you: You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (and Each Other)by Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams.

OK, true confession. If given the choice between People and just about any other non-celebrity magazine, I'm going to pick up People. I know. I blame my grandmother. She always read Star magazine and whenever I was at her house I would read it too. Now, of course, I read Runner's World and Outsidebut, still, sometimes celebrity stories are fun.

Which was totally the case with Vanessa Williams' memoir that she wrote with her mother. I enjoyed reading her story because I knew basically nothing about her: I've never (gasp!) seen Desperate Housewives or Ugly Betty. But I did, way back in that part of my brain that I don't access all that often, remember a little about the whole nude pictures fiasco when she was Miss America.

In the book, Vanessa explains that whole thing --  how and why it happened -- and how she bounced back from it. She comes across as an intelligent, hard-working working woman who made a few mistakes along the way -- but always rose up and owned them. She also shows the downside of the celebrity world and explains how her love of performing has kept her in that world.

And her mom? One tough cookie. The book alternates Vanessa's stories with her mother's take on things. To me, it was interesting to read what she, as a non-celebrity, thought of Vanessa's choices, stardom and everything that goes along with being a celebrity.

You Have No Idea was a fun, interesting book to read. I feel like I know Vanessa now, like we could probably meet for lunch and chat it up about our kids and have a great time laughing and swapping stories. If you'd like to get to know Vanessa -- and her mom -- pick up a copy of the book. Or maybe an issue of People.

~ Felice

Review disclaimer: This is a compensated review for the BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are entirely my own. 

The Book of Jonas (review).

The Book of Jonas is the debut novel from Stephen Dau and it is a heart-wrenching and very well written book.

The book tells the story of Jonas, a 15 year old Muslim boy who lost everything (his whole family, everything) in an American raid on his town. He is brought to America to live with a foster family and deal with his grief and attempt to rebuild his life. But he can't rebuild his life until he deals with his past. And there is a lot to deal with in that past.

Stephen Dau is a wonderful writer and he tells Jonas' story -- and that of Christopher and Rose -- through quietly beautiful prose. Prose that, to me, seemed to respect the weight of the stories.

Indeed, this is not a light book but it is worth the read. I've struggled through some other BlogHer Book Club books -- notably, The Kid by Sapphire -- and wished that I hadn't had to visualize certain characters, scenes, or situations. At first, I thought The Book of Jonas was going to be another one of those books. I thought I was going to regret reading it or not be able to handle the sadness.

It is a credit to Dau's writing that I didn't regret reading it. And while the story weighed on me, I was glad to let myself be part of it as it unfolded.

Have you read The Book of Jonas? What did you think? 

~ Felice

Review disclaimer: This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own. 

Born Wicked (review)

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood is the first in her Cahill Witch Chronicles series. Now, I'm not usually a series kind of gal. And I've really avoided the whole adults-gone-crazed-with-YA-series trend.

And yet here I am, finished with Born Wicked, wanting to read the second book in the series.

Who am I?

Born Wicked isn't the best book I've ever read. But it was pretty good and definitely grabbed my attention and kept it. The story is interesting and unfolds in a way that kept me wanting to know more, to know what happens next. The character development left a little to be desired but I'm thinking that's the way it is in this type of series. I expect that this first book laid out the story and created some conflicts and that those conflicts and the characters will be developed more in the next book. We'll see.

In short, the book is the story of the Cahill sisters, three witches living in a New England that is run by the Brothers. The Brothers are pretty anti-witch and hunt them out whenever possible. Girls and women who are suspected of being witches are ripped away from their families and sometimes go to trial, sometimes don't. They usually end up convicted, whether they are witches or not, and are sent to live at Harwood, some terrible place that the Cahill girls, and others like them, fear.

So, the Cahill girls keep their witchery a secret. Cate, the oldest of the three girls, has been watching out for her younger sisters since their mother -- also a witch -- died a few years earlier. It is a burden for Cate and, at the time covered in the book, she struggles with that burden while also struggling to decide what she'll do when she has to announce her "intention" in front of the Brothers. This intention ceremony is something every girl of her age has to go through, where they announce what they'll do with their lives -- whether (and whom) they'll marry or join the Sisterhood.

Cate faces a tough decision and the one she makes comes right at the end of the book. For me, it was disappointing. But, as I said earlier, I think it was just a set-up for the next book.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I since I started the series, I'll have to read the next one. How can I not, right? Right.

Have you read Born Wicked? What did you think? 

~ Felice

Diary of a Mad fat Girl (review)

If you are looking for an easy, fun book to pack in your beach bag this summer, Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAfee is it. The book is the story of Graciela "Ace" Jones, a big girl with a big personality in Bugtussle, Mississippi. Ace has plenty of issues: She sees herself as fat, she has an on-off relationship with the guy she's loved since she was 11, she's at odds with the school principal where she works. On top of that, one of her best friends has been framed and fired from her job and her other best friend is in a terrible marriage from which she needs to be saved.

The story is, as I've said, fun. It is also quite over-the-top and not all that believable but what does that matter when you're looking for a quick, easy, beachy-type read? Not much. The narrator, Ace Jones, has a strong, sassy voice and the story moves ever-forward through one twist and crazy turn after another, making the book one of those that you have a hard time putting down. It seemed that every time I got to the end of a chapter, I told myself I'd read just one more and that led to another one and another one and before I knew it I was done. Quick, easy, fun!

One other thing about Diary of a Mad Fat Girl. This book was originally self-published as an e-book in 2010. After debuting at #17 on the New York Times bestseller list for e-books, McAfee got an agent, who found her a print publisher, and the expanded print version of the book (which is what I read) was published last month by Penguin. It's a pretty cool success story!

Anyway, check out the book. It's fun!

~ Felice

Review disclaimer: This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own. 

The Rules of Inheritance (review).

When you get teary-eyed and have to set a book aside by page three, you know you're in for it. But, sometimes, being in for it is OK. Sometimes, the story and writing are so moving, so touching that you can handle it -- that "it" that you've known you were in for.

So, yeah. I knew I was in for it when I started reading the memoir, The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith. And I truly was.

It's a tragic story, really. Claire Bidwell Smith shares the story of her life, telling it through the stages of grief. Her grief is real and heavy -- when she was just 14 both of her parents were diagnosed with cancer. Her mother dies first and then her father and, through it all, Claire struggles.

She makes terrible decisions, decisions made in grief. But decisions made in grief are still decisions made; they are still real. And that's the thing about this book. Her story -- it is a memoir, after all -- is real. You read it and feel as if you are there with her; watching her experience the sadness of life, her grief, her bad decisions, and, finally, her coming to terms with her situation.

The Rules of Inheritance is a well-written, well-told story. It is sad (at times, overwhelmingly so). But, it is also a story full of hope. I often have a hard time recommending books that are difficult to read, simply because they were difficult for me. This book is worth the difficulty.

Have you read The Rules of Inheritance? What did you think? Are you a fan of memoirs?

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the review. You can read more about the book and the author on the BlogHer Book Club.


~ Felice


Disclosure: This was a paid review as part of the BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The Weird Sisters (review)

Man, I liked this book. I mean, really.

And I don't say that lightly. I don't like every book I read -- far from it. If you've read many of my reviews, you know that I can be disappointed by books. So when I say I really like a book, I mean it.

True: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown was a solid, enjoyable read and I just plain liked it. The story -- three very different sisters who neither understand each other nor get along particularly well, are called home when their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer -- was almost secondary to the beauty of Brown's writing. You'll probably think I am an exaggerator extraordinaire but, honestly, I haven't read such lovely prose in . . . well, I can't recall when that last happened.

Clearly, I had never read anything from Eleanor Brown before. If I had, I would have known how well she can turn a phrase, capture a moment, create a story and characters that draw her readers in and make them never want to leave. She does it all well.

Confession time: I frequently skim the duller passages and pages in books. Sometimes the wordiness of authors is simply too . . . wordy. I can't read them all. Just can't.

But, The Weird Sisters? I couldn't skim. If I started to, I had to go back and read again, Brown's writing is just that good.


What else should I say about the book?

The three sisters -- named Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia (after Shakespeare's characters of the same names) by their Shakespearean scholar father  -- carry the burdens not only of their names and birth order, but also of the secrets they keep from each other. They are, in essence, sorta messed up. It takes their mother's cancer to bring them together and help them sort out their lives and their relationships to each other and the family as a whole.

I won't say too much more, because I don't want to ruin the book for those who want to read it. Instead, I'll close with this: The Weird Sisters is an enjoyable, easy read (unless you can't stand Shakespeare -- many of his lines are sprinkled throughout the book, as the sisters and their father quote ol' Will almost as frequently as they speak their own words). I recommend it. So, go, add it to your summer reading list, or check it out right now. I think you'll like it!

Have you read The Weird Sisters? Did you like it? 

Enjoy your weekend!


~ Felice




Review disclaimer: This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Why Women Need Fat (book review).

If you've read my blog for any length of time you know that I occasionally will write about food. I try to eat in a way that supports my health and that of my family, and sometimes I like to share what I've learned through research and trial-and-error.

Basically, I want to do the right thing when it comes to food.

I've said it before -- and, yup, I'll say it again -- I loved the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. It opened my eyes to some of the problems with our whole food situation here in the US and it changed the way I thought about certain foods.

Why Women Need Fat: How "Healthy" Food Makes Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Foreverby William Lassek, MD, and Steven Gaulin is similar.

I was invited to review Why Women Need Fat for the BlogHer Book Review program and I quickly felt that this book is right up my alley. Lassek and Gaulin outline how a series of events -- a study on heart disease, an increase of the disease, media attention to heart issues -- came together to create a widely accepted theory that real fat is bad for your health, and that it must be replaced by fake fats.

The history of how it is we came to have our nutritional guidelines is so interesting -- I loved reading about it in In Defense of Food and I enjoyed reading about it in Why Women Need Fat, too. But it is also sad. Lassek and Gaulin -- like Pollan -- show that American women have been the targets of aggressive marketing to get them to switch to eating fake fats instead of real ones, to eat foods that have been modified and processed instead of whole ones.

Real, whole foods are what our bodies need. Unfortunately, for so long, we've been told to avoid certain foods. So, people drink skim milk and think they are being healthy. But then they snack on processed junk foods. They've swapped a whole food, real fat that their bodies can process and need for junk. And, as "they" say, junk in, junk out my friends.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and gained more information to support some of the changes to my diet that I have already been making. If you are interested in getting back to basics with food, check it out.

Have you read this book? What did you think? 

~ Felice

The Magic Room (review).

Some books grab and hold your attention from the first sentence to the last. Others seem eh and get better with each chapter until you simply can't put them down.

And still others make you think they are changing from eh to attention-holding but they never do.

I just finished reading The Magic Room by Jeffrey Zaslow, for the BlogHer Book Club review program, and the poor book was decidedly in that last category.

It wasn't a bad book -- far from it. It was just . . . a little disappointing.

The Magic Room carries a subtitle "A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters" but that doesn't really say anything about the book. I found the subtitle completely misleading. Instead, Zaslow's book is a statistic-heavy look at the societal trends surrounding marriage, the wedding industry and, sorta love. Using the backdrop of Becker's Bridal, an independent bridal shop in Fowler, Michigan, Zaslow shares the stories of several different brides along with the stories of the stores owners (current owner, Shelley, the previous owner, her mother, and the founder, her grandmother).

Zaslow has an easy story-telling style and the stories he shares from the different brides he profiled in the book are interesting -- there's a bride who has been saving her first kiss for her wedding day, another who suffers from Rheumatic Fever and never thought she would find someone to marry because of her debilitating illness -- but they don't work 100% well in this book. The stories are chopped up and only shared in bits and pieces throughout the book.

And let's get back to that subtitle: "A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters." That's not the story  of this book. Zaslow spends a lot of time discussing the marriage industry and how it has changed over the past 80 or so years. The success of a small independent shop in the mid-West is certainly remarkable in a time when brides go to mega retailers like David's Bridal for inexpensive dresses or hunt online. He also spends sharing statistics about divorce rates, marriage age trends and the like. It was all good information, but it was not a  "A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters." A story about marriage in America, maybe, but that wasn't the subtitle.

It's too bad. A subtitle like that does nothing to make a mom of two boys want to pick up the book. So, in a way, the publisher probably knocked the book off the list of a bunch of potential readers. Oh, well.

All in all, I'm glad I read the book and I think that those who are interested in weddings and marriage and who go all gaga over shows like "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Bridezillas" and whatever else is out there would probably enjoy the book. If that's you, pick up a copy! I just found that every time the book was moving out of the eh category, it fell right back in.

Thanks for reading my totally non-running review today. More running this weekend -- got a half marathon coming up. Yikes!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~ Felice




Review disclosure: I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions expressed are my own.