Welcome to A Circle of Books.

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Hello and welcome to my book blog. This blog is dedicated to books everywhere and the people who write and read them. Thank you for stopping by.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Hark.... A Book Review!

Everyone is Beautiful,  by Katherine Center, a review by Toni.

First of all, I want to thank Dar from Peeking Between the Pages for this book.  I won the ARC on her blog a long time ago.  Thank you Dar.

I started this book about three weeks ago.  I planned to just devour it in a day or so.  It didn't happen that way for me and that is my fault, not the book's.   I had heard so many wonderful things about the book, but a few pages into it,  all the mommy stuff, sticky hands, brat kids and what not, it just drove me nuts. I didn't even find it all that funny either.  I kept thinking, why do I want to read about this mother of three, pudgy from pregnancy, blah blah ... once again......been there done that and DON'T want to read a book about it (anymore) Once again, I will tell you that it was entirely my attitude or maybe just my mood.

Final result: The book was heartwarming, down-to-earth, and yes, funny. Before long I found myself enjoying it, smiling through the kid episodes. For me the book took off when issues were more centered around  Lanie, Peter, Amanda, Nora, Nelson and Josh.  I liked the adult elements/themes of the book.    After all is said and done, I put this one in the pile of books I would recommend, and books I enjoyed.   I shed a tear at the end and did a girl power fist pump too!  ( I am passing it along to my daughter).

It was charming and if you want to get lost in a sweet book, I'd say this should do the trick. I don't usually categorize books as a "beach read" or "summer" read because all books are anytime read depending on life.   But if you need one for the beach bag, or travel tote, I'd toss this one in for sure.  I hope this is the book that breaks my reading slump. 

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Vacation at Home...

Hello!

I have been MIA in the blog world.  Trying to find the balance and get out of my reading slump. I have literally been having to sit down and tell myself to read.   I am reading Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center.  When I started reading it, I kept rolling my eyes.  It was my bad attitude and not the book.   As my attitude gets better, so does the book. I should finish today or tomorrow.

I had some Toni  time on the patio for my first day of vacation.  I was unable to go on vacation, but I felt peace and quiet this morning.

Here is the patio:
















And of course Dexter says "Hi" from the bathtub!

I have also been reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  It is a really good read in my opinion.  I don't know what book I will pick up next but I look forward to reading something really good.  I am thinking it will be something Tudor related.

Happy Wednesday.