book 17

Getting Warmer by Carol Snow
282 pages

I loved this book.  Getting Warmer is about a woman named Natalie Quakenbush, a high school English teacher who invents stories to tell in the bar scene for entertainment.  That's all well and good until she meets Jonathan, a guy she actually likes, but has already spun her tales and now has to come clean.  For the record, I am a high school Social Studies teacher, so a lot of what I read resonated with me - feeling like you aren't making a difference, parent involvement, connections with kids who can't see their own potential - and I really enjoyed that.

I was extremely interested in what would happen in the story and I wanted to read it all the time.  It helps that it's baseball season and I can't watch TV again until September.  However, I think I would have chosen to read this without having the TV occupied by the Mets.

Natalie seems incredibly real.  She could be any woman, she is true and not at all forced.  None of the characters in the book are forced, at that.  I really enjoyed that everyone had traditional names - Natalie, Shelly, Jill, Robert - I really hate the license authors take with bizarro names these days.

Overall I was extremely pleased with this book and I will be recommending it to some teacher friends who enjoy chick lit like me :)

book 16

Declaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel
227 pages


Declaring Spinsterhood is the story of Emma Bailey, a luckless thirty-year-old woman tired of dating.  Since she has decided men are too difficult, she announces to her family that she is declaring spinsterhood.  Her best friend is her neighbor, Brian.  They are obviously going to end up together.  You wonder the whole time why Emma was so dense.

This book would appeal to a woman who is religious.  Emma is waiting until marriage to have sex, attends church every Sunday, doesn't drink and doesn't swear.  "Hell" is referred to as a curse word.  She says "drat" and "dang" and "heck".  There was no sex.  There was no passion.  It was boring as heck. (Ha).  Declaring Spinsterhood reads like a memoir, and is not anything special AT ALL.

It would really probably appear to mostly members of Young Republicans.  Female members.  I am not surprised that the book was self-published because I can't imagine any major publishing house (outside of, apparently, Amazon Encore) publishing it.

Declaring Spinsterhood wasn't horrible, it just really wasn't for me.

book 15

I Remember You by Harriet Evans
439 pages

this book was boring.  there were too many words.  way too much description.  i feel like there was no story.  no drama.  i've read other books by harriet evans, and i enjoyed them, but i really, really, really did not like this. i wouldn't say i hated it, but i never had any motivation to pick it up.  it was obvious what would happen, and getting there wasn't exciting.  the book was overpopulated with characters, i couldn't keep them all straight.

if you like books that have heavy description and no real story, this is the book for you.  otherwise, skip it.

movie 9

The Ringer

Another movie put on us by Steve's very mature colleagues over in probation.  Ugh.  I'm not sure if this movie was supposed to make fun of mentally challenged people or point out their strengths.  I thought it was sort of offensive.  Ok, I thought it was really offensive.  Strangely, it was ALSO a waste of 94 minutes of my life.

Again, you knew from the start that there would be trouble, as the Johnny Knoxville character (Steve/Jeffy) definitely has the hots for Lynn, the Special Olympics lady.  And, as it ALWAYS seems in these movies, her fiance is a douche - a total pretty boy, a fake, and a cheater.  I swear, I'm going to start calling these films dude chick flicks because they are the exact same as chick flicks but have dumb comedy and are made for dudes.  You know he's gonna get caught cheating, and it's gonna be a disaster and boooooring.

I just want to watch a good movie.  And read a good book.  March was totally a fail.