the Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes

by Diane Chamberlain




I absolutely LOVED this book!!! I had never heard of this author before; I happened to see the book at Target the other day and bought it. I never wanted to put it down once I started reading, and I cannot wait to get her other books.

I was on the phone with my mom and telling her about an amazing book I had just read and she in turn told me about a book she had just read and absolutely loved, and guess what? They were by the same author! She had also been to Target and picked up "The Courage Tree" and said it was equally incredible.

The book is about a 16-year-old girl who gets sucked in by a loser 22-year-old "boyfriend" to commit a crime in order to get his sister out of prison. What she does is beyond horrible, but she pays for it later.

Apparently Diane Chamberlain has written 16 books total. You have to read one of her books. There were so many twists and turns, and every page brought something new to the story line. I was totally and completely enthralled.

So off I go to Target for another.

***** 5 stars without a doubt

the Abs Diet

by David Zinczenko



Here's the lowdown of what the book says to eat:

A Almonds and other nuts
B Beans and legumes
S Spinach and other green vegetables

D Dairy (fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese)
I Instant Oatmeal (unsweetened, unflavored)
E Eggs
T Turkey and other lean meats

P Peanut butter
O Olive Oil
W Whole-grain breads and cereals
E Extra-protein (whey) powder
R Raspberries and other berries

ABS DIET POWER

Here's what the book says to do:

Lift weights because it burns fat even when you're sedentary.

There, I saved you $15.95.

The book was informative and did show good ab exercises. I'm just not good with diets and have never bought a diet book in my life. I will try to take the basic "ABS DIET POWER" principles of the book and work those foods into my diet (along with my gummy bears...shhhhh).

Three Cups of Tea

by John Mortenson



I don't know what is wrong with me. This was a #1 Bestseller and I could not force myself to finish it. Had I followed the "if-I-hate-it-after-50-pages-the-book-stops-here" rule, I would not have wasted my time. But, nu-ohhhh! I thought, okay maybe I'll like it when I get to page 340. At least I did stop before then....at page 280. Why did everyone love this book except for me?

** 2 Stars Sheesh, how can I give it any stars when I didn't even finish it, you ask?

I'll tell you why....

Because at the beginning of the book the guy (Mortenson) tells about his failure at climbing K2, an enormous mountain in Pakistan. A Pakistani dude rescues him and that story is great and exciting. The PD (Pakistani dude) takes him to his village and nurses him back to health. Mortenson can't get over the poverty and school-less village, so he promises to go back to America, raise money and build a school for the PD's village. That is all great and exciting. It's also cute how Mortenson meets his wife and she has to put up with his obsession to build the school in Pakistan, which he accomplishes. He ends up building several schools in Pakistan. But then it just gets boring and monotonous. I know, I know, how can raising money and building schools for poor kids in a Taliban-infested area just after 9/11 be boring and monotonous? I'm not sure. So even though the beginning of the book was good and I was thinking this is gonna be a "4-star"-er, I just lost interest for some reason.

Oh and by the way, the #1 Bestseller a while back, Eat Love Pray? I thought that was just okay. I couldn't figure out what all the hoopla was about.

So there you go.

Anyone else read this book? If so, what did you think?

The Daily Coyote

by Shreve Stockton

This lady has my dream life.

After moving from New York to San Francisco and falling in love with a small town in Wyoming while traveling through, she ended up staying and living there in a 12 x 12 log cabin. While there, she fell in love with Mike, a government trapper for the U. S. Department of Agriculture, who found and gave her a 10-day-old coyote.

The book started out as a daily blog of coyote pictures she sent to her friends. Soon her friends emailed her, saying they could not function without their "daily coyote." The blog became famous, and eventually she got a contract to write the book.

If nothing else, buy (or borrow) this book just to look at the pictures. They are fascinating and beautiful. In addition to the baby coyote, she had a cat named Eli, who went from hate towards the coyote to indifference, and eventually - as several darling pictures show - became his buddy.

I LOVED this book. When I first got it and read the first few pages, I told Eric, "If I could do nothing but read for 12 hours straight, I would do it." Knowing how much I love animals and how serious I was, he said, "Okay, bye. Have fun."

Since I couldn't really do that, it took me two days.

Click on the link below to see her blog...She still writes on it!

http://www.dailycoyote.net/?p=1366

***** 5 Stars (Surprise, surprise)