Non-reading goals in 2011

While I listed my reading goals at the beginning of the year, there are 2 other goals I want to achieve this year - start exercising and get the house ready so we can start having guests!

We finally gave in and bought a Wii a few days ago :) I know for those of you who exercise regularly, Wii Fit (Plus) may be too simple or not real exercise for you. But for someone like me who never exercised at all (unless you count about the 1-2 months we went to the gym way back when), hopefully it'd motivate me to just move a bit more! We played Wii Sport and Wii Sport Resort a couple of nights ago, and last night I started using Wii Fit Plus. So we'll see how that goes! If you have a Wii, what other games would you recommend? It's so nice that our library also have Wii games we can borrow too - granted, not a very large selection and most are kids games, but it's better than nothing :) Funny how I have never owned any type of video games console before (well I won a Game Cube but used it like once, because I sucked at video games). Used to like Pac-Man but it was my aunt's and not mine.

The other goal - we moved in 3.5 years ago (4 years in June) and apart from a handful of times my in-laws were here, we had ever had any guests because our house is such a mess! Still have wallpaper to take off, rooms to paint, and the boxes to stuff to unpack. Probably need to throw stuff out too since when we moved, we didn't have much time to pack (I was finishing up my graduate degree with finals and papers, transferring to a new position / department within the same company, and moving at the same time). So we pretty much just packed everything, rather than throwing out stuff we didn't want when we pack. So now, when we unpacked, we need to sort things through. My taste in decoration is quite extreme, I like modern furniture, to antique (Victorian, '20s Art Deco), to farm house style, to danish modern (60's), to Asian Zen! I can't make up my mind :) But I really just want to unclutter, and make it welcoming to families and friends so we don't have to be too embarrassed when we say we can't have anyone over :) Of course we have to make it kitty friendly too...

Ummm... which just means, I'll have less time to read... and the library just told me I have 4 books to pick up and they are books I'd been looking forward to reading! I need to read faster!!!

Book Review - Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping by the Author of Why We Buy by Paco Underhill

Title: Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping by the Author of Why We Buy
Author: by Paco Underhill
Year: 2004
Page: 240
Genre: Non-Fiction - Business

FTC Disclosure: Borrowed from the Library

Summary (from goodreads.com):
Paco Underhill, the Margaret Mead of shopping and author of the huge international bestseller Why We Buy, now takes us to the mall, a place every American has experienced and has an opinion about. The result is a bright, ironic, funny, and shrewd portrait of the mall — America's gift to personal consumption, its most powerful icon of global commercial muscle, the once new and now aging national town square, the place where we convene in our leisure time.

It's about the shopping mall as an exemplar of our commercial and social culture, the place where our young people have their first taste of social freedom and where the rest of us compare notes. Call of the Mall examines how we use the mall, what it means, why it works when it does, and why it sometimes doesn't.

First Sentence:
Why are we here?

My Thoughts:

Why this book?

• I picked this because of a project I am working on, so I wanted to learn more about this topic. The author seemed to be an expert in retail.

First thought:

• Interesting facts about shopping centers / malls!

Cover Art:

• I liked that it is simple. The shopping bag handle is a nice touch.

Title:

• I like that Non-Fiction books usually have a catchy title, then a subtitle to explain what it is about. Though I don't know if "Geography of Shopping" really captured the content. It was more like the Anatomy of the Mall?

Writing:

• Pretty easy to read. It was more conversation in style. 

Plot:

• The book was organized so that the author started off from the outside of the mall, the parking lot, then proceeded to go inside, and each chapter is about a certain area or aspect of the mall, e.g. food court, map/directory etc. Then the last chapter was back to the parking lot.

• Some chapters were more interesting than others though... possibly because I was paying attention to the chapters more relevant to my project

Characters:

• The author had done a lot of research in retail so he came across as an expert but not overly know-it-all

• The author's friends appeared in different chapter of the mall (some teenage girls when it talked about how teenagers shopped, a male friend when it came to buying jewelry etc.) It could get a little confusing because it seemed like he went to the mall alone to start with, then his friends just appeared out of nowhere. Hard to remember who-is-who

Ending:

• The last chapter was kinda cute, and a good tied in to the beginning of the book 

Emotion:

• Didn't really feel emotional. It was kinda a fun read, even though I don't usually like shopping and go to the local mall maybe once a year or when necessary (thank you online shopping! Though too bad online clothes shopping don't usually work out too well...)

What I Learned:

• Quite a few fun facts - about parking lots, parking lot signs, location of the stores, etc etc! I took some notes but hadn't had a chance to write them up yet... 

PS:

• I think next time when I go to the mall I have to pay more attention to its design and layout!

Read this Author again?

• Yes I plan to read his other retail books. Would I read them if I didn't have this project? Maybe not. But I think if you are a retail owner, it is worthwhile to read.

Overall Rating: 
3.5 Books - Learned a few things, but don't love it...

 



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Book Review - The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

Title: The Book of Tomorrow
Author: Cecelia Ahern
Year: 2009
Page: 320
Genre: Fiction - YA

FTC Disclosure: Free ARC from HarperCollins.com in exchange from an unbiased review

Summary (from goodreads.com):
The magical new novel from number one bestseller Cecelia Ahern. Tamara Goodwin has always got everything she's ever wanted. Born into a family of wealth, she grew up in a mansion with its own private beach, a wardrobe full of designer clothes and all that a girl could ever wish for. She's always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. But then suddenly her dad is gone and life for Tamara and her mother changes forever. Left with a mountain of debt, they have no choice but to sell everything they own and move to the country. Nestled next to Kilsaney Castle, their gatehouse is a world away from Tamara's childhood. With her mother shut away with grief, and her aunt busy tending to her, Tamara is lonely and bored and longs to return to Dublin.When a travelling library passes through Kilsaney Demesne, Tamara is intrigued. Her eyes rest on a mysterious large leather bound tome locked with a gold clasp and padlock. What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.

First Sentence:
They say a story loses something with each telling.

My Thoughts:

Why this book?

• When HarperCollins asked if I want to review their Jan new release, I thought this book sounded very interesting - I mean, a book that'd tell you what happens tomorrow? At that time, I had no idea who Cecelia Ahern is. It wasn't until when I received the book, I noticed that it was the same author who wrote PS I Love You, which I just read not too long ago. This book didn't seem like a chick lit though so I was happy about that. 

First thought:

• So promising, but didn't quite live up to expectations... could have been shorter.

Cover Art:

• Pretty! Suited the story well

Title:

• Fitted the story also

Writing:

• I thought the writing has improved a bit since PS I Love You (hey at least the protagonist didn't GIGGLED 3 times on one page!), however, the beginning was a bit slow and confusing, and the protagonist tended to rambled a bit.

Plot:

• There was a bit of a twist in the end which wrapped up the story and I didn't see it coming so it was good to see something a bit different

• This was advertised as a YA book I think (main protagonist was under 18 years old) and there were some F-words used and some sex-related content (not graphic). Didn't bother me though

• My biggest disappointment though was about the this mysterious book itself - I thought it played such an important role, and yet I didn't think it was fully explained

Characters:

• Didn't like the main protagonist, Tamara, much. She was a brat, but did see her "grow up" a bit throughout the book

• My favorite character was Sister Ignatius - would have loved to meet someone like her in real life!

• Some of the minor characters weren't very developed... they just seemed to appear and disappear...

Ending:

• I like non-ambiguous ending, and so I thought the ending was not bad (except about the book.)

Emotion:

• I did want to find out what happened and so I kept on reading, but I didn't feel much emotion one way or the other. It was more about "let's find out what happened" rather than "let's find out what happened to Tamara".

What I Learned:

• Can't say I really learn anything new... but would like to learn more about castles in Ireland!

PS:

• I thought this was a new release (1/25/11) but I saw that it was actually published in 2009? Perhaps it was a new release in the US? Not that it mattered much...

Read this Author again?

• She's not a bad author, but her books are just not my genre. So I don't know if I would or not...

Quote:

He wasn't really trapped at all, he was just looking in the wrong place.(p10)

"Would you prefer to be given a life already lived too, Tamara? That way you can sit back and observe it. Or would you rather live one yourself?" (p92)

Overall Rating:
2.5 Stars - Not bad, but I think others would enjoy it more than I do. Didn't quite find it magical

 



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Musing

• Reading had been slow this week - trying to read 300 pages in one day (The Emancipator's Wife) so I could finish it by book club night, then had a big project at work so didn't get much sleep... but this coming week should be better. Well I hope so anyway!

• I started reading Cecelia Ahern's The Book of Tomorrow. Should be a pretty fast read but due to my tiredness and busyness it's not going as fast as I'd hoped. I started on Monday and had only read 130 pages... this books is coming out on 1/25/11! By the way, if you are interested in one of her backlist titles, Thanks for the Memories,  it’s being offered at $1.99 through all major retailers, and it includes an excerpt from the new book. The price goes back up to $9.99 on 1/25. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, the Apple iBookstore (just search for Thanks for the Memories and it comes right up), and other e-book retail sites. I haven't read this book myself, but thought I'd pass the deal along!

• I wonder if I need to impose a Library Ban! Every time I go there, I tried not to borrow more than what I had just returned, and I failed 99% of the time... I just love browsing around to see what is new! And all for free too! Can you believe that I have 64 items checked out right now? 7 of them are audio books (will they motivate me to use the elliptical? It hasn't so far oops...), 1 DVD (Hoarders Season 1), 2 cookbooks (dessert!), 8 books in Chinese... then the rest are various fiction and non-fiction! Plus there are 3 ARC... gosh I wish I could just take time off work and read, read and read! 

• While I rode the bus the other day, I saw this guy reading a book covered in butcher paper - it made me think: (1) Is he (or his significant others) one of those who loves everything looks neat and orderly in the house, so they cover every book in butcher paper so everything matches (yes I'd seen some decorating bloggers do that! So all books are tan color on the white book shelves...), or (2) he's reading something he's embarrassing or scandalous about, and this way he can still read in public? Too bad I couldn't take a peek :) Okay maybe I don't want to...

• One of the free books I'd received from the publisher is Habit of a Foreign Sky by Xu Xi. I love the cover! It looks very interesting, I guess I have to read the book to see if it's relevant though. I love that the paper back has a smooth, matte cover that just feels so nice to touch.

Book Review - It's a Jungle in There: Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Won Insights, and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring by Steven Schussler

Title: It's a Jungle in There: Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Won Insights, and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring
Author: Steven Schussler 
Year: 2010
Page: 256
Genre: Non-Fiction - Business

FTC Disclosure: Borrowed from the library

Summary (from goodreads.com):
As a burgeoning businessman in the 1980s, Steven Schussler stopped at nothing to make his dream of a tropical-themed restaurant come true, even turning his home into a rainforest-complete with indoor waterfall, life-size replica of an elephant and 40 tropical birds-in order to have a prototype to show potential investors. Drawing from his own life and business triumphs, Schussler offers would-be entrepreneurs a new way of utilizing creativity to achieve their dreams. 

Schussler distills his principles for entrepreneurs on a budget, and also reveals the ways in which his lessons-from self-branding to developing strategic partnerships to giving recognition where recognition is due-can work in larger corporations. Just like his famous themed restaurants, Schussler's insights provide entertainment, education, and ample food for thought for all business people aspiring to their next level of success.

First Sentence: 

Let me tell you a story about risk taking.

My Thoughts:

Why this book?

• I like reading business books, or books on how people succeed or be creative in their profession. This seems like an easy read and looks interesting while I browse the library's new books section.

First thought:

• Fast read, wish it goes into depth a little bit more

Cover Art:

• Eye catching! Definitely caught my attention on the walls of new books. Relevant to the book as well

Title:

• The main title fits the book - has a double meaning (the author was the founder of the Rainforest Cafe, plus the business world can be described as a jungle!), and the subtitle further explains what the book is about. Not bad.

Writing:

• Pretty easy read. Not a lot of jargon so easy to understand

Plot:

• The book is a series of stories (failure and success) of how the author got to where he is today. Each chapter started with a question and make you reflect.

• The "5Ps" - Personality, Product, Persistence, People and Philanthropy - are the main principles. There were examples to illustrate these principles.

Characters:

• The author's personality really showed through in the book. He is passionate, creative and not risk averse! While you are reading this book, it is almost as though he was talking to you, or you're listening to one of his seminar / presentation (I have no idea if it is true or not since I had never listened to him or seen him in person, just the impression I got that you know how he'd be like in real life.)

• Even though I live in MN, I had never been to the Rainforest Cafe, and now made me want to go eat there (though he no longer owns it.) I didn't know that he turned his house into a rainforest, to try to get investors to buy into his theme restaurant concept! There were other pretty "outrageous" (or crazy lol!) stuns he did to get attention - I won't spoil them for you so you'd have to go read the book yourself! Would I do what he did? I don't know, since nowadays you'd probably get arrested! But I am definitely not a risk taker... maybe it is okay to take some risks sometime?

Ending:

• The book ended with the Philanthropy chapter, which was actually the chapter I found the most interesting since you don't usually see a lot of it in other business books (apart from Dave Ramsey's money management book). For one project he hired some homeless people instead - cost double because they needed to be trained and some of them weren't good workers (or didn't show at all), but some ended up leaving the streets and became productive. His night club offered free soft drinks to designated driver, or free to tow the patrons' cars home while they take a taxi instead... doesn't necessarily make financial sense (the tow services costs $100,000 a year) but it was the morally right thing to do. 

• He also believed in thanking the people who helped him along the way, and it was evident as he thanked A LOT of people in the acknowledgment! 

Emotion:

• I was amazed by some of the things the author did! I wish I was as creative sometime!

What I Learned:

• While I did learn something new (how passionate he really is on what he believes in, which I think I lack - there are lots of think I like, but what do I really, really, really LOVE and is my life mission - it got me thinking?), most of the rest of the book was not really new to me - networking, trust, good impression etc. So I wish the book goes a bit more in depth, rather than just give a high level overview with some examples

PS:

• I think if you haven't read a lot of business books, but are thinking of having your own business or just want to learn more about being an entrepreneur, this is a good book to start as it is easy to understand and entertaining to read. However, if you have familiar with business principles, this is more like a refresher or complementary book as a lot of the concepts aren't really new - but I guess it reinforces these concepts work.

Read this Author again?

• Probably

Overall Rating: 
3.5 Stars. Pretty good. Would rate it higher if I hadn't read much of this genre as I'd have found it more useful then.

 



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Book Review - The Emancipator's Wife: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln by Barbara Hambly

Title: The Emancipator's Wife: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln
Author: Barbara Hambly
Year: 2005
Page: 624
Genre: Fiction - Historical

FTC Disclosure: Borrowed from the library


Summary (from goodreads.com):
As a girl growing up in Kentucky, she lived a sheltered, privileged life filled with picnics and plantation balls. Vivacious, impulsive, and intoxicated by politics, she is a Todd of Lexington, an aristocratic family whose ancestors defeated the British. But no one knows her secret fears and anxieties. Although she is courted by the most eligible suitors in the land, including future senator Stephen Douglas, it is a gangly lawyer from Illinois who captures her heart. After a stormy courtship and a broken engagement, Abraham Lincoln will marry twenty-four-year-old Mary Todd and give her a ring inscribed with the words “Love Is Eternal.”

But their happiness won’t last nearly so long. Their first child will be born under the gathering clouds of a civil war, and three more follow. As Lincoln’s star rises, the pleasure-loving Mary learns, often the hard way, the rules of being a politician’s wife. But by the time the fiery storm of war passes, tragedy will have claimed two sons, scandal will shadow her days as First Lady, and an assassin’s bullet will take Lincoln himself, leaving Mary alone and all but forgotten by the nation that owed her husband its survival.

Yet it is in the years to come that Mary Todd Lincoln will truly come into her own. In public, she will fight to preserve Lincoln’s memory even as she battles a bitterly contested insanity trial. In private, she will struggle with depression and addiction as she endures the betrayals–both real and imagined–of family and friends.

With a gifted novelist’s imagination and a historian’s eye for detail, Barbara Hambly tells a story of astonishing scope, richly peopled with real-life characters and their fictional counterparts, a tour-de-force tale of power, politics, and the role of women in nineteenth- century America. The result is a Mary Todd Lincoln few have seen and none will forget–the fascinating, controversial woman of whom her husband could say: “My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl and I fell in love with her; and what is more, I have never fallen out”–Mary Todd, the woman who loved Abraham Lincoln.

First Sentence:
Encountering Mary Todd Lincoln was the nicest thing that happened to John Wilamet on his first day in the Promised Land.

My Thoughts:

Why this book?

• Library book club February pick. Not something I'd normally choose for sure.

First thought:

• I learned something new, but boy, was it a long book (600+ pages). Would be better if it was shorter!

Cover Art:

• Not bad. Gave the impression that it is a historical novel. Fits the book. Just not very exciting...

Title:

• It is not something that would have caught my attention...

Writing:

• Pretty easy to read, but some passages were overly descriptive for my last. I think it could have been a bit shorter if it was edited tighter.

Plot:

• It did made me want to find out what happened, however, the story went back and forth A LOT between Mary's childhood/teenage/younger years, and later years. It got rather confusing sometime. 

• I wish it was written in a more linear fashion so I could read to find out what happened next, rather than "this happened now... let's go back x number of years... then 357 pages later we'd explained what happened in the first chapter, but before that we needed to go back 5 more years first"

• Some parts also seemed repetitive, and I wasn't sure about some of the "dreams" Mary had... 

Characters:

• I liked Mary when she was a young girl - she was independent and had her own ideas (though during the book club discussion, some thought she was manipulative and a chronic liar). I didn't like her after she married Lincoln. I felt bad for her though after he died

• There were lots of other characters (Mary had lots of siblings and half siblings, and other rich friends and "beaus") and I wish the book included a family tree as it was difficult to remember everyone's names, and some had similar names!

• While the story was supposedly quite true to historical records, one of the minor but important character, John, who was a freed slave, was fictional. While I think his own story may have been interesting, his side story made the story longer... 

• Since I didn't grow up in the US, I didn't know a lot about Lincoln (and nothing about Mary Todd). The portrayal of Lincoln was negative at times which surprised me a little, but I suppose if you knew more about his history it shouldn't come as a surprise (e.g. I didn't know he came from "backward" country with no etiquette, was considered odd looking etc.)

• Mary and Licoln's oldest son Robert also was not very likable... in fact many characters weren't very likable... but you have to agree that Mary Todd went through a lot and led a rather tragic life. Had she lived in modern society now, she probably would have lived a very different life

Ending:

• A rather predictable or expected ending I guess... since this book pretty much covered Mary Todd's whole life, I guess it was acceptable.

Emotion:

• I was glad I didn't live in that era! But I didn't feel overly emotional while reading it. 

What I Learned:

• I learned quite a bit about Mary Todd, Lincoln, and what life was like back then. Since I am not a big history fan, this is the best way for me to learn more about the US history, so I am glad I read it, just wish it was a bit more concise.

PS:

• All but one from the book club liked the book - the person who didn't like it thought it was a bit too long (I guess I liked it okay, but don't dislike it). For the first time since I'd joined last January, this was the first time we had spent the WHOLE HOUR discussing this book, and didn't get side tracked! Interestingly, a lot of people thought she was crazy, whereas I didn't think she was as crazy as I was led to think - she definitely had some mental issues (bi-polar, hoarding etc) but I don't know if crazy was the right word to describe her. 

Read this Author again?

• I think it'd depend on the topic, and the length of the book :) I am not scared of big books, but sometimes I think less is more... (unless they are those books I wish I can never finish because they are so good that I want to keep reading about them forever!)

Quote:

I find myself looking forward to the end of my term as much as any of the poor slaves looked forward to Freedom (p53)

Could you marry a man who would stake his life - and your happiness - on a letter written in anger, that should simply have been put on the fire? (p90)

Overall Rating: 3 Stars - It's Okay. Glad I learned something, but could be better.

All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Put Off By The Book Titles

Have you ever been put off by a book title? I almost didn't read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society because the title sounded so boring (and had no idea what the hack it was supposed to be about). But I'm glad other reviews convinced me to give it a go or I would have never touched this book (the cover didn't attract me either). In fact, Marce @ Tea Time with Marce is having a little contest to rename this book - go give your suggestions! I have to think about it - it's been a while since I read it and I don't remember a whole lot. I just remember a lot of classic books were mentioned, and I had not read any of them so had no idea what they were referring to lol. Yes I read a lot, but not a lot of classics... the books the teachers chose back in high school bored me...

Another book that came to mind was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloots. Since I am not into vampires stuff (not now anyway!), "immortal" doesn't catch my attention, and again it is a book I almost never read because the title sounded boring!

I am reading The Emancipator's Wife by Barbara Nambly (A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln). Not a book I would've picked based on the title either, but it's my next book club read. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's slow going... it's 600 pages, and I'd been very busy at work, and I'd just been tired... still have half the book to go and only 2 days to read! Hope I can finish...

Anyway, I came across another book while reading my RSS feed, and this is another title that'd have put me off:

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkin

Why? It sounds chick-lit-ish (a genre I don't like). It's a YA book and I found that I don't particularly like reading YA focusing on boyfriend/girlfriend, sex and all that. I think that's part of the reason why I didn't like Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver much (my review) - even though the main message wasn't about that, but a lot of the conversations among the characters were on these topics. I remember thinking I'm so glad I don't have a teenager daughter, as I wouldn't know how to deal with that (I guess, if I ever become a mother, it's something I'd learn somehow... but hard to imagine when you're childless / child-free.)

There are some very positive reviews of this book though, but after reading some more reviews I doubt it's for me... Have you read this book? Maybe you can change my mind :)

How about you? Have you been put off by the book titles? I think a book title, and the book cover, attribute a lot to the success of the book. When I browse around in the library or bookstore, those with a nice covers and clever title definitely catch my attention (whether I'll borrow will then depend on the blurb). I found it interesting that the author doesn't have much say in the cover design, and I think I'd read somewhere that they don't get to choose the title either (or maybe it gets changed without needing the author's okay?)... it's almost like you can't name or dress your own child...

By the way - this blog, Better Book Title, is hilarious!  Some recent "rename" includes The Handmaid's Tale and Room. Take a look!