Whatcha Readin'? November 2012

My November reading list is actually quite short, because I don't know if you noticed but I had a crazy month. I never even got to the gym once, after I had been so good in October. But I did still manage to read a little bit so let's review.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
This has long been recommended to me but I finally read it to preview it and make sure it was okay for Alyssa to read. It was and she loved it. I liked it but of course it was highly reminiscent of the other books in that genre right now, Divergent, Matched, etc. Better than those two but I am still not dying to see what happens next. I have been told that the whole series is appropriate for Alyssa's age level so I may or may not read Pretties before I pass it on to her?

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
This was for the online book club. Lots of good stuff in there but wasn't engaging like The Screwtape Letters. I do appreciate his deep thinking explanations of Christianity and agree doctrinally with most of what he shares. I liked when he talked about good works because as a Mormon I am often told I am not Christian because people believe we think you can work your way to heaven. He explains this exactly the same way that I do. Nothing but Jesus Christ can save us but if you are honestly saved, it is more than just proclaiming that you are saved. You naturally turn to Christ and try to live a more Christian life. Lewis talks a lot about how we are to become perfect because it has been commanded of us. Of course we will fail every time, which is why we need Jesus Christ but we have to try. I agree with all of that, and much more that is in this book. I should have written down some favorite quotes to share here but I am sure I will read it again at some point.

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
I actually finished this in December but since my list is so short I will tack it on here anyway. We reviewed this at book club last night and I came in the door to a chorus of  tell us how much you hated it, Julie. This was not to my particular taste and all of my friends knew that as they read it, but I really didn't HATE it. I am not a romance novel fan, at all. I like a good love story woven in to a book, but a book that is strictly a romance novel is usually not my thing. This was very similar to other regency romances, the back and forth between the couple, where they flirt and pretend they don't know they are in love. The heroine read like so many others I have read and she annoyed me with all the pretending to be so disgusted by his flirting and constantly describing him as "odious and incorrigible" but then she would go on to say he was handsome every 7 words as well. I had a hard time getting past that but I did like her love interest, Philip. All the other characters and storylines were completely underdeveloped and this was not a page turner for me but in the end it had it's cute moments and I was rooting for them to hurry up and kiss already so it must have held my interest to some degree. I do love book club though and I don't want to be known as "the hater" in the group but I am sure my pick won't be to the taste of some of the participants either. That is what is fun about book clubs. They push you to try new things.

That's it this month. How about you?