Wrap up- April

Besides the first book, I was into a WW2 phase and I loved all the books I picked. I'll write a little bit about each one, since they all were about different parts of the war.l

★★★★

★★★★★

 I think this one was the toughest to read. I had to do a lot with the camps, and children. The main character was a doctor for the Nazis but had a heart, and didn't agree with what he was being forced to do. B/c German women were basically sex slaves to the Nazi's there were a lot of stories about women preforming their own abortions. Overall, this book broke my heart. Between the stories of the children, and the camps and the experiments being preformed on women, I can't....but also highly recommend this book!

★★★★★

This book was way different! Actually starting off with women in the States, going through nursing school and then signing up for the reserves. Their deployment is in Manila. What was interesting to me, is actually learning about the war from that country. Their deployment started off way better than most soldiers and nurses. It sounded very luxurious, honestly. Until it wasn't. They were sent to another base, and were eventually captured by Japanese soldiers where they were held as POW for about 2 years. It was a different pace to listen to American soldiers being held in camps instead of the Jews, and learning about the part of the war in the Philippines. The title comes from the Pledge everyone had to sign upon rescue, that they wouldn't go home and talk about the work camp, or being POW. So after 2 years of their family not hearing from them, they aren't even allowed to come home and talk about it. Not that most of them would have wanted to, but still. 

  

★★★★

Although I did love this one, this one is a pretty typical German boy loves a Jewish girl and how he tries to save her. 

★★★★

This one was great! Three women, from different parts of the world join the resistance in attempts to save and smuggle Jewish families into Switzerland. This was so badass, b/c women were seen as such weak people back then, I just loved listening to what they went through. Then later to hear one of their fiances talk about she could never possibly know what he went through in the war. At the time of course she couldn't talk about it, but later on I hope he heard about her and was speechless. 

Dewey's was this weekend and I failed big time. But these were the 2 books I read. 

★★★

This book has been on my TBR pile forever, so I was glad to pick it up for dewey's. I knew it would be a quick read. I am going against the popular opinion here and say this book was eh. I read it as a fiction book, so maybe that was the problem, but besides hearing about the will to live from such a small kid, I just found it annoying. The dad was a piece of shit for not standing up to the drunk of a wife, and for not doing anything once he left. I also really wanted to know why she picked on him. At first I thought it was b/c he was the youngest but she then had 2 more kids and it was still always David. I would like to look into his other books so I can learn more of the story. 

★★

Honestly, this book just bored me. I barley hung on to anything I read, and really just read it to get my page count up. The pictures of the cats were cute though.

Wrap up- March

I never did a March wrap up b/c I suck, so I'll do that real quick then move on to an April wrap up



March:

★★★

I can't remember why I only gave this 3 stars but I did like the story. It was about 3 girlfriends, 2 who are surviving abusive relationships. Well, one that's currently in one, and 1 who just got out of one. One of the reason I liked this book was b/c of the highlight on emotionally abusive relationships. They are hard, and there is a recovery process and yet I feel like a lot of people who are in physically abusive relationships look down on us b/c "they had it worst", which I would never say otherwise, but it doesn't discredit our suffering. In this story, the women who has just divorced her emotionally abusive husband is being showered with support from all her friends, but specifically the one in the physically abusive relationship.  Of course, she is trying to hide the abuse, but not once does she play the "well I have it worst than you, so suck it up". It was nice to see the female support in this book. And then later on, it was nice to see the men in the book respecting all the girls's recovery boundaries.

★★★

Having to do with surviving a childhood with a narcissistic mother, this is also a good book about healing and recovery. 

★★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

Finally!!!! It took over 20 books, but I finally read my 5 star amazing book!!!!

★★★★

Prompt

The prompt in my blog group I picked for today is "A book you hated, and a book you loved". I went through my goodreads trying to find a book I hated that wasn't forever ago. There really hasn't been a book I hated in awhile....disliked, sure, but not really hated. Then I remembered this one! I HATED this book, and that's really hard to say b/c I love Jodi's books. I'm pretty sure I already reviewed this book, but I still wanted to do it for this, and I picked a bok of hers that I loved, to kind of make up for hating this one so much.

This was a Kindle in motion book and I was so excited to read it. The pages were beautiful, and it was a short story or maybe a novella? I am not sure. But either way it was stupid. It was like a toddler literally just wrote out everything he thought in a week, and put pretty pictures on the pages and called it a book. There were too many incomplete, random stories going on, it was such a disappointment. I usually speak so highly of her, but this is one I won't be recommending.

On the other hand, there is this book. I can't remember if this was the first of hers I read, but it's the one that got me into her books. My mom sent me this book when I lived in Florida and was trying to find things to read, and couldn't afford new books or go to the library. I loved this book! And, actually wrote a goodreads review on it! There are soooo many books I read and they don't stick with me. Sometimes, even a month later when I am doing my wrap-up I'm like 'wait...what was that about' but this one I can very much remember. Maybe not all the details, but definitely enough. I recommended this book so many times I lost count. It's a beautiful book about love and losing someone you love. I don't typically re-read books, but this is one I could see reading again.

Recipe Sunday

I ran across this recipe on Facebook a few days ago and couldn't wait to try it! I bought all the stuff to make it tonight and then failed and forgot the cream cheese....but I think it'll be a good thing to put in the crockpot tomorrow when I get off, and I can enjoy it when I get up.

4 chicken breast
1 can black beans
1 can corn-undrained
1 can rotel *I subbed regular diced tomatoes b/c I don't like chilies 
I packet of Fiesta Ranch mix
I block of cream cheese

Cook for 4-6 hours, eating over rice or with tortillas!

Top 5 Wednesday

The blog post today for my blog group is top 5 things you like about Spring! I have a love hate relationship with Spring b/c it means Summer is close, and Summer is the worst!! But it is nice to thaw out from the Winter.

 First, has to be the beach....the last couple years and we go to see my grandparents with my mom for spring break. We skipped it this year, but it is still one of my favorites about spring. Going in April is the best b/c it's still cool at night and you can walk on the beach in a hoodie. It's not too hot during the day, and you can actually enjoy sitting on the beach.

 Next, are these trees! We have dogwood trees everywhere and then trees that look like these but are called the pear something? Anyways, these are usually planted in groups and they are gorgeous. They usually only last a few weeks, and they the flowers turn into leaves, but I enjoy them for the couple weeks they are here.

Third, KINGS DOMINION!! I get my son and I season passes and we love it. It's only about an hour away and with the passes, it makes it pretty much free for us to go. The water park is the best, so once that opens we will go a lot more often.


























Next, who doesn't love park days?! And with the longer days, we love hanging out at the park. We had spring break last year and the weather was crap pretty much the whole week, so when the weather was finally turning around, we took advantage and spent the whole day with our friends. There were supposed to be fireworks to start off the carnival, but there were issues and they went off too late for us.

And lastly, It's my birthday!! Which, of course, is celebrated for the whole month.

Bookhaul

Saturday, I went to a local book sale with 2 of my friends. I think the sale goes on for about a week, and they have new sales every day. We like to go on half price day. There is also a bag sale day on the last day, where you can fill up a bag for $5! Last year we did that too, and I filled up 2 whole bags with books that I still haven't read, so I didn't do that one this year. All of these books cost $14!! Some I was just picking up based on the cover or title, and planning on actually looking into them later. But some I did pick b/c they are books I wanted to read, and I am so excited about the haul!!

 After the library sale, a local used book store was also having a sale. So of course we went there too.  I'm not really sure how the pricing works there, but I am always happy with how little the books cost and how much I can get. But with the sale going on, it was even better! And my sister in law lets me use her credit there, so I paid $5 for all of these. I already own one of Hopkins books, so I am excited to have another. And the James Patterson book is true crime! So I can use it for my book challenge. I bought Fried Green Tomatoes from the library sale, so I also got another book of hers at the book room. I haven't read any books of hers yet, but my book club ladies love her. 

And, b/c I am such a good friend, when one of my friends was getting rid of books to make room on her shelf for the books we got from the sales, I took some of her books. I like to help out when I can 😊 so here are the books I got from her, with one that was bought for me. I adore Kristin Hannah, and the series by Hilary Duff was a book club pick years ago I never read. 

Now, goal for tonight is to rearrange my bookshelf, pick some to get rid of, and find room for my new books!