Category Archives: books

The Girl on the Train – Review

So far giving myself a reading goal this year has been both a good and bad idea. Good because I’ve rekindled my love of reading and find myself with a book whenever I have down time, but alternately bad because I just might be shirking other responsibilities. I’m sure I’ll find balance soon. 😉

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When I heard about ‘The Girl on the Train’ I was intrigued because it was getting really good reviews, but it was also being compared to ‘Gone Girl,’ as in if you loved ‘Gone Girl’ you’ll love this book.  I was immediately leery because no other book has frustrated me quite as much as ‘Gone Girl.’  I decided to take a chance, though, and overall I thought it was a pretty decent read. Not amazing, but I’d recommend it (especially if you liked ‘Gone Girl’).

The hardest part of giving reviews for me is to not give away too much, so I’ll do my best not to give anything really important away. Anything I do say is revealed so early on that I don’t think it’ll affect your enjoyment of the story.

A girl rides the same train to and from work every day and finds herself watching the same houses and creates stories in her mind about the people she sees. One day, however, she sees something shocking (more so because it goes completely against the fiction she has created in her mind) and finds herself suddenly involved in the case of a missing woman.

As the story unfolds it becomes grittier and takes you directions you weren’t necessarily expecting as more and more secrets come out and it’s hard to find a character with any likeable qualities. It is that quality that this book excels at.  There are no likeable characters as each are flawed in such a way that makes it very difficult to connect with them.  The main character is a dysfunctional alcoholic who is often frustrating and pathetic, and there is so much lying and cheating and other neuroses going on involving other characters that it’s like watching a train wreck. You don’t want to look because it’s disturbing and unhinges you, but you can’t look away either.

This book actually kept me guessing as to whether I had figured it out or not, and I didn’t truly know until close to the end, and even then wondered if there would be a twist. I don’t read a lot of psychological thrillers anymore (having kids flipped a switch in my brain that makes me more paranoid and hyper sensitive to certain genres), so I liked that while this kept me intrigued and interested, it didn’t overly stress me out – if that makes sense.  It was also a nice and easy read and thanks to traveling I finished it in a day.

What we’re reading

Since I’m trying to focus more on reading and the things that generally make me happy and feel good, what better thing to talk about than books?  Especially since the kids seem to be just as into them as I am.  I won’t lie, it pleases me to no end to walk in and find both of the kids quietly reading and looking through books.  Apparently being surrounded by books does rub off. 😉

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Right now Phoebe is very much into Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton.  Her first favorite book was Moo, Baa, La la la, but then that changed to Are you a Cow?  I think she’s starting to grow bored with that one, though, because lately she’s been shaking her head No when I try to read it and she tries to find something more interesting, like Brown Bear, Brown Bear (and Baby Bear and Panda Bear, and so on).  She could really just read all of those over and over again.

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Lately Enzo has been enjoying the Berenstain Bears and Little Critter, but he’s a big fan of Pete the Cat and just got a new Frozen book. We’ve been getting some of those Step Into Reading books that are fairly short, but will be good for when he starts reading on his own.  He’s also asked to read Pacifiers Are Not Forever a lot lately, so I’m hoping that means we can get rid of his soon.

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As for me… I’m going to finish up The Order of the Phoenix and then take a break and read something else on my 26 Books list.  Since I’ll be flying on Monday, I think I’ll stick with something on my Kindle, so maybe Hollow City (really liked Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children). Or maybe The Girl on the Train, which I just heard about and sounded interesting. Granted, people keep saying it’s a great read for fans of Gone Girl, and I was not a fan.  I plan on seeing the movie anyway, but the book drove me crazy.

Anyhoo, so many books, so little time!

All of the Books

In an effort to read more this year, I thought a Book Challenge could be fun.  Granted, I only ready maybe 12-15 books this past year, so 26 is a lofty goal for me.  That saddens me on so many levels… pre-children I read ALL THE TIME.   On the plus side, both of our kiddos also love to read, so yay!

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FavoriteBook

Anyhoo, I came across the 26 Books in 2015 challenge and thought it would be fun. I might “cheat” a tad to fit in books I was already planning on reading this year, but it’s still a fun idea.

26 Books

I’m still finishing up the Harry Potter series and had plans to re-read The Hobbit and LOTR series, as well as a handful of other books, so we’ll see how they fit in and what else I’m inspired to read. We’re starting something new with Enzo when it comes to getting him to stay in bed at night, so I should have a little extra time to read for at least a week or two.  The idea is that you sit in a chair in their doorway silently and just read.  Every time they get up, you put them back and so on.  We’ll see how it goes.  We’ve discussed the possibility that he may just not need naps anymore, but I have to talk to preschool about that and see if that’s an option.

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In the meantime, I just wish he’d be happy sitting in his room happily looking at books in the evening until he fell asleep.  That is not the case, though. While I may often find that Phoebe has wandered into her room to look at books, our high energy boy just doesn’t can’t seem to stop wiggling. Hopefully we’ll get it all worked out soon.

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We read.

As an avid reader, one of my favorite things to do with the kids is to read.  I love picking out new books for their libraries (probably too many books), and I’m always curious to see which books will become a favorite and which ones might take some warming up to.

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Phoebe is a bit young to really have any favorites, but I like to include her as often as possible when we read, and I try to read her at least one book as a part of her bedtime routine, which we also did with Enzo when he was just a baby.  Now that he’s older bedtime can take quite a while when he doesn’t want to hear “Just one more.”

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As far as favorites go, Enzo still loves Dr. Seuss, but only ‘Hop on Pop’ and ‘One Fish, Two Fish.’  He has no interest in ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ or anything like that.  He also greatly enjoys books featuring Elmo and there are still nights where he only wants to read his Dentist book.  I really don’t know why he loves this book so much… it’s not very well written and you’d think a toddler would be bored by it.  He also greatly enjoys ‘Everybody Poops’ and ‘Potty Time.’

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Phoebe is learning the classics thanks to Baby Lit.  They’re really good for young kids because of the pictures, and as she gets older the fact that there are so few words will be useful as she learns colors and numbers and things of that nature.  Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to family reading nights when they’re both older and reading chapter books?  So excited.

 

 

Currently… or Lately

I’ve seen other bloggers do a variation of what they are currently up to, so I thought I’d do the same thing since often it doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Not recent or current, but now I'm craving it.

Not recent or current, but now I’m craving it.

Reading

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (sp). Well, technically I just finished it a few days ago, but close enough. I’m on the fence when it comes to this book. It started out decent and then had a great twist midway through, which helped moved things along.  Then there were problems for me, though.  I’ll try not to give too much away, but the twist suddenly had me wondering which characters I liked and just when I thought I had figured it out – things went a little too far for me and I was left frustrated with everyone. I tend to get really involved in books (most of the time – not always) and the last three quarters of the book drove me crazy.  What could have been believable went too far and I hated the ending. I didn’t buy it and wanted to chuck my book… err Kindle across the room (but didn’t).

Watching

Josh and I are watching Fringe on Amazon Prime lately, which we really like, and started Under the Dome, which is only so-so.  I read the book, which was decent enough, but the show is kind of dragging a bit and I question how they’re going to make another season out of it without really padding it. Fringe, however, is a fun show… it reminds me a little of the X-Files, only with less aliens and not quite as cheesy.

As far as movies, we just watched ‘Side Effects’ and I think we both felt it was a little slow moving. I actually fell asleep around an hour into it (hooray pregnancy!), right as it was starting to pick up… finally.  While the story itself was interesting, we both feel it could have been better executed.  So… meh.

Eating

As far as cravings go… I could honestly be happy eating cereal all day.  I flip flop between various flavors of Cheerios, Vanilla Chex and a variety of granolas.  I also just want to eat cake and donuts and other tasty confections all day, but manage to keep that mostly in check. 😉  I’m also loving fruit, especially strawberries with a little whipped cream on top – mmm.

Loving

Ice cream… any kind really.  Ice cold root beer (must be in a bottle). Watching Enzo learn and grow each day.  He tried to say Jump last night because of a book titled that – quite frankly a really weird book we got from a cereal box. He brought it to me and was saying the word really enthusiastically and I started reading it to him, to which he responded by saying, “Bye Bye” and closed the book.  Ha ha.  He’s recently been really into books, which I am absolutely loving!

Thinking About

Baby Girl and how much needs to be done before her arrival.  I have a funny feeling that she’ll be early, so we’ll see if I’m right, and if so, by how much… hopefully not too early since I obviously want her to grow as much as she can before coming out. I admit, it all seems to be happening so fast and I wonder what life will be like with two kids instead of just one.  I know it’ll be crazy for a while, but I hope everything falls into place easily and that Enzo adjusts well to having a younger sibling.