Christmas in the Mailbox - and GoodReads disappointment

I came home and had this waiting for me in my mailbox! I was going to read Wedding Season after I finished Under the Duvet, but I think this book may have changed my mind for me. The print is TEENY though. I should probably wait for me to get my glasses. 

However, I must complain about Lens Crafters for a moment. At least the Lens Crafters that I went to in the local mall. I went to pick out new frames and then have them make the glasses. I found the most amazing pair of frames - and I stood around waiting for over 20 minutes waiting for someone to help me. There were 2 people working out in the front, and there were way too many customers for those 2 people. Even though I know this, I would have appreciated even a small tidbit of acknowledgement that I was there, waiting for them to assist me. I was a customer - one that was going to be paying. At minute 21 I left. I wasn't going to spend any more time sitting there (well, standing there) waiting to at least be acknowledged that I was in their store. (And my frames were NOT cheap. ---well, not what I would consider cheap. There were $165.50, plus what I'd have to pay them to make the lenses and then put them in the frames.) It just agitated me that they could let their customers stand there looking foolish for such long periods of time. There were other customers in the store who were there prior to me stepping foot in the store, and they hadn't been acknowledged, either. 

Goodreads has disappointed me right now. I sent out a bunch of books on their bookswap - 3 different orders to one person. I got an email saying that she hadn't received the other 2 packages. There's also no tracking on them. So I don't know what I'm supposed to tell her. I did send them out, and they haven't been returned to me. I hope that in the next few days they get to her.

Awww

I had ordered 7 books in the last few days. I have gotten 2 of them so far, and I know that 1 more is on its way. I'm bummed, though, because there is 1 request that has already expired, and I know that others will probably end up expiring, as well.

I know that people have lives and all, and that especially in summer time people go on vacation. There is an option to defer your bookswap if you're unable to participate due to vacation or something. I wish more people would utilize this so that I didn't order things and then have them not come.

Though, maybe there was a good reason. It just bums me out because I was looking forward to that book. (Fourplay - the one with a shoe on its cover - for those wondering which book I'm talking about.)

On the plus side, I get that 1 credit back, and I have more books out in the mail, and I will be getting some more credits for those.

Now to look back on my wishlist and see which ones I want!

Shopaholic and Baby

What Goodreads Has To Say: Shopaholic Becky Bloomwood is pregnant, but the prospect of motherhood hasn't reined in her passion for fashion. In fact, this insatiable London shopper has a new excuse for raiding boutiques, catalogues, and baby shops for goodies. Amid all this happy expectation, though, lurks a major problem. Becky has become convinced that her hubby Luke has been fiddling with vampish obstetrician Venetia Carter. To allay her fears, our self-indulgent personal shopper hires a private detective to track down the truth. It won't surprise Shopaholic fans that this sets off a madcap romp that is more fun than an afternoon at Prada.

What I Have To Say: I'm having a really difficult time putting into words what I want to say about this book. 

I do love Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood), but I had hoped that she would mature as these books progressed. It seems, however, that Luke is allowing his wife to continue to have very poor spending habits. I realize that husbands and wives don't necessarily 'allow' one another to do something, but she's spending Luke's money. The Look, her place of employment, is doing terribly, and I can't imagine that a place that has such a poor clientele would be able to pay their employees the amount of money that is necessary to shop the way she does. 


The book does strike a cord for a lot of women, though. Those women who are pregnant and then become insecure that their husbands would have an affair. (And Venita did make it so very easy to believe her. On top of Becky's hormones running out of control.) Hiring a private detective, though? I know she wanted to find out the truth of Luke and Venita's relationship, but she didn't even ask him? I know that Luke is busy with all of his new offices opening up all over Europe (for what its worth, for someone as business savvy and smart as Luke, was that really the smartest thing in the world to do?) but she never even questioned him about their relationship - straight to the shoddy detective (I did laugh when the "special operative" was his son.)

The beginning of the book made me tear up in laughter - so much so that I had to tell a specific part to my husband. How can anyone not burst out laughing when she uses the ultrasound machine on her own and begins to talk to her "son," only to find out it's her bladder. It's probably so funny because, unfortunately, I could see myself doing something so stupid. 

At the end, Minnie is opening up her own credit card (or you're meant to insinuate that from the storyline). A one month old baby, able to open up her own account? It just doesn't make sense to me. Is Becky going to hide that from Luke, too? There were tons of purchases that she hid from Luke, even after he told her that they were going to have to tighten up their belts. She bought the rose quartz necklace because she 'deserved an award for beating Luke in the investment bet.' Then she hides it under Minnie's blankets. This makes me giggle and disturbs me at the same time. The fact that she hides the necklace under the blanket (which, really ... could that be very comfortable for Minnie?) shows that Luke isn't taking a part in taking Minnie for walks. Granted, they did just move .. but still --- 

Was anyone else disturbed at the amount of alcohol and caffeine that Becky consumed during her pregnancy? This book was written in 2003 - set in 2003/2004. This didn't take place in the 30's, 40's or 50's when consuming those wasn't yet shown to be detrimental to a baby's health. WHY on EARTH is she drinking all that?? Either she's completely irresponsible, uneducated, or doesn't care. I don't know which one it is. I don't think its that she's uneducated - she's reading all those books left and right to figure out what's best for her child. And she has two OBGYN's - Dr. Brain who seemed amazing, before Becky decided that prestige was more important, and I would assume that he would've explained the harm that she could do. Irresponsible? Well, if her shopping habits show anything - that'd probably be the side I'd turn to. She certainly cares about her baby. 


While her excessive shopping and someone juvenile state of mind and thinking, I will be reading the rest of the series (I'm completely reading these out of order - not on purpose, though.) I did get the audiobook for this book, so perhaps it was 'better' to have it read to me - instead of having to read it on my own. I may have decided to put it down before the end had I been reading it to myself. 


Rating - 3.5

The Boyfriend List

What Goodreads Has To Say: Ruby Oliver is 15 and has a shrink. She knows it’s unusual, but give her a break—she’s had a rough 10 days. In the past 10 days she:
lost her boyfriend (#13 on the list),

lost her best friend (Kim),

lost all her other friends (Nora, Cricket),

did something suspicious with a boy (#10),

did something advanced with a boy (#15),

had an argument with a boy (#14),

drank her first beer (someone handed it to her),

got caught by her mom (ag!),

had a panic attack (scary),

lost a lacrosse game (she’s the goalie),

failed a math test (she’ll make it up),

hurt Meghan’s feelings (even though they aren’t really friends),

became a social outcast (no one to sit with at lunch)

and had graffiti written about her in the girls’ bathroom (who knows what was in the boys’!?!).

But don’t worry—Ruby lives to tell the tale. And make more lists.

What I Have To Say: I liked this book - it brought me back to my pre-teen years when every boy I liked I thought I'd end up marrying or I was absolutely sure they liked me. And, like most pre-teens, I usually picked the guys that were the worst! (Something about "they'd never be that mean to me if we were together" or something...yes. Pre-teens really are that dumb.)


Roo reminds me of myself when I was that age. I made a lot of mistakes, and was able to reflect upon them as she does in the book. Dr. Z makes good recommendations that anyone would be able to use, teenager or not. Roo is character that most women/girls would be able to relate to. She's not high and mighty and has problems that others wouldn't be able to relate to. 


I love Roo as a heroine in this book. She has these quirky/naive/sensitive qualities about her that make me just adore her. She's one of those girls that I'd have loved to hang out with because I was just the same as her - we were both the 'lepers' in our school (as Roo plainly puts it). Not because there is anything wrong with us, but because that's how the school just divided itself out. It reminded me that being quirky and unique doesn't mean that there is something wrong with you.


Now, where was this book when I was 15??


Rating: 4 stars

Christmas in the Mailbox!

Last night when I got home, there were two books awaiting my arrival.

I need to finish The Boyfriend List before I start reading either of these, but I'm almost done with that book, and so I hope to pick up one of these soon. I also discovered that my library has audiobooks that you can check out and listen to on your computer. I can't tell you how excited that made me! My only dilemma with these books is I don't know which one I'll read first! (And I'm still waiting on the arrival of a few more books from goodreads ... I hope they come in soon!) My new logic is that I won't take any more books out of the library until I finish all the ones I own. ... But audiobooks do not count. I don't know how well I'll fare with that because when I go to the library they always have their "new books" up front - I have this "thing" that I have to grab them before someone else does - I don't want to wait for them later!

Secrets of a Shoe Addict

What Goodreads Has To Say: Abbey Walsh never wanted anyone to find out about her shady past. After all, she's the wife of a minister now, living an exemplary life. That is, until someone shows up from her past with blackmail in mind...

Tiffany Vanderslice Dreyer never dreamed that she'd find herself up to her new designer sunglasses in credit card debt from one mad moment of a shopping spree. She's an upstanding wife and mother with the perfect marriage...right?

Loreen Murphy hadn't meant to hire a male prostitute in Las Vegas. It was all just a big, stupid, and expensive misunderstanding...

Abbey, Tiffany, and Loren are each in need of thousands of dollars and fast. Tiffany's sister, Sandra, has the perfect idea. It's fast, it's easy, it's legal, and it's the secret that kept her shoe addiction alive. It's the perfect plan...

In this deliciously sassy novel, three very different women bond when they find themselves in more than one kind of trouble. It's the story of how sometimes you have a secret that can get you in- and out- of dire straits. It's about romance, friendship, kids, revenge, affairs, and most of all, a love of the well- heeled things in life.

What I Have To Say: I wish I had picked this book up much sooner than I did! (I have to thank goodreads for introducing it to me - I don't know if I would have found it on my own.) I must say that the book was nothing what I thought it was going to be. I had expected that it was going to be about buying and selling shoes on Ebay or something. Oh, how wrong I was.

I'm not sure I want to read the first one (this is the 2nd in the series) because if I don't like it as much as I liked this one, I don't want to be left feeling disappointed. This book has some very explicit language in it, but it's done, in what I thought, was a tactful way. And the author doesn't start to use this colorful language until well after you discover that, to pay off their debts, they're going to become sex phone operators. 

This book left me laughing out loud and page turning. I stayed up so late last night to finish it, only for Steve to come home and find me fallen asleep with the book still open and the light still on ... with 15 pages left!

The book cover is adorable, under the jacket. A book cover full of shoes, you can't go wrong! (Well, if you're me you can't go wrong seeing that I adore shoes so much.)

Rating: 4.5 stars

New books a-comin! (and DMV)

I just started using goodreads in June. I discovered the bookswap about a week and a half ago ... right before the 4th of July. I have so many books to post up on the bookswap, and I started doing so. I was amazed at how many books were requested from me!
I'm also part of paperbackswap, and I am much more in love with goodreads than I am with paperbackswap. I like (and appreciate much more) that the person requesting the book has to pay for the shipping. I adore that for every 10 books I send out, I get 1 free book. FREE! They'll pay (up to $6 for one book in shipping) for the sender to send it to me. Oh yah, I can definitely dig that!
I have 8 (yes, 8!) free books to play with. And with the other books that I have out with USPS and waiting to be delivered, I have 7 more free books coming.
So I look at my "To Be Read" list and I am picking up the following books (and subsequently have taken them off the TBR list on my blog because if I don't, I know that I'll somehow forget I have them and order them from the library or something.) This, however, also means that I cannot take any books out from the library until I read these books.
...until I find one I absolutely have to read, of course!
So ... what did I get with my 8 free books??

A Year Without "Made in China" by Sara Bongiorni
I'm really very excited about this book. I'm curious as to what is made in China that I don't even think about! It makes me wonder if I would be able to go even a week (let alone a year...) without buying 'made in China' items. I like that it's a memoir. I tend to be a sucker for that genre, and I love reading about other peoples lives.

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins
When I was choosing a college my senior year of High School, it was of utmost importance to me that it did not have Greek life on campus. I wanted nothing to do with that type of life, and I didn't want to be around it. I had no desire to deal with pledging or hazing or anything else that came with it.
My best friend did pledge Greek in college, but she and I went to different colleges, in different states. It was important to her. It wasn't to me, and the difference in our personalities definitely can be seen in just that choice alone. I love her to death, and I don't think that it was a bad choice that she chose Greek life for herself. I just did not want it for myself. I know myself well enough, and I really felt that if Greek life was available for me that it may become my entire life at college, and I didn't want to potentially be pigeon-holed into a sorority and not be able to explore other options and opportunities that may be available due to the demands of sorority life.
I'm very curious to see what Alexandra has to say about it. I'm especially intrigued by the "secret life" part. I know that when my best friend was in her sorority, there were things that were done that perhaps may not want to get out into the open (and therefore I won't be sharing here!). I'm curious to know if Alexandra brings out some of these things or not.

Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster
It's Jen Lancaster. That should say enough in and of itself. It's also the only Jen Lancaster book on my wishlist that's available for swap at this moment. I know I have read a lot of her books, but I've read them completely and totally out of order. That's okay, though. I like being able to piece things of her life together in the right way on my own. Whether or not I'm correct to her life's journey in the correct order or not, I don't know. (However, as I type this, I realize that this can be solved simply by looking at the publication year.)

Wedding Season by Darcy Cosper
Let's face it (I guess I should say, "Tori, face it.") I'm still having a wedding is over let down! I spent months attempting to make my perfect wedding (and I also know that "my" perfect wedding is absolutely not the idea of someone else's perfect wedding. Not very many people would have a) a dum dum ball, b) a card box made of teetering mailboxes that they decoupaged (they, however, were not teetering when I put it together. Up until they all fell over, it was my favorite DIY project I did for the entire wedding), c) made 300+ chocolate covered pretzels with the help of their dear maid of honor, wonderful mother, and amazing sisters (I'm not sure they've recovered yet...),  d) made their own DIY wedding fans (for a wedding in February ... but I must say that the reception area DID get a little warm, however it could have just been me in my very large and tulle-y wedding dress)  that on one side had the names of the wedding party, violinist and officiants, and on the other had a word search that she made all on her own (and she still regrets that 'bride' was incorrectly spelled. Really. How does one forget an 'e' on the end of bride??) ,or e) decided at the 11th hour that the wedding would not be complete without 100+ chocolate covered spoons.
Regardless ... I think I'm still in denial that it's all over. I'm loving the newlywed life, but since I spent so much time planning the wedding I hope that this book helps me live vicariously through, what I'm thinking, is going to be a few women's weddings. I still look at wedding reception pictures and think "Oh man! I should've done that!"

Fourplay by Jane Moore
I will admit to this fully -- I only choose this book to request this time around because it has a picture of shoes on the cover. No book can be bad if it has shoes on the cover.

Slim Chance by Jackie Rose
Two reasons why I choose this book. 1) It's a Red Dress Ink publisher book. I haven't read any Red Dress Ink book that I haven't liked. and 2) there's a picture of a girl trying to fit into a wedding dress on the cover. Please see the reason I want to read Wedding Season as to why this is pertinent information. Being that I was on such a strict diet prior to my wedding (doctor imposed, not self imposed), I can understand the trials, tribulations, and hatred of 'wedding dieting.' I got through the diet phase of the wedding planning because I told myself that my wedding day was coming up and I'd look better. Yes, I understand this is a completely insane way to look at things. Yes, I understand that you all may think I am utterly insane now. That's okay. It's still how my brain functioned at the time!

Admissions by Nancy Lieberman
I'm curious to read this from a parental perspective of getting children into school. I watched a documentary that was quite disturbing about the process that parents in NYC went through to get their children into preschool. Preschool!! It was absolutely insane the things that these parents would go through. It was like watching them fill out college applications, and some of these kids weren't even 2 1/2 yet. I find it comical and so sad that when some women get pregnant and then give birth, one of the first questions they're asked is, "What school are you sending them to?" What kind of question is that when they're 6 hours old? (And, the poor mother is probably still doped up on an epidural...) I truly hope that when I become a mother that I am not quite as ... school-giddy ... as these parents were. (Or as hoitey-toiety. Some of them made me want to vomit at times.)

Under the Duvet: Shoes, Reviews, Having the Blues, Builders, Babies, Families and Other Calamities by Marion Keyes
Marion Keyes is a toss up author for me. Some books of hers I love, some I don't really care for. I tend to think, by the title, that this will be a memoir, and, as I said earlier, I love those. I'm hoping this is a winning book for me!

And those were my 8 free books! I don't know if I'm going to quickly use the next 7 that I have coming to me, or if I'm going to save them for when some of the others on my wishlist become available. Hmm... decisions.

Also, I have to give super big mad props to the Norwich, CT, DMV today. I went to get my license renewed and change my name and address on it (it's finally official! I'm no longer a Johnson according to the people it matters to the most ... took me long enough, huh??!). I was in and out of the DMV in 10 minutes! I dread going to the DMV, if you couldn't tell, judging by how long it took me to go and actually do the deed, right? I was so excited - they were so nice (another first for DMV workers! (that wasn't nice ... I'm sorry to you DMV workers reading this.)) and I was in and out, including filling out paperwork! Hot day-um!