Shanghai Girls

Has it really been 2 weeks since my last post?? Oh boy does time fly by when you are having fun!! 

Despite our busy lives lately I still had time to read this months book club book Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.

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This book follows the journey of two sisters, Pearl and May, who are sold by their father to a man as wives to his sons. They are required to travel from Shanghai to San Francisco during the year 1937. 

The book spans 20 years and it's so amazing to read about the history of that time, but as well as how relationships evolve for both these girls who didn't have a choice in the direction their life went.

I really enjoyed reading about the bond between the sisters and how strong of a bond it is. And I know I'd do absolutely everything these Sisters did for each for my own Sister. However the relationship between these two is interesting. Sometimes it felt like they only did these things for each other because of their culture. Not that they didn't do it out of love but it felt more like an obligation. It was a very interesting dynamic.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone. It was very fascinating to read about a different culture, a different time of life, and a different way of forming relationships!

I cannot wait to read the follow up book to this novel!!

A Mile In My Flip-Flops

I was so excited to read this book as I really felt it was going kick off my fun/light summer reading.... It was definitely light, but a little part of the book caught me off guard....

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Gretchen just got dumped by her fiancee and is tired of sitting around stuffing her face, watching HGTV and watching her life pass her by. Since she's been watching so much HGTV she decides to buy a house and flip it! I can't even imagine taking this challenge on and yes I knew this book would be unrealistic but who can resist a good home improvement chick lit book? Not me!

Like I said I was super excited thinking this would be a great book to kick off the summer reading that I love so much....but what really surprised me was the constant talk of GOD! This book starts out great, no real mention of religion and then BAM, all through the middle of the book it drags Christianity up at the oddest times! And then just fizzles out for the latter part of the book. I felt like there was some sort of message the author was getting at but it just irritated me! That's a pretty deep subject to just toss into a book without it really having anything to do with the main storyline.

Aside from the God talk it was pretty cute! I liked the main character, the Dad, the Dog (Yup he's a big part) and of course the love interest! It's a cute story, but not the best! I think I'd rather kick off my summer reading with another book but what can I do right?

Overall Grade - B-.

Homer & Langley

I finally finished another book!!! I was so excited to read Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow and I was even more excited when I was able to check it out from the library! I figured I'd have plenty of time to read it before the wedding and finish it up on the Honeymoon and guess what? I did just that!

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First of all this review will be short, sweet, to the point, and over fairly quickly....how I wish the book had been.

It's not a horrible book. But it's not a great one either. It's the story of two brothers who live together their whole lives, one is blind and the other is bat shit crazy!!!!!!!!! Seriously the man has a hoarding problem for sure and he's one of those people who think everything is a conspiracy! It was really quite strange.

And the narrator is the blind brother. You'd think you wouldn't get a good visual of what the house looks like but no you really do. He describes it quite well which to be honest bothered me.
No he wasn't blind his whole life, but he was blind his entire adult life (going blind some time in his teens from what I remember) so how could he describe things so well...it really bothered me.

Overall this book had ZERO point and was BBBBOOOORRRRRIIINNNNGGG. It was extremely hard to even finish this 224 page book but I did! Do I recommend it? Nope!

Overall grade - F. I just can't find one thing about this book that I really enjoyed.