#10 Lone Survivor by Marcus Lattrell & Patrick Robinson

This book was a little hard to get into, but once I got to the meat of the story, it was a little more interesting and pretty amazing. It's an autobiographical account about the survival of one man and the brave deaths of four his fellow navy seals after a mission in Afghanistan goes really bad. It was an alright read if you like military books. A couple people in my book club thought Marcus Luttrell, the survivor, extremely arrogant in his writing. We had a pretty good discussion about what we we would have done in his position and what choices we would have made. Definitely a different book than I used to.

#9 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

This book was given to me by two people a year or so ago and i figured I should get it read. It was quite a beautiful story and elegantly written I think. It's the point of view of a young girl in China in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It's a whole coming of age process from her having her feet bound to make tiny feet where the the four small toes are forces to wrap under the foot. Oh that chapter was painful to read. Then she goes through her life with her arranged best friend. I didn't realize that they even arrange best friends, but they love each other and are there for each other or try to be. It's quite sad and painful the way things end up but their friendship is really beautiful to read about.

#8 As Shadows Fade by Colleen Gleason

The final and completely non-dissapointing conclusion to the Gardella series. I really loved this whole series. Vampires, hot vampire hunters led by a sexy, powerful woman in Victorian England, what's not to love? I think the plot was really good throughout the whole thing and really kept you guessing most of the time. Plus, the steamy sex scenes were nothing to sniffle at either but they are so well done for a romance I think. They still leave a lot to the reader's imagination and they don't occur every other page just to fill up the story, they have a purpose. So a romance, sure but a very enjoyable read nonetheless.

#7 Confessions of a Shopaholic

I decided I wanted to read this book before I saw the movie, so I started reading the day before I was going. My roommate told me it was nothing like the movie so I would be okay, good thing because the book was bigger than I thought. And she was right, there were lots of differences. The gal, umm I can't remember her name was actually a little more likeable than in the movie and seemed smarter. The romance part also didn't just suddenly happen like it did in the movie so that was more enjoyable to read. I don't know if I'll read the sequels but it was a fun little read.

#6 The Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

When I saw the previews for the upcoming movie I was really excited. It looked super cool. Then when I found out it was based on a graphic novel, I thought neat, maybe I should read that. I wasn't really planning on it but the preview was so obscure and the more I heard about it the more I thought that I might be lost if I don't read the graphic novel. So I read it and it was really good and now I am super excited for the movie. Looks really good. The imagery in the illustrations are amazing. The level of detail that goes into each panel. I used to really love to read comics. I wasn't super into them but I loved Archie and spiderman. But access to them was kind of difficult so I didn't read very many. I got most of my super-hero knowledge from the cartoons. I love almost all of the new comic book movies. Reading this novel was liking looking at storyboards for the movie and I've seen several shots that mirror exactly whats in the book. I'm really excited to see it on the big screen.

#5 The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is another arthur who I really enjoy their writing. He is probably one of the wittiest writers I have read. As I think about it, it's amazing to me that I haven't read more of his work. I read Picture of Dorian Gray in highschool. I don't remember if it was witty but I remember really enjoying it, mostly because it was really dark. Anyway, Loralee wanted to pick this for bookclub however she didn't realize it was a play and that it was very very small. So she combined it with The Great Gatsby. I had already seen the movie version and really enjoyed it and already knew a lot of the witty lines and repartee. But it was fun to read to. I think it would be so fun to perform. I plan on reading An Ideal Husband soon.

#4 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I love Fitzgerald. Ever since I got a copy of his collection of short stories I have really enjoyed his writing so I was excited when The Great Gatsby was picked for our February book club book. It did not disappoint. Though I thought the plot of the story wasn't really up to par with some of his short stories, the way he tells it makes it still very enjoyable. He has such a way with phrases and descriptions. Really enjoyed reading this book and it gave me more motivation to read on in my short story book (it's quite large).

#3 Tess of the D'Ubervilles

I've seen two versions of this book made into a film so I knew what happened. Though I was surprised that the heinous act of her losing her innocence was only alluded to. And how much she thought it was her fault. It's quite a sad story with only a small moment of happiness in it. I'm not sure how much I liked the writing style. And unfortunately I read this book a few weeks ago and now I can't really remember too much of what I thought of it. Could be the fact that I pretty late as well.

#2 Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

This is Shannon Hale's newest novel, I think, but I've had it for a while. I was a little worried to read it so soon after Enna Burning, even though they are completely unrelated, because I'm so used to to her writing style and I was a little bored with Enna Burning. There were moments of boredom and of course you can predict the end, not necessarily the means to the end which makes the story interesting.

I've decided not to synopises for the books I read because I figure you can look them up on Amazon or something for that if you find you want to read what I like. So anyway, Dashti is a good character, though loyal to a fault and I think somewhat stupid because honestly why would you think that the handsome khan who is kissing you, believing you are another is suddenly going to be okay to accept the real thing in your place. I just couldn't wrap my head around that logic but it was still cute. I liked the journal style writing, it made me think how fun it would be to write my journal like that. Like a story. Of course everything works out in the end. I was thinking most books are pretty predictable. The protaganist will almost always overcome his/her obstacles to a happy end, but I guess its how they get there is the interesting part. My friend thought Hunger games was so predictable because of course the main girl was going to win, but you don't know how she wins and I think that is the great challenge of writer to keep us interested in how they get to the predictable end.

#1 Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book was a great read about a post apocalyptic world where everything is ruled by the Capitol and there are twelve districts that are subject to its tyranny. Story revolves around Katniss, a sixteen year old girl who has to hunt illegally in the woods to feed her mother and little sister. She is very independent and has only one friend, her hunting partner Gale. This is the time of dread for all the districts because one boy and one girl from each district is chosen to represent in the Hunger Games where there is only one victor and the others will never return. A great young adult thriller but it is the beginning of series with a definite cliffhanger at the end of the book so you may have to wait a year or so to find out what happens next. It was my book club book so I probably would have waited to read it until more books were out but now I can't wait to see what happens next.