Books: 40 Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down

I came across this list on Pinterest.com today.  40 Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down and after looking through the list I was suprised how few of the books I had read.  I read a good bit- 2-4 books a month on a slow month.  I love to read (and watch movies).


These are the books on the list I have read:
The Help  
Explosive Eighteen  
Me Talk Pretty One Day 
Halfway to the Grave
Are You There God?  It's Me, Margaret
Dead Until Dark

The Help, Explosive Eighteen and Me Talk Pretty One Day are great reads and I would recommend to any reader.  Are you There God?  It's Me Margaret is a classic young adult book I think everyone of my generation has read and probably all of Judy Blume's other books as well. 

If you like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series then you'll like Halfway to the Grave and Dead Until Dark.  They are both vampire novels but not exactly scifi.  I don't do full scifi mainly because I can't keep up.  It's either I can't remember all the characters and places or the back stories that are usually part of reading scifi.  With that said What I do like about these books, though they do have vampires and other unwordly creatures, is they are set in current time and in real life.  Halway to the Grave is like the Anita Blake series but less complicated.  Dead Until Dark is the first book of the Sookie Stackhouse series and now has an HBO series True Blood based on the books.  Amazon kept recommending the Stackhouse series to me so I tried to read the first book a couple of times and couldn't get into it but then I found the book on Audible.com and listened to and was hooked!  I needed the audible version to really catch the southern setting and accents.  Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series is a must read if you can go there, lol.

If you like comedy and mysteries then definitley check out Explosive Eighteen.  I have read Evanovich's whole Stephanie Plumb series and they are such an easy enjoyable read!  They recently made the first book, One for the Money, into a movie.  The movie was pretty good but I am not sure the casting was quite right.  The movie doesn't do justice to the books unfortunatley.  This series is one of the few I can't wait for another book to come out!!

These are the books on the list I have seen the movie:
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
The DaVinci Code
The Hunger Games
The Help
The Hobbit
High Fidelity
Fear and Loathing Las Vegas

Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter are both great great movies!  They have beautiful computer graphics and heart warming adventures.

For the Mystery Lover you've got The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and The DaVinci Code.  I really enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and can see from the movie it was a great book.  Warning though- there is some adult violence in this movie- I being the wimp that I am closed my eyes during those scenes.  Also I am a huge fan of James Bond aka Daniel Craig and Christopher Plumber and that alone made me want to see the movie!  The DaVinic Code was a good movie.  I enjoyed thinking about the possibility of all the conspiracy theories and what truth they held.

The Help and High Fidelity I loved.  John Cusak and Jack Black of course made me love High Fidelity.  The Help was a great book and so interesting.  As a child of the 70s and 80s I find the reality of the lives of The Help so fascinating since I did not grow up with that dynamic.

That leaves The Hobbit and Fear and Loathing.  The Hobbit I saw as a kid and was kinda freaked out by the creature who wants the ring-- My precious, my precious- so I am not sure this one is a must see.  Fear and Loathing was way to weird for me.  I am a huge Johnny Depp fan but I couldn't even make it through this movie.

Hope this post helps you find a great summer read and maybe even a movie!  Shoot me a comment if there's something you love and think I should checkout.  And don't forget to be thrifty- You can check these books and movies out of your local library or buy them on Amazon.com or Ebay.com at a discount or even start a book or movie club with someone where you can trade back and forth.  Of course you can also rent the movies on Amazon.com, at Redbox or Itunes.com.  Good reading or watching ;)

Beaded christmas ornaments: Cracker box "Autumn Palette"

I just ordered Cracker Box's "Autumn Palette".  It's in their list of Current ornaments on page one.  I am not usually a big fall color person.  I tend toward spring and summer colors to fit my fun and bright personality!  I looked over the images of my favorite Current ornaments on their website and kept coming back to this ball.  I just really like the color of the beads and how they blend from yellow to orange to red and then meet in the middle at green.  This ball will surely stand out in my collection since I don't have anything remotely close to these colors.  I plan to make two of these ornaments- one for myself, of course, and one for my Mom.  My Mom is a total fall person. 

I am also thinking of trying this pattern out in a some different patterns especially since the real zinger of this pattern is the flow of the colored beads. 

What do you think of these color palette ideas for the pattern of the Autumn Palette ball? 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/04/beating-obesity-10-ideas-to-solve-the-problem/39130/

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/04/beating-obesity-10-ideas-to-solve-the-problem/39130/

I totally agree with #8 teach kids to cook. If you want kids to lay off junk food and stuff out of the box we need to teach them to cook. Shaun and I made lasagna for Seth's bday last year so he could learn how to make it. It was fun.

Field Guide: What's the Best Smartphone Operating System?

Field Guide: What's the Best Smartphone Operating System?
My hubby and I have Iphones and we love them.  I was never a cell phone nut.  I always had the basic no frills phone for calling only.  Last year I got an Iphone for my birthday and I have been hooked every since.  I love that it is a phone and Ipod in one but most of all I love having the internet at my fingertips. 
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Travel and Food: Tuning In to Tasty Italy

Tuning In to Tasty Italy

Wish I was going to Italy. Well I hope to one day and when I do I will use these tips. I love dives, diners and local spots. They have the best food, even here in Houston.

Diabetes: Added Sugar Increases Heart Risks - Heart Disease

Added Sugar Increases Heart Risks - Heart Disease - FOXNews.com  We really needed to be more "freaked out" with diabetes and consider it to be as deadly like heart disease or cancer if not treated.  It is so common for people with weight issues to be type 2 diabetic or prediabetic.  Having diabetes is so bad for your body.  Over time, high blood glucose levels damage nerves and blood vessels, leading to complications such as heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death among people with diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes can eventually lead to other health problems as well, such as vision loss, kidney failure, and amputations.  Many people with pre-diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years. In addition, they are at risk for heart disease and stroke.  If you have diabetes, you are at least twice as likely as someone who does not have diabetes to have heart disease or a stroke. People with diabetes also tend to develop heart disease or have strokes at an earlier age than other people. If you are middle-aged and have type 2 diabetes, some studies suggest that your chance of having a heart attack is as high as someone without diabetes who has already had one heart attack. My Mom is an insulin dependent diabetic and it wasn't until she was hospitalized for a week bc they couldn't get her sugar stabilized that I really looked into what being a diabetic meant.  Diabetes doesn't get enough credit.  It is a really bad deal.  It slowly wears downs and clogs up your body and the damage it does is hard to reverse.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-19/health/ct-biz-0419-burns-syrup-20100419_1_corn-refiners-association-syrup-corn-products-international

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/stroke/






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Salad, got enough to feed an army

So, I was supposed to go to a great friend's going away party today but it got cancelled, bummer.  I was in charge of bringing the salad.  I bought salad and all lots of veggies to go in it but the problem is How am I going to eat all that before it goes bad?! I usually buy one premade salad to last me all week, lol.  So I went searching for ways to change it up and came across this great page about herbs and what to do with them.  So I hope this inspires you to change up your salads and cooking with some new herbs.
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Cooking-Tips--Techniques-642/salad-herbs.aspx