Summer Update 7

Sorry I haven't posted in a while!  I've been reading a lot lately.  I finished "Theodore Boone: The Abduction," and I loved it.  It was even a little better than the first one!  I rarely read books in less than a week, but I finished this book in two days.  It was a really quick read, but it had the quality of a book that would take me a month to read.  John Grisham is a great author.

I also read a book called "ROOM" by Emma Donoghue.  ROOM is a psychological thriller.  I found it to be very interesting and engrossing at the same time.  It's hard to say much about it without giving it away, but it is about a five-year-old boy who has lived in what he calls Room for all of his life.  To the boy, Jack, Room is all there is to the world, and anything outside of it is Outer Space.  He lives with his mother, who he calls Ma.  As the book progresses, Jack learns more and more about the world and why he is in Room.

ROOM was a very interesting and good book at the same time.  It is a book that you both learn from and enjoy, like Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods."  There were some parts that were a bit emotional, but it wasn't over-emotional at all.  I would definitely recommend it.

For my 8th book of the summer, I read "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead.  When You Reach Me is another short, quick book, similar to the Theodore Boone book, but it is also very well written.  It even won the 2010 Newbery Medal!  It is about a 6th-grade girl named Miranda and what she learns as she goes up in New York City.  I also read this book in two days - it was great, and I would certainly recommend it.

I am currently reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.  It is about three women (two maids, Aibileen and Minny, and a young adult, Skeeter) living in Mississippi in 1962.  I love the book so far.  My favorite character is Minny because of her very, well...unique personality.  She is extremely sassy, which proves to be threatening to her career as a servant.  The movie is also out right now, and as soon as I finish the book, I want to go see the movie.

Summer Update 6

Hey again!  I recently finished Bill Bryson's, "A Walk in the Woods."  Again, the book was about the author, Bill Bryson's, adventures hiking the Appalachian Trail.  Bryson hiked the trail with his friend, Stephen Katz, who is hilarious.  I don't want to give away too much, but Katz, as Bill Bryson refers to him, is certainly a character.  My favorite character in the book, however, was named Mary Ellen.  Bryson and Katz met her and hiked with her for a couple days.  She was an obnoxious person, certainly more of a character than Katz.

My only criticism of the book was that Bill sometimes got a little carried away with his explanations of things such as the National Park Service.  These could go on for 20 pages or so and got a bit boring.  If you decide to read the book, you could skip some of these sections, and you wouldn't really miss anything.  However, I would still recommend the book.

The book I'm currently reading is called, "Theodore Boone: The Abduction."  It is by John Grisham, who usually writes more adult-geared books.  I read the first book in the series, "Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer," and I really liked it.  If you're interested in the law, or just want a quick, great read to finish up your summer reading, check out this book.

Summer Update 5

Hi again, everybody! I've finished and edited the book my dad is writing. It will be called, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears: A Humorous Guide to Caring for Cancer Patients." He is doing some final editing, but the book should be available (in e-book format only, for now) in the next couple of weeks. Check back here for more information soon.

I finished the book, "Where I Belong" by Gwendolyn Heasley, that I mentioned I was starting in my last blog post. The book turned out to be much better than I had expected. You can definitely tell that it's the author's first book because it isn't especially well-written (it's pretty good, though), but the plot line is pretty engaging, and the book could make a pretty good movie. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a quick summer read.

I have just started Bill Bryson's, "A Walk in the Woods." It is about the author, Bill Bryson's, adventures on hiking the entire Appalachin Trail, which stretches all the way from northern Georgia to Maine. The book is supposed to be pretty interesting, but I'll have to wait and see!

Summer Update 4

RUN!

Dean Karnazes

Sorry I haven't updated in a while!  A couple weeks ago, I finished a good, non-fiction book called "RUN!" by Dean Karnazes.  It is about Dean, who is a runner, and his running life.  Dean is an ultramarathoner, which means he runs races that are 50, 100, and more miles long.  The book chronicles many of the races that Dean has run and his challenges in each.

I found the book very interesting because I am also a runner.  Okay, maybe I'm not an ultramarathoner or anything, but I run 6 or so miles (I did our local 4th of July race yesterday).  The book was very inspiring to me because it can be hard to push yourself to keep running when on a run, but Dean's 100+-mile runs inspire me to keep going.

I just finished reading a book my dad is writing entitled, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears: A Humorous Guide to Caring for Cancer Patients."  He is still working on it, so I'm helping him edit it.  If you're interested in reading it, I'll post more once the book is finished.

Finally, I just started a book called, "Where I Belong" by Gwendolyn Heasley.  I'm not really sure if I like it yet - the writing isn't very sophisticated - I think it's one of the author's first books - but the plot is okay.  I'll post more about it soon.

Summer Week 3 Update

Hello again, everyone!  Sorry I forgot to post last week - I was busy helping at camps.  About my reading, I'm still reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, which I am almost done with.  The book is fabulous - I would recommend it to anyone who's looking for a really good book to read: it's funny but serious at the same time.  I have learned a ton from the book.

It is hard to post much of a review or summary of the book without giving anything away, but it's basically about a girl who has leukemia and her family's struggles because of that.  The main struggle is that the sister, Anna, of the girl with leukemia, Kate was conceived to be a bone marrow match for Kate and therefore has had many surgeries because of it.

Movie poster

One of the reasons I like Picoult's books is because of her writing style.  Jodi Picoult writes from the perspectives of the different characters of the book.  Basically, the book is in first person, but the "person" switches each chapter.  Some of the narrators in this book include Anna, the younger sister of the girl, Kate, who has cancer; Jesse, Kate's older brother; Sara, Kate's mother;  Brian, Kate's father, and others whose names and positions cannot be given away without spoiling the book.

As soon as I finish the book, I plan to watch the movie.  I hate watching movies before I read books because I like to get my own opinions of what characters look like, how they act, etc., so I'm going to watch this movie after I read the book.

Another one of Jodi Picoult's books that I recommend is House Rules.  It is about an autistic boy and his family's struggles because of that.

UPDATE: Today, June 21, I have finished My Sister's Keeper.  It is definitely one of the best and most intriguing books I have ever read.  If you read the book, you may find the last few chapters of the book boring, but all I will say is finish the book.  Trust me, it gets much more interesting.  I am now beginning to read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Summer Week 1 Update

Just a quick update on my reading status!  I was reading Joshua Ferris's The Unnamed, but I didn't exactly understand it, so I decided to take a break and try something else.  After thinking about many classics, I settled on Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper.  I haven't seen the movie yet, and I hear the book is great, so I'm excited to try it.  I should be finished with that in hopefully about a week or so.  I'll post a review when I'm done.

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Adam.  This is my 2011 summer reading blog.  I will post about books I want to read this summer, my favorite books, cool videos, pictures, book reviews, and more.  Thanks for visiting!