Fifty Shades of Grey By EL James

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires. Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

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Amy's Review:
This hit my must read list because of all of the controversy surrounding this book and its author.  I was intrigued by that alone.  I can say that I didn't know a lot about sex either just the basics.  This book definitely gave me a lot more insight on sex, bondage, dominance that I wanted or cared to know.  That being said the story line pulls you in.  I skimmed most of the sex scenes and man there are a lot of them! But I kept cheering for Ana and hoping for the compromise that she was asking for.  What can I say I am hopeless romantic and a sucker for a happy ending.  With this book I didn't get my happy ending.  I am hoping that by the time I get book three I will get my happy ending!  I am intrigued by Christin Grey and I want to know his story and find out why he is the way he is.  My mom, yes my mother who is also reading the books told me that I would get my wish about more info on Christian in book two.  Let me tell you discussing this book with my mother in front of my father was definitely interesting.  Had this book come along five to ten years ago I couldn't image discussing it with my mother let alone admitting that I had read it! At times I also found myself comparing this book to the Twilight Series and comparing Christian with Edward especially considering how the fifty shades of grey ended.  In reading other reviews I have found that there is no comparison and that the author did not base Ana or Christian off of the main characters of twilight even though she had read it before writing fifty shades.  At times I have my doubts having read both i can see similarities in Christian and Edward.  If I was Ana in this book I would have showed Christian the door after I saw his red room of pain.  However looking back at my past and reviewing some of the guys I dated while I was in high school and I can say that saying and doing are two totally different things.  It is hard to let go of someone you have fallen for.  A part of me wants to knock some sense into Christian and yell at him for being the way he is.  But I have long since learned you can't change someone.  They can only change themselves.  I loved how the author brought in Ana's voice of reason and voice of desire.  It was displayed as the little devil and angel that sit on your shoulders.  I felt myself relating with Ana a lot.  It was her shyness, clumsiness and naivity that pulled me in.  I also wanted to find out what happened to her and if the book ended with a happy ending or not. As I said above it did not.   There are a lot of reviews on this book and a lot of them are negative.  I can say that i agree with some of them.  The writing was that of a teenager.  The image that i got of Christian in my head was not of a real person because he was a billionare, extremely good looking, 26 years old, spoke french etc.  Basically I didn't find him relatable like I did Ana.  I also found that the author being from Britian must have not been to the United States or she would have gotten her geography down a little better.  Twilight was set in Washington State.  Is it a coincidence this book is also set in Washington state?  I do have to say I read a review where the author was reported not knowing anything about sex.  I admit I am not an expert on sex or bondage or dominance but I do have to give her props for doing research on dominance and the like in order to write the book the way she did. The closest I come to reading erotica are romance novels by Nora Roberts so my expertise is limited but I did think she did a good job writing these scenes.  I would however like to read someones take that is a little more versed in the subject as to how James writing of the subject compared.  At the very least it was entertaining and I did satisfy my need to see what all of the hype was about. This is a book that you either love or you hate.  There isn't any in between with this one.  As for me I haven't fully decided yet.   Am I going to read the second book?  Yes because my mother piqued my interest on the back ground of Christian Grey and indicated the second book discloses some of it.  Stay tuned for my review of it.

The Shack By William P. Young

The Shack by William P. Young is a story about Mack, a man whose daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered. A few years after her murder, Mack receives an invitation from God to meet Him at the shack where they found his daughter's bloody clothes. Mack goes and works through the meaning of suffering as he spends the weekend with the Trinity, uniquely portrayed (God the Father is a large black woman, for instance).

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Amy's Review:

Okay on this blog I pretty much say that I love every book that I read and I do for the most part.  If I don't love it believe me I will tell you.  This book was recommended to me by my boss.  He is in the education field but I didn't take him for a reader.  He told me to read it and then wanted my opinion on it afterwards.  Typically I look up and see what a book is about or read the back of the book to see what it is about and I did neither with this one.  A couple years ago I would have shrugged this off and not read the book only cause mystery and romance are my genres.  However since joining a local book club I have really opened up and read lots of different things and thank those ladies for it!

This book was hard for me to put down.  It tested my beliefs in god and in faith.  As for the mother in me it broke my heart and I couldn't imagine going through what he did with my own daughter.  With that said it suggested to me that god is not man nor woman like my catholic upbringing suggested. The book suggested that he is very much like reading a book, you can conjure up whatever image of god you like.  In this book God was a black woman.  Because of my upbringing I had never taken the time to imagine god as a woman let alone a black woman.  I found myself asking the same questions that Mac was asking like why did this happen to his daughter and why didn't god intervene.  The book takes you on a journey.  It will make you mad, make you laugh, make you cry and break your heart all at the same time.  I find myself at times reflecting on this book and thinking about the human shapes that God took on in the book.  This book encouraged me to work at being a better person than I am.  It also encouraged me to love others unconditionally and forgive so that I may be forgiven.  I can honestly say this book is not for everyone but it was a good book for me and I really liked it.  If you are feeling adventurous and want to step out of your box, try this book out.  If anything it will definitely get you to thinking!

My Sister's Keeper by Bill Benners

 
This riveting suspense thriller explores the special bond between a brother and sister when Richard Baimbridge rushes back to his coastal hometown of Wilmington, NC, to assist with his sister's recovery after she's brutally attacked and crippled investigating the rape of a 13-year-old. Coming face to face with his tormented past and a dark family secret, he fights to stay above the flood of childhood trauma and, serving as his sister's legs, is drawn into the dark underside of this quiet coastal community where he, himself, becomes the primary suspect in the murders of Wilmington's young girls.

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Amy's Review:

This book was my pick for one of our book club picks.  We were suppose to pick something that we liked and I am all about love, suspense, mystery etc.  Everything this book has then some!  It was a good read for me and I hard time putting it down.  Wanted to find out who the killer was and why they were killing and hurting little girls.  Of course the ending surprised me.  I thought I had it all figured it and then got blown away at the end and found out I was way off course!  If you love mysteries, give this one a look!

Vision in White (Book One in the Bride Quartet) by Nora Roberts

I am a sucker for Nora Roberts!  I absolutely love her!  Maybe I am a hopeless romantic I don't know but I read everything of hers that I can get my hands on!  This book was a fast read for me.  I was looking for happily every after and found it.  I am curious about the other three ladies mentioned in this book and if they find their happily every after.  I like when Nora writes a series how she brings in the main characters from other books in the series and helps you keep up with them.  It is almost like you become a part of their lives they way she does it.  This book was about photographer that had a mother that had been married several times and was spoiled rotten.  Consequently it made her photographer daughter a little gun shy when it came to love and committment.  She along with 3 of her friends run a wedding business called Vows.  She does the photography part, while another does the cakes, another does the flowers and another is the wedding planner.  Interested to see what happens in book two of the series with the florist!

The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

 

I loved this series! I couldn't put it down!  Typically lean towards the books that have mystery or romance or both in them.  I also like a little supsense but I don't do blood, death or gore.  This had a little of what I liked plus a little of the blood death and gore.  There are scenes that stay with you long after you have finished the book.  I found myself cheering for Katniss the whole way.  I loved, absolutely loved the first two books but felt that the third book wasn't as enteraining as the first and second.  I stuck with it and it did deliver in the very end but I not sure the first two hundred or so pages were worth the last fifty to hundred pages.  I would recommend this book to people that like suspense!  My husband wants to read these books and he doesn't stray far from Stephen King! 

The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra King

Overview:

Friendship. Sisterhood. Secrets. For two girls, an incredible journey is about to begin…
Wisconsin, 1961. Evelyn “Button” Peters is nine the summer Winnalee and her fiery-spirited older sister, Freeda, blow into her small town–and from the moment she sees them, Button knows this will be a summer unlike any other.
Much to her mother’s dismay, Button is fascinated by the Malone sisters, especially Winnalee, a feisty scrap of a thing who carries around a shiny silver urn containing her mother’s ashes and a tome she calls “The Book of Bright Ideas.” It is here, Winnalee tells Button, that she records everything she learns: her answers to the mysteries of life. But sometimes those mysteries conceal a truth better left buried. And when a devastating secret is suddenly revealed, dividing loyalties and uprooting lives, no one–from Winnalee and her sister to Button and her family–will ever be the same.

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Amy's Review:


I liked this book.  I had to push myself to read it.  I was hard to get into but I was curious as to why she carried around the book.  Towards the end an explanation is given as to why.  I was also intriqued by her sister and why she was the way she was.  Towards the end it explains that as well.  As for the mother that the two girls ran away from, I can't see how she can could turn a blind eye to what was going on right in front of her nose practically right before her eyes.  The ending of the book is fitting for the two girls.  I liked what the older sister did for one of the local ladies as far as helping her with her hair and makeup and making her feel like a woman again.  Seemed to me she wasn't so mean to her daughter after that.  I would recommend this book to others.  It wasn't a page turner for me but it kept my curiosity enough to keep reading to see what was going to happen. 

The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simmons

 Overview:

Leningrad 1941: the white nights of summer illuminate a city of fallen grandeur whose beautiful palaces and stately avenues speak of a different age, when Leningrad was known as St Petersburg.
Two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha, share the same bed, living in one room with their brother and parents. It is a hard, impoverished life, yet the Metanovs know many who are not as fortunate as they.
The family routine is shattered on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invades Russia. For the Metanovs, for Leningrad and for Tatiana, life will never be the same again. On the fateful day, Tatiana meets a brash young officer named Alexander.
Tatiana and her family suffer as Hitler’s army advances on Leningrad, and the Russian winter closes in. With bombs falling and the city under siege, Tatiana and Alexander are drawn to each other in an impossible love. It is a love that could tear Tatiana’s family apart, a love that carries a secret that could mean death for anyone who hears it.
Confronted on the one hand by Hitler’s unstoppable war machine, and on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit, Tatiana and Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history, at a turning point in the century that made the modern world.
Mesmerizing from the very first page to the final, breathtaking end, The Bronze Horseman brings alive the story of two indomitable, heroic spirits and their great love that triumphs over the devastation of a country at war.

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Amy's Review:

This was not my favorite book.  I had to push myself to read it and keep reading it.  It was very confusing and Tatiana made me mad.  I couldn't identify with her character and why she did some of the things that she did.  The book was almost 700 pages and to me the author could have left out about 300 pages.  I was happy to see that Dimitri got what was coming to him.  He was such an idiot.  As for Alexander, did he live? Did he die? The book left me wondering what became of him.  It didn't say.  I would assume he died but I can't say that for sure.  I wouldn't recommend this book to other people unless you are a good skimmer!