Top 10 Tuesday: Books to Get Mom for Mother's Day

Hello Everyone! 

With Mother's Day coming up this Sunday I'm sure lots of you are looking for last-minute gifts for the woman who birthed you, and who has been dealing with your crap (sometimes literally) ever since. I personally think it's very important to thank my Mom for everything she's done for me on Mother's Day, since her work goes unappreciated far too often.

What busy Mom wouldn't appreciate a bubble bath complete with a nice candle, some chocolate, and of course, a good book?! Here are my top ten picks to get your Mom this Mother's Day!

1. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

A typical Sparks romance with a dramatic edge. When "Katie" moves to a new tiny town across the country to escape an abusive husband at home, she soon falls for a widower and his two young children. Bonus points if you also get Mom the movie adaptation with Julianne Hough.

2. Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos

This book is about a woman who moves to the suburbs with her husband and befriends a woman of kindred spirits who has a young son. I'm not exactly sure what this book is about beyond that little tidbit, but I've heard great things.

3. Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Uhm, hello, the author of this book is none other than Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. That is all the reasoning you need to buy this book.

4. Just One Day by Gayle Forman

This book has possibly the cutest premise I've ever heard - this girl who is usually very decisive and organized meets a guy on her European vacation and agrees to join him on a spontaneous day trip to Paris. Their day together changes her life supposedly, but still they end up going their separate ways. Just FYI, everyone is reading this book right now. And I do mean everyone. 

5. Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Alas, the companion novel to the aforementioned Just One Day - this book is the story of the year following the couple's day in Paris, and Willem (the guy's) journey to find the girl with whom he spent said day, and the obstacles he faces along the way.

6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

By now most people have, if not read this book, seen the movie adaptation with the super awesome Emma Stone. This book is about a white journalist's attempt to revolutionize the southern states of America and make coloured people of equal standing to white, and all the drama and oppression that ensued during this time of terrible prejudice in the USA. This book is super important and I think that everyone needs to read this at least once. That being said, the intense topics and the quick wit oft he characters make it anything but a boring read.

7. The Pact by Jodi Picoult

This book is SO good, and so thought-provoking as well. The book involves two teenagers who grew up together as their parents were best friends and neighbours. When they try to take their relationship to the next level (may as well considering everyone expects them to get married anyways) thinks get tricky and they begin to crack under the pressures of their parents. I highly recommend this one!

8. How to Love by Katie Cotugno

A story about a girl who gets pregnant and gets left behind in a dusty little town by the love of her life, the baby's father. When the baby is born she does her best to move on and swears she wants nothing to do with her baby daddy, but when he comes back to town she just can't help falling for him all over again.

9. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This book is a real heartbreaker, as is the movie version starring Sandra Bullock. It's the story of a young boy who goes on a quest to find a lock matching a key he found in his father's things after his father is tragically killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. 

10. The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

This book's synopsis reminds me of the movie August Rush, although I have no idea why. The story is of a young boy born with a remarkable sense of hearing, and who can even hear the voice of his late father, who died before he was born. I haven't heard much about this book but the synopsis just sounds so intriguing to me.

I hope everyone found a suggestion here that they liked, but if anyone has any additional suggestions of books your Mom might likes for Mothers Day, by all means post them in the comments below! 

Book Review: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Goodreads Synopsis: One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds.

466 pages
3.73 average rating on Goodreads
Published: 2011
Genre: Adult Fiction, Drama, Romance, Controversial

My Review:

When I picked up this book I expected an in-depth, multi-viewpoint account of some controversial issue, with quick-witted characters and raw emotions. Jodi Picoult did NOT disappoint.

Max and Zoe Baxter have been married for nine years, and have dug themselves into quite a hole of debt and despair with infertility treatments - the result of which has been two miscarriages and a stillborn. When Zoe says she wants to try again, Max decides he's had enough, and they divorce. Max moves in with his straight-arrow brother and his wife, and finds his way out of the bottle and into the arms of Jesus. Zoe finds her way into the arms of Vanessa, a counsellor at the school where Zoe sometimes works as a music therapist. Though Max and Zoe have gone very separate ways, they must deal with each other once more, in court, to determine what will happen to their remaining embryos, waiting in a freezer at the in-vitro clinic.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, which talked in-depth about Zoe and Max's fertility treatments. I hope to one day become a fertility doctor, so I like reading anything involving that branch of medicine.

As usual with Picoult's books, I fell in love with the characters immediately, especially Zoe. You can feel how deeply she wants a baby, and become so connected with her that you feel each injection, each miscarriage, each implantation, along with her. From page one, I was rooting for her to get what she wanted. Vanessa seems to be a super open-minded individual, and she seemed willing to do anything to make Zoe happy. Although Max was a slimeball at times, I generally liked his character as well and kept hoping for things to work out for him.

Is it just me or do all of the books by this author end up with someone in a courtroom? This doesn't actually bother me, but Angela, Zoe's lawyer in this novel, and her attempts at hilarity grew old fast in my opinion, and she got on my nerves quite a bit.

This book's plot is pretty fast-paced; there's always some new issue arising, and thus the plot was never boring. I was really pleased with the ending, although it was a bit abrupt and I wouldn't have minded it being extended, or even a sequel book. I'd like to know what happens to Max's brother, Reid, and if later on in life all of the characters are happy with the decisions they've made.

Overall I give this book 4/5 stars. I really enjoyed it and it will probably be put on my "for keeps" shelf, but I would've liked a longer ending.

If anyone else has read this I would love to know what you thought of it!

Readathon Recap

Hello Everyone!

I am very excited to have participated in my first readathon yesterday, Dewey's 24-Hour Readthon! Although I definitely did not read for 24 hours straight, I read more pages than I planned to, and it's the most reading I've done in one day for a long time.

Readathon in my time zone started at. 8:30 a.m., at which time I turned off my alarm clock and went back to sleep (oops). When I woke up at 11:00 a.m., I began by finishing my first book of the day, Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. 

This book tells the story of three teenagers who have attempted suicide, and how they help each other in the struggle to recover while in a psychiatric treatment centre.

I read the last 366 pages of this book fairly quickly, finishing around 1:00 p.m., as this book is a pretty quick read, given how few words there are on the pages. 

I took a little break and had some lunch, then relocated to my bathtub to start reading Night by Elie Wiesel. 

This book is the real-life experiences of a man who survived the horrors of Auschwitz as a teenage boy, during WW2 when the extermination of all Jews was top priority in Germany. Wiesel bravely recounts every gruesome detail of his experiences, so that people of the future do not allow history to repeat itself.

This book was only 115 pages, and took me only an hour and 10 minutes to read. 

I then took another break and went out to supper for a friend's birthday. When I came home, I started reading my third book of the day, Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult.

This book is about a 40-year-old music therapist who has been battling infertility for years. When her husband finally decides he's had enough, they divorce and she now finds herself trying to make a new life for herself, the one she had always pictured having recently gone to hell. 

I'm particularly enjoying that, as always with Picoult's books, we get to read from three different points of view: Zoe, the infertile music therapist, Max: Zoe's (ex-) husband, and Vanessa: Zoe's new friend.

It took me about 3 1/2 hours to read the first 202 pages of this book, and I hope to read a great deal more of it today.

SO all in all, I spent a total of 6 hours and 40 minutes reading yesterday, and read a grand total of 683 pages yesterday, which I personally think is pretty awesome for myself, considering my goal was 500 pages. 

I really enjoyed my first readathon, and connecting with other readathoners via Twitter and Instagram. Please leave a comment telling me what goals you accomplished yesterday, or what books you read, or you can always tweet me at @_withsugarontop ! 

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone else enjoyed the readathon as much as I did! 

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon

Hello everyone! 

As I was surfing YouTube last night I stumbled upon a video posted by Catriona (LittleBookOwl) about the worldwide readathon happening tomorrow, April 26th. 

The point of the readathon is simply to read for 24 hours straight. Of course if you wanted, there are challenges to complete and prizes to be won, but I will simply be reading because I want to, with no particular goals in mind.

Marissa Meyer, author of The Lunar Chronicles, will be reading for charity during this readathon; she offers more insight and information in this blog post: http://www.marissameyer.com/blogtype/24-hours-of-reading-for-charity/

As well, here is the link to the website, where you can sign up to read: 

http://24hourreadathon.com/tag/april-2014/

Of course, you don't need to sign up, but it's completely free and it's nice to feel officially included.

For this readathon, I will be finishing up Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, which tells the story of three teens in a treatment centre who have all tried to "off themselves". I'm currently about halfway through this book, and though I can't say I'm loving it, it's an okay read. 

Next, I will be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, which I have to read for my English class. This is the recounting of real events that Wiesel experienced as a young Jewish boy in Auschwitz as well as a number of other concentration camps during Hitler's power trip. 

Lastly, since Night is such a short read, I am hoping to possibly start reading Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult. I've read a number of books by this author but it's been awhile since my last. I always love her books but they are long, tedious reads with lots of information to swallow and retain. I believe this book the story of a middle-aged woman and how she uses music to cope with the difficulties of life? That may be wrong, it's been a long time since I read the synopsis for this book.

Anywho, thank you for reading, as always, and I hope I've encouraged you to consider participating in tomorrow's readathon! If you do decide to participate, please be sure to comment here and tell me what you'll be reading, or tweet me at @_withsugarontop , and I promise i will reply. 

Happy reading everyone!