On The Side Erin

For my neighborhood book club pick this past month we read "Dishwasher" by Pete Jordan. It was a great book that I probably never would have picked up and read had it not been for the fact that it was picked out for me. It is about a guy who really doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, so he kind of makes the joke-goal that he wants to wash dishes in all 50 states. The book is non-fiction, and is about all the people he meets and things he does while traveling around the country. The book is fun and lighthearted -- I mean what type of guy really has a life's ambition to be a dish washer -- but his stories are great and it's interesting to see how he gets around and picks up different jobs and then just leaves and moves on to a different state when he gets bored.



The next book we have picked is "Little Heathens, Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression" by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. It's another non-fiction book about, like the tagline leads you to believe, growing up on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression. I'm excited to read this book - the New York Times picked it as one of the 10 best books of 2007.

I've got a lot to read - better get reading!

On The Side

I had an interesting experience reading this book and wanted to share it with you. The Red Tent is a fictional version of the story of Jacob and his family, more specifically his only daughter Dinah,from Genisis in the Bible. I know the Bible story well and thought this might be an interesting book to read. As it turned out it was a very emotional and disturbing book for me to read. It was very hard for me to remember that is was a fictional version. I have strong feelings and views of the Bible story and so it was hard for me to read about this version of the story. I felt that the author took to many liberties with the story. I realize that this book IS fiction, but for some reason I could not take it as so. I have too strong of feelings for the Bible and this hindered my regard for the story. I think if this book had been about anything other than a story taken from the Bible then I would have easily been able to enjoy it. It evoked so many strange and weird feelings in me. I can not remember feeling all of those emotions from any other book. Some people might find that to be enough to read a book just so they can get all of those emotions, but I did not like it. Has anyone else read this book? I would love to know what you thought about it and see if you were able to enjoy it for itself and not based off of the Bible version as I did.

I really don't want you to think this is not a good book because it is. It is a good read and the author writes really well. If you can think of it as fiction then you will really like it. I just could not remember that she was writing it from a fictional stand point and that is why I had issues about it.

Screwtape what?

I belong to a great book club in my neighborhood and this was the book picked for this month. I had heard of C.S. Lewis before (Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) but I hadn't heard of the book The Screwtape Letters. It was funny right after I found out that this was the book for this month I saw the book sitting on my brother in law's shelf and so I was able to borrow it from him.

So I TRIED to read it. I don't know, maybe just that it's summer and I'm in the mood for something a little lighter and less dramatic. But I could just NOT get into it.I was a little worried when I went to Annie's house for the book club meeting, since I hadn't finished the book - but I was so glad to find out that only ONE girl out of about 8 had read it until the end! It was so funny, we all just kept saying "nope, me either".

I can't even say that it's a book that I'll try to pick up and read again in the future. It just doesn't even interest me. Sorry, I don't even want to research to put a little bit of info about it on here. If you want, you can read what my book clubs website wrote about it here. I'd just recommend to stay away. Unless you like that kind of stuff. What kind of stuff that is, I really can't say I read far enough to find out!

On The Side

This was the first book that I have read from James Patterson, and I really enjoyed reading it. It is an easy read and the characters are well developed and likable. It is about a little girl who has an imaginary friend that has to leave her when she turns 9 years old. Micheal, the imaginary friend, tells her that she will forget about him it is just how it works, but she doesn't. They met again and she finds out that he wasn't imaginary, he is real. It is a cute little love story that has a happy ending. I would totally recommend this book if you need a good little love story.


This is a book for all of those out there that LOVE Pride and Prejudice. Janet Aylmer does a really good job of showing the side of Mr. Darcy that we all wanted to read about. It has everything that you love about Jane Austen with bits added so that we can get to know Mr. Darcy. What was he thinking and doing??? I really enjoyed reading this book, it brought home all the things that I loved about Pride and Prejudice. For those that love Pride and Prejudice this is a book for you.

I know, another Jodi Picoult book?!? I needed to read another one to get the disaster that was "Perfect Match" out of my system and I am happy to say that this one is a keeper. It is a great story about kidnapping and all the dynamics that happens in the family. If you want a good book to read that approaches an interesting topic, this is the one.

On The Side

"On The Side" is all the books that Erin and I read on our own, in between our Oh! It's Only A Novel! picks.

The Pilot's Wife is a book that Erin had read a long time ago and I had heard good things about so I decided to read it. I have read Anita Shreve before and really liked her book, Fortune's Rocks, so I had high hopes for this book. Kathryn, the wife of the pilot, found out that her husband's plane had crashed and there were no survivor's. Jack was accused of suicide because it was a bomb that went off on the plane in the cockpit. Kathryn learns that Jack had a whole separate life apart from her and their daughter and it tore her apart. What she does to find out all she can about his other life and how she realizes that the man she thought she knew was not really who he was. The ending is not my favorite, it leaves you hanging. I was totally confused, what did it mean?? I don't like endings like that and it makes me think less of the book. I wonder why Oprah liked it so much??? Am I the only one who hates confusing endings???


OK, this book I had high hopes for because I have really liked all the books that I have read, so far, from Jodi Picoult. Erin turned me on to her and I am grateful because she really knows how to write a good and interesting story. But.....this book was just so unbelieveable. To much happens and all that does happen you think to yourself that there is no way that could really happen.

The first thing that gets you thinking this is that the mother who is an attorney takes a gun to court and shoots the alleged child abuser of her son. Who gets a gun into court??? Then you find out that it wasn't the right abuser, she had shot the wrong priest. It just all falls apart and there is just to much craziness. I was very disappointed with this book and even considered not finishing it, which is so not like me. Please do not waste your time on this Jodi Picoult book, she has many others that are really great stories, such as, My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes and Plain Truth, all of those I loved.