Booking Through Thursday - Mystery or Love Story?

Booking Through Thursday asks this week:

All things being equal, which would you prefer–a mystery? Or a love story?

 A love story.  Simply for the fact that I read more of them than I do mystery, even though I have read a number of mystery/crime novels over the years.  I guess I just like to have a feel-good story, especially when things feel like they are crowding in on me.

Looking forward to your comments :)

WWW Wednesdays (Dec.7)

This is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll be reading next?

My answers:
1. What are you currently reading?
Nothing at the moment.

2. What did you recently finish reading?
I finished Lost December and The Quiet Little Woman

3. What do you think you'll be reading?
I have no clue right now; I probably will have picked out something in the next hour.

The Quiet Little Woman - Louisa May Alcott

Title: The Quiet Little Woman : a Christmas story
Author: Louisa May Alcott
Pages: 122
Published: 1999
Genre: Short stories, Fiction, Christmas
Rating: 3/5

Everything about The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story by Louisa May Alcott is heartwarming, starting with the extraordinary tale of its origin. Alcott wrote the story for three girls who emulated Little Women's March sisters by founding their own literary publication, but the magazine was lost for many years; this story is now being published in book form for the first time. The Quiet Little Woman tells the story of Patty, a young girl living hopelessly in an orphanage, who is rescued at Christmas time by a kindly woman named Aunt Jane. Also collected in this small, beautiful (and not coincidentally, Christmas stocking-size) volume are two of Alcott's other holiday stories; one of them, "Rosa's Tale," is a really lovely fable about a horse who speaks at midnight on Christmas Eve. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: It was a nice light read.  Granted the book was very short and the book only took me less than 12 hours of reading time to complete, but it was still a nice diversion from the heavier books that are awaiting me.  I find it interesting that these three stories were only discovered quite recently and that Ms. Alcott took the time to pen these stories for the Lukens girls and their little publication, which was inspired by the paper that the March girls made in Little Women, even though she was a well-known author at the time of these stories and was in the midst of her own busy writing career.  The stories are quite simple and while the first two stories in the collection were more entertaining, the last story was a little confusing for the most part.  Overall it was enjoyable and a nice read.

Recommended for fans of Little Women and Alcott's other work.

Lost December - Richard Paul Evans

Title: Lost December: a novel
Author: Richard Paul Evans
Pages: 346
Published: 2011
Genre: Christmas, Fiction
Rating: 4/5

When Luke Crisp graduates from business school, his father, CEO and co-founder of Fortune 500 Crisp's Copy Centers, is ready to share some good news: he wants to turn the family business over to his son. But Luke has other plans. Taking control of his trust fund, Luke leaves home to pursue a life of reckless indulgence.

But when his funds run out, so do his friends. Humbled, alone, and too ashamed to ask his father for help, Luke secretly takes a lowly job at one his father's copy centers. There he falls in love with a struggling single mother and begins to understand the greatest source of personal joy. (via jacket flap)

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one.  The story takes the story of the prodigal son and gives it a modern twist.  I found it to be a little too simplistic and a little too straightforward, but I guess if somebody is basing a fictional story on a biblical tale, it usually is a little more straightforward than if one is developing one's own storyline, but for some reason I never found East of Eden to be that straightforward, even though it is also based on the biblical story of Cain and Able.  But I digress.

One thing that I thought that could have been improved upon was that there could have been a little more conflict between Luke and Rachael and more time spent on it; felt that it was rather rushed and it felt as though they resolved whatever issues they had rather quickly and probably a little too quickly for my liking.  I realize that its supposed to be a book that is meant to be read fairly quickly and therefore doesn't go into much depth, but I felt that issues that they had was dealt with fairly quickly, even though it felt like it was a huge betrayal for Rachael to discover; just felt that he could have added a few more pages and dealt with the conflict in regards to the text message a little more and have them discuss it a little more than they did at the end, not that I didn't understand where the author was coming from.

If you have read the other Christmas books by Evans, you will enjoy this one and even if you haven't read his other books, you will also like this warm-hearted tale.

Teaser Tuesdays (Dec.6)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 It felt good to feel truly grateful.  I had learned a great truth: Joy isn't the natural response to blessings---joy is what comes from acknowledging them.


~p. 205, Lost December: A Novel by Richard Paul Evans

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading is a fun weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey where we share what we've read and reviewed over the past week and what we plan to read next.

Didn't get much done this last week, but I should be able to get a few done this coming week.

What I am reading: 
• Little House on the Prairie 
• Lost December: A Novel 
• Quiet Little Woman 
• Steve Jobs: A Biography 
• What Alice Knew 

What I recently finished:
Like I said above, I didn't finish any books this past week, but I should have some finished for next week; it was one of those weeks in which no books were completed.

What is up next:
See the list above.

Musing Mondays (Dec.5)

This week Should Be Reading asks:

How many books do you read in a week? Month? Year?

I probably read 1 or 2 books a week, but of course that depends on whether what I am reading at the time and how long the book is and how engrossed I am in the book. As for how much in a month, probably 4 or 5 on average and I read probably between 35 to 45 in a year, at least that is what I think I have averaged in the past.  This year I will probably get closer to the higher end of my average.