What I Read: May

(Image courtesy of Organised Housewife)

I have a vivid imagination. I remember being on the playground when I was 8 years old leading my troop of friends in a race against time to save a damsel from her captor. We always saved her but the next day she found herself captured again.

That creative spirit is what led me to my love of books. My parents often took my sister and I to the library to fill our bags with new reads and taught me very early to appreciate the story.

Now I love to read because I am not only able to read the words but create the visual in my head. All books have the potential to move you but very few have the ability to transport you into another place.

As I hold to my resolution of reading 50 books this year, I am slow to start. The year is nearly halfway over and I have only read 10.


May was a month of guilty pleasures with books that were borrowed from the library or given to my by my sister. Although some may have been deeper than others, guilty-pleasure-reads typically mean they are easy to get lost in and quick to finish.

These are the books I read in May:

	Beautiful Ruins
	I started this book in April and as I was part way through the book, I went to a literary mixer and brought it with me to share. I had the hardest time ever explaining the plot. I was halfway through the book and I was enjoying it... it was intriguing... but how do I explain it? It goes between 6+ characters points of view, decades of time, and re-occuring themes of self destructive behavior. It is about the past and moving forward in the future. It has moments that are very raw and can make you tear up but abruptly end to give you a perfectly complete ending. I actually wrote an entire blog post about this book and the feelings it evoked but never got around to sharing my thoughts. It is below if you are interested...
	Before I Fall
	This library book had such rave reviews that I checked it out on the whim but forgot about it until it popped into my kindle reader as finally available. It follows a character who lives out the last day of her life. Unlike other stories, this girl gets 7 chances to make it right. During the first few "days" it was like a novel version of groundhog day. The story wasn't adding any value to my life and I didn't really like the main character but then she evolved. She started to care for herself and those around her and made an effort to do better... to be better. It became easy to root for her and with each day that pass, hope that this one wouldn't be her last and she would wake to a new day.
	Gorgeous
	This book is the new it-book in YA Novels according to my sister. She hasn't failed me yet in her recommendations so I gave it a chance. 1-Star. I didn't love it. I didn't even like it. I have read some pretty unbelievable books and believed them but this book stretched too far in its plot. It is a modern day tale of a plain jane getting magically remade into the most beautiful woman alive. She decides to use this gift of beauty to be the most giving person in the world but the only way she can do that is to marry a prince. I kid you not, this is the plot. And I read it... all of it. Don't make my mistake. And girls, you don't need a prince to be a giving and generous person. (Getting off soapbox now)
	Beautiful Creatures
	Any book that gets made into a movie, I have a compulsory need to read. I had this in my library queu but before it was available, I started to watch the movie. That is a cardinal sin in my book. But it was a 10 hour flight home from Amsterdam and I was attempting to stay awake to get my internal clock back on Seattle time. Thankfully, I made it about 5 minutes and woke up at the end of the movie with my conscious clean. For the book? I really enjoyed it! Another one of those YA novels that is about other worlds or under worlds or hocus pocus magic. It was easy to read and perfect for when you are laying out by the pool.

Until next month, follow me on Goodreads to get up the minute recommendations on books.

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Beautiful Ruins - Extended

I have been reading Beautiful Ruins steadily for the past week and a half. I felt the story had so much potential, so many nuggets of wisdom, but as the plot goes across point of views and spans decades of time I was struggling with feeling connected in my short allotted time to read.

This past weekend I sat myself down in my favorite shop determined to finish this book. As usual, the coffeeshop was crowded with people staying to work and those that were coming and going. Overhead the music was playing a independent folk music that could be attributed to a slow Lumineers. Although it wasn't fast pace it was loud and filled my mind.

But still I read. I came to the climax of the book when all of the stories finally tied together in a play that some of the characters had written and were staring in. Amidst the noise, amidst the traffic of this coffeshop, I was sitting in the audience of this play in the book. Watching the characters play out what I had spent 60% of the book trying to connect. It encompassed all of the love and heart ache that was on the tip of each page. And I teared up. I couldn't hear the music anymore. I didn't care who saw. I cried for these characters. For their self destructive behavior. For the vulnerability in the moment and the hope that came from it.

That is what a book can do. It can take you places you've never been and make you feel like it sees you. Hears you.

I definitely recommend this book because of the potential this story has. But when you get to the point in the story when the play ends and the audience claps after a minute of pause... Close the book. Let it end at that and know that it all works out in the end. The book spills out how every character turns out. Too neatly and cleanly for my taste after that moment of emotion. I believe your imagination can close the gap. So let it. Close the book and finish the story yourself.