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BSchultz19

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About BSchultz19

  • Birthday 10/25/1996

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  • Reading now?
    Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
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  • Location:
    Missouri

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  1. I have to work on Saturday, but I will definitely participate in this read-a-thon as much as I can. It's been quite some time since I've committed a whole weekend to reading.
  2. As an American well aware of the racial issues in the country, I'm interested by this book. I read quite a bit of Picoult, but I've never heard of this one. Is it a newer release? Also, I love love love your charts and graphs because I am a nerd and they are beautiful.
  3. I have been good! I am working in a research lab this summer, which has been keeping me very busy. But I like being busy so all is well. It's also nice to have a more money to spend on books I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed Handmaid's Tale and that you enjoyed my review of Gatsby! It's such a classic book, and I'm glad that I was able to read and fully appreciate it.
  4. I may post reviews of the three books I have read in the time since my last post, but I have not decided yet. This summer I am trying to get more into nonfiction books, especially history and/or politics related ones. I anticipate that this will mean I read fewer books, but I expect them to be even more meaningful than my typical reads. I will still, however, be mixing in some light fiction reads to spice things up. Very excited to get my summer reading going into full gear. I'm about halfway through The Handmaid's Tale right now and loving it.
  5. I really liked your review of The Handmaids Tale. I haven't seen the tv show, but I've heard such good things about the book and the show that I bought the book. I haven not gotten to reading it yet, but your review has me wanting to do it sooner rather than later.
  6. The Hate U Give sounds interesting because the plot is intriguing, but mostly because it has such political and social relevance right now. I'm glad you thought it was good, because now I definitely want to add it to my list of books to read this year.
  7. Finding the proper alternative to amazon probably depends heavily on what machine you would be reading on. If you have iphone/ipad/macbook, then I would recommend iBooks. Same goes for if you're using an android device, use the google play store to find books. If you mean that you don't know which device you should look into, I'm not sure there's a better reading only EBook reader than some of the basic kindles. Someone else may know, but the only alternative I know to a kindle is some sort of tablet, which would obviously cost a little bit more money than a simple e-reader. I suppose Barnes & Noble (if you're in the states) has the Nook, but I've never used one before so I can't say that it's much better or different than a kindle.
  8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald General summary: The story is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, who moves East and settles into a house next to Jay Gatsby's mansion. Gatsby has been smitten with Daisy for five years despite not seeing her for that long and knowing that she is married. Nick's connection to Daisy allows Gatsby to sneak back into her life. As one could imagine, things go down hill from there for everyone involved. My thoughts: This is not your average love story, and that is what makes it such a great one. I absolutely love the way that Fitzgerald writes. It flows and it's absolutely beautiful. What I think people, myself included, appreciate most about his writing is how authentic the writing is. It's a love story, but it's not frilly and it certainly isn't necessarily going to end with sunshines and rainbows. It's real and I assume that it accurately portrayed relationships and general life during that time period even better than it (still somewhat accurately) portrays current relationships and life. This novel didn't have the profound impact on me that it has on others who love it, but it was definitely a good book that I could find myself re-reading later on in life. It was short, well-written, and contained an interesting plot.
  9. Why not Me? by Mindy Kahling General summary: This book was a collection of essays by Mindy Kahling. The topics of the essays varied from female body image to work to dealing with relationships, both platonic and romantic. My thoughts: This book is funny. Genuinely, genuinely funny. I can't remember a single book that made me laugh actually out loud as much as this one, or even at all. What made it even more enjoyable of a read was the fast pace. The book is separated into chapters, subchapters, and occasionally different essays within each subchapter. Despite the different subgroups, it all tied together and flowed from start to finish. The beginning of the book was definitely more light-hearted, but I enjoyed it all the way through. There was humor, truth, and inspiration. Definitely a book I would read again and again and recommend to everyone.
  10. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult General summary: Jenna is a teenage girl whose mother disappeared when she was three years old after an accident in an elephant sanctuary. Now that she sees herself as old enough to be taken somewhat seriously, she's on a mission to find her mom. She doesn't know whether she is alive or dead, but she has a hunch that her mother is alive somewhere. With the help of a psychic and a grumpy ex-policeman she does her best to track down where her mom could be as well as finding out exactly what happened the night of the accident when her mom disappeared. My thoughts: I picked this book up because it was on my shelf, and I assumed that starting with a Picoult would get my reading skills going again. I expected it to be a quick read (it was) where I pretty much knew where the book was going (I didn't). Through the first 200-250 pages I thought I had it all figured out. It was seemingly way too predictable, but I kept reading along to see how the characters would find out what I thought I already knew. In some ways, my predictions were right. But as far as the overall plot goes, I was completely blown away when I reached the end. If this doesn't make any sense to you, all I can say is that you should give it a read. I'm prone to recency bias and thinking each new book I read is the best one, but I definitely think this is one of Picoult's better books.
  11. Another update: As I combed back through my read books on this book thread, I realized that I hadn't put down that I read Coyote in Provence nor had I created a review. Unfortunately, I don't have a strong enough recollection to write a review now because I had actually started the third book, Cornered Coyote, when I ran out of time (both for reading and on my kindle unlimited trial ). Because I started the third one, I'm a little blurred on which parts of the plot happened in which book. I do remember that I didn't like it as much as the first one as it sort of felt like a filler to get to the climax of the series in the third book (which I never reached). In the spirit of getting back into reading, I made a trip to the bookstore yesterday. I went in not even looking for anything in particular and came out with a couple of books, a journal, and a planner. The two books I bought are: Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly Why not Me? - Mindy Kahling I had already planned on reading Why not me because I love Kahling as a tv writer, book writer, and actress as well as part of the popsugar 2018 challenge. It was a hardcover that was bargain priced for $7, so I couldn't pass up that opportunity. I think it's what I'll read next. When I saw Hidden Figures on the bargain shelf as well, I immediately picked it up. I was choosing between it and a history-based book, and I felt that I would enjoy this one more. I haven't seen the movie, but I understand that the underly plot of the book is female scientists that helped America in the space race and that is extremely interesting to me.
  12. Maybe trashy novels are the answer. I wonder what the novel version of bad reality tv is I'm going to keep trying and working to make time for myself to enjoy some reading. No reason to be hard on myself for focusing on school and doing well, but I also want to expand my learning and enjoyment beyond what I'm required to do. And that's where reading comes in.
  13. I'm studying chemical engineering, so I don't really *read* that much. But I spend a lot of time thinking and studying. So much that I hardly have time let alone the desire to read. It's sad though. Thank you I'm always able to get quite a bit of reading done while on my breaks, so I'm hoping this one isn't too different. Just a shame that I haven't been able to keep up the rest of the time.
  14. Well... Another year, another failed attempt at reading for pleasure while in school. I told myself that this year would be different, that I would find time to read despite the exhaustion of university. And yet, it did not happen. I'm not sure exactly the reason, but I just couldn't get into reading when I arrived back at school. I'm home on break now for a week and plan to read as much as I can. However, I can't help but get disappointed by the effort I've put in so far. There's still plenty of time to change things, but I realize now how difficult it is to make time for anything during the semester. I think the main root of my problem is that I need something that doesn't require using my brain when I do find times of relaxation. Naturally, that means I watch trashy tv rather than open a good book. This is unfortunate, but I'm not sure that my brain could take any more work than it has already been put through.
  15. Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks Brief summary: Russell Green has a lovely wife and a pretty good life. Things change when his daughter, London, is born. The book follows the struggles between Russ and his wife as they coast through their lives as parents. In particular, the book follows a specific year in time when London is 5-6 years old where a dramatic number of changes happen in both their personal and professional lives. My thoughts: The first half of this book follows Russ and his wife, Vivian, through the struggles of their marriage. I don't think I'm giving too much of the plot away when I say that it followed them up to the point of divorce. Sparks does a great job describing the thoughts, words, and actions that both experience during this time, which I found to be quite interesting and different from many of his books that I've read in the past. It did, of course, contain romance like any Sparks book does. However, the over-the-top unrealistic relationship certainly wasn't the center of the story. In fact, most of the plot was incredibly realistic even if it was somewhat predictable. I haven't read Sparks in quite some time (mostly because I blazed through all his books when I was 15 or 16 and there were none left to read in recent years), so comparing to his other novels probably isn't the best way to judge the book for me. I will say that part of what draws me to Sparks' books is that it's not real. Because who doesn't love to read some crazy romance story that, albeit utterly unrealistic, lights the fire of the romantic within us? With that said, I liked this book but it didn't have quite the same romantic pull that his others have.
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