Chaos Is A Friend of Mine

Book Review: An Inconvenient Elephant

An Inconvenient Elephant: A Novel by Judy Reene Singer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An Inconvenient Elephant is the story of Neelie Sterling, an elephant rescuer who returns back to New York from spending a year in Africa working with baby elephants. Once in New York, Neelie and her friend Diamond-Rose try to raise enough funds to send for an elephant they had to leave behind in Zimbabwe. Her year in Africa is the subject of Still Life With Elephant. I haven't read that book but I didn't have any trouble jumping right into this book.

I enjoyed this book for the most part but Neelie started to get on my nerves about halfway through. She behaves and thinks a lot like a thirteen year old girl and I had trouble understanding what her love interest saw in her. I'm an animal lover but her obsession with elephants was beyond my understanding as well.

Overall this was a good story with elements of romance, adventure and humor.

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)

First Day of Pre-K

Before school started, West laid out the clothes he was going to wear for his first day. He picked out a really cute blue button down shirt with lobsters on it. Then the morning of his first day of school, he scrapped that and went for a red short sleeved soccer shirt with a rainbow muscle shirt layered over it. Luckily, he is going to the same school as last year and his teachers are quite familiar with his independent nature (severe stubbornness). They know I had nothing to with his outfit without me even explaining anything.

 

He is very proud of his Diego wheeled backpack:

First Day of Kindergarten

My sweet boy Cash started kindergarten today. He was so excited - he's been talking about it and counting down for weeks!

 

Walking to the bus stop (West is the yellow speck running ahead of everyone else):

 

 

Bye bye!

Book Review: Naughty Neighbor

Naughty Neighbor by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was one of the cheesiest romance novels I've ever read. I can do cheese (I love Twilight for God's sake!) but this was over the top even for me. In addition to the romance plot line there was also a mystery plot line that seemed implausible and I had trouble following.

People say that Evanovich is really funny but that wasn't true of this book. To be fair, this book was written pre-Stephanie Plum days and probably wouldn't have been rereleased if it wasn't for the success of the Stephanie Plum series. I've only read One for the Money and it was quite a bit better than this book.

I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator was not good. She had an overly theatrical voice that heightened the cheesiness level that much more. I may have liked this book better if I had read the paper version. View all my reviews >>

Elderly West

T-Ball

Both boys played T-ball this summer. West's was developmental - they just worked on skills and didn't play games. For some reason I don't have any pictures of it. Poor West. Cash was in a real league for the first time. They played games that were limited to one hour and they didn't keep score.

(Also - the dad of a kid on Cash's team was named Cash. That's the only other Cash we've ever met in person. He said my Cash was also the only other Cash he'd every met.)

 

 

Farwell, Summer

I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by! School starts in a week. Cash will be off to kindergarten. *sniff*

We've had so much fun this summer that I haven't even had time to stop and blog about it so I thought I'd spend this week before school starts recapping our summer.

Cash's preschool graduation kicked off summer break:

Next up, we went to the Ohmaha Zoo in June. The temperature was in the mid to upper 80s and we thought it was hot. Ha! It was 105 degrees today. Good thing we went at the start of the summer.

A monkey and an ape:

 

I love that West and this fish have the same expression:

We stopped at Panera on the way home. The boys were really hungry:

Book Review: The Actor and the Housewife

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would consider this book to be a modern-day fantasy. It asks the question - what if you met one of your celebrity crushes and became best friends with him? And more than that, is it possible to have a male best friend when you're a married woman?

Mormon housewife Becky Jack is married and seven months pregnant with her fourth child when she has a chance encounter with British movie star Felix Callahan. This book follows their friendship over several years. I loved the witty banter between Becky and Felix, although at times it seemed a bit overdone. Felix was a wonderful character - I want him to be my best friend. He was so charming and funny. I was completely immersed in the fantasy (How cool would it be to be best friends with a movie star??) right up almost to the end. I didn't like the ending - my fantasy would end differently.

This book would make a great movie. Either Hugh Grant or Colin Firth would be perfect to play Felix. I could see Bonnie Hunt or Sandra Bullock as Becky. View all my reviews >>

Book Review: The Last Supper

The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cusk
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The Last Supper is a memoir by Rachel Cusk of a summer spent in Italy with her husband and two children. I could not connect with the author in this book at all. She shares no background information or any personal information about her or her family and writes in a very detached, dreamy style. She never even refers to her daughters by name, just "the children". In reading a memoir, I expect to be able to form some kind of connection with the author and I felt none with Rachel.

Her metaphors are very creative but she spends paragraphs describing the minutest things in very descriptive, melodramatic detail and never really gets to the point. And that's what I wondered when I finally made it to the end, "What was the point?"

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)