Books I've Read and Plan to Read

Pin It I thought I would share a list of books that I have read recently and what I thought of them.  I also wanted to put a list of books that I am thinking of reading to find out YOUR opinions on them or if there are other ones that you think I should read.

Books I've Read Recently

I absolutely loved The Book Thief.  As morbid as it sounds, books about the Holocaust are actually my favorite.  I have read several books about stories during the that time period. The Book Thief put a unique spin on the normal Holocaust story.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it!

 Ella Minnow Pea is a fun book.  It's written in the form of letters between friends.  As certain letters of the alphabet become banned, they have to figure out ways to communicate their feelings.  It's really quite clever.  It's a short read, which was nice.

 My husband really wanted me to read Ender's Game just because I'm rarely read science fiction books.  While this book is probably more geared towards guys, I did enjoy it.

 Ender's Shadow is a book written about the Ender's Game story, but from a different person's perspective.  Honestly, I enjoyed this book more than Ender's Game primarily because I liked the way this character thought.  However, you should probably still read Ender's Game before reading Ender's Shadow.

 Kite Runner had been on my list to read for a while.  I had heard it was a great book from several of my friends.  While the story is somewhat disturbing, it is a major eye opener.  I really liked this book.  We watched the movie and were really really disappointed.  So I would not recommend the movie, but definitely recommend the book.

I hated this book.  My brother said this book was amazing, so I gave it a chance.  Well I really didn't like it.  It''s about a father and son crossing America after pretty much everyone has died.  There are a few people left, but they aren't to be trusted.  I don't know.....maybe you'd like it, but to me it was just depressing.

 I read The Help a while ago and thought it was absolutely fantastic.  I highly recommend this book to you.  They are also coming out with a movie, which I'm hoping is good.  Seriously, read this book!

 My husband and I just listened to The Hunger Games on our trip to California.  It was different than we thought it was going to be, but overall we enjoyed it.  There are two more books in the series that we are planning on reading.  I will warn you, it's a bit gruesome, but it is a good book.

I am currently reading

I am currently reading this book.  I'm only a few pages in, so I can't really tell you if I like it or not, but I'll let you know when I finish.  My mom's book group read it and thought it was good though :)

Books I Plan on Reading

Room

The Catcher in the Rye

The Alchemist

The Lucky One

Unbroken

Life of Pi

These books were rated really well and a lot of people seemed to like them.  Other than that, I really don't know anything about them, so I'd love to know your thoughts.  If there are other books you think I should add to my list let me know!

Going to Cali

Pin It Now I realized I haven't been posting too often, but I thought I'd warn you ahead of time that I probably won't be posting anything the next week or so because we are going on a family vacation to California.  It should be a blast and I'm looking forward to it.  Not I need to get back to the VERY long to do list of things needing to get done before we leave tonight.  Eek!

What Not To Buy In Bulk

Pin It I saw this article today on things that aren't a good deal when you buy them in bulk.  I think a lot of times we assume that when you buy something in bulk that you are getting a great deal.....well....as it turns out that isn't always the case.  Go here to see the list of things to avoid buying in bulk.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Pin It I went to a baby shower on Saturday for a couple of my friends.  They are both having boys - how fun!  I was in charge of the cupcakes for the shower and was trying to come up with a fun idea.  I saw some cupcakes that people had made that looked like cookie monster so I went with that.  Most of the cookie monster cupcakes I saw used colored coconut to look like the fur/hair, but I wasn't sure how many people actually like coconut, so I decided to use frosting with a tip that looked like this:

 I used a canned frosting because I wasn't going to have the time to make my own.  I think if I had made a frosting though, it would have been a bit more stiff and probably would have worked better.  I might have to try it again sometime.  The rest of the cookie monster was really easy.  I got some white chocolate melting chocolate circles.  I then melted a little bit of chocolate and used it to "glue" some chocolate chips onto the white chocolate.  Then I simply placed the eyes on the frosted cupcake in crazy directions and then put half of a chips ahoy cookie where the mouth would be.  And they were done!

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Pin It Last night I did a taste testing session with my husband and sister-in-law to try and figure out the best chicken salad sandwich recipe.  This is the recipe we came up with.

- 1/4 Cup Mayo
- 1/2 tsp (or a bit less) Curry Powder
- 1 Tbs or so lemon juice

Whisk together  those ingredients.  Then add:

- 12.5 ounces of canned chicken - break up into small pieces
- halved red grapes
- handful of craisins
- 1 granny smith apple chopped up
- Cashews
- Salt & Pepper to taste

You should try it out and let me know what you think.  Obviously if you used freshly cooked chicken breasts, it'd probably be even better.   Oh and don't forget to have it on a delicious croissant :)

I refrigerated the mayo mixture with the chicken, grapes and craisins so it would get cold and then just before serving I added the apples and cashews so they would stay crunchy.

This makes 3-4 sandwiches.