Crystal's 1 year Amazing Book Review

SO this past year I have read some pretty dang good books if I say so myself and I'm going to write a very short(ok..medium) review for each of them so I can remember how much I liked, disliked or didn't really care for the book. I LOVE READING. I'm going to be honest though, my opinion on most books is that the beginning of a book is like a trial..it pretty much sucks and you don't understand why you have it, or in the books sense, you don't know why the author picked this beginning because its so slow and sometimes confusing....but as you go through the book and work at it, or like a trial, you get through it and learn from it, it becomes much much better and the ending is successfully learning from your trial or in the books sense, enjoying the book because the author finally gets to the point and makes the very slow boring beginning worthwhile or in a gospel sense, the Lord allows you to learn from the Trial and molds you into becoming a better person. Deep? I know, ..ha! yeah right, but I really do think that's a good analogy..., I'm also going to try and go in order from when I started reading all these books--about a year ago, oh and WARNING, if you don't want to read all the reviews..there is a lot, then just skip to the books you haven't read and maybe I'll convince you to read them or.. run from them

Deception Point-This was a very interesting book. Like I said earlier, the beginning to me was a bunch of words all bunched together on a page, but as I read on, of course the storyline got more interesting and the puzzle pieces came together, the climax is amazing and the plot is very unique. I would recommend it, especially to those Dan Brown fans.

The Actor and the Housewife-This book is a crack up. If you want a good laugh, but also a good cry, be sure and read this book. I LOVE it. So witty and fun, if you're Mormon, you'll understand a lot of the setting of the main character Becky, but if you're not Mormon, you should read it to understand more of what Mormon housewives do..even though I think she has a little bit more of an extravagant life than most Mormon house wives...I really did ball my eyes off though..that is a warning. It might offend some Mormons as well with how overboard she goes with her relationship with Felix, but it's fiction! It's not real, so whatev.

The Last Lecture-Pretty much everyone should read this book before they die. SUCH an amazing story of a very impressive man that learned a lot in life and passed this knowledge on. I think I pretty much cried every 5 minutes but then again..I cry in like every book and movie...MUST READ

The Goose Girl-So when one of my close friends asked so "what is this book about?" I said, "Well...its about a princes that talks... with.... animals-BUT-it's really good!" Ha, that does sound funny now that I say it, but the book was just presh. Of course its original plot was by the Brothers Grim but I really think Shannon Hale turns this book into a creative fairy tale making you so consumed in each chapter. So WHO CARES if she talks with animals?! Power to the princess.

Princess Academy-This book is also by Shannon Hale, yes, I was on a Shannon Hale kick for a while, go me. But anyway, this book was very well written and definitely had you taken in at once. This book also got that gold medal award (I can't remember what that's called) so obvio it must be good. I especially like the main character and her lover boy..its like they're childhood sweethearts, but I guess literally they are because its not like they get that old by the end of the book, maybe 18 years? even younger? Cute book fo sho

The Thirteenth Tale-Amazing story! This was another book that had a very slooooooow beginning, but as you got more into it, the more addicted you became to read it because the whole time, a lady is telling the story of her life, and every part she adds is like adding a little more frosting on the cake and makes the ending one of the best endings I've ever read with how much you figure out the tale and why the story the lady told was so peculiar. It left you in awe.

The Hunger Games-Pretty much one the best books I've ever read, if you haven't read it, I don't know why I'm friends with you, ha, j/k! But seriously, I think I read this book in like a couple of days because I couldn't put it down, and it wasn't just he way Susan Collins wrote the book, it was the actual storyline and how enthralling it was. Katniss is one brave girl, I'm pretty sure I would have been slapped in the face on the first day in the arena and probably would have fallen down dead. I seriously can't wait for the movie.

Catching Fire-SO obviously, the sequel, a little disappointed in Susan Collins for the lack of creativity, but whatev, all power to her for making such a good book, it didn't matter how unoriginal the 2nd book was, cuz I'm sure she still made millions. But of course with her writing style still pulls you into the dark hole of reading non-stop, and the ending was kinda confusing, BUT it definitely gets you pumped for Mockingjay!!! Can't wait my peeps.

The Help-OH MY GOSH, this book is so good! I loved this book, the book was not only innovative in it's writing style, but let you witness what black maids had to go through back in the early 1960's and how one courageous educated girl could help make the difference for a lot of these black maids. I guess it makes sense why it was on the New York Best sellers list. Go Help!

Three Cups of Tea-Um..couldn't get through it, probably got through the first chapter and then it was due at the library...wasn't worth the late fee..no siree, maybe if I was a history major..or liked non-fiction books better..i dunno, I guess this book shouldn't be on this list as well since I didn't technically finish it...ah whatev.

The Lost Symbol-Very intense book. Again, couldn't get into it at the beginning, I could still see how it was interesting but it didn't entice me like Davincii Code. However, I knew it would eventually get there because my hubster read it and said it definitely got better, so I kept reading and OMG I couldn't believe some of the stuff in there!! Very exciting, very on the edge stuff, will make a very good movie, you better believe it. Makes me want to go to D.C.

Dear John-As most of you know, Nicholas Sparks' books are of course.. romance books, but not the raunchy kind you get at used book stores, it's cute love dove stories that make you want to puke-I mean--wonder at this kind of mumbo jumbo..but this book--to my astonishment was actually one of my more favorite books by Nicolas Sparks. It was interesting because you learned a lot about autism and what its like to have an autistic family member. The ending was sooooo sad, but maybe for the best? This is probably bad or low of me to say, but I liked the movie ending better, even though the movie did not follow the book that well at all, just like most of his books that are turned into movies end up being, but I guess you'll only understand this if you've read the book and seen the movie.

Best Friends Forever-I read this book because I had finished my other book and would be flying all day so I definitely needed some reading material. This book was.....interesting and hard to describe. I didn't like that she made the characters swear a lot and there was some pretty crude things that happened that I didn't apprec. so much, but it was just a very different book, the style, the writing, the storyline, all very different--I think because the storyline was semi-interesting and because she's a very good author, it did make it hard to put down. That's all I'm going to say on that.

The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Society-This was an.............interesting book. I don't know how to describe it, it was EXTREMELY hard to get into because you didn't know who was who or who was friends with who and what exactly was going on until half way through the book since it was all written in letter format which I'm not a big fan of..but ya know. By 3/4 of the way through, I really got to know the characters, and some of the stories from WWII were very sad, but interesting. The ending is soo cute, it almost makes it worthwhile trudging through that book to see the very last letter written. Its cute and pretty witty :)

SO-there you have it! My one year book review! Averaged about one book a month..could do better, but I'll get o.. I've enjoyed almost all these books and hopefully you guys have or will soon :) If you have any other book recommendations that I'm definitely missing out on, please let me know!! I want to hear! 8 days til Mockingjay!