I Take You: A Novel by Eliza Kennedy

I Take You: A Novel by Eliza Kennedy is a story that takes place the week before Lily Wilder a foul mouth young lawyer that loves to get drunk and sleep around gets married to her fiancé Will, a handsome, intelligent, sweet, but somewhat boring archaeologist.

They fly down from New York to Key West where Lily spent her childhood. While there she continues to nonchalantly cheat on her soon to be husband and contemplates whether she really wants to get married or not. It doesn't help that her own family tries to talk her out of getting married, out of fear that Will and Lily don't know enough about each other. Her future mother in law also doesn't approve of Lily and tries to sabotage the wedding. To the very end this book will keep you guessing: Will they or won't they get married?

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book! It's interesting, unpredictable, funny, smart, and witty. I flew through this book and loved every moment of it.

It's not just a funny book with no substance either. The author touches on topics like gender roles, monogamy, sex, and marriage with an interesting and modern perspective.

However, I wouldn't recommend this book if you don't have a sense of humor or if you're easily offended. There is a lot of bad language, sexually explicit scenes, and some drug use throughout it's entirety.

Disclaimer: "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy Review

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy is a comical memoir about the author's first year as an intern at a New York hospital. I think anyone can enjoy this book because it gives you a look into the life of a doctor and makes you realize that they are not infallible, they make mistakes, and they are people too.

However, I especially recommend this book for anyone working in the medical field or in medical school, because it's so painfully relatable. The stress, the sleep deprivation, the self doubt, the tears, the anxiety, feeling like you're under a micrscope... Yes, I have definitely been there!

It's also a really funny and entertaining read. The author does such a good job at story telling. I seriously never wanted to put the book down. There was never a dull moment, every chapter left me wanting to know what was going to happen next.

It's not all jokes either, it can be touching and heart felt at times. From cardiac arrests, a patient waiting for a heart transplant that seems like it will never come, a homeless young woman with AIDS that refuses to take her medications, and a scene where McCarthy has to tell a woman that her husband has died, there are many moments that will make you feel invested in the patients lives.

The story has a happy ending and it's rewarding to go along with the journey of a clueless intern becoming a real doctor. It might just be a light read with no deeper meaning, but I walk away from this book knowing that everyone has to start somewhere (even doctors), but if you put your mind to it and work hard enough you can achieve extraordinary things. Mistakes are just a part of the road to get there, so don't give up.

Disclaimer: "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

A Mini-Quest: Read Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime in a Year!

So, as I mentioned in my previous post after reading the Happiness of Pursuit, I got inspired to start creating more goals for myself. Achieving a goal and marking things off a list is a good feeling no matter what that goal is. It is a way of proving to yourself that you can do whatever you set your mind to.

I love reading (hence the blog), so I instantly thought of a great little mini-quest, finish one of those 100 best books lists. I considered a few different lists to work on, but I ended up choosing Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, because it consisted of both fiction and non-fiction.

As I go along I will cross out books I've read.

Here is the list:
# 1 1984
# 2 A Brief History of Time
# 3 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
# 4 A Long Way Gone
# 5 A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning: The Short-Lived
# 6 A Wrinkle in Time
# 7 Alice Munro: Selected Stories
# 8 Alice in Wonderland
# 9 All the President's Men
# 10 Angela's Ashes
# 11 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
# 12 Bel Canto
# 13 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
# 14 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race The
# 15 Breath, Eyes, Memory
# 16 Catch-22
# 17 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
# 18 Charlotte's Web
# 19 Cutting for Stone
# 20 Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We
# 21 Diary of a Wimpy Kid
# 22 Dune
# 23 Farenheit 451
# 24 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
# 25 Gone Girl
# 26 Goodnight Moon
# 27 Great Expectations
# 28 Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
# 29 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
# 30 In Cold Blood
# 31 “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
# 32 Invisible Man
# 33 Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth
# 34 Kitchen Confidential
# 35 Life After Life
# 36 Little House on the Prairie
# 37 Lolita
# 38 Love In The Time of Cholera
# 39 Love Medicine
# 40 Man's Search For Meaning
# 41 Me Talk Pretty One Day
# 42 Middlesex
# 43 Midnight's Children
# 44 Moneyball
# 45 Of Human Bondage
# 46 On the Road
# 47 Out of Africa
# 48 Persepolis
# 49 Portnoy's Complaint
# 50 Pride and Prejudice
# 51 Silent Spring
# 52 Slaughterhouse-Five
# 53 Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
# 54 The Age of Innocence
# 55 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
# 56 The Autobiography of Malcolm X
# 57 The Book Thief
# 58 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
# 59 The Catcher in the Rye
# 60 The Color of Water
# 61 The Corrections
# 62 The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair
# 63 The Diary of Anne Frank
# 64 The Fault in Our Stars
# 65 The Giver
# 66 The Golden Compass
# 67 The Great Gatsby
# 68 The Handmaid's Tale
# 69 The House at Pooh Corner
# 70 The Hunger Games
# 71 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
# 72 The Liars' Club: A Memoir
# 73 The Lightning Thief
# 74 The Little Prince
# 75 The Long Goodbye
# 76 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
# 77 The Lord of the Rings
# 78 The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Ol
# 79 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
# 80 Phantom Tollbooth
# 81 The Poisonwood Bible
# 82 The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
# 83 The Right Stuff
# 84 The Road
# 85 The Secret History
# 86 The Shining
# 87 The Stranger
# 88 The Sun Also Rises
# 89 The Things They Carried
# 90 The Very Hungry Caterpillar
# 91 The Wind in the Willows
# 92 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
# 93 The World According to Garp
# 94 The Year of Magical Thinking
# 95 Things Fall Apart
# 96 To Kill A Mocking Bird
# 97 Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
# 98 Valley of the Dolls
# 99 Where the Sidewalk Ends
# 100 Where The Wild Things Are

The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau Review

"When he set out to visit all of the planet’s countries by age thirty-five, compulsive goal seeker Chris Guillebeau never imagined that his journey’s biggest revelation would be how many people like himself exist – each pursuing a challenging quest."

The Happiness of Pursuit is all about quests; what they are, why they are worthy of pursuing, and stories about the author's quest and other people who have set out to do something big and achieved it.

What is a quest? Chris defines it as: a clear goal with a specific end point, challenging, requires sacrifice, driven by a calling, and consists of a series of small steps toward the goal. Therefore general life improvements such as losing weight or quitting smoking doesn't qualify. It has to be something that is worthy of a lifelong focus.

I found this book to be very interesting. I loved reading about all the different characters and the crazy quests they completed. Some of my favorite quests were bicycle around the world, sail the worlds oceans as the youngest solo sailor, protest illegal logging by living in a tree in Tasmania for more than a year, and abstain from motorized transport and maintain a vow of silence for 17 years, among many others.

The book is a bit messy though.. There were a total of 54 quests in this book set out by different people. Some are mentioned very briefly here and there and then some took up larger portions of each chapter and are mentioned throughout. Somebof these quests were very similar. There were multiple different marathon running, bicycle, walking, traveling oriented goals. Needless to say, it was hard to keep track of who's who.

Another thing I found confusing was that from the very beginning the author had set out guidelines as to what a quest is. I think most notably it needs to have a specific end point. So why is devoting life to preparation of sushi or mastering the art of stand up comedy included in this book? Those seem pretty vague to me and are really just career choices. There were a few others that didn't seem to fit the description of a quest either, such as extensively documenting your life or creating a life around crafting projects.

I also wished that he would have gone into more depth as to why he chose to go to every country in the world or how it changed him. I would have liked to have read about some really surreal amazing experiences that he wouldn't have had if it weren't for this quest. Instead his stories were mostly just him in airports, getting lost, taking taxis, going to hotel rooms. It makes me wonder, was he so focused on achieving the goal, that he missed out on the experience?

However, I do appreciate the dedication that the people in this book have. They all set out to do something extraordinary, and most achieved their goals. This inspires me to challenge myself more and incorporate more goal setting into my own life.

Disclaimer: "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

The More of Less by Joshua Becker Review

A few months ago, I became a minimalist. It was quite the 180 for me, because I used to be completely absorbed with the pursuit to acquire material objects, I was a shopaholic. Minimalism cured my shopping addiction for good. Now, not only do I have more money in the bank, but I also have more time to spend on things that bring me real happiness.

I first learned of minimalism from YouTube videos and Project 333. After reading a handful of blog posts and watching videos it didn't take me long to fully understand the concept and its benefits. Still, when I found out that I could review an advance reader copy of The More of Less by Joshua Becker, I was interested. 

I found that I especially enjoyed the first half of the book. I learned about the authors minimalist journey, the inspirational stories of other people who live with less, and a lot of other interesting information that was new to me, such as common marketing ploys to get us to buy things we don't need and the different ways each generation's attitude toward consumerism and accumulation has changed. 

Then the 2nd half the book started to slightly drag on for me. I think that's to be expected with any book that's about a very simple concept. 200+ pages later and the author has said more than enough to hanmer home the message.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I think it would be a great resource for someone that isn't familiar with minimalism or just getting started.

Right now this book is available for pre-order, it releases May 3, 2016.

Disclaimer: "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."