WWRW

Oh my gosh the reading this week. It's hard though, now I want to pick books that make me look educated, smart, worthy of my Master's and I pretty much fell into an epic fail this week. Oh well.

So let's dive right into this weeks WWRW.

1. Catching up from last week when I was in the middle of The Red House, I finished. I didn't completely hate it. I didn't get anything out of it. And it didn't end. It stopped. So all in all a solid "Meh."

2. Based on Mary Kate's recommendation from last week I read the Erik Larson The Garden of the Beast. It was intense. It's hard to read a book and know full well what is going to happen to a certain extent. But it was captivating and terrifying. The book kept me on my toes and that's saying something because, again, you know what happens in the end. For the most part it was written from the perspectives of Dodd and his daughter. The truly remarkable thing is that while they are the "good" guys for all intents and purposes they were not particularly redeeming or worthy of their "good status." It is fascinating really, how engrossed one could get while just letting it all hang out. And Lord have Mercy on some of the parallels between current American society and Hitler's Berlin. This book is going to make you think. And if it doesn't you probably missed it.

If you add my two cents with Mary Kate's two cents, well you'd have four cents telling you this is worth a read. And four cents is still more than I paid for the library book so that's pretty good.

3. Then I broke down and finished reading Those Grey Books. Do I really need to expound? Okay I will. I read the first one, wasn't impressed and skipped the last two. With the hype about the movie, and of course not wanting to miss out on anything I went back, reread Grey, then on to Darker and Freed.

I get it. I do. I mean they're not great writing. That is well documented. And the entire story is just so implausible. But by the time you're sick of it you are also engrossed in the world and you just want to know what happens. Honestly by the middle of Darker I just didn't care about the smut. As in I skimmed through because I just wanted to get on with the plot. (As loose and obscure as it is.) But I get it. I understand why these are the top selling paperbacks. Even the most cynical women dream about finding the love of their life and hope for the added bonus of him being ridiculously rich. I mean that's about all these books have. I can't for the life of me see how they can make this just a rated R movie and I think as a an actor this would be career suicide. Forever and ever this would be the role people would think of. And those are my thoughts on Grey x 3.

4. Okay then to redeem myself slightly from grown up Twilight I started reading Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith. It is really only slightly redeeming because I only picked it up because of all the baby watch hype. I figured I may as well read about Great Grandma. I feel obligated to tell you I love the Monarchy, I woke up at early o'clock and watched the entire royal wedding and possiblyownthedvdbutyoucan'tproveit. I watched the Diamond Jubilee and loved it but thought the Olympic opening with the skydiving was a little bit tacky.

So that being said, I generally like this book. I'm not too terribly far into it, but it seems like mostly it is concentrating on her outward self and how that relates to pretty much everything. It, however, is easy for me to like this book, see above. So far, it has been reading like a novel, even though it is clearly not which is nice. Considering I highly doubt an autobiography will ever be penned, I'll take what I can get and so far Bedell Smith has not disappointed.

5. In the C book world, we have returned to The Magic Tree House books before bed. They used to be a part of the routine but then for a time he wouldn't fall asleep because we were there. I am enjoying them, they are fun read aloud books with smallish history lessons that I am certain the one year old in the crib is absorbing. It's practically like home school curriculum up in here. But in all seriousness, these books are solid and not completely unappealing for an adult. Mary Pope Osborne did a nice job. The eleventh book Lions at Lunchtime literally had me laughing out loud. I bought the boxed set of the first 28 last year for Christmas as a Today Show Steals and Deals special and I am not disappointed I did. We are in the midst of Hour of the Olympics.

Have you read anything of interest? Reading anything great? Link up with Jessica so I can get new recommendations for my library queue!