The Bedsore Club

These Is My Words by: Nancy Turner

I have to admit I’m not much of an Old West fan.  Most of the Old West books and movies seem kind of boring to me.  My only thought is that I’m glad I didn’t have to live during those times because I wouldn’t have survived.  Not a chance.   However, this book (which is set in the Old West) I just couldn’t put down.  I was a little depressed after reading the first page and thought “oh it’s going to be one of those books.”  But I was surprised by the great storyline.  There are some major events in the first 50 pages that really attach you to the main character and her family.  I found myself even tearing up over certain parts and I usually don’t get that attached to a book. This is a winner!

Bedsores:

The Lone Survivor

This  book is the story of the lone surviving member of a navy seal team sent on a mission to assassinate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan.  This story gave me an even stronger respect for our armed forces and what they do for us.  The sacrifices this man and his team made are unbelievable.  Yet he tells us several times that there are thousands of men and women also doing this everyday.  Several times he rants about the price our military has to pay because of the media and liberals who want to protect Taliban members and citizens who help them.   When you read his story you will see he deserves the right to rant.  After finishing this book, my views on war time decisions changed greatly.  These men and women need to protect themselves first, not the people who believe the greatest thing in life they can do is assist in the killing of Americans.  He tells us that we have many soldiers who are afraid to shoot because they could end up in jail for defending themselves during a war.  Unfortunately, most of these soldiers end up killed or injured because of this fear.  The language in this book is pretty rough at parts but it’s a story that will make you love the country we live in and the people who defend it.

Bedsores:

Eclipse (Twilight series bk. 3)

I finished Eclipse a couple of weeks ago but have yet to post so let me see what I remember.  Still have vampires and werewolves.  Edward and Bella are still in love…although a twist is added to the love story in this book which adds drama and makes the book more interesting.  I have to feel sorry for Bella.  I mean, for 3 books now she’s been in life or death situations that Edward’s family has to save her from.  There’s something about her that seems to attract vampires.  Can you imagine knowing your best friends, the people you consider family kind of want to eat you?  Scary thought.  In this book it’s funny how Bella is pushing Edward for some lovin’ and Edward is pushing her for commitment, a litle role reversal of what you would expect from teenagers.  I really liked this book because the storyline is growing more which leaves me with plenty of unanswered questions.  And that’s what makes a book a “page turner.” I will recommend this book to those of you who enjoy the series.  Now I’m going to start Breaking Dawn (bk. 4) which will complete the series.  Pretty entertaining and fun series so far.

Bedsores:

New Moon (bk 2) by: Stephenie Meyer

After finishing Twilight I went on to book 2, New Moon.  This one I actually liked a lot more.  There’s a twist at the beginning you just don’t see coming.  We see more of the character Jacob in this book.  He becomes an important part of the story.  I thought the drama aspect of this book was much better than in Twilight.  There seemed to be less of the sappy romance.  The characters seemed to have some difficult choices to make and the storyline was much more intense.  I did however have some issues with Stephenie Meyer’s writing in this book.  Sometimes it just drove me nuts how the reader could figure out what was going to happen but the character in the story just could not.  It seemed to go for pages and just makes the reading agonizing.   She doesn’t do that too often but when she does it drives me crazy.  I mean come on let me infer a little here.  Other than that I really enjoyed this book and I’d recommend it.

Bedsores:

Twilight by: Stephenie Meyer

I have to start by telling you about my failed attempt at Twilight.  I tried listening to it on my MP3 player while running last year.  I don’t think this book has enough “meat” in it for that.  I lost interest fairly quickly.  This time I decided to do it the old fashioned way and just read it. Much better.  Without giving too much away, I’ll tell you what I liked about this book.  The Cullen family was hard not to enjoy.  I mean how can you not love a family that accepts someone but at the same time they would like to make this person their next meal.  That added some excitement every time Bella was around them.  The action parts were by far my favorites.  Stephenie Meyer does a good job at those particular parts of the book.  I did feel for Bella and the situation she was in with the vampire James.  That was intense! What I didn’t so much enjoy was the over sappiness.  I can only take so much of the soulmates for life and lovey dovey teenagers.  Just not my thing.  I did however get hooked into this series enough to continue on to book 2.  To sum it up my opinion is…definitely entertaining, pretty good writing, enough drama at the end to make you keep reading, way over done on the romance department.

Bedsores:

LOST

My favorite TV show right now is LOST.  It has been off since the end of May so I am really excited for its return on Jan. 21st.  In case you don’t watch or it’s been a while let me update you on the latest LOST news and share some of my favorite LOST goodies.

The storyline of LOST is a plane crashes on this supposedly uninhabited island.  There were originally 72 survivors (including a dog).  Throughout the last 4 seasons many of these characters have died.  We find out the island is inhabited and has some strange qualities.  One man, John Locke, who was paralyzed before the crash can now walk, run, and do just about anything else.  Another character, Rose, was dying of cancer before coming on the island and now her health is perfect.  There’s also some kind of time difference on the island and off but we really don’t know too much about it yet.  This island seems to be controlled by Jacob (unkown person) who gives Ben (the token bad guy) his orders.  Several characters have tried to leave but been unsuccessful.  I could go forever talking about the storyline of this show but let me jump forward to what was happening at the end of season 4 last year.

In season 4 we were introduced to the characters on the boat.  These guys were supposedly coming to rescue the plane crash survivors but we quickly find out they have ulterior motives.  As people begin to suspect that this is “not Penny’s boat” (as stated by Charlie at the end of season 3) some decide not to go wait for the boat.  The camp divides into two groups Locke’s and Jack’s.  Locke’s groups heads up to the Barracks to hide out.  We find out once those from the boat land a helicopter on the island that they are actually here for Ben.  Ben knows this however because he has a spy on their boat which we later find out is Michael.  The people from the boat leave again but this time on a mission to get Ben.  However they attack Locke’s group and kill several people including Ben’s daughter.   There are lifeboats also going back and forth to the boat.  A bomb is detected on the boat and blows it up however some of the survivors are able to leave on the helicopter.  In this group are Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Aaron.  Ben somehow moves the island before this helicopter can land and the island just disappears.  This also throws Ben off the island but keeps Widmore (he owned the boat) from finding it.  The helicopter crashes in the ocean and is discovered by Penny who was searching for Desmond.  He stays with Penny and the rest concoct a story to keep Widmore from searching for the island and other survivors.  Thus we have the Oceanic 6: Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and Aaron. Sawyer jumped out before the island disappeared. The lives of these 6 have been crazy since the crash and their return to the real world.  They’re famous now but Hurley’s crazy, Jack and Kate are almost married and then not, Kate’s raising Aaron as her son.  Sayid is working for Ben killing people and Sun is offering her services to Widmore.  We also finally find out who is in the casket…Locke.  Ben ends this season by finding Jack at the funeral parlor which Locke’s body is at and telling him they all must return to the island including Locke.  Such drama!

Well that wasn’t as brief as I hoped, but if you’re into LOST here are some of my favorite places for info.  First, is obviously ABC.  You can watch all of the shows for free there.  To get information or update myself (because this show can be confusing) there’s Lostpedia.  I love this site because you can look up anything related to LOST.  You can look at individual episodes, characters, read theories, write theories, find the connections to real world ideas, etc.  And finally I also like to occasionally listen to a podcast about LOST.  The podcasters share their ideas also have callers call in with theories, questions, etc.  This podcast is found here and called The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack.   I think they’re pretty entertaining to listen to and have some good theories about the show.  So if you’re not onboard with LOST yet…join the fun!

What I’m reading now

Right now I am reading the Twilight series.  I tried once and couldn’t make it through Twilight but I decided I needed to give it another try.  You know see what all the fuss was about. I finished Twilight today and will post about it soon.  Now I’m starting book 2 New Moon.

Harry Potter (series books #1-7)

Everyone who knows me well is aware of how much I love the Harry Potter series.  I know this puts me up there with the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fans.

Recently I have been reading so many books in preparation for our little newborn (sleeping books, breastfeeding, pregnancy, etc.) that I needed a break.  I decided to finally start rereading the series which I’ve wanted to do for some time now.  I have to admit I didn’t realize how much I’d forgotten.  It was kind of exciting to be able to read one book after the other and not have to wait a year until the next book came out.

The best thing about rereading this entire series in a row was being able to remember characters.  JK Rowling has a ton of characters in her books, and remembering who’s involved in what part of the story can be very difficult.  I also learned more about Voldemort and seemed to understand him more than I did when reading the books spaced out.  Voldemort really has no concept of love and of human emotion.  It’s kind of interesting how similar his childhood and Harry’s are.  They both grew up without their parents in places where they were hated and treated with the least amount of dignity possible yet the way they matured and acted as teenagers and adults was so very different.  I think this is something JK Rowling wanted us to pick up on, no matter what our circumstances we still make our life’s choices ultimately.  Voldemort chose his path of killing and not caring about anyone even those who claimed to be his friends.  Harry however stuck by his friends and chose several times to put his life on the line for them.  I still love the series and I’m ready for the movie premiere of The Half Blood Prince.  One thing I could never see in the books was how JK Rowling could backup her claim after the series that Dumbledore was gay…I’m just not seeing it.The Half Blood Prince

Bedsores:

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

As I’ve mentioned Jodi Picoult is now one of my favorite authors.  I love how she shows the storyline through the eyes of several different characters.  This book follows the tragic life of June Nealon.  This poor woman loses her husband in a car accident and is alone with her daughter.  She is eventually able to remarry when more tragedy strikes.

**SPOILER ALERT**

I wanted to warn you before I mention some of the details from this story because I really am stumped as to how much I enjoyed this story or if it was just strange.  After June remarries she becomes pregnant.  She hires a young man to do some work around the house.  This character Shay Bourne is found later with a gun and June’s daughter and husband are dead.  He was also accused of trying to sexually abuse the girl.  He was sentenced to death row for the murders.  While he’s on death row these strange miracles start happening.  I mean we’re talking changing water to wine, quoting scripture that is as rare to come across as the Dead Sea scrolls.  Weird stuff.  June’s daughter she was pregnant with is now a teenage with a very bad heart.  She’s awaiting a transplant  or she may not survive.  Shay Bourne decides the only way for his salvation is to give his heart to June’s daughter, Claire.  There’s a trial and another great conclusion to this book.  Pretty good story, well written, but a little too odd trying to make this guy out to be a messiah.  There’s a priest who even believes this guy could be the messiah.  At the end the priest is left some of Shay’s things and finds out that Shay wasn’t performing miracles but he was a deceptive human.  One of the things that did perplex me was in prison he brought a bird back to life (so it appeared) then at the end of the book the girl who has his heart finds her dog dead and brings it back to life.  What’s this author trying to tell us?  Very interesting but I’ll stick with Jesus.

Bedsores:

Three Cups of Tea

I’m not going to spend too much time on this book because to be honest I only made it about 80 pages in. I know, it’s hard to judge a book unless you finish it, but I just couldn’t do it. I got to the point where I was spacing out more than I was actually reading the book. It has a great message. A mountain climber is climbing K2 in Pakistan when he comes across this remote village. They live very primitive lives to say the least. He discovers one day the kids at the top of a hill with small chalkboards practicing the lessons they had learned at one time when they were able to visit a nearby village which had a teacher. These kids were starving to learn. As a teacher, this was amazing because all I hear from kids is how they’d rather be playing video games or watching TV. Sometimes technology can hinder us. Anyhow, Greg (the climber) makes this effort back in the U.S. to raise money to build a school for these kids.

I’m sure this book is inspiring and at some other point I may try to read it again. But the writing just didn’t pull me in. I just couldn’t get that connection with the story. I’m not going to say stay away from this book because I’m sure many people will love it but for me I have to give it a low rating.

Bedsores:

I am starting Change of Heart by Jodi PIcoult.  I will also recommend for any of you who enjoy young adult books, Peter and the Starcatchers.  Great book! It tells the story of how Peter Pan became who he is.