Cold winter days make for good book reading

I love to read, always have. My parents are the same way and every time I visit them they are always in the middle of a new book. When I was little girl, before I even knew how to read, I would create a big nest of blankets and pillows and dolls and spend hours pouring over books and looking at their pictures. After I finish a book I am anxious to move on to another one and immerse myself in a new story with new characters. I could spend hours in a bookstore pouring over the newly released works and looking for something interesting. I've rubbed off on Riley and he's an avid reader now as well. In the winter I get to do quite a bit of reading when it's cold outside and I'd rather stay in. To me a perfect afternoon would be curling up in front of the fire with a blanket and some hot cocoa and reading to my hearts content. Even if I don't really like a book, I try and stick with it until the end just because I always hold out hope that it will get better. Sometimes they do and sometimes I absolutely can't read another page. Here are some books I've read lately:


-Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. I actually bought this for Riley for Christmas, but I couldn't resist reading it first because I'm a huge Grisham fan. This was one of his non-legal stories about a washed up NFL quarterback that ends up playing small ball football in Italy. This book was highly entertaining and talked not only about football, but about the Italian cuisine, history, and landmarks. The main character went from being an embarrassment to his U.S. team to a local Italian hero. This was a fun read.



-The Innocent Man by John Grisham. "In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life…and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence—a book no American can afford to miss."-Book description from Amazon.com

Grisham's non-fiction writing is just as good as his fiction. This book really made me stop to think about every person who is put on trial and the power of DNA testing to solidify a perpetrators guilt. If you are interested in the legal system and crime solving you will like this book.


-Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book was about a man in a nursing home remembering his life in the circus where he met his true love. With all of the hype surrounding this book I expected a lot more. There were parts that I basically had to skip over because of the content. I would not recommend it.




- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amazon.com says: "In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try. "

This book is an account from a man's perspective of Afghanistan and not for the faint of heart, but if you can make it through until the end you won't be sorry. This book had me in tears so many times, and opened my eyes to the racial struggles that exist in other countries. It felt more like a personal memoir than a novel the writer has created and made me more than thankful for the country I live in and how easy my life is in comparison. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read the author's second novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns", which is from a women's perspective.

I just started a new book yesterday and can't wait until I have some quiet this afternoon to sit down and have a good read.