BOOKS I READ IN CABO

In May, Rusty and I went to Cabo San Lucas for a week's vacation. It was much needed at the end of the year and enabled me tons of time to read! We spent most of the week sitting on the beach or by the pool just reading! I thought I'd share some of the books I read while I was down there.

Here we are on Lover's Beach at the tip of the Baja California.

Marley and Me

This book by John Grogan is a must read for dog lovers! Even if you aren't a dog lover, you will enjoy this book. It's the first one I read on my trip and it's a very quick read. Grogan puts together a collection of vignettes about his crazy dog Marley. The subtitle of the book is "life and love with the world's worst dog". I can totally relate to him, having many trials with our dog Sandy. She is definitely like Marley in many ways, mostly in the way she won our hearts. At the end of the book Grogan talks about Marley's health declining and all the money they spent on helping him. Although Sandy's not old, we just spent a good chunk of change having her knee rebuilt. The things we do for our dogs! Be prepared though, it's a tear jerker. I was sitting by the pool next to Rusty while reading the saddest part of the book. I kept trying to wipe my eyes behind my sunglasses in an inconspicuous way, as to not draw attention to the fact I was crying! And some of you may have heard, this book is being made into a movie with Owen Wilson as John and Jennifer Anniston as his wife. It should be pretty funny!

Our Marley, Sandy on Christmas of last year.

Neverwhere

I picked this book up at the public library for $.50--I love the "Friends of the Library" where you can get used books really cheap! Anyway, it looked interesting to me and I had heard of the author, Neil Gaiman, because he wrote a children's book a few years ago called Coraline. I started reading Coraline but never finished it for some reason. Anyway, he is a science fiction/fantasy writer (right up my alley!). He's also British and the story is set in the underground of London (another plus! I actually had been to some of the places he talks about in the book). This is a very strange book. I really enjoyed it, but if there were one word to describe it it would be "dark". The protagonist, Richard, is just a normal guy, engaged to be married. While going on a date with his fiancee, he runs into a girl who appears to be hurt on the sidewalk. He takes her home and cares for her. This random act of kindness connects him to a different world that exists in the underground passages of London. The girl ends up being from a kind of royal family in this world and there are people trying to kill her. There's a lot more to the story, but you'll have to read it to see if Richard stays living in this "otherworld" or comes back to his normal life above ground! I thought it was very interesting and unlike any fantasy I had read before.

The Lightning Thief

This is a kid's book (young adult, actually). Written by Rick Riordan, it is the first in a series called "Percy Jackson The Olympians" series. I had heard about it from a colleague of mine because it deals with Greek mythology and that's part of the sixth grade curriculum. It's a very good book, and I would recommend it to kids who like fantasy. Rusty hates it when I read kids books, but I'm sorry, I think they're just as good as adult books sometimes! Riordan does a great job building believable characters in a somewhat believable world. It was written in 2005, and I can't help but wonder if he was inspired by J.K. Rowling in that way. Percy Jackson is a half-god (his father was a Greek god--I won't tell you who and spoil it). He doesn't know he is until he's about 12. Then he goes to a camp for half-gods like himself. They're trained by Chiron (the guy who trained Hercules). There's a lot of adventure in the book, even getting him to the camp is an ordeal. Because the setting is contemporary, you almost think that Percy could be a real person and you might have half-gods and characters from Greek mythology around you and you just don't recognize them!

I haven't read the other books in the series because I bought the 3rd book at our school's book fair, but I don't have the 2nd one yet! (And I cannot read a series out of order!)

I read another book, but I can't remember which and I need to go, so maybe later!