Don't Worry, It Gets Worse: One Twentysomething's (Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood

This book started out as hilarious and ended up as touching. As a newly graduated college student, I found this book by Alida Nugent as a great find. I originally picked it out because I had just started my first job out of college and was feeling like I wasn't the right fit. Alida made me laugh with her as she was wallowing on her parents couch and not knowing where she was going to end up. I loved that she still kept acting like a college student who was coming home for vacation every time she visited her parents throughout the couple of years in the book. It was comforting knowing that some things change really slowly. That made me feel much better and as I kept reading, I was adapting to my new job.  I may be done reading it now, but as the last few chapters of the book aimed more towards being encouraging for the future rather than comedy, I remain hopeful. I'd recommend this book to any new graduate feeling a little unsure about their world at the present and who appreciates a good night of binge drinking.


Photo Google'd and taken from : http://powerhousearena.com/arena/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/9780452298187_Dont-Worry-It-Gets-Worse1.jpg

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

I finally caved and read this book. Being an English major in college, there were many jokes thrown around in the department about the quality of reading that this book must contain and I so I avoided it. I feared that I would be judged. Then, when I went to my grandma's house for Christmas last year, the whole family was talking about it. Family members who never read were talking proudly about how they'd read the whole series within three days or so. I started to wonder if it could really have such a stigma about it if it was doing the impossible, getting non-readers interested in reading. I signed up to be on the waiting list through the WILBOR program at my local library to get an ebook version of the entire series. After waiting for 50+ people to have read the book, I finally got it a couple of days ago.

I understand the appeal now. I appreciate all of the literary references throughout the book, although the music references are beyond me. I clearly see how this series started out as fan-fiction, but that is the purpose of fan-fiction - to bring new life to other stories. This series is so fast-paced and alluring that I could scarcely set it down. I stayed up till two in the morning one night while reading it and woke up again early in the morning to read more of it. I enjoy the wit and the banter (I've always been a fan of literary men who are more cocky than romantic - it makes me squeal with joy to see them out-bantered by a strong female),  the passion, and the general story line because being a college English graduate, I see many parallels in the story line to my own life.
While you would think of it as being a book about BDSM because that is what I've heard many refer to it as, I disagree. Sure, he ties her arms out of the way a few times because he doesn't like being touched and he refers to her as a Sub and himself as a Dom, but that is basically the extent of it. The focus of the novel is a relationship between a sexually and romantically inexperienced college graduate and a multi-million dollar businessman who had a terrible childhood and therefore has issues expressing intimacy in a non-sexual way. I started book two this morning, so I'll find out what that one is about soon enough. :) Happy reading!

Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Quick Summary, the main character is a girl who feels out of place in the world but when she goes to a festival where she meets a boy at a waterfall who also feels out of place and they immediately fall in love. They go their separate ways and both continue their individual training exercises with their mentors. Kaliel's training is mostly about memorizing flowers and plant names but she'd rather be in the water, talking to the merfolk (which no one else is able to do). She can also talk to trees and animals. His character has more elemental powers, but he has no control over them. Theoretically, if he lets go of the tight hold that he has on him, then they will come naturally to him. Every time he does this though, disaster strikes. They are both sent for more specialized training after going to the Great Oak and learning the parables that will dictate what their purposes in life are to be. Conveniently, they are sent to the same place, figure out who they really are, and must choose to stay together or separate and save the world. 

Well, I got about 3/4 of the way through this book before it expired and I am hooked. I really would love to find out what happens to the hero and heroine. While their relationship is a little over-exaggerated in my point of view, I love this new world that Paille has created. I want to know more about it and I want to know more of the history that it alludes to. If there was a history book available to describe this world, I would snatch it up! The Lands Of Men seem so alluring, I want to know what goes on there and how it is different from the island of Avristar that the characters are living on. The Brotherhood also seems intriguing and I feel like they will come back into the story later, or there will be a reflection back to their being important in the history of the last (1st?) epic battle for land.  Overall, while the love story did annoy me a bit, but that's just because I'm not the sentimental type, I give this book at least 3.5/5 stars. Worth a read, but until I'm able to buy it or borrow it and finish it, I won't be able to tell if it's worth buying or not. 

Free Kindle Download

While I'm on here, Bernard Mendillo would like to offer to get a FREE KINDLE DOWNLOAD of his book FOOTBALL, A MEMOIR”
http://tinyurl.com/KindleFootball-Mendillo

Here's a review of it (although not by myself as I'm in busy college student m

ode the moment!):
FOOTBALL, A MEMOIR is funny, nostalgic, heartwarming and uplifting. It’s about my youth playing touch football in the street—with curbstones and sewer caps for boundaries and my brother telling me to “go deep.” It’s about becoming a Giants fan for life in 1958, after watching the Greatest Game Ever Played on black-and-white TV in my parents’ living room. Today, I revel in the angst of remaining a Giants fan while living in the heart of Patriots land. And then, of course, there is the redemption that was the miracle of Superbowl XLII


So go check it out ya'll! (I'm a Giants fan among a few other teams, so as a fan, I just had to agree to post this.)