Confessions Of A Bookaholic – Guilty Pleasures Edition #33 – Sweet Valley High #43 – Hard Choices

Posted on September 14, 2014 by DMW

Will Enid be forced to give up what little life of her own she already has? Find out in “Hard Choices”! 😉

“Hard Choices”

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Sweet Valley Scale: 3.5 out of 5 Twins

Enid Rollins can hardly wait for her grandmother to come live with her and her mother in Sweet Valley. But when her grandmother arrives, Enid is dismayed that the kind and sprightly woman she remembered is now burdensome and demanding. Since Enid’s mother works long hours and is often out with her boyfriend, Enid finds herself making all sorts of sacrifices to please her grandmother. Enid skips school events and even stands up Elizabeth Wakefield, her best friend. Even worse, she never has any time for her boyfriend, Hugh. It is beginning to look as if Enid may have to say goodbye to someone she loves…

Okay, so I am going to say it because it is the first thing that comes to mind and the thing that keeps popping up as I try to write this post: How did they make this into an entire book? So, Enid and her mother are excited to have her grandmother (her mother’s mother) move in with them. Enid’s grandmother (Nana) has been living alone in Chicago since her husband died a few months ago. They are busy making preparations for Nana and Enid gives up her pretty room to go live up in the unfinished attic. But she doesn’t mind because it is for her Nana…

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Here Comes Cable!

Posted on September 11, 2014 by DMW

I can’t remember the last time that I had cable. It has been at least five years, if not six years, since I last had any kind of cable where I lived. When I lived with roommates we all agreed it was an unnecessary expense and we were all pretty strapped. When I moved in with Roy (my husband), he had basic cable I think, but between other viewing options like DVDS and Netflix I never really watched it. I only remember that we had some type of cable package because Roy was able to get his Judge Judy fix. Then we bought a house in October 2011, got married in June 2012 and had other things come up that made cable seem just out of reach (and for me, still unnecessary). Roy is on the other side of things. He doesn’t find cable essential, but until we bought the house he had always had it.

Well, tomorrow we’re getting cable. It wasn’t that I was ever anti-TV, but I am practical (and frugal) and it just didn’t seem worth it. But I recently did some research, thinking that perhaps next year we would get cable (I know Roy has been wanting it for awhile) and realized that while it is more expensive than what we are paying for DSL and phone with Centurylink, it is not as bad as I thought. If we got cable’s top tier package with every channel they offer including HBO, Showtime, and all of the other special channels, along with phone and internet, the additional cost is about $90 per month.

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My Father’s Birthday: Reconciling What Never Was And What Never May Be

Posted on September 9, 2014 by DMW

I mailed my dad’s birthday card last week, because he is in Nebraska, I’m in Colorado and the mail takes a few days to reach its destination. His birthday was last Saturday.

Something occurred to me when I bought his birthday card. And when I wrote a message in it. And again when I sent it. On his birthday, and again now. I’m a better child than he is a father. I think it is hard to measure how good a person is or isn’t… at least on a level playing field. But birthdays is one such playing field where it is… clear. He doesn’t always remember my birthday and he never sends a card (I’m not exaggerating with the ‘never’). But I always do.

On a subjective playing field that is much less level – my father has traded the roles of ‘sperm donor’ and ‘abusive asshat’ back and forth for more than two decades. But the last two years I have tried to have some sort of something with him. Between my two parents he is the sane one (as in not criminally psychotic). While he was abusive and has never apologized or ‘made good’ on any of that – I have to believe that he was oblivious and stupid rather than being deliberately hurtful. Which is funny, because between my two parents, he certainly did more sustainable damage.

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Confessions Of A Bookaholic – Guilty Pleasures Edition #32 – Sweet Valley High Super Thriller #1 – Double Jeopardy

Posted on September 8, 2014 by DMW

The time has come… Sweet Valley High’s inaugural Super Thriller has arrived! It’s time to get our thrill on! 😉

“Double Jeopardy” (Super Thriller)

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Sweet Valley Scale: 4.5 out of 5 Twins

When twins, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, land internships at The Sweet Valley News for the summer, they think they’ll be reporting the news, but instead they end up making headlines when Jessica becomes an eyewitness to murder. Adam Maitland, a close friend of the twins’ brother Steven is charged with the murder, and Elizabeth has evidence that could convict him, but Jessica knows he is innocent, because she saw the whole thing – and she sets out to prove it. The problem is the murderer saw Jessica too. Can the twins find the killer before he finds them or will they be caught in a deadly case of mistaken identity?

Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield are interning at The Sweet Valley News this summer, and they’re both excited about it. Elizabeth hopes to be able to write her own story by the end of the summer and Jessica is trying to land, Seth Miller, a 22-year-old reporter who also is a published mystery writer (don’t I feel like a slacker). Jessica begins to read several mystery novels and then spies on her neighbors, hoping to lure Seth into her clutches by giving him a juicy mystery to solve. But the problem is there just aren’t many devious things going down in Sweet Valley. Undeterred, Jessica decides to just make some up.

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Confessions Of A Bookaholic – Guilty Pleasure Edition #31 – Fear Street Books 28-30

Posted on September 7, 2014 by DMW

This list of Fear Street books is special, because every single book nearly defied my current rating system! They were each stuck between two ratings and I didn’t want to bump them up for certain reasons, but they were better than the typical book with the ratings they received. Without further adieu… this special list of Fear Street awaits!

“Truth Or Dare”

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Fear Street Scale: 4.5 out of 5 Fears
Pick Of The Bunch Rating: First Place

When three guys and four girls – some of them friends and some nearly strangers – are stuck in Dara Harker’s luxury ski condo, what else is there to do? They’re all trapped – an unexpected blizzard has closed the ski lifts, blocked the roads and killed the phones. So all that is left is to play a game. They think a game will help them break the ice. Who will tell the truth? Who will take a dare? How far will each of them go? But the game soon turns deadly. It seems that one of them would rather kill than tell the truth. And then kill again…

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