Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Books 44 and 45

Day 36

Unfortunately it is now that time of year when everyone is getting sick. It caught me today, I've been sick to my stomach, sneezing, and have a sore throat and a nasty cough. Most of the day was therefore spent resting, and a little time in the evening was spent reading. I've been trying to buckle down to get some of these books turned back into the library. The books I read today are both very different but I was feeling a little genre separation today.

Book 44: Boundless


Author: Cynthia Hand
Genre: Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 448
Series: Yes, book 3 of 3
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library
Date Read: February 5, 2013

3 stars
I'm not even sure how to describe this book properly but Clara Gardner is a Triplare, a rare being born from an the angel Michael who is her father and a half-angel mother. She experiences visions, many of which involve her fellow Triplare friend Christian who believes that they are destined to be together. She has pushed away Tucker, the human boy she loves in the effort to give him a normal life. Clara, Christian, and their angel-blood friend Angela move to California to attend Stanford University and begin seeing visions where they are put in grave danger.

I enjoyed the previous two books, but something really bothered me about this trilogy as a whole. The books did not seem to have a cohesive plot, considering that it was a three part series and they didn't seem to connect very well across book lines. I also really did not like Tucker with Clara and so it was hard for me to deal with that when it was so obvious to me that Christian was the right one for her. And in the end, the other comes up with a convenient way to change Clara's reasoning that just annoyed me. It's hard to love a book when you really don't like one of the characters.

Book 45: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change


Author: Stephen R. Covey
Genre: Non Fiction, Self Help
Pages: 319
Series: No
Purchased or Borrowed: Borrowed from the library (but if you really want to work on the lessons this book teaches then I would recommend buying a copy)
Date Read: February 5, 2013

3.5 stars
This book aimed to explain and teach exactly what the title says, 7 habits of personal change towards interdependency. The seven habits are in two areas, private and public victories. The habits towards private victories are being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. The habits for public victories are thinking win/win, seeking first to understand and then to be understood, and to synergize. The seventh habit is sharpening the saw, by preserving the four dimensions of your nature which are physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional.

This book was a little slow to begin with, and it took me a while to get into. I actually read through the introduction and the first two habits before taking a break from the book. But after that I went into it with a new mindset, and was able to gain some interesting understanding from this book. I really liked the lessons that I teaches, but I was a little put off by the author's writing style. I liked that he used examples from his own life, but the way the writing was styled did not seem like the best way of organization. I think that he could have reworked things to make it easier to read. I was also a bit put off by large passages of quotations from others. Although these can be used to support one's own ideas, they should generally not be placed directly into a book and should be paraphrased instead. However, I hope implement some of the lessons I learned in this book towards my own personal change.

Now it's time to work on recovering from this illness.

xo,
Erin

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