What I read in May

The Host: A Novel- Meyer (2) And I think I’m being generous with that rating. I will NEVER read anything by her again. She writes like a very juvenile 16 year old girl and her stories go absolutely no where. Seriously–600+ pages and NOTHING HAPPENS!  It was marketed to be a psychological thriller–I think the psychological part is that you force yourself to keep reading because you think something must happen at some point…there has to be a climax right?  NO.  The only thrilling part was finally getting to the end.

Patron Saint of First Communicants: The Story of Blessed Imelda Lambertini (Stories of the Saints for Young People Ages 10 to 100)- Windeatt (4) a read aloud with the boys before they made their first communion.

Unlikely Spiritual Heroes- Hill (3) I read this for The Catholic Company’s reviewer program.

The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary-Edmisten (4) I had been wanting to read this book for a while and then I won it in one of her blog giveaways. I love when things like that happen!  I really enjoyed the book–the rosary is one of those things that I just never “got”.   After reading this book though, it makes much more sense.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl- Drummond (4) I liked her book quite a bit, but with dh’s high cholesterol I can’t really use many of her recipes. I liked all the pictures and stories about her life though.  And her pie crust recipe is awesome.

The Lady Elizabeth: A Novel (Random House Reader’s Circle)- Weir (4.5) I really liked the story, but I think Weir makes her out to be a little too innocent.  I’ve read other books about Elizabeth that went the opposite direction and made her out to be very duplicitous.  I imagine she was somewhere in the middle.

The Book of William: How Shakespeare’s First Folio Conquered the World- Collins (4) This was actually a really interesting book–it goes into the history of the first Folio being printed, and follows who owned the books through the centuries. I never knew there was such a thing as a book census.  This also made me want to break out my Complete Works of Shakespeare–even if it’s just a mass market paperback copy.