A Summer Full of Books: Part One

If you've been reading you would know (not that I expect you to) that I've made a goal of reading all my books that I own and haven't read this summer. Well I've started and stopped a few (Robert Frost is exhausting!) and now I've come to tell you about the ones I have finished!

The Eye of the Warlock

Talk about fairy tale with a twist! I picked this up because I needed a brain break and some light reading while taking a Frost break. I didn't expect much out of my bargain book find but I really enjoyed it! The idea is that 50 years after Hansel and Gretel escaped the evil witch that there is still trouble brewing for some kids in the old woods. One evil aunt, one mysterious traveler, an unexpected adventure, jewels and encounters with the supernatural lead to one fun book!



It is written very much as a youth novel but hey it was really enjoyable. The writing style isn't very detailed but the plot moves great! I finished it in two or three days an actually looked forward to picking it up when I had a break from work. It would be great for kids or teens and if you are looking for an easy adventure tale even for adults! I liked it very much!
P.S. it is even available online for free see here

God's Promises For You

Hayley and I were both given a copy of this book as a baptism gift by our friend Mary. Hayley dived right into it and for some reason I let it sit on my shelf for a long time. Most likely because I needed it when I did get around to reading it. This book is ultimate simple encouragement. The set up is very nice with promises split into categories for easy look up. The left pages have three scriptures about the page's topic and the right page has a note about that topic from Max Lucado.

It has some amazing and profound illustrations of the way God loves us and how we can respond to that. It is a great little book to pull out in times of discouragement and I really love that Mary gave it as a baptismal gift because I think that it fit just perfectly, finding out the promises God has given to us and about us right after declaring faith publicly

The Magician's Nephew

 Okay in all honesty I read this one and the next one before the summer got out but now I'm reading the rest and figured I'd get around to writing the reviews :)

I loved The Magician's Nephew! I don't know why I never heard about this part of The Chronicles of Narnia but I think so far it is my favorite. The images of creation are so beautiful! Singing the world into being, Aslan granting tasks to the creations of his world. I love it! It is fun and simple and utterly beautiful. It also explains so much about the Narnia world that you just don't get in the other books! I think it is one I could reread and reread.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Ya know, I think I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't seen the movie first. It's a good and a bad thing when a movie sticks so close to the book. I felt kind of bored because the movie was so close. It would be a great adventure if I didn't know the out come. I just feel like because of the movie it didn't sparkle for me.

The Horse and His Boy

I really like these in between books in the Narnia series! The ones that didn't make the movie cut kind of seem better to me. I just finished this one yesterday and I liked it a lot, good adventure and I loved the interactions with Aslan in this one! "but after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything"

It was a great and quick read! Can't believe more people haven't read this one!

Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office

This is a great book for a lot of women to read! Now, I consider myself pretty good at negotiating work situations in the correct professional way but I even got a lot of good pointers out of this book. One main idea in this book is that society trained a lot of women to act like girls (dainty, soft spoken, nurturing) which is fine and dandy when you're a girl but when you are a woman going into the work force you need to start acting like a woman and society doesn't really show us how to do that.


The book starts with a great intro and assessment quiz on where you stand and on which areas in the book you would benefit most from. Each section (How You Play the Game, How You Act, How You Think, How You Brand and Market Yourself, How You Sound, How You Look, and How You Respond) lists real life mistakes that the author has seen women make as a successful career coach and lists her coaching tips for those mistakes.


Now this book isn't about being a bitch, or acting like a man, it is about stepping up your game so that you can show yourself as a strong business leader so you can move forward in your career. It's a best seller for a reason, there is some wonderful advice in this book! I'm not even in my career yet but just putting these tips into work at my part-time job is getting me good practice and moving me places within that job. I would really recommend any woman to read it especially if you feel like you're stuck in one place at your job or feeling like you deserve some upward mobility at your workplace.






These are my summer accomplishments so far, still have giant stack sitting on my coffee table, but I'm hoping I will be able to just power through them! I'll get through Narnia soon and will finish Frost then I'll have to decide what to read next, any suggestions? Go to my post on all my books and help me choose!


TTFN, Ta ta for now!
Carly