Book Review(s)!

I read three books this month!

I am so proud of myself. I started back reading with a bang and pushed myself to read. I hate I can't listen in the car any more or I would have easily finished another one. I am also pretty pleased overall at the books I did read. There are all very different, but so good! 

I haven't started September out with the push that I did in November and I'm not sure if that is because of the book I'm reading now or because I have a teething baby on my hands. Townes has had a rough couple of nights. (Which is usually when I get my reading done.) Tonight is actually the first night he's let me put him to bed easy in about 5 days. He is an amazing sleeper and when it's a fight to put him to bed or nap, I know something is up. The poor guy has 2 top teeth busting through at the same time and it has him all sniffly and pitiful. 

Still cooler than I could ever
 wish to be, however.

Other than teething, life has been pretty ordinary.

I have started like a mad woman hanging things on the walls, since mom and dad supplied me with nails, hammers, and screwdrivers. (Thanks Mom and Dad 😘) We move our new couch and chair in this week, I re-potted more plants, and we are going to assemble our coffee table. Also, I came home last week to find that Benjamin had completely assembled our new kitchen table and chairs!

It looks more like home every day. It is such a fun and lengthy process. I catch myself getting aggravated that my house doesn't look like the houses I see on pinterest and then I remember A) we don't have a lot of money to spend and B) it takes TIME. I am so impatient with everything. Exercise, projects, you name it.

Thank you so much to Benjamin's grandmother (Ma) for
giving us a beautiful dining set 😍

I saw a quote the other day on another decor instagram that I follow:

One thing I have developed a patience with is READING. Like how I segued into talking about books again? Did you know that is how you spell segue? (I didn't. I had to google it.) Did you know I like to ask rhetorical questions that no one answers and speak in (parenthesis)? 

Let's talk books!

I will try to keep it as brief as I can, because I want you to read these books so we can talk about them. Also I would love for you to be my friend on Goodreads so we can keep up with each other's reading: <https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/32241467-cassandra-zook>

Book Number 1: Juliet, Naked By: Nick Hornby

This author is a British author who has many books that have become motion pictures. This is soon to be one as well! Benjamin found this book at Mr. K's, showed me the trailer to the soon-to-be movie and told me I should read it. I was sold. I love to read books before I see movies and this one looked good. Maybe it was just the fact that it stars Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne, and Chris O'Dowd. Nonetheless, I am glad I read this book. 

I can say I do believe this is going to be the case where I like the movie better than the book. I know, oh my gosh how could I say that. This book is a slow burn. I love slow burning, nothing exciting happens, painfully real, boring life movies. They are harder however to enjoy reading. That is NOT to say I didn't like this book, I did, very much so. 

This is a sweet tale of a comfortable love that has become a comfortable friendship over too many years (and not in a sweet way). Our protagonist finds herself seeking what she wants in life before she gets too old to have them. She finds a strange friendship blossoming with a washed up rockstar, and he finds himself seeking what is important to him as he gets even older. This book does not contain any women named Juliet being naked. 

This is a sweet love/anti-love story and I am very excited to watch the movie. I gave it ★★★★☆ on Goodreads.

Book 2: Wedding Night By: Sophie Kinsella

This is the second book I've read by Sophie Kinsella, and I really enjoyed it! This was a long one, but I felt it to have a good pace. I haven't read a lot of adult romantic comedies and this one was a great way to start out. Benjamin bought me this as a random gift for some holiday/birthday/no reason a WHILE ago. I finally read it and am so glad he picked it.

This has some racy moments, so it isn't for the faint of heart. This book, I hope will some day be a movie. It is such a cute idea for a plot, and would be such a delicious movie. Most of the setting takes place in Greece (drool), and the only thing better than reading about it would be seeing it on screen. This has some super cheesy, do-it-for-the-laughs scenes in it, but I laughed the whole way through. I liked taking a break from a more serious and realistic love story to this ridiculous and hilarious rom-com.

This is the story of a love between two sisters, one who recovers from a break-up by getting MARRIED to her teen-angst love and the other who is recently divorced. The latter is trying to stop her sister from her "unfortunate choice" before she really regrets it, like she has learned from experience. The only way they can claim their marriage null and void is if she stops them from... consummating their marriage... on their honeymoon.

If that isn't the cheesiest, most ridiculous plot I have ever typed. It was so fun and cute though! I gave it ★★★★☆ on Goodreads. I will definitely be looking for more of her books!

Book 3: Dark Matter By: Blake Crouch

Oh my hecking gosh. This book. I read it in 3 days. I could have read it in less that a day but there was too much going on for me to sit invested long enough. I could not stop reading this. It has been a while since I sat and read a book that kept me turning page after page never wanting to stop. It was SUCH a good feeling. Once again, Benjamin bought this book, read it, and then recommended it to me. I started it immediately, because I wanted a thriller/fast paced book after Juliet, Naked and boy oh boy did this satisfy my needs. 

I hope to goodness that this gets made into a movie, and I hope the movie does it justice. Did I tell you I loved this book? It has many moments that sent shivers down my spine, as well as moments that made me cry! (Two times in the same chapter!) It made me think about my own life and reflect on all the choices that have led me here and how thankful I am for where I am. I laid this book down thinking deeply and caught myself thinking about it non-stop after I was done. I can not say enough good things.

This is an insane story about a man who is happy in his comfortable life. He has a wife he loves, a teenage son, and teaches at a college. Then something happens and all of the sudden his wife is not married to him, their son doesn't exist, and he is being praised for his brilliance in the field of physics. He desperately tries to find a way back to the life he loves, and discover if it was even ever real at all.

Please read this book. Please spend hours talking to me about it. I gave it ★★★★★, duh.

My favorite moments of the past few days,

Moment 1: Creating my September spread in my bullet journal

This one was really fun. I really like this color scheme and really enjoyed doodling this one. I can already tell they are going to get progressively better and progressively more fun. I can't wait to share this one! 

Moment 2: Watching 'Won't You Be My Neighbor'?

I have so loved watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood with Townes and we finally watched the documentary. It was so beautiful and wonderful. I could have watched 5 more hours. I wanted so much more. He is such a beautiful person and I wish we could all be a little more like him.

Moment 3: Townes.

He always makes it into my top favorites, and I honestly don't have one moment to share about him. Just him in general. Even though he has been teething and INSANELY hard to lay down lately, when he is awake he has been so much fun and so sweet. He can sign "please" and "more" and "all done" perfectly. He can say "ball" and "yellow" and "car" and "light". He loves to clean and always helps me clean when I ask him. He can get mad and throw tantrums when he doesn't want to do something but even if he's mad he still almost always listens. He gives spontaneous kisses all the time. And he LOVES to make people laugh. I love him so much.