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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Roald Dahl

Recommended by: Summer (my beautiful daughter)

Introducing the amazing Willy Wonka, chocolate-maker extraordinary! Now in one volume are the complete works of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, two Willy Wonka classics from beloved author Roald Dahl.

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka's famous, mysterious chocolate factory is opening its doors at last. But only five lucky children will be allowed inside: Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee—and Charlie Bucket, Our Hero, a boy who is honest and kind, brave and true, and good and ready for the wildest time of his life. But even Charlie never expects to fly through the chocolate factory in a giant glass elevator! In the uproarious sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Willy Wonka whisks Charlie and the entire Bucket family right into space on an intergalactic elevator joyride—and another wild fantasy adventure.
(copy from goodreads)

What I thought: I like Carlie and the Chocolate Factory very much. It's alot like the movies. Which we enjoy all the time as a family. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator I didn't like very much at all. It was strange.

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Day of the Dead

J. A. Jance
Recommended by: Daree (one of the sweetest people I know)


"For more than thirty years, the case has remained stone cold - the brutal murder of a local Papago girl, her butchered body found stuffed into a large cooler that was left on the side of Highway 86. No one ever paid for the horrific crime ... except, that is, the victim's loved ones, who suffer to this day." "Brandon Walker, once the sheriff of Pima County, Arizona, no longer feels he has purpose. A reluctant retiree living in the long shadow of his wife, Diana Ladd, a successful author of true-crime books, he is bored with golf, and more so with life. Salvation, though, comes with an invitation to join the ranks of The Last Chance, an exclusive nationwide fraternity of former cops and forensic experts who look into unsolved murders that have baffled local law enforcement agencies. And one such case is staring Brandon in the face with cold, dead, entreating eyes - a murder investigation that may have been mishandled by his department when he was a young lawman." The trail of a sadistic, calculating, and blood-chillingly efficient killer soon leads Brandon into a strange world at the unlikely border between forensic science and tribal mysticism: a place where evil hides behind a perfect facade. Now the seeds of terror sown three decades earlier have bloomed and are bearing awful fruit. A forgotten homicide in the Arizona desert is only the beginning of the nightmare that is about to ensnare a diligent ex-cop and his family, for Brandon Walker is the only one still alive who can unravel a blood knot of terror and obsession that will free a dark truth more frightening than he ever imagined. (Copied from Goodreads)

What I thought: Daree really likes this author, but a different series. She hadn't read this one. I didn't really like it. The ended got better and they caught they bad guy, but the beginning made me feel dirty and yucky. Not the best book ever.

Need More Time

My birthday has past and I'm not done reading all the 30 books yet. I feel like I've done good, I just need more time. I have 5 to go. So I will keep going. This project was a little harder than I thought it would be. But I'm very glad I took it on.

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A Time to Dance

Karen Kingsbury
Recommended by: Stephanie (lady who handles the money for MOPS)
August 19-24

John and Abby Reynolds were the perfect couple, sharing a love born of childhood friendship and deep family ties. They are envied by their friends, cherished by their children, admired by their peers. But after surviving twenty-one years of love, loss, and laughter, of raising a family in their lakeside home, John and Abby are about to lose it all.

On the verge of having an affair, John is no more the man Abby married than she is the long ago girl of his dreams. They are strangers whose days of dancing seem gone forever, and finally they make the saddest decision of all. They gather their three children to tell them the news, but before they can speak, their daughter makes an announcement of her own--a joyous one: She is getting married that summer.

Determined not to ruin their daughter's season of happiness, Abby and John secretly agree to put their divorce plans on hold. But as the wedding nears, they are haunted by questions. Is the decision they've made irreversible? Are there times when marriage--even the marriage between two people of faith--is truly beyond repair? And is it possible, alone in the moonlight on an old wooden pier, to once more find....a time to dance?

My thoughts: I enjoyed this book. I did like the cheesy. happy ending. Stephanie just said any book by this author so I picked this one because it isn't part of a series. I will be reading more of her.

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Choosing To See

Mary Beth Chapman with Ellen Vaughn

Recommended by: Kamin (mops mentor)

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Mary Beth Chapman is the wife of Grammy and Dove Award winning recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman. Together they began Show Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to caring for the world's most vulnerable children by providing financial assistance to families wishing to adopt, as well as increasing awareness of the orphan crisis and funneling resources to orphans domestically and internationally. Mary Beth serves as president of Show Hope and is a speaker for Women of Faith 2010 with her husband. She is also coauthor with Steven of the Shaoey and Dot series of children's picture books. Mary Beth and Steven have six children: Emily, Caleb, Will Franklin, and adopted daughters Shaohannah Hope, Stevey Joy, and Maria Sue, who is now with Jesus. The Chapmans live in Tennessee.
(copy from goodreads I don't have the cover to the book)

What I thought: Kamin wanted Erica and I to read this before the MOPS convention but we didn't. Both Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman were at convention. So hearing them talk about the death of their little girl made it easier to read. I did tear up here and there but not too bad. Most of it is funny and written with fun in mind. Good read.

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Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

Recommended by: Karen (a friend of Julie's)

I don't remember I was in Nashville

Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.

Jacob was there because his luck had run out - orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive 'ship of fools'. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act - in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

(copy from goodreads I let someone borrow it and then it went back to the owner)

What I thought: I LOVED IT!!!! I have a fondness for the circus in the 1920's so this book was amazing to me. A girls night to see the movie is in the plans. I loved everything about it. :)

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The Help

Kathryn Stockett

Recommended by: Janis (another great neighbor)

July 16-24

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
(Copy from Goodreads, I had to trturn the book before I could blog it)

What I thought: My neighbor hadn't read it yet when she said I should read it but she had heard so many goods thingabout it she couldn't wait to read it. The moive is now out and it suppode to be very good. I liked that it had history and made mefeel sad at times. But the book is great!!