Friday Favorites - Reading Rainbow Edition.

You guys, I'm having a mild anxiety attack. 

I'm at the dentist.

Sure, I may just be sitting in the waiting room while Thing 1 is getting her teeth cleaned, but if you remember how I feel about the dentist it won't be surprising to tell you that my heart rate is as high as Wiz Khalifa on a Tuesday. Or a Wednesday. 

I'm trying to distract myself by writing, but there's a lady sitting on the sofa across from me telling the old man she's sitting next to - very loudly and in great detail - all about her parents’ dementia and Alzheimer's  and how they don't even recognize each other anymore. He’s 80 and voicing concern about his health and what's going to happen to his 120 slot machines when he dies, which he’s pretty sure is going to happen soon. So now I'm not only in the middle of a panic attack, I'm depressed as hell. 

Lets talk Favorites. Maybe that'll take my mind off it.

The first favorite from this past week is an easy one - Thing 2’s birthday. 
My little Thing turned 12. Twelve. I must've blinked. 
Honestly, time needs to take a Xanax and slow down. And even she's been feeling the sands slipping through the hourglass lately. Despite all her excited anticipation for her birthday, she was pretty glum on her last night as an 11 year old. When I asked her what was going on she sighed and said, 
“I'm just starting to see it all flash before my eyes.”

“See what flash before your eyes?”

Sigh. “My childhood.”

Before you chuckle (or maybe I didn't stop you in time) you need to know she wasn't trying to be funny or dramatic. That's just a typical thought for her. 

But she got over her depression by morning and had "the best birthday ever", thanks to a great day at school, a couple of hours of laser tag (where she and my husband annihilated me and Thing 1 repeatedly) and  a fun evening at home with presents and a 3-layer cake which I almost forgot to bake. 

I don't think there's anyone on earth that loves her birthday more than she does, even me. 


Favorites two through seven are all packaged together today.
Raise your hand if you remember this show?

Keep it up if after watching this gif you're now singing the song.

"Take a look! It's in a book! A Reading Rainboooowww!"

And now I totally have to add it to the Favorites List.  

So, correction.  

Favorites three through eight are all packaged together today. 

Here's a short list of my "read again" books. The books I've read three or four times but will happily read again if a year or so has passed. 

If you're a reader, no judging allowed.

You can have your turn to share your favorites in the comments.

If you're not a reader, stick around.

You might turn into one if you read one of these books.

How To Kill A Rockstar by Tiffanie DeBartolo

Don't let the title fool you. It isn't a book that teaches you how to stalk Jagger and then get taken away to the pokey. It's fiction. There is a rockstar in it. And a girl. But it's not at all a sappy chick-lit love story (which I'm not a fan of). It's absolutely absorbing. Plus, there's an ending that gives me goosebumps every time I read it. 

God-Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo

I know. Same author. And it's a crime that these are the only two books she's written (that are worth reading). This one will kill you. You'll know how it's going to end from the very first page, but I bet you 36 bucks that you'll still be devastated. And pissed. 

Books that make you feel. I like 'em. 

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

I really liked this peek into life in a shmancy American prep school through a middle-class girl's eyes. It's fiction, but I bet the things that go on there are pretty dead on. And they'll make you squirm (not in a good way). 

Another great one by Curtis Sittenfeld is American Wife, or the unauthorized biography of Laura Bush.

The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

What would you do if your fiancee dove off a pier into a reservoir and broke his neck, paralyzing him from the shoulders down for the rest of his life? How would you feel if the weeks even before the accident you'd been having second thoughts about marrying him? 

Yeah. That. 

Plan B by Jonathan Tropper

I love all Jonathan Tropper's books. Nick Hornby's too. But this one is one I've reread a handful of times over the years, and while it doesn't have the most intellectual plot line, it's just really well written and funny. Here's the nutshell — Group of friends since college. Ten years later, one has become a mega movie star and starts going all Lohan. Other four need to step in and save him from his destruction — so they kidnap him, obviously. 

Awesome.

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

Words cannot describe my love for this little book. I've read parts of it so many times it's starting to just open up on its own. This is the true account of one young mother's battle with breast cancer, while at the exact same time her beloved father is battling a cancer of his own. You'll cry (of course), you'll laugh (a LOT), you'll want to be her best friend and you'll fall head over heels in love with her father. Please read this book. There are countless passages that are so beautifully written and that I promise will make you pause and really think. And that's always a sign of a good book.

Now, because you are some of my very favorite people, I've made it super easy for you to read any of these six books! Just click the book and you'll be magically transported to Amazon, the world's biggest Target! 

This weekend I'm going to start reading Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight. Despite there not being any thriller/suspense books up on that list, I really do love them.  It's new, but has anyone read it yet? 

Now it's your turn!

What are some of your "read again" favorites?

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