Resilient Pete

My children have been a great excuse to indulge in my love for picture books. Whether it's the library or a bookstore (Woot woot! for the new B&N that opened near my house), browsing through the picture books is always great fun. You smile when you see a familiar title, or lovingly caress the covers of your favorites. *sigh* New favorite picture book character is Pete the Cat. I'm rather obsessed with him.

Pete’s been around for a while, and I was first introduced to him when my son was a baby. I had heard good things; however, the book we had been given (a retelling of twinkle twinkle little star) failed to impress.

Fast forward about two and a half years - now my baby boy is in pre-school (they grow so fast!), and he comes home with a new Pete the Cat book from his teachers. This one was titled Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. I began reading the story apprehensively that night at bedtime, but by the end of the book, my opinion of Pete did a 180 turn.

Instead of a bland retelling of a nursery rhyme, “I Love My White Shoes” was witty and fun, and surprisingly, all about resilience!

As an ISD, “resilience” is one of those trending words we hear about a lot. It’s right up there with “emotional intelligence” and “data analysis”. So, imagine my surprise to find it taught so perfectly and succinctly in a picture book!

“I Love My White Shoes” tells the story of Pete wearing his favorite pair of shoes and singing a song about them. The resilience comes in when Pete accidentally steps in a variety of things that change the color of his shoes, and instead of getting upset, he adjusts the words in his song. The art work, catchy phrases, cute little jingle, and entertaining repetition make this book very memorable. Like my son, I can't help calling out “goodness no” at key moments.

Jax opening new Pete the Cat books
If you haven’t read Pete the Cat, I highly recommend doing so. I’m already trying to find opportunities to work it into training at my job. Among my favorites in the Pete collection are: I Love My White Shoes, Four Groovy Buttons, and The Cool Cat Boogie.

You don’t have to be a child to read, enjoy, and learn from these books. When you encounter a tough situation, just remember Resilient Pete and his catchy saying, “Does Pete cry? Goodness no!”.

Bookworm At The Winery

Last Saturday was not a good day for me. I was really out of it and could not seem to get anything I wanted done. Rather than try to stick to all my original plans, I decided to go out The Winery at La Grange to re-hide the geocache that I had hidden there.

Before my original cache hiding place was torn down, the manager at La Grange rescued the container and contacted the geocache approver. At first, I did not think I would make it out there for a while, but when I needed the change of pace on Saturday, I jumped at the chance to visit this beautiful winery again.


Because of the beautiful weather, the winery was packed! But with a little patience, I was able to get one of the servers to retrieve my cache from the office. I meandered around for a while scouting out new potential locations. Many of the likely spots were close to muggles, and I had to keep looking. Finally, I found a cozy spot that looked promising, repackaged the cache, and tucked it into the new hiding spot. For my fellow geocachers, you can find the new coordinates here.


With the cache hidden, I decided to spend some extra time relaxing. I picked up a bottle of refreshing Cuvee Blanc, a container of artichoke and crab dip, and a bag of pita chips from the tasting room before traipsing down to a comfy wooden beach chair near the grape vines.

The view was stunning; the sunshine warming; and I lost myself in the pages of The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. Oh, if only every Saturday could be so delightfully spent!

A PC-Raised User Learns About Steve Jobs

Growing up, I was one of the lucky kids whose father was a programmer and got to bring home older PCs from the office. I remember playing Qbert and Burgertime on giant five inch floppies on my dad’s DOS machine, and I remember being one of the first kids in my class to turn in an assignment typed up in a DOS document program and printed on the perforated printer paper that used to feed through old printers. These are all great memories for me, and ones that I am glad to have experienced.

One thing I did not get to play with growing up was an Apple computer. This is mostly likely because Apple tended to be more expensive, as well as unable to integrate with many of the external plugins and software that my dad preferred. Of course, I knew that Apple was Microsoft’s big competitor; however, I never knew much beyond that.

My first big experience with Apple was my freshman year of college. When I walked into the computer lab to print out a document, all the PCs were taken and only these strange green machines in the back were available.


I knew they were Apple computers, but I am embarrassed to say that my lack of Apple experience was immediately evident when I tried to run a regular floppy disk on one. My face turned beat red as I struggled to remove my incompatible floppy, and the experience kept me away from Apple products for years. I’m actually blushing a little bit right now remembering this event. LOL

Since then, I have become a little more familiar with Apple products. I am on my second iPod and am still happily fiddling with the iPhone I purchased last year. As I got more exposure to these products, I became more curious about the man who built and developed this innovative company.


Recently, I picked up an audio copy of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I did not really know what to expect as I started listening to performer Dylan Baker read through the book, but what I heard was all-together fascinating, horrifying (at times), and inspiring.

My first observation of Steve Jobs is that he was an asshole, but I will immediately follow by saying that he knew how to bring the most creative skills out of the people around him. His story shocked me with how hurtful, inconsiderate, and self-centered he could be, but then, I would be fascinated at how he was able to just walk up to someone he had never met and obtain the information or supplies he needed to produce his next masterpiece.

In short, I learned that he was human, while also being brilliant. Reading about both his masterpieces and his disasters was encouraging, and I loved his intensity for detail and love for artistry. His biography horrified me at times – hearing him doing things that made me shudder and shake my head. But no one can deny his amazing contributions to our society.

I definitely recommend this biography to anyone who has a love for technology, creativity, or artistry. You will learn a lot about life, both good and bad, and at the end, you will have hopefully gained a new perspective on what our future can be.

Beautiful Creatures – Avoid if Possible

When watching previews at the movie theater, I saw a preview for a movie called Beautiful Creatures. The premise of the movie looked like another teen-magic movie, but there were a few points in the plot that caught my interest. At the end of the preview, I saw the words popup “based on the novel Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl”.

I am a firm believer that reading a book is always better than watching the movie-adaption of a book. So, the first thing that I did was pick up the book at the library. I had been in the mood for a good teen-fiction book, but I had not found a book to satisfy that craving in a while. It was with tenuous hope that I started reading Beautiful Creatures.

I am sad to say that I am still looking for a good teen-fiction read. My quick review of the book is this – If you loved the Twilight series, you will enjoy this book. If you could NOT stand the Twilight series, you will hate this book. Unfortunately, I fall into the latter category and only finished the book by sheer force. LOL

The first 250 pages of the book are the annoyingly-standard teen relationship drama:

• Boy – I live in a small town where nothing happens.
• Girl - I traveled so much, and now I just want a normal life.
• Boy – You’re hot.
• Girl – I can’t tell you anything. I hate you. Go away.
• Boy – I don’t care. I’ll love you anyway.
• Girl – No
• Boy - *follows girl like a stalker*
• Girl – OK. I’m a supernatural being that can’t control her powers.
• Boy – OMG! I don’t know if I can be with you. But I really want be with you.

Seriously… just skip the first 250 pages.

After that, there are some slightly interesting twists to the plot, and the main characters finally start to develop personalities (if only very small ones). My favorite part is the caster library, because who does not like a giant, secret library. :D

The book offers two possible endings to the story, but of course, it takes the obvious third answer. There’s really no other option for it to take when you learn all the details of the original to options. I mean, they can’t kill everyone off, because then there would not be any potential for a horrible sequel or a please-spare-us trilogy.

As we get down to the dirty details of why I don’t like this book, let me first say that if it came down to someone reading this book or never reading a book, I would tell them to read it. It is better to read trash than not to read at all. However, that being said, I really wish that people would have higher standards in what they write and/or read.

What was bad about the book:

• The two main characters (and most of the others) had no personality. There was no depth to them, and they presented little challenge to the reader.
• The plot had a few interesting points, but those points did not make up for the glaringly obvious direction of the story as a whole.
• I know I write and edit for a living, but still, let’s use grammar check before publishing. Seriously, even Microsoft Word knows you are not supposed to start a sentence with the word “And”.

What was good about the book:

• I learned that I do have the will power to finish a book, even if it is awful. LOL

If you are looking for a good teen fiction book to read, please avoid reading Beautiful Creatures. Instead, pick up “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, “A Sea of Trolls”, “Terrier”, “Graceling”, or anything else by the authors of these books.

Remember, you do not have to settle for poorly written books! :)

Marathon of the Mind and Fingers

I’ve done it! I have signed up for my very first NaNoWriMo!! Woot!!

What is a NaNoWriMo?
In short, NaNoWriMo is a marathon of a writers mind and fingers. For the month of November, writers from all over the world sign their souls over for a month of literary writing. The goal of each writer is to complete 50,000 words of a novel. The authors can choose whether the novel is finished or if they will add more to the story at the end of the month. They do not have to worry about editing, rewriting, or any such polishing of the novel. The point is quantity. Reach the 50,000 word mark, and you will have accomplished your goal. You can find out more on the main website or on the wiki page.

Now that you know what NaNoWriMo is, you are probably wondering if I will be able to pull off this ambitious undertaking. To be quite honest, I am not sure I will be able to myself. However, I am ready to at least put forth a very gallant effort to accomplish this momentous word marker.

Even as I type, my mind is whirring with excitement, and I can feel my imagination gearing up in anticipation of plaiting a new story from the depths of my mind.

I am sure that in a few days I will be crying in frustration, swearing at my keyboard, or berating my exhausted, yet inadequate, creativity. It is that upcoming day during which you can encourage me to continue, yell at me for even thinking of giving up, laugh at my ridiculous undertaking, or whatever combination that might suite you.

I shall leave you at this point and foray into the writing world.

Happy Writing!

Passion Blue by Victoria Strauss

Something I love about writing a blog and being involved in social media is that you are able to communicate with people who would be otherwise unreachable. This capability has made itself most evident by my opportunities to connect with some of my favorite authors, as well as discovering some new authors.

One author whom I have met through social media is Victoria Strauss, an accomplished writer of both adult and young adult books. I came across her twitter feed when another author re-tweeted one of Victoria’s posts. As fate would have it, we messaged back and forth a little, and she accepted my offer to review her book Passion Blue.

Summary:
Passion Blue is set in Renaissance Italy and tells the story of Guilia, a precocious young woman who sketches constantly and dreams of having a family. Growing up as the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy nobleman, Guilia received the distant care of her father and the scorn of the rest of the household. When her father dies unexpectedly, the lingering security he provided quickly falls apart, and his widow forces her to join a convent. Desperate to escape, Guilia seeks out a sorcerer with the power to create a talisman that fulfills desires. The talisman seems to work as she begins life at the convent, but Guilia must discover if it is directing her toward marriage or something completely different.

Thoughts on Passion Blue:
I was in the perfect mood when I picked up Passion Blue from the top of my to-read stack. I had just finished a very lengthy book and was ready for a story that did not have to force an extreme level of epic to be an accomplished, complete book. Passion Blue was a wonderful, relaxing read that ended with a flourish and left me with a positive thought.

Within the first paragraph, Victoria Strauss’s depiction of Italy, painting, and color drew me into the story. I love how she described the sensation of Guilia becoming thoroughly absorbed in her drawings. It was so accurate that I started having flashbacks to times when I have become enthralled with my own projects.

My favorite character was Maestra Humilita, who oversaw the painting workshop. While Guilia is an accurate character for a teenage heroine, I found that I was able to relate more to the Maestra, who had already discovered herself but still struggled against the limitations of a biased world.

The overall message of the book, that no one should settle for a life that does not match their true passion and talent, was fantastic. In my opinion, this is an idea that can never be over taught, especially when there are still so many women (even in modern places of the world) who have been raised to believe that a successful life is only accomplished when you meet someone else’s ideal.

To summarize my thoughts, I found Passion Blue to be a delightful, fun read. It is the perfect book to bring on vacation or to curl up with on a rainy weekend. I would recommend this book for pre-teen or young adult readers, as well as for those who enjoy historical fiction or works involving drawing and painting.

A special thanks to Victoria Strauss for responding to my message and giving me the chance to read and review her book!!

Puppy Parenthood: Lesson 1 - Research!

The puppies Nikki rescued
Two days ago, I found out that my sister Nikki was going to rescue two puppies from a bad home. First, I applauded her for rescuing them, and second, her questions inspired me to begin a series of posts about the most important things regarding puppy parenthood. For Nikki, I am only a text message away, but for anyone without a good dog-owner contact, I hope this information will provide you with easy access to the most important puppy knowledge. Also, feel free to post additional questions to me!

Because I never grew up with dogs of my own (though I usually adopted all the neighbor’s dogs), I had to learn many things from scratch when I purchased Vander. Lucky for me, Vander’s breeder was extremely helpful and eager to share valuable experience, as many Portuguese Water Dog breeders are.

Vander's first snow
The first thing Vander’s breeder taught me about puppy parenthood was to RESEARCH. Many owners do not know what they are getting into when they pick out a dog, which is why so many end up as rescues. People pick out a dog that they think is cute, but they are unprepared for the natural instincts and tendencies that have been bred into their puppy for generations. If you can understand the job your dog was bred to perform, you have won half the battle of raising a puppy!

Here are some easy ways to research dog breeds:

• Do a Google search on your dog’s breed. There are lots of good websites out there, and I would also recommend searching YouTube for videos.
• Find books! You can get them from the library for free or order them online if you are looking for a rarer breed.
• If at all possible, talk to someone who has owned a puppy of the same breed as yours. They are a wealth of information and experience! You can probably even visit the dog and see its behavior for yourself.

When I researched Portuguese Water Dogs, I learned that they were originally bred to live on boats and perform tasks like fetching nets or herding fish. This knowledge helped me understand and anticipate that my puppy might have some of the following characteristics:

• Intelligence – Puppies can learn fast, but they can also learn how to outsmart you.
• Mouthy – A term for a dog who likes to have something in its mouth at all times. For example: a toy, a shoe, a person’s hand.
• Companionship – A dog who wants to be with its owner ALL the time, even in the bathroom!

Three month old Vander with toy
Sometimes, when you adopt a dog, you may not know exactly what mix of dog you are adopting. This does not mean that you cannot research what your puppy’s tendencies are! There are plenty of basic puppy books that cover the most common dog traits. Your dog will probably not display every characteristic mentioned in these books, but you will be a more prepared owner if you have a general knowledge of puppy behavior.

As you start your research, do not be overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge available. More than likely, your research will not stop after you bring home your puppy, which is just fine. Continued learning is good for both you and your puppy. Have fun with it!

Two month old Vander and I

Eat, Pray, Love – My Review

A few years ago, everyone was raving about the book Eat, Pray, Love, but I never had the chance to pick it up. However, to celebrate JIAM2012, I decided to branch out from my usual fantasy audiobooks and pick up this book, and I just finished the last track!

As I review the book in my mind, my first thought is that I can hardly relate to it at all. I am not yet in my thirties; I have not been married, much less divorced; and I am still dreaming of the day when I can afford extensive international travel. Despite all that, I was able to understand the author’s desire to search for spiritual peace, or god.

I grew up in a church that, as an adult, I learned was complete and utter bullshit. Because of this, I wanted nothing to do with churches, god, or religion for a while. As time passed and the ingrained religious reactions faded, I found myself curious about what various religions were really about. I will not say I went into as much research as the reader did, but I was finally able to reach my own spiritual peace. It is because of my own search that I found the author’s own expedition interesting.

Unlike many people, I will not rant and rave about how fantastic this book was. In truth, I found it enjoyable and interesting, but not fantastic. I am glad I read it, and I did glean something from it, besides an intense craving for gourmet pizza. :)

In regard to the audiobook in particular, I liked how the author read the book herself. I feel this adds something to the story because her emotions are put into the words.

So this is my little, quick review:
Eat, Pray, Love is an enjoyable book that you will not regret reading. It is well written and informative of one person’s experiences and perspectives.

Happy JAIM2012! Now, onto my next book – The Magician King by Lev Grossman!

June is Audiobook Month!

Hurray! I just found out that June is audiobook month! Today, I am going to dispel some common audiobook fears, as well as give you list of my favorite audiobooks, readers, and production companies.

First off, I started listening to audiobooks during college. Do not ask me how long ago that was! Simply realize that it was a while ago, and I am now an audiobook veteran. :) Being a commuting college student, I drove to and from campus everyday, and anyone who has driven in Northern Virginia knows how long, frustrating, and stressful commuting can be. With driving taking up hours of my day, I began to notice a disturbing lag in my personal reading. For someone who grew up with the ability to walk behind her mother in the grocery store, while reading, and never run into her mother or anyone else, you can imagine how poignant a decline in my book intake would feel.

I do not remember exactly how it happened, but one day, I walked out of the library with an audiobook. I cannot remember what book it was (which is usually a sign that it was not fantastic), but in spite of that, I have been an enthusiastic audio listener ever since. My listening has even extended to times when I am doing indoor or outdoor chores. Audiobooks also make a great listening option when you are running on a treadmill at the gym!

This is SO true! For both music and audiobooks!
One common complaint, that audiobooks are boring or put you to sleep, is not unfounded. There are audiobooks that have really annoying readers or whose readers are just plain boring, but do not let that scare you away! There are TONS of fantastic readers. Readers who you cannot stop listening to; readers who maintain dozens of unique character voices at the same time. They are out there, and you will never want to stop listening to them. I guarantee it!

Another complaint I have heard is that audiobooks are expensive, which is quite true. Buying audiobooks from a bookstore can get expensive, with prices ranging from $20 to $60 for one book. However, these prices can be easily avoided by borrowing audiobooks from your local public library. I have borrowed dozens of audiobooks from my library, and I only purchase the CDs or MP3 files if I really, really love the book. With libraries carrying the great selections they do today, there is no need to buy every audiobook you listen to.

Believe it or not, there are even health and knowledge benefits to listing to audiobooks. Numerous studies have shown that people who listen to audiobooks have a better vocabulary than those who do not, especially children. For myself, I find that I am less stressed during and after my work commute. I also find that I am more interested in new or unfamiliar topics. I have even branched out to a few non-fiction books, like Carrie Fisher’s “Wishful Drinking”.

This is not so scary when you have an audiobook!
Currently, I have two new audiobooks to listen to (The Night Circus and Eat, Pray, Love). With a little encouragement, my boyfriend recently picked up his first audio books (Dune and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Here is a list of some of my favorite audiobooks, readers, or producers:

• The Harry Potter Series – the audiobooks are really well produced and fun for all ages
• The Kushiel series and the Naamah series by Jacqueline Carey – tons of fantastic books for adults. Some have different readers, but they are all good.
• The Millennium Series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) – another great series
• Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series – fun teen girl series
• Wishful Drinking – written and read by Carrie Fisher
• The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan – a random find that I loved!
• Grimpow by Rafael Abalos – great boy’s book!
• Jim Dale – the audio reader for Harry Potter, Peter and the Star Catchers, and other fantastic books
• Listening Library – consistently wonderful producing company
• Tantor Audio – another good producing company

I hope this helps get you started on choosing an audiobook for yourself. When you find ones you enjoy, be sure to pass them on to others as well!

Lisbeth Salander is a Badass

By now everyone has heard of the book “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, but just in case you have been living in a fallout shelter for the last seven years, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is the first book in the Millennium series written by Swedish author Steig Larsson. The series includes two other books: “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”. The first book was originally published in Sweden in 2005, and it was republished in English in 2008. Since then, the series has become immensely popular, spreading like wildfire through book clubs and movie studios.

There have been many summaries of these books, so I am going to avoid writing another. Instead, I am just going to point out what I did and did not like, without giving away too many of the fun discoveries.

Because I do not have much time to read, I actually listened to all three books, picking them up on CD from my local library. The audio reader was very easy to listen to. His voice was not boring or annoying, and he made a good effort to give each character an individual voice. If you are not able to sit down and read all three books, the audio version is a nice alternative.

The Millennium series is a fun, suspenseful series that you will read in every spare moment until you are finished. There are tons of interesting, well-developed characters that I either loved or loved to hate. I found the plot to be complex and detailed, which is the most important element of a book to me. Larsson told multiple stories simultaneously without losing the strength of any of them!

By far, my favorite character was Lisbeth Salander. She undoubtedly had some personal faults, and she had an appalling childhood. However, I love how she held onto her standards and morals, and I admire her skill at bringing “justice” to anyone who wished her harm. To put it simply, Lisbeth Salander was Bad Ass. Cheering her on was an unconscious compulsion as I listened to the books.

While I thought that all the books were great reads, I did not like how different the first book was from the second two. All three books contain many of the same characters, but the plot of the first book is extremely different from the last two. This makes it hard for me to see them as a three-book series.


In addition to reading the books, I have also seen both the Swedish and the US movie productions of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. My personal favorite was the original Swedish version, because I felt that it was more true to the book and that the casting matched my imagination’s depiction of the characters. Another benefit of the Swedish version is that they have already created movies for each book, while the US versions are still in production. However, if you do not want to read subtitles, the US version is still fun to watch.

Must Read Books by Jacqueline Carey

Last year, while wandering the shelves of my local library, I came across an unforgettable set of books by an author named Jacqueline Carey. As usual, the covers and titles first caught my attention. However, after reading the description of her first book “Kushiel’s Dart”, I instantly grabbed the first couple books and have just finished reading one of her most recent books “Naamah’s Blessing”.

Because there are too many books to give individual reviews of each, I will give you a brief description of each of Jacqueline Carey’s series and review the qualities that make her writing so unforgettable. You can pick which book you read first, but I would recommend reading them in order (except for the Saints books, because they are a different series).

Kushiel’s Legacy Series:
Jacqueline’s first set of books are the Kushiel's Legacy series. In this series, you follow two main characters who are pressed into unlikely situations because they are the chosen tools of the god Kushiel, the god of punishment.

In the first books of the series, you are introduced to Phedre no Delaunay, a remarkable woman whose eye is marked by the scarlet moat of Kushiel’s Dart. Raised in the arts of Naamah (a goddess of love and pleasure) and the arts of covertsy, Phedre finds herself surrounded by traitors and intrigue fighting for control of Terre d’ange. It will take all her skills and trust in the gods of Terre d’ange to protect those she loves and bring the guilty to justice.

The second half of the series introduces you to Imriel de la Courcel, who is both a prince and a son to the nation’s worst traitor. Struggling to understand his past, Imriel must accept his inheritance as a scion of Kushiel and learn that running from choices will not overcome them.

Naamah Series:
In the Naamah series, Jacqueline Carey takes you a few generations into the future and introduces you Moirin, a young girl born from multiple royal lines but raised in the wild traditions of her mother’s people, the Maghuin Dhonn. While forever wanting to be a child of the Mahuin Dhonn, Moirin feels driven to follow an elusive destiny given to her by her people’s goddess.

In the third book,“Naamah’s Blessing,” Moirin finds herself back in her father’s homeland of Terre d’ange. Faced once again with accusations of being a witch, Moirin struggles to protect the future of young Desiree, the daughter of Queen Jehanne. A cruel twist of the gods forces her to travel across the ocean to Terra Nova, seeking the lost Prince Thierry and his companions. The journey to find the prince could very well kill her, but she knows she will face more than just oceans and jungles. To return the prince to Terre d’ange and be free of her driving destiny, Moirin must face both her childhood mistakes and the cruelty of her past lover, Raphael.

Saints Series:
This series has nothing to do with the previous stories, but they are still amazing books.

The Saints series starts in a town called Santa Olivia, which exists but does not exists between Texas and Mexico. In the town, the locals are basically quarantined from the rest of the world. Their only real sources of entertainment are gang-run bars and boxing championships that are held by the soldiers who guard Santa Olivia. Born into this world by accident is Loup, an incredibly strong girl whose father was not quite human. The books trace Loup’s childhood and early adulthood, watching as she uses her strength to secretly improve the lives of the Santa Olivia residents.

Why I LOVE These Books:
Now that I have given you brief descriptions of Jacqueline Carey’s books, here are some of the reasons why I LOVE her writing:

• Her books have fantastic plot twists and intrigue. The battles of wits are intense and entertaining.
• The characters can be exceptionally complex, growing and changing with the series. Readers are able to get a unique insight into the experiences of each character, both good and bad.
• The stories have some fun spicy scenes, and let’s be honest – everyone enjoys a little spice in their books.
• On a more personal note, I think there is a lot that readers can learn and take away from these books. Many of the books deal with difficult questions about love, loyalty, culture, and tradition. While I know that there will always be close-minded people, I think that Jacqueline’s characters provide us with a brilliant example of how to remain loyal to your own beliefs while maintaining the ability to learn from and respect other people’s beliefs.

If you have not read these books yet, I HIGHLY recommend that you do! I have enjoyed every single one of them, and that rarely happens. If you do not have time to read the books, the audio books are another good option. The audio readers do a great job and are not the slightest bit boring. Especially if you drive a lot to and from work/school, audio books are a great option!

Enjoy!