Mint Juleps With Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking by Mark Will-Weber | Book Review

I found Mint Juleps With Teddy Roosevelt to be rather "meh," but that could be my own fault.  I think I had some preconceived notions as to what I wanted this book to be, more than what it was.

What this book is:

• A mostly complete history of Presidential drinking.
• Very well-researched.
• Very fair.
• A bit redundant in places.
• Very dry.  (Like I like my martinis.)

What this book isn't:

• A cocktail "cookbook" of Presidential favorite libations.
• Very thorough.

Mint Juleps With Teddy Roosevelt is divided chapter-by-chapter by President, in chronological order.  Each President gets nearly exactly the same number of pages. This is great for those two fans of William Henry Harrison; not so great for fans of G. Washington.  Because each President only gets a handful of pages, there's no room for backstory or setting, so I was sometimes a little confused.  I also found it odd that the author so often set rather insignificant events as backdrops for drinking, rather than big, obvious things.  For instance, the Lincoln chapter barely mentioned the Civil War, but it went into some discussion of his campaign for election.

I had absolutely no reason to expect this, so it's all my fault and not the author's or the publisher's, but for some reason I thought there'd be a cocktail recipe for each President.  There were 4 or 5 libation instructions, but not nearly as many as I'd hoped for.  One thing that may be of interest to some folks is George Washington's homebrew beer instructions.  In case you want to make a smallbatch of the first (and in my opinion, greatest) President's beer!

This was a  lengthy and text-heavy book, liberally sprinkled with some fun facts about the Presidents' drinking habits.  I don't regret reading it, but I'm not going around recommending it willy nilly.

*I checked out my copy of Mint Juleps With Teddy Roosevelt from my local library.

Popsugar Reading Challenge Update!

Here are the titles I've added this week (look for reviews soon!):

Vanishing Girls is a book set in high school.

The Naturals is a book by an author I've never read before.

Previously:

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a book that became a movie.

How (Not) to Fall in Love by Lisa Brown Roberts is a book published this year.

Perfect Puppy in 7 Days: How to Start Your Puppy Off Right by Sophia Yin is a book with a number in the title.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman is a book with a female author.

Ink by Amanda Sun is a book with a one-word title.

Mint Juleps With Teddy Roosevelt by Mark Will-Weber is a nonfiction book.

Don't Give Up, Don't Give In: Lessons From an Extraordinary Life by Louis Zamperini is a memoir.

Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James is a book with bad reviews.

Loop by Karen Akins is a book set in the future.

And I'm currently reading Fifty Shades Freed (still), which doesn't satisfy any of the checklist and Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, which also doesn't satisfy any of the checklist.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

How (Not) to Fall in Love by Lisa Brown Roberts | Book Review

(I don't remember the main characters standing in a field even once during this book.)

Hmm.  So, unfortunately I did (not) fall in love with How (Not) to Fall in Love.  It wasn't a terrible book, but it definitely didn't make me want to shout.  It's a really light read, so I could see myself maybe handing this to teens in the summer or something.

How (Not) to Fall in Love is the story of Darcy and Lucas falling in love, during a really rough time in Darcy's life.  Darcy's situation with her parents is where the book earned it's two stars from me:  her dad has disappeared, abandoning her and her mom, and her mom turns to alcohol as a crutch.  Very sad but sadly true:  some teens are dealing with a parent or two who are not managing to hold it together.  They might have a parent with mental illness or a parent suffering addiction or a parent who has checked out of the family.  I did appreciate that Lisa Brown Roberts shows a teen being a teen (getting her first job, trying to keep up her grades, falling in love) while also trying to be an adult for her family (her first paychecks go to the family budget, trying to find her dad is a higher priority than the new boyfriend).

I flew through this book.  As I said, it's a lighter read.  Yes, hard subjects are touched upon, but I feel like they all wrapped up rather tidily.  An example of this is SPOILER (see very end of review if you don't mind a slight spoiler).  The entire book takes place over only about two months' time, so you don't see any major character growth.  How (Not) to Fall in Love is told entirely from Darcy's point of view, and the reader does see some growth in her character, but it's very predictable growth.  I don't remember being surprised by a single decision Darcy makes.  I almost feel like Lisa Brown Roberts could pull a Gayle Forman and write a companion/follow-up book from Lucas' point of view, like Forman did with If I Stay/Where She Went.

Overall, I was a little disappointed.  I think that this plot would be strong enough to stand alone without the love interest.  Like if Darcy was telling her story about this particular time in her life and getting through it with the help of family and friends.  I did like Lucas... he's not a "bad boy" who actively adds stress to Darcy's life.  I just think Darcy would have come across as a stronger person without needing a love interest.  I don't begrudge my time spent reading How (Not) to Fall in Love, but I also don't think it's going to be up for any awards.

Spoiler:  An example of this is Darcy's mom's "struggle" with alcohol.  She goes from being an uberattentive parent to a fall-down drunk to a successful AA member in the span of two months.

*I received my copy of How (Not) to Fall in Love from the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.  Thank you!

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater | Audiobook Review

Today I'm over at Tynga's Reviews, writing about Forever.  Until recently, I would be able to say that I'd finished the Shiver trilgoy, and Forever has nice finality to the end, but there's still Sinner, in case you're not ready to leave the inhabitants of Mercy Falls.  I thought Forever was a little lackluster, but had a few redeeming qualities; I thought the narration was pretty awesome.  Click on over to Tynga's Reviews to find out why!

*I checked out my copy of Forever from my local library.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand | Book & Movie Review

Everyone should go read this book!!!  I really don't know where else to start this review.  I began recommending it to people when I was only 25 pages in myself.  And since I was so far behind the crowd in reading it, there's already a Young Readers Edition on the market, too.  I've been recommending that version teen boys left and right.  

Unbroken is divided into five parts of Louie Zamperini's life.  The first part is his childhood and very young adulthood; his journey from town scamp to Olympic contender.  Then parts two, three, and four are tales of his survival as a WWII airborne bombardier, castaway after a plane wreck, Japanese POW, and eventual rescue.  The final part is about his life after the war.  I don't believe the term "PTSD" entered the American lexicon until Vietnam, but it's clear that Louie suffered from it.  Through all of this Louie remained as strong as possible, and he survived.

I had heard nearly all of that from family, friends, and other reviewers who had read the book, but there's so very much more to the story!  I was chuckling at Louie's antics as a young boy, and loved reading about how his older brother, Pete, took him under wing and redirected all his extra energy into running track instead of wrecking havoc in the neighborhood.  I knew that Louie survived everything (it's a biography, and I knew that he hadn't passed away until 2014; that's not a spoiler) but was still so very nervous while reading about all that he went through.  Like when he was a castaway for forty seven days.  I don't know how he survived that!  Then as a prisoner of war, he endured unthinkable abuses at the hands of his captors.  I freely admit that I probably wouldn't have the willpower that he had.  I'm just so humbled after reading all that he went through in the service of our country.

Unbroken was a hard story to hear, but an easy read, as far as nonfiction goes.  It reads so well, and the things he manages to survive are so insanely horrific, you might almost think you're reading fiction.  The hubby reads an average of 12 books a year (yup; we're that kind of couple... we track our yearly reading totals!) and he read Unbroken in less than a week!  He loved it, and has also been busy recommending it.

Last month, I "broke" one of my "rules" and went to see Unbroken with the hubby, my brother-in-love, and sister-in-love.  WOW.  It's a really, really great movie.  The acting is top-notch, and so is the pacing.  Of course the director had to leave out a bit of the book, or the movie would be 3 days long.  But never once did I feel there were any awkward jumps in the timeline, or that I was left with unanswered questions.  We had the good fortune to see it on an extra-big screen, and it often felt like we were right there with Louie.  

I give two thumbs up to both the book and the movie.  I would say that everyone needs to read the book because it's really good and more comprehensive than the movie, and that everyone should strongly consider seeing the movie because it's a pretty darn fair representation of the book!

*I own my copy of Unbroken.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  For more information, or to join the fun yourself, check out their blog!

Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't Read in YA!

I work in teen services in a library.  I really do enjoy YA.  And I read a lot of it.  But there are some OBVIOUS ones that EVERYONE else has read that I haven't.  I'm almost ashamed to even admit to some of them!

1. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.  I think this is the one I'm most ashamed to cop to.  A few months ago I read Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis and LOVED it and everyone told me it was reminiscent of Cinder, so I feel certain I'd love this series... if I could just get around to it!

2. Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.  This one will be remedied soon, because my bookish Secret Santa sent me Throne of Glass.  Then I'll finally be caught up... kinda.

3. Unsouled and Undivided by Neal Shusterman.  I read the first two in this series and was completely blown away, then I lost focus and never finished the series.  This is a like a sleeper total winner, ya'll.  So unique, so hard-hitting, so compelling.

4. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.  I've read most of the Heroes of Olympus series by him, and am loving it.  I need to go back and read the Percy Jackson books now.  I did this with Cassandra Clare's two series, too:  read the Infernal Devices series before I read the Mortal Instruments series!  I'm all about reading companion series in the "wrong" order, aren't I?

5. Anything by Laurie Halse Anderson.  I haven't read any of them!  If you've read any of her books, which one would you recommend I start with?

6. The Forest of Hands and Teeth (and it's sequels) by Carrie Ryan.  She's from the same city I grew up in!  I need to read these.

7. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline:  I see these two paired up and/or compared to one another often, so I'm listing them together.  Classic gamer-based books that I should read so that I can better booktalk them to teens.

8. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

9. Anna and the French Kiss companion series by Stephanie Perkins.  I haven't read any of them, and all I hear is praise!

10. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.  There was just so much hype about this book; I think I got scared that it wouldn't live up to the hype!  So of course I haven't read The Infinite Sea either.

How about you?  What ten books have lingered on your tbr list too long?  I love seeing others' TTT posts; leave me a link and I'll definitely visit!

Perfect Puppy in 7 Days: How to Start Your Puppy Off Right by Sophia Yin | Book Review

(How could you resist buying a book whose title promises a perfect puppy in 7 days, and has such a cutie on the cover?)

The hubby brought this book home from the vet and put it right into my hands.  I was skeptical.  A perfect puppy in 7 days?  Sounded way too good to be true.

Turns out a perfect puppy in 7 days isn't unattainable!  My puppy isn't perfect, but we've only been following the plan for 2 days.  And I'm going to give the hubby and myself a little leeway; we both work full-time, so we can't "train" for a full 16 hours a day like the author of the book did with her puppy.  But on the very first day, my puppy mastered the first training step, which is teaching him to "sit to say please."  This means that every time he wants anything, he needs to sit near my feet and make eye contact.  I reward him for doing this with either a treat & praise, affection & praise, or granting him the thing that he wants.  After I'm sure he's 100% on this, I'll only need to grant him the thing that he wants.  We even had my family over tonight, so there were new people (distractions) and he still remembered to sit to say please when he wanted affection or to be on a chair or lap.  My folks were quite impressed!

I also love how many photos were in this book.  The cover blurb does not lie:  there really must be 400+ photos in there!  That reassured me that I was following the instructions correctly.  It was also really reassuring to see photos of dogs who were frightened/anxious versus just whiny.  That helped me to better read my puppy's reactions to things and know whether he was really scared or just whiny.

Personally, the best part of this book is that the training is broken down into many small steps, so that I can feel a good sense of accomplishment along the way and not get frustrated.

I'm just astounded at how much I learned about puppy development in such a short and sweet book, and that my puppy was able to learn some "manners" already!  We're on the road to a perfect puppy, thanks to Dr. Yin!

*The hubby purchased our copy of Perfect Puppy in 7 Days, and I'm glad he did!