Starting the new year off a little slow....

The plan was to read at least 5 books this month.  I came up one short.  But sooooo close!  Here's what I read:

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo.  This was my book club book.  Very cool reading.  Colton Burpo is not quite four when he undergoes an emergency appendectomy because of a burst appendix (that burst 5 days prior to the surgery).  Months later, he starts saying things to his parents, things that make them wonder what happened to their son on that operating table.  Colton went to heaven.  He saw people who had died before he was born, he met Jesus, he sat in the presence of God.  The things he knew were beyond human understanding, especially a four year old human!  Yet as Todd, Colton's father and  a minister, listened to his son, he realized Colton was explaining Biblical descriptions in a child-like way.  Descriptions that he, even as a minister's son, was too young to understand.  There is no doubt in my mind that Colton went to heaven.  The book was very sweetly written.  And I loved it!

The Piano Teacher by Janice YK Lee.  This is two overlapping stories taking place in Hong Kong.  The first is between Will and Trudy, beginning in 1941.  The second is between Will and Claire in 1952.  In 1941, Japan takes over China.  Will is an Englishman in love with Trudy, a Euro-Chinese beauty.  In 1952, Claire and her husband have moved to Hong Kong from England.  She becomes a piano teacher for a Chinese family and begins an affair with Will, who is now a chauffeur.  Trudy, in an effort to save herself, befriends the Japanese.  And she manages to then lose everything she loves.  Claire, in an effort to find love, begins her affair with Will (a man who is still in love with the long lost Trudy).  And she manages to then find herself.  There is a little intrigue (when is there not when war and money and love are involved?!)  I really enjoyed the book.  At least up until the epilogue.  Which, for some reason, just ruined the ending for me.  It was that one chapter too many....

Destined by PC and Kristin Cast.  I thought I had been reading this series in order.  But oops- my bad.  I skipped one.  So let's backtrack a little, shall we?  It actually did a nice job of filling in some of the blanks that I had form reading them out of order.  Yep, more teen vampire lit.  I enjoy it.  Don't judge.

Female Troubles by Antonya Nelson.  This is my new book club book (yes, I'm in two book clubs now.  As if my nerd status weren't already pretty evident...).  This was a collection of short stories.  I'm still not sure how I felt about them.  Other than wondering how strange the woman who wrote them must be.  The stories are about strange siblings, infidelity, lies, infertility, you name it.  Suffice it to say, this was a strange collection of stories.  Kind of depressing.  And more than a little disturbing. I'm still not sure if I even liked the stories.  I really liked the way they were written, just not sure about the topics.