52 Weeks....to the Real Me

Summaries are from the back of the books and is copywrited by the respective authors.


"Ransom My Heart" by Meg Cabot & Mia Thermopolis

He’s a tall, handsome knight with a secret. She’s an adventurous beauty with more than a few secrets of her own.
Finnula Crais needs money for her sister’s dowry, and fast. Handsome Hugo Fitzstephen, Earl of Stephensgate, returning home to England from the Crusades, has money–saddlebags of gold and jewels–and lots of it. What could be simpler than to kidnap him and hold him for ransom? Especially when he’s more than willing to allow himself to be caught by such a winsome captor.
Well, for starters, Finnula could make the terrible mistake of falling in love with her hostage, only to realize he’s been lying about his identity all along ….But then, so has she.
Now their lives—and the lives of everyone they know and love—could be in mortal danger.
Is Finnula in hell? Or is she in heaven?

"She Went All The Way" by Meg Cabot (re-read)

There are a few places screenwriter Lou Calabrese would rather be than crammed into a helicopter with Jack Townsend, star of her claim to fame, Copkiller, and whose ex just ran off with Lou's ex. Talk about uncomfortable. But when, halfway out to the isolated arctic location where Copkiller IV is currently shooting, their pilot turns murderous and their helicopter crashes, Lou realizes her day has just gotten a lot worse.

Now, while family and friends back home fret over her disappearance, Lou is on the run in the arctic wilderness with America's sweetheart Jack Townsend and only the contents of her purse, his pockets, and their mutual knowledge of survival movie trivia to keep them alive. Can these two children of Hollywood put aside their differences and make it back home without killing each other? Or much, much worse, actually start to like one another?

"Jemima J" by Jane Green (re-read)
Jemima Jones is overweight. About one hundred pounds overweight. Treated like a maid by her thin and social-climbing roommates, and lorded over by the beautiful Geraldine (less talented but better paid) at the Kilburn Herald, Jemima finds that her only consolation is food. Add to this her passion for her charming, sexy, and unobtainable colleague Ben, and Jemima knows her life is in need of a serious change. When she meets Brad, an eligible California hunk, over the Internet, she has the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself–as JJ, the slim, beautiful, gym-obsessed glamour girl. But when her long-distance Romeo demands that they meet, she must conquer her food addiction to become the bone-thin model of her e-mails–no small feat.

"Sole Sisters" by Jennifer Lin & Susan Warner
Sole Sisters: Stories of Women and Running is a gripping collection of stories that captures the inspirational heart of the women's running. Authors Jennifer Lin and Susan Warner have interviewed women of all ages from all walks of life and all parts of the country. All of their subjects have one thing in common: Running has transformed them. There are both heartrending stories of grief and survival and lighthearted tales of friendship.


"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

"New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer

For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning...


"Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer

The third episode of Meyer’s vampire-romance series finds heroine Bella Swan anxious to become a vampire and live forever with handsome vampire Edward. Obstacles arise when Edward demands marriage and werewolf Jacob declares his love for Bella. Eventually, the Cullen vampires and the Quileute werewolves unite to face off against a pack of uncontrollable vampires seeking revenge on Bella.

"Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer

When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?

To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hangs.

Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life-first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse-seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed... forever?

"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch
The Last Lecture Website
Watch the Video

Wow. Great. Inspirational book. If you haven't read it -- you must. I need to watch the lecture yet, but it's an easy read -- have some tissues handy.

From "The Last Lecture.com":

On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.

Randy’s lecture has become a phenomenon, as has the book he wrote based on the same principles, celebrating the dreams we all strive to make realities. Sadly, Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008, but his legacy will continue to inspire us all, for generations to come.

"Beginner's Greek" by James Collins

*I don't recommend this book* I didn't like it. I had to finish it, but I found that I skimmed a lot. I think he needs a better editor. I understand that he wanted to give us the background of EVERYONE but much of it was unnecessary to get the idea. There was too much background on minor characters and actually very little interaction amongst the main characters. It kept flipping to the past -- it reminded me of Paula Abdul's song... one step forward and two steps back.... everytime we progressed we were then sent back -- sometimes 10 years into the past. This 441 page book could have been successful in about 200 pages. It's bad when you can skim several pages and not "lose" anything from the book.