A Book Review: Gone Girl

I know, I know, I’m late to the party on this one and am probably the millionth person to read and comment on this current best seller, but let me explain.  I’m always sooo hesitant to read anything that’s popular.  I think I’m traumatized after giving in to reading the Lovely Bones, which ended up being the worst book I’ve ever read.  Seriously.  I complained about how bad it was the entire time I read it.

That being said, I actually really liked Gone Girl!

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I didn’t love it but I liked it a lot.  I’m not really sure how to review the book without making this a total spoiler post, but I’ll try.  If you’re like me and shy away from best sellers or you just live under a rock and haven’t heard of Gone Girl I’ll just tell you that it’s a story about a married couple and the chapters alternate between being written by Nick (the husband) and Amy (the wife and the gone girl).  Amy disappears in the opening chapters and the rest of the book details the search for her in true thriller fashion.

The Good:

  • Gillian Flynn is a master at creating her character’s voices.  I thought she did a male character and a female character so well.  Halfway through the book, I realized I didn’t even know the author’s name (I blame the Kindle) and whether or not it was a man or a woman — interesting, huh?
  • The manipulation of the readers perception of the two main characters was a totally unique aspect of the novel and I thought it was executed so well.
  • The plot is compelling and the book reads pretty fast because, as the reader, you are so interested to see what will come next.  And for me, it was never what I had expected.  Being surprised by a book is always fun in my mind.

The Bad:

  • When I got done with this book, I literally said, “What the hell?!”
  • The plot is so not believable.  Not at all.  Which was odd because I felt their was a lot of effort put into making everything but the plot and almost all of the characters seem normal/real life-ish.
  • In the end, I didn’t like either of the main characters.  Sociopaths, cheaters, manipulators and murderers aren’t my cup of tea.

Overall, I would recommend Gone Girl, if for nothing else than to be surprised and shocked by the crazy plot.

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Have you read Gone Girl?

What’s the last book you read?

Do you read a lot of best sellers?

Low Key Weekend Things

Happy Monday, you all.  I hope you had a pleasant weekend.  Mine was pretty low key.  I bet you didn’t see that coming judging from title of the post, right?  On Friday, as we drove home from work, I commented that I was pretty sure my throat wasn’t really sore, it was just really dry.  Then I woke up on Saturday with a definite sore throat and about zero energy.  Hence the low key-ness around here.

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Remember this place??  Even though they were out of both movies we wanted to rent (Anna Karenina and Argo) it was such a trip to be inside a Blockbuster for the first time in years.  It brought back fond memories of trips there with my family when I was younger.  We were there a lot.  We ended up buying Anna Karenina on pay-per-view and I managed to stay awake through 3/4 of it.  I’m a fricken party, people!

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Beer brewing took up a majority of the day on Saturday.  We did manage to take a nice walk outside in the 60-degree weather.  There was so much snow last weekend and this weekend was perfectly beautiful.  That’s Colorado for you.

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Our beer currently looks like this.  It’s a Hefeweizen, which I’m a big fan of so I’m crossing my fingers that it turns out good.  We may or may not have almost forgot to add the malt extract, which is, you know, pretty important in the beer-making process.

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I wanted to go to the free Saturday yoga class, but my lack of energy made me skip yoga for the Great Gatsby (I want to read it before the movie comes out!) and a green smoothie.  Then I took the most awesome nap.  I felt a million times better afterwards.  Naps are the best.  Weekend movie #2 was Adaptation.  How crazy is that movie?!  Fun Fact: the main character’s identical twin brother is the only fictional person to be nominated for an Oscar.

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Sunday involved outdoor running, a trip to the mall –I took my sunglasses to be adjusted and it literally took them 30 minutes to get them “just right” — and new candle purchases.  Spring scents are out and that plus the warm weather this weekend has me totally craving spring.  It’s just around the corner, right?

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I also did some healthy food prep for the workweek.  There’s chopped veggies galore, homemade hummus, hardboiled eggs and Baked Oatmeal Snack Bars all packaged up and ready to go!  I find chopping and baking extremely cathartic and if I had the time and motivation to do something like this every weekend, I totally would.  After all that healthy-ness, it was time for burgers.

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Look, Joey and I already broke our “no eating out” rule only 3 days into the challenge.  To be fair, we planned on letting the rule slide for this special occasion.  Since my parents couldn’t make it to my nephew’s birthday party last weekend, they took us all out to Red Robin for burgers, bottomless fries, balloons that kept ending up on the ceiling and presents.  I multi-tasked with a baby in one hand and a burger in the other.

Here’s to as fast week — I’m headed to Arizona on Friday!

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Are you a beer drinker?  What’s your favorite kind?

Are you a napper?

Are you as excited for spring as I am?