Thursday, December 14, 2006

Another Wonderful Christmas Story!

I didn't think I would be posting a second review today but this book was too difficult to put down. :) The book is Christmas on Conrad Street by Marcia Evanick.

Sidney Fletcher is happy in her life and with her boyfriend Richard, but when she comes home to find him in a compromising situation she decides to give up on men. She moves to Misty Harbor in Maine where her sister Gwen lives with her husband. Sidney makes the decision to pick up the practice that is already there. The hunky Erick Olsen is originally from Norway and Sidney finds him attractive but doesn’t want to pursue it. One night, on the way home from shopping, she barely stops in time from hitting an elderly man. It turns out that it is Hans Bergersen, Erik’s grandfather. Sidney gets him home safely but it all seems to go downhill from there. Erik asks her for her help but she is not sure what to do about the situation or Erik. He says he’ll pay her back with a traditional Norwegian Christmas. As the time approaches, Sidney must decide if she is ready to fall in love again and possibly give her heart away for good?

This is the first book I have read by Marcia Evanick and I am looking forward to reading more of her books cause there are quite a few. She is an amazing writer who writes very strong women. That is one of the things I enjoyed most about her characters. They were strong women. Yes, there were weaknesses in all of them, but that is true to life cause no one is perfect. The story never seemed jumpy and I always understood her. The one thing I didn’t know was the Norwegian. But then it was always explained to the reader. I really enjoyed that the most of anything because I have Norwegian descent.

The characters were incredible. I loved hearing about Norway and their traditions because I was never taught much of anything. My favorite character was Sidney cause I could relate to her in so many ways with the doubts and all the stuff she had to go through. I also liked Hans, the grandfather. He reminded me of my grandfather Merlin. Both very stubborn men but knew when to give in at some point. I loved seeing how the characters interacted and all the surprises that came along the way.

This is a book I would highly recommend and unlike me make sure to read the book Catch of the Day first. That is the first in the series which I didn’t know about cause I found this book by doing a search on Christmas books on my local library’s website. It was a good book to stumble across. I give this book a 6/5. This was an enjoyable Christmas book!

Now onto starting another book before a friend of mine stops over. I will be reading Little Children by Tom Perotta.

An Interesting Book

I just recently finished this book Controversy Creates Cash. Here is my review:


In my humble opinion, Eric Bischoff was pretty gutsy for writing this book. I learned a lot about wrestling and Bischoff’s time with all the different wrestling companies starting with AWA to WWE. He tried a lot of different ideas, worked with a lot of famous people, and should have given up on WCW long before he did. He even said that himself about WCW. Now having all that said, a lot of the problems with WCW were NOT his fault. The powers that be at Time Warner AOL were sticks in the mud and what WCW was doing didn’t fit their ideas of what they wanted to be or do. So one can only do their best in that type of situation. I was impressed with how humble Bischoff could be at times though sometimes he came off quite self-assured which is not always bad.

One thing that I found so amazing was how well grouped things were in the book. Now that was partially to the help of Jeremy Roberts. There was a lot of points to cover and I was pleased that Eric didn’t try to do it all on his own. I’m not saying he couldn’t have done it but having the help made it a better book and easier to follow. He never really ripped on anyone but he always gave his opinion and made sure to state it as such. The second thing I enjoyed was that even though it was his opinion he often said that the other person involved saw it differently and would tell it as such. He was sure not to say that they were wrong but that they just were at differences about it. That is not easy to do or admit and that just took a lot of guts! The final thing I enjoyed was all the unique stories he had to tell and how much he really did name drop. I loved hearing about Chris Benoit and Randy Savage. Some of the wrestlers I never knew about their hey day so that was nice to read. I got a good education about how things can run and go well as well as how things can run and not go well. That’s life! I didn’t really care for all the finger pointing but that is going to happen from time to time no matter what you do.

I loved how Eric told how he started in the business and up to present day. I didn’t know much about how things were run. The thing that was really nice is that he made sure to explain all the business terms. Since I know very little about that industry, it really helped me out with understanding the point he was getting across to most people who knew what he was talking about.

If you are a wrestling fan, I would say go check this book out from the library. I did that. Now having said that, the pictures alone in the book would make it worth owning. But I just don’t have the money to buy all the books I would like nor do I have the space. I learned a lot about wrestling and it opened my eyes a lot. This is a book that is worth reading if you are interested in this type of thing. If not, don’t worry you’re not missing much. I enjoyed it and maybe down the road some day I can buy it and own it myself. It was an eye opening experience and I won't soon forget it.

Now onto another Christmas book, Christmas on Conrad Street by Marcia Evanick.