No Easy Day

This book was downright good. I knew of this book as the Bin Laden book, but man was this so much more. This book follows "Mark Owen" throughout his career as a Navy Seal. It shows his entry into DEVGRU the elite Seal unit trusted with only the most important missions. It was really interesting to hear about his training and what he struggled with. What it was like in the new unit. How important it was to him. It also takes you from mission to mission that he performed over his time as a seal, including the Captain Phillips mission and the Osama Bin Laden mission. To hear all of the planning of the mission and then how it actually went down was so interesting. I came away from this book with the utmost respect for Navy Seals. It doesn't seem like there are many people more badass than the DEVGRU team.

Every Day

Wow, this book was not good! Also part of the Amazon 2012 collection, this is a young adult novel (part of the reason it is not good) that follows a teen boy who wakes up in a new body every day. Crazy right? Obviously, he falls in love with someone and spends the rest of his days trying to meet her again and fall in love again. Pretty tricky to do when he wakes up as different boys or girls each day. It's filled with teen melodrama and was pretty lame. Apparently he is writing a sequel from the point of view of the love interest, yuck!

Live by Night

When I was downloading Gone Girl, I accidentally also downloaded Amazon's entire list of top books of 2012. Live by Night was on this list, and I had read Dennis Lehane before (Shutter Island) and liked it, so I decided to read this next. It was very very different! Apparently this is the second book following Joe Coughlin, but it was the first I read... so there! This book starts in Boston in the 1920s travels to Miami and then ends in Cuba. It's the story of a petty thief who turns into outright outlaw (but a smart one). I would highly recommend this book. Joe Coughlin is an interesting character to follow and he sure gets into some fun situations. It reminds me of Boardwalk Empire, and I think that's fun.

Gone Girl

Well wasn't this book a doozy! I had heard that this book was popular but I also knew nothing about it. Turns out it was the story of Nick and Amy. Then Amy disappears. Dun dun dun. Plot twists and turns ensue to a surprising twist and then a lackluster ending. Seriously, I think I read like four books in a row with really bad endings. Stupid writers.

Anywho, this book was a real quick read. I enjoyed it the entire time up until it ended. I read this in Hawaii and I was telling Steve about it and we were fake casting who would play the charming country boy (Ryan Gosling) and wealthy city girl (Blake Lively). Turns out it already is going to be a movie with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. (Who?) Ben Affleck is a fun casting call though.

I'll leave it to you to read the book and not spoil any of the fun!

Revenge Wears Prada

Here is a great example of a mindless easy lady read - the sequel to Devil Wears Prada. As you may remember from that book and movie, Meryl Streep tortured poor Anne Hathaway until she quit. Her life was hers again but she lost her boyfriend through that crazy job. Revenge Wears Prada picks up with Andy who has a new and great life. She and her former nemesis (Emily Blunt) reconnected over their Miranda hatred and started a wedding magazine which gained success. Andy is marrying Max, a finance dude from a rich New York family. HOWEVER, her world comes crashing down when Miranda comes back into her life along with her former love interest, Alex. Turns out Miranda still sucks and the ending is just picture perfect with Andy getting divorced and rekindling her relationship with Alex. Real lame book, real lame.

And the Mountains Echoed

I was a huge fan Khaled Hosseini's two most popular previous books, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. They were captivating stories that were very well written. However, this book just didn't do it for me. It took me a large portion of the book to become invested in the story, and then when I was really interested, the book ended.

The most interesting part of this book was the structure though. Each chapter followed a particular character. The next chapter would follow a character that was just introduced in the previous chapter, and of course, all of the chapters were all connected in some way. There was: a father, his son and his daughter, their stepmother, her brother, his boss, the boss' wife, and then three other characters who were introduced into a more modern day Afghanistan. Really fun structure, but unfortunately the beginning parts were too boring and I didn't have anything invested in them yet emotionally.

Where We Belong

Where We Belong is written by Emily Griffin. She writes lady books that focus around lady drama and man problems. They lack substance but are generally entertaining and quick reads. They made a movie out of one of her first books, Something Borrowed. I remember liking this book a lot but I couldn’t recall one plot point which speaks to the type of book it was.

After a quick little refresher I can confirm that this book is about a successful television producer whose daughter that she put up for adoption came back into her life. They face problems but grow together and individually. Very inspiring stuff here!

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

This book was weird. I’m not sure if I liked it or was every really completely engrossed in it.

Bee: Main character and daughter

Bernadette: Mother, infamous architect, now crazy

Elgin: Father, rich CEO of tech company

Spoilers ensue! Bernadette moved her entire family to Seattle after some sort of fall out in the architecture world. She bought an old leaky gigantic home which she intends to renovate but never does so they mostly live in squalor. Bernadette asks for everything from Manjula, her Indian virtual assistant who we later find to be a gigantic scam artist. Bee goes to a private school where she doesn’t quite fit in and neither does her mother which later leads to a large problem involving blackberries that leads Bernadette to go missing. Turns out Bernadette was in Antarctica.

This book was very funny and had a very scattered organization. Some parts were from Bee’s view or Bernadette’s or an email from Bernadette to Manjula or an FBI agent. It was easy to read but at some points lead to me not connecting with the story. It took me too long to get invested in the book and by that time it was almost over.

Iron Man 2

I like the Iron Man movies. They have the makings of a Marissa classic:

- Over-the-top action? Check.

- Unrealistic plot? Check.

- Humor? Check.

So yea I liked it. My favorite over-the-top plot point: Tony Stark creating an element. My least favorite plot point: Pepper Potts. 

I Love You, Man

Last year for Christmas (real behind here!), Steve got me a pack of Paul Rudd movies because I love Paul Rudd (and Steve). So I Love You man is about Paul Rudd (Peter) and how he can’t make guy friends. So he meets Jason Segel (Sydney) and begins a budding relationship. Jason Segel is a ridiculous character. He really likes Rush, and is an “investor” which I’m not actually sure about. He messes up something for Peter and uses a loan to buy some ridiculous billboards to help Peter. But Peter gets all angry and is all like we can’t be friends anymore. Both turn out to be very saddened by this but do not rekindle their friendship. UNTIL! Peter’s wedding where Sydney shows up as his best man. How nice!

I would give this movie a 5 out of 10. Fairly average in terms of comedies. Not overly funny but not incredibly stupid. Would I watch it again if it were on TV? Questionable.