Another book down

Still not finished with Catherine de'Medici. I'm working on it though. Today I was reorganizing the bookshelf in our living room and deciding which books I could sell. I found a James Patterson book, an author I never read. So I decided to give up my snob mentality and read this book.

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Paterson.

I was so not impressed. The writing was juvenile at best. Also the author kept placing celebrity names and the names of "current" events which really makes the book seem dated. The story line could have worked but it was so predictable that only 2 chapters in I knew what was going to happen and I was correct. The author was also writing from two female perspectives and he obviously didn't know how to write with the voice of a woman. From what I understand this book came about from the death of his first wife and I have sympathy for that, but I just didn't like this book. The only reason I read the whole thing is because I feel bad about rejecting a book I didn't finish. If you do want to read this "story" please get it from the library and don't buy this. I still have no idea how it found its way to my bookshelf, but by Friday it will be leaving the house.

Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last update life sometimes gets in the way of things.

I haven't finished the Catherine de'Medici biography yet. But I did read two other books while I was working on it.

The first was:

Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives, compiled by: Frank Warren.
You can find it at bn.com or postsecretcommunity.com

This was another inspiring collection of secrets. Frank Warren does an excellent job of placing each secret in the right space in order to give it the most impact. I recommend that everyone read one if not all his compilations.

The second was:

Great Feuds in History: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever, by Colin Evans
You can find it at bn.com or your local library.

Bet your history teacher didn't tell you about some of these historical brawls. This is a great book for history lovers as well as those looking for an exciting read about world players duking it out. Evans does a great job giving a brief over view of the "players" and then goes right into why they hate each other and what they did to attempt to ruin each other. Evans tries to not to play favorites but it does come out a little in the chapter involving Wallis Simpson and the Queen Mother. He also makes these historical figures into the real people they were. They all had their jealous streaks, anger issues, infidelities, etc. . . Essentially they were real people like us, but they could carry on a grudge to the highest levels of immaturity.