So This Is Love...

Once upon a time...

That's how all the best love stories begin, so of course that is how I will begin my story today.

Once upon a time there was a girl who worked at a coffee shop. One day several years ago a boy walked into the coffee shop to use the free wifi and drink some espresso. After several visits to the coffee shop the girl and the boy struck up some casual conversation. She learned that he worked for the local newspaper and that they had a mutual love for travel. She soon found that she was looking forward to his visits to the coffee shop. One day the two shared stories about some upcoming trips they each had. Hers to the Baltic sea for a family vacation, his to Europe for a whirlwind two month adventure.

What the girl didn't know was that the boy had quit his job in her small town and when he returned from his adventure, he moved two towns away.

More than a year went by, life moved along.

Until Wednesday December 14, 2011 in that very same coffee shop the girl happened to be working an unusual night shift closing up.

At about half-past-five the boy walked back into the coffee shop. (He was passing time before he was to meet at a friend's house for a fried chicken dinner.) The girl greeted him and after he had ordered a bottle of grape soda they began remembering each other. They chatted for a bit before the boy took a seat near the window.

When closing time grew near, the boy returned to the cash register to buy a few more grape sodas for the road. The girl remarked, "Those things will turn you purple." Then the boy asked her if she wanted to get dinner sometime, she replied yes and the boy wrote down his number on a yellow sticky-note.

The next day the girl called him from the back of the coffee shop and they made plans for dinner at Bahn Thai on Friday night.

The boy and the girl have been happily together ever since, traveling the world together.

On March 1, 2014 the girl walked into the coffee shop where she once worked to meet her sister-in-law for coffee before getting a pedicure. When she opened the door she saw her sister-in-law at the end of the counter taking her photo. When the girl looked to her left she saw the boy dressed to the nines. He walked up to the girl, took her hands and told her how much better his life had been since he had walked into the coffee shop that day in December. He told her how much he loved her and got down on his knee and asked her to be his wife.

That's the short version of our love story.

Now what you've all been waiting for.... photos of the proposal AND the ring!

Ten down.

I just finished my tenth book of the year. That is more than half of the amount of books I read in all of 2013. This makes me happy. I feel like I have found a happy place for reading. After forcing myself to read like a madwoman in 2010 I haven't really been in the reading zone since. I still managed to read more than a lot of people would in the past three years, but I wasn't getting the same joy from reading.

Maybe that had something to do with not reaching my goal of 100 books during the first year of my blog.

Maybe I am just now getting over that.

I have a favorite quote from a Nike ad about running that starts off:
"You are in a relationship with running. A love/hate relationship."

Maybe reading is kind of like running for me.

Maybe most of the things I create goals for I have a love/hate relationship with.

When I think of the list I think that must be true; running, reading, blogging, gardening, cleaning, and budgeting.

Some of them have more of a hate/love relationship.

The end of the quote says this:
"A balance between joy and pain, work and play."

So I guess for me, reading like anything does take a little bit of work to get to the joy part. You can't argue that it is easier to watch the movie in 2 hours than take a week to read the book. I also believe that you can't argue that reading the book is much more fulfilling.

So here is the list of books I've read so far in 2014 and as short of a review as I can possibly give!

Little Bee- Chris Cleave
A lot was made of this book's beach scene. I think that the hype around that particular part of the book kinda ruined the entire thing for me. The whole time I was reading just to get to that part. I figured I would be shocked or devastated, but instead it was kind of a let down. Turns out I have seen too many R rated movies to be shocked. Don't get me wrong here, I enjoyed parts of this book, including the change in narration and Little Bee's voice, but it wasn't enough for me to get over the fact that I didn't like rest of the characters. The people who I was supposed to relate to (the british) I found to be awful and unredeemable. During the main conflict on the beach I just wanted to yell at them for being so stupid and selfish. When I went to Africa last Summer I carried with me a sense of how dangerous that continent could be, and I found it difficult to understand how the characters in this book could be so ignorant that they would get themselves into these situations. I understand how you could enjoy this book, Cleave is a talented writer, but I can't recommend a book that made me so frustrated. 

   
Blue Like Jazz- Donald Miller
Billed as "Nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality." I enjoyed this book mostly because of Miller's writing style. Brian and I read this together and he found a quote by Charles Bukowski that describes it best,

"An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist saysa hard thing in a simple way.' 

I think that Miller is an artist and his medium is definitely Christian books. I liked a lot of the ideas in this book and found the story to be very relatable. 

The History of Love- Nicole Krauss
I read this book because I stumbled upon and fell in love with this quote, 

“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.” 

I really liked this book once I got used to reading the vastly different tones of the two narrators. I like Krauss' writing style a lot and found her to be funny and witty. If you've read any of my book reviews in the past, you know how much I like books about books... especially when you can feel how much the author loves books (examples: The Thirteenth Tale, The Book Thief, The Shadow of the Wind). This was a good read!

Icy Sparks- Gwynn Hyman Rubio
Sometimes you pick a book up from your vacation condo and find a real gem. This wasn't necessarily one of those times. I didn't hate reading this book, I just found it to be very odd and unsettling. Also, the ending was too unclear. 

Suite française- Irène Némirovsky
I've had another book by Némirovsky on my shelf for a couple of years. I borrowed this book from my future-sister-in-law and loved it! Sometimes when you read books about WWII while you're on a beach in Hawaii it is difficult to really get into the story, not so with the novel.

Labor Day- Joyce Maynard
Sometimes I read books just because I want to see the movie. It was a quick read best enjoyed on a beach.

The Year of Fog- Michelle Richmond
This is another book that is difficult to say very much about without giving too much away. I knew from reading the back cover that I might have a hard time reading it. Overall, it was compelling and I felt like I had to know how it ended as soon as possible.  

Alana: The First Adventure- Tamora Pierce
This is a young adult book is a reread from when I was actually a young adult... well probably more like pre-teen. It had big font and was easy to read. I remember LOVING these books the first time around. Strong female character who goes against gender roles to become a knight? That's what every 12 year old girl wants right? I remember there was more of a love story, but maybe that comes in the later books. I still enjoyed this and it's a book I'd give to my future daughter to read.

South of Broad- Pat Conroy 
This is one of those epic multi-part books. I enjoyed a lot of this book, but not all of it. It had a few too many twists and turns for me. It was also very graphic. I prefer books that don't have to try so hard to shock you.

Kisses From Katie- Katie Davis
This is a book I never would have picked up before going to Africa. Her story is very interesting. Imagine just graduating from high school and deciding to move to Africa to adopt a houseful of African girls. Her stories were heartwarming and very honest. I enjoyed this book.