Book Review: Labor Day

See, I read the books I buy too.  🙂

First, bear with me for some ramblings.

1.  My new favorite cereal recently:

Quaker Oatmeal Squares was recently on sale at Target, so I gave it a whirl.  It’s sort of like if Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Cracklin’ Oat Bran got married and had a baby.  It would be Quaker Oatmeal Squares.  🙂

2.  I love to bake a lot more than cooking.  But I don’t really like Top Chef Just Desserts.  I LOVE regular Top Chef though.  You’d think it be different.  Pastry chefs on Top Chef Just Desserts seem whiny.  Chefs on Top Chef are bad ass.  Anyone else on board with my opinion??

3.  One thing that I just HAD to do today:  break out my fall decorations!!

I have more Halloween decorations that it’s too soon to bring out.  I love those decorations that are dual purpose too.

Fall pumpkin:

And I’ll turn it around on October 1st to be a Halloween pumpkin:

I also just got these owl candles at Target tonight.  $5!!

I know one blogger that may want to head to Target for the owl candles!

4.  I tried CherryBerry for the first time tonight.

Self-serve yogurt bars are EVERYWHERE now it seems.  Not that I’m complaining.  🙂  In the Wichita area, we have CherryBerry, Orange Leaf, Peachwave, and Yogurt Xplosion.

What I loved about CherryBerry is the dry topping are kept in these containers with turn knobs to dispense them.  It was a lot cleaner than just having the toppings out in bowls with spoons.

I was hoping that CherryBerry has some fall flavors out already, but it was more generic flavors.  I got some banana frozen yogurt and cheesecake frozen yogurt.  I topped it with graham crackers, coconut, and some peanuts.  The banana flavor was great!  The cheesecake was not the best.

I still like Peachwave the BEST!!!  This summer I used to get the pineapple frozen yogurt and raspberry frozen yogurt from Peachwave.  It was so great for the hot weather.  AND after looking at Peachwave’s website, they have pumpkin pie frozen yogurt out already.  Methinks I’ll have to check that out soon.

5.  Since I broke out the fall decor, it was only fitting to also break out my SNUGGIE!!  The snuggie is perfect for keep my hands free to blog on the couch.  😉

Book Review

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

source

I read Labor Day over Labor Day weekend too.  I’m a nerd like that.  Actually I specifically choose it knowing that our book club group would be meeting the day after Labor Day.

Labor Day is the story of Henry, his mom Adele, and a stranger named Frank who comes into their life over Labor Day weekend.  Henry is 13 years old and going through figuring out how to grow into a man while still processing the divorce of his parents.  Adele has emotional issues and prefers to live as a virtual shut-in.

One day, Henry and Adele have to go to the store to get Henry new school supplies as school will be starting after Labor Day.  At the store, Henry meets Frank.  Frank is clearly in distress and asks Henry if his mom would give him a ride to their house to let him clean up and rest a bit.  Surprisingly, (or not so surprisingly after you get to know Adele more) she agrees to bring Frank into their home.

You’ll have to read the book to learn more!!

I really liked this book!!!!  It dives more into the past of Frank and Adele so you understand how they both came to be in their current circumstances.  I could see the ending of the book going several ways.  I’m happy to say that I did not guess the ending, but was pleased with it.

Also, this book is already being made into a movie!!!  Yay!  🙂  I knew that it was going to be a movie, but I didn’t know the cast.  I just looked and Kate Winslet will play Adele and Josh Brolin with play Frank.  GREAT CASTING!!!  Since I knew it would be a movie, I kept picturing Kate as Adele when I read it!!!  And I’m a big Josh Brolin fan too.  Can’t wait for the movie!

Now, go read the book, guys!  And get yourselves from froyo!  🙂

Labor Day:  4.75 stars out of 5