There's nothin' like a good deal!

I've decided that since this is my second post about books, that I am a nerd. I'm OK with that. & I'm super excited to share the good deal I landed today! So anyone who knows me knows that I will never give into a kindle or any other type of reading device. I have my reasons and in case you're interested, I'll name a few. 

1. A kindle doesn't compare to holding an actual book in your hands and flipping the pages.

2. You can't have a bookshelf or library which I will definitely have in my house one day. 

3. The "environmentally friendly" approach is stupid. The books are printed regardless of if you buy one or not. You aren't saving the world, one book at a time. I used to believe this, but now it's pointless to me, because its unrealistic. I've never been to a bookstore that didn't already have at least three copies of the book I was buying. 

The downside of me being so anti-kindle (or any other electronic reader) is that books are expensive. And by expensive, I mean ridiculous. That's why today was such a cool day for me! I went to mass with my parents and before hand there was a book fair going on. Guess who scored FIVE books? Me! Guess who got FIVE books for TWO dollars total? Me! How amazing is that? Not only does the money go to the church, but I paid two dollars for what would have cost about 100. Here's what I got:

"Addie Downs and Valerie Adler were best friends until the swirling currents of adolescence swept them into different cliques. Fifteen years later, Valerie (a beautiful TV weather girl) and Addie (a plain Jane seeking love on the Internet) are leading very separate lives, but fate soon thrusts them together once again. When a hysterical Valerie shows up on Addie's doorstep with blood on her clothes, it marks the beginning of a hilarious set of adventures that will bring the two friends closer together as they try to keep their distance from the law."

"In this powerful and riveting novel, literary phenomenon Christos Tsiolkas unflinchingly exposes the inner- workings of domestic life, friendship and parenthood in the twenty-first century, and reminds us of the passions and malice that family loyalty can provoke. When a man slaps another couple’s child at a neighborhood barbecue, the event send unforeseeable shockwaves through the lives of all who are witness to it. Told from the points of view of eight people who were present, The Slap shows how a single action can change the way people think about how they live, what they want, and what they believe forever."

"Simon and Emily Bear look like a couple that has it all. Simon is a respected doctor. His wife, Emily, shines as a partner in a premier public relations firm. But their marriage is scarred by hidden wounds. Even as Simon tends his patients' ills, and Emily spins away her clients' mistakes, they can't seem to do the same for themselves or their relationship. Simon becomes convinced he's discovered a cure for chronic pain, a finding that could become a medical breakthrough, yet he is oblivious to the pain that he causes at home. Emily, struggling to move beyond the devastating loss she and Simon suffered fifteen years earlier, realizes she hasn't felt anything for a long time-that is, until a lover from her past resurfaces and forces her to examine her marriage anew."

"Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can’t recall. And when a policemen arrives to disclose a truth that will upend the world as she knows it, Delia must search through these memories – even when they have the potential to devastate her life, and the lives of those she loves most. Vanishing Acts is a book about the nature and power of memory; about what happens when the past we have been running from catches up to us… and what happens when the memory we thought had vanished returns as a threat."

"Self-awareness is a slippery thing, though, when you find yourself at odds with a "supposed to" in life. I understand that I am supposed to want to marry Andrew. That some women wait their whole lives to stand before a bended knee, or fantasize about a sparkly stone that silently announces to the world, see someone loves me, someone picked me. But I can't do it. I would be nothing more than a fraud, a pretend grown-up, a con artist playing the role of bride, I don't even want to spend the rest of my life with me. How can Andrew? And how do you explain to someone you love that you can't give yourself to them because if you did, you're not sure who you'd be giving? That you aren't even sure what your own words are worth? You can't tell someone that, especially someone you love. And so I don't. Instead, I do the right thing. I lie."