Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Books I've been reading

So another one of my 2013 resolutions was to read more. I've always loved to read but I've been putting books aside since having kids.

Thanks to my friend Robyn who inspired me to join Goodreads, I've been reading a lot more these past few months. My goal was to read 12 books this year. I figured a book a month was doable. Well I'm happy to say I'm now at 6 books, so I'm halfway there!

Here are the ones I've read:

1. GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
What a great way to start the challenge! The novel tells the story of a couple, Nick and Amy, who each tell their side of the story (one chapter is Nick, the next is Amy and so on). As you can guess by the title, Amy disappears and Nick quickly becomes the suspect. Did he or didn't he? The book is a real page turner, I couldn't put it down! I gave it five stars out of five.

2. LIFE OF PI, by Yann Martel
(Ok I totally wrote Yarn Martel at first!) I had been wanting to read this book for a while and it was the book of the month in one of the groups I'm in on Goodreads. It's very very different from Gone Girl, unsurprisingly. Not as much of a page turner, not as much action. It moved a bit too slowly for my tastes and I was gonna give it three stars until I got to the end. Oh how I loved the end, it was totally unexpected for me. So I give it four stars.

3. DIVERGENT, by Veronica Roth
It's not a secret, I love Young adult novels, especially dystopian ones and that one was gooood! The story is about Beatrice Prior, aka Tris, who lives in a society divided in five factions that each honor a particular virtue. At 16, each teenager must choose in which faction they want to spend the rest of their lives. Born in Abnegation (the selfless), Tris must choose between staying in her faction with her family or listening to her heart and go with the Dauntless (the brave). I loved the story and the world the author built. I can't wait for the movie to come out! Five stars.

4. INSURGENT, by Veronica Roth
Surprise, surprise, I went for the sequel next. I loved it just as much as the first and I'm now very impatient for the end of the trilogy to come out in the Fall! Five stars.

5. MATCHED, by Ally Condie
Another Young adult dystopian novel! Cassia lives in a world where everything is decided by the Society. From the clothes you wear to the food you eat to the work you do. And if you want to marry, the Society will find a match for you. Cassia is happy to live this way and even happier to finally be old enough to be matched... That is, until she receives two matches instead of one. This book was ok. The Society concept is interesting even though it's not that original. But I'm getting tired of love triangles in most young adult books and this one was the main focus f the story so meh. I will probably still read the next two, but I'm in no rush. Three stars.

6. PAS: CHRONIQUES ET RÉCITS D'UN COUREUR, by Yves Boisvert
This one is in French, obviously. Simply put, they are stories about running, told by a runner. As someone who is currently trying to learn how to run, I found it very interesting and it motivated me even more to try and get better at it. Five stars.

That's it. I started The Host, by Stephenie Meyer, so I'll hopefully post about it soonish!

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Hello, world, I'm running!

So one of my New Year resolution was to lose weight and train for a 5K.

Well I'm proud to say that I'm doing both!

I've lost 16ish pounds since January. I'm very happy about that, even though I still have a lot to lose. I'm in no rush to lose it all since I've given myself until summer 2014 to lose 70 pounds. I'll get there.

I've also started the Couch to 5k program, which, if you couldn't guess, has you go from couch potato to running a 5k in 9 weeks. I'm currently on week 2 and it's going well. I got myself some brand new running shoes and I'm enjoying the workouts. I have to run with the baby in the jogging stroller during the week, which is much harder, but then I find my weekend stroller-free runs so much easier!

On top of the 5k during the Montreal marathon, I've also signed up for the Color Run in August (if you don't know what it is, look it up on YouTube). It looks like tons of fun!