Jonathan Tropper: One of the Greats

Jonathan Trooper is an amazing author who knows how to hit and stun you with emotion. His novels are the greatest depictions of every day life I've ever read. He manages to be incredibly heart wrenching while still being able to make you laugh. It's truly a treat reading his novels.

This list is not in the order I read them. Enjoy the pictures!



This Is Where I Leave You: Favorite. Wonderful, artful and skillful blend of comedy and tragedy.

Plan B: Tropper's first novel and my second favorite. I always can identify with the main characters, but in Plan B I identified on a whole bunch of different, deeper levels.

How to Talk to a Widower: Haunting and hilariously how real and true to life it was.


One Last Thing Before I Go: My least favorite

The Book of Joe: The most emotional Tropper novel in the group. I felt it all while reading The Book of Joe.

Everything Changes: Surprising and in a three way tie with How to Talk to a Widower and Plan B as my second favorite Tropper novel.



                      


I recommend you read all of Jonathan Tropper's novels! They're brilliant and he's amazing!

Thank You for keeping me entertained, Jonathan Tropper.

Reading List!: September 2015

September is all about from print to screen. 

Looking Forward...

And just as quickly life can surprise you, it can and will surprise you again. But this time maybe not in the way you planned.

You may have noticed I took another unscheduled, unannounced, unforeseen, unexpected hiatus. To give a simple explanation, without going into too many details of my personal life, the Universe had some different plans for me than I had for myself. So I needed some time to regroup and recover. This summer has been refreshing and lazy. Just exactly the break I needed after four hardworking years in college. Now summer's over and I've taken the time I so desperately needed and I'm ready to come back. I have a lot of time now to read and write new fresh posts for you and I plan on doing that. I really do. I've already requested a bunch of books from my local library. I should be picking them up as soon as Monday! I can't wait to read them, they're some very exciting picks. You'll have to wait until I do a reading list for September to see my picks. But worry not! That post is queued up and ready to post within the first week of September.

In the future, when I feel I need to take another break or if something happens where I'm forced to take a break, I'm going to be more conscious of warning you first. I feel I owe that to you. You've read my blog maybe for a some years now. Maybe you like it and are disappointed when I abruptly don't post for several months in a row. I feel the same way about blogs I follow. But we're only human, right? Sometimes things don't go according to plan. If I pull another hiatus without notice, I'm sorry in advance. I hope you'll enjoy my old posts or be reading a book most compelling to distract you from my absence. I'll also try to have scheduled posts to keep you satiated in my absence.

Meanwhile, get ready for a new month of new posts! I'm working on giving myself a schedule. Maybe starting at posting twice a month then working my way back to posting once a week like I did in 2013.

Have any recommendations for me? Send them to me at pulledfromthebookshelf@gmail.com

P.S.: How do you like the new look? I figured a change on here would be good.

Welcome to Wayward Pines

Wayward Pines: The Series Review

Population: YOU 

Reading List!: MAY 2015

Welcome to my first reading list post of the new year! I don't have much on my list. I'm not sure what I want to read anymore. I'm really into series at the moment and keep finishing them faster than I can find a new one. May is half over so by the time I posted this, I've finished The Last Town.  Two weeks ago I was browsing Barnes & Noble and discovered that Chuck Palahniuk published a new book last year. I immediately knew I had to read it. I'm even more excited to read it than I am to finish the Wayward Pines series. Last week I missed my chance to pick up Beautiful You from the library so I had to re-request. Now I'm waiting for it to be ready. In the meantime, I'm finally going to finish The Defining Decade. This is the second time I've checked this book out and I've had it since the middle of March. And I picked up another David Sedaris book on a whim. It was there, it's on my To Read List so I checked it out. His collection of essays/short story novels always give me and laugh and make me feel better. 

The Last Town by Blake Crouch 

Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk 

The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

What's on your reading list?

Stay tuned for more exciting, colorful, picture filled posts! 

A New Chapter

I HAVE RETURNED 

It's no big secret I've been MIA for almost six months. I have a grocery list of reasons for my absence, the number one being I've been working very hard on my thesis. I honestly just found time to start my reading habit again. And also, if I can continue to be candid, I did enjoy the time away I had from this blog. Over the three years I've had this blog, I may not have posted a lot, but I've written a ton in those posts. It takes energy and positive vibes to create content I'm happy with and want to share. I never want this blog to be work and I never want to publish subpar posts. Everyone needs a break now and then, so forgive me in advance if I take another loooooong break.

In other most excellent news, I FINALLY got my hands on Blake Crouch's Wayward Pines series! Feels like I've been wanting to read this series for a year. At the end of 2014, I couldn't even request the book from my local library and I thought all hope was lost. But I was blessed the day I got an email about Pines being ready for me to pick up and nearly a week later, I finished it and had the second novel in the series, Wayward, in my eager hands. To say I thoroughly enjoyed Pines is an understatement, but I did! I've only read three books so far this year, one of which I did not enjoy at all and one I liked a lot. But Pines was the change in the game! I'm thinking about reviewing the series; maybe a quick post including all three of them. If I decide to do that, I'm not sure when it will come out because the final book is taking forever to come to my library. I fear I may not finish the whole series before May 14th, when the "Ten episode event" on Fox premieres. I am VERY curious to see what the writers and producers decided to do for the series. Will they burn through the first novel, Pines, like HBO did with The Leftovers? Or will all ten episodes include elements from all three books? That's why I want to finish the series before May 14th. Sidenote: I love adaptations because it's a combination of both my favorite storytelling mediums, novels and films/TV shows.

Anyway, I don't want this Return of the Jedi post to turn into me fangirling over Wayward Pines. I will save that for my review post, whenever it gets published.  The last I will mention about Wayward Pines is that I'm currently rapidly reading Wayward, the second novel in the three novel series. Although I'm sure I already mentioned that in the previous paragraph. I just wanted to say it again. Wayward Pines!

I don't have a plan this year, no reading goal. I just want to read as much as I can and enjoy the books. Considering I started off the year in a two month hole (of not reading anything) and then read a book I didn't completely enjoy, all I can ask from myself is to read and be delighted by the books. I have a some novels I want to read this year and depending on where my life takes me, I may finally be able to finish the Sophie Katz mystery series by Kyra Davis.

Expect semi regular posting starting today. I'm still in the throngs of my final year of school, preparing for life after and graduation. I may still be slow on the uptake, but the posts are coming! As always, email me any and all suggestions for posts or books you want me to read at pulledfromthebookshelf@gmail.com.

I hope you caught up and read all the books I've written about here while I was away! What are you reading now?

Feels good to be back!

The Five Best of 2014

I did not have the best year in 2014 as stated by my previous post. I looked back at 2013's Ten Best and realized this post will be half as many and a major step down from the energy in that post. I do hope that the lack of glamour in this post doesn't defer you from checking out my favorite books of 2014. Brace yourself, because in no particular order, here are the Five Best Books of 2014: