The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I just finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho last night and I loved this book.  The characters are simple to follow and the story is as well. With that being said I became engrossed in Santiago’s quest for his treasure and to fulfill his personal legend.  The story follows Santiago as he encounters different people that help guide him towards his treasure.  The story speaks loudly about following your dreams, listening to your heart in addition to many other life lessons.  There are elements of danger, suspense, love and adventure which for me made the perfect formula for a good book.  I found myself reading quickly at points to try and find out what would happen next or where Santiago’s path would lead him so I look forward to reading this book again to soak up even more of the details of his journey.  This book has been criticized for its simplicity and blunt writing but I enjoyed the simplicity.  You sure didn’t have to contemplate for long to understand the messages the characters were trying to deliver and I appreciated that.  Overall, a great book that I look forward to reading again!

Crazy Little Thing by Tracy Brogan

I had been reading some pretty boring books so I was in search of a light summer read and found it with this book.  This is the story of a divorced mom of 2 and her adventures during the summer she spends living with her crazy aunt and cousins trying to recover from her recent divorce.  There is nothing complicated about this book or terribly thought provoking but it worked to take me out of my zone and into the story.  I finished it in just a couple of days and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It had been long time since I had a read like this and it was refreshing!  Also, it was a free book rental through Amazon Prime so reading it on my kindle for free was pretty handy! I would recommend this for a quick and easy summer read.