Annual reading challenge 2018- Join in on the Fun

[willowsnn3]

#46 Before and Again by Barbara Delinsky

Mackenzie Cooper took her eyes off the road for just a moment but the resulting collision was enough to rob her not only of her beloved daughter but ultimately of her marriage, family, and friends―and thanks to the nonstop media coverage, even her privacy. Now she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid, in a small house with her cats and dog. She’s thankful for the new friends she’s made―though she can’t risk telling them too much. And she takes satisfaction in working as a makeup artist at the luxurious local spa, helping clients hide the visible outward signs of their weariness, illnesses, and injuries. Covering up scars is a skill she has mastered.

This was just ok.

 

[tiggrbaby]

I've been slogging through a whole lot of meh. I just couldn't connect with any characters.

#63/90: The Rooster Bar by John Grisham (3/5) (legal thriller)
A trio of friends drop out of law school their last semester and set up a "law firm".

#64/90: One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline (3/5) (thriller)
A man goes undercover in a suburban Pennsylvania high school to get closer to boys on the baseball team for a sinister plot. There is a twist quickly in the book.

#65/90: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (3/5) (contemporary fiction)
This was a Pulitzer Prize winner. A man who has always been an outsider suddenly finds himself widowed with tow small children. He and his aunt return to the family home in Newfoundland to start over.

There was another Mary Higgins Clark among this group, but I can't remember which one, so I won't count it.

 

[willowsnn3]

#47 Killing Fear by Allison Brennan
Theodore Glenn loves to inflict pain . . . both on his victims and on those who later find the mutilated corpses. At his trial seven years ago, Glenn vowed vengeance on Detective Will Hooper, the cop who nabbed him, and beautiful Robin McKenna, the stripper whose testimony put him behind bars.

When a catastrophic disaster sets Glenn free, he blazes a freshly bloodied path across San Diego County. But the death he craves most is Robin McKenna’s.

Putting aside their past troubled relationship, Will rushes to protect Robin, now a savvy businesswoman operating an upscale club. As the killings mount and Glenn proves a master manipulator, Robin and Will become snared in a twisted web of horror. But the shocking truth is even worse: The evil they are to face is even deadlier than they fear.

Ok, Brennan was becoming a new favorite until this book. It was just ok. Too much sex, lol. Or should I say too much descriptive sex. I don't really need 5 whole pages noting EVERY move EVERY time the two main characters have sex. And they had sex a lot. Guess I'm just becoming an old prude, lol.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Book 10 of 20: Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn.

Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader team up against a threat to the Empire in this thrilling novel from bestselling author Timothy Zahn.

"I have sensed a disturbance in the Force."

Ominous words under any circumstances, but all the more so when uttered by Emperor Palpatine. On Batuu, at the edges of the Unknown Regions, a threat to the Empire is taking root--its existence little more than a glimmer, its consequences as yet unknowable. But it is troubling enough to the Imperial leader to warrant investigation by his most powerful agents: ruthless enforcer Lord Darth Vader and brilliant strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn. Fierce rivals for the emperor's favor, and outspoken adversaries on Imperial affairs--including the Death Star project--the formidable pair seem unlikely partners for such a crucial mission. But the Emperor knows it's not the first time Vader and Thrawn have joined forces. And there's more behind his royal command than either man suspects.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, General Anakin Skywalker of the Galactic Republic, and Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo, officer of the Chiss Ascendancy, crossed paths for the first time. One on a desperate personal quest, the other with motives unknown . . . and undisclosed. But facing a gauntlet of dangers on a far-flung world, they forged an uneasy alliance--neither remotely aware of what their futures held in store.

Now, thrust together once more, they find themselves bound again for the planet where they once fought side by side. There they will be doubly challenged--by a test of their allegiance to the Empire . . . and an enemy that threatens even their combined might.

3.5 out of 5 stars. No real tension since we know the characters in this book are survive. Interesting story, weaved between two points in time. I love Thrawn's character, and I really like how tha author dealt with Vader thinking about past memories.

Currently Reading: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, the debut novel by Hank Green.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Love to read about "Life In Icicle Falls". Is this book as good as the others? So far I've read 4 of them.

I think so!

48/50...Thanksgiving Prayer by Debbie Macomber....light reading, set in Seattle and Alaska. Good reading on a plane.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

To heck with this, I'm counting it!


11 of 20: Star Wars: The Rebel Files by Daniel Wallace

Branded as rebels and traitors, the members of the Alliance worked from the shadows, gathering information and support from across the galaxy to bring an end to the Empire's tyranny. Concealed within a secure case, their most vital and sensitive information was collected by one of Mon Mothma's most trusted aides and kept hidden until now. Discovered in the ruins of an abandoned rebel base, these files have been passed among members of the Resistance, who have added notes, updates, and new insights to the documents. A repository of Alliance intelligence, The Rebel Files weaves together classified documents, intercepted transmissions, and gathered communications to trace the formation of the Rebel Alliance. Within the case, an imbedded projection unit -- activated by the push of a button -- displays the Death Star plans plus a reconnaissance image of Death Star II. Unlock the secrets of the Rebel Alliance!

Read this in July. A fun little read, it is a reference book disguised as a Star Wars in-universe dosier/Rebel Alliance history. It tells stories about the Rebel Alliance and has little asides written in the margins by members of the Resistance. 4 out of 5 stars.

 

[willowsnn3]

#48 Deadliest of Sins by Sallie Bissell

Another in the Mary Crow series. Great as always.

 

[KrazyPete]

#7 "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
I'm just not going to comment on this book because I will probably say something ignorant or insensistive. I'm glad that I read it. I recommend it. That's all.

 

[Darcy03231]

For anyone who like paranormal/fantasy series I've come across a couple of good ones:

The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness
The Mortal Instruments by Clarissa Clare (if you liked Harry Potter, you'll probably really like these).

 

[Tiggerish]

A Man Walks Into A Hardware Store by Bernie Van De Yacht. The hardware store is a small independent business, not a big box store. It is owned by a woman and run mostly by her daughter. They have a very difficult relationship and the daughter is the small town's good time girl and does not discriminate against married men. The man is married with a young daughter and a wife who is mentally ill and housebound. The two have an immediate attraction but he is resolved not to cheat on his wife and she is only looking for a physical relationship. There is a unexpected twist that took me totally by surprise.

The Wrong Child by Patricia Kay. Two little girls are born in a small hospital during an immense snow storm causing the hospital to be short staffed and their personnel to be working extended hours. The girls are given to the wrong parents. Eleven years later one of the girls has a medical issue that reveals she is not the mother's biological child. By this time that mother is divorced and the father wants nothing to do with his daughter. In the other family, the mother has recently died and that daughter is really struggling. So the switched children each have a single parent, one mother and one father. You can see where this is going and that is exactly what what happens. I thought it was going to be an in-depth discussion of the problem but it was a made for television movie.

48 & 49 of 52

 

[KevM]

My September reads:

114) Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey - The 5th Book in The Expanse series. Sort of the series’ Empire Strikes Back, in that the hero’s are separated for most of the book and need to deal with problems on their own. 5/5

115) The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin - The 2nd in The Broken Earth trilogy. Jemisin has built a fascinating world & character. 5/5

116) War Plan Red: The United States' Secret Plan to Invade Canada and Canada's Secret Plan to Invade the United States by Kevin Lippert - The US & Canada have not always be friends. From the Revolutionary War up through the late 1880s there were numerous battles/invasions. In fact, up through the 1930’s each had standing plans on how to invade the other country. Interesting read, but it could of easily gone into more detail. 3.5/5

117) Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk - A fascinatingly disturbing read. 4/5

118) Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana - A nice read on the vispassana meditation style. 4.25/5

119) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - A seminal work in African American & woman’s literature. A classic that was not received well in its time (1937) but when published again in the 1970s it began to be seen as the classic that it is. 4/5

120) Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire - The kids that go through magic wardrobe cabinets, looking glasses, ect, what happens to them when they return? How do they readjust to this world? This Hugo, Nebula, & Locus award winning novella follows kids at a boarding school especially designed for that reason. 4/5

121) Run to Overcome: The Inspiring Story of an American Champion's Long-Distance Quest to Achieve a Big Dream by Meb Keflezighi - Meb Keflezighi’s autobiography. From his childhood in Eritrean to his journey to American and finishing with his winning the New York Marathon in ‘09. 4/5

122) This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt - Inner of the 2018 Griffin Award for Poetry. This collection focuses on “a call to turn to love and sex to understand how Indigenous peoples shoulder sadness and pain like theirs without giving up on the future.” 5/5

 

[Simba's Mom]

Update time!

#39/60-"Lizzie's War", Farrington-4/5-an interesting story told from 2 different perspectives, the husband in Vietnam, and the wife "holding down the family" in the US. Since the Vietnam War was a major factor in my life (child of them 60s), for me it was a 5 star

#40/60-"Sister's Like Us", Susan Mallery-3/5-it pains me to give this book a relatively low rating for this author. I generally love her books. But this one just didn't "do it" for me.

#41/60-"All We Ever Wanted", Emily Giffin-All I can say is "Wow". Such an interesting situation, not so much what happened as the way everything was handled by different family members. It has a little similarity with actual current events, also. One of the rare books that left me with goosebumps at the end.

#42/60-"The Paris Architect" [I forget the author]-historical fiction from WWII, where a French architect is encouraged to devise hiding places for Jews in buildings. 4/5

 

[willowsnn3]

#49 Outsider by Stephen King

 

[Tiggerish]

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and The Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy. Non-fiction. This is probably the best book I have read all year.

It took me a full week to read this book because I had to keep stopping to have time to digest what I was reading and to keep my head from exploding. One of the book jacket quotes says,"A harrowing journey through the history and contemporary hellscape of drug addiction." I learned how OxyContin went from being prescribed for end of life cancer patients with intractable pain to being prescribed by all kinds of physicians for just about any type of pain. Got a root canal, here is a prescription, got a bad sprained ankle, here is a prescription and on and on. By 2010 enough OxyContin was being prescribed to medicate every American adult for an entire month. And OxyContin is a synthetic version of heroin. It is a very small step to transfer from the OxyContin type drugs to heroin which is cheaper. And, with the greater enforcement of limitations on the amount of OxyContin and related pain drug being prescribed, heroin is easier to get. The conclusion of the book was chilling, we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic and the fight to defeat it is bogged down in outdated theories about addiction, lack of funding and just plain old, sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will go away.

I read this book in an attempt to understand my friend, Shawn, who I met in 2011 when he was fresh out of jail but clean and sober, full of loving Jesus and dedicated to changing his life. His memorial service was this summer after he died of an overdose. During those years in between, a dedicated group of family and friends walked with him through rehab and relapse and rehab and relapse and rehab and relapse. He never lost his loving Jesus but he could not get a grip on his addiction. The opioid epidemic is real - just last week in my medium sized town in the conservative midwest, the medical examiner office asked for additional funding because of the record high number of overdose autopsies this year.

50 of 52

 

[bobbiwoz]

49/50. Plagued by Quilt ( A Haunted Yarn Mystery) by Molly MacRae

 

[tiggrbaby]

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and The Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy. Non-fiction. This is probably the best book I have read all year.

It took me a full week to read this book because I had to keep stopping to have time to digest what I was reading and to keep my head from exploding. One of the book jacket quotes says,"A harrowing journey through the history and contemporary hellscape of drug addiction." I learned how OxyContin went from being prescribed for end of life cancer patients with intractable pain to being prescribed by all kinds of physicians for just about any type of pain. Got a root canal, here is a prescription, got a bad sprained ankle, here is a prescription and on and on. By 2010 enough OxyContin was being prescribed to medicate every American adult for an entire month. And OxyContin is a synthetic version of heroin. It is a very small step to transfer from the OxyContin type drugs to heroin which is cheaper. And, with the greater enforcement of limitations on the amount of OxyContin and related pain drug being prescribed, heroin is easier to get. The conclusion of the book was chilling, we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic and the fight to defeat it is bogged down in outdated theories about addiction, lack of funding and just plain old, sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will go away.

I read this book in an attempt to understand my friend, Shawn, who I met in 2011 when he was fresh out of jail but clean and sober, full of loving Jesus and dedicated to changing his life. His memorial service was this summer after he died of an overdose. During those years in between, a dedicated group of family and friends walked with him through rehab and relapse and rehab and relapse and rehab and relapse. He never lost his loving Jesus but he could not get a grip on his addiction. The opioid epidemic is real - just last week in my medium sized town in the conservative midwest, the medical examiner office asked for additional funding because of the record high number of overdose autopsies this year.

50 of 52

Sorry for your loss!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

12 of 20: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship--like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor--April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world--everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires--and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

Ok, short story time: New Years Eve 2006, Hank Green, web designer and environmental blogger, contacts his novelist brother, John Green, about trying a new project: They would spend 2007 communicating to each other only via video blog on YouTube. The vlogbrothers YouTube channel was born. 3 million subscribers and eleven years later, John and Hank have become responsible for a family of YouTube channels, including SciShow & CrashCourse, a merchandise & record company (DFTBA), 3 podcasts, and VidCon, the YouTube convention. John has written 3 more books, two of which have become movies, and Hank has had a somewhat successful career as a musician (along with being CEO of Complexly, their YouTube network).



This is Hank's debut novel, and I love it. It is written in first person, and I love the voice. It's like April is sitting with me in a coffee shop telling me her story. I was very engaged in both the mystery of the Carls as well as the well-being of all of the characters. There are a few distinct narratives being told here: a mystery, a commentary on politics and cable news, a commentary on celebrity, and a deeply personal story about self-destructive romantic behavior. It bogs down a little around Chapter 13, and gets a little preachy, but those minor issues are overshadowed by just how much fun I had reading this book. You can tell this is Hank's first novel. Nevertheless: 5 stars.

 

[willowsnn3]

#50
A Judgement of Whispers by Sallie Bissell

Seventh book in the Mary Crow series. Hope she continues with the series.

 

[tiggrbaby]

12 of 20: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green


Ok, short story time: New Years Eve 2006, Hank Green, web designer and environmental blogger, contact his novelist brother, John Green, about trying a new project: They would spend 2007 communicating to each other only via video blog on YouTube. The vlogbrothers YouTube channel was born. 3 million subscribers and eleven years later, John and Hank have become responsible for a family of YouTube channels, including SciShow & CrashCourse, a merchandise & record company (DFTBA), 3 podcasts, and VidCon, the YouTube convention. John has written 3 more books, two of which have become movies, and Hank has had a somewhat successful career as a musician (along with being CEO of Complexly, their YouTube network).



This is Hank's debut novel, and I love it. It is written in first person, and I love the voice. It's like April is sitting with me in a coffee shop telling me her story. I was very engaged in both the mystery of the Carls as well as the well-being of all of the characters. There are a few distinct narratives being told here: a mystery, a commentary on politics and cable news, a commentary on celebrity, a deeply personal story about self-destructive romantic behavior. It bogs down a little around Chapter 13, and gets a little preachy, but those minor issues are overshadowed by just how much fun I had reading this book. You can tell this is Hank's first novel. Nevertheless: 5 stars.

Added this to my holds list!

 

[tiggrbaby]

#66/90: A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell (2.5/5) (psychological thriller)
Lots of twists and turns, but I was ultimately disappointed as I didn't like any of the characters.

#67/90: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (3.5/5) (contemporary fiction)
Sometimes hard to keep track of the different characters. I can' imagine the wealth!

#68/90: Squall Line (Forgotten Coast #9) by Dawn Lee McKenna (3.5/5) (suspense)
A boy from Maggie's daughter's class is bullied, and things go terribly wrong when he tries to defend himself. I like this series, but this book was really short.