Annual Reading Challenge--2020

45. The Secret of the Chateau by Kathleen McGurl. Very enjoyable historical fiction that alternates chapters between contemporary times and the French Revolution
 
The Cottage at Hope Cove by Hannah Ellis. Romantic fiction; first in a series An easy, light read with happy ending.

Whispers From the Dead by Karen Ann Hopkins. This is part of the Serenity's Plains series. Serenity is a police officer in a rural area with a substantial Amish population. The series are about her solving crimes within the Amish community. This is the third book that I have read and I will read more.

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman. This was a very different book. The basic plot is about Elsa, a seven year old girl without friends, an outsider in her school who is loved deeply by her cantankerous, seventy-seven year old grandmother. It's the story of the beautiful legacy that a grandmother leaves her granddaughter. It is a blend of fantasy, humor and tragedy. The grandmother has been telling Elsa fairy tales all her life but when Elsa delivers the letters as her Grandmother asked her to do when she dies, Elsa discovers the fairy tales are based in the reality of the recipients lives and her own.

46-48 of 80
 


Just checking in here- Yikes, haven't been keeping up with my reading challenge. I have found it very hard to concentrate while reading during all this. I've been reading my Little House on the Prairie books just for something comforting. I put a few books on hold at my library, let's see how long it takes. They are only open for curbside pick up.

10/25- Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman- I finished this back in March, but I think I enjoyed it. It was a thriller with a few twists and turns. It's another one from Reese's book club list.
 
July has come to an end, which means it’s time for my end of the month wrap up of what I’ve read this month. In July I read 5 books, bringing my total for the year to 32. The books I read this month were:

28) How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi - Non-Fiction. Ibram details how simply being not a racist isn’t enough and people need to actively be Antiracist in order to make the changes, both individualist and systemic, necessary for an Antiracist world. 5/5.

29) 1919: Poems by Eve Ewing - Poetry/History. Poems detailing the race, segregation, class, and violence before, during, and after the 1919 Chicago race riots. 4.75/5

30) 26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career by Meb Keflezighi and Scott Douglas - Memoir. Olympic Marathon silver medalist, winner of both the Boston Marathon & the New York Marathon; Meb’s memoir detailing all the different lessons he’s learned from his many marathons. 4.25/5

31) Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis - Non-fiction. In this compelling read, Davis’ answer is a resounding yes, to the ending of the prison–industrial complex. 4.75/5

32) A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney - Fantasy/Young Adult. The first book in the The Nightmare-Verse. This is a contemporary reimagining of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with Alice being a Black teenager from Atlanta. 4/5
 


46. Home Again by Kristin Hannah. At first I didn’t care for the characters but last 1/3 touched me deeply
 
July:

#49/90: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (5/5) (contemporary fiction)
The Richardson family lives in a planned community and appear to be very structured, except for the youngest. Then they become involved with a carefree single mother and her daughter.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book and wonder if the show was as good.

#50/90: The Girl from Berlin (Taggart and Lockhart #5) by Ronald Balson (3/5) (legal/historical fiction)
Liam and Catherine head to Tuscany to assist a woman in a legal battle over her estate. Catherine must read a Holocaust memoir to find the key to help her win.

#51/90: The Glassblower (trilogy #1)by Petra Durst-Benning (2/5) (romantic historical fiction)
Three sisters are left alone after their glassblower father dies. They go about surviving in different ways, but ultimately must work together.

Graphic rape scene and ultimately I ended up not really liking the characters.

#52/90: Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain (4/5) (fiction)
A young woman in prison for a crime she did not commit is given the opportunity to be free if she is able to restore a mural by a certain date. The artist had disappeared years ago, leaving a very strange work. As the restoration progresses, the mystery unwinds.

This is told from the perspective of the young woman and the artist.

#53/90: The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (4/5) (supernatural mystery)
Fiona has not been able to get over her sister’s murder. The abandoned school for girls where her sister’s body was found has been purchased by a mystery woman and is being restored. When the body of a former student is found on the grounds, Fiona investigates what went on that led to the girl’s death, and the rumors about a ghost on the property.

This was told in Fiona’s view and the girls at the school in 1950.

#54/90: The Secret Life of Violet Grant (Schuler Sisters #1) by Beatriz Williams (3/5) (historical romance)
Vivian is working for a magazine in 1964 when she learns about her mysterious Aunt Violet, and decides to investigate what happened to her.

Story is told in alternating chapters of the two women. Some graphic sexual abuse.

#55/90: This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger (5/5) (historical adventure)
In the summer of 1932, four orphans escape from the abusive Lincoln Indian Training school and travel by canoe to St. Louis, where they hope to find a home with a mysterious aunt.

I absolutely loved this book!
 
I think I figured out I read faster and with fewer distractions when I hold a physical book than when I use my tablet. Or maybe it was the particular book I was reading at the time.
 
#57 of 156 - Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Chick lit exploring themes of identity and transition in young-to-mid adulthood, just about where that feeling that you should have gotten further than you have by now sets in, this was a light but engrossing story of changing course, finding success, and letting go of the past to build a strong foundation for the future. It was an enjoyable enough story, nothing outstanding but a good vacation read.

#58 - Hero's Haven by Rebecca Zanetti

Meh. A late-night supernatural romance download from one of my reader subscriptions, this one was a bit of a miss. The world was too elaborate to be very well developed, though perhaps reading through the whole series would paint a more coherent picture, and the characters were just a bit flat and predictable.

#59 - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

An account of a deadly season on the slopes of Mount Everest, this book is part first-hand chronicle of the author's attempt to summit the historic mountain and part critique of the increasingly well-traveled path that got him there, on one of the countless commercial expeditions that go up the mountain every year. It was at varying times inspiring, harrowing and horrifying, and Krakauer didn't shy away from talking about the darker side of the expedition business, where conflicting motivations and inexperienced climbers can cause tragedy.

#60 - Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins by Katarina Bivald

Another chick lit vacation read I downloaded for one of our summer road trips, this was a bit unusual in that the main character was recently deceased. The story follows the interactions between her loved ones as they come together and mourn and eventually make their peace with the place she called home, a roadside motel in a rural town in eastern Washington. It was charming, in a way, but at times campy, and the judgmental, hostile culture of the town to the main living characters (one gay, one transgender) felt more like how city people would write small towns than what the small towns I've lived in have actually been like, and that took something away from the book's story of redemption.

#61 - The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton

God, what a slog! I'm a bit of a politics geek and the hype around this made it a must-read, but it was just not a very good book. Bolton has an overinflated sense of his own rightness that shines through on every page, and you walk away from a book containing scandalous and shocking defiance of norms of both international diplomacy and domestic governance with the sense that the only reason he bothered writing it at all was out of his own pique at working in an administration that didn't defer to his judgement often enough.

#62-63 - Insatiable and Legacy by Helen Hardt

The first was a count correction - I logged on to Goodreads to add the latest title to my challenge count and noticed that the January installment of the series was still showing as unread, though it was in my history on my reader. The second was the newest installment (book 14 overall) in a series that reads very much like a soap opera that I can't seem to quit - the newest trilogy, of which Legacy is the second, follows the father of the sibling group that starred in the first four trilogies, and by the end of the story I was left with the impression that the story will eventually go back another generation for the next arc.

#64 - Nature's Best Hope by Douglass Tallamy

An environmental treatise making the case for small-scale habitat restoration in our backyards, businesses and parks, this was a really well-written and inspiring read with good, concrete ideas for action. The entire focus was the impact ordinary people and local collaborative efforts could have in making our country more hospitable to the wildlife that lived her before us and in making our environment a little healthier without restricting human or economic activities, and unlike a lot of environmental non-fiction, it took a very positive tone about the possibilities that such actions could have a significant impact on the health of the world as a whole.

#65 - The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr

A neurobiological, historic and sociological analysis of the ways in which our minds are shaped by our communication technologies, and what kind of changes the rapid pace of change in the internet era is causing. It was rather unsettling, really, because I could recognize in myself and my teens some of the patterns Carr points to in the research about attention, retention and reflection, and it has inspired me to do more to limit my own connectivity as well as that of my youngest in hopes of balancing out the overstimulation of digital communication with the slower, deeper thinking that accompanies activities that demand more sustained and single-minded attention.

#66 - 70 - The Mortal Instruments books 1 through 5 by Cassandra Clare

There's a meme that's been going around Facebook through the pandemic about the connection between anxiety and rewatching favorite television shows. I think I'm like that, but with books. After finishing my re-read of the Outlander series earlier this year, I decided to start in on another series that I enjoyed reading years ago. delving back into the teen drama of supernatural beings and the Shadowhunters that enforce the laws that keep peace between them and humankind. So far, I'm through the first five books and have started the sixth, and much to my delight, there are a lot of new books in spin-off series set in the same world that hadn't come out yet when I first read these along with my now-18yo daughter, probably 5 or 6 years ago.

#71 - On the Road With Saint Augustine by James K.A. Smith

Part theology, part philosophy, this was a very interesting take on the writings of St. Augustine, particularly his Confessions, written in a way that attempts to connect the ancient writings of a Roman-era saint to themes and difficulties of our modern world. Smith draws a line from Augustine to the existential philosophers that shaped 20th century Western thought, and draws parallels that had never occurred to me when reading Augustine in a religious/historical context.
 
29/50 - The Library at the Edge of the World, Felicity Hayes-McCoy
30. The Girls with No Names, Serena Burdick - very good story with so many plot lines - I can't summarize!
31. The Sacrament, Olaf Olafsson - terrific book! I'd say it's a must-read!
 
47. Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson This Book is about the 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston. Larson is one of my favorite authors.
 
#37 Liar, Liar by Lisa Jackson
In death, Didi Storm is finally getting the kind of publicity that eluded her in life. Twenty years ago, the ex-beauty queen worked the Vegas strip as a celebrity impersonator, too busy trying to make it big to spare much time for her daughter, Remmi. Shortly before she leaped from a San Francisco building, Didi’s profile was rising again, thanks to a tell-all book. To Detective Dani Settler, it looks like a straightforward suicide, or perhaps a promotional stunt gone wrong. But Remmi knows the truth isn’t so simple. Because though the broken body on the sidewalk is dressed in Didi’s clothes and wig, it isn’t Didi.
Remmi was fifteen when she last saw her mother. Their parting came in the aftermath of a terrible night in the Mojave desert when Remmi—who’d secretly stowed away in Didi’s car en route to meet her crush, Noah Scott—instead became witness to a mysterious rendezvous. Didi handed over one of her newborn twins to a man Remmi didn’t recognize. Subsequently, Didi disappeared, as did Remmi’s other half-sibling. Remmi has pleaded with the authorities to find them, but there have been no clues. Yet she’s always had the sense that someone is watching her . . .


While this one was good & I enjoyed it, I thought it would never end, lol.
 
48. Fool for Love by Marie Force. Simply light read set on a thinly veiled Block Island-one of my favorite places
 
44: A Burning by Megha Majumdar: I wanted to love this one, but it was just good, rather than great. 3/5.

45: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson: This is nonfiction, about the author's work as a lawyer in the deep south. It was eye opening and thought provoking. The author has lived one very busy life and done incredible work. The writing style was sometimes a bit too jumpy though, and they crammed a bit too much into too few pages. That is the only reason that it gets a 4.5 instead of a 5.

46: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: This is not an easy read, but it is most definitely thought provoking and eye-opening. I'm not going to rate it, because truly, it is a book made from a letter from the author to his son, about his beliefs on the world, and I'm not sure I'm really qualified to rate that. It was a worthwhile read.
 
Next set of books. This was interesting!

38. Stephen King: Art of Darkness - The Life and Fiction of the Master of the Macabre - Douglas E. Winter (1986 edition)

This was a fantastic review of Stephen King's work (through 1986). Part biography, and mostly a literature review and analysis, Winter takes a deep dive into all of King's published work (novels, non-fiction, short stories, screenplays) and offers a wonderful perspective on his work. Winter is / was a close confidante of King's, so King's interviews with Winter informed much of the book. A great review for superfans or those new to his work.

39. Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King - Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, editors

This book is a collection of transcriptions and articles featuring interviews with Stephen King, dating from 1979 to 1985. While there was some duplication of content between the interviews, they were another fascinating insight into King's work. Well worth the read. With the Winter book, this was a fun way to do some meta-analysis of his work.

40. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

Is it possible I have never read this one before? It has been on my bookshelf for years, but I don't think I have ever read it. I didn't remember the story and any of the details. Maybe I was visited by a UFO who removed the memory from my brain? LOL! The novel tells the story of the excavation of an ancient spaceship under the surface of a Maine farm, and the impact on the town and its residents. Started slow, but it built quickly!

41. The Dark Half by Stephen King

Although I have read this one, I couldn't find it in my library (probably I lent it out somewhere along the way), so thanks to eBay, I now have a hardcover version of the novel again. This novel imagines what it would be like if your pseudonym came to life. Given King's experience using the Bachman name, this must have been a fun thought experiment for him. The novel is a crime story with supernatural elements thrown in (kind of like some of his later books, including Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers). All in all a great read!

42. The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition by Stephen King

This edition of the novel restores hundreds of pages cut from the original version. Clocking in at more than 1100 pages long, this is a commitment, but a worthwhile one. For me the experience of reading this in comparison to the original novel is a bit like seeing a 3D version of your favorite movie. The expansion adds dimensions and fills in color that you didn't know was missing. The Stand has long been my favorite King novel, and this re-read proves why. The story is deeply engaging, King makes you care about the characters (even the "evil" ones), and it is an emotional fulfilling journey.

43. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

My family watched the Hulu miniseries and we were very struck by the story and the acting, so we decided to read the novel that the series is based upon. I am so glad we did (although I wish I had read the novel first). This is a beautifully crafted story with gorgeous writing and perfectly constructed plot elements. Definitely worth a read, and an interesting reflection on our current times and societal introspection even though it is set 30ish years ago.
 

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