Annual Reading Goal Challenge for 2016 - Come and join us!

[rigs32]

#47 - Private Paris by James Patterson.

I didn't realize this was many books into a series. Now I feel the need to go back and start from the beginning. It was a quick read, typical Patterson thriller. The type of book I like to be reading when work is stressful, but not something I remember the details of 6+ weeks later now.

#48 - The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year

This was... fine. Another quick read while work was crazy.

#49 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

I was so excited to read this based on others reactions. I was underwhelmed. I saw the ending coming a mile away as there were limited options for what really happened and the other options would have led to an even worse ending. Like many books of this type, there was so much build up and then the final chapter(s) flew by with giant holes as to what's going on. I was disappointed.

#50 - Yes, Chef: A Memoir, by Marcus Samuelsson

I found this memoir interesting. It's always nice to read about the inner workings of other professions.

#51 - Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

#52 - The End of the Perfect 10: The Making and Breaking of Gymnastics' Top Score - from Nadia to Now, by Dvora Meyers

I saw this on the shelf at the library and in the wake of the summer olympics, I decided to read it. I couldn't put it down. The author references specific gymnasts/moves/competitions and through the magic of youtube, I was able to watch what she was talking about in the moment to help understand her point. The US coverage of gymnastics truly is terrible. I know they say it's because no one understands the sport. Ok, so teach us! Don't just make up drama. Use the time to educate the populace!

#53 - Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin

Saw the movie years ago, but never read the book. Like other thrillers, lots of build up to a "dramatic" ending that was really just confusing and left you unsatisfied. Since I knew the general ending from having seen the movie, it was fun to spot the foreshadowing/clues as I read it.

#54 - It Was Me All Along, by Andie Mitchell

The story of her struggle with weight. A lot of detail about her struggle, but then many aspects of her weight loss were glossed over. Very confusing, as I feel like more people would want to know that. It's not as easy as eating less. What did you do to stop cravings? Deal with feeling hungry?

#55 - My Grape Year, by Laura Bradbury

The memoir of a teenage exchange student. I really enjoyed the retelling of fitting in, culture shock, learning the language. The characters felt real and the struggles felt genuine. Highly recommend.

#56 - My Grape Wedding, by Laura Bradbury

The sequel was disappointing in comparison, sadly. Not terrible, just not as engaging.

#57 - Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography

I must confess, I just read this front to back. It was funny and touching.

#58 - The Affair, by Colette Freedman

The story is told from the POV of the wife, the husband, and the mistress. I enjoyed the overlap. Some complained the overlap got boring, but I skimmed some bits. And even if the dialogue was the same, the internal monologue and emotions were different. I couldn't put this down. Thought another ending that left me dissatisfied.

#59 - The Consequences, by Colette Freedman

The sequel is told in the same manner. The characters felt less nuanced this time around, though. And the ending was too convenient for my taste.

#60 - Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins

This was recommended to me and it was an OK read. It was in the kids section rather than YA and I can see why. Not as much world building as I would prefer in a book like this. I will read the next in the series to decide if I want to read them all or move on.

 

[rigs32]

#61 - A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, by Victoria Connelly

#62 - Dreaming of Mr. Darcy, by Victoria Connelly

I enjoyed the first. It was cute, though the characters made stupid choices in order to further the tension. The second was terrible, though.

 

[tiggrbaby]

I made it!!!

#74/75: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (4/5) (contemporary fiction)

#75/75: Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (5/5) (nonfiction)

 

[willowsnn3]

#60/75

Memory Man by David Baldacci
from Goodreads:

Amos Decker's life changed forever--twice.
The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can never forget anything.

The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered.

His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator when he can.

But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. He must endure the memories he would much rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Another one that was just ok for me. Seem to be having trouble finding a really good book lately.

 

[Kewz1]

#10/12 - Crowned and Dangerous by Ryhs Bowen.

This is part of a series by Ms Bowen. It's about a young girl who is 35th in line to throne of England. She's a poor relation growing up in 1920's London. This book, like the others, is an easy and fun read. Perfect for a vacation - which is when I read this one.

Half way through book 11 now. Looks like I have a chance of meeting my goal! Back to the books...

 

[willowsnn3]

#61/72

The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon

Pretty good but kinda creepy.

From the jacket:

In the 1950s the Tower Motel with its namesake tower was the shining attraction of tiny London, Vermont. Now it stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of three women--Amy, Piper, and Piper's sister, Margot. They played there as girls until the day that their games uncovered something dark and sinister in Amy's family's past, something that ruined Piper and Margot's friendship with Amy Forever.
As adults, Piper and Margot have done everything they can to move on: Piper lives in California, while Margot has devoted herself to studying local history and starting a family. Until, one day, Piper receives a panicked call from Margot: Amy and her family are dead, supposedly killed by Amy's own hand. And before she died, Amy scrawled a message that the two sisters know was meant for them: "29 Rooms"

 

[Christine]

I don't think I'm going to make my goal of 50 books this year. I started out well in January and with some snowy weather and time off work, I thought I was doing well. But then I really slowed down. I either couldn't get books to read through Overdrive or I was busy with work and doing stuff outside. Oh well. My latest reads were:

#27/50: Hungry Girl Clean and Hungry: All Natural Recipes for Healthy Eating by Lisa Lillian.
#28/50: The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close
#29/50: Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
#30/50: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
#31/50: The Wonder by Emma Donaghue
#32/50: Pogue's Basics: Money by David Pogue

Nothing was really fabulous. I did enjoy The Wonder (this is by the author of Room). I just like the author's style.

The Bruce Springsteen autobiography wasn't bad, but it was LONG and there was just a lot of description about New Jersey and his life there. It was sort of boring to me but probably very enjoyable if you are from that area.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I was reading The Man in the High Castle, but wasn't getting very far with it. Then a new novel I had preordered had arrived...

Book 18 of 15: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno

The must-have prequel novel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the upcoming film set before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, that reveals the untold story of the rebel effort to steal the plans to the Death Star.

Full of intrigue and political suspense. Not your average Star Wars novel. You won't find any Jedi, and barely any Darth Vader. Instead, this is the story of rivalry between Orson Krennic and Wilhuff Tarkin, and the early years of the construction of the Death Star. The story centers around kyber crystal researcher Galen Erso and his family. Krennic wants to use Erso in order to create the super weapon that will be used in the Death Star.

Jyn Erso, Galen's daughter, is the main characters of the upcoming Star Wars movie Rogue One.

4 out of 5 stars.

Up Next: A Christmas Carol (same as every Christmas).

 

[zippitydoo]

Book #50 of 50 Dead Man Running by Theresa Ragan

 

[tiggrbaby]

#76/75: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (3.5/5) (YA fantasy)

#77/75: Manhattan Mayhem: New Crime Stories from Mystery Writers of America edited by Mary Higgins Clark (4.5/5) (short story collection)

 

[willowsnn3]

62/72

Descent by Tim Johnston

I started reading this one and thought I was gonna have to put it down as it was so slow moving to be a thriller. Picked up another book and read it then went back to this one and so glad I did as it got a lot better about half way thru.

from Goodreads:
The Rocky Mountains have cast their spell over the Courtlands, a young family from the plains taking a last summer vacation before their daughter begins college. For eighteen-year-old Caitlin, the mountains loom as the ultimate test of her runner’s heart, while her parents hope that so much beauty, so much grandeur, will somehow repair a damaged marriage. But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic, as suddenly this family find themselves living the kind of nightmare they’ve only read about in headlines or seen on TV.

As their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. Why weren’t they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin’s disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family’s harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life?

 

[willowsnn3]

#63/72

Missing Child by Patricia MacDonald
This one was pretty short but was good enough. One thing that bothered me during the last half of the book tho was all the typos/editing mistakes.

From Goodreads:
One morning Caitlin Eckhart receives a phone call that changes her life forever – her much-loved six-year-old stepson Geordie has disappeared from school. It soon becomes clear that someone must have deliberately taken him. Distraught, Caitlin and her husband, Noah, make an anguished public appeal for his return. But Caitlin has a secret from her past that is about to catch up with her, and as Geordie’s continued absence brings her relationship with Noah to breaking point, she stands to lose everything that she loves.

 

[rigs32]

#63 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I've been meaning to read this for so long and finally listened to it as an audiobook. The audiobook production was perfectly suited to this particular story and I feel like it made it even better. Highly recommend in any way you consume this one.

#64 - Private by James Patterson

Decided to try this series from the start considering I'd accidentally read one of the more recent ones. It was OK. Too many stories all at once rather than any significant time spent on one or two, though. I'll read the next as a "beach read".

#65 - 83 Minutes: The Doctor, The Damage, and the Shocking Death of Michael Jackson by Matt Richards.

I saw this on the shelf at the library and was intrigued. It was an easy read and much of it was interesting. Some was a bit repetitive (as if chapters were written independently and not edited to ensure material wasn't repeated), but overall I was glad to have read it and learned more about how MJ died.

#66 - Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins

I've now read two of these in the series and i'll probably keep going, but I'll take a break for a bit.

 

[willowsnn3]

#64/72

An Untamed State by Roxanne Gay

Very good read, one of my favorites for the year.

From Goodreads:
Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places.

 

[tiggrbaby]

#78/75: How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (4/5) (Canadian mystery) (Inspector Gamache #9)

#79/75: The Long Way Home by Louise Penny (4/5) (Canadian mystery) (Inspector Gamache #10)

 

[luvmarypoppins]

i just wanted to say that I am almost done with my Goodreads reading challenge for 2016. I am on book 43 of 45.

Some of the books are childrens books which I review, so I think next year I am going to set my goal at 40 as I don't read as fast as I would like to read.

 

[nemofans]

I have been so busy getting ready for Christmas that I have 6 books I need to list.

Finished book #72/65 - The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

I didn't care for this one. 1.5 stars

Seventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko is a life-long resident of the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. For the most part, every day is exactly the same for Ivan, which is why he turns everything into a game, manipulating people and events around him for his own amusement.
Until Polina arrives.
She steals his books. She challenges his routine. The nurses like her.
She is exquisite. Soon, he cannot help being drawn to her and the two forge a romance that is tenuous and beautiful and everything they never dared dream of. Before, he survived by being utterly detached from things and people. Now, Ivan wants something more: Ivan wants Polina to live.


Finished book #73/65 - Daisy In Chains by Sharon Bolton

This was okay. 2 stars

Famous killers have fan clubs.
Hamish Wolfe is no different. Locked up for the rest of his life for the abduction and murder of three young women, he gets countless adoring letters every day. He's handsome, charismatic and very persuasive. His admirers are convinced he's innocent, and that he's the man of their dreams.
Who would join such a club?
Maggie Rose is different. Reclusive and enigmatic; a successful lawyer and bestselling true-crime writer, she only takes on cases that she can win.
Hamish wants her as his lawyer, he wants her to change his fate. She thinks she's immune to the charms of a man like this. But maybe not this time . . .
Would you?


Finished book #74/65 - Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare

This is continuation from the Shadowhunter series. Simon goes to Shadowhunter Academy. I have read every book in the series and although I do I like the whole premise and especially loved the prequels (Infernal Devices), I get tired of the teenage love angst. This one was too repetitive & too focused on Simon and Isabelle. 3 stars

Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. But the events of City of Heavenly Fireleft him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn’t sure who he is anymore. He knows he was friends with Clary, and that he convinced the total goddess Isabelle Lightwood to go out with him…but he doesn’t know how. And when Clary and Isabelle look at him, expecting him to be a man he doesn’t remember…Simon can’t take it.
So when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon-hunting, determined to find himself again. His new self. Whomever this new Simon might be.
But the Academy is a Shadowhunter institution, which means it has some problems. Like the fact that non-Shadowhunter students have to live in the basement. And that differences—like being a former vampire—are greatly looked down upon. At least Simon is trained in weaponry—even if it’s only from hours of playing D&D.
Join Simon on his journey to become a Shadowhunter, and learn about the Academy’s illustrious history along the way, through guest lecturers such as Jace Herondale, Tessa Gray, and Magnus Bane. These ten short stories give an epilogue to the Mortal Instruments series and provide glimpses of what’s in store in the Dark Artifices.


Finished book #75/65 - The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Another just okay book about siblings who are counting on a trust fund to help make their lives better when 1 sibling causes the money to be used to get him out of trouble. 2 stars

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.


Finished book #76/65 - Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz

This is a typical romance thriller with a twist at the end. 3 stars

Madeline and Daphne were once as close as sisters—until a secret tore them apart. Now, it might take them to their graves.
Nearly two decades after her childhood—and her friendship with Daphne—were destroyed in one traumatic night, a dying man’s last words convey a warning to Madeline: the secrets she believed buried forever have been discovered.
Unable to trust anyone else, Madeline reaches out to Daphne and to the only man she can count on to help: Jack Rayner, a security expert with a profoundly intimate understanding of warped and dangerous minds. Along with his high-tech genius of a brother, the four of them will form an uneasy alliance against a killer who will stop at nothing to hide the truth....


Finished book #77/65 - All The Time in the World by Caroline Angell

This was a sad story about a nanny who cares for a family when the mother dies. That part is heart wrenching. I didn't like how the story constantly jumps around the timeline. Also, I didn't care for the relationships between the nanny and the father and brother. 3 stars

Charlotte, a gifted and superbly-trained young musician, has been blindsided by a shocking betrayal in her promising career when she takes a babysitting job with the McLeans, a glamorous Upper East Side Manhattan family. At first, the nanny gig is just a way of tiding herself over until she has licked her wounds and figured out her next move as a composer in New York; she doesn't mean to stay with the family for long. But, as the reader quickly becomes aware, Charlotte is naturally gifted with children and as deeply fond of the two little boys as they are of her. When an unthinkable tragedy leaves the McLeans bereft, Charlotte is not the only one who realizes that she's the key to holding little George and Matty's world together. She finds herself facing an impossible choice between her lifelong dreams and a torn-apart family she's come to love as her own. By turns funny, sexy, and heartrending, Caroline Angell's generous and unforgettable debut is the story of a young woman's discovery of the things that matter most.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

21 Beyond the Ice Limit by
by Doug Preston & Lincoln Child
Second book I read by Lincoln Child. I enjoyed this one more. Very unrealistic sci fi, but pace was good, and kept me guessing. Alien life form is discovered beneath sea floor, but it become question of is it life form or some sort of robotic machine.

(If anyone is interested, I would gladly send kindle gift versions of any of my works, Written for You , Cemetery Girl, Three Twigs for the Campfire, or Reigning. You can see them reviewed on goodreads. Just PM here or there or like post.)

 

[Swimnoid]

Hoping to finish up my list before the new year.

73. Friction by Sandra Brown
From Goodreads: A Texas Ranger, relegated to deskwork due to past recklessness, petitions to regain custody of his five-year-old daughter, and his case is assigned to a family court judge who is as attractive as she is ambitious. When a masked gunman barges in during the custody hearing with his sights on the judge, the Ranger reacts instinctually and goes after him. But authorities apprehend the wrong man, and the real gunman remains unknown, at large, and a threat. Will this take-charge lawman jeopardize his chances of custody by going after the would-be assassin? And will this unlikely pair be able to deny the forbidden attraction building between them?

Good action romance.

74. This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
From Goodreads: 10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

This was very visceral. Very good

75. Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier
A quickie cozy murder mystery starring Lucy Stone. This is one of the early ones

76. Final Assignment by Linwood Barclay
From Goodreads: Private investigator Cal Weaver doesn’t know what to expect when he’s called to the home of Chandler Carson. The sixteen-year-old has been suspended for writing a violent story about a bat-wielding teen who beats his best friend to death over a girl. Much to Chandler’s mother’s surprise, there’s nothing that Cal is willing to do—or can do—about it.

Soon after, Chandler’s best friend is found murdered—beaten to death by a bat. Cal knew the victim, and now he knows the prime suspect. But there’s more to this story than anyone could have imagined...

I enjoyed it.

77. Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
This is really more of a collection of anecdotes of the townspeople of Elmwood Springs, MO. starting in 1946 and then up to the present. Very light and funny. It is the 2nd of a series. I read the third one first so I kept getting a little confused with the timeline in places.

78. Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs
This is the third of a series about a group of women who met in a knitting shop. It was good to catch up with them but the author repeats a lot of the previous stories.

79. Murder House by James Patterson and David Ellis
From Goodreads: No. 7 Ocean Drive is a gorgeous, multi-million-dollar beachfront estate in the Hamptons, where money and privilege know no bounds. But its beautiful gothic exterior hides a horrific past: it was the scene of a series of depraved killings that have never been solved. Neglected, empty, and rumored to be cursed, it's known as the Murder House, and locals keep their distance.

Detective Jenna Murphy used to consider herself a local, but she hasn't been back since she was a girl. Trying to escape her troubled past and rehabilitate a career on the rocks, the former New York City cop hardly expects her lush and wealthy surroundings to be a hotbed of grisly depravity. But when a Hollywood power broker and his mistress are found dead in the abandoned Murder House, the gruesome crime scene rivals anything Jenna experienced in Manhattan. And what at first seems like an open and shut case turns out to have as many shocking secrets as the Murder House itself, as Jenna quickly realizes that the mansion's history is much darker than even the town's most salacious gossips could have imagined. As more bodies surface, and the secret that Jenna has tried desperately to escape closes in on her, she must risk her own life to expose the truth--before the Murder House claims another victim.

A typical Patterson, intriguing.

80. Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
This is the first of a new series. It tells of cases that lawyer Sebastian Rudd, takes. Very good but not as involved as a lot of Grisham's writing.

 

[Colleen27]

#80 - We Kill Because We Can by Laurie Calhoun

From Goodreads:

We live in an age of drone warfare, where the attacks on targets deemed to be threatening happens remotely. The decisions to kill are made covertly in rooms far away from the target, and we can now kill without being personally present. Killing has become all too easy and convenient. As a result, argues Laurie Calhoun in this provocative book, self-defense has become conflated with outright aggression, and black ops have become the standard military operating procedure.

In this remarkable and often-shocking book, Calhoun dissects the moral, psychological, and cultural impact that these drone killings are having on modern society. In We Kill Because We Can she draws powerful, thought-provoking parallels between drone operators and mafia hitmen as well as the Trayvon Martin case and the killing of a teen in Yemen by drone. The result is a timely and provoking analysis of Western foreign policy and its disturbing use of remote-controlled death.

More cheery reading for my human rights class. This was an unflinching and deeply disturbing look at US drone policy through a number of different lenses, including international law, human rights, domestic policy, and military effectiveness. The author's bias was clear but didn't detract from the effectiveness of her arguments, although at times it felt like she glossed over some of the factors that give the program its veneer of respectability among Americans and at others it seemed like she stopped short of carrying certain arguments to their logical conclusion. All in all an eye opening read but not one that is particularly enjoyable or satisfying because it essentially presents a problem which exists framed by a set of circumstances that make it virtually immune to any reform or overhaul.

#81 - The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

From Goodreads: Upton Sinclair's dramatic and deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century and brought into sharp moral focus the appalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, this book was championed by more progressive thinkers, including then president Theodore Roosevelt, and was a major catalyst to the passing of the Pure Food and Meat Inspection act, which has tremendous impact to this day.

A classic that is in turns disgusting, appalling, and deeply hopeful. I'm not sure what inspired me to pick this one up again but it was a good choice for my current mood and a powerful reminder of the important place of literature in a thoughtful society.