Annual reading challenge 2017-come join us

#2/60 The Dead Run by Adam Mansbach

On both sides of the Mexican American border, girls are going missing and bodies are beginning to surface, a deadly epidemic of crime that plunges a small town police chief into a monster of an investigation he's unequipped to handle.
Sherry Nichols is one of those disappeared girls. Miraculously, she's managed to escape. As the young woman soon discovers freeing herself was the easy part. Lost and alone, she's got to make it through the desert. Alive.
But there are more than coyotes roaming the desert in search of prey. An ancient evil has returned and now everyone must face their deepest terrors.

Sounds better than it actually was. Wouldn't recommend.
 
For the past two years I have failed at posting my books. So, this year I am going to try and remember to post the best ones and not worry about keeping count.

I just finished A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. It so good. I loved it. Ove is a grumpy man who has just lost his wife. He has no desire to continue living, but a new family with young children moves onto his street and them, along with other neighborhood problems, helps give his life meaning again. I needed Kleenex in more than spot!

I read it last year and enjoyed it as well!
 
#4/80: The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman (4.5/5) (non-fiction/WWII Warsaw)

I struggled a bit in the beginning, but I was so glad I kept with it! It is a moving story of a real couple who saved lives during Nazi occupation.
 
#3 - Finished my third book today (actually it would be my 4th but I stopped reading my 3rd book to finish the Crossfire Series, now I will go back to it.)

One with You by Sylvia Day
The final chapter in the global blockbuster Crossfire® quintet.

Gideon Cross. Falling in love with him was the easiest thing I've ever done. It happened instantly. Completely. Irrevocably.

Marrying him was a dream come true. Staying married to him is the fight of my life. Love transforms. Ours is both a refuge from the storm and the most violent of tempests. Two damaged souls entwined as one.

We have bared our deepest, ugliest secrets to one another. Gideon is the mirror that reflects all my flaws ... and all the beauty I couldn't see. He has given me everything. Now, I must prove I can be the rock, the shelter for him that he is for me. Together, we could stand against those who work so viciously to come between us.

But our greatest battle may lie within the very vows that give us strength. Committing to love was only the beginning. Fighting for it will either set us free ... or break us apart.
 


#4/80: The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman (4.5/5) (non-fiction/WWII Warsaw)

I struggled a bit in the beginning, but I was so glad I kept with it! It is a moving story of a real couple who saved lives during Nazi occupation.

I'm glad you posted this. I started the book but also struggled with the beginning. I think I'll give it another try though.
 
2 down, more to come. I'm spending the day in bed nursing another cold.


Better Off Without Him by Dee Ernst. This was an easy read about a romance writer whose husband of 20 years leaves her for a younger woman which changes her life and writing career.

Flying with the Rich and Famous: True Stories from the Flight Attendant who Flew with Them by Patricia Reed. This is exactly what is sounds like and isn't as scandalous as the title might suggest.
 
#2/60 The Dead Run by Adam Mansbach

On both sides of the Mexican American border, girls are going missing and bodies are beginning to surface, a deadly epidemic of crime that plunges a small town police chief into a monster of an investigation he's unequipped to handle.
Sherry Nichols is one of those disappeared girls. Miraculously, she's managed to escape. As the young woman soon discovers freeing herself was the easy part. Lost and alone, she's got to make it through the desert. Alive.
But there are more than coyotes roaming the desert in search of prey. An ancient evil has returned and now everyone must face their deepest terrors.

Sounds better than it actually was. Wouldn't recommend.

Thanks for giving your review. This one sounded interesting to me, since we live on the Mexican American Border and are familiar with crime here.
 


Thanks for giving your review. This one sounded interesting to me, since we live on the Mexican American Border and are familiar with crime here.

Really not worth the read. If the author had stuck with a story line like the description it would have been better but he veered off into something else altogether.
 
Question: How often do you start a book but can't get into it? How much of a chance do you give it?

I started 77 Shadow Street - Dean Koontz. I usually like Dean Koontz books but can't get into it. Not sure if I will continue it or move on to another book.
 
Question: How often do you start a book but can't get into it? How much of a chance do you give it?

I started 77 Shadow Street - Dean Koontz. I usually like Dean Koontz books but can't get into it. Not sure if I will continue it or move on to another book.


I would start a new one personally
 
Finished book #5/70 - See Jane Run by Joy Fielding

This wasn't written well. It's very repetitive and the internal monologue of the main character is quite annoying.

Jane Whittaker has awakened to a nightmare. She doesn't know her name, her age...or even what she looks like. Frightened and confused, she wanders the streets of Boston wearing a blood-soaked dress-and carrying $10,000 in her pocket. Her life has become a vacuum--her past vanished...or stolen. And all that remains is a handsome, unsettling stranger who claims to be her husband, whispered rumors about a dead child whom she cannot recall...and a terrifying premonition that something truly horrible is about to occur.
 
Question: How often do you start a book but can't get into it? How much of a chance do you give it?

I started 77 Shadow Street - Dean Koontz. I usually like Dean Koontz books but can't get into it. Not sure if I will continue it or move on to another book.

Why waste your time?

While not often, I have done this myself.

Harry Potter is not my cup of tea, but since everyone else in the world seems to have read them, I decided to give them a go. I had the final book on my nightstand for about two months. I wasn't reading it, or anything else, because I just wasn't interested. So I decided to quit.

If I really enjoy a book, I look for my time to read it.
 
#1 - Private #1 Suspect by James Patterson

This is the 2nd in the series and the 3rd I've read. I enjoyed it. A quick read. I'll keep working through the series.

#2 - How to Party with an Infant by Kaui Hart Hemmings

I enjoyed this novel about a single mom struggling to figure out life. I didn't hate the main characters (which I sometimes do in books like this), but I did think there should have been some time spent on economic stress. Ignoring that seems like ignoring a large struggle for many single moms.

#3 - The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built by Jack Viertel

This is a fun deconstruction of the structure of a musical. It's about the creating and writing of a show, not how it gets put together once written. I found myself wanted to read more just to see what was discussed next.

#4 - Bridget Jones' Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding

I've been a Bridget Jones fan since the first book came out. This was ok. Quite short, so I read it in a day. But still in the same voice as previous books.

#5 - The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fischer

I enjoyed the parts of this book that talk about her memories of filming Star Wars and her economic struggles later in life because the actors didn't get a piece of the money from the films' success. I didn't really care for the actual diary entries. They read like a young woman trying to be intellectual but really just dealing with the same stuff all young people do.

#6 - Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton

This is a memoir of a successful runner and former olympian. She has undiagnosed bipolar disorder and begins making extreme and risky choices that eventually cause a lot of pain to her family. It's a bit surprising to me that no one picked up on her changing personality, but perhaps when you're in the midst of it, the gradual changes just don't point to it. Some of the reviews talked about her being self-absorbed and it must be nice to have the financial freedom to do as she wished, but I think those miss the point - mental illness can happen, it can happen to anyone, and it can cause havoc on people's lives.

#7 - Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, Sea World, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish by John Hargrove

I'd seen Blackfish and was curious to read more. What I took away from this is that corporate greed can know no bounds. Blaming underpaid animal trainers for their own injuries and/or deaths in order to protect the company is shameful.
 
1/40 - Cakewalk
2/40 - Bookshop on the corner
3/40 - Aloha Quilt

I also read gardening book How to grow more vegetables and cookbook called Run fast eat slow. I won't count them in my true book count as I didn't read page by page.
 
Finished book #1/30- Inferno by Dan Brown. I wanted to read it before watching the movie, but based on the book I am not going to bother seeing the movie.

Started book #2- The Good Neighbor. I got about 6 chapters in and just can't get in to it.

Started new #2 last night- The DaVinci Code. I have read this in the past, loved it and reading Inferno got me thinking about it.
 
Week 3 - I was somewhat of an 'overachiever' and did four books. First, I read With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin which is a Christian fiction book about a nurse and a soldier exchanging letters during WWII. Like with most Christian fiction faith and goodness win and they end up starting a happy ever after life but it was a interesting story with nicely researched WWII details. Next was A Mother's Choice by Kristin Noel Fischer also a Christian fiction book so another happily ever after ending. The third book is if you only knew by Kristan Higgins. This is not Christian fiction but a women's novel - from the back cover "a funny, frank and bittersweet look at marriage, forgiveness and moving on". Fourth and final book for this week is Again, Alabama by Susan Sands another in the women's novel style. Definitely not a Christian novel with a lot more graphic adult content. At the end of the third week I stand at 8 of a 104.
 
3. Desert Heat by JA Jance
First book of the Joanna Brady series. Joanna Brady is a wife and mom with a good life. Her husband is the local deputy sheriff. But her life goes tragically awry when she finds her husband critically injured. Everyone thinks it's attempted suicide but she believes otherwise and sets out to prove it.

I just finished a different book by this author that was part of a different series. I liked this one much better and will ontinue with the series.

4. Dick Francis's Bloodline by Felix Francis
Dick Francis has written tons of mystery books set in the English horse racing community. Although Dick died in 2007 his son Felix took over the series. All stand alone stories, the books are always entertaining. In this one a racing commentator's twin sister falls from a hotel balcony to her death. Everyone thinks it is suicide and the brother sets out to prove it was murder.

How weird that two random picks that I read in a row deal with suicide!

5. Trauma by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer
This is another son author who finishes his father's novel. A 4th year neurosurgeon resident messes up an operation badly and resigns from her post. After she arrives home she stumbles over a job at the VA implanting sensors in brains to help with Parkinson's disease. Her supervisor involves her in promising research that hopefully will cure PTSD in soldiers. But something isn't right... A good medical mystery
 
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