Annual reading challenge 2018- Join in on the Fun

31/50

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

I decided to give it another try.

So how was it? That's another book that I've read and enjoyed.
Update time!
#22 Me Before You by JoJo Moyes-I liked this one. Ending was a surprise.
#23 A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber-I usually love this author, but this book was only 2/5
#24 The Girl I Used to Know by Faith Hogan-also not my cup of tea
#25 Unbroken forgot the author-forgettable book for me

Just started a cozy mystery after this bunch of forgettable books.
 
#10/40: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
#11/40: Bone Music Christopher Rice
#12/40: End of Watch by Stephen King
#13/40: The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
#14/40: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
 
So how was it? That's another book that I've read and enjoyed.
Update time!
#22 Me Before You by JoJo Moyes-I liked this one. Ending was a surprise.
#23 A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber-I usually love this author, but this book was only 2/5
#24 The Girl I Used to Know by Faith Hogan-also not my cup of tea
#25 Unbroken forgot the author-forgettable book for me

Just started a cozy mystery after this bunch of forgettable books.
It was a tough read for me, but I wanted to get to the ending. It is not a book I would recommend.

I have a friend who really likes Jojo Moyes, I will try this one. I have never read her.
 
#11 was Himself by Jess Kidd. I liked this one . I wouldn’t say I loved it but it does grab your attention right out of the gate and it’s got some really interest mythical and Irish folklore elements that make it very different from your average mystery.

Blending strange kindnesses, casual violence and buried secrets: an unforgettable debut from a dark new voice in Irish fiction
When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck a place on Ireland’s west coast, he brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the village’s lies.
 


Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly - finally got this after being on my libraries ebook waitlist for more than a month. The reviews of this book has been mixed but I liked it. It is historical fiction - fiction based on true stories but with created characters and dialogue. It was well researched and had a large amount of information about the only women's concentration camp in WWII. It is basically alternating chapters about three women, a New York socialite, a Polish prisoner of war and a German doctor who worked at the concentration camp and takes part in some of the horrific medical experiments. In the first part all the stories are separate, in the second part the Polish and German stories intertwine and in the third part all three stories intersect.

30/52
 
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#47/90: The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty (4/5) (historical fiction/Louise Brooks/1920s)

Liked the background info on silent film star Louise Books enough to request her memoir. Most of the book was about the fictional chaperone, who had multiple issues to overcome.
 


To The Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder by Nancy Rommelmann. The author describes this book as "reported nonfiction". It tells the true story of a woman who threw two of her children, a 4 year old and 6 year old, off a bridge. The younger child drowned but the older child was rescued. At least a quarter of the book was the author bemoaning the fact none of the principle players or their family members would talk with her. I read it to the end thinking she would wrap things up; she did not. It was a waste of time.

I Will Love You Forever by Cori Salchert with Marianne Hering. From the book cover, "A true story about finding life, hope and healing while caring for hospice babies." When a health issue makes it impossible for Cori to return to her nursing job, her family agrees to help her take in a foster child. The child is a baby born with severe condition that means she will not live very long and has been abandoned in the hospital by her birth mother. Cori and her family take the baby home and care for her for the 50 days she lives. That leads to taking in a series of terminal children. I would classify the book as Christian inspirational and an easy read.

31 and 32/52
 
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33/50. Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride

We had table mates from Scotland who recommended this series to me. I finally got around to reading this first of the series. I may try one more. I think they may be too violent for me.
 
34/50

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

It brought “The Brutal Telling” to a more satisfying conclusion!
 
36/50 Gerard by L. L. Muir

37/50 Liam by Diane Darcy

38/50 Kennedy by L. L. Muir

These three were a continuation of the Ghosts of Culloden Moor series. Same plot that they are given a chance to do a good deed and leave the moor.

39/50 When Night Comes by Dan Walsh

Read this after reading someone's review. Great book and really enjoyed it so much that I read

40/50 Remembering Dresden by Dan Walsh The second book in the Jack Turner series. Synopsis is again from Amazon.

Young history professor, Jack Turner, takes a retreat at a lakeside cabin just outside of Culpepper, Georgia to work on his doctoral dissertation. The cabin is owned by an ambitious state senator, an inheritance from his father. Inside, everything is exactly the way it was when the old man died ten years ago. While taking a break from his research, Jack snoops through the father’s books and finds an old photo album filled with black-and-white pictures of orphaned children. Intrigued, he continues searching and finds what appears to be evidence of murder and an old leather journal, handwritten entirely in German. Rachel Cook, Jack’s girlfriend, translates the journal for him. What it reveals instantly puts both of their lives in mortal danger.

41/50 Unintended Consequences by Dan Walsh Book 3 in the series
Jack and Rachel leave Culpepper for their long-awaited honeymoon trip, a driving tour through New England. On day three, they stop at a little bayside town in Cape Cod to visit Jack’s grandmother. After he gets called away to handle an emergency, Rachel stays and listens as Jack’s grandmother shares a remarkable story about how she and Jack’s grandfather met in the early days of World War 2. It’s a story filled with danger, decades-old family secrets, daring rescues and romance. Jack is named after his grandfather, and this story set the course and direction for Jack’s life to the present day. After hearing it, Rachel is amazed that anyone survived.

42/50 Ten Thousand Sorrows by Elizabeth Kim

This is the story of a Korean War child. Her mother is killed by her family for having a mixed race and out of wedlock child. She is taken to an orphanage where she is eventually adopted by a fundamentalist Christian family. She never fits in Korea for being to American and she never really fits in America for being to Asian. It's a story of a woman trying to find herself in a world where she feels she doesn't truly fit.

This book was fascinating and horrifying. Elizabeth Kim went through so much to eventually try and find her place in the world and some peace.
 
#12 Lilac Girls. It’s been reviewed several times in this thread. I liked it well enough and thought it was well done. It doesn’t touch the level of detail that was in Gone To Soldiers that I read earlier in the year so I was left kind of flat it wasn’t bad, just didn’t get as in depth. I preferred Gone to Soldiers but would recommend both for historical WW2 fiction.
 
#48/90: I Know a Secret (Rizzoli and Isles) by Tess Gerritsen (4/5) (homicide/suspense)
They need to tie seemingly unrelated deaths to catch a killer. Past relationships cause tensions for Maura and Angela.
 
35/50

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

I am reading though the series. Enjoyable.
 
A little more catching up...

20. A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray by Ann M Martin
I love dogs so of course I had to read this. It told the story from the dog's point of view from puppy hood to late life. Loved it.

21. The Glass Blower's Apprentice by Peter Pezzelli
A young dancer is getting ready to leave his small Italian town when tragedy strikes ending his chance of a dance career. He goes to live with his uncle in America who is a glass blower learning the trade and resolving his anger. Liked it.

22. Someday Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
A fictional account of a young actress in New York and her ordeal of trying to be successful. It was fun.

23. The Good Dream by Donna LanViere
The story of a single woman in her thirties who has practically given up on thoughts of her own family when a young boy steals his way into her heart. Set in 1950 TN. I liked it.

24. Unwritten by Charles Martin
A young actress with problems she is trying to escape. A man who just wants be alone and has his own demons. A priest who brings them together. Enjoyable

25. Make Me by Lee Child
Jack Reacher #20. What is going on in this tiny town out in the middle of nowhere? Of course Jack has to stick around to find out..and fix it! good installment

26. The Promise by Ann Weisgarber
1900. A young musician finds herself the center of a scandal and runs away from her city life in Ohio to marry a childhood sweetheart in Galveston, TX. Enjoyable

27. Last One Home by Debbie Macomber
A woman estranged from her sister for years tries to reconcile with them. it was sweet and emotional

28. Gathering Prey by John Sandford
Lucas Davenport Prey series #25 I dont know how I never read any of this series before. Started with this one and then went on the the first one. This was a good thriller, rather violent. Lucas investigates a group of Travelers when one who his daughter has befriended is murdered.

29. Never Go Back by Lee Child
Jack Reacher #18 Jack returns to visit his old unit and finds himself accused of a sixteen year old murder. Good
 
36/50

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Read this because it’s been recommended here. I did enjoy reading it, and will try another by the author.
 
36/50

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Read this because it’s been recommended here. I did enjoy reading it, and will try another by the author.

There are two sequels to this book: After You and Still Me .
 

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