Annual reading challenge 2018- Join in on the Fun

[Christine]

#11/20: The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin. Another fiction based on historical accounts (seems to be all I read these days!). This book went into a lot of the women's roles in the silent movie industry. It featured Mary Pickford as one of the "girls" but the story was narrated by her best friend, who managed to break in the business as a screenwriter. It spanned many years, up through the production of regular movies and how the silent film actors tried to survive. The book was interesting, from a Hollywood perspective, just to see how the cinema world started and evolved, mainly to the detriment of the actors and writers. Within that was the internal, personal friendship of the two women.

#12/20: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. This was turned out to be a real page-turner. It's a psychological/suspense type book sort of like Gone Girl. I enjoyed the pace of the book and the characters and the whole puzzle of it.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I need to go get this book at the library (they don't have an e-book for it) but I've already got 3 books in my queue!

I just started "The Troop" by the same author. It gets slightly better reviews that Little Heaven did so I am excited!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

#7/30: The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester (5/5). A murder mystery of sorts that takes place amidst the suffragette movement in London. Fantastic story telling and I learned a lot about the suffragette movement.

 

[scrhsa]

6/30: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (Yes, again. I'll never get tired of JP).

I'm re-reading Jurassic Park right now. My all time favorite book! This must be about my 5th time reading it. I'ts been awhile so it feels tad bit new for me

 

[willowsnn3]

#15/50

Ember by Brock Adams

from Goodreads: Three years ago, the sun began to die. In a desperate attempt to reignite the failing star, the United States had joined the rest of the planet in unloading its nuclear arsenal at the flickering ember. The missiles burst from silos in Wyoming and Bangladesh, cocooning the earth in tendrils of smoke as they began their two-and-a-half year journey into space. When they finally reach their target, it’s thirty degrees in July and getting colder. Lisa and her husband, Guy, sit shivering on a Southern hilltop, watching as humanity’s last hope at survival shimmers faintly...and then disappears below the horizon. A group of militant rebels called the Minutemen take advantage of the ensuing chaos to knock out power grids, cloaking the freezing earth in near darkness. Seizing control. To escape this ruthless new world order, Lisa and Guy join a reluctant band of refugees crossing the snow-covered South in search of shelter and answers. From an icy parking lot in Atlanta to the Minutemen’s makeshift headquarters at Asheville’s Biltmore Estate, only one thing is certain: in a world with little light, nothing is guaranteed—least of all survival.

Just ok. Typical dystopian plot. World getting dim, bad guys trying to take over, good guys fighting back....

 

[tiggrbaby]

#27/90: Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie (3.5/5) (WWII memoir)
Written in the 50s, goes from Marine boot camp through battles in the Pacific theater.

#28/90: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (4.5) (historical fiction)
Based on the real life case from 1800s Canada. also a miniseries on Netflix.

 

[Christine]

Just a quick note back to Coswell Cogs: I just realized that on the 1st thread you are summarizing books and authors. That's GREAT!!! Thanks for moderating this thread and doing such a great job with it.

 

[bobbiwoz]

23/50 Twenty-one Days by Anne Perry

Yeah, one of my favorite authors is now writing about Daniel Pitt, the son of Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, and we are now in the Edwardian Era of England.

 

[Tiggerish]

The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor. Historical fiction. Story of Maggie, a young Irish girl traveling to America on the Titanic, steerage class. The girl gets the last seat on the last lifeboat to leave the doomed ship. She eventually makes her way in America but never, ever speaks of having been on the Titanic. Finally, she tells her story to her great-granddaughter who writes it up and has it published in a Chicago newspaper. As a result, the great-granddaughter gets back on track with her life, Maggie reconnects with another girl from her original village who was also on the Titanic, revisits Ireland and dies happy. It was an interesting read.

21/50

 

[Tiggerish]

Girls in White Dresses: A Detective London McKenna Novel by Alex Gates. Police Procedural/Psychological Thriller. Detective McKenna is unique -she survived kidnapping and torture from an infamous serial killer. While she escaped, the serial killer remains at large. But the book is not about him. Instead she has marshalled the insights and insecurities the incident has left her to make her successful as a police officer tracking missing persons. The girls in white dresses refers to young girls being kidnapped, taken to a remote, hidden farm and groomed to become child brides for older men. The girls are groomed to get pregnant and increase their husband's family in a twisted religious cult. This is not a type of book I read often but it was recommended by a friend and I could not stop reading once I started. There are several more books in the series but this book was so intense I think I will wait awhile before trying another.

22/52

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

#9 Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich(Stephanie Plum series #24)

Third book of the series that I've read. These books are always funny with silly plots. Kind of like an adult Scooby-Do though this was far sillier and not as funny as the other two I read. Or maybe I have just had enough of the series, might try an earlier one but think I will pass on #25.


If anyone is interested, I would gladly send a kindle gift version of any of my works “Written for You”, “Three Twigs for the Campfire”, “Cemetery Girl” or “Reigning”. You can see them all reviewed at Goodreads. If you are interested in reading any just message me. Hopefully releasing two new works as well soon so any one interested in possibly being beta reader again just let me know.

 

[Tiggerish]

Such Good Girls: The Journey of the Holocaust's Hidden Child Survivors by R.D. Rosen. Non-fiction. The book starts off by telling the stories of three different Jewish girls, one Polish, one French and one Dutch that survived the holocaust because they were hidden. The books goes beyond what happened during the war and explores what happened in the aftermath and the effect the "hiding" had on them for the rest of their lives.

23/52

 

[tiggrbaby]

#29/90: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (5/5) (historical fiction/Japanese internment)
Story goes between 1942 and 1986. Chinese-American boy is separated from the Japanese-American girl he loves.

#30/90: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (4/5) (contemporary fiction)
Socially inept young woman with a traumatic past negotiates life with a new crush and a new coworker, leading to revelations about her past.

#31/90: Close to Home (Tracy Crosswhite #5) by Robert Dugoni (4/5) (detective mystery)
Tracy is trying to solve the hit and run death of a young boy while dealing with infertility issues, and a coworker is trying to find the dealer who provided his niece with the drugs that led to her overdose death.

 

[NJlauren]

8/40 Lilac Girls by: Martha Hall Kelly, read this since so many here liked it. And I really liked it too! A book about WW2, slightly different from others I have read which was good.

Very happy I read this book. I am a bit behind on my books for the year, hopefully I’ll find another book I love!

 

[pigletto]

Finished #6- Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercey. It’s an 800 page WW2 epic that I read in my 20’s and loved. It’s now 20 years later so I had forgotten all but the basic plot. I reread it, and I loved it again.

Finished #7 All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - Bryn Greenwood. This one is pretty controversial and for good reason. I won’t go into it here, but I was uncomfortable with it and I think it glamorized something that shouldn’t be. I wasn’t a fan. I also think it was fairly well written and could start one hell of a book club debate and that was probably the point.

My next book will be a short read “Brooklyn” by Colm Tobin. I LOVED the movie and hope to enjoy the book.

 

[Tiggerish]

Craig & Fred by Craig Grossi. Autobiography. A Marine, a stray dog, and how they rescued each other. Craig is the marine who was special ops in Afghanistan when he found the dog and named him Fred. He manages to get the dog shipped back to his family in the United States. The story alternates between his time in the service and his life after returning the civilian life in the states. He suffered a traumatic brain injury during combat and suffers from PTSD. It was a fast read but not at all whinny.

24/52

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

#10 The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille

Really like author though I have yet to bring myself to read Plum Island though - I really want to if I could get over the bugs.
I liked the story a good deal. Somewhat stereotypical characters, but still enjoyed them and the action. I was expecting more description of scenes in Cuba, but still overall liked the book.


If anyone is interested, I would gladly send a kindle gift version of any of my works “Written for You”, “Three Twigs for the Campfire”, “Cemetery Girl” or “Reigning”. You can see them all reviewed at Goodreads. If you are interested in reading any just message me. Hopefully releasing two new works as well soon so any one interested in possibly being beta reader again just let me know.

 

[willowsnn3]

#16 D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton
Another installment with the private detective Kinsey Millhone.

#17 The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain

This is one I picked up on my last trip to the library. It was at the bottom of the stack and I kept putting off starting it & for some reason I thought about returning it when I finished the others. Sooo glad I didn't as it turns out it could possible be the best book I've read so far this year.

From Goodreads:
"One mistake, one fateful night, and Tess DeMello’s life is changed forever.

It is 1944. Pregnant, alone, and riddled with guilt, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly gives up her budding career as a nurse and ends her engagement to the love of her life, unable to live a lie. Instead, she turns to the baby’s father for help and agrees to marry him, moving to the small, rural town of Hickory, North Carolina. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows her no affection. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry but see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. When one of the town’s golden girls dies in a terrible accident, everyone holds Tess responsible. But Henry keeps his secrets even closer now, though it seems that everyone knows something about him that Tess does not.

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes Hickory, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess knows she is needed and defies Henry’s wishes to begin working at there. Through this work, she begins to find purpose and meaning. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle the truth behind her husband’s mysterious behavior and find the love—and the life—she was meant to have?"

Definitely recommend this one.

 

[KrazyPete]

The kind of book that trips up my reading goals...

#4 "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" by Robin Sloan
It felt imaginative and contrived at the same time. I found the ending to be unsatisfying. I think the author knew it and wrote some of the characters as unsatisfied too. He used the epilogue to reiterate the point of the story but the last page was in sight and I just wanted to get to my next book. This is the kind of book that I'm not excited to pick up, but it isn't bad enough for me to give up. So it ends up taking me a long time to finish reading it. I find myself playing a few games of Clash Royale instead of reading a chapter. It was just a good book, not great.

 

[willowsnn3]

#18/50

The End We Start From by Megan Hunter

From Goodreads: In the midst of a mysterious environmental crisis, as London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, the family are forced to leave their home in search of safety. As they move from place to place, shelter to shelter, their journey traces both fear and wonder as Z's small fists grasp at the things he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds.

This is a story of new motherhood in a terrifying setting: a familiar world made dangerous and unstable, its people forced to become refugees. Startlingly beautiful, Megan Hunter's The End We Start From is a gripping novel that paints an imagined future as realistic as it is frightening. And yet, though the country is falling apart around them, this family’s world – of new life and new hope – sings with love.

I normally don't care for books with this style of writing, but this one was pretty good. It was a short one thankfully, 136 pages, or I might not have even started it.