Annual Reading Challenge 2019

[willowsnn3]

#7/50

Crazyhouse by James Patterson

Seventeen-year-old Becca Greenfield was snatched from her home and thrown without reazon into a hellish prison known as the Crazy House. To avoid execution, she’s told to shut her mouth and keep her head down.

Becca was never really good at either.

Her only hope for survival is for her sister, Cassie, to find her—that the “good twin” will stop following the rules and start breaking them, before it’s too late. Because the jailers at Crazy House soon discover they made a mistake that could get both sisters killed…

YA book, easy read, could possibly become a series but doubtful that I would read the sequel. Just didn't do anything for me.

 

[KevM]

Last year I hit my goal of 156 books, but boy was that time consuming. So this year I’m starting off with a much more relaxed goal of 52. In January I read 10. They were:

1) Forward: A Memoir by Abby Wambach - The memoir of star USWNT member & all time international scorer. While soccer certainly takes center stage, this covers a whole lot more than just that part of her life: everything from her coming out to her battles with alcoholism and addiction. 4/5

2) Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - Contemporary Japanese fiction. It the story of a mid-30s woman working at a convenience store. 3.75/5

3) The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry - Young Adult Thriller. A young woman wakes up badly beaten in a remote cabin with two guys standing over her discussing killing her. Escaping with no memories, she needs to figure out who she is and why people want her dead. 4.25/5

4) Barracoon: The Story Of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston - In 1927 & 1932 Hurston meet with Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to transport Africans to the US. 3.75/5

5) “All the Real Indians Died Off” And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz & Dina Gilio-Whitaker - The 21 myths covered here range from Columbus discovering America to sport mascots honoring Native Americans. 4/5

6) Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life by Dana Torres - Torres’ memoir centered around her ‘08 Beijing Olympic swimming comeback at the age of 41. More than just her swimming career the memoir covers everything from her becoming a mother for the first time at 40 to her dad’s long battle with cancer. 4/5

7) Daughters of the Night Sky by Aimie K. Runyan - Historical Fiction. This tells the fictional story of a member of Russia’s famed Night Witches, an all woman night bomber regiment in WWII. 4.25/5

8) The Zoo Keeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman - WWII Non-Fiction. Tells the story of Antonina Zabinski and her husband, Dr. Jan Zabinski in WWII Poland. The Zabinski’s were the owners of the Warsaw zoo, which in the early days of the Nazis invasion of Poland was heavily hit. During the war they were members of the Polish underground and their zoo was used as a safe house for an estimated 300 escaping Jews. Being non-fiction, there were parts that were dry. 3.5/5

9) A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - Contemporary Fiction. The story of four friends from their college days into their 40s. A good read, but some real tough subject matters. Personally felt that it was a bit longer than it needed to be. 4.25/5

10) Song, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - Fiction. The 2019 selection for One Book, One Philadelphia. Set in rural Mississippi this is a story of the power and limitations of the bonds of family, the hardships and heart of the American story. 3.75/5

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

7 Karen and the chicken pox and m Martin

This is for 2ed grade but curiosity got the the best of me and it was only 1.99 on Amazon kindle

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

8 dawn California dairy one

 

[design_mom]

#7/24 - Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton. I used to read these as soon as they came out but I fell behind at some point. A pretty decent story, although I think when I started reading them they were set in "present day" but time passed faster than she could write them... so this one (her most recent, and last) took place in 1989. Kinsey has no cell phone, uses a typewriter not a computer, etc.

 

[tiggrbaby]

#7/24 - Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton. I used to read these as soon as they came out but I fell behind at some point. A pretty decent story, although I think when I started reading them they were set in "present day" but time passed faster than she could write them... so this one (her most recent, and last) took place in 1989. Kinsey has no cell phone, uses a typewriter not a computer, etc.

I vaguely remember reading that her intention was to keep the series limited to the 80s and end with Z. Unfortunately, she passed before she was able to complete the series.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

You mean she made it to "Y"?

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

56 is my new goal

 

[CallieMar]

9/50 Puddin' by Julie Murphy -not exactly a sequel to Dumplin', more like a companion novel. Cute book

10/50 The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #4) - This was ok. I did really like the heroine, a proud feminist running her own paper and working for women's rights. I feel like the hero should have been a lot more compelling with his history but I think I just am not warming up to this author's writing.

11/50 The Dark Days Deceit (Lady Helen #3) - Started out a bit slow but oooh it got really good towards the middle. I was perfectly satisfied with the ending, which is hard to say about a lot of series!

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

#3 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Reread - as I have seen the movie finally and had forgotten much about book.
Book and Movie so different. There are parts of each I like more and less. Cannot figure out which I liked more book or movie. Even the endings each had parts I liked more and parts I liked less.

As always 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 (Click link to view books). If you are interested in reading any just message me here or at Goodreads.

 

[TexasBee]

Sometimes I get bad eye strain but I'm going to jump in for a modest 20, but hoping to do more.

How do you read? Actual print? You might try a Paperwhite, I like it because it's backlit and I find it's not nearly as hard on my eyes. I've pretty much given actual print books up altogether. There's also audio books.

 

[TexasBee]

10 / 115 - Repeat - Pollack, Neil - This is commonly billed as a Groundhog Day type book. I didn't like it nearly as much. Guy has to live the first 40 years of his life over and over, each time waking up on his 40th birthday back in the womb but with all his knowledge, memories, etc. intact. I just didn't love the main character. 3 stars.

11 / 115 - Act of Will - Hartley, AJ - Fantasy as told by an actor, who seems to come from sort of a Shakespearean background. Pretty funny and you end up liking the main character quite a bit - he is no hero but is OK with that. And the ending is very feel-good. I'll read the next one. 4 stars.

12 / 115 - Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud - Greenwood, Elizabeth. I loved this one. I've recently been researching another type of fraud for a project so I'm into fraud at the moment, but this is a fascinating book. Really interesting read (listen) and I gave it 5 stars.

 

[willowsnn3]

#7/24 - Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton. I used to read these as soon as they came out but I fell behind at some point. A pretty decent story, although I think when I started reading them they were set in "present day" but time passed faster than she could write them... so this one (her most recent, and last) took place in 1989. Kinsey has no cell phone, uses a typewriter not a computer, etc.

Ohh, I've got to get back to these. I finished "F" last year. Or maybe it was "G" lol.

Just checked last year's list. I made it thru "I". Going to library site now to put next one on hold.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

#2) Jumped in a little late, just finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I liked this story, about a wild feral girl abused/neglected and eventually abandoned, who learns to fend for herself growing up out in the marshes of North Carolina. A sad but moving and uplifting story, with beautiful descriptions of the wildlife, with twists and turns. I enjoyed it.

I just want to mention that I also had tried to read Pride and Prejudice, a downloaded Kindle version. I love the story, but the Kindle version I downloaded was horrible, so full of grammatical, punctuation errors and misspellings that I was so frustrated that I decided not to read further.

 

[Colleen27]

#19/130 - Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

Inspired by a Pulitzer-prize winning photograph taken during the Great Depression of a sign offering children for sale, the story traces the fallout from a staged picture on the reporter who took it, the secretary/aspiring female reporter who brought it to their editor's attention, and most of all, on the children in the picture who were ultimately sold. The narrative wandered at times in its effort to weave together a LOT of threads - both main characters' family issues, the children's experiences before and after the sale, their mother's circumstances, the tragedy that led the wealthy man who bought them to but a child in the first place - and tried to deal with a lot of themes about family, class, gender, conscience and professional ethics. It was still a good read, but it sometimes felt like there was just too much going on and some of the side plots went nowhere or didn't seem to add much to the whole.

#20/130 - A Bound Heart by Laura Frantz

Historical fiction with a romantic slant, dealing with the experiences of two Scots, one guilty, one innocent, who were transported to the Americas as punishment for their crimes. The historical detail in this was well done, but I had a hard time really caring about any of the characters enough to be really invested in the story. The main character was just bleh - sweet and almost painfully naive - and her circumstances too charmed to be believable.

 

[Simba's Mom]

#19/130 - Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

Inspired by a Pulitzer-prize winning photograph taken during the Great Depression of a sign offering children for sale, the story traces the fallout from a staged picture on the reporter who took it, the secretary/aspiring female reporter who brought it to their editor's attention, and most of all, on the children in the picture who were ultimately sold. The narrative wandered at times in its effort to weave together a LOT of threads - both main characters' family issues, the children's experiences before and after the sale, their mother's circumstances, the tragedy that led the wealthy man who bought them to but a child in the first place - and tried to deal with a lot of themes about family, class, gender, conscience and professional ethics. It was still a good read, but it sometimes felt like there was just too much going on and some of the side plots went nowhere or didn't seem to add much to the whole.

Oh-oh, it sounds like you weren't thrilled with this book. I'm currently on the waiting list for this book, but your review is giving me pause about reading it.

 

[mini22]

4/30 Fairytail by Danielle Steel

 

[Colleen27]

Oh-oh, it sounds like you weren't thrilled with this book. I'm currently on the waiting list for this book, but your review is giving me pause about reading it.

It wasn't bad or anything. I just felt like it could have used a more assertive editor or something to pare down the side plots and backstories a bit. 'Show, don't tell' is a good mantra when writing fiction, but it can be taken too far!

 

[design_mom]

#8 of 24: Freaky Deaky Tiki -- This is a silly beach-read kind of novel involving a mystical island. This is the 3rd in a series that were all free to borrow through Amazon Prime. Not high literature, but I enjoyed the story well enough.

Question for Kindle and library users: I got a Kindle Paperwhite for christmas and have been doing my reading on it. My library offers eBooks via Libby/Overdrive and Hoopla. I have checked out some books via Libby and have read them on my Kindle, but I can't figure out how to do it with Hoopla. Do I understand correctly that Hoopla only works with tablets (Kindle Fire, etc) and does NOT work with the e-Readers?

 

[Disney_Alli]

#8 of 24: Freaky Deaky Tiki -- This is a silly beach-read kind of novel involving a mystical island. This is the 3rd in a series that were all free to borrow through Amazon Prime. Not high literature, but I enjoyed the story well enough.

Question for Kindle and library users: I got a Kindle Paperwhite for christmas and have been doing my reading on it. My library offers eBooks via Libby/Overdrive and Hoopla. I have checked out some books via Libby and have read them on my Kindle, but I can't figure out how to do it with Hoopla. Do I understand correctly that Hoopla only works with tablets (Kindle Fire, etc) and does NOT work with the e-Readers?

I mostly use Hoopla for audio content and just use it on my phone. My ereader is a kobo and doesn't support any apps so I can't help there sorry.