ANNUAL READING GOAL CHALLENGE for 2015!

[kt_mom]

I finished #41- Pines by Blake Crouch last night. I enjoyed it and look forward to the show coming out in May. I started the next one in the series Wayward Pines.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #25 - The Hurricane Sisters by Dorothea Benton Frank

This is about 3 generations of women and they each switch off narrating chapters. I have enjoyed other books by this author (Last Original Wife, for one), but this was not a good book. There was no character development between the 3 women. The chapters all felt like the same woman was talking. Multiple times i had to go back the beginning of the chapters to see who is supposed to be talking. Very predictable storyline, quite boring.

Three generations of women are buried in secrets. The determined matriarch, Maisie Pringle, at eighty, is a force to be reckoned with. Her daughter, Liz, is caught up in the classic maelstrom of being middle-aged and in an emotionally demanding career. And Liz's beautiful twentysomething daughter, Ashley, has dreamy ambitions of her unlikely future that keeps them all at odds.

Next book: Buried Secrets

 

[CajunMomof3]

18/35
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes- Diane Chamberlain

Very intriguing book- I stayed up until midnight to finish it! The story explores the impacts of our actions, some of which can last a lifetime. The struggle for the main character between what is right and what is easy is examined at many junctures in her life. I will definitely be reading more from the author.

 

[timsprincess]

#24/75

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
2/5 stars

I was kind of excited to find this book and read it as I knew it had been on a bunch of lists. And then the book was blah. I did not think the story was great, basically OK. The characters were OK but no one I would be excited to have as a friend. The conclusion was also blah. It seemed to me to be one of those books that is just trying to be thought provoking, deep and a 'book club' book. Well, stop trying so hard to be profound and just tell a compelling, interesting story.

From Goodreads
The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder -- a murder recounted by the teenage victim. Upsetting, you say? Remarkably, first-time novelist Alice Sebold takes this difficult material and delivers a compelling and accomplished exploration of a fractured family's need for peace and closure.

The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished.

Sebold creates a heaven that's calm and comforting, a place whose residents can have whatever they enjoyed when they were alive -- and then some. But Susie isn't ready to release her hold on life just yet, and she intensely watches her family and friends as they struggle to cope with a reality in which she is no longer a part. To her great credit, Sebold has shaped one of the most loving and sympathetic fathers in contemporary literature.

 

[wvjules]

I finished All the Light We Cannot See. It took over a month. lol I've been busy! Anyway, I enjoyed it. I really want to go visit Saint-Malo. It looks beautiful! Too bad I didn't read this book before I went to France in 2013. Actually too bad I didn't read Outlander before I went to Scotland too! I'm just going to start planning vacation based on books I've read! lol

Anyway, on my ride home I'm going to start the Last Letter from Your Lover before I FINALLY get back to Outlander, maybe. I graduate in three weeks, start a new job and will be moving in June so I might wait to start #4 after all that. I want to read it uninterrupted and trying to pack and move will make that difficult.

 

[willowsnn3]

Goal 2

#23 Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton

From the jacket:

The Fletchers' beautiful new house is everything they dreamed it would be. Built between two churches in Heptonclough, a small village on the moors that time forgot, it ought to be paradise for this young family of five, but they barely have a chance to settle in before they find that they're anything but welcome. Someone seems to be trying to drive them away, at first with silly pranks but then with threats that become increasingly dangerous, especially to the oldest child, ten year old Tom, who begins to believe that someone is always watching him.

This was ok, interesting read if you like gothic type suspense.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #26 - Buried Secrets by Irene Hannon

This wasn't as much of a mystery than I thought. You know who did it early on. It's more of a romance story of the 2 detectives solving it. It was ok.

After seven years as a Chicago homicide detective, Lisa Grant has hit a wall. Ready for a kinder, gentler life, she takes a job as a small-town police chief. But the discovery of a human skeleton by a construction crew at the edge of town taxes the resources of her department. A call for assistance brings detective Mac McGregor, an ex-Navy SEAL, to her doorstep. As they work to solve the mystery behind the unmarked grave, danger begins to shadow them. Someone doesn't want this dead person telling any tales--and will stop at nothing to make certain a life-shattering secret stays buried.

Next Book: Where They Found Her

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just finished Sister's Choice by Emile Richards. I still haven't decided how I felt about this book. The storyline was probably pretty interesting…or at least COULD have been interesting, but everything just dragged so much, with so much detail that really wasn't necessary that I kind of lost interest.

 

[xlsm]

finished 13 and 14 of 46.

13. The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World by Susan Veness
This book is dated (the most recent updates are from 2008), but if you ignore that, this is an informative read about the beginnings of each park in Walt Disney World - from the planning stages, the special details, and the hidden secrets. I found it in the bargain section at Barnes and Noble (along with one about Disneyland I'll read at some point) and couldn't pass it up. I especially enjoyed the section on Animal Kingdom. If you're a Disney person, you'll likely know a lot of the info in the book, but there's enough extra stuff to make it worth a read. It's kind of set up to take along with you to the parks, in that there are little, "Can you find..." moments sprinkled here and there, with an answer key in the back. Those parts of the books are typed in bold face for easy reference.

14. Revival by Stephan King
I've been looking forward to this for a long time. About a year before its release, he did an episode of Fresh Air with Terry Gross and he talked about it, and he's one of my all time favorite writers. I enjoyed MOST of the book...the ending climax sort of went off the rails for a bit. The best thing about SK isn't the supernatural or horror aspect of his stories, I think he's one of the best at character development. His real strength is writing a human story, and once again, he delivered on that point. But this is not a book I would recommend to someone who is just discovering Stephen King. It's for a seasoned SK reader who knows his other work.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
As a writer I hate when I see a review that starts, "I was really hoping to like this book".
so I wont start with that but I will say that I expected that this book would be for me. The story/concept was pretty cool kind of a possible end of the world scenario, it just got really slow for me, and I am usually good and enjoy this type of narrated book. First book in a while that I would not recommend.

Anybody interested in any of my books would gladly send kindle or Nook copies. Just finished the cover for the fourth should be publishing any day.
You can see reviews of others on goodreads (Three Twigs for the Campfire, Cemetery Girl, & Written for You).

 

[E&Cmom]

#18/65

The Pocket Wife by Susan H Crawford

From Goodreads:

An amazing talent makes her debut with this stylish psychological thriller—with the compelling intrigue of The Silent Wife and Turn of Mind and the white-knuckle pacing of Before I Go to Sleep—in which a woman suffering from bipolar disorder cannot remember if she murdered her friend during a breakdown.

Dana Catrell is horrified to learn she was the last person to see her neighbor Celia alive. Suffering from a devastating mania, a result of her bipolar disorder, Dana finds that there are troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia's death. As evidence starts to point in her direction, Dana struggles to clear her name before her own demons win out.

Is murder on her mind—or is it all in her head?

The closer she comes to piecing together shards of her broken memory, the more Dana falls apart. Is there a murderer lurking inside her... or is there one out there in the shadows of reality, waiting to strike again? A story of marriage, murder and madness, The Pocket Wife explores the world through the foggy lens of a woman on the edge.

-------------
After reading some great thrillers this year, this one was just OK to me. I figured out they mystery fairly early on and didn't really care for the characters. I gave it a 3/5.

 

[Christine]

#9/50 - Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes

OMG, I finally finished my 9th book. I don't what is wrong with me but I am reading WAY too slow. I think maybe there's just too much good TV on.

Anyway, I know of a lot of you are JoJo Moyes fans and this one didn't disappoint, although it is a bit different from her usual works. This is a fictional account of a historical happening! Synopsis is below. It got off to a bit of a slow start but then, suddenly, I was hooked on the characters and what would happen to them.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You and One Plus One, in an earlier work available in the U.S. for the first time, a post-WWII story of the war brides who crossed the seas by the thousands to face their unknown futures

1946. World War II has ended and all over the world, young women are beginning to fulfill the promises made to the men they wed in wartime.

In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other war brides on an extraordinary voyage to England—aboard HMS Victoria, which still carries not just arms and aircraft but a thousand naval officers. Rules are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier’s captain down to the lowliest young deckhand. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined despite the Navy’s ironclad sanctions. And for Frances Mackenzie, the complicated young woman whose past comes back to haunt her far from home, the journey will change her life in ways she never could have predicted—forever.

 

[kt_mom]

I finished the Wayward Pines trilogy this weekend, books 42 and 43 Wayward Pines and The Last Town by Blake Crouch. I really enjoyed this series and look forward to seeing the show next month.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. I've been working on reading The Diabetes Solution by Dr. Bernstein a chapter here and there so I might just focus on finishing that before I start something else"fun".

 

[nemofans]

Matt Dillon stars in the Pines series.

 

[jenny105]

I just saw the preview for Pines last night and thought of this thread lol

 

[KiKi Mouse]

I finished #41- Pines by Blake Crouch last night. I enjoyed it and look forward to the show coming out in May. I started the next one in the series Wayward Pines.

5/25
I just finished Pines as well. I will start Wayward Pines (6/25) later this week.

 

[camreesmom]

#11/24

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

From Amazon:
Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family–mother, father,brother–had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she’ll learn the devastating truth.

Sometimes it’s better not to know. . . .Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn’t over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous “gifts”–someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one’s innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer’s shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.

I really enjoy this author's style of writing. I find it hard to put down his books....now that I've read two of them straight

Next up: Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline

 

[camreesmom]

18/35
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes- Diane Chamberlain

Very intriguing book- I stayed up until midnight to finish it! The story explores the impacts of our actions, some of which can last a lifetime. The struggle for the main character between what is right and what is easy is examined at many junctures in her life. I will definitely be reading more from the author.

Breaking the Silence by this author was good also. This author is definitely on my favorites list now.

 

[willowsnn3]

Goal 72

#24 Bird Box by Josh Malerman

From Goodreads:

"Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?"

Don't know about this one. It was kinda good, very suspenseful but then kinda disappointing....Like one reviewer said "I need answers", not too many answers in this book, lol.

 

[queenofthehive]

7/25 - Gone Girl

I have to say that I absolutely hated it. It was bizarre, strange and a total let down. I do not understand how it became a best seller much less a movie. I kept thinking it had to get better. I had such good reviews. I guess just not my cup of tea. Yep, my worst book of 2015.