Reading Challenge/Goals for 2024

[Wood Nymph]

I’ve been enjoying books by this author but this one was not my favorite, partly because I really knew nothing about this artifact or the periods in history that the book delves into. So while it was an education I didn’t love the story.

I've read a couple of her books and there have been some that were much better than others.

 

[willowsnn3]

#16/50 Everything Matters by Ron Currie Jr.
In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophecy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in thirty-six years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question: Does anything I do matter? While the voice that has accompanied him since conception appraises his choices, Junior's loved ones emerge with parallel stories-his anxious mother; his brother, a cocaine addict turned pro-baseball phenomenon; his exalted father, whose own mortality summons Junior's best and worst instincts; and Amy, the love of Junior's life and a North Star to his journey through romance and heartbreak, drug-addled despair, and superheroic feats that could save humanity. While our recognizable world is transformed into a bizarre nation at endgame, where government agents conspire in subterranean bunkers, preparing citizens for emigration from a doomed planet, Junior's final triumph confounds all expectation, building to an astonishing and deeply moving resolution.
Kinda interesting but way too many stories going on.

#17/50 Sweet Jiminy by Kristen Gore
In the throes of a quarter-life crisis, Jiminy Davis abruptly quits law school and flees Chicago for her grandmother Willa's farm in rural Mississippi. In search of peace and quiet, Jiminy instead stumbles upon more trouble and turmoil than she could have imagined.
She is shocked to discover that there was once another Jiminy - the daughter of her grandmother's longtime housekeeper, Lyn, who was murdered along with Lyn's husband four decades earlier in a civil rights era hate crime. With the help of Lyn's nephew, Bo, Jiminy sets out to solve the cold case, to the dismay of those who would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie.
Good but not great. Quick read.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I've been reading a lot lately-

#15 "The Long March Home", Marcus Brotherton, 3 stars
Historical Fiction about the Japanese side of WWII.

#16 "The Women", Kristin Hannah, 5 stars
Historical Fiction, this time about women in Vietnam and the aftermath. Wow! And the fact that I remember some of the events they talked about made it a little more interesting.

#17 "Iced Under", Barbara Ross 4 stars
Another Maine Clam Bake Cozy Mystery. Enjoyable Read.

#18 "The Lost Dressmaker of Paris", Suzanne Fortune 4 stars.
A young woman uses her seamstress talents working with the Resistance in Paris during WWII

#19 "The Ball at Versailles" Danielle Steel 3 1/2 stars.
Enjoyable read, but far too predictable, even for Danielle Steel. And all the talk about debutants, the rich and the famous-I found it unreal.

 

[Lumpy1106]

10/20 - "Wild", Cheryl Strayed. 5/5. Loved this book but it's a commitment - over 600 pages. Autobiography of a woman who hiked the Pacific Coast Trail ( a good portion of it anyway) with ZERO previous hiking experience. I found it in the bookstore in the Columbia River gorge where she finished the trek (sorry, spoiler alert)

 

[Wood Nymph]

13/30 - Murder on the Orient Express - by Agatha Christie

This is one of those mysteries that I will reread after I finish the book. I like to go back in a book to pick up the clues I missed.

Of course it was a good story. It is one of the most famous books, although I knew nothing about the plot.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Happy World Book Day!

 

[Kirby]

0/75 Tress of The Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson.

I need to check out his books. He did a great job with the last several of Robert Jordan's books in his Wheel of Time series.

11/32 - Walk the Wire by David Baldacc

I've started this series, need to get back to it.

#16 "The Women", Kristin Hannah, 5 stars

This is my book club's pick to read in June.

10/20 - "Wild", Cheryl Strayed. 5/5. Loved this book but it's a commitment - over 600 pages.

I enjoyed this book also. My nephew walked the Appalachian Trail from top to bottom 15 years ago. He has some good stories about it.

#27 - House of Earth and Blood: Book 1 of Crescent City Series by Sarah J. Maas. Genre - Paranormal Romance 5/5
Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party, and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasures Lunathion - also known as Crescent City - has to offer. But when a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, Bryce's world comes crashing down.
Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city's most notorious nightclubs - but seeking only oblivion now. Then the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can't forget any longer.
As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery and their own dark pasts, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents and down to the deepest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir ...

 

[CdnCarrie]

Book 38 started - The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

 

[melk]

10/30 None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

Two women meet by chance on their forty-fifth birthdays and they dub themselves “birthday twins.” Their lives become entwined and one of them is not quite who she appears to be.

Twisty and suspenseful, every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, it didn’t! Quick read that kept me hooked.

 

[Needsanap]

28 Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

29 Simply Lies by David Baldacci

 

[Kirby]

#28 - The Guest House By the Sea by Faith Hogan
Genre - Romance
I give it 3/5.
People come to the guest house for fresh air and views across the Atlantic. But if they're lucky, they might just leave with the second chance they didn't know they needed...

Esme has run the guest house for as long as anyone in Ballycove can remember. But in her declining years, her sight is failing, and when she has a fall on the eve of the summer season, she is forced to take a back seat for the first time in her life.

From her chair in the entry hall, not much passes Esme by. There's Cora, the wife visiting indefinitely... without her husband; Niamh, the city professional with a life-changing decision to make; and Phyllie, the grandmother whose family is slipping away from her.

Esme's guests provide the colour that helps her keep her grip on the world. All of them have something they want to escape – or to hold on to. But can Esme help them find their way before the summer is over?

 

[disneychrista]

#17 - The Menopause Manifesto - Jen Gunter (Audio) This book had some good information about what the author calls the menopause transition. Is it getting hot in here or is it just me.

#18 - It Doesn't Have to Be Awkward : Dealing with Relationship, Consent and other Hard-Talk-About Stuff by Drew & Paulina Pinsky. (Audio) This was really geared toward teens, which I didn't realize when I first started it. I would recommend this for teenagers just beginning to date. It really did have some great information.

#19 - The Bad Weather Friend - Dean Koontz

#20 - The F*ck It Diet : Eating Should be Easy - Caroline Dooner (Audio) This had some good insight about eating, dieting and getting out of the diet cycle. I don't know that I completely agreed with what the author proposes and probably won't completely incorporate (all) her ideas into my life/eating.
**Note: this is not trying to get around the censor this is the actual title of the book, complete with the "*".

#21 - Weird But True! Disney : 300 Wonderful Fact to Celebrate the Magic of Disney by National Geographic Kids (yes another cheat book)

I have started listening to "self help/improvement" books when I take my evening walks. I like that they give me something to think about and focus on.

 

[Beezle2]

Book 8 of 24 - Rogue Protocol (The MurderBot Diaries #3) - Martha Wells
Book 9 of 24 - Dark Matter - Blake Crouch

I don't know what made me pick up Dark Matter. I have come to find multiverse fiction shallow and indulgent, and this one is dumber than usual.

I love Murder Bot! Also wondering if you are going to watch the new Dark Matter show that is coming out on 5/4? I haven't read the book but am looking forward to the show.

 

[Beezle2]

31/75 The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
This is a book about books. About story telling, love, and belonging. Totally magical and filled with the kind of wonder that is usually only found in kids books like Narnia. In this story the doors to other realms work for adults who go looking for a bit of adventure. I really liked it and was enchanted.