Annual Reading Challenge--2020

[BonnieF]

6/50 - Us Against You, Frederic Backman. I didn’t enjody this as much as Beartown. Just couldn’t take the heavyhanded foreshadowing.

 

[JennM]

6/42 Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng - picked this one up at the local library book sale based on appealing cover blurb and decent ratings on Goodreads. I thought it was above average but did not get invested in any of the characters.

 

[Tiggerish]

I have fallen behind in my posting, so here goes:

The Shaman's Secret - A Manny Rivers Mystery by Rich Curtin. This series is set in rural Utah. I have read one other book in this series and enjoyed it so when I had a chance to get a free download of a second one, I jumped on the opportunity. It was even better than the first one.

A Model Bride by Autumn Macarthur. Christian romantic fiction with happy ending.

One Hundred Heartbeats - An Aspen Cove Romance by Kelly Collins. Happily ever after ending romantic fiction. Not Christian so much adult content.

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. I download this from the library after reading this:

1/50 This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.
This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.
This is how children change…and then change the world.
This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.
When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

I love, love, love this book. One of the most beautiful stories I have ever read.

I admired the writing style and the story line was realistic, unusual and amazing.

I Only Wanted to Live -The Struggle of a Boy to Survive the Holocaust by Arie Tamir. I found this to be a shallow account and not all that interesting.


4-8 of 80

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I haven't read alot this year because I almost died 1/19. I had to have major life saving surgery, 8 days in ICU. Now my pain is getting under control so I am starting to read again. Here is what I read so far this year.

1. Forever Friends by Sarah Mackenzie - Sweet story about friendship
2. Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy CoCo - cozy mystery
3. Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis - Holiday novella collection

 

[willowsnn3]

I haven't read alot this year because I almost died 1/19. I had to have major life saving surgery, 8 days in ICU. Now my pain is getting under control so I am starting to read again. Here is what I read so far this year.

1. Forever Friends by Sarah Mackenzie - Sweet story about friendship
2. Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy CoCo - cozy mystery
3. Merry and Bright by Jill Shalvis - Holiday novella collection

Ohhh, hope you will be feeling better soon!

 

[Colleen27]

#19/156 - Bride of the Sea by Emma Hamm

Another fairy tale retelling, this one a take on The Little Mermaid, set in the same world of fairies and Celtic myths as the Beauty and the Beast duo I read earlier this month. I found this one harder to get into, partly because I just don't love the underlying story as much as BatB and partly because the romance was much less character-dependent and more fairy tale "love at first sight" sort of thing. But it was still a fun little book. I'm not sure I'll continue on with the series, though, as the next title follows a character I didn't particularly like in the original books and retells a fairy tale I don't have much familiarity with at all.

#20 - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Yeah, I reread it again, just in time for the new season of the show to start. And as good as the show has been, the book is still better.

#21 - That Wild Country: An Epic Journey Through the Past, Present and Future of America's Public Lands by Mark Kenyon

This was an absolutely incredible read that I'd strongly recommend to anyone who has ever enjoyed the National Parks and other public lands of the American landscape. Kenyon is an outdoors blogger and podcaster and a hunter-conservationist, and he tells the history of the protection of wild places in America through the lens of both academic research and his own travels to some of the most famous and most remote public lands. In doing so, he casts the current attempts to scale back the protection of those lands in their proper historical context as part of a battle that has spanned more than a century and presents a beautiful case that the love of America's national parks and forests is an issue that crosses traditional partisan lines and brings people together on the common ground of wanting to see these places protected for future generations.

 

[monarchsfan16]

13/30: Calypso by David Sedaris: Very readable. Quirky, humorous, at times crass, but mostly real. 4/5

14/30: All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin: great book. This was a page turner. 5/5

 

[bobbiwoz]

#1-What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
It’s book 2 in her new series. Really enjoyed the characters and setting. Ended on a cliffhanger ugh! Next one comes out in October. She is one of my all time favorite authors, so I know I will enjoy anything she writes.

#2-The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
A solid “sequel” to Handmaid’s Tale. I enjoyed getting to learn things from other perspectives. Very interesting and I love Atwood’s writing style.

#3-This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Amazing book. I could not put it down. 5 stars all around.

#4-Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate (currently reading)

Thanks to this, my next book was This is How it Always is!

13/75

 

[SaintsManiac]

Thanks to this, my next book was This is How it Always is!

13/75

I loved it so much.

 

[BonnieF]

7/50
Changeling, Philippa Gregory. An interesting series by a good author. This takes place in medieval Italy, and involves family inheritance, the power of the Catholic Church, and a woman’s lot in life at that time. A quick read that I found quite interesting. I’m looking forward to reading the series.

 

[bobbiwoz]

14/75

The Country Guesthouse by Robyn Carr

A nice story, set in Colorado about a 5 year old who lost his mother and his new family.

 

[OKW8297]

6. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. This is a warm, endearing and wonderful book. I loved the characters, the setting, and the story.

 

[supergirl04]

If it’s not too late, I’d like to join. I have a goal of 24 books this year.

 

[drwitz]

and now moving on:

6. Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino.

He recently (last year) spoke to some folks I know at Disney about his work so it interested me. Both a personal memoir and a reflection on identity and how we as a society need to be more open to our true selves (and we need the law to support that). Good read.

7. The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands edited by Huw Lewis-Jones.

This is a beautiful book full of full color maps of imaginary and real places and with essays on the power of maps and map-making.

8. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red edited by Joyce Reardon, Ph.D. (really written by Ridley Pearson).

This was the companion book to the 2001 tv miniseries by Stephen King called “Rose Red”. Presented as a “true” diary of her life at the mansion in Seattle (which becomes the haunted house of the series) the book is entertaining and a good read in its own.

I guess I am now starting a complete Stephen King reread. I own most of his books and haven't read many of them in years. My last book above inspired me to start from the beginning so:

9. Carrie by Stephen King.

10. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.

I own paperback copies of both of these novels from way back in the beginning of my Stephen King obsession (picked them up at a used bookstore in Mt. Pleasant, SC where I went to HS). These were the two books that made me fall in love with his writing style, and while they read as “of their time” today, so much of the power and beauty of King’s writing is evident in these early reads. Also they are a fun set to read together with the female lead of Carrie and Ben as the male protagonist in Salem’s Lot. I am going to enjoy this reread cycle, I can tell.

 

[bobbiwoz]

15/75 St Francis Society for Wayward Pets by Annie England Noblin

Just picked this up and enjoyed it. It‘s a good story about a woman who had been adopted.

 

[willowsnn3]

If it’s not too late, I’d like to join. I have a goal of 24 books this year.

Welcome! Never too late to join. Added you to the first post.

 

[melk]

6/25 Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

This is a dual story of a woman commissioned to paint a Post Office mural in the early 1940’s and the present day woman who is hired to restore the mural. Both women have secrets and intriguing stories.

I loved this book. At first the description didn’t do much for me but I read it because I’ve enjoyed other books by Diane Chamberlain. But this story really grabbed me. I enjoyed both women’s stories and how they intertwined. I was left with a couple of unanswered questions at the end but was satisfied with all the ‘aha’ moments that it did supply. Definitely my favorite book of the year so far.

 

[willowsnn3]

#13/60
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple, honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved.

What Catherine Land did not realize was that the enigmatic and lonely Ralph Truitt had a plan of his own. And what neither anticipated was that they would fall so completely in love.

 

[willowsnn3]

 

[Disney_Alli]

11/75 - Safe Harbor: Nicholas Sparks

I usually read all his books before the movies come out up I've missed a few lately and am finally catching up on those books.