2013 BOOK CHALLENGE! Are you in?

[willowsnn3]

Quote:
Originally Posted by willowsnn3 View Post
Goal 72

#49 Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

Reporter Ellen Gleeson legally adopts a year old boy whose mother left him at a hospital & later gave him up for adoption. Two years later she sees a 'have you seen this child' flyer in her mail. The child looks exactly like her son. Being the investigative reporter that she is, she cannot find peace until she discovers the truth.
I really liked this book. 5 stars.

That sounds really good! I can't find it at my library so I got a sample to try. Have you tried any of her other books? There were several ebooks in my library list but this one sounded particularly interesting.[/QUOTE]

Re: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline. I haven't read any of her other books altho her name sounds familiar. I had actually gone to the library to check out another of her books titled "Save Me" & saw this on on the shelf. So I will be checking out some of her other books.

 

[Glynis]

Goal - 100 Books

Book 46 - "Sassy Belles" by Beth Albright

This book deals with the friendship of 2 sassy Southern belles, Vivi McFadden and Blake Heart. When Vivi is suspected of killing her lover, it is up to Blake to clear her name.

I was really hoping that this would be a fun, summer read. Instead, I feel almost insulted after reading it. The writing style was so juvenile, but the situations were extremely adult. I would not recommend this book, at all.

Next up: Beautiful Creatures

 

[keenercam]

89/150 - Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich. This was good. Characters were interesting and the story was sweet.

 

[CaliBear]

#16: Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martell

So earlier this year, in the midst of moving and getting married, I had to return Life of Pi to the library unfinished. I know how it works out because I saw the movie, but I sort of want to finish it. I may have waited too long though. Yet every so often I go by the Fic Man section in the library and it is never there, but last trip this book was. Description from amazon:

When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey—named Beatrice and Virgil—and the epic journey they undertake together.

This is without a doubt, the weirdest book I have ever read. It's an allegory and quite clever. I was not expecting it to turn out as it did. I liked it except for the end, which made me say outloud, "Why is Yann Martel ruining his book?" 3 stars

 

[wilma-bride]

Finished books #61 and #62

#61 Belle by Lesley Pearse

She witnessed a murder - and now her life is in danger . . .

Fifteen year-old Belle, though raised in a London brothel, is an innocent. But when she witnesses one of the girls brutally strangled by a client, she is cast into a cruel, heartless world. Snatched from the streets and sold into prostitution, she is made a courtesan in New Orleans. At the mercy of desperate men who crave her beauty and will do anything to keep her, Belle's dreams of home, family and freedom appear futile.

Are Belle's courage and spirit strong enough to help her escape? And what will await her at the end of the long, dangerous journey home?

#62 The Promise by Lesley Pearse

War threatens to take all she has loved and lived for.....

On the outbreak of war, Belle Reilly's husband Jimmy enlists and heads for the deadly trenches of northern France. But Belle knows she cannot stand idly by when so many are sacrificing their lives.

Volunteering to help battlefield wounded, Belle is posted to France as a Red Cross ambulance driver. There, a tragic accident brings her face to face with Etienne - a man from her past she's never quite forgotten.

Torn between forbidden passion, loyalty and love, Belle is caught in an impossible situation. Will she succumb to the dark forces of this most brutal of wars? Or will fate intervene and finally lead her to lasting happiness?

I will admit that I do love Lesley Pearse's books. They are easy to read, descriptive, factual and tug at the heart strings. In all honesty, I cried at least twice during the second book. I slightly preferred the first book to the second, only because the second was slightly more predictable and I felt she dragged it out a little more than necessary. Having said that, I still really enjoyed, and would recommend, both.

I have already started my next book, an Amazon UK freebie for Kindle, 314 by A. R. Wise.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

Just got back from vacation...


# 30 And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hasseini

What did you think of this one?

And the Mountains Echoed is on my book club list. I would like to hear what you thought of it too.

I have about 20 pages to go, and I'll post more when I am finished. But, I do not love it like I did The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. There should be a lot to discuss for a book club, though. Love to hear 3smithboys thoughts.

 

[dizluvah]

64 Coming Home by Mariah Stewart (2 stars)
65 Somebody to Love by Kristan Stewart (2 stars)
66 Just one of the guys by Kristan Stewart
67 I Hunt Killers by Barry Lynga
portion of Good Reads synopsis: What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad? Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer. In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

68, 69, 70 The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Pretty sure everyone except me has already read these books, so I won’t bother with a synopsis

 

[3smithboys]

I have about 20 pages to go, and I'll post more when I am finished. But, I do not love it like I did The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. There should be a lot to discuss for a book club, though. Love to hear 3smithboys thoughts.

I agree... I liked this book enough that I wanted to come back and finish it for sure; however, I did not think it was as good as his other books. His character development is fantastic as always, but I did not find the story as compelling as the last two. I remember being in tears as I read the other books, and I was not brought to tears while reading this one...though there are touching/sad moments for sure. You will not regret reading this book; it is well written - he is a great author... it's just not his best work IMHO.

 

[Ginny Favers]

Haha I thought I was on 33/50 but then I looked and realized I am way ahead of the game!

40/50 PANIC by Lauren Oliver

Right now, I am reading THE FIFTH WAVE by Rick Yancey and loving it:

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

And then I will be reading CONTROL by Lydia Kang

Set in 2150 -- in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms -- this is about the human genetic "mistakes" that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes.

When their overprotective father is killed in a terrible accident, Zel and her younger sister, Dylia, are lost in grief. But it's not until strangers appear, using bizarre sensory weapons, that the life they had is truly eviscerated. Zel ends up in a safe house for teens that aren't like any she's ever seen -- teens who, by law, shouldn't even exist. One of them -- an angry tattooed boy haunted by tragedy -- can help Zel reunite with her sister.

But only if she is willing to lose him.

Yeah, I am on a post-apocalyptic binge.

 

[RunningGirl]

I've got a bit of updating to do...

#33 Life After Life by Jill McCorkle - good book with a horrible (non)ending
#34 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri - pretty good, but faltered as it went along
#35 In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner - this one was very well written and a compelling story, especially since it's based on the author's actual childhood under the Khmer Rouge

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I'm not really feeling Dark Places right now. I'm going to switch my next read.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Sorry if it is a repeat but finished until tomorrow and started as you wish

 

[PigletsPal2]

Goal: 75 books this year

#65 down and done.

B**ch in a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen from the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps by Robert Rodi.

I absolutely LOVE Jane Austen but this dissection and screamingly funny alternative interpretation of the quintessestial chick-lit had me laughing out loud every other page. Rather than as the mother goddess of romance writers, Rodi presents Austen as "a sly subversive, a social Darwinist, and the most unsparing satirist of her century." He shows how she takes "sharp, swift swipes at the social structure and leaves it, not lethally wounded, but shorn of its prettifying garb, its flabby flesh exposed in all its naked grossness."

This book covers Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. I'm eagerly awaiting the second volume, covering Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Well I finally just finished #5 - The Heartś Journey by Barbara Cameron.

It was an Amish Fiction book and I really liked it

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Just got back from vacation...

# 27 - Zero Day by David Baldacci

# 28 - Bombshell by Catherine Coulter

# 29 - The English Girl by Daniel Silva

# 30 And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hasseini

Can you tell me about Bombshell? I just won this book and she even signed it for me!

 

[3smithboys]

Can you tell me about Bombshell? I just won this book and she even signed it for me!

I have read all of the books in Coulter's series featuring married FBI agents Savich and Sherlock, but I don't think you have to read any of the books before to read this one. One of the characters in this book was introduced in the last one, but this book does stand on its own. It was a decent read - not my favorite Savich and Sherlock thriller, but enjoyable! If you like it, you will have more to go back and read in the series! (jealous about the signed copy!!!)

Here is what the book is about (from Amazon...)

The number 1 New York Timesbestselling author is back with an electrifying new entry in the FBI series featuring Savich and Sherlock.

FBI Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith, last seen in Backfire, has been recruited by Dillon Savich to join his unit in Washington, D.C. Savich sees something special in Hammersmith, an almost preternatural instinct for tracking criminals.

While on his way to D.C., Hammersmith plans to visit his sister, Delsey, a student at Stanislaus School of Music in Maestro, Virginia. Before he arrives, he gets a phone call that Delsey was found naked, unconscious, and covered with blood after a wild party. The blood isn't hersso who does it belong to?

Meanwhile, back in D.C., Savich and Sherlock have their hands full when the grandson of former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is found murdered, every bone in his body broken, and frozen at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.

Was Savich rightis Griffin gifted with a unique ability to "see" how criminals think? And will he figure out who was behind the attempt on Delsey's lifebefore it's too late?

 

[jenny105]

My library called yesterday and told me that Under the Dome was available for me to pick up (I was on the wait list). Yowza, that's a big book!

 

[tinkerbellfan6880]

I have read 48 out of 80 books so far. Right now I am reading two books. They are called:

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder A Hannah Swensen Mystery by Joanne Fluke. It even has recipes in the book that main characters makes so that you can make them too.

Smokin' Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich.

 

[Christine]

I just finished Bossypants by Tina Fey. A very light, chuckle-worthy read. She's a few years younger than me but I could relate to a lot of memories she had from her childhood. The prose in the book was easy and very lighthearted. Just what I needed.

I'm now starting Serena by Ron Rash. Supposed to be good but I'm having a hard time getting into it.

 

[donac]

I have read 48 out of 80 books so far. Right now I am reading two books. They are called:

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder A Hannah Swensen Mystery by Joanne Fluke. It even has recipes in the book that main characters makes so that you can make them too.

Smokin' Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich.

I love Joanne Fluke's books. I have never tried her recipes. Maybe when it gets cooler.