Here it is - the OFFICIAL 2014 READING GOAL CHALLENGE THREAD

[BonnieF]

Love your choices! I forgot about Room! I would add that to my list of favorites along with Me Before You. Oh, and Unbroken... and Orphan Train...

I forgot that I read half of Unbroken! It is so well written, but I just couldn't keep going - too much suffering. But I generally have trouble with anything related to WWII.
Did you like The Language of Flowers? I read it last year, so it's not on this years list. I loved it!
I can add # 27 - the Last Letter from your Lover, by Jojo Moyes!

 

[wvjules]

I barely posted here this year and didn't keep track of my books, but from waht I can remember two of my favorites were Me Before You and Leaving Time.

 

[Swimnoid]

1 more for 2014

85. Pines by Blake Crouch
This one kept me up reading! A secret service agent and his partner are sent to Idaho to search for 2 missing Secret Service Agents. He in involved in a serious crash in which his partner is killed and he wakes up not knowing who he is and has no ID. While he regains his memory he finds there are really strange things about this town that he cant figure out. It goes in a direction you dont expect and is very interesting.



I think I might get 1 more book in before 2015.

 

[tinkerbellfan6880]

I have finished my goal of 50 books today. Didn't think I would make it at all because I have not really been reading that much this year.

 

[threeboysmom]

OK, here is the link to our new thread for 2015:

2015 Reading Challenge thread

Hope to see you all over there soon!!

Don't forget to join us over at the 2015 challenge thread! Starts TOMORROW!

 

[KrazyPete]

Reading Challenge Goal: 26 Books

It doesn't look like I posted an update in November so...
November/December Update:
(The titles are linked to Goodreads for jacket synopses and more reviews)

#23 Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore
I expected a bitter, satirical mocking of Jesus and Christianity. Instead, it actually had some heart and was not really disrespectful of the person of Jesus (or Joshua as He is called here). It was kind of like the Muppet Babies version of the Gospel story except... periodically violent and obscene. It was took a Universalist point of view on Jesus and His teachings. Some of my friends would not like that but take it as a work of fiction placed in a fairly well researched historic setting. The irreverent humor was pretty funny in the beginning but it wore a little thin as the whole thing progressed to a fairly weak ending.

And that's it folks. I had a busy November and December so I'm going to miss the goal for this year. I did get about 150 pages into Creativity, Inc before putting it down. It was interesting for the inside look at the history of Pixar but is more of a business management book than one you would read for entertainment.

Currently Reading: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

2014 Year in Review
Lamb - Moore, Christopher
Born to Run - McDougall, Christopher
The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger, J.D.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling, J.K.
Fort Caswell in War and Peace - Herring, Ethel
The Stand - King, Stephen
A Clash of Kings - Martin, George R.R.
Ready Player One - Cline, Ernest
Never where - Gaiman, Neil
Hold Tight - Coben, Harlan
Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut, Kurt
Déjà Dead - Reichs, Kathy
Ender's Game - Card, Orson Scott
Green: The Beginning and the End - Dekker, Ted
A Game of Thrones - Martin, George R.R.
Radical - Platt, David
Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut, Kurt
Skin Tight- Hiaasen, Carl
The Twelve - Cronin, Justin
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Gaiman, Neil
Doctor Sleep - King, Stephen
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway, Ernest
The Shining - King, Stephen
If you want more info on any of these books, this list is on my 2014 Challenge Page at Goodreads with links to all of them.

If I were to pick a "top three" I suppose I'd go with the only three books that I gave 5-star reviews. Those books, in no particular order, are:
The Catcher in the Rye
A Game of Thrones
The Ocean at the End of the Lane

It's been fun! Wanna be my book buddy on Goodreads? Here's my Goodreads Profile

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #94 - Everwild by Neal Shusterman

This is book 2 in the Everlost series. I wasn't sure if I was going to read it, but glad I did. I enjoyed the continuation of this story & looking forward to reading book 3.

Going against Mary Hightower's wishes, Nick, "the chocolate ogre," is slowly trying to reach every kid in Everlost to hand each and every one a coin, which will release them from Everlost. Mikey McGill and Allie have joined a band of skinjackers who have more of an impact on the living world then any other inhabitant of Everlost. Except Mikey can't skinjack and Allie can - and there is a very good reason: Allie is not actually dead.

Final book for 2014!!!

 

[keenercam]

I haven't been around much. I apologize. My appendix ruptured on July 31 after having been perforated for two days. All of that left me seriously ill and led to a reconstructive surgery on September 15. Though I had a lot of "down time", I wasn't up to reading. The past couple of months have been more productive as sleepless nights lead to many more books read.

I had upped my goal to 150 books and I far surpassed it. I read 185.

My top 5 of the year -- in no particular order --were (forgive me for choosing a few series):

The Wishes series by G.J. Walker-Smith
Making Faces by Amy Harmon
The Green Mountain Series by Marie Force
The Dare Valley series by Ava Miles
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Frankly, there are another 5 or 10 I'd highly recommend. Having read so many, I am so happy that many of them stick out in my mind and remain in my heart.

 

[Swimnoid]

Last book for 2014!

85. Dented Cans by Heather Walsh

From Goodreads: A family secret is revealed during an ill-fated—yet hilarious—trip to Disney World.

Sixteen-year-old Hannah Sampson knows her family is not what you would call normal. Her father compulsively buys dented cans and has a particular fondness for cans without labels, which are extremely discounted because their contents are a mystery. Her mother takes countless pictures of her family and then glues them down into the pages of her scrapbooks, but does not allow anyone to look at them. Ryan, Hannah’s mischievous fourteen-year-old brother, is headed straight for the remedial track at the local community college, if he’s lucky. Ben, her eight-year-old brother, is a walking sound effects machine, who prefers to communicate with noises rather than words. While Hannah is focused on escaping her working-class Connecticut suburb, she also finds herself being tugged back home as she worries about her brother Ben.

Hannah’s parents inflict one last family vacation on the Sampson children, a trip that goes comically wrong almost from the get-go. Hannah is forced to confront her family’s past in Disney World, of all places, when an emotional argument prompts her parents to disclose a secret they have been keeping from the children for sixteen years. Ultimately, she must decide whether to leave her hometown and not look back, or to focus on helping her family.

I've had this in my kindle since last March. It was a free prime borrow. I half read it and left it sitting in there until I wanted to borrow something else so I finished it up. Some people complained that this book looks at Disney in a bad light but I dont think so at all. It just points out how dysfunctional this family is. It is told from the POV of a 16 year old girl with typical teenage agnst and sarcasm. The second half is better than the first and is kind of hard to get wrapped up in. I would say I enjoyed it but it was not in my top 10 of the year...or 25.

On to 2015! Happy New Year!

 

[Colleen27]

One last book for 2014 - A Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon.

Book two in the Outlander series and every bit as engrossing as the first. I can't believe I read it in three days! I couldn't wait for the library waitlist to come through so I bought the e-book and read it on my tablet pretty much non-stop. I strongly suspect I'm going to give in and do the same to start book three tonight, even though I have a couple other books from the library waiting for me on my desk.

 

[kinntj]

Just finished books 6 and 7.

#6 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My thoughts are that it was good, but I thought it was another overhyped book.

#7 It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh (decluttering and organizing book)

Happy New Year! happy reading!

 

[Darcy03231]

Well, I made my goal (and then some), but was really bad about updating this thread. Between getting the house ready for the market, doing a temporary move because we sold before we bought a new one, and then finding a house and doing the final move I just wasn't good about keeping up with everything. I went through my Kindle and updated my list. I've probably missed some because I recall reading some real books to get them out of the house around moving time, but I don't remember what they were. Overall, out of everything I read this year the only one I wouldn't recommend was The Monuments Men. If you like sci-fi fantasy I highly recommend the Elizabeth Moon Series (starts with Deed of Pakesenarrion which is 3 books in one). I really liked it a lot and so did my sister. Here's the rest of my list:

#26 Sacred, #27 Gone Baby Gone, #28 Prayers for Rain, #29 Moonlight Mile, #30 The Egyptian, #31 The Summoner, #32 the Diabolist, #33 Let the Dead Sleep, #34 Winner Take All, #35 Fade the Heat, #36 Kingdom Keepers, #37 Hidden Mickey, #39 An Innocent Client, #40 In Good Faith, #41 Injustice for All, #42 Reasonable Fear, #43 Conclict of Interest, #44 Concealed in Death, #45 Midnight Sacrifice, #46 The Deed of Pakesnarrion, #47 Oath of Fealty, #48 Kings of the North, #49 Echos of Betrayal, #50 Limits of Power, #51 Crown of Renewal, #52 Heat Lightening, #53 You're Not Safe, #54 No Escape, #55 Gun Games, #56 Chimera, #57 Hot Money, #58 Hot Secret, #59 Hot Property, #60 Storm Force, #61 Dead Weight, #62 Abducted, #63 The Target, #64 Die for Me, #65 Scream for Me, #66 Dark Witch, #67 Shadow Spell, #68 Whiskey Beach, #69 End Game, #70 Head On, #71 The Collector, #72 Pretty Little Things, #73 A Cold Dark Place, #74 Cold Pursuit, #75 JET – Ops File, #76 Dirty Little Secrets, #77 A Reason to Live, #78 Deja Dead, #79 A Spy for Hire, #80 Fear for Me, #81 Deadly Fear, #82 Mine to Take, #83-#93 Last Hero Standing – Boxed set of 11 books, #94 Blood Magic, #95 The Colonel's Mistake, #96 JET, #97 Deadly Heat, #98 JET – Betrayal, #99 Cover Your Eyes, #100 The Burning Room, #101 Where There's Smoke, #102 Mr. Perfect, #103 The Next Always, #104 The Last Boyfriend, #105 The Perfect Hope, #106 Alison Wonderland, #107 Fall from Grace, #108 Blindsided, #109 Sacrifice, #110 Shadow Boys

 

[wilma-bride]

I was so close to my goal this year - goal was 60 and I am currently half way through book 60. I just couldn't seem to find enough time to read over the holidays. I will just update the last ones I read here and then go find the new thread

Book #57 - How the In-Laws Wrecked Christmas by Fiona Gibson

Christmas in the country. What could be better? All you need is one country house, one gorgeous boyfriend and a liberal dusting of snow. Right?

That’s what Anna thinks and she can’t wait for the festivities to start. But then she meets her gorgeous boyfriend’s awful parents. And their drunk friends. And she starts to hear all about a certain ex-wife. Suddenly this doesn’t look like a very merry Christmas after all…

This was a very short read. It was described as a short story but, literally, I don't remember it being more than a couple of chapters. Honestly, it was definitely a nothing book. There was no real storyline and the ending seemed to come out of nowhere, almost like a big chunk in the middle had been missed out. Still, it was a free download and it counts towards my end goal so no harm done...

Book #58 - The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman

The name of your first born. The face of your lover. What would happen if your memory of these began to fade. Is it possible to rebuild your life? Raise a family? Fall in love again?

When Claire begins to write her Memory Book she already knows that this scrapbook of mementoes will soon be all her daughters and husband have left of her. But how can she hold on to the past when her future is slipping through her fingers...

This book is about a woman who has advanced stage Alzheimers at a fairly young age. It is incredibly moving but also funny in places. It's quite light-hearted, for such a difficult subject, but I guess that was how it was intended as it is a fictional book after all. Although I wasn't keen on the writing style, I did really enjoy the book and have to admit it brought a tear at the end.

Book #59 - The Nearest Thing to Crazy by Elizabeth Forbes

Dan and a group of his friends enjoy a Sunday lunch together on a perfect summer's day. They're pleased to welcome their glamorous new neighbour and novelist, Ellie, who has rented a house in the village to work on her book. She likes to place herself in the centre of her plots, she says, although it's hard to see what she'll find to write about in this quiet country backwater. As Ellie slots effortlessly into the village social scene, Dan's wife begins to feel increasingly alienated from her friends and isolated from her family, but, for the life of her, she can't fathom why..

This was a book I had been dying to read for a while and I finally managed to get a copy of it on Kindle as a free download. I think it was definitely one of those books where the anticipation is better than the reading. It sounded so promising and, while it was a good book, I was slightly disappointed. Again, the ending seemed a little rushed, almost as if the author wasn't really sure how to get where she was going. Overall, a good read but I won't be rushing to read more books by her.

 

[threeboysmom]

Don't forget to post your favorite books for 2014 on the link below! Thanks for everyone's participation! Reading in 2014 wouldn't have been as fun without all of you and your recommendations!

DISers 2014 Favorite Books