2013 BOOK CHALLENGE! Are you in?

[momto3gr8boys]

Hi all...I'd love to join too! My goal will be 30 and I'm on book #2 so far.

#1 Apologize! Apologize! by Elizabeth Kelly. I was hoping to like it more than I did. I think the blurb on the back and the reviews on the cover were very misleading as tragi-comedy would have been more apt, but even so it was not the easiest book to get into.

#2 (current read) The Spanish Pearl by Catherine Friend. I needed more mindless romance after the last one and this is doing the trick!

 

[Christine]

OK, please put me down for 24 books. I've been having trouble making a commitment. And I feel so "embarrassed" over just 24 books. I am a BIG reader, or I thought I was until I see some of your totals!!! But my excuse is that I work full time and I get about 45 minutes each night to read (if I'm lucky).

I've just finished #1 which was Stephen King's 11/22/63. I really, really enjoyed it.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

OK, please put me down for 24 books. I've been having trouble making a commitment. And I feel so "embarrassed" over just 24 books. I am a BIG reader, or I thought I was until I see some of your totals!!! But my excuse is that I work full time and I get about 45 minutes each night to read (if I'm lucky).

I've just finished #1 which was Stephen King's 11/22/63. I really, really enjoyed it.

11/22/63 is one of my favorites of the books I read last year.

 

[RunningGirl]

#6 done - The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas. It was a Daily Find on Nook, so I took a chance. It is an excellent book - easy reading, but compelling story and characters. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it. Here's the description:

It is 1941 and World War II has engulfed the globe. Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales for the first time in her life, to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India. When her husband leaves her in the exotic lakeside city of Srinagar to take on a more dangerous mission, Nerys discovers a new world. Here, in the heart of romantic Kashmir, the colonists dance, flirt, and gossip as if there is no war. Nerys becomes caught up in a dangerous liaison, and by the time she is reunited with her husband, she is a different woman.

Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her dead father's house, she finds an exquisite shawl. Wrapped in its folds is a lock of child's hair. Tracing her grandparents' roots back to Kashmir, Mair embarks on a quest that will change her life forever . . .

 

[fun4me]

I am going for 36 books this year. I think I can do 48 but I'll keep it low so I don't disappoint myself. LOL

I just finished Gone Girl!! Loved it! Next up is either 11/22/63 or The Undomestic Goddess. I haven't decided yet.

Good luck and Happy Reading everyone!

 

[phorsenuf]

#1 of 26

4.5 stars out of 5

Under the Dome by Stephen King. I really liked the book a lot, and like his earlier works, I couldn't put it down. Lots of characters so I did have to stop sometimes and remember who was who. Like another poster had said, she was disappointed in the ending, I too felt it was a bit anti-climatic. While it certainly wouldn't keep me from recommending it, I did feel a little let down. It almost seemed a bit rushed maybe? But all in all a great book to read, especially if you are a King fan.

Not sure what's next.

(from Amazon)
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

 

[BearcatsFan]

Book #1 finished: Angel Sister: A Novel by Ann H. Gabhart
Book #2 finished: A Bitter Veil by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Should I just continue to edit this post as I read the books or make a new post for each book read?

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I am reading the last song

 

[jenny105]

I want in! I plan on reading 25 books this year. So far I've finished two: If I Stay by Gayle Forman and Burned by Sara Shepard (yes I'm 30 and I'm a PLL fan lol). Next up is NKOTB: 5 Brothers and a Million Sisters.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Book 3 of 30

Stand By Me by Neta Jackson

Christian Fiction. This is the beginning of a new series, but overlaps with characters and story lines from Jackson's previous Yada Yada series. Four college students begin to attend SouledOut Church and their lives intermingle with the other characters.

 

[Kathi OD]

Finally finished book #1 ~ Empire Falls by Richard Russo.

From Publishers Weekly
In his biggest, boldest novel yet, the much-acclaimed author of Nobody's Fool and Straight Man subjects a full cross-section of a crumbling Maine mill town to piercing, compassionate scrutiny, capturing misfits, malefactors and misguided honest citizens alike in the steady beam of his prose. Wealthy, controlling matriarch Francine Whiting lives in an incongruous Spanish-style mansion across the river from smalltown Empire Falls, dominated by a long-vacant textile mill and shirt factory, once the center of her husband's family's thriving manufacturing dominion. In his early 40s, passive good guy Miles Roby, the son of Francine's husband's long-dead mistress, seems helpless to escape his virtual enslavement as longtime proprietor of the Whiting-owned Empire Grill, the town's most popular eatery, which Francine has promised to leave him when she dies. Miles's wife, Janine, is divorcing him and has taken up with an aging health club entrepreneur. In her senior year in high school, their creative but lonely daughter, Tick, is preoccupied by her parents' foibles and harassed by the bullying son of the town's sleazy cop who, like everyone else, is a puppet of the domineering Francine. Struggling to make some sense of her life, Tick tries to befriend a boy with a history of parental abuse. To further complicate things, Miles's brother, David, is suspected of dealing marijuana, and their rascally, alcoholic father is a constant annoyance. Miles and David's secret plan to open a competing restaurant runs afoul of Francine just as tragedy erupts at the high school. Even the minor members of Russo's large cast are fully fleshed, and forays into the past lend the narrative an extra depth and resonance. When it comes to evoking the cherished hopes and dreams of ordinary people, Russo is unsurpassed.

For the most part I enjoyed the reading, however the ending left me less than satisfied. I hate when a book ends, and I still have questions about the characters.

For example, in Empire Falls, Miles & his brother, David join forces w/ Bea to make her bar more of a restaurant, in direct competition with Francine's Empire Grill. Francine sets out to destroy Bea's establishment, setting the health department and state police on her. Bea has little money to set right the health department's violations, but somehow the restaurant is a go in the end. How did that happen? Was there a benefactor? Maybe I was just too tired in my attempt to finish the book that I don't remember?? I don't know.

I'd give this book 3.5/5.


Next up: Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Finally finished book #1 ~ Empire Falls by Richard Russo.

For the most part I enjoyed the reading, however the ending left me less than satisfied. I hate when a book ends, and I still have questions about the characters.

For example, in Empire Falls, Miles & his brother, David join forces w/ Bea to make her bar more of a restaurant, in direct competition with Francine's Empire Grill. Francine sets out to destroy Bea's establishment, setting the health department and state police on her. Bea has little money to set right the health department's violations, but somehow the restaurant is a go in the end. How did that happen? Was there a benefactor? Maybe I was just too tired in my attempt to finish the book that I don't remember?? I don't know.

I'd give this book 3.5/5.

Next up: Big Fish by Daniel Wallace.

I felt mine had a clif hanger is that the norm normally I read books that are part of a series but e-bully is not

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I can't believe I kept forgetting to join! Is it too late???

Well, in case it's not, here's my goal...25. I don't read as much as I used to since my work hours have changed.

I am attempting to re-read the Southern Vampire Series(Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood books). I really want to catch up and refresh my memory for the last book. I think I will feel so accomplished once I finish them all!

I am a little over halfway finished with the first of the series.

So...
#1-Dead Until Dark by Charlane Harris

***I changed my original goal from 18 to 25 because 18 seemed to easy for me. That's my average for a slow reading year. I'm going to try to really challenge myself. I'm thinking I'll get myself a new Kindle if I reach it!

 

[nancycg56]

I finally finished 11/22/63 my #1. I enjoyed this book and it reminded me of the Stephen King of old. I especially loved the ending.

Next up for my #2 book is Preston and Childs latest Agent Pendergast book ~ Two Graves

ETA ~ I read 11/22/63 on my kindle

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I finished #2, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I loved it! I finished it Tuesday night and find myself missing Francie. This book was written in the 40's, but I have never read it. It is set in Brooklyn in the early 1900's, and the family is very poor. It is about the whole family but mostly Francie's childhood. It is a book that makes you smile, laugh, and cry.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

My first book for the new year is The Walking Dead Survivors Guide (graphic novel). Also taking suggestions for anything along the same lines as TWD.

I didn't read all of the posts in this thread, but I really enjoyed the "Living With the Dead" series. They are kind of humorous romantic comedies that happen to take place during the zombie apocalypse.

They are by Jesse Peterson and the there are three in the series so far:
#1-Married With Zombies
#2-Flip This Zombie
#3-Eat, Slay, Love

 

[kimblebee]

I am in the middle of my first book: 50 shades of Grey.

Oh my LOL

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I am in the middle of my first book: 50 shades of Grey.

Oh my LOL

You go, girl!

I have a funny Shades of Grey story. This summer I brought 2 of my kids to WDW. A friend of mine and her daughter met us down there for a couple days and one of the days we relaxed at Blizzard Beach. I pulled Shades of Grey out of my bag to read and my friend was shocked, giving me a bad time about reading it. Then she pulled out her book....the 2nd book in that series. Good times!

 

[WowLookAtThat]

Book #4 Lucia,Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

Review: Lucia Sartori is the most beautiful girl in Greenwich who can choose any guy she wants. She is an independent career girl who works as an apprentice for a designer at a department store. The Sartori family is prosperous and they spoil and are overprotective of the only daughter. Lucia is engaged to her childhood sweetheart,Dante but she wants more out of life and when she meets John Talbot...she is stuck. Lucia finds herself questioning family duty, career and even her own dreams.

At first I wasn't drawn to this book. I was willing to give it up but I am glad I didn't! The story of Lucia Sartori and her loyal family is wonderful! I thought this was a love story but it is so much more. It is a very rich in its description and plot. I suggest it!

 

[paulasillars]

I'm going to hit my goal 24 books in no time at this rate!

#1 Mercy Thompson: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs Started:Jan 1 Finished:Jan 1
#2 Disney Trivia from the Vault by Dave Smith Started:Jan 1
#3 Mercy Thompson: Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs Started:Jan 2 Finished:Jan 5
#4 Mercy Thompson: Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs Started:Jan 5 Finished:Jan 8
#5 Mercy Thompson: Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs Started:Jan 8 Finished:Jan13
#6 Mercy Thompson: River Marked by Patricia Briggs Started:Jan 13