2013 BOOK CHALLENGE! Are you in?

[nemofans]

Finished book #35- The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers

This book deals with adoption from three different perspectives. That of the birth mother (Tia), the adoptive parents of Tia's child, and the husband (father of child) and wife where the husband had an affair. The whole story is about the mess a cheating husband caused & how everyone involved handles it. I felt most for the wife of the cheating husband who had to deal with all this. This is a quick, easy read.


Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love with a man she could never have. Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way. When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave up her baby for adoption.
Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she’s questioning whether she’s cut out for the role of wife and mother.
Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a solid marriage, two beautiful young sons, and a thriving business. Then she discovered Nathan’s affair. He promised he’d never stray again, and she trusted him.
But when Juliette intercepts a letter to her husband from Tia that contains pictures of a child with a deep resemblance to her husband, her world crumbles once more.
Riveting and arresting, The Comfort of Lies explores the collateral damage of infidelity and the dark, private struggles many of us experience but rarely reveal.

Next book: Claude & Camille (a book about Claude Monet) this is for my book club

 

[StephMK]

Happy Reading to all. I'll be away for a week at WDW & will catch you when I get back!

Totally jealous!! Have a great trip!

I'm into my light summer reads lately and just started another potential good one today. Still impatiently waiting for the other Gillian Flynn novels to hit the top of the hold list. I hope at least one shows up during my beach week.

#26 - On Ice - another Kindle book I picked up somewhere. Pretty good, entertaining and good suspense. A woman leaves her abusive husband and flees to AK. Her sister is in town and gets harassed by the ex. A little too unbelievable in parts but overall, a good summer read.

#27-The Kitchen Shrink - another Kindle freebie I think. A divorced woman agrees to go on a reality show where they spend 6 weeks making over her kitchen while "fixing" her personal issues the same time. LOL funny in parts and another good summer read.

#28 - Wedding Night - Sophie Kinsella - yeah, I know she gets mixed reviews here but this was sooo funny! DD19 told me I was one of "those" people because I kept interrupting her show by laughing at this book. Really enjoyed this.

 

[Glynis]

Goal - 100 Books

Book #41 - "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton

A small girl is found left alone on a ship that has sailed from England to Australia. The kind dockmaster takes her home, after realizing that no one is coming to claim her. He and his wife take the little girl as their own, and raise her along with their own children. At his death, he leaves a confession for Nell to find. This sends her (and others) on a quest to unravel the mystery of her origins.

I LOVED this book!!! It was thrilling to read! At first I wasn't sure I would enjoy the disjointed way it was written (jumping from 1907 to 1975 to 2005 and back), but in the end, it was amazingly done! I can't recommend this book enough!

Not sure what's up next. I'm waiting for a few books to come up at the library, and so I'm kind of "bookless" for a while. I'm sure I'll find something, though. I'll update when I know.

 

[Christine]

I just completed #17/24: Flora by Gail Godwin

I wasn't overly looking forward to this book, but I ended up really liking it. It kind of reminded me of The Dinner (which I didn't overly care for) in which the narrator tells a story and, at first, they seem to be the sane one but as the story unravels, that all changes.

Ten-year-old Helen and her summer guardian, Flora, are isolated together in Helen's decaying family house while her father is doing secret war work in Oak Ridge during the final months of World War II.At three Helen lost her mother and the beloved grandmother who raised her has just died.A fiercely imaginative child, Helen is desperate to keep her house intact with all its ghosts and stories.Flora, her late mother's twenty-two-year old first cousin, who cries at the drop of a hat, is ardently determined to do her best for Helen.Their relationship and its fallout, played against a backdrop of a lost America will haunt Helen for the rest of her life.

This darkly beautiful novel about a child and a caretaker in isolation evokes shades of The Turn of the Screw and also harks back to Godwin's memorable novel of growing up, The Finishing School. With its house on top of a mountain and a child who may be a bomb that will one day go off, Flora tells a story of love, regret, and the things we can't undo.It will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.

I think it's on to the very first of the Game of Thrones books for me.

 

[PigletsPal2]

Goal: 75 books this year.

#50-53 down and done, all Jane Austen follow-ups featuring Jane Fairfax Churchill, one of the secondary characters in Emma, by Sarah Waldock.

#50 - Death of a Fop. With the help of Bow Street Runner Caleb Armitage, Jane solves the mystery of the death of her husband Frank Churchill.

#51 - Jane and the Scandal at Bow Street. Jane investigates corruption in the highest levels of Bow Street and nurtures her relationship with Caleb Armitage.

#52 - Jane and the Yorkshire Murder. Jane helps solve the murder of Joseph Redmayne, whose unusually-worded last will and testament leave each of the heirs open to being suspected of the foul deed.

#53 - Jane and the Imperfect Wedding. Jane Fairfax Churchill and Caleb Armitage are finally able to marry, but their honeymoon is stopped before it even starts when a man, half-beaten to death, collapses at the foot of their get-away carriage, begging for sanctuary. Jane and Caleb must, of course, investigate.

Queen Colleen

 

[threeboysmom]

Totally jealous!! Have a great trip!

I'm into my light summer reads lately and just started another potential good one today. Still impatiently waiting for the other Gillian Flynn novels to hit the top of the hold list. I hope at least one shows up during my beach week.

#26 - On Ice - another Kindle book I picked up somewhere. Pretty good, entertaining and good suspense. A woman leaves her abusive husband and flees to AK. Her sister is in town and gets harassed by the ex. A little too unbelievable in parts but overall, a good summer read.

#27-The Kitchen Shrink - another Kindle freebie I think. A divorced woman agrees to go on a reality show where they spend 6 weeks making over her kitchen while "fixing" her personal issues the same time. LOL funny in parts and another good summer read.

#28 - Wedding Night - Sophie Kinsella - yeah, I know she gets mixed reviews here but this was sooo funny! DD19 told me I was one of "those" people because I kept interrupting her show by laughing at this book. Really enjoyed this.

I'm well into my summer reads as well! Nothing like a light read for poolside or beach!

I'm currently in the middle of Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella. I'm with you on this one - I find the author's writing style very humorous. Love her books and REALLY enjoying this one so far!!!

 

[BearcatsFan]

31/50 - Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown by Eric Blehm

Hands down, one of the best biographies I've ever read ... maybe THE best. There's really not much more to say.

5/5 stars

I downloaded a book about Marilyn Monroe to read next, but I'm a couple of chapters in and it's boring me to tears, so I may give up on it and see what else the library has to offer.

 

[KrazyPete]

Goal - 24 books

Book #9 - Under the Dome by Stephen King - That was a pretty long book. It seems like it's been forever since I posted an update here. Anyway, I loved it. It was disturbing at times. I felt the language was more crude than the story required. In spite of that, I was entertained from cover to cover. I even liked the ending. It wasn't incredibly philosophical but it was appropriate considering the story. It's a disaster story. It's "The Towering Inferno" spread out horizontally. You read it because it's a thrill ride, not to become a more enlightened human being.

Next up - World War Z by Max Brooks - More mayhem and destruction! This should be a pretty quick read. I want to finish this one before the movie comes out and I need to get my reading goal back on track.

 

[bananasplitkids]

I've been following this thread and I just finished the Maze Runner. Such a great book but makes me so sad with how it ended.

 

[jenny105]

I have no idea how they turned World War Z into a movie. That book jumped all over the place in terms of perspective and there was no real main character or story.

 

[nemofans]

I've been following this thread and I just finished the Maze Runner. Such a great book but makes me so sad with how it ended.

Keep reading the series.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just finished "The Reluctant Bachelorette" by Rachel Anderson. I was really looking for a romantic comedy, which this book was advertised to be. Also, the premise was supposed to be based on The Bachelorette TV show, so I thought I'd like it. Here's my review-

This book might have been OK, but instead it disappointed me for several reasons. For one thing, it was described as a romantic comedy. I suppose it was a little cute, but certainly not funny as I'd expect a "romantic comedy" to be. Also, I felt the main character played with emotions so much without much regard to who got hurt. And although the premise was raising money to save farms, there wasn't much of any interaction with the people who'd benefit from the money raised. But if you're a fan of the Bachelorette TV show, you might like the storyline of this book. Just be prepared that it really isn't very funny and feelings do get hurt. And seeing how feelings got hurt with little regard gave me a different take on the TV show!

 

[WowLookAtThat]

Book #47 The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black

Review: This book was on my wishlist forever and I finally found it at the library and the only thing I have to say is I am glad I didn't buy it. I was so disappointed with this novel because the story could have been interesting. Basically, Claire arrives back to Galveston,Texas to help work on a archive of the Carraday house and the mystery of Stella, a young woman who had died in that home. Claire is having a hard time as her child had died in an accident before and her marriage is falling apart. She has arrived back to her hometown despite the fact that when she was younger she and Patrick Carraday, the son of the richest man in town were a part of a horrible accident and scandal. Claire tries to get in touch with her past and untangle the difficult history of the Carradays and her own family.

Sounds great,right?!

Nope. I thought the story of Claire and even the mystery of Stella was really good and if the author stayed on point, the book could have been great. However, I feel the author had lost her voice and tried to be too much like Pat Conroy without the wit. Claire's narrative seemed to wander without a point and her train of thought found me wanting to scream "Get on with the story already!" I also found the story's resolution to be short and I feel that there is a lack of insight into the characters. I also found the author's writing style leaving me in the dark about some things such as who is talking or if the scene has even changed. I found it annoying.

But there are some good points to the story. The tale of Stella is good as well as the brief descriptions of Claire's life. I found the descriptions of the island and the homes to be vivid. I found Claire to be unlikeable as she empathy for others and her motives and personality are unclear. She is also pretty condescending to the majority of the characters. Although I didn't like her, I understood that her behavior was central to the story as her past is explained more.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #36- Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell

I read this for my book club & it was pretty interesting. I love his paintings & it was sad to read about his struggles. I enjoyed reading about his struggling artist friends, like Renoir & Cezanne. With books like these, you never know how much of it really happened & how much is artistic exaggerations by the author. I give this 3.5 out of 5.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his fathers nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his fathers will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.
But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet  a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. But even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time.

Next book: Sea Change

 

[3smithboys]

Book # 20 Taking Eve by Iris Johansen - I enjoyed this book - it's part of a trilogy. The next one is supposed to be out soon, and I'm glad because it really left off in a hanging place.... but not like a cliffhanger...more just unfinished...

Book # 21 The Hit by David Baldacci - This book was great! I couldn't put it down and read it very quickly. It was one of those books where you just can't wait to get home and read more!

Not sure what I am going to read next....hmmmm...

Oh, and since I am already up to 21 books I would like to increase my goal from 30 to 50..... thanks!

 

[Glynis]

Goal - 100 books

Book #42 - "Always the Baker, Finally the Bride"

This was a really cute summer read! Not much in the way of thinking, but it was just perfect for reading while watching the kids in the pool.

Emma Rae Travis is chief baker for The Tanglewood, a destination wedding hotel. Now, she's planning her own wedding, and things don't always go according to plan. She's designed hundreds of wedding cakes for clients, but can't seem to find the perfect design for her own wedding.

Next Up - "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

 

[tiggrbaby]

Finished #14/25:
Two Guys Detective Agency by Stephanie Bond

A very quick and light read reminiscent of the Stephanie Plum books.

From Amazon:
A new humorous mystery series! Linda and Octavia are estranged sisters. The stay-at-home mom and socialite have never had much in common...until now. When they suddenly find themselves husbandless and broke, they reluctantly agree to combine their talents and take on a faltering P.I. agency in a strip mall. Old emotional wounds keep the two at odds and both sisters think they've made a huge mistake. But soon they realize all their clients have secrets...and who better to help them than two women who have secrets of their own?

 

[threeboysmom]

#21 out of 50

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - So many people have listed this book as their "favorite book of all time" so that prompted me to give it a whirl since I have never read it. I enjoyed the character of Francie and found her inspiring and hopeful in the face of hardship, but I think I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I had read it as a young adult. Very well written though and I'm glad I had the chance to read it, but don't feel I liked it enough to gush over and recommend to all my family and friends.

#22 out of 50

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella - Newest book by Kinsella of whom I am a big fan. This one didn't disappoint. Lottie gets married on a whim to an old flame, and her sister tries everything she can to spoil their wedding night so that the marriage can be annulled. Ended in a true cliché fashion, lol, but I found myself laughing out loud at the lengths the sister went through to keep these two apart on their wedding night. Perfect book to read over a summer weekend at the beach or poolside. Goes without saying, if you don't enjoy Kinsella's sense of humor, you probably won't like this one either.

Next up:

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter - Hmmm I can't say WHY this book is on my "to read" list - I can't remember... but something must have intrigued me, so I'll give it a try.

 

[wvjules]

I finished listening to We Need to Talk About Kevin. I was annoyed by Eva in the first half of the book then grew to feel sorry for her as the book went on. The second half of the book was much better than the first, IMO. I give it a 4/5.

On a related note: Do you think some people are just born evil?


I'm now reading Inferno. I'm only about 20% in but enjoying it. It's fast paced and keeps you interested.

ETA: I have read 19 of 25.

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin
2. Under the Dome
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)
4. Shopaholic Ties the Knot (Shopaholic, #3)
5. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (Shopaholic, #2)
6. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1)
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
8. One Second After
9. Into the Darkest Corner
10. Before I Go To Sleep
11. Reflected in You (Crossfire, #2)
12. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
13. Bared to You (Crossfire, #1)
14. Defending Jacob author
15. Hopeless (Hopeless, #1)
16. Rush Home Road
17. On the Island
18. The Fault in Our Stars
19. The Glass Castle

 

[PigletsPal2]

Goal: 75 books this year.

#54 down and done.

Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard is written in the same style as Killing Lincoln, another book by O'Reilly. This one starts about 2-1/2 years before that fateful November day, and it covers the actions, thoughts, and conversations of many of the fringe players, as well as those of the principals.

It would be interesting to know just how O'Reilly knew the innermost thoughts of Lee Harvey Oswald, unless he had access to police interviews that covered these thoughts, but I didn't see anything like that in the epilogue or acknowledgements. I suspect that there aren't a lot of us on this board who really remember that day; I'm old enough, and it was interesting to see what came before and to learn more of the details of what came after.

Queen Colleen