2013 BOOK CHALLENGE! Are you in?

[tiggrbaby]

#33/35 Silent Echo by J.R. Rain

From Amazon:
Not much could drag Jim Booker out of a peaceful, if lonely, retirement and back to late nights, crime scenes, and chases. Jim Booker is done with detective work and would just like to enjoy a cup of coffee on a sunny day. But when an old friend shows up with a case about an old flame, Booker can’t say no.
What starts as a missing persons case soon delivers more than he bargained for, and when Booker’s own past offers clues, it’s clear that no one else can solve this mystery. But there’s a catch: Booker was given six months to live eight months ago.


I got this through the Kindle First program. I would give it 3/5. It was very different as the main character is dying from AIDS/cancer and trying to solve not only recent murders but the murder of his brother from years ago. Although there are some interesting relationships, there are a lot of repetitive details that make you want to skim.

 

[portia9]

#132 Christmas at Cedar Cove by Debbie Macomber

#133 The Patchwork Marriage by Jane Green

 

[portia9]

#134 The Old Girl Network by Catherine Alliot-love her books and this would be one of my favourites. Light hearted fun.

 

[KrazyPete]

So I know there's a little less than a month left but I've met my goal and it's a busy month. So, I'm posting a recap now. Here's everything I read for the challenge and then my "top 3" for the year. I think that my original goal was 2 books a month but I met that on October 3rd when I finished the "Sword of Shannara". That was faster than I expected so I did a little math to estimate the remainder of the year and upped the goal to 28. I met the revised goal when I finished "11/22/63" on November 20th. I'm reading books 30 and 31 right now.

Petez' 2013 Book Challenge Books (reading order)
The Passage - Justin Cronin
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
Defending Jacob - William Landay
Alif the Unseen - G. Willow Wilson
The Night Circus - Ellen Morgenstern
Under the Dome - Stephen King
World War Z - Max Brooks
How to be Black - Baratunde Thurston
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
White - Ted Dekker
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
The Shack - Wm. Paul Young
Women - Charles Bukowski
Alice in Zombieland - Nickolas Cook, Lewis Carroll
Zoo - James Patterson
The Ragamuffin Gospel - Brennan Manning
The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
Bad Monkey - Carl Hiaasen
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
On Writing - Stephen King
11/22/63 - Stephen King

Petez' "Top 3" of 2013
3) American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The third book was the hardest one to pick. I've read several books by Neil Gaiman and I've enjoyed all of them. This was my favorite. Fans of Tim Burton movies will like it. It's dark and imaginative. This one is a bit more adult that most of Gaiman's other books though.

2)Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
There were only a few books that I gave 5 stars on Goodreads this year. This was one of them. I loved the character development and the story pacing. It had the gritty feel of a mob story but more personal and incredibly well described.

1) Bad Monkey - Carl Hiaasen
I'll admit, this book only caught my attention because it had a pirate monkey on the cover. However, it was the most enjoyable book I read this year by far. It has a murder mystery with absurd twists and even more absurd characters. There's not really any deep take-away that you'll get out of it. It's not a cerebral book, it's just really good.

I'm reading two books right now (On Prayer and The Pillars of the Earth) but I'm not sure that I'll finish either this month. Maybe I'll count them in my reading goal for the 2014 Book Challenge.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I read some of these this year and your list has some of the ones I want to read next year! Thanks for reminding me of them!

 

[Cantw8]

So I know there's a little less than a month left but I've met my goal and it's a busy month. So, I'm posting a recap now. Here's everything I read for the challenge and then my "top 3" for the year. I think that my original goal was 2 books a month but I met that on October 3rd when I finished the "Sword of Shannara". That was faster than I expected so I did a little math to estimate the remainder of the year and upped the goal to 28. I met the revised goal when I finished "11/22/63" on November 20th. I'm reading books 30 and 31 right now.

Petez 2014 Book Challenge Books (reading order)
The Passage - Justin Cronin
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
Defending Jacob - William Landay
Alif the Unseen - G. Willow Wilson
The Night Circus - Ellen Morgenstern
Under the Dome - Stephen King
World War Z - Max Brooks
How to be Black - Baratunde Thurston
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
White - Ted Dekker
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
The Shack - Wm. Paul Young
Women - Charles Bukowski
Alice in Zombieland - Nickolas Cook, Lewis Carroll
Zoo - James Patterson
The Ragamuffin Gospel - Brennan Manning
The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
Bad Monkey - Carl Hiaasen
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
On Writing - Stephen King
11/22/63 - Stephen King

Petez "Top 3" of 2014
3) American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The third book was the hardest one to pick. I've read several books by Neil Gaiman and I've enjoyed all of them. This was my favorite. Fans of Tim Burton movies will like it. It's dark and imaginative. This one is a bit more adult that most of Gaiman's other books though.

2)Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
There were only a few books that I gave 5 stars on Goodreads this year. This was one of them. I loved the character development and the story pacing. It had the gritty feel of a mob story but more personal and incredibly well described.

1) Bad Monkey - Carl Hiaasen
I'll admit, this book only caught my attention because it had a pirate monkey on the cover. However, it was the most enjoyable book I read this year by far. It has a murder mystery with absurd twists and even more absurd characters. There's not really any deep take-away that you'll get out it. It's not a cerebral book, it's just really good.

I'm reading two books right now (On Prayer and The Pillars of the Earth) but I'm not sure that I'll finish either this month. Maybe I'll count them in my reading goal for the 2014 Book Challenge.

Does Bad Monkey have the shower cap wearing, one eyed governor in it????

 

[tiggrbaby]

Does Bad Monkey have the shower cap wearing, one eyed governor in it????

No, but still the same sort of madcap nonsense we love in a Carl Hiaasen book!

 

[threeboysmom]

So I know there's a little less than a month left but I've met my goal and it's a busy month. So, I'm posting a recap now. Here's everything I read for the challenge and then my "top 3" for the year. I think that my original goal was 2 books a month but I met that on October 3rd when I finished the "Sword of Shannara". That was faster than I expected so I did a little math to estimate the remainder of the year and upped the goal to 28. I met the revised goal when I finished "11/22/63" on November 20th. I'm reading books 30 and 31 right now.

Petez' "Top 3" of 2013
3) American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The third book was the hardest one to pick. I've read several books by Neil Gaiman and I've enjoyed all of them. This was my favorite. Fans of Tim Burton movies will like it. It's dark and imaginative. This one is a bit more adult that most of Gaiman's other books though.

2)Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
There were only a few books that I gave 5 stars on Goodreads this year. This was one of them. I loved the character development and the story pacing. It had the gritty feel of a mob story but more personal and incredibly well described.

1) Bad Monkey - Carl Hiaasen
I'll admit, this book only caught my attention because it had a pirate monkey on the cover. However, it was the most enjoyable book I read this year by far. It has a murder mystery with absurd twists and even more absurd characters. There's not really any deep take-away that you'll get out of it. It's not a cerebral book, it's just really good.

I'm reading two books right now (On Prayer and The Pillars of the Earth) but I'm not sure that I'll finish either this month. Maybe I'll count them in my reading goal for the 2014 Book Challenge.

What???! Gone Girl isn't on your top 3 list?? BLASPHEMY!

 

[threeboysmom]

Hey all!

Congrats to all those that have made goal, and some even beyond!

I'm still plugging away, lol. Reading Dan Brown's Inferno and loving it. Hope to finish this weekend - that'll be #48 out of 50 so I'm close!

I'll be making a new thread towards the 3rd week in December. I'll link it here when I do (as someone suggested).

Be sure to start posting your FAVORITE BOOK OF 2013 before the year ends (or your top 3 as KrazyPete did...if you just can't decide, lol)

 

[clh2]

Just finished The Bartender's Tale, by Ivan Doig.

Awful. Just a slow-moving book. This was our book-club book. Not 1 person out of 8 liked it. Most didn't even finish it.

 

[willowsnn3]

Goal 72

#84 Darkness My Old Friend by Lisa Unger
Great suspense/mystery. Ms. Unger is becoming one of my favorite authors.

 

[willowsnn3]

Hey all!

Congrats to all those that have made goal, and some even beyond!

I'm still plugging away, lol. Reading Dan Brown's Inferno and loving it. Hope to finish this weekend - that'll be #48 out of 50 so I'm close!

I'll be making a new thread towards the 3rd week in December. I'll link it here when I do (as someone suggested).

Be sure to start posting your FAVORITE BOOK OF 2013 before the year ends (or your top 3 as KrazyPete did...if you just can't decide, lol)

I think I've got my top 2 picked but I want to go back over my list so hopefully sometime this weekend I can decide.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Okay. My top three books I've read this year...

Overall I feel like this has been an underwhelming reading year for me. I hit a lot of slumps and read some books by my favorite authors that I wasn't very impressed with.

There were a few standouts for me though.
#3- Sharp Objects
Gillian Flynn
#2- Help for the Haunted
Jim Searles
#1- Zoo
James Patterson

I already a list of books downloaded for next year. I am vowing to get out of my reading slump and go outside of my box to try new things. Can't wait to get started and see everyone's suggestions again!

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #82 - Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

This is a great sequel to The Shining! I really liked that it started right where The Shining left off. That way you don't have any missing pieces of Danny Torrence's life. I enjoyed the plot & the way it ended. The scary parts had his same "friends" from The Shining involved although the actual plot wasn't as scary. I do recommend reading The Shining b4 you read this though, even if you have read it b4, so it is fresh in your mind. Great book!

On highways across America, a tribe of people called the True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, the True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the steam that children with the shining produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel, where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant shining power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to this icon in the King canon.

Next book: And The Mountains Echoed (for book club)

 

[Glynis]

I'm feeling very proud of myself for meeting my first goal of 50 books! Then I got ambitious and upped my goal to 100, which I don't think I'll meet. I'm glad we are continuing this for next year. I think I'll be a little more realistic with my goal, next time!

As for my favorite books of the year, here are my top 3:

3. The Giver by Lois Lowry - I can't believe how much this book impacted me. I enjoy dystopian literature, and this left me thinking about it long days after I finished it.

2. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - This collection of "remembrances" really painted a picture of the Viet Nam war that was brutal and bleak. Coupling that with tales of life after the war, it was a brilliant picture of what we actually carry with us through life.

3. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - The true story of POW Louis Zamperini, was inspiring and uplifting, if very difficult to read sometimes.

I'm still reading through this month, but things are crazy, so who knows if I'll finish anything else, or carry it all through to next year. I have really enjoyed this thread, and can't wait to see what books next year brings!!!

 

[portia9]

#135 The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty. I would recommend this. It was a bit Jodi Picoult-ish but not as annoying.

My Top 3 in no particular order

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

 

[keenercam]

148/150 - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Wow. Very good. Powerful book. Even knowing the subject matter and the inevitable story arc, I was still so affected by this. It was really well written.

149/150 - Lovers at Heart by Melissa Foster. Just okay. I think I got it free on Kindle. Not sure I'll pay to read the rest in the series. Just needed something a bit lighter after reading The Fault in Our Stars.

 

[WowLookAtThat]

Book #101 The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

Book #102 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstein

Book #103 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

TOP 3 BOOKS

1. Exit the Actress
2. Midwife of Venice
3. Book of Summer

 

[StephMK]

#47-My Life with Eleanor - I had it on my wish list and it came up for sale on Amazon. Cute book about a girl who took a year off after a layoff to conquer fears by doing something scary every day for a year. Fun read about some issues she tackled and experiences.

5 left til goal! I wasted some time by reading some books that I just couldn't bring myself to finish. I should have 1 done this week, 1 next week, then 3 over the holidays to squeak them in right before deadline!

My favorites of this year -
Gone Girl
Defending Jacob
Light Between Oceans


There are some mentioned here that I haven't read yet so my third choice might change. I hope to tackle the Book Thief sometime soon as well some other well known favorites from here.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #83- And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

This story entwines different people throughout the book all with heartbreaking situations. It's very well written & a very deep, emotional story. This was so sad, too depressing for me so near the holidays.

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Timesbestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globefrom Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinosthe story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.