Annual Reading Goal Challenge for 2016 - Come and join us!

[PigletsPal2]

Goal: Undetermined, as many books as possible.

#12 - The Road to Little Dribbling - Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson. Twenty years ago Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes From a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled around Britain again, by bus, train, rental car and on foot to see what has changed -- and what hasn't. I'm an unabashed Anglophile and I loved his vivid descriptions of people, places and things even as I turned a little green with envy. DD#2 and I went to a "talk" he presented at Rollins College a couple of months ago and he's just as entertaining as a speaker as he is as a writer. His level of patience and willingness to put up with stupidity. bureaucratic red tape and general ennui have dropped considerably in 20 years, but how he deals with these devilments often made me laugh out loud.

Bryson has eight other books in print, six of which I've read; I'm still trying to find the other two. I think armchair and real-life travelers alike would enjoy Bryson's books, and I hope that our British friends recognize these two as the genuine love letters to Britain that they are.


#13 - Archie In The Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough. When Rex Stout died, I was so sad that there would be no more Nero Wolfe mysteries. Then a friend told me about Goldsborough continuing the series. I was skeptical but willing to give his efforts a try. I'm SO glad I did! Goldsborough has Stout's style of writing down to a "T" and his plots are every bit as convoluted and interesting as Stout's were.

In this story, someone is out to kill Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's right-hand man. While Archie serves his time in virtual house arrest ordered by Wolfe until Archie's assailant is identified and brought to justice, the team accepts a lucrative assignment from Miss Cordelia Hutchinson to deliver the payoff and collect the photographs with which she is being blackmailed.

Goldsborough has written 11 Nero Wolfe mysteries and somehow I've only managed to find six of them in bookstores and libraries. They are available on my Kindle and I plan to download them as time and resources permit.

Queen Colleen

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

15/24

Absolutely almost
Lisa Geoff
The main character is Albie Albin
The sitter is Calista

1. Gets a new sitter
2. Bff is in reality show
3. The new sitter is from CA and moved to NYC
4. He meets a new friend named Betsy who stutters
5. The main character likes caption under pants
6. His babysitter is creative
7. His math teacher wahos bad at math as a kid
8. Gets tested for reading Disorder
9. He does not have it
10. Joins cool group
11. Gets kicked out because ever one thought he lied
12. His bff moved away
13. His sitter got fired
14. His grandpa is angry he is gong to public school

Sorry for any spoilers I took these notes for something else

 

[willowsnn3]

#22/72

One Bad Thing by Bill Eidson
From Goodreads:
"McKenna is a good man who takes a new crewman onto his boat in Bermuda to sail back to Boston, handsome young Tom Cain. When Cain is about to be caught smuggling diamonds by the Coast Guard, he convinces McKenna to lie to save him . . . for a share. McKenna does this one bad thing, and finds himself bound by chains of murder. That one lie puts his life, and the life of his wife, in danger; forces him to murder, and enmeshes him in a web of international crime and evil."

Fast paced & interesting. I really enjoyed this book. One I picked up at random from the library while waiting for books on hold to come in.

 

[Christine]

Goal: Undetermined, as many books as possible.

#12 - The Road to Little Dribbling - Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson. Twenty years ago Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes From a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled around Britain again, by bus, train, rental car and on foot to see what has changed -- and what hasn't. I'm an unabashed Anglophile and I loved his vivid descriptions of people, places and things even as I turned a little green with envy. DD#2 and I went to a "talk" he presented at Rollins College a couple of months ago and he's just as entertaining as a speaker as he is as a writer. His level of patience and willingness to put up with stupidity. bureaucratic red tape and general ennui have dropped considerably in 20 years, but how he deals with these devilments often made me laugh out loud.

Bryson has eight other books in print, six of which I've read; I'm still trying to find the other two. I think armchair and real-life travelers alike would enjoy Bryson's books, and I hope that our British friends recognize these two as the genuine love letters to Britain that they are.

I've been on hold for this book for a LONG time. Can't wait because I really enjoy Bill Bryson's books.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #26/65 - Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Great quick read. Good mystery. After the last book "The Interestings", I needed to read something like this.

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.
Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.
Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.
But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.

I started The Killing Lessons, but I am not sure I will continue reading it. I am at page 50 and it's already too brutal for me. Really horrible murders.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

#8 The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer

I took this book out of the library. because I saw it in the new releases and it said something about George Washington's spies. I just started watching the series about them, and I thought this would be fun. I knew it was present time but thought it would be interesting while watching the series.
I did not read the first book and most likely will not read it or any follow-up. I did not hate the book, but every other page annoyed me with the amount of disbelief I had to suspend. I am usually quite open to doing this, but in this book there was just to much. First of all that all these people from this little town turned out to be at crazy levels of the government, etc. This is one thing that really bothers me, because it seems tome to be done to make the story easier to write and just throw the burden on my disbelief. The disbelief did not end with all these people coming from one small town. There were also some plot points that were hard to swallow as well as two secret organizations so secret that brilliant archivists (from that small town) knew nothing about one. Yet some dude from this town winds up possibly belonging to one of the groups. And I still am not really sure how so much information was being swapped in the way they claim. People seem to understand little messages as major vehicles of information being passed to them in like the simplest fashion.
I did like the president facts but there were not nearly enough, and I happened to know a few already. I have to say learned one incredibly cool fact about the suicide king and I am dying to see a deck of cards, to see if it was true.


(If anyone is interested in reading any of my works, I would gladly send kindle gift versions of any (Written for You , Cemetery Girl, Three Twigs for the Campfire, or Reigning).

 

[Kirby]

19/80 - Take One: Above the Line Series by Karen Kingsbury.

Could they change the world—before the world changes them? Filmmakers Chase Ryan and Keith Ellison left the mission field of Indonesia for the mission field of Hollywood with a dream bigger than both of them. Now they have done the impossible: raised enough money to produce a feature film with a message that could change the world. But as Chase and Keith begin shooting, their well-laid plans begin to unravel. With millions of dollars on the line, they make a desperate attempt to keep the film from falling apart—even as a temperamental actress, a botched production schedule, and their own insecurities leave little room for the creative and spiritual passion that once motivated them. Was God really behind this movie after all? A chance meeting and friendship with John Baxter could bring the encouragement they need to stay on mission and produce a movie that will actually change people’s lives. In the midst of the questions and the cameras, is it possible to keep things above the line and make a movie unlike anything done before—or is the risk too great for everyone?

I enjoyed reading this novel. It was a balm to my soul.

 

[MochaDrinker]

36/200-Don't Panic by Reid Wilson

 

[moniqueand2]

Stand alone. I read it for book club and I am interested to hear tonight what they thought of it, but for me, it was a complete waste of time.

I've also read The Interestings. Actually it may be a good book club choice. Discuss childhood talent vs. reality. Even how petty jealousy plays out across the lifespan and the need to have a sense of belonging.

 

[moniqueand2]

#19/30 - Satin Island by Tom McCarthy

Short and kinda weird.

From Amazon: U., a “corporate anthropologist,” is tasked with preparing the Great Report, an all-encompassing ethnographic document that sums up our era. Yet at every turn, he feels himself overwhelmed by the ubiquity of data......

 

[MochaDrinker]

37/200 Cracked by dr drew Pinsky

 

[Kewz1]

#6/12 The Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury

As a fan of the Royal Family and someone who enjoys reading about WWII, I found this book to be a very interesting and enjoyable to read. A lot of the information I already knew (or at least knew of) but she ably filled in the cracks creating a much more rounded idea of what it was like for these royal brothers during such a turbulent time in history.

Here's part of the overview from bn.com: Princes at War is a riveting portrait of these four very different men miscast by fate, one of whom had to save the monarchy at a moment when kings and princes from across Europe were washing up on England’s shores as the old order was overturned. Scandal and conspiracy swirled around the palace and its courtiers, among them dangerous cousins from across Europe’s royal families, gold-digging American socialite Wallis Simpson, and the King’s Lord Steward, upon whose estate Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess parachuted (seemingly by coincidence) as London burned under the Luftwaffe’s tireless raids.

If this subject matter appeals to you then I would certainly recommend this book. Enjoy!

Kristen

 

[NHdisneylover]

5 of 12 The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

I keep hearing about Bryson and have never read him so borrowed this from a friend. It is an old one (written in the 80s) about one of his trips back to the US after living in the UK for many years. As an ex-pat who can be struck by things when I return home, parts of it really resonated with me. For the first 150 pages or so I as laughing out loud in some sections, and cringing at home trying too hard in others. Towards the end it felt like he as saying the same thing about each new town and I got bored--I admit to skimming through the last 50 pages. I did get a kick out of the (short) mentions of Trump and Trump tower from a mid 80s perspective.
Two and a half out of five stars



6 of 12 A Girl From Yamhill by Beverly Cleary

I ordered Cleary's memoir (written in the late 80s, but I never read it) in honour of her 100th birthday this month and i am soooooooo glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought she did a masterful job of describing an often cold or overly critical mother who probably suffered from depression in a manner that was realistic and touching but not overly focused on heart ache or devoid of some relationship and love. Mostly though, I just enjoyed reading the same wonderful descriptions of life that Clearly worked into her novel, with the knowledge that in this case it as all true.

 

[Christine]

5 of 12 The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

I keep hearing about Bryson and have never read him so borrowed this from a friend. It is an old one (written in the 80s) about one of his trips back to the US after living in the UK for many years. As an ex-pat who can be struck by things when I return home, parts of it really resonated with me. For the first 150 pages or so I as laughing out loud in some sections, and cringing at home trying too hard in others. Towards the end it felt like he as saying the same thing about each new town and I got bored--I admit to skimming through the last 50 pages. I did get a kick out of the (short) mentions of Trump and Trump tower from a mid 80s perspective.
Two and a half out of five stars

That's one of his I have yet to read. I admit my favorite is the one about Australia (title escapes me now).

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Book 6 of 15: Brotherhood in Death by J. D. Roob

Dennis Mira just had two unpleasant surprises. First he learned that his cousin Edward was secretly meeting with a real estate agent about their late grandfather’s magnificent West Village brownstone, despite the promise they both made to keep it in the family. Then, when he went to the house to confront Edward about it, he got a blunt object to the back of the head.

Luckily Dennis is married to Charlotte Mira, the NYPSD’s top profiler and a good friend of Lieutenant Eve Dallas. When the two arrive on the scene, he explains that the last thing he saw was Edward in a chair, bruised and bloody. When he came to, his cousin was gone. With the mess cleaned up and the security disks removed, there’s nothing left behind but a few traces for forensics to analyze.

As a former lawyer, judge, and senator, Edward Mira mingled with the elite and crossed paths with criminals, making enemies on a regular basis. Like so many politicians, he also made some very close friends behind closed—and locked—doors. But a badge and a billionaire husband can get you into places others can’t go, and Eve intends to shine some light on the dirty deals and dark motives behind the disappearance of a powerful man, the family ******* over a multimillion-dollar piece of real estate . . . and a new case that no one saw coming.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25337081-brotherhood-in-death

4 out of 5 stars. Slogged through the first half or so, and then the plot picked up the pace. Emotional roller coaster for Eve Dallas, the protagonist, who has to face past demons she is reminded of during the case. Much better than the previous book in the series, Devoted in Death.

 

[Kirby]

Book 6 of 15: Brotherhood in Death by J. D. Roob



https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25337081-brotherhood-in-death

4 out of 5 stars. Slogged through the first half or so, and then the plot picked up the pace. Emotional roller coaster for Eve Dallas, the protagonist, who has to face past demons she is reminded of during the case. Much better than the previous book in the series, Devoted in Death.

I used to read these, got up into the teens before I stopped. It just seemed like the same thing over and over but I might pick up where I left off since it's been awhile.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I used to read these, got up into the teens before I stopped. It just seemed like the same thing over and over but I might pick up where I left off since it's been awhile.

Yeah, for the most part I'm interested in the characters. It's pretty formulaic, although the formula has morphed a bit.

 

[MochaDrinker]

38/200-A Common Struggle by Patrick Kennedy

 

[Kirby]

20/80 - The Only Boy For Me by Gil McNeil.

You live in rural bliss, you've got a great job in town, and he's crazy about you. The only problem is, he's six years old...Most people would think Annie Baker had it all: an idyllic life in the country and a great job in town as a film producer. And so would she, if it weren't for the men in her life. Her six-year-old son Charlie gets traumatised if she buys the wrong kind of sausages. Her tempestuous boss Barney is a Great Director, but keeps getting stuck with dog food commercials, and as for Laurence, well, he just wants to get her fired. And then she meets Mack...Funny, heartbreaking, truthful and uplifting, Gil McNeil's brilliant novel will make you cry and laugh out loud.

I enjoyed reading this book. The author lives in England and while we both speak English, it was interesting to read their way of speaking, if that makes sense to you. I read her Beach Street Knitting Society series first and thoroughly enjoyed them also.

 

[willowsnn3]

#23/72

The Lake House by Kate Morton

I really liked this book, only felt that it was a little long and drawn out at times.