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

[Kirby]

#21/80 - Deadline by John Sandford. Genre - thriller

The thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times–bestselling series.
In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. “Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.

Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter. . . .

It was hard to put this book down and was very easy to read.

 

[tiggrbaby]

#25/50: A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache #2) (4/5) (Canadian mystery)

#26/50: The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott (supernatural fiction) (3.5/5 - sad book)

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

#9 Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Daughter and so any friends were reading as a writer just wanted to see what the all liked so much. Not for me. I like sci-fi but this was pretty hard for me to keep reading. Only finished because enjoyed discussing it with daughter.
#10 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Such a difference from prior book I read, even if they were made for similar ages. Second time reading and now debating reading 6 and 7 as well. Gotta say though I love Harry Potter this book was unnecessarily long. I think it was the reason I stopped rereading at book 4.

(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).

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #28/65 - Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

This is the next Shadowhunter series after The Mortal Instruments series. It continues 5 years later from City Of Heavenly Fire and has some of the those characters (Jace, Clary, Magnus) making appearances through the story. I enjoy the whole Shadowhunter world, especially the Downworlders, but I'm not always crazy about being in a teen girl's head. I felt the same way about Twilight. I enjoyed the story and am looking forward to the next.

Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.
Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?

 

[Kirby]

#9 Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Daughter and so any friends were reading as a writer just wanted to see what the all liked so much. Not for me. I like sci-fi but this was pretty hard for me to keep reading. Only finished because enjoyed discussing it with daughter.

I've only read the first three of the series but I've enjoyed them. This one in the series is a play on Little Red Riding Hood.

 

[Kirby]

#9 Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Daughter and so any friends were reading as a writer just wanted to see what the all liked so much. Not for me. I like sci-fi but this was pretty hard for me to keep reading. Only finished because enjoyed discussing it with daughter.

My daughter has got me reading this series and I have enjoyed them. It's interesting how the author makes them a different version of a fairy tale, this one on Little Red Riding Hood.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

My daughter has got me reading this series and I have enjoyed them. It's interesting how the author makes them a different version of a fairy tale, this one on Little Red Riding Hood.

The whole using fairy tale storyline and names was cool but it wasn't enough for me to enjoy. And to be honest, I really didn't know Little Red Riddinghood Story to compare it to. I mean I know the premise but that was about it.

 

[MochaDrinker]

43/200-citizens of London by Lynne Olson. A brilliant book about life in London during World War II.

 

[willowsnn3]

#26/72----House of Prayer No. 2 by Mark Richard

Loved this book!

Called a "special child," Southern social code for mentally--and physically--challenged children, Richard was crippled by deformed hips and was told he would spend his adult life in a wheelchair. During his early years in charity hospitals, Richard observed the drama of other broken boys' lives, children from impoverished Appalachia, tobacco country lowlands, and Richmond's poorest neighborhoods. The son of a solitary alcoholic father whose hair trigger temper terrorized his family and of a mother who sought inner peace through fasting, prayer, and scripture, Richard spent his bedridden childhood withdrawn into the company of books.
As a young man, Richard, in defiance of both his doctors and his parents, set out to experience as much of the world as he could--as a disc jockey, fishing trawler deckhand, house painter, naval correspondent, aerial photographer, private investigator, foreign journalist, bartender, and unsuccessful seminarian--before his hips failed him. While digging irrigation ditches in east Texas, he discovered that a teacher had sent a story of his to the Atlantic, where it was named a winner in the magazine's national fiction contest, launching a career much in the mold of Jack London and Mark Twain.
A superbly written and irresistible blend of history, travelogue, and personal reflection, House of Prayer No. 2 is a remarkable portrait of a writer's struggle with his faith, the evolution of his art, and of recognizing one's singularity in the face of painful disability.

 

[MochaDrinker]

44/200-Royal Babylon by Karl Shaw

45/200 Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

 

[jenny105]

Recommendations needed for a good book to read on a long flight. I am flying to Alaska two weeks from now and altogether the travel time will be 9 hours spent on planes each way. What are your favorite reads to pass the time? I'm a fan of YA, I like fantasy, and mysteries are great too. I'm also fascinated by Scientology (don't want to join but what those people go through...wow). Help me out fellow readers!

 

[nemofans]

If you like YA & fantasy, you would enjoy the Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare. Have you read any yet?
The prequels (The Infernal Devices), the main series (The Mortal Instruments), & the new series (The Dark Artifices)

 

[PigletsPal2]

Recommendations needed for a good book to read on a long flight. I am flying to Alaska two weeks from now and altogether the travel time will be 9 hours spent on planes each way. What are your favorite reads to pass the time? I'm a fan of YA, I like fantasy, and mysteries are great too. I'm also fascinated by Scientology (don't want to join but what those people go through...wow). Help me out fellow readers!

Mysteries are my favorite genre and I have several different favorite authors, depending on which era and location I'm currently reading. My very favorite of all are the Anne Perry series. She writes two series, both set in Victorian England. The William Monk series follows a police inspector in the mid-1860s. Monk has lost his memory as the result of a near-fatal carriage accident and must return to his job with nothing but instinct to go on, without alerting his superiors or subordinates of his condition. Thomas Pitt, a police inspector in the late 1880s-early 1890s in London, falls in love with the unconventional second daughter of the wealthy household where he is investigating the disappearance and subsequent murder of one of the housemaids.

These series don't have to be read in order, but I find it easier to keep track of all the characters in subsequent books if I do. The first William Monk is Face of a Stranger, and the first Thomas Pitt is The Cater Street Hangman.

Happy reading!

Queen Colleen

 

[miksilver]

20/35 The Walking Dead Compendium 3 – It was nice to keep reading this graphic novel for a change of pace.

21/35 Seeds of Discovery (The Dusk Gate Chronicles book 1) by Breeana Puttroff
22/35 Roots of Insight (The Dusk Gate Chronicles book 2)
23/35 Thorns of Decision (The Dusk Gate Chronicles book 3)
24/35 Blooms of Consequence (The Dusk Gate Chronicles book 4)
25/35 Canes of Divergence (The Dusk Gate Chronicles book 5)

I am really digging this YA fantasy series. The Dusk Gate is a time/universe travel gate so the stories are partly set in modern day US and a new fantasy style world. I have been pulled into the story now and will probably read the rest of the books that are out there. I'm already on book 6. I think after all of the Walking Dead that I read it's nice to have a YA read that has little to no violence/sex in it.

 

[jenny105]

If you like YA & fantasy, you would enjoy the Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare. Have you read any yet?
The prequels (The Infernal Devices), the main series (The Mortal Instruments), & the new series (The Dark Artifices)

I did read the first book in the Mortal Instruments series but I didn't like it enough to keep reading it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Mysteries are my favorite genre and I have several different favorite authors, depending on which era and location I'm currently reading. My very favorite of all are the Anne Perry series. She writes two series, both set in Victorian England. The William Monk series follows a police inspector in the mid-1860s. Monk has lost his memory as the result of a near-fatal carriage accident and must return to his job with nothing but instinct to go on, without alerting his superiors or subordinates of his condition. Thomas Pitt, a police inspector in the late 1880s-early 1890s in London, falls in love with the unconventional second daughter of the wealthy household where he is investigating the disappearance and subsequent murder of one of the housemaids.

These series don't have to be read in order, but I find it easier to keep track of all the characters in subsequent books if I do. The first William Monk is Face of a Stranger, and the first Thomas Pitt is The Cater Street Hangman.

Happy reading!

Queen Colleen

Thank you!

 

[Kewz1]

#7/12 The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

This is Ms. Morton's second book. I enjoyed her first book so much (House at Riverton) I could hardly wait to start this one. While her books are stand alone they are all written in the same manner: a mystery - or two - being discovered in present day is unfolded by storytelling from the past. I may have made it sound confusing but they are wonderfully written and easy to follow. I found myself struggling to put the book down and actually get things done.

Here's a brief summary from bn.com:

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-fi rst birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.


Enjoy!
Kristen

 

[tiggrbaby]

Recommendations needed for a good book to read on a long flight. I am flying to Alaska two weeks from now and altogether the travel time will be 9 hours spent on planes each way. What are your favorite reads to pass the time? I'm a fan of YA, I like fantasy, and mysteries are great too. I'm also fascinated by Scientology (don't want to join but what those people go through...wow). Help me out fellow readers!

I also like the Thomas Pitt novels for period mysteries.
The Maisie Dobbs books are another English/period mystery series. The Rizzoli and Isles series is good for a modern setting. If you haven't read the Wayward Pines trilogy, that is very good.

I have a Kindle Fire that I use to borrow multiple library books before travel. Someone taught me the trick that if you keep the wifi off, the book remains for you to read even if it has digitally returned to the library.

Enjoy your trip!

#7/12 The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

This is Ms. Morton's second book. I enjoyed her first book so much (House at Riverton) I could hardly wait to start this one. While her books are stand alone they are all written in the same manner: a mystery - or two - being discovered in present day is unfolded by storytelling from the past. I may have made it sound confusing but they are wonderfully written and easy to follow. I found myself struggling to put the book down and actually get things done.

Here's a brief summary from bn.com:

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-fi rst birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.


Enjoy!
Kristen

Just put this on hold at the library; thanks for the recommendation!

 

[tiggrbaby]

#27/50: A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly (4.5/5) (Bosch #7/LA homocide detective series)

 

[nemofans]

The Forgotten Garden is a great story!

 

[willowsnn3]

#27/72

The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner

Ruth Wariner was the 39th of her father's 42 children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can only ascend to Heaven by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible.
In need of government assistance and supplemental income, Ruth and her siblings are carted back and forth between Mexico and the US, where Ruth's mother collects wellfare and her stepfather works a variety of odd jobs.
Recounted from the innocent and hopeful perspective of a child, this is the remarkable memoir of one girl's fight for peace and love.

I really liked this one.