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

[willowsnn3]

#32/72

Find Her by Lisa Gardner

FIND HER is Lisa Gardner at her all time best.” - Huffington Post - Jackie Cooper

I so agree with this. Lisa Gardner has long been a favorite of mine and Find Her does not disappoint!

From the jacket:

'Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure.
Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate. She has a mother who's never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she's become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who've never made it home.
When Boston detective D.D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime--a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him--she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D. D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who's determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape.'

 

[MochaDrinker]

64/200-Hissing Cousins by Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Book 10 of 15: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Inside Out and Back Again is a New York Times bestseller, a Newbery Honor Book, and a winner of the National Book Award! Inspired by the author's childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama, this coming-of-age debut novel told in verse has been celebrated for its touching child's-eye view of family and immigration.

For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food . . . and the strength of her very own family.

This moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing received four starred reviews, including one from Kirkus which proclaimed it "enlightening, poignant, and unexpectedly funny." An author's note explains how and why Thanhha Lai translated her personal experiences into Hà's story

Semi-autobiographical book of verse written as a journal of a 10-year old girl from Vietnam during the last days of the Vietnamd war. Very quick read. I don't know much about the Vietnam war, and now, having read this book, I feel compelled to read more about it. Very sad and poignant, but with funny moments.

4 out of 5 stars.

Next up: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's Frankenstein's 200th birthday this month, so might as well crack this one open again!

 

[Kogo Shuko]

Book #21: Holes by Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

Having read this in school, I decided to pick it up and see if it was as good as I remembered it to be. Turns out it is. I see there is a sequel. I look forward to reading it.

 

[MochaDrinker]

65/200-The Mind Club by Daniel m. Webster and Kurt gray

 

[Kirby]

31/80 - Karavans by Jennifer Roberson. Genre - Fantasy

All-new adventure from the national best-selling of the Sword series!

The land of Sancorra has been conquered by the brutal Hecari, leaving thousands homeless and in fear for their lives. Audrun and her husband Davyd have four children with another due when their farm is burned. Consulting diviners, they learn that their new child must be born in Atalanda province-a peaceful land where Audrun has family. But to get there, they will have to travel close to the sinister woodlands of Alisanos, where darkness awaits to claim those unlucky enough to be chosen. Joining a karavan for safety, the family moves ever closer to the dangerous, mystical forest. And, as they are all about to discover, Alisanos is moving ever closer to them.

I actually picked up book 3 of this series at the dollar store. When I realized it was part of a series I decided to start at the beginning and I am glad I did. I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to the next installment.

 

[tiggrbaby]

I think I need to up my goal to 75...

#40/75: The Widow by Fiona Barton (4/5) (psychological suspense)

#41/75: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult (5/5) (historical/realistic fiction) (Holocaust)

 

[MochaDrinker]

66/200-Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

 

[Deffenm]

20/50 - Girls Guide to Moving on
In this powerful and uplifting novel, a mother and her daughter-in-law bravely leave their troubled marriages and face the challenge of starting over. Leaning on each other, Nichole and Leanne discover that their inner strength and capacity for love are greater than they ever imagined.

 

[camreesmom]

10/15 Saving Abby by Steena Holmes
I did not like the ending of this book at all.

From Amazon:
All children’s book illustrator Claire Turner ever wanted was to be a mother. After six years of trying to conceive, she and her husband, Josh, have finally accepted that she will never be pregnant with a child of their own.

Yet once they give up hope, the couple gets the miracle they’ve been waiting for. For the first few months of her pregnancy, Claire and Josh are living on cloud nine. But when she begins to experience debilitating headaches, blurred vision, and even fainting spells, the soon-to-be mother goes to the doctor and receives a terrifying diagnosis. Since any treatment could put their unborn baby’s life at risk, the Turners must carefully weigh their limited options. And as her symptoms worsen, Claire will have to make an impossible decision: Save her own life, or save her child’s?

11/15 Somewhere Out There by Amy Hatvany
3.5*/5

From Amazon:
Natalie Clark knew never to ask her sensitive adoptive mother questions about her past. She doesn’t even know her birth mother’s name—only that the young woman signed parental rights over to the state when Natalie was a baby. Now Natalie’s own daughter must complete a family tree project for school, and Natalie is determined to unearth the truth about her roots.

Brooke Walker doesn’t have a family. At least, that’s what she tells herself after being separated from her mother and her little sister at age four. Having grown up in a state facility and countless foster homes, Brooke survives the only way she knows how, by relying on herself. So when she discovers she’s pregnant, Brooke faces a heart-wrenching decision: give up her baby or raise the child completely on her own. Scared and confused, she feels lost until a surprise encounter gives her hope for the future.

12/15 The Secret Daughter by Kelly Rimmer
4*/5 This was a good book. It deals with the forced adoptions that took place in Australia in the 70's.

From Amazon:
As I saw my new-born baby’s face for the first time I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind—to stamp it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me I knew I might never see my daughter again.

38 years later…

‘You were adopted’. Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There would forever be a Before those words, and an After.

Pregnant with her own child, Sabina can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter, or why her parents have kept the past a secret.

Determined to find the woman who gave her away, what she discovers will change everything, not just for Sabina, but for the women who have loved her all these years.

Next up: Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

[MochaDrinker]

67/200-Fit Not Healthy by Vanessa Alford

 

[MochaDrinker]

68/200-What Addicts Know by Christopher Kennedy Lawford

 

[MochaDrinker]

69/200-Untangled by Lisa Damour

 

[Kirby]

32/80 - Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman.

Steel Magnolias meets The Help in this Southern debut novel sparkling with humor, heart, and feminine wisdom

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille-the tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town-a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt, Tootie Caldwell.

In her vintage Packard convertible, Tootie whisks CeeCee away to Savannah's perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity, a world that seems to be run entirely by women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons, to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones, to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.

Laugh-out-loud funny, Beth Hoffman's charming debut novel, which Mary Kay Andrews calls "charming, disarming, sweet as the scent of magnolias on a Southern summer night," hums with wacky humor and down-home heart. It is a novel that explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship and gives us the story of a young girl who loses one mother and finds many others.

I really enjoyed this book and could hardly put it down.

 

[Deffenm]

21/50 - Tumbledown Manor
The windows rattle. The roof leaks. Every surface cries out to be stripped, painted, or polished. But for writer Lisa Trumperton, the dilapidated manor house that once belonged to her great-grandfather is far more than the sum of its battered parts. It's the chance for a new start on her own terms. The fact that it's in the Melbourne countryside of her Australian homeland, far from the deceitful ex-husband she just left behind in New York…well, that's a bonus.

 

[BonnieF]

15/40 - Shelter, Jung Yun - well written story of dark events that lead to self-discovery.
16/40 - Miller's Valley, Anna Quindlen - one of my favorite authors (check out her columns in the New York Times from years ago - so on the mark regarding day-to-day parenting). This is a terrific book about all the changes life throws at us. I highly recommend it!
17/40 - The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - a terrific debut novel about family politics - well written and well drawn characters. I'm looking forward to more from this author.

I'm compiling my summer reading list (yes, teacher here) from everyone's posts - that's the best part of this thread!

It's been a busy month!!!

18/40 - The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson - very good pre-WWI story - very real characters in a well written book
19/40 - Titans, Leila Meecham - Texas in the early 1900's - rich family problems - not nearly as good as her other books.
20/40 HALFWAY TO MY GOAL!!!! - Reader, I Married Him, edited by Tracy Chevalier - short stories based on the quote from Jane Eyre - some better than others, but worth reading.
21/40 - And After the Fire, Lauren Belfer - the story of an artifact taken by a soldier during WWII that invokes joy and sorrow for those who possess it - terrific story that gets bogged down - worthwhile reading!
22/4/ - A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny, next in the Inspector Gamache series, a pleasant (LoL) murder mystery
23/40- The Hundred Year House, Rebecca Makkai - intertwined characters' stories centered around an artist colony in an old house - an okay read.

 

[tiggrbaby]

It's been a busy month!!!

18/40 - The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson - very good pre-WWI story - very real characters in a well written book
19/40 - Titans, Leila Meecham - Texas in the early 1900's - rich family problems - not nearly as good as her other books.
20/40 HALFWAY TO MY GOAL!!!! - Reader, I Married Him, edited by Tracy Chevalier - short stories based on the quote from Jane Eyre - some better than others, but worth reading.
21/40 - And After the Fire, Lauren Belfer - the story of an artifact taken by a soldier during WWII that invokes joy and sorrow for those who possess it - terrific story that gets bogged down - worthwhile reading!
22/4/ - A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny, next in the Inspector Gamache series, a pleasant (LoL) murder mystery
23/40- The Hundred Year House, Rebecca Makkai - intertwined characters' stories centered around an artist colony in an old house - an okay read.

I enjoy this series as well! The characters are so interesting.

 

[tiggrbaby]

#42/75: etta and otto and russell and james by Emma Hooper

I'm not going to rate this book as I did not really enjoy it. The author did not use standard dialogue punctuation and I found that to be very distracting. Since that's probably just my quirk, I figured it wouldn't be fair to rank it.

 

[moniqueand2]

#24/30 - The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

This was pretty good but went on a little too long. If you like historical fiction this may be worth a look. I did like that it was set in rural Washington State circa 1900.

From amazon.com
In her stunningly original and haunting debut novel, Amanda Coplin evokes a powerful sense of place, mixing tenderness and violence as she spins an engrossing tale of a solitary orchardist who provides shelter to two runaway teenage girls in the untamed American West, and the dramatic consequences of his actions.

 

[Kogo Shuko]

Book # 22: Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland

The eponymous heroine of Miss Wyoming is one Susan Colgate, a teen beauty queen and low-rent soap actress. Dragooned into show business by her demonically pushy, hillbilly mother, Susan has hit rock bottom by the time Douglas Coupland's seventh book begins. But when she finds herself the sole survivor of an airplane crash, this "low-grade onboard celebrity" takes the opportunity to start all over again: She felt like a ghost. She tried to find her bodily remains there in the wreckage and was unable to do so.... Then she was lost in a crowd of local onlookers and trucks, parping sirens and ambulances. She picked her way out of the melee and found a newly paved suburban road that she followed away from the wreck into the folds of a housing development. She had survived, and now she needed sanctuary and silence. She's not, of course, the only Hollywood burnout who'd like to vanish into thin air. Her opposite number, a producer of big-budget, no-brainer action flicks named John Johnson, stages a similar disappearing act. After a near-death experience, in the course of which he is treated to a vision of Susan's face, he roams the western badlands. And even after his return to L.A., Johnson is determined to unravel the mystery of this woman's fate.

Throughout, Coupland displays his usual gift for capturing the absurdities of modern existence. The distinctive minutiae of our age--junk mail and fast food, sitcoms and Singapore slings, and the "shop fronts bigger and brighter and more powerful than they needed to be"--come to vivid, funny life in this author's hands. And while Susan and John occupy center stage, Coupland is just as generous with his peripheral characters. A scriptwriter and his supernaturally intelligent girlfriend, a recluse who spends his evening generating Internet rumours--all manage to be blessed and cursed, numbed by their pointless existences but full of humanity when put to the test. Picture Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut collaborating on a Tinseltown version of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and you come halfway to grasping Coupland's brand of thoughtful, supremely funny storytelling. --Matthew Baylis

It was an interesting but erratic read. I enjoyed this book that was reminiscent of Jack Kerouac's writing style, but it's not my favourite Coupland novel.