Here it is - the OFFICIAL 2014 READING GOAL CHALLENGE THREAD

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I found this article interesting and I added a few more books to my growing list.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/books-to-read-based-on-your-childhood-favorites

 

[tiggrbaby]

I found this article interesting and I added a few more books to my growing list.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/books-to-read-based-on-your-childhood-favorites

Thanks! Just shared this with my book group, a bunch of current and retired middle school teachers.

 

[CaliBear]

I found this article interesting and I added a few more books to my growing list.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/books-to-read-based-on-your-childhood-favorites

Thanks! I added a few as well. And a few I had read last year.

 

[Darcy03231]

#22/52 The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel. From Amazon:

"At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised.

In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis."

I really wanted to like this book. I love art and history and the premise behind the book sounded really interesting. I had a really hard time with it. It took me several weeks to get through because I kept picking up other books to read and then would go back to it. The first half I found to be very academic and dry. It did pick up a bit about half-way through, but it really didn't get interesting until the last 25% or so.

I'd give it a 2.5*

 

[KrazyPete]

2014 Reading Challenge Goal: 26 Books

February Update:
Book #4: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman's work is wildly imaginative but never unnecessarily so. When other people try to write this kind of fantasy it too often falls into a non-sensical Alice in Wonderland acid trip. Gaiman's characters and the worlds they inhabit may be fantastic but they always work. I can't help but be completely immersed in it. In the end, he leaves you space for your own imagination to work. I added him to my list of "favorite authors" after reading "The Ocean."

Book #5: The Twelve by Justin Cronin
Two words of advice, don't wait too long to read this book after reading "The Passage" and there's a list of characters in the back of the book. This story moves around a lot. Every time a scene changed it took me a few sentences to figure out, "Who is this again and what were they doing the last time I saw them?" Sometimes those two questions go all the way back to the first book. Anyway, if you liked the first book then you'll like this one. That one was mostly about Babcock. In this one, his brothers in blood are coming together for a family reunion and World domination. There wasn't enough zombie vampire battles in the first half of the book for me but the end was pretty harrowing. I hope I don't forget everything again before "City of Mirrors" comes out in October.

Next Up:
Radical by David Platt
My pastor said something crazy like, this is the most important work of modern Christian writing (something like that). Fine, I'll read it.
Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen
Here's a quote from the first chapter, "The final puzzled look on the man's face suggested that he was not expecting to be gored by a giant stuffed fish head."

 

[Kogo Shuko]

So far I have read the following books:

Deadly Heat - Richard Castle
The Gunslinger - Stephen King
The Drawing of Three - Stephen King
The Wastelands - Stephen King
Bunnicula - Deborah Howe (kind of a cheat, but I wanted to reread a favourite childhood book and my boyfriend happened to have it)
Wizard and Glass - Stephen King
The Wind Through the Keyhole - Stephen King

I am currently rereading Ever After by Kim Harrison in preparation for reading her brand new installation in the series, The Undead Pool. I'm rather excited about that!! Once I've finished that, I'll go back to reading the Dark Tower series (for the fourth time in ten years).

It's been a good reading year so far!!

ALSO!!

I won a book on Goodreads!! I won the Alien Acquisition by Lewis Addison Dixon.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I found this article interesting and I added a few more books to my growing list.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/books-to-read-based-on-your-childhood-favorites

What a fun article! Thanks!

#22/52 The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel. From Amazon:

I really wanted to like this book. I love art and history and the premise behind the book sounded really interesting. I had a really hard time with it. It took me several weeks to get through because I kept picking up other books to read and then would go back to it. The first half I found to be very academic and dry. It did pick up a bit about half-way through, but it really didn't get interesting until the last 25% or so.

I'd give it a 2.5*

I am about half way through this book. I like it, but it is also taking me forever. My goal is to finish it! I won't let myself read another book until I do! You are the second person who has said the second half is faster, so I am hoping that holds true for me!

 

[Ginny Favers]

I've read 6 or 7 books in the past month but they've mostly been research.

Also:

AVALANCHE, 1910, by Cameron Dokey
HER DARK CURIOSITY

Both historical YA novels. One was published in early 2000, one was published just recently. YA has come a long way in such a short period of time.

 

[jenny105]

I found this article interesting and I added a few more books to my growing list.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/books-to-read-based-on-your-childhood-favorites

Thanks! Added a couple from this list.

 

[Pig Pen]

#4 of 25 - The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.

The plot (no pun intended):

A girl goes to college,
dates a lot,
rejects a nerdy guy who loves her,
marries a hunky guy who suffers from bipolar disorder,
hunky guy has a breakdown on their honeymoon,
nerdy guy comes back into the picture and is hopeful.

I won't give away the "non-ending."

Okay then.

I am off to the library to find something else. For some reason I am not getting through my books as quickly as usual. If something really captivates me, I will read it in one sitting. Obviously this one didn't!

 

[portia9]

#28 Ladies of Longbourn The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins-not a bad Austen fan fic

 

[Swimnoid]

14. Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
Myron Bolitar is a sports agent but acts more like a PI in this book. His prize client receives a phone call from his supposedly dead former girlfriend and Myron tries to find out what the heck is going on.

This is the first of a series. It was pretty interesting and delved off into many tangents. I've read other Coben books though and this was not as intriguing as most. He sort of wrapped everything up in the last couple of pages.

15. Cross My Heart by James Patterson
The book opens with an epilogue of Alex trudging through the streets of DC, a broken man. Then it goes back to tell the story leading to this point.

I cant say much without giving it away. I love Alex Cross but his last few appearances have been mediocre. This book was very good and kept you involved. Lots of involvement of all his family members. You will either really HATE the end or laugh and say....figures.

 

[CaliBear]

7 of 30 A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint

This is the first book in the Inspector Singh Investigates series. From Amazon:

The portly, methodical Inspector Singh is a thorn in the side of his bosses on the Singapore police department, so they send him off to Malaysia to monitor the trial of Chelsea Liew, a Singaporean beauty queen accused of killing her abusive millionaire ex-husband. The plot, revolving around the difference between secular and Islamic custody laws, is unexpectedly intricate and surprising. But the keenest pleasures of this book center on Inspector Singh, and his attempts to see justice served while somehow maneuvering around his excessively zealous sergeant, keeping his white sneakers clean, and scoring the occasional tasty snack.

I loved this and recommend it. The other 5 books are all set in various Asian countries and I'm looking forward to the next once I find which library has it.

I began The Rose Project and am thoroughly enjoying it as well. Whoever said the narrator is like Sheldon Cooper sold me on it, and they are so spot on!

 

[Pig Pen]

Finally, after 3 years, I figured out how to borrow library books on my Kindle. I have attempted to do this several times, but the library's written directions were NOT user-friendly at all. I decided NOT to follow the directions but follow the computer prompts instead and it worked! My life is now changed!

I just started Six Years by Harlen Coben. Next up will be Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

I have 21 days to read both. A great incentive to turn off the TV!

 

[WowLookAtThat]

Book #20 Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fanny Flagg

Book #21 Standing in a Rainbow by Fannie Flagg

Book #22 Can't wait to get into Heaven by Fannie Flagg

The Flagg kick is over.

 

[mumloveseeyore]

book 26/150 the man who understood women and other stories by rosemary friedman

from Amazon
delightful series of short stories, providing a composite portrait of women and how the worlds they inhabit have changed over the past 50 years. No longer satisfied with marriage being their only socially acceptable destiny, these women relish their new freedoms as they run hospitals, banks and international businesses. From the spinsterish Miss Phipps, who opens the gate for women to fulfill their dreams and fantasies through her lending library, to the divorced 53-year-old Helen, who road-tests her internet date Dominic and becomes empowered by her new-found ability to make choices, these stories portray women who begin to overturn centuries of tradition, prepare to live fuller lives and to follow their dreams. Rosemary Friedman has a mimic’s ear for dialogue and her short stories are like well-aimed hand grenades.

This was a light interesting read, i enjoyed it.

 

[Swimnoid]

Book #20 Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fanny Flagg

Book #21 Standing in a Rainbow by Fannie Flagg

Book #22 Can't wait to get into Heaven by Fannie Flagg

The Flagg kick is over.

Haha! I love Fanny Flagg and have her on my list for re-reads and new ones this year!

 

[allenfane]

Finished book #8 The Count of Chanteleine. It was pretty good, but I haven't read any other books about the French Revolution so I felt I missed some of the cultural/historical significance. Verne loves to name-drop, and I know some of the people mentioned were real and a part of the Revolution, but if I googled every name listed I would have never finished the book!

Continuing on with 20,000 Leagues under the Seas, the full, unabridged version. This may take a while.

Allenfane

 

[K and K's Mommy]

Next up will be Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

I really liked this book!

 

[tiggrbaby]

#9/40: Sycamore Row by John Grisham

From Amazon:
John Grisham takes you back to where it all began . . .

John Grisham's A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.

The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

In Sycamore Row, John Grisham returns to the setting and the compelling characters that first established him as America's favorite storyteller. Here, in his most assured and thrilling novel yet, is a powerful testament to the fact that Grisham remains the master of the legal thriller, nearly twenty-five years after the publication of A Time to Kill.

I enjoyed the book, although it the ending was no surprise. the characters were interesting and it was fun to revisit many of them.

4/5