Here it is - the OFFICIAL 2014 READING GOAL CHALLENGE THREAD

[threeboysmom]

Goal 72

#24 Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner

From the jacket:
"My sister is Shana Day, a notorious murderer who first killed at fourteen. Incarcerated for 30 years, she has now murdered more people while in prison than she did as a free woman.
Our father was Harry Day, an infamous serial killer who buried young women beneath the floor of our home. He has been dead for forty years. Except the Rose Killer knows things about my father he shouldn't. My sister claims she can help catch him. I think just because I can't feel pain doesn't mean my family can't hurt me."

Lisa Gardner doesn't disappoint! One of my favorite authors.

Ooooh this one sounds good! I haven't read a Lisa Gardner book yet, although I do have Touch and Go on my "to read" list - going to add this one too!

 

[willowsnn3]

Ooooh this one sounds good! I haven't read a Lisa Gardner book yet, although I do have Touch and Go on my "to read" list - going to add this one too!

threeboysmom, I had to go check. Touch and Go is a 'stand alone' book and is very good also. But Fear Nothing is the latest in the DD Warren series so you need to read them in order. She also had the FBI Profiler series which are great also. I go between Lisa Gardner & Karin Slaughter as my favorite authors. Unfortunately neither author can write as fast as I can read...

 

[threeboysmom]

threeboysmom, I had to go check. Touch and Go is a 'stand alone' book and is very good also. But Fear Nothing is the latest in the DD Warren series so you need to read them in order. She also had the FBI Profiler series which are great also. I go between Lisa Gardner & Karin Slaughter as my favorite authors. Unfortunately neither author can write as fast as I can read...

Oh drats, it really has to be read as part of a series? Would I be lost just jumping into this one without reading the others?

 

[Simba's Mom]

Right now, I'm reading #17(?)- "Dancing Upon the Air" by Nora Roberts. I used to love to read her books, but for some reason I stopped. When I picked this one up at the library, at first I thought maybe I'd already read it. First, no I hadn't read it, but second and more important, WHY DID I EVER STOP? I love, love, love Nora Roberts.

 

[willowsnn3]

Oh drats, it really has to be read as part of a series? Would I be lost just jumping into this one without reading the others?

I think this one could be read without reading the others. None of the series really continue so to speak, just except for the development of the main character DD Warren. Her personal life is a mess, lol. But the others are really really good.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #26 - The Weight Of Blood by Laura McHugh

This is a good murder mystery that takes place in the Ozark Mountains. Lucy tries to figure out who killed her friend as well as find out why her mom disappeared when she was little. She reveals secrets from w/in the community & her own family. There are events that happen that can be difficult to read & the end isn't a surprise.

The town of Henbane sits deep in the Ozark Mountains. Folks there still whisper about Lucy Dane’s mother, a bewitching stranger who appeared long enough to marry Carl Dane and then vanished when Lucy was just a child. Now on the brink of adulthood, Lucy experiences another loss when her friend Cheri disappears and is then found murdered, her body placed on display for all to see. Lucy’s family has deep roots in the Ozarks, part of a community that is fiercely protective of its own. Yet despite her close ties to the land, and despite her family’s influence, Lucy—darkly beautiful as her mother was—is always thought of by those around her as her mother’s daughter. When Cheri disappears, Lucy is haunted by the two lost girls—the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn’t save—and sets out with the help of a local boy, Daniel, to uncover the mystery behind Cheri’s death.
What Lucy discovers is a secret that pervades the secluded Missouri hills, and beyond that horrific revelation is a more personal one concerning what happened to her mother more than a decade earlier.

 

[willowsnn3]

Goal 72

#25 Hidden Wives by Claire Avery

From the jacket:
"15 year old Sarah & her beautiful sister, Rachel, are approaching spinsterhood in Utah's secret Blood of the Lamb community. Having long since reached the age of preparedness, they will soon be married to much older men chosen for them by the hidden sect's revered Prophet.
Sara will become her uncle's fifth wife, while Rachel will marry one of the many powerful community leaders vying for her hand, including the Prophet.
When Rachel's future husband is finally announced, violence erupts, and the girls must find the strength to escape the only life they have ever known."

This was a very good book! Stayed up til the wee hours of the morning reading.

 

[Pig Pen]

From Amazon:

Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist.

When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies, Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries, and she discovers in herself an unprecedented ferocity—one that puts her beliefs and her sense of self at stake.

What an odd book! Nora is living a safe, boring life until the Shahids befriend her. Reza is the perfect child Nora has always wanted. Sirena is a successful artist who awakens Nora's dormant creative side. Skandar is intense and worldly. Nora becomes obsessed with them and constantly compares her pathetic life with theirs. I halfway expected her to go a little psycho at some point, but this never happens. Eventually she discovers disturbing truths about herself and about the Shahids. I suspected some kind of twist would occur at the end and was amply rewarded, but it took a long time coming!

I don't know what I will read next. I am off to the e-library now to browse the "stacks" to see what might be available on my wish list.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #27 - The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz

I read this for my book club this month & probably wouldn't have read it otherwise. Well, I didn't fully read it as I ended up skimming through the middle & then reading the end. It is about a real life death of a teen boy in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1991. I was interested in reading about this case, but there was so much added to it that the story got so bogged down. The author put in tons of history on the area as well as other situations/crimes that happened b4 & after his death mainly to build the case for racism in the area. It was more like a bunch of rambling & hard to follow. Just too much to keep me focused on the circumstances of the actual case. Then the boy's death was never solved.

In The Other Side of the River, his eagerly awaited new book, Kotlowitz takes us to southern Michigan. Here, separated by the St. Joseph River, are two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Geographically close, they are worlds apart, a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears.
The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Alex Kotlowitz proves why he is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race.

Next book: 20th Century Ghosts

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Flesh Worn Stone
John Burks

Steven Alexander awakes from a drug-induced coma in a cage on a pristine tropical beach, his head covered with a burlap sack and numbers tattooed on his right arm. Besides his wife, Rebecca, he doesn’t know any of the four other people in blue prison-style coveralls. As the others come out of their own stupor, he remembers the masked and armed men breaking into his suburban Houston home and the murder of his two sons. The group has nothing in common besides the location and the manner of their brutal kidnappings.

Unbeknownst to Steven, he and his fellow prisoners are now part of the Cave, a Colosseum-sized cavern populated with savage cannibals. And they are about to play the Game.

The Cave is a prison like no other--a prison run by the prisoners, and the rules must be strictly adhered to, less one find themselves as the evening meal. The Cave dwellers’ lives revolve around the Game, a modern-day rendition of the Colosseum of ancient Rome, where they must compete in acts of murder, rape, and self-mutilation for the amusement of those who watch from behind one-way mirrors, people they never see or hear. Refusal to participate means the dinner pot, and losing means a fate literally worse than death.

Steven soon learns the true meaning of not just slavery, but of abject and relentless hopelessness as he struggles to not only survive, but escape the horrors of the Game

Um...What to say? Lots of thoughts going through my mind and I just can't seem to organize them, so I'll try my best.

There is a lot of really horrific things in this book. Pretty much some of the worst things imaginable.

BUT, with that said, I enjoyed to story, the idea of the book. It kept me reading(even though I felt a guilty during some of it). I will probably read the next in the series because I would like to see what happens next.

 

[DisneyWalle]

Flesh Worn Stone
John Burks


Um...What to say? Lots of thoughts going through my mind and I just can't seem to organize them, so I'll try my best.

There is a lot of really horrific things in this book. Pretty much some of the worst things imaginable.

BUT, with that said, I enjoyed to story, the idea of the book. It kept me reading(even though I felt a guilty during some of it). I will probably read the next in the series because I would like to see what happens next.

Oh, I like the sound of this one. Seems like an "edge of the seat" kind of book -- love those. Thank you for reviewing it.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Oh, I like the sound of this one. Seems like an "edge of the seat" kind of book -- love those. Thank you for reviewing it.

I hope you aren't offended by....anything really. It covers it all. From rape to graphic murder.

I felt like I should warn you before you get into are like, "What is WRONG with that girl! Who reads this???"

 

[DisneyWalle]

I hope you aren't offended by....anything really. It covers it all. From rape to graphic murder.

I felt like I should warn you before you get into are like, "What is WRONG with that girl! Who reads this???"

Wow...ok so its very graphic...thank you for the clarification...

 

[DisneyWalle]

#31 - Barnyard in Your Backyard

from Amazon:
When is the right time to shear a sheep? Is there a market for manure? What time of day is best to collect eggs? What is the correct way to milk a goat? What does a duck eat? Can a cow and a sheep share the same pasture? Which types of rabbits are easiest to raise?
The perfect book for anyone who has ever dreamed of having that little place in the country, Barnyard in Your Backyard offers tried-and-true, expert advice on raising healthy, happy, productive farm animals: chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, and dairy cows.

I know this book might not cover a subject that many of you are interested in, but if you are thinking about raising animals for livestock or even enjoyment - this book offers good information. I read this last year but we are almost done with fencing our 20 acres and therefore, its time to refresh my memory on the livestock we will be purchasing for the farm.

 

[Momof3dogs]

14/50

The Women of Duck Commander------ Kay, Korie, Missy, Jessica, & Lisa Robertson

I love this family. Every time I read a new book by them, I love them even more.

 

[zippitydoo]

Book 22 of 50
Body Movers by Stephanie Bond

 

[mumloveseeyore]

book 42/150 Dead in the water by carola Dunn
the next in the Daisy Dalrymple cosy murder series set in the 1920's
great fun!
book 43/150 Daily life in Victorian London by lee jackson
an anthology of newspaper articles, book extracts, diaries etc from the period. This was interesting, people were complaining about crime and traffic then too. Perhaps best dipped into rather than read from cover to cover.
book 44/150home for the haunting by juliet Blackwell
the fourth in the series about a home renovator who has a talent for seeing ghosts in these properties, a good light read and i enjoyed the architecture and home renovation detail
book 45/150Amish knitting circle by karen anna vogel
from Amazon
Granny Weaver believes women could be stronger if spun together., just like the wool she spins into yarn. She invites five women, all with various issues such as infertility, poor body image and marital problems and haunting secrets. As they meet from October to April to knit shawls for charity, they begin to deal with problems, together, in community, the Amish way.
i didnt enjoy this as much as i expected but it was an ok read

 

[Jafar30]

I haven't done an update in awhile, but I was last reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

With a goal of 25 since then I've finished

#5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

#6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

#7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Now

#8. Tales from Development Hell

After I'm going to start A Game of Thrones

 

[Jafar30]

Finished #8. Tales from Development Hell.

Change of plans on the next set of books.


Next up is #9: Sandstorm by James Rollins

 

[wilma-bride]

So I seem to be averaging a book a week at the moment. I need to up my game a little or I won't reach my goal of 60 books

Book #12 - Stay Alive by Simon Kernick

ONE WITNESS

You're on a trip with your family, miles from anywhere. A shot rings out - and your whole life changes in an instant.

ONE SECRET

A woman is racing towards you, chased by three gunmen. Although you don't know it, she harbours a deadly secret. She's in terrible danger. And now you are too.

NO ESCAPE

You're running, terrified, desperate to find safety.
You know that the men hunting you have killed before.
And if they catch you, you'll be next .

I have found, since getting a Kindle, that I read books that I would never have actually read before, either because they are free downloads or because they are cheaper than buying the paperback would have been. This book falls into that category. I would have been intrigued by the blurb but wouldn't have actually bought it ordinarily, as it's by an author I haven't read. Anyway, in short, I really enjoyed this book. I am finding that I'm getting more into reading thrillers. And this was thrilling, with lots of twists and turns. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next and how it would end. And, while I guessed some of it, there was a twist that came that I didn't expect, which made it even more intriguing. I have downloaded a couple more of his and will give them a go.

Book #13 - One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

Journalist Kitty Logan’s career has been destroyed by scandal, and she now faces losing the woman who guided her and taught her everything she knew. At her mentor’s bedside, Kitty asks her – what is the one story she always wanted to write?

The answer lies in a file buried in Constance’s office: a list of one hundred names. There is no synopsis, no explanation, nothing else to explain what the story is or who these people are. The list is simply a mystery.

But before Kitty can talk to her friend, it is too late.

With everything to prove, Kitty is assigned the most important task of her life – to write the story her mentor never had the opportunity to. Kitty has to not only track down and meet the people on the list, but find out what connects them. And, in the process of hearing ordinary people’s stories, she uncovers Constance’s – and starts to understand her own…

I absolutely loved P.S. I Love You by the same author but have read other books by her that I haven't enjoyed as much. So I wasn't particularly excited about One Hundred Names. But I really enjoyed it. It was an easy read but, at the same time, kept me interested and intrigued as to what would happen next. It was a really good storyline and I really could identify with Kitty. I loved it.

Just a general comment but I have read a lot of really good books so far this year and I would like to thank everybody for all their recommendations, and particularly threeboysmom for doing a great job of maintaining the thread