Here it is - the OFFICIAL 2014 READING GOAL CHALLENGE THREAD

[K and K's Mommy]

#5 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
This is Oprah's current book. I really liked it, but I wouldn't place it above any of last year's top 3. I thought the middle was a little slow. It begins when an 11 year old Charleston girl, Sarah Grimke, is given a slave for her birthday. Sarah teaches her to read, and they become friends before Sarah eventually leaves her for the north. Sarah Grimke is a real person so it is based on her real life. At the end of the book the author tells us what was real and what was not. I enjoyed that part.

#6 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I loved this book. If you like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, this is a book for you. Don decides he needs to find a wife. He narrates the book, and at first, I only had Sheldon in my mind. As the book went on, Don became more of his own person, but he is A LOT like Sheldon. He devises a detailed questionnaire for all applicants to fill out! Funny, enjoyable book!

 

[nemofans]

I started Not Tonight Honey, Wait til I'm a Size 6, but I only got through a few short stories b4 I quit. I did not think it was funny at all & have no interest in finishing it. So since I didn't get half way through, I won't count it towards my goal.

I have The Rosie Project on hold at my library. I am glad to hear the character is similar to Sheldon as I love that character!

 

[threeboysmom]

Life is very full right now, with my wife on short term disability and needing a lot of help/support . . . I want to change my goal for the year from 105 down to 55. I haven't been able to read more than a chapter of anything this year!

Thanks,

Ali

So sorry to hear about your wife.

I've updated your goal to 55. Hoping you can get back to reading soon!

11/100

The October List
by Jeffery Deaver

A mind-bending novel with twists and turns that unfold from its dramatic climax back to its surprising beginning, THE OCTOBER LIST is Jeffery Deaver at his masterful, inventive best.[/COLOR]

My FAVORITE book so far this year. At first I was utterly confused, as the book began with what seems to be the middle of a story. I actually had to turn back a page to see if I missed anything. But once I got the flow of the book, it all made sense.
The story is told BACKWORDS! the first chapter is the last chapter, and the last chapter is first chapter. The twists are great and really kept me guessing. The last few chapters (which are technically the few first chapters!!) are a little rushed, but had me saying..holy batman!

If you like mysteries, give this one a try!

5/5 - Quick, but very good, read, finished it in a couple of hours.

2) My Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty - it took me awhile to get into this since the story keeps bouncing from character to character. However, the last half tied everything together and made it worth it. I liked the ethical questions that came up as a result of some of the decisions.

#5 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
This is Oprah's current book. I really liked it, but I wouldn't place it above any of last year's top 3. I thought the middle was a little slow. It begins when an 11 year old Charleston girl, Sarah Grimke, is given a slave for her birthday. Sarah teaches her to read, and they become friends before Sarah eventually leaves her for the north. Sarah Grimke is a real person so it is based on her real life. At the end of the book the author tells us what was real and what was not. I enjoyed that part.

#6 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I loved this book. If you like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, this is a book for you. Don decides he needs to find a wife. He narrates the book, and at first, I only had Sheldon in my mind. As the book went on, Don became more of his own person, but he is A LOT like Sheldon. He devises a detailed questionnaire for all applicants to fill out! Funny, enjoyable book!

These books are on my list to read this year so thanks so much for the reviews! Most excited about The October List and The Rosie Project! Need to get through Harry Potter first... such a big book - going to take me some time, lol.

 

[jenny105]

#6 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I loved this book. If you like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, this is a book for you. Don decides he needs to find a wife. He narrates the book, and at first, I only had Sheldon in my mind. As the book went on, Don became more of his own person, but he is A LOT like Sheldon. He devises a detailed questionnaire for all applicants to fill out! Funny, enjoyable book!

I adore Sheldon so I'll have to add this to my list! Thanks!

 

[WowLookAtThat]

Book #14 Then Comes Marriage by Celeste Bradley

Book #15 The Rogue Returns by Sabrina Jeffries

Been on a romance novel kick. Not even sorry.

 

[willowsnn3]

Goal 72

#11 Being Esther by Miriam Karmel

"Growing old is one of the most surprising things that has happened to her. She hadn't given it any thought. Then one day, she was eighty five. She is old. Not just old, but an object of derision, pity. Is there any use explaining that she is still herself---albeit a slower, achier, creakier version of the original?"
A novel about an eighty five year old widow living in suburban Chicago may not sound irresistible, but thanks to Karmel's beautifully precise prose, Being Esther is impossible to put down.

Loved this book. Only 187 pages, but is really a good book.

 

[Pig Pen]

#3 of 25 was an epic fail. I had to give up on Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. This is the story of Henry VIII's fight with the church over the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, told from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell.

I am very familiar with the history so I knew the plot line, etc., so could follow the story. However I found the author's writing style confusing. The pronoun "he" was overused and it was difficult to figure out who exactly was talking - compounded by the fact that there were at least three different men named Thomas, several Henrys, etc.

After 15% completion on Kindle, I just couldn't get into it so set it aside.

Fortunately, I stumbled across "City of Thieves" in our clubhouse library and snatched it up. I started it last night and hope to get in some good reading time before the Olympics start tonight (and American Idol). Thanks to those who recommended it. The first few chapters have me hooked.

 

[wilma-bride]

Finished book #5 of 60 - Winners by Danielle Steel

Lily Thomas is an aspiring young ski champion training for the Olympics, a young woman with her heart set on winning the gold. But in one moment, Lily's future is changed forever, her hopes for the Olympics swept away in a tragic accident. Her father Bill has pinned all his hopes on his only daughter, and his dreams are now destroyed.

Dr. Jessie Matthews, the neurosurgeon who operates on Lily that night, endures a tragedy of her own, and other brave survivors also fight to alter the course of destiny and refuse to be defeated. When Bill builds a remarkable rehab facility for his daughter, countless lives are forever altered, and each becomes a winner.

Winners is about more than surviving - it is about courage, victory, and triumph.

What can I say? Anybody who has read Danielle Steel will know that her books all pretty much begin and end in the same way - take one perfect family, add a dollop of tragedy and a smidgen of unhappiness. Fold in a dose of romance and mix it all together and you will have yourself a happy ending. I was no more than a few pages into this before I had predicted how it would end - and I was right! Having said that, it was exactly what I needed after my previous book and it was predictably enjoyable.

Next up - The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald (started this last night and it is already looking very promising )

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Finished book # 2 of 24. So far this year I've finished Dr. Sleep and Inferno. I really need to get a move on! BTW, I was disappointed by the ending of both of these books.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl
Anonymous

Belle couldn't find a job after University. Her impressive degree was not paying her rent or buying her food. But after a fantastic threesome with a very rich couple who gave her a ton of money, Belle realized that she could earn more than anyone she knew--by becoming a call girl. The rest is history. Belle became a 20-something London working girl--and had the audacity to write about it--anonymously. The shockingly candid and explicit diary she put on the Internet became a London sensation. She shares her entire journey inside the world of high-priced escorts, including fascinating and explicit insights about her job and her clients, her various boyfriends, and a taboo lifestyle that has to be read to be believed. The witty observations, shocking revelations, and hilarious scenarios deliver like the very best fiction and make for a titillating reading experience unlike any other.

I chose to read this book after learning that it was the story the Showtime series called "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" was based on. I liked that show a lot!

The book was just "meh". It was still witty and humorous, but a lot more risque. The content didn't bother me, but it was a jarring at first.

 

[Momof3dogs]

9/50
Thin Rich Pretty---- Beth Harbison

This book took me awhile to get into but once I did, it went quickly! You jump around from when the main characters are teens to present day. Each character is going through something life altering and you see if they resolve the issue. I felt myself cheering for each person.

 

[Darcy03231]

#15 - The Shadow Queen by Beatrice Small. From Amazon:

"Mourn me but briefly. Then find your destiny, Lara, my love, my life. Now let me go…

With those words, the spirit of Magnus Hauk, Dominus of Terah, departs his body—leaving the fate of his nation to his wife, the half faerie Lara.

While Lara's son Prince Taj is well loved by the people of Terah, he is too young to rule, so Lara must obey Magnus's dying command and govern in his stead. Yet some in Terah still believe that a female must never wear the crown…and Lara and her children will face old enemies who are not finished with their schemes for revenge. But one hope remains—Lara has a powerful ally in Prince Kaliq of the Shadows, though never was there a more seductive friend or foe…."

This is the 4th book in series and is a predictable romance that Beatrice Small is known for. It was a light and easy read. I'd give it a 3/5.

 

[Dahly]

#13/100
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

Reviewed before, so i will just say i enjoyed it, even with the sad theme.

4/5



#14/100


Where'd You Go, Bernadette
by Maria Semple
From Good Reads:
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.


3/5
crazy story of a crazy family. Bee and her mother have a very odd, but loving relationship. Dad is pretty distance.The neighbors, school moms, and co-workers create lots of side drama. interesting.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Also adding "The Rosie Project" to my growing list of things to read, love Sheldon too!

 

[Dahly]

#15/100

The Wednesday Sisters (Wednesday #1)
by Meg Waite Clayton (Goodreads Author)

From Good Reads:
For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.

As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.

I read this a few years ago, and re-read it as the sequel "The Wednesday Daughters" is out now. Sweet story of friendship in a time period where many women didn't work outside of the home, and men held all the cards.
4/5

I started the "The Wednesday Daughters" and couldn't get past the second chapter. First book was much better.

All caught up...now reading "Paper Towns" by John Green

 

[CallieMar]

5/50 - Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

From Goodreads:

Elizabeth Middleton, a well-educated spinster of 29, journeys from her home in England to her father's lands in upstate New York in 1792. Her widowed father has promised Elizabeth that she can become the schoolteacher for the local children, but on her arrival at Paradise, her father's property, she learns that he has brought her to America under false pretenses. It is his intention to find her a husband, preferably the well-respected physician, Richard Todd.

Though Elizabeth has no intention to marry, she is immediately drawn, not to Richard, but to backwoodsman Nathaniel Bonner, son of Dan'l "Hawkeye" Bonner, hero of the James Fenimore Cooper classic. Nathaniel's connection to the Mohican (Mahican) people is a strong one; he considers Hawkeye's adoptive father, Chingachgook, his grandfather, and his own wife was a Mahican woman who died in childbirth several years earlier.

Elizabeth learns from her father that her inheritance is a part of his lands, a mountain known as Hidden Wolf, to be granted to her when she marries. She soon finds herself caught between Nathaniel and the Mahicans, who want to buy back the mountain from her father as part of their hunting grounds, and Richard, who wants the land for himself and sees Elizabeth as the route to it. Her father, fearful that the sale of Hidden Wolf to the Mahicans will bring more Indians back to Paradise, favors Richard.

Knowing Richard's main interest in her is her land, Elizabeth resists his attentions as she gets to know Nathaniel and his people. The backwoodsmen and their Indian friends accept her and respect her opinions, and she soon finds herself siding with their claim to Hidden Wolf. Meanwhile, the attraction between her and Nathaniel grows into a love that only adds to the conflict between the whites and the Indians.

I enjoyed this book, however I don't know if I will continue the series. I realize now that I prefer shorter historical romance novels rather than the sweeping epics like this one or Outlander. I may come back to it one day.

 

[zippitydoo]

Books 8-14 of 50

#8- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
#9- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
#10- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
#11- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
#12- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
#13- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
#14- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

 

[wrestlingchick26]

Books 8-14 of 50 #8- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone #9- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #10- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban #11- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire #12- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix #13- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince #14- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

I plan to have a list that looks like this too- I'm going to reread all the books before my trip in November so I'm all set for the Harry potter rides

 

[mumloveseeyore]

book 18/150Hounded:the iron druid chronicles by Kevin Hearne
from Amazon
Staying alive for 2,000 years takes a great deal of cunning, and sexy super-druid Atticus O'Sullivan, currently holed up in the Arizona desert, has vexed a few VIPs along the way. High up on that list is Aenghus og, the Celtic god of love. It's not just that Aenghus wants his sword back--though it is a very nice magical sword--but that Atticus didn't exactly ask permission to take it. Atticus and his trusty sidekick, Irish wolfhound Oberon, make an eminently readable daring duo as they dodge Aenghus's minions and thwart his schemes with plenty of quips and zap-pow-bang fighting."

I enjoyed this humorous urban fantasy, first in a series. i'd give it 3.5 out of 5.

 

[Darcy03231]

#16 Crown of Destiny by Beatrice Small. From Amazon:

"A hundred years have passed since the Faerie woman Lara last saved Hetar. Her youth and beauty remain as always. The waning years, however, have taken many of her friends and kin. And those who remember her heroism in times of peril are few.

All the while Lara's son, the charming but nefarious Twilight Lord Kolgrim, waits patiently for his moment. Kolgrim won't repeat his father's mistakes by waging war. His way is more subtle but just as sinister—not even Lara's formidable powers will be able to stop him. Though all seems lost, Lara still clings to the hope that she can fulfill the prophecy to unite the people of Hetar.

As darkness once again falls over her land, Lara finds that, more than ever, she needs the wisdom, love and support of the handsome Shadow Prince, Kaliq. In their greatest trial yet, Lara and Kaliq will finally meet her long-foretold destiny…together."

This was the 6th and last book in a series. I enjoyed the entire series, although it was definitely predictable. I did like the epic fantasy/romance aspect of the books. For those not familiar with Beatrice Small her romance scenes can be pretty graphic. I'd recommend the series if you like these kinds of books. They're a light easy read. Overall I'd give the series a 4/5. Some of the books were better than others, but all were good.