Here it is - the OFFICIAL 2014 READING GOAL CHALLENGE THREAD

[rigs32]

Apparently I haven't posted in quite some time. Here's what I've read.

#11 - Vampire Academy #2, Frostbite
#12 - Vampire Academy #3, Shadow Kiss
#13 - Vampire Academy #4, Blood Promise

Can you tell that when I start a series I enjoy I like to keep going? Though sometimes I need a break as it starts to get monotonous.

#14 - Life After Life, Kate Atkinson. I found this a bit tough to get into, but then enjoyed the rhythm of it. Ultimately, however, I felt it was more about experimenting with story telling than making a statement about anything. Worth a read, but not an amazing experience.

#15 - Round Ireland With a Fridge, Tony Hawks. I read this years ago and decided to revisit it as I plan a trip to Ireland. A fun travel memoir about a man who hitchhikes around Ireland with a fridge and the people he encounters along the way.

#16 - Divergent - with the movie coming out, I wanted to make sure i read this so I wouldn't get spoiled as to the plot by folks talking about the movie.
#17 - Insurgent
#18 - Allegient - currently reading

 

[Jafar30]

Finished #9 Sandstorm.

Reading 10 Divergent now

 

[jenny105]

Finished book #14/30 - Frostbite book #2 in the Vampire Academy series. It wasn't as good as the first but still a decent read. It really picked up toward the end. I'm surprising myself with how much I'm enjoying these books. I would have never given them a chance if I hadn't won the first book.

Up next, Hollow City.

 

[WowLookAtThat]

Book #31 Bold Angel by Kat Martin

Book #32 If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley

Book #33 The Times We Had by Marion Davies

Book #34 Complicated Women: Sex and Power in PreCode Hollywood by Mick LaSalle

Book #35 Mom in the Movies: The Iconic Screen Mothers You Love (and a Few You Love to Hate) by TCM

 

[Kinziepoohsmom]

#7 Six Years by Harlan Coben - I read all his books and they are good reads but I found this one to be a bit slow in places.

#8 Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

 

[sj&k]

Finally finished number 4-Defending Jacob by William Landay. I'd read numerous positive reviews and recommendations before buying and reading it, and honestly I was disappointed and basically forced myself to finish it. I don't know what I was expecting but that was not it. I'd thought about reading another of his books but that can wait.

Next I'm deciding between Dark Places by Gillian Flynn or The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle. Hopefully I will enjoy the one I choose. I seem to be hard to please so far this year, probably why it's taking me so long to get through each book. Maybe I need to re-read another Harry Potter book to motivate myself.

 

[Kimmers127]

Finally finished number 4-Defending Jacob by William Landay. I'd read numerous positive reviews and recommendations before buying and reading it, and honestly I was disappointed and basically forced myself to finish it. I don't know what I was expecting but that was not it. I'd thought about reading another of his books but that can wait. Next I'm deciding between Dark Places by Gillian Flynn or The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle. Hopefully I will enjoy the one I choose. I seem to be hard to please so far this year, probably why it's taking me so long to get through each book. Maybe I need to re-read another Harry Potter book to motivate myself.

I was disappointed by Defending Jacob too. I thought it was kind of slow and just lacking something. I had read a ton of positive reviews so I was expecting much more.

 

[timsprincess]

Hi everyone! I just found this thread and am excited to be a part of it. My goal is currently 30 books. My 2013 goal was 26 and I made that so I set it a little higher this year.

Here is what I have read so far in 2014.

Bud, not Buddy -- Christopher Paul Curtis (3 stars)
The Silver Boat -- Luanne Rice (3 stars)
The Music of Dolphins -- Karen Hesse (3 stars)
The Reapers -- John Connolly (3 stars)
Hannah's List -- Debbie Macomber (2 stars)
Princess Academy -- Shannon Hale (4 stars)
Sundays at Tiffany's -- James Patterson (3 stars)
House Rules -- Jodi Picoult (4 stars)
Doctor Sleep -- Stephen Kin (3 stars)
Heat Wave -- Nancy Thayer (2 stars)
Twenty Seven Bones -- Jonathan Nasaw (3 stars)
Dark Witch -- Nora Roberts (3 stars)
The Hot Ladies Murder Club -- Ann Major (2 stars)
The Son -- Philipp Meyer (2 stars)
The Final Warning -- James Patterson (2 stars)
Princess in Training -- Meg Cabot (4 stars)
Rules -- Cynthia Lord (4 stars)
The Story of Beautiful Girl -- Rachel Simon (1 star)
The Remember Box -- Patricia Sprinkle (3 stars)
Night Road -- Kristin Hannah (3 stars)

That should make 15 for me so far this year. Please follow me on goodreads if you wish.

Peggy

 

[Simba's Mom]

Book #19-Tidewater Inn. Overall I gave this book 4 stars. The majority of the book was 5 stars, but then the ending was a little off, gave me information I hadn't known in its entirety to solve the mystery..

 

[Caseheidi]

Goal 60

Book 27: By Force of Instinct: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds

Summary by Goodreads
In Jane Austen's classic Pride & Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet never expects to see Mr. Darcy again after his disastrous proposal in Hunsford. But what if family business required him to stay at Rosings after giving her his letter? Coming face to face with Mr. Darcy only days later could give Elizabeth a new chance to understand him... or chance for even more misunderstandings. THE PEMBERLEY VARIATIONS by Abigail Reynolds is a series of novels exploring the roads not taken in Pride & Prejudice.

I am loving reading these variations on this story. I mostly loved this one. The only issue I had was that I felt the author somewhat changed the demeanor of some of the characters making them quite different then I spthink they are in the original book.

Book 28: The Collector by Nora Roberts

Summary by Goodreads:
When professional house-sitter Lila Emerson witnesses a murder/suicide from her current apartment-sitting job, life as she knows it takes a dramatic turn. Suddenly, the woman with no permanent ties finds herself almost wishing for one. . . .

Artist Ashton Archer knows his brother isn’t capable of violence—against himself or others. He recruits Lila, the only eyewitness, to help him uncover what happened. Ash longs to paint her as intensely as he hungers to touch her. But their investigation draws them into a rarified circle where priceless antiques are bought, sold, gambled away, and stolen, where what you possess is who you are, and where what you desire becomes a deadly obsession. . . .

I enjoyed this book, but then again I usually do with her books.

 

[wilma-bride]

Book #15 of 60 - Survivor by Lesley Pearse

It is 1938 and Mariette Carrera is a defiant, strong-willed and selfish seventeen-year-old. And sooner or later, if she stays in the small, gossipy town of Russell, New Zealand, she'll get herself into some serious trouble. Her doting parents, Belle and Etienne, fear for her reputation. So, with the world on the brink of war, Mari leaves home on the SS Rimutaka, bound for her aunt and uncle's house in London.

Armed with the freedom she's longed for since childhood, Mari quickly falls for Morgan, the handsome cockney steward on board ship. But once she reaches London, there are other temptations.

Mari loves her new life - caught up in a whirl of dances and parties in the glittering West End, relishing her freedom as she earns her own money as a typist. Finally, she feels she is mistress of her own future.

Until it is all snatched away by the war.

As London endures the Blitz, Mari's new life is cruelly blown apart. Forced from her loving new home, she ends up alone in the East End, and it's worlds away from the London she knows. But there, even in the face of so much despair, she finds the chance to make a difference. Amidst the destruction, Mari learns that the only way to survive this war is to fight, with all the strength, selflessness and compassion within her...and only then will she find true happiness.

Because Mari is a survivor...

This is the third in a series of books about Belle, a young girl who was sold into prostitution in France after she witnessed a murder in London's East End. Mar is Belle's daughter and so this book really focuses on her. I loved it though, as I do all of Lesley Pearse's books.

 

[willowsnn3]

Goal 72

#33 Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty

From back cover:
'After the death of Laura's 9 year old daughter, Betty, is ruled an accident in a hit and run, Laura decides to take revenge into her own hands, determined to track down the man responsible. All the while, her inner turmoil is reopening the old wounds of her passionate love affair with Betty's father, David, and his abandonment of the family for another woman.'

This was just ok. The book really didn't even cover much of the above review. Only the last chapters and that was like an afterthought. It was more about her life, affair and marriage. Probably would not recommend.

 

[threeboysmom]

Hi everyone! I just found this thread and am excited to be a part of it. My goal is currently 30 books. My 2013 goal was 26 and I made that so I set it a little higher this year.

Welcome, Peggy! So glad you could join us! I've added you to the first post.

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #31 - Seduction by M.J. Rose

This is book 2 & was a little disappointing. It moved slowly just like the 1st book, but not much at all happened in this one. I am not going to bother reading the third.

A gothic tale about Victor Hugo’s long-buried secrets and the power of a love that never dies . . . In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, still grieving, Hugo initiated hundreds of séances from his home on the Isle of Jersey in order to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published.
Or so it has been believed . . .
Recovering from a great loss, mythologist Jac L’Etoile thinks that throwing herself into work will distract her from her grief. In the hopes of uncovering a secret about the island’s mysterious Celtic roots, she arrives on Jersey and is greeted by ghostly Neolithic monuments, medieval castles and hidden caves. But the man who has invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different— transcripts of Hugo’s lost conversations with someone he called the Shadow of the Sepulcher. Central to his heritage, these are the papers his grandfather died trying to find. Neither Jac nor Theo anticipate that the mystery surrounding Victor Hugo will threaten their sanity and put their very lives at stake.

Next book: Promise Not to Tell

 

[Jafar30]

I think this is 10 but finished Divergent. Next up is Insurgent which I have to get from my dad

 

[mumloveseeyore]

book 51/150aunt Dimity's death by nancy atherton
from amazon
When Lori Shepherd was little she used to listen to stories of her inimitable Aunt Dimity from far-off England. Now Lori is newly divorced, down on her luck, and has long since realized her Aunt Dimity was just a character from a comforting bedtime story.


Or was she? When Lori is summoned suddenly to a law firm, she learns Aunt Dimity was a very real person - a wealthy real person who has died and left a respectable bequest. Now Lori must visit her aunt's English cottage and find a secret hidden among the letters sent between her mother and Dimity over four decades. As Aunt Dimity's gentle spirit leads Lori on an otherworldly quest, she is about to discover a wealth of secrets that will open her eyes to the possibilities of life, and death...
i loved this, it was charming and whimsical almost fairy tale
book 52/150 the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by mary ann schaffer re read of an old favourite 4/5

 

[portia9]

#44 The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

 

[PigletsPal2]

book 51/150aunt Dimity's death by nancy atherton
from amazon
When Lori Shepherd was little she used to listen to stories of her inimitable Aunt Dimity from far-off England. Now Lori is newly divorced, down on her luck, and has long since realized her Aunt Dimity was just a character from a comforting bedtime story.


Or was she? When Lori is summoned suddenly to a law firm, she learns Aunt Dimity was a very real person - a wealthy real person who has died and left a respectable bequest. Now Lori must visit her aunt's English cottage and find a secret hidden among the letters sent between her mother and Dimity over four decades. As Aunt Dimity's gentle spirit leads Lori on an otherworldly quest, she is about to discover a wealth of secrets that will open her eyes to the possibilities of life, and death...
i loved this, it was charming and whimsical almost fairy tale
book 52/150 the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by mary ann schaffer re read of an old favourite 4/5

I love the Aunt Dimity series, too; I've read them all and I wish Nancy Atherton would write a little faster!

Queen Colleen

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

8 my name is mike

9 when joy comes to dins more street

10 angels watching over me

11 lifted up by angels

12 dying to forget

 

[nemofans]

Finished book #32 - Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon

This is a quick read & was enjoyable. I really liked the story of the 2 girls in 1971 & about their friendship. The rest of the story is okay. The main character, Kate, lies a lot which you can understand when she is 10, but at 41? She knows valuable info on her friend that was murdered, yet still at 41 yrs old she lies about what she knows.

Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten.

Next book: Infected