Reading Challenge 2022

[melk]

#48-The Sweet Life, Suzanne Woods Feel-good fiction about a mother and daughter who buy and try to start an ice cream shop on Cape Cod. I love ice cream and I love Cape Cod, and the best ice cream I've had was on Cape Cod, so my rating of 4 stars may be biased.

I’ll have to put this on my list. What’s not to love about ice cream and the Cape?

I’m curious, where was the best ice cream? We like Sundae School, specifically their Milky Way!

 

[Allison Joy]

Since the latter part of September-


#49-The Long Flight Home, Alan Hlad a fascinating story based on the use of carrier pigeons during WWII to bring messages of German troop movement to the British from the French Resistance. Just shy of 5 stars, only because one of the pigeons was portrayed a little unbelievably.

Oh my goodness. The bolded sentence really made me laugh. And now I want to read the book just because I was to read about an unbelievably portrayed pigeon.

I mean, I get what you mean, but now I'm picturing something from one of the Disney movies, or perhaps one of the "Goodfeather" pigeons from Animaniacs.

 

[toesmom]

Children's Blizzard is an excellent book, very well written, very interesting about history of settlers from Ireland, Norway, Ukraine, very interesting and sad.

Just reading Jessica Simpson book, really great read. Funny how we make judgements about people without knowing the history. I'm really impressed by her story, definitely worth a read.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I’ll have to put this on my list. What’s not to love about ice cream and the Cape?

I’m curious, where was the best ice cream? We like Sundae School, specifically their Milky Way!

Since the latter part of September-

#44-Book Lovers, Emily Henry 1 star just not what I expected

#45 That Bear Ate My Pants, Tony James Slater-a pleasantly funny book about a young man who spends time working at an animal sanctuary in Ecuador, kind of like the Peace Corp-4 stars

#46-The Resistance Girl, Mandy Robatham Historical Fiction about WWII in Norway 3 stars

#47-The Nature of Fragile Things, Susan Meissner 5 stars she's such a great writer! Suspenseful fiction with the backdrop of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

#48-The Sweet Life, Suzanne Woods Feel-good fiction about a mother and daughter who buy and try to start an ice cream shop on Cape Cod. I love ice cream and I love Cape Cod, and the best ice cream I've had was on Cape Cod, so my rating of 4 stars may be biased.

#49-The Long Flight Home, Alan Hlad a fascinating story based on the use of carrier pigeons during WWII to bring messages of German troop movement to the British from the French Resistance. Just shy of 5 stars, only because one of the pigeons was portrayed a little unbelievably.

I also read The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher.
Two issues I had were
1. I wish more reviews would have trigger warnings about things like cancer etc.
2. The author only briefly mentioned Lincoln having thyroid cancer while she devoted a lot of time to breast cancer. I felt like this might be a little unrealistic since most men have a hard time going through thyroid cancer and now I might be going on my own thy cancer journey 3, hopefully not. I heard there will be a sequel to this book ? Or readers want one. I hope if that character is there things are realistic.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

35/30 - Abigail’s Christmas Miracle by Murray Pura. Amish girl prays for a miracle and worries this could be her Grandfather’s last Christmas. She makes special plans to help him have the will to live.

36/30 - The Case of The Amish Vandal by Ruth Bawell. Young Amish girl helps a intellectually different young man who is Englisch. They fall in love and he becomes Amish.

37/30 - Sabatoged Mission by Tina Radcliffe. CIA operative and former partner rekindle past relationship while she is being a target of unknown assailants and being falsely set up for a crime she didn’t commit.

 

[melk]

29/35 Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand

The Carmichaels and Grahams have gathered on Nantucket to celebrate the marriage of their children, most details having been planned from instructions left in a notebook by the bride‘s late mother. In the days leading up to the wedding scandals will arise, love will be questioned, hearts will be broken and healed.

I usually limit myself to one Hilderbrand book a year but I wanted an easy read and this did it. I thought it was one of her better stories.

 

[OKW8297]

16. The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb

 

[bobbiwoz]

67/75
“ Death in Focus” by Anne Perry
In this first book of an all-new mystery series set in pre -World War II Europe, an intrepid young photographer carries her imperiled lover’s final, urgent message into the heart of Berlin as Hitler ascends to power.
4/5

 

[bobbiwoz]

15/20 -- Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline - Historical Fiction
I loved this book. It's abut a 91 year old woman, Vivian, and a 17 year old girl, Molly in the foster system. The 17 year old has to complete community service for stealing a library book. She helps Vivian clean her attic. But it's more of a history lesson, as the attic contains items from Vivian's childhood when she rode an orphan train from New York City to Minnesota. Loved how this unfolded, and the connection built between Molly and Vivian.

After I read what you said, I decided to put the book on hold. I barely begun the book when I realized I had already read it. Sure enough, I did a search here, I had read it and enjoyed it in 2018! I read it again, and enjoyed it again!

68/75

 

[MGMmjl]

27/30 - The Spirit Woman by Margaret Coel

Description:
"According to legend, Sacajawea—the Native American woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition through the American wilderness—is buried on the Wind River Reservation. Now, a college professor—and longtime friend of Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden—has disappeared while seeking the truth behind the legend. Vicky and Father John O’Malley soon discover that her missing friend is linked to another female historian who also vanished on the reservation—while researching Sacajawea twenty years ago. The answer to the mystery of the missing scholars may lie in the pages of Sacajawea’s hidden memoirs—and with a culprit who will do anything to ensure they’re never found… "

This is book #6 in Coel's Wind River Reservation series. I had read the first 5 books of the series off and on over the past year or two, and have really enjoyed all of the stories. I enjoyed this one as well, and look forward to reading more in the series.

 

[willowsnn3]

After I read what you said, I decided to put the book on hold. I barely begun the book when I realized I had already read it. Sure enough, I did a search here, I had read it and enjoyed it in 2018! I read it again, and enjoyed it again!

68/75

Re: Orphan Train
I had to look back & found I have read this one also. Knew it sounded familiar.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I’ll have to put this on my list. What’s not to love about ice cream and the Cape?

I’m curious, where was the best ice cream? We like Sundae School, specifically their Milky Way!

LOL, that's exactly the place! Many years ago I bought a t-shirt there-"Don't skip Sundae School". People often wonder about it.

 

[melk]

LOL, that's exactly the place! Many years ago I bought a t-shirt there-"Don't skip Sundae School". People often wonder about it.

That’s so funny! I had a feeling it might be Sundae School, it’s my favorite too.

 

[bobbiwoz]

69/75
“A Question of Betrayal“ by Anne Perry. The second in the Elena Standish series. She travels to Italy to rescue the lover who had betrayed her years ago. The reason I am interested in this series, which take place during Hitlers rise to power in Germany, is because it looks at reasons why Britain was ready to use appeasement and was late in acting on the real menace Hitlers Germany was.

 

[RUDisney]

23/25 - The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

You know the story... but do you? My DD and I went to the Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral in September since the cruise line canceled our day at DS. There is more to the story in the book than in the movie that we've seen so many times. I wanted to know the rest of the story. The book is, of course, better than the movie. I really enjoyed this. I'm glad that we got to experience the museum and it sparked my interest again in the story.

 

[willowsnn3]

60/75
“A Question of Betrayal“ by Anne Perry. The second in the Elena Standish series. She travels to Italy to rescue the lover who had betrayed her years ago. The reason I am interested in this series, which take place during Hitlers rise to power in Germany, is because it looks at reasons why Britain was ready to use appeasement and was late in acting on the real menace Hitlers Germany was.

I think this one would be 69 for you....

 

[willowsnn3]

#48/50 The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
From Goodreads:
Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries. Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories. But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.
Sounded interesting but took me forever to finish and it was just under 300 pages so not a long book.
I would give it a low 2 out of 5 stars.

 

[mmouse37]

I have been MIA on this thread since the beginning of the year. I lost my reading list so I don't know how many books I have read but it definitely was not the 35 I had predicted. From what I can figure out I read 17 or 18 so far so I know I won't make the mark.

I just downloaded "Horse" by Geraldine Brooks and I am very much looking forward to that read. I loved her book "The Year of Wonders" about the plague.

Hopefully I can get a few more in by the end of the year.

MJ

 

[bobbiwoz]

I think this one would be 69 for you....

You are right! Thank you!

 

[bobbiwoz]

70/75
3.5/5 “ A Darker Reality” by Anne Perry. There’s one more in this Elena Standish, and I’ll read it, but there‘s just so much that’s the same. This one takes place in Washington DC and so you get an idea of America between the wars, and has emphasis on Nazi sympathizers.