Reading Challenge/Goals for 2024

[DisneyHardin]

I read a decent amount while we were on vacation.

14/32 - Beach Read - Emily Henry
15/32 - The House on Firefly Beach - Jenny Hale
16/32 - The Southern Side of Paradise - Kristy Woodson Harvey
17/32 - Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
18/32 - People We Meet on Vacation - Emily Henry
19/32 - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hug - Taylor Jenkins Reid
20/32 - First Comes Love - Emily Giffin
21/32 - California Girls - Susan Mallery

 

[cayennews]

#22 - Camino Ghosts by John Grisham

This was the 3rd book in the trilogy. I was excited to read it, but was very disappointed. Parts were very interesting, but others were long, drawn out and boring. Very anticlimactic ending to the book and the series.

 

[willowsnn3]

I have been trying to keep a list of the books I read this year, and if I missed some, it can’t be many. I just finished #122.

Last year I read a book entitled “101 Horror Books to Read Before you Are Murdered”. The focus was on more recent books in that genre. In addition to the listed 101 books, there were some featured authors with lists of some of their other books, as well as books they recommend. Then I found I enjoyed some of the authors so sought out all their books my library system had. Grady Hendrix was one such author.

Anyway, horror books have been the focus of my reading this year, with some other types mixed in here and there. A month or so back I felt I need a break, so searched for some recommended science fiction/fantasy series that I hadn’t already read. The Malazan books, a ten book series by Steven Erikson, came up.

This series has slowed me down of late, as the books are on the lengthy side, and at times I have been forcing myself to keep going with them. For some reason I just haven’t been fully engaged with them. Only three to go, but I have been mixing in other books the past couple of weeks. I might not get back to the series until the latter part of August, as I have some other commitments coming up. I keep reading reviews praising the books to keep me going, and of course having already invested many hours reading thousands of pages makes me want to finish it too.

I used to read a lot of horror & sci fi books but over the years I have become more of a crime drama/mystery book fan.

 

[amcnj]

I used to read a lot of horror & sci fi books but over the years I have become more of a crime drama/mystery book fan.

I am also a fan of such books, having been exposed to Agatha Christie when I was young. Actually I am about to try Ragnar Jonasson after the current book I am reading, the Phone Booth at the Edge of the World.

I have also read a lot of Science Fiction and fantasy, starting with Tolkien, Asimov, and Herbert when I was young. And horror type books probably started for me when I read a lot of King and Koontz, a ways back now.

Overall certain authors and books work for me, that is, I want to keep reading them and not put them down. Then I just read everything the library has by them, even occasionally purchasing a book i can’t borrow. The subjects and genres are all over the place, and include fiction and non-fiction.

 

[Wood Nymph]

24/30 - Dreams of Joy - by Lisa See - 3.5/5

This historical fiction was a very interesting look into the era of the Great Leap Forward, when Mao Zedong was in power and the feudal system was converted to communism. I was interested in the history of the era but the fictional story itself was less enthralling. You will need to read Shanghai Girls first in order to understand the motivation for the characters actions.

From Wiki: The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign within the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized society through the formation of people's communes. Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap, with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest[1] famine in human history.[2][3][4]

A continuation of "Shanghai Girls" finds a devastated Joy fleeing to China to search for her real father while her mother, Pearl, desperately pursues her, a dual quest marked by their encounters with the nation's intolerant Communist culture."Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father-the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the communist regime. Devastated by Joy's flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy's and Pearls' separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China's history threatens their very lives." -- Dustjacket flap.

 

[Kirby]

#45 - Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Genre - Non Fiction
From the Academy Award -winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.
I've been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.
Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life's challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call 'catching greenlights.'
So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.
Hopefully, it's medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot's license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.
It's a love letter. To life.
It's also a guide to catching more greenlights-and to realising that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.
Good luck.
I bought this book without reading the cover, just thought it might be interesting. Interesting is not the word for it, more like a ride on the magic bus in a lot of areas. He doesn't fine coat anything, is brutally honest and tells you stuff that I wouldn't tell anyone if it were me. He has a lot of notes from his musings, his journals, etc. though out the book. A lot were handwritten and hard to read his handwriting, most didn't make sense to me but does to him, I just skipped over them. This is one of those books that you either read or you don't, makes no difference.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Happy Paperback Book Day everyone!!

 

[MGMmjl]

20/32 - The Last Trial by Robert Bailey

Description:
"McMurtrie’s old nemesis, Jack Willistone, is found dead on the banks of the Black Warrior River. Willistone had his share of enemies, but all evidence points to a forgotten, broken woman as the killer. At the urging of the suspect’s desperate fourteen-year-old daughter, McMurtrie agrees to take the case.

But as seasoned as McMurtrie is, even he isn’t prepared for how personal and dangerous this case is going to get. With the trial drawing near and his sharp young partner, Rick Drake, dealing with a family tragedy, he recruits his best friend, Bocephus Haynes, to help investigate.

As key witnesses disappear and old demons return, time becomes McMurtrie’s most fearsome opponent. Soon loyalties will be tested and the boundaries of law will be broken as McMurtrie fights to save his legacy—and his client’s life—before the truth is buried forever in the muddy waters of the Black Warrior."

This is book #3 of 4 is the McMurtrie and Drake legal thriller series. It was really good! I look forward to reading the final book in the series soon.

 

[melk]

19/30 The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

Looking for a housekeeper, Montana widower Oliver Milliron responds to a newspaper ad that says “Can’t cook but doesn’t bite.” Enter Rose Llewelyn accompanied by her brother Morris, who become a big part of the lives of Milliron and his three sons.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s not a quick read, but I found it to be a sometimes funny story with very good character development and a surprising ending.

 

[Kirby]

#46 - An Amish Cinderella (Amish of Apple Creek series book 3) by Shelley Shepherd Gray
Genre - Inspirational
Now that her friends are all marrying or moving away, Heart Beachy has started feeling lonely. Worse, everyone keeps asking when she’s going to find a man of her own. Don’t they realize Heart has her hands full at home with her widowed dad, too many chores, and a menagerie of needy, small animals? Besides, she doesn’t understand the fuss about marriage. It’s enough to make her consider finally becoming a
pet-sitter, or moving to an English community, where she won’t be an oddity . . .
Newcomer Clayton Glick is utterly charmed by Heart—and completely confounded. He can’t figure out why this beautiful woman is as awkward as a teenager whenever he’s around, which is often now that he’s an apprentice to her blacksmith father. So Clayton starts assisting with Heart’s never-ending tasks, even helping her corral her unruly pets. How else can he court an adorably flustered woman who doesn’t know the first thing about courtship? Because courting is exactly what he intends . . .
Heart doesn’t know why her pulse hammers every time she sees Clayton. She only knows yielding to such emotions will mean trouble. . . . But maybe with a little faith—and the trying on of a shoe—Clayton can convince her to join him on the road to happily ever after.
This book made my heart smile

 

[bobbiwoz]

19/32 - Lost Birds by Anne Hillerman

Description:
"Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential to solve a compelling new case: finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child’s blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client’s adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a deadly cache of long-buried family secrets.

As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg’s desperation is clear in his voice, but just as he begins to explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. Investigation of the explosion falls in part to Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who discovers an unexpected link to Cecil’s missing wife.

Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her own: an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.

Exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption of Indigenous children by non-native parents, Anne Hillerman delivers another thought-provoking, gripping mystery that brings to life the vivid terrain of the American Southwest, its people, and the lore and traditions that make it distinct."

This is book #27 in the Leaphorn, Chee, and (now) Manuelito series started by Anne Hillerman's father Tony Hillerman. It is the 9th book written by Anne. I continue to really enjoy the series, and hope she writes more books!

Loved this book! Thank you for mentioning!
33/80. Have enjoyed the series since her father began it!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

#46 - An Amish Cinderella (Amish of Apple Creek series book 3) by Shelley Shepherd Gray
Genre - Inspirational
Now that her friends are all marrying or moving away, Heart Beachy has started feeling lonely. Worse, everyone keeps asking when she’s going to find a man of her own. Don’t they realize Heart has her hands full at home with her widowed dad, too many chores, and a menagerie of needy, small animals? Besides, she doesn’t understand the fuss about marriage. It’s enough to make her consider finally becoming a
pet-sitter, or moving to an English community, where she won’t be an oddity . . .
Newcomer Clayton Glick is utterly charmed by Heart—and completely confounded. He can’t figure out why this beautiful woman is as awkward as a teenager whenever he’s around, which is often now that he’s an apprentice to her blacksmith father. So Clayton starts assisting with Heart’s never-ending tasks, even helping her corral her unruly pets. How else can he court an adorably flustered woman who doesn’t know the first thing about courtship? Because courting is exactly what he intends . . .
Heart doesn’t know why her pulse hammers every time she sees Clayton. She only knows yielding to such emotions will mean trouble. . . . But maybe with a little faith—and the trying on of a shoe—Clayton can convince her to join him on the road to happily ever after.
This book made my heart smile

I love Shelley’s books and writing.

 

[OKW8297]

21. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Absolutely beautiful story.

 

[DisneyHardin]

#45 - Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Genre - Non Fiction

I have this one on my "to read" list. Thanks for the great review.

 

[melk]

20/30 What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama

A series of stories about people who visit a Tokyo community library and find answers in the books that the somewhat strange librarian recommends to them.

I enjoyed the book, a fast read with likable characters.

 

[bobbiwoz]

34/80
“Vanished” by Irene Hannon
Tenacious reporter Moira Harrison turns to a handsome private investigator to help her solve a disappearance that the police say didn’t happen.

4/5

 

[Wood Nymph]

25/30 - The A. B. C. Murders - by Agatha Christie

I'm slowly making it through the Hercule Poirot mystery series. This story was a little different. I enjoyed it.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

34/80
“Vanished” by Irene Hannon
Tenacious reporter Moira Harrison turns to a handsome private investigator to help her solve a disappearance that the police say didn’t happen.

4/5

Sounds like you liked it. I know there are three books in this series. I read Deceived and it was really good too. I like her Hope Harbor series as well.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Sounds like you liked it. I know there are three books in this series. I read Deceived and it was really good too. I like her Hope Harbor series as well.

Thanks for the recommendation! I hadn’t realized that.

 

[cayennews]

#23 - Kisscut by Karen Slaughter

This was the second book in the series. I enjoyed hearing more about the same characters and the new issues they encountered.