Reading Challenge/Goals for 2024

[RangerPooh]

29/35 Booksellers Final Fable: A Small Town Cozy Mystery (Liz Lamar)

30/35 Death by Wedding Cake: Sugar Creek Mystery Series 1). Nova Walsh

31/35 Death and Peaches: Sugar Creek Mystery Series 2). Nova Walsh

32/35 Death by Fondue: Sugar Creek Mystery Series 3). Nova Walsh

*** Really enjoying the Sugar Creek Mystery series. There’s apparently 5 in the series. Woman returns to her small Texas hometown to help her aunt and start a catering company. Mystery appears as does a love interest in the new sherrif.

If you like Hannah Swenson you might try this. No recipes. Quick read.

 

[bobbiwoz]

50/80 “Troubles in Paradise” by Elin Hilderbrand. This is the third of three, and I skipped the second and it wasn’t a problem. I enjoyed this conclusion. 4.5/5

They have taken a biopsy, given me a new drip, no word about home yet. I am hoping!

I am going home. I’ll learn more when biopsy comes in. I have been in Hospital since last Sunday evening and would like a change in scenery!

 

[melk]

29/30 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Historical fiction mystery inspired by the real life midwife Martha Ballard in 18th century Maine.

I was hooked from the first page. Well written character and a good plot. Sometimes I would forget who was who though as there were a lot of characters.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Oh no! Hope all is well and you’re feeling okay.

Not sure if you are aware but Winter in Paradise is the first in a trilogy. I enjoyed the series.

I usually don't read entire series-just stand-alone books. But I enjoyed this so much I very happily read the entire trilogy.

 

[Simba's Mom]

49/52-"A Saga of Sisters and Secrets", Nellie Brooks, 3 star. Women's Fiction with some romance that was just OK.

50/52-"A Killer Ending", Karen MacInerney, 3 stars. Cozy Mystery. Too many characters, making it hard to keep them all straight.

51/52-"Mad Honey", Jodi Picoult, 4 stars. The first half of the book was a 5 star, but then it got bogged down, too slow in the second half of the book, where it lost so much, down to a 3 star, so this rating is an average.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

50/80 “Troubles in Paradise” by Elin Hilderbrand. This is the third of three, and I skipped the second and it wasn’t a problem. I enjoyed this conclusion. 4.5/5

They have taken a biopsy, given me a new drip, no word about home yet. I am hoping!

I am going home. I’ll learn more when biopsy comes in. I have been in Hospital since last Sunday evening and would like a change in scenery!

Wishing you all the best

 

[Kirby]

#43/50 Miss Julia Throws a Wedding by Ann B. Ross
The Miss Julia books are always fun to read when you just need a little chaotic fluff reading.

I've enjoyed Miss Julia books!

#71 - Lethal Intent by Cara Putman
Genre - Medical Thriller

If they expected silence, they hired the wrong woman.
Caroline Bragg’s life has never been better. She and Brandon Lancaster are taking their relationship to the next level, and she has a new dream job as legal counsel for Praecursoria—a research lab that is making waves with its cutting-edge genetic therapies. The company’s leukemia treatments even
promise to save desperately sick kids—kids like eleven-year-old Bethany, a critically ill foster child at Brandon’s foster home.
When Caroline’s enthusiastic boss wants to enroll Bethany in experimental trials prematurely, Caroline objects, putting her at odds with her colleagues. They claim the only goal at Praecursoria is to save lives. But does someone have another agenda?
Brandon faces his own crisis. As laws governing foster homes shift, he’s on the brink of losing the group home he’s worked so hard to build. When Caroline learns he’s a Praecursoria investor, it becomes legally impossible to confide in him. Will the secrets she keeps become a wedge that separates them forever? And can she save Bethany from the very treatments designed to heal her?

 

[Wood Nymph]

34/30 - Appointment with Death, a Hercule Poirot mystery - Agatha Christie - another good story

35/30 - Camino Island - John Grisham - 3/5
This book was not one of his typical lawyer stories. It involved stolen original manuscripts. I had read that it was a good book, so I thought I'd read it. The story was okay, well-written with likeable characters. But it wasn't a page turner.

 

[RangerPooh]

33/35 Death and Blackberry Pie: Sugar Creek Mystery Series 4). Nova Walsh

 

[willowsnn3]

#45/50 This Dark Road To Mercy by Wiley Cash
After their mother's unexpected death, twelve-year-old Easter and her six-year-old sister Ruby are adjusting to life in foster care when their errant father, Wade, suddenly appears. Since Wade signed away his legal rights, the only way he can get his daughters back is to steal them away in the night.
Brady Weller, the girls' court-appointed guardian, begins looking for Wade, and he quickly turns up unsettling information linking Wade to a recent armored car heist, one with a whopping $14.5 million missing. But Brady Weller isn't the only one hunting the desperate father. Robert Pruitt, a shady and mercurial man nursing a years-old vendetta, is also determined to find Wade and claim his due.
Another good one by this author.

 

[Kirby]

#72 - Daylight: Book 3 in the Atlee Pine series by David Baldaaci
Genre - Mystery
The Hunt.
Ever since Mercy was abducted aged six, Atlee has been relentless in her search for her. Finally, she gets her most promising breakthrough yet – the identity of her sister’s kidnapper.
The Capture.
As Atlee and her assistant, Carol Blum, race to track down the suspect, they run into Pine’s old friend and fellow agent, John Puller, who is investigating the suspect’s family for another crime.
The Kill.
Working together, Pine and Puller must pull back the layers of deceit, lies and cover-ups that strike at the very heart of global democracy. And the truth about what happened to Mercy will finally be revealed.
That truth will shock Atlee Pine to her very core . . .
Looking forward to the next and final book.

 

[Wood Nymph]

36/30 - Lessons in Chemistry - by Bonnie Garmus - 3.5/5

I enjoyed this book. It involves a woman who wants/has a career in Chemistry in the early 1960's, a time when women stayed home and men were in charge of everything. The author did a good job of capturing the role women were expected to have back then. Women's liberation didn't come for a least another decade.

 

[bobbiwoz]

51/80.” Leaving Time “ by Jodi Picoult. 4.5/5
“A deeply moving, gripping and intelligent page -turner about a daughter’s search for her mother.” This is how it was described by Libby!

 

[cayennews]

#34 TripTych by Karin Slaughter. This is the first book in her Will Trent series. It was slow at the beginning but eventually it picked up and got good.

 

[melk]

30/30 The Answer Is No by Fredrick Backman

I got this short story for free on my kindle. I’ve read a couple of his books and liked them. This was a pretty funny observation on the absurdities of life even if it was a little irritating at times.

 

[bobbiwoz]

52/80 “Plain Killing” by Emma Miller 3.5/5
When the Amish Community of Stone Mill, PA, Refuses to discuss murder with the police, it’s up to Rachel Mast to bridge the cultural gap and stop a killer from striking again..

 

[MGMmjl]

30/32 - The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore

Description:
"Once a trailblazer in the field of medicine, Dr. Tucia Hatherley hasn’t touched a scalpel or stethoscope since she made a fatal mistake in the operating theater. Instead, she works in a corset factory, striving to earn enough to support her disabled son. When even that livelihood is threatened, Tucia is left with one option—to join a wily, charismatic showman named Huey and become part of his traveling medicine show.

Her medical license lends the show a pretense of credibility, but the cures and tonics Tucia is forced to peddle are little more than purgatives and bathwater. Loathing the duplicity, even as she finds uneasy kinship with the other misfit performers, Tucia vows to leave as soon as her debts are paid and start a new life with her son—if Huey will ever let her go.

When the show reaches Galveston, Texas, Tucia tries to break free from Huey, only to be pulled even deeper into his schemes. But there is a far greater reckoning ahead, as a September storm becomes a devastating hurricane that will decimate the Gulf Coast—and challenge Tucia to recover her belief in medicine, in the goodness of others—and in herself."

I had mixed feelings about this book. I thought more of it would take place in Galveston, but it was only the last few chapters that actually took place there. Otherwise, the story was pretty good, although a bit slow at times.

 

[Wood Nymph]

37/30 - James - by Percival Everett - 4/5

I was looking for something new to read from the library. This book was recommended by someone who was also looking for a book. It is a story that includes Huckleberry Finn, but from Jim's point of view. Jim was the slave who went down the river with Huck when he ran away from home. It is both enlightening and interesting to read a story about Jim and what his life was like. The story of Jim in this book has many differences from Mark Twain's book.

 

[amcnj]

Finished book #192 yesterday. I had been on an historical fiction kick for a while, maybe 20 books set in Roman times, then went back to some horror books.

Most recently I have been reading the Mistborn books by Sanderson, as well as some mystery novels, including Agatha Christie, whose books I see mentioned in some recent posts by others. The end of the year tends to get very busy, so I’ll see how many more books I can squeeze in!

 

[Simba's Mom]

51/80.” Leaving Time “ by Jodi Picoult. 4.5/5
“A deeply moving, gripping and intelligent page -turner about a daughter’s search for her mother.” This is how it was described by Libby!

I read this several years ago, and I double-checked. I rated it 4 1/2 stars also.