Reading Thread/Goals for 2025

[wishiwasindisneyjen]

8/30 More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova

Novel about a freshman at NYU whose life spirals out of control, leading to her diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

I believe this was probably a realistic portrayal of a person suffering from bipolar disorder. Kind of painful and depressing to read so it wasn’t one of my favorites by this author.

9/30 The Crash by Frieda McFadden

A pregnant woman crashes her car in a Maine snowstorm but is rescued by a passerby. He takes her to his home where his wife takes care of her but then becomes oddly obsessed with her and her baby.

I listened to this one and while it started out really well I thought it just got too long and convoluted. It reminded me of Misery but was not as good.

I have both of these in my to be read pile, thank you for the reviews, this helps me set my expectations.

 

[wishiwasindisneyjen]

I've not been reading quite as much as usual but I just got a pile of books from the library so hopefully something in there will spark my interest. Only one of the below books was the type you can't put down.

16/104: Lonely Planet Epic Road Trips of Europe by Lonely Planet
Good book on different road trip across Europe. Great pictures too. 4

17/104: Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old by Brooke Shields (Audio Book)
Memoir on aging as a woman (especially in Hollywood) which I found to be insightful and entertaining. She had some pretty interesting and funny stories and some issues that all women face as they get older. 3

18/104: Lonely Planet Iceland's Ring Road by Lonely Planet
I'm planning a road trip around Iceland's Ring Road this year, book had good trip plans and ideas. I used it as a supplement to the full Lonely Planet Iceland book. 4

19/104: The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose
A lawyer's husband is charged with the murder of his mistress and the wife defends him. I initially saw this book in the bookstore and skipped it because the reviews on Goodreads were poor but found it the other day in our neighborhood little free library and devoured it in less than a day. While it wasn't a masterpiece by any means, it was an easy read and had a few interesting twists. A second book is coming next month. 4

20/104: Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles
Fictional account of the actual CARD women's group that helped rebuild devastated French communities after WW1, focusing on one woman, Jessie Carson that established book mobiles and trained the first female librarians in France. 3.5

 

[bobbiwoz]

17/50
“The Crow’s Call, “ by Wanda Brunstetter..3/5

 

[luvmarypoppins]

17/50
“The Crow’s Call, “ by Wanda Brunstetter..3/5

bobbiwoz - Just wondering what you thought of this book?
Hope you are doing well. Thinking of you.

 

[bobbiwoz]

bobbiwoz - Just wondering what you thought of this book?
Hope you are doing well. Thinking of you.

Hi, I wasn’t pleased with it. There were so many loose ends at the end, I wondered if it were part of a series, but it doesn’t seem to be. Almost gave it 2.5/5

 

[bobbiwoz]

18/50 this book published in 6 installments in a magazine. I read it in Libby.

It was interesting. It’s also by Wanda Brunstetter. 4/5
The Discovery, a Lancaster County Saga.

 

[Kirby]

#10 - The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
Genre - Historical
This is about a teenage girl who was left in charge of her families estate during the 1700's and how she learned to produce indigo dye which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina. It's a true story based off of her letters and other historical documents. It's easy to read and I enjoyed it. It's my book clubs pick for this month. I'll give it a 4/5 at our meeting later this month.

 

[bobbiwoz]

#10 - The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
Genre - Historical
This is about a teenage girl who was left in charge of her families estate during the 1700's and how she learned to produce indigo dye which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina. It's a true story based off of her letters and other historical documents. It's easy to read and I enjoyed it. It's my book clubs pick for this month. I'll give it a 4/5 at our meeting later this month.

This sounds interesting, and I just put a hold on it. While visiting Hilton Head SC once, we took a tour of Daufuskie Island where indigo was grown in the past.

 

[Kirby]

#11 - A Cry From the Dust by Carrie Stuart Parks
Genre - Mystery
A 19th-century conspiracy is shattered by a 21st-century forensic artist. This is the first book in the Gwen Marcey series. I've added book two to my book list.

 

[Pooh2]

Going through this thread and making my list.
Though, I've read 10 books so far this year at an average of $10 each so I think maybe I need to go get a library card!

A few of my favorites so far this year"
The Book of Lost Friends- Lisa Wingate
Gramma Gatewoods Walk (story of the first woman too hike the entire Applachian trail)- Ben Montgomery
The Gift of Life- Henri Landworth (picked up at Give Kids the World while volunteering. Amazing story of GKTW founder surviving the holocaust and the life he built here).

 

[wishiwasindisneyjen]

Going through this thread and making my amazon list.
Though, I've read 10 books so far this year at an average of $10 each so I think maybe I need to go get a library card!

A few of my favorites so far this year"
The Book of Lost Friends- Lisa Wingate
Gramma Gatewoods Walk (story of the first woman too hike the entire Applachian trail)- Ben Montgomery
The Gift of Life- Henri Landworth (picked up at Give Kids the World while volunteering. Amazing story of GKTW founder surviving the holocaust and the life he built here).

I get most of my books from the library, I read a lot so no way I could afford to buy them all. I usually only buy paperbacks for travel and travel books since I like to mark them up. Thankfully where I live the library delivers.

Adding The Gift of Life to my list, thanks for the recommendation.

 

[OKW8297]

5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Excellent book

 

[cayennews]

#10 The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter. Another book in the Will Trent series. Good read. Hard to put down.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

#11 - A Cry From the Dust by Carrie Stuart Parks
Genre - Mystery
A 19th-century conspiracy is shattered by a 21st-century forensic artist. This is the first book in the Gwen Marcey series. I've added book two to my book list.

I liked this book a lot. A real page turner!

 

[bobbiwoz]

#10 - The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
Genre - Historical
This is about a teenage girl who was left in charge of her families estate during the 1700's and how she learned to produce indigo dye which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina. It's a true story based off of her letters and other historical documents. It's easy to read and I enjoyed it. It's my book clubs pick for this month. I'll give it a 4/5 at our meeting later this month.

I enjoyed this book as well. I’ll give it 4.5/5!

19/50

 

[wishiwasindisneyjen]

21/104: What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane
Twisty thriller about a woman who blackmails a doctor into marrying her because she knows secrets from his past, but when he ends up dead, is she the killer? I enjoyed this one, it was a very quick read. 3.5

22/104: The Days I Loved You Most by Amy Neff
Touching fictional story about a couple who make a plan to die together after a devastating diagnosis. The story goes back and forth from their building love story in the past, to the current day. Definitely a sad story but well written. 3

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I liked this book a lot. A real page turner!

I got my books mixed up, but I actually read the second book in the series, The Bones Will Speak. Great book too.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Another good one!

#12-"The Secret History of Audrey James", by Heather Marshall. 4 1/2 stars
Historical Fiction written in 2 times-one being during WWII, the other in the 2010s. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because there were a few (very few) coincidences that stretched reality for me. But overall, excellent read.

 

[willowsnn3]

#6/25 The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Good fantasy story

#7/25 Longbourn by Jo Baker
In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.
I enjoyed this one.

 

[Wood Nymph]

8/30 - They Do It with Mirrors - a Miss Marple Mystery - Agatha Christie

"Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in Stoneygates, a rehabilitation center. Her fears are confirmed when someone shoots at the administrator. Although he is not injured, a mysterious visitor is less fortunate--shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building. Pure coincidence? Miss Marple thinks not, and must use all her cunning to solve the riddle of the stranger's visit... and his murder"-

This is another good story.