Reading challenge 2021

[melk]

11/35 All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

True stories from a country vet in 1930’s England.

Loved this book! I had started watching the series on PBS and thought I would try the book, not expecting too much from it. I was so pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed this. The author was a fantastic storyteller and I found myself laughing out loud more than once at some of the stories.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

11/30 An Unlikely Proposal by Toni
Shiloh. A modern day marriage of convenience story. Really liked it.

12/30. Love at First by Kate Clayborn. Contemporary romance. Dragged on in some places but overall a good story.

 

[KevM]

8 ) Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain (editors) – Non-Fiction/History. 90 essays spanning 400 years of the African American experience. 5/5

9) Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga, Jordan Stump (Translation) – Non-Fiction/Memoir. A heart wrenching account of growing up Tutsi in Rwanda, the Rwanda genocide, and coming back a decade later to recon with it all. 4.5/5

10) I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown – Non-Fiction/Memoir. Brown’s memoir of growing up as a Blak Christian Women. 4.25/5

11) Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne – Non-Fiction/History. When it comes to the Suffrage movement there is more to it than is generally taught. This easy-to-read book (it’s listed as a Middle Grade book) covers the battle that Black women have fought since the mid-19th Century through today. 4.25/5

12) Hull by Xandria Phillips – Poetry. Phillips’ is a nonbinary African American poet. This is their first poetry collection. The collection looks at the history of enslavement and colonization and how they till have present day emotional impacts. 4.5/5

13) The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke (editor) – Non-Fiction/Anthology. A collection of works from a who’s who of the Harlem Renaissance. It’s a classic and is considered a definitive text of the movement. 4.25/5

14) Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler – Fiction/Short Stories/Essays. An excellent collection of short stories and essays by a true master of her craft. 5/5

 

[SaintsManiac]

9/40 --Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
My Goodreads rating 4 out of 5 stars (I need a spin off starring Rebecca Dew and Aunt Mouser!)


Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside--and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty--and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her delicious triumphs.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

#5 - The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Two light skinned black twins run away from home. One of the sisters decides to live as a white woman and leaves her sister. Both have daughters that eventually meet.
I really liked the first half, but then I thought there was too much going on. The daughter’s stories become a big part of the book including a transgender story. I thought their story could have been a book in its own. We are left with a lot of loose ends with the twins older selves and their thoughts and feelings.

 

[mrs. magoo]

4/24 - Of Mice and Men - I had never read this book in high school and one of my resource kiddos needed help and while I knew the general plot line I read it yesterday to help him out.

 

[Wendy1985]

7/21 coffie kids and kidnapping

Single mom who plays amature detective while juggling being a single mom

 

[MGMmjl]

4/30 - Serafina and the Seven Stars by Robert Beatty

This is the 4th and (so far) final book in a series of historical, fantasy young adult novels that take place at the Biltmore Estate in 1899-1900. I read the first book simply because it was set at Biltmore, but I really enjoyed the series. Robert Beatty has also started a series of young adult novels set in the Great Smoky Mountains with one book so far, and another due later this year. I am planning on reading the first book of that series next.

5/30 - Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty

This is the first of Beatty's series of novels set in the Great Smoky Mountains around 1900 (the 2nd book is scheduled to be published in May). I enjoyed the book. I don't know if I liked it as much as Serafina, but it was still a really good read. I look forward to reading the 2nd one.

 

[OKW8297]

13. Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

 

[willowsnn3]

#13/60 Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

Third & supposed to be last in the Paradise series. It has been reviewed on here before. I enjoyed it altho I felt like the ending was wrapped up to quick in the last few pages.

 

[Wendy1985]

8/21 flimingos fraps and firman

 

[SaintsManiac]

10/40 --Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
My Goodreads rating 4 out of 5 stars

From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

 

[tiggrbaby]

February

#11/90: In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett (5/5) (memoir)

This covers the eleven years of the award-winning television show.

#12/90: Anxious People by Fredrik Bachman (4/5) (fiction)

An apartment open house takes a turn when a would-be bank robber enters and takes everyone hostage.

I struggled a bit with the writing style.

#13/90: Badlands (Highway #3) by C J Box (4/5) (suspense)

Cassie Is the new deputy sheriff in an oil town with a gang war heating up. Kyle is a young boy who makes off with a mysterious package he found in the aftermath of a car crash. Cassie realizes that this boy may hold the key to helping her.

#14/90: The Testament by John Grisham (4/5) (legal thriller)

A rich old man signs a will and then throws himself off his building. Instead of leaving his money to his children and ex-wives, he leaves everything to a mysterious woman who is a missionary in South America. Nate O’Reilly is fresh out of rehab and assigned to find this woman while the family fights the will.


#15/90: The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman (4/5) (historical fiction)

In 1950s Quebec, English speaking Maggie and French speaking Gabriel fell in love. When Maggie gets pregnant, her father forces her to put the baby in an orphanage. Little Elodie’s life becomes even worse when orphans are declared mentally ill to receive more money from the government.

#16/90: Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson (4/5) (historical fiction)

Pheby is a slave on a plantation who has been treated better than most. Although she had been promised her freedom on her eighteenth birthday, she is sent to a slave jail in Richmond, where she is forced into becoming the mistress of the jailor to survive.

#17/90: Stay Close by Harlan Coben (3/5) (thriller)

Three people are living lives that they never wanted and are hiding secrets. But events that occurred seventeen years in the past bring them together in a race to solve murders.

#18/90: The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah (5/5) (historical fiction)

Elsa has lived a sheltered but loveless life in 1920s Texas. She ends up married to a man she barely knows. As the Great Depression and dust storms take over their lives, they must decide whether to fight for their home or move west.

I love her books!


#19/90: Dear Miss Kopp (Kopp Sisters #6) by Amy Stewart (4/5) (historical fiction)

The US has entered WWI and that sends the Kopp sisters in different directions with their adventures.

The book is written in the form of letters.

 

[Wendy1985]

9/21

Mermaids and murder dont let the title fool you it is not as scary as it sounds

 

[mrs. magoo]

5/25 - The Alienist by Caleb Carr - I reread this book because I really really like it. I love historical fiction and just enjoy the murder investigation looking at it historically.

 

[Tiggerish]

Home Sweet Home by Lilly Mirren. Romantic fiction, not Christian romantic but no adult content and the happy ending.

Some Say Love by Staci Stalling. Christian romantic fiction with happy ending.

Gales of November by Aaron Stander. Police procedural/mystery. I have read several of the books in this series and enjoyed this one. Set on the shores of Lake Michigan in northern Michigan, the winter weather of that area plays a serious part in this book.

I Love You My Child, I'm Abandoning You - by Ariela Palacz. Autobiography. This is a different perspective on WWII and the Holocaust. The author was born in France in 1934 into a middle class Jewish family. By the time she is 8 years old, the war is raging and France is on the verge of falling to the Germans. Awakened in the middle of the night and told her mother has been injured and is the hospital, her father makes her and her younger brother and sister leave with two strange woman from Social Services. They are given "orphan" uniforms to wear and taken by train along with many other children into the French countryside. When they arrive in a small village the children are parceled out to waiting French families and she is separated from her siblings. The book tells how her new family make her into a Christian girl to prevent her being transported to the death camps in Germany. When the war ends, she is reunited with her father and her siblings. Her mother and most of her extended family and Jewish neighbors have not survived. The book goes on to tell the story of the rest of her life and how the experience of being abandoned to be saved has effected all of her life.

20-23 of 104

 

[willowsnn3]

#14/60 The Girl Who Lived by Christopher Greyson
Ten years ago, four people were brutally murdered. One girl lived.
No one believes her story.
The police think she’s crazy.
Her therapist thinks she’s suicidal.
Everyone else thinks she’s a dangerous drunk.
They’re all right—but did she see the killer?

I really enjoyed this one altho it took quite awhile to 'warm up' to the main character.

 

[RangerPooh]

I'd like to join in. I'm trying to be more intentional about reading for fun this year. I have textbooks to read for school, but that's usually not fun. My goal is low, 10 books. Life is busy.

Completed so far (I had plenty of free time in January and February)
1/10 Virgin River by Robin Carr
2/10 Shelter Mountain by Robin Carr
3/10 Whispering Rock by Robin Carr
4/10 A Virgin River Christmas by Robin Carr

Currently reading on book 5.

I enjoyed season 1 and 2 of the Netflix show Virgin River that I decided to read the series. My mom read the series when it first came out and in my mind they were "mom books". Guess what, I'm in my 40s and a mom, so why not?

While the books have some of the same characters and details from the Netflix series, the books are completely different. More in depth, characters not mentioned on tv or presented differently. There's so many backstories that you learn more about the community, and it's people. I've enjoyed books 1-3, but did not care for book 4. I think it's due to the character or Marcie, I just didn't like her.

 

[melk]

12/35 The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

Sophie, originally from Ireland, leaves New York City to become the mail order bride of a wealthy, handsome widower from San Francisco. She grows to love his small daughter. But questions arise about her husband and then the earthquake of 1906 hits and Sophie’s life is turned upside down.

This was another really good story by Susan Meissner. This was historical fiction but a mystery as well.

 

[JayMass]

8/50--Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Fantastic book. The way the death penalty is used in this country is absolutely wrong. Stevenson's accounts of the cases he's worked and the central case of Walter McMillian are beyond moving. This book is a call to action.

9/50--The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson. This book is just OK. I feel like it doesn't offer anything I don't already know. I also think it's more about the shifting of priorities we all go through from our 20s to 30s to 40s, but the author doesn't understand that. I don't really like self-help books so perhaps thats why.

Up next: If It Bleeds by Stephen King. 4 novellas in one book. I'm through the first one and I really liked it!