Annual Reading Challenge--2020

[jen7233]

Updated book challenge is 25/20. Haven't updated since #8

9 White Fragility Robin Di Angelo
10 Communist Manifesto Friedrich Engels/Karl Marx
11 Before We Were Yours Lisa Wingate
12 Best.State.Ever Dave Barry
13 The Great Alone Kristin Hannah
14 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng
15 Animal Farm George Orwell
16 1984 George Orwell
17 The Girl from the Metropol Hotel Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
18 United States of Socialism Dinesh D'Souza
19 Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng
20 The Iron Heel Jack London
21 Making Waves Cassandra King
22 A Low Country Life Reflections of a Writing Life Pat Conroy
23 Live Free or Die Sean Hannity
24 Educated Tara Westover
25 Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray

 

[Shellsbutt]

Updated book challenge is 25/20. Haven't updated since #8

9 White Fragility Robin Di Angelo
10 Communist Manifesto Friedrich Engels/Karl Marx
11 Before We Were Yours Lisa Wingate
12 Best.State.Ever Dave Barry
13 The Great Alone Kristin Hannah
14 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng
15 Animal Farm George Orwell
16 1984 George Orwell
17 The Girl from the Metropol Hotel Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
18 United States of Socialism Dinesh D'Souza
19 Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng
20 The Iron Heel Jack London
21 Making Waves Cassandra King
22 A Low Country Life Reflections of a Writing Life Pat Conroy
23 Live Free or Die Sean Hannity
24 Educated Tara Westover
25 Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray

Wow, that's an interesting list, mix of books. Nothing like a little light reading, lol. I've read #13,14,15,19. I need to check out 1984, don't remember reading it back in high school like I did with Animal Farm.

 

[Shellsbutt]

#14/25- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout-This was such a depressing book for me, beautifully written though. Maybe it was too realistic, themes hit too close to home. I really had to push myself to finish this one.
#15/25- 28 Summers-Elin Hilderbrand-First time reading this author, definitely a beach read. I now want to move to Nantucket though!

 

[jen7233]

Wow, that's an interesting list, mix of books. Nothing like a little light reading, lol. I've read #13,14,15,19. I need to check out 1984, don't remember reading it back in high school like I did with Animal Farm.

Lol, yes I read all over the map. Usually nonfiction though, or close to it, and throw in a fiction for a change of pace. Example of my all over the board, next up I'm reading a road trip across America travelogue story, and then a basketball team memoir!

I think 1984 is worth a read, it has a few elements in the book that may seem more appropriate for older than school age (reader discretion and personal opinion, of course). I don't recall reading it in middle or high school. He was a brilliant storyteller in my opinion. I do remember Animal Farm back then, it's good to read again as an adult with a different viewpoint and years. Not a long book!

 

[willowsnn3]

#55/60 When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block—her neighbor Theo.
But Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised.
When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear?

Pretty good. I enjoyed it.

 

[mmouse37]

I can't remember if I posted these already......sorry if I did!!

25/40 The Liar’s Daughter Laire Allan
26/40 Carrie Stephen King
27/40 Buried Jeffery Deaver
28/40 Snowflakes Ruth Ware
29/40 The Gift Alison Gaylin
30/40 Slow Burner Laura Lippman
31/40 Treasure Oyinkan Braithwaite
32/40 Let Her Be Lisa Unger
33/40 12 Nolan King & David Wright
34/40 Speak No Evil Liana Gardner


MJ

 

[melk]

35/25 Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

A failed bank robber bursts into an open house and takes the group of strangers hostage. None of them is entirely who they appear to be and all of them, the back robber included, crave some sort of rescue.

This book definitely stands out as one of my favorites this year. While it does get a little drawn out and tiresome at parts, overall I really enjoyed it. It has some plot lines that weave in and out with one another and some twists and turns. It had me laughing out loud, reading aloud to my husband parts of it because he was always asking me what was so funny.

 

[Tiggerish]

Secondhand Secrets by Angela Castillo. Christian romantic fiction with happy ending.

Homicide at Blue Heron Lake by Susan Page Davis and Megan Elaine Davis. Christian romantic & mystery fiction with happy ending.

Coyote's Regret by Rich Curtin. A Manny Rivera Mystery. This series is set in backcountry Utah. Manny is a somewhat unconventional deputy sheriff. I liked how the author described the deputy's thought process as he investigations a murder/suicide or was it a double homicide?

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner. The story starts with a 14 year old girl who was born in the United States to parents who had immigrated from Germany years before WWII. Her father is wrongly accused of being a German sympathizer and the whole family ends up in an interment camp in Texas. There she meets an American born girl whose parents immigrated from Japan years before WWII but who were interned immediately after Pearl Harbor. The details about the interment camp and the families being involuntarily repatriated to Germany and Japan were fascinating. It was also interesting to remember that the current border crossers are not the first group that this country has placed in interment camps.

70-73 of 80

 

[Colleen27]

#97/156 - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I decided to re-read this one because DH started watching the Peacock TV adaptation and the show was just so far off of what I remembered of the book that I thought maybe I just wasn't recalling it well. But no, the show is just that far off. It is as though they stripped most of the social commentary and meaning from the original story and kept the gratuitous sex and weirdness. The book still holds up well, even after all of these years. Maybe better, with its themes of consumerism and overmedication and consumption-as-religion. Well worth the re-read, even though it made me even less inclined to enjoy the series.

#98 - 100 - Someone to Hold, Someone to Wed and Someone to Care by Mary Balogh

Light historical romances, continuing in the series I began in my last update. Not much to say about these, really. Good escapism, nothing outstanding but still enjoyable and relaxing.

#101 - 103 - Me Before You, After You and Still Me by Jojo Moyes

I heard a lot about these when they were new so when I was looking for something to read on a cross-country flight I downloaded them from our library's ebook service. The first book was really good and somewhat unexpected. The second and third titles not as much. At some point, improbable good fortune dropping out of the sky renders a character's situation either unbelievable or unsympathetic, and that was how I felt by the end of the trilogy.

#104 - The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirstin Downey

This was excellent. Long and a bit slow at times, but excellent. A biography of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under FDR and the architect of many of the New Deal programs we take for granted today, including Social Security. It was fascinating to read about how she navigated the territory of being a woman in a position of power and leadership in a time when that was truly exceptional and often not a popular thing to be, and the narrative around implementing SS and unemployment had such striking parallels to our own time that it was a really encouraging, optimistic narrative even though it was set a century ago.

 

[Simba's Mom]

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner. The story starts with a 14 year old girl who was born in the United States to parents who had immigrated from Germany years before WWII. Her father is wrongly accused of being a German sympathizer and the whole family ends up in an interment camp in Texas. There she meets an American born girl whose parents immigrated from Japan years before WWII but who were interned immediately after Pearl Harbor. The details about the interment camp and the families being involuntarily repatriated to Germany and Japan were fascinating. It was also interesting to remember that the current border crossers are not the first group that this country has placed in interment camps.

Glad you enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to get an ARC and I LOVED it.

 

[bobbiwoz]

26) The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. Non-Fiction. A beautiful, long, masterpiece. From 1915 to 1970 millions of Black peoples left the south for northern & western cities, changing the way cities, the nation, & the people looked. Wilkerson interviewd over a thousand people for this, but focuses on three specific individuals to tell their stories of this decades long mass migration. 4.75/5

77/80 I thought this was an excellent book, and would even give it 5/5

 

[willowsnn3]

#56/60 The Line Between by Tosca Lee
From Goodreads:
When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.
As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life—until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there’s something far more sinister at play and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.
Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.

This was just ok to me. I see that there is a second book but I really don't think I cared enough about the characters to see what happens to them, lol.

 

[bobbiwoz]

78/80. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrick Backman

A friend asked if I ever read anything by this author, I hadn’t, so I just picked up onebfrom the library. This one is about living/dying, and the main characters are a grandpa and his grandson. You learn about their life, the lives of the grandma, the father of the boy. I read this book with tears in my eyes, practically from start to finish. 4.5/5

 

[OKW8297]

65. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
i started this book many years ago and didn’t like it and put it down. I knew another book in the series just came out and decided to try again. I absolutely loved it. It is about the building of a cathedral but so much more. it bought 12th century English history alive for me. I’ll miss these characters.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Tiggerish and Simba’s Mom, my 79/80 book was “The Last Year of the War“ and I thought it was extraordinary! I am so glad you both mentioned it.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Tiggerish and Simba’s Mom, my 79/80 book was “The Last Year of the War“ and I thought it was extraordinary! I am so glad you both mentioned it.

Isn't that what's great about this thread? We all get recommendations from each other about books.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

9) We Have Always Lived in Castle by Shirley Jackson
Working with friend on a project and he suggested reading it. Very good, unique YA book, great for this time of year.

10) The Eighth Detective by Alexi Pavesi
Group read - I enjoyed it and it really reminded me in structure of Agatha Christi book, not to imply I enjoyed it nearly as much. I did enjoy it though.
An editor goes to visit a reclusive mystery writer to get okay for republishing a collection of detective stories he had written.


If anyone is interested in reading any of my works I would gladly send kindle gift versions of any of them: “Written for You”, “Three Twigs for the Campfire”, “Cemetery Girl” or “Reigning”.
You can see them all reviewed on Goodreads (click on link to view books). If you are interested in reading any of them please message me here or at Goodreads. I would greatly appreciate the effort.

 

[drwitz]

54. Needful Things by Stephen King

What a wonderful re-read. I forgot how good this one was (probably because it came out in my college graduation year and I don't remember reading it). The story is set in Castle Rock, a King created town in Maine, where a new store opens. Everyone find something they want in this new store, and the price is very reasonable (at least monetarily). The true cost, though, is much more than the dollars and coins spent. As the town begins to unravel and violence begins to erupt, will the forces of evil triumph or will there be a way to unwind the power of Leland Gaunt and his hypnotic effects? Highly recommended!

55. and 56. Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

These two are interrelated in a way so I am going to tackle these together. Both novels focus on women who are subject to the true horror - terrible men (note, I am not saying all men are terrible, but in these two novels some are!). In Gerald's Game, a woman is left handcuffed to her bed after her husband dies in the middle of some sex play, and in Dolores Claiborne a Maine islander's life is turned topsy-turvy by two deaths separated by many years (one is her husband and one is her employer). What unites these two novels is that key events happen during a solar eclipse, and the visions that each protagonist has of the other during the eclipse. In fact, King originally planned on uniting these two as one novel, and while ultimately he separated them, the themes are definitely echoed in each other. These are great reads, and I highly recommend them. Other than the vision of each other, there are no supernatural elements here, so if you want to read a book of "natural" horror, these two are worthwhile.

57. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink

So I am torn about this one. I found the studies and lessons drawn from the reading really interesting and valid, and then found out about the author's research manipulation and the fact that many of his studies have been repudiated due to his academic malfeasance. The lessons are great, the book reads wonderfully, and what he says make sense. And I am left not knowing what to trust from the book. Sigh!

58. Radical Candor: Be A Kick-*** Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

This was great. I read it as part of my Miracle Morning routine, and I really appreciated the lessons on balancing personal care with honest feedback. I found the advice from the text very helpful and have already begun to implement some of the ideas at work. I read the updated and expanded version (hardcover) and definitely recommend it for anyone who manages employees at work.

59. The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni

This is another book I have been reading during my Miracle Mornings. Written by the same author as The Five Disfunctions of a Team, the author begins with a fable which tells the story of a company at risk of failing if it doesn't define what makes their team players successful, and then explains the premise. The three values: hunger, humility, and smarts (people-smarts) present a well-rounded way to manage and hire for this competency. Interesting read for anyone focused on building good teams at work.

60. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

And here is my Stephen King book for this threesome set. Another collection of short stories, a non-fiction essay on Little League baseball, and a poem, this collection is long (over 800 pages) but truly marvelous. The story collection shows King's great ability to write in many styles, and it is a beautiful set of fables and stories. One of my favorite (that I had long forgotten) was "My Pretty Pony" which talks about the fickle nature of time -- how it moves slowly when you are young and much faster when you get older (except that is slows to near stop at moments of illness and trauma). So many good stories I could write about, but do yourself a favor and read it through from start to end.

 

[KevM]

It's the end of another month. So time for my monthly round up of what I've read. In October I read 15 books, bring my total for the year to 56. I had originally set a reading goal for this year at 52. With two more months to go, I'll need to figure out a new goal. Any way, without further ado, here's what I read this month:

42) The Vampyre by John William Polidori - Classic Horror. 78 years before Dracula there was Polidori's Lord Ruthven. This novella was ok. The story behind it is more interesting though. This was written as part of the same challenge where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. 3/5

43) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - Mystery/Thriller. An Agatha Christie classic murder mystery. 4.25/5

44) The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle: Final Girls and a New Hollywood Formula by Alexandra West - Non-Fiction/Film Criticism. The '90s is when horror movies went mainstream leaving some feeling that it sold out. However, as this books dives into, those films were still addressing politic and cultural issues that were relevant to teenagers. 4/5

45) Jim Thorpe: Original All-American by Joseph Bruchac - Biography. A biography, written as if it was an auto biography, on the life of a great American athlete Jim Thorpe. 3.75/5

46) Goblin Market and Other Selected Poems by Christina Rossetti - Classic Poetry. Rossetti is one of the finest poets of the Victorian era. This collection brings together two of her poetry collections, Goblin Market and Other Poems & Shorter Poems. 4.25/5

47) My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix - Young Adult Horror. Set during the Satanic Panic of the 1980's what lengths is one teenager willing to go to in order to save her best friend. This also had a pretty unique view on how an exorcism would actually work. 4.25/5

48) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Gothic Horror. Noemi receives a from her newlywed cousin ask her for help to escape from a mysterious house to the distant Mexican countryside. 4/5

49) Monster She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson - Non-fiction. Short biographies and recommended readings for over 50 women in the horror and speculative fiction genres. It gave me a lot of books to add to my TBR pile. 4.25/5

50) My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due - Urban Fantasy/Paranormal. First in Due's African Immortal series. What happens when your husband revels that he's actually a 400 year old immortal? And just what might the blond of an immortal mean for scientist looking to cure diseases? 4/5

51) Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu - Classic Horror. Another classic Vampire novella that came before Dracula. This one, 25 years ealier. 4/5

52) Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories by Multiple - Horror Anthology. 9 short horror stories written by Indigenous people of the Arctic. 4/5

53) Collected Works: Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe - Horror. A collection of some of Poe's best short stories and poems. 4.5/5

54) Confessions by Kanae Minato - Thriller. During her last lecture, recently resigned middle school teacher Yuko reveals that two of her students are responsible for her young daughter's death and she's out for revenge. 3.75/5

55) Witching Hour: Sinister Legends by Multiple - Horror Anthology. Bloody Mary, The Man With the Hook, Slenderman, these stories are all pretty well know, and you won't find them here. These are your more unusual and dark legends. 4.5/5

56) Tales of Horror on Halloween Night edited by Samie Sands - Horror Anthology. 35 short stories written by some of the best there currently are. 4.5/5

 

[willowsnn3]