Annual Reading Challenge--2020

[willowsnn3]

#60/60 Until I Find You by Rea Frey
From Goodreads:
2 floors. 55 steps to go up. 40 more to the crib.

Since Rebecca Gray was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease, everything in her life consists of numbers. Each day her world grows a little darker and each step becomes a little more dangerous.

Following days of feeling like someone’s watching her, Bec awakes at home to the cries of her son in his nursery. When it’s clear he’s not going to settle, Bec goes to check on him.
She reaches in. Picks him up.
But he’s not her son.
And no one believes her.

One woman’s desperate search for her son . . .

In a world where seeing is believing, Bec must rely on her own conviction and a mother’s instinct to uncover the truth about what happened to her baby and bring him home for good.

This one was pretty good.

 

[JayMass]

Congrats! I will have to add Parable of the Sower & The Dutch House to my list. I've read the others you listed & enjoyed them all.

I did the audiobook of The Dutch House and Tom Hanks reads it--so great!

 

[monarchsfan16]

Being back to work as a school speech pathologist, in 2020 means I got behind in updating...and slowed down the reading a bit.

50: The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. 5/5. Lisa Wingate does a great job of switching back and forth between time-frames to weave a story together.

51: 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand. 4/5. I enjoyed it very much but there have been so many others by her that I've enjoyed more. It's a very good beach read though.

52: Dear Martin by Nic Stone. 5/5. Very worthwhile read.

53: Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand. 5/5. The final book in the trilogy. I really enjoyed this one.

54: The Heartbeat of Speech Language Pathology by Phuong Palafox. 5/5. This is kind of a motivational speaker type book for my profession. I will recommend to all SLPs but not to the general public.

55: Anxious People by Fredrick Blackman. 5/5. His novels always seem to have a feel good quality about them while being simply written yet deep. This is his newest, and in so many ways, is exactly what 2020 needs.

 

[OKW8297]

68. The Furies by John Jake s book 4 of 8 in the Kent family chronicles. I enjoyed the second half more than the first but still a great read.

 

[drwitz]

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.

Well, it looks like I will be extending my Stephen King re-read-through into 2021 since I have taken a little bit of a detour. In keeping with my previous practice of books of a political nature, I will only post the name of the book and not a review. As always, feel free to private message me if you want my thoughts or want to share your thoughts on those titles.

61. Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President by Michael S. Schmidt

62. Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth by Brian Stelter

63. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

This was an amazing and powerful read. The untold story of the relocation of Black and African-Americans from the South to the North as they fled the Jim Crow South, this magnum opus rights that wrong. Framed with the stories of three individuals who made the journey, but thoroughly researched (with more then 1200 oral interviews), this is a dense and thorough review. A Pulitzer Prize winner, and well-deserved. Cannot wait to read her next book (Caste is next on my list). HIGHLY recommended (and others on this thread have read it as well).

 

[drwitz]

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

I like your taste in fiction... Have you read any Lovecraft? King?

At some point I need to make my way through your list above!

 

[melk]

38/25 Kindred by Octavia Butler

A black woman living in California in the 1970’s is transported back to the slave era south again and again to save the life of a white boy.

Someone on this thread recommended this book and I had seen it at our library on the high school‘s summer reading list. The story is compelling, fascinating from the time travel aspect and heartbreaking from the historical standpoint. I couldn’t put it down.

 

[willowsnn3]

#61 Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

You think you know her…but look a little closer.

She is a stay-at-home mother-of-three with boundless reserves of patience, energy, and love. After being friends for a decade, this is how Liz sees Jess.

Then one moment changes everything.

Dark thoughts and carefully guarded secrets surface—and Liz is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend, and about herself. The truth can’t come soon enough.

 

[monarchsfan16]

56: The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. 5/5. Admittedly, the history behind this novel wasn't quite as interesting to me, so I didn't like this book as much as Orphan Train, but, I still liked it a lot and it was incredibly well written and well researched. Historical fiction is absolutely her niche.

 

[tiggrbaby]

56: The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. 5/5. Admittedly, the history behind this novel wasn't quite as interesting to me, so I didn't like this book as much as Orphan Train, but, I still liked it a lot and it was incredibly well written and well researched. Historical fiction is absolutely her niche.

Thanks for the recommendation! I have a request in to borrow it.
Have you read A Piece of the World? She wrote it based on the painting Christina's World.

 

[monarchsfan16]

Thanks for the recommendation! I have a request in to borrow it.
Have you read A Piece of the World? She wrote it based on the painting Christina's World.

I did. I just looked back at Goodreads because it's been a couple of years. Looks like I gave it 4 stars.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Update this morning.

#15-The Giver of Stars 3 stars
#16-Big Lies in a Small Town, Diane Chamberlain-4 stars
#17-The Things We Cannot Say=4 1/2 stars, if you like historical fiction and romance, don't miss this.

Oh my, yes. 81/80 The Things We Cannot Say! It’s a good one. Plus, my heritage is Polish, although my grandparents, all of them came to America in the 19teens. When I realized this was another book about WWII, I almost stopped reading, but I trusted your judgment, and I am glad I did!

 

[OKW8297]

69. Winter Street by Elgin Hilderbrand. Very nicely done. First of four books. I plan to read the others.

 

[JennM]

Gosh, it's been a while since I posted (18/42), but I've made it to 35/42. Some of these had been on my "to read" list for a long time and I finally got tired of them being on the list and knocked them out. So my list is a little all over the place. I added ***** to the ones that I enjoyed most.

19 - A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6) - Diana Gabaldon *****
20 - A Woman Is No Man - Etaf Rum
21 - The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me - Bruce Feiler
22 - About Grace - Anthony Doerr
23 - Still Missing - Chevy Stevens
24 - The After Party - Anton DiSclafani
25 - White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo
26 - Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate
27 - Swing Your Sword: Leading the Charge in Football and Life - Mike Leach *****
28 - Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi *****
29 - How Hard Can It Be? (Kate Reddy #2) - Allison Pearson
30 - Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane
31 - The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett M. Graff (audiobook) ***** (I can't say I enjoyed this because it was extremely emotional at times, but I highly recommend it)
32 - The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (audiobook) *****
33 - An Echo in the Bone (Outlander #7) - Diana Gabaldon *****
34 - Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano
35 - A Good Neighborhood - Therese Anne Fowler *****

 

[Tiggerish]

 

[Colleen27]

#105/156 - A Court of Thrones and Roses by Sarah J. Mass

The first book in an adult fantasy series by an author that wrote one of my favorite YA series, this was a twist on the Beauty & the Beast story set in a world where humans are separated from the vicious and beautiful world of faeries by a magical wall. The main character is sort of reminiscent of Katniss from The Hunger Games, the daughter of a damaged family that takes it upon herself to keep the family from hunger, and her mix of courage and insecurity did a lot to drive the story. I really enjoyed it and immediately added the rest of the series to my waitlist.

#106 - Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higgenbotham

This was amazing, a comprehensive historical narrative about the most famous nuclear disaster in human history starting with background about the Soviet nuclear program and the reasons for the adoption of the problematic reactor design, earlier, less severe accidents that were covered up, the building of Pripyat and the Chernobyl plant, and of course a minute-by-minute account of the accident and aftermath from a number of perspectives and sources. Chernobyl is one of the first news events I remember in my lifetime, so it has always held a bit of fascination for me and this was the most well-written and readable account of the accident that I've read.

#107-109 - A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Roses, A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Mass

The rest of the series so far. The second book involved a twist that was only hinted at in the barest of ways in the first book that changed the whole direction of the story in a good way, though by the third book it was falling into some of the same "easy miscommunication" plot twists that I expect of YA fiction. But the world in which the story is set expands immensely as the story goes on in ways that make the books hard to put down, and the development of that world is so richly detailed that you can imagine the distinct realms that make up the larger world (again, almost in an echoes of The Hunger Games way, where each court is as distinct from the others as the districts are). The fourth book was short, almost a novella, and served mainly as a bridge to the as-yet-unreleased next story arc in the saga.

#110 - Educated by Tara Westover

I'd heard so much about this one that I was almost reluctant to pick it up, feeling that it would fall short like some of the other highly-hyped books of the last few years (Hillbilly Elegy, I'm looking at you), but this did not disappoint. The story is so wild that it is almost hard to accept as non-fiction but at the same time entirely plausible in the context of the extremist religious and social fringe in which it is set. And the way Westover tells her story, not as a valorization of individual triumph over circumstances but as an escape and success that rested upon thin threads of luck and support from unexpected places highlights the tension between family ties and the ties that bind us more broadly as Americans and human beings.

#111 - The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare

It is interesting to read newer books in worlds that I identify as YA and started reading years ago and see how they become more sophisticated and adult-leaning over time. This book, which centers around a gay couple that are major characters in the original Shadowhunters series, might be my favorite in the entire SH universe, partly because the main character is endlessly amusing and their adventures always bordering on ridiculous (but in a good way) and partly because as a same-sex love story it has deeper elements than the original books around themes of acceptance and authenticity and coming to terms with an identity that is not what others expect (and some suprisingly racy love scenes, by YA standards).

 

[willowsnn3]

62/60 Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
This book has so many mixed reviews that I was hesitant to read it.
Wow! I am glad I did. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Tiggerish]

The Image Seeker by Amanda Hughes. The story of an Native American girl who becomes a world famous photographer. It starts in 1922 when she is living in a Catholic boarding school having been forcibly removed from her family. She escapes during a fire at the school, lives a hobo life and learns photography as part of a traveling circus. Eventually her talent leads her to a job with a prestigious New York City newspaper. The story ends just before the start of WWII. The plot was improbable but I enjoyed the story.

Boys of Courage by Amos Blas. WWII holocaust's fiction based on true stories about about each of a group of friends survived the war.

Tienkuo by Li Bo. The first book of the Heavenly Kingdom series. Set in China, the narrator is the son of a American missionary who gets drawn into the conflict between the ruling dynasty and an popular uprising and the inroads being made by the European countries to control trade in China. I do not know why I downloaded this and it took a month to read.

Unholy Ground by Karen Ann Hopkins. Book 7 of the Serenity's Plain series, Serenity is a police officer in a rural community with a large Amish population and the series covers investigations she makes involving the Amish.

The Sound of Glass by Karen White. Contemporary woman's fiction. The story is about how a family's pattern of spousal abuse covering three generation is finally broken. I had never read this author before but after reading this book, I discovered that she frequently writes about abuse. It was a somewhat difficult read because the violence is graphic.

78-82 of 80.

 

[Tiggerish]

 

[bobbiwoz]

13/15 - Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult. A hard read about a "wrongful birth" lawsuit, but very good over all. Can't say much more than that without giving stuff away.

82/80. I read it because I saw your review. I agree, very good over all!