Reading Challenge/Goals for 2024

[MGMmjl]

16/32 - A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci

Description:
"FBI Agent Atlee Pine's life was never the same after her twin sister Mercy was kidnapped--and likely killed--thirty years ago. After a lifetime of torturous uncertainty, Atlee's unresolved anger finally gets the better of her on the job, and she finds she has to deal with the demons of her past if she wants to remain with the FBI.

Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum head back to Atlee's rural hometown in Georgia to see what they can uncover about the traumatic night Mercy was taken and Pine was almost killed. But soon after Atlee begins her investigation, a local woman is found ritualistically murdered, her face covered with a wedding veil--and the first killing is quickly followed by a second bizarre murder.

Atlee is determined to continue her search for answers, but now she must also set her sights on finding a potential serial killer before another victim is claimed. But in a small town full of secrets--some of which could answer the questions that have plagued Atlee her entire life--digging deeper into the past could be more dangerous than she realizes . . ."

This is the second book in the Atlee Pine series. I read the first book earlier this year, and, while it wasn't my favorite, decided to read book #2. I'm glad I did. I really liked this one!

 

[RangerPooh]

22/25 When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn.
22a/25 When He Was Wicked: The 2nd Epilogue by Julia Quinn

23/25 The Booksellers Final Fable by Liz Lamar. Book 3/3 in the Silver Springs Mysteries.

 

[MGMmjl]

17/32 - Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow

Description:
"One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people 'could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.' Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company’s finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin.

But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it.

On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates…and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney’s Land, Richard Snow brilliantly presents the entire spectacular story, a wild ride from vision to realization, and an epic of innovation and error that reflects the uniqueness of the man determined to build 'the happiest place on earth' with a watchmaker’s precision, an artist’s conviction, and the desperate, high-hearted recklessness of a riverboat gambler."

I have read quite a few books about Walt Disney World and Walt Disney himself, but this is the first book I've read solely dedicated to Disneyland. I already knew quite a bit of the things presented in the book, but it was a nice overview of the development and early years of Disneyland.

 

[melk]

15/30 The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

When a college student has to do a project on another persons life he visits a nursing home and picks a convicted murderer as his subject. But their lives become intertwined as he goes back to look at the crime and faces guilt from his own past.

This was a really suspenseful, well written story. I’ll definitely be reading the sequel.

 

[cayennews]

#19 Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter

This is the first time I read this author. I saw several of you mention her books on this list and thought I'd try them out.

I enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down. A little gruesome at times, but a good read. Would recommend it!

 

[OKW8297]

16. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides Not my usual genre and I have been disappointed by Gone Girl and others but this was really good. A fast read, I couldn’t put down.

 

[willowsnn3]

#19 Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter

This is the first time I read this author. I saw several of you mention her books on this list and thought I'd try them out.

I enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down. A little gruesome at times, but a good read. Would recommend it!

My favorite author! Originally from the area I live in now.

 

[willowsnn3]

#28/50 Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.
Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?
The first half of the book was really good, second half was just ok.

 

[Needsanap]

Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evonavich
Cute easy read.

Irish Eyes by Mary Kay Andrews
Liked.

The Couple in the Photo by Helen Cooper
Really liked. Waiting list was several months!

46/25 for me

 

[Kirby]

#40 - The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore. Genre - General Fiction
A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way.
Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.
Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden...and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur's gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.
Books have a way of bringing even the loneliest of souls together...
Stories about book clubs always call out to me and this one did not disappoint.

 

[OKW8297]

17. Daughters of Nantucket by Julie Gerstenblatt set in Nantucket in 1846 focuses on 3 women and the fire of 1846. The social issues included ring true today. Great book.

 

[disneychrista]

#22 - How to Not Die Alone by Logan Ury (Audio)

#23 - Tired as F*ck by Caroline Dooner (Audio)

#24 - She Comes First by Ian Kerner (Audio)

#25 - The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

#26 - Cool Sex by Diana Richardson (Audio)

#27 - Sex Talks by Vanessa Marin (Audio)

#28 - Still See You, Everywhere (Frankie Elkin #3) by Lisa Gardener

#29 - Feisty Red (Three Chicks Brewery #2) by Stacey Kennedy

#30 - The 24th Hour (Woman's Murder Club #24) by James Patterson

#31 - Smart Sex by Emily Morse (Audio)

 

[Beezle2]

37/75 September House by Clarissa Orlando. Loved it! Creepy and interesting take on both horror and victims of domestic violence.
38/75 Fledgling by Octavia Butler. Just ok.
39/75 2 Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig. The sequel to One Dark Window. I enjoyed both of these books.
40/75 Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland. Liked this one, didn't love it. Will probably read the next one.
41/75 Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. I liked this one very much..

 

[melk]

16/30 Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

Three foster sisters are questioned by the police when bones are found under their childhood home. The investigation brings up the horrors they endured and pieces together just what went on in that house for decades.

Very suspenseful, twisty and surprising.

 

[melk]

17/30 Gut by Giulia Enders

Interesting explanation of just how our guts work with explanations on things like reflux, vomiting, obesity, and mood. A little technical at times but on the whole it gives easily understandable explanations. This was a nice follow up to the author’s Netflix documentary Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut.

 

[cayennews]

#20 False Witness by Karin Slaughter

Very suspenseful book. Hard to put down. I finished it last night and I can't get the story out of my head. Highly recommend.

 

[Wood Nymph]

23/30 - The Big Sky - by A. B. Guthrie, Jr - 3/5

Originally published (edit) in 1947, The Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie Jr.'s epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love.

This book has been on my shelf for a couple of decades. I have a collection of classics, and this is one I hadn't read until now. This was a book that was sometimes boring. The main character was a difficult person to like. He doesn't even like himself. But it was a fascinating look at what the west was like before the period of westward settlement got started. The period ranged from 1830 to 1847. But it isn't a book that I would recommend, and I often wondered why I continued to read it.

 

[bobbiwoz]

28/80 Amish Love Letters by S Gray, C Hubbard, R Lauer 3.5/5

29/80 The Stolen Child by Ann Hood 4/5
“An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate…” (People)

 

[MGMmjl]

18/32 - Between Black and White by Robert Bailey

Description:
"In 1966 in Pulaski, Tennessee, Bocephus Haynes watched in horror as his father was brutally murdered by ten local members of the Ku Klux Klan. As an African American lawyer practicing in the birthplace of the Klan years later, Bo has spent his life pursuing justice in his father’s name. But when Andy Walton, the man believed to have led the lynch mob forty-five years earlier, ends up murdered in the same spot as Bo’s father, Bo becomes the prime suspect.

Retired law professor Tom McMurtrie, Bo’s former teacher and friend, is a year removed from returning to the courtroom. Now McMurtrie and his headstrong partner, Rick Drake, must defend Bo on charges of capital murder while hunting for Andy Walton’s true killer. In a courtroom clash that will put their reputations and lives at stake, can McMurtrie and Drake release Bo from a lifetime of despair? Or will justice remain hidden somewhere between black and white?"

This is book #2 in the McMurtrie and Drake legal thriller series. I enjoyed the first entry last year, and the sequel was another good one! There are 2 more books in the series that I look forward to reading.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I have finally made some reading progress again. This time my cancer journey is really affecting it. I do better with shorter stories.

3/25 - Lost and Found by Suzanne Woods Fisher. Two different Amish communities want to establish their districts in the same town. Local Amish bird guide Micah and Amish store worker Trudy help to save a local bird watching pond. A search is involved to find Trudy’s missing sister. Mental health challenges are addressed. It was good.

4/25 - Their Unlikely Protector by Meghann Whistler. NY investment banker Valerie returns to Cape Cod to take custody of her twin step brothers. She agrees to help chef Brett with fundraising for the local cranberry festival. They were high school enemies. Cute story and hea.

5/25 - A Love Discovered by Tracie Peterson
A marriage of convenience story set in rugged 1860’s Cheyenne, Wyoming. Friends Marybeth and Edward make a new life out west and discover love. Good story.

6/25 - Dessert, Destiny and Death by Meredith Potts. Very short mystery story. Private investigator Melody’s life is threatened and she asks her detective boyfriend Scott to help figure out who wants to harm her. Didn’t really care for it. Glad it was free on kindle.