Reading Goal Update

2016 READING GOAL THAT HAS EXTENDED INTO 2017

Still plugging away at this.... so close... the funny thing is that now I found a list of the top 300 books ever. I have read about 180 of them.... and now I want to read all of THOSE, too. Sigh.....  

Click HERE to read about my reading goal.

The only change from January was that I got Moby Dick read (actually, I listened to it.  Like all 30 HOURS of it.  It was a nice companion to my drive to Panguitch every morning at 6:30 a.m.).  Only 12 more to go!  I am about halfway through Don Quixote and am also reading Watership Down currently.

# 16 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - February 2016

# 18 Memoirs of a Geisha - March 2016

# 32 The Picture of Dorian Gray - January 2016

# 33 Crime and Punishment - July 2016

# 41 Dracula - January 2016

# 49 The Lovely Bones - February 2016

# 59 Anna Karenina - January 2016

# 61 Lolita

# 62 Slaughterhouse-Five - June 2016

# 64 Catch-22

# 66 Dune

# 68 Watership Down

# 70 The Stand

# 72 Frankenstein - June 2016

# 73 Great Expectations - January 2017

# 75 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

# 76 Angela's Ashes

# 77 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - July 2016

# 80 The Bell Jar

# 83 The Color Purple

# 86 The Brothers Karamazov

# 91 Siddhartha - January 2017

# 92 Don Quixote

# 94 A Prayer for Owen Meany - May 2016

# 95 Vampire Academy - January 2017

#96 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - January 2016

#98 Moby Dick - April 2017

# 104 Interview with the Vampire - January 2017

# 105 Middlesex

READING GOAL... giving it another go

2016 READING GOAL THAT HAS EXTENDED INTO 2017

My goal was to finish reading all of the books that were on the Goodreads "Best Books EVER" list.  I did okay for a few months and then just kinda quit.  So here I am in 2017 ... and ready to try again.

Click HERE to read about my reading goal.

I did get 4 read off the list this month, but then realized I was missing one from the original list (Moby Dick).  So with that, I have 13 more to go.

# 16 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - February 2016

# 18 Memoirs of a Geisha - March 2016

# 32 The Picture of Dorian Gray - January 2016

# 33 Crime and Punishment - July 2016

# 41 Dracula - January 2016

# 49 The Lovely Bones - February 2016

# 59 Anna Karenina - January 2016

# 61 Lolita

# 62 Slaughterhouse-Five - June 2016

# 64 Catch-22

# 66 Dune

# 68 Watership Down

# 70 The Stand

# 72 Frankenstein - June 2016

# 73 Great Expectations - January 2017

# 75 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

# 76 Angela's Ashes

# 77 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - July 2016

# 80 The Bell Jar

# 83 The Color Purple

# 86 The Brothers Karamazov

# 91 Siddhartha - January 2017

# 92 Don Quixote

# 94 A Prayer for Owen Meany - May 2016

# 95 Vampire Academy - January 2017

#96 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - January 2016

#98 Moby Dick

# 104 Interview with the Vampire - January 2017

# 105 Middlesex

JANUARY 2017

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi / A / **** / Kindle
This is the story of a neuro-scientist diagnosed with aggressive cancer just as he is nearing his goal of finishing medical school. I believe everyone has a story to tell, and it was interesting to read this one. That being said, it lacked the wit and tenderness and insightfulness as "The Last Lecture". The most tender part was this message to his infant daughter (he died when she was 8 months old):
“When you come to one of the many moments in life when you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more, but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.”

Lilac Girls: A Novel by Martha Hall Kelly / A / ***1/2 / Kindle
My favorite period of time to read about is WWII. This story follows the story of several Polish women who were interred in a German concentration camp. What makes this story different from some of the others out there is that it tells how they endured the extra atrocity of medical experimentation.  It is told from the point of view of one of the Polish women, a female German doctor who worked at the camp, and an American socialite working to make a difference.  The story was compelling even though the writing style itself was a little "off" sometimes.  

Millers Valley: A Novel by Anna Quindlen / A / **** / Kindle
Anna Quindlen is just amazing.  
This book follows the story of Mary Margaret "Mimi" Miller from her childhood in an all-american farming community in Pennsylvania through her adult years as a medical doctor in a nearby town.  This book is a quiet novel in that not a lot happens, but the characters and their intertwined stories make the book a solid story. To me it is a story that you never really leave where you are from. 

The Book of Lost and Found: A Novel by Lucy Foley / A /**/ Kindle

If I had to define this book in one word it would be "meh".
This book tells the story of Kate as she works to find out more about her deceased mother.  Kate's journey takes her from London to Corsica to Paris, then New York.  It is advertised as a story of deep and abiding love, separation and sadness, loyalty and caring. But to me, it sadly lacked character development. And the dialogue was just weird... the words people said didn't really seem to add anything to the story.  Overall it was very slow moving and just felt really flat to me.  

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead / ** / Kindle
Oh good Lord. I can't even believe I read this book.  I can't believe it's been made into a movie or TV show or whatever. This one is from my Goodreads "Top 100 Books of All Time" list and if I had started the list with this book as opposed to something like Anna Karenina I would have not even attempted the list as it would feel like whomever chose these books was CRAZY.  This one was PAINFUL.

Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 1) / A / *** / Kindle
It is funny that I claim to not like vampire stories considering my favorite movie as a young teen was "Lost Boys" and I currently own an Edward Cullen barbie doll.  That being said, vampires are just gross. And evil. And did I say gross?  I know the Anne Rice books are the 'be all end all' of vampire books, but this one was just okay for me. It had some really interesting concepts and I think her writing has really influenced a whole generation of vampire story tellers, but I didn't love it. This book was also 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens / A / **** / Kindle
This book is another from the Goodreads list.  I have been avoiding it as I generally find Dickens pretty difficult to read.  This one, however, was a lot easier to me for some reason. I really enjoyed the story even though the main character made me crazy in some ways. And I just wanted SOMEONE to stand up to Miss Haversham and CLEAN HER HOUSE. My favorite character was good old Herbert.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda  by Becky Albertalli / YA / **1/2 / Kindle
Simon is a Junior who has great friends, a loving family, a part in the school play, and a secret... he's gay.  The story is mainly told in a series of emails between Simon and a boy named Blu... the code name of an unknown boy in Simon's school that he is falling for.
I just wish this story had been written by like John Green or Rainbow Rowell... as it had some great characters, a smidgen of off-beat humor and a lot of promise. I really have a soft spot for stories of people that feel like they don't fit in and how they rise triumphant over the stereotypes that try to define them.  But as it was, the story wasn't FABULOUS.  The device of using emails to advance the story just got really old after a while. I was underwhelmed.

The Woman in Cabin 10  by Ruth Ware / A / *** / Kindle
This was a rough month for me. I was just unimpressed by about everything. This one tells the story of a journalist on a cruise that witnesses a murder.... but no one will believe her.  It had all the elements of a good psychological thriller but was just okay for me.

Siddharta by Hermann Hesse / A / *** / Kindle
This book tells the story of Siddharta and his journey to find the meaning of life.  It was surprisingly engaging and a quick read.  The part that "spoke" to me the most is the idea that while knowledge can be imparted, wisdom cannot. I am a big believer in the idea that we have to find our own way... which (as a side note) is probably why I get really super annoyed when someone tells me what I should be thinking (the media), loving (the media) or feeling (the media). 

DECEMBER 2016

"RESIST" (BREATHE BOOK 2) by Sarah Crossan/ YA / ** / Kindle
Oh man what a nightmare.  The first one was just okay.... but okay enough I decided to find out how it ended.  At first I was like, "WOW good choice on my part". The story got original and exciting and moved along really well. And then the last half of the book was like a slap in the face - but with a limp fishy clammy hand.  It bordered on ridiculous.  I am sorry I wasted my time on this one.


"Vinegar Girl" by Anne Tyler / A / **** / Kindle 
This book had Anne Tyler's trademarks of charming but eccentric characters, a slightly dysfunctional family, witty dialogue, humorous situations, and a great plot with an appropriate ending.  The main character, Kate, was outspoken and strong willed; which surprised me that she would go along with her fathers harebrained schemed to marry his Russian lab assistant whose green card was about to expire. But Kate, tired of her life, moves forward and of course the rest of the story is just quirky and fun.  This book was surprisingly short, only 240 pages.

I found out after I had finished the book that Anne Tyler was asked to participate in a project that re-writes Shakespeare plays for a "modern" audience. This book was the re-telling of "Taming of the Shrew".  I haven't ever read or seen the play, so I can't judge it as far as that part.  But I enjoyed the story... I wanted to know what happened next.... and now I want to read the play. So mission accomplished, I guess.



"The Summer Before the War" by Helen Simonson  / A / **** / Kindle
This novel focuses on several occupants of the English village of Rye in the months before WWI begins.  It explores their idyllic summer where adventures are had and friendships are created.  The novel then proceeds into the beginning of the war and the actual affect it had on people's lives, especially as the thrill of patriotism and marching bands wore off and grim reality set in.  I really enjoyed this book. I reaffirmed my desire to spend a summer in the English countryside.  It was set in the same years as "Downton Abbey" so it was easy to picture the clothing, estates, and countryside. It also had the same themes that war not only changes boundary lines of countries but also class boundaries. It was a great "fix" for those like me that are sad the show is over.

 "Monday, Monday" by Elizabeth Crook / A / *** / Kindle
On August 1, 1966 Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower at the University of Texas and proceeded to shoot 49 people before being killed by police.  This book tells a fictional story of a victim and the men that risked their lives to save her, and how their lives became intertwined.  I loved the first part of this book. I couldn't put it down.  I could totally picture the plaza; the brilliant blue sky, the shimmering summer heat, the shots ringing out from the tower.  
The story continues years into the future, becoming a tribute to how the people in our lives can become like family. 
The last part of the book was just ho-hum to me.  I didn't enjoy it as much. It just felt like the author was trying to fill up pages.

"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead / A / ***** / Kindle
This book tells the story of Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia.  Having already incurred the wrath of her new master, she decides to accept the offer of escape with the help of the Underground Railroad. The rest of the book tells of Cora's terrifying travels and trials in her search for freedom.

The most interesting thing about this book is that the Underground Railroad is conceptualized as an actual train with a secret network of underground (literally) stations and tracks and conductors.

This book is hard to read as there is just so much horror in the whole slave experience. This book was a joy to read as you just had to appreciate Cora and her will to survive. This book also gave tribute to all the brave people that were willing to put their lives on the line to fight back against the accepted way of thinking of the day. 

This book was powerful, gut wrenching, and compelling.

"The Girl In the Red Coat" by Kate Homer / A / ***
Carmel is an independent eight year old that doesn't want her overprotective mother to treat her like a baby. She hides from her at a local storytelling festival, only to be abducted by an older man who tells her that he is her estranged grandfather.  The man tells Carmel that she must live with him now, as her mother has been hurt in a car accident.
The story alternates between the story of Carmel and that of her mother and her desperate search to find her. The old man is a religious fanatic, who has determined that Carmel has "healing" powers.  He is sure that she is going to heal him, as well as heal others (and make him a lot of money).  He takes Carmel around the United States to different revivals.

The story gets a little confusing as there are a lot of unanswered questions... for example I was not really ever sure if she really DID have some type of paranormal powers or if this was another of the man's delusions.

The power of this book is that it makes you care and it makes you terrified. I almost couldn't enjoy the book as I was waiting for the time when grandpa goes all pedophile - he doesn't but I was on egg shells dreading it.  


"Spark Joy: An illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo / A / **1/2 / Kindle
This book is the follow-up to Kondo's book on organizing that has literally changed my life.  It was a fun little read but not as overwhelmingly hilarious as her first book.  The only really funny thing in this one was that she talked about how we need to give our silverware a flat place to lie because they get dizzy going back and forth from our plates to our mouths.  HAHAHAHA. You gotta love it. Despite the quirkiness, I really do love her theology that if you don't use it or love it, it doesn't belong in your home.  I do NOT follow her folding methods, but did reorganize my closet to follow her method and I have liked it. This guide-book is entirely unnecessary to be successful using the Konmari method, and for being in illustrated guide there were surprisingly few illustrations (maybe because it was on kindle?).  It did make me motivated to get back to work on de-junking my home.

The Place My Words Are Looking For selected by Paul B Janeczko / JF / **** / Hardback

I found this book at Grandpa Taylor's house while waiting for the BYU game to start.  This is a selection of poems for younger readers. Every so often there will be some advice or inspiration from one of the poets about their experiences as a writer. It was an enjoyable read with some being funny, some being serious, and some just capturing the human experience.  I enjoyed it.


Our Souls at Night - Kent Haruf / A / *** / Kindle
This one was interesting... it was the story of two neighbors in their 70's who have each lost their spouse. The woman asks the man just to come over every so often and spend the night (in a platonic way) and talk to her in the dark so she doesn't feel lonely. They of course start caring for each other. It is interesting how their children start freaking out about the whole thing. Anyway, it was an interesting story line.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson / A / ****1/2 / Kindle
This is my third ship wreck book in the last few months. I didn't consciously do this, but it was fun to make comparisons, especially as they all happened within years of each other. I like Erik Larson. He does in depth research of real events and then tells them as a fascinating story - that is all true.  I annoy people when I read his books as I'm constantly saying, "Did you know that _(fill in the blank with a fascinating but basically useless historical fact) ___?".  Anyway, this one was a good one.

NOVEMBER BOOKS

1) The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe / JF / **** / Hardback
I read this one over Thanksgiving because Emily was reading it, too.  I should have been cleaning or decorating but I was WORN OUT.  So while Darren and the kids were out chasing Pokemon, I sat in the midst of boxes and ribbons and torn up packing paper and re-read my childhood favorite by the light of my library tree.  Those few of you that actually read this blog may know that "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"  was one of my favorite books as a child. I have read and re-read the entire series. I actually remember reading this book for the first time. It was my first "fantasy" type book, and I still remember that feeling of being totally enraptured and swept away. Before that I'd read practical (wonderful) books like "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Bobbsey Twins".  Now all of a sudden there was a secret country in a wardrobe.... with a magic faun that wore a scarf and served tea.... and a beautiful castle on the sea.  I loved Lucy who was just my age and was just like me but was brave.  She is still one of my favorite characters.  I think also this is one of my first books that introduced the struggle of good versus evil in the world - and it is interesting that many of my favorite books since then have this same underlying theme (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Mortal Instruments, etc).  Anyway, it was a delightful hour or so spent re-visiting the big old house in the English countryside and the wilds of Narnia.

2) Blood Red Road (Dust Lands Book 1) by Moira Young / YA / **1/2 / Kindle
I love me some post-apocalyptic dystopian stories.
In this book you don't really know what happened to make the world the way it is (the author briefly references plague, famine, war) or who made it that way (the previous civilization are called "The Wreckers" which I LOVED as ain't THAT the truth).
The story starts when four riders appear out of nowhere at the small homestead inhabited by our main character, Saba (18), her twin brother Lugh, her father, and her 9 year old sister. The riders kill the father and take Lugh.  The rest of the story focuses on Saba's journey to get her brother back.
This book certainly had  tons of adventure - and it had a lot of delightfully flawed characters.  But despite this, I just didn't love it.   I was waiting to be caught up and tumbled and gloriously spit out on the other side.  But it just didn't happen.  The scenes felt rushed and flat, the sentences terse and factual.  And too much improbability combined with stuff that just didn't make sense. Despite this, I will read the second one. Why? I don't know.

3) Breathe by Sarah Crossan / YA / ***1/2 / Kindle
This book has your typical dystopian elements - an oppressive government, duped citizens that have given up their freedom, and rebels on the outside trying to make things change.
In this one, the world's forests were cut down to create the farmland necessary to feed the worlds burgeoning population.  The result of this is that the oxygen levels drop so low that people start to die.  A corporation called "Breathe" builds large bio-sphere domes for the rich, with some poor people allowed in by lottery to do the menial work.  Now, several decades later, things are not well in the dome.  The lower class is charged for any extra oxygen they consume beyond what is needed to live and work. They can't walk far, exercise, or engage in normal human behavior without literally paying the consequences.  The book tells the story of how a few teen friends discover that maybe the world outside is not as bad as it seems and that they are being lied to in the interest of corporate greed.  They discover the rebels and decide to join up.
This one felt like it had too many recycled plot elements that I've read before... and that would be okay if it was done BETTER. But it just wasn't. It was choppy and full of inconsistencies which ultimately left me disappointed. I MAY read the sequel, but not sure.

4) A Night to Remember by Walter Lord / ***1/2 / Kindle
This book was our book group selection for the month. It tells the story of the Titanic. It is not a historical fiction selection, but a re-telling of the night based on in-person interviews and formal reports. I have always been FASCINATED by the Titanic, so I of course enjoyed this book.

5) Fractured: A Slated Novel, Book 2 by Teri Terry / YA / ** / Kindle
Kyla is starting to remember more and more about her past life. She remembers she was part of an anti-government terrorist group and is highly trained in weapons, surveillance, and espionage (like WHATEVER -  I have done a lot of mental eye-rolling with this book). As many people as are randomly killed and "disappear" in this book, it doesn't make sense that Kyla who was supposedly public enemy number one would be "slated" rather than killed by the government.   My other problem is that the author is constantly revealing new information through fractured dreams that Kyla experiences as she starts to remember what was erased.  This makes sense I guess, but the formula is just so overused as a means of revealing new information that I could barely slog through it.

6) Between the World and Me / Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book evoked so many strong emotions in me that I had to talk over a lot of it with Darren (my poor husband... one day I'm talking about the dumb things people do when trying to survive an apocalyptic event and then the next day I'm ranting about racial inequality in America.  He gamely follows along and gives me insightful things to ponder. I love this man and his brain).  The author wrote the book in the form of a letter to his son about what is means to grow up black in America.  He relates a lot of his own deeply-felt experiences from his lifetime.  

What I learned from this book:
I have the luxury of thinking about race when it suits me. African Americans do not have that same luxury.

The American dream is not the dream of everyone, not just in the realization but in the actual desire ( I don't know why this was shocking to me but it was).

I have been acting racist by trying not to act racist (I'll explain this later).

African Americans experience American society differently than I do.

African Americans didn't create this reality but are expected to repair it.

One of the most helpful things to me from this book was reading Coate's explanation that some of the reasons inner city black youth do the things they do is because they ultimately feel unsafe and are just trying to exert some type of control in their life. This was eye opening to me and felt like it rang true. He had numerous examples.  I have to admit that as a white person (that I now realize does not and will never fully "get it"), I have watched the news on the Trayvon Martins and the Michael Browns and thought, "WELL WHAT DID THEY EXPECT THE POLICE TO DO????".  It is only over the past 10 months or so as more and more reports are coming out on the news regarding police violence, that I have come to think maybe something really is going on and there really are problems in some areas.   Do I think, like the author, that there is a systematically constructed and maintained assault on black people? No.  But he did make me aware that there have been proposed solutions to "black" problems that really benefited white people (such as housing projects).

Now to explain how this book made me realize I've been acting racist.  I see a black person in the store (this doesn't happen much in Richfield). I want to make sure this person knows I am not racist in any way shape or form. Racism is ugly and ignorant and I do not want to be any of those things. So I go out of my way to be friendly. To smile. To initiate conversation and show how cool and non-racist I am. This book made me realize that even though I'm being positive, I'm totally treating this person differently because of the color of their skin .... which is inherently racist. ARGHHH.  Talk about a light bulb moment. 

I didn't agree with everything Coates said - in fact there was a LOT I didn't agree with.  He felt the Civil Right Movement was a myth, and the idea that African Americans can someday live a life without fear is a fallacy.  I'm sorry, but you can't tell me that things are not better than they were 50 years ago, let alone 150 years ago.  That being said, there is still a lot to be done.

I loved this book as it made me think. I want to read it again. I also really didn't like this book -  because man, truth can be hard and dark, and sometimes it was too hard and dark.  I felt the author was candid and honest, but it felt like he believes there is no solution and that it is all just hopeless.   As one reviewer stated, "Coates' has no faith in America or its dream".  His words felt cold and bleak - and sometimes struck me as an angry rant. And maybe that is necessary in order to help us get our priorities straight ... because honestly, I feel sick for our country. The author does not want to give any comfort as it, in his eyes, would be a false comfort. But I have to much (maybe unjustified) faith in people and the ability to change. It is probably because I'm religious and our capacity to change and improve are ingrained on my soul. So even though things are an ugly mess,   I do feel there is hope.  I have to feel this way.  And this is why I was ultimately disappointed with this book... that while it helped me realize the problem is bigger than I realized, I am still left not knowing what to do to help.


7) Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
I needed this book. I loved this book. I devoured this book. I ordered this book for myself from Amazon for Christmas and put it under the tree with a tag that said, "TO SONJA FROM OZ" (Oz is my kitty).

First of all, the book has beautiful red edges. RED!  To whom did she sell her soul to get this and why has it not been done more often? It was stunning. Second of all, it was just as good as the first book (which like never happens).  I love this author.  Bardugo is compelling. She is clever.   She writes my kind of characters (as apparently I have a vulnerability for cunning, ruthless, and unapologetic bad boys).  She leaves you wanting more.   I want to be a modern day Rumpelstiltskin and lock her up and make her spin more literary gold. Except that would be creepy.

8) Salt to the Sea: a novel by Ruta Sepetys
After being disappointed with the last Sepetys novel, I was hesitant to pick this one up. 
Set in the last days of WWII it was a story told from four different points of view (which normally I don't like - but this time it was done really effectively).  The four different characters have vastly different back stories, but Sepetys combines them into a compelling tale of friendship, survival, and human decency. It ends with the sinking of the ship the Wilhelm Gustloff, which is the single greatest tragedy in maritime history and surprisingly one that I'd never even heard of.  Sepetys is a powerful storyteller that isn't afraid to pack a punch.

September and October

I hardly read at all in September. I'm not even sure why. Even though Nathan had two soccer games per week and two football games per week, this usually gives me prime opportunity to get in a few pages as I'm riding to games or waiting for games or waiting for practices to be over.  But for some reason this really didn't happen much this time. Once his sports were over, I found myself reading more.  I haven't read anything from the Goodreads list for months now..... 

So anywhere, here is what I did read. I know I read a few more but I honestly can't remember what they are. I remember reading one as an ePub book on my computer and it was such a lovely story that when I was reading it while on break at work I was fighting the tears and emotions. It always concerns people when they walk by your cubicle and your sobbing. Well normally it would but it happens quite frequently at this job. HAHAHA.  But now I can't even remember what in the world it would have been that I was reading.  Pioneer doesn't track your history, so I can't go back and figure it out.  But anyway, I'm rambling. Here is the list for September and October:

The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3) by Rick Yancy  / YA / *** / Book
I know I read this book. I can't remember much about it. I remember how it ends. I remember I decided the main character, Cassie, was kinda annoying.  Which is sad because in book 1 she was great.  And as for the whole plot arc,  I still don't even know if I got what happened. And considering I reread the first two just to try and figure it out, I'm not really happy about that.  The characters were talking in cryptic circles the entire novel. I was soooo confused.  So in summary, this book 1)took me a million years to read.  2)consistently put me to sleep 3) made me angry 4) was ultimately forgettable.

Slated by Teri Terry / YA / *** / Kindle
Another dystopian novel. In this world, the Government doesn't jail teens for violent behavior, they give them another chance by erasing their memories.  They get a second chance - a clean slate (which is why the book is called, "Slated").  In this story, Kyla is joining her new family, her new school, her new life. She is closely monitored to make sure she conforms to her new life.. But of course whispers of her past are echoing in her mind.  She doesn't know who to trust, including herself.  It was interesting... I'll read the sequel.

We are Unprepared by Meg Little Reilly / *** / Kindle
Oh man I love my apocalyptic books. Each book has a different cause of disaster (virus, nuclear war, aliens, etc).  This one was global warming that created a giant series of storms.  The interesting thing about this book is that instead of taking place AFTER the disaster and tracking how society falls apart, it instead takes place BEFORE society fell apart. The premise of the book is that when people actually have some warning about the fact that their life is going to totally be destroyed, people react in entirely different ways. Some ignored it. Some turned into avid "preppers". Some become religious fanatics. Some become violent.  Exploring the "before" was a new take on the cautionary tales I love.  My problem with this book was that it was told from the perspective of Ash and I really didn't like the guy.  The author tried to make it appear that he went threw some painful growth but the guy had such an ego he had to point out his growth non-stop.  So in summary the plot was great, the main characters were awkwardly developed, and you never can have too many canned goods. The end.

Zeroes by Scott Westerfield, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti / YA / *** / Kindle
Zeroes is about a group of six teens that have "special powers" or abilities. They have found each other and their differences have bonded them.  While it wasn't as good as some of the other books by Westerfield (I love the "Uglies" series, it had a great underlying premise... that power has a price. These kids have powers, but these powers are inconvenient, usually get them in trouble, take practice, and are sometimes painful.  I also like that Westerfield made some of the characters deliberately unlikable. I am sure the series will expand on this and we'll see some growth.  This book would make a fantastic TV series.


The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay / A / ***** / Book
I started reading this book again because Emily was reading it. I've read these books over and over again, so I was able to put it down and pick it up again over the last six months.  This was the book I would curl up in my chair in my office and read when I had insomnia.... so it is a good thing that it took me months to re-read it again. I love this author.  

The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay / A / ***** / Book
This is the sequel to the book above. Once I finished, "The Summer Tree", I just kept going in a mad rush of delightful revisiting.  These books were more "flowery" than I remembered, but I still love them.

The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay / A / *****
The last book of the Fionovar trilogy. This is an epic story full of strong characters.  Each of Kay's books is based on a period of history, and this one focus on Britain and King Arthur.  

Three Wishes: A Novel by Liane Moriarty / A / **** / Kindle
Witty. Sometimes hilarious.  Always real.  I enjoyed this story of three sisters (triplets).  The story starts with a climatic fight between the three, then jumps back in time to set up the big event.  Moriarty is just good at character writing. This was not anywhere close to my favorite book of hers, but I did enjoy listening to it.  I did not like the little vignettes told from the point of view of a few strangers, but I would imagine that triplets usually do cause a stir.  

The Last Letter from your Lover: A Novel by JoJo Moyes / A / **** / Kindle
I loved loved loved the first two-thirds of this book.  Devoured it.  Then the story breaks your heart before jumping into a whole different story. It felt really jarring.  Even though everything ends well, I wasn't satisfied and felt actually a big exhausted.

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin / A / ***
An Irish girl leaves her small town in Ireland and travels to a new life in America. The story takes place after WWII, and tells the story of a young woman finding her way in a new country.  She has to get used to being without her family, living in a boarding house, getting around a big city, and her new job as a shop girl,  The story has a lot of charm, but I ended up really really being dissatisfied with the main character, Eilis.  My awesome friend and co-worker Kerry read the book, and felt angst about the story as well. She found the following review that perfectly sums up what we were feeling:
 "...the story itself is so lacking in depth, with unrealized characters. Eilis, the protaganist, offers so much potential for the author to plumb the history of the immigrant -- their myriad reasons for coming here, the struggles to make it, the ties to their home country.  Instead, life basically happens to this girl, with no real effort or participation of her own. She doesn't desire to come to America but it's conveniently planned out for her (including a job and home for when she arrives), she doesn't fall in love but rather comes to accept the love of another. I kept waiting for her to grow into and express her own intentions, to make her own decisions, but alas, even the ending is simply an acceptance of circumstances."

AUGUST books

I didn't read much this month.

It is because I was a total COUCH POTATO while watching the Olympics. Seriously I think I watch more TV during the Olympics than I do the entire four years previously PUT TOGETHER. My love for the Olympics is totally one of my "things" that define me as a person - which is weird as I am NOT athletic. 
AT ALL. Which is why I have a book blog and not a fitness blog.



One good thing about being glued to the TV is that my foot that I hurt in DC finally got enough rest to start getting better.  Go figure?

After the Olympics I felt like such a slug that I went crazy and painted two more bedrooms and the mud-room.  And I built some awesome shelves like the ones below for Nathan's new space.  And I have been working de-junking the house.  Which doesn't leave much time for reading. 



So that being said, I'm surprised I got in as many as I did.

Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight / A / **** / Kindle
This is the second book I've read by Kimberly McCreight (the first being, "Reconstructing Amelia"). While both have different stories, they both contain the same problem - implausibility.  The world is so big and so complex that we are surprised when there are weird coincidences, like the time we went on a cruise and our next door neighbors were on the same trip. We always say, "What a small world!" but really this is incorrect.  It isn't that the world is small, the situation becomes memorable because it is so unusual. In this book "Where They Found Her" the main characters are so crazily linked that it made you just go WHATEVER.  
My other complaint with this book is that nearly everyone is a "bad guy" in some way.  It reminded me a bit of the book "The Girl on the Train".  It is done for the shock factor and the almost required surprise plot twist, but really it was unnecessary in this case.
Now... besides all of this.... it was a very engaging read.  I really do like this author's writing style and character development.  It was a book that, once started, I did not want to put down.  I would absolutely recommend this book despite all my internal eye rolling.

The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick / A / ***1/2 / Kindle
I listened to this book on the way to SLC for meetings. It contains four very unique stories with a strange common denominator - the shape of the spiral.  Sounds crazy, right? Well it was definitely intriguing.  The stories are about a neolithic cave girl finding a spiral on a cave wall, a woman accused to witch craft in the 1600's, a doctor in an insane asylum focusing on a patient deathly afraid of spirals, to a man on a spaceship traveling to a new colony.  It was a history and science lesson on spirals and the Fibonacci sequence (yes I did some google searching after reading this book.. they really are EVERYWHERE) with a twist of science fiction at the end.  Most of all this seemed to be a story of obsession.  It was a really really fascinating book that was well written and very engaging.  The third story was the best one by far.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell / YA / *** / Kindle

Anyone who actually bothers to read this blog should know that I don't really review the books I read, I just word vomit my thoughts about each one.  And this book, at first, made me want to vomit. 

I should back track a bit and tell that I really like this author. She is a strong author that writes strong characters and tells stories that I think need to be told.  

I picked up this book based on the strength of her previous books. And speaking of her previous books, in one of them called "FANGIRL" Rowell tells the story of a girl named Cathy who loves to write fanfiction. Cathy writes fanction on a series that sounds very very similar to Harry Potter in a very tongue in cheek way.  The book Carry On is Rowell sharing the final fanfiction that was "written" by her fictional character Cathy who wrote about another fictional character "Simon" that was first created by another fictional author, Gemma. Confused yet?  Ya, me too.

I did not know any of this when I started the book. I had read Fangirl so I actually remembered some of the characters from the fan fiction (Simon and Penelope and Baz) a little.  I decided to give it a go.  After 40 pages I was totally disgusted... so disgusted at how it was such a blatant wrip-off of Harry Potter that I went to Goodreads to read all the one star reviews just to give voice to my anger.  And what I found is a lot of people saying.... be patient... just keep reading... give it a chance.  So I did.  And after about 50 pages I really got into the story. It moved away from it's Harry Potter roots to it's own story.  And it was engaging. And I didn't want to stop reading. And while I think it is the weakest of Rowell's books I've read, I still actually ended up liking it. I also have to add that some of it was just dang funny... especially the names of the spells.  They are a word nerds dream.  So my final thought is that Rowell is still awesome at teenage stories.

Three Times Lucky by by Sheila Turnage / JF / **** / ePub
Oh I liked this one.  It was full of quirky and interesting characters, had a smart and sassy heroine, took place in a charming and eccentric small town, and had a fun mystery to solve.  This one was a Newbery Honor winner and I can see why. This book reminds me why I read fiction for younger readers.

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney / A / *** / 
The premise of this story is really depressing.... four siblings are set to inherit a large trust fund (nicknamed "The Nest") when they find their mother has spent the majority of it on rehab and a tort payout for their irresponsible brother.  The story follows the other siblings in the aftermath of not having the funds they expected to solve their self-inflicted problems. But the underlying foundation of this story is family - not just that the people who you love the most can hurt you the most, but how we can make choices to love and forgive. It is about the ties that bind. I liked this one. It had solid, real characters who grew as the story progressed.

Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
I didn't love this one. It was described as a "deliciously smart revenge thriller" but I felt it was unbelievably RIDICULOUS.

This story was so unbelievably ridiculous.  A 14 year old girl is on a cruise, where she meets a girl who happens to look just like her, and a cute boy that she falls in love with.  Bad guys come and shoot everyone on the whole ship, except our girl and her new bestie.   After a week floating in the ocean, her bestie dies in her arms just hours before the bestie's dad (ON HIS PRIVATE YACHT) just happens to find them. The girl then finds out after watching the news that her CRUSH and his politician DAD also somehow survived. The boyfriend/father don't say anything about the bad guys taking out an ENTIRE CRUISE SHIP of people but rather say the ship was tipped over by a rogue wave and that they are the only survivors.  The father of her bestie convinces her to just take the place of the bestie so she can exact REVENGE on the boyfriend and his family for lying.  This is obviously better than going to foster care, right?

Now, four years later, her new "father" has died and left his considerable wealth to her. She has returned from Swiss boarding school as an 18 year old with a MISSION ... to bring down her old crush and his family and make them PAY.
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The only thing more crazy about this book is that I actually finished it.

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson / YA / *** / Kindle
This was a light "Go Ask Alice" in that is paints a very real picture of drug addiction. It walked that fine line of being real and scary without being "too much" for the teen audience for which it is intended.  I liked how it showed that the addicts on the street are someone's daughter or son.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne / YA / *** / Hardback
I didn't love this one. I tried.  It may have been the fact that this is a script of a play, and thus is printed as such.  I really tried to read slow and "see" the scenes in my mind, and felt pretty successful at this.  It was just the story that I couldn't get into as much. Maybe it is my hidden resentment that Harry and Hermione didn't get married. 
It is probably fabulous as a play - and I think I should go to London to see it. HA.

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts / A / **** / Kindle
This book is also written in a script format, and I was totally okay with this one.  This showed me that it wasn't the fact that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was in script format that threw me off.  
This one was just a bunch of character sketches on drugs.  I could totally see each person and each scene as it unfolded. It wasn't an uplifting or wholesome story by any means, but I enjoyed the journey it took me on.


Miracles Boys by Jacqueline Woodson / YA / *** / Kindle / *** / Kindle
This is my third book by Woodson this summer.    It was a beautiful character driven story of three brothers just trying to figure things out after the sudden loss of their mother. Each boy is so different but each comes to the realization that they need each other.  It was a sweet story.

5th Wave by Rick Yancey / YA / **** / Paperback
I purchased the third and final book of this series, "The Last Star" for Nathan, as he received the first two for Christmas. I started to read the book but could not keep up with what was going on. I went back to reread the second book as a reminder, and couldn't remember THAT one either (besides remembering I didn't like it as much), so I went back to the beginning and read 5th Wave (which I remember I DID like).  And I liked it just as much this time around.  Now, on to book two.  


The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey / YA / *** / Paperback
I liked this one better the second time around, but still was just SO CONFUSED.  I just don't GET IT...which is maybe what the author is going for? I couldn't even figure what in the heck was going on.   It was a lot of characters giving each other knowing looks and speaking in cryptic sentences and I hate hate hate it because I feel like I'm supposed to "get it" and I just DON'T.  I ended up reading question boards on goodreads just to find a lot of other people don't "get" it either. Which makes me feel a little better.... but arghhh.  I have a lot of expectations for book three.