Blogging about Books

2010 Reading Wrap Up

2011-01-04T20:19:00.001-05:00

I embarked upon 5 reading challenges for 2010. I completed 3 of them, but I also learned a lot about my reading habits! 1st of all, I don’t think I’m a “100 Books in a year” gal. I LOVE reading, however I don’t like reading with such a lofty goal hovering over my head! I found myself reading mainly books that I could finish quickly so I could get in more books. This frustrated me because there were a lot of longer/harder to get through books that I know I would have enjoyed, but I didn’t feel like I could take the time to read!

The other challenges were fun at 1st, but by the end it was a drag. Reading books just to satisfy an arbitrary challenge got tiresome. I found the challenges becoming more important than the reading. I didn’t read books that were on my TBR shelf because I had to read library books to satisfy the challenge.

For 2011 I plan on reading what I want when I want (with the exception of book club books – but even those I won’t finish if I hate it!) and I probably won’t be blogging here much either. If I feel the need to comment on a book I’ll just add it to my Goodreads! http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/764452-melissa

Here’s the lowdown on all the challenges I undertook this year and how I did (click on the picture to see the books I read for that challenge)

FINISHED!

86/100

1/6

As Good As It Gets

2011-01-04T19:58:00.001-05:00

Well, I didn’t make it to 100, but I came close! 86/100 isn’t too shabby! A B or even a B+ on a grading scale! I always was a B student! The sad thing is that if I hadn’t fallen off the wagon and only read 1 book in July I would have been within striking distance and could have made it! Oh well!

Here’s what I did read:

1. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - by Susan Gregg Gilmore
2. Angels – Marian Keyes
3. Leave the Grave Green – Deborah Crombie
4. The Double Bind – Chris Bohjalian
5. Last Chance Saloon – Marian Keyes
6. Blind Courage – Bill Irwin
7. Family Tree – Barbara Delinsky
8. The Tooth of Time – Sue Henry
9. Blessings – Anna Quindlen
10. Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America’s National Parks – Jim Burnett
11. A Northern Light – Jennifer Donnelly
12. Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, & The World’s Deadliest Job – Andy & Jonathan Hillstrand
13. Viola in Reel Life – Adriana Trigiani
14. The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson
15. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder – Rebecca Wells
16. Encore, Valentine – Adriani Trigiani
17. Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian
18. Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess – Jerramy Fine
19. Murder on the Iditarod Trail – Sue Henry
20. The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
21. The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie
22. Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan
23. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner – Bich Minh Nugyen
24. Green Witch – Alice Hoffman
25. Flush – Carl Hiaasen
26. How Reading Changed My Life – Anna Quindlen
27. Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie
28. The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory
29. The Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
30. Sushi for Beginners – Marian Keyes
31. Shanghai Girls – Lisa See
32. Somewhere off the Coast of Maine – Ann Hood
33. North by Northwestern – Capitan Sig Hansen
34. Sleeping Lady – Sue Henry
35. Those Who Save Us – Jenna Blum
36. Miss Julia Renews Her Vows – Ann B. Ross
37. Knit Two – Kate Jacobs
38. In Beauty May She Walk – Leslie Mass
39. Mourn Not Your Dead – Debbie Crombie
40. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming – Joshilyn Jackson
41. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man – Fannie Flagg
42. The Dive From Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer
43. Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann
44. A Year in the Maine Woods – Bernd Heinrich
45. Solving Thorny Behavior Problems – Caltha Crowe
46. Termination Dust – Sue Henry
47. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
48. Hooked on Murder – Betty Hechtman
49. Death Takes Passage – Sue Henry
50. Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich
51. Hey Ranger 2 – Jim Burnett
52. The Painter from Shangai – Jennifer Cody Epstein
53. Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hechtman
54. Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik
55. A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman
56. Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik
57. Parents & Teachers Working Together – Carol David & Alice Yang
58. Moloka’i – Alan Brennert
59. The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen
60. Park Ranger - Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham
61. The Knitting Circle – Ann Hood
62. Fire & Ice – Dana Stabenow
63. My Most Excellent Year – Steve Kluger
64. Burn – Nevada Barr
65. Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen
66. The Ornithologist's Guide to Life – Ann Hood
67. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
68. Rise and Shine – Anna Quindlen
69. Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making it Work – Tim Gunn
70. Black and Blue – Anna Quindlen
71. The Opposite of Me – Sarah Pekkanen
72. Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs
73. Knit the Season – Kate Jacobs
74. Deadfall – Sue Henry
75. By Hook or By Crook – Betty Hechtman
76. The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans – Hala Jaber
77. You Better Knot Die – Betty Hechtman
78. Christmas Eve in Friday Harbor – Lisa Kleypas
79. You Better Not Cry – Augusten Burroughs
80. Wishin’ and Hopin’ – Wally Lamb
81. Journey North: One Woman’s Story of Hiking The Appalachian Trail – Adrienne Hall
82. RV There Yet? – Julia Roberts
83. Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen
84. Holidays on Ice – David Sedaris
85. Smoky Mountain Magic – Horace Kephart
86. The Mighty Queens of Freeville – Amy Dickerson
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The Mighty Queens

2011-01-04T19:40:00.001-05:00

The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickerson

This was a book club book, I probably never would have read it otherwise! I wasn’t familiar with Amy Dickerson before and I keep meaning to google her and see what she’s all about. This book read like so many other books written by celebrities, which is sad because so often the celebrities aren’t writers and she is. I found it to be a generic story about a mother and a daughter.

Mystery and Intrigue

2011-01-04T19:35:00.001-05:00

Smoky Mountain Magic by Horace Kephart

I don’t have a cover picture for this one, sorry!

Last Fall I watch Ken Burn’s The National Parks: America’s Best Idea and heard Horace Kephart’s name over and over as an advocate for and creator of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, so when I saw that he’d written a fiction story set in the mountains I had to have it!

I finally got around to reading it and it was very good! It told the story a man who was trying to get what was rightfully his in the mountains of North Carolina!

Holidays on Ice

2011-01-04T19:23:00.001-05:00

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

I LOVE David’s Sedaris’ non-fiction essays. He makes me laugh out loud! I just don’t get his fiction stories though, they don’t make any sense to me. I’d read some of the stories in Holidays on Ice when I read Barrel Fever, but others were new. The book did kinda peak with it’s first story: SantaLand Diaries, but all in all a great holiday read!

Sick Puppy

2011-01-04T19:15:00.001-05:00

Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen

I LOVED Carl Hiaasen when I first started reading his books. He was hysterical – the characters and the predicaments has me laughing out loud! However, now that I have read almost every book he’s ever written they are starting to blur together. What seemed unique at the beginning isn’t so unique now. In fact, many of his books feature the same character – Skink. I like Skink a lot, he’s a wacky dude, but he’s getting old. This book was so similar to other Carl Hiaasen books that it was very hard to get through!

Another AT Journey

2011-01-04T19:02:00.001-05:00

A Journey North: One Woman’s Story of Hiking the Appalachian Trail by Adrienne Hall

This is a first. It’s an AT book that I didn’t fully love. I usually really enjoy hiking vicariously through others, however this book was less about the hike and more about politics and environmental issues. It made sense when I read that the author is en environmental scientist so I could see why these things were so important to her! Really it should be more important to all of us, but in this book it seemed to bog down something that was entertaining in its own right!

Wishin’ & Hopin’

2011-01-04T18:57:00.001-05:00

Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Wally Lamb

Mom loaned me this book last year and I’d been holding on to it waiting for Christmas to read it! It was kind of a cross between Steve Kluger’s Last Days of Summer and the movie “A Christmas Story”. It was a very light and entertaining read!

Challenge Completed: Support Your Local Library

2010-12-08T20:58:00.001-05:00

I have finally finished this one!!!!!! 50 library books was harder than I thought it would be! I felt like I would never get there, but I did! :-) This is likely the last challenge I will complete this year – although I will make it over 80% of the way to 100!!!!

One of the things I didn’t like was constantly feeling like I had to get the books I was reading from the library. I usually get my books from the library but while I was working on this challenge I felt like I had to read library books and my “to read” pile on the dresser just sat untouched! Now to tackle some of those books!

Here are the books I read from the library this year:
1. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - Susan Gregg Gilmore
2. Angels – Marian Keyes
3. The Double Bind – Chris Bohjalian
4. Last Chance Saloon – Marian Keyes
5. Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, & The World’s Deadliest Job – Andy & Jonathan Hillstrand
6. Viola in Reel Life – Adriana Trigiani
7. The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson
8. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder – Rebecca Wells
9. Encore, Valentine – Adriani Trigiani
10. Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian
11. Murder on the Iditarod Trail – Sue Henry
12. The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie
13. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner – Bich Minh Nguyen
14. Green Witch – Alice Hoffman
15. Flush – Carl Hiaasen
16. How Reading Changed My Life – Anna Quindlen
17. Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie
18. The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory
19. Sushi for Beginners – Marian Keyes
20. Shanghai Girls – Lisa See
21. North by Northwestern – Captain Sig Hansen
22. Sleeping Lady – Sue Henry
23. Miss Julia Renews Her Vows – Ann B. Ross
24. Knit Two – Kate Jacobs
25. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming – Joshilyn Jackson
26. Termination Dust – Sue Henry
27. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
28. Hooked on Murder – Betty Hechtman
29. Death Takes Passage – Sue Henry
30. Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich
31. The Painter from Shangai – Jennifer Cody Epstein
32. Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hechtman
33. Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik
34. A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman
35. Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik
36. Moloka’i – Alan Brennert
37. The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen
38. The Knitting Circle – Ann Hood
39. Fire & Ice – Dana Stabenow
40. My Most Excellent Year – Steve Kluger
41. Burn – Nevada Barr
42. Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen
43. The Ornithologist's Guide to Life – Ann Hood
44. Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making it Work – Tim Gunn
45. Black and Blue – Anna Quindlen
46. Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs
47. Knit the Season – Kate Jacobs
48. Deadfall – Sue Henry
49. By Hook or By Crook – Betty Hechtman
50. The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans – Hala Jaber

Extra:

51. You Better Knot Die – Betty Hechtman

You Better Not Cry

2010-12-08T20:39:00.001-05:00

You Better Not Cry – Augusten Burroughs

I LOVED Running with Scissors, but the other 2 Augusten Burroughs books I have picked up – Dry and one other I can’t even remember the name of didn’t live up to my expectations. As a result I had low expectations for this one. I was pleasantly surprised! :-)

A few of the stories were laugh out loud funny – confusing Santa and Jesus, and then french kissing the plastic Santa! A few of the stories weren’t all that funny, or interesting. And the “I got so drunk I didn’t remember anything” stories were funny at 1st, but then got old. Overall it was a good holiday read!

A Visit to San Juan Island

2010-12-08T20:32:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve in Friday Harbor – Lisa Kleypas

Reading a romance novel novel for the setting is kinda like reading Playboy for the articles.

Lucky for me this was a “PG” rated romance novel, but even still the main focus of the story was 2 people falling in love and living happily ever after. puke.

It was a quick and entertaining read although I probably won’t read the rest of the series, even if they are set in the San Juan Islands!

You Better Knot Die

2010-12-08T20:22:00.001-05:00

You Better Knot Die – Betty Hechtman

The 5th and final (for now hopefully….) installment of the Crochet Mysteries! This one was more “novel” than a formulaic mystery which made me happy, it was a good read and less Molly Pink getting into trouble yet ultimately solving the mystery than the other other 4. I’m looking forward to the next novel in this series!

Small Miracles

2010-12-08T20:12:00.001-05:00

The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles: A Woman’s Fight to Save Two Orphans – Hala Jaber

I was expecting a happy book about two orphans who found their forever home, orphans who knew the horrors of wars, but were rescued. What I got was a sad, yet inspiring book more about the war in Iraq than about orphans or adoption. The most interesting part of this book was that I got to see another side of the war and see it’s true victims.

By Hook or by Crook

2010-12-08T20:06:00.001-05:00

By Hook or By Crook – Betty Hechtman

This is the 3rd of 5 Crochet Mysteries staring the Tarzana Hookers and the Crime Scene Groupie Molly Pink. At first I wasn’t too sure about this series, but as I read more of them the more “hooked” I get! I love it when I can watch an author grow as a writer as I’m doing with Betty Hechtman.

Even though I read these books out of order it was ok as the books don’t really build upon each other too much!

Deadfall

2010-12-08T20:00:00.001-05:00

Deadfall – Sue Henry

I started this book a few months ago and just wasn’t into it so I returned it to the library un-read. Then as I was trying to find quick reads to finish off the “Support Your Local Library” Challenge I decided to pick it up. This time I plowed through it in just a day!

I think this was the best Sue Henry I have read! It had the right amount of action and suspense, but wasn’t too scary and it was easier to figure out!

Knit the Season

2010-12-08T19:56:00.001-05:00

Knit the Season – Kate Jacobs

This one is a Friday Night Knitting Club book! :-) I enjoyed this one just as much as I have enjoyed the other 2 FNKC stories! The whole series reminds me a lot of Adrianna Trigiani’s books and I LOVE her!

This book was a bit odd because I felt like the story had been told out at the end of Knit Two, but I did enjoy another visit to Walker and Daughter and enjoyed seeing the characters stories continue to be told!

Comfort Food

2010-12-08T19:51:00.001-05:00

Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs

As you likely by now have realized as soon as I find an author I like I proceed to read everything that they have written. I have really enjoyed Kate Jacob’s “Friday Night Knitting Club” books and silly me assumed that this was another in the series. I read and re-read the first 3 pages several times attempting to plug in the characters from The Friday Night Knitting Club before realizing that this was a stand alone novel!

This book was not nearly as good as the Friday Night Knitting Club books. No where near. It was decent story, but it was lacking in something I can’t put my finger on, it just fell short of what I was expecting!

The Opposite of Me

2010-12-08T19:45:00.001-05:00

The Opposite of Me – Sarah Pekkanen

This was a book club book and unfortunately I missed the meeting where we discussed it, I really enjoyed it and was sad to miss the meeting.

This book was very “chick lit” and that aspect I didn’t like. The characters were very different from me, but yet I felt like we had so much in common! I really connected with the characters and their angst to make changes in their lives in the right direction and being totally unsure of what they want or need!

Black & Blue

2010-12-08T19:40:00.001-05:00

Black & Blue – Anna Quindlen

This book was a fairly standard abusive marriage type book. In fact, I read it about a month ago and already I’ve pretty much forgotten what it was about. It wasn’t a bad read, just not especially memorable, and rather predictable. The Oprah’s Book Club sticker at the top should be indicative of what the book is like, I’d bet money it was turned into a “made for TV movie” on Lifetime.

Tim Gunn, You Rock!

2010-11-06T15:32:00.001-04:00

Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Little Lessons for Making it Work by Tim Gunn

I usually try and stay away from books written by celebrities because they are usually very lacking. Just because someone is a good actor doesn’t mean they can write!

I’d heard via the internet that in the book Tim came out as an asexual. There was much debate about whether or not he was truly asexual or just celibate. (The difference being that asexuality is not a choice – it’s a lack of feeling sexual attraction and celibacy is a choice not to engage in sexual activities. Yes, many (I’d say most) people who are asexual are celibate, but it’s still different). Really it’s not for anyone else to debate, if Tim says he asexual then he is, so I wanted to read the book for myself and see what he actual had to say. In many ways reading this book was like digging through a box of cereal you aren’t interesting in eating just so you can find the prize! And like that box of cereal the prize for me came close to the end!

Most of the book was about the fashion industry and Project Runway. While I enjoy Project Runway, I’m not interested in rehashing events from previous seasons, I can’t even remember which contestants were on when!

What I enjoyed the most is getting to know the real Tim Gunn. Getting to see how he is human and how the behavior of many bugs him! I loved hearing about his romantic struggles (I didn’t love that he had so much heartbreak, but I could really relate to much of what he was saying!). Tim is single and happy about it. He doesn’t have sexual relations and he’s happy about that too. It was like a breath of fresh air! Thank you Tim for sharing your story with us!

Meh.

2010-11-06T15:18:00.001-04:00

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen

I have read a few novels by Anna Quindlen, most of which I have enjoyed! I got this one on Kindle to read on my phone (I’m not a huge fan of e-readers but I LOVE always having a book handy on my phone!). It took me a long time to get into it and it was on my “currently reading” list for months! It just wasn’t that interesting to me, it seemed very meh. I finally just pushed through and finished it.

When “Gifts” Run Amok

2010-11-06T15:03:00.001-04:00

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender

NOTE: CONTAINERS SPOILERS!!!!!!

This was a book club book, and I was looking forward to reading it – it was one that was already on my “to read” list! It started out pretty good – reminded me a lot of Garden Spells because it was about food evoking emotion. It wasn’t nearly as well done as Garden Spells though. The main character had a unique gift of being able to “taste” emotions in food. About halfway through the book we learned about the main character’s brother’s gift – he had the ability to turn in furniture. WTF??? Yeah, that was when I lost interest in the book. Almost didn’t finish it either, but it was for book club so I forged ahead! Turns out almost all of us in the club had the same thoughts!

Short Stories are not my thing

2010-11-06T14:54:00.001-04:00

The Ornithologist’s Guide to Life by Ann Hood

I have totally loved the other Ann Hood books I have read, however this one will not be my favorite. It was a collection of short stories. All fiction. I enjoy books of short anecdotes such as David Sedaris or the Park Ranger books, but these stories are true stories, fiction short stories irritate me. This book in particular was like a whole book of 1st chapters. Any of these stories could have been developed into a full length novel and when then ended I was left asking for more. It was very irritating and I almost didn’t even finish the book!

Garden Spells

2010-11-06T14:48:00.001-04:00

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

This book was a lot more like Alice Hoffman’s novels! I enjoyed this one a lot more than the other Sarah Addison Allen novel I read! This book contained all the magic I enjoy with Hoffman’s novels, but it was rooted in reality!

Burn

2010-10-11T13:46:00.001-04:00

Burn by Nevada Barr

I LOVE Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon Novels. LOVE THEM. Her novel set in Glacier NP was one of the 1st mysteries I ever read, and liked. I have since read them all and love the adventure, the National Park setting and the fact that they are largely non-romantic.

This one however, fell short. It fell very short. It reminded me too much of Barr’s stand alone novel 13 1/2. The “character switch” technique she used in Bittersweet, 13 1/2 and now Burn has gotten old, I’m not as wowed by it. Also the subject matter, child prostitution, was just disturbing. And, the story line seemed totally implausible.

Last Days of the Most Excellent Year

2010-10-11T13:34:00.001-04:00

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

A few years back I was in a book club with Susan and she selected The Last Days of Summer as her pick. It is her favorite book of all time. I definitely enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it the way Susan does (I’m not sure I love ANY book that much!)

This year Susan chose Last Days of Summer as her pick for our book club. I’m not a fan of re-reading books. I re-read kids books, but “adult” books I’m just not a fan of re-reading. Too many books and not enough time to re-read. I was caught in a big debate over what to do about book club. Re-read for the good of the group or not.

I decided to get the book out of the library, even if I just skimmed it. Well, the library didn’t have it anymore. But, they did have My Most Excellent Year, a young adult novel that on the surface looked like The Last Days of Summer. I checked it out.

As I started reading it, it felt like the same story! In many ways it was and in many ways it wasn’t. It was a similar coming of age story, but the characters were younger and easier for me to relate to. There was also a strong homosexual character, which you rarely see in books, much less young adult books.

At first I liked the story a lot more than Last Days of Summer, but then it really started dragging and the teenage romantic angst started getting to me.

During book club Steve Kluger called in and in the course of the discussion it came up that My Most Excellent Year was in fact a "cleaned up” version of Last Days of Summer!

Fire & Ice

2010-09-24T20:06:00.001-04:00

Fire & Ice by Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow is another Alaska Mystery writer and since I have been enjoying Sue Henry’s Alaska Mysteries I thought I’d give her books a try. I wasn’t as impressed by Liam Campbell as I am with Jessie Arnold. The book was ok, but not great. Not sure if I’ll read other Dana Stabenow novels.

Even though I’m posting this on September 24, this book was read in Aug – I have just updated my “August Recap” post to include it! Glad I have GoodReads to help me keep track of how many I have read so I can cross check!

Knitting Away!

2010-09-24T19:52:00.001-04:00

The Knitting Circle – Ann Hood

I LOVED this book! I read Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine a few months ago and loved it so I knew I needed to read more of Ann Hood’s novels and when I checked at the library this was the only one on the shelf so I grabbed it!

I was afraid that it would be another Friday Night Knitting Club and while that was a great book, I didn’t want to read something that was so similar. I was in luck! While the story did revolve around a knitting club, it was very different.

A Day in the Life

2010-09-24T19:42:00.001-04:00

Park Ranger by Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham

Similar to “Hey Ranger”, this book and it’s sequel (which I haven’t read) contain real life stories of what it’s like to be a Ranger in a National Park.

Where “Hey Ranger” tended to have more funny stories, this one had more medical stories. The author is a paramedic and over the course of her career has responded to an amazing array of emergencies! The book contained harrowing tales of search and rescue as well as some stories of law enforcement.

The Sugar Queen

2010-09-23T19:04:00.001-04:00

The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen

A few months ago I was checking out Alice Hoffman’s latest, a YA Novel, and the librarian told me that Sara Addison Allen reminded her a lot of Alice Hoffman. I finally remembered when I was at the library and checked out the Sugar Queen.

I’m not sure it was like Alice Hoffman – it had some elements of Alice Hoffman, it was a bit mystical and pushed the reader to believe in some supernatural-ish forces, however it seemed childish. It almost reminded me of a YA novel in many ways. It was a good read and I’ll definitely check out Allen’s other novels.

August Re-Cap

2010-09-23T18:52:00.001-04:00

My poor neglected book blog. :-( It’s September 23 and I’m finally posting my August re-cap. The end of August/Beginning of September marks the beginning of the school year so that’s mostly what impeded me from posting!

I did much better in August than I did in July, which wouldn’t have been hard considering I only read 1 book in July!

1. The Painter from Shangai – Jennifer Cody Epstein
2. Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hechtman
3. Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik
4. A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman
5. Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik
6. Parents & Teachers Working Together – Carol David & Alice Yang
7. Moloka’i – Alan Brennert

Just this evening (9/24) I was cross checking my GoodReads “Read in 2010” list with my “100 Books in 2010” list and discovered that there was one missing! I figured out which one it was and fixed the problem…here is the missing book…#8 for August:

8. Fire & Ice – Dana Stabenow

So 8 for August – grand total for the year at the end of August was 58 – an impressive number of books, but I have to read 14.5 books each month for the rest of year in order to break 100 for the year. Yeah. Not going to happen.

Moloka’i

2010-09-23T18:44:00.001-04:00

Moloka’i – Alan Brennert

I wasn’t expecting to get a chance to select a book for book club this year (all the books are selected at the beginning of the “book club year” in October and I joined in May), but because people had dropped out, I was able to select the book we read for September’s meeting! After a lot of debate I selected Moloka’i after Lesley read it and reviewed it a while back. (See Lesley’s review here)

This book was a lot sadder than I expected, but it was a good read! I enjoyed getting to know Rachel and learning of her struggles and seeing how it all came together in the end!

Must be late August!

2010-08-25T17:30:00.001-04:00

Parents & Teachers Working Together – Carol Davis & Alice Yang

Every summer we have assigned professional reading for school. Every summer I put it off until it’s almost time to go back! Lucky for me I picked an easy read and was able to polish this book off in no time!

This is one of many Responsive Classroom books and I have read almost all of them! I love these books because they are practical and have ideas that are new and usable!

Most of the time when I read RC books I wish I could implement everything in the book, immediately if not sooner. This book was a little different – there were lots of great ideas of how to better include parents and foster more of a partnership but the thought of implementing every idea was enormously overwhelming! This is one of those books where I’ll take 2 or 3 things from it and then revisit (I hope) regularly and get more ideas!

Another Lorna Landvik

2010-08-25T17:21:00.001-04:00

Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik

We I was at the library a few days ago I was looking for some new books to read and of course I totally forgot about two new authors I wanted to check out: Sarah Addison Allen and Ann Hood and ended up picking up another Lorna Landvik.

I have totally enjoyed the others I have read by her, especially The Tall Pine Polka. The Tall Pine Polka was one of her early novels so I' had high hopes for Patty Jane’s House of Curl because it was her 1st novel.

My high hopes didn’t materialize. It was a good book, however it felt like a rough draft of Tall Pine Polka! A lot of the same themes and similar events. I might have enjoyed it more had I not just read The Tall Pine Polka.

A Stitch in Crime

2010-08-19T16:19:00.001-04:00

A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman

This is the 1st crochet mystery that I checked out of the library, didn’t realize that it was the 4th out of 4 so I put off reading it until I’d read the others. I read the 1st and 2nd books in the series and realized that while the 1st book seemed to lay the groundwork for the series the 2nd book didn’t build upon it, since the books seemed to stand alone somewhat I went ahead and read the 4th without having read the 3rd.

This was the best of the series so far! It had a solid story and a solid mystery! It also, like the others, sparked my interest in crocheting! In the back of each of the books there is a pattern and this books pattern was a small purse that I think I can make! :-)

Tall Pine Polka

2010-08-19T16:11:00.001-04:00

The Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik

This was the best book I have read in a long time! :-) Interesting characters and a North Woods setting made me think of Northern Exposure as I read this book. The characters were interesting and complex and the story kept me guessing.

When the book started out I thought for sure it would be one that would get labeled “single women” but in the end it didn’t quite qualify. Despite the fact that there was more romance than I had bargained for at first, it didn’t override the story and the falling in love, getting married aspects didn’t solve all the problems and make life wonderful. In fact the romance aspects seemed to create more problems for the characters!

Crochet Mystery #2

2010-08-06T17:08:00.001-04:00

Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hetchman

Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the 1st Crochet Mystery it had a certain appeal so I decided I needed to keep going through the series.

This one started out rather slow and seemed to be almost the same story as the 1st one, however it improved as I read it.

The mystery in this story was more compelling, as was the solution. I enjoyed it more as a mystery whereas the 1st one was more chick-lit.

One complaint was that it seemed as though the 1st book never happened. Many of the events of the 1st book seemed to set the stage for events to come, so I’m wondering now how important it is to read them in order.

The Painter from Shanghai

2010-08-06T17:00:00.001-04:00

The Painter from Shanghai – Jennifer Cody Epstein

This was our book club selection for our August Meeting – it’s not going to be my favorite book club book. It took me forever to read. I think part of that was that I took it with me on my 3 week RV camping/hiking trip to Washington State and spending all day hiking and exploring National Parks severely impacts my reading time! Toward the end of the trip when we were on the Olympic Peninsula I was actually thankful for the long drives to get everywhere, I had time to read. I think being forced to read it contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the book.

This is the story of a young lady who thanks to the generosity of a customer rose out of the a life of being a whore and went on to become a world renown painter. Much of the book dealt with political issues that went above my head.

I think Sara from book club said it best, parts of the book were good and I was thinking it would be a good book, other parts made me want to put the book down and not pick it up again!

July Reading

2010-08-01T18:07:00.001-04:00

Well, I’m glad I parted with the idea of reading 100 books in a year because my reading has ground to a screeching halt. I read exactly 1 book in July. 1. For the whole month!

Hey Ranger 2

My excuse is that I was out of town for 3 of the 4 weeks – I read this one the week before I left. I had very little reading time while I was gone, and any that I had was devoted to my book club book, which I finished this morning, Aug 1, so it doesn’t count for July!

Oh well, the trip was fun and there will be time in August to read, there won’t be time in August to hike in the North Cascades or visit Alpaca Farms on San Juan Island.

Hey Ranger 2

2010-07-08T18:47:00.001-04:00

Hey Ranger 2 – Jim Burnett

What better way to prepare for a foray into our nation’s treasures than stories of misadventure! In just a few short hours I’m heading to the west coast to explore 3 major national parks and this book was the perfect prelude!

I did enjoy Hey Ranger! more, many of these stories seemed like they were re-runs of the stories from the 1st book.

It was still an entertaining read and I enjoyed getting a glimpse into the life of a park ranger!

June Review

2010-07-06T23:29:00.001-04:00

My reading really slowed down in June. I seem to have lost my steam and no longer have any interest in reading at the pace required to stay on track to make 100 books for the year. I’d hoped to make 50 by the end of June then I’d allow myself to slow down. I missed the 50 mark by 1 book, but I finished that book July 1st or 2nd (I can’t remember!) so I didn’t miss the mark by much! I’m still going to allow myself to slow down and really enjoy the books I’m reading! I’m finding that with trying to finish so many I’m choosing books by their length/ease of finishing and not reading some books that I might really enjoy for fear that they will take too long!

1. Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann
2. A Year in the Maine Woods – Bernd Heinrich
3. Solving Thorny Behavior Problems – Caltha Crowe
4. Termination Dust – Sue Henry
5. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
6. Hooked on Murder – Betty Hechtman
7. Death Takes Passage – Sue Henry

Edited 9/24 to add:

8. Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich

Since we are now at the 6 month mark, it’s time to review all the challenges and where I am:

- COMPLETED in April

COMPLETED in June

Read 30 out of 50! More than halfway!

49 out of 100

1 out of 6

Fun With Stephanie & Lula

2010-07-06T23:07:00.001-04:00

Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich

If it’s June it must be time for the latest installment in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series! I love it because the new book always comes out right after school gets out and it’s the perfect way to start off lazy summer reading!

I’m very indecisive on this book, one the one hand it was exactly what I expect from the Stephanie Plum series, on the other hand it was lacking in the humor that usually makes her books so readable.

It was a good story, I enjoyed seeing Stephanie, Lula and Connie band together to save Vinnie! However I felt that the parts that were supposed to be funny just weren’t. My favorite minor character, Mooner, was back and even that wasn’t that funny. I hope this book is anomaly and that #17 will be back to the rollicking good fun I expect!

Crusin’ the Inside Passage

2010-07-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

Death Takes Passage – Sue Henry

Alex Jensen and Jessie Arnold take on a new case! Just like Termination Dust this novel included historical information and a reenactment of the Gold Rush.

Many of the events of this novel reminded me of Death on The Nile by Agatha Christie. In many places it felt like it was the same book! I would have really enjoyed that if I hadn’t just read Death on the Nile a few months ago!

Another aspect that I really enjoyed was the story took place on the Spirit of ‘98, which is an actual cruise ship run by Cruise West! Cruise West leads small boat cruises of the Inside Passage and other destinations. My parents took a Cruise West cruise a few years ago and it’s on my “someday” list to take one!

Crochet Mysteries

2010-06-20T16:35:00.001-04:00

Hooked on Murder – Betty Hechtman

When I was at the library a few weeks ago I found a new mystery series! These are all about a group of women who have a crochet club that meets in a bookstore outside of LA.

I was intriqued because so many stories are set around women who knit and it was exciting to find one about crochet!

Since the books didn’t have numbers on them or anything I randomly selected one to check out. When I got home I went to enter it into Goodreads and discovered that I’d picked the 4th, and currently last, one. Not wanting to start at the end, I reserved the 1st one at the library!

This is the 1st of the series and it introduces the characters and the setting.

The story felt more “chick-lit” with a side dish of murder. The mystery and the detective work didn’t seem central to the story. I did enjoy getting to know the characters and the story though. I’m looking forward to reading the others!

Don’t Panic!

2010-06-20T16:27:00.001-04:00

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

Don’t panic, but I read a science fiction novel. And liked it.

A few weeks ago a friend posted on twitter “Happy Geek & Towel Day”. Geek day I got, but towels???? What was that about? I googled it and discovered that it was a reference to this book – apparently a towel was the most important thing a hitchhiker could bring. I mentioned that I’d never read this book and he, and all his friends, we aghast. So I decided to give it a try.

I definitely enjoyed this book and I’ll probably read the others in the series, but I’m probably not going to become a big sci-fi fan!

Adams has a definite sense of humor and there were many parts of the story that made me laugh out loud! Other parts made me think – mice really in control? Things not as they immediately seem? hmm….

I liked that the book had strong ties to reality which made it easier for me to understand, but there were a few parts that were totally over my head!

Termination Dust

2010-06-14T20:38:00.001-04:00

Termination Dust – Sue Henry

This is actually the 2nd Sue Henry Alaska mystery, I got a bit out of order!

This book started out with the death of Klondike Gold Rusher in the depths of winter. A modern day canoeist found his journal and soon after several people were murdered and what unfolded was a compelling mystery intertwining historical and current events!

Thorny Behaviors

2010-06-14T20:33:00.001-04:00

Solving Thorny Behavior Problems – Caltha Crowe

This is the 1st professional book I have read so far this year and I read it as a part of our Teachers as Readers group at school. It’s Responsive Classroom book and highlights many strategies teachers can use to help kids behave.

I agree with the theory behind the book that kids need to be taught how to act and the book outlines several strategies that teachers can use to react in appropriate ways to misbehavior.

One of the many things I liked about this book is that it has very concrete ideas that you can use instantly!

2nd Challenge Completed!

2010-06-14T20:23:00.001-04:00

YAY! I have finished the Twenty Ten Challenge!!!! :-)

Here’s what I read with links to my reviews:

Young Adult
1. Viola in Reel Life – Adriana Trigiani See my review here.
2. Green Witch – Alice Hoffman See my review here.

T.B.R.
1. Blessings – Anna Quindlen See my review here.
2. Family Tree – Barbara Delinsky See my review here.

Shiny & New
Buying “adult” books is a rare treat for me, no idea what books I’ll buy new this year.

I read this one in my Kindle App, it kinda counts….
1. Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan See my review here.

But then I had to buy this one for book club, it’s more legit:

1a. Those Who Save Us – Jenna Blum See my review here
2. In Beauty May She Walk – Leslie Mass See my review here.

Bad Blogger’s
1. Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess – Jerramy Fine See Lesley’s Review Here See my review here
2. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner – Bich Minh Nguyn See Lesley’s Review Here See my review here.

Charity
I’m stretching this one a bit and picking books for this category that I purchased at a small family owned used book store – not exactly “charity” but every little bit helps these great stores stay in business.
1. The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs See my Review here
2. Daisy Fay and The Miracle Man – Fannie Flagg See my review here.

New in 2010
1. Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian See my review
2. Encore, Valentine – Adriana Trigiani See My Review Here

Older Than You
1. The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie See my review here

2. Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie See my review here

Win! Win!
I will fill in these books with books I am reading for the 100+ book challenge.
1. Mourn Not Your Dead – Debbie Crombie See my review here
2. Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann See my review here

Who Are You Again?
1. The Dive From Claussen’s Pier – Ann Packer See my review here.
2. A Year in the Maine Woods – Bernd Heinrich See my review here

Up to You!
My topic for this one is: Single Women. As a perpetually single gal I HATE it when books start out with a strong single female character but then ends “happily ever after” with her getting married – I want to read more about women who are single and live “happily ever after” by deciding that single is a ok. These books are little like Chuck Norris – I don’t find them, they find me – so I’ll fill these in as I find them this year.
1. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - Susan Gregg Gilmore - see my review here
2. A Northern Light – Jennifer Donnelly See my review here

Back to Maine

2010-06-14T20:13:00.001-04:00

A Year in the Maine Woods – Bernd Heinrich

This is another book I found in my quest to find books about Maine before my trip last summer. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t in the library so I ended up buying the Kindle version and reading it on my phone. This wasn’t the best book for the Kindle App because it wasn’t as compelling and hard to read in small spurts.

Bernd is a naturalist and university professor and he decides to take a year and spend it living in his cabin deep in the north woods of Maine! From his description and the names of the towns I think his cabin was fairly close to Andover and the South Arm Campground I fell in love with last summer!

It was fun reading about his adventures and the fine detail with which he studied miniscule things like beetles and ravens! He approached every living thing with curiosity and zeal to understand!

This was a fun read and reminded me a lot of Thoreau’s The Maine Woods.

Valley of the Dolls

2010-06-14T20:04:00.001-04:00

Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann

My book club read this in May and it’s one of those that I never would have read if it wasn’t for book club!

I mostly enjoyed this book. I found it slow to get started and then it got interesting in the middle when they were taking drugs and sleeping together and all that stuff, but the last 100 pages or so I just wanted it to be done!

I never read “romance” novels, I’m not that into the whole bodice-ripper-trashy novels scene, this book appealed to me most because of the historical aspect.

I also realized that this book can satifsy one of my two remaining categories in the Twenty Ten challenge! It can fit into both the “Win Win” category and the “Who are you again?”, so I chose to put it in the “Win Win”.

May in Review

2010-05-31T18:01:00.001-04:00

May was likely the slowest month yet in terms of reading. Taking more than a week to finish The Dive From Clausen’s Pier hindered my progress a little! I’m now at 42 books for the year though, leaving me only 8 to read in June to stay on track!

1. Miss Julia Renews Her Vows – Ann B. Ross
2. Knit Two – Kate Jacobs
3. In Beauty May She Walk – Leslie Mass
4. Mourn Not Your Dead – Debbie Crombie
5. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming – Joshilyn Jackson
6. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man – Fannie Flagg
7. The Dive From Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer

I have just 2 books left to read to finish of the Twenty Ten Challenge!

I also made it to 25 library books, so I’m halfway through that challenge!

Angst and Indecision

2010-05-31T17:52:00.001-04:00

The Dive from Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer

I’d heard great things about this book. It was best seller, Susan liked it, I’d read some good reviews. It was a good book, but I wasn’t a big fan. It took me forever to read. I just didn’t get “hooked” by the story. I had a hard time having any sympathy for the main character Carrie.

At the beginning of the story Carrie’s fiancé, Mike, dove into a shallow reservoir an broke his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic. He and Carrie had been having some relationship issues before the accident, but they hadn’t dealt with them yet. Carrie struggles to figure out where she wants to be and where she needs to be. In the process of her struggles she burns bridges with her friends.

While the story had promise, I really didn’t feel strongly about any of the characters. A few times I was shouting at Carrie and calling her names because she was expecting to waltz back into everyone’s lives after she’d abruptly walked out. The other characters were intriguing, but there were too many story lines and too many directions creating a very shallow story.

Coming Attractions!

2010-05-31T17:40:00.001-04:00

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man – Fannie Flagg

I have read almost all of Fannie Flagg’s books and enjoyed most of them! This book was no exception! I laughed out loud in many places and really felt that it was heading to being my favorite Fannie Flagg book. The story launching scene in the Bingo Hall close to the beginning was classic!

If the book had ended after the 1st 200 pages it would have been one of my favorite books, but the last 100 pages were totally pointless.

The book was basically a diary of Daisy Fay’s escapades and coming of age in a small beach town during the 1950s! It had all the charms of a true southern novel!

What I found interesting was that the title of the book was “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man”, but at the bottom of the book it said that it was originally published as “Coming Attractions”. I actually think “Coming Attractions was the better name for the book. Daisy Fay spent a lot of time in the movie theater and show business. Also, throughout the book Daisy is always getting ready for the next thing and planning her next move. The Miracle Man part of the story was only a minor event. In fact, the part with the Miracle Man was the last good part of the story. Maybe that’s why she changed the title after it had been published, to inform readers that they should stop reading after that part!

Chick Lit + Murder

2010-05-21T10:31:00.001-04:00

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming – Joshilyn Jackson

About a year ago Susan and I were in Borders and she saw this book, she said that she’d read some Joshilyn Jackson has really liked her, then when we got back to her house she gave me Gods in Alabama to read.

I really liked Gods in Alabama so was looking forward to another Joshilyn Jackson. Unfortunately, this one didn’t live up to my expectations.

The combination of chick lit sprinkled with murder is quite appealing. Traditional housewives in cookie cutter subdivisions and mysterious death has all the elements of a great story. However this book was very hard to get through. The story felt disjointed and the characters were hard to get into.

I have read that Between Georgia is a good book so I’m not giving up on Joshilyn Jackson, every writer writes a “not-so-good” book every now and them!

This book is #25 on my Support Your Local Library Challenge – halfway done! :-)

Mourn Not Your Dead

2010-05-21T10:15:00.001-04:00

Mourn Not Your Dead – Debbie Crombie

I’m working my way through Debbie Crombie’s Kincaid and James mystery series. The 1st three have been really good, however this one I didn’t enjoy as much.

This one was a more traditional “detective story”, revolving around a dead Chief of Police, the other stories had other themes that were interesting to me. Also, at the end of the 3rd book Duncan and Gemma had slept together and this book was full of tension from that which took away from their working partnership that I have come to enjoy.

When my friend gave me the series she warned me that there were some that weren’t as good as others, so I’m hopeful that this was one of them!

Another AT tale

2010-05-13T20:14:00.001-04:00

In Beauty May She Walk – Leslie Mass

I LOVED this book. I have read many Appalachian Trail journals and memoirs, but this was by far my favorite.

Leslie struggled with hiking her own hike and being herself and ultimately found happiness in her solitude.

As an added bounus I have been to more places along the trail since I last was reading a lot of AT journals and it was lots of fun reading about her trek through the places in Maine that I hiked last summer.

Knit Two

2010-05-12T20:08:00.001-04:00

Knit Two – Kate Jacobs

I really enjoyed The Friday Night Knitting Club and was excited to see that there was a sequel! I’m happy to report that the sequel did not disapoint!

This story began 5 years after Friday Night Knitting Club ended and was the perfect conclusion to the story. At the end of the 1st book there were several loose ends, but this one tied them up perfectly, the events of the 1st book now made perfect sense. It all had to happen that way!

This book reminded me a lot of Adriana Trigiani because the whole gang travels to Italy, and that’s where they make discoveries about themselves, which is exactly what happens in many of Adriana' Trigiani’s books!

This book was the perfect ending to the story, I don’t think there is a 3rd one in the works and part of me hopes that there isn’t a 3rd, it feels like the story is told.

Making Mountains Out of Molehills

2010-05-04T19:51:00.001-04:00

Miss Julia Renews Her Vows – Ann B. Ross

I can’t remember when or how I found Miss Julia, but I used to love her. She was a spunky old lady who took off after bad guys and always had an adventure! She did have some “old fashioned” values and ideas, but it worked.

Lately though the books have been too steeped in “old fashioned” ideas. It seems that Miss Julia spends the whole book being worried about things that don’t matter.

In the book before this Hazel Marie, the ex-mistress of Miss Julia’s late husband, was pregnant. This was a HUGE problem because Hazel Marie was not married to the baby’s father. This is something that might have been a big deal years ago, but it isn’t a big deal nowadays. This book continued the angst over Hazel Marie’s pregnancy and pulled in Etta Mae, a minor character in other books into a more major role.

Overall, the mystery and action of this book was not compelling, but it was a good quick read. I’m a bit disappointed though that Hazel Marie is STILL pregnant and I’ll have to wait to the next book for the birth. This might possibly be the longest pregnancy in literary history!

April in Review

2010-05-04T19:35:00.001-04:00

At the end of the month I was frustrated because I got bogged down by my 1st Lit Chicks book – great book, but it took me more than a week to read and I’d expected it to go much faster, and I though I hadn’t read as much as I wanted to, but it turns out I read 8 books! :-)

1. The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory
2. The Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
3. Sushi for Beginners – Marian Keyes
4. Shanghai Girls – Lisa See
5. Somewhere off the Coast of Maine – Ann Hood
6. North by Northwestern – Capitan Sig Hansen
7. Sleeping Lady – Sue Henry
8. Those Who Save Us – Jenna Blum

I also completed the What’s in a Name 3 Challenge!

Those Who Save Us – SPOILER ALERT

2010-04-29T19:43:00.001-04:00

Those Who Save Us – Jenna Blum

For years now I have been following Susan’s book club, always hearing the stories and gleaning books, but there was never an opening. (Susan limits enrollment to 12 so everyone gets to pick a book) Finally, there was an opening and I’m in!!!!! This book was the 1st book I read as an offical “Lit-Chick”! I’m really looking forward to my 1st meeting on Monday night!

When I started this book I read almost 100 pages in 1 sitting. And, it was good! I was sure this was going to be a great quick, 5-star read. It was a great read. However, it took me longer than I wanted it to (almost a week) to read it so by the end I was frustrated with it.

My friend Emily, also a newbie to the book club, posted her review of this book on Goodreads, it was very interesting because she saw things in the book that I didn’t. Emily saw it as a book about Mother-Daughter Relationships, I saw it as a book about finding yourself. I think book club on Monday is going to be interesting!

SPOILER ALERT – I can’t tell what I think w/o revealing details about the ending – if you think you want to read the book stop reading now!

Trudy was born in Germany right at the beginning of WWII. Her mother was a good German, but her father was a Jew. A Jew who was sent to the camps and eventually killed before Trudy even knew. Her mother, Anna, never told anyone that Trudy was 1/2 Jewish and went into hiding and ended up playing a role in ending the war. She also became the mistress of an SS officer which bough her safety during the war. Trudy grew up thinking that she was the illigimate daughter of this SS officer. She had no idea of her true identity. Anna refused to discuss anything from the war.

Trudy is trying desperately to figure out who she is and rectify and justify her people’s role in the Holocaust. She finally does figure out that she is half Jewish, however this is at the end of the book and we never get to see how she reacted to this news, what did the knowledge that she was a German Jew do for her understanding of the war? The end left me very unsatisfied.

Sleeping Lady

2010-04-25T16:23:00.001-04:00

Sleeping Lady – Sue Henry

I’m really glad I didn’t give up on Sue Henry based on her Maxine and Stretch novels! I have read 2 Maxine and Stretch novels and wasn’t a huge fan of either, however I was drawn to her other books because they were all set in Alaska.

This one reminded me a lot of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon novels, although without a lot of the hair-raising death defying drama that Nevada Barr’s novels are famous for.

While this novel was “tamer” it was not lacking in action. A charter plane shot out of the sky and lost all winter in the Alaska bush. A wife looking for answers about her husband, the pilot of the plane. A random woman in the plane, thought to have died before the plane was shot down. Illegal hunting. People trying to get rich on poaching. A grizzle bear. All elements for a compelling, and scenic murder mystery!

Shut Up and Fish!

2010-04-19T20:06:00.001-04:00

North by Northwestern – Captain Sig Hansen

As you all know from my review of Time Bandit, I’m a big Deadliest Catch fan! As much as I enjoyed reading the book by the Hillstrand Brothers, I was wishing the whole time that my favorite Capitan from the show, Sig Hansen, had written a book. Then, a few weeks ago, I discovered that Sig had written a book! I managed to reserve it at the library before it was published and I’m pretty sure I was the 1st to read my copy!

When I was in Alaska in 2007 we went on a boat ride in Kenai Fjords NP and the captain of our boat used to be a crab fisherman. He and I were chatting about the show and he told me how The Hansen family are the best fishermen on the Bering Sea. I was so awed by the fact that Sig and his brothers were real people! :-) This book excited me about that much!

I enjoyed this book so much! I loved hearing the stories of Sig’s father and the early days of crab fishing. Unlike the Hillstrand brother’s book this book was actually about crab fishing. I now know way more about crab fishing then I ever wanted to know! The adventure and drama was top notch, you can’t make this stuff up! :-)

I always knew there was something about Sig that made me like him. Like the other crab fishermen, he’s tough and has high expectations, but as I got to know him through the book I was able to see more clearly that he really is a genuinely “good” guy!

The other really exciting thing I discovered while reading the book is that The Northwestern’s home port is in Seattle. Well, I’m going to be in Seattle in July. Hmmmm…maybe they won’t be crab fishing in July???? Hmmmmm…maybe I can catch a glimpse of the boat??? I have googled around a bit to try and figure out where I might go to see the boat and I can’t really figure it out. I certainly don’t want to intrude, I’d LOVE to view the boat from afar, we’ll see, maybe I’ll get lucky!

Somewhere Off The Coast of Maine

2010-04-18T13:37:00.001-04:00

Somewhere off the Coast of Maine – Ann Hood

I discovered this book last summer when I was getting ready to head to Maine for my RV Vacation. When I travel someplace I like to find books about that place to read during and after the trip. This book looked interesting so I attempted to find it. My library didn’t have it. Barnes and Noble didn’t have it. I gave up looking for it until a few weeks ago I was looking for books for my Kindle App on Amazon and I was going through my “not in the library” shelf. I checked and sure enough the book was available in Kindle format!

This one ended up being a great book for the Kindle! It was a simple story, told in the voices of multiple characters. The story bounced back and forth in time from the 60s-80s, tracing the lives of three college friends as they started families and followed their dreams. Two of the characters, Claudia and Elizabeth, were hippies and the third, Suzanne, went through a “hippie phase” when she was in college, the consequences of which followed her the rest of her life. The ending was a bit abrupt, but a great read! In many ways the writing style reminded me of Alice Hoffman, one of my favorite authors.

I can’t wait to read some of the other books Ann has written!

1st Challenge DONE! What’s in a Name 3 Wrap Up

2010-04-18T13:20:00.001-04:00

YEAH! I finished! :-) I liked this challenge because it was simple and quick! I enjoyed most the books I selected, well, 4 out of the 6!

I ended up not changing any of my titles from the what I chose before the challenge started!

Here’s what I read:

Note: Click on the title and you can see that books page on Goodreads, click “see my review here” to go to the page on my blog.

A book with a food in the title: Sushi for Beginners: A Novel – Marian Keyes See my review here

A book with a body of water in the title: Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea and One of the World’s Deadliest Jobs – Andy Hillstrand See my Review Here

A book with a title (queen, president) in the title: The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory See my review here.

A book with a plant in the title: The Crowning of Calla Lilly Ponder: A Novel – Rebecca Wells See my review here

A book with a place name (city, country) in the title: Shanghai Girls – Lisa See See my review here

A book with a music term in the title: The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson See My Review Here

Shanghai Girls

2010-04-18T13:10:00.001-04:00

Shanghai Girls – Lisa See

I LOVED Snow Flower and the Secret Fan! It was all about deep friendship between women, Chinese tradition, and challenging those traditions. When I saw that Lisa See had a new book out I knew I had to check it out!

This was a wonderful departure from some the trashy chick-lit I have been reading lately! The book takes place in pre-WWII China and traces the lives of 2 sisters as they get thrown into marriage, flee China, discover secrets about their husbands and the family that they had married into. The two sisters made a life for themselves in America at a time when Chinese were not welcome.

This book also marks the completetion of my 1st challenge for 2010, What’s in a Name 3! YEAH! :-) Not sure how many people entered the challenge, but I’m the 6th person to finish!

Sushi for Beginners

2010-04-11T12:19:00.001-04:00

Sushi for Beginners – Marian Keyes

I didn’t like this book. The one thing I did like about this book was it formed as a nice reminder as to why I don’t have, nor do I want, a boyfriend. It was all about affairs and sex and all of the main characters has copious amounts of sex with each other and other supporting characters. It was one giant love triangle and I struggled to get through it. I didn’t realize that it was only about sex until about 1/2 way through, so by then I wanted to just finish it off.

The good news is that it fit 3 challenges, and it brings me to 1 more book to read to finish off the What’s in a Name Challenge!

The Nanny Diaries

2010-04-07T18:28:00.001-04:00

The Nanny Diaries – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

This book was The Devil Wears Prada with kids. It was exactly the same plot – young 20 something vs. bitch of an employer. The only difference is that the ending wasn’t nearly as satisfying as The Devil Wears Prada.

I found it very confusing at 1st that the main characters name was Nanny and she was a nanny, not only was it confusing but it seemed to detract from the book.

It was an enjoyable Kindle App read, but I don’t think it was a super outstanding book.

The Queen’s Fool

2010-04-04T12:52:00.001-04:00

The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory

This is the third Philippa Gregory book I have read, it’s was by far my favorite, although I probably won’t be reading any more of her novels.

I love the setting in the royal courts and all the treason and backstabbing and gossip. I’m not a huge medieval times fan, but I enjoy these books.

This one was especially interesting because the main character, Hannah Green, is a Jew living in exile from the Spanish Inquisition. There is a huge division in England over Catholicism and the reformed Protestant ways of thinking. The tide is constantly changing and in order to hide you must continually know “the right answers” She and her father are booksellers, which puts them at the center of the disputes as many of their books are considered heresy depending on who is on the throne. Hannah goes into the service of the Queen as her Holy Fool, she has a gift of Sight and can predict the future when the Sight occurs.

While I totally enjoyed the story of Hannah, her father, the Lords and Ladies, the Queens and the court, I didn’t like that the book just went on and on and on. Most of Philippa Gregory’s books are very long. I don’t shy away from books that are long just because they are long, if a story takes 500 pages to tell it then that’s how long it takes. The thing is, Gregory’s stories do not need 500 pages to tell. They remind me of the “bed to bed” stories my 1st graders right. They start when they get up in the morning and write every detail of their day until they go to bed. The result is a long story that says very little. This novel covers 10 years of Tudor history – from 1548-1558. It’s a mile long and an inch thick. By the end I was just skimming, I couldn’t wait to be done with it!

March Check In

2010-03-31T10:19:00.001-04:00

My goal had been to have read 25 books by the end of March – March being 1/4 of the way through the year I figured if I was 1/4 of the way to 100 I’d be on track. I’m pleased to say that I made it! Not only did I make it, but I have read 27 books! So I’m 2 books ahead of schedule! :-)

Here’s what I read in March:

1. Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess – Jerramy Fine
2. Murder on the Iditarod Trail – Sue Henry
3. The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
4. The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie
5. Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan
6. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner – Bich Minh Nugyen
7. Green Witch – Alice Hoffman
8. Flush – Carl Hiaasen
9. How Reading Changed My Life – Anna Quindlen
10. Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie

This is also a good time to check in on my progress on the other challenges I’m working on (click on the pictures to go to that challenges page on my blog!)

I have read 3 out 6 books for this one, so half way there! I have the last three books I need to read in my possession, so the big goal for April is to finish this challenge!

I have read 14 out of the 20 books for this one so more than halfway there! Just like the What’s in a Name challenge, I have the remaining 6 books to read in my possession so after I finish off What’s in a Name I plan to finish this one off too!

I have read 17 out of 50 towards this challenge. Not quite halfway yet, but more than a 1/4 and so I’m making the same progress with this one as I’m making with the 100+ challenge, so I feel confident I’ll make it!

I have read 1 out 0f 6, so this challenge is clearly lacking. Maybe after I get the other 2 finished I’ll have more of an interest in completing this one!

Death on the Nile

2010-03-31T09:53:00.001-04:00

Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie

When I decide to read some Agatha Christie I thought I’d check out one featuring each of her famous detectives – Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.

This one more fit my notion of what a mystery was, although it took over half the book to “warm up” before someone was killed. After the 1st murder there were several more in quick succession.

I liked how Christie continually recapped the events, clues, etc because I have a hard time keeping track of all the details and who was when, where and whatnot.

I am definitely enjoying reading mysteries, however I still have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. I love the suspense, but I hate it too. I want to read as fast as I can to figure out what happens, but at the same time I need to slow down and read all the details!

Reading about Reading

2010-03-31T09:42:00.001-04:00

How Reading Changed My Life – Anna Quindlen

One of the 1st challenges I signed up for this year was the one Lesley created, The Bibliophilic Book Challenge. I thought it would be interesting to read about reading AND Lesley oked my plan to read some professional books about teaching reading that have been on my TBR list for years.

In reality though, this is the last challenge have tackled. The other challenges are all at least 1/4 completed, some more than 1/2, but I hadn’t touched the Bibliophilic challenge.

I have many of the books that I’d planned to read for this challenge, they just seem uninteresting. I’m not as interested in reading essays or non-fiction, unless it’s written like a story. Also, I’m just coming off a graduate program where I had piles of, interesting mostly, professional reading to do so now that I’m done I’m not as interested in reading books for school. When I was at the library last time I checked out How Reading Changed My Life – Susan had recently read this book and wrote a rave review (ok, so Just searched through Susan’s blog to find what I thought was her review of this book, but it wasn’t this one that she’d read – it was Ruined by Reading – oh well.) – so I decided I needed to read it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a thin book. Only 97 pages. And the last 20 or so were book lists, so only 70 pages of actual reading. Ok, I could do that. Even if it was boring, which it was not.

Monday morning I picked up the book, thinking it would be perfect to “pad” my monthly total since I could finish it quickly. I ended up reading it in one sitting! It was neat reading about Anna’s reading habits and her explanations about why we read. It was a bit highbrow – quoting classics and waning philosophical in places, which is exactly what I hate about essays' so I was glad it was a quick read and I could skim for the good stuff. I enjoyed the view into Anna’s life and plan to read more of her fiction soon!

Flush

2010-03-31T09:16:00.001-04:00

Flush – Carl Hiaasen

A few years ago my cousin, who was 8 or 10 at the time, was raving about the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. She was such a fan that I had to read it to see what the hubbub was about. It was a story about some teenagers who did some somewhat illegal things to save the habitats of burrowing owls from a big corporation. I totally enjoyed it! I can’t remember if it had won the Newbery Honor yet or not, when I read it, but it definitely deserves a Newbery!

What I didn’t know when I read Hoot was that Carl Hiassen was a prolific novelist! I started reading some of his adult books. I totally enjoyed Nature Girl, Skinny Dip and Lucky You. Because I’m anal and once I start reading an author I feel the need to read read everything they wrote, so even though some of his other books aren’t as good as the 1st few I have stuck with him. All of his books are set in Florida and all have an environmental spin. He is also the master of bizarre characters and bizarre events which leave me laughing every time, even if the book isn’t very good! His book are very “adult'” – most of them are R rated for violence, sex, and language.

Hiaasen, like many other authors, also writes newspaper columns and had published some of his columns into a book, 2 books actually. I started reading one of them Paradise Screwed, in my Kindle. It wasn’t what I was hoping it would be. It was very political. Most of the politics were stuff I could get into, like saving the Keys or protecting the Everglades, but it still wasn’t very interesting to me so I gave up on it.

Since writing Hoot, Hiaasen has written 2 other young adult books – Flush and Scat. I knew I wanted to read them both, but the library had Flush the last time I was there!

Now that I have read so many of Hiaasen’s adult novels I was curious to see how he pulled off YA. Interestingly it was just like his adult works, only cleaned up. There was less humor and the bizarre factor was greatly reduced, but it was good solid read. It had adventure, saving the plant, suspense, surprises, and great family dynamics!

Green Witch

2010-03-28T18:04:00.001-04:00

Green Witch – Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors. She writes about magic, but it’s not fantasy magic, it’s magic that is present in everyday life.

I enjoyed her older adult novels more than I have enjoyed her newer stuff, and recently I have discovered that her Young Adult novels are some of her best work! I’m wondering if maybe the younger audience is more easily drawn into Alice’s magical world? We adults aren’t willing to be as pulled in?

This latest young adult novel is actually a sequel to The Green Angel, I don’t think Alice has ever written a sequel to one of her books so this was a rare treat to visit again with one of Alice’s characters.

Green Angel tells the story of Green, left alone in the world after her family travels to the city one fateful fall day and are killed when an evil group out to destroy the civilization burn down the city. It was a creative expression of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Green Witch takes place a year later as Green and other other villagers who survived the attack are re-building their lives. Green uses her talents, listening to and telling the stories of the villagers, to help everyone heal!

Stealing Buddha's Dinner

2010-03-28T17:32:00.001-04:00

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner – Bich Minh Nguyen

I found this book through my fellow book blogging buddy Lesley, once again she found a winner!

I wish I’d know Bich during the 80s. We could have been good friends! Like me Bich arrived in the US as an infant in 1975. Unlike me, she arrived here by way of Vietnam when she and her family fled just before the fall of Saigon.

So many things about this book appealed to me. One was reading about how Bich learned English and how she attempted to assimilate herself with American children in Grand Rapids Michigan in the 80s when there was no real diversity.

It made me think of a student I have in my class who just moved here from China and doesn’t speak or understand any English! Made me wonder if her experience is anything like Bich’s?

I also enjoyed the trip back through the 80s! Bich had me singing along to songs from the 80s and reminiscing about TV shows, foods and toys that were all apart of pop culture at the time!

My favorite part of the book had to have been when she was telling us about her love of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books. Both of those series were my absolute favorites when I was a kid. I’d read them all multiple times. Laura and Ramona were my two childhood heroes. They were also Bich’s heroes.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

2010-03-28T17:12:00.001-04:00

Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan

This is another book I found out about through Susan, I think her book club read it a few years ago. It looked to me like a quirky, offbeat, Americana-type book. I was not disappointed!

Pete made me think of several of my students, a true underachiever! He was capable of working hard, but the motivation wasn’t there. He always continually managed to get himself in little scuffles that always managed to land him in trouble, but he never felt that the trouble was justified, he always had a good reason behind his actions. He managed to find his niche early on – dishwashing. It was perfect for him! He could work in peace and quiet, he could quit when he wanted to, and he could slack off as much as he wanted!

I really enjoyed reading this book! Pete’s style & humor reminded me of Bill Bryson. He traveled across the USA several times and had experiences I can only dream of. Some of the stories were laugh out loud funny!

This book was a perfect book for my Kindle App on my iPhone! I have taken to reading a book in my Kindle App while stuck in traffic. I know it sounds dangerous, but really it’s safer than a lot of things I could be doing! I only read when the car is stopped at a stop light, or in a traffic backup. When the car is rolling I point the phone away from eyes, or click it closed until the next time I’m stopped. With the horrible traffic around here I get a surprisingly large amount of reading time on my way home from school! The one challenge is finding books that are conducive to reading in small spurts – books that are entertaining, yet easy to read. Dishwasher, fit the bill perfectly! I found myself cheering when I saw a long line of traffic, because I knew it meant I could read!

I am counting this book toward the Twenty-Ten challenge under the category of “Shiny and New”. The category is for books purchased in 2010. I think using a Kindle book for the category is a bit of a stretch, however, I don’t buy very many adult books and this is one that the library didn’t have so I was going to have to purchase it somewhere, the Kindle version was cheaper than the paper one.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

2010-03-21T18:26:00.001-04:00

The Moving Finger – Agatha Christie

My very first Agatha Christie! Well, not really, I read Murder on the Orient Express in High School and HATED it. Swore of the whole mystery genre because of my bad experience with that one book. I have since developed an enjoyment of mysteries so decided to try another Agatha Christie, she is after all the queen of mystery!

Also recently I discovered that Agatha Christie was British! That makes her more interesting to me now, however, after reading the 1st few pages of The Moving Finger, I realized why my high school self had a hard time with the Orient Express. There were a lot of British phrases and language structure and words that I’m sure I didn’t understand then. Also, the book was written in the 1940s, I’m sure that played a part in my lack of understanding back then.

The Moving Finger was a quick read – only 200 pages! And I enjoyed it immensely! I can’t wait to read more! I loved the glimpse of British country life! I loved how Miss Marple swooped in at the end and solved the whole thing! It was billed as a “Miss Marple Mystery” however Miss Marple doesn’t appear until the last 40 pages and not even as a major character then.

The story is about some nasty anonymous letters being sent to various people in the village – the letters were written in “classic mystery” style – letters cut from the pages of a book and glued together. What I’m wondering is, was that as much of convention then or was this the 1st time that technique had appeared in literature?

Knit One, Purl Two

2010-03-21T18:02:00.001-04:00

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

I’d seen this book all over and only half wanted to read it, I’m kind of a wannabe knitter and didn’t think I’d enjoy reading about knitting because it’s something I want to do, but can’t seem to make it work. I saw it at Riverby’s in Dec and decided to buy it.

After I bought it I saw the quote on the cover: USA Today said it was “Like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan” hmmm…..now I for sure wanted to read it and I decided to save it for after my trip to NYC at the beginning of March.

When I started the book I thought it was going to be my kind of book – all the women were single, many by their own choosing, I was feeling good that this would be a book about women single by choice living their lives.

Then around the middle things began to change. It started heading in the direction of most chick lit – male/female relationships. ugh. I almost put it down, just because it was so much like so many other books. But I continued on.

By the end I realized it was nothing like all the other chick lit books and was surprised by how attached I’d gotten to all the characters and how they all deep relationships with each other. I agreed 100% with USA Today’s quote from the front cover!

I discovered that there was a sequel: Knit Two and yesterday I checked at the library and it was sitting right there on the shelf, just begging to be checked out!

Hike! Gee! Haw! Easy!

2010-03-13T15:23:00.001-05:00

Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry

Despite not really liking the other Sue Henry books I read I was pulled in by the fact that the rest of her books are set in Alaska. I decided that I owed it to myself to at least try one of her Alaska novels to see if it was different from her Maxine and Stretch series.

At the library I had a hard time picking one to start with. I finally settled on Murder on the Iditarod Trail for no other reason except that it was her 1st. Sometimes an authors first novel is a bit clunky (in terms of the writing), and it was the writing style that I didn’t care for in the Maxine & Stretch novels, so I was a bit worried that this one would disappoint me, but I also always like to start a series at the beginning when possible.

The book sat on my TBR shelf in my bedroom until last weekend when I threw it in my bag to take it to NYC with me. It also just so happened that last weekend was the start of the real Iditarod in Alaska.

Reading this book during the real race helped the book come alive for me. On the other hand, the book made the real Iditarod came alive too! This was a very well timed fun read!

Even though it was a fictional account Sue Henry added lots of details about the race history, what life is like on the race, and lots of Alaska color! The mystery added excitement to the book, but it was not the main draw of the book for me.

In this book Sue Henry introduced us all to Jessie Arnold, her heroine of most of her Alaska mysteries. In many ways Jessie reminds me of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon. Since I have already read every Anna Pigeon book published to date, I’m looking forwarding to diving into some Jessie Arnold novels while I wait for more Anna Pigeon novels!

Check out the real Iditarod online here.

Wishing, Hoping, & Praying

2010-03-11T20:10:00.001-05:00

Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess –Jerramy Fine

My friend Lesley, also a fellow book addict, has a great blog called A Life in Books. I am avid reader of her blog, she rarely reads anything that I have ever heard of before and I have gleaned many books to add to my “to be read” list. Most of the time I read Lesley’s blog and head over to GoodReads, mark the books as “To-read” and then that’s it. Until now, I had never read a Lesley pick! Lesley has a great review here.

I was really looking foward to reading this one, until my friend Susan (who is also friends with Lesley, in fact Lesley is her friend and I only met Lesley very recently) read it and LOVED it. You would think that was a good thing, except that books that Susan falls in love with typically don’t elicit the same response from me. I usually enjoy them, but I don’t love them like Susan did. I was disappointed because I really wanted to LOVE Someday My Prince Will Come. (You can read Susan’s review here)

Well, the good news is, I DID love this book! :-) This is a book for anyone who has ever felt that they were in the wrong place. Anyone who has ever wanted something different than what they had. Anyone who doesn’t feel like they belong in their place in the world. If you want to know more about the book you’ll have to visit Susan or Lesley’s blog.

February Reading

2010-02-28T17:09:00.001-05:00

I felt like I was slacking off on my reading in February. We had a week off due a huge snowstorm and I thought I might have done more reading but I got bogged down with The Girl Who Played With Fire and didn’t get through as many books. I was quite surprised when I counted and discovered that I had read 7 books in February! Not only that, but as long as I make it to 25 by the end of March I will be on track for making 100! :-)

1. A Northern Light – Jennifer Donnelly
2. Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, & The World’s Deadliest Job – Andy & Jonathan Hillstrand
3. Viola in Reel Life – Adriana Trigiani
4. The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson
5. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder – Rebecca Wells
6. Encore, Valentine – Adriani Trigiani
7. Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian

Secrets of Eden

2010-02-28T16:58:00.001-05:00

Secrets of Eden – Chris Bohjalian

I have been looking forward to the book for a long time, but I was very disappointed by it. It had all the makings of a classic Chris Bohjalian and I was looking forward diving in since I have now read everything he has written!

The story centers around the murder of Alice Hayward and the apparent suicide of her abusive husband. One of the main characters in the story is Stephen Drew, Alice’s pastor, and there is more than a little suspicion that he had a hand in the grisly events. Another main character is Heather Laurant, an acclaimed author who had endured a similar tragedy in her life and had gone on to write novels about the presence of angels in her life. This character made little sense to me and I felt that she took away from the story.

The most interesting part of the story was told by the State’s Attorney – she’s the one who first began to suspect that things were not as they appeared and dug deeper. This section of the book was gristly and graphic and set up a mystery that was not followed through in the other parts of the book.

I did figure out what had happened about halfway though the book, and then the rest of the book I simply tried to get through as fast as I could so I could see if I was correct.

Valentine Part 2

2010-02-26T18:29:00.001-05:00

Brava, Valentine – Adriana Trigiani

Last winter we met Valentine Roncalli and her big, wacky, fun, Italian family and it was the 1st book in a new trilogy and now a year later we get to catch up with them again!

I really liked Very Valentine and was really looking forward to reading the next installment. This book didn’t quite measure up to the 1st book, although there were part of it that I LOVED. In fact, it almost became my favorite book of the year and almost earned 4 stars on GoodReads. That was before I read the last 15 pages. I won’t give away what happens, but it knocked the book down from a big time favorite to a “good read”.

One thing that I found a bit “odd” in both this book and the other Adriana Trigiani book I read this year, Viola in Reel Life, is that they were both set in 2010 and both books took place over the course of the whole year, since it is currently 2010 it was a little weird reading about “the future”.

Calla Lilly Ponder

2010-02-20T09:55:00.001-05:00

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder – Rebecca Wells

After The Girl Who Played With Fire, I wanted a lighter, faster read and Calla Lily fit the bill! I had read Rebecca Wells’ other books: The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere and Ya-Ya’s in Bloom years ago and enjoyed them so was really looking forward to reading another, that and I LOVED the title, it just had a great ring to it!

The book started out great, I was very interested in Calla Lilly’s story and in all the her mom, M’Dear had taught her about life and kindness. I was loving the quirky Southern touches like the “Shop N Skate” – grocery store roller skating rink combo! As the book went on however, it started to get tedious. It was a good, light read, but not an epic life changing story.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

2010-02-17T19:22:00.001-05:00

The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson

A few months ago I discovered and read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, this was the 1st book in a series of three about journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.

I really enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! There was enough mystery and craziness that made it a great read. I loved Lisabeth, she was a determined, sassy, misunderstood single gal who was not to be messed with. She and Mikael made a great pair and they solved a mystery that many thought was un-solvable. Violence against women was at the heart of book, I understand that it’s a big issue in Sweden.

I had high hopes for The Girl Who Played with Fire. Unfortunately it didn’t deliver the way I’d hoped. It was good story in which we learned more about Lisbeth and her history, which isn’t pretty. It lacked the story, mystery, and team work, of Dragon Tattoo though and I struggled to be motivated to read it.

I am looking forward to the final novel in the Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest*, if only to complete the story.

*Note: The review is in Swedish, I don’t think the book has been translated to English yet.

Viola in Reel Life

2010-02-05T18:43:00.001-05:00

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

Adrianna Trigiani is one of my favorite authors. I have read every one of her adult novels and have her latest on reserve at the library so I can read it just as soon as it’s available.

Viola in Reel Life is her 1st venture in the world of Young Adult literature and I say it was a huge success! I’m wondering if Trigiani will become like Alice Hoffman, another one of my favorite authors, who’s young adult novels are almost better than her adult novels.

Viola is a 15 year old with a passion for making films. Her parents, who film documentaries, are going on assignment to Afghanistan and Viola must go to boarding school. During the course of her year she learns more than she ever imagined and truly grew up and became a young woman.

As I was reading this book I had a hard time remembering that the characters were only 14. It seemed that many of their experiences, thoughts and discoveries about life were mature beyond 14 years. It reminded me strongly of my own experiences going away to college at age 18.

Definitely and enjoyable, quick read. I’m looking forward to seeing more Adriana Trigiani YA novels in the future!

On The Crab!

2010-02-05T18:17:00.001-05:00

Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, and the World’s Deadliest Job by Jonathan & Andy Hillstrand

I LOVE the TV show Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. I have no idea why I love it so much, but I do. All they do is catch crab. They launch pots. They haul pots. They measure crabs. They get hurt. The deal with weather that would send even the hardiest running for cover. And every season, every episode it’s exactly the same.

I think part of the appeal is the adventure, the danger, the romance of the sea. I also really like the captains – they are these rough and tumble, abrasive, harsh guys who are not afraid of anything. Yet under that tough exterior, they are good guys, on the show you can see that. Another part of the appeal is the sheer reality of it. They don’t stage things, it’s never gotten “Hollywooded” up like other reality TV shows. I do not enjoy fishing, never will. I have no desire to ever go out on a crab boat in summer let alone January! But when the new season comes on, you can believe that I won’t miss an episode.

I wasn’t sure about this book. I have learned that actors/TV stars aren’t always the best writers. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just what is. They do a great job acting, but writing maybe not so much. I also though the book would be an ad for the show. Despite my low expectations, I knew this was a book I had to read. It’s February and the new season doesn’t start till April and I have seen all the re-runs multiple times. I needed my “fix”.

This book surprised me on many fronts. First of all, I thought it was very well written. Going back and forth between a real life predicament and flashbacks kept it exciting and interesting. It also gave a great format for allowing both brothers to contribute seamlessly and tell their stories.

The book did not mention the show until the epilogue! It started out with Andy and Jonathan’s childhood and how they raised hell on the Homer Spit and laid the foundation for the strong relationship they have now. It moved on to telling about their family, and their life outside of crab fishing. They did relate many stories that had appeared on the show, but it was great to see the missing pieces and back story that didn’t make it to the show.

The book definitely confirmed my feeling that these rough and tough fishermen are really great people working hard to make a living. When you see the abrasiveness on the show, you might think them mean, but their anger is usually very justified!

I totally enjoyed getting to know the Hillstrand Brothers better and can’t wait to see them in action on the upcoming season! I think The Time Bandit is now tied with Sig Hansen and the guys on The Northwestern as my favorite crab boat!

A Northern Light

2010-02-03T08:20:00.001-05:00

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

When I was in grad school I took a children’s literature class and we had to read at least one Young Adult novel that won the Printz award. A Northern Light was one of the books on the list to choose from but I didn’t read it then. The day we discussed the books in class a lot of people were talking about it and I was intrigued and added it to my TBR list. When I saw it at Riverby’s in Fredericksburg back in December I had to pick it up.

This book reminded me of a sophisticated Laura Ingalls story. It was set on the frontier in the North Woods of New York state in the early 1900’s. In many places I was picturing the Gokey family farm to look like the Ingalls’ farm from the TV show until they referred to the “parlor” and that threw my image a bit!

The story is of Mattie Gokey trying to find her place amid many influences, both pushing her to the traditional farm wife role and pushing her to a more liberal path for women of her time – college and a career in writing. In the end Mattie makes her own decision and does what’s best for her.

January Books

2010-01-31T14:59:00.001-05:00

I’m off to a great start on my reading this year! 10 books in January! :-) I think that’s probably a personal record! 1/10 of the way to 100 too! I’m pretty sure I can’t keep up this pace, but I’m glad to have gotten so many under my belt in one month.

My two favorites from the month are The Double Bind and Hey Ranger!

The links lead you to my reviews but from there you can see which challenges they apply to and get more info on the books at GoodReads.

A Day in the Life

2010-01-31T14:52:00.001-05:00

Hey Ranger: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America’s National Parks by Jim Burnett

I really enjoyed this book! Over his career as a park ranger Jim Burnett has worked in many different parks, most that I have never visited, but the stories he told are universal and could really have happened anywhere! His light sarcasm and PC way of telling many of the stories added to the humor for me! I was laughing out loud in many places!

One thing he did was turn common words into acronyms – this got a little old at the end, but I’m pretty sure that the National Park Service, like many other government or military organizations, using acronyms for everything and I’m sure it gets old there too! My two favorites were:

Assume: Actions Seldom Supported Under Meticulous Examination

Oops: Outcome Outside of Planned Scenario

I certainly enjoyed this “A Day in the Life” of a park ranger, it’s a job that would certainly be interesting and fun, but it’s one that I think is best experienced from a comfy armchair! :-) Can’t wait to read the 2nd installment: Hey Ranger 2

Blessings

2010-01-29T18:32:00.001-05:00

Blessings by Anna Quindlen

I have no idea how this book came to reside on my TBR shelf. The price tag sticker implies that I bought it at Sam’s or Costco so I’m guessing it was an impulse buy. In any event it’s been hanging around for years and has survived several “adult book clean-outs” where I donated most of my already read adult books or books that had just been hanging around so long that I knew I’d never read them. I have no idea what it was about it that made me keep it around, but I’m pretty glad I did. It was an enjoyable, fast read.

It starts off as the story of a baby born to a teenage couple. They decide to drop the baby off at a large estate where they thought the baby would have a good life. The book, however, is not really about the baby. It’s about Lydia Blessings, the owner of the estate and her family secrets. In many ways it reminded me of Family Tree in the fact that many deeply guarded secrets were discovered. As in real life though those secrets didn’t seem as big of a deal once they were out.

I really enjoyed this story, however the writing I wasn’t a big fan of. Quindlen goes back and forth between the present and the past a lot and at times it was very confusing trying to figure out if the action was in the past or in the present and I found myself doing a lot of re-reading. As much as the writing confused me, I wonder if she did it on purpose to show the confusion that existed in the characters brains – kind of like real life when your brain drifts from one topic to another.

A Visit with Maxie and Stretch

2010-01-28T20:00:00.001-05:00

The Tooth of Time – Sue Henry

This is another book that has been sitting on my TBR shelf for years. I discovered Sue Henry when I was looking for fiction books about Alaska when I was going there, she has written a large number of Alaska mysteries. This was before I discovered that I like mysteries so I steered away from them. I found that one of the Sue Henry books, The Serpent’s Trail, had an RV on the cover so I decided I’d read that one. Turns out it was the 1st in a new series she was writing about Maxie McNabb, a 60-something single gal and her dog. Stretch the dachshund, both of whom spend months at time traveling in a 30-ft Winnebago. This book is the 2nd in the series, I think there are 4 or 5 now.

As much as I enjoyed another visit with Maxine and Stretch, I couldn’t really get into this book. The mystery was lacking in punch and I felt like she spent a lot of time telling details that didn’t really matter to the story. I thought the writing felt a little “clunky” – kind of reminded me of reading the early works of some of my favorite authors. I found this to be odd since Sue Henry has written so many other mysteries.

Surprise! Surprise!

2010-01-28T19:41:00.001-05:00

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

This book was full of surprises, the 1st being that Lizzie Clarke was born with brown skin and African-American features, yet both her parents were Caucasian. I found the rest of the story, and how it came to be that Lizzie was born African-American very unbelievable.

The other surprise was that I liked this book! My mom gave it to me a few years back and it had been sitting on my “TBR” shelf and I didn’t think I wanted to read it – it looked like a romance-Lifetime Movie-Type book and I was surprised that it really wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it could definitely be a Lifetime Movie, it just wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Blind Stupidity

2010-01-20T19:37:00.001-05:00

Blind Courage by Bill Irwin

A better title for this book would be Blind Stupidity. This is the story of Bill Irwin, the 1st (and possibly only) blind man to ever hike the Appalachian Trail. In the process he made some very stupid choices and endangered many people. He went out unprepared in every sense and I’m actually surprised he lived to tell about it.

It wasn’t even his blindness that caused the biggest problem. In fact, I think a blind man could potentially hike the AT and be safe about it, but a significant amount of planning would be required. As with any disability or medical condition, it should not dominate your life, but you do have to make allowances and plan ahead.

Bill had no idea what he was getting himself into. none. none at all. He was shocked by the first 7 miles and how rugged it was. He was not a hiker, he didn’t even like hiking. He brought a dog with him, granted it was a seeing-eye dog, but still the dog was forced into the walk and it didn’t get a choice. By the end of the book, he was hiking in winter and fording creeks, slogging through snow and dragging other people, including the Head Ranger at Baxter State Park, with him. There were many clues that he should have stopped, but he didn’t.

The book was more about Bill’s struggle with addiction and his faith – he was a born-again Christian and strongly believed that the Lord had called him to hike the hike and that’s why he was able to finish, apparently the Lord made him strong and gave him the trail angels that helped him. The book was very preachy and that is likely what turned me off to it. I wanted to read a story about a hiker doing what he loved despite challenges, but what I got was an evangelizing praise and worship song.

If the book hadn’t had a background of hiking the AT I never would have finished it.

Another Marian Keyes

2010-01-20T19:21:00.001-05:00

Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes

This was not one of my favorite Marian Keyes books. It was lacking in many areas including the humor, British voice, and life of the happily single woman.

It was definitely a more serious book, with the main idea being there might not be a tomorrow so life your life now, which I could appreciate, but it seemed that the way to happiness for 2 of the main characters that happiness revolved around having a boyfriend.

It was a good read, about three main characters – Tara, the one who always felt that she had to have a boyfriend – somewhat came around to the idea that she didn’t need a man to complete her life by the end of the book – Katherine – the single by choice gal, although it turned out she really wasn’t single by choice entirely and then there was Fintan, the gay man who was in a strong committed relationship. I could definitely relate to these characters – as they reflected many people in my own life.

Best Book I’ve Read All Year!

2010-01-13T18:37:00.001-05:00

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Wrote about how I discovered Chris Bohjalian and the day I met him here – so check that out to read about why I was reading this book!

This was far and away the best book I have read this year! It was one of those can’t-put-it-down-stay-up-past-your-bedtime-to-finish-it type books! It’s been awhile since I have had one like that!

This was the last of the already been published Chris Bohjalian books and I think I saved the best for last! I’m not sure it was my favorite of his books, but I think it’s definitely his best book.

The story follows a 30-something social worker, Laurel, as she attempts to unravel the mystery of Bobbie Crocker, a homeless man who showed up at the shelter she worked in. Apparently Bobbie was a photographer and upon his death it was discovered that he had in his possession many exceptional photographs and Laurel begins an investigation of how those photos came to be in Bobbie’s possession.

The one part of the story that I didn’t like very much at first was that there were several very prominent references to The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, a book that I had not read. It was almost as if, parts of the story were off limits to me since I was unfamiliar with the story. It was ironic, because several parts of the story about an exclusive neighborhood on Long Island, and I was being excluded. This book and the role The Great Gatsby had in the sort had come up the night I met Chris Bohjalian, and he specifically said that you didn’t need to have read The Great Gatsby to understand The Double Bind, so I forged ahead, despite not understanding all of it. In the end though, it truly didn’t matter, in fact I think the story had a bigger impact on me because I hadn’t read The Great Gatsby.

Challenges it fits:

It’s a mystery to me!

2010-01-09T15:41:00.001-05:00

Leave the Grave Green by Deborah Crombie

A few years ago I would have told you that I didn’t read mysteries. I didn’t like mysteries and I would never have chosen to read them.

Then my friend Diane loaned me Blood Lure by Nevada Barr, it was set in Glacier National Park and starred Anna Pigeon, Barr’s ranger extraordinaire. I was not too excited about it being a mystery, since I didn’t like mysteries, but the fact that it was set in a National Park and the main character was a ranger appealed to me and I read it. In just a few chapters I was hooked, I totally enjoyed Blood Lure and was excited to read the other books Barr had written! They didn’t feel like mysteries, as the plot lines were varied – most were not simple “whodunit” type and they were very exciting – Anna facing near death in almost every book!

I also got into the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich – they are classified as mysteries, but I don’t think they really are – they are more silliness! :-) Stephanie is a Bounty Hunter so there’s definitely a lot crime and several people always get killed, but they also are not the traditional “whodunit” either.

Then the first day of school this year my friend Diane again came to me with a book – A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie. She said the whole series was really good and she thought I’d like them. The main characters of this book, and the whole series, are Duncan Kincaid - a Scotland Yard Superintendent and Gemma James – his sergeant. These novels were in fact traditional “whodunits” – and I wasn’t too sure about them.

But, I decided to give it a try and see what a thought, like Mickey and Life Cereal - “I Liked it!” :-) Which surprised me!

I was thinking back to why I didn’t like mysteries. I think it was an Agatha Christie novel that I’d attempted to read in either middle school or high school – I’d quickly lost track of the plot and all the details of the characters and clues and such and it was too much work. I’m now wondering if maybe I wasn’t ready to read her yet – if I didn't have the maturity or the reading skills yet.

When I returned A Share in Death to Diane she told me that she had the whole series that she was willing to pass along to me – so now I have all of them – there are 12 I think - and will work my way through them.

This one that I just read is the 3rd in the series and it featured the untimely death of prominent opera conductors son-in-law and Kincaid and James are called in to investigate and figure out how he died. The plot was interesting and kept moving, it kept me guessing until the very end. Although I was very excited when I figured it out just paragraphs before Kincaid himself figured it out! It came on like a light bulb to both of us!

A good quick read, making it perfect for my goal of getting as many books read in January as I can! Unfortunately, it only fulfills requirements for 1 Reading Challenge:

And for my 2nd book…. (SPOILER ALERT)

2010-01-05T19:19:00.002-05:00

Angels, by Marian Keyes.
A few years back I was in a book club and someone picked Marian Keyes’ Anybody Out There as their pick for “authors that you trust”. I’d never heard of her, but after reading Anybody Out There, I was sold!
Marian Keyes is Irish and most of her writing is filled with funny Irish sayings and wit, several times while reading other books I have laughed out loud! The other thing I really liked about Marian Keyes is that her books seem to focus on single-30-something women!   Both Anybody Out There and Angels feature the Walsh family – 5 sisters and their parents – Keyes has written several books about the family, each telling the story of a different sister.   She has also written a bunch of stand alone books.
Angels was a quick easy read and it was entertaining but I’m glad it wasn’t the first Marian Keyes book I’d picked up. It was very similar to the 3 other books I’d read by her and it was lacking in the humor of the other three. The book tells the story or Margret, Maggie, age 33 who’s marriage had fallen apart. She flees to Los Angeles where she has a good friend and lives the live of a movie star for a month before realizing where she is supposed to be.
SPOILER ALERT:
Most of Marian Keyes books end with the main character deciding that they like being single, that was not the case with this book and I was disappointed when the book ended with Maggie getting back together with her husband.
Happily this books fits into 2 challenges:

1 Down, 99 To Go!

2010-01-02T16:25:00.001-05:00

I finished my first book of 2010 this afternoon: Looking For Salvation at the Dairy Queen, by Susan Gregg Gilmore. It was a good quick read, perfect to get started with this year – and I can count it toward 3 challenges! :-)

The book started out very “preachy” and I thought it was going to be hard to get through, but the main character seemed to be as put off by the “preachyness” as I was, so it was good!

The main characters goal in life is to get out of the small town in Georgia where she grew up and when she finally does a series of unexpected plot twists lead her to believe where she really belongs.

This was a very real book with main characters who were easy to relate to! A great quick read! :-)

2009: A Year in Books

2010-01-02T16:09:00.001-05:00

My reading goal this year was simple, read more than I did in 2008. In 2008 I read 74 books. I did not meet this goal as I only read 68 books in 2009. I’m not disappointed though – 68 is a respectable number of books! :-)

I did finish off a few authors I’d been working through, discovered a few new series and new authors, as well as read new books from old favorite authors. I didn’t have as much grad school reading because I completed my last class in Feb 2009! :-)

Also in Spring of 2009 I acquired the Kindle App on my iPhone – which will never replace reading paper books, but enables me to read while stuck in traffic and always have a book handy!

Here’s the complete list of what I read in 2009, in no real order:

Fiction

Carl Hiaasen: Strip Tease, Skin Tight, Double Whammy – none were as good as some of the 1st novels I read by him. I think I have 2 or 3 more novels of his to read, I’ll finish them off in 2009.

Nevada Barr: A Superior Death, Deep South, Track of the Cat, Ill Wind, Borderline, – This wraps up the Anna Pigeon series of mysteries set in National Parks. Lucky for me Nevada is still writing these!

Bittersweet – this is Nevada’s 1st novel written 10 years before the Anna Pigeon novels – I thought it was fabulous, although some of the writing was rather “clunky”

13 1/2 – Nevada Barr’s latest – a stand alone mystery/thriller. It was very good – kept me guessing until the last page, even though I had figured it out!

Chris Bohjalian: The Trans-Sister Radio, Before You Know Kindness, Skeletons at the Feast, The Buffalo Soldier, The Law of Similars, Water Witches

Charlene Ann Baumbich: Dearest Dorothy Series: Are We There Yet?, Slow Down You’re Wearing Us Out, If Not Now, When?, Merry Everything!, Who Would Have Ever Thought?, Help! I’ve Lost Myself

Marian Keyes: Watermelon, The Other Side of the Story: A Novel

Janet Evanovich: Plum Spooky, Finger Lickin’ Fifteen

Ann B. Ross: Miss Julia Paints the Town, Miss Julia Delivers the Goods

Deborah Crombie: A Share in Death, All Shall be Well

Alice Hoffman: The Story Sisters, Horsefly

A Gracious Plenty – Sheri Reynolds

The Amateur Marriage – Anne Tyler

Made in the U.S.A – Billie Letts

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Anne Shaffer

The Boleyn Inheritance – Philippa Gregory

The Stepmother – Carrie Adams

The Leisure Seeker: A Novel – Michael Zadoorian

Very Valentine – Adriana Trigiani

The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

That Camden Summer – LaVyrle Spencer

The Inn at Lake Devine – Elinor Lipman

Gods in Alabama – Joshilyn Jackson

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Version 2.0 – Christopher Moore

Non-Fiction/Memoir

Laurie Notaro: We thought You Would Be Prettier, The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies)

John McDonald: Down the Road a Piece: A Storyteller’s Guide to Maine, A Moose and a Lobster Walk into a Bar

Paula Denton: Learning Through Academic Choice, The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language that Helps Children Learn

Fat Girl: A True Story – Judith Moore

Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp – Stephanie Klein

Under the Duvet: Shoes, Reviews, Having the Blues, Builders, Babies, Families and Other Calamities – Marian Keyes

Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town – Chris Bohjalian

The Maine Woods – Henry David Thoreau

Narrow Dog to Indian River – Terry Darlington

Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work – Richard DuFour

I Love You, Miss Huddleston: And Other Inappropriate Longings of My Indiana Childhood – Phillip Gulley

The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades – Gail Boushey

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband and a Bus with a Will of it’s Own – Doreen Orion

A Friend Like Henry – Nuala Gardner

Prairie Tale: A Memoir – Melissa Gilbert

Blogging about Books

2010 Reading Wrap Up

As Good As It Gets

The Mighty Queens

Mystery and Intrigue

Holidays on Ice

Sick Puppy

More Traveling Stories

Another AT Journey

Wishin’ & Hopin’

Challenge Completed: Support Your Local Library

You Better Not Cry

A Visit to San Juan Island

You Better Knot Die

Small Miracles

By Hook or by Crook

Deadfall

Knit the Season

Comfort Food

The Opposite of Me

Black & Blue

Tim Gunn, You Rock!

Meh.

When “Gifts” Run Amok

Short Stories are not my thing

Garden Spells

Burn

Last Days of the Most Excellent Year

Fire & Ice

Knitting Away!

A Day in the Life

The Sugar Queen

August Re-Cap

Moloka’i

Must be late August!

Another Lorna Landvik

A Stitch in Crime

Tall Pine Polka

Crochet Mystery #2

The Painter from Shanghai

July Reading

Hey Ranger 2

June Review

Fun With Stephanie & Lula

Crusin’ the Inside Passage

Crochet Mysteries

Don’t Panic!

Termination Dust

Thorny Behaviors

2nd Challenge Completed!

Back to Maine

Valley of the Dolls

May in Review

Angst and Indecision

Coming Attractions!

Chick Lit + Murder

Mourn Not Your Dead

Another AT tale

Knit Two

Making Mountains Out of Molehills

April in Review

Those Who Save Us – SPOILER ALERT

Sleeping Lady

Shut Up and Fish!

Somewhere Off The Coast of Maine

1st Challenge DONE! What’s in a Name 3 Wrap Up

Shanghai Girls

Sushi for Beginners

The Nanny Diaries

The Queen’s Fool

March Check In

Death on the Nile

Reading about Reading

Flush

Green Witch

Stealing Buddha's Dinner

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

Knit One, Purl Two

Hike! Gee! Haw! Easy!