Challenge Completed: Support Your Local Library

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.