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!