Pamela’s Comments (group member since Oct 22, 2019)

Pamela’s comments from the VIRTUAL Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2020 group.

Book 8 is Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford.

4.5 stars, eBook

A historical novel, that had a lot of facts and real life in the book, unfortunately. This was the time of the red scare and blacklisting writers, and this book focuses on tv screenwriters, and women in the workplace. A well done book, almost made it a five-star read, but not quite.

Books 7 is The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Raza.

5 stars, print book

This wasn't an easy read, and somewhat technical with medical terms which made it a slower read. When I finally had some solid time with the book I made it through. An excellent book though, very important in trying to get attention to what cancer research should be working on instead of continuing down the same path.

Book 6 is Becoming by Michelle Obama.

5 stars, audio

An excellent memoir, and the perfect way to read this book is the audio version where Michelle Obama narrates it. She does a great job, which not all author's can pull off. I'd say it enhances the book as well. I've been meaning to read this book since it came out, glad I finally got it done.

Book 5 is the classic Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

5 stars, audio

This has been on my to read list since forever. Finally got to it, via audio. It was well done. Great novella. I have yet to read a bad Steinbeck. I'd like to read more of his works, even own at least one unread.

Book 4 is Ordinary Girls by Jaquira

5 stars, audio

This was a surprising book. It's non-fiction, autobiography of growing up in Peurto Rico and Miami Beach, by an extremely dysfunctional family. Her mother and maternal grandmother both have mental illness and drug addiction. Her father seems more concerned with chasing other women, or something, his mother is what saves Díaz. The book is lyrical and written well, in many ways amazing.

Book three done Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World by David Owen.

5 stars, print & audio

Excellent book! I started reading the print book but then got the audio version from the library and finished up the book quickly. An informative book all about hearing, and well organized. It's written as a general informative about the topic, not too deep in any area and explores some of the author's own experience with hearing issues.

Book two completed Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun.

4 stars, eBook

I started this book on Dec.19, got to little over a quarter the way though by the first of the year. Finally finished the other day, it took me nearly a month to read. Yet the book wasn't bad at all, just nothing cohesive to drive you to keep returning to it as soon as possible. It shed light on women that are now of a certain age, and of the X Generation. Yeah, that's me and I'm not sure how many outside this group of people this book would appeal to them, like men even. I'm not going through any crisis, midlife or otherwise, but found some good information in the book.

The first book I finished in the new year is on the virtual tbr with The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon.


3 stars, print book

I meant to finish the book for last year, but didn't quite have the time before leaving out of town for six days. Since it was a library book I didn't want to take with me, so it ended up as my first finished book of the year. The story is okay, not great, had a few interesting parts.

Running List:

----------- Rum Doodle ----------------

January:
1. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
2. Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun
3. Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World by David Owen
4. Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz (audio)
5. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (audio)

February:
6. Becoming by Michelle Obama (audio)
7. The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Raza
8. Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford

March:
9. Iphigenia Murphy by Sara Hosey
10. Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver
11. The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial (audio)

April:
12. Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

----------- Mount Crumpit ------------
April:
13. The Quarry Wood by Nan Shepherd

May:
14. My Green Manifesto: Down the Charles River in Pursuit of a New Environmentalism by David Gessner
15. The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland by Walter Thompson-Hernandez (audio)
16. Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran
17. Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
18. The Milkman's Son: A Memoir of Family History, a DNA Mystery, and a Story of Paternal Love by Randy Lindsay

June:
19. My Struggle: Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgård
20. The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
21. Roadside Americans: The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation by Jack Reid

July:
22. Slam by Lewis Shiner
23. People of the Canyons: A Novel of North America's Forgotten Past by Kathleen O'Neal Gear & W. Michael Gear

August:
24. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

----------- Mount Munch --------------
August:
25. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
26. Coffee by Dinah Lenney
27. Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine
28. With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt

September:
29. Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream by Mychal Denzel Smith
30. The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
31. Members Only Sameer Pandya (audio)
32. How to Fly: In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons by Barbara Kingsolver

October:
33. Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther by Craig Pittman (audio)
34. The Cold Millions by Jess Walter

November:
35. We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper
36. The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin

----------- White Plume ----------------
November:
37. Down Along with That Devil's Bones: A Reckoning with Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy by Connor Towne O'Neill
38. Fat by Hanne Blank
39. The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline (audio)
40. Political Sign by Tobias Carroll

Every year I read more virtual tbr books than owned, for 2020 I want to see if I can turn that around. I'm going to see if I can stay on this mountain and not go higher, but with all the NetGalley books I need to read, plus library books already checked out, it will be tough to slow the pace. In any case the main goal is to enjoy the climb!

Happy reading to all!

Hello, I'm back again for another year of the Virtual Mountain challenge. I cannot stay away from library books, well I do work in one, and really the new books that come out always looks so interesting. Despite that I'm going to start at a lower mountain than last year, an attempt to focus on owned books. It's Mount Munch for me.

Bev, have to say that I love all the graphics for each level introduction. Marvelous!

Hi Bev, wasn't this level to be 24 books?
Thanks!