Jennifer’s Comments (group member since Dec 03, 2021)

Jennifer’s comments from the On The Same Page group.

Dilettante --FInished 4Q25
Ghost Light --Finished 11/7/2025 charming!
Read 1/3/2025
The Second Assistant-- Finished 11/11/25
The cruelty is the point--FInished 4Q25
Read 1/2/2025
The last of the president’s men--FInished 4Q25, very good
Brief encounters --Read 4/2025, very good.
1948 --Read 11/9/2025
Dark Star--FInished 4Q25 enjoyed it!
Read 1/8/2025 ugh
Hitler’s aristocrats--FInished 4Q25
Hitler’s American Friends--FInished 4Q25
The Duchess of Kent --Read 2/2025
The queen mother -- Read 2/2025
What’s Next--FInished 4Q25 and what a fun book!

List forthcoming -- fiction standalones I'd forgotten I owned.

Trying to finish long series.....

Mrs. Murphy










Quarry -- Love this series, read everything now except #6 (which inexplicably is not available on audio or kindle. I bought one of the *two* copies I found online for *45* bucks and will read it soon).
--Read 04/2025
--Read 04/2025
--Read 04/2025
--Read 04/2025
--Read 04/2025
--Read 04/2025

--Read 04/2025

List forthcoming and we're already on year four? WHOA!

Jackie, that was a fun book. I think you'll like it.

The colors for January are white or silver. Looking forward to seeing what everyone picks!

In for five, please!
PIFM

Hi, everyone!

For anyone unfamiliar, this is a monthly challenge where you post a link to a shelf you created. It can be named "PIFM" or "Pick It For Me" etc, if you want one dedicated only to this challenge, or you can use an existing shelf you already have, as long as it has 100 or fewer books on it. The link must be to the specific shelf, or you will not be partnered.. Indicate how many books you would like to have picked for you from that shelf for the month in question. There is no lower limit as to how many books you can have on your shelf, but, of course, they should be books you are interested in reading during the next month and have ready access to.

On or about the 25th of each month, I will post who picks for whom. In order to accommodate an uneven number of participants, pairs will not be reciprocal -- in other words, it won't be Joanne picking for Jennifer and Jennifer picking for Joanne. It may be Joanne picks for Jennifer, Jennifer picks for Herman, and Herman picks for Suzanne, and someone else entirely picks for Joanne.

If anyone has not been "picked for" by the 30th, I will pick for them if the designated picker can't be contacted by PM.

When you are assigned someone to pick for, note the number of books in parentheses after that person's name in the pick list, go to the link for their shelf, and pick that number of books for them. Post the books in a new message here. That person has the entire following month to read his/her picks. Someone will be picking for you the same way. We all like to see what people think about their picks, so we hope you will keep us posted in this thread!

Example: "In for five, please!
PIFM"

The HTML template for linking your shelf can be found HERE and if you have trouble, PM me and I will help you.

Your designated shelf must be set so that others can see it. To set up a PIFM shelf for those who would like to, go to the "MY BOOKS" link in the GOODREADS toolbar, scroll down below your shelves on the left until you see the "add shelf" button, and click that. Name it PIFM or Pick It For Me. Add books to it, and post the link to it in this challenge as described above. Again, if you need help, please don't hesitate to PM me!

If you are in for January, post your shelf and the number of picks you'd like to have below. See you on picking day!

Pairs:

Jennifer picks 5 for Joy
Joy picks 1 for Denise
Denise picks 1 for Jackie
Jackie picks 5 for Jennifer

Poll winner for the first quarter non-fiction read of 2025:

Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions
John Grisham

In his first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, #1 bestselling author John Grisham and Centurion Ministries Founder Jim McCloskey share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions. Impeccably researched and grippingly told, Framed offers an inside look at the injustice faced by the victims of the United States criminal justice system.

A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty there is very little room to prove doubt. Framed shares ten true stories of men who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, wives, and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They take a close look at what leads to wrongful convictions in the first place, and the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and the corrupt court system that can make them so hard to reverse.

Told with page-turning suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of overcoming adversity when the battle already seems lost, and the deck is stacked against you.

Well, in keeping with my plan to finish 2024's independent challenge in 2025, I'll read something from that list:

Have at it, Denise! I could do another five or ten challenges made up of other challenges I'm behind on, so I might steal it from myself.

This is what I didn't get read of my independent challenge in 2024.

Audible did three big purges of its plus catalog, so I lost three months trying to listen to plus titles before they expired. That and laziness is what got me here. :)

Historical fiction based on true stories or featuring real-life figures:

Strangers in the Night
The President’s Wife
A Beautiful Rival: A Novel of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden
Starring Adele Astaire
The Royal Windsor Secret
A Good Hard Look
Leading Men
Hepburn's Necklace read 1Q25
Such Good Friends: A Novel of Truman Capote & Lee Radziwill
Sister Stardust
Sisters of the Resistance
The Blue Butterfly
Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life
The Dorothy Parker Murder Case
Empress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great
Amherst
Dillinger Read 1/9/2025
Old News
The Borgia Confessions
True Crime Read in March and immediately read the entire series.
Assassins
Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl
An American Beauty
We'll Always Have Murder: A Humphrey Bogart Mystery
Handsome Harry
The Second Duchess
Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon
Waiting for Robert Capa
A Being So Gentle: The Frontier Love Story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson

This year's color picks were provided by Jackie, who was the originator of this challenge. For those of you who like to plan ahead, here they are!

January --white and silver
February-- pink and spring green
March-- gold and brown
April --yellow and pale blue
May-- purple and beige
June --turquoise and lavender
July --red and blue
August --peach and aqua
September --green and coffee
October --orange and black
November --cranberry red and tan
December --rose gold and navy blue

I can't believe I'm nominating this one but I think it might actually be life-changing for me, and since January is when everyone thinks about this topic, it's timely. Plus it was one of the last books outstanding on my NF yearly challenge, so I'm glad I got it knocked out!

Hi! Time for a new year of focus genres!

Please nominate a genre for January 2025 in this thread, if you would like to. The only rule for genre nominations is that you cannot nominate a genre that we've already read this calendar year. Because this is for January and therefore the first nomination thread,, *all* genres are eligible.

Not planning to be a huge stickler on the "genre vs subgenre" thing. If it's a recognized book category (i.e. you can reasonably expect the average Goodreads reader to know what it is), post it.

Nominations open until 12/14, poll to follow.

If you want to see examples of genres and subgenres that Goodreads has some lists for, or figure out where a book/style of book you like happens to fit, try this link:

Goodreads Genres

Great picks, and I really need to finish off that Dixie Divas series, so thanks for the push!

To the surprise of no one, "HOLIDAYS" was the runaway winner in the December genre focus poll. ANY holiday counts! Looking forward to seeing your picks, and happy holidays, everyone!

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen
Vicki Delany

In Rudolph, New York, it’s Christmastime all year long. But this December, while the snow-lined streets seem merry and bright, a murder is about to ruin everyone’s holiday cheer…

As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoo-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town.

Merry isn’t ready to point fingers, especially with a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirit. But when she stumbles upon the reporter’s body on a late night dog walk—and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky—Merry will have to put down the jingle bells and figure out who’s really been grinching about town, before Vicky ends up on Santa’s naughty list…

A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens

'If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!'

Introduction and Afterword by Joe Wheeler
To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late.

Part of the Focus on the Family Great Stories collection, this abridged edition features an in-depth introduction and discussion questions by Joe Wheeler to provide greater understanding for today's reader. "A Christmas Carol" captures the heart of the holidays like no other novel.