Laura’s Comments (group member since Oct 05, 2015)

Laura’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

I have two favorites this month, one that's a lighter, fun read and another that's a bit more thought provoking.

The Vanishing Half
Author - Brit Bennett
Rating - 5 stars
Format - eBook
ATY prompt - state you've never visited (California, New York, and Louisiana)
Why I liked it - The author was very lyrical, yet simple in the writing so it was easy to follow but also beautiful at times. The underlying themes related to the experience of being black, yet appearing white, and power of family were interesting.

Since You've Been Gone
Author - Morgan Matson
Rating - 4.5 stars (I typically reserve 5 stars for strong emotions/themes/reactions - this one did have strong themes related to friendship and coming of age but needed a bit more of an emotional boost - I know, very scientific)
Format - eBook
ATY Prompt - Associated with a specific season or time of year - Summer
Why I liked it - The concept was fun and I enjoyed coming along with the MC as she completed her list. The characters were also well-developed given the storyline. It did well with not only taking me to the season, which was the prompt, but also my high school years.

I finished 6 books, which was my general goal for the month 👏🏻

My husband gifted me a "Been there Done That" Poster for novels for Christmas which is hopefully going to be a push to read more of the classics. I'm starting the month with Anne of Green Gables.

Others on my list:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
The Alchemist
The Searcher
The Glass Hotel
The Guest List
Anxious People


Holds I'm hoping for:
The Project
The Push
The Duke and I - It's a quicker hold if I borrow a volume (first 3 books)
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo


Obviously, as always, I have more library holds and checkouts than I actually read in the loan period...

The map is now updated through message 142. No new locations just yet.

To print, you would want to save the image and then print from that saved copy.

You can find Julia's here: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

And the group version here: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

Just right click on the image and choose "Save Image As..."

My husband bought me this awesome poster for Christmas that includes 100 "Epic Reads". It uses a scratch off style to track the books as you read them. My goal is to read at least one per month (tentatively) and I've already crossed off a handful of them.

Been There Done That Novelogue

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. Moby-Dick or, the Whale by Herman Melville
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
✔9. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
10. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

✔11. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
✔12. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
13. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
14. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
15. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
16. Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
17. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
✔18. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
✔19. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
*20. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

21. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
22. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
✔23. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
24. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
25. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
27. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
28. The Giver by Lois Lowry
29. Dracula by Bram Stoker
30. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

31. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
*32. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
33. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
34. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
*35. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
36. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
37. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
38. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
39. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
40. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

41. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
42. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
43. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
44. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
45. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
✔46. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
47. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
48. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
49. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
50. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

51. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
52. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
53. 1984 by George Orwell
54. The Odyssey by Homer
55. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
56. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
57. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
58. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
59. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
60. Ulysses by James Joyce

61. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
62. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
63. Beloved by Toni Morrison
✔64. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
65. Animal Farm by George Orwell
66. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
67. Emma by Jane Austen
68. The Stand by Stephen King
69. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
70. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

*71. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
72. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
73. Dune by Frank Herbert
74. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
75. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
76. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
77. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
78. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
79. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
80. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

81. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
82. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
83. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
84. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
85. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
86. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
87. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
*88. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
✔89. Atonement by Ian McEwan
90. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

91. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
92. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
93. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
94. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
95. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
96. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
97. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
98. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
99. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
100. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I was definitely a bit stubborn when it came to reading books when I was school and often couldn't get interested in a book if I was forced to read it. Which means I haven't read most of those books that are the typical literary classics. There's also a few that I've already read (marked with a *) that I wouldn't mind re-reading.

Emily wrote: "I'm ready for it to be Saturday so I can just sit for a few hours and fall into this book!"

I had to leave for work yesterday with only about 20 pages left in The Vanishing Half. Such a travesty! haha

Ana A wrote: "I finished the seventh book. There's a lot of repetition when it comes to the reason for the leading man's or woman's angst. Dead or terrible parents, questionable birth, dead siblings or dead cous..."

I'd love to hear whether you think it's valuable to read the .5 books as you come to them or whether it's good to go back to the end.

I think I am going to give in and read the first one for the "You read what??" prompt.

Great idea, Ana A! I wasn’t sure what I would read for that prompt. I may just have to do that 🤔

I liked Eloise’s character in the series but couldn’t stand her hair! I’m glad I’m not the only one. I feel like they also did something strange with her eyebrows. Both were super distracting for me.

It will be a bit hard to let go of Daphne/Simon in the next stories since I loved them so much. I will say that I was beyond frustrated at how little communication they had. So much heartache could have been avoided if they had just asked questions. But I suppose it was appropriate for the time.

I finished Bridgerton today and it had me completely engrossed. I have such mixed feelings about (view spoiler)[ her forcing the insemination (for lack of a better word). I read a lot of criticism of that in the book reviews and am honestly surprised that it didn’t get cut or changed for the show. (hide spoiler)]But still loved the show for the overall romance, set pieces, and characters.

I can’t decide if I want to read the books. Typically, it would be a resounding “yes” but I’m wondering if they would be a bit too romance-for me.

Very good point, Lizzy!

Haven't read it

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Published in September 1999

New number: 3 (213 pages)

daisy

This is more appropriately placed within the self promotion thread. Moving it there :)

Laurel wrote: "I'm not planning on doing the challenge in order because many of the titles I am considering I would be getting from the library and from experience I know my holds won't come in order (the library..."

I've had luck trying to plan the challenge in quarters. I'm a mood reader so I decided that planning too far ahead made me lose excitement with the books as the year went on, while it was also difficult to maintain with the library holds. So now I only look at the next 3 months, plan out my books, and request my holds. It's a bit more of a challenge than allowing myself to go anywhere in the challenge but also somewhat flexible.

I'm leaning towards waiting a bit for The Vanishing Half, for that reason, Kathy. Starting with a "light" read seems like a good idea!

Yes, totally optional :)

Thank you, Julia! Do you mind if I upload it to the group photos?

Here is another option for those who are interested: https://i.imgur.com/RNd2h7i.jpg

It will be in the group photos at the bottom of the group homepage if anyone loses track of this thread :)