Mount TBR 2018 discussion
Level 3: Mt. Vancouver (36)
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Climbing to new heights!
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Jennifer
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Dec 31, 2017 07:49PM
Hi everybody. My name is Jen. Last year I climbed Mt. Blanc, so this year I expanded my goal to Mount Vancouver. I will be updating my books here, on Goodreads and on my blog, www.366andmore.blogspot.com I would love to connect with some new friends this year. Good luck with your reading! Happy New Year!
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ooh good luck and happy climbing :)
1. The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz.
I grew up obsessed with Dean Koontz books, but this one didn't do much for me. It tells about a woman named Amy, who has a real passion for rescuing abandoned or disabled golden retrievers. She rescues a dog named Nickie from a family and Nickie connects her to many incidents in the past. While she is dealing with this, her boyfriend Brian, is also dealing with his past, mainly in the form of a psychotic ex-girlfriend with custody of their daughter. This was not my favorite Dean Koontz book.
It's interesting that dogs, often retrievers, show up in a lot of Dean Koontz books.
He has (had?) a golden retriever. I like animals but I'm not a dog owner. I wonder if I would've liked the book a bit more if I could relate more to the dog/owner bond.
I remember there was one Dean Koontz book with a dog that I liked - the dog was telepathic maybe? or had some kind of paranormal power. Can't remember the title though.
Yeah. I remember that one too. I don't remember which book it was
Jennifer wrote: "Yeah. I remember that one too. I don't remember which book it was"Was it Watchers? That was the first Koontz book I read, and I really enjoyed it.
Not sure. When I was in high school I read every Dean Koontz book I could get my hands on. Now, years later, they've all blended together in my head. :)
That is it, I think. Here's the Goodreads description:From a top secret government laboratory come two genetically altered life forms. One is a magnificent dog of astonishing intelligence. The other, a hybrid monster of a brutally violent nature. And both are on the loose…Bestselling author Dean Koontz presents his most terrifying, dramatic and moving novel: The explosive story of a man and a woman, caught in a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation…
2.
I really liked this one. I had heard of his museum before, but knew nothing about the man as a person. I also got a little hello from the author when I mentioned that I was reading the book on a Goodreads post. I always enjoy connecting with the people behind the book, especially if I am enjoying it.
3.
I apparently forgot to log this one in January. This book was creative but I thought that kids would get more lost than I did. It was interesting though.
4. I learned a lot while reading this book. I have never done any mountain climbing so reading about the effects of high altitude climbing was quite eye opening. I knew a lot of preparation would go into climbing a mountain like Everest but I had never thought of some of the perils that these climbers encountered. Pretty interesting.
5. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
I have found that I like some James Patterson books and dislike others. I have recently realized that most of the Alex Cross books, I seem to enjoy. I wish the 2 plotlines in this book were a little more connected than they both occurred on Christmas, but I enjoyed the book anyways.
6. Dark Matter by Garfield Reeves- Stevens I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't going to like this book. I didn't get more than 50 pages before I decided to put it down. I very rarely don't stick with a book. It just wasn't my type.
7. Drop Shot by Harlan Coben I have a habit of somehow inheriting a book that is not the first in a series. This is the case with this book. Fortunately, I didn't have to read Myron Bolitar #1 to get the jist. At the beginning of this book, I wasn't very attached to any of the characters or to the main plot events but it got better as I went along. I'm glad I stuck with it. I really enjoy Harlan Coben's books.
8 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- I loved this book. I'm so sad that the author has passed away and that I won't be able to read more from her. Being a letter writer myself, I really related to the main character and enjoyed seeing the personality of each character expressed through their letters. This is a sweet story. I would highly recommend it.
9. My Side of the Mountain-
I don't know how I hadn't read this classic. My older son read it so I thought I'd give it a read. We both really liked it. I can't wait to pass it on to my ten year old. He's not quite as adventurous as my older son, so I'm curious if he'll like it as much.
25% of the way to the summit.
This is a book that was recommended to me by my older son (12.) I remember hearing him giggling along to certain parts of the book. It took me about 2 sentences in to realize why he was laughing. I really enjoyed this book, which centers around Mickey and Wahoo Cray, a team of father/son animal wranglers who are hired to work with famed star Derek Badger, on his survival show. I really enjoyed the quirky characters and some of the subplots involved with this book. I'd like to read more from Carl Hiaasen. This was the first book of his that I have read.
11. Live Wire by Harlan Coben.
This is one of the Myron Bolitar series, which I really like. There were a few things in this book that went a different direction than what I was thinking it would, which was nice since I've read a lot by this author. This was a quick read that I didn't want to put down many times.
12. Mind Prey by John Stanford- Andi Manette and her 2 young daughters have been attacked and taken from a parking lot after a parent teacher conference. The kidnapper is a man named John Mail, whom Andi has treated at a psychiatric hospital. Lucas Davenport has been put on the case to solve the missing women. Although I usually don't read books with this much violence, this thriller kept me guessing on what was going to be happening next. I have the next two books in this series so I will look forward to reading those too.
13. Library of Souls by Random Riggs- Despite some of the bad reviews of this one on Goodreads, I really enjoyed this book. It was a little slow to get into but I think it's because it's been a while since I read the 2nd book. I recently read that a fourth book, A Map of Days will be coming out. Does anybody know the release date of that one? I will definitely check it out. It will be interesting to see what Riggs does with all of the characters after this 3rd book.
One third of the way to the summit. I'm a teacher and this is my first full week of not being in school. I cannot wait to catch up on my reading.
14. Burn by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. - I live in a 2 family house and our upstairs neighbor, a woman in her 60s will occasionally send me the books she finishes. This is how I've gotten most of my James Patterson books (and perhaps how she reads anything by anyone but James Patterson..lol). This is part of the Michael Bennett series. I've mentioned before that I really like how short Patterson's chapters are because I can devote a few minutes to reading- or, like today, a bunch of hours while I'm hiding from the heat outside. I enjoyed this one a lot. I don't think I've read any of the previous Michael Bennett books, but I might go find some after reading this.
15. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan- This book has been on my "to read" shelf for years. (Now I have the rest of the series to read.) My son loved these books and asked me to read them when he was done. In MA, they study ancient Greece in 6th grade, which is the grade my son just finished. This book really gave him an interest in mythology so it was nice to see him excited about social studies when he started seeing some familiar names and stories. I like Riordan's sense of humor and creativity. I think this is the first book I've read by him.
16. Cross by James Patterson-
This is the twelfth book of the Alex Cross series. I have read many of these books, admittedly out of order. This one was just okay for me. I was really confused about where Ali, the third child came from. Alex and his wife had 2 children. She died. Later he had 3 children. Where did I miss something? Maybe this was said somewhere in another book?
17. A Wanted Man by Lee Child- I have also read quite a few of the Jack Reacher books. I liked this one a lot, though I think I wanted a bit more from the ending. There were a few times in the story where I was pretty surprised at the story line.
The Sixty-Eight Rooms18. Sixty-Eight Rooms- Woohoo. Halfway there. This was a great book for the younger crowd. I loved the creativity and the friendship between Jack and Ruthie. I appreciated the concern that Jack and Ruthie showed for other people. I would like my 10 year old to read this next.
Bridge to Terabithia19. This one is a re-read for me. I read it a very long time ago but it's been on my TBR shelf so I think I can count it. I had forgotten how sad this book was. I vaguely remembered this book making me upset when I read it as a kid (and disliking it because of that), but I enjoyed it this time around.
*I read the Ballantine version of 1965 but wasn't going to search 100 pages of search results*20. The Hobbit by Tolkien- How have I never read this? I have come up with 2 answers- 1) My parents were not readers and 2) My parents did not like fantasy. Blame them? I'm surprised I was never asked to read it in school. I liked this. I have heard a little of the story of The Lord of the Rings but I have avoided sitting to watch the movies all the way through because I'm a "read it first" type of gal. However, I have also played the Lord of the Rings Symphony (Johann de Meij) and some of the movie score as a musician so I know a lot of the story. It was good to finally read about Bilbo Baggins firsthand.
The Ultimate Book of Useless Information: A Few Thousand More Things You Might Need to Know21. The Ultimate Book of Useless Information: A Few Thousand More Things You Might Need to Know- This book is FULL of weird, interesting facts and quotes. There is no doubt that I'll pull out some of these random facts in my teaching sometime this year. lol
True Evil22. True Evil by Greg Isles- This book was a little slow at first but began picking up speed around the middle. I actually put it down for a few days and when I picked it up again I became interested again.
Apparition Island23. Apparition Island by Jennifer LeClair- This is my first LeClair book. I tend to get a lot of books passed down from my upstairs neighbors and I have noticed that I often start reading and notice that I'm in the middle of a series of books. Luckily, this one didn't matter too much and it was easy to follow. It was a little "chick lit" ish for me, but it was an interesting story and I was fine once I got used to the dialogue between characters. (and stopped being annoyed.. lol)
I'm a teacher and I start school Monday. I'm so excited that I got a lot of quality reading done during the summer.
Mount TBR 2018
Books mentioned in this topic
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (other topics)Bridge to Terabithia (other topics)
Cross (other topics)
The Lightning Thief (other topics)
Mind Prey (other topics)
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