Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
2021 Plans
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Joan is not preplanning 2021 ATY-Ok I lied
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I completed listening to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory. I loved this author. She deals with a hard subject and makes it funny. She uses spectacular vocabulary and just makes it fun. Her narration is outstanding. It's like listening to an episode of Big Bang Theory. This was the second book I listened to of hers. I would listen to them again just because I love her humor and voice! I rated it five stars. How could I not?Well I haven't been doing well with reading the rest of them in order. One thing or another has come up to make me read them out of order. I'm still reading Eragon. It's a good story but drawn out. The world building is definitely awesome. I'm hoping to complete it by Thursday night. If I do I'll be ahead 10 books at least for a day or two but I should be able to maintain the 9 books ahead.
33/52
I finally completed Eragon. It definitely wasn't my favorite book. I've wanted to read it for years. At least I can say I have. I think it's amazing that it was written when the author was a teenager at the time but the book just wasn't for me. I didn't really connect to the characters. I did at first with Eragon and the dragon but then after the first quarter to a third of the book, I wasn't interested anymore. I loved the part when he was learning about the dragon and his magic. The rest of it not so much. I only rated it two stars. I wanted to rate it higher but it just felt like a chore to complete it.I'm feeling like a romance now or something but that doesn't help me with reading the rest of my books in order. I guess I'll see what I feel like to read next.
34/52
I read My Sister's Keeper. I have been wanting to read it for a long time. I went and saw the movie when it came out so it's been awhile. I didn't remember it ending that way and I really don't like the way it ended. I'm going to have to re-watch the movie. All in all though the book made you think about things and it had a lot of emotion in it and I liked the characters. It was very easy to read. I rated it only 4 stars mostly because of the ending.I can't decide what to read next. I've received some gift cards for my birthday last month and of course I spent them on books that aren't in my reading plan for this year. I'm kind of in a quandary.
35/52
I finally finished World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. It just wasn't my type of book. I've read other formats like it but thought they were done better as far as caring about characters. I'm not even sure there were the same characters in different sections and to be honest I didn't care. I only rated it two stars. It was a book I always wanted to read so I'm glad I ticked it off but I'm upset I didn't like it more.I've completed the first 15 prompts and my plan was to read the rest in order but I'm not sticking to that. Surprise, surprise - the mood reader doesn't want to stick to an order. I want to finish the southern reach series so I'm a third of the way through Authority. I also want to finish the red rising series but I'm saving them till last because they take me so long to read and I want to stay at least 9 ahead in this challenge. I'm currently holding at 9. I'm going to start listening to a book published in 2021. I got the new George Bush book that just came out with my monthly audible credit so that is what I picked for that prompt.
36/52
Wow - last couple of books haven't been so great. I usually like Sci-fi and fantasy but my picks haven't been working out. I just read Authority and I definitely did not love it. I found it uninteresting except maybe for a few parts. There is a third book to the series and I feel like I want to complete the series but if the next book drags as much as the last one I will regret my decision to finish the series.I'm reading Normal People but I can't seem to fit it in my plan anywhere. I was hoping it was in the best book of the month thread but I didn't see it listed there. I think I'm going to double check again and then maybe ponder another spot for it. There is an outline of two faces on it. I'm not sure if I should count it for the prompt a book with more than one person on the front.
37/52
Normal People is set in Ireland which apparently is an island. My geography isn't the greatest. I had an inkling it might be and I looked it up last night. So I'm happy I can fit it into a prompt. So far it is written really well. It caught my attention right away and it flows nicely. I need this book after my Sci Fi disasters. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Normal People was a quick read. I enjoyed the characters and the story. The ending was disappointing. I like it a little more tied up than that. No quotation marks on dialogue was also confusing at times. I ended up rating it 4 stars mostly because of the ending. I just wanted a little more than that.I'm not sure what to read next. I guess I'll let the summer challenge dictate what I read next.
38/52
The Glass Castle - This book was amazing. It grabbed me from the beginning. I don't usually read physical copies of memoirs. I usually listen to them on audio because I'm usually uninterested. That was not the case with this book. When I picked it up out of a free stack of books I didn't realize it was a memoir but I knew it was on my tbr. After this book I feel like an excellent parent. I rated it 4 stars. It was captivating to see what was going to happen next. It was almost like watching a train wreck that you couldn't look away from. I rated it 5 stars.39/52
I listened to The Man I Knew: The Amazing Story of George H. W. Bush's Post-Presidency on audio. I really enjoyed it. It was a good look into the personal side of George H. W. Bush. A lot of heartwarming stories. I rated it 5 stars.40/52
I read The Beautiful Lost to count towards the summer challenge. It doesn't count towards my annual challenge. It was a quick young adult book that I was interested in reading because it deals with teens and depression. I thought it was an important book. The author's note at the end put a personal touch on it. The characters felt real and you could feel their emotions. I wish the book was around when I was a teen. I rated it 5 stars.Two more to go for the summer challenge!!!
Well August is slow reading for me which it is usually the opposite. I just completed Virgin River. I counted it towards a happy book for the summer challenge. Love books usually make me happy and I haven't really been reading them. Sometimes they are a little too cheesy and this one was a little but I liked the story. I watched the first episode of the Netfix series and it seems like it is following the book mostly. I thought the characters were likeable and somewhat complex. There was a little mystery in there about a baby and I didn't see that twist coming. The other twists I could have guessed. It was a comforting book though and easy to read. I rated it 4 stars. I used it for prompt 27 for a character in a deck of cards because one of the main characters was named Jack.I'm probably going to read the next book in the series which won't count towards my annual challenge unless I move it to the one with flowers on it. I haven't seen the cover. Amazon is supposed to deliver it today. So if it has flowers on it I'll count it but I need the next book in a series that I've already started for the summer challenge. The other book I had earmarked for that prompt I think will take me too long to read because I'm going away next weekend and won't have much reading time and it's not going to be a quick book for me to get through.
41/52
Well I happily figured out that I completed the summer challenge. I didn't include Greenlights that I read outside of the annual challenge and then I realized it worked for the last prompt I had for the summer challenge that was unfilled.I'm reading a little slow lately. I'm going to finish Shelter Mountain today and I found a quick book for the ice prompt that I expect to complete this weekend. Then I'm rearranging some of the other books on my list. My reading priorities have changed once again. I'm such a mood reader. Although the books I have slotted that I'm moving out I'm going to have to read sometime because I own them.
I finally completed Shelter Mountain. I think I'm done reading romance at least for a few books. Sometimes it's fun to pick up. I guess these are more the Harlequinn type that I don't normally read but it was fun for a distraction. I might read more of the series but I don't have a need to run out and get the next book any time soon. Some of it was predictable for me and I found I wasn't all that excited to pick it back up. It was a cute story though so I ended up rating it three stars.I'm planning on reading Winter's Bone next which should be a quick read. I'm reading that one for the ice prompt. I found it on clearance at a book store. Hopefully it will be a good story.
I'm changing around some of my picks for prompts because I was getting in a slump. It seems at this point of the year I contemplate not doing the challenge the following year. I think it is mostly because I'm not excited about the prompts that are left. We'll see. I'm hoping to be done somewhat early this year so I can just binge and read whatever I want that doesn't go with any prompts. I only have 10 books left for the challenge. I'm hoping to be done by the end of October.
42/52
I completed Winter's Bone which wasn't a part of my plan until a couple of weeks ago when I saw it on bargain priced. It was short and critically acclaimed and I thought it would fit great for the ice prompt which it did. There were several places in the book that mentioned ice and how icy it was. It was a good book. It was gruff in spots with the characters. He painted a good picture of the area and the inhabitants. The ending was one of those that it kind of left it open. I ended up rating it 3 stars which might have been a little harsh.43/52
I really enjoyed Such a Fun Age. It was on sale at Targe and I didn't really know anything about it. It was a really good humorous book and it depicted awkward people in it well. There were some race issues in there too that I thought were handled well. I rated it 4 stars and I read it for the ATY best books of the month thread.I'm happy I only have 8 left to read!
44/52
Well I read We Are the Ants but I didn't count it towards my annual challenge. I counted for the fall challenge and for the read-a-thon. It was a really good YA book. I enjoyed the character very much. He was pretty conflicted and worked through his thoughts. There are some answers I wanted that I didn't get but I think that was the author's intent. I rated it 4 stars. I saw that it was recommended at my book store and someone had sold back a used copy so I got it for only $2.35. It was an unplanned read for this year and it was a good one.I'm at the point in the challenge where I'm not terribly excited about the books I have left so once again I'm changing around my plan a little bit. I'm also trying to read things that I want to even if they don't fit in the plan. I don't want to be bored with my reading. I know that books I have left are good but I'm just not in the right frame of mind. Some of them are serious and long and I just haven't been in the mood. Once again I'm considering not doing the challenge next year just because I'm such a mood reader. But I also like to check off a list. It gives me a little bit of a direction. Well I still have 8 books left to read. I think I'm reading a short sci-fi one which will count for a future book so I can knock that prompt off.
44/52
Well I switched around the rest of the books that I have left to get it done a little quicker so I can read some books at the end of the year that aren't on my challenge.Rogue Protocol - This was a quick book and I thought the ending was a little too quick. It took me a couple of chapters to figure out what was going on. I do like the main character of the book which is part robot. I'm glad I read this book but I'm not running out to get the next book in the series. I rated it 3 stars for this reason and it was really a round up from 2.5 stars.
The House of Kennedy - I listened to this on audio and it was really interesting. The narrator wasn't my favorite and he also wasn't bad so it was easy listening. It went through all the stories of the Kennedy's. I love reading anything associated with Presidents so this was a fun book for me. I rated it 4 stars.
I'm excited that I only have six books left. Hoping to be done somewhere near the end of October.
46/52
The Silent Patient - I couldn't wait to read this one so I slotted it in slot 51. It pretty much lived up to expectations. I really liked the book and I thought the characters were pretty thought out. I didn't guess the twist. I rated it 5 stars.Only five books left then I can start on my plan to complete some series before the end of the year.
47/52
The House in the Cerulean Sea - This was a heartwarming book. The characters and the imagination were great. It was a funny and endearing. Some life lessons can be learned out of it. I rated it 4 stars and I know a lot of people have rated it 5 stars. I just thought maybe something a little more exciting could have happened and since it didn't then maybe it could have been less pages. It's probably not a popular view on this book. It was more of a 4.5 star review but rounded down to a 4. Don't get me wrong it was a great book and well written but it did take me awhile to get through it and part of my 5 star reviews is that I can't put them down. This one I could put down. When I did pick it up though it was like a cozy sweet book.Well, only 4 books left for the annual challenge and the fall challenge. The books I have left I'm not all that looking forward to but usually once I get into them I change my mind.
48/52
I kinda got interested in the settings of my books and if I read all 7 continents this year. I think only because I read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War can I say I've read all of the continents. Without that book I'm missing Antarctica and South America. I'm not usually one for keeping track of continents or countries but this year it seems that I may have hit the continents so I was looking into it.
I put off reading A Thousand Splendid Suns for a long time. I finally read it and it was a five star for me. I liked it better than The Kite Runner. I almost want to read The Kite Runner again to see what I didn't like as much as this one. I remember parts of it and I remember thinking it was pretty depressing but so was A Thousand Splendid Suns. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, I really enjoyed the women's stories even as horrible as it was. I found their inner strength admirable. It makes me more thankful that I grew up in the USA.I only have three books left and for whatever reason I'm not thrilled with what I have left. I think once I read them I'll feel differently. I know I say this all of the time but I'm more than excited that I have so few left.
49/52
I've lost my reading mojo. I was looking at the prompts I have left and I think I can move a book into the author who has written for over 20 years. I read The Beautiful Lost by Luanne Rice. Her career has spanned over 20 years. And I just downloaded an audio book for a book with more than two people on the cover. I just am not in the mood for Lilac Girls. But if I already posted in that category for the prompts then I'm going to have to go ahead and read it. Only 3 books left and I ran out of gas. I have been listening to audio but the books I've just read don't apply to my remaining prompts.
Ok - well I did already post Lilac Girls in the prompt but most of my reading mojo is gone. I just want to finish the challenge and read some psychological thrillers for a little bit. So I posted The Beautiful Lost in for an author whose career spanned over 20 years. It was a good book and I enjoyed it. I thought it had a lot of important topics in it and a good one for teens to read. I rated it 5 stars.I'm planning on finishing The Turn of the Screw today and that will count for my book with more than two people on the cover. It's a short classic. I'm not finding it all that great but it does feel good to read a classic again.
For the long book I'm going to stick with Midnight Sun. It's a little cheesy but I want to read it and it counts for another challenge.
50/52
I finally completed The Turn of the Screw. It was just over 100 pages and took me awhile. I only rated it three stars. Some of it was creepy so that's why I went with three. Otherwise I was kinda lost in spots - so much so that for awhile I thought the narrator was a man (I don't know why). I didn't realize that the Netflix series The Haunting of Bly Manor was based on it. Now I have to watch it. I haven't read many classics this year. Only Mansfield Park, Yellow Wallpaper and this one. All of my books I've read are written after 2000 except for 4 of them.Only one more book left for the challenge. I guess I'm going to read Midnight Sun. It's for the long book prompt.
51/52
Ok - I completely lost my reading mojo the last two to three months. I did read some books the past couple of months but I only read 60 this year. I got caught up with a little bit of Netflix, the holidays, visiting family, and new puppy. So I put The Other Mrs. in for my final book. It's kinda of a wildcard but kinda not because I put it in for a long book. It was 405 pages which isn't really long in the book world but when I see a book is over 400 pages it does stress me a little. I see 300 some pages and I think no problem. The book itself was ok. At this point I read it a month ago and I can't even tell you what it was about so that's not too good. I did enjoy it while I read it.52/52
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Other Mrs. (other topics)The Other Mrs. (other topics)
Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants (other topics)
Midnight Sun (other topics)
The Turn of the Screw (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Luanne Rice (other topics)Daniel Woodrell (other topics)
Shaun David Hutchinson (other topics)
Khaled Hosseini (other topics)
Bob Woodward (other topics)
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I'm still reading Eragon. It's going kind of slow for me but the world building is very good.
32/52