***Michelle's Counting Stars 2023 Challenge

[Michelle]

Winding down the new year

#151 Junkyard DogsSheriff Longmire breaks up a drug ring and solves a murder case all of which originate in the local municipal dump. Entertaining story as always with excellent narration by George Guildall. 4 something rotten in Denmark stars. Audiobook. Mystery.

#152 Once We Were Home Fictional story following the post war lives of Jewish children who were given to non-Jewish families to protect them from the Holocaust. Interesting but a little bit drier than it should have been. Well researched. 3 save the children stars. ebook. Historical Fiction.

#153 The Right Sort of Man Two women in post WWII London open a business to help singles find a spouse but instead find themselves investigating the death of one of their clients and dealing with the demons of their own wartime activities. There was nothing really wrong with this story other than how completely implausible it was from beginning to end. I just didn't like these women and their flippant attitudes. The fact that the voices the narrator used for each of them on the audiobook grated on my last nerve did not help. I would say if you are interested don't listen to the audiobook but really I couldn't recommend it either way. 2 ridiculous and irritating stars. Audiobook. Mystery-Historical.

#154 The Mistletoe Secret A divorced man goes in search of a woman he has fallen for by reading her anonymous blog. You can't really go wrong with a Christmas novel by Richard Paul Evans. In keeping with the ugly Christmas book binge tradition it was trite but also sweet and filled with holiday spirit. 3 Fa la la la la stars. Audiobook. Romance-Christmas.

#155 The Mistletoe Promise The final ugly Christmas book binge book of the season. Two lonely strangers sign a contract to be a couple for the holidays. You know the rest. I actually completed the Mistletoe series since I had read the other book previously. 3 Christmas audiobooks make Christmas cooking go faster. Audiobook. Romance-Christmas.

Star Tally 2023
5 stars - 18
4 stars - 69
3 stars - 61
2 stars - 7

155 books!

[Michelle]

I may actually finish one or two more books this year but since my goals were based on quality not quantity, I think I can go ahead and do a year end wrap up now. A book or two more will not make any significant changes. I will record them on this thread if I complete them.

My overall goal was to just read good books. I met and surpassed all my goals for the individual star ratings. Since this was the first time I did this I had no idea how that would go. Next time I will need to set higher goals. My overall average star rating was 3.64 stars. I read or listened to 155 books roughly 11% were 5 star books, 45% 4 star books, 39% 3 star books and only 5% were 2 stars. I didn't read very many books for my Presidents Challenge but the ones I read were high quality. One of them, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life was actually one of my 5 star reads for the year.

That is all just statistics. The real goal was to enjoy reading and I did but in a different way than I have before. This year I listened to so many more audiobooks than ever before. Only 33 of my 155 books were print books. Life events this year have kept me busier than ever before. I have in fact felt overwhelmed at times. I am not just a person who reads. I am a person who needs to read. I always have been. That is how I center and de-stress. For the first time I gave myself permission to listen more than I read and it was wonderful. Listening while cooking and doing chores. Listening while exercising and running errands for aging parents. Listening while caring for my grandson. Listening to block out distractions. I feel like it saved me during a time when I simply had no time to sit down and read. 155 books for the year and every single one of them helped save my sanity.

I want to add that my Goodreads friends have helped too. Having people to talk about books with has been one of the greatest discoveries on the internet for me. In real life only rarely does anyone want to know what you are reading or what you think about it. Even at book club I have discovered. I feel like on Goodreads and particularly in this group there are always people to share my book thoughts with. It is a true gift and I want to thank all of you.

So for each of you in 2024 in the words of Neil Gaiman:

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

Happy New Year Goodreads friends!

[Jackie]

I so enjoyed your end-of-the-year comments. May 2024 be a continuation of good books for all of us!

[Michelle]

Thanks Jackie. Happy New Year!

[Alondra, Moderator Schmoderator]

Michelle wrote: "I may actually finish one or two more books this year but since my goals were based on quality not quantity, I think I can go ahead and do a year end wrap up now. A book or two more will not make a..."

That was so thoughtful, and I loved that you gave yourself grace. Happy New Year, Michelle 🌟✨

[Michelle]

Thanks Alondra. Blessings of the New Year to you and yours!

[Michelle]

As predicted I did finish one more book in 2023, my 34th print book for the year with a four star rating. 156 books total for 2023.

#156 Iron Flame Not bad for the second in the series. I know this book is Romantasy by genre and so I should expect it to be equally heavy on romance and fantasy but I still say this could have been improved by downplaying the romance somewhat. The dragon fantasy portion of the story is solid and kept me reading but the trumped-up relationship problems bored me and I could have lived without the soft porn play by play. Still I did keep reading and I will definitely check out the next book so I can't really dock a book stars for being what it says it was. 4 Twilight for grown-ups stars. ebook. Romantasy.