Colleen's 60 books of 2010 challenge

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

Shutter Island is the best Lehane I have read yet. Glad you liked it Colleen. I am really looking forward to the movie as I hear it does justice to the book, and it looks like the casting is excellent.

[Wen]

Colleen wrote: "Oh I really liked it! I watched the movie first so I ruined the twist for myself but there is nothing like reading a book and picturing Leo DiCaprio as the lead character. ;)"


So you like old Leo? Giggle. I will share a little story with ya to explain the giggle. I think I was one of the Only people to not Love Titanic. I could not figure out Why Kate W. would dump Billy Zane for Leo when he looked to be all of 12 years old. She just needed to clock Zane and put him in his place. By the end of the movie I was talking to the TV screen telling Kate to PRY Leos fingers off the bit she was floating on already. Is that Bad?

[Colleen]

Have you gotten around to watching the movie yet Lyn? I think it stuck to the book very well.

I do like Leo, I think he is an amzing actor but I never saw Titanic and don't plan on it. I think the hype over it was ridiculous!

[Colleen]

29. The Crypt Book 01: The Crew by Scott Sigler
30. My Life in France by Julia Child

July

31. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
32. Katherine Howard by Jessica Smith

[Donna, The Pusher]

I just saw the movie and I thought it followed the book pretty darn well!

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

I haven't had time to watch the movie, yet, but I have heard that it stuck to the book really well, and that it was great. I am anticipating it. Ordering it from Netflix.

[Colleen]

It really did Lyn!

33. Cranberry Queen by Kathleen DeMarco

[Colleen]

Cranberry Queen was amazing btw, I highly recommend it to anyone! Jennifer found it by happenstance in a bookstore, it just called to her (I love when books do that!) and she read it in two days. I picked it up at the library a week later and just couldn't put it down! Haven't felt like actually hugging a book in a while but this one got a cuddle after I finished it. :)

[Donna, The Pusher]

Sounds great! I put it on my TBR and Wishlist!

[Colleen]

I love how the author does the main character's inner dialouge and the book has a real life ending which I always appreciate. It's about lonliness and loss and different ways people deal with it. I really identified with the main character because she seems to think a lot like my best friend and I do.

[Colleen]

34. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss

I think I liked the movie better, I found the extreme zest to kill or tame everything that moved over the top.

[Colleen]

35. The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

August

36. To Hold the Crown: The Story of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York by Jean Plaidy

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

Colleen wrote: "Cranberry Queen was amazing btw, I highly recommend it to anyone! Jennifer found it by happenstance in a bookstore, it just called to her (I love when books do that!) and she read it in two days. I..."

Colleen - I have this checked out from the library right now, thanks to Jennifer. I, too, love real life ending. I think it takes a lot of guts for an author to come up with real life endings sometimes.

I also have The Zahir, and picked up my copy of The Alchemist yesterday.

[Colleen]

It really does Lyn, I love real life endings over "and they all lived happily ever after".

The Zahir was so amazing I can't wait for you guys to read it!

[Donna, The Pusher]

It looks like you are taking over the polls for next months reads! Everyone loves your ideas for the monthly read. CONGRATS!

[Colleen]

Why thank you Donna and everyone! *blush*

[Jennifer]

I love that you guys are talking about me and I just accidentally found it :)
Cranberry Queen definitely was amazing!

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

It's all good stuff!! Welcome to the group, BTW.

[Colleen]

I am so excited you fianlly decided to join us Jen!!! Welcome, welcome, welcome!

[Colleen]

37. Marie Antoinette:The Journey First Edition in Dust Jacket by Antonio Fraser

[Aly]

Hurray!!!! Welcome, Jennifer!!!! And Colleen, you need to slow down and let me catch up to you again LOL. I have like six books going at once right now. I should just concentrate on one!!

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

See Aly, but you will finish them all at once and catch up with us again!

[Jennifer]

I'm beginning to wonder if any of us will ever catch to Colleen and Lyn!

Thanks for the warm welcomes everyone :)

[Aly]

I'm still trying for 60 this year. My mom thinks I'm crazy, but then again, she doesn't love books like I do!!

[Colleen]

Lyn M wrote: "See Aly, but you will finish them all at once and catch up with us again!"

Exactly Aly! Jennifer is doing well in her own right trying to read 50 books this year. What are you on now 27?

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

Hey - If my months keep going the way July has, you guys will all catch and pass me in no time!

[Aly]

Once Wolf Hall is done, I'll be at 37. And I'm reading a couple others right now too. Plus THTC and the Catherine de Medici book. Too many books!!!! LOL 24 left to go for the year!!

[Colleen]

Go Aly go!!!

Is Wolf Hall an easy read? I have been eyeballing it at my library...

[Jennifer]

Thanks C... I'm at 30 or will be in just another 3 pages... I've gone through so many, so quickly in the past few months that I'm kind of hoping to get to 50 and then make it to 60 as well but we'll see. Especially with those bricks I have coming up!

Edit: hehe snuck in the past 3 pages at my desk... 30 now :)

Way to go Aly!

[Aly]

Thanks, Jennifer!!

Colleen, it's not an easy read. You really have to pay attention to it. I honestly did not enjoy it until about fifty pages in. Now that I'm into it, I can't put it down! I have fallen in love with the writing and dry humor. Cromwell (well at least, Mantel's Cromwell) makes me laugh. I strongly suggest reading it. It's a beautiful book. It's gunna be one of those books that I hug afterwards.

[Colleen]

You are so making it to 50 Jen! What do you think of Shopgirl?

Ah, I love that you hug great books too Aly! I think I will read WH sometime this year if you love it so much.

re-read, but it still counts:

38. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

[Colleen]

Working on finishing my name challenge next with Ella Minnow Pea and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

[Donna, The Pusher]

I have 3 more for my name challenge. I could have finished it already but I designated certain books for the challenge so...

[Aly]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is pretty good from what I remember. I read it in high school so it's been several years, but I remember liking it.

Wolf Hall is great. Someone on THL read it in one day. I commend them. I'm reading it as slow as I can (which is VERY hard LOL) because I want to savor it.

And yes, I hug books too!! Sometimes you just have to!

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

YAY for us book huggers. Although I usually just stroke the covers!

[Jennifer]

Shopgirl was good. I enjoyed the writing style, the storyline and the characters. It was a small, easy read and one I'd definitely recommend. LOL I hug books too and stroke the covers :)

[Colleen]

Hahaha I love it! We are literally book lovers. Who read WH in one day Aly? I am looking forward to OFOtCN next because I am not thrilled with EMP and since you liked it I am sure I will too :)

Glad you enjoyed shopgirl Jen, will you see the movie now or have you seen it already? It was well done.

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

I read OFOtCN when I was in high school (LONG TIME AGO!) but I remember liking it, and liking it better than the movie, although I did like the movie, too.

[Aly]

Someone over on THL. I was blown away. I'm a super fast reader and there is no way I could have read it in a day. First of all I don't have time, secondly, it's a bear of a book. It takes a bit to understand everything that is going on. Too many "he's" LOL. I've had to go back and reread pages to fully grasp what is going on. A reviewer of the book said she had to keep jumping to geneology charts and google names. I think a Tudor background is a must to fully get this book.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves books so much. All my friends look at me like a freak when I say I'd rather be reading than go to a movie LOL

[Aly]

OO Colleen, I just remembered a book that I wanted to tell you about. I haven't read it yet, but one of my professors wrote several books about the Holocaust and while they all look good, one of them really caught my attention. Its called And the World Closed Its Doors: One Family¿s Struggle to Escape the Holocaust. We talk back and forth still because this man is really interesting. He went to Auschwitz and was allowed to look in their archives and found letters from one family back and forth to each other. He has written at least 4 other books on the holocaust.

[Donna, The Pusher]

Oh That sounds good. I am looking into that one! I love to read about WWII and I took a whole course dedicated to the Holocaust just to find later that my professor was a survivor. He had the tattoo and everything!

[Colleen]

I should definitly like OFOtCN then if you liked it as well Lyn.

That Holocaust book looks really interesting, I added it to my monster of a TBR pile. Thanks for telling me about it Aly!

[Aly]

Yup! I bought a copy and had him sign it. He's a colorful character and puts that into his writing. We had to read one of his other books in a class I took with him. He has done some TV interviews in Germany and apparently, he's well received in Berlin and not in Munich. It still amazes me that some of the German people claim that it never happened. I have a friend in Greece whose father was a nazi soldier, and she said that she knew exactly what was going on during the war. Crazy stuff.

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

I, too, am adding the Holocaust book to my massive TBR. Thanks for the info Aly!

[Colleen]

Wow Aly, that is crazy!

[Colleen]

39. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Didn't like it and repeat the simple word: ridiculous!

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

Sorry you didn't like it. I thought it was cute, quirky, and interesting, although it was no Alchemist or Zahir!

[Colleen]

It's all good Lyn, I am almost done with my name challenge now! Maybe it just couldn't live up to TA and TZ and that's why I didn't like it. Can you freaking believe the tattoo though???

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

No, I can't. Who would want to go through life with "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" on their arm?

I have to say, as much as I liked EMP, if I had read it after TA and TZ, it probably would still have been cute and quirky, but maybe not AS good. It is certainly not on a par with them.

By the way - I agree, I think TZ is even better than TA. It's like TA was a parable, and TZ is the real life illustration of that parable.

[Donna, The Pusher]

I am a firm believer that what you get tattooed to you is your own business LOL. I have a frog on my shoulder so I can't say much. I have many other tattooes but that makes me, me. It is a weird quote but I don't have to walk around with it so I'm cool.