February Reading Wrap Up

 

What do all my books have in common this month:  They are either about people finding themselves,  working through grief, or searching for that elusive happily ever after and realizing real life is better.  I read 8 books of which 6 were physical, 2 were ebooks, 4 were new to me authors  and a total of 2603 pages.  I enjoyed  journaling spoilery thoughts about every single one, what I liked, what I disliked, etc.   

What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama: The story was charming and revolved around books which helps the readers solve real life problems. A young girl on her own, learning how to cook and care about herself and take joy in life.  A working mother who faces all kinds of trouble after her baby is born. An accountant learning you can make a new start. An unemployed 30 year old man finally discovering what he was good at. And a retiree figuring out what he liked and enjoyed. Ordinarily I don't like books that reflect real life, but since the story involved Japanese culture and society, it made it more interesting. ****

Bookshops and Bone Dust by Travis Baldree:  Charming and entertaining, Bookshops and Bonedust is the prequel to Legends and Lattes which I haven't read yet, full of anthromorphic animals or not human, in which Viv the orc helps Fern, a rattkin, who is a walking, talking, foul mouthed rat with a pet dog who is a cross between a dog and a bird, fix up her bookstore while trying to solve the mystery of a necromancer. ****

Bonded in Death by J.D. Robb: #60 in the In Death series in which she hits it out of the ballpark.  We learn new things about Summerset and his history and those who were involved in the Urban Wars. *****

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey: A story about grief, love, loss. A story about powering through, resilience, humor, honesty, and family.  Never letting go, but moving forward, finding your way without the love of your life, and somehow falling in love again with the one was right in front of you all along.  I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more. e, ****

Starter Villain by John Scalzi:  Silly and ridiculous and entertaining with intelligent cats, foul mouthed dolphins, and a bunch of villains who try to threaten and cajole their way to a fortune after they’ve dug themselves in a hole, but the starter villain is smarter than they think. ****

You are Here by David Nichols: Some strangers, some friends begin a coast to coast walk from the Irish Sea to the North Sea of England and work through life issues in the process.  The story represented two very flawed, hurt, people not trying to get over bad relationships, until they were put together on this walk.  Was there too much angst, bitterness?  Not exactly. There was a just a right amount of humor to balance the story along with the revelations.  I liked that it didn't end with a happily ever after with all sins forgiven, but a 'let's try' together vibe.  ****

Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah:  Joy walks out of her own life, onto an airplane, crashes, walks away from the wreck, and has a bonding experience with a man and his child living deep in the woods. Yet, something is strange about the whole thing. Is is all real or in her imagination?  Once I finished the story, I want to read it all over again.  At the beginning it didn't seem like it, but Comfort and Joy is a charming Christmas story about hope and finding happiness.    e, ****

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore:  Sloane, Maisey, Mateo, Greg, and Arthur. What do all these people have in common.  They've all experienced grief, or trauma in their earlier lives that have caused them to hide their true selves, burying themselves in other peoples lives, their children, their work, their books until one day Sloan decides to become involved in an angry old man's life.  From there, it snowballs, in a good way, until each one together, give each other the strength, the power to make the changes necessary to accept their pasts, and move on into the future. ****

Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah

 

“You can run away from your life and your past, but there's no way to distance yourself from your own heart.”

First Lines:  "Christmas parties are the star on the top of my 'don't list this year. Other things to avoid this season: Ornaments. Trees. Mistletoe.(definitely) Holiday movies about families. And memories." 

Joy walks out of her own life, onto an airplane, crashes, walks away from the wreck, and has a bonding experience with a man and his child living deep in the woods. Yet, something is strange about the whole thing. Is is all real or in her imagination?  Like the movie Sixth Sense, once I finished the story, I want to read it all over again.  At the beginning it didn't seem like it, but Comfort and Joy is a charming Christmas story about hope and finding happiness.    

Ballantine Books, 2005

Contemporary Christmas Romance

272 E book 

****

Reading Log as of February 22nd

 

Have been feeling horrible for most of the week. Combination of the new blood pressure medication and supposedly gall bladder issues. Had a chat with my doctor who said to stop taking the new med and suspects that since all pain is localized in my right side beneath my ribs. He's ordered an ultrasound for Monday. 

Can't concentrate on anything heavy so started Kristin Hannah's ebook Comfort and Joy which was sad and depressing so fit my mood. 

"Joy Candellaro once loved Christmas more than any other time of the year. Now, as the holiday approaches, she is at a crossroads in her life; recently divorced and alone, she can’t summon the old enthusiasm for celebrating. So without telling anyone, she buys a ticket and boards a plane bound for the beautiful Pacific Northwest. When an unexpected detour takes her deep into the woods of the Olympic rainforest, Joy makes a bold decision to leave her ordinary life behind--to just walk away--and thus begins an adventure unlike any she could have imagined.

In the small town of Rain Valley, six-year-old Bobby O’Shea is facing his first Christmas without a mother. Unable to handle the loss, Bobby has closed himself off from the world, talking only to his invisible best friend. His father Daniel is beside himself, desperate to help his son cope. Yet when the little boy meets Joy, these two unlikely souls form a deep and powerful bond. In helping Bobby and Daniel heal, Joy finds herself again.

But not everything is as it seems in quiet Rain Valley, and in an instant, Joy’s world is ripped apart, and her heart is broken. On a magical Christmas Eve, a night of impossible dreams and unexpected chances, Joy must find the courage to believe in a love--and a family--that can’t possibly exist, and go in search of what she wants . . . and the new life only she can find."

Started reading David Nichols You are Here at bedtime which also fit my mood about sad and depressed characters finding their way:

"Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way . . .

Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey."

2017 Reading Wrap Up

Where did your reading take you this year?  

I went all over the place – USA, Italy, India, Russia, Iceland, Sweden, England, Scotland, Europe, Middle East, through the Arctic and up into outer space.  I time traveled back to the time of the dinosaurs, through Dystopian and Utopian worlds as well as into the future.

What was your reading goal for the year and did you meet or beat your personal goal?  Did you end with a prime number of reads?  

My primary goal was to complete Birthstone Bookology which I did and even did so with a prime number.  I also attempted to do A to Z by Author but didn’t get to Q, U, or X so calling that incomplete. I waited until later in the year to start, shouldn’t have left the more difficult letters  until last and ran out of time.  Oh well.   Overall I read 117 fiction books and 8 non fiction books.

My top favorite reads:   

My top read is The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, a historical fiction novel which left me misty eyed at the end and encompassed two timelines.  The story started out in 1995 and takes the reader back into France during WWII and the French resistance from 1939 to 1941.  Two sisters, separated by distance and estranged from their father, get involved in the French Underground.  One sister in the present is sick with cancer and finds an old trunk in her attic containing mementos of her life during WWII.   Memories takes the reader back during the days of the German takeover of France, resistance, fear, strength,  and survival.  The story is both haunting and beautiful and well worth reading.

Another favorite is Snowed by Maria Alexander who is  an old friend and once upon a time roommate back in my pre-married days.  Once I started reading, I  couldn't put it down. What an awesome and unique story. Instantly memories of high school filter through my brain as I read - bullies and clicks, geeks and jocks, trips and tricks in the hallways. Now throw into the pot - a death, a dark past, love, electronics, skepticism, a dash of spice, a tablespoon of humor, and a cup of mythology. Mix it all up and you have an action packed story that won't let you go until the end.  Snowed won the Bram Stoker award for superior achievement in a young adult novel.

I also fell in like and consumed the  Inspector Armand Gamache books in Louise Penny’s detective series as well as Sir October Daye in  Seanan McGuire’s paranormal series.

Also Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series – I finished four more books including Lords of Chaos, Crown of Swords, Path of Daggers and Winter’s Heart.


Which book stayed with you the longest after finishing it?  

The Nightingale definitely as well as Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery


Which book made you want to read it all over again? 

The Beautiful Mystery.  I read it in ebook, then bought the book and downloaded it from audible.  Plus, anything by J.D. Robb or Faith Hunter make me want to read them all over again. I always end up reading their latest books fast,fast, fast, then read again much more slowly absorbing the nuances of the story. 

Which book did you think you were going to love, but didn't?  

Midnight Crossroads by Charlaine Harris.  I totally devoured her Sookie Stackhouse series so maybe I was expecting to love the characters just as much.

Which genres or authors you thought you'd never read and was pleasantly surprised to like them?  

Dorothy Dunnet, Steig Larsson, Halldor Laxness and Kij Johnson are all new to me authors and I look forward to reading more books by them.

Please share favorite covers or quotes:

From the Nightingale – first line:  "If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are."

Statistics wise: 

Physical books - 41  (the majority of which were over 500 pages)
E books - 74  (the majority of which were an average of 300 pages)
Rereads not included in overall total:  Faith Hunter Jane Yellow Rock series 1 - 10 (ebook) as well as J.D. Robb's In Death series 1 - 24 (physical books) 
Written by female - 46
Written by male - 22

Most books were in the science fiction/fantasy genre including paranormal, urban fantasy, and magical realism.  Twenty were in the mystery genre as well as twelve historical with a few romance and literary reads thrown in for good measure. 

Complete list of books

Birthstone Bookology challenge completed

Little did I realize when coming up with the Birthstone Bookology challenge, how many vowels there were.  Loads of fun picking out books. December beat me however with the q and u's and had to go with the whole word in the title versus spelling it all out.  Incidentally,  The total number of books turns out to be 73 which is a prime number.  Plus it is Sheldon's favorite number from Big Bang Theory.  *grin*

Sheldon: "The best number is 73. Why? 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror, 37, is the 12th and its mirror, 21, is the product of multiplying 7 and 3."

Leonard: "We get it, 73 is the Chuck Norris of numbers!"

Sheldon: "Chuck Norris wishes. In binary 73 is a palindrome, 1001001, which backwards is 1001001. All Chuck Norris backwards gets you is Sirron Kcuhc!"'

**************************************************

January  - Garnet 

Spartacus: The Gladiator -  Ben Kane 
Alexandria Link - Steve Berry  
Russian Winter - Daphne Kalotay   
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah 
Echoes in Death - J.D. Robb   
The Translator - John Crowley 


February - Amethyst 

Axis  - Robert Charles Wilson  
Midnight Crossroad - Charlaine Harris 
Inheriting Edith - Zoe Fishman
Thief with No Shadow - Emily Gee 
Harvesting the Hummingbird - Scarlett Braden  
Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny 
Snowed - Maria Alexander 
Tinderbox - Rachel Grant 

March - Aquamarine

An Artificial Night - Seanan McGuire 
Dream Quest of Vellit Boe - Kij Johnson
Unmasking Miss Appleby - Emily Larkin 
Apple Orchard - Susan Wiggs 
The Mistress of Spices - (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 
The Adept - Kathrine Kurtz/Deborah Harris 
Resisting Miss Merryweather - Emily Larkin 
Ice Cutters Daughter - Tracie Peterson 
Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan 
Etched in Bone - Anne Bishop 


April - Diamond 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larson 
Dead Iron - Devon Monk 
Don't Turn Around - Michelle Gagnon 
Midwife of Venice - Roberta Rich 
One Way Fare - Hannah and Barb Taub 
The Necromancer - Michael Scott 
Dark Watcher - Lilith Saintcrow


May - Emerald 

Blood of the Earth - Faith Hunter 
Mapmakers War - Ronlyn Dominguez 
From the Corner of His Eye - Dean Koontz (
Cold Reign - Faith Hunter 
Aedyn Chronicles: Chosen One - Alister McGrath 
Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan 
Fire Dance - Della Jacobs 


June - Pearl 

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson 
Gods and Ends - Devon Monk 
Ashley Bell - Dean Koontz 
Relics - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 
Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire 


July - Ruby 

The Rook - Daniel O'Malley 
Fire Up Your Writing Brain - Susan Reynolds 
The Beautiful Mystery - Louise Penny 
The Year of Yes - Shonda Rimes 


August - Sardonyx 

Summer Knight - Jim Butcher 
Ashes of Honor - Seanan McGuire 
Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett 
The Path of Daggers - Robert Jordan 
Where One Goes - B N Toler 
The Nature of the Beast - Louise Penny  
Do You Take This Daddy - Katie Meyer 
Area X: Southern Reach Trilogy -  Jeff VanderMeer 


September - Sapphire 

Secrets in Death  - J.D. Robb 
Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor
Purity in Death - J.D. Robb 
Portrait in Death - J.D. Robb 
Winter's Heart - Robert Jordan 
Imitation in Death -J.D. Robb 
Reunion in Death - J.D. Robb 
6th Extinction - James Rollins 


October - Opal

Origin in Death - J.D. Robb  
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff 
Archangels Viper - Nalini Singh 
The Winter Long - Seanan McGuire


November - Topaz 

Between Two Worlds - Tyler Henry 
Once Broken Faith - Seanan McGuire 
Sweep in Peace - Ilona Andrews 
Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum  - Temple Grandin 
Signs of the Zodiac: The Scent of Shadows - Vicki Pettersson 

December - Turquoise 

Turquoise:  Turquoise Girl - Aimee & David Turlo (Ella Clah novel)

Book Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

First sentence:  "If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are."

Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, a historical fiction novel which left me misty eyed at the end encompasses two timelines.  The story started out in 1995 and takes the reader back into France during WWII and the French resistance from 1939 to 1941.  Two sisters, separated by distance and estranged from their father, get involved in the French Underground.  One sister in the present is sick with cancer and finds an old truck in her attic containing mementos of her life during WWII.   Memories takes the reader back during the days of the German takeover of France, resistance, fear, strength,  and survival.  The story is both haunting and beautiful and well worth reading.

Birthstone Bookology - G A R N E T