2025 Reading Challenge discussion

In 2013 I'll start with 30 books since that is most likely how many I'll read for 2012. I'll list the books in a following post!

Summer Island by Kristin Hannah is an excellent book. I gave it a 4/5. It is a Mother/Daughter story of misunderstanings, lack of communication and ultimate healing. The setting for the story is the San Juan Islands. I'd love to visit some summer. Summer Island

392 pages

The The Book Thief is one of the best books I have read! (5/5). I am a big fan of the author's style. He is such a remarkable story teller. The book is about Liesel. Her mother must give her up because she is unable to care for her. On the train to her new foster parents, her little brother dies. Liesel, The Book Thief, finds the "Gravedigger's Handbook" at the burial site and puts it her pack for safe keeping. Her relationship with the foster parents, especially Papa, is loving and caring. He teaches Liesel to read and write. She has a good life and enjoys the friendship of her neighbor, Rudy, whom she grows to love in time. The Nazi's and WWII invade the peace that she knows and the changes that Liesel must endure are what the story is about. This is a must read! I would hate for anyone to miss out on this bit of history and Liesel's life in Nazi Germany. It is not what you might expect at all!

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a short story about Holly Golightly and the narrator who become friends because they live in the same apartment building in New York. Holly Golightly is a wild girl with no direction and I'll leave it at that. A movie was made of this story which I will probably watch but I am not a fan of stories of people who are constantly making bad choices. These types of stories are unsettling to me. The other stories in the book were actually much better and very different from B'fast at T's. House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar (which has a good twist at the end) and A Christmas Memory, which was my favorite story are worth the read. A movie was made of A Christmas Memory too, which follows the story very closely.

Birds of a Feather was just as wonderful as the first book in this series by Jacqueline Winspear. The story takes place in post WW1 with lots of historical references. Maisie Dobbs, the Private Investigator, must find Charlotte Waite. Charlotte's father has hired Maisie for the job. When Maisie finds that three of Charlotte's friends have been murdered, finding Charlotte becomes more urgent. Has she been murdered also? I enjoy this series very much.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a series of stories about the dynamic of Chinese mother's and their daughters in China, in their youth, and in San Francisco when they are older. There are so many superstitions revealed and yet I found that a lot of the advice given to the daughters is translatable into what I would want my own children to know. These are real life stories and the clashing of two cultures made me want to shake the daughters and say to them "leave out the fear and gain the confidence."
There's a reason this book is on the GR 100.

A Wrinkle in Time is a great children's book but there is a lot here for adults as well. The story is about a close knit family. The mother and father are scientists and the father leaves the home to pursue space exploration and the fifth dimension. When he hasn't returned in over a year and there has been no correspondence from him, the fantasy begins. It is a well written book and again I can see how it made the GR 100 list.

The Great Gatsby is, in my humble opinion, one of the great American novels! Fitzgerald captures the love that Gatsby had for Daisy and all that he became just to impress her. He gave parties every week in the hope that he would lure her to him and away from her husband. And Oh what a prize Daisy is! The lifestyle of these people who seemingly have it all would bore me to tears. Then there's the MAJOR twist of fate at the end that made the shallowness of the characters so very apparent. It's a short book and definitely a lesson in how to write the great American novel. I loved it. 5/5

I really enjoyed Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. It is about a retired British Major who has lost his wife and, when the story begins, has lost his brother. Major Pettigrew's life is very ordered, he is very proper and thoughtful and there are no surprises. That was then, this is now. A lovely Pakistani woman comes to his home just after his brother has passed away and his ordered begins to get complicated and he finds himself forced to think of others and not only about himself.
His father left he and his brother a matched set of old "Churchill" guns. Through these guns, the author shows the changes that Major Pettigrew goes through to find the really important things in life. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand 5/5
This books also represents 8/30! I've got to get reading!

Elin Hilderbrand's The Island is definitely a "summer read." While I loved The Castaways, this book lacked the same excitement for me and I took forever reading it. While I didn't think to stop reading it, I found myself able to choose to do other things rather than read it.
The story of 4 women going to their summer place on a secluded island off of Nantucket to heal and relax was very predictable. I read it to the end (taking forever to do so) and gave it a 3/5. There are plenty of better summer reads. (Sorry Elin, loved The Castaways). I have read 9/30 (yikes).

I really enjoyed Revolutionary Summer by Joseph Ellis. In this book the writer compares the events of the Continental Congress and the Continental Army during the Revolution in 1776 from July to September. I have a much better picture of the founding fathers and the very important decisions they made at such an important time in our history. John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were such amazing men with an incredible understanding of the inevitability of our independence. Would we fight a long war or a short war? That was the real question. When the British moved into the waters off Long Island with a trained military aboard and the Continental Army had a rag tag bunch of militia with no proper clothing or food, the answer seemed obvious. Ellis does a great job of describing the battles and the debates that went on between the colonies regarding such major points as equal representation and committing resources to the fight for independence.
My only complaint is that the book ended rather abruptly and I would have liked to have read much more on this time period. Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

I'm on a history kick as we just went to Washington DC and I wanted to have some current information in my head. We went to Ford's Theater in DC and heard about the night that Lincoln was assassinated. I was interested to know more of the details of that night so I uploaded Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever. I read about what drove Booth's hatred of Lincoln and those who wanted slavery abolished. That fateful night was explained in great detail; how Booth was able to get into the box where Lincoln, his wife and friends were watching the play; the doc that was first on the scene and the boarding house where Lincoln later died. There was additional information and lots of pictures included of the men who fought in the Civil War, Washington DC, those involved in the assassination and more. This was the book I needed to satisfy my curiosity about the end of the war and that fateful night so soon after. I have read 11/30!

The Kite Runner has been on my shelf for way too long. I think I was leery of the emotions that this sort of book would have on me. I usually like "feel good" books. I was determined to read it and I'm so glad I did. While it did stir my emotions, it also gives the reader good insight into what has become of Afghanistan and it's people, and maybe even more importantly, the evil of the Taliban and the effect on the land and citizens. The story of Amir and his friend Hassan could be about any friendship, but Amir is not always a good friend as he sees himself above Hassan because Hassan is his servant and a Hazara, a designation of humanity not looked on as favorably as what Amir was born into. Amir teases his friend and asks Hassan to prove his loyalty to Amir by doing dangerous or demeaning things.
Much of the story is about this friendship and Amir's guilt after witnessing a great injustice and not acting on it. The latter part of the book is about Amir as an adult living in America and then being called back to his homeland to possibly redeeming himself. The book held my attention and, in fact, was one of those books that you think about reading even when there's other things that are calling. It was a good stirring of the emotions and I'm glad I read it. I gave this book a 4/5 and can't wait to recommend it to others.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the quintessential "cozy mystery". I loved the book and, in fact, went out and bought the next in the series "Tears of the Giraffe". The story takes place in Botswana where Precious Ramotswe opens the first ladies detective agency with money she inherited upon her father's death. The cases are not in any way offensive to the reader, but they are cute little stories of Mma Ramotswe's cunning and cleverness to bring to a conclusion a wrong doing. A quick, very enjoyable read. 4/5 This book represents 13/30. My goal is in jeopardy!

Murder on the Orient Express is the first Agatha Christie book I've read. As one might expect in an older mystery, the murder was not solved until the last chapter and the last line of the book held the final twist! The book was about the murder of a passenger on the train who was not of good character. There were some clues left at the scene and the murder might have been solved quite easily given the evidence at hand, but the real killer would not have been identified. Fortunately, Hercule Poirot was a passenger on the train and was asked to take on the case.
This was a quick read and held my interest from beginning to end. This was a 4/5 for me. This represents 14/30 books.

Rascal is a wonderful book about a boy, his raccoon and growing up during World War I. I read this book years ago and enjoyed the timeless story about a life I wish I could live just as much as I did back then. Rascal is such a curious little pet and yet is very well behaved for a wild animal. There are times though, when he gets into trouble and has to pay some pretty harsh consequences. The adventures of Sterling and Rascal kept me entertained from the very first page. I am a sucker for a cute animal story so I give this a 5/5.

Just halfway there now :D

I'm trying!! Lot's going on here at home with an aging mother. Thanks for the nudge, Adriana. xo

Just finished The Secret Garden. I'd never read this book as a child, but because I'm in the Goodreads 100 challenge I decided there's no better time than the present. The story is uncomplicated and heartwarming. I loved it. The story takes place in Yorkshire in England on the moor. There's an orphan girl; an invalid, motherless son; an out-of-touch father who travels all the time; a great big house and a secret garden. What's not to love? 4/5
This puts me at 16/30. Looking grim, but I'm still reading!

Loved The Secret Garden as well! I fell in love with the 1993 movie adaption and just had to read the book. It's a pretty magical story (:

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax was a great little mystery!! Mrs. Polifax has raised her children and lost her husband and feels that her life has no purpose. She decides that she has always wanted to be a spy and goes to the CIA and volunteers to help with spying if there is a need. What transpires takes her on a wonderful, all expense paid vacation, to Mexico. Mrs. Polifax is to act as a courier and pick up a package and bring it to the CIA. When something goes terribly wrong she finds herself in Albania with another spy, the adventure that follows is a great suspenseful drama that is a sincere page-turner. 4/5
To date I've read 17/30 books.

Swiss Family Robinson is a favorite classic of mine. I got this version from Amazon and it had quite a different ending than the version I remember from long ago and very different from the movie version. It was still excellent. I love how the family survives with the abundance they find on the island and the practical lessons that can be learned. It would be fun to try to build a wonderful big tree house and take animals and explore. Now I've read 18/30.

I read a great e-book called Plan it Don't Panic. It shows a great plan for meals and groceries that I am anxious to try. 19/30.

Cool