75 Books...More or Less! discussion
Archive (2020 GR Challenge)
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Sarah's Goodreads challenge 2020
Sarah wrote: "I will set my challenge to 100 books like it was last year.I've read the first book:
1.. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (1963)
This is the true life story of a man sent by the Canadian governme..."
I had no idea this was a book! I remember my dad taking me to go see the movie when it came out in the '80s.
Also, way to start the year :) One down!
Farley Mowat has actually written a lot of similar books as well. I'll try to read some of the other ones too as I really enjoy this type of book..
2. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (1956)This is a delightful children's book about the little miracles from nature as seen from the eyes of a ten year old girl named Marly. Her family moves from the big city to the countryside, to Maple Hill. They have wonderful neighbors who teach Marly and her brother Joe about life in the country: wildflowers, foxes, cows, collecting maple syrup from trees and many other little adventures. There's also an old hermit who has goats and makes cheese. The story takes place after a war (WW2??) and the father needs to recover from his experience overseas.
Marly herself is a wonderful character: she's filled with uncertainty, makes mistakes but learns from them and she loves every little creature she comes across but sometimes large ones scare her. She wants to do the right thing, especially help others.
I really love these books that contain adventures from a previous decade when things were much simpler.
The book also features some things that were already considered old when it was written, like a springhouse that was used as a refrigerator in pioneer days.
Mod
3.
I finished my third book today (Jan 3, 2020). This is a wonderful hard sci-fi novel about first contact with an alien life form on Saturn. These immense flying creatures are intelligent, have a double brain and are the size of Central Park. One of these creatures, nicknamed Petra by the humans, ends up being vital to the survival of the six astronauts...for without Petra they will die.
The first chunk of the book was rather slow but once they met Petra the story really picked up and got very intense! I loved the interaction between the humans and the Rukh (pronounced Rook). We also learn a lot about the creatures and how they live, including their entire life cycle. The end made me misty eyed.
I actually read this book many years ago and I never forgotten the title. The book's name had stuck in my head all of those years, so I was delighted that the library still had it so I could read it again.
Mod
I finished my third book today (Jan 3, 2020). This is a wonderful hard sci-fi novel about first contact with an alien life form on Saturn. These immense flying cr..."
Glad the book held up to your memories of it!
I just finished another book! 4.
This was one of the most bizarre and disjointed books I've ever read. It was like being stuck in a dream where things just simply don't make sense at all. I think the book is supposed to be about a haunted house but I cannot decide if that truly is the case or if the main character, Miranda, is insane. I know she has memory issues and she suffers from pica (where she eats non-food items like chalk, plastic, dirt, etc). I read this book in 2 days so it's not totally bad...it just doesn't make sense. The plot also mentioned the soucouyant (a type of spirit) and the psychomantium (a small dark room to communicate with spirits of the dead).
Finished Jan 4, 2020.
From: library book
Mod
4.
This was one of the most bizarre and disjointed books I've ever read. It was like being stuck in a dream where things ..."
Helen Oyeyemi is an author I want to start reading this year!
Well if you read this one I hope you like it. I do have another book by her on my shelf and I might want to read the Mr Fox one.
I finished the next book!5.
Finished Jan 5.
This is the second book in a trilogy. It's a fast moving adventure story that's like a cross between Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. And the fate if the entire world is hanging in the balance! There's tons of action, fights, danger, unexpected things happening, pyramids and a lot more. I really enjoyed reading it and I'm going to start on the last book in the trilogy, Dinosaur Thunder. This book also is hard sci-fi and involves a decent amount of science but it's explained in an easy to grasp way.
From: Library book
Sarah wrote: "I finished the next book!5.
Finished Jan 5.
This is the second book in a trilogy. It's a fast moving adventure story that's like a cross between Jurassic Park..."
Just added this series to my TBR, it sounds really interesting!
Today I finished:
This is an intense and also somewhat bleak story about the Donner party in 1846 as they are traveling to California with horses, oxen, cattle and wagons. The group decides to go a different route as someone had promised them it would be better but things go very wrong. Besides facing dwindling supplies and bad weather (snow) you also have frightening figures hanging around just beyond the firelight...and they are very hungry. Parts of this book is fact, parts are fiction.. before I started reading this I really didn't know anything about it.
The book is very similar to
so if you enjoyed this one you'll probably like The Hunger. Finished Jan 9.
Library book.
Mod
This is an intense and also somewhat bleak story about the Donner party in 1846 as they are traveling to California with horses, oxen, cattle and..."
Both books are in my TBR. I own The Terror. But it's so big...! lol. I might schedule it for April when there's a horror readathon.
I loved reading the Terror, Elyse! I remember it was one of the few (very few mind you) that I stayed up all night reading. I often do stay up late reading but only maybe 2 or 3 times all night. And the Terror was one of them. But yes, it is a fat book. It's also a book that after I read the library book I bought. We have a snowstorm coming so I should be able to stay home a lot and read, while watching the storm rage through the windows. ❄
Mod
Love reading during snowstorms! We're getting rain this weekend, temps will be in the 50's!! I'm in New England. Reading during rain is also nice. Did you watch The Terror TV show? I meant to but it never happened. Someday!
I never heard of the terror tv show truthfully... The snows not here yet so I spent the day hiking. It's really nice outside right now. It's 37 F! Bright blue sky..feels really mild out. I did 4 hours and 40 minutes of hiking, including one hour on really steep up and down trail. That trail alone was 2 miles. The bit I did before that was about 5 miles... But then I did a new section I never was on before so no idea what that adds up to be mile wise. I probably did 10 miles today...maybe a bit more. But I'd rather enjoy it now because tomorrow we might get up to 7 inches of snow! It's warm enough here that it was wet and muddy in places. Some areas looked like a swamp! 😆 Oh... I'm in Wisconsin..right by lake Michigan..
Mod
Sounds like a very nice hike!
Book # 7:
Finished on Jan 10, 2020
Library book
This is a book about one man's experience exploring Yellowstone National Park. The short book describes many of the parks unique features like ghost trees (burned black dead trees), petrified Forest (he explains how they got that way too!), strange bubbling pits of mud and stuff that smells like rotten eggs - oddly enough called the artist's paintpots, to name a few. The stories I found more interesting involved the parks wildlife, including some of the very dumb things some visitors try to do. There's a map in the book too. I admit I'm too scared of volcanoes to go anywhere near Yellowstone!
Book #8:
Finished on Jan 11, 2020
Library book
I read this short book this afternoon and found it entertaining. At least one of the tales in here fell somewhere flat to me (the first one) but I did enjoy the others. I think my favorites we're the ones about the toys in the sleeping boys room, the angry mother who did not like her young daughters stuffed teddy bear and also the very last story about the boy living on his own after a volcanic disaster with his bears. Hmm...just realized that 3 of the 6 stories contained teddy bears!
I didn't get the one with the man on the bridge talking to the cop...
I rate both of these books 🌟🌟🌟
#9...
Read Jan 12, 2020
Library book
This is a tense supernatural thriller that caught my attention right from the start and didn't let go until the end. I also greatly enjoyed the huge part that mother nature plays in the book via the snowstorms. Nothing is as powerful as the cold blowing snow (and in this case) the creepy things that are lurking out in the blowing drifts. Do you remember the movie "Krumpus"? Well a lot of the elements in this story remind me of that movie. At the heart though this book is about the people in a small town and about families as they try to fight something outside their realm of experience. The book chronicles two different snowstorms and how the first makes the second far worse, as people remember the many tragic and unexplainable events. But how to stay alive from the ice cold ghosts in the blowing drifts?
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Hey Elyse, Snowblind is set in New England! Did you know that? Oddly enough it's not showing up on my "year in books" yet. Hmm...I admit I have a habit of looking at my page after reading a review as I like seeing all the books I've read pictured. I also like seeing if any of the books I those categories have changed: most popular & least popular plus the longest & shortest books. Maybe the system is lagging. Anyway our snowstorm ended up being 2 inches! 😆
Mod
I did not know that!
I do know that sometimes it takes a day or two for the "Year in Books" to update.
Our "storm" was a little bit of rain. And temps in the 60's. Nice but also terrifying because global warming. Eep!
Yes global warming is scary.. the ground and everything should be frozen here but it's been more mud this winter than frozen or ice. It never seems to stay cold for long.. today what snow we did get is melting...#10
Read: Jan 14, 2020
Library book
I really enjoyed reading this. Truthfully the book was just a fun adventure story. The characters were easy to like and to get involved with their problems. They have some whopper problems too! Imagine the huge responsibility of keeping the world as it should be resting on your shoulders and you're new at it too. You can either do the job or due. Well that's what the young characters are facing. Then throw in WWII soldiers trying to kill you or weird creatures chasing you down the street because they are hungry. Yeah not an easy job at all. But it's a very fast moving story. The pages just flew by.
This is a time travel book..and the time travel in the book has rules. And some side affects too. This story involved World War 2. I admit I often get tired of running into WW2 stories as it seems I've read a ton of them and sometimes I wish authors would pick some other time period. I just get tired of Nazis. But I didn't mind this one too much. Maybe because there were a lot of other things going on too.
Mod
I read this book some years ago and liked it but never ended up continuing the series. Something I want to do someday. lol.
Well I have the second book on my shelf and I want to read it. So as soon as I get caught up with my library books that's what I'm going to do. This book also had accidentally fit into the Popsugar challenge...which I did not know when I checked it out of the library.
Mod
Perfect!
#11
By the look of this cover I had expected this book to be older but it was actually published in the 1980s. I also thought it might be a mystery but it wasn't. There was one short little mystery at the very beginning of the book (and the answer was wat at the back) and I had correctly guessed it. It was actually fun but very easy too.
The majority of the book was short interesting little tidbits about cars. Basically it's weird news. If you ever read the weird news online and like that sort of thing, then you'll like this book. All.of the weird stories are car related and true. They go from the beginning of cars up until the 1980s. Some are shocking and some made me laugh as I couldn't believe it. Basically it was just lots of fun to read. The book also is full of humorous illustrations. Did you know that someone who had never actually been in the Indianapolis 500 was once declared the winner by a newspaper? Or that a new car was once sold for a bunch of fruit? There are lots more just like that except they explain the details of course.
Read Jan 17, 2020
My shelves
#12
Read Jan 19, 2020
Library book
This is the second book of the DragonLance The Lost Chronicles. The story is mainly about two characters: Kitiara the Dragon Highlord (who has her blue dragon Skie) and about Derek Crownguard the Solamnic Knight. One is a hero and one is a villian but both suffer major flaws, sins, in this book that lead them down dark paths. Derek is guilty of pride and Kitiara is full of lust and jealousy. It's actually much more interesting than I had thought. I admit I never really liked Kitiara very much before, maybe because she was a villian..but I got to know her much better in this book.
There's also the great adventures in here that the Chronicles are known for: dragon attacks, fights, lots of traveling to far off places. We visit the city of Tarsis and the Library of Khrystann. Then it's off to Icereach to face Feal-Thas the wizard. There's something there that the hero's want to get. There's also a trip to Nightlund to Dargaard Keep to see Lord Soth. The God's are back on Krynn and there's a war to be won before the Dragon Armies burn everything.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#13
Read Jan 20, 2020
Library book
This is a dark, gloomy book about a disaster and people dying back in the winter of 1846. It's the true story and the book goes into much detail of what actually happened to these unfortunate souls who decided to take a new route to California and got stranded in a mountain valley with 30 feet of snow falling, one of the coldest winters and hungry enough to eat buffalo hides. The beginning of the book was a tad slow but it quickly picked up. I had to stop reading it for awhile but when I picked it up again yesterday I was then flying through the pages and I finished it quickly. The author included lots of science facts in here too that apply to what happened to the members of the Donner party and I found that interesting. There's information on PTSD, on what happens when you are starving, on hyperthermia and it's opposite (and mountain climbers often experience both rapidly, going from being too hot to being too cold once they stop climbing), facts about the weather that year, on snow and snowblindness. The part that bothered me the most was a scene where some poor oxen were pulled off a cliff by a heavy wagon.
#14
Read Jan 20, 2020
Library book
I read this book in a single day and pretty much flew through it. It's hard sci-fi with lots of science in it but it's also about the two main characters. First you have Chen, who watched his parents turn into piles of ash on his birthday from ball lightning. Since that day he was determined to study ball lightning and learn as much as he could about it so no one else would be killed. Then you have Lin Yun who is the lady scientist he meets some years later. She also studies lightning (including ball lightning) but she's also a weapon researcher. Chen begins working with her on Project Dawnlight but sometimes he doesn't like how things go...the tests done on living things. The two have very different goals and the results of their tests could be disasterous for the country. The book also says that the research can be good or bad, depending on what it's used for. The knowledge from research can be used to create a weapon or else it could be used to save lives. Lin Yun is a character who actually is a bit out of control but she's also good at hiding it.
All in all I enjoyed reading this book. This is also a sort of prequel to The Three Body Problem.
Sarah wrote: "#14 Read Jan 20, 2020
Library book
I read this book in a single day and pretty much flew through it. It's hard sci-fi with lots of science in it but it's also ..."
The Three-Body Problem overwhelmed me, so I never finished the trilogy, but I really enjoyed this one.
I haven't read The Three Body Problem yet but I try it sometime this year. I have other Library books I need to get caught up on first. Do you mean it emotionally overwhelmed you or was the science way over your head? Or were there incidents in the book that bothered you? I know in the past there were a few books I had to stop reading because of incidents (plot elements) that bothered me too much. Reading The Room gave me nightmares for 3 nights. I had to quit the Red Address Book too. Some people just can't read some books.
Thanks for the warning. Hopefully I'll be ok with it.
Sarah wrote: "I haven't read The Three Body Problem yet but I try it sometime this year. I have other Library books I need to get caught up on first. Do you mean it emotionally overwhelmed you or was the scien..."
It wasn't emotionally overwhelming, it was just the science and the concepts got to be too much. I do want to go back and try it again sometime, maybe I just didn't have the mental energy to spare at the time.
I read a few other hard sci-fi books near the end of last year. A few dealt with quantum mechanics so to learn about it I watched a few videos on YouTube. It helped me understand some of the concepts involved. But luckily I was able to wrap my mind around it. I think there were some light quantum mechanics in Ball Lightning too. The fading in & out bits..
#15
Jan 21, 2020
Book club book
I'm amazed at how fast I flew through this book. The story just kept me reading (although it's not unusual for me to read a book in a day) and I just loved the natural environment of the swamp in here. I was also very fascinated by how Kya lived on her own in the swamp with her wildlife friends of birds and other critters she saw. While her story was sad and parts of it cruel (how others treated her) it didn't make me cry, probably because she was smart enough to mostly avoid the town folk who disliked her and was prejudice against her. At first I was unsure how the murder investigation was going to fit into the plot but later it became clear. I had a gut feeling before I started reading I would like this book when I found out it was nature related and I did.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mod
Jan 21, 2020
Book club book
I'm amazed at how fast I flew through this book. The story just kept me reading (although it's not unusual for me to r..."
I enjoyed this one as well!
# 16
Jan 22 2020
My shelf
I really enjoyed this somewhat short book (is it a novella?) that was about an orphan boy who got adopted by a family and they find a large dog lost at sea. They rescue the dog and name him Thunder. The dog becomes the boys constant companion and a very important, life saving member of the family. The story is set in Newfoundland in 1929 and also features a historical earthquake that actually struct the island that year.
The story was very touching. The boy was full of uncertainty...did they really want him? Were they going to keep him? Could they keep the dog? These questions became even larger after the earthquake when many things were lost and destroyed..
I also liked the local customs and terms that are used throughout the book. It really brings the island to life.
#17
Jan 24, 2020
Library book
This is the February group read on Creatures Creatures Everywhere. Luckily I ordered the book early from the library as now there are lots of requests for it. I tried to renew it but couldn't so I read it really fast. Luckily the story really grabbed my attention from the first chapter and kept it until the end.
It's about a lady auto mechanic who is a skinwalker and she can turn into a coyote. Her neighbor is a alpha werewolf named Adam. Her name is Mercy, short for Mercedes. The plot is a tad complicated involving mysterious attacks on the local werewolf pack by unknown people. So they have to try and find out why are they getting attacked and by who. Mercy of course has to stick her nose into the situation even though she is a lot weaker than a Werewolf. Lots of action and danger. Deaths. There's also vampires and goblins and witches too.
I have ordered the next book in the series from the library.
Mod
Jan 24, 2020
Library book
This is the February group read on Creatures Creatures Everywhere. Luckily I ordered the book early from the library as now there are l..."
I've heard good, fun things about this series but I so so hate the covers. At least if/when I read them, it will most likely be on Kindle so I won't have to look at the covers. lol.
Yeah, I don't like the cover either which probably explains why I never would have picked the book on my own. It's a group read and the library had it so I read it. Since it's mostly about werewolves they should have put some wolves on the cover. But you don't even see any wolves except for the iron decorations on the top of the gate behind her. The cover gives you no idea what it's about. I would have took a glance at the cover and skipped it by. But it's actually a good book! It doesn't even really have much romance in it. Basically it's an action fantasy type story.
I'm not exactly happy with the ending though. Not sure it made much sense but I'm willing to overlook that.
I think these two covers look better. Especially the top one.. some of the other covers I saw...I'm not even sure what the image was supposed to be! 😱
#18
Jan 25, 2020
Library book
This is the last book in the Lost Chronicles trilogy and Raistlin is the main character. He's always been one of my favorite characters in DragonLance so I was looking forward to reading this book. It explains what Raistlin was doing during Dragons of Spring Dawning and how he secretly helped the hero's win the War of the Lance. Lots of the events in the book were new to me and were a bit surprising. Like the thing with the three moons. Raistlin is very clever but not infallible. He has to deal with lots of double crossing people, everyone from highlords to shop keepers to the witch Iolanthe to other wizards. And of course Takhisis. Basically the fate of magic is resting on his bony shoulders. It's difficult to deal with all of those people! But he does it. But his biggest enemy is probably Fistandantilius.
I had fun reading this.
#19
January 25, 2020
My shelf
I managed to get my hands on this ARC so I read it late this evening. It's a great, tense story about a young boy and his sister who are on the Titanic with their Aunt. It's a graphic novel so art plays a big part in this story. I enjoyed but was also amazed at how fancy the famous ship was. George has several scary encounters during the book, including the big one when the ship is sinking..
This is the first I Survived book I've read or heard of. I read it in less than an hour.
Mod
I think these two covers look better. Especially the top one.. some of the other covers I saw...I'm not e..."
Oh yeah much better!
#20
Read Jan 26, 2020
My shelf
I think this book has a lot of things in common with some popular classic books, certain themes like freedom, what it means to be free and it asks why are so many people angry so much of the time? It follows a brother and sister, Ella and Kevin. They grow up in the hood and Kevin gets into trouble. Ella for unknown reasons has magical powers - I didn't exactly understand that. It's a small book but it took me a long time to read it, as I read it carefully. It's also about black culture.
My review does better justice to the book than what I wrote here.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
#21
Read Jan 26, 2020
Library book
I flew through this fantasy adventure book, mainly because I really loved it and had lots of fun reading it. It's about a lady baker named Alena who contracts a fatal disease and in order to survive she has to become a monster, a creature. The common choices are things such as vampires, werewolves, mermaids, you know all of the typical creatures..but somehow she ends up something else, something very rare and one of a kind, something related to a snake! And because she is this rare creature, an ancient Greek hero wants to kill her: Achilles! This book was just fun with lots of action, adventure, fun characters and even humor. Lots of unexpected twists too.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#22.
This is an insightful and honest look into how an accident can leave one with life changing PTSD, digestive problems, social issues and more. In this case it was a car accident, a bike versus a car. The girl on the bike may be dead and her problems over, but the deep seated problems for Darin were just starting. And the accident wasn't his fault. The author shares how the trauma of what happened that day had touched every part of his life.
This book may not be suitable for everyone.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Mod
This is an insightful and honest look into how an accident can leave one with life changing PTSD, digestive problems, social issues and more. In thi..."
Whew sounds heavy!!
#23.
Read Jan 31, 2020
Library book
This is a 500+ page collection of sea stories that were written by William Hope Hodgson in 1906, 1907, 1914, 1915 and 1916. They are mostly adventure stories. The first group of stories are about ships that get stuck or come near the huge floating masses of seaweed in the Atlantic ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Most of these stories are eerie, creepy, involve strange unearthly creatures and have a Lovecraft like feeling. The second set of stories are about Captain Gault who is a very clever smuggler. He loves outsmarting custom officers and other various characters. Then there are two stories about Captain Jat. Jat reminds me a bit of Captain Jack Sparrow with drinking rum, looking for treasure and the words he uses. The last two stories are about a business owner named D.C.O. Cargunka, who loves cooking but gets involved in other stuff as well, like finding gold during the gold rush or from a sunken ship. D C.O. stands for Dot Carry the One, which was an old British phrase which means he limps.
Most of the stories were very interesting and fun. The first story, Glen Carrig, did drag during the middle. It was too long. But I loved the Sargasso Sea stories, the majority of the ones about Capt Gault (minus the last one), the ones about Capt Jat too.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
I read this for my Around the World challenge.
It was a bit hard for me to get through this book because the first story, which was pretty long, was dragging in the middle.. but I got past it and the rest of it was much better. I also learned a lot more nautical words.
#24
Read Feb 1, 2020
Library book
This is the second book in the Venom trilogy about Alena who can transform into a giant snake. In this story the plot continued and she must face another ancient Greek hero who wants to kill her. Also she must prove to the court system that yes, she is still alive and that yes she is still the same person. Unfortunately that is not easy! The human court is prejudice against monsters and not to mention scared of them! Alena will have to change their minds and viewpoints in order to win and get her property back from her scummy husband (who she wants to divorce).
I really enjoyed this fun book!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#25
Feb 1, 2020
Online e-book
This story asks some big questions about a few different things, like do the aliens really have the perfect advanced society and are we ready to join them? How do you achieve FTL travel and do we secretly already have it? The story follows an agent from the Phone Company as he travels to the farthest human settlement to investigate what has happened to a female scientist who is now acting very strange. The plot has many unexpected twists and some startling revelations. The main character also must face his deepest fear.
A quick read at 43 pages.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#26
Feb 2, 2020
Library book
This book has really surprised me. Why you ask? Because both stories in this short book have turned out to be rather adventurous and full of danger...and I had not been expecting that at all. I had checked this book out of the library some weeks ago and I had pretty much forgotten why but I really enjoyed the story set in the Canary islands. The first story, The Wind Off of the Small Isles, is about a ghastly discovery inside a volcanic cave. The second story, set in the UK and called The Lost Ones, is about a woman and her elderly mother as they face a dangerous criminal. Both were a lot of fun and quick reads.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#27
Feb 2, 2020
Library book
This is the third book in the Venom trilogy I've been reading. As one can expect it has settled the remaining plot details that were left hanging. Alena had to face the last hero (who ended up being who I had expected it to be as it's Greek mythology) and she had to also face several Gods. The danger level has greatly increased and things had gotten much tougher as well. It also addresses inter species dating, like between a snake and a vampire. All in all I'm satisfied with it.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
75 Books...More or Less!
Books mentioned in this topic
Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks & the Sea (other topics)The Box Man (other topics)
The Birthday Party & The Room: Two Plays (other topics)
Hardcore Twenty-Four (other topics)
Marrying Mozart (other topics)
More...
I've read the first book:
1.. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (1963)
This is the true life story of a man sent by the Canadian government into the wilderness to find out if wolves are responsible for the decline in the carribou herds. What he discovered totally changed his viewpoint on wolves. They are not the brutal blood thirsty monsters people think they are. Carribou are only a very tiny part of their diet: they mainly eat rodents.
This classic book is very easy to read. It tells a very interested personal account of his time in the wilderness and what he found out about a group of wolves..in fact the book is dedicated to the mother wolf he got to know from observation. I also found parts of it humorous and I had chuckled a few times..
I think everyone should read this classic. I believe I read this book long ago when I was a teenager. It was my first experience with a book of this nature and after that I had read other ones (but I don't recall their names).