Challenge: 50 Books discussion

1. The Absent One - Jussi Adler-Olsen
This is the second book in Adler-Olsen's Department Q series. The violence is a bit grim but I've read worse. The plot is good, and all get what they deserve in the end!

" and all get what they deserve in the end!"

You can't ask for much more. I hate when they don't get what they deserve.

2. Painted Horses - Malcolm Brooks
I have ridden a horse once in my life, and reading this book makes me want to ride one again. It isn't going to happen though. I'm 65 years old and value my old, creaky bones too much. This book is wonderfully written with long one sentence paragraphs that draw your eyes through them until you reach the end with a picture in your mind that is just what the author wants you to see. Descriptions of the Western landscape, horses, people, events - it's all very well written. I read a comment that the plot was poorly executed, very unbelievable, but it worked for me. I hope to read more from Malcolm Brooks.

3. A Quilt For Christmas - Sandra Dallas
For all the hardships the characters encountered in this book, I still have to call this a sweet story. It's not really about Christmas nor quilts except as the avenue that brings a group of women whose husbands are fighting in the Civil War together. But their hardships and what they perceive as their bounty could - and should be a lesson to all of us.

4. My Sister's Grave - Robert Dugoni
Tracy Crosswhite has waited a long time to find out what happened to her sister, Sarah. While there is a man in prison for her murder, it has taken 20 years for her body to be found, and now Tracy wants justice for Sarah. Long buried secrets are exposed, and the ending has a twist. Loved it with its tightness of plot, a little like one of today's TV dramas.

5. Keepers of the Covenant - Lynn Austin
I have read the book of Esther many times but not until I read Austin's book - the second in her Restoration series - did I ever ponder at length what came after the two decrees signed by King Xerxes concerning the Jews in captivity. Austin does a great job of finishing the story and goes beyond that in telling about a second return to Jerusalem. I also did not think about the size of the Persian empire and that not only where the Jews in Persia threatened but those living in Babylon and even Jerusalem were condemned. I love a book that makes me think!

6. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
It's an epic. It's fantasy. It reads a lot like historical fiction. Some read 100 pages, 200 pages then quit reading. Me? If I've invested that much time, I'm going to finish it. Did I like it? Yes, its characters was its saving grace, but they did such horrible things to each other. And I'm not really comfortable with the "other world" elements. Will I read the second book? And the third? And the rest of the series? Yes, I've been left hanging . . .

7. Blood and Justice - Rayven T. Hill
This was a free nook book. I'm usually pretty leery of them, but I wanted something that was not mind numbing after the last read. I read the entire book so that says something in itself. The plot was believable, and the characters were okay -some things that they did and said I question. Would a private investigator today not carry a gun?

8. A Conspiracy of Faith - Jussi Adler-Olsen
This is the third book in Adler-Olsen's Department Q series, and perhaps my favorite so far. The plot is so good and not nearly as bloody and violent as the last one. Kidnapping, murders and a chameleon as the perpetrator. I did not question anything until right at the end. What police officer/detective leaves his precinct building in search of a criminal without his weapon?

9. The Kingmaking - Helen Hollick
This is the first book in Hollick's Pendragon trilogy, and I enjoyed it immensely. Arthur is written in a different light than usual. He is a womanizer, selfish, headstrong but still the one who will be king. He can bring men together under his banner but waits until the opportune time. One review I read called him a "dark hero." We are also shown another side to Gwenhwyfar. She is not demure but feisty and also headstrong and accompanies Arthur to the battlefield. Looking forward to the next book.

10. A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin
The 10-year summer is coming to an end, and there are four kings battling for a throne. A blood-red comet rules the skies, and the kingdom is in chaos. I'm not sure I will read the third book although it is hard for me to leave a series unfinished. These people are just plain cruel to each other. I know the saying "it's a dog eat dog world" but when the dogs get through eating I'm not sure there will be any humans left. Some really brutal stuff.

11. A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths
I love these Ruth Galloway mysteries. They're just full of interesting people who come into her life. I love the way her mind works and the things she thinks about - so normal for someone involved in murders. Ruth has a new love interest; Cathbad is his usual enigmatic self; Nelson suffers a serious illness that puts him in the ICU near death. Good book!

12. The Ice Princess - Camilla Lackberg
I thought this book was fairly good although some of the reviews I read portrayed it less than stellar. The plot kept the story moving along, and I either liked or didn't like the characters.

13. The Purity of Vengeance - Jussi Adler-Olsen
Another good read in the Department Q series. Love the characters Carl Morck and his sidekicks who provide the comic relief, Assad and Rose. Good plot with great twist in the ending.

14. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
I like this book a great deal despite the fact that the chapters are very short and it goes forward and backward in time. The main characters also do not even cross paths until 400 pages into the book although you know that eventually Marie-Laure and Werner will meet. Marie-Laure is blind, and Werner is exceptionally intelligent. She motivates her uncle in the resistance movement in France; Werner is hunting radio transmitters for the Germans. It gives a moving picture of the uncertainty and degradation of war and the resilience of the human spirit.

15. The Ice Queen - Nele Neuhaus
This book has a great plot - execution style murders, switched identities, old money. However, some of the most significant clues are delivered almost as an afterthought. Once I had to go back and reread several pages to make sure I understood what had happened. I missed it on the first time through. I would read this author again.

16. The Marco Effect - Jussi Adler-Olsen
The fifth in the series of Department Q novels featuring Carl Moerck, Rose and Assad. A fast-paced plot with many twists and turns. Liked it very much.

The Silent Sister
17. The Silent Sister - Diane Chamberlain
I liked this book immensely right up to the point Lisa/Jade entered as a main character. I could not connect to her and felt that all her actions were selfishly motivated. But who knows what I would do if running for my life. I liked Riley, but the truest characters I felt were Danny motivated by anger and Verniece and Tom by greed. I also felt the ending was weak, too nicely wrapped up. And where's the accountability?

18. Pendragon's Banner - Helen Hollick
This is the second book in Hollick's trilogy of Arthur who is now king - Pendragon. His kingdom is far from secure, and he is most concerned with making it so. He attempts alliances but finds many of the peoples would rather unite and fight against him rather than unite under his banner. Coupled with tragedies in his personal life, Arthur's story is far from perfect.

I am a little behind in my book count this year but I have read some lengthy ones. I'm thinking I will leave Arthur's third book until later in the year and do a little catch up! My reading time also becomes a little more limited in warmer weather with more time outside and with friends and family.

19. A Dying Fall - Elly Griffiths
Well, I would put the book cover on here but the search cannot seem to find it! This is the fifth in Griffith's series about archaeologist Ruth Galloway. She travels north with Kate and Cathbad when a university friend is killed following an archaeologocal find that may be the bones of King Arthur. More druids and a white rscist group really liven things up!

20. Fall of Giants - Ken Follett
This is a re-read because I tried to read the third book in the trilogy and could not remember adequately what went on in the first two books. Five families, all interrelated in some way, survive the First World War, the Russian revolution and women's rights. All are different nationalities - American, German, Russian, English and Welsh. Great story. Now onto the second book in the trilogy.

Are these as long as his other books? I really want to read Follett but the size of his books is intimidating....

Yes, this trilogy is a monster - at least 900 pages in each book. It takes me about a week to read one. However, it is a good story. I have to read the second one again now before I can go on to the third unread one. The things we do . . .

21. Death of a Liar - M.C. Beaton
Hamish Macbeth tries to bring murder and mayhem under control in the Scottish Highlands.

22. The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen
This book is magical and a little offbeat. It has wallpaper that changes according to the mood of the room's occupant, eerie lights that flit around town and people who are different (to tell you how they are different would spoil the story). But I agree with one reviewer who said the theme is acceptance, something we all want and strive for. There are also dual stories about characters a generation apart. One is the girl who chases the moon in search of happiness only to find that it rises the next night and she must start all over again. The second is a teenager who finds that people are not always what they seem but we must take them as they are. A good thought-provoking book.

Margaret of Anjou (Wars of the Roses #2) - Conn Iggulden
I love this part of history although some do not deal so kindly with Margaret of Anjou. In Iggulden's story, she is indominable, safeguarding the throne for her ill husband, Henry VI, and her son, Edward. The battles are frequent and bloody, and control of the kingdom wavers back and forth between Lancaster and Richard, Duke of York. Interesting reading of a time long ago.

24. Pride v. Prejudice - Joan Hess
I probably won't be reading any more books by this author. I am not a fan of the trite humor she uses as quick comebacks in the dialogue. And for someone who has not been married that long to a new husband, how does Claire Malloy keep the relationship going when she is never home?

25. The Truth According to Us - Annie Barrows
This was a great book - good writing and good plot. Barrows made me feel the heat of the summer as when I was a child and air conditioning was just two words put together to describe something we did not have. I felt the sweat trickle down my back, and I felt the anguish of a family held together by a terrible secret of more than one version. What a family experiences together holds them together but what each individual believes about the experience is not always the same. So it is with the Romeyn family, and it is an outsider who unwittingly lights the fire that might possibly consume them. This is a book not to miss.

26. The Accidental Empress - Allison Pataki
Kids of the nobility in the 1800s were raised with a sense of responsibility for their future positions but becoming empress of the Holy Roman Empire at 16 is an event that would age anyone overnight. So goes Sisi's - Elisabeth, Duchess of Bavaria - story. She traded in her childhood for a throne and got an interfering mother-in-law who took her children and a distant, philandering husband who gave her a horrible illness. Was she happy? At times. Did she live a life she felt was worthwhile? Read the book and find out.

27. Letters to the Lost - Iona Grey
Jess, fleeing an abusive relationship, breaks into an abandoned house and finds a box of love letters from WWII. The next day a letter is delivered to the house. She reads it and sets off to find the people and the story behind the letter while reconstructing her own life. And she meets and falls in love with Will. A good romantic story with a great plot and great ending.

28. What She Left Behind - Ellen Marie Wiseman
A dual story of two young people who deal with insanity: Isabelle believes her mother who is in prison for shooting her father is insane because what other reason could there be for that act, and Clara Cartwright is sent to an asylum by her father because she would not marry the man he picked out for her. Their stories began decades apart but conclude together. And they each attain a certain happiness at the end.

29. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
I picked this book up at the library because it was shorter, and I am behind in my book count. I had recently read Allen's The Girl Who Chased the Moon and found that Garden Spells is just as offbeat. Two sisters, the daughter of one and the sisters' aunt all have curious qualities that set them apart in a town that also has some curious qualities. Not to mention, the apple tree that will badger you with apples which, if eaten, will show the biggest event that will happen in your life. Yes, there is a sequel. Yes, I will more than likely read it.

30. Wedding Ring - Emilie Richards
This is the second time I have read this book, and I enjoyed it just as much this time as the first. Three generations of women come together for the summer to help the oldest get her house in order, but they all end up cleaning house on emotional battles and misunderstandings.

31. The Drowned Boy - Karin Fossum
An Inspector Sejer mystery, this is an author and series that I have not read before and a disturbing book. It deals with the drowning death of a 16 month old boy with Down syndrome - tragic in birth, tragic in death. The epileptic mother is at fault, and the father is unable to deal with his son's death. Carmen, the mother, is a familiar figure today, wound up in herself and unable to see beyond her needs and wants. As I said, a sad story.

32. Endless Chain - Emilie Richards
The second book in the Shenandoah Album series brings together characters from the first book with a new cast to tell the story of a Guatemalan refugee looking for her brother. Elisa is aided by the Rev. Sam Kinkade who is able to find trouble on his own.

33. The Taming of the Queen - Philippa Gregory
Gregory's new book about Kateryn Parr, last wife of Henry VIII, is absorbing. Not for love nor money would I have lived at court in those times. Too many were vying for power, using whatever means they could, to become top dog in Henry VIII's court. And can we call him a serial killer? Could his thoughts and actions have been prompted by a brain injury? And what about the pressures of being a monarch, pulled in all directions by those trying to propel themselves upward, never being sure of whom you can trust? It would cause a mental break in anyone. Anyway, good book with lots to make us think. Just remember it is fiction!

34. Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee
The book To Kill a Mockingbird will always be a favorite book along with the movie which I watch every time I come across it. Lee's second book is good but will never compare to the first because we are comparing apples and oranges. In the first, Jean Louise is a child. Her father is her world. She trusts him, and he can do no wrong. In the second book, she is no longer a child. She is her own person, and she sees Atticus in a different light when she finds him in a meeting that alters her perspective of him. We all go through that with our parents or older friends or relatives. We see them through a filter of what we expect them to be, and we react just like Jean Louise when the filter is gone. We all grow up.

35. First Frost - Sarah Addison Allen
It is autumn in Bascom, and the Waverley sisters are waiting for First Frost when their quirky apple tree blooms. Claire is making candy, Sydney wants a baby, and Bay has fallen for the forbidden boy. And just maybe one Waverley is not really a Waverley. Allen pulls this pieces together nicely in a story that will makes me look around for the magic is my life!

36. The Gates of Evangeline - Hester Young
While people may be endowed with psychic gifts, I have never seen evidence of it so I am a skeptic. However, I enjoyed this book whose primary character has encounters with dead children. Sent to write a book about a cold case involving a 30-year-old disappearance of a child, Charlie begins having dreams or visions which she believes includes clues to solving the child's disappearance. But things are not as they seem to appear, and people are not who they should be, and so goes this novel. Good book, good plot, good writing. It even has two wicked step-sisters.

37. The Peach Keeper - Sarah Addison Allen
The Blue Ridge Madam has been restored and turned into an inn and its opening has been scheduled. But, guess what, the peach tree which is being removed reveals a skeleton buried beneath it. Walls of Water, North Carolina, is a quirky little town (that's the only adjective I know that adequately describes Allen's writing) complete with smells and bells that cause one to pause. Good story.

38. The Hanging Girl - Jussi Adler-Olsen
The 6th book in the Department Q series. I should check to find out who translated the other five novels in this series because this one seemed easier to read or maybe I'm just getting used to reading books that have been translated! This was an excellent plot with lots of twists and turns, and it is not until the last 20 pages that you might have a clue who really murdered the hanging girl. I know it was not the character I picked!

Lost Lake
39. Lost Lake - Sarah Addison Allen
I like to read books about places I would like to live, and Lost Lake is just such a place. I have always wanted to live close to water. Lost Lake is idyllic for Kate who has lost her husband. She spent a wonderful summer there when she was young, and now her daughter is doing the same thing. But Lost Lake may not always be there because Kate's Aunt Eby is planning on selling. And even though you can figure out the ending before the end, it is pleasant to spend time reading to get there.

40. On This Foundation - Lynn Austin
This book is very well-written, so easy to read. It is the third book in the Restoration Chronicles, telling Nehemiah's rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem. A very powerful story of God's faithfulness in the midst of chaos.

41. Land of Careful Shadows - Suzanne Chazin
Jimmy Vega is a Latino cop sent back to work in his small New York State hometown on a case involving the town's undocumented illegals. The plot is full of twists and turns and although I knew before the end what had happened there were still some surprises. Good book.

42. The Secret Chord - Geraldine Brooks
I am not in love with this book but I did like the story. Maybe because it is a familiar one. Brooks tells the story of the biblical King David through the voice of Nathan the prophet. I found this book hard to read because Brooks uses the Hebrew names rather than the familiar ones of my NIV Bible: Saul, Samuel, Solomon. It took me longer to read because I had to mentally translate each name when I read it. Yebus was Jerusalem and Judah was Yudah. It threw me off every time. I also had a time problem but that is too long to explain. Some things just seemed out of place. If Brooks' purpose is get me into my Bible, then she has succeeded!

43. The Gilded Hour - Sara Donati
One reviewer calls this book "hugely satisfying." I agree because I love books that are dense - can't think of another word to use - and packed full of action. You know the difference between Betty Crocker box chocolate cake and your grandmother's Christmas fruit cake? That's what I mean by dense - rich in words and personalities and like all those little fruity nuggets you find in Grandma's fruitcake. I liked both of the Drs. Savard and especially their Aunt Quinlan. The love story between Sophie and Cap is heartbreaking and emotional. And Jack is the man every woman should be looking for. (I found him - hope you did, too LOL) "Hugely satisfying" - it's just the best description.

Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase
44. Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase - Louise Walters
Roberta finds a letter that begins her search for answers about her family. Excellent book about our actions and their consequences.

45. The Last Midwife - Sandra Dallas
I have read books by Dallas that I like better, but this was a satisfactory read. It had plenty of twists and turns in the plot, and I liked the characters, especially Gracy, down-to-earth and earthy.

45. A Christmas Escape - Anne Perry
I have never read one of Anne Perry's Christmas books, but picked this one up in the library on my last visit. Short but full of action, it tells the story of a group of people on holiday at Christmastime on the island of Stromboli. The island's volcano chooses to erupt during their visit, adding mayhem as they try to escape down the mountain to the sea.

46. The Color of Light - Emilie Richards
This is a very engaging book, so much so that I started it yesterday and finished today. Analiese is a pastor of a large church who is feeling challenged about her calling and her church. Throw in a homeless family and a Catholic priest, and you get the makings for this novel. I have worked as a church secretary for many years, and I can tell you that everything that happens in this book could happen in any church. A true portrayal.