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Member Challenge Tracking 2022
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Jeremiah's 2022 Reading Challenges
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Read 26 Books in 2022:1. Greenlights by McConaughey - 5 Stars
2. The Dry by Jane Harper - 5 Stars
3. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton - 5 Stars
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President Obama's 2021 Top Book List:1. Matrix
2. How the Word is Passed
4. The Lincoln Highway
5. Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in An American City
6. Harlem Shuffle
7. Cloud Cuckoo Land
8. These Precious Days
9. Crying in H Mart
10. Aftershocks
11. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
12. Crossroads
13. Beautiful Country
PBT Monthly Tags:January - Science - No Read
February - Thought Provoking - Final Revival of Opal & Nev
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Friends & Fiction Reading Challenge:January - Debut Author - Final Revival of Opal and Nev
February - Memoir or Non-Fiction
March - A Woman Historical Figure
April - A Book Detailing a Famous Historical Event
May - A Beach Read
June - A Book from the Book Clubs
July - A Classic You have Always Meant to Read
August - A Book Set in the State in which you were Born
September - A Re-Telling (Myth or Classic)
October - Family Secrets
November - Co-Writers
December - Holiday Themed
Mystery Audiobooks:1. The Dry by Jane Harper - 5 Stars - January 16
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Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey5 Stars
Print and Audio
From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction
I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.
I was given this book as a Christmas present in December of 2020. I am sad to say I did not get around to starting it until right before Christmas in 2021. It truly is one of those book where I regret not getting to it sooner, but at the same time it is a wonderful way to start of 2022.
It is rare, but with this book I had both the paper copy and the audiobook version. Although more expensive, I highly suggest this approach. If only doing one or the other, I would suggest the audiobook as McConaughey reading it himself is spectacular. However, the hard copy of the book is so wonderfully experimental you really miss an element not being able to see it first hand.
As for the book itself, it is imaginative and unique. It is a constant ride through hilarious stories, wonderful insights, and stirring reflection. If you pick up the book expecting it to be all stories about being in the movies you will be terribly disappointed. There is very little focus on the life of a movie star and far more focus on living as a person in a difficult and confusing world.
One of my favorite thoughts shared in this book is the concept -- we should be less impressed with our lives and more involved. I find his explanation of this concept to be applicable to any person at any stage of life.
Overall, just a simply wonderful book to read and listen to.
The Dry by Jane Harper5 Stars
Audiobook
In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.
This is my second Jane Harper mystery to listen to on audio and they simply do not disappoint. The writing is superb and the narration is impeccable. Yes, I grant you there are unique aspects of the vernacular which take adjusting to for non-Australian readers, but the bit of effort is absolutely rewarded with an engaging story.
Mystery novels are my guilty pleasure. I recognize they are often formulaic and lacking when it comes to literary merit, but I love to read them. As such, I have a few standards on which I judge them. The first being character development. I want to learn about the main character, in this case Aaron Falk, but I also want to learn enough about the other characters as to be engaged and also misguided on the guilty party. Harper accomplishes this character development with a mastery few other employ.
The second is the story line. Of course I do not want to read a book where I figure out the plot half way through. But more importantly, I want the plot to move with a certain level of believability and also with depth. I personally do not enjoy mystery novels which have the main character going completely rogue as they require too much suspension of disbelief. I appreciate Harper's work because the story line remains believable while also containing enough emotional depth to make me invest in more than just the mystery.
Harper has completely drawn me into her writing and I am greatly anticipating what will happen next with Mr. Falk.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton5 Stars
Kindle
Wow! The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is one of those novels where it is difficult to write a review because it is impossible to capture the majesty of the novel in a few paragraphs.
Quoting from the NPR Review:
The premise of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is this: In 2015, a journalist named "Sunny" Curtis becomes the first African American editor-in-chief of a Rolling Stone type magazine. Sunny decides that her first big "get" will be a book-length interview with Opal Jewel and Nev Charles. They're an interracial rock duo who struck it big in the early '70s and were immortalized by a photograph taken of them after a racially fueled riot broke out at one of their performances. Afterwards, Opal, who's African American, naturally bald, and hailed, in her prime, as an "intergalactic showstopper" along the lines of Tina Turner and Merry Clayton, briefly became a punk icon and then faded from view; Nev, who's white and British has gone on to enjoy a long career.
This book made President Obama's list of top books in 2021 and so when I picked it up I knew it was a fictional story. I knew it was somewhat in the vein of Daisy Jones. However, multiple times in the course of reading this I had to check whether or not I was wrong about it being fiction. Every detail, even down to the artificial footnotes, was so believable and so captivating.
At points the novel is just really fun. Opal is a spit-fire of a character, Nev is weak and broken yet a star, and Virgil, oh my did I love that friend. The story captures all the experimentation and energy of New York City in the 1970's and the wild ride of a young rock and roll duo trying to navigate the music scene.
At other points, the book is deeply poignant and insightful. It amazed me that an author could so accurately capture the excitement of a concert in one moment and the gut wrenching grief in the next. The story is ultimately personal for Sunny and goes to the heart and soul of who she is. The grief and confusion she experiences in learning more about her past is palpable for the reader.
I highly recommend this book and hope many will pick it up. It is truly a unique piece of writing.
1. Read 26 books in 2022 (maintaining this constant goal from year to year)
2. Read from President Obama's 2021 Book List
3. PBT Monthly Tags
4. CJ Box Series
5. Friends and Fiction Challenge
6. Mystery Audiobooks