Dudes22's 12 in 12 challenge

I’ve been studying my TBR list and shelves looking for the books that I absolutely want to get to next year and trying to find a theme that would fit them in. I’ve decided to set my goal for at least 6 in each category, more if I can manage it.




Nook: 7
Other: 56
Jan: 9
Feb: 7
Mar: 9
Apr: 7
May: 11
Jun: 13
Jul: 7

Category 1: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE



1. Left Neglected by Lisa Genova (Massachusetts)
2. Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan (Massachusetts)
3. House Rules by Jodi Picoult (New Hampshire)
4. Picture This: A Novel by Jacqueline Sheehan (Massachusetts)
5. The Entitled by Frank Deford (Connecticut)
6. New Leash on Death by Susan Conant (Massachusetts)

Potential Candidates:
Trying to Save Piggy Snead by John Irving (Vermont)
Property Of by Alice Hoffman (Massachusetts)
Away by Amy Bloom (Connecticut)
The Art of Uncontrolled Flight by Kim Ponders (New Hampshire)
The Red Thread: A Novel by Ann Hood (Rhode Island)

Category 2: The Pre-Game Tailgate Party
Books about food or with food in the title



1. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
2. The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal
3. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
4. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
5. Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert

Potential Cadidates:

Fannie’s Last Supper by Christopher Kimball
Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Category 3: The Coach
Books of non-fiction



1. Robbing the Bees by Holley Bishop
2. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
3. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Turss
4. Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Potential Candidates:
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr
Glass, Paper, Beans by Leah Hager Cohen
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

Category 4: The Team
YA and Children’s books



1. Surprise Island by Gertrude Chandler Warner
2. The Yellow House Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner
3. The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
4. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
5. The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamiilo

Potential Candidates:
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Category 5: The Cheerleaders
Chick Lit and books by women authors


1. Sex and the City by Candace Busnell
2. Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell
3. Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
4. The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand

Potential Candidates:
Sunday List of Dreams by Kris Radish

Category 6: The Refs
Books with occupations in the titles



1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
2. The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
3. The Surgeon: A Novel by Tess Gerritsen
4. The Watchman by Robert Crais

Potential Candidates:
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

Category 7: The Coin Toss
ER books and others that catch my fancy or don’t fit anywhere else



1. Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
2. Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
3. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
4. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
5. Behind A Mask by Louise May Alcott
6. The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay

Category 8: The Kick-Off
Debut novels and first in a series



1. Still Life by Louise Penny
2. The Violets of March by Sarah Jio
3. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
4. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
5. 1st to Die by James Patterson

Potential Candidates:
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Florida Straits by Laurence Shames
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in a series



1. A Bomb in February by Evan Katy
2. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
3. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4. A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming
5. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
6. Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
7. 2nd Chance by James Patterson

Potential Candidates:
Lumby’s Bounty by Gail Fraser
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

Category 10:The Huddle
It's a mystery



1. Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly
2. January Kills Me by Evan Katy
3. The Eyre Affair by Jasper FForde
4. Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson
5. June & Wallace by Lynette Hall Hampton
6. 3rd Degree by James Patterson
7. 4th of July by James Patterson

Potential Candidates:
The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver
Moving Target by Elizabeth Lowell
Charm City by Laura Lippman
The Eight by Katherine Neville

Category 11: Field Goal
Books about animals or with an animal in the title



1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
3. Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer
4. The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
5. 5th Horseman by James Patterson

Potential Candidates:
Ape House by Sara Gruen
Goat Song by Brad Kessler
Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Antonia Saw the Oryx First by Maria Thomas

Category 12: The Super Bowl
Books that have won awards



1. March by Geraldine Brooks - Pulitzer for fiction 2006
2. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - Newbery Award 2010
3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - Newbery Award 1963
4. The Hours: A Novel by Michael Cunningham - Pulitzer for fiction 1999
5. Amy & Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout - LA Times 1999 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

Potential Candidates:
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Bel Canto by Ann Patachett
Ironweed by William Kennedy
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

2012 TIOLI Challenge:

Jan: Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly
(character: Benjamin January)
January Kills Me by Evan Katy
Feb: A Bomb in February by Evan Katy
Mar: March by Geraldine Brooks
The Violets of March by Sarah Jio
Apr: Wings by Aprilynne Pike
May: The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott
Jun: June & Wallace by Lynette Hall Hampton
Jul: 4th of July by James Patterson
Aug:
Sep:
Oct:
Nov:
Dec:

What creative category names!

Great theme for your reads next year!

Another good looking creative theme. Good luck for your challenge.

There are some good books here.
I picked up The Elegance of the Hedgehog the other day at a sale. It was a complete whim. If you want company when you read it, let me know and I'll join in.

I have The Elegance of the Hedgehog as well, and could easily fit it into one of my categories. How would y'all feel about a group read?

That would be lovely, Christina.

Love your categories and see some interesting candidates. It will be good to follow your reading again next year!

These look good! I'll bet you can't wait to start.

>18 & 19: I've never done a group read but I'm willing to give it a shot. Let's check in again in Jan and see if we can decide on when.

>22 - I am getting anxious to start, but I need to finish this year first.

Thanks to everyone else for stopping by. Now if I could just figure out the picture thing. I've got some directions from the "75" group, but I might need my grandson's help.

This thread has all the secrets to adding pictures.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/104943

Very creative theme and category! The Elegance of the Hedgehog and The Blind Assassin are two of my favorite books; I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Also, Antonia Saw the Oryx First sounds really interesting. I've added it to my TBR list. I look forward to following your reads.

I'd do The Elegance of the Hedgehog sometime next year.

>24 - Yeah I had printed that thread out and I thought I was doing it right, but it didn't work. I had one more idea I'm going to try when I get a minute. A techie I'm not! And yet I managed somehow to get a picture of my dog on my profile page. And I don't know how I did it.

>25 - I've had Antonia Saw the Oryx First on my shelf for a few years now and just never managed to fit it in. I'm determined to get to it next year.

>26 - Ok - we'll confab at the beginning of the year and pick a time for all of us.

About adding pictures: upload a photo to photobucket, resize if needed, copy the html code that appears in a list below your uploaded photo, paste that code here in your thread. Easy peasy! :)

Love your theme! I'll be following you, although I expect your Kick-Off category to be a hazard to my TBR stack!

Many, many thanks to Her_Royal_Orangeness for help. I now have pictures. YEAH!!

Many, many thanks to Her_Royal_Orangeness for help. I now have pictures. YEAH!!

Love the pics!

Great pics!

Hooray....you did it! :) Great photo selections.

I was on LT while at work today and it looked like they were gone. Must be one of the security settings at work. Glad to see they're still there.

I have the same problem, both on the 11-11 and the 12-12. Some of my photos don't appear when at work but they're present when I log in from home.

Yes - mine were back when I got home last night; yet there are some on other pages that I see just fine even at work. oh well - can't worry about it.

Love your huddle photo!

There are quite a few of the pictures that, according to our campus IT's Malware Bytes program, have or may have malware. Those are blocked on campus. Some will display if the malware can be blocked. Your employers probably have similar programs that block suspicious images.

>38 - Thanks - not sure what that means but I'll ask hubby later. I work on a government computer so there's lots of stuff they won't let through. I'm really surprised I can even get on LT at work. Actually, now that I think about it, sometimes pictures my hubby sends to work don't show up either. I bet that's why. Thanks for the info.

I am also a fan of Precious Ramotswe and I also like to visit Twin Pines. I hope you have better luck than I did with The Blind Assassin. I gave up after 325 pages. I think I should have had a category to finish books I've dropped. There are a few around here somewhere...

The NE Patriots have clinched the AFC East Championship - YEAH! On to the Super Bowl.

>40 - It takes a lot for me to give up on a book and once I do, there's no way I'm going back to try again. Too much other good stuff to read.

So many books, so little time

This group is amazingly creative with these theme oriented categories! And here, dudes22, sports-themed with no (did I miss them??) books about sports! LOL (And congrats to your team.)

>42 Actually The Entitled by Frank Deford in Category 3 is a sports book. He's a sports commentator on NPR. And I have lots of empty spaces still to fill. I just put some candidates in so I wouldn't forget what I wanted to read.

I've decided to say that I'm going for 144. That way I can go up to 12 in each category. It's unlikely I'll get that far but I'm leaving my job in Mar and will have loads more time to read - so who knows; I might make it.

I'm leaving my job in Mar
Is this a good thing? Will you be looking for something else to do or taking some deserved time off?

>44 - yes - it's a good thing. I actually retired from the military a few years ago, but my husband was still working and there was still that pesky mortgage, so I took a job with the state knowing that I wouldn't stay long enough for a retirement. (Besides, the state just changed the rules so I'd have to be like 90 to get a retirement now). I'll probably look for some volunteer work to do, and the hubs and I plan to do some traveling. And, of course, work on my TBR pile...

Dudes - congrats on the "retirement" in March! The first year after I "retired" I read and read and read - 162 books doing the 999 challenge double! it was great, hope yours is as successful!

Congrats Betty! I'm retired Air Force myself.

For some reason, I decided when I set up my thread for this year to leave an extra space near the beginning just in case I needed it. And now I can put the TIOLI challenge in that spot so I can keep track. I might even put in some potential candidates as I check them out.

Just stopping by to wish you the best for the holiday season, Betty. I will be off to my Mom's and will try and catch up with everybody in January when I get back. Oh, Happy New Year, as well!

Thanks, Judy - same to you!

I've been perusing my categories to see what I might want to start with this year and checking to see what's on my nook for when we go on vacation later this winter. I can't decide whether to put a few more books on my nook or maybe bring a few actual books with me. I've got an ER book I've started that will probably be first and then I need to decide between the January TIOLI or something else. So many exciting decisions at the beginning of the year.

No 1 Seed in the playoffs. Home field advantage - Yea team!!

Hi, Betty! Love your theme and categories!

Thanks Terri. I've been busy reading both here on LT and real books, but haven't had any time to post as I have been planning a bridal shower. But, once I get done with that, I should be able to post later this weekend.

Finally! A minute to spend some time catching up!

Book 1: Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
Category: Coin Toss
ER books and others that catch my fancy or don't fit elsewhere

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung is the story of family and the bonds that families form. Janie, the narrator of the story, is the eldest of two daughters. The family came to America 20 years ago when Janie was 8 and now they are returning so her father can get treatment for cancer. Her sister Hannah, meanwhile, has disappeared and Janie's parents have charged her with finding her sister before joining them in Korea. Janie finds Hannah and eventually they both join their parents in Korea.

The beginning of the book goes back and forth between what is happening now and some of the history of the family while they were in Korea before coming to the US. Sometimes I had to retread this to differentiate between the parent's story, the grandparent's story and Janie's story. It wasn't always easy to tell which story was being told. It's also the story of the father's final days and how each person in the family deals with it and each other. Overall, a good debut novel.

Book 2: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
Category: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE

I loved Lisa Genova's first book Still Alice and this one is just as good. Sarah is a woman who has it all - a good job that she loves, a great husband and 3 great kids. She multi-tasks daily and somehow manages to get it all done. Until one day, while searching for her cell phone, she has a car accident. She ends up in the hospital with Left Neglect, a condition where her brain doesn't recognize anything on her left side. Although this story is fiction, Left Neglect is a real condition, somewhat similar to a stroke. How she rehabilitates, her struggles, and a sub-story of her relationship with her mother make for a great story.

The book also takes place in Mass and Vermont, so it fits in this category very well.

BTW - if you weren't paying attention to my post #51, #1 seed in the AFC!!! Bring it on!

Chiming in as another fan of Genova's books! She has a way of balancing the way she explains the nitty-gritty details and experiences of the medical condition and the story she is telling.... you don't feel bogged down in the medical details. The mark of a good writer, IMO.

yes she does. Now we wait till the next one. Good thing there are a "few" more books on my shelf to read.

Book 3: Surprise Island by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Book 4: The Yellow House Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Category: The Team
YA and children's books

These are books #2 & 3 in the Boxcar Children series. The Boxcar Children was my favorite book when I was young and just starting to read. As I was getting a box of books ready to send to Books for Keeps earlier, I noticed these 2 that I must have picked up last summer. Funny, but I don't remember reading any other of the series except for the first one. So I thought I might as well stop and take the time to read them now.

Haven't been posting much although I have been reading - just not finishing. Then I decided I needed to organize and annotate where my books are so I can find them. I've managed to do the bookcase and both closets that have books in them, but still have some bags of books left to go through. Found a few duplicates to free up a little space but I'm still way short. Hoping to get in some reading today before preparations for the football games. AFC championship game for the Pats - GO!

AFC Champs! On to the Super Bowl!

Book 5: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Category 6: The Refs
Books with occupations in the title

A fable of a shepard boy from Andalusia who travels to the Pyramids in Egypt to find his Personal Legend and treasure. His growth as he makes the journey, listening to his heart and the natural world around him was a wonderful story.

Book 6: Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly
Category 10: The Huddle
Mysteries
TIOLI for January

Like many others who have read this book for the TIOLI for January, I found it slow at the beginning as all the relationships were explained, but it really did pick up around the middle and there were a few surprises toward the end. I even found my vocabulary being improved. I think I'll probably read a few more of them.

The story of a free, black man in New Orleans in the 1830s at Mardi Gras time. A woman is murdered and he solves the mystery so he won't be blamed and strung up.

Book 7: Robbing the Bees by Holley Bishop
Category 3: The Coach
non-fiction

This is not a book about raising bees, but a history of bees and beekeeping throughout history. A few years after Holley Bishop started keeping bees, she decided she wanted to write a book as a sort of tribute to bees. Because she considered herself only a hobbyist, she tried to find a professional who had more experience than she did. Of the 20 people she asked, only one was willing to have her visit and take time away from his work to explain and show her various aspects of beekeeping. That along with what must have been a massive amount of research has produced a very readable, detailed book about bees. She intersperses information about how a present day beekeeping operation works with historical information/stories.

Will be passing this to my brother who tried to start a couple of hives last year on his farm only to lose both when we had a tropical storm come through. Hopefully, he'll try again this year.

Robbing the Bees sounds interesting. Too bad about your brother's bees. There's nothing like local honey!

Yes it was too bad. I'm not sure if he's planning to try again this year or not. There was a little bit in the book about the process of extracting the honey and it sounded a little involved to me. I'll have to check with him on what he's planning to do.

I always thought it would be kind of neat to have bees, and honey, and honeycomb. I may have to settle for just reading about it. Off to find this book. Thanks for the review!

Book 8: January Kills Me by Evan Katy
Category 10: The Huddle
Mysteries
TILOI for January

I had grabbed the second book in this series for the February TILOI, panicked when I saw it was 800 pages, and decided to start it early. It was turning out to be such a fun, easy read that I decided to go back and grab the first one and fit it in for this month's challenge.

The series' heroine is Samantha Rialto, a school music teacher who free-lances as a photographer chasing husbands who stray. When the husband she's tailing and his "date" get shot while she's watching them, she calls the cops and the fund begins. This book reminded me a lot of the Janet Evanovitch Stephanie Plum books. I have to say I even laughed aloud a few times.

I'm looking forward to reading #2 for the Feb TILOI and wish there were more than just these two.

January Kills Me does sound good. Plenty of possible future plots, with Samantha's freelance job.

Book 9: Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
Category 7: The Coin Toss
ER books and others that catch my fancy or don’t fit anywhere else

I saw Carlton Burpo on the Today show not that long ago, and had heard of this book before that. Carlton, now 11/12, had a death/near-death experience while having surgery after his appendix had burst when he was 3. He gradually began to tell his parents that he had gone to heaven, met God and Jesus, and other information about what heaven was like. For those who believe in heaven and life after death, many of the things he tells about in this book are meaningful and hopeful. For those who aren't sure, it will give them more to consider. Those who don't believe, probably won't read it anyway.

#69 so, did you like it?

Sorry - Had to stop for supper so didn't finish posting. Yes I did like it. I'm still processing some of it, because I found it thought-provoking, but overall I did like it.

It took me a couple of days before I really felt comfortable with my reactions to that book. I also liked it - overall. But I won't say more until you've posted your final comments.

Jan Re-Cap:

Books Read: 9

Favorite this month: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
Least Favorite: Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
(although really they were all good this month; not really a dud among them)

On to Feb!

Hi, Betty! Glad you didn't have any real duds in your January reading.

I really want to get to Left Neglected, as I loved Genova's Still Alice.

Yes Terri - The year I read Still Alice it was my favorite read for the year. And this one is just as good.

I'm very eager to read Left Neglected. I loved Still Alice, such a good book!

Book 10: A Bomb in February by Evan Katy
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in a series
February TIOLI

This is the second book in the Samatha Rialto series. Similar in style to the Janaet Evanaovitch Stephanie Plum series. Lots of twist and turns, some laugh out loud moments - an easy read when you just need to de-stress. A bomb destroys the house across the street, Sam's best friend's boyfriend is killed and we're off to the races. Oh - and if I forgot to mention it when I was reading the January book- there is a love interest too!

I got a lot of reading in this week at work. I had major computer issues this week. I only work 4 days a week - Tues I had an IT guy at my desk all day and since almost everything I do is on the computer, that was a wasted day. Wed it was working but not great and Thurs they actually took it away. Luckily (?) another person was out on Fri so I could use their computer, but no idea when I'll get it back - yuck! So maybe I'll get more reading in this week.

Well - the Pats lost. Sad and depressed today. Mostly that the football season is over and I have to wait 6 months for pre-season to start again.

Book 11: Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan
Category 1: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE)

Now & Then is a time travel novel. Anna and her nephew Joseph time travel by accident back to Ireland in 1844, the year before the Great Famine. They end up in different parts of Ireland. Joseph ends up as an honored guest of Col Mitford, a member of the British gentry. Anna ends up being found by a poor family. The book alternates telling each story and how Anna tries to find her nephew and figure out how to return to the present.

Although I liked her first book, I wasn't as thrilled by this one. The cover and the description of the book imply that the dog, an Irish Wolfhound, is a larger part of the story than he does.

I know what you mean about how almost everything you do is on your computer. Hope you are back in computerland at work soon. If not, more reading time isn't a bad thing...... ;-)

Yes - I got it back on Tues. So starting to catch up. Since I'm going away on vacation n 2 weeks, I'd hate to leave my co-workers with all my work.

Book 12: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Category 10: The Huddle
Mysteries

After reading many people here on LT rave about Fforde, I started accumulating some of his books to read and Fforde February was a good excuse to start. Especially as he centers his writing and mysteries around books. I enjoyed this first book quite a bit. I'm sure I probably missed some of the literary references, but I loved some of the names, her pet, her father and will probably read #2 sometime before the month is through.

I just started The Eyre Affair last night.... looking forward to it!

@82 Been a while since I read it, but I liked her poor, sweet suitor that aged suddenly. Poor man.

Book 13: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
Category 2: The Pre-Game Tailgate Party
Books about food or with food in the title

This is the second in the Isabel Dalhousie series. I wasn't sure when I read the first one whether I really liked the series or not, but I find that it's growing on me. Isabel is the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics and a philosopher so everything she sees, hears, notices and/or reads is a reason for philosophical, moral, and ethical consideration. In this book, shstemsts a man who has had a heart transplant and believes he is experiencing memories of events that never happened to him. The mystery of why this would be definitely takes a back seat to the intellectual ruminations.

I might have to try McCall Smith some day. The memories w/ heart transplant isn't a new idea, but I think I'd like a character that ruminates a bit too much for her own good.

I have to say that when I read the first one in the series, I wasn't sure how much I liked it as I thought that all the "thinking" got in the way of the story. But since I knew what to expect and tend to dwell on things myself, I enjoyed the second book better and will continue the series.

Book 14: The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
Category 4: The Team
YA and children's books

This children's book is a mystery about two children who get involved in finding a magician's brother, finding a classmate who has been kidnapped, and having an adventure. I was thinking I didn't really care about the writing style, but, then again, I'm not a 10 year old. And I'll probably still read some of the others in this series.

But the fake name is great, although Heironymous Bosch didn't exactly paint in a manner suitable for 10 year olds. ;)

No - that's true. But they'll never know...

Book 15: Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in a series

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde is the 2nd book in the Thursday Next series. Although I enjoyed the first book, I found it a little slow going. I enjoyed this book more. There are more word plays, more action, and more books involved in the mystery. There's a lot going on. Thursday's new husband is eradicated and getting him back becomes Thursday's main priority. Meanwhile, she's in trouble with Special Ops again, the Goliath Co is after her again, and she needs to save the world. I'm looking forward to continuing this series and trying some of his others.

Book 16: The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
Category 6: The Refs
Books with occupations in the Title

Kate ends up in the village of Glenmara while walking through Ireland on the trip she planned to take with her mother before she died. Her boyfriend has also left her for a model, her fashion career as a designer is not taking off, and Kate is not dealing with all these issues well. While strolling through the outside market, she meets some women who are selling linens and towels that are embellished with handmade lace. Invited to stay with one of the women, she soon joins their sewing circle, learning to make lace. The book reveals each woman's story and how Kate resolves her issues (and, of course, meets a guy).

I could have put this in my chick-lit category, as the book is similar to many of the "let's tell the story of a group of women and solve their problems" Books that are now a large portion of the chick-lit genre. I found it well-written, though nothing new.

Off with the hubs tomorrow for a sun and book week, so this is the last book for me for this month. I'll be counting anything between now and the end of the month in March when we get back.

I agree with you about The Lace Makers of Glenmara, a nicely written story but not really anything new about it when compared to other like-genre books.

ETA - enjoy your holidays!

Back from vacation. I've got threads to read, books to post, laundry to do :(, dog to get, mail to go through (with some books from BM, I'm guessing). And then back to work tomorrow. I'm going to need another vacation!

Dog will be very happy, though, I wager!

Getting back from vacation and catching up everything can be really exhausting.

I hope you had a nice time while you were away!

Had a great time with some good reading! Thought it was time to update what I read:

Book 17: March by Geraldine Brooks
Category 12: The Super Bowl
Books that have won awards– Pulitzer Award for Fiction 2006

I really enjoyed this book about the father from the book Little Women. I thought the author “fleshed” out the character so that you understand why he is the way he is, what led him to the chaplaincy, and how conflicted he was. You could almost forget he was a fictional character and this was not the biography of a real person. I was impressed in the authors afterward with the amount of research she did and how she decided on what type of man to make him. I also thought her characterization of Marmee was something I could believe. I may have to go back and read LW again.

Book 18: Still Life by Louise Penny
Category 8: The Kick-Off
Debut novels and first in a series

I too have now joined the throngs in love with Inspector Gamache and the village of Three Pines. When a murder takes place in the village of Three Pines outside of Quebec, Inspector Gamache comes out to solve the murder. His contemplative style of listening and mulling helps him discover who the murderer is. I’m hoping to fit the 2nd one in later this year.

Book 19: A Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in the series

The 2nd in the Rev Clair Fergusson mystery series. In this one, a series of attacks over the 4th of July weekend appear to be linked to the fact that the men are gay. But is that really true or is there some other reason? There’s also a conflict in the town over the building of a resort/spa. When one of the men dies, who is the developer of the resort and is also gay, it becomes a murder and Clair is the one who finds the body. Chief Van Alstyne is not happy with the amount of involvement she wants/seems to have but that doesn’t stop her. There was one part where Clair goes to a party in order to snoop and gets mildly intoxicated that I found hilarious.

Book 20: A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Category 7: The Coin Toss
Er books and others that catch my fancy or don’t fit anywhere else.

I had liked Mark Haddon’s book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, so when I saw this I thought I’d pick it up although I had no idea what it was about. Turns out it’s about George, who has recently retired and is settling in, building himself an art studio where he intends to paint. Then his daughter Katie arrives to announce that she intends to marry the man she’s been dating. None of the family particularly likes Ray and so this is somewhat of a delema . Meanwhile George finds a lesion on his leg that he is convinced is cancer and he goes off the deep end. This a book about families and all the misunderstandings that occur, but how (at least in this book) all works out in the end.

Book 21: Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson.
Category 10: The Huddle
It’s a mystery

This is #18 in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. This time the President’s children are kidnapped and Alex Cross is left out of the investigation for a while until the First Lady requests that he help her. I haven’t read some of the newer Alex Cross mysteries although I really enjoyed the earlier ones. I found this one less detailed, less involved, almost a short story. Less than impressed. I have a couple that come before this on the shelf and need to decide whether to read them or just get rid of them.

Book 22: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in the series

The 2nd book in the Stieg Larsson trilogy opens with Lisbeth traveling in the Caribbean but she soon returns to Sweden. The magazine Millennium and her friend Mikel are going to print an expose about the sex trade, and when two of the journalists are found murdered Lisbeth is the prime suspect. This book is also violent as the first was. You also learn a lot more about Lisbeth’s past and the ending was quite open.

Nice string of reviews Betty. Looks like you got some great reading time in during your vacation!

Yes, quite a few good reviews. I'm glad to know what A Spot of Bother is about, but I'm not going to stick it on top of Mt. TBR today. Louise Penny though is going to have to move up in the stack. ;)

I'll second Lori's comment, Betty. Some good reads listed above.

Your comments on March was interesting, it did have a biographic feel to it, I think Geraldine Brooks did a very good job with these characters.

A Spot of Bother is going on my wishlist as I really admired his other book.

I am probably just about the last person who has The Girl Who Played With Fire still sitting unread on their TBR pile. One of these days I am going to get to it!

A great list of books - what a nice vacation that must have been!

>99 - Thanks Lori. My husband and I take a week each year to lay on a beach and read for a week. It's a great de-stressed.

>100 - Katie - I found A Spot of Bother in the take one/leave one library where we were staying so it was a spur-of-the-moment read rather than something planned. I may press ahead with the next Louise Penny later this year.

>101 - Judi - I didn't think A Spot of Bother was as good as "Curious Incident", but it had it's moments. And here I was thinking I was the last one reading the Girl series. Hubby has the last one on his nook, so I might end up waiting till next year's vacation.

>102 - Thanks Sandi - yes a nice vacation.

I will keep an eye out for the Haddon book. Maybe someday I'll have nothing else lined up to read.

Maybe someday I'll have nothing else lined up to read.

I'm not sure I'll ever reach that exalted state ;-)

Me either!

Maybe someday I'll have nothing else lined up to read.

Sounds terrifying to me. May that day never come.

Here! Here!

As long as there is LT, that will never happen. :)

Book 23: The Violets of March by Sarah Jio
Category 8: The Kick-Off
Debut Novels and/or first in a series

When Emily’s marriage ends in divorce, she decides to leave New York and go visit her aunt on Bainbridge Island in Washington state in The Violets of March. When she arrives there, she finds an old, red velvet diary from 1943 in the drawer in the nightstand. Being a writer (although she’s had writer’s block for something like 8 years) she is drawn to the story being told. She wonders if maybe it could be fact.

There’s also some family friction between her aunt and her mother that she wants to fix. She figures out that the rift between her aunt and mother are somehow tied to the book and she’s determined to find out how.

Although I ended up liking the book and thought the author did a good job of connecting all the parts, there were points at the beginning which I thought were somewhat contrived. Every time Emily tries to engage her aunt in conversation she changes the conversation, leaves the room, ignores Emily, etc. I thought that device was used just a little too much. But I do look forward to more books from this author.

Book 24: The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’Neal
Category 2: The Pre-Game Tailgate Party
Books about food or with food in the title

Elena Alvarez is finally offered the chance to be head chef at a restaurant in Aspen, Co. For many years, she has been slowly climbing the ladder and now developing her own recipes for a first-class restaurant is within her grasp. She brings her share of ghosts with her – she was the lone survivor of a car accident in her teens which left her with lingering problems which she mostly chooses to ignore.

The owner of the restaurant is a famous film director and he comes to Aspen with his teenage daughter to get her away from LA as well as to open the restaurant. Of course, he becomes the love interest in the book.
There are difficulties with the other chef who was kept on as well as the headaches of getting a staff up to speed and a few other entanglements I won’t mention here.

Overall a good book – the writing style drew me right in and I couldn’t wait to finish it. There are also a few recipes sprinkled here and there in the book. It could be called chick-lit for those who are adverse to that style, although I chose to put it in my food category.

The Violets of March sounds kind of fun. I love old journals and aunts who won't talk.

Yes Katie - I do too. I imagine it takes a lot of work to write a book-within-a-book.

Book 25: House Rules by Jodi Picoult
Category 1: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE

I've always liked the books written by Jodi Picoult. She takes a difficult moral or ethical issue and writes a book that explores many if not all aspectsof the issue.

This time the novel is about a young man of 18 who has Asberger's. Although he's highly intelligent, he has many difficulties in social interaction with others. He's currently fascinated with forensic analysis. When his social interaction tutor is found dead, he is arrested for murder. The lawyer hired by his mother decides to try and get him acquitted as legally insane. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the characters. I learned a lot more than I knew before about Asberger's.

First quarter summary

Books read this month: 25

Reading by category:

New England Patriots : 3/12
Pre-game tailgate party: 2/12
The Coach: 1/12
The Team: 3/12
The Cheerleaders: 0/12
The Refs: 2/12
The Coin Toss: 3/12
The Kick-Off: 2/12
The Kick-off Return: 4/12
The Huddle: 4/12
The Field Goal: 0/12
The Super Bowl: 1/12

Best Reads of the Quarter: Just as I loved her first book, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova was a top read for this quarter. Also House Rules by Jodi Picoult, March by Geraldine Brooks, and I’ve now joined the legions who read Louise Penny.

Worst Reads of the Quarter: I was really pretty lucky this quarter; almost everything I read was pretty good this quarter. I’d have to say the one I was most disappointed in was Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson. Very thin, not much substance since he has others writing his books.

It’s very unlikely I’ll reach 144 this year; but I’ll leave it as my goal and see how far I get. Maybe I’ll sneak some skinny ones in.

Book 26: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Category 2: The Pre-Game Tailgate Party
Books about food or with food in the title

Written as a series of letters, this book tells the story of a fictional island - Nollop - off the S. Carolina coast where Nevin Nollop is venerated for his phrase "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" which uses all 26 letters of the alphabet. There is a statue which honors him with his pangram and the alphabet and, when the tiles start to fall off, the High Council decides to ban the further used of those letters which have fallen with escalating penalties for their use. As communication becomes more difficult, the islanders get the High Council to agree to bring the letters back if someone can create another pangram which is shorter than the original by a particular date.

The book is slim and reads quickly until the tiles start to fall off and the letters in the book lose letters at the same rate. The author shows imagination and skill in telling the story within the confines he has created within the book.

SPOILER You know in the end another phrase is created, but I wonder if it's something the author thought up or if it's just another one that's been around that I've not heard before. Since it fits in with the story so well, I think not, but I could be wrong. It's been known to happen.

Book 27: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Category 2: The Pre-Game Tailgate Party
Books about food or with food in the title

Flavia de Luce, the narrator of The Sweetness a the Bottom of the Pie, is an 11-year-old with a keen interest in chemistry. The youngest of three sissters, she gets little attention from them not from her father who has withdrawn from the world since Flavia's mother died. When a gentleman dies in the cucumber patch right after Flavia arrives on the scene, she is afraid her father will be blamed as he had an argument early with the same man. She suspects right away that it is murder even though the police don't think so and sets out to find out who he was and what happened. Some of what happens seems a little too much for an 11-year-old to accomplish (even a precocious one). But I enjoyed the story and will continue the series.

I just discovered your challenge and have enjoyed reading your reviews. Glad to know somebody else has discovered how great Louise Peney is - love her books!

Thanks for stopping. I have to say that since the Patriots lost the Super Bowl, I've been less enthused about my categories than I was when I set them up back last fall. Oh well!

I'm going to try and fit in book #2 of L Penny before the year ends.

Book 28: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in a series

This is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. In this one there is another Games, but this time the contestants are taken from previous winners which is never supposed to be done and, since District 12 only has 3, Katniss and Peeta are once again in the games. Once again a quick easy read.

Book 29: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Category 8: The Kick-Off
Debut novels and first in a series

In his first novel, Abraham Verghese gives us a family saga. Twin boys are born in a mission hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Their mother is an Indian missionary working in the hospital and their father is a Bristish surgeon who meets their mother on the ship out to Africa. The mother dies in childbirth and the father (who couldn't save her) disappears. The story is about how Marion and Shiva grow up at the mission in Addis Ababa during the reign of Haile Selassie and during the turbulent revolutions.

The boys both grow up to be surgeons, but their once close relationship is torn apart over a girl that Marion believes will become his wife one day, and Shiva takes advantage of and has no remorse for doing so.

Abraham Verghese spends a lot of time developing the background and history of both the country and even the side characters. This makes for an extremely rich read. I thought near the beginning that he was spending too much time with it and wanted more action, but eventually realized how much this contributed to the book.

The work details of the book show it at 688 pages and my nook copy was 600 pages, so it's a clunker. But worth the time reading.

ALthough this is the first novel by Abraham Verghese, he has also written some non-fiction and some short stories which I plan to find and read.

Book 30: Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Category 4: The Team
YA and Children’s books

A young adult book about a 15 year old girl who finds out she's a faerie. Not much else to say.

Wings - omg, that's sadly becoming a cliche, isn't it.

I read Sweetness too recently and totally agree with you. Fun read, but about as credible as Dumbo the flying elephant.

Ella Minnow Pea sounds like a hoot! WL time.

Book 31: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Category 12: The Super Bowl
Books that have won awards

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead won the Newbery Award in 2010. The book is the story of a middle school girl who lives in Manhatten. Her mother is studying to go on the $25,000 Pyramid show, her best friend Sal who lives in the apartment on the first floor suddenly doesn't want to walk home from school with her or even hang out together, and she's worried about the crazy guy on the street corner. Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and time travel is also a subject in this book.

ETA: Whoops - hit post before I was finished

Did you like it? It sounds interesting.

Yes - I liked it quite a bit. I'd heard good things when it won the Newbery, and it's been on the shelf a while. I've put it in a box I've got started for BFK, so if you wait til it comes, you can sneak it out to read.

ETA: spelling

Book 32: The Elegance of the Hedgehogby Muriel Barbery
Category 11: The Field Goal
Books about animals or with an animal in the title

Interesting book about a concierge in France and the tenants in her apartment building particularly a young girl who is contemplating suicide and a new tenant who shakes up her world.

Book 33: The Surgeon: A Novel by Tess Gerritsen
Category 6: The Refs
Books with occupations in the titles

The TV series "Rizzoli and Isles" is loosely based on this series by Tess Gerritsen. This is the first book of the series and I found this was less of a police procedural and more of a physchological thriller.

Jane Rizzoli, the only woman in the Boston homicide division, carries a chip on her shoulder feeling that she isn't respected enough as a detective. When a woman is found dead with her womb removed and her throat slashed, Jane draws the lead detective spot with her partner and thinks she will finally make her mark in the department. Once a second body is found, and it looks like this might be a serial killer, some detective work leads from Boston back to Savannah where similar murders took place 3 years ago. There was only one survivor and she is a doctor now practicing in Boston. Since she shot and killed her attacker who how does this murderer know so much about the crimes. Did she shoot the wrong guy? Could the killer have followed her to Boston or could she be the killer? Things become complicated when Jane's partner begins to fall for the doctor and Jane shoots an innocent person and ends up on desk duty.

I thought I had this all figured out rather early in the book only to discover that I was A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-E-L-Y wrong! Although I don't remember this episode as being on the TV show there was one incident in the book that I do remember as being included in one of the shows. I enjoyed this book and will be reading book 2 soon.

Book 34: Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in the series

The 3rd book in the Precious Ramotswe series about The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. More of her figuring out what's going on in Botswana. Nice light reading for a lazy Saturday.

Book 35: Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
Category 5: The Cheerleaders
Chick Lit and books by women authors

I'm by no means a prude, but I just couldn't find a reason to finish this book. To me it was a very bleak look at what life is like for single girls in New York. The author makes it plain in the forward that it's an unsentimental look at relationships in NY, but it was still way colder than I expected and besides that there was no flow. I'm going to give one of her novels a try and see if they're any better. I'm still counting it though as I made an hones attempt to read it. (...And I'm way behind...)

Book 36: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Category 11: Field Goal
Books about animals or with an animal in the title

This is the 3rd book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I didn't care for this one as much as others. This one is about the revolution with Katniss as the symbol of the revolution. Lots of people dying. Rather depressing.

>131 I didn't like this one as well as the first two, either.

When you reach me sounds interesting. As for Hunger Games, I'm feeling like I should have read it 3 years ago when I first started hearing about it. Now I'm getting my too much hype can't make me read it I'm a donkey reaction.

I know, Katie. That's how I am too. I really only put the first one on my Nook, because it was offered for 1.99. So last year on vacation, I decided I'd give it a try. Then a friend recently was reading 2&3 and offered to lend them to me, so I decided I might as well get it out of the way.

"Get it out of the way" makes sense! At my school, some of the classes read it and went to the movie. :) Eventually, I'll have to read it.

I felt that book 1 was the best of the three. So if you try that one and you're not thrilled, I wouldn't bother with 2 or 3. I held out forever before I finally broke down and read the Twilight series.

Ah, still haven't read Twilight. I tried right before Breaking Dawn came out because I worked at Borders and we were supposed to push it hard. Couldn't - unless you count reading it ala Alex Day on Youtube. That was entertaining. :)

Book 37: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Category 8: The Kick-Off
Debut novels and first in a series

“In walking, he freed the past that he had spent twenty years seeking to avoid, and now it chattered and played through his head with a wild energy that was his own.”

In The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Harold Fry has been retired 6 months and spends most of his time just hanging around. Until the day he gets a letter from an old co-worker, Queenie. She is writing him to tell him she has cancer and in hospice and to tell him good-bye. Harold pens a reply and leaves to walk down to the post box to mail the letter. When he gets to the first one, he decides to walk on to the next, and then to the central box in town. Soon he decides that if he keeps walking all the way to the nursing home where Queenie is, then she won’t die. He has no cell phone with him, is wearing inappropriate shoes, and Berwick-upon-Tweed is 500 miles away.

The book follows Harold’s journey – the roads he travels, the sights he sees and the people he meets along the way. Mostly though, it’s about his thoughts: memories of the past, introspective thoughts of what he should have done and didn’t, memories of his wife and marriage, memories of his son and how he feels he failed him.

In her debut novel, Rachel Joyce has written an absorbing story about life and its regrets. You can feel the weariness of Harold’s life as his thoughts jump from one time of his life to another. The changes in Harold’s wife from the beginning of the book to the end are done slowly and skillfully. he only thing I would have wanted was a map of England in the front so I could follow where he went. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I got this as part of the ER program.

#138 That one sounds very good - I'll be watching for the library to get it

Great review of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Betty. I was looking at that one when it was posted with the ER books so happy to see it receive a positive from you. I can see where a map would be helpful.... ;-)

>138 - Sounds like a fabulous book. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Book 38: Picture This: A Novel by Jacqueline Sheehan
Category 1: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE

In this sequel to JS's first book Lost & Found, Rocky Pelligrino is still living on Peak’s Island off the coast of Maine with Cooper, the black Lab she rescued in the first book. Still healing from the death of her husband, it’s time for her to decide whether or not to return to her home in Massachusetts and her career as a psychologist on a college campus. Then a phone call from a stranger looking for her biological father sends her life into a tailspin. Could her husband have fathered a child and not known about it? On an impulse, she invites the girl to come and stay with her.

Natalie has recently turned 18 and been released from the foster care system. She claims that when she left the foster care system, she asked to see her records and found another birth certificate in them indicating that Rocky’s husband was her father. There’s the impression that this could be a scam or maybe it’s real. The author deftly weaves the story to allow for both possibilities.

Many characters from the first book appear in the second book; however, doesn't depend too much on what happened in the first book, so it can be read as a stand-alone book. There are plenty of side stories and issues to keep the story interesting. The suspense builds – there were times when I couldn’t stop reading and times when I had to put it down, afraid to know where the author might go next. And I especially liked the chapters written from the dog’s point of view.

I won this as an ER book

Well that takes care of the two ER books that arrived this month. Now I'm back to my May TIOLI book and a couple of others. I have a couple of categories that are far behind.

Book 39: Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell
Category 5: The Cheerleaders
Chick Lit and books by women authors

When I didn't care for Sex and the City, I thought I should at least give one of her novels a try. So I picked Lipstick Jungle the story of 3 powerful women friends in NY; one is a fashion designer, one is editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine and the 3rd is the President of a movie studio. The book was only okay for me. I just couldn't get too invested in the story or their lives. And so, I have decided to abandon the book after reading about half. And I'll probably just skim the first chapter of the other two I have of hers and then reduce my TBR pile by all three unless one REALLY catches my attention.

Book 40: The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
Category 7: The Coin Toss
ER books and others that catch my fancy or don’t fit anywhere else

Although there are many lyrical descriptions in this book ("gales of laughter that beaded on her gums"), I found it difficult to get involved on this book. Similar to stream-of-conscience books, I didn't feel the sentences made sense or followed logically from one to another.

Betty, you got me with a book bullet -- The Surgeon. The locale clinched it -- Boston and Savannah are two of my favorite cities!

Not too much takes place in Savannah. But I liked it enough to continue the series.

Book 41: Behind A Mask by Louisa May Alcott
Category 7: The Coin Toss
ER books and others that catch my fancy or don’t fit anywhere else

I first heard of this book last year when I read Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion, a biography about Madeline Stern and Leona Rostenberg. They were friends and book collectors, ferreting out rare books for their store. Madeline Stern wrote some biographies and while she was researching one on Louisa May Alcott, she discovered that like Joe from Little Women, LMA also wrote articles under pseudonyms to help support her family before she wrote Little Women. The story of her search and discoveries was an interesting part of the book.

Anyway, in 1975, Ms Stern collected 4 of these short stories in this book Behind A Mask which are said to represent the best of this type of story that she wrote. Described as “blood and thunder” stories, they are relatively tame by today’s standards. The four included in this book are far from gruesome, bloody tales. However, there is plenty of innuendo, suspense, and secrets alluded to along the way to a conclusion in each of these tales.

Ms Stern wrote an introduction to the book that explains the circumstances at the time LMA wrote these and some of how she discovered this.

145 - I like Annie Dillard in small doses, but that quote! "gales of laughter that beaded on her gums" Speaking of mixed metaphors - dew beads, not rain in a gale. & why are we looking at anyone's gums? Did he/she laugh with teeth bared like a horse?

Book 42: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Category 3: The Coach
Books of non-fiction

A thoroughly entertaining book about a 20-year correspondence between Helene Hanff and an employee of Marks & Co Booksellers in London. This slim book is the letters that went back and forth and from the third letter, when she used the phrase "bilingual arithmetic", I knew her style of writing would be wonderful.

Book 43: The Entitled by Frank Deford
Category 1: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE

Frank Deford, an NPR sports commentator from Connecticut, has written this fictional novel of baseball. Howie Traveler, who has finally made it to the big leagues, is the manager for the Cleveland Indians. Not quite good enough himself to make it to the pros, he has spent years trying to work his way up while still managing the way he believes a team should be managed. Then one night after a game, he sees something while on his way back to his room which may change his life as well as the team.

Much of the book is not about what he sees and how he decides to handle it, but his story and the story of the team's best player. Good writing and an interesting book.

Stopping by for a post-vaction catch-up - lots of interesting stuff. I too have tried Candace Bushnell and failed. I like the Sex and the City TV-series, but the book was just as cold as you describe and I couldn't like any of the characters.

>152 - Glad somebody else agrees wih me - didn't notice till after I read them that they don't have a very high "star" rating.

Book 44: Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert
Category 2: The Pre-Game Tailgate Party
Books about food or with food in the title

Thyme of Death is the first book in the China Bayles cozy mystery series. China Bayles, once a defense lawyer, has quit law and bought an herb shop in Pecan Springs, Tx. When her friend Jo dies, it appears to be suicide to everyone except for their friend Roz who is convinced it is murder. The story has plenty of twists and turns along the way to the discovery of the murder. This is the second book lately where I was pretty sure I knew who the murderer was fairly early on - and - yes - you guessed - I was wrong again. I enjoyed this first book and have a bunch more on the TBR pile which I'm looking forward to reading.

Nothing to do with the story, really, but the descriptions of the clothing that the people in Pecan Springs wear conjured up some interesting pictures in my mind.

Book 45: Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer
Category 11: Field Goal
Books about animals or with an animal in the title

First book in a cozy, quilting mystery series featuring Dewey Pellicano. This one takes place at a quilting exhibition. Dewey was left a quilt shop when her mother died 6 months ago in a drunk driving accident. She has never been interested in quilting and wants to find a buyer at the show. When she finds the person who wants to buy it dead, she becomes one of the prime suspects in the murder. As I enjoy quilting myself, I really enjoyed it and plan to continue reading.

I'm glad to hear you liked Terry Thayer's book. I just downloaded the first one free for my Kindle. I was hoping it would not disappoint.

154> I love the China Bayles series! It's one of my all-time favorite mystery series. Glad you liked the first book!

Book 46: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Category 12: The Super Bowl
Award winning books
Newbery Award - 1963

While reading When You Reach Me, there was a reference to this book A Wrinkle in Time as being the favorite book of Miranda, the main character. I also saw a comparison in some of the reviews I read and happened to find it at a library sale and thought I'd read it.

It's the story of three children who tessar (time-travel) to try and find their father who's been gone a few years. Interesting adventure story considering it was written in the 60's when time travel was the big theme it has been recently.

Hmmm, I know it's A Wrinkle in Time but the places they went to were just so odd that I always saw at as travel in Space. I should read it again. I remember the reason I loved it as a kid was Meg's character, with her big glasses that hid beautiful eyes, and her odd brother Charles Wallace.

Book 47: Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
Category 5: The Cheerleaders
Chick Lit and books by women authors

When Ann first me Ruth at a party, she didn't think she would like her. But they became best friends. Now Ruth is dying from breast cancer and a group of her friends, including Ann, are trying to help her as best they can.

Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors so I'm trying to catch up on those that I've missed. This was the first of her stand-alone novels. (She wrote one before this that is part of a series) She says that she wrote it after a friend died of cancer to demonstrate women's friendships. I think she did a great job of doing this.

I read the China Bayes series, or most of it, years ago and always enjoyed them. Since then I haven't read many cozies, but I love quilting, too, so I will look for Wild Goose Chase. Talk Before Sleep also sounds like something I need to seek out. Thanks for the great recommendations!

Book 48: The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
Category 4: The Team
YA and Children’s books

...""Magic is always impossible," said the magician. "It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic."...

Although I didn't like this book as much as other books by Ms DiCamillo that I've read, I still enjoyed this quite a bit. Peter takes the coin he is given to buy fish and uses it to go to a fortune teller. She tells him that an elephant will lead him to his sister. Well there is no elephant in the city of Baltese and he's been told that his sister is dead. Then at the Opera House across town, a magician, trying to conjure a bouquet of lilies, instead causes an elephant to crash through the roof. And suddenly the impossible just might be possible.

The books is darker than her other stories, but still very compelling.

The Magician's Elephant has to go on the wishlist. I have a soft spot for Kate DiCamillo. My old dog Dillon & I were on a walk while she was doing a signing pre-Winn Dixie at "The Rag & Bone" which is a sadly now defunct bookstore that was dog friendly. I waltz in with Dillon and she said "Oh! There's a dog at my signing!" and petted him and got kisses from him. She autographed The Tiger Rising to both of us. She's such a sweet person!

#163 What a great story!

Katie - That's a great story. My dog's not well-behaved enough to take in places.

Thanks! Dillon faked being a good boy in public sometimes. :)

I've never read anything by Kate DiCamillo, but I like her a lot now after your story! :)

Book 49: The Hours: A Novel by Michael Cunningham
Category 12: The Super Bowl
Books that have won awards
Pulitzer for fiction - 1999

In The Hours, Michael Cunningham has written a novel expanding on the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The book is the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, when she has just started writing Mrs Dalloway, Laura Brown, a housewife in 1949, who is reading Mrs Dalloway, and Clarissa Vaughn, who is an embodiement of Mrs Dalloway. It took about 50-75 pages before I really started to like the book and wanted to see how the three stories would come together. And it wasn't until the very end that it all came together. I enjoyed his writing style and can see why it made a big impact. I didn't realize what it would be about before I started it, and since I never really liked (or finished) Mrs Dalloway, I almost decided not to keep going. But I'm glad I did.

The hours is sitting on my TBR bookcase.... need to think about moving that one up.

Sorry to learn Mrs. Dalloway was abandoned when you read it. Don't mean to pry but was it the writing style or something else that just didn't do it for you? I tend to be curious when different reading tastes surface and I think Mrs. Dalloway is one of those books that reading at the right time in the right frame of mind helps.

I think that was probably the first book I read that is written in that stream-of-conscience (conscienceness?) style. I've found that it just doesn't work for me. I thought The Maytrees which I read last month sort of the same. Didn't really enjoy that either.

That makes sense. Streams of conscience writing only works for me if my mind logically follows the flow.... if it doesn't, it turns into a very frustrating experience!

Book 50: June & Wallace by Lynette Hall Hampton
Category 10:The Huddle
It's a mystery

I grabbed this for my nook for the June TIOLI since there was nothing in my TBR that seemed to fit. (I’ve been trying to use the actual month in some form). Lighter than even a cozy mystery, this one was like whipped cream – light and frothy, not to stable, but lots of fun.

June & Wallace is the second Calendar Clan Mystery. (June’s sisters are named January, April and May, and her brothers are August and October.) June and Wallace have been married 3 months now. Wallace is the sheriff in a small N Carolina town. One morning as June goes into the laundry room to get food for the cat, there’s a loud knock at the back door. When she parts the blinds to see who’s there, a man’s bloody face is in the window. He has no id and is in bad shape. Soon a second man is found dead in a field. Then June and Wallace start getting shot at and they have to go into hiding. Someone seems to be out to get them. There is a lot of romance too; kissing at breakfast, snuggling by the fire, kissing at supper, assurances that each loves the other more than he/she could possibly know, remarks from others as to how in love they are. And there’s a lot of cooking going on: big breakfasts, multiple chocolate cakes, pies, hams – they do like to eat.

Light, frothy and good for an afternoon at the beach or on the porch. I might even get the first one.

Three quick reads to set me up for the July TIOLI:

Book 51: 1st to Die by James Patterson
Category 8: The Kick-Off
Debut novels and first in a series

1st to Die is the first in James Paterson’s Women’s Murder Club series. In this first book, Lindsay Boxer is put in charge of a murder investigation when a newly married couple is murder on their wedding day. Cindy, a reporter for the Chronicle, manages to sneak in and get all the way to the murder room before she is discovered. Claire, the medical examiner, and Jill, an assistant DA, become the rest of the group who meet outside of work to trade information and try to figure out the murder. Soon more couples are being murdered and it’s up to them to figure out wha’s going on.

Book 52: 2nd Chance by James Patterson
Category 9: The Kick-Off Return
Books that are next in a series

2nd Chance is the next book in the Women’s Murder Club series. Lindsay has been promoted to Lieutenant of the Homicide unit. It starts when a 10-year old black girl is killed coming out of choir practice. Soon there are more murders and it seems like hate crimes because the people killed are all black. Meanwhile, Lindsay’s father, whom she hasn’t seen since she was 11, shows up to try and make amends. Then Lindsay’s friends become targets and she needs to figure out who the murder is.

Book 53: 3rd Degree by James Patterson
Category 10:The Huddle
It's a mystery

In 3rd Degree, Lindsay joins up with Homeland Security to find out who is setting off bombs and using ricin to kill people and what connects them all. She and sexy Joe Mollino race to prevent more killings as the G-8 summit draws near.

These were all rereads actually. I had started the series a while ago (ok- years ago) and decided to reread and catch up with the series.

#173 You must like the series since you've re-read all these with the plan to go on with it, right? I was interested in starting the series a few years ago, but my husband read the first two and complained about how relentlessly evil the villains were. I was put off them as a result, but now I wonder if he is just sensitive - he's not the one who loves serial killer books, after all!

They're not serial killer like gore and blood. Lindsay is more about solving the crime by "thinking"; i.e what did she miss? I gave up on the series because I didn't like something that happened in the 3rd book and kind of ran out of interest after #6, but I decided to go back and try them again. We'll see if I still continue when I reach that point again.

Lindsay is more about solving the crime by "thinking"; i.e what did she miss?

I cringe at the thought of adding another series to my reading list but darn it all, I think you have convinced me to try book one!

Book 54: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Category 3: The Coach
Books of non-fiction

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss is a lighted-hearted look at the ins and outs of punctuation. Ms Truss is a British writer so I didn’t recognize some of her references, but I still liked the book a lot. She explains some of the history of the different punctuation marks, the rules for use, and some of the differences between British and American usage. In the last chapter she even explores how email, texting, and other new communications are changing punctuation.

Book 55: Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
Category 12: The Super Bowl
Books that have won awards

Amy and Isabelle won the Los Angel’s Times 1999 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was short-listed for the 2000 Orange Prize for fiction.

It’s the story of a mother/daughter relationship in a small New England mill town and the difficulty they have communicating with each other. Isabelle is a reserved person with definite ideas on how things should be done and what's "proper". She finds it difficult to talk to her daughter (and everyone else) except about the most superficial things. She internalizes everything to the nth degree. And although she feels, she keeps everything bottled up inside.

“But an ache stayed inside her. And a faint reverberating hum of something close to joy lived on the outer edges of her memory; some kind of longing that had been answered once and was simply not answered any more. “

Amy is a 16 year-old just discovering her sexuality. She feels alienated from her mother, unable to express her thoughts or fears or ask for understanding. Forced to work with her mother at the mill office, they become more and more estranged.

And while there’s not a lot of activity in this book, Ms Strout’s writing expresses the angst and uncertainty of Amy’s teenage years and the regrets and guilt that Isabelle feels as her daughter gets older.

“Isabelle had to keep looking away, for she was struck with the extreme ease with which lives could be damaged. Lives, flimsy as fabric, could be snipped capriciously with the shears of random moments of self-interest.”

I have that on my TBR. Excellent review-you've made me want to read it right away.

Book 56: The Watchman by Robert Crais
Category 6: The Refs
Books with occupations in the titles

The Watchman is the first book in a second series by Robert Crais. Joe Pike is an ex-Marine, ex-LAPD cop, ex-mercenary PI who is hired to protect a girl that someone is trying to kill. After being in an auto accident in the wee hours of the morning, Larkin tries to do the right thing. But pretty soon the feds are asking her questions and it seems one of the people in the accident has something to do with a South American drug cartel. Plenty of shooting and dead people as Joe tries to figure out why Larkin has been targeted and not all is as it seems. There are also flash-backs to Joe’s life before this book as the author establishes this new character. There’s even an appearance by the main character in his first series, Elvis Cole.

I liked this well enough that I think I’ll check out the first book in the Elvis Cole series which I have on my shelf and which fits in one of my categories.  

I've decided to load up my quarterly report on my reading since I won't be finishing anything tomorrow. Then over the weekend, I think I'll try and make a continuation thread for the next half of the year.

12 in 12
Second quarter summary
Books read 1st quarter : 25
Books read 2nd quarter: 31

Reading by category:

New England Patriots : 5/12
Pre-game tailgate party: 5/12
The Coach: 3/12
The Team: 5/12
The Cheerleaders: 3/12
The Refs: 4/12
The Coin Toss: 5/12
The Kick-Off: 5/12
The Kick-off Return: 7/12
The Huddle: 6/12
The Field Goal: 3/12
The Super Bowl: 5/12

Best Reads of the Quarter: This is tough. I had mostly good reads again this quarter. I guess the best ones would be Cutting for Stone, Amy and Isabelle, and Talk Before Sleep.

Worst Reads of the Quarter: I tried 2 books by Candace Bushnell this quarter and didn’t finish either of them. I tried Sex and the City and Lipstick Jungle (didn't finish either) and also dumped 2 more by her that were in the TBR pile. The other one I wasn’t thrilled by was Wings by Aprilynne Pike.

Leaving my goal at 144 allows me the option to go to 12 in any category, but I’m trying to level things off right now. A couple of categories need some filling up.

Great progress! Not a bad thing when you have a hard time figuring out the best reads from a bunch of great reads! :)

I was going to try and start a new thread for the rest of the year until I found out that the continue button doesn't show up until you get to 200 posts. So I'll have to keep going here for a few more days.

Book 57: The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
Category 11: Field Goal
Books about animals or with an animal in the title

This is the first book by Robert Crais and the first in his Elvis Cole series. I read the first in his Joe Pike series last month, and decided to go back to his other series since I had it and it fit into a category.

Elvis Cole is a private investigator and is hired in this first book to find a missing husband and son. During his search it becomes evident that the husband was involved in something shady; especially when he turns up dead.

I could see the difference in writing between this book and the other one I read. Still a good story though, and I'll be continuing with the series.

ETA: I never did figure out what the title has to do with the book; must have missed something, somewhere.

Bouncing in to say Hi and to congratulate you on finishing book 57!

I've never read anything in the China Bayles series but dm adding at least the first one to my list.

If you like the Robert Crais books then you'll probably like the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. Worth a try if you haven't already done so.

>187 Linda - I'm hoping to fit a couple more in this year - I have a bunch on the TBR.

>188 Dave - Been reading Harry Bosch for a while. I think at one point I was all caught up so I got side-tracked to others, but I've got at least one on the TBR. Just need to figure out if I missed any in between. Harry Bosch, Lucas Davenport, Dismiss Hardy, Butch Karp, Lincoln Rhyme and all their friends - I like them all. And now Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Great for escapism.

Book 58: Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Category 3: The Coach
Books of non-fiction

Doris Kearns Goodwin is perhaps best known for her historical biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and the Kennedy's, and sometimes seen on TV during the political national election process. In Wait Till Next Year, she has written a memoir of growing up in Brooklyn during the 1950's and her fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Her father taught her how to score a ball game when she was only 6, and her fascination began. Some of her memories are universal to being a child and growing up in he 50s, no matter where. Although I found some of her comments/actions unlikely for her age, it may have just been the writing from the point of view as an adult.
Anyone who is a baseball fan will recognize the names of the Dodger players and their rivals, the Giants and the Yankees.
Overall, a book I enjoyed.

Book 59: 4th of July by James Patterson
Category 10:The Huddle
It's a mystery

In the 4th book in the Women's Murder Club series, Linday Boxer is taken to court after she shoots two teenagers in self defense during a car chase. One teenager is dead and another is paralized for life. The parents sue Lindsay and the police department for $50 million. While waiting to go on trial, she takes some time off at her sisters house down the coast where another brutal series of murders are taking place and which may be connected to one of her nsolved murders from 10 years ago.

This book moved right along and the twist at the end was unexpected.

Interesting review on Amy and Isabelle. The quotes you pulled sound intriguing.

Book 60: The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
Category 5: The Cheerleaders
Chick Lit and books by women authors

Adienne Dealey has been moving from place to place since her mother died when she was 11. First with her father and then on her own, working in hotels until she tires of it, and then picking up and changing places every year or so. Now she’s decided to try Nantucket leaving her latest, dead-beat boyfriend back in Aspen after she turned him in to the police for robbing hotels and dealing drugs. On the ferry to the island, a man tells her to try the Blue Bistro, one of the hottest restaurants on the island. And she can make a lot of money. Even though she has no experience, she’s hired as the assistant manager running the front of the house.

The Blue Bistro is a fun, chick-lit summer read. Before the story starts, the menu from the restaurant is presented. And with in the first 30 pages the descriptions of the food sucked me right in. I wished it was a real restaurant and I wanted to leave for Nantucket right away so I could eat there. And drink pink champagne.

Book 61: The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay

Category 7: The Coin Toss
ER books and others that catch my fancy or don’t fit anywhere else

When Irene Blum is passed over as head curator of the Brook Museum, she can’t believe it. For years she has waited and worked with this goal in mind. But in 1925 a woman was unlikely to be promoted in spite of her expertise and the reputation she has made for the museum. She returns home from the meeting to find her mentor and old family friend Henry Simms waiting for her. He had rescued her mother when she was Kidnapped in Manila while pregnant with Irene, and had remained friends with her father until his death 6 months previously. Now he gives her a book written in 1825 which implies that the person writing it has seen some copper scrolls in a village temple 27 days travel beyond Angor Wat which tell the history of the Khmer people. Written 40 years before Angkor Wat was first sighted, finding them again would be a major coup. It would prove to the museum trustees that they had been wrong to pass over her for someone else. Irene wants to be the one to find these scrolls and Mr Simms agrees to finance the expedition.

“He was a strategist, a mastermind. He did nothing that was not thoroughly planned, and as she clutched the brittle newspaper clippings, the possibility of something bigger than she has anticipated swelled, unformed, into the room.” How prophetic this sentence (which the author drops in early in the book) was.

So Irene travels to Shanghai to mount an expedition to Cambodia with a few names Simms has given her of people who may be able to help. Soon she finds herself in the middle of intrigue: many people would like to find the scrolls and she’s never sure who to trust or what their motives might be. There are many twists in the plot as Irene heads into the jungle in search of the scrolls. She must try to figure out who is telling her the truth, what motivations others have in the search, and what to ultimately do if she does find the scrolls.

The book made me think of an Indiana Jones movie/adventure. It takes place in an exotic location and the author does a good job of presenting 1920s Asia. The descriptions of Shanghai and Cambodia were so good I could almost feel the humidity in the air, smell the jungle, and hear exotic voices. Although there are multiple twists in the plot, the author has woven them together seamlessly. I look forward to her next novel.

**Note: Because I had an advance uncorrected proof, there were no acknowledgements or anything about the author included. I would have been interested to see any sources of information she might have mentioned.

Book 62: 5th Horseman by James Patterson
Category 11: Field Goal
Books about animals or with an animal in the title

This is the 5th book in the Women's Murder Club series. This time Lindsay Boxer is trying to find out who is murder pretty girls and then posing them in cars in public. Meanwhile, a lawsuit against the local hospital claims that people are being murdered just before being released.

The Map of Lost Memories sounds good! You've been getting lucky with the ER books. I seem to be winning the ones that never show up lately. :(

I'm still missing the May book I won, but I have gotten some good ones lately.

It happens. I've gotten some good ones too, but I'm like a kid. I run to the mailbox, and then pout because it still isn't here and still isn't here and still isn't here.

& speaking of mailbox, I just finished Behind a Mask today. Thank you!!! A little melodrama does the heart some good. :)

oooh! I'm so glad you liked it. I'm always nervous when I recommend a book to someone. I liked that the style of writing was a little bit different than what I'm usually used to.

I liked that too. It was good to be in a different place and time, with a different morality.

Took Fri off to take a day trip with a friend and came back home to an email from work of a hornet's nest at work. This week has been abismal; twice I tried to sign into LT with my work username and password and didn't understand why it wasn't working. So I've abondoned The Blind Assassin and decided on something that needs no concentration. A New Leash on Death by Susan Conant is a cozy which I think will fit my state of mind.

BTW - I've finally reached 200 messages so I'll be continuing on a new thread for the next half year as soon as I get a chance.

Sorry to hear about the work hassles. Sounds like a cozy is just what you need!

Thanks Terri - It's been a long week. "They" transferred my boss under a "restructuring" label, and it's made people nervous about what's going on. They gave him no access to his computer to transfer his computer approval level to his alternate, so work was a mess this week. Lots of rumors flying. etc. Our fiscal year ended Jun 30, so we're still closing out and opening the new year, so it's usually busy anyway, but this has just amped everything to another level. We're a small office, so this has put an extra burden on everyone. Oh well - I'm done venting....

"restructuring", "reorganizing" or any other word - I remember "right size" being used to describe a round of layoffs a few years back where I was working at the time - all reach the same bottom line: it doesn't matter what they call it.... the end result is a period of chaos, uncertainty and confusion.

Hope all is well with you and feel free to vent... it's healthy to do so! ;-)

Book 63; A New Leash on Death by Susan Conant
Category 1: The New England Patriots
Books written by NE authors or taking place in NE

A New Leash on Death is the first in a cozy mystery series for dog lovers. Just what I needed this week.