Books Read in December

I did pretty good to wrap up my year in reading, with 13 books read this month. Here's what I read in December:

1. The Phantom Freighter (library)

2. World Without End (TBR challenge)

3. The secret in the Old attic (Library)

4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1001 books)

5. Ghost in the Mirror (Non- fiction/Kindle)

6. Hawk O'Toole's Hostage

7. The Daughters Break the Rules

8. The Daughters take the Stage

9. Just as Long as We're Together

10. The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest

11. The Chocolate Chip Cookie murder (kindle)

12. A Boyfriend Before Christmas (Kindle)

13. All the Lovely Bad Ones

This was an excellent way to end my year in reading. All except two of these books received 5 stars from me!

My 2011 Year in Books

Books read in 2011
(Goal: 75, or 22,500 pages!)

JANUARY
1. A Thousand Splendid Suns
2. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo
3. Restless Hearts
4. Thirteen Moons
5. Blue Skies

February
6. The Virgin Suicides
7. Club Dead
8. Dead to the World

March
9. Love and Respect
10. By the Shores of Silver Lake
11. The Long Winter

April
12. Search for a New Dawn
13. Little Town on the Prairie
14. These Happy Golden Years
15. The First four years
16. The Purpose driven Life
17. The Pillars of the Earth

May
18. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
19. Safe Haven
20. The Christmas Train
21. Amazing Word search collection
22. Haunted Schools
23. The Boleyn Inheritance
24. Haunted Highways
25. Standing in the Rainbow

June
26. The Memory Keepers Daughter
27. The Interruption of Everything
28. The Red Queen
29. Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
30. That Summer
31. Something Blue

July
32. One Tuesday Morning
33. beyond Tuesday Morning
34. The house of Mirth
35. Stone of Tears

August
36. Black Hills
37. This Lullaby
38. The Bestseller
39. Dead as a Doornail
40. The Girl Who Played with Fire
41. War and Peace
42. Definitely Dead
43. The Poisonwood Bible

September
44. Conquering depression
45. All Together dead
46. The Woman in Black

October
47. The Ghost Next door
48. The shelters of stone
49. Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married
50. One summer

November
51. Heart of the Matter
52. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #1
53. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #2
54. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #3
55. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #4
56. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5
57. Deep and Dark and Dangerous
58. Wait ‘til Helen Comes
59. 50 Things That Really Matter
60. Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery
61. Cam Jansen and the Triceratop pops Mystery
62. If I could Fly
63. Good-bye Pink Pig
64. The Sign of the Crooked Arrow
65. Not Even for Love

December
66. The Phantom Frieghter
67. World Without End
68. The Secret in the Old Attic
69. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
70. Ghost in the Mirror
71. Hawk O’Toole’s Hostage
72. The Daughter’s Break the Rules
73. The Daughter’s Take the Stage
74. Just as Long as We’re Together
75.The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
76. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
77. A boyfriend Before Christmas
78. All The Lovely Bad Ones

Books Read to My Daughter
79. Peedie
80. Guess How Much I love you
81. Pooh Loves
82. Noah’s Ark
83. My Little Golden book about God
84. Baby’s First Book
85. Baby’s House
86.Look Out Suzie Goose!


So, this has been another amazing year of reading!!! Those last two months I really went to town trying to catch up! I did pretty good! I have to admit, I was scrambling around trying to get some shorter books to read (even went to the library for that purpose!) since I didn't have any good short or YA books on my TBR shelf, so next year I am going to only read off my TBR shelf, and since, like I said I don't have any really short ones, I think I am not going to be reaching a 75 book goal in 2012. i'm pretty much not even gonna try. I have a list of 65 already written up that I want to get finished by years end, but a few of them are pretty lengthy, like Don Quixote and #'s 3 and 4 in the Sword of Truth series. So, I am just going to try to get through that list and if I do and can read more towards the 75 book challenge then great but if not, eh oh well, as long as I try to knock quite a few off my pre-chosen list of 65. So, there are my goals for 2012! Do you have any reading goals?

Thank you! Merry Christmas and a TBR challenge list!

First off thank you to Kimberly at Turning The Pages for such an encouraging comment!! I am definitely going to try to keep this up! The reading part is the fun/easy part for me, it's the writing part that is sorta hard. The reviews and such! But I will keep trying to write as much as I can! Maybe If I hand write out my reviews first. For some reason my brain works better with pencil in hand then when I try to type out how I feel about a book. And part of it is pure laziness, or being too busy with other things! The other thing I think that deters me is the fact that I don't read new releases often, since my TBR shelf overfloweth, with books that I purchased a long time ago, so I think "Why review that?! Everyone has probably already read it!" But then I think Well the reason I started this blog was to keep track mainly for myself what I read, so why should I care what other people think? And who knows? Something I write just might help someone else want to read a great book I read, even if it's been on the shelves for years and years.

That being said I have once again joined the TBR challenge at The book addicts group on Goodreads, and the challenge is to read 12 books off your TBR shelf during the year. The books must have been on your shelf for at least a year. So, that means no publication dates from after Jan 1 2011. Lord knows I have plenty to choose from! So, here's my list!

1. Three Fates By: Nora Roberts

2.Of Mice and Men by: John Steinbeck

3. Girls Night In By: several authors (short stories!)

4. The Romance Readers' Book Club by: Julie L. Cannon

5. Nostalgic Noel A collection of 4 Christmas stories by various authors

6.The Appeal By: John Grisham

7. Ask Again Later by: Jill A. Davis

8. The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime By:Mark Haddon

9. Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore

10. Mansfield Park by: Jane Austen

11. Waiting to Exhale by: Terry MacMillan

12. Every Breath You Take by Ann Rule

You are allowed 2 alternates as well and for those I picked:

1.Summer breeze By: Catherine Anderson

2. The Summerhouse By: Jean Stone

I just realized that out of those 14 books 10 of them are from authors who are new to me! Wow! I may find me some new favorite authors this year!

Well, that's it for me here, but before I go I would like to say a big Merry Christmas to all you who took the time to read this! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and have a great New Year Holiday and next year? If you don't see reviews here, be sure and leave me a comment and say "Hey! I'd love to see a review for ::insert title here!::"

Wow!

I am up to 19 followers here now! I didn't think anyone even cared...guess I had better start writing more here. Like reviews of books...yeah that might be good! =) I have written what? 2, 3 reviews all year, and I've read almost 80 books! I am a horrible book blogger! =( I am gonna try to be better next year, I promise! (I think I made this promise for this year too...oops!)

Books Read in November

Well, I had a goooood reading month in November! I finished 15 books! So, now I am more than caught up with my challenge, in fact it is only the beginning of Dec, and I only have 1 more book to finish to reach my 75 books for the year!
Here's the list:
1. Heart of the Matter by:Emily Giffin
2. Diary of a Wimpy kid #1 by:Jeff Kinney
3. Diary of a wimpy Kid #2
4. Diary of a wimpy Kid #3
5. Diary of a wimpy Kid #4
6. Diary of a wimpy Kid #5
7. Deep and dark and Dangerous By:Mary Downing Hahn
8. Wait Tl Helen Comes By Mary Downing Hahn
9. 50 things that really matterDave Joachim
10. Cam Jansen and the Snowy day Mystery By: David A. Adler
11. Cam Jansen and the Triceratops Pops mystery by: David A. Adler
12. If I coud Fly By: Judith Ortiz Cofer
13. Good Bye Pink Pig By: C.S Adler
14. The sighn of the Crooked Arrow By: Franklin Dixon
15. Not even for Love By:Sandra Brown

Yes, i went a little overboard on the kiddie books but I got the box set of the Wimpy kid books for my birthday. And they went so fast and were fun that I decided to hit the library and see what other great kid books were out there! I forgot how Kiddie books can truly take you from your now world, and transport you to a time when you were young! I loved to read as a child, and these books took me back to long warm summer days laying on my bed reading as a child. I loved them all. I still have a few more from the library to read in December and I am looking forward to them as well.

October Monthly reads

In October I read 5 books:

1) The Woman in Black by: Susan Hill
2) The Ghost Next Door by: Mark Alan Morris
3) The Shelters of Stone by: Jean M. Auel
4) Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by: Marian Keyes
5) One Summer by: David Baldacci

all but one were great reads. I really sturggled through The Shelters of Stone. I finished The woman in Black in one day and The Ghost Next Door in a few hours. I wanted to save The Ghosty one for Halloween, but it arrived early and I couldn't help myself and so I sat down and read the entire thing in a few hours.

Book Review: "One Summer" by: David Baldacci

Title: One Summer
Author: David Baldacci
Pages: 320
Personal Rating: 5/5

From the inside Cover: It’s almost Christmas, but there is no joy in the house of terminally ill Jack and his family. With only a short time left to live, he spends his last days preparing to say goodbye to his devoted wife, Lizzie, and their three children. Then unthinkably, tragedy strikes again: Lizzie is killed in a car accident. With no on able to care for them,the children are separated from one another and sent to live with family members around the country.
Just when all seems lost, Jack begins to recover in a miraculous turn of events. He rises from what should have been his deathbed, determined to bring his fractured family back together. Struggling to rebuild their lives after Lizzie’s death, he reunites everyone at Lizzies’s childhood home on the oceanfront in South Carolina. And there, over one unforgettable summer, Jack begins to learn to love again, and he and his children learn how to become a family once more.

Personal thoughts and reflection: I LOVED this book. I couldn’t put it down, and spent the last night up until 2 am finishing, as I couldn’t just leave the last quarter of the book unread! I had to know how everything resolved itself!!
I liked the character of Jack immediately. I was sucked in emotionally with this one! I have said it before and I’ll say it again. I believe the greatness of a book is shown when it can bring it’s reader to emotion, whether it be sadness, triumph, jealousy, anger, or any other emotion while reading, it has done it’s job! This book evoked so many emotions in me. Sadness, hope, anger, fear, it was all there!

The one thing that struck me about this book was it’s style. Now I have only read ONE of Baldacci’s books so far (The Christmas Train), though I was hooked from that one and went out and started stockpiling his works from then on, I am excited to get into some of his series!! (I’m a big series addict!) But this one reminded me of a Nicholas Sparks book. It read a lot like many of his. He spun a great tale, and I kept thinking “This was written by a guy?” Though some of the fight scenes were obviously written by one of the male gender! (come on, admit it, the thought of a fight scene makes you wanna read it, huh?)
If you are looking for a great, easy, fun, emotional adventure to sink your teeth into, grab this book!! If you enjoy Nicholas Sparks works, grab this book! Heck, Just Grab this book!!!! I promise you , it will grab you back!!