I read 115 books last year and, yes, even I was surprised by that. My original goal was 26. When I met that fairly early in the year I increased it to 33. When I met that, I just didn't increase it again. The last five or so books got on the list because of Lake Effect snow.
Yes. Lake Effect Snow. Because of a band of the nasty stuff that cuts through part of my route to work, I was allowed to work from home for two days (an advantage of working for compassionate nuns) -- December 30 and January 2 -- and needed some kind of background noise to keep me awake. Not that audio books are "background noise," but if I had turned on the TV I would have watched Rachel learn the results of the pregnancy test and heard her say, "That's a risky little game," for the 1,463,922 time. It's one of my top five favorite episodes. Anyway, these are the books that got me through those two days of working by myself in my apartment, and the rest of those weird two holiday weeks.
The Favorites
4.5
I listened to the whole thing in one day. Interesting characters. Multi-layered plot. The audiobook has several narrators and is very well done. It’s also not a typical romance with all the mushy gushy, lovey dovey stuff. I’m not normally a romance reader (although I have read a few this year) but there is so much more to this story than the romance. Highly recommend.
3.75
Not as good as I wanted it to be but it’s Lisa Unger, and she’s always worth reading.
I did like the main character although she was a little naive sometimes, concerning certain characters.
I absolutely love Frankie, the 100-year-old formerly enslaved woman who is telling her story - starting at age 6 - to a reporter.
The Heiress
By Rachel Hawkins
Exactly what you would expect in an Alex Cross book, which is exactly why I have read the previous 33. Well, 32. I didn’t know what to expect with Along Came a Spider, which introduced us to Gary Soneji. Soneji makes a comeback in this book, hence the title. But didn’t Soneji die in a previous book? No spoilers. You’ll have to read it to find out how he still manages to mess with Alex and Sampson.
It seems to me that Alex is about to go through some major life changes related to the soul searching he’ll be doing after the Soneji discoveries. It will be interesting to see how, as a mental health professional, he handles the effects this will have on his mental health. And Sampson’s.
In my review of last year’s The House of Cross I mentioned Alex’s grandmother, who has been “ninety something” for the duration of the series while his kids continue to age. Others must have mentioned that, too, because Patterson does address it in a satisfying way.
I decided to read this book because I watched an interview with the author talking about it being banned in some schools.
This is exactly the type of book that teenagers and their parents should be reading! You want to know how and why school shootings are happening? This book will tell you. And I don’t believe it will give your child ideas about how to be violent or be a bully, but I do believe it may lead them toward being more empathetic or at least not as mean.
Banning books that paint a realistic picture of high school life is not the answer to anything.
I wouldn’t have guessed that the spiciest book I would read this year be set in the 1600s. It was good, though.
The story is about Maggie Jones, who is tried for being a witch, basically because she’s an intelligent, outspoken, passionate, unapologetic woman in a Puritan community in Massachusetts.
Several parts of the book made me think, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
