Challenge: 50 Books discussion

Achieved in effortlessly in 2010....failed by a good margin in 2011.....trying for success again in 2012!!!

1)Life as it Should Be ~ loved that it takes place on Mt Desert, Maine - one of my favorite places in the country!!

2) Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
~ beautifully written

3) Toast by Nigel Slater
I thought this book was disturbing & sad, but well-written, frank and sometimes outright hilarious.....

4) The Next Always by Nora Roberts ~ a total fluff book....like a fairytale

5) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

6) Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah ~ the first half of this book was slow-going for me, but I'm glad I hung in! The second half was wonderful.

7)Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath by Mimi Alford this was a quick read and I found it a very open and honest book.

8)A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias - this book was so hard to read at times, but I really liked it. It was heartbreakingly honest and written in a very blunt style that was laugh-out-loud funny and also brought me to tears. It is a very honest look at a marriage coming to an end because of terminal illness. I'm so glad I read it.

9) My Week with Marilyn by Colin Clark - I found this book hard to believe. I've read a great deal about Marilyn Monroe over the years and this book seemed a little off somehow. I'm going to read his other book next and see what I feel then.

10)The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me: Six Months on the Set With Marilyn and Olivier by Colin Clark. I liked this book better than My Week With Marilyn. It was all about the behind-the-scenes of the making of the movie that Colin kept track of in his diary. It was a slow read, but I did find it interesting.

11)Sleeping with Patty Hearst by Mary Lambeth Moore

12)Spare Change by Bette Lee Crosby - a gem of a book! I loved it!

13) The Giver by Lois Lowry - this was a re-read for me since I'm using it for my daughter's LA class this year. I never read the second & third books in the trilogy. I'm going to do that this year. It's quite an interesting read!

14) The Secret of Everything by Barbara O'Neal

15) Iron Lace by Emilie Richardson

was the marilyn monroe book any good? ive heard about it.

Alison wrote: "was the marilyn monroe book any good? ive heard about it."

I really didn't like it that much. It took me a long time to read and I didn't find it very believable. The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was more interesting, but focused on the making of the film, so there were a lot of technical details. My Week with Marilyn seemed like a fabrication in parts. I wouldn't really recommend reading either, but that's just my opinion!

16)What Caroline Knew: A Novel by Caryn James ~ a quick read with an interesting premise set during the 1920's

17)Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry....a companion to The Giver. I loved it!! Can't wait to read the final story in the trilogy

18)The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf ~ not one of my favorite reads. The characters were hard to believe and to relate to. I skimmed a lot of the chapters trying to get to the story.

19) My Extraordinary Ordinary Life by Sissy Spacek ~ a lovely memoir

20) The Twelfth Child by Bette Lee Crosby

21) Defending Jacob ~ I liked this book at the beginning, but found it very disturbing and dry as I worked my way through it. I never really connected to the characters. The ending really threw me and made me think....I had to go back through the book to look for tie-ins and suggestions of the final event. Overall, I thought this was just an "okay" read.

22)The Shoemaker's Wife: A Novel by Adriana Trigiani ~ this was the first book I've read by this author although I've heard good things about her other books. This was a pleasant story. I enjoyed all of the history throughout since a lot of it was about NYC when so many Europeans were coming to our country through Ellis Island.

23) A Life of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring

24)A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray ~ an okay young adult novel. I won't be encouraging my daughter to read it. I liked the idea of it, but it was under-developed and ended very quickly.

25)Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ~ a very disturbing read. The first part of the book was better than the last half..... not one of my favorites by far.

26)Roses by Leila Meacham ~ wonderful story spanning several generations

27) There's Cake in My Future by Kim Gruenenfelder ~ a fun chick lit read

28) Home Front by Kristin Hannah

29)My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall~ a very frank memoir about being in the entertainment industry. I loved it.

Remember that are a lot of Seniors like me, cna't afford to buy books, hae to use the library and prefer clasic reads no vampires, witches, or anything strange

30) The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel ~ loved it!!!

31) The Last Letter from Your Lover by JoJo Moyes ~ great story!

Being up to 253 I am done

32) One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf ~ a suspenseful page turner!

I am now at 257, you dont' want the whole lsit do you???

33) Chai Tea Sunday by Heather A. Clark

34) Crossing Over by Ruth Irene Garrett ~ terrible book....poorly written and not much of a story

35) Sea Change by Karen White ~ a new one for my favorites list. I loved this story!!

36) Miss Dreamsville and The Collier County Literary Society by Amy Hearth Hall - I thought this novel was very forced. The characters were quite under-developed and the story was forced.

37)The Little Bookstore in Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welsh by Wendy Welch ~ I enjoyed this book for the most part, although it was a little long-winded at times. Nevertheless, this bookstore is now on my list of "to-visits" when next I'm in Virginia. It sounds wonderful!