2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This is where we can all discuss the books we are reading throughout the month of July! :)

Help! I'm in a serious four star (and under) rut. I need a five star book badly.

Which of these is MOST LIKELY to give me that five star quality I'm craving right now?

The Pearl, John Steinbeck
Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen
Thousand Cranes, Yasunari Kawabata
A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness
MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search For A New Best Friend, Rachel Bertsche
Tin House: Fantastic Women, Various
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath, Dan Heath

And looking at my list, I think my problem may be that I haven't read any solid science fiction (my go-to genre) in a while. Maybe I'll skip these and jump to Railsea.

Kara wrote: "Help! I'm in a serious four star (and under) rut. I need a five star book badly.

Which of these is MOST LIKELY to give me that five star quality I'm craving right now?

The Pearl, John Steinbeck
G..."
I'm really looking forward to A Discovery of Witches, expecting it to be a strong 4, maybe a 5. I don't think Garden Spells will be a 5, but it's really premature for me to say, lol. I just started
The Orphanmaster and am loving it, it's taking alot of concentration though. For a distraction I just ordered Into the Dreaming. I expect that one to be entertaining, lol! I contemplated Railsea a while back, unfortunately never got around to it. Good luck!

I enjoyed MWF Seeking BFF, but I don't think it will be a 5 star book for you, Kara. Personally, I think science fiction is the way to go!

Thanks for the feedback. :) I started A Discovery of Witches. If this doesn't do it for me, I'll jump to Railsea.

i started A Discovery of Witches the other day, and I plan to read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes and A Prayer for Owen Meany but we will have to see how much reading I can get done on my vacation

I started the final book in the Ender series, Children of the Mind this morning. The first chapter is pretty good, so I'm looking forward to it much more than I thought I would be. :D

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

It's pretty good so far

I just finished yesterday and loved it, 5/5. It's a little 'different', but really interesting and paced well.

I want to read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. But there are so many translations! It's totally confusing. Does anyone have a recommendation of which translation I should read? Has anyone read this and liked it?

Super excited.. I just started City of Bones. I am also missing reading on my kindle so I'm going to attempt reading two books at once again. The second one is Smooth Irish

I always seem to be reading three books at once. I'm currently reading: The Friday Night Knitting Club , The Night Circus and Wuthering Heights. All great so far. The Night Circus is a kindle book loan from my library and we can only have books for two weeks, so I tend to fly through those.

Up next: A Discovery of Witches and Shopaholic Ties the Knot

Kelsi wrote: "I always seem to be reading three books at once. I'm currently reading: The Friday Night Knitting Club , The Night Circus and Wuthering Heights. All great so far. The Night Circus is a kindle bo..."
Wow, 3 at a time. How do you do that??

Kindle loaning.. so jealous. We are not a big enough community to have that yet. Maybe year 2020!! Lol

I just finished Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places in less than a day, have any of you read it and enjoyed it? I really loved it, the characters had me interested from the start, mainly because they seem quite normal :)

I've been doing Indiespensables (which is a program by Powells where they send you a specially bound edition of a book plus goodies every six weeks), and they just sent me The Age of Miracles. I started it last night, and so far, I'm in love.

Georgina wrote: "I just finished Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places in less than a day, have any of you read it and enjoyed it? I really loved it, the characters had me interested from the start, mainly because th..."

looks good i'm going to put it on my TBR list

Kara wrote: "I've been doing Indiespensables (which is a program by Powells where they send you a specially bound edition of a book plus goodies every six weeks), and they just sent me The Age of Miracles. I st..."

I had never heard of Indiespensables, so I checked out Powell's website. I signed up! :)

Great! We can read them together. :)

Toni wrote: "Kara wrote: "I've been doing Indiespensables (which is a program by Powells where they send you a specially bound edition of a book plus goodies every six weeks), and they just sent me The Age of M..."

i DID TOO. THANKS KARA!

Georgina wrote: "I just finished Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places in less than a day, have any of you read it and enjoyed it? I really loved it, the characters had me interested from the start, mainly because they seem quite normal :) "

That's one of my favorite series! I just read the most recent one and can't wait for the next one. She needs to write faster!!! LOL

I am getting ready to start Uncommon Bond by C.L. Gillmore. It is for my face-to-face book club...the author is going to be at our meeting. Should be interesting to have her there for our discussion. :)

I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights, slowly but steadily and The Tiger's Wife. Such a beautifully crafted book! Then, I'm reading and for this book club and another. Studying for the LSAT is ruining my summer reading capacity, and I'm not accomplishing nearly as many books as I would like too.

The Other Woman

I got it for free at my public library. It's about a bride-to-be trying to get along with her mother-in-law. Reminds me of Jennifer Lopez movies...which I don't like. I hope this book is better than those movies.

Barb wrote: That's one of my favorite series! I just read the most recent one and can't wait for the next one. She needs to write faster ..."

I just reserved the next one at the library, but I know all of the other staff have done so too so it will take me a little while to get hold of it I think, but I am really looking forward to it!

Georgina wrote: "I just finished Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places in less than a day, have any of you read it and enjoyed it? I really loved it, the characters had me interested from the start, mainly because th..."

I just finished her 4th book and have liked them all a lot. I really like the main Character Ruth, and find her work as an archeologist so interesting.

Barbara wrote: "Georgina wrote: "I just finished Elly Griffiths' The Crossing Places in less than a day, have any of you read it and enjoyed it? I really loved it, the characters had me interested from the start, ..."

Same, I love the balance between the police work and the archaeology, I find most modern crime too gritty or gory or sciency but the blend of the two is keeping me interested!

Just started book 2 in the sookie stackhouse series Living dead in Dallas

finishing a series, started fifty shades freed today

Finished Uncommon Bond which I really didn't like and have started Still Life. So far so good on the mystery!

Has anyone read Philippa Gregory's The Red Queen? I am slogging through it at the moment and finding it quite difficult. I really liked The White Queen, but I think the repetition is making this one more difficult.

I'm currently reading How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form. Hopefully I'm a better reader after this!

I finished Still Life and loved it. It was the first book in a series. Now I'm reading A Trick of the Light which is the 7th book in the series - normally I would NEVER read out of order but my F2F book club is doing A Trick of the Light for August.

Toni wrote: "I finished Still Life and loved it. It was the first book in a series. Now I'm reading A Trick of the Light which is the 7th book in the series - normally I would NEVER read out of order but my F2..."

Hopefully you don't get TOO confused

Nathaly wrote: "Toni wrote: "I finished Still Life and loved it. It was the first book in a series. Now I'm reading A Trick of the Light which is the 7th book in the series - normally I would NEVER read out of or..."

Thanks Nathaly...I'm sure that I'll go back and read the one's I've skipped as soon as possible. :)

I'm currently reading Downtown Green by Judy Christie. It's the last book in her Green series, which I have enjoyed very much.

What a pretty cover, Sara!

I'm thrilled because I just started Ready Player One, and it's AWESOME.

Getting ready to start A Hero for Her Heart by Candice Miller Speare

Kara wrote: "What a pretty cover, Sara!

I'm thrilled because I just started Ready Player One, and it's AWESOME."

That books sounds interesting Kara, I just put a hold on it at the library.