Challege On!

As I finish setting up my 2023 Books Read page, I sense I might have a problem of just loving books too much?!  But!  Don't you just love a good challenge?  I do!  Because of these book club monthly suggestions and challenges, I have read so many books that I would never have chosen, as, you know, yes, I just tend to get stuck in a rut and keep to my comfort reading genres.  

On my 2023 Books Read page, I maintain a history of all I read throughout the year, first with a list of my chronological reads, then a checklist as I, also, read for book clubs and challenges.  This works for me and for my method of keeping up with my own personal goals and challenges to me and for me.  I find I read more just knowing this page exists..by me and for me!  

2023 Books Clubs

• By Group
• Paper Chase Book Store - monthly suggestion
• Lyon College - monthly...or so
• Southside Charter High School - periodic suggestions
• Online - all with monthly suggestions
• Friends and Fiction
• The Girlfriend Book Club
• LifeVerse
• Lowcountry Boil
• Mom Advice - new (to me)!

2023 Book Challenges

• 12 Books...12 Friends...12 Months
• six titles needed!  Please send me a suggestion!
• 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Too many you say?  Too many I ask?  Yes!  But! No pressure on me to complete, for when 2023 ends, I will have read such a wider array than had I not started with these amazing lists.

Tell me:  what books clubs challenge you?  what challenges book you?

Happy reading

Summer Picks!

 Over this summer break, I have taken many trips...through the books I have read!  As I look over my chronological list (wish now I had dated them), I think I have read about twenty books this summer.  Maybe?  So much enjoyment!

1. Brides of Seattle Collection by Kimberly Rose Johnson (ebook)
2. Savage Run by C.J. Box (Joe Pickett Series, Book 2 - ebook)
3. Two Reasons to Run by Colleen Coble (Pelican Harbor Series, Book 2 - ebook)
4. The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton (12 Books in 12 Months)
5. Lowcountry Boil by Susan M Boyer (Lowcountry Boil Book Club - January:  started in June!)
6. Lowcountry Bombshell by Susan M. Boyer 
7. The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin (Facebook Girlfriend Book Club - July Book - ebook)
8. Double Minds by Teri Blackstock (LifeVerse Facebook - April title)
9. Highland Prodigy by Willa Blair (ebook)
10. It's His Kiss by Julia Quinn - A Bridgerton Novel - (CLI Blind Date with a Book)
11. While We're Far Apart by Lynn Austin (LifeVerse Facebook - June title - ebook)
12. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (SCHS Reads - Book 1 - June 2022)
13. Dark Is the Grave by TG Ried - DCI Bone Scottish Crime Thrillr - Book 1 - ebook
14. Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper (book suggestion by Bethany W.)
15. Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeny (loan from Abby Barker)
16. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix - ebook
17. Three Missing Days by Colleen Coble (Book 3 - Pelican Harbor - ebook)
18. Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen (ebook)
19. The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake (Big Library Read - ebook)
20. In Polite Company by Gervais Hagerty (Facebook Lowcountry Book Club)
21. River's Song by Melody Carlson (Facebook LifeVerse Book Club)
22. Deconstructed by Liz Talley (Facebook Lowcountry Book Club - ebook)
23. Unwritten by Charles Martin (LifeVerse Facebook Book Club - ebook)

Some of these I highly recommend.  Some of these are just so twisted!  Some of these are chick reads.  Most of them I read for book clubs, which means I might not have chosen them on my own, as I tend to get stuck in genre rut!

A definite change for me has been reading ebooks.  I would like to say this is saving me money...but...I have, also, purchased several books this summer!  I just keep adding to that TBR stack!

Back to ebooks, I purchased Kindle Reads and am reading enough per month to pay for the subscription.  Additionally, I have checked out several using the Overdrive ap; these I tend to read first as I may only check them out for two weeks (have two more waiting there for me now!  Oh, the pressure!)

Above, I highlighted by top six reads, all of which, yes, you should read!  My absolute favorite from those?  Well, I have two:  The One Hundred Years of Lennie and Margot and The Girl in His Shadow.  Just so good!  

What are your favorite reads this summer?

30-32: Hearts of Montana - Importance of Setting

This week, I read the Hearts of Montana series by Misty M. Beller online, reading in the evenings, after having finished a very busy week during quarter three of school.  One of the questions I had asked my students to discuss their own books was the importance of setting.  As I reflected a bit on this series I had just finished, I concluded that the mountains in these three books were characters, very important characters.

The mountains in the books at times are friends, while at other times the foe.  Often they provide comfort to main characters Ingrid and Micah, Joanna and Isaac, and Laura and Nate, while, also, at other times, standing dark and aloof.

A Christian series, this trilogy I recommend.  Much action.  Just enough romance.  Several Biblical reminders.  All adding up to an enjoyable series.

Happy reading!

PS:  After perusing the author's other titles, the mountains seem to be a reoccurring setting.  Interesting.  Will journey to those moutnains, also!  Soon!

2022 Reads...Past the Start Point

Yesterday, a cold, gray, rainy day, I spent the majority of it within the covers of a book..and had the best of times.

My daughter has decided she wants to read the Harry Potter series, and as I had begun reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last semester  (he was not successful, and I sat aside the book in the busyness of the season), I picked this one up again and spent some time with Harry and his friends (and enemies), reacquainting myself with the details of the novel.  That's right...no movie includes all!  A good way to begin 2022' reading goals; plus, this one fits within several categories of the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge!  Yay! AND...The Daughter already has begun reading the book!  Win!

My second read...Christmas Next Door, a collection of four short, intertwined stories...concludes my reading the books I bought to give as gifts for the 2021 Christmas season.   Faith-based, these stories are ones that could be read and then set aside...except yesterday, once I picked up the book again, I read to the end! Set in the 1800s, conflicts fit the setting yet are applicable to today. Engaging!

AND..I have begun reading Gone with the Wind!  I took the book to school...and left it there, for I had hoped to read several chapters this weekend.  Hummmm.... BUT...as I chatted about my book challenges for 2022, a couple of students said they, too, would read the book...and, just like that, a book club was formed!  Yay!

Sweet Taste of Muscadines will be my next read...for Lyon College Alumni Book Club, along with my continued reread of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Happy Reading!