Monday, February 25, 2019

Goodreads 2019 reading challenge

Each year I try to set myself a book reading challenge, last years was quite low. My target last year was to read12 books, I managed 14, not a lot but more than I'd hoped, it was after all a very busy year. I track my progress on Goodreads You might have to sign up if you follow the links below, if you're a reader I can recommend it.
This year  I've set the bar high again, 52 books, one book a week. So far so good, I'm on track. Ten of them will be book club choices, others will be from the BBC's  big read list, and the rest? Well I do have a big book case full of choices
So what have I read so far? I'll tell you 👍😃 I'll start with January's reads.
  
Goodread reviews here
Blurb: Maria Lindsey has secrets to hide. Living on top of a secluded mountain is a good way to hide from the world... until her past begins to track her down. The surprising and intriguing new novel about the astounding secrets we keep from those we love.
Maria Lindsey is content. She spends her solitary days tending her bees and creating delicious honey products to fund orphaned children. A former nun, her life at Honeybee Haven has long been shaped by her self-imposed penance for terrible past events. But the arrival of two letters heralds the shattering of Maria's peaceful existence. Pushing aside the misgivings of her family and friends, Tansy Butterfield, on the eve of her marriage, made a serious deal with her adored husband, Dougal. A deal she'd intended to honour. But, seven years on, Tansy is finding her current feelings difficult to ignore. And on top of those not-really-there feelings, Dougal wants to move to Canada!With captivating characters and an intriguingly tangled mystery, The Beekeeper's Secret celebrates families in all their joys and complications.
I gave it ★★★ out of 5 stars
My thoughts;
I liked it, a nice easy read, although it wasn't what I expected. It covered a tough subject which is very topical at the moment. 
  • Random choice from my shelves
Goodread reviews here 
Blurb;  5th January 1800. Alma Whittaker is born into a perfect Philadelphia winter. Her father, Henry Whittaker, is a bold and charismatic botanical explorer whose vast fortune belies his lowly beginnings as a vagrant in Sir Joseph Banks' Kew Gardens and as a deck hand on Captain Cook's HMS Resolution. Alma’s mother, a strict woman from an esteemed Dutch family, is conversant in five living languages (and two dead ones). An independent girl with a thirst for knowledge, it is not long before Alma comes into her own within the world of botany. 
But as Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she comes to love draws her in the opposite direction.The Signature of All Things is a big novel, about a big century. It soars across the globe from London to Tasmania, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam. Peopled with extraordinary characters – missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses and the quite mad – most of all it has an unforgettable heroine in Alma Whittaker, a woman of the Enlightened Age who stands defiantly on the cusp of the modern.
I gave it ✶✶✶✶ out of 5 stars
My thoughts;
I did really like this, I would have liked to give a 5 and say it was amazing. Chapter 4 dragged on a bit too long for me, overall I think it could have been about 100 pages less and still have been good
  • Random choice from my shelves

 Goodreads reviews here
Blurb (from Amazon);  Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
I gave it  ✶✶✶ out of 5 stars
My thoughts;
Well it took me 55 years to get around to reading this book, all up I read it in about 6hrs and yet the movie trilogy adds up to at least 9 hours! How can that be? Sir Peter would you care to comment? I have to say though I enjoyed far more than I thought, it's not the kind of genre I usually read. Still not sure about continuing with the LOTR trilogy however.
  • Number 25 on the BBC big read list

 Goodread reviews here
Blurb; John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is one of the best loved novellas of all time. Two drifters - small, shrewd George and huge, simple-minded Lennie - get work on a ranch, planning to raise enough money to get a place of their own and live off the land, if George can save his childlike, bull-strong friend from getting into trouble. A powerfully moving story of friendship, Of Mice and Men is a simply told masterpiece. - Of Mice And Men (Popular Penguins) By John Steinbeck
I gave it ✶✶ out if 5 stars
My thoughts;
Cheery little book, said no-one ever. Pretty depressing stuff really.
(I vaguely remember reading it at school, I know it's meant to be a classic but it didn't do it for me)
  • Number 52 on the BBC big read list


 Goodread reviews here
Blurb; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Shipping News focuses on Quoyle, a newspaper pressroom worker from upstate New York whose father emigrated from Newfoundland. Shortly after his parents' suicide, and his wife's death, his paternal aunt, Agnis Hamm, convinces him to return to Newfoundland for a new beginning, in their ancestral home on Quoyle's Point.
I gave it ✶✶✶ our of 5 stars
My thoughts;
I've gone for 3 stars"I liked it" mainly because I think I did but I'm not sure. Initially it had me hooked straight away, then somewhere along the way I thought "What the heck am I reading?" There were times when reading some passages I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a spoon! But keep reading I did, kept turning those pages all the way to the end, even with the authors sometimes annoying style of writing. For some hours afterwards I kept thinking about it and I'm not entirely sure why, perhaps the characters grew on me, I don't know. Either way, it's another I can tick off the BBCs Big read list
Number 164 on the BBC big read list
 February books to come, including the first Book Discussion Scheme, book club, choice

Sue
xxx

2 comments:

  1. I would love to read that book of Elizabeth Gilberts as I really like her writing. I think I may have to come & raid your bookshelves one day Sue as I always seem to like what you read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, I forgot to reply. If I haven't already given it away you can have my copy

      Delete

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