2016 Book Challenges

I already told you that I had planned to read 75 books in 2016.  Sometimes the question is what do I read next?  There are sooooooo many book challenges you could try if you are wanting to diversify your reading.  I quick Google search will bring up thousands of sites, but my favorite book blogger found a short challenge she likes, only 12 items on the list so one thing each month.  Of course I'm going to join, she is my favorite book blogger after all!  I copied this from her page and I'm sure she copied it from someone else, you should join us!  I'm already making progress and I can't wait to see what you are reading.  Tell me what you have read in each category or suggest things I should read to cross things off my list.

1.

2.  We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

3.  The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

4.  Harry Potter series

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8.  The Giver by Lois Lowery

9.

10.

11.  Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust by Michael Korenblit and Kathleen Janger 

12.

Don't eat tacos before you plank

Remember when I mentioned my new trainer the other day?  Let me tell you about this trainer.  She is spunky and doesn't take "no" or "I'm too tired" or "I ate too many tacos" for an answer.  We committed to three 30 day challenges; squats, plank and wall sits.  My new trainer has told me that since I committed to doing these and got her involved in the process, I WILL see it through to the end.  She said her mother taught her that once she makes a commitment to a team or a class or a challenge whatever the thing is, she has to see it through to the end or else she will disappoint her team or her classmates or herself.  She was very serious, looked me straight in the eye and said, "We don't want to be a disappointment to ourselves, do we?"

Please excuse my messy bedroom.

That's right, my new trainer is the sassy girl I gave birth to about ten years ago.  She saw me doing my squats for day one of the challenge and was curious.  I suggested she do it with me and she happily agreed.  Who knew she was going to get so serious?!?  Tuesday night when we returned from her dance class, she reminded me that we needed to do day 2.  When I started with my excuses, she turned into a personal trainer and made sure that we both finished each task before she marked them off the list.  The silver lining here is this:

1)  She will likely make sure I finish something in January.

2)  The lessons I have been teaching her her whole life have sunk in and she has found a way to apply them to me.

3)  Maybe I'll lose a couple of those lbs I found in 2015.

Have you ever finished one of those squat challenges everyone posts on Facebook?

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

My mother-in-law saw this book on Dr. Phil or Oprah or something.  Usually that kind of publicity on a book is more of a deterrent for me than anything.  I know, I'm weird.  This time, though, my MIL was so excited by whatever she saw that she was raving about it and couldn't wait to get her hands on it.  So I took the bait and downloaded the audio on my library's Overdrive.  I'm glad I did!

This is the story of Frankie Presto, an international music start from the 50s, 60s and 70s that played with a ton of bands over the year including Elvis and Duke Ellington.  They say he was the greatest guitarist who ever lived.  The narrator is Music, himself, and Frankie is an obvious favorite of his disciples.  Frankie's life was rough from the very start, born in a burning church during civil war, abandoned during childhood, and pushed to the limits of survival a few times.  On the other hand, almost like magic, things would fall into place for Frankie when it was least expected and Frankie had a way of effecting people.

The story is being told while we wait for Frankie's funeral to start.  We don't know how he died until the very end.  There are very interesting interviews with many famous people in the funeral procession including Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett, and Paul Stanley.  The story bounces back and forth between past and present time a lot.  I think it's hard to get that sort of storytelling right, but Albom did an excellent job.  It didn't feel patchy, it felt like it all tied together well.

I think this book should probably be consumed via the audio.  While I'm sure your imagination could read this in the many voices necessary, why bother?  The interview parts that are actually narrated by folks like Paul Stanley, Roger McGuinn and Ingrid Michaelson!

Do you resist popular books too?

Season 2016, Episode 1

Welcome to 2016!  Do you make resolutions?  Do you stick with them?  I almost never stick with a resolution, but then I'm not great at following through with most of my hair-brained schemes or 'plans'.  In 2015 I didn't stick with my fitness or nutrition plans and I managed to gain about 30 lbs.  Not good, so obviously I need to do a better job in 2016.  Now I'm not saying I'm going to lose 50 lbs and run a marathon, but I am going to make a few changes.  I have subscribed to a meal planning service and have a new trainer, more about those soon.

One thing I did manage to stick to in 2015 was my reading challenge.  GoodReads has an annual reading challenge and since I already use their site regularly, I joined.  I decided I'd read 24 books in 2015 and when the year closed, I had logged 38!  This year I got really ambitious and signed up to read 75 books for 2016.  I've already read 2 short ebooks and I'm nearly finished with an audio, a paper and another ebook, so I don't think 75 is going to be a problem.  Stay tuned because I can't wait to tell you about the things I'm reading!

Are you on GoodReads?  Are we friends on GoodReads?  We should be!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

December's book club selection was a historical non-fiction.  Not a genre I gravitate to, but that is why I joined book club, isn't it?  Thing is, I did enjoy it.  Look at me, broadening my horizons or something.  It felt like American history with an NPR-like perspective and since NPR is the only news that I like, this is good.  

This is the story of the 1936 American Olympic eight man rowing team.  It tells the story of how 8 poor, working class boys fought and struggled their way to fame.  None of them ever set out for this goal, but the chain of events that led to it were interesting.  I don't know a whole lot about this period in history, I think I slept through those classes or was busy flirting with boys or passing notes.  These boys lived through the Great Depression and Dust Bowl and survived some serious hard times.  They lived in rural America and scrimped and saved to put themselves through college.  The boys from Washington State were a stark contrast to the Ivy League rowing teams that dominated the sport.  We get to see so many hardships and heartbreaking events in this book while also cheering along through some pretty impressive victories.

Though reading this would be equally good, I recommend getting the audio.  Edward Herrmann was a good choice for reading this book with his smooth voice and matter of fact way about him.  It almost made me want to learn more about American history.  I also felt like the author did a lot of research.  There were a lot of quotes from various people's personal journals and lots of technical information throughout the book.  Sometimes the technical stuff drug on a bit for my taste, but then I also saw the value of the information in the big picture.  I learned lots of things about the days leading up to World War II that I wasn't aware of.

Pick this one up, I think you will enjoy it.  It's not enough to make me want to add this genre to my regular choices, but I'm so glad that I read this one.  Another win for the book club!

What have you read lately that is outside your comfort zone?

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

If you are looking for a new fantasy series to read, this is where you start.  I really had no idea what I was missing when I skipped the whole YA genre!  In the first of this trilogy, Karou is a blue-haired, tattooed teenager who's life is a mystery to her friends and her past is a mystery to herself.  She sketches detailed pictures of chimaera, mythical beasts who are a miss-match of different animal attributes.  Her depictions of this fantasy world are legendary among her fellow art students, but is it really a fantasy world?  When an angel appears, Karou's world is turned upside down and she and her friends will learn a lot more about Karou's past and the world she lives in.

This book gripped me from the beginning.  There were a few places that is felt like it was dragging on a bit and it's not hard to figure out the twists before they are revealed, but all in all I really enjoyed this book.  I checked the audio out on the library's Overdrive site.  When the second book wasn't available in audio, I downloaded the ebook instead because I couldn't wait to get started.  I may actually FINISH this trilogy!  Okay, we know I don't finish anything so let's not hold our breaths, but I am liking the second book just as much as the first.  Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to finish a series.

Do you stick with your New Year's resolutions?

Heroin Love by I.M. Hunter

"Kevin had a perfect life, self-made millionaire, beautiful wife, and loving children.  As his family grew distant he finds himself yearning for more.

Walking into the wrong place at the right time, he encounters a young beautiful, angelic women who has demons of her own.  Unable to resist her allure he begins obsessing over the thought of being with her.

Rachael uses her cunning wits to rev up Kevin's obsession.  Plunging deeper and deeper into her grasp, he was destroying the life he worked so hard for."

If you can get past the grammar and  punctuation flaws of the synopsis, this book sounds pretty interesting.  The cover is beautiful and the font through the book was very easy to read.  This is about all the positive I have for this book.

Few things you should know about this review: (1) This is considered an Erotic Romance, which is NOT the kind of book I would generally read.  (2) I am generally grammatically and spelling challenged.  (3) As you should assume with all my reviews, this may contain spoilers.  This being said, for the errors in this book to have bothered me as much as they did, they would drive the Grammar Nazis bat-shit crazy.  Keep in mind, I received this as an ARC and I hope it hadn't been through it's final revision yet.  

Let me sum up my thoughts about the story in three words:  Over the top.  Kevin, the main character tells us right up front that he's a workaholic and only wants the best things in life.  He has a beautiful home and family with expensive cars.  He buys anything and everything any of them ever want.  His life is one of extreme, over the top luxury.  A lifetime of habits and his whole mindset in life goes completely out the window when he meets Rachael, a prostitute.  He falls nearly instantly in love with her and starts destroying everything in his life because of it.

I'm sure Erotic Romance is a nice way of saying Porn in the book genres, but using the word Romance is completely misleading.  While I would have a hard time defining romance for myself, this was definitely not it.  This was just dirty.

The book ended with lots of loose ends and it appears that this is going to be the first in a series.  I'm not interested in seeing this one to the end, but I wish the author lots of luck in his future endeavors.  I admire anyone brave enough to put pen to paper and give it a shot.

(I received this book for free in a GoodReads.com giveaway.  Nobody pays me money for my reviews, but I always love free books. If you want to send me your books for review, email me and we'll chat!)