Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2014/What I've Read In 2014

25) The Key is Love by Marie Osmond Part autobiography, part tribute to her mother. Interesting.

26) Enemy of Mine by Brad Taylor Good story but he used a lot of cutesy nicknames for his characters that didn't match the dialogue or story. This eased up later in the book but was very annoying in the beginning.

27) Pirate Alley by Stephen Coonts
Good thriller.

#17 Table for Seven by Whitney Gaskell

Entertaining story about the relationships between couples who are all in the same dinner club.

28) Don’t Look Behind You by Ann Rule True crime stories.

25. Eleven on Top, by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum tries to quit being a bounty hunter, without much success.

Shift -Hugh Howey

Well, I've just finished this and my mind is still reeling. Absolutely superb.

Although the second book in the series, it's actually a prequel set over several centuries, beginning 50 years in our future, filling in the backstory of how the world of the silo came to be and bringing us full circle to dovetail neatly with the end of Wool.

Full of instantly sympathetic characters, it had me hooked from the first few pages.

LabRat

I just finished that book too! I'm impressed that the writer is able to carry the plot line when the characters change over the course of the book. It was a fascinating peek as to what caused such a drastic change. I'm looking for "Dust" now.

#18 Shift by Hugh Howey

#19 Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Second in the Divergent series. Not the best dystopian book I've read but still entertaining.

26. Goldie Blox and the Spinning Machine

My niece got this set for her 5th birthday and promptly picked out the book and asked me to read it to her. A cute story that gives simple engineering lessons that appeal to girls.

30) Lost Girls by Caitlin Rother. True story of John Gardner who murdered local high school girls Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.

31) Destiny’s Road by Larry Niven. Not one of his best. I had a hard time finishing it.

32) (Classic #3) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. I really enjoyed this one. It definitely deserves a place on the classics list! An Englishwoman in Malaya and an Australian soldier (both captured by the Japanese in WW2) meet, lose one another and come together in the end.

Dust - Hugh Howey

An absolutely brilliant end to this trilogy. I was on the edge of my seat with every page, until the final line left me with a lump in my throat. Also delighted to read that Wool has been picked up as a movie option with Ridley Scott tagged to possibly direct. I'll look forward to that and to whatever next adventure Mr. Howey takes us on.

LabRat

I'm glad to hear he keeps the momentum going. I'm waiting to get my copy from the library. Wow - a movie? That could be very exciting!

Joan

Cradle of Saturn - James P. Hogan
Unheeded warnings from the colony on Saturn leave Earth unprepared when a giant comet erupts from Jupiter and goes careening around the solar system. In addition to novel physical phenomena in play that upends a lot of planetary theory, history hints that Earth had close calls 5000 years before with what has become the planet Venus. Even with evidence showing that catastrophism fits the facts, the prophets of gradualism still deny reality. Then the comet's orbit changes...

I really like Hogan's stories. He has a good mix of hard science and character interplay that make him enjoyable to read. The germ of this story is from a theory proposed by Immanuel Velikovsky in the 1950's that successfully predicted Venus's hydrocarbon atmosphere and hellish surface temperature when the mainstream believed the surface of Venus would be a water rich jungle. Based on historical evidence that he interpreted as close encounters between the comet Venus and Earth he also successfully predicted the locations of a number of undiscovered oil fields. I read Velikovsky's main book, Worlds in Collision about 30 years ago and was interested to see Hogan's take on the theory.

The book was interesting and worth reading but I have recently read Exit Earth by Martin Caidin. I also kept seeing scenes from the movies 2012 and Armageddon. There are enough similarities in plot and scope that I'm having a hard time evaluating this book on its own. Not a keeper for me. At least I wasn't asking "If they have that... then why wouldn't they..." repeatedly like I did with the other stories.

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson.
Very readable and entertaining tale of the summer of 1927, starting with the rush to fly the Atlantic (Charles Lindbergh was the first to fly nonstop solo from NY to Paris) and going through the events of the year.

Bryson discusses the characters and events in cheerful detail, and also tells what happened to them in later years. For example, Herbert Hoover was Calvin Coolidge's Secretary of Commerce, and was quite busy arranging relief for the people made homeless by the devastating Mississippi floods of that year (which no one remembers now because the newspapers were focused on Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees going for the home run record.)

Calvin Coolidge hated Washington, DC, so he was spending the summer in South Dakota. He had press conferences in a high school auditorium there. Strangely enough, the government ran just fine.

The author tells us not only what was happening then, but also what happened to the people later on, and the significance of the events as seen through the lens of ninety years of history. For example, the Mississippi floods accelerated the great migration of American blacks to northern cities. Herbert Hoover lived to be ninety. Charles Lindbergh made a tour of America that really sparked R&D into aviation, helping prepare America for WWII. Etc, etc, etc. A very fun read.

33) Sign of Life by Hilary Williams. Hank Williams, Jr. daughter's recovery following an auto accident that almost killed her. A lot of family history included.

27. Twelve Sharp, by Janet Evanovich

Someone tries to take over Ranger's life and identity, including acquiring Stephanie Plum.

28. Call the Midwife, by Jennifer Worth

The book upon which the PBS series is based. Funny in parts, sad or touching in others, and very informative, both about childbirth and about social conditions in London's East End in the 1950s.

Beginnings by Gordon R. Dickson

An anthology of stories abour exceptional ... humans, situations, aliens ... things. Usually told with humor or a twist.

This is one of the first Gordon R. Dickson books I ever read. I still have a copy 20 and more years on. 'nuff said.

#20 All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue

Childhood friends reunite to help each other with problem.s

#21 Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

This writer does a good job of creating very detailed characters but you don't always like them. A woman's brother comes to stay with her family for two months. She barely recognizes him since he's gained over two hundred pounds. She ignores the problem until she learns that he has nowhere to go. Then she initiates a drastic plan to help him lose weight.

This book brings up interesting questions such as to what lengths are we willing to go to in order to help a loved one. And what lengths should we go to.

Joan

Blood On The Strand - Susanna Gregory

I enjoyed this historical whodunnit, despite it being set in Restoration England - a period I'm not that interested in. It was well written enough to get me past that.

LabRat

Oh, I love this book. There was a movie made (in the 50s?) which I've never seen, but the 1980s mini-series with Bryan Brown and Helen Morse was brilliant. The mini-series followed the book so closely that some lines are copied exactly.

Corrina.

I didn't know there were movies made of this book. I'm going to have to try and find them. Bryan Brown also did a movie of On The Beach by Nevil Shute that was excellent.