Category: 50 States Challenge

50 States Challenge · Book Review · Net Galley

REVIEW: An Echo Through the Snow by Andrea Thalsinos

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An Echo Through the Snow
Andrea Thalasinos
Net Galley (e-book edition)

Goodreads Synopsis: Andrea Thalasinos’s debut novel is an inspiring story of how a single act of kindness can transform your life.

Rosalie MacKenzie is headed nowhere until she sees Smokey, a Siberian husky suffering from neglect. Rosalie finds the courage to rescue the dog, and—united by the bond of love that forms between them—they save each other.  Soon Rosalie and Smokey are immersed in the world of competitive dogsled racing. Days are filled with training runs, the stark beauty of rural Wisconsin, and the whoosh of runners on snow. Rosalie discovers that behind the modern sport lies a tragic history: the heartbreaking story of the Chukchi people of Siberia. When Stalin’s Red Army displaced the Chukchi in 1929, many were killed and others lost their homes and their beloved Guardians—the huskies that were the soul and livelihood of their people.

Alternating between past and present, telling of a struggling Chukchi family and a young woman discovering herself, An Echo Through the Snow takes readers on a gripping, profound, and uplifting dogsled ride to the Iditarod and beyond, on a journey of survival and healing.

At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied

While this sounds like a really interesting read, it was very  hard for me to get into.  I had trouble with the bouncing back and forth (which normally does not bother me).  I was more interested in the “present-day” timelime with Rosalie than the past with the Chukchi people, so I would want to hurry through the past to get back to the present-day.  I really wanted to get into this and enjoy it.  After struggling with it on and off for a couple of months I decided to give up.  I hate giving up on a book, though.  There really wasn’t anything bad about it per se, I just couldn’t get into it.  I love dogs and huskies, which was all the more disappointing that I couldn’t get into it.

Clearly Rosalie and Smokey are meant for each other; Rosalie is in an unhappy, abusive relationship and Smokey has been neglected and has a crappy “owner”.  Even in the bit that I read (~42% of the book), I could see that their relationship, their bond, formed quickly.  I think it was planning to show how Rosalie was becoming an independent person, finding her own way with the help of Smokey and a new job. Unfortunately, the story just didn’t grab my attention the way I was hoping it would.

Maybe I’ll try to read it again in the future…?

Have any of you read this?  Thoughts?

(No compensation was received for the review of this title.)

Edit 30-Sept (5 days after original post): I decided to look at Amazon to read reviews (if any) on this book to see if I was just really missing the mark or if I wasn’t the only one who felt the way I did.  Whenever I review stuff on Amazon, I tend to read the lower starred reviews for any products just to see what the worst have to say.  This was no different.  There were no 1-star reviews, which was good, and also only a few 2-star reviews.  The two-star reviews did seem to align with my thoughts and the reviewers were much better at articulating their thoughts than I was with mine.  Here’s a link to amazon.com and the 2-star reviews to get a better understanding of my opinon and what I was trying to say. But obviously feel free to check out the higher rated reviews too!

50 States Challenge · Book Review · Mount TBR Reading Challenge

REVIEW: 100 Cupboards (Book 1 of 100 Cupboards) by N. D. Wilson

Danielle2 Comments

 100 Cupboards
Author: N. D. Wilson
Kindle edition
Challenges: 50 States, Mount TBR

Goodreads Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning . . .Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room–with a man pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.

100 Cupboards is the first book of a new fantasy adventure, written in the best world-hopping tradition and reinvented in N. D. Wilson’s inimitable style.

This was a quick, enjoyable YA read.  There is definitely enough mystery to propel the reader forward to learn more.  And as any good opening to a series would have it, enough mystery to make you want to read the next installment to learn more.  Who exactly are Henry’s parents?  What is the connection to the cupboards?  And a few other questions I can’t write without giving away some of the ending.

Of course, in order for it to be a good story, there is the good versus evil element.  The evil is personified in a rather scary kind of woman, but not so scary that kids would be turned off from it.  Maybe it could be something parents could scope out first, depending on how young their child is (and how active the child’s imagination may be).

All in all, a cute story and I’ll probably read the next in the series…most likely I’ll see if I can get it from the library instead of buying them on my Kindle.

 

REVIEW: Spells & Stitches by Barbara Bretton
50 States Challenge · Book Review · Knitting

REVIEW: Spells & Stitches by Barbara Bretton

Danielle2 Comments

Spells & Stitches
Author: Barbara Bretton
Paperback

Goodreads Synopsis: In the latest novel from the USA Today bestselling author, raising a baby is hard, but raising one with magical powers is even harder… 
Sugar Maple, Vermont, knitting store owner Chloe Hobbs couldn’t be happier about her pregnancy. But with the arrival of the town’s newest resident, things are about to get a lot more magical.
Baby Laria is six pounds, eleven ounces of perfect, and Chloe and Luke are over the moon. But when they learn that Laria takes after her mom in the sorcery department, it becomes clear that their baby might have more power than even a pro like Chloe can handle…

This is the 4th installment of the Sugar Maple series.  These books are a fun, quick read.  My mom was the one who found them and always passes them along to me once she’s finished.  These are great books to read if you’re in the middle of a long one and need a break.  I read this over a 2-day period, but it was probably about 6-7 hours of reading total.

The characters are great.   I really enjoy the whole knitting part of it; mainly because I knit.  One thing I enjoy about these books is the patterns listed at the back of the book.  (Similar to other books involving knitting or cooking, some type of recipe is always included, right?)

Anyway, I don’t have much of a review, though I will say I didn’t really care for the baby’s name (pronounced so it rhymes with Mariah).  Other than that, like I said: it’s a fun, quick read.

I’m able to use this book toward my 50 States challenge. 🙂

REVIEW: Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp
50 States Challenge · Book Review

REVIEW: Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp

Danielle4 Comments

Title: Kill Me If You Can
Author: James Patterson & Marshall Karp

Goodreads Synopsis: Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his stunning girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts–until he realizes that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won’t stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge. 

Trailing him is the Ghost, the world’s greatest assassin, who has just pulled off his most high-profile hit: killing Walter Zelvas, a top member of the international Diamond Syndicate. There’s only one small problem: the diamonds he was supposed to retrieve from Zelvas are missing. Now, the Ghost is on Bannon’s trail–but so is a rival assassin who would like nothing more than to make the Ghost disappear forever. From “America’s #1 storyteller” (Forbes) comes a high-speed, high-stakes, winner-take-all thrill ride of adrenaline-fueled suspense.

The book had its good and bad points, but I actually liked it better than the most recent Alex Cross installment (see my review here).

Matt Bannon, currently an art student, is also an ex-Marine, so of course, when the shit hits the fan he’ll know how to take care of himself and anyone he needs to protect.   I find that most of the main characters in Patterson’s novels usually have some training, quality or trait that will aid them in whatever mess they find themselves in.

There were a few things that I didn’t like, one being the relationship between the Prince family members, Nathaniel and Natalia.  I guess I understand how it fit into the story and propelled some of the action, but it probably could have been re-worked to not include a relationship such as theirs.

I felt that the story moved super fast, but I suppose that’s also due to Patterson’s signature chapter style (as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts).  The way Matt reveals some of his past to Katherine seems a bit rushed and not really done in the right way or at the right time, but I suppose that’s a set up for what happens between them shortly afterwards.

I was surprised to discover the identity of the Ghost, but also intrigued, I guess I didn’t see it coming…though once revealed, it made sense.  Patterson is known for having chapters from multiple characters’ points of view, so I wasn’t surprised to see some from the Ghost’s point of view, though the transition from the Ghost to his real identity was interesting because it happened in the same chapter; in fact, in mid-conversation (but it wasn’t the Ghost’s real identity saying “I’m the Ghost”).  I thought that was well done, because it was a “wait, what?” split second moment.

However, the ending intrigued me the most and I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned into a series.  All is not wrapped up with a nice bow at the end.  I was left with questions such as who are Newton and Matt’s art benefactor “Copernicus”? How do they know about his past?  Who else is involved in it?

As always, Patterson’s stories are decent (some better than others) and quick reads…usually enjoyable while reading, but I’ve never felt the urge to re-read them (good thing I borrow them from my mom, huh?)

REVIEW: MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend by Rachel Bertsche
50 States Challenge · Book Review · What's in a Name Challenge

REVIEW: MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend by Rachel Bertsche

Danielle2 Comments

Title: MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend
Author: Rachel Bertsche
Genre: Memoir/Non-Fiction

Goodreads Synopsis: When Rachel Bertsche first moves to Chicago, she’s thrilled to finally share a zip code with her boyfriend. But shortly after getting married, she realizes that her new life is missing one thing: friends. Sure, she has plenty of BFFs—in New York and San Francisco and Boston and Washington, D.C. Still, in her adopted hometown, there’s no one to call at the last minute for girl talk over brunch or a reality-TV marathon over a bottle of wine. Taking matters into her own hands, Bertsche develops a plan: Meeting people everywhere from improv class to friend rental websites, she’ll go on fifty-two friend-dates, one per week for a year, in hopes of meeting her new Best Friend Forever.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!  It was refreshing that someone shared a friending experience like this one.  Rachel set aside embarrassment and awkwardness in order to share her experience at finding new friends.   She adds tidbits of research at certain points throughout the book and then relates an experience that is a perfect example of the research.  I could really see her growth over the course of the year, just in her actions – and reactions – to the different situations presented to her.  If I lived in Chicago, or if she lived here, I would absolutely have taken her up on a girl-date!  In the middle of reading the book, I decided to jump online to find Rachel’s blog.  Imagine my surprise when I found out it was here on WordPress. Sweet, now I can follow her right here, so easy! Check her blog out.

Rachel’s book truly inspired me to consider my friendships.  I have different groups of friends that get together…most of my friends are from college, but they are different groups that I hung out with on campus that rarely saw each other.  (I think living with different people every school year really helped me meet many different people).  Some of the friends are the girls I met/lived with my freshman year (and while I may not have necessarily share that tiny room with all of them, they lived next door and that’s close enough to say we lived together), and others are from the sorority I joined while in school.  And obviously within those groups, I’m closer with some more than others.  Of course, there are the others that moved back home to different states and that makes it THAT much harder to see each other.  And I have the random “outlier” friends that I will always say hello to  and do a quick catch-up with when I happen to bump into them, but nothing beyond that happens (maybe a “we should get together sometime…”).

While reading this, I’ve noticed that one of us will say “We need to do this again for real.  Not just talk about doing it again” and while the others agree, it ends up being a lot longer until the next time.  Maybe it’s the lack of follow through?  I think I should will start working on that.  Granted, we are all very busy with work, family, furthering education and other obligations and schedules it makes it that much harder to plan.  But we need to try, right?

Recently, my cousins (from my dad’s side of the family), my sister and I have decided to make plans once a month. But no pressure: if you can make it, great!; if not, no worries, there’s always the next month.  At first, we started talking about just doing dinners.  We had our first one a couple of weeks ago and it was a really great time.   My eldest cousin suggested that we should always plan the next month at the end of the current get together, that way everyone will be on the same page and we don’t need to send a million emails to try to narrow down a date…it took us 2 months to get this first dinner planned!  We all thought this was a great idea and (since we’re in the digital age) we all pulled out our fancy shmancy phones and added it to our calendars.  We started discussing new ideas other than just dinner.  As long as we at least schedule the next date, then we can work from there.  We have “penciled in” the next gathering and can decide what to do.  Maybe we want to catch a movie, a Red Sox game, or a Blue Man Group Show… who knows?  But now that we’re establishing something and we all want to do it, we can make it work.

That is something I want to start trying with my friends, too.  Like I said, we always say “let’s do this again, but without so much time passing…” so I want to am going to reach out to them and start with another get together.  I love them all so much and really miss not seeing them as often as I used to…and I certainly don’t want to lose them!

So now that I’ve digressed from my book review, excuse me while I go send messages/emails to my friends. 🙂

50 States Challenge · Book Review

REVIEW: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Danielle1 Comment

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold

Kindle Edition

Goodreads Synopsis: When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn’t happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets.  With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing. 
In the hands of a brilliant novelist, the author narrates the THE LOVELY BONES through the eyes of her winning young heroine. This story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching story about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

I had heard differing opinions on this book and knew there had been a movie made.  I knew Mark Wahlberg was in it.  Haha

It was interesting to see the story from the point of view of the murdered girl.  If it were me, I would get so frustrated at not being able to get in touch with my family and help them figure out who killed me. For the most part, the characters were quite believable.  They all handled their grief in different ways.  I got really frustrated with Susie’s mom, Abigail, though.  I understand that it was probably a way of expressing her grief, but through Susie’s narration, especially of the time when she took her mom’s pictures, I felt that perhaps Abigail was never completely happy in the family life that she had.  So when Susie was killed, she was able to use it as a way out.  That frustrated me.

I really liked all the other characters, though…except of course, Mr. Harvey.

I was pretty disappointed in the ending.  I assumed there would be some type of closure in the case itself.  The family finally gained their closure and came to terms with the loss of Susie (by the end of the 8 years had passed) but I still felt that there was unfinished business.  And Mr. Harvey’s demise was way less than satisfactory.

Overall it was a decent read.  There were a few points I was disappointed with, but all in all I moved through it pretty quickly.  Some parts were better than others.  Though, there were times were I kept expecting something to happen and nothing did.  That’s no issue, really, because I didn’t want to see anymore bad things happen, of course.

50 States Challenge · Book Review · General

REVIEW: When the Wind Blows by James Patterson

Danielle7 Comments

When the Wind Blows is one of James Patterson’s earlier novels (published in 1998).

It is set in Colorado where a lone FBI agent Kit Harrison and local veterinarian Frannie O’Neill are hurled into an unbelievable (but real) nightmare that could threaten the lives of many people, especially those of children. They meet an extraordinary young girl with an incredible ability who is connected to an underground lab performing illegal experiments of an inconceivable nature. People continue to turn up murdered. Knowing what is going on could be a death sentence to Kit and Frannie.

I found this novel to be a bit more “elementary” than others of his that I have read. However, it is at least the 30th Patterson book I’ve read. I’ve read all of the Alex Cross series, Women’s Murder Club series, Michael Bennett series, and other random non-series novels. Most of these books were written after When the Wind Blows so a lot of time, practice, and books have occurred since this novel debuted. The characters didn’t seem to be fully developed and the story line moved very quickly, almost a little too quickly. I enjoyed the story, nonetheless, but would have enjoyed more character development and a slightly more drawn-out story line; the action only occurred over a few days. Patterson’s research seemed to be pretty solid and even the way he describes the labs and the scientific atmosphere certainly makes what happens seem possible – scary, but possible.

I have always enjoyed Patterson’s style in the form of the short chapters that make you want to keep reading. So what if his books have 100+ chapters? Most of them are 1-3 pages long. And at the end of most of these chapters, there is a mini cliff-hanger that makes you want to continue reading. I catch myself looking at the last sentences when I realize I am at the end of the chapter to see if it’s something that will “force” me to keep going, or if it is alright to stop at that place for the time being. In fact, sometimes I feel like I am spoiled by this format. (When I read other books with really long chapters I like to think back to a Patterson book with the super short ones.) When I finished this book, I hadn’t even intended to finish it then. I said to myself “When I finish Chapter 80 I’ll close the book and go to bed.” Then it was “OK, when it’s 10pm.” And of course, I ended up finishing the book just before 11:30pm…

50 States Challenge · Book Review · General

REVIEW: V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

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V is for Vengeance is Sue Grafton’s 22nd novel in her Kinsey Millhone series.  I like to refer to them as the “Alphabet Books.”  It is pretty clever to have each title go with a letter of the alphabet.  And the word associated with the letter is usually the theme or plot of the novel.  It makes you wonder how many different situations one main character can encounter without the story lines getting stale.  So far, Sue Grafton has avoided that.

If you haven’t read any of the “Alphabet Books” I definitely suggest starting them.  The first book is called A is for Alibi. (surprised?)

Set in the 1980s, the Alphabet books follow Kinsey Millhone (an ex-cop private investigator in Santa Teresa, California) and the cases she is hired to investigate, many of which are likely to get her killed.  Kinsey is immediately a likable character.  She is easy to relate to and really pops off the page.  She could be someone you meet walking down the street (though she isn’t the most social of people).  Her closest friend is her octogenarian neighbor and landlord Henry.

This installment starts 2 years before the main action occurs.  A recent college grad has a gambling problem and borrows money from a not-quite-legal businessman, loses all the money and can’t pay him back.

Fast forward to “present day” (April 1988) and we find our heroine doing a normal, everyday activity: shopping.  She sees a shoplifter and reports her.  Thus begins a wild ride of many loose ends and new pieces of information popping up in all directions.  What seemed to be an isolated shoplifting incident turns out to be part of a shoplifting ring set up across the country. We see points of view from a few different characters and I tried to figure out how it was all connected before it was revealed.  I didn’t figure out the full story, but I picked up little pieces here and there.  Of course, once it is all explained it makes so much sense.

One thing I like about this series is that Grafton has been able to keep it set in the 1980s.  She started the series then, so at that time the stories were taking place in present day.  However, time moved faster than Grafton could write.  But rather than have the story timeline move with real-time, she kept the novels in the 1980s. This is a good thing, because in today’s time Kinsey would be 61 and it would become somewhat unrealistic.  As far as I can tell, she has held true to the ’80s (no anachronisms that I’ve noticed…then again, I was 5 when the 80s ended).   But I have to continually remind myself: no cell phones!

50 States Challenge · Back to the Classics Challenge · What's in a Name Challenge

Challenges, Challenges

DanielleLeave a comment

I’m big on details.  A lot of people might call me too detail-oriented (I can manage to make a 5 minute story 15 minutes long…I like details, so I assume others will too….see, I just did it again!)  I like lists and order.

I’m taking part in 3 challenges: Back to the Classics, What’s In a Name?, and 50 States Challenge. Each challenge has a list of categories.

Let’s go back to my earlier statement about lists.   My goal was to read the books in the order of the categories. As I joined more challenges, I decided that I would read one book from each challenge (obviously, the first category for each challenge, and then go to the 2nd category…but I didn’t need to tell you that, did I?)

HOWEVER, I’m currently reading Moby Dick and it is taking longer to read than I thought…much longer.  Because I set the goal above, I also feel like the book is dragging even more since there are other books waiting for me to finish Moby Dick and I am excited to start them.

Then comes my issue with the 50 States Challenge: I haven’t found a book for each state yet. My personal goal of reading all new books (aka first reads for me) makes it harder for me to find books for these categories as well. How am I supposed to start reading for that challenge without books for the first few categories?!  Ahhhhhhhhhh!

So, I’m throwing out my OCD for details, lists, and order and I’m going to read multiple books at the same time (which is what I normally do when not reading for a challenge) and I’m just going to start with the first state for which I have already chosen a book.  <gulp>

This post alone should be a testament to my detail craziness.   Do I need to explain the way I’m reading for these challenges? Nope.  But I feel like I have to.