I had been participating in the Book Awards II Challenge and enjoying it very much. I knew that I was pushing my time constraints but even as late as last week, I thought I would be able to complete it. Real life intervened though and I just couldn’t pull it off this week. I only managed to finish eight of the ten titles required to complete the challenge.

Here’s what I read:

A Proper Pursuit - Lynn Austin(Christy)
The Stones Cry Out - Sibella Giorello (Christy)
The Worst Hard Time - Timothy Egan(National Book Award)
A Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly(Printz Honor Book)
The God of Animals - Aryn Kyle (Spur) (AB)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne (Irish Book Award)
Mudbound - Hillary Jordan(Alex)
The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig (Alex)

Even though I wasn’t able to complete the challenge, I still enjoyed all of the books I read. In looking back over the reviews I noted that I gave 5/5 stars to both The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Worst Hard Time. I loved both of these books and found them both very important books that caused me to think about significant events of the past.

My least favorite for this challenge was The Whistling Season. While I did enjoy this book, I found it the hardest for me to finish.

I am going to set aside my other two books that I had planned to read for this challenge for now. I plan to come back to them eventually (maybe even for Book Awards III). Thanks Michelle for hosting this challenge!

I have completed The Christian Reader’s Challenge…just in the nick of time too!

Here’s what I read:

1. Scream- Mike Dellosso
2. Tender Grace - Jackina Stark
3. The Apothecary’s Daughter - Julie Klassen
4. The Shape of Mercy - Susan Meissner

I really enjoyed everything I read for this challenge. Thanks for hosting MizB!

370 pages

Tess Gerritsen

Trying to recover from a divorce, Julia Hamill has bought a 130-year-old home in Massachusetts. She wants to fix it up, work in the garden and feel like she has done something all on her own. While digging in the garden, she unearths a skeleton that is found to be that of a woman who was murdered. Julia ends up feeling haunted by the woman and the time frame that she came from and the reader discovers much about the history of the surrounding area and is taken back in time via letters written(fictitiously) by none other than Oliver Wendell Holmes.

This is my third Tess Gerritsen book and I chose it because of the fact that it alternated between the past and the present. There is quite a bit of medical jargon, mystery and history in this story which qualifies it perfectly for The Medical Mystery Madness Challenge. I would classify this as my favorite book by Gerritsen so far. I was captivated by the characters of Rose Connolly and Norris Marshall and I also liked the fact that I didn’t find the mystery predictable. I was hooked from the beginning and didn’t want to put this one down. (4/5)

BTW, I have completed he Medical Mystery Madness Challenge. Go HERE to see what I read!

I have completed this challenge which was hosted by Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews.

I really enjoyed this challenge since this is one of my favorite types of stories. Also, I used this challenge to read some YA books that I have seen praised recently.

Here’s what I read:

1. Life As We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer
2. The Dead and the Gone - Susan Beth Pfeffer
3. Unwind - Neal Shusterman

Thanks Becky for hosting such a fun challenge.

I have completed the Pub’08 Challenge! I have been fortunate to receive several ARCs of books published in ‘08. For the most part, I have enjoyed them all. Here’s what I read:
**Click on the title for reviews.**

1. The Winter Rose - Jennifer Donnelly
2. Have You Found Her - Janice Erlbaum
3. Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah
4. People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
5. The Secret Between Us - Barbara Delinsky
6. The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur
7. The House at Riverton- Kate Morton
8. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - Susan Gregg Gilmore

Thanks to Michelle for hosting this fun challenge!

I finished the 2nds Challenge hosted by Joy. This challenge was a lot of fun and gave me an excuse to read a 2nd book by authors I really enjoyed. Thanks for hosting Joy! Here’s what I read:

I finished the Non-Fiction Five Challenge. Given the crazy kind of month it has been at my house and my very limited reading time, I consider this quite an accomplishment. Here’s what I read:

• Left To Tell - Imaculee Ilibagiza
• The Children’s Blizzard - David Laskin
• Evidence Not Seen - Darlene Deibler Rose
• I Dared to Call Him Father - Bilquis Sheikh
• First They Killed My Father - Loung Ung

Here are the 12 books I read for the TBR challenge:

1. Amy and Isabelle- Elizabeth Strout
2. Sister of My Heart- Chitra Divakaruni
3. Loves Music, Loves to Dance - Mary Higgins Clark
4. The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly
5. A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest J. Gaines
6. Leave It To Claire - Tracey Bateman
7. The Church Ladies - Lisa Samson
8. River Rising - Athol Dickson
9. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan- Lisa See
10. Moloka’i - Alan Brennert
11. Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
12. The Winter Garden - Johanna Verweerd(Review coming soon)

Another challenge that is! With my completion of “Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven” by Fannie Flagg, I have completed The Southern Reading Challenge hosted by Maggie at Maggie Reads. I have to say that this has been one of my favorite challenges. I love southern-themed stories. I am not exactly sure why except that maybe because I was born and raised in the north, it represents something different than I know. At any rate, thanks for hosting this challenge Maggie!

Here’s what I read for the Challenge:

1. The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King
2. Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly by Robert Dalby
3. When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
4. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg

Eileen Dreyer

Library Book

372 pages

Chastity Byrnes has been on her own since she was sixteen. Ten years have passed since she exposed the secrets that tore her family apart. In that time, she has managed to put together a life for herself as a forensic trauma nurse in a St. Louis hospital. She is good at her job and she loves what she does. No one would guess the that her life and sanity are held together by ritual and familiarity.

One day she receives a phone call that changes everything. The caller is a brother-in-law she didn’t know she had. He is calling to tell her that the sister she hasn’t seen in 10 years is missing. He needs her to come to New Orleans to help find her. Chastity goes, though she is sure that in doing so she is causing her safe and secure world to unravel.

This is the first book I have ever read by Eileen Dreyer. I chose it because I saw that several other people had enjoyed her books. This one sounded interesting to me and I liked the fact that it was set in New Orleans.

This was a fun read. I really enjoyed the wit that Charity and some of her fellow characters displayed. However, there is something in the way that the author writes about being a trauma nurse that doesn’t seem to flow well to me. Dialogues are specifically angled to define something to the reader and it seems forced at times.

Also, there is a theme of incest running through this story. I didn’t pick up on it when I read the synopsis, otherwise, I probably would have chosen a different book by this author. Still, I enjoyed this one. (3/5)

This is my final book for the Medical Mystery Madness challenge. Thanks to Twiga for hosting.
The books I chose for the Challenge were:

1. The Surgeon- Tess Gerritsen
2. Sinners and Saints - Eileen Dreyer.