2020 Winter Reading Challenge: Books Read

If you like spy type books I think you would like this. I don’t generally have an interest in spy or Middle East stuff but found this very good. Read the first half on my trip home and was the kind of book you wanted to get back to every time you had to put it down.

-Four Stars, Beth

Classic retelling of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 through the stories of people who survived nuclear attack. Vivid and sober. A must read.

-Five Stars, Marie

A short picture book about a cat and a dog getting comfy.

-Five Stars, Ali

People who like feisty heroines and Greek mythology might like this book.

-Three Stars, Sherry

This is a true story of a hot shot heart surgeon. So full of himself ,he never bothered to care about his patients past the bill for services. It changes for him when he is diagnosed with cancer. He becomes the patient and is treated with the same coldness and disrespect,he subjected his patients too. Malpractice has become a friendly word to the doctor.

-Five Stars, Theresa

The angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley meet for the first time at the Garden of Eden as Adam and Eve are expelled after Crowley tempts them with an apple. Fast forward 11 years before Armageddon. Crowley delivers the Antichrist to a satanic convent, where the baby is to be given to an American diplomat and his family. However, a mix-up occurs and the Antichrist ends up with a middle-class English family, the Youngs. Crowley and Aziraphale meet to discuss the coming apocalypse. Aziraphale reluctantly agrees to work with Crowley. They decide that if each works to influence the boy Warlock, whom they believe to be the Antichrist, he will be neither good nor evil, just normal. In the present day, Crowley and Aziraphale attend his 11th birthday party, but realize they have the wrong boy when the hellhound fails to appear. Meanwhile, the hellhound has found his master, Adam Young. After changing into a small terrier, Adam names him “Dog”, unknowingly initiating Armageddon. A good spin on the Bible tale.

-Four Stars, Theresa

If you have any connection to law enforcement then you would enjoy this book. Not only does it cover the life of Samuel Battle, first African American NYPD police officer, it talks about how Mr. Battle encouraged the first African American NY Fireman. Very educuational, and sadly not surprising to read the trials and tribulations he faced.

-Five Stars, Brian

This was a great read. Filled with great memories Woodstock, vw vans ,free love, the WAR,,etc. I enjoyed it because it moved along smoothly and i recognized living it.

-Five Stars, Theresa

What is it with this generation, i chose 2 titles for challenges and both ended up being trans gender writers. People are not happy with anything..lol this book was stupid and boring and went no where, just like the generation.

-One Star, Theresa

A story written about Paradise Cove and Jesse Stone. Quiet Paradise Cove is stalked by 2 serial killers and side sex crime at the local high school.The cop dialogue is fantastic. This book is 4th in a series.

-Five Stars, Theresa

Anyone who enjoys a thriller involving cyber security, politics and traitors will like this book

-Four Stars, Jenny

This is a soft summer read about 3 friends growing up in a small Illinois town. The book opens with Douglas Spaulding and his brother Tom lying in bed on the 1st day of summer, planning all the adventures they will have. Mr Bradbury does not fail. The characters, The Lonely One (a serial killer, 2 ninety yr old sisters and there electric run about,that Dougy hitches rides on to the Junk Man who through singing helps Dougy recover from a bad Heat illness..Good Book.

-Five Stars, Theresa

What makes someone a true Native American? This is the question each of the characters in this work confronts within themselves. It's actually a group of stories, each told from the perspective of the characters in the larger story focused on a powwow in Oakland, California. Lots of great soul-searching and societal commentary. A fascinating read.

-Four Stars, Marie

A xmas gift that is ignored and loved and then abandoned,the rabbit with the red sateen ears comes to love the boy who takes him everywhere and through that love finds literal rebirth.

-Five Stars, Theresa

An excellent read for anyone interested in scientific studies, regarding parapsychology.

-Four Stars, Alissa V.

Having picked this book to fill the romance category I spent most of the book thinking “this is a romance”? It was very good though and I really enjoyed it. Not at all what I expected. Very good story though with twists and turns I didn’t expect.

-Five Stars, Beth

A person who enjoys fantasy and magic would really enjoy it. It shows you how the main characters were growing into their powers and were persistent to try and make things better to stop Evil from overtaking Harry and Hogwarts. I think young and old who love magic and fantasy will really enjoy the book.

-Four Stars, Betsy

If you like family stories of a young boy growing up in a southern family. In the south where the living is easy.Will Tweedy is a wonderful character to tell this story. You meet his whole wonderful family and live through his good times and bad. A book hard to put down.

-Five Stars, Theresa

This sequel was published (15 chapters) after the author died of cancer. In it we find Will Tweedy in 1917 Cold Sassy. He has graduated college and is an agricultural agent for the state of Georgia.Many of the characters from her 1st novel are passed and Will has married and Sanna his wife and he have 4 children.Times are hard in the Depression. The book is not "Cold Sassy Tree. I would rather not have read it. and left just with the memory of young Will Tweedy.

-Three Stars, Theresa

Anyone that likes mystery would like this. Also it is set in Scotland and I like that or England type settings for these quick read mysteries.

-Four Stars, Beth

I would recommend to anyone who loves a survival story or big cats.

-Three Stars, Jenny

People who enjoyed reading Gone Girl, or similar books would probably enjoy reading this coming of age story with a mystery thrown in. It’s about a girl from a dysfunctional family from the marshes of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s.

-Five Stars, Kristen

This was a fun adventure novel, involving highway robbery, pirates, and romance.

-Four Stars, Jenny

Read this book (published 1956) if history bores you but you are curious about what life was like for the ruling class in China as the last imperial dynasty crumbled. If you loved The Good Earth, you'll love Imperial Woman, too. I sure did!

-Five Stars, Marie

If you have any interest in Irish mythology you would like this book. Also though it was filled with very interesting info and the pictures are really excellent.

-Three Stars, Beth

This book is a delightful work of satire centered around a young woman who is loved by two men who are more alike than she realizes at first. She cares for both but she cannot make up her mind which one to marry. Read if you enjoy irony and dark comedy. A short but enjoyable, thought-provoking read.

-Four Stars, Marie

This is a very interesting take on the fate of Africa during the period of time it was colonized by Europeans, roughly the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century from the points of view of the Africans and the European and Asian settlers. The characters learn what "home" means and how to survive with dignity intact. Moreover, it postulates what might have happened if the Africans had technology as good as or better than the Europeans. It was an interesting read.

-Four Stars, Marie