2025 Reading Challenge discussion

I tried for 50 last year and didn't get anywhere close, so lowering the goal might make it a bit more reachable!

I'm open to reading just about anything and love getting suggestions.
I had made it a mini-resolution to attempt to read through my bookcase. So I feel like the books I will be reading will be as random as any bookshelf collection can be.

Shameless plug of goodreads bookclub ----> Spine Crackers


16/40

Juliet 3/5
Dreams of Gods & Monsters 4/5
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 5/5
American Gods 4/5
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban 3/5
Yes Please 4/5
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War 5/5
The Kitchen House 2/5
Silent in the Sanctuary 3/5
The Ghost Bride 3/5
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 4/5
Life of Pi 3/5
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore 3/5
Look Who's Back 2.5/5
The Rosie Project3/5

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor, the third book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy.
Young Adult/Fantasy/Romance. Audio.

If you are interested in this series, I actually highly recommend the audio version. Khristine Hvam is the narrator and she does such a fantastic job with the voices and the story-telling that I've been telling people who already read the book to check out the audio. She made me almost cry when I was listening to the second book in this series while I was at work.

As for the book itself, I feel a little let down. I still enjoyed it, but I think this is my least favorite of the trilogy. I enjoyed the second book so much that I couldn't wait to get to this one. Unfortunately, the book is a little too slow for a little too long. And in a 600pg book (or over 16 hr audio book) that can be a big problem. I still enjoyed the authors writing. It's very lyrical and flows very well, although some of the purple-prose did get a little out of hand at some points.

I still gave it a 4/5 because I did enjoy this series and i'm still interested to see what else the author will write. I'm also looking up other audio books that the narrator has read, because she has a great voice.

I'm almost done with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and will post the review when I am. After that, my goodreads group is reading American Gods so I get to start that. :)

If anyone has any audio book suggestions I would love to hear them! I just found out about my libraries digital download section, where you can download audio books for free for a period of time. So i'm looking forward to listening to more. :)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
Suspense/Mystery/Thriller. Paperback.

I feel like i'm the last person in the world to read this book. And I don't know what to say, because it's a very popular book that lives up to the hype. To make it even worse, I actually saw the Swedish movie a few years ago, so I knew some of the major twists already. And even knowing what was going to happen I still got sucked into this book.

I look forward to reading the rest of the series once I finish my current bookclub book American Gods

Caitlin wrote: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
Suspense/Mystery/Thriller. Paperback.

I feel like i'm the last person in the world to read this book. And I don't know what to s..."

I highly recommend the American film adaptation. I did not expect it, but it was actually better than the Swedish version.

Megan wrote: I highly recommend the American film adaptation. I did not expect it, but it was actually better than the Swedish version.


Really? I might have to check it out. I had an itch to watch the movie again after I finished the book (one of the few drawbacks of watching the movie and then reading the book), so I might get that one instead and see how it is. :)

Good luck with your challenge, Caitlin! I hadn't heard about the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy before, but I added it to my TBR list.

Megan wrote: "I highly recommend the American film adaptation. I did not expect it, but it was actually better than the Swedish version."

I totally agree! I love it. Rooney Mara made such a difference, to me she is the perfect Lisbeth, just like I imagined her when reading the book.

I feel like i'm the last person in the world to read this book.

I have yet to read the book, but have that entire trilogy on my TBR list this year. I was beginning to feel the same as you, that I was the last person not to have read it.

"Caitlin wrote: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
Suspense/Mystery/Thriller. Paperback.

I feel like i'm the last person in the world to read this book. And I don'..."

That's on my books shelf and I have yet to tackle it!

This will be two reviews in a post of one. I forgot to update this post when I finished American Gods.

So I will start with that one. I really did enjoy this book. I loved the playing with mythologies and the way those characters were handled. I really liked the main character, Shadow, as well. Which is important in a book where every character tells you how likable the main character is.

The thing that cost this book points was the pacing. Sometimes, I would be really engaged in the book and flew through it, while other times it was hard to pick it up again if I stopped reading it.

Still, really enjoyable read, and apparently I gave it 4/5. :p

The book I just finished is I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. I'm going to say what a lot of people have said about this book - In no way does my opinion of the book reflect what I think of Malala. I think she is very brave and smart and if we were all a little like her the earth would probably be a better place. At the very least we would all speak very eloquently.

No the problem with this book, is the first half can't decide what topic to be on. One moment Malala is telling us a story about her father, and the next we are getting a history of her people, and then the next a culture lesson. These issues went away near the end of the book, but the first 20% of the book was hard to get through. All the information is very interesting and it's important, like her peoples culture, so we understand how things impacted her family. However, it was presented to us a very fragmented way though out the book. I still found Malala's voice very interesting to read and I plan on looking up her speeches now!


I am now reading - World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I just finished Yes Please Audio that was suggested to me by a few people from this group! I really enjoyed it! I did have to knock off a star for the last chapter that was read live in front of an audience though. It was a great idea, but going through the entire book with no audience and then suddenly having them really through me out of it. But it was a great book to listen too!

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

This was such a great read. Max Brooks did such a great job of capturing so many different voices and experiences in a very gripping way. And some of the scenes that are described really stick with you (wave of zombies attacking a traffic filled freeway, Battle at Yonkers, ext.) The intro talks about how the interviewer really fought to keep the human perspective of the zombie war alive, and I think this book does a great job of that.

I really wanted to read this via Audiobook, but I could only find the the abridged version. I listen to a bit of it, and it was great, but I didn't want to miss out on any of the stories. If you get a chance to listen to the full book on audio, I would recommend it.

5/5

The Kitchen House

I started listening to this book because i'm moving through the bookshelves of the different goodreads bookclubs i'm apart of. I kind of regret this.
When I started listening to this book I thought it was pretty interesting. The story starts with a white orphaned Irish girl who works with the slaves on a tobacco plantation. Unfortunately, as the story progresses, every bad thing that can happen on a plantation in the 1700's happens. Again, and again, and again. And after a while it starts to lose all impact and becomes pretty tedious.

I will say that the two women who do the voice acting do a really good job. And the women who does the voice for the Irish girl actually does a great job of having the accent and then fading it out as the book goes and and the character gets older. Truth be told, if I had been physically reading this book I might have stopped reading. I only finished because I downloaded the audio and it's pretty easy to the let book keep playing.

2/5

Silent in the Sanctuary

So this is a second book in a series. We follow Lady Julia Grey as she heads back to England after spending time in Italy with her brothers. And wouldn't you know it, the handsome but mysterious Detective Brisbane is at her father's house as well! And then there's a murder to solve! The odds, you guys! Just the odds.

No, but seriously, this was my fluffy book to read before I go to bed (because I was about to read The Girl Who Played with Fire but I realized that was a bad bedtime book), and it was exactly what I wanted it to be. Murder mystery, set in 1800(ish?), and some flirtyness. Some nice fluff before I get to bed. I thought the mystery was pretty good (although i'm a horrible book detective), and the characters are pretty fun. I do think the main character thinks she's much smarter then she actually is, but if she didn't try to solve murders there would be no book. :p

3/5

Also, i've been listening to the Harry Potter books on audio in between all of this as well. Read the books, never listened to the audio before. Just finished Order of Phoenix. Harry has emotions, and makes the most bad decisions since Chamber of Secrets.

I read the Millennium series a couple years ago. I remember after I read it I got in a reading rut because I couldn't find a book that was as good as there series.

I just finished reading The Ghost Bride. I thought it was alright. The setting of the story was great and you can really tell that the author did her research on the culture and really let that shine.

I had a few issues with the way the story got to certain plot points. Mainly, that it seemed to rely on the main character saying, "I know I shouldn't do this . . . but some how i'm doing it!" We saw that a little to often for my own liking. Also the ending was a bit abrupt as well.

As of right now, I'm listening to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on Audio book right now, and my goodreads bookclub is reading Orange Is the New Black. I'll tell you guys what I think of them when i'm done!

Caitlin wrote: "I just finished reading The Ghost Bride. I thought it was alright. The setting of the story was great and you can really tell that the author did her research on the culture and r..."

I've had The Ghost Bride on my to-read for awhile. And DANG is that not the most beautiful cover you've ever seen?? I want to buy it just for its cover, haha. Let's all take a minute and gaze at this beauty:



oooh ahhh

Shannon N wrote: "Caitlin wrote: "I've had The Ghost Bride on my to-read for awhile. And DANG is that not the most beautiful cover you've ever seen?? I want to buy it just for its cover, haha. Let's all take a minute and gaze at this beauty:. .."

It is a really beautiful cover! I read this because of a "In Person" book club, and someone asked how the book was picked. The first thing I said was, "Is it because of the cover? I knew we're not supposed too! But, I would read this because of the cover."

I just finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on Audio.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing is so good, and the way the story is so interesting about all these men in a mental hospital and the things that they deal with. There is a reason it is a classic.
The only problems I had with the book, are the things that make it a product of it's time. The book is written with pretty misogynistic and racists undertones. And i'm pretty sure one of the guys is in the hospital because he is gay (which was illegal at the time the book was written).
I personally, can look past these issues, and see the book for it's other good qualities, but I understand if other people can't. But I did knock a star off because of it.

And! I started Orange Is the New Blackyesterday and i'm enjoying it! And the next book on audio is The Count of Monte Cristo . . . which is like 40+ hours. Ugh, what did I do to myself?
But lets keep the book train going! Choo! Choo!

So . . . I use OverDrive to get audio books from libraries (cause they are expensive), and I had a little too much fun a few weeks ago with putting a bunch of things on hold. I was in the middle of The Count of Monte Cristo when . . . 4 of them came in. So The Count got put on the backburner cause it takes up too much space.

So in the past week I listened to Life of Pi and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore in the past week. And it might be because I had already seen Life of Pi the movie but I never felt bad about letting some of the audio go if I had to take out my earbuds for work. Maybe because I knew what was going to happen? I don't know. I found all the Zoo stuff really interesting ( I really want to go to the Zoo now) and of course the ending. Overall, I liked it but I don't know if I'll ever feel the need to reread it. 3/5

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a book about books . . . and about Google. Lot's and lot's of Google talk. I thought this books was pretty charming, but it did have a issue with being very interesting, and then not interesting at all and then right back to interesting again. I do think I would recommend this to people, and I am considering actually reading this if I ever think to reread it. 3/5