2015 Snagged @ The Library Challenge discussion

I hope it's okay that I opened this discussion. :-)

I just finished Rick Riordan's The House of Hades. Good book! And it's a new enough release, even the Kindle version would have cost me $11. Hooray for the Library!

Finished On Immunity by Biss. Which was interesting and also the current Facebook book club pick.
I have a list for tomorrow's trip to the library and The Orphan Train on hold.

Today I picked up Orphan Train(in large print - so you can probably read it from there, I do find it distracting but it was what they had so I took it), The Martian and Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World.
I ordered through ZipBooks The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe: A novel - the title!

Lea wrote: "Today I picked up Orphan Train(in large print - so you can probably read it from there, I do find it distracting but it was what they had so I took it), The Martian ..."

I loved The Martian! Also, I think it is a perfect book for a couple to read if both people are even lightly interested in SF. My husband and I both read it after Jill Myles raved about how much she and her husband loved it. And just like them, we ended up having Mark Watney "reports" during meals.

I just finished The Overton Window by Glenn Beck. I gotta be honest--I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I've only read 2 of his other fiction works (one of them wasn't really by him, but you don't know that until the end), and they were just okay. I gave one 1 star and one 3. So I was expecting it to be more "political" than "thriller." Maybe it is just because I'd set the bar so low, but I give this one a solid 5 stars. What a GREAT book!

Also, as of today I've crossed over the $100 threshold! I've saved $107 so far in 2015 because I Snagged @ the Library! Thanks for this wonderful group! I'm loving it!

January started off good, February was a slow month for reading. I need to pick it back up this month. I've already got 3 on-hold books in at the library I need to pick up on Monday: Ann Rule's "Lying in Wait", Robyn Carr's newest, "One Wish," and Jenny Colgan's "Sweetshop of Dreams." I've also got Susan Mallery's newest, "Girls of Mischief Bay" and Lisa Gardner's latest, "Crash and Burn" on hold, but it will probably be several weeks for those because I'm 4th and 8th in line. I decided on a little light reading, romance and mystery for a bit, instead of the sometimes heavier Women's Fiction.

Yesterday I finished listening to Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer. I chcecked Amazon and if I were to pay full price for the unabridged cd version of the book I would have saved $34.99 at full price or Amazon's price of $20.61. The Audible price is $24.49!

If you're a women's fiction reader I like Thayer, and feel like she's one who doesn't get the credit that some others do.

Just finished The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling). These Cormoran Strike books are my guilty pleasure, I think. I hope she puts out another one soon.

Finished Orphan Train and The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe.

One Wish by Robyn Carr, one of my fav authors. When I'm in the mood for a little romance, Robyn Carr is on my "go-to" short list. Although I'm not as into this Thunder Point series, as I was her Virgin River series, there's just something about her writing and characters that appeals to me. Although I spent the first 10 years of my life in a very small community, and hated it (you couldn't pay me to move back there, I just didn't like the way everybody felt they had a right to know everybody else's business!), a fair amount of the books I read and enjoy take place in small communities. This one is Grace and Troy's story. She is an ex-Olympic gold-medalist figure skater who has changed her name and bought a flower shop, running it very well and he is a high-school teacher. Although I could have told you how this would turn out, I still enjoyed it and read it in a matter of hours.

Just finishedJust Between Us. I love Mario, and this book was great!

Just finished Organized Grime: Squeaky Clean Mysteries, Book 3 by Christy Barritt. This series, the Squeaky Clean Mysteries, is about a crime scene cleaner who finds herself in the middle of cases that need to be investigated. Part Nancy Drew, part Mysteries of Laura would be my best description. Not at all plausible, but highly entertaining and refreshingly CLEAN.

Just finished Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach which was the VF book club main pick this month. Overall I enjoyed it, but the ending was unsatisfying. It just stopped. It's part of a trilogy and I've already picked up book 2, but those who have strong feelings about cliffhangers should probably avoid this one. Otherwise, the world-building is well done, the heroine is absolutely kick-ass (think Ripley + Kate Daniels), and the military sci-fi elements are refreshingly more than just "shoot everything."

One item on my reading bucket list was to read a graphic novel. Someone recommended Maus, and I'm so glad they did. I just finished Maus, I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus, II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman. Who knew a "comic book" could win a Pulitzer Prize??? What an extraordinary read!!! I read all but the the last chapter of Vol 1 in one sitting. The next night, I finished Vol 1 and ALL of Vol 2 in one sitting. It is absolutely riveting!!! I highly recommend it.

Angel wrote: "One item on my reading bucket list was to read a graphic novel. Someone recommended Maus, and I'm so glad they did. I just finished [book:Maus, I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History|1519..."

I checked our Maus from the library last year and also found it to be an amazing read.

My March Reads:

In His Keeping Maya Banks 3/16/15
Insatiable Appetites Stuart Woods 3/15/15
Black Magic Woman Christine Warren 3/15/15
Beneath This Man Jodi Ellen Malpas 3/13/15
The Christmas Wedding Ring Susan Mallery 3/13/15
I Belong to You Lisa Renee Jones 3/8/15
Hope Burns Jaci Burton 3/8/15
Freefall JoAnn Ross 3/6/15
Castaway Cove JoAnn Ross 3/3/15

Today, I finished reading Ann Rule's newest Crime Files, "Lying in Wait." Although I always enjoy her books, I feel that the last few have just not been as good as her earlier ones. I love to read true crime books, anybody have any recommendations for other authors of this genre for me?

I have my first library DNF for the challenge. Lives in Ruins was not what I thought it would be. There's nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't what I was looking for.

Just finished The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. Excellent completion to the series! The only copy the library had was large print...now everything I read seems small! LOL

Also, I want to give myself a little Whoop-whoop! As of midnight on 3/18, I've saved $70 JUST THIS MONTH because I snagged @ the library! Is that awesome or what??? Brings me to a total of a little over $160 for the year. I really love this challenge.

I finished listening to the audio of Trust No One by Jayne Ann Krentz. I saved $39.99 on the CD book price o4 $20.95 on the download price. I love that lately JAK has been getting back to the style that she was writing when I first fell in love with her.

Sandi wrote: "If you're a women's fiction reader I like Thayer, and feel like she's one who doesn't get the credit that some others do. ."
I agree, I like Nancy Thayer, she's not sappy or silly and I feel like I could be friends with her characters.

Just finished The Third Target by Joel C Rosenberg. WOW. Rosenberg does it again. No matter what you think is going to happen, I guarantee you are not prepared for the last chapter. Amazing read!

Elizabeth, have you read Elin Hilderbrand? She's another who I think writes the type of characters who are more real and could be your friend.

Today I finished listening to Threading the Needle, book 4 in the Cobbled Court Series by Marie Bostwick. I saved 19.95 from the audible price by getting it from the library.

Just finished The Hindenburg Murders by Max Collins. It was a fun read! But not as good as his Pearl Harbor Murders. Still, this is a fun little series.

As you might know, OverDrive is hosting a "global book club" May 17-31. The featured book is Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard by Laura Bates. Right now, during this time frame, you can get this book from the library with no holds and no wait times. It was a worthwhile read. You can check out my review for more info.

I just finished The Martian which was amazing and totally not my normal genres but I loved it and want everyone to read it.
I'm heading to the library tomorrow.

On my way to work today I finished the audio of Driving With The Top Down by Beth Harbison. I really enjoy her stories. Now to scroll my playlist and figure out the next read.

My final book for the month (probably) is The Eye of Moloch by Glenn Beck. Very good! Unputdownable. I burned through the last hundred pages and thought I'd only been sitting there a couple of hours--it was 5!

March has been a personal best for me in the area of reading. I've read 11 books, all of them from the library, which comes to a grand total of $106 saved. I'm loving this!

I just finished this book late last evening. It was well written and readable, but given the picture of the cute puppy peeking over the fence on the cover and even though the cover summary talked about alcoholism and family secrets, I just wasn't prepared for the dark, uncomfortable turn the story line would take. I felt like there should have been one of those disclaimers on the cover like, "subject matter may be a little uncomfortable for some people." Another reason, this book was just okay for me, was that I really didn't identify or like any of the main characters, the wife was controlling and the husband was wishy-washy. If I had to pick one character, I guess I would say I had the most sympathy for the grandma, as I felt she really had a reason for being the way she was. In the end, I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either. It was just okay.

Not sure where I should post this, but I'm unsure whether or not I'll finish another audio in March, and with my audios that I've downloaded from the library this year I've saved almost $300! From my ARCs and other sources where I've been given a book to read vs. having to buy I've saved another $115!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Sandi

Today, was my day off, it was cold and I felt lazy, so I spent a lot of the day just sitting around reading. I started Heather Graham's "The Hexed" this morning and finished it right after dinner! The Hexed is another installment in the Krewe of Hunters series, which I have read from the beginning. As usual, it included a little paranormal, a little chemistry, and a setting with lots of history and ambiance. This time it was the Salem area of Massachusetts with a lot of talk about the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s. The history was interesting and the story was an enjoyable read and just the bit of mindlessness that I needed for today. And I finally counted up the money savings for the first 3 months of this year. I just used the Nook prices because more than likely if I had bought the books I would have bought the Nook editions or used copies. So, for January, I saved $89.84; February, $48.45; and so far, for March, $30.46. I'm okay with those numbers. January's count is high because I read a lot of library books that month, but in February and March, I have read more off my shelves and Nook/Kindle. Next month, I hope to "read" a couple of Audiobooks from the library. I have discovered that my Library participates in OneClickDigital audio downloadable books, so I am hoping to try a couple of those, as I have only ever done a couple of audiobooks and that was on a long car trip in the distant past.

BJ, I love audio books! If you'll notice that's all I've been doing from the library. I have so many books in my TBR and I have access to ARCs so I don't usually to books from the library. I have been tracking all my reads this year, and I've saved about $400 between the ARCS and the library. I use the audio prices for my library savings, since I'm doing those.

Love this series! Finished Cold Betrayal by J. A. Jance late yesterday. This new installment has a lot going on and kept my interest up to the very end. There was a bit of a family mystery involving "gaslighting" an older family member, trying to portray her as incompetent so they could take over her finances and such. The other mystery was of much larger scope involving a polygamist group with much more going on than just polygamy. Altogether an enjoyable read for a lazy Monday, which also happens to be one of my days off. I work Tues through Sat, so Sunday and Mon are my "weekend." I basically read this while doing laundry all day.

So, I'm hereby officially raising my challenge level again. I started off the year at 24. At the end of Feb I raised it to 36. But it's the end of March, I've read 22 library books already.... Might as well raise it to 50+ and be done with it. ☺️
There are a couple of other mitigating factors here:
1. My overall book challenge for the year is 100
2. I also challenged myself to pay $0 for books this year.

Ergo, it naturally follows that a large portion of my reading material will come from the library. LOL

On my way home today I finished I've Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark in audio. According to Audible it was 17.95 and I got it from the library.

Then I started The Playboy by Carly Phillips in audio because I figured I needed something fun and light hearted.

I finished Last One Home by Debbie Macomber this weekend.