Challenge!

2 more to go to do 100 in 2014! Hope to do a little more next year!

You still have a day or two to finish, so I'm sure you'll finish! :) Best of luck in 2015, too!

Just finished #100!! Now to start over again? YES

Welcome back!

Congrats on getting to 100 in 2014!

>3 swimmergirl1: Awesome! Congratulations on making it to 100! :)

#1. Best of Me by Beth Hoffman
Interesting fiction about how it feels to have a loved one missing.

#2. Iggy Peck, Architect. I teach reading and science so read some books that I want to use with my classes. This book is cute, about a boy who loves to build things in a class where he's not allowed. I do a lesson with my girls science camps where they have to build a structure that will hold a book. They only have 10 sheets of paper, 10 straws and some tape. This will be a great book to go along with that.

Welcome back! Good luck with your 2015 reading, glad you made the goal in 2014. :)

3. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Last year enjoyed The Husbands Secret by this author so went back and read some of her works. This was about a woman who fell in a spin class and forgot the last 10 years of her life which included the birth of her children, separation from her husband and the death of her best friend. The story is her search to get her life back on track while recovering her memories. Good read!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good historical fiction book? Never been my favorite genre but my book club is reading it this month and I have nowhere to begin looking. Thanks!

I don't read a lot of historical fiction either, but I looked up books on LT using the "historical fiction" tag and found a few popular ones:

* The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
* The Help by Kathryn Stockett
* Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
* The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I hope that helps. :)

Congratulations on reaching 100 in 2014! And you're right on track for 2015 already. Looking forward to seeing what you read next.

Lisa See and Gail Tsukiyama both write wonderful historical fiction. I'd recommend Shanghai Girls or Women of the Silk.

Michelle Moran writes some nice but fluffier historical fiction (largely set in periods where we don't really have THAT much information so she has a lot of freedom). Cleopatra's Daughter is about what happened to the children of Cleopatra and Mark Antony after their parents died.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer was wonderful (WWII in Hungary).

Regeneration by Pat Barker revolves around the treatment of shell shock during WWI.

Thanks. I had forgotten about Pillars of the Earth. I have his other trilogy on my nook but am saving them till summer break and 8 weeks in the trailer.

Thanks mabith I'll check those out. I have Havel on my to read list about Hungary too.

4. The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans. Always tear jerker, this was no exception. A lawyer approaches a woman in the food court of his building and proposes a contract for the holidays. Will she accompany him to holiday events and let him give her presents? She is very alone as her secret is she left her child in a car all day and the child died. She accepts since there are no strings attached. But he has his own secret and a tie to her past.

Back to work tomorrow (teaching), so reading slows down. Think I'm off to a good start.

5. Out of my mind by Sharon Draper. This is a young adult book that is told through the eyes of a young girl with cerebral palsy. She feels trapped as she's extremely intelligent but has no way to communicate until she gets a talking board computer. Then everyone knows how smart she is, but she struggles to fit in.

Sharon Kay Penman writes fantastic historical fiction, if you are interested in British history.

Thanks!

#6. the Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs. This book brought so many memories back. It's about a mom driving with her daughter across the country to go to college. On the trip the mom is sewing a quilt for her daughter from pieces of fabric from the daughters clothes, recalling episodes of their life. When my daughter was going off to college I made her a tshirt quilt with her concert shirts. I finished it the day before we left to drive her from Vegas to Seattle.

I just finished a quilt. If someone was going to get a quilt finished on a car trip, it's either one heck of a long trip, a mighty small quilt, or both. I finished mine the day before I gave it away (wedding present) but I started months earlier.

Sounds like a clever vehicle for a sweet story, though.

7. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.
Interesting book! Her job for her clients is to show them how to declutter. She has a very specific procedure of what do first and then next. Questions to ask yourself about your items and simple storage solutions. Guess I'll be starting to "declutter" this weekend.

Is her process workable, do you think?

I started today! She says to start with clothes. Nothing should be in tubs and I had five of those. Keep nothing that doesn't bring you joy! Got rid of fives garbage bags of clothes that I never wear or really don't like. Good start! Going to do something everyday even if it's a drawer or box. I figure it may take me about 5 months.

#8. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. This was a biography of James Garfield. It didn't cover too much of his early life, but more about his life after being nominated for President and also the tome between being shot and the months before he died. Interestingly, it wasn't the bullet that killed him, but the lack of cleanliness of the doctors who treated him. Germs and the prevention of them were just being promoted in Europe. I'm also doing the President's challenge on this site. Reading all the President biographies in order.

#9. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen. Belief in magic is at the core of this whimsical book about men who glow in the dark, wallpaper that changes and people who smell cakes being baked even though none is. A young girl, whose mother was killed in a car crash, is brought to her mothers hometown and a grandfather she didn't know and secrets she didn't know.

Good luck! Sounds like a strong start.

>27 swimmergirl1: The Girl Who Chased the Moon looks really good! :) I'll have to look for that one sometime.

#10. Nest by Esther Ehrlich. This is a new Young Adult book. Nest is about a girl who lives on Cape a Cod with her parents and sister. She loves to go bird watching. Her mother is a dancer who is diagnosed with MS. The mother gets severely depressed and eventually commits suicide. The book deals with their relationship before and the aftermath for the family. Really enjoyed this book. It on lists of best YA for last year. First time author.

#11. After the Rain by Karen White. This was the sequel to a book I read last year called Falling Home. Set in South Carolina, this is the story of a troubled woman who comes into the town where her mother had been from after being on the run. She falls in love with a widower with five kids and discusses all their complications.

12. Paperboy by Vince Vawter. The author stated this was part fiction, part memoir. It is a young adult book that is garnering a lot of awards. It is set in 1959. The main character takes over his best friends paper route for a month. His family has a live- in African American nanny. The book centers around the people he meets on his route and their interactions. It also has a side story of a junkman who has ties to the nanny and steals from the boy. Great story!

13. Kinder than Solitude by Yiyun Li. This took me a few weeks to read as I could only read a few pages at a time. Mainly set in China, the story revolves around 3 friends. When they were young adults, one of them, Ruyu, who had moved to the city to go to school, had lived a sheltered life. On a tour of the university with her friends, she steals a vial of chemicals from the lab of the friends mother. It is left in a drawer, and the daughter of Ruyu's host family is poisoned. It is never clear if she was poisoned or took it as a suicide. The book deals with the ramifications to the lives of these friends.

14. That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay. Found this on a best of 2014 book list. Quirky book as a divorcee in England who likes to cook strikes up letter correspondence with an American author who likes to cook. They even plan to meet in Paris but never quite make it. She is a little agoraphobic. They exchange recipes and cooking tips. In the end she overcomes her problem, a result of her daughter getting married. She shows up at a book signing of his. Enjoyed this book.

15. Dress Shop of Dreams: A Novel by Menna van Praag.
Etta, the grandmother owns a dress shop where the dresses points to dreams come true and the truths of lives. Cora the granddaughter searches out unanswered questions about her parents deaths twenty years ago, as well as opening her heart to possibilities. Really liked this book!

16. The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro. Saw this on a best of 2014 list. Mallory, a Brit, unhappy with her life as a stay at home wife, with a philandering husband, gets a mysterious bequest. She is the heir to a woman she doesn't know from Paris. She has inherited stocks as well as an apartment. When she goes to Paris to check out her inheritance, she has more questions than answers. As she starts investigating, and changing in the process, she uncovers the secrets of a mother she never knew. Highly recommend this book.

17. The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman. This is a children's book about Paul Erdos who was a very unique mathematician. He collaborated with over 500 other people on 1500+ articles. He would show up on people's doorstep and stay till work was done. Brilliant but odd in his ways.

18. Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas C. Reeves. Biography of President Arthur who came to be President after President James Garfield was assassinated. He served one term and his biggest accomplishment was the start of civil service reform.

19. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen. This was a sequel to her book Garden Spells. Continued the story of two sisters and their families. Every woman in the family has mystical qualities.

20. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This is the story of a gorilla who lives in a mall and how he gets to the zoo, after his best friend Stella the elephant dies. Children's award winning book told from Ivan's point of view.

21. The Kid Who Named Pluto: And Other Stories of Other Extraordinary Young People in Science byMarc McCutcheon.

Wow, just keeping up with the posts is like reading a whole book itself, especially if you get behind.

22. An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland by H. Paul Jeffers. It was a change to read about A president who really was an honest man who had morals and principles and didn't waiver from them. I also have The President is a Sick Man to read about his secret surgery at sea. Now to backtrack to Benjamin Harrison, then on to McKinley, finally making it to the 20th century in my quest to read a biography of every President.

23. Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe by Max Lucado. Chelsey has problems and a guardian angel named Manny. . She is newly separated from an ex-football player, estranged from her dad, trying to continue the tradition of running a coffee shop.

>42 swimmergirl1: - I know just what you mean!

24. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabstein. Loved this intermediate children's book. My dream to be locked in a library for 24 hours. Twelve kids are locked in an amazing high tech library and through books and clues they must find a way out besides the front door. Can't wait to read this to my students.

25. Bo at Ballard Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill. Bo was a baby when she was given by her saloon hall mother to a odd pair of miners in the Yukon. The mine was closing and everyone was heading out so they took her thinking they'd figure something out. Several years later they are in Alaska at a new mine and Bo is still with Jack and Arvid. They live in a small community called Ballard Creek filled with miners and Eskimos. It about Bo's adventures and also how she gains a brother. There is a sequel to read.

26. Pegasus by Danielle Steel. Pegasus is a Lippizaner stallion from Germany. He figures in the story as a life saver for a man and his two boys who are escaping from Nazi Germany. Their good friend and neighbor has given them Pegasus and other horses so that they can go to America and be part of the circus. The book is how they all survive the war and how all their lives intertwine into generations.

27. Benjamin Harrison by Charles W. Calhoun. Short biography of the president wedged between Grover Cleveland's two terms. A man of principles and ethics who accomplished much in his four years, but is often forgotten.

28. Heaven is Paved with Oreos by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Young Adult book about a girl Sarah who has a fake boyfriend, a rotting cow, and an eccentric grandma. Grandma decides to finish a pilgrimage to Rome's seven churches and she takes Sarah with her. It turns out to be quite an adventure and she comes back to her fake boyfriend who wants to be a real boyfriend.

29. The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist by Margarita Engle. A young adult book written in prose is the story of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a book loving feminist and abolitionist who resisted an arranged marriage at 14. She fought injustice against women and the slaves in Cuba.

30. separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. Sylvia Mendez's family fought the school district to allow Sylvia and her siblings to attend the "non" Mexican school. It took Two years and a lawsuit and an appeal for them to win.

31. Wonder by R. J. Palacio. This book was a good read. It's about a boy who has a deformed face and has been homeschooled. He is going to go to school for junior high and this is about the reactions both negative and positive to him. It covers his first year at school, the good and the bad and the changes he makes and those around him do.

32.How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made The Modern World by Steven Johnson. Good book as it shows every discovery causes a chain reaction of something else being invented. The six innovations are glass,cold,sound, clean, time and light.

33. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson. An autobiography of this children's authors early life in South Carolina and NYC. Dichotomies of the differences between those two places in the 1950's. Book is written in prose. Award winning book for last year.

34. Laugh with the Moon by Shana Burg. A young girls mother has passed away and her father, a physician decides they should go to Africa for four months. He is going to a village where he had earlier worked as a doctor. The book details her learning the customs and rites of the kids. Shows how different life is from Boston and its modern conveniences and medicines.

35. Soy Sauce for Beginners by Kirstin Chen. Gretchen Lin leaves school, a drifting husband and her life in San Francisco to return to her family's home in Singapore. Her family runs a soy sauce company, she has returned to infighting over the future of the company and her mother's alcolhism. She must make a decision whether to stay with the company or return to her music studies in San Francisco.

36. The Secret of Midvives by Sally Hepworth. A family of three generations of midwives who each have their own secrets. The grandmother has a secret that her daughter was a friends daughter who died in childbirth and she didn't want the abusive father to raise her. The mothers secret is that while everyone knows she's under investigation for a delivery that ended up in the hospital, she is continuing to deliver babies even though her license is suspended. The youngest, the granddaughter, is hiding both who she loves, but also the fact she doesn't know who the father of her baby is.

37. Absolutely Truly: A Pumpkin Falls Mystery by Heather Vogel Frederick. A young adult book about a family whose father has lost his arm in Afghanistan, relocate to New Hampshire to run the their grandparents bookstore. Mysteries abound as a quartet of kids work to solve them.

38. The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. A woman's husband dies, he was a lawyer going between L.A. And Beijing. There is a paternity suit in China and she must go there to settle the matter. While there she meets Sam Liang, a chef. She is a food writer and Sam is competing in a big Chinese cooking competition. She ends up writing about him and the competition and falls in love.

39. Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold self- experimenters in science and medicine by Lesley Dendy. Interesting book about scientists and doctors who did experiments on themselves. From experiments of swallowing things to testing laughing gas on themselves to speed tests on the human body.

The Adventures of Beekle, An Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat.
Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales.
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino.
Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford.

All award winning picture books.

40. No Parking at the End Times byBryan Bliss. Written through point of view of a girl whose parents have been sucked in by a preacher. They have sold everything and driven their van to San Francisco from North Carolina. They are living in their van on the streets. The kids who are teens know this is wrong and don't understand how their parents can be so gullible. They meet up with some rough street kids. The final straw is when the van gets towed and the son is beaten up.

41. Close Your Eyes Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian. Story about what happens to a girl after her parents are killed in a nuclear meltdown in Vermont. She does what she has to to survive on the streets, eventually going back to her home in the exclusion zone.

42. Saving Kabul Corner by N. H. Senzai. This is a story of two families from Afghanistan who have moved to the U. S. One has an established grocery store and the other family is opening one in the same shopping center. Then break ins and fires start happening in each store. They blame each other because of a feud that started back in their country. The teenagers in each family band together to solve the mysterious happenings. A politician who wanted the land the shopping center was on was behind it. It ended up bringing both families together.

43. Dog Crazy by Meg Donohue. This is about a woman who has made a life change by moving across country to start a new life and then loses her dog. This death triggers agoraphobia in her. She is starting a pet bereavement counseling practice, but can't solve her own problem till a troubled young woman comes to her practice. This girl swears someone stole her dog, that he wouldn't have just run away. In helping the girl the girl look for her dog, the counselor slowly grows out of her house. No believed the dog was still alive, turns out her brother had taken him, to force Anya to sell their grandmothers house for the inheritance. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

44. i Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin. Eleven year old Celeste lives on Butterfly Hill in Chile with her doctor parents and her grandmother. It's set in the time of the overthrow of Allende and the takeover by Pinochet. It's a time when people are disappearing or going into hiding, including Celeste's classmates. Her parents must go into hiding, Celeste is sent to Maine to live with an aunt. Even there her friend a Korean immigrant disappears one night. Eventually she goes home but there has been no word from her parents. She goes for a search for her dad who had Ben imprisoned on an island. She finds a fisherman who has rescued her father and they are reunited. He sends word to the mother to come home. During the day's Grandma was left it turns out her Jewish Granma had hid everyone's books as they were burning them. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

45. The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks. Latest Nicholas Sparks book that ties three lives together in a unique twist of circumstances.

46. Delicious!: A Novel by Ruth Reichl. A young women takes a job at a food magazine in New York City. The magazine goes under but she is kept on to answer phones for "the guarantee" of the magazines recipes. As she explores the old mansion she works in she discovers a library for the magazine. She finds a series of letters from a young girl written to James Beard during WWII. She and another ex- employee become obsessed by the letters and set off to find the girl, now a woman.

47. Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky. Set on an island off the coast of Maine, two childhood friends come together to work on a cookbook for the summer. Charlotte has travelled the world writing articles for magazines, while Nicole has been a housewife and blogger. Secrets abound in this story. Nicole and her doctor husband have kept secret the fact he has MS and is getting worse. Charlotte's secret is that she had sex with Nicole's husband before the wedding and became pregnant, giving the baby up for adoption. All secrets come out as Charlotte offers cord blood she had saved for Julian's stem cell transplant.

48. The Book of Wanderings: A Mother-Daughter Pilgrimage by Kimberly Meyer. Longing to bond with Ellie, now a college student, and longing, too, to rediscover herself, Kimberly sets off with her daughter on a quest for meaning across the globe. Leaving behind the rhythms of ordinary life in Houston, Texas, they dedicate a summer to retracing the footsteps of Felix Fabri, a medieval Dominican friar whose written account of his travels resonates with Kimberly. Their mother-daughter pilgrimage takes them to exotic destinations infused with mystery, spirituality, and rich history-from Venice to the Mediterranean through Greece and partitioned Cyprus, to Israel and across the Sinai Desert with Bedouin guides, to the Palestinian territories and to Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. In the end, she realizes home is where her heart and spirituality lie.

Wish we had a like button like on Facebook or a way to tag books we'd like to read on someone's list.

49. Chasing Sunsets: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury. Second novel in the Angels Walking series. Mary Catherine lives in Los Angeles with her roommate, Sami, and volunteers at a local youth center with coach Tyler Ames and LA Dodger Marcus Dillinger. Despite Mary Catherine’s intention to stay single, she finds herself drawing close to Marcus, and their budding romance offers an exciting life she never dreamed of. That is, until she receives devastating news from her doctor. News that alters her future and forces her to make a rash decision.

50. The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. A follow- up to The Notebook. After thirty years, Wilson Lewis is forced to face a painful truth: the romance has gone out of his marriage. His wife, Jane, has fallen out of love with him, and it is entirely his fault. Despite the shining example of his in-laws, Noah and Allie Calhoun, Wilson himself is a man unable to express his true feelings. He has spent too little time at home and too much at the office, leaving the responsibility of raising their children to Jane. His love for Jane has only grown over the years, and he will do everything he can to save their marriage. With the memories of Noah and Allie's inspiring life together as his guide, he vows to find a way to make his wife fall in love with him...all over again.

>72 swimmergirl1:


I totally agree! Maybe you could recommend something like that on one of the official threads. I'm not sure which one it is. Or maybe email them directly.

Anyway, good pace with your reading! :)

51. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. I love all of David McCullough's books. This was right on par. I only knew the famous facts but this is an in depth look at the lead up to their flying and what followed their famous first flights. Enjoyed reading about how involved their sister was in their lives and the support she was. They had to really go out and sell themselves and how others tried to take credit for being first. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Nice to be the first to get this from the library.

Can't wait for school too be out so I can tackle a lot of books gathered on my Nook.

52. William McKinley and his America by H. Wayne Morgan. This book took forever to read, started a couple months ago. Very dry reading but a pretty complete history of him. Would have liked more details of Cuban War and the taking of the Phillipines. Didn't know much but he stuck to his values and morals and was devoted to his wife. Now on to Theodore Roosevelt.

53. The Alphabet in My Hands: a Writing Life by Marjorie Agosin.
Born Jewish in predominantly Roman Catholic Chile, Agosín spent her childhood aware of the 'always-present differences' that separated her-pale-skinned, blue-eyed and without a proper pedigree-almost equally from the societies of her privileged playmates and the indigenous women who cared for her. After the assassination of Salvador Allende Gossens, Agosín, then an adolescent, fled with her family, which settled in Georgia. She talks of going back after the dictatorship because she can not stay away. She has been a professor at Wellesley for years and a poet writing about her country of Chile.

54. Friendship Cake by Lynne Hinton. From Barnes & Noble
This novel tells the warm and tender story of women's friendships among the members of the cookbook committee of the Hope Springs Community Church -- women whose gatherings with their new lady preacher produce much more than just a selection of marvelous recipes. As this remarkable story unfolds, you'll meet Beatrice, the town busybody, who never dreamed how many people she'd upset with her kindnesses; Jesse, who knows that the first thing everyone notices about her is that she's the only African-American in an otherwise all-white congregation; Louise, who, after 40 years of loving another woman from a distance, finally gets her chance to show how much she cares; Margaret, who sometimes wishes she didn't always have to be the strong one; and Charlotte, who is struggling to find her way as pastor of her first church. Working together, these five women share hopes and losses, new beginnings, and a whole lot more. And, as they exchange recipes and confidences, life goes on in their small North Carolina town, nourishing souls and welcoming all comers with the secret of making real Friendship Cake, along with other timeless Southern treats.

55. Shooting Kabul by N. H.
In the summer of 2001, twelve year old Fadi’s parents make the difficult decision to illegally leave Afghanistan and move the family to the United States. When their underground transport arrives at the rendezvous point, chaos ensues, and Fadi is left dragging his younger sister Mariam through the crush of people. But Mariam accidentally lets go of his hand and becomes lost in the crowd, just as Fadi is snatched up into the truck. With Taliban soldiers closing in, the truck speeds away, leaving Mariam behind. Adjusting to life in the United States isn’t easy for Fadi’s family and as the events of September 11th unfold the prospects of locating Mariam in a war torn Afghanistan seem slim. When a photography competition with a grand prize trip to India is announced, Fadi sees his chance to return to Afghanistan and find his sister. But can one photo really bring Mariam home? Based in part on the Ms. Senzai’s husband’s own experience fleeing his home in Soviet controlled Afghanistan in the 1970s, Shooting Kabul is a powerful story of hope, love, and perseverance.

56. the Precious One by Marisa de Los Santos.
Two sisters struggle to please their smart, manipulative, and narcissistic father. For 17 years, Taisy Cleary (now 35), along with her mother and her brother, Marcus, have had minimal contact with her father, Wilson. When Wilson beckons after suffering a major heart attack, Taisy, who still yearns for his approval, requires little persuasion to come to his side. Sixteen-year-old Willow is Wilson’s other daughter (Wilson left Taisy’s family to be with Willow’s mother). Willow has been sheltered and controlled by her father her entire life—he forbade her from watching television or movies or reading books written later than the 19th century—but she’s jarred into the real world following his heart attack. To Taisy, Willow has always been the golden child—the one Wilson chose to love. To Willow, Taisy and Marcus are the seedy others, the “earlier ones.” The sisters’ shaky relationship is altered when Taisy learns of Willow’s inappropriate relationship with an older man. The slow fracturing of each sister’s perception of the other provides them a basis for supporting each other against their strong-willed father to find happiness.

56. 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis. Publishers Weekly
An historical novel that takes place after the Cuban revolution in the 1960s, three brothers are sent to Florida by their parents (through Operation Pedro Pan) where they must adapt to an uncertain and, at times, unfriendly new home. The main character, Julian, and his two older brothers find themselves in a rundown children's camp, where they are forced to endure the maltreatment of the belligerent, unchallenged bully, Caballo. Along with Julian, readers will learn about the complicated social and political climate of his home country, and as he plans a revolt against Caballo's abuses, Flores-Galbis alludes to similarities between the camp's dictator and those in power in Cuba. Julian further asserts his ingenuity and dogged determination by helping a fellow Cuban sail back to their native land to rescue 15 other refugees, proving himself a capable and worthy protagonist.

57. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. A book about the White House years in Theodore Roosevelts presidency that included starting the Panama Canal, mediating between Russia and Japan, building up the Navy, setting aside a lot of land for forests and national parks among other acts.

58. Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert. Kirkus Reviews
In the follow up to Eat, Pray, Love (2006), Gilbert examines her reluctant marriage to Felipe, the Brazilian businessman she met at the end of her post-divorce travels, and considers her doubts about the institution of marriage. Gilbert and her beau moved to the United States, promised never to get married and set about building a life together. Immigration law soon intervened, however, when Felipe was denied entry to the country. The only solution was marriage, and the memoir recounts how the couple was "sentenced to marry by the Homeland Security Department." Both Gilbert and Felipe, however, had deep reservations about matrimony-some philosophical, some personal.Gilbert and her fiance are forced to live cheaply traveling through Southeast Asia. the author sets out on a quest to interview people from different cultures regarding marriage. She also delves into contemporary research on matrimony, divorce and happiness.

59. The Guest Cottage by Nancy Thayer. Good summer read! Not too deep but like able characters. Trevor, raising his son Leo alone after his wife overdosed. Leo has issues. Sophie is being left by her husband, has 2 kids. Trevor and Sophie both end up renting a house on Nantucket. The book is about the dynamics of how they adapt, change and finally come together to make a new family.

60. The Road From Home: A Story of Courage, Survival, and Hope by David Kherdian.

ThIs book provides significant insight on the Armenian Genocide, World War One, and the small periods of time before and after said genocide that described what lead to the genocide, and what the outcome of the genocide was. Told from the first-person perspective of Veron Dumehjian, this book beautifully describes with exceptional detail of what life was like for Armenians (particularly this young girl who suffered in her childhood and adolescence) in Turkey in the early 1900's.. Veron Dumehjian, the main character of the book, happens to be Kherdian's mother. Kherdian listened to his mother's tale, taking in every little detail as he could. Veron has great loss throughout this book but continually has hope for better outcomes.

61. All the Single Ladies by Dorthea Benton Frank. Three middle aged women bond after the death of their friend. They all end up living together ion the beach with one of the ladies 99 year old grandma. They go through trials and tribulations before they all end up married.

62. Country by Danielle Steel. Typical Danielle Steel man meets woman, they fall in love, overcome problems. Why are we addicted to these?

63. The William Howard Taft Presidency by Lewis L. Gould. Really an abominable president, bumbled his way through. It's makes sense now why he's always high on lists of worst presidents. Maybe he should have kept Theodore Roosevelt closer as a mentor and friend.

64. My Organic Life: How a Pioneering Chef Helped Shape the Way We Eat Today by Nora Pouillon. A biography of Nora's life from her childhood in Austria to Washington D.C. where she had a restaurant that became the first restaurant in the U. S. to become organically certified. All the challenges she had at the time to find organic growers. She had to pay them to grow what she wanted.

65. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink. Had to read this for work. Didn't really fit the school setting. Interesting fact in a Gallup poll: Only 20% of American workers are engaged at work and we wonder why our students aren't engaged.

66. The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand. Two best friends both are having challenges in life on Nantucket. Madeline is having writers block and needing to meet a deadline, writes a book about her best friends affair. Grace, having an affair with the Gardner, doesn't realize her life is about to be turned upside down by her husbands arrest.

67. 300 Sandwiches: A Multilayered Love Story by Stephanie Smith. A NY Times writer made a sandwich for her boyfriend said after she made 299 more he would propose. This is part story, part recipe book. It also tells the story of their relationship. Yes, they did end up marrying.

68. The Fourth Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks. This is the fifth installment of a series about an ex-monk, ex-cop, now private detective. In this book he is investigating human trafficking case out of Bosnia. I've enjoyed this series.

69. Blueprints: A Novel by Barbara Delinsky. Caroline and Jamie McAfee are close. Not only do they enjoy their relationship as mother and daughter, they're in business together as the team that fronts the popular home renovation show Gut It! All is well with these two strong women, but when the network tells Caroline that Jamie is to replace her as host, Caroline feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world.
Jamie is unsettled by the cast change and devastated by her mother's anger, but she has little time to brood when a tragic accident leaves her two-year-old half-brother in her care. Accustomed to a life of order and precision, Jamie suddenly finds herself out of her depth, grappling with a toddler who misses his parents and a fiancé who doesn't want the child. Each works through this in their own way, by the end they both find love and work relationships and happiness

70. Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz Williams. Tiny was raised in the 60's groomed to marry a man of wealth and prestige. Just before her wedding she had doubts and fell in love with her finances cousin. She went through with her commitment to marry to marry Frank. In the middle of his run for Congress, his cousin returns from Nam as. War hero. Tiny begins to receive photos of herself that Caspian had taken before the wedding. She suspects Caspian is sending them, and she also suspects her husband is having an affair with his office staff Josephine. In looking in her husbands campaign managers apartment, Scott, and her husband show up and profess their love for each other. They make a deal that if she stays through the campaign he will give her freedom to be with Caspian.

71. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

72. Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank. A woman returns to her childhood home, with nothing to show for years as a wife. Her deceased husband left nothing and everything possessed. She carves out a life for herself with her Aunt who raised her and her sister. She truly does recreate her life as a playwright.

73. Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan.

74. Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Designers by Anna M. lewis.

75. Bo at Iditarod Creek byKirkpatrick Hill.

76. A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams.

77. Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg.

78. Silver Linings: A Rose Harbor Novel. By Debbie Macomber.

79. Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness by Sasha Martin.

80. A Peach of a Pair by Kim Boykin.

81. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart.

82. Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

83. Undercover: A Novel by Danielle Steel.

84. A Remarkable Kindness byDiana Bletter.

85. Walking on Water by Richard Paul Evans.

86. Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank.

87. White Dresses: A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters by Mary Pflum Peterson.

88. Angel Falls: A Novel by Kristin Hannah.

89. Come Rain or Come Shine: A Mitford Novel by Jan Karon.

90. See Me by Nicholas Sparks.

91. The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright.

92. Prodigal Son: A Novel by Danielle Steel.

93. The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas.

94. Candlelight Chistmas by Susan Wiggs.

94. An Island Christmas by Nancy Thayer.

95. Candlelight Christmas by Susan Wiggs.

96. The Mystics of Mile End by Sigal Samuel.

97. The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin.

98. Starry Night: A Christmas Novel by Debbie Macomber.

99. Christmas in Nevada by Patricia Cafferata

One more to go!!!!!

100. Winter Stroll by Elin Hilderbrand.

Made it with 2 weeks to spare! Time to tackle the 750+ page bio of Woodrow Wilson I have been putting off till I hit my 100 books.

101. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

102. The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank.

103 The Sparrow Sister by Ellen Herrick.

>128 swimmergirl1: Congratulations! :)

104. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz.