Lizamichelle1's 100 in 2015

Gonna try it again. 2014 was slow, didn't make it.

January

1. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey (01/01/15 - 02/09/15)
2. The Black History of the White House - Clarence Lusane (01/01/15 -
3. The Resurrection of Nat Turner Part 1: The Witnesses (AUDIO) - Sharon E. Foster (01/01/15 - 01/09/15)
4. Drifting - Katia D. Ulysse (01/01/15 - 01/14/15)
5. Archie's Weird Mysteries - Paul Castiglia (01/02/15)
6. One In A Million Audio - Kimberla Lawson Roby (01/09/15 - 01/19/15)
7. Sex In The Title - Zack Love (01/05/15 - 02/12/15)
8. The Husband List - Janet Evanovich (01/27/15 - 01/29/15)
9. The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff (- 01/26/15)

February
10. A Wanted Woman Audio - Eric Jerome Dickey (02/02/15 - 02/09/15)
11. Explosive Eighteen Audio - Janet Evanovich (02/12/15 - 02/14/15)
12. Notorious Nineteen Audio - Janet Evanovich (02/15/15 - 02/24/15)
13. Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor (02/12/15 - 02/25/15)
14. Takedown Twenty - Audio - Janet Evanovich (02/25/15 - 02/27/15)
15. Top Secret Twenty-one - Audio - Janet Evanovich (02/27/15- 03-02-15)
16. Smile - Raina Telgemeier

March

17. The Third Life of Grange Copeland - Alice Walker (02/26/15 - 03/10/15)
18. The 100 Best African American Poems - Nikki Giovanni (Editor) (02/26/15 - 03/17/15)
19. There's Always a Trail Audio - Louis L'Amour (03/08/15 - 03/09/15)
20. The Painter - Audio - Peter Heller (03/10/15 - 03/25/15)
21. Love Hotel: So Taboo Sex Stories Vol 1 - Amina Stein
22. Key of Light - Nora Roberts (03/11/15 - 03/25/15)
23. Ghost Ship - CD - Clive Cussler (03/17/15 -
24. Before We Kiss - Susan Mallery (03/25/15 - 03/30/15)
25. Big Girl Panties Audio - Stephanie Evanovich (03/26/15 - 04/06/15)

APRIL

26. Key of Knowledge - Nora Roberts (03/31/15 - 04/06/15)
27. Shopaholic to the Stars Audio - Sophie Kinsella (04/07/15 - 04/15/15)
28. Key of Valor - Nora Roberts (04/07/15 - 04/12/15)
29. Sisters - Raina Telgemeier (04/09/15)
30. Jubilee - Margaret Walker (04/14/15 - 04/29/15)
31. Becoming Generation Flux - Miles Anthony Smith (04/15/15 - 04/25/15)
32. Better Than I Know Myself Audio - DeBerry, Virginia (04/19/15 - 04/30/15)

MAY
33. The Walking Dead The Road To Woodbury Audio - Robert Kirkman (05/01/15 - 05/15/15)
34. The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone - by Fredrik Eklund (05/01/15 - 05/20/15)
35. The Face of Deception - Iris Johansen (05/06/15 - 05/17/15)
36. The All-Girl Filling Station Audio - Fannie Flagg (05/15/15- 05/18/15)
37. Stationary Bike Audio - Stephen King (05/14/15 - 05/15/15)
38. When We Met - Susan Mallery (05/18/15 - 05/29/15)
39. The Nightmare Thief Audio - Meg Gardiner (05/18/15 - 05/29/15)
40. MaddAddam Audio - Margaret Atwood (05/18/15 - 05/31/15)

JUNE
41. The Liar - Nora Roberts (05/30/15 - 06/15/15)
42. Blossom Street Brides - Debbie Macomber (06/01/15 - 06/12/15)
43. Almost Perfect - Susan Mallery (06/01/15 - 06/15/15)
44. Until We Touch - Susan Mallery (06/01/15 - 06/21/15)
45. The Ultimate Betrayal - Kimberla Lawson Roby (06/16/15 - 06/19/15)
46. Magic City - Jewell Parker Rhodes (06/22/15 - 6/28/15)
47. Beauty's Kingdom Audio - A.N. Roquelaure (06/22/15 - 07/11/15)

JULY
48. Chasing Perfect - Susan Mallery (6/29/15 - 07/06/15)
49. Vinegar Hill - A. Manette Ansay (6/29/15 - 07/05/15)
50. One Righteous Man - Arthur Browne (07/09/15 - 07/24/15)
51. Finding Perfect - Susan Mallery (07/01/15 - 07/18/15)
52. Summer Brides - Susan Wiggs / Susan Mallery (07/15/15 - 07/19/15)
53. Only Mine - Susan Mallery (07/19/15 - 07/22/15)
54. Christmas Letters - Debbie Macomber (07/20/15 - 08/04/15)
55. Only Yours - Susan Mallery (07/23/15 - 07/31/15)
56. Only His - Susan Mallery (07/27/15 - 08/05/15)
57. Ravished by a Highlander - Paula Quinn (07/23/15 - 08/06/15)

AUGUST
58. Interpreter of Maladies (08/05/15 - 08/12/15)
59. Left For Dead - Ebony Canion (08/05/15 - 08/10/15)
60. Yes Please Amy Poehler (08/08/15 - 08/21/15)
61. Ripper - Isabel Allende (08/12/15 - 08/22/15)
62. Nzingha - Patrica McKissack (08/20/15)
63. Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina - Rodman Philbrick (08/23/15 - 08/25/15)
64. Only Us - Susan Mallery (08/23/15 - 08/25/15)
65. The Xibalba Murders - Lyn Hamilton (08/25/15 - 08/29/15)
66. Quiet Audio - Susan Cain (08/25/15 - 09/11/15)
67. Beasts of No Nation -Uzodinma Iweala (08/31/15 - 09/01/15)


SEPTEMBER
68. Sky Burial - Xinran (09/01/15 - 09/04/15)
69. On The Come Up - Hannah Weyer (09/05/15 - 09/12/15)
70. Gorilla, My Love Toni Cade Bambara (09/16/15 - 09/30/15)
71. No One In The World - Audio - E. Lynn Harris / RM Johnson (09/19/15 - 09/27/15)

OCTOBER
72. Afterburn (10/01/15 -
73. Burned Retribution (10/03/15 - 10/07/15)
74. Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult (10/07/15 -
75.

The Good House ( -

Happy New Year and best of luck! :)

Happy reading in 2015!

Welcome back, and looks like you're off to a good start already. :)

Welcome !

Gotta get ahead while I can lol.

Drifting - Katia D. ulysse

So much triumph and heartbreak in one book. I did find it interesting that all of the characters came to America by way of New York. Wives and children reunite with their husband/father, except one who finds a new husband once she lands in NY.
In one story, a sibling meets an implied unfortunate ending.
In another story a girl falls into the job-for-right-now trap after she and her mother find themselves homeless.
A wife sells everything she owns to keep her husband alive.

Definitely a good read.

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

This took me a long time to read. Mainly because of the way it was written and I also didn't want to skim the book. I wanted to know every single thought he had.

Six weeks in rehab and he came out strong. He stopped fighting, he accepted help, found out why he had this Fury within him. Interestingly enough, it seems like it started when he was an infant, if you believe in all the psycho doctors.

It was worth the read. I hope he is still clean.

Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor

Onye is a child of rape known as an Ewu. They are born of lighter skin than their creators, with "freckles". They are thought to be ugly, evil or with bad intentions. They are expendable. Since they were not created out of love by a married couple of the same tribe, the mother (and child) are shunned and pushed out of their tribe. No one wanted a "disgraced person in their circle. But no one knew at the time how important this unborn child would be in the future.

Her mother was brutally raped and had planned to kill herself until she found that she was with child. She prayed to Ani to make her unborn daughter special, important, powerful. Onye became what her mother wanted.

After years living in the desert, mother and daughter settled in the village of Jwahri. The mother married a member of the village, a blacksmith, and they lived as normal a life as they could. People were still wary of Onye, as she was a cursed Ewu child. As she grew older, she experienced lots of magical things in her life that she tried to hide from others while trying to "normal". She even with through female circumcision at the Eleventh Rite with 3 other girls, who through their shared event, became best friends.

While having one of her magical moments, she met a Ewu boy, Mheti (I didnt' spell that correctly), whom she befriended and eventually became lovers/couple/married. They were linked together in several ways. Their Great Book foretold the story of their future. Onye was meant to change that story...by way of a battle with her rapist father.

Good Read

Smile - Raina Telgemeier

Cutest story a girl going through junior high and high school with a dental nightmare created by a freak accident. You would think you true friends would understand and "have your back". What kind of friends use you for their own entertainment purposes?!

It took all of middle school and a short while of high school for her to put on her big girl panties and drop her so called friends. She became a lot happier, even with all the dental appointments and brace adjustments. She even made new, better friends. People more like her.

High school wasn't so bad.

I bought this book for my 7 years old since she has the sequel, Sisters. I've have never been a fan of graphic novels/comics because it looked messy and the pictures took away from seeing what an author was writing. I enjoyed this book and I think I will read Sisters.

Oh, I just read Smile too! Glad you liked it as well. Miss Boo borrowed Drama from the library, we'll get Sisters at some stage, too...

I am reading Sisters to my daughter for bedtime. So I am getting it in. Eventually, I'll get Drama

Becoming Generation Flux

Very insightful. I even took notes.

The sad part about the job search game is that the interviewee has to "love" the company that they are interviewing for a job for. Research the company and come up with an interest you probably don't have in order to "wow" the interviewer.

To show what you can do for the company, other than fulfill the need that they wanted to fill. Tiring.

Vinegar Hill - A. Manette Ansay (6/29/15 - 07/05/15)

I think I am done with Oprah Book Club selections! Another depressing book that doesn't show me happy at the end. It hints at happy...but doesn't do it.

Ellen is in a unhappy marriage to James. Their family, which includes 2 children, are forced to move in with James' parents as he has lost his job and he refuses to try to live on his wife's income. It is just temporary, he says.

Well, he never received any love with his parents, and falls back into his place in the family. Basically treating the family he created like annoyances and not trying to move out. I guess in that time, and their religious background, the woman is to suck it up and understand that the man runs things.

Well towards the end, Ellen's divorcee friend/co-worker convinces her that she CAN survive without her husband and be happy. She applied and accepts a job in a nearby town for a higher salary and has decided she will leave her husband.

The End, essentially.

We don't get the satisfaction of James' response to the news Ellen has yet to give him. Does she even go through with it? With the flow of this book I demanded a closed ending!

Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina - Rodman Philbrick (08/23/15 - 08/25/15)

Definitely a book young people should read about a fictional account of the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The story of Zane may be fiction, but the events that occurred HAD to have happened to at least 1 person.

Zane and his dog, Bandit, were sent to New Orleans by his mom to meet his great-grandmother whom they had never known about. Just a few days into his visit, they start tracking Tropical Storm Katrina as it became a hurricane. They managed to evacuate by way of a church van just before it made landfall. But after Bandit jumps out of the van, Zane follows him because he refuses to leave his friend.

Zane chases this dog all the way back to his great-grandmothers house. Then the storm hit. Zane and bandit manage to get into the attic to a little window for air. They are rescued by a man and girl who heard Bandit barking out the window.

After the rescue, the 4 of them experience a lot: drug dealers - twice, security guards ready to kill to protect property, devastation. But also a little light: free food at a school, one helpful guard, and Belinda.

In the end, all is well with our group but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina still reminds you of how some people are treated.

Beasts of No Nation -Uzodinma Iweala (08/31/15 - 09/01/15)

Stories of child soldiers are always horrible. Some get out, most don't. If only they could come together for the right cause, all these renegade groups. Do they not realize that they are killing THEIR people?

I have nothing else to say about this book.

Sky Burial

Beautiful story of everlasting love. There are very few people left in the world that would never spend their life searching for spouse who died but there was no proof, no body. This woman spent over 30 years trying to find out where her husband was or how he died. That is love.

On The Come Up

This book was very interesting. The protagonist, AnnMarie, seems to have a pretty adult head on her shoulders for the most part. She still has a lot of growing up to do. At fourteen she becomes a mom, on purpose, but she knew what she was getting into and had her big girl panties on. Her mom, Blessed, seemed to come out of her funk knowing she was to be come a grandmother. The baby daddy was an abusive prick and I am glad AnnMarie saved herself.

Through the course of this book, AnnMarie had lots of positive things happen for her. She is also a person who WANTS to do and be better. She likes to sing and preform. She auditions for an Indie movie and gets the part. This experience takes her out of Far Rockaway and into the other boroughs of New York. She meets different people with real goals. She gets a on plane, for the first time, to Utah for the film festival and sees movie stars.

She eventually does a little modeling and by the end of the tale, she has a small role in a "real" movie and has moved in with her girlfriend.

It was great reading a book based in my hometown though some of the details were inaccurate, probably on purpose.