Hope's 20 in '20

Hope's 20 in '20 - Setting the Bar Low!

This is where I will outline and post my personal reading. I'm setting the bar low in 2020, since the past few years haven't been too productive.

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2017 Reading Pyramid - https://www.librarything.com/topic/244325

2018 Readings - https://www.librarything.com/topic/279502

2019 Readings - https://www.librarything.com/topic/300982

Hope's 20 in '20:

1. It was a Very Good Year - Ervin Drake / Kingston Trio / Cover by Frank Sinatra – Originally Published in 1958
2. The Truth – James and Monroe / Trent Willmon / Cover by Jason Aldean - Nonfiction
3. Here We Go Again – Lanier and Steagall / Ray Charles - Rereads
4. Remember When – Alan Jackson - Historical Fiction
5. Always on My Mind – Christopher, James, Carson / BJ Thomas / Cover by Willie Nelson - Literary Fiction
6. Poems, Prayers, and Promises – John Denver - Poetry
7. What's Love Got to Do with It? – Britten and Lyle – Tina Turner - Historical Romance
8. I’d Do Anything For Love – Steinman / Meat Loaf - Contemporary Romance
9. Jailhouse Rock – Leiber and Stoller / Elvis Presley- Mystery/Crime
10. Let Time Go Lightly – Steve Chapin / Harry Chapin - Picture Books
11. Home on the Range – Higley – Western
12. Forever Young – Bob Dylan– YA books
13. Where Have I Been All of My Life? - George Strait - Biography, Memoirs
14. Imagine - John Lennon – SF/Fantasy/Steampunk
15. Leather and Lace – Stevie Nicks and Don Henley – Erotica
16. Home – Daughtry – Iowa
17. Suspicious Minds - James / Cover by Elvis Presley– Psychological Suspense
18. To Make a Long Story Short – Ray Price - Short Stories
19. The Best of Times – Dennis DeYoung / Styx - Classics
20. What a Wonderful World – Thiele and Weiss / Louis Armstrong - Coffee Table Books

1. It was a Very Good Year - Ervin Drake / Kingston Trio / Cover by Frank Sinatra – Originally Published in 1958

2. The Truth – James and Monroe / Trent Willmon / Cover by Jason Aldean - Nonfiction

Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods by Caroline Taggart

3. Here We Go Again – Lanier and Steagall / Ray Charles - Rereads

4. Remember When – Alan Jackson - Historical Fiction

5. Always on My Mind – Christopher, James, Carson / BJ Thomas / Cover by Willie Nelson - Literary Fiction

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger - p. 340 - ★ ★ ★

Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola by Paulette Jiles - 108 p. - ★ ★ ★

The Growing Season by Jan Cox Speas - 255 p. - ★ ★ ★ ★

6. Poems, Prayers, and Promises – John Denver - Poetry

7. What's Love Got to Do with It? – Britten and Lyle – Tina Turner - Historical Romance

Daring and the Duke: Bareknuckle Bastards Book III by Sarah MacLean - 384 p. - ★ ★ ★

Venetia by Georgette Heyer - 332 p. - ★ ★ ★ ★

8. I’d Do Anything For Love – Steinman / Meat Loaf - Contemporary Romance

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang - ★ ★ ★ ★

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman - ★ ★ ★ 1/2

9. Jailhouse Rock – Leiber and Stoller / Elvis Presley- Mystery/Crime

The Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton - 258 pages - ★ ★ ★

Beating about the Bush by M.C. Beaton - 236 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★

Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney - 307 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★

10. Let Time Go Lightly – Steve Chapin / Harry Chapin - Picture Books

11. Home on the Range – Higley – Western

12. Forever Young – Bob Dylan– YA books

13. Where Have I Been All of My Life? - George Strait - Biography, Memoirs

14. Imagine - John Lennon – SF/Fantasy/Steampunk

15. Leather and Lace – Stevie Nicks and Don Henley – Erotica

16. Home – Daughtry – Iowa

Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf - 304 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★

17. Suspicious Minds - James / Cover by Elvis Presley– Psychological Suspense

18. To Make a Long Story Short – Ray Price - Short Stories

Agatha's First Case: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M.C. Beaton - 85 pages - ★ ★ ★
The Novella Collection by Katie McGarry - 263 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

19. The Best of Times – Dennis DeYoung / Styx - Classics

20. What a Wonderful World – Thiele and Weiss / Louis Armstrong - Coffee Table Books

I Really Needed This Today by Hoda Kotb - 378 p. - ★ ★ ★

Pick a Winner - Make a Friend

1. The Other Typist - Susan Rindell
✔ 2. The Growing Season - Jan Cox Speas
3. Feesters in the Lake and other stories - Bob Leman
4. When the Astors Owned New York - Justin Kaplan
5. Alice - Stacy Cordery
✔ 6. The Bride Test - Helen Hoang
7. Knots and Crosses - Ian Rakin
8. Genuine Fraud - E. Lockhart
9. You Let Me In - Lucy Clarke
✔ 10. Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola - Paulette Jiles
✔ 11. Venetia - Georgette Heyer

I've located all but two titles. I'm pretty sure those two are on my Kindle - just haven't fired it up in a while. And I had Genuine Fraud in my hand . . . put it somewhere . . . I have at least a month to find it.

Books by Rating

5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

4 ½ ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

The Novella Collection by Katie McGarry - 263 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

4 ★ ★ ★ ★
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang -
Beating about the Bush by M.C. Beaton - 236 pages
Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf - 304 pages
Venetia by Georgette Heyer - 332 p.
Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney - 307 pages
The Growing Season by Jan Cox Speas - 255 p. - ★ ★ ★ ★

3 ½ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman - 352 pages

3 ★ ★ ★
When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger - p. 340
I Really Needed This Today by Hoda Kotb - 378 p.
The Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton - 258 pages
Agatha's First Case: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M.C. Beaton - 85 pages
Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola by Paulette Jiles - 108 p. - ★ ★ ★
Daring and the Duke: Bareknuckle Bastards Book III by Sarah MacLean - 384 p. - ★ ★ ★

2 1/2 ★ ★ 1/2
Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods by Caroline Taggart

2 ★ ★

1 ★

Did Not Finish

Add to the TBR

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Insight by Tasha Eurich
Missoula by Krakauer
The Child by Fiona Burton
Gone without a trace by Mary Torjussen
A Life Intercepted by Charles Martin
Deadliest Sea by Thompson
Abandon All Hope by Schiller
Losing It by Carmack
Terms of Surrender by Janet Dailey
Killer of the Flower Moon
Sisterhood Everlasting - Anne Brashares
Finding Rebecca
Dennis LeHane - title?
What the dead leave behind
Then she was gine by Lisa Jewell
A Prayer Before Dawn by Billy Moore
Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart by Scott Eyman.
*Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman
The Dutch Wife by Ellen Keith
The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
The Great Typo Hunt / Jeff Deck, Benjamin D. Henson
*Mary Oliver poems
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
The Five Families by Raab
To sleep with ? By Cowan
Summer Hours at the Robbers Library - Halpern
The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark by Meryl Gordon
Lies of the Heart - Michelle Boyajian
Inside the O'Briens - Lisa Genova
In a Dark, Dark Wood - Ruth Ware
To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fire - David Cowan, John Kuenster
The Downstairs Girl by Lee
*Furious Hours (Harper Lee and the trial inspiring TKM)
Simply Dead by Kuhns
The Murmer of Bees
John Grisham
Edgar Sawtell
Words of Silk by Sandra Brown
Border Bride by Arnette Lamb
Waiting for Deliverance
Fortune is a Woman - Adler
The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo
Song for the Missing - Stewart O'Nan
Women Talking - Toews
The Winter Men - Kold
*A Killer's Mind - Mike Omer
A Prayer for Travelers
Drive your plow over the bones
She's leaving home
Playing House - Lang
Dead Zone - Stephen King
Highway of Tears - Macdarmuid?
28 1/2 Wishes (Rec by Janene)
The Flying Circus (Rec by Donna)
The Gown by Robson
The Roanoke Girls - Amy Engle
The Ruthless – David Putnam
Love and Other Consolation Prizes - Jamie Ford
The Night Swim - Megan Goldin
The Woman Outside My Door / Rachel Ryan
Every Secret Thing Laura Lippman

Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods by Caroline Taggart
★ ★ 1/2

One of my Shelfari friends sent this to me years ago (sorry - don't remember who!) I found it when I was cleaning out the front hallway closet where all (all?? Ha! Some . . . ) of my TBR books lived.

I thought it would be funnier than it was. Most of it was pretty dry.

>27 Hope_H: LOL! Considering the title, that may have been a good thing:)

>28 Carol420: Yep, dry poop one could just about deal with, ☺️

>28 Carol420: >29 Sergeirocks: You two make me laugh! I really hadn't thought that!

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger
340 pages - ★ ★ ★

The third title in Weisberger's Devil Wears Prada series, this one focuses on Emily Charlton, now an image consultant in LA who is losing business to a new start-up. She goes to the Connecticut suburbs to see her friend Miriam, who left her high-powered law firm to stay home with her kids. Reaching out to both Miriam and Emily is Karolina, a supermodel wife of a politician. He's had Karolina arrested for a DUI so he can leave her and make her look like the evil one. None of these three is cut out for life in Greenwich - especially Emily.

Not a bad story at all. A bit predictable. The best part - seeing Miranda Priestly again!

Hello Hope! I have always enjoyed your references to songs as they relate to books. Glad you are keeping up your tradition, and luck to you for achieving your reading goals this year.

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang - ★ ★ ★ ★

A sequel to The Kiss Quotient, this is Khai's story. Khai, who is autistic, suffered a loss ten years ago and believes he can't feel emotion. His mother goes to Viet Nam to find him a bride and returns with Esme, a girl from the country who works hard and wants a better life for herself and her daughter. She would also like to find her American father. Esme is given the summer to get to know Khai, but things don't turn out as she expected.

I liked this one - not as much as the first book, but enough that I already preordered the third one. I was really leaning toward a 3 1/2 star rating, but the author's note made me bump it up.

I Really Needed This Today by Hoda Kotb - 378 p. - ★ ★ ★

Hmmm - I really wanted to love this, but no.

It is basically a quote for every day of the year, plus a little commentary by Hoda. Her voice comes through very clear, but the quotes are pretty superficial and so is the commentary. This might have been better if it were my own copy and I read one quote on the day I was supposed to. Instead, this was the library copy and I read it in four sittings.

It worked for my book club's read a book with a flower on the cover, though, so not a total loss.

The Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton - 258 pages - ★ ★ ★

This one really made me question why I still read this series. (OK - there's only one more to go and then I'll be done with the series.)

Agatha Raisin goes to the village of Thirk Magna, renowned for their church's bell ringers. One of the bell ringers winds up dead, as does a reporter working the news. And Agatha suspects that both the bishop and the dean are hiding things.

Huge cast of characters, not much of a mystery, and a lot of Agatha pining over a man.

Beating about the Bush by M.C. Beaton
236 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★

A redeeming entry in the series! Agatha Raisin is hired to look into a case of industrial espionage. Add in a murdered secretary, a vindictive donkey, and a few other personalities - you've got a good mystery!

I liked this one. Agatha was toned down a bit, and her quest for a husband was also toned down. Maybe not a 4-star read, but better than the usual 3 or 3 1/2.

Agatha's First Case: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M.C. Beaton
85 pages - ★ ★ ★

A short story looking back at Agatha Raisin's entry into the world of public relations and police investigations. The most interesting bit: meeting 15-year-old Roy Silver.

Sitting in the Club Car Drinking Rum and Karma-Kola by Paulette Jiles
108 p. - ★ ★ ★

Our Heroine (never named) is on the lam, having charged over $50,000 on fraudulently acquired credit cards. She slips from Seattle to Vancouver and boards a train, having reserved one of the four rooms in the club car. Our Hero (also never named) gets on the train in China Bar. He is a skip-tracer and figures out right away that she is his target. He did not expect to fall for her, nor she for him.

I really wanted to love this book. I love the title. I love the short format - sometimes one paragraph per "chapter." I didn't love the book. I thought it was weird. I had a hard time figuring out when it took place, and I don't like books when I can't figure that out. Too much implied and not much happening, so only a three star read for me.

Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf
304 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★

On a sweltering day in Cedar City, Iowa, social worker Ellen Moore and her family wake up late. Husband Adam says he will take the two older children with him and Ellen should drop baby Avery off at the daycare. Rushing to get to work on time, Ellen gets a phone call from one the endangered children in her caseload. She goes to the child's house . . . forgetting Avery in the back seat. We also meet 10-year-old Jenny Briard, who had boarded a bus ahead of her struggling father so they can start over again in Cedar City, Iowa. Her father is detained by some thugs he owes money to and then by the police, and the bus pulls out without him. Once in Cedar City, Jenny finds refuge with kindhearted waitress Maudene. Jenny wants to avoid social workers and foster care, but winds up on the devastated Ellen's radar.

Gudenkauf tackles a few difficult topics in this one - children left in hot cars and child abuse - without being too heavy-handed. She's researched her topics well, and we see how easily mistakes affecting children happen. I don't find Ellen especially likable, but I didn't dislike her, either - just a little sanctimonious. Maudene was the one who really stole my heart, as did Jenny, Connie, and Jade. The end of Ellen's story wrapped up a little too neatly, which kept it from being a five star read.

I like Gudenkauf's works, BUT - I really wish she would just call her cities by their correct names. Cedar City is the "second largest city in Iowa," which is really Cedar Rapids, although her descriptions of Cedar City and the hospital sound a little more like Iowa City. I spent a good percentage of the book trying to figure out what city she's really referring to. This probably won't bother most of her readers - more likely only bothers Eastern Iowa residents and more specifically only me!

Daring and the Duke: Bareknuckle Bastards Book III by Sarah MacLean
384 p. - ★ ★ ★

The third book in the Bareknuckle Bastards series tells the story of Grace and Ewan. When they were young teens, Grace and step-brothers Whit and Devon ran away from the Duke of Marwick's estate after Ewan appeared to attack them in his bid to be the next duke. Grace had always loved Ewan and this attack felt like a betrayal. Twenty years later, Ewan tried to find Grace and comes up with a plot to redeem himself and win Grace again.

Hmm - I usually like MacLean, but this one . . . not so much. If her editor had trimmed all of the waffling, the book would only be 200 pages long instead of almost 400. Ewan had a lot to explain, but rather than do that, he almost destroys Grace's business and her followers in Covent Garden. For people who claim to value honesty, they need to show it. I know MacLean says she did her research, but I think she took a lot of liberties with it.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
352 pages - ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Nina is blessed with an excellent memory and a love of reading and books. She's also been blessed (?) with a mother who was absent for large chunks of her childhood and a father who she never met. She was reared by a nanny, and, being the quirky child she was, found refuge in reading. Now, almost 30, she works in a book store, is in several book clubs, and participates in trivia nights at area watering holes. Her orderly, bookish life is thrown for a few huge loops when she is visited by a lawyer representing her late father and when she falls for a member of a competing trivia team.

Cute story - nothing too deep. Nina's friends and family were well-written. Nina's character waffled between anxious puddle and vibrant, take-charge, so a little inconsistent.

The Novella Collection by Katie McGarry
263 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Several novellas and short stories designed to either give readers a character's back story or further their story where McGarry's novels left off. I enjoyed this, although I was really hoping a few of the characters would get their own novel instead of a novella.

Venetia by Georgette Heyer
332 p. - ★ ★ ★ ★

Venetia's mother died when she was small, and her father closed off from his children emotionally and almost physically. Venetia rears her younger brother Aubrey, a brash, bookish boy. After her father's death, Venetia manages their lands. Two things upset her calm existence. The first - Aubrey suffers a riding accident and is taken to a neighbor's home. The neighbor is the rake Lord Damerel, whom she gets to know very well during Aubrey's recuperation. The second - Older brother Conway sends his young wife and her overbearing mother to stay at Undershaw.

I enjoyed this book once I got about a third to halfway into it. I thought it started slowly. I did like the characters of Venetia, Damerel, Aubrey, and the supporting cast of servants.

I think I would have liked this better if my edition had had a different cover. The drawing room scene on the cover with the fop and the maiden is far too prissy for the characterizations. I don't usually let the covers bother me - but this one did!

Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney
307 pages - ★ ★ ★ ★

Caroline Cooney, prolific author of YA mysteries, turns her focus to adult suspense. Alternating between Clemmie Lakefield's life as a 1950's teen and her life now as Helen Stephens, we learn how difficult it is to live under an assumed identity.

Helen Stephens lives in Sun City, South Carolina, where she is a semi-retired Latin teacher. She fills her days playing cards at the club. When her neighbor Dom doesn't answer her texts checking on him, she gets drawn into a mystery of missing drugs, missing money, and a stolen marijuana oil rig. Her old identity of Clemmie Lakefield is in danger of resurfacing, and Helen will do almost anything to keep it hidden.

A very good mystery, but I NEVER want to live the "Sun City" life!

The Growing Season by Jan Cox Speas
255 p. - ★ ★ ★ ★

This is far different from Speas' other books - historical romances. This was written in 1963, and was considered realistic fiction. Jody lives in a working class neighborhood with her mother, stepfather, stepbrother, and two younger half-siblings. Jody is quiet and thoughtful, while Marv, her stepbrother is sneaky and dishonest. Marv scares Jody, and on a night Marv has invited Tay Brennan into their small house, Jody decides to run away. Shortly after leaving home, Jody finds an injured Tay, who is also hiding from the police.

Interesting characters in Tay, Bob McGee, Mrs. Hackett, and Eddie and Belle. Also interesting - how domestic violence and institutional racism were viewed. They weren't supported, but were noted very matter-of-factly.