Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2022/What I've Read in 2022

#18 The End of Getting Lost by Robin Kirman


I've read a lot of thrillers. And this book was pretty poor in that respect. I hated the characters and there wasn't any suspense. I just didn't care. I had to force myself to finish it. I do NOT recommend this book..

#19 The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides


For a thriller, this one wasn't very impressive. Lots of red herrings and the twist wasn't overly exciting.

#20 Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

I've been getting into Star Trek: Voyager lately and thought it might be fun to read the 'captain's' biography. She has a very colorful life.

#21 What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster


The summary for this book was deceptive. Most of it didn't occur during the high school integration. The characters were flat. Some of them grew but the foundation wasn't laid out well.

#11 The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Buck the dog is stolen from his home and sold into service in Alaska at the height of the gold rush. There he lives and works with other dogs under the changing leadership of several mushers, all the while becoming more and more wild in spirit.

It's been forever and a day since I last read this one and found it pleasant to revisit the story. Buck is a likable dog and the story is rich with imagery that makes it simple to envision the wilderness Buck finds himself in. My daughters really enjoyed it too. And the best part is that it seems to have warmed my husband up to the idea of possibly one day getting a dog (I've been a dog owner before and would love to get one, he's never had one and has always been resistant to the idea). It won't be anytime soon, but here's to hoping!

#12 Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

10 year old Billy Coleman has a case of puppy love - the kind with wiggly bodies and wagging tails. But not just any kind of dogs - he wants two hunting dogs. Since his family is poor, he devises a way to earn money to buy his hounds and together the hunt all over their little section of the Ozark Mountains.

One of my favorite books, I just read this one a year or two ago and wasn't actually planning to reread it just yet. But my daughters actually begged me to read it once Call of the Wild was done and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to share it with them. As always, I blubbered and cried my way through the ending, only this time I had an audience to witness it. But that was okay, since they were crying just as much. (Hubby wasn't but he was less impressed with the book than the rest of us.) I just took the 1974 movie out from the library today and hopefully we'll watch it tomorrow or the next day. (The 1974 version is the only good one, I've seen the remakes and they just don't capture the book's spirit in the same way.)

#13 Tales From the Perilous Realm by JRR Tolkien

An assortment of short stories and poems that don't really intersect at all.

I found this one hit and miss. I loved the Roverandom story, for example, but found my attention straying during the poems. I do love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and a few of the poems felt familiar. I think they may have been included in some of the appendices in TLoTR.

#22 The Parodox Hotel by Rob Hart


I like scifi. I love time travel. This was an interesting premise but not compelling reading. Not sure if I was being lazy, but I had trouble following the details of the plot.

#23 One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle


This was a fun read. I didn't like some aspects of the main character but it was an interesting story.


#24 Dare Me by Meg Abbott


I'm officially done with this author. Some of her previous works have provided interesting insights into the worlds of competitive gymnastics and medical research. Otherwise, the characters are not likeable and treat each other horribly.

#25 Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty


I've read a lot of this writer's work and would not consider it her best one. But it was entertaining. There was enough mystery to engage my attention. And some decent character development.

#14 The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Under the floors and in the walls, a family of tiny little people live in secret, believing that us "human beans" exist solely to serve them via the things they "borrow" from us to make a living for themselves. But they must never be seen. Of course, that means that Arrietty is seen on her very first borrowing...

Cute enough story if not a little sad at the end. I've seen "The Secret Life of Arrietty" and the old "The Littles" TV show from back in the late 80s (I believe it was), so it was nice to see the source material for it.

#15 The Twits by Roald Dahl

Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the two foulest people you'd never want to meet. They are constantly cruel to one another until, at last, they get their comeuppance

My daughter wanted to read to Mom and Dad for a change. She found the book hilarious. We found it gross, tedious, and morbidly unfunny. But we're not 8 years old anymore.

#26 Version Zero by David Yoon


This was an intriguing concept but I never felt like the details were well fleshed out. Many Goodreads reviewers compare it to The Circle or Black Mirror but I felt those were better than this book.

#27 Femlandia by Christina Dalcher


This seemed like an interesting topic. But it didn't come together for me. The characters were flat and unlikeable. It was hard to relate to any of the characters because only extreme viewpoints were represented.

#16 The Indian In The Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

A magic cupboard/key can turn plastic people into real live flesh and blood people.

Read it to my daughters as one of our bedtime stories. They loved it.

#17 DogSong by Gary Paulsen

Inspired by the Eskimo shaman, Oogruk, Russel leaves civilization behind to run a dog sled team into the north.

I was less than impressed with this one. The adventure seemed too short lived and the tie in between Russel's dreams to reality was hokey at best.

#18 Bad Food: Game of Scones by Eric Luper and Joe Whale

Everything in the Belching Walrus Elementary School comes to life when no one is around. One day, the Main Office Supplies decide to take over the Cafeteria and it's up to the food to wage war against the invading tyrants.

My other daughter thought the book was hilarious, and since her sister read The Twits to us, she decided to read to Mom and Dad for a bedtime story. The book was mildly cute at times, but not something I would have read even as a kid.

Just got back from a trip. I broke my arm in a bike accident while on vacation so I'm typing one-handed.
[#28 The Center of Everything by Jaimie Harrison

Very descriptive with not much going on.


#29 Light Years from Home by Mike Chen

Aliens plus family dynamics? An interesting combo.

#30 Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger
Typical thriller

#31 The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub
Pretty transparent thriller. Think I'm done with that genre for a while.

#32 The Soulmate Equation by Christine Lauren

I'm embarrassed to include this silly romance but I'm having a tough time recovering from the surgery of getting pins put in my shoulder.

Hi Joan,

I hope your recovery goes more smoothly and swiftly now.

And don't feel embarrassed. If ever there is a time for "silly" reading, it is when one is convalescing. If the book helps to lighten your mood, then it has served its purpose and might even be helping you heal thereby.

Feel better soon,
Lynn

Thanks Lynn! I appreciate the encouragement.

Joan

#33 The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller



The ending of this book was ambiguous. With so much history provided, you'd think you'd have a deeper understanding of the characters, But that never happened, And by the end, I just didn't care.

#34 The Stranger im the Lifeboat by Mitch Allbom


Can't believe I haven't already read this one. Inspiring and thought provoking,. Just what I needed.

#35 The Other Black Woman by Zakiya Dalila Harris

[
Wish I read the Goodreads blurb first. I hoped this book would provide insights into barriers that minorities encounter in the publishing industry., And even focus on the fact that the two black women came from very different background, That would've been an interesting story. Instead the plot was just ridiculous.

#19 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad by Tigh Walker, Felix Ruiz

The ancient spirits are angry about the over mining of Big Thunder Mountain, and the mine owner's daughter teams up with some local "bandits" to make him see that he's putting people's lives in danger.

An okay read, but it felt forced and kinda disjointed for me. Still love the Disney Ride though.


#20 Enchanted Tiki Room by Horacio Domingues and Jon Adams

In the Enchanted Tiki Room, birds can talk and magic can bring all your desires to the surface.

A cute read but nothing special. A little hard to read due to writing in the various birds' various accents. The Disney attraction is way better.


#21 Sylvanas by Christie Golden

A telling of the life, death, and unlife of Sylvanas Windrunner - once the Ranger General of her elven people, killed by Arthas Menethil, raised from death as a banshee, and eventual Warchief of the Horde. It explores how she comes to strike an alliance with Zovaal and why she wants to help him break the cycle of life and death.

Well written in terms of nailing the character voices and I loved the insight into her early life. However, I'm not sympathetic to the character (I've played Horde-side in Warcraft since I started playing in 2006) - she is and will always be an absolute traitor to my people. And the book had some huge, glaring time jumps that I hated - they just felt so WRONG to leave out. I mean, the moment of Sylvanas' death at the hands of Arthas is kind of a huge deal, and we're just sort of stuck with her waking up dead at one point.