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

#1 Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto


This got a little silly but it was fun.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone is reading this year!

#1 Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

(Technically we started in 2021, but we didn't finish until 2022, the only drawback of these awesome books being the kids' bedtime read alouds.)

Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Piper, and Jason meet in New Rome after their separate adventures in the previous two books. And it looks like their groups - Greek and Roman (who usually don't get along) - are getting along in the Roman camp just fine. Until an unplanned and unwanted (but very much forced) attack happens. Percy and his new/old friends flee the camp and head to "the ancient lands" (the real Rome) to look for an artifact that might just bring peace to their warring camps. Because, as the Prophecy of Seven states, both Greeks and Romans will need to fight side by side in order to vanish Gaea and her minions to save the entire world. But only Annabeth, daughter of Athena, can follow the mark which will lead her on a separate quest to find the sacred object. A quest that will lead her straight into the lair of her mother's oldest enemy.

I am totally loving these books. Yes, they're for young adults, but Rick Riordan is so masterful in his craft that he is keeping both my husband and I entertained just as much as our 8-year-old daughters. And while the "old enemy" was not in the least bit surprising for a mythology junkie like myself, the interaction between "her Ladyship" and Annabeth was engaging and well done. And the cliff hanger ending had all four of us scrambling to start the next book!

Deadly Chakram, my daughter loves the Percy Jackson books and still reads them.

My best friend teaches in a boy's high school and they all say the Percy Jackson books are their favorite books they've ever read.

She didn't like the second series as well but still found them enjoyable. Have you read those?

#2 The Husbands by Chandler Baker


I liked The Stepford Wives so I thought this could be a fun concept. The writer did a nice job capturing the frustrations of working women with balancing work, home and child care. However, the solution didn't seem very good. It was pretty obvious what was going on too.

The second series is what we're currently in. Book 4. And I agree that the originals are better. We also have the Trials of Apollo series and the Red Pyramid series standing by for the future.

#3 The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi


This is the second book in this series. This one was okay but the first one was more interesting.

#4 The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah



I was excited to read this book. I've read so many WW2 books for book club, I was looking forward to a book that focused on a different situation. I've liked this writer's earlier works which are more chick-lit (stories about friendships and relationships). This author has tried to tackle more weighty subject matters with a few books. I don't think she's there yet.

1) At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange tells the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor from both the American and Japanese sides.

2) Flags of Our Fathers by James D. Bradley and Ron Powers the image of six US Marines raising the flag in Mount Suribachi on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima is perhaps the most famous photograph of the Pacific War. What is not clear is how that moment in history would change the lives of the men in the iconic image. Not all the men in the photo would survive the fighting, but for those lucky enough to return home the experience of those weeks would forever change their lives.

3) The Rommel Papers by Erwin Rommel edited by B. H. Liddell Hart I have been wanting to read this since I read Rommel’s preceding ‘Infantry Attacks’ which detailed his experiences on the Western Front during WWI. Fascinating look into the mind of the legendary Desert Fox as he recounts his experiences. Of course Rommel would not see the end of WWII due to his infamous suicide, but the aftermath of this is provided by the recollections of his son Manfred.

4) Hellfire: The Story of Australia, Japan and the Prisoners of War by Cameron Forbes like with the topic of genocide, I tend to avoid reading up on the experiences of POWs who were captured by the Japanese as it is quite upsetting for me. This though was very absorbing and I didn’t want to put it down. The experiences that these POWs experienced shouldn’t ever be forgotten. It also touches on the debate that Japan has never formally apologised for the atrocities committed and how the remaining few who still survive struggle with the consequences of that

#5 Miseducated by Brandon Fleming


I'm always interested in stories where people manage to overcome challenging circumstances. This man dealt with a lot as a child. Parts of this book were difficult to read. But it was inspiring to see all that he achieved and what helped him to get there.

#2 The Heroes of Olympus - The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

After leaving us with a cliff hanger ending in the last book, we pick up right where we left off. Percy and Annabeth plunge into Tartarus while their friends aboard the Argo II race to meet them at the Doors of Death. The only problem is, to close the doors to prevent more monsters returning to the world from the underworld, the doors must be closed by someone on BOTH sides - the real world and Tartarus.

We get to meet some fun new characters in this one, and revisit some older ones that we didn't get to spend as much time within the original series. The descriptions of Tartarus were pretty awesome. We also find out that one character is gay, to which my 8-year-olds' only comment (pretty much said together) was "I did NOT see that coming!" because kids are awesome. (I have to admit, I saw it coming as soon as he was uncomfortable with the idea of needing to seek out Cupid for advice/help.

Overall, we've all really been enjoying the series and are devouring the next book at the rate of at least 2 chapters a night before we absolutely need to put the kids to bed.

5) Casino Royale by Ian Fleming the debut of James Bond as he embarks on his first assignment since reaching his 00 status. I had read this years ago, but ended up drawn back to rereading it after watching Daniel Craig’s final movie in the role of the iconic super spy. Not my usual read, but I enjoy these for a break from the usually serious books I tend to read.

6) War Diaries of ‘Weary’ Dunlop: Java and the Burma-Thai Railway 1942-1945 by E. E. Dunlop have always wanted to find out more about the Thai-Burma Railway since watching ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ of course that was a movie and the reality of life as a POW was much more brutal. Sir Ernest Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop was an Australian surgeon who was captured by the Japanese during WWII and his published diaries provide unique insight into life inside one of these camps under the brutality of his Japanese captors.

7) Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy this was the book on the Cuban Missile Crisis that I had been waiting on. Most of what I have has been told from the American perspective, but this delivers new insight into just how close the world came to WWIII as the standoff over Soviet missile installations on Cuba. With recently available KGB records this provides the story of the crisis from the Soviet side as well as the political fallout for Khrushchev

#6 Rules of Civility by Amor Towles


This author did a nice job capturing the feel of this time period. As to the characters, I'm still thinking about them. Not sure about their motivations.

#7 The Year of the End by Anne Theroux


I thought this book was about a woman, looking back at a time of her life via her diary, to try to better understand a very painful experience. The diary entries were trivial - Went to the store. The emotional reflection just wasn't there. Her husband was a famous writer who had many affairs. Then he got mad when she had one. I didn't care about what happened to either of them.

#8 The MIdnight LIbrary by Matt Haig


Love the concept of this book and the universal truths this author explored.

Joan,

Your description of The Midnight Library reminds me of a book I read decades ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time, but I can't vouch for what my opinion of it would be now. Have you ever read Marvin Kaye's, "The Incredible Umbrella"? At the time, it was a standalone book, but (as I found out just now), it is apparently the first what is now a four-part series. I don't want to say too much about it lest I spoil it. I ill say that is solves the mystery mentioned by John Watson (via A. C. Doyle) about the disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore, who stepped back into his house to get his umbrella and was never seen again. I'll just say that that umbrella functioned somewhat similarly to the books in The Midnight Library.

Hmmm... It looks like I now have five new books to add to my "to (re-)read" list. Thanks for the tip.

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., Apparently, "The Midnight Library" is a popular book. I just placed a library hold on the e-book. The library has 14 e-copies, but I am #358 on the waitlist. The estimated wait time is half a year! But even so, I had better luck with it than I had had with The Incredible Umbrella; that book isn't even available electronically -- not even on Amazon.

Lynn, I'm adding "The Incredible Umbrella" to my reading list. Thanks for the suggestion! I love this theme.

Joan

You're very welcome, Joan.

I've always been a softie for anything that even hints, however tangentially, at breaking the fourth wall -- even if, as in these cases, it is a fourth wall once removed, so to speak.

Oh, I just thought of another book series that you might like. The first book in the series is The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde. (No, there is no typo in the author's last name.) This is another book that I haven't read in a while, but I recall it be a humorous playing with literature.