Jill Reads 26.2: 2011

So far this year, I've completed 6 books.

3 of these were Harlan Coben books in the Myron Bolitar series. I went threw them pretty fast, they are really good and even a little funny for murder mysteries. Coben has a new book coming out in the series this spring so I wanted to finish the series before then. They were very good. Promise Me was probably the best out of the 3. I highly recommend these series for anyone who needs a good beach-read or a fiction story.

Another book I read is The Copper Bracelet. It is the follow-up to The Chopan Manuscript. A series of authors got together to create both books. Jeffrey Deaver wrote the first chapter then passed it on to the next author who wrote another story. Then they continued to pass it on until Jeffrey Deaver got it back and finished the book at the end. It's a cool concept. Both books were pretty good. Not amazing, but still good. The cast of authors is pretty impressive so the books are worth reading.

So I didn't quite make it to my revised goal of 70 books this year...I did make it to 68 though! That's incredible. I'm quite proud. I just loved reading all these books this year and feel like I've learned a lot. My new goal in 2011 is 50 to 80. I know that's quite a range, but who knows what this year will look like. I plan on reading a ton this summer and now with my kindle I crush through books while working out on the elliptical. I plan on keeping that up.

Here is how 2010 ended.
I did not finish Middlemarch. (65% done)
I did not finish the NIV bible. (55% done)

Finished Forgotten God and loved it. I liked it better than Crazy Love and I felt it really changed my perspective on things. I think it's the type of book i would consider reading again. I also think it's the type of book that I want others to read with me and talk about it. It has a lot of substance to it and gave me a lot to think about.

Black Rednecks & White Liberals was also awesome. It's a collection of different essays topics about race. It was really good and Thomas Sowell is really well informed. It was a slow read, but worth it.

The Hour I First Believed was intense. So much going on. I can't say if it's good or bad. It was a challenging story, but like all Wally Lamb books it's a little depressing. I would recommend it to people who liked his other books and people who like that genre of books (Oprah book club books), but not anyone who reads non-fiction.

Generation Kill was interesting. I think it gives a clear picture of the Iraq war. Now I don't know this for certain and I know some of the reviews made it sound as if the author was biased, but I think it's accurate. It was neat how Evan Wright got to be right in the middle of all the action and you got to see what was happening through the eye's of the marines. So that's what made it interesting. To be honest it's 384 pages of similar things. Mortars, shooting, snipers, etc. But it was worth reading.

Faith Tango was a little cheesy and not what I wanted out of the book. I wanted it to teach me more about spiritual growth and it really just focused on marital issues. I wasn't trying to read a marriage book. I wanted something different. But the couple seems sincere and I appreciate their efforts.

Financial Peace was great. I've read it before and what really made it great was the class & the dvd series, not so much the book. I recommend the book, but only if you go through the DVD series.

I also read The Final Detail in 2010. That's #6 in the Myron Bolitar series. Funny, as usual and a quick read.

So far this year I've finished Darkest Fear, which was #7 in the Myron Bolitar series. Good stuff, as always.

I've also finished The Roots of Obama's Rage by Dinesh D'Souza. This was great. D'Souza & Michael Lewis are my favorite others of all time. The book was very informative and had a lot of supportive details. Definitely worth reading. It wasn't a biased Obama-bashing book, it was an objective, rational book that discussed Obama's history, childhood, and his presidency. Worth reading.