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Schultz's Reading Log 2018


BSchultz19

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The last time I had a reading log on this page was in 2015 :o. A lot has happened since then, but one of my goals for this year is to get back on track with reading outside of my studies. So that's why I decided to come back here to help track and stay motivated with my reading in 2018. I'm not exactly sure how I want to set up my reading log just yet, so I'm going to leave some empty posts just in case I want to expand into a few different areas. 

 

I'm excited to be back! 

 

Books Read in 2018: 

Calico Joe - John Grisham

The Rainmaker - John Grisham 

Mercy - Jodi Picoult 

Coyote Blue Motel - Dianne Harman 

Handle with Care - Jodi Picoult

Two by Two - Nicholas Sparks

Coyote in Provence - Dianne Harman

Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult

Why not Me? - Mindy Kahling

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult

Promise Me, Dad - Joe Biden

Edited by BSchultz19
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Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge:

In parentheses I've put the books that I know for sure or think I will read to fulfill the challenges. Naturally there are some that I haven't decided yet, but I thought it would be easier to track if I already had a good idea for quite a few of the challenges :D

 

  • A book made into a movie you've already seen (The Martian by Andy Weir) 
  • True crime
  • The next book in a series you started (Coyote in Provence by Dianne Harman)
  • A book involving a heist
  • Nordic noir (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson)
  • A novel based on a real person (Burr by Gore Fidal)
  • A book set in a country that fascinates you 
  • A book with a time of day in the title 
  • A book about a villain or antihero (American Psycho by Bret Ellis)
  • A book about death or grief (Promise Me, Dad by Joe Biden)
  • A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym (The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith)
  • A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
  • A book that is also a stage play or musical 
  • A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you 
  • A book about feminism (Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay)
  • A book about mental health
  • A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift (Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks)
  • A book by two authors
  • A book about or involving a sport (Calico Joe by John Grisham) 
  • A book by a local author
  • A book with your favorite color in the title (A Different Blue by Amy Harmon)
  • A book with alliteration in the title (Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn)
  • A book about time travel (Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman)
  • A book with a weather element in the title (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón)
  • A book set at sea
  • A book with an animal in the title (A Dog's Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron)
  • A book set on a different planet
  • A book with song lyrics in the title 
  • A book about or set on Halloween 
  • A book with characters who are twins
  • A book mentioned in another book 
  • A book from a celebrity book club
  • A childhood classic you've never read
  • A book that's published in 2018
  • A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner (Why not Me? By Mindy Kaling)
  • A book set in the decade you were born (The Runaway Jury by John Grisham)
  • A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn't get to 
  • A book with an ugly cover
  • A book that involves a bookstore or library 
  • A bestseller from the year you graduated high school (The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins) 
  • A cyberpunk book
  • A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place
  • A book tied to your ancestry 
  • A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title
  • An allegory 
  • A book by an author with the same first or last name as you (Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit) 
  • A microhistory (Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson)
  • A book about a problem facing society today (Change we Can Believe in: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise by Barack Obama)
Edited by BSchultz19
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Life Update:

When I left the forum a couple years back I had just graduated high school and was preparing to go to college. I was totally unprepared for what that meant, lol. I'm studying Chemical Engineering, which is pretty much just as hard as it sounds. Over the past two and a half years my studies have basically consumed my life, but I want to try to squeeze more reading in to keep myself well-rounded and also to just relax. 

 

Some short reviews of the books I've already read this year:

 

Calico Joe

I can't say that I recommend this book to anyone unless they already like, or even love, the sport of baseball. The entire story revolves around the lives of two ex baseball players, and it's told with such accuracy in terms of the game that I had to google to see if it was a true story (it was not). The storytelling is good and I enjoyed it, but once again, it's not really for anyone that isn't a fan of baseball already. 

 

The Rainmaker

I read this because I was still trying to get myself kickstarted with reading and Grisham's novels are a good way to do that for me. However, I ran into quite a problem with this book. Normally I blaze through Grisham books because they are often fast-paced and don't require a high level of thought. This one was not so fast-paced, and I think it turned me off from Grisham for awhile. It was on okay book overall, but I think there were too many wayward plot twists that made it seem like a ridiculous story. 

 

Moving on with reading in 2018, I'm unsure about what I want to read next. I definitely have an affinity for courtroom drama, but I want to move away from Grisham. I have found some good possibilities on Goodreads, but feel free to add a suggestion here if you have one. :D

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I hope it's okay to post in this thread? It's so nice to see you BSchultz! How've you been?! Good luck with the studies! I've studied Chemistry, and my brother and father has/have studied Engineering. So you're kind of studying a combination of it all XD. Good luck :)!

 

I wish you a great year in 2018 and happy reading :readingtwo:! I'll be following your thread :).

 

 

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4 hours ago, Athena said:

I hope it's okay to post in this thread? It's so nice to see you BSchultz! How've you been?! Good luck with the studies! I've studied Chemistry, and my brother and father has/have studied Engineering. So you're kind of studying a combination of it all XD. Good luck :)!

 

I wish you a great year in 2018 and happy reading :readingtwo:! I'll be following your thread :).

 

 

 

Certainly okay to post :) I have been doing well and slowly adjusting to more adult-like life. I think that I've finally found a happy medium where everything in my life is well-balanced. 

 

My reading will likely be very sporadic and come in bursts, but I think that even with those bursts I should be able to accomplish quite a bit of reading this year :) 

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:readingtwo:  Mercy by Jodi Picoult :readingtwo:

 

General summary: The MacDonalds were a clan in Scotland before they travelled as a group to Massachusetts. What was the clan leader passed down from generation to generation is now the police chief of the small town the clan resides in. Jamie MacDonald returns to the town after killing his terminally ill wife seeking the help of his cousin, the police chief. The book follows the trial of Jamie MacDonald as well as the twisted lives of Allie and Cameron MacDonald. In the end, it's up to a jury to decide whether Jamie should be sent to jail for his crime or whether he acted simply out of love and should be set free. 

 

My thoughts: First and foremost, this was a quick read. There wasn't nonstop action as in a thriller, but Picoult managed to keep the action moving throughout the book. Despite the lack of thrilling action, there was constantly questions to be answered about how the rest of the story would unfold. At times I caught myself thinking I knew what would happen only to be hit with a sense of uncertainty. Perhaps this was just a personal experience and others would find it utterly predictable. Regardless, I enjoyed reading it. The book is centered around the concept of mercy killing, which was certainly a thought-provoking concept. However, I found the way the story approached relationships to be the heart of the novel. There are several relationships in the book and each has a different way of showing how much and in what way one person can love another. I think Picoult's approach to this and ability to describe these different kinds of love was impressive. If you're already a fan of Picoult, I highly recommend this book. If you're not, it may be hit or miss but I found it to have a solid plot that never appeared overly cheesy or predictable. 

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:readingtwo: Coyote Blue Motel by Dianne Harman:readingtwo:

 

General Summary: The majority of the book follows a seemingly dissimilar set of people as each of them encounters an isolated motel in the middle of the desert. Each faced hardships in their life before they arrived at the motel and left suddenly feeling better. Despite coming from different cities scattered throughout the American west, these people are all tied together by their experiences at the Coyote Blue Motel. 

 

My thoughts: Boy this book was slow to begin with. I seriously considered putting it down and starting something else multiple times, but I decided to stick through because I had heard such good things about the third book in the series. With that said, it's very obvious that this was always intended to be the first book in a series. The first part moves slowly because it's a ton of exposition that introduces us to a relatively large group of main characters. By the end of the book I understood why so much background was needed for so many different characters, but that doesn't change that it was tough to move past in the moment. Another factor in the book moving so slowly was that this author isn't a fan of using a lot of dialogue. I adjusted to her style relatively quickly, but it was interesting to see a novel with so many characters have so little dialogue. I went into the book expecting a lot of suspense, which could be another reason I was disappointed with the way it began, and it certainly delivered once I reached the last hundred pages or so. Overall I would recommend this book, but it certainly hasn't been one of my favorites. I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy and hopefully being more pleased with those. 

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5 hours ago, Athena said:

Great reviews! Mercy is actually one of the (relatively few) Jodi Picoult books I haven't read yet, so I'm glad you liked it :).

 

There were some very unforgiving reviews on Goodreads that I thankfully only saw after finishing the book. They all had merit in why the book upset them, but I didn't have the same experience. I hope you enjoy it if/when you get to reading it because it seems that people either love it or hate it.

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16 hours ago, BSchultz19 said:

There were some very unforgiving reviews on Goodreads that I thankfully only saw after finishing the book. They all had merit in why the book upset them, but I didn't have the same experience. I hope you enjoy it if/when you get to reading it because it seems that people either love it or hate it.

 

Thanks :)!

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:readingtwo: Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult :readingtwo:

 

Brief summary: The book follows the story of the O'Keefe family, who have a daughter born with a rare bone condition called osteogenesis imperfecta that causes brittle bones due to a lack of collagen. The plot begins when that child, Willow, is five years old. She's brilliant for her age because of the extended amounts of time she spends confined to the couch where she loves to read and learn random bits of trivia. Willow has a sister, Amelia, who does not have the disease and is 12 at the start of the book, just entering the horrible stages of puberty. The story follows the O'Keefe family through a lawsuit regarding the diagnosis of Willow's disease that does its best to tear the family apart. 

 

My thoughts: This book tackles a lot. The center of the plot is around a wrongful birth suit regarding the time when Willow was diagnosed with OI, but there are so many other issues that Picoult delicately dives into. From divorce to bulimia and cutting to friendship, she covers it all in an impressive way. Particularly I liked how different chapters were narrated by different characters. This isn't an uncommon style for Picoult, or any author for that matter, but I think it's used to perfection in this story. She perfectly conveys the way that one simple event or circumstance can be viewed so differently by each of the people involved. It shows that there is no real black and white or basic idea of right or wrong. Often our ideas of right and wrong are shaped by our biases.

 

The one complaint I could have, however, is that this style was confusing at times. Not only was each chapter told from a different character's perspective but it was also written as if the characters were telling the story to Willow. This got confusing when the narrater used "you" to refer to willow and used "you" soon after or before in dialogue because it occasionally had me confused about what or who the character was referring to. That said, this would not have been a good or honest story without the different perspectives provided by this style. 

 

I would certainly recommend this book to fans of Picoult and similar fiction. I think what I realized that I like so much about her writing is that she isn't afraid to tackle the tough issues. I've found that this often causes people to dislike or oppose her when she doesn't get things exactly right or perhaps puts too much of her own opinion into a work about something she hasn't experienced; however, I find it incredibly impressive that she can put the reader in the shoes of those people just a little bit, if not with 100% accuracy. 

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Wow, great review of Handle With Care! I also quite liked the book. The only thing I liked a bit less was the ending. I agree about the style, sometimes it could be confusing to who 'you' was referring to. But overall I quite liked Handle With Care. That's two Picoult books already! I usually feel I need more time in between impressive books by the same author, otherwise I easily get an author burnout.

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8 hours ago, Athena said:

Wow, great review of Handle With Care! I also quite liked the book. The only thing I liked a bit less was the ending. I agree about the style, sometimes it could be confusing to who 'you' was referring to. But overall I quite liked Handle With Care. That's two Picoult books already! I usually feel I need more time in between impressive books by the same author, otherwise I easily get an author burnout.

 

I agree that the ending seemed unnecessary and frankly just dumb, but the rest of the book was good and I could have been happy with it ending before the final chapter. 

 

Two in a short time from the same author is about all I can handle. I like two in a row sometimes because I don't have to adjust to style differences, but then again that always makes it harder to start the next book after two by the same author. Luckily these two books were quite different so it didn't feel like I was repeating the same plot over and over. 

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11 hours ago, BSchultz19 said:

I agree that the ending seemed unnecessary and frankly just dumb, but the rest of the book was good and I could have been happy with it ending before the final chapter. 

 

Two in a short time from the same author is about all I can handle. I like two in a row sometimes because I don't have to adjust to style differences, but then again that always makes it harder to start the next book after two by the same author. Luckily these two books were quite different so it didn't feel like I was repeating the same plot over and over. 

 

I agree, I would've been happy with that too.

 

It's good that the two books were pretty different so it didn't feel like repetition :).

 

It's been a while since I read a book by Jodi Picoult, the last one I read was Harvesting the Heart in March 2017 (I admit, I looked that up as I didn't quite remember when in 2017 I read the book). So maybe in the next few months I'll read another Picoult book. I've really been looking forward to reading her newest release, Small Great Things, but my best friend (Anna Begins) wanted to read it together and I was waiting for her to be in the mood for it, which hasn't happened yet, so that's one of the reasons why I haven't read it yet. Of course I could also read another one of the unread ones I have, like Mercy.

 

I hope you enjoy your next read (by a different author) :readingtwo: .

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On 1/10/2018 at 2:34 AM, Athena said:

 

I agree, I would've been happy with that too.

 

It's good that the two books were pretty different so it didn't feel like repetition :).

 

It's been a while since I read a book by Jodi Picoult, the last one I read was Harvesting the Heart in March 2017 (I admit, I looked that up as I didn't quite remember when in 2017 I read the book). So maybe in the next few months I'll read another Picoult book. I've really been looking forward to reading her newest release, Small Great Things, but my best friend (Anna Begins) wanted to read it together and I was waiting for her to be in the mood for it, which hasn't happened yet, so that's one of the reasons why I haven't read it yet. Of course I could also read another one of the unread ones I have, like Mercy.

 

I hope you enjoy your next read (by a different author) :readingtwo: .

 

She is one of my go-to authors when I'm wandering the library and feeling just a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities. It's always nice to choose one thing that I know I'll enjoy. If you read Mercy, I hope you like it but it wasn't one of my favorite Picoult books. I have not looked into her recent releases as I'm trying to move through books I already own, but I might have to loan that one and some others in the near future. 

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:readingtwo:Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks:readingtwo:

 

Brief summary: Russell Green has a lovely wife and a pretty good life. Things change when his daughter, London, is born. The book follows the struggles between Russ and his wife as they coast through their lives as parents. In particular, the book follows a specific year in time when London is 5-6 years old where a dramatic number of changes happen in both their personal and professional lives. 

 

My thoughts: The first half of this book follows Russ and his wife, Vivian, through the struggles of their marriage. I don't think I'm giving too much of the plot away when I say that it followed them up to the point of divorce. Sparks does a great job describing the thoughts, words, and actions that both experience during this time, which I found to be quite interesting and different from many of his books that I've read in the past. It did, of course, contain romance like any Sparks book does. However, the over-the-top unrealistic relationship certainly wasn't the center of the story. In fact, most of the plot was incredibly realistic even if it was somewhat predictable. I haven't read Sparks in quite some time (mostly because I blazed through all his books when I was 15 or 16 and there were none left to read in recent years), so comparing to his other novels probably isn't the best way to judge the book for me. I will say that part of what draws me to Sparks' books is that it's not real. Because who doesn't love to read some crazy romance story that, albeit utterly unrealistic, lights the fire of the romantic within us? With that said, I liked this book but it didn't have quite the same romantic pull that his others have. 

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I haven't read a Nicholas Sparks book in a long time. I do own a couple that I haven't read yet, though I hadn't heard of Two by Two. I'm glad you enjoyed it though it's a shame you didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other books have.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I hope you have a great reading year in 2018!

 

I haven't read those two Jodi Picoult books, but I'm sure I will read them at some point as I do like her. I read Small Great Things by her this year, and that was quite good (if a bit saccharine sweet). 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well...

 

Another year, another failed attempt at reading for pleasure while in school. I told myself that this year would be different, that I would find time to read despite the exhaustion of university. And yet, it did not happen. I'm not sure exactly the reason, but I just couldn't get into reading when I arrived back at school. I'm home on break now for a week and plan to read as much as I can. However, I can't help but get disappointed by the effort I've put in so far. There's still plenty of time to change things, but I realize now how difficult it is to make time for anything during the semester. 

 

I think the main root of my problem is that I need something that doesn't require using my brain when I do find times of relaxation. Naturally, that means I watch trashy tv rather than open a good book. This is unfortunate, but I'm not sure that my brain could take any more work than it has already been put through. 

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I'm sorry you haven't been able to do much reading for pleasure :(. I found it hard too when I was at/in school.

 

For me it's easier to read an easy book rather than watch tv, but I know a lot of people find watching tv easier than reading a book.

 

I hope you'll be able to read a bit for pleasure soon :(.

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