100+ Reading Challenge

*****Updated Sept 05/09******

Well I've done it - I hit 100 yesterday. And by some strange twist of fate, #100 was the latest by my favourite author!! First challenge ever attempted, so I feel pretty good about finishing it. But just for fun, I'll keep adding to it and see where I finish up....

I've decided to throw my hat in the ring and Join the 100+ Reading Challenge hosted by J.Kaye's Book Blog. I think I'll just aim for 100! And this will be where I keep track of them - with links to my reviews.

1. Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell
2. The Charlemagne Pursuit - Steve Berry
3. The Friday Night Knitting Club
4. Cross Country
5. Love and Other Natural Disasters
6. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
7. A Long Stone's Throw
8. The Chalk Circle Man
9. Freeman Walker
10. Breakfast at Sally's
11. Plum Spooky
12. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
13. I Love You, Beth Cooper
14. Little Pink House
15. Houston, We Have a Problema
16. Apologize, Apologize
17. Little Bee
18. Got You Back
19. Drood
20. Beat the Reaper
21. The Lost City of Z
22. Above the Law
23. Breaking Lorca
24. Darkness at the Stroke of Noon
25. The Engine 2 Diet
26. Welcome to the Departure Lounge
27. Letters Between Us
28. Galway Bay
29. The Makedown
30. Mutiny on the Bounty
31. Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home
32. The Redeemer
33. A Reliable Wife
34. Still Life
35. An Offer You Can't Refuse
36. Dr. Gott's No Flour, No Sugar Diet
37. PIERCEd
38. Linen, Wool, Cotton
39. BoneMan's Daughters
40. Fifty is Not a Four-Letter Word
41. Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts
42. Six Months in Sudan
43. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
44. Case Histories
45. Follow Me
46. The Calling
47. Socks From the Toe Up
48. Fire Me
49. The Alexander Cipher
50. The Crossing Places
51. Four Corners of the Sky
52. To My Senses
53. Holly's Inbox
54. The Little Stranger
55. Crazy for the Storm
56. Mating Habits of the North American WASP
57. Right of Thirst
58. Miranda's Big Mistake
59. The G-Free Diet
60. The Good Mayor
61. The Scarecrow
62. Secrets to Happiness
63. Gone Tomorrow
64. Run for Your Life
65. Best Intentions
66. Die For You
67. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
68. Far North
69. Priceless Memories
70. Sunnyside Blues
71. A Worthy Legacy
72. The Castaways
73. The Neighbor
74. The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns
75. The 8th Confession
76. Library of the Dead
77. Ravens
78. Blind Eye
79. First Family
80. The Price of Love
81. Living Beauty
82. The Divorce Party
83. How Not to Look Old
84. Cemetery Dance
85. The Angel's Game
86. Start and Run a Real Home-Based Business
87. Fragile Things
88. The Penny Pinchers Club
89. The Horse Boy
90. Do the Web Write
91. Twenties Girl
92. The Doomsday Key
93. The Book of Unholy Mischief
94. The Way Home
95. Lux's Practical Erotica Adventures
96. Fear the Worst
97. Millie's Fling
98. The Juror
99. Swimsuit
100!! The Wife's Tale

101. Swan For the Money
102. Jack Wakes Up
103. Galore
104. It Can Happen to You
105. Friends Like These
106. Benny & Shrimp
107. Confessions of a Trauma Junkie
108. Waiting for Columbus
109. Starting Over
110. Alex Cross's Trial
111. The Law of Nines
112. Ripley's Belive it or Not - Seeing is Believing
113. A Circle of Souls
114. Mathilda Savitch
115. Nine Dragons
116. The Alibi
117. Angels
118.No Impact Man
119. In Color
120. Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind
121. Real Simple Solutions
123. Scranton The Electric City
124. Intent to Kill
125. Trauma Farm
126. Step Back from the Baggage Claim
127. Sesame Street: A Celebration
128. The Taken
129. The Murder of King Tut
130. Norman Rockwell - Behind the Camera
131. Genesis
132. A Touch of Dead
133. Bear Portraits
134. Perfect Timing
135. Everything Sucks
136. One Hundred Butterflies
137. Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts
138. Alex & Me
139. The Brightest Star in the Sky
140. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
141. i am neurotic
142. True Blue - David Baldacci
143. Secrets of a Christmas Box - Steven Hornby
144. Wishin' and Hopin' - Wally Lamb
145. A Christmas Promise - Anne Perry

Summer is Short - Read a Story

Harper Collins Canada is running a great summer reading challenge. Hmm, can you guess what it is? Yes -it's short story reading!

Short story reading is great for when you only have a few minutes and NEED to read. My favourite choices are authors that I've already read. Short stories often let them step outside their 'normal' parameters and we get to see a completely different side of their writing. But it's a great way to sample a writer new to you as well.

The Savvy Reader has a great list of suggestions to get you started. I think I'm going to start with Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. Let Deanna know what you've read/blogged/tweeted and be entered to win a fall book of your choice! Bloggers from the US are welcome to enter as well.

Over at the Harper Perennial Canada site you can read shorts by some of your favourite authors such as Bolero by Frances Itani or Damaged Goods by Tim Winton. New stories will be posted throughout the summer. There's a contest going on as well - leave a comment to be entered for a copy of Classic Shorts.

Anyone have some favourite collections to recommend?

The Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs

I listened to this in audio format. I'd heard lots of good things - it hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Carrington MacDuffie is the reader.

Georgia Walker is a single mother to a biracial child - Dakota. She has a successful little knitting store. The Friday Night Knitting Club is the stories of many of the women who come theoretically to knit, but more for the companionship and support. At first I thought this would be too saccharine for me, but was soon caught up in everyone's story. There is a sequel out as well - Knit Two - that I think I'll listen to in audio as well. I did enjoy the reader's voice, but found her child's voice a bit annoying and the Scottish granny was at times East Indian or Irish it seemed. All in all one of those feel good hen lit novels. Oh, and I now have a mad desire to knit something.....

The Charlemagne Pursuit - Steve Berry

I read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code when it came out and enjoyed it. But then I discovered Steve Berry and haven't looked back. As far as I'm concerned he's the master of this genre, combining historical fact with suspense, intrigue and non stop action.

Berry's recurring character is Cotton Malone, a 'retired' government agent. His father Forrest died in a submarine accident in 1971. For years he has tried to find out details, but has been stymied by the Navy. He pulls in a favour and gains access to highly classified documents - his father's sub was on a secret mission to the Antarctic. When he is contacted by the German family members of another of the doomed submariners, he agrees to embark on a search for the truth. And that truth is a shocker. The other family holds documents that show the submarine was out to prove the existance of a 'First Civilization' - a culture that evolved long before history as we know it. There seems to be evidence that Charlemagne had knowledge gained from this advanced culture. The Nazis looked for it in 1938 and the Americans went back in 1971.

The Charlemagne Pursuit is a thrilling read. The plot is intricate and involved, with many seemingly disparate stories converging at the end in a gripping climax. Berry's research is intriguing. I found myself stopping and actually looking up some of the events and history he refers to. One example is the Piri Reis Map. Much of it is true and thought provoking. There is a writer's note at the end indicating what is fact and what he has taken fictional liberty with.

Cotton Malone is an engaging character, one I've enjoyed following the previous six novels. The supporting characters are also well written, but I did find the German sisters a bit over the top at times.

Any of his books can be read alone. Read one and I guarantee you'll be looking for others in the series!

Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell

Okay so I really didn't like Cornwell's last novel The Risk. But it was a different character and I was willing to give the Scarpetta character another chance. It's certainly much thicker than her last offering - 500 pages.

Anyone that hadn't read the last novel - The Book of the Dead - would be lost starting to read this novel. It pretty much picks up where that one left off. There are numerous allusions but no real recap for new readers.

Scarpetta had given up the South and moved to New York City to work as a consultant for the NYPD. She is asked to examine a patient at Bellevue who will only see Scarpetta. The police suspect him of murdering his lover, but he denies it. He claims there is someone electronically tracking him. Another storyline is abruptly inserted - a web administrator of an online gossip page that seems to be out 'to get' Kay Scarpetta.

I found the first half of the book to be disjointed and awkward. As much as I love forensic novels, I think Cornwell just tries too hard too blend personal stories of the characters with sensational crimes. It never seems to find balance and neither is overly well done.

I did finish it, but was disappointed with the ending and loose ends not really incorporated or dealt with.