Bookish Resolutions Challenge January Update

This is hosted by Michelle at Because Reading is Better Than Real Life and Laura at Trips Down Imagination Road and you can sign up at this link. 
My resolutions:
1. Read at least 6 Classics this year.
2. Finish at least half of the challenges that I signed up for this year.
3. Finish at least 4 series this year, particularly ones where I have only the last book in the series left to read.
4. Try to blog more, like at least 10 posts a month.
5. Get healthy!

Thanks to Michelle and Laura for hosting!

Update: So far, I have made progress on one of my challenges, and have finished two books toward the RoadTrip Challenge. This is my tenth post for the month, so I am barely meeting that goal, but I did meet it. I have went almost the entire month without any soda, so I have made a good start on goal number 5. I have some ideas for Lent to help with goal 5, so I am hoping to meet it this year. No classics so far and I have only started one last of the series book, The Blood of Olympus. Hopefully I can get more in gear next month!

Grant and Twain by Mark Perry

So, this is my third read and the book for my third and last book club group this month. I have 3 monthly book clubs that I participate in for work. This is the one I am in charge of and they picked a history book for January. I love history and my first Masters degree is in American History.

Random House

Perry did a great job making the book readable. This is definitely popular history at its finest. His style is great, but he did not compromise on sources to achieve this style. Perry basically wanted to show the influence Grant and Twain had on each other and he looked in particular detail about how Grant wrote his autobiography and for Twain, he focused mainly on Huckleberry Finn. He showed what influenced the men and how Twain helped Grant survive to finish his autobiography and how Grant helped Twain to finish Huckleberry Finn. Perry also included some wonderful quotes, particularly one by Hemingway in which he said Twain started contemporary American fiction and Grant wrote the best contemporary American nonfiction. Our whole group loved this read and almost every person who took a book, finished it. Overall this was a 5 cups of cocoa read and has helped me to want to read more nonfiction, particularly history this year.

A Winter's Respite Read-A-Thon Signup

A Winter's Respite is hosted by Michelle @ The True Book Addict and Castle Macabre and starts January 26 and runs through February 1. You can sign up at this link. Hopefully I get into the reading spirit, since so far I have only completed my three book club books this month. It is time for some books that I have picked out!

Reading List:
Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter
Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter
The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
Risked by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Faerie Tale Collection #1 by Jenni James
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
The Rosie Project by Grahame Simsion
Jinx's Fire by Sage Blackwood

February's Book Club Books (if I want to get a jump start):
Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement

Thanks to Michelle for hosting!

The Last Juror by John Grisham

This is another of my monthly book club reads and will also qualify as my Mississippi read.

Delta

Willie Traynor applies for a newspaper job, never expecting to one day own the paper. When the long time owner, Spot, is declared bankrupt, Willie borrows money from his grandmother and becomes the owner of the Ford County Times and owns the paper for ten years. In the book, Willie talks about his ten years as owner and editor and of the friends he made, like Callie Ruffian, an African American woman with 7 children who have PhDs. He also discusses the most horrible crime he faced in Clanton, Mississippi, a brutal rape and murder of a young mother and the aftermath of this crime, which would haunt Willie and Clanton for many years.

This was my first John Grisham read and I did enjoy it. Willie was a young naive man who gains courage in his friendship with Callie and finally finds his voice in the paper. In the end he did mature some, mainly thanks to Callie, but the end is very bittersweet. There really was little happiness in the story and it is more a reflection of the 1970s and all the change that the decade brought. I would be interested in reading more of Grisham's novels and I give this one 4 cups of cocoa.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

This was my first finished read of the year and my first book club book. The story is set in Wisconsin from 1907-1908, with a brief part in St. Louis, Missouri. For the Reading Road Trip Challenge, this will be my book for Wisconsin. I loved this cover and it made me think of cold snowy Wisconsin and the setting had a big part to play in the story.

Algonquin Books

Ralph Truitt puts an advertisement in many papers for a reliable wife and is answered by Catherine Land. Catherine claims to be a simple woman who is honest, but she secretly hides a shocking past. Ralph also has a sordid and secret past, which he will share with Catherine, because he has a job for her. Catherine comes to Wisconsin and she and Ralph have a rough time from the start. However, Ralph places his trust in Catherine, recruiting her to bring back his "son". Catherine has her own agenda revealed early in the story, she plans to poison Ralph and take off with his money for her and her lover. There is a greater twist to the story that leads to a shocking ending.

This was a bit like erotica for the 1900s. The main characters are obsessed with sex and enjoy it quite a bit. The story is very twisted with a big surprise about half way through, which I won't give away, but kind of disgusted me. The suspenseful parts were well written and Goolrick is very descriptive with the landscape and emotions of his characters. I did enjoy his writing, but not really the storyline. I wouldn't mind reading another one of his books, but not a book with a similar plot. For me it was a 3 cups of cocoa and that is mainly for his descriptive style. 

Bout of Books Wrapup

Well, I did not participate any in the social side of this read-a-thon, which makes me sad. I have got to find time to actually blog and interact with people, because I miss it. I did finish A Reliable Wife and read 323 pages in it and another 70 pages in Grant and Twain and 40 pages in Blood of Olympus, so my reading is finally back on track. Thanks again to Amanda and Kelly for hosting!

2015 Bookish Resolutions Challenge Signup

This is hosted by Michelle at Because Reading is Better Than Real Life and Laura at Trips Down Imagination Road and you can sign up at this link. 
My resolutions:
1. Read at least 6 Classics this year.
2. Finish at least half of the challenges that I signed up for this year.
3. Finish at least 4 series this year, particularly ones where I have only the last book in the series left to read.
4. Try to blog more, like at least 10 posts a month.
5. Get healthy!

Thanks to Michelle and Laura for hosting!