Book Goals -2022

February 8, 2022


I set a goal to read the six books seen listed below.  I haven't set a deadline to read the books since I have so many other things that occupy my time.   

I used to visit our local library before the pandemic.  I haven't been to our library in a long time.  I now purchase most of my books from either BJ's, Costco, or Amazon.  My daughter and husband both like reading their books on a Kindle.  I like to read a book that I can hold in my hand.  

bought some of the books listed below at BJ's, the Strand Book Store, and I received two books for Christmas.  

When I accumulate too many books, I can sell back any of my used books to the Strand Book Store.  

I like to read non-fiction books based on historical fiction, love stories, and mystery.


How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - I'm currently reading this book my daughter picked out for me for Christmas.  Below is how the book is described on Amazon:

How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages—and for the ages—about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.
 
The Queen of Paris: A Novel of Coco Chanel by Pamela Binnings Ewen.
My daughter picked this book out for me for Christmas.  I look forward to reading about Coco Chanel.  Below is how the book is described on Amazon:
 

Legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel is revered for her sophisticated style—the iconic little black dress—and famed for her intoxicating perfume Chanel No. 5. Yet behind the public persona is a complicated woman of intrigue, shadowed by mysterious rumors. The Queen of Paris, the new novel from award-winning author Pamela Binnings Ewen, vividly imagines the hidden life of Chanel during the four years of Nazi occupation in Paris in the midst of WWII—as discovered in recently unearthed wartime files.

Coco Chanel could be cheerful, lighthearted, and generous; she also could be ruthless, manipulative, even cruel. Against the winds of war, with the Wehrmacht marching down the Champs-Élysées, Chanel finds herself residing alongside the Reich’s High Command in the Hotel Ritz. Surrounded by the enemy, Chanel wages a private war of her own to wrestle full control of her perfume company from the hands of her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer. With anti-Semitism on the rise, he has escaped to the United States with the confidential formula for Chanel No. 5. Distrustful of his intentions to set up production on the outskirts of New York City, Chanel fights to seize ownership. The House of Chanel shall not fall.

While Chanel struggles to keep her livelihood intact, Paris sinks under the iron fist of German rule. Chanel—a woman made of sparkling granite—will do anything to survive. She will even agree to collaborate with the Nazis in order to protect her darkest secrets. When she is covertly recruited by Germany to spy for the Reich, she becomes Agent F-7124, code name: Westminster. But why? And to what lengths will she go to keep her stormy past from haunting her future?

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs - This looks like a fun and easy read.  This is how it's described on Amazon:

There is a book for everything . . . 

Somewhere in the vast Library of the Universe, as Natalie thought of it, there was a book that embodied exactly the things she was worrying about.

In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative—not counting her scoundrel father.

But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem–Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.

After she moves into the small studio apartment above the shop, Natalie carries out her grandfather’s request and hires contractor Peach Gallagher to do the necessary and ongoing repairs. His young daughter, Dorothy, also becomes a regular at the store, and she and Natalie begin reading together while Peach works.

To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations, from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future, and her own heart

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan - I was browsing through the Strand Book Store.  This is a book that caught my eye and looks interesting.
Here is how it's described on Amazon:

In 1973, twenty-year-old Moll Gladney takes a morning bus from her rural home in Ireland and disappears. Bewildered and distraught, Paddy and Kit must confront an unbearable prospect: that they will never see their daughter again.

Five years later, Moll returns from London. What - and who - she brings with her will change the course of her family's life forever. Beautiful and devastating, this exploration of loss, alienation and the redemptive power of love reaffirms Donal Ryan as one of the most talented and empathetic writers at work today.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner - This is another book I thought looked interesting about Jane Austen.  Here is how it's described on Amazon:

Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.

Summer Island by Kristin Hannah - I love books by Kristin Hannah after reading The Great Alone, The Nightingale, and The Four Winds.  You can read how this book is described on Amazon:

Years ago, Nora Bridge walked out on her marriage and left her daughters behind. She has since become a famous radio talk-show host and newspaper columnist beloved for her moral advice. Her youngest daughter, Ruby, is a struggling comedienne who uses her famous mother as fuel for her bitter, cynical humor. When the tabloids unearth a scandalous secret from Nora's past, their estrangement suddenly becomes dramatic: Nora is injured in an accident and a glossy magazine offers Ruby a fortune to write a tell-all about her mother. Under false pretenses, Ruby returns home to take care of the woman she hasn't spoken to for almost a decade.

Nora insists they retreat to Summer Island in the San Juans, to the lovely old house on the water where Ruby grew up, a place filled with childhood memories of love and joy and belonging. There Ruby is also reunited with her first love and his brother. Once, the three of them had been best friends, inseparable. Until the summer that Nora had left and everyone's hearts had been broken. . . .

What began as an expose evolves, as Ruby writes, into an exploration of her family's past. Nora is not the woman Ruby has hated all these years. Witty, wise, and vulnerable, she is desperate to reconcile with her daughter. As the magazine deadline draws near and Ruby finishes what has begun to seem to her an act of brutal betrayal, she is forced to grow up and at last to look at her mother--and herself--through the eyes of a woman. And she must, finally, allow herself to love.

Summer Island is a beautiful novel, funny, tender, sad, and ultimately triumphant.


The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
I just finished reading this book and I loved it.  This is a Read with Jenna - Today Show Book Club Pick.    
This is how the book is described on Amazon:

Ann Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth, delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.

 
Have you read any of these books?  What book are you reading now?


Click HERE to see the blog parties I will be linking up to.

Julie

24 comments

  1. It looks like you've got some great reading to do! I haven't read any of these so I will check them out. I missed my library so much during the pandemic. I'm glad it's open again! Happy Reading!

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  2. I really enjoyed The Lost and Found Bookshop and like most of Kristin Hannah's books too (though I don't think I've read the one your have here!).

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  3. What great books you have waiting for you - I read The Lost and Found Bookshop and loved it. Matt Haig's Midnight Library was good and this one looks interesting as well. I am with you - I love a "real" book. I use my tablet when traveling, but prefer to hold a book in my hand. I rarely buy a book - I love my public library and can reserve books from my computer and they are all bundled and waiting for me when I go in. But then I always end up browsing and coming home with some titles I did not know about. Happy Reading...looking forward to what you think about your books!

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  4. I love to read and usually read on my IPAD with the kindle app...so easy and you don't have to sit under a lamp. I just finished One Step too Far by Lisa Gardner. It's a thriller and one of the best books I've read in awhile! Enjoy your day!

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  5. Hi Julie. These all sound so good. These are great reads for these long winter days. Enjoy them. Happy New Week. xoxo Kris

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  6. Lots of variety there Julie, I haven't read any of those yet. I like to hold a book in my hand too but I find it's much easier for my eyesight to use my iPad, I have a free app from my Library and have read books on there which I wouldn't normally read and have really enjoyed them. I'm going to see if any of your books are available on the app. xx

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  7. Strange Flowers sounds really good, I'm going to look that up.

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  8. The Jane Austen Society was a good one :) hope you like it!

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  9. I'm currently reading The Lost and Found Bookshop and really enjoying it. I like Kristin Hannah books, too and Summer Island sounds good, especially as it takes place near my part of the country :) The Coco Channel book sounds intriguing and so does Summer Flowers. Great list! Happy reading! x K

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  10. Right now I'm reading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn for a book club. I found the first half to be dull, but it's picking up now. I recently read The Four Winds by Kate Hannah, and loved it, so I'd be interested in more of hers. The Queen of Paris also sounds interesting!

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  11. Lovely selection Julie! Haven't read any of these but a couple of them sound interesting. Thank you for sharing!

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  12. These look like great choices for enjoyable reading. It’s good to have goals but when it comes to pastime activities, it’s good to not set time limits. Having some interesting choices on hand to pick up whenever you have the time will help you meet your goal AND enjoy reading. Zenda

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  13. Hi Julie, it's good to set goals. I haven't read anything in a while. I love the audio books because you can work while you listen. Enjoy your books.

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  14. These sound like good reads, some of them seem very interesting! I liked the Midnight Library by matt Haig and I enjoyed the boy called Christmas movie with the kids at Christmas that was based on his book, but I haven't read any of his other books. I hope you like that one!

    Our libraries stayed open through all the covid stuff - although they did close back in 2020 when we had the lockdowns. I'm glad they are still open as it's such a regular part of our routine now to visit the library each month! :)

    Hope that you are having a nice week :) It's a big week here - first week of school for the kids after the summer holidays!

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  15. Hi Julie! Oh, these books sounds like a lot of good reading! Wish I had the passion to read any more. Thank you so much for popping in to see me.
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia ;)

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  16. Thanks for the reviews and suggestions Julie, I love to see what my friends are reading. I am reading a lot of light cozy mysteries these days, nothing too serious as the news is serious enough!
    Jenna

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  17. They all look so good, Julie. That's very funny, the one your daughter gave you for Christmas is the same one I gave my daughter for Christmas!! She hasn't had a chance to start it yet, like you, she's been working on crocheting goals!! Happy Valentine's Day!

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  18. I have not read any of those books, Julie, but several of them appeal to me. Thank you for sharing the reviews with us. Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️

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  19. I just finished How to Stop Time not long ago too. I've enjoyed Kristin Hannah's books too. I haven't read many yet though, but she's on my radar for more. Thanks for sharing your list!

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  20. I love that you set goals around certain books and not just a number. Visiting you from the encouraging hearts and home link up.

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  21. Oh I am sure I would love that Kristan Hannah book- thanks for sharing!

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  22. Looks like a wonderful selection of books to read. Enjoy.

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  23. The Strand is a such a great, iconic bookstore.

    I love Matt Haig's books.

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  24. The reviews are very helpful. I just finished the Dutch House and really enjoyed it. Congratulations, you were most clicked at the FWF link party!
    Rachelle

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