2015 Reading Challenges

WHERE Are You Reading Challenge 2015
from Book Journey

United States
Arizona - (Tucson) Grounded, Cry Wolf, Flight 12; A Laura Cardinal Thriller, The Survivor's Club, (Phoenix) Till the Sun Breaks Down
California (Bakersfield) Counting by 7s (LA) The Closers (LA) Gun Games (LA)  Never Go Back  (LA) Victims  and Deception 
Colorado (Denver) Booked to Die
Connecticut (coastal) Since You've Been Gone
Florida (Panama City)  Twisted Innocence (Alligator Alley) Heartstopper 
Georgia (Savannah) Red Mist (Margrave) The Killing Floor
Maine (southern coastline) Saint's Gate  (coastal island) Heroes Are My Weakness (Bearkill, in Aroostook Cty.) Winter at the Door  (Portland) Playing God  (Downeast) Darkness First 
Maryland (suburban Baltimore) Digging to America, The Hired Girl
Massachusetts (private island near Martha's Vineyard) We Were Liars  (Boston) Flight 12:  A Kristin Cunningham Thriller , Hundred Dollar Baby (Boston area) Girls' Night Out  (western MA college town) Six Years (Boston) The Professional (Cape Cod) Summer of the Gypsy Moths
Michigan Station Eleven ,
Minnesota (Twin Cities) Rules of Prey (northern) Boundary Waters  (southern) Deadline
New Hampshire (any lake/pond) Half a Chance
New Jersey Down to the Wire
New York (Brooklyn) Grounded (Utica) None of the Above  (NYC) The Museum of Extraordinary Things (NYC) Wonder (upstate) The Impossible Knife of Memory
Ohio (Amish country) After the Storm , A Hidden Secret
Oregon/Washington/NW coast - One Kick
Pennsylvania - Shine Shine Shine (rural - western) The Eighth Day (western)
Vermont -  (Brattleboro) Tag Man
Washington DC -  Never Go Back ,Running Blind 
Washington (Seattle) Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker
Wisconsin (prairie) One Came Home (rural) A Reliable Wife,

Out-of-the-Country
Canada - (Toronto) Station Eleven 
England - The Silkworm, The Evelyn Project, The Crossing Places, Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue
Ireland - A Week in Winter

 Around-the-World Reading Challenge 2015
from Giraffe Days
FINAL from 2014:  NOT-QUITE-A-SEASONED Traveler (12 Books)! 
 England - 5;  Australia - 1;  France - 1;  Afghanistan - 1;  Finland - 1;  Zambia - 1;  Kazakhstan - 1; 

1. The Silkworm (England - London)
2. The Evelyn Project (England, Italy, Austria)
3. The Crossing Places (England - Norfolk)
4.  A Week in Winter (Ireland - Dublin)
5.  Ruby Red (England-time travel)
6.  Sapphire Blue (England - time travel

2015 What's In A Name Challenge
from The Worm Hole
FINAL from 2014:  Missing one of the FIVE challenges: A position of royalty
DID GET:  A reference to time - 10; A number written in letters - 3; A first name or names - 3; A type or element of weather- 5

1.  A word including "ING" in it
          Counting by 7s
          The Crossing Places
          Digging to America
          Playing God 
          The Knife of Never Letting Go
          Running Blind 
          The Killing Floor
          The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell 
2.  A color
          Fifty Shades of Grey
          Red Mist
          Ruby Red
          Sapphire Blue
          Red Queen
3.  A familial relation
          Second Son
          A Reliable Wife,
4. A body of water
          Boundary Waters  (this is close enough to count!)
5.  A city
6.  An animal
     The Silkworm
     Cry Wolf
     Summer of the Gypsy Moths

Audio Books
1.  The Silkworm (cd - car)
2.  Museum of Extraordinary Things (cd - car & house)
3.  Since You've Been Gone (cd - car)
4.  The Crossing Places (cd - car & house)
5.  One Kick (cd - house)
6.  Shine, Shine, Shine (cd - house)
7.  Ready Player One (cd - house)
8.  The Closers (cd)
9.  Digging to America (cd - car)
10.  Red Mist (cd - house)
11.  Booked to Die (audible - house)
12.  Hundred Dollar Baby (cd - car)
13.  Twisted Innocence (cd-car)
14.  Boundary Waters  (audible-house)
15.  Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy (audible - house)
16.   Wonder (Audible)
17.  Gun Games  (cd - car)
18.   Never Go Back  (cd in car and Overdrive at home)
19.  Half a Chance (cd)
20.  Down to the Wire (in car back & forth to school)
21.  A Week in Winter (Audible in the house)
22.  Second Son (at home)
23.  Girls' Night Out  (Kilko basement)
24.  Mr. Cooper is Super! (cd - car, w/Ella)
25.  Heartstopper  (cd - car w/Dede and finishing on the way to ME)
26.  Judy Moody, Mood Martian (cd- in car with Ella)
27.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths (cd - w/Ella)
28.  Winter at the Door  (Audible while sewing hexies in PA)
29.  Deadline  (driving home from PA)
30.  The Professional (returning to AZ)
31.  After the Storm 
32,  The Killing Floor
33,  The Kiss of Deception
34.  Six Years (driving back & forth from school)
35.  Red Queen (Audible while sewing hexies in AZ)
36.  The Knife of Never Letting Go (in the car back & forth from work)
37.  Victims  (in the car back & forth from work)
38.  Tag Man (car, work)
39.  Station Eleven  (car: work & Havasu)
40.  Running Blind  (car, work)
41.  Deception  (car, DC/Christmas travel)

2015 YA Reading Challenge
Final 2014:  25 YA books read.
1.  Grounded
2.  We Were Liars 
3.  None of the Above 
4.  Since You've Been Gone
5.  Ready Player One (even though others say adult, I think this is YA)
6.  Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy
7.  The Goblin Emperor
8.  Ruby Red
9.  The Kiss of Deception
10.  Sapphire Blue
11.  Red Queen
12.  The Knife of Never Letting Go
13.  Court of Fives 
14.  The Impossible Knife of Memory
15.  The Wrath & the Dawn
16.  The Hired Girl

Middle Grade Reading
1.   Counting by 7s
2.  One Came Home
3.  Wonder
4.  Half a Chance
5.  Mr. Cooper is Super!
6.  Judy Moody, Mood Martian
7.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths
8.  The Eighth Day
9.  GEORGE
10.  The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell 

2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
FINAL 2014:  5 Books/Victorian Reader
I am SO not proud of myself for this one - MUST do better next year! 
1.  One Came Home
2.  The Museum of Extraordinary Things
3.  A Reliable Wife
4.  The Hired Girl

Dystopian Reading Challenge 2015
Final 2014: 12 Dystopian books read.
1. Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy
2.  Red Queen
3.  Court of Fives 
4.  Station Eleven 
5.  Till the Sun Breaks Down

2015 Sequel & Prequel Challenge
Final 2014:  41 prequel/sequels read.
1.  Grounded - Ordover - The Seven #1
2.  Fifty Shades of Grey - James - Fifty Shades #1 of 3
3.  The Silkworm - Galbraith - Cormoran Strike #2
4.  Fifty Shades Darker  - James - Fifty Shades #2 of 3
5.  Cry Wolf  - Black - Laura Cardinal #4
6.  The Crossing Places - Griffiths - Ruth Galloway #1
7.  One Kick  - Cain - Kit Lannigan #1
8.  The Closers - Connelly - (Bosch #11)
9.  Red Mist - Cornwell - Kay Scarpetta #19
10.  Rules of Prey - Sandford - Lucas Davenport #1
11.  Booked to Die - Dunning - Cliff Janeway #1
12.  Hundred Dollar Baby - Parker - Spenser #34
13.  Boundary Waters  - Krueger - Cork Corcoran #2
14.  Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy - Clare & Brennan - Shadowhunter Academy #1
15.  Gun Games - Kellerman - Decker & Lazarus #20
16.   Never Go Back - Child - Jack Reacher #18
17.  Playing God  - Flora - Joe Burgess #1
18.  Second Son - Child - Jack Reacher #15.5
19.  Mr. Cooper is Super! - My Weirdest School (the fourth series) #1
20.  Winter at the Door  - Graves - Lizzie Snow #1
21.  Deadline - Sandford - Virgil Flowers #8
22.  The Professional - Parker - Spenser #37
23.  After the Storm - Castillo - Burkholder #7
24.  The Killing Floor - Child - Jack Reacher #1
25.  Darkness First  - James Hayman - McCabe & Savage #3
26.  Ruby Red - Kirsten Gier - Ruby Red #1
27.  The Kiss of Deception - Mary E., Pearson - Remnant Chronicles #1
28.  A Hidden Secret - Linda Castillo - Kate Burkholder #6.5
29.  Sapphire Blue - Gier - Ruby Red #2
30.  Red Queen - Aveyard - Red Queen #1
31.  The Eighth Day - Salerno - Eighth Day #1
32.  The Knife of Never Letting Go - Chaos Walking #1
33.  Victims  - Kellerman - Alex Delaware #27
34.  Tag Man - Mayor - Joe Gunther #22
35.  The Wrath & the Dawn - Ahdieh - #1 Shahrzad & Khalid
36.  Running Blind  - Child - #4 Jack Reacher
37.  Deception - Kellerman - #25 Alex Delaware
38.  Till the Sun Breaks Down - #1 Deviant Aeon
39.  The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell #1 The Wishing Spell

2015 New Author Challenge
40 New Authors read in 2014!
1.  Grounded - Ordover (nope!)
2.  Fifty Shades of Grey - James (erotica oolala)
3.  Counting by 7s - Sloan (LOVE)
4,  One Came Home - Timberlake (would try again)
5.  None of the Above  - Gregorio (a doctor, her first-time writing, excellent!)
6.  Saint's Gate - Carla Neggers (from VT, so she writes a lot about New England) but too cozy for me
7.  Heroes Are My Weakness - Susan Elizabeth Peters (my kind of romance writer)
8.  Since You've Been Gone - Morgan Matson (delightful)
9.  The Evelyn Project - Kfir Luzzatto (no, no, no!)
10. Shine Shine Shine - Lydia Netzer (incredibly quirky, but likable)
11. Flight 12:  A Kristin Cunningham Thriller  - Allan Leverone (although this short story was okay, I'd like to delve into something a little longer to see if he fleshes out characters a little better)
12.  Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (interesting, certainly knows 80s pop culture!)
13.  Digging to America - Anne Tyler (great characterization)
14.  Twisted Innocence - Terri Blackstock - too religious and unbelievable plot points
15.  Wonder  - P. J. Palacio - quite extraordinary, actually
16.  The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison - steampunk fantasy that was almost over my head....
17.  Playing God - Kate Flora - Maine mystery writer (short ebooks, too) like her a lot
18.  Down to the Wire - David Rosenfelt - would definitely read again
19.  Winter at the Door  - Sarah Graves - pretty much what I expected from a cozy mystery writer....
20.  A Reliable Wife, - Robert Goolrick - clever, funt-to-anticipate storyline, would enjoy reading again
21.  Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard - loved both her writing style and her story
22.  The Eighth Day - Dianne K. Salerno - lots of excitement, action, and a taste of King Arthur for older kids
23.  The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness, although I disliked this story, I like his writing style and will probably try another - outside of this series
24. - Court of Fives  - Kate Elliott - can't wait for more!
25.  Tag Man - Archer Mayor - might possibly try another....
26.  Station Eleven  - Emily St. John Mandel - would definitely try another by her
27.  The Wrath & the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh, her very first novel
28,  GEORGE - Alex Gino, a transgender person writing about a transgender young person
29.  Till the Sun Breaks Down - Tom Leveen, Phoenix author that we read for book group (it could have been any by this author, wish I'd chosen another - didn't enjoy this one at all)

One-Word Titles
12 books with titles of only one-word read in 2014; only 6 in 2013
1.  Grounded - Ordover
2.  Wonder  - Palacio
3.  Heartstopper  - Fielding
4.  Deadline  - Sandford
5.  Victims  - Kellerman
6.  Deception  - Kellerman
7.  GEORGE - Gino

Arizona or Maine
2014:  2 books set in Arizona read this year, 6 books set in Maine
1. Arizona (partial setting) Grounded - Ordover
2. Maine (southern coastline) Saint's Gate - Neggers
3.  Maine (fictional coastal island) - Heroes Are My Weakness - Phillips
4.  Arizona (Tucson) Cry Wolf - Black
5.   Arizona (Tucson)  Flight 12; A Laura Cardinal Thriller - Black
6.  Arizona (Tucson) The Survivor's Club - Black
7.  Maine (Portland) Playing God  - Flora
8.  Maine (Bearkill, Aroostook Cty.) Winter at the Door  - Graves
9.  Maine (Downeast)  Darkness First 
10.  Arizona (Phoenix) Till the Sun Breaks Down

CRF
22 CRF read in 2014!
1.  Fifty Shades of Grey Adult
2.  Counting by 7s Tween
3.  We Were Liars  YA
4.  None of the Above  YA
5.  Fifty Shades Darker Adult
6.  Heroes Are My Weakness Adult
7.  Since You've Been Gone YA
8.   Shine Shine Shine Adult
9.  Digging to America (Adult)
10.  Wonder  (Kids)
11.  Half a Chance  (Kids)
12.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths (Kids)
13.  A Week in Winter (Adult)
14.  The Impossible Knife of Memory (YA)
15.  GEORGE (Mid)

4.5 or 5
22 books were top-notch wonderful in 2014!
1.  Counting by 7s
2.  None of the Above 
3.  Heroes Are My Weakness
4.  The Museum of Extraordinary Things
5. Since You've Been Gone
6.  The Closers
7.  Booked to Die
8.  Boundary Waters 
9.  Wonder
10.  A Week in Winter
11.  Girls' Night Out  (eBook/short story)
12.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths
13.  After the Storm 
14.  Red Queen
15.  The Hired Girl

I Love Picture Books Challenge - 2015
36 picture books reviewed in 2014 - 15 were copywritten 2014
1. A Home for Mr. Emerson (Kerley/Fotheringham) 2014
2.  Christopher Newport, Jamestown Explorer (Solomon/Bridy) 2013
3.  Got Geography! (Hopkins/Stanton) 2006
4.  Earmuffs for Everyone (McCarthy) 2015
5.  Let the Celebrations Begin! (Wild/Vivas) 1991/2013
6.  In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden (Prelutsky/Mathers) 2007
7.  Someday (Spinelli/Winstead) 2007
8.  What REALLY Happened to Humpty?: From the Files of a Hard-Boiled Detective (Ransom) 2009
9.  Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story (Miller/McElmurry) 2015

Books Read in 2015
1. Grounded - Heather Ordover - 482 pgs.
2.  Fifty Shades of Grey - E. L. James - 510 pgs. (total 992 pgs.)
3.  Counting by 7s - Holly Greenberg Sloan - 380 pgs (total 1372 pgs.)
4.  One Came Home- Amy Timberlake - 258 pgs. (total 1630 pgs.)
5.  We Were Liars  - E. Lockhart - 228 pgs. (total 1858 pgs.)
6.  None of the Above  - I. W. Gregorio - 328 pgs. (total 2186 pgs.)
7.  The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith - 456 pgs. (total 2642 pgs.)
8.  Fifty Shades Darker - E. L. James - 532 pgs. (total 3174 pgs.)
9.  Saint's Gate - Carla Neggers - 334 pgs. (total 3508 pgs.)
10.  Heroes Are My Weakness - Susan Elizabeth Phillips - 364 pgs. (total 3872 pgs.)
11.  Cry Wolf - J. Carson Black - 132 pgs. (total 4004 pgs.)
12.  The Museum of Extraordinary Things - Alice Hoffman - 368 pgs. (total 4372 pgs)
13.  Since You've Been Gone - Morgan Matson - 449 pgs. (total 4821 pgs.)
14.  The Evelyn Project - Kfir Luzzatto - 305 pgs. (total 5126 pgs.)
15.  The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths - 320 pgs (total 5446 pgs.)
16.  One Kick -Chelsea Cain - 309 pgs. (total 5755 pgs)
17.  Shine Shine Shine - Lydia Netzer - 309 pgs. (total 6064 pgs.)
18.  Rules of Prey - John Sandford - 479 pgs. (total 6543 pgs.)
19.  Ready Player One - Ernest Cline - 374 pgs. (total 6917 pgs.)
20.  The Closers- Michael Connelly - 432 pgs. (total 7349 pgs.)
21.  Digging to America - Anne Tyler - 277 pgs. (total 7626 pgs)
22.  Red Mist- Patricia Cornwell  - 512 pgs. (total 8138 pgs.)
23.  Flight 12; A Laura Cardinal Thriller - J. Carson Black - 92 pgs. (total 8230 pgs.)
24.  Flight 12:  A Kristin Cunningham Thriller  - Allan Leverone - 79 pgs. (total 8309 pgs.)
25.  Booked to Die - John Dunning  - 394 pgs. (total 8703 pgs.)
26.  Hundred Dollar Baby - Robert B. Parker - 291 pgs. (total 8994 pgs.)
27.  Twisted Innocence - Terri Blackstock - 320 pgs. (total  9314 pgs.)
28.  Boundary Waters  - William Kent Krueger - 416 pgs. (total 9730 pgs.)
29.  Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy - Cassandra Clare & Sandra Rees Brennan - 78 pg.s (total 9808 pgs.)
30.  Wonder  - P. J. Palacio - 315 pgs. (total 10,123 pgs.)
31.  Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison - 346 pgs. (10,469 pgs.)
32.  Gun Games  - Faye Kellerman - 375 pgs. (10,844 pgs.)
DNF - Magic Bites  - Ilona Andrews - 60 pgs (out of 260) (10,904 pgs.)
33.  The Survivor's Club - 364 pgs. (11,268 pgs.)
34.   Never Go Back - Lee Child - 400 pgs. ( 11,668 pgs.)
35.  A Week in Winter - Maeve Binchy - 464 pgs. (12,132 pgs.)
36.  Half a Chance - Cynthia Lord - 218 pgs. (12,350 pgs.)
37.  Playing God  - Kate Flora - 286 pgs. (12,636 pgs.)
38.  Second Son - Lee Child - 32 pgs. (12, 668 pgs.)
39.  Down to the Wire - David Rosenfelt - 294 pgs. (12,962 pgs.)
40.  Girls' Night Out  - Kate Flora - 32 pgs. (12,994 pgs.)
41.  Mr. Cooper is Super! - Dan Gutman - 112 pgs. (13,106 pgs.)
42.  Heartstopper  - Joy Fielding - 387 pgs. (13, 493 pgs.)
43.  Judy Moody, Mood Martian - 208 pgs. (13,701 pgs.)
44.  Winter at the Door - Sarah Graves - 272 pgs (13,973 pgs,)
45,  Deadline - John Sandford - 388 pgs. (14, 361 pgs.)
46.  The Professional - Robert B. Parker - 289 pgs.  (14,650 pgs.)
47.  Summer of the Gypsy Moths - Sara Pennypacker - 275 pgs.  (14,925 pgs.)
48.  After the Storm - Linda Castillo - 320 pgs. (15,245 pgs.)
49.  The Killing Floor - Lee Child - 524 pgs. (15,769 pgs.)
50.  Darkness First  - James Hayman - 496 pgs. (16,265 pgs.)
51.  Ruby Red - Kerstin Gier - 330 pgs. (16,595 pgs.)
52. The Kiss of Deception- Mary E. Pearson - 489 pgs. (17,084 pgs.)
53. A Hidden Secret - Linda Castillo - 74 pgs. (17,158 pgs.)
54. A Reliable Wife, - Robert Goolrick - 291 pgs. (17,449 pgs.)
55. Sapphire Blue - Kerstin Gier - 362 pgs. (17,811 pgs.)
56.  Six Years - Harlan Coben - 368 pgs. (18,179 pgs.)
57.  Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard - 383 pgs. (18,562 pgs.)8.
58.  The Eighth Day - Dianne K. Salerni - 320 pgs. (18,882 pgs.)
59.  The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness - 479 pgs. (19,361 pgs.)
DNF - The Inquisitor's Mark - Dianne K. Salerni - read 93 pgs. (19,454 pgs.)
60.  Court of Fives  - Kate Elliott - 432 pgs. (19,886 pgs.)
61.  Victims  - Jonathan Kellerman - 338 pgs. (20,224 pgs.)
62.  Tag Man - Archer Mayor - 290 pgs. (20,514 pgs.)
63.  The Impossible Knife of Memory - Laurie Halse Anderson 281 pgs. (20,795 pgs.)
64.  Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel - 336 pgs. (21,131 pgs.)
65,  The Wrath & the Dawn - Renee Ahdieh - 395 pgs. (21,526 pgs.)
66.  GEORGE - Alex Gino - 199 pgs. (21,725 pgs.)
67.  Running Blind  - Lee Child - 512 pgs. (22,257 pgs.)
68.  The Hired Girl - Laura Amy Schlitz - 387 pgs. (22,624 pgs.)
69.  The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell - Chris Colfer - 438 pgs. (23,062 pgs.)
70.  Deception - Jonathan Kellerman - 338 pgs. (23,400 pgs.)
71.  Till the Sun Breaks Down - Tom Leveen - 130 pgs. (23,530 pgs.)

MOVIE - Interstellar

PG-13 (2:49)

Wide release 11/7/2014

Reel Pizza 12/31/2014 with Fran and Christine

RT Critic:  73  Audience:   87

Cag:  4.5/Liked it a lot (despite its too-long length)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Paramount Pictures

Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, Topher Grace, Matt Damon,

My comments:This one one loooooong movie!  Too long, some parts went on forever.  But what a mind it took to create this!  Space is one thing, time and space is another.  The time part - that's what this whole movie is about.  Really something.....

RT Summary:  With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.

MOVIE - Annie

PG (1:58)

Wide release 12/19/14

12/28/2014 with Ashley & Heather in Bangor

RT Critic:  29  Audience:   63

Cag:  2 /So disappointed!

Directed by Will Gluck

Sony Pictures

Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, Bobby Canavale

My comments:  Cameron Diaz was horrible.  Jamie Foxx was coooool.  Annie - Quvenzane Wallis - wasn't sweet and optimistic at all.  And, although I realize it was a musical, if they broke out into song one more time I was going to barf.  It just didn't work.  At all.

RT Summary:  Academy Award (R) nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who's also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they'd be back for her someday, it's been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything's about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) - advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale) - makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he's her guardian angel, but Annie's self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it's the other way around. 

78. The Devil's Hour - J. Carson Black

#3 Laura Cardinal, Tucson Police

Read on my iPhone

2007, Breakaway Media

287 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 12/26//2014

Goodreads rating:  3.72

My rating:    4 - Loved it

Contemporary Tucson, AZ

1st sentence/s:  "Steve Lawson was on his way back to the cabin when he met the little girl.  It was a beautiful morning, the kind Steve loved.  As he hiked, his eye automatically cataloged the glittery trail of schist mixed in with the dirt along the dry creek bed, the granitic boulders flecked with biotite flakes and garnet.  But this morning, he wasn't thinking about the geological events that had shaped these mountains.  He was preoccupied with the message someone had left on his cell phone.  He wondered if the message had anything to do with the break-ins."

My comments:  When I read the first two books in the series, I loved tracing the story in, around, and through the Tucson I know and love.  I've hunted for years for more in the series, to no avail, until I stumbled across a reference to the series here on Goodreads.  Apparently there ARE more in the series, but they're in ebook form.  Fine with me!  I flew through this installment, and loved it.  The story was well told (although I wish there had been a few more surprises), but the descriptions of many places where action took place (up on Mt. Lemmon and out on the Pinal Highway going towards Florence, particularly) were so right on -- I really love this!  Laura Cardinal is smart but not as savvy as she should be, despite some of the training she still reviews from her now-dead mentor, Frank Entwhistle.  Ah well, without goof-ups there'd really be no story, right?

Goodreads book summary:  “J. Carson Black's THE DEVIL'S HOUR is a superior mystery novel in all respects. Fine prose, terrific suspense, believable characters, and one of the most unexpected and satisfying conclusions I've read in a long time. Highly recommended." — John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of DAMAGE 
     Laura Cardinal: Packs a SIG Sauer P226 9mm. Investigates homicides in small towns that have limited resources. Brings justice to murder victims—and to their killers. Laura’s job description: Criminal Investigator with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. But maybe it should just say “Troubleshooter.” 
     In 1997, the disappearance of three young girls rocked the city of Tucson, Arizona. Eleven years later, one of those girls, Micaela Brashear, comes home—alive. 
     Laura Cardinal worked homicide for Arizona DPS, but now she's been moved to the Open-Unsolved Unit. With a new job and a new partner who questions her every move, Laura pieces together Micaela's fragmented memories in the hope she will learn the whereabouts of the other two children. 
     When a man walking his dog finds the bones of a child in a shallow grave on the mountain above town, it becomes clear to Laura that Micaela was the lucky one. 
     But the killer isn't through yet, and after the fiery death of someone close to Laura, she realizes she faces an implacable enemy.

MOVIE - Birdman

(R) 1:59

Wide Release 10/17/14

Friday, 12/20/14 at ElCon

RT Critic:  93    Audience:   86

Cag:  4.5 Liked it a whole lot

Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Fox Searchlight

Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Zach Gilafialankas

My comments:  Yay! An interesting, well-acted and crafted, "outside-the-box" movie.  An excellent choice to celebrate beginning a two-week vacation. (And, quite unforgettable....)

RT Summary:  BIRDMAN or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance is a black comedy that tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton) - famous for portraying an iconic superhero - as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself. 

77. Snow Angels - James Thompson

#1 Kari Vaara, Finnish (Lapland) chief police inspector

Read on my iPhone

2010, G. P. Putnam

264 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 12/20/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.70

My rating:   4.5 Top-notch

Contemporary Finland

1st sentence/s:  "I'm in Hullu Poro, the Crazy Reindeer, the biggest bar and restaurant in this part of the Arctic Circle.  It was remodeled nolong ago, but pine boards line the walls and ceiling, like an old Finnish farmhouse.  Nouveau rustic decor."

My comments:  I've always been fascinated with the "idea" of Lapland - the Scandinavian winter (not the cold, harsh, DARK realities, but the pristine white ones), and complimentary artistry of Jan Brett.  This story takes us into the Arctic Circle at the very darkest time of year and gives it all the twist of a brutal murder from the point-of-view of the cop that has to solve it.  The twists and turns in the story are believable and were well appreciated. Believable characters, particularly the protagonists.  Kari Vaara's wife, Kate, an American expat who happens to be pregnant, is beginning to feel the depression of the 24-hours nights, which adds to the tension of the crime-solving. Searching for more information on American James Thompson in anticipation of more in the series, I discovered that he died suddenly a few months ago. Bummer.

Goodreads book summary:  Kaamos: Just before Christmas, the darkest time of the year in Lapland, above the Arctic Circle. The unrelenting darkness and extreme cold cause everyone to go just a little bit insane, whether or not they’ve just killed someone… 
          A beautiful Somalian refugee-turned-actress is found murdered on a reindeer farm, gruesomely mutilated, a racial slur carved into her chest. Inspector Kari Vaara, head of the rural police force, is under great pressure not only to solve this crime himself, without the help of the big-city cops from Helsinki, but also to keep the potentially explosive case out of the news. Sufia Elmi had become a tabloid fixture, and her death—not to mention the awful way she met it—is sure to send shock waves across this insular, secretly racist country. Was this murder a hate crime, a sex crime—or both?
          Kari is dealing with culture shock at home, too. His wife, Kate, is a young American woman, newly pregnant with their first child. She doesn’t understand much about Finnish customs or the Finns themselves and is struggling to come to terms with her new home. Kari himself is haunted by his rough childhood and his past, and even as he tries to shape a new life with Kate, the past keeps biting at his heels: the rich man his ex-wife left him for years ago may be Sufia’s killer. 

76. Cape Perdido - Marcia Muller

Audio read by Dick Hill & Joyce Bean

6 unabridged cds (7:00)

2005 Brilliance Audio

336 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 12/16/14

Goodreads rating: 3.50

My rating:    2 - It was okay

Contemporary Soledad County, northern California

My comments:  Short chapters from the point-of-view of four different people didn't pull the story together for me.  I couldn't seem to become embroiled in the mystery, or care about any of the characters. Also, I'm so used to Dick Hill's reading other books that I couldn't relate to him as the two male voices in this one. Nothing seemed to work real well for me in this one.

Goodreads book summary:  Cape Perdido is a small town in Northern California which has a clear, cold water river held in Public Trust. The town's main industry once was lumber, but when Timothy McNear closed the mill, tourism became the income source. Now a group wants to siphon off a large percentage of Perdido's water every year to ship to Southern California. To combat this, the town has brought in ecologists and environmentalist Joseph Openshaw, a native of Perdido. But the strife leads to a murder and awakens secrets from the past.
*** This is a true ensemble cast with each chapter focused on one of the four main characters, each a native of the town. Although they are interesting, it's one of the secondary characters, Jessie Domingo, a young environmentalist from New York, who really captured my interest. The story is well written and involving with good suspense at the end. 

75. Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Smith

2014, Dutton Juvenile

388 pgs.

YA - very graphic 

Finished 12/13/14

Goodreads rating:  3.79

My rating:  4.5 Loved it

TPPL

Setting:   Contemporary Ealy, Iowa

1st line/s:  "I read somewhere that human beings are genetically predisposed to record history.  We believe it will prevent us from doing stupid things in the future.  But even though we dutifully archived elaboate records of everything we've ever done, we also managed to keep on doing dumber and dumber shit.  This is my history.  There are things in here: babies with two heads, insects as big as refrigerators, God, the devil, limbless warriors, rocket ships, sex, diving bells, theft, wars, monsters, internal combustion engines, love, cigarettes, joy, bomb shelters, pizza, and cruelty.  Just like it's always been."

My comments:  4.5 Definitely quite the story! This felt like the story of a 16-year old from a 16-year-old's actual point of view, complete with testosterone...a great deal of testosterone. Family history, friendship, questioning sexuality, midwestern America, private school vs. public, Lutherans and Catholics, excessive horniness, 6-foot tall indestructable preying mantises, shades of "Lost", underground bunkers that can sustain lives for years....stories and histories and his-stories ... and a bit more testosterone.  Many layers, written in a style that's just a little different than the norm, and completely refreshing.  It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did, it swallowed me up!

Goodreads book summary:  Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.
          To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He's stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it's up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

74. Chill of the Night - James Hayman

#2 McCabe & Savage, Portland, Maine

2010 Minotaur Books

340 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 12/9/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.85

My rating: 4

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Portland, Maine

1st line/s:  Portland, Maine/ Friday, December 23:  "Had Number Ten Monument Square been set among the skyscrapers of New York, or even Boston, no one would have noticed it.  In a town like Portland it stood as one of the defining features of the skyline.  Twelve stories of reddish brown granite with black windows set between vertical piers, Number Ten towered arrogantly over the east side of the square, a big player in a small town.  At its top, large white letters proclaimed to anyone who cared to look that the building was the headquarters of Palmer Milliken, the city's largest and most prestigious law firm."

My comments:  I think I liked this one better than the first!  The major part of the setting is Portland, Maine; this time it forayed off onto an island just five minutes by ferry from the Portland dock.  This one had to do with the murder of a gorgeous, young lawyer, and included a schizophrenic 20-something, and a sanctuary for teenagers that have been sexually abused.  I particularly like that the lives of the police officers - mainly Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage (ah...a good Maine name.....) are so nicely intertwined with the story, their foibles, their insecurities, their characters.  Good mystery.  Very good.  I'm looking forward to more.

Goodreads book summary:  Glamorous young Portland attorney Lainie Goff thought she had it all—brains, beauty, and a fast-track to a partnership in a top-ranked firm that was going to make her rich. But then one cold winter night she pushed things too far, and her naked frozen body is found in the sub-zero temperatures at the end of the Portland Fish Pier.
          The only witness to the crime: a mentally disturbed young woman named Abby Quinn who mysteriously disappears the very same night.
          With the discovery of Lainie Goff ’s body and the disappearance of Abby Quinn, Portland homicide detective Michael McCabe finds himself on the trail of a relentless and clever killer. A killer he must find before another life is lost.

73. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

Audio read by the author!

5 unabridged discs

2013 William Morrow Books

181 pgs.

Adult Fantasy

Finished 12/6/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.99

My rating:    3.5 Liked it quite a bit, eventually

TPPL

Contemporary Sussex, England (I guess....)

1st sentence/s:  "It was only a duck pond out at the back of the farm.  It wasn't very big.  Lettie Hempstock said it was an ocean, but I knew that was silly.  She said they'd come here, across the ocean from the old country.  Her mother said that Lettie didn't remember properly and it was a long time ago and anyway the old country had sunk."

My comments:    At first I thought this book just wasn't going to be my cuppa tea.  But, as intricate and odd as the story was, it pulled me in.  I've never finished a Neil Gaiman book before - other than a picture book - although I love his writing  and the way he puts words together.  I'm glad I completed this book - it's the kind of story that will stay with me for awhile.  I'm particularly glad that I listened to the version that Neil Gaiman read himself.  The story is about what happened to a seven-year-old-boy, but told 30-plus years later as an adult.  A big element of creepy -- and a huge imagination needed, which I was able to access after the first disc or so....

Goodreads book summary:  Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
          Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
          A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Laneis told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

MOVIE - Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Rating/Time

Wide/Limited release

1st time I've been to RoadHouse Cinemas: with Sheila 12/4/2014

RT Critic:    Audience:   

Cag:  3: Liked it, I guess.....didn't like this last book, so depressing, and the movie was dark (literally) making it even more depressing

Directed by

Studio

Based on the book by Suzanne Collins

Jennifer Lawrence, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson

My comments:

RT Summary:  

72. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - Joshilyn Jackson

Audio read by the author

Unabridged cds (9:24)

2008

311 pgs.

Adult CRF/Mystery

Finished 11/30/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.43

My rating:   3.5 Liked it a lot

Contemporary Florida

1st sentence/s: "Until the drowned girl came to Laurel's bedroom, ghosts had never walked in Victoriana.  The houses were only twenty years old with no accumulated history to put creaks in the hardwood floors or rattle at the pipes."

My comments:  I really love Joshilyn Jackson's writing.  Her descriptions are .... elegant.
The way she writes her characters make it seem as if you know them, or someone like them.  Her plots are always interesting, woven in fascinating ways.  This one had an element of "ghosts" that were not real, just in the protagonist's head, much like they could be in anyone's head, whether we'd like to admit it or not.  But the icing on the cake?  Jackson, herself, was the reader of this audio book.  And she was just plain terrific.  She has become one of my very favorite writers.

Goodreads book summary:  Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty. Coming from a family with a literal skeleton in their closet, she's developed this talent all her life, whether helping her willful mother to smooth over the reality of her family's ugly past, or elevating humble scraps of unwanted fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. 
          Her sister Thalia, an impoverished "Actress" with a capital A, is her opposite, and prides herself in exposing the lurid truth lurking behind life's everyday niceties. And while Laurel's life was neatly on track, a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in lovely suburban Victorianna, everything she holds dear is thrown into question the night she is visited by an apparition in her bedroom. The ghost appears to be her 14-year-old neighbor Molly Dufresne, and when Laurel follows this ghost , she finds the real Molly floating lifeless in her swimming pool. While the community writes the tragedy off as a suicide, Laurel can't. Reluctantly enlisting Thalia's aid, Laurel sets out on a life-altering investigation that triggers startling revelations about her own guarded past, the truth about her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.