Crazy4reading is just going crazy in 2018

This is a work in progress. My reading this past year slowed down the second half of the year. Not sure what my CATS are going to be this year, so I am just going to reserve some spots and go from there. So I still need to decide on my categories. I am adding my tracker. Some Categories I am thinking of are:

New to me
Children's
Gifts
Mystery
Book Club
E-books (ones that I own)
Romance
Historical
TBR
Library
Non-Fiction (I have some autobiographies that I own and would like to read)
Young Adult
Fantasy
Paranormal

I may combine some of these Categories.

Here is my ticker:

save

Library/Book Club

1. The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy
2. The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Free Books/ER books/Gifts

First in Series/New to me

Mystery

Children's/ Young Adult

1. Peter Pan by Eugene Bradley Coco
2. Lion King by Justine Korman
3. Just go to bed by Mercer Mayer
4. Just me and my dad by Mercer Mayer
5. Aladdin the Magic Carpet ride by Teddy Slater Marguiles
6. Pinocchio by Eugene Bradley Coco

Non Fiction

romance/Historical Fiction

Fantasy/Paranormal

E-Books

Anything goes

The categories are only slightly less important than the books that fill them. Have a wonderful year!

>13 mamzel: That is very true!! Thanks!

Have a great reading year!

Happy reading!

>15 rabbitprincess: Thank you! You too!

>16 thornton37814: Thanks, same to you!

It seems like everything falls into place once we get started. Hope it's a good reading year for you!

Welcome back and enjoy your reading year!

Lovely to see your thread up and looking forward to following your 2018 reading!

>18 clue: I hope everything falls into place! Thanks!
>19 DeltaQueen50: Great to be back! Thanks!
>20 lkernagh: Thanks. Hoping to have some great reads this year.

So my daughter had some children's books she was getting rid of so she gave them to me. Of course I decided to read some of them before I give them away to different places. Here are the books that I read this weekend.

1. Peter Pan (A Little Golden Book) by Eugene Bradley Coco
2. Disney's Aladdin the Magic Carpet ride by Teddy Slater Margulies
3. Just me and my dad by Mercer Mayer
4. Just go to bed by Mercer Mayer
5. Disney's The Lion King (Little Golden Book) by Justine Korman

I enjoyed all of them. It was nice to revisit the books that my children read when they were young.

I have more children's books to read and I hope to read some of them this week.

I love the Little Golden Books!

I can't forget reading Tawny, Scrawny Lion to my kids - over and over and over...
I bet everyone has a favorite!

>23 lkernagh: I love them too. I remember my kids having these books. I don't even know where my daughter got these books.

>24 mamzel: I cannot remember one book that I read over and over again to my kids besides the Dr. Seuss books.

I finished a book this past weekend. Here is my review:

#6. The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy
I really enjoyed this book. The chapters were short which made it fun to read. Sometimes when the chapters are super long it is hard to get into a book. I loved the story.

This book is set during WW2 in Guernsey. During the occupation and how the people on the island dealt with it. I found myself wondering how we as a society would handle something like this. Would we act the same way? Would we try to defend ourselves more? Could you actually fall in love with someone from the enemy side?

The ending was one that I had expected and was pleased with it.

4 stars

Tonight I pick up our next book club read which is The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin I am still reading Every Wild Heart by Meg Donohue. That is an ER book and I am really behind on it and all of my ER books. Hoping to finish that book this weekend in between spending time with my boyfriend and trying to exercise.

I am still trudging through my book club book for this month. Funny thing yesterday I was thinking that tomorrow (meaning Wed 2/14) is out book club meeting. Well I am rushing this month. Our meeting is not until next Wed. I was worried that I wasn't going to have the book finished tonight. I have to stop watching Supernatural and playing Sing Star on Playstation and read. I don't want to stop my exercising since I haven't been doing that too often.

I have been busy with my BF the past couple of weekends. Funny thing is most Saturdays are spent apart as we each do a few things at our own places. Saturday night usually consists of him playing video games and I am either on my computer playing games, or my phone playing games or just looking at Facebook. When I should be reading. I actually enjoy watching him play video games and sometimes want to play along too. It cuts into my reading time.

Today after work I am planning to go home and get in some exercise and then shower and get ready to head over to Tom's place. He works till after 8 pm. I may take some time to read before I head over or play on my Sing Star (which could be a bad idea because I love to sing!!) And 5 minutes has turned into hours.

I am still reading The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. I hope to make some headway with it tonight. I think I will have to listen to music and really concentrate on just reading.

Lazy-watching telly is my downfall. "Just one more episode. Just one more episode. Just ONE more episode." :)

>28 -Eva-: That is what I kept doing with Supernatural. I am on the current season but still need to watch the first couple of episodes. If I can get caught up on them I will be able to watch them the next day instead of having to binge watch the show when it is available on Netflix.

#7 Pinocchio by Eugene Bradley Coco

Easy read for young children. A great way to introduce reading to children. I always enjoy revisiting these books.

5 stars

#8 The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

I enjoyed this book. I did not read any reviews prior to picking up and starting the book. I enjoyed the characters and the story line. I love reading about the Titanic and the fact that this book is set part on the Titanic and in the US after the Titanic sank.

Tess was the one character I enjoyed following. Her interactions with the rich. She held her own and showed that it doesn't matter what you are dealt in life.

Before reading this book I did not know that there had been trials concerning the Titanic. I found those proceedings interesting and it really makes you think how would you react if you were in that type of situation.

4 stars

I am currently reading The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown and still working on The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin and a few other books.

#9. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

I enjoyed the characters in this book. I found myself feeling sorry for Lavinia from the beginning. She is an orphaned at a young age and is placed with a family as a servant girl. She doesn't learn the rules of society. Lavinia also makes you realize how children don't judge people by the way they look.

This story takes place during slavery and on a plantation. The way the women both black and white are treated made me appreciate all that we now have. I felt for the black women because they were abused, beaten and looked down upon by the white men. The white women looked at them as whores and their servants.

All the characters were so well developed and I felt for them. Belle who raised Lavinia as her own was one I felt such pain and sorrow for. I am glad our book club read this book this year.

5 stars

I have really been slacking on some of my reading this year. Here are some books I completed recently.

#10. Pocahontas
#11. The Jungle Book
#12. The Little Mermaid (Ariel's Underwater Adventure)
#13. Alice in Wonderland
#14. The Rescuers Down Under

These were all cute stories. They were all the Little Golden Books that my children used to read.

#15. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Summer Sisters is the story of two unlikely friends. Caitlin (Cait) and Victoria (Vix) are the summer sisters. Vix life changes when Cait invites Victoria to her father's on Martha's Vineyard during the summer. Caitlin is privileged while Vix family struggles to survive. The two girls start their relationship at the age of 12 and follows them through till they turn 30.

Vix is a very shy, quiet and considers herself ordinary, while Cait comes from a divorced wealthy family. Vix is thrilled that Cait wants to be her friend and invites her to spend the summer with her at her father's place.

I found myself actually feeling for the characters. I felt sorry for Vix at times for the way Caitlin would treat her. Cait was very reckless and did help Vix expand her experiences. I did find myself laughing at times.

5 stars

#16. Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

This was a book that we read for our book club this month (December 2018). I have been wanting to read this book but just kept putting it off. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

I don't always enjoy books that go back and forth between characters. This time I found it very interesting to go from Rachel's point of view, to Anna's, to Megan's etc. To view what Rachel saw from the train and what she imagined was happening was interesting. It made me think about the times I take the train and how you really don't know what could be happening right outside your window.

This book had some twists. I did get annoyed with Rachel a little and her drinking to numb herself. I felt it was just a way to make her character seem weak. As the story progressed you realize that maybe she was almost pushed to drinking.

This story had me guessing until the end as to who committed the murder of Megan. A book that can keep me on my toes till the end is a good book to me.

5 stars

I finished another book last night:

#17. The Christmas Gift by J. Dietrich

This was a short story about the gift of Christmas that is in all of us. I enjoyed the rhythm of the words.

4 stars

#18. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

I finished this book late last night. I found this book boring most of the time. I didn't get drawn in from the beginning like I wanted to. There were times when the book was interesting, but alas I cannot remember specific locations. I have enjoyed Sherlock Holmes stories but the way it was incorporated into this story just wasn't my cup of tea.

I am not going to let this book stop me from reading other books written by Laurie R. King. I will look at what else she has written and see if they are possibly something I would be interested in reading.

3 stars

I don't think I'll reach my goal before the end of the year, but I will try again next year.

#19. Widow's War by Sally Gunning

I read this book for my book club. It was from a few months ago and I just finished it. I had trouble getting into the story. I felt the story moved slow at first.

I enjoyed the main female character. She was a strong independent woman who became a widow and still wanted to live in her home during an age when women had no rights. That I enjoyed about the book. To realize how far we have come as women and get men will still try to hold us back or down.

3 stars

>34 crazy4reading: I loved The Girl on the Train too!

And I felt the same as you did about The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I haven't acquired any more of Laurie King's books since then.

>38 VivienneR: I can't wait to see how everyone in my book club feels about The Girl on The train. The Beekeeper's Apprentice was also a book club read and I think there were mixed emotions about it too. So loved it some didn't.

>34 crazy4reading:, >36 crazy4reading: and >38 VivienneR: - Chiming in to comment that I also loved The Girl on the Train. Really hooked me for unreliable narrators. It looks like I enjoyed The Beekeeper's Apprentice more then both of you. I am wondering if my love for the King book is because I listened to the audiobook and found the reader did a fabulous job pulling off Holmes' tone and mannerisms.

>40 lkernagh: I sometimes have noticed that listening to a book can make it more interesting instead of reading it.

>41 crazy4reading: And sometimes it can do just the opposite.

>42 VivienneR: Yes that is true too. I have had that experience too.

Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with good health and good reading.

>44 thornton37814: Thanks Lori! Happy New Year to you!

>45 VivienneR: Thanks Vivienne! Happy New Year to you too!