UPDATED

We did it!!!  Bookworm and I completed a 2nd year of the A to Z Reading Challenge!!!

We also completed My Reader's Block Color Coded Challenge!!

We have 1 more to complete for 2019 and then onto next year for a totally different reading challenge!!

WOO HOO - AND we both finished Girl XOXO's Monthly Motif Challenge

The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire

2019 A to Z Challenge - "X"

This felt less like a Gregory Maguire novel and more like Christopher Moore one.  The characters were beyond quirky (some likable, others not so much), the humor was wry and I got to the end thinking, What?  At times it was laugh out loud funny, at other times I was rolling my eyes at the juvenile language and actions.  I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure I can say I like it.

Summary from Fantastic Fiction: With the new millennium approaching, the eccentric town of Thebes grows even stranger.  Mrs. Leontina Scales begins speaking in tongues after being clocked by a Catholic statuette.  Her daughter, Tabitha, and her sons scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus - whatever comes first.  Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K.  The ancient Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries join with a gay singing group. The Radical Radiants battle the Catholics.  A Christmas pageant goes horribly awry.  And a child is born.

Quotes:  "...why do the living adopt such a giddy tone when referring to the dead?  As if there's escape for any of us. Is it anything other than black humor, the glib callow relief of being alive still?"

"'I hate New Year's Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven't yet done what you wanted.  And to pretend it doesn't matter.'"

              Today We go Home - Kelli Estes
                         Newest on TBR

What a wonderful book!   What a wonderful way to honor all of the amazing women in our military, past and present. Ms. Estes does a great job of showing us how hard it is on the women who choose to defend our country.

Meet Larkin,  a soldier coming home from combat in Afghanistan. Suffering from PTSD, grieving the lost of her best friend, Sarah,   and trying to fit back into  society.   Sarah left all of her belongs to Larkin including a diary from a woman who fought in the Civil War.

So meet Emily,  a courageous woman who disguises herself as a man and fights along side her brother in the Civil War. 

The chapters alternated between Emily in 1862 and Larkin in present day.  We are shown the hardships and heartache that both Emily and Larkin. 

Next time you see a female military person,   be sure to thank her for her service.!!!!

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Series

Welp I did it again!  I'm giving up on another series.  Chalk it up to the 1,000+ books on my TBR.  I did give Mr. Nesbo a good ole college try, but he simply has too many red herrings often without any follow-up or explanation.

In this, the 7th in the series (yes, I skipped WAY ahead) I was anticipating the red herrings and actually figured out the suspect, but since the main clue was never explained I was again left frustrated with Mr. Nesbo.

The Snowman was very fast paced even with the abundant red herrings (I've said red herrings for about as many red herrings as Mr. Nesbo puts in his plots!), but it just wasn't enough for me to give Mr. Nesbo a fourth, fifth or sixth chance. 

So, I'm now moving onto another series!!

From Goodreads: Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother's pink scarf.   Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he's received and the disappearance of Jonas's mother - and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised - and constantly revised - by the killer.

     In the Midst of Winter  -  Isabel Allende

#2019AtoZChallenge - I 
#monthlymotifchallenge - Seasonal

This was my first book by this author.  It was a bit slow for me and it seems to jump around too much.  I really wanted to like it but it just didn't flow for me.
It was mostly a "character development"  .

We learned the histories of 3 people;
Richard,  a widowed university professor in Brooklyn,
Lucia,  a 60 year old living in Richard's basement
                                    Evelyn, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala needing Richard's and Lucia's help..   Oh, and a body in the trunk of a car.!!!'

On a side note,  this finishes my #2019AtoZChallenge!!!!

Goodreads says,   
Exploring the timely issues of human rights and the plight of immigrants and refugees, the book recalls Allende’s landmark novel The House of the Spirits in the way it embraces the cause of “humanity, and it does so with passion, humor, and wisdom that transcend politics” (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post). In the Midst of Winter will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

Yea,  I didn't get all of that!!!  

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

ARC from BookBrowse First Impressions

Even though I have 2 challenges to complete, book club books to read, a tome of the history of the Panama Canal to conquer before the end of November AND an ever growing TBR, I couldn't pass up the chance to win an ARC (I also requested Lady Clementine, but fortunately I didn't receive it too!) of this much anticipated novel.

This was my first novel by Simone St. James  and it most certainly won't be my last!!! (somehow we had the Haunting of Maddy Clare in our personal library but it is gone??  See bookworm's review from Feb 2016.
 https://topplingbookpile.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-haunting-of-maddy-clare-simone-st.html )

A media review of "mixes creepy supernatural tale with a gripping mystery." sums it up perfectly.  It reminded me of some of Dean Koontz's work, mystery/thriller with just a touch of the supernatural.

The book volleys back and forth between 1982 and 2017.  Viv who disappeared narrates 1982 and Carly, her niece narrates 2017.  There were times when I got a little mixed up as when Carly would be surprised by a new fact she discovered and I'm yelling at her "You already knew that!" forgetting that it was Viv who already knew it, not Carly!  But for the most part the book flows well between the 2 different time periods with the story developing versus being duplicated.  It is fast paced and as the mystery comes to an end it is a book you don't want to put down!  Though I probably wouldn't read this while on a road trip staying at motels/hotels even WITH the lights on, because you never know when they may go out!!

Quotes:  "Libraries were my places."

"...a terrifying mystery in town...A man wrote, 'I will not let my wife stay home alone'...his wife...thinking Please leave me home alone. Just for ten minutes."

"'...1979....If I got married and had babies, I was weak.  If I stayed single, I was a dyke.'"

"Because if you were a woman, the world was a dangerous place."

                  The Elizas - Sara Shepard
                              New Author

#2019ColorChallenge

Eliza is an upcoming author and her 1st novel is soon to be published.  But she has a history of instability  and when she is found in the pool of a hotel,  she swears that someone pushed her.  That she did not jump like last time. 

Other things happen to Eliza that convince her that someone is trying to kill her,  or is she just paranoid and confusing her life with that of the characters in her book.

Sometimes confusing to the reader (well, me anyway) as the chapters alternate between Eliza in present time and chapter & characters in Eliza's novel, "The Dots".

Goodreads:

Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?

  The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

#2019AtoZChallenge - R
#2019ColorChallenge - yellow

Meet Don,  he wants to find the perfect wife to fit into his very controlled life.  So he devises an unique questionnaire to help him find her.  He calls it  "The Wife Project".

A friend of Don's introduces him to Rosie, who has nothing in common with Don, and certainly can not answer the questionnaire!!!.   But Rosie wants to find her biological father and Don agrees to help her.   And so begins the "Father Project"

A comical and witty story about friendship and how we all want to fit in.

Goodreads:::
an international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.

 Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.