LOL! I am on the ball here....so what are you reading to start off the new year??

I'm reading SECONDHAND SMOKE by Karen E. Olson in hardcover from the library, THE BOOKWOMAN'S LAST FLING by John Dunning in paperback at work, and listening to ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn (or however that's spelled!) in downloaded audio from the library.

Have a wonderful reading month and year everyone!

Cheryl

I am here at work, and I am reading a really good cozy: Scrub-A-Dub Dead by Barbara Colley!

I hope to read at least two more over the next couple of days! lol

Happy New Year! : )

I am reading Honeymoon with my Brother by Franz Wisner. I am about halfway and should fiinsh it tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

It's still Dec 31st here in Western Wa.  I'm reading Behind Closed Doors by Shannon McKenna.

Still have about 38 minutes to go in California...

I'm reading Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk I started it in 07 but Im only about two chapters in so its gonna be an 08 book.

I'm reading The Night Before by Lisa Jackson. I started it yesterday but I'm only 100 pages in so far.

Chris, I really enjoyed Choke. It is a favorite of mine.

I'm reading Ask the Dust by John Fante.

Reading Odd Thomas by Koontz

Just finishing An Army at Dawn: the war in North Africa 1942-1943, by Rick Atkinson and just starting Patriot Battles: how the War of Independence was fought, by Michael Stephenson. Been re-reading a lot of Dickens, my comfort author, and I'm also re-reading Founding Brothers, by Ellis.

Les

Well, I finished the last few chapters of The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Means for the World by Karpin, Michael  this morning so I have already finished a book in 2008, lol!!!  I haven't decided what is up next. Maybe a fiction book or maybe I will re-read Flowers for Algernon. It is about time to re-read that book again I think:)

My January reading list:

Finished - 

1. "Chosen by a Horse" by Susan Richards (A+) This is a true story and I loved it. The horse Susan Richards chose for rescue wouldn't be corralled into her waiting trailer. But Lay Me Down, a former racehorse with a foal close on her heels, walked right up that ramp and into Susan's life. Weak from malnutrition, Lay Me Down had endured a rough road, but somehow her heart was still open and generous. Then fate brought her into Susan's paddock, where she taught this brokenhearted woman how to embrace the joys of life despite the dangers of living. "Susan Richards thought she was rescuing a starved, abused and abandoned mare...turns out Lay Me Down was rescuing Susan Richards. An incredibly moving story, beautifully written and insightful." - The Roanoke Times
2. "Wedding Ring" by Emilie Richards (Shenandoah Album) (A+) Needing time to contemplate her troubled marriage, Tessa agrees to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother clean out the family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. But the three women have never been close. Helen, the family matriarch, is domineering and sharp-tongued. Nancy, Tessa's mother, appears to be little more than a social climber. And Tessa herself is in turmoil following a family tragedy that has affected them all. Now, with the gift of time, Tessa's eyes are opened, and she begins to see her mother and grandmother for the flawed but courageous women they are. As she restores a vintage wedding-ring quilt pieced by her grandmother and quilted by her mother, the secrets that have shadowed their lives unfold at last.
3. "The Edge of Winter" by Luanne Rice (A+) In the aftermath of the long breakup of her marriage, Neve Halloran and her daughter, Mickey, are making a new life together amid the austere beauty of Rhode Island's South Country. At the center of the book is a Snowy Owl and a German u-boat that was sunk there just off the coast during World War Two. Both of which it is going to take to bring a family together again.
4. "Skeleton Canyon" by J.A. Jance (book #5) (A) It was love that brought Brianna O'Brien to Skeleton Canyon for a romantic tryst with her adoring boyfriend, a rendezvous the beautiful teenager would never live to experience. Now it's up to Joanna Brady and the people in her department to figure out what went wrong.
5. "Blessings" by Anna Quindlen (B-) A teenage couple drives up, late at night, headlights out, to Blessings, the estate owned by Lydia Blessing. They leave a box and drive away and in that instant, the world of Blessings is changed forever.
6. "Bait" by Karen Robards (A) I started reading this book only to discover that I'd read it before, but it was one of those that is just as good the second time around. Some good chuckles and edge of your seat reading. When advertising executive Maddie Fitzgerald is attacked in a New Orleans hotel, she thinks that she's a victim of random, senseless violence. FBI agent Sam McCabe thinks otherwise - that she's the target of a serial killer who's eluded the FBI for weeks. He also knows that there's only one way to catch him: use Maddie as the bait. But as McCabe's intimate protection ignites irresistible passion, Maddie finds herself in greater danger than she believed possible - and closer to the killer than she ever imagined.
7. "A Life on the Road" an audiocassette book by Charles Kuralt (A+) For more than 30 years Charles Kuralt traveled the world's byways. In this warm, deeply affecting memoir, Kuralt retraces the steps of a journey that began when he was a young CBS news reporter frantically trying to cover international events, a journey that took him to South American, Vietnam, and the Okefenokee Swamp. From an Arizona cowboy who confessed to wearing pantyhose under his chaps and a Moscow dentist who tearfully thanked former American POW's for saving his life in a German prison camp, to memorable meetings with Marlon Brando and Nikita Khrushchev - here is a story of triumphs and tragedies, swimming pigs and cattle roundups, and one man's lifelong love of the road and the people he's met along the way. (This book is on two cassette tapes.)
8. "Creation in Death" by J.D. Robb (A+)  "The Groom" is back! Eve and Feeney had conducted the first investigation nine years ago when Eve was just a rookie cop, then he just disappeared. Only this time the women who turn up dead and missing are employees of Roarkes. And this time his sights are set on the biggest challenge of his "illustrious career" - an abduction that will test his skills and promises to give him satisfaction as he's never known. Time is running out on another woman's life...and for Eve.
9. "Love With the Proper Stranger" by Suzanne Brockmann (A-) Nothing he told her was the truth...his name wasn't Jonathan Mills, and he wasn't vacationing on the idyllic island. FBI agent John Miller was on the trail of a notorious female serial killer, and he couldn't blow his cover to anyone. Not even the beguiling Mariah Carver, who had unwittingly entangled herself in a web of deadly deceit.
10. "Charles Kuralt's Christmas" an audiocassette book by Charles Kuralt (A) Throughout his almost four decades of life on the road, Charles Kuralt has introduced us to people and places that have warmed our hearts. Now he retraces his most memorable Christmas sojourns to remind us of the many marvelous ways that we celebrate this special holiday.
11. "Undercover Princess" by Suzanne Brockman (A+) "The name's Wind, Kathy Wind...." with those words, Princess Katherine Wyndham went from sensible sister to secret agent. Her mission: to locate her brother - the long-lost crown prince. Her cover: nanny for handsome tycoon Trey Sutherland.
12. "Eve's Christmas" by Janet Dailey (A-) Eve first met Luck outside a bar he was leaving. He called her a brown mouse. Not that she didn't feel that was true, but it hurt her feelings. Then she and her parents moved into their lakeside cottage and one of their neighbors turned out to be Luck and his young son, Toby.
13. "Charles Kuralt's Summer" an audiocassette book by Charles Kuralt (A) Charles douses the heat with breezy tales of our most extraordinary summer celebrations. Kuralt recalls some of his favorite summertime adventures. From Memorial Day in Gettysburg and tubing down a Wisconsin river to stone skipping off Michigan's Mackinac Island and Fourth of July rituals around America.
14. "The Mulberry Tree" by Jude Deveraux (A+) "He needed me." For nearly twenty years, those three words dictated the life of Lillian Manville. Quiet, unassuming and overweight, Lillian did anything and everything to please her husband, the illustrious self-made billionaire, James Manville. Since the tender age of sevenreen, she had obeyed this powerful older man's every command and in return she received a life beyond her wildest dreams. Elaborate mansions. Trips around the world. The finest jewels and the most luxurious fashions. "Whatever I wanted, he gave me long before I knew I wanted it." But when Jimmie dies suddenly in a plane crash, Lillian's pampered life comes to an abrupt halt. 
15. "My Christmas Cowboy" by Kate Hoffmann (another Coooper's Corners book) (A) Bah Humbug! That's what single mom Grace Penrose felt about Christmas this year. Grace was in charge of the annual Cooper's Corner Christmas Festival, and so far there was no snow, moths had eaten the pageant costumes, and the sleigh-ride horses had just been sold to Montana rancher Tucker McCabe.
16. "On The Road with Charles Kuralt" an audiocassette book by Charles Kuralt. (A) to read the front pages, you might conclude that Americans are mostly out for themselves...but you can't travel the back roads very long without discovering a multitude of gentle people doing good for others with no expectation of gain or recognition.
17. "Gracie A Love Story" an audiocassette book by George Burns. (A+) "Say goodnight, Gracie..." With those now familiar words, George Burns and Gracie Allen bid farewell to devoted audiences at the end of each of their broadcasts throughout the Golden Age of radio and television. Now, in this moving audio portrait, George Burns tells the story of his life with Gracie, the dizzie comedienne whose "illogical logic" charmed America.

Currently Reading - 

1. "My Sister Life" by Maria Flook 
2. "Blood Brothers" by Nora Roberts

To Be Read - 

1. "The Princess's White Knight" by Carla Cassidy
2. "Tell No One" by Harlan Coben
3. "The Day the World Came to Town - 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland" by Jim DeFede
4. "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon (book #1)
5. "Dragonfly in Amber" by Diana Gabaldon (book #2)
6. "Voyager"  by Diana Gabaldon (book #3)
7. "Drums of Autumn" by Diana Gabaldon (book #4)
8. "The Fiery Cross"  by Diana Gabaldon (book #5)
9. "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" by Diana Gabaldon (book #6)
10. "On Mystic Lake" by Kristin Hannah
11. "The Shape Shifter" by Tony Hillerman
12. "Angel Creek" by Linda Howard
13. "Rattlesnake Crossing" by J.A. Jance (book #6)
14. "Outlaw Mountain" by J.A. Jance (book #7)
15. "The Search" by Iris Johansen
16. "The Honk and Holler Opening Soon" by Billie Letts
17. "The Preacher's Daughter" by Beverly Lewis
18. "The Englisher" by Beverly Lewis
19. "The Brethren" by Beverly Lewis
20. "The Manning Sisters" by Debbie Macomber
21. "A Royal Baby On the Way" by Susan Mallery
22. "Dancing in the Dark" by Sandra Marton (another Cooper's Corners book)
23. "Rhett Butler's People" by Donald McCaig
24. "Legend" by Dinah McCall
25. "Ready" by Lucy Monroe (book #1)
26. "Willing" by Lucy Monroe (book #2)
27. "And Able" by Lucy Monroe (book #3)
28. "Night's Landing" by Carla Neggers
29. "Mary, Mary" by James Patterson (Alex Cross, book #11)
30. "The Privilege of Youth - A Teenager's Story" by Dave Pelzer
31. "Man...Mercenary...Monarch" by Joan Elliott Pickart
32. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult
33. "For Better or for Worse" by Debbi Rawlins (another Coopers Corners book)
34. "Cradle and All" by M.J. Rodgers (another Cooper's Corners book)
35. "Safe Harbor" by Luanne Rice
36. "Beachcomber" by Karen Robards
37. "Silent Night" by J.D. Robb, Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, Claire Cross
38. "The Gift" by Nora Roberts 
39. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See
40. "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks
41. "At First Sight" by Nicholas Sparks
42. "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks
43. "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks
44. "Her Stolen Past" by Amanda Stevens (another Cooper's Corners book)
45. "Moon Dance"  by Mariah Stewart
46. "Born on a Blue Day" by Daniel Tammet
47. "Just One Look" byJoanna Wayne (another Cooper's Corners book)
48. "Summer at Willow Lake"  by Susan Wiggs (book #1) 
49. "The Winter Lodge" by Susan Wiggs (book #2)
50. "Dockside" by Susan Wiggs (book #3)
51. "The Hostage" by Susan Wiggs (book #1)
52. "The Mistress" by Susan Wiggs (book #2)
53. "The Firebrand" by Susan Wiggs (book #3)
54. "The Pregnant Princess" by Anne Marie Winston
55. "Everlasting" by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

I am reading Nefertiti by Michelle Moran. This is such a good book.

I am reading Watchers by Dean Koontz

I started Dreamcatcher by Stephen King in 07 and am not quite half way through it yet, so this will be a 08 book also.  I don't know what I'm going to read next.

One of my goals though is to go through my books and put them on my TBR pile and on my Already read pile.

Currently I'm reading There's a (slight) chance I might go to hell. The next on my list is Death of a Mystery Writer.

I am reading Growing Old Is Murder by Rita Lakin.

Happy New Year's ya'll!

I am reading Passionate Enemies by Jean Plaidy.

I finished my first book for 2008 this morning, "Maigret and the Apparition" by Georges Simenon.  A standard Maigret; if you like Simenon's work (and you know who you are!) you'll like it.

Next up:  Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen).  I have to lead book group on this book on the 10th, so I'd better get a move on it!

Just started re-reading Evanovich's Hot Six last night as the ball was dropping. Exciting night huh!?

I'm currently reading The Character of Rain by Amélie Nothomb.

Happy New Year everyone!  I'm starting 2008 reading The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

Happppppy New Year!!!

Am reading Paradise Alley, by Kevin Baker.  Excellent historical novel of NYC during Civil War drafts. 

My first book for the year is Inklings by Melanie Jeschke. It's really good so far, I'm about halfway through it. It's the first in a trilogy and I have the second book all ready to go when I finish this one, but I don't have the third one yet. I may have to go order it from Amazon pretty soon here...

I just started LITTLE HEATHENS: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. This book was named one of the top ten books of 2007 by the New York Times.