FINISHED

1. "A SPARK OF LIGHT" by Jodi Picoult (unabridged audio CD) (A++) The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center - a women’s reproductive health services clinic - its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage. After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic. But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.
2. "WILD RIDE" (Black Knights Inc #9) by Julie Ann Walker (A++++) The hero we've all been waiting for...Ethan "Ozzie" Sykes - former Navy SEAL - Underground operator for Black Knights Inc., the covert government defense firm disguised as a custom motorcycle shop. In a black-on-black international mission that went seriously sideways, Ozzie was badly injured - he's stuck at BKI headquarters in Chicago, champing at the bit to get out into the field again. To his disgust, he's tasked with distracting Chicago Tribune ace reporter Samantha Tate, who's been trying to dig up the dirt on BKI for years. Turns out Samantha's beauty, intelligence and sense of humor are a seriously big distraction, and Ozzie's losing his desire to keep her at bay. Ozzie's tired of hiding and Samantha may be the best and the worst person to share his secrets with.
3. "ELOQUENT SILENCE" by Sandra Brown (unabridged Audio CD) (A++++) Lauri is a dedicated young teacher for the deaf. Her past conceals a wound still unhealed, her present is a facade and she uses her career to hide her loneliness. Drake, daytime TV's most popular star, has two heartaches - the daughter he believes will never have a normal life and the dead wife he can't forget. Jennifer is the beautiful hearing-impaired child who may become a pawn between the man and the woman she needs the most. Now, in the heart of a New Mexico arts community, the three may become a family...but only if each one dares to find a voice and lets his or her fears and needs speak for themselves.
4. "PRECIOUS" by Sapphire (A+++) This is the story of Precious Jones, a sixteen year old illiterate black girl who has never been out of Harlem. She is pregnant by her own father for the second time and she is kicked out of school when that pregnancy becomes obvious. Placed in an alternative teaching program, she learns to read and write. This is Precious's diary, in which she honestly records her relationships and her life.
5. "TWO KISSES FOR MADDY: A MEMOIR OF LOVE & LOSS" by Matt Logelin (unabridged audio CD) (A+++++) Matt Logelin writes a courageous and searingly honest memoir about the first year of his life following the birth of his daughter and the death of his wife. Matt and Liz Logelin were high school sweethearts. After years of long-distance dating, the pair finally settled together in Los Angeles, and they had it all: a perfect marriage, a gorgeous new home, and a baby girl on the way. Liz's pregnancy was rocky, but they welcomed Madeline, beautiful and healthy, into the world. Just twenty-seven hours later, Liz suffered a pulmonary embolism and died instantly, without ever holding the daughter whose arrival she had so eagerly awaited. Though confronted with devastating grief and the responsibilities of a new and single father, Matt did not surrender to devastation; he chose to keep moving forward to make a life for Maddy. In this memoir, Matt shares bittersweet and often humorous anecdotes of his courtship and marriage to Liz; of relying on his newborn daughter for the support that she unknowingly provided; and of the extraordinary online community of strangers who have become his friends. In honoring Liz's legacy, heartache has become solace.
6. "THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS" by Melissa Cutler (Catcher Creek #1)  (A++++) Cowboys have never been good for Amy Sorentino. First her hard-riding father bankrupted the family farm. Then her all-hat-no-cattle boyfriend sold her out on national television, ending her promising career as a chef. Now she and her squabbling sisters have partnered up in a final attempt to save their land by starting an inn and local restaurant. So it figures that with everything on the line, Amy’s key supplier is just the kind of Stetson-tipping heartbreaking bad boy she’s sworn to avoid. But Kellan Reed has a few secrets of his own–and cowboy or not, Amy can’t resist this kind of wild ride.
7. "NUMBER THE STARS" by Lois Lowry (A+++) Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think about life before the war. But it's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching in their town. The Nazis won't stop. The Jews of Denmark are being ”relocated,“ so Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be part of the family. Then Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission. Somehow she must find the strength and courage to save her best friend's life. There is no turning back now.

CURRENTLY READING -

1. "Gastien: From Dream to Destiny" (Gastien #2) by Caddie Rowland (reading on a Kindle app on my computer)
2. "Seven Stones to Stand or Fall" by Diana Gabaldon
3. "More Than Words" "The Greatest Gift" by Diana Palmer "Shelternet" by Jan Richardson and Kathryn Babcock "Close Call" by Carla Neggers "Quilts from Caring Hands" by June Nielsen "Hanging by a Thread" by Emilie Richards "Memory Box Artist Program" by Tera Leigh "Small Packages" by Brenda Novak "The Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program" by Dena Wortzel "Built to Last" by Susan Mallery
4. "The Best of Us" by Robyn Carr  (Sullivan's Crossing #4) 

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO -

1. "Dark in Death" (In Death #46) by J.D. Rob (listening to on an Audible app on my phone) 
2. "Long Road to Mercy" (Atlee Pine #1) by Matt Logelin (unabridged audio CD)

Reading:

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

The Last Odyssey by James Rollins

Finished:

Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy

River Hardware: Stories by Alyson Hagy

Don't Skip Out on Me by Willy Vlautin

You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman by Mike Thomas

The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson

Rickey & Robinson by John Chalberg

Life on Mars edited by Jonathan Strahan

The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe

The Last Days of California by Mary Miller

Finished this month:  The Cottage on Juniper Ridge by Sheila Roberts, Castaway Cove by JoAnn Ross, Hide by Lisa Gardner, Final Shadows by Kay Hooper, Scream for Me by Karen Rose, The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly, Carolina Mist by Mariah Stewart, After the Parade by Dorothy Garlock, Shaker Run by Karen Harper, The Cat Who Smelled a Rat  by Lillian Jackson Braun, Where Echoes Live  by Marcia Muller, Cold Front by Kathleen Taylor

Currently reading: undecided

Books read in:  2014-95   2015-98    2016-98    2017-107    2018-108    2019-113

Books read this year:   Jan. - 12,   Feb. - 9,    Mar. - 10,     Apr. - 17,    May - 8,    Jun. - 9,    Jul. - 10,    Aug. - 11,    Sept. - 8,    Oct. - 9

Where butterfiles go- debra doxer

My first book by her and so far so good! 

Finished in October:  Lethal Passage The Story of a Gun  by:  Erik Larson

                               Walk The Wire  by:  David Baldacci

Finished in November:  Ryan's Hand  by:  Leila Meacham

Currently reading:  Distant Star  by:  Barbara Bickmore

Hope to get to:  The Intuitionist  by:  Colson Whitehead

                       Night Ward  by:  Noah Gordon

                       The Girl in the Fall Away Dress  by:  Michelle Richmond

I am reading Buried in Treasures Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding by David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. It is a wish list book and very helpful.