#11 Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell

I can easily see this book as a Kathryn Heigl movie. It was cute. It was fun. It was simple. I, honestly, am having trouble remembering too much about it. I finished the book a few days ago and just now am taking the time to add it to my list. I know I enjoyed it, though.

#10 Tennessee Moon by Norah Hess

This is quite possibly the worst book I've ever read. It's another craptastic romance novel but this one didn't even pretend to have a decent story line. Horrible.

#9 Once a Pirate by Susan Grant

I am so ashamed. I didn't even want to type the name of this book in the title line. It is EXACTLY what it looks like....a cheap romance novel with a thin plot and underdeveloped characters. I enjoyed it.

#8 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I am not a huge fan of SciFi. I know. I read lots of fantasy and that's not TOO far from SciFi but it IS different. My sister was commenting on enjoying this book after having great recommendations and I decided I needed to give it a try, too. I was NOT disappointed! It was exceptional.
Ender is a 6 year old boy when this book begins. He is being viewed and tested because the military is convinced he is going to be the savior of humanity. Eventually, he is in a battle camp training for the military....
I won't say a lot more than that. There's a lot that happens.
This book was wonderful. I'll read it again.

#7 Girls Poker Night: a Novel by Jill A Davis

This book was unexpected and witty and fun and dramatic and emotional and....
I just really liked it. I need to remember Jill A Davis and see if she has more novels.

#6 Big Trouble by Marianna Jameson

Fun, light hearted contemporary romance. I needed something like this after finishing the last book.

#5 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn

This is the one I referred to in my previous post. The one that was so intense I was reading books in the middle of it.
The whole title of this non-fiction selection is "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers".
Yeah. It's THAT kind of intense and deep and emotional.
This book was nothing short of enlightening. I am one of those Americans that was comfortably distanced from the emotional trauma of the day and the events. It was still painful and confusing but I had enough distance both physically and personally that I never have REALLY known. The things I knew were about terrorism and confusion and survival and revival. Not immediate or blind or connected.
I remember getting a phone call from my friend Cari asking if I saw what was happening. I turned on the tv and sat, on the phone, with her and watched. It was about 8am...west coast time. So although it was fresh and horrible and discombobulating, it was in great part already DONE. Both Towers had already fallen by that point. We knew that it was terrorist attacks. We knew it was an act of war.
This book starts by following recollections of survivors on the way the day started. It was any other Tuesday morning. We know that Dianne DeFontes was the 1st to arrive on the 89th floor of the North Tower at 8:30am. This was normal.
The book then proceeds, in a very detailed manner, to describe the growing daily activity of the towers with a mix of the history of the development of the towers. Eventually describing those confusing moments when the plane flew into the side of the building. It is described to us the way MANY of the people in the actual building NEVER did know they were victims of an attack until more than an hour later when they finally made it down nearly 90 flights of stairs to see the horrors of debris that littered the streets outside. These are true accounts. Recollections of survivors, memories of the families, 911 phone calls, video and news reports are pieced together to give you a clear idea of what it was like to LIVE those moments. This book has enlightened me and broken my heart. The loss was tremendous. The victims are many. What I think I love the most, though, is that this book IS about surviving. There was loss...but there is also LIFE. Life that was hard won and worth keeping.
btw....Dianne DeFontes, the 1st to arrive on the 89th floor? She survived. She was one of more than 70 people that were rescued by 2 brave men. Two men who were just regular people employed in the North Tower. Simply selfless heroes who went UP the tower to open blocked exits. Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz are two BRIGHTLY shining stars in a horribly dark DARK memory. Those 2 men gave up their own lives for those 70 some coworkers.
I told you.
Thank you, Taryn, for suggesting this book and being patient while it took me MONTHS to get the courage to read it.

#4 The Sherbrooke Bride by Catherine Coulter

As I work my way through a VERY difficult non-fiction (I'll tell you about it after I finish it, of course.) I've decided not to push myself and therefore will only read bits of it at a time. That way I won't be more of an emotional mess than I usually am! ;)
This book, on the other hand, is the beginning of a series that I received for Christmas. It's exactly what I was looking for. A trashy historical romance that had absolutely no emotional baggage to terrorize me for a couple of nights.
I'll read more of the non-fiction this evening...then move on to the next. It's my plan.

#3 Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Ashes, Ashes follows Lucy in her daily life about 6 months after she's last talked to another human, and about a year and a half after she left home. Her entire family had just died of the plague and the entire world was changed by global warming. She might be living in Central Park in New York but it's nothing like the park we're familiar with today.
Eventually she's forced to move on and she meets up with a small group of survivors that have a completely different scope of problems than her own.
I really enjoyed this story but at the same time it had a lot more room to move. I think Treggiari could have doubled the size of this book or even made it a nice sequel or trilogy series. I might check more of her books out but it might not be tomorrow.

#2 Ripple by Mary Hubbard

Lexi finds out on her 16th birthday that she's a siren. Unfortunately she finds out when the ocean calls her and she drags the boy she likes into the water and seduces him with her siren song...causing him to drown. 2 years later she's done a great job of separating herself from everyone around her, to keep them safe, but things start to change and peers start to break through.
I really liked this story. It was super easy to read and had a nice pace to it. I've got another book by this author on hold at the library now.

#1 (2012) The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

I loved this book! I love this series. I love this author. The Son of Neptune is the 2nd book in the Heroes of Olympus series, which is an offshoot of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This book follows Percy in the Roman camp and sets up the Prophecy of the Seven. I hate waiting for the next book!

#75 Destined by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast

The newest in the House of Night series. I like these books but am starting to get a bit bored. They need to start to wrap them up. I want to know what happens...I don't want more stuff introduced. Even though I'm complaining here I really did enjoy the book....I just want it to get better. :)

and on that note....This is the last book of the year!!!
I plan on keeping this blog active but don't know how I'm going to number them. I'll probably start over. I liked knowing how many I have read.

#74; The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

This trilogy was amazing! I knew I would love them considering all the recommendations I had received and the popular reviews the books had on the news stands but it took me much longer to get to them then it should have!
This one took me a little bit to get involved in. I wasn't expecting that to be the case since the 2nd book was resolved but lead DIRECTLY into the 3rd one. Slow starting or not...it was wonderful. I recommend these books highly.

#73 Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich

The newest in the series. I only had to wait for a couple of weeks, too! I liked this one better than the last couple! Yay! Stephanie Plum is getting MUCH closer to a decision about the men in her life...and the craziness that is her job and family just keeps going. I love it.

#72 The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Such an exceptional story! Lisbeth Salander continues to hook me. This book really did a lot to explain who she is and WHY! Really good, twisted, plot with lots of turns and character development. I have "Hornets nest", too, and I'll be starting that tonight.

#71 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Oh, wow! I loved it. Can't wait to start The girl who played with fire!
I started this book more than a year ago but had a traumatic event occur while reading it (MAJOR sunburn) and between the scarred psyche and the tough to read-through Swedish economy and politics I just couldn't do it.
I REALLY want to see the remake of the film when it comes out in a few weeks so I decided I needed to give the book another try. I skimmed past the first 100 pages (because it was familiar) and was almost immediately caught! It got to the point where I didn't want to put it down to eat or run to the bathroom! Needless to say I finished it in an almost completely uninterrupted 10 hours.
Dark material? Well, yeah. Confusing subtext? Sometimes. Creative development? Definitely. Amazing characters? HELL YES!
As I said before...I really am looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.

#70 The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

I found another book blog. She's SUPER creative. This book was on her list. I liked it. Super simple, easy, entertainingly good book.

#69 Goddess of the Rose by PC Cast

I like PC Cast's "Goddess" books. They're fun. This one was based upon Beauty and the Beast where the Beast is the protector of Hecate's rose gardens in the dream realm. It was a creative mix of the story and mythology. I have at least one more of these at home right now...so I suspect it will be on my blog soon.

#68 Real Vampires Have More to Love by Gerry Bartlett

I read another one of the books in this series earlier this year. They're creative and fun with a little (okay a lot) of gratuitous sex. "Glory" the overweight vampire becomes possessed by a demon and has trouble keeping her life together...all while trying to plan a crazy successful bachelorette party that will shame the Siren hosting the Bridal shower. Honestly, this one kind of bored me. I'll probably still read other books in the series, though, if nothing more than I'll forget the details and bump into a familiar title in about a year.

#67 The Bachelorette Party by Karen McCullah Lutz

This book was a lot of fun. After I read it I read the author profile (which I normally do) and found out that this author co-wrote "Legally Blonde" and "10 Things I Hate About You". No wonder I liked it so much! I'm gonna see if she has more.