Karen's Top 15 Books For 2010

12 Fiction Favorites For 2010:

The Hunger Games trilogy (Catching Fire and Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain
Deeper Than The Dead by Tami Hoag

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
The Last Child by John Hart
The Help by Kathryn Stockton

Room by Emma Donoghue
Two Little Girls In Blue by Mary Higgins Clark

If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser

House Rules by Jodi Picoult
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger

3 Top Non-Fiction Favorites For 2010:

One Simple Act by Debbie Macomber
A Boy Who Came Back From Heaven by Kevin & Alex Malarkey

Flight To Heaven by Capt. Dale Black

You can use the search box to find my reviews of these.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Gerard's Top 12 Books Of 2010

There were so many really good books I read this year that it is very hard to choose just 12 so I also included a few more at the end.  I just couldn't limit it to only 12!

Abby Finds A Good Home (Blurb book made by Karen and Abby)

DogTown by Stefan Bechtel

Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicki Myron With Bret Witter

Let's Take The Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

Hunger Games Trilogy (Catching Fire and Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins

The last Child by John Hart

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

The Weight Of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

Deeper Than The Dead by Tami Hoag

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Broken by Karin Slaughter

Honorable Mention:

Please Take Me For A Walk by Susan Gel (childrens picture book)

Zoo Story by Ghomas French

One Dog At A Time by Pen Farthing

Cleo by Helen Brown

Did you read any of these?  Use the search box to find my reviews.

"Promise Me" by Richard Paul Evans

"Promise Me" by Richard Paul Evans is a good Christmas read!  It is a fiction story of Beth Cardall.  Her husband cheats on her, is dying of Cancer and her young daughter has an unexplained illness.  One night she meets a man who knows all about her.  He seems too good to be true.  It has kind of a weird twist, but the ending is very good!  It's a quick read that I liked a lot.  I give it 8+ stars.
(Gerard's review)

Promise Me is a off-the-wall story with a very happy ending that I enjoyed immensely! I’m so glad I read this one because it had believable characters that I cared about in an unrealistic book that kept my interest all through it. I was impressed that the male author told the story primarily from Beth’s point of view and could write about hardship without it being a depressing book. Promise Me deals with loss, marriage, love, hope and is a thought-provoking book. It presents the questions of how would your life be different if only this didn’t happen and what would you do if you only had 10 months to live and money was no object? This is a fun read, in spite of a cheating husband, financial struggles and a mysterious disease that a 6-yr.-old has. It’s a “Christmas Miracle” book about hope and promises, a quick-read that leaves you happy. I promise, you’ll like this one! We highly recommend it for a light, entertaining fun read.

SPOILER ALERT: I loved the mystery the author created about Matthew, Beth’s stalker. (If you haven’t read this book, I strongly advise you stop reading now! I don’t want to ruin it for you.) When she let him co-sign her loan, I thought she was very stupid, but was relieved to find that he really did have her best interest at heart. Who knew he was a time-traveler from the future so he knew what sporting events to bet on to make a bundle. I really liked this angle of the book—it would be so cool to be able to do that!
(Karen's Review 12/31/10)

You can visit the author’s Facebook page and his website at www.richardpaulevans.com

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Tuesday Teaser: "I'm Outnumbered!" and "Promise Me"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following:          

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser. 

Karen's:

After all, we'd hit upon a successful system and, by golly, it had worked with Boy #1. It was hard to accept that things didn't work the same with Boy #2.

From p. 21 of I'm Outnumbered!--One Mom's Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys by Laura Lee Groves.

Gerard's:

He said, 'Go home, put things in order and cherish every minute with your loved ones.' He began to cry again. "I told him I didn't have a home."

From p. 69 of Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans

"Empire Of The Summer Moon" by S. C. Gwynne was Disappointing

Empire Of the Summer Moon is about the Comanches and their warrior chief, Quarah.  I enjoyed the background history of the Indians and the battle scenes were very good.  As for the rest of the book, not so much.  For all the hype this book has received, I expected more.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?