Ice Hunt by James Rollins

 Started: 9/13/2020

Finished: 12/30/2020

Year: 2003

Pages: 613

Genre: fiction/adventure

Grade: B

Reason for reading: booksfree.com book

Type: Mass market paperback

Blurb (from back cover): "Carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States, Ice Station Grendel has been abandoned for more than seventy years. The twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former Soviet Union, it was designed to be inaccessible and virtually invisible. But an American undersea research vessel has inadvertently pulled too close-and something has been sighted moving inside the allegedly deserted facility, something whose survival defies every natural law. And now, as scientists, soldiers, intelligence operatives and unsuspecting civilians are drawn into Grendel's lethal vortex, the most extreme measures possible will be undertaken to protect its dark mysteries-because the terrible truths locked behind submerge walls of ice and steel could end human life on Earth."

Opinion: This isn't my usual type of book (military) to read but wow what an adventure. Lots of action, lots of using one's imagination to picture everything that is happening.  Would recommend for readers who like a lot of action in their books.

Here Lies a Father by McKenzie Cassidy

 Started: 12/15/20

Finished: 12/18/20

Year: 2021

Pages: 262

Genre: Literature

Grade: C

Reason for reading: LibraryThing.com giveaway

Type: ARC trade paperback

Blurb (from back cover): "When Ian Daly and his sister Catherine arrive for their wayward father's funeral in his small and desolate upstate New York hometown, a secret that was kept from them their entire lives emerges: their father Thomas abandoned two other families, leaving behind two furious wives and several children who never knew their father. Ian wants to know more of the truth, but his sister and mother want to preserve the carefully constructed myth they've created around who Thomas really was.

"In the cold, lonely winter landscape of small-town New York, fifteen-year-old Ian sets out alone to learn the truth about his father's past and the families he left behind. Here Lies a Father examines the long-term effects shameful secrets have on a family, and how difficult it is for a young man to reconstruct his own sense of right and wrong, when every value and moral principle he was ever taught was based on a lie.

Opinion: This was an average read for me. What I did like was how Ian's maturity and growth were shown in short amount of time-amazing what can happen when the truth is discovered. What I didn't like was how the past was intertwined with present day-felt lost in a couple of spots.

James Herriot's Dog Stories

 Started: 12/8/20

Finished: 12/15/20

Year: 1986 (this edition)

Pages: 503

Genre: Animal

Grade: B

Reason for reading: bookcrossing.com book

Type: paperback

Blurb: "In this very special, heartwarming collection of favorite stories about dogs great and small, James Herriot tells us about his own dogs and all the wonderful people and animals we have come to love so much.

"Fifty memorable tales move us to both laughter and tears, and Herriot's personal introduction and notes make this tribute by a master storyteller to man's best friend a book to be read, reread and treasured for many years to come."

Opinion: An enjoyable collection of stories from one of the world's most favorite vets. All of them are about dogs mixed in with their owners and fellow animal characters.  I have always enjoyed Herriot's stories and this one goes right along with the rest of them

You Were Made For This by Michelle Sacks

 Started: 12/2/20

Finished: 12/7/20

Year: 2018

Pages: 336

Genre: Literature

Grade: D

Type: ARC

Reason for reading: Goodreads.com giveaway

Blurb (from back cover): "Doting wife, devoted husband, cherished child. Merry, Sam, and Conor are the perfect family in the perfect place. Merry adores the domestic life: baking, gardening, caring for her infant son. Sam, formerly an academic, is pursing a new career as a filmmaker. Sometimes they can hardly believe how lucky they are. What perfect new lives, they've built.

"When Merry's childhood friend Frank visits their Swedish paradise, she immediately becomes part of the family. She bonds with Conor. And with Sam. She befriends the neighbors and even finds herself embracing the domesticity she's always seemed to scorn.

"All their lives, Frank and Merry have been more like sisters than best friends. And that's why Frank soon sees the things others might miss. Treacherous things, which rare almost impossible to believe when looking at this perfect family. But Frank, of all people, knows that the truth is rarely what you want the world to see."

Blurb: I don't think that I have read a book with more hated characters. All of them are just awful....to each other and themselves. Only reason why this got a D was because I liked the writing style.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

 Started: 12/1/20

Finished: 12/2/20

Year: 1993 (this edition)

Pages: 190

Genre: Sci Fi

Grade: C

Reason for reading: TBR pile

Type: Hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known."

Opinion: What did I jus read?

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

 Started: 11/26/20

Finished: 12/1/20

Year: 2009 (this edition)

Pages: 276

Genre: Literature, Romance

Grade: B

Reason for reading: bookcrossing.com book, TBR pile

Type: Trade Paperback

Blurb (from back cover): "'Dear John,' the letter read. And with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives changed forever.

"When Savannah Lynn Curtis comes into his life, John Tyree knows he is ready to turn over a new leaf. an angry rebel, he had enlisted in the army after high school, not knowing what else to do . Then, during a furlough, he meets Savannah, the girl of his dreams. The attraction is mutual and quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah vowing to wait for John while he finishes his tour of duty. But neither can foresee that 9/11 is about to change the world. Like so many proud men and women, John must choose between love and country. Now, when he finally returns to North Carolina, John will discover how love can transform us in ways we never could have imagined."

Opinion: I had seen this movie long enough ago that I didn't remember a good chunk of the book. Like most Sparks' books, it grips the reader's heart. Another touching story