2010 Support Your Local LIbrary Reading Challenge

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

2. There are four levels:

--The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.

--Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books.

--Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.

--Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.

(Aim high. As long as you read 25 by the end of 2010, you are a winner.)

3. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – any book as long as it is checked out from the library count. Checked out like with a library card, not purchased at a library sale.

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

5. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.

6. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

7. When you sign up under Mr. Linky, put the direct link to your post where your library books will be listed. Include the URL to this post so that other viewers can find this fun challenge. If you’d prefer to put your list in the sidebar of your blog, please leave your viewers the link to the sign up page. Again, so viewers can join the challenge too.

Just came across this book challenge and although it is late in the year to be signing up thought I would complete the challenge as the majority of the books that I read are borrowed from the library.

I have opted to participate in the Super Size Me challenge and read 100 books that I have borrowed from the library.

If you would like to participate in this challenge or check out other participants in the challenge then you can find out more about the challenge here. I have set up a blog challenge site and will be posting my list of books for the challenge here.

Family Ties - Danielle Steel

Family Ties - Danielle Steel

Transworld Publishers Ltd

Contemporary Fiction

ISBN : 9780593063002

Paperback : 322 pages

Book Synopsis:

Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect. Talented, beautiful, just starting out with her first job, new apartment and boyfriend, she had the world in the palm of her hand—until a single phone call altered the course of her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her sister’s three orphaned children, keeping a promise she never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own life indefinitely on hold.

Now, at forty-two, as independent as ever, with a satisfying career and a family that means everything to her, Annie is comfortable being single and staying that way. She appears to have no time for anything else. With her nephew and nieces now young adults and confronting major challenges of their own, Annie is navigating a parent’s difficult passage between lending them a hand and letting go, and suddenly facing an empty nest. The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked, struggling editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at twenty-four a serious and hardworking law student, is captivated by a much older, much more experienced woman with children, who is leading him much further than he wants to go. And the youngest, twenty-one-year-old Katie—impulsive, artistic, rebellious—is an art student about to make a choice that will lead her to an entirely different world she is in no way prepared for but determined to embrace.

Then, just when least expected, a chance encounter changes Annie’s life yet again in the most unexpected direction of all.

From Manhattan to Paris and all the way to Tehran, Family Ties is a novel that reminds us how challenging and unpredictable life can be, and that the powerful bonds of family are the strongest of all.

Danielle Steel has always been a favourite author of mine. It has been a while since I have read any of her books so was great to pick up when from the library to read.

The story starts with Annie having enjoyed spending time with Seth her boyfriend of two months. She was needing to complete some work when she received a phone call from her sister advising her that they were about to head home after having spent the weekend away with her husband enjoying a romantic getaway from their three children and closing up their summer house.

Little did Annie know but the flight home of her sister Jane and her husband Bill would change both her life and the life of her sisters three children forever. Jane and Bill were killed in an aeroplane crash flying on their way home.

Annie takes over the care of her sisters three children and sets any thoughts of romance aside to devote her life to her sisters children. The children grow up to be responsible and caring adults and the story tells of the different challenges the three children face and how it will effect their lives. Annie also gets to take a look at her life and find with the children grown up and fending for themselves that it now time she has to spend on herself and will she allow the opportunity for some romance.

Altogether a great read and had me turning the pages to see the different issues the characters were going to encounter and how they would deal with them. Danielle has a knack of writing about everyday life situations and as you read the story you can clearly envision and easily imagine the story developing as it does. Life is certainly full of challenges but even though we try and reach out and help others sometimes you just have to be able to stand back as best you can and let others fend for themselves and hope that everything will have a way of working out for the best otherwise you will be there to help out if and when you are needed.

Another enjoyable read from Danielle.

If you would like to check out this and other books from Danielle then you can check out her website here.

Here are two video clips featuring Danielle talking about Family Ties...

Mr and Mrs Anonymous - Fern Michaels

Mr and Miss Anonymous - Fern Michaels

Kensington Publishing

Contemporary Fiction

ISBN : 978-0-7582-1272-6

Hardback : 293 pages

BOOK SYNOPSIS:

College senior Lily Madison is on her own and desperate to pay for her last semester of school. With nowhere to turn, she makes the difficult decision to donate her eggs to a fertility clinic. Sam Parker is also a penniless student who supplements his tuition money by visiting a sperm bank. One day, Lily and Sam meet at the clinic and talk about their secret. Despite their obvious attraction, Lily and Sam go their separate ways.

Now a wealthy entrepreneur, Sam never forgot Lily, and when he sees her in an airport one day, he falls for her all over again. But while they enjoy their unlikely reunion, a story on the news has them riveted. Two teenage boys are missing and their disappearance may be linked to the fertility clinic Sam and Lily visited in college. In a shocking twist, one of the boys looks exactly like Sam.

Lily and Sam are determined to find out what really went on at the clinic all those years ago, but the truth will be more than they bargained for. Together they discover that letting go of their past is the best way to build a future worth fighting for...

I have only read a few of Fern's books but after this book was recommended to me I was keen to read it. The storyline had me keen to keep turning the pages so I could find out how it was going to end. You guessed how the ending would be but I was keen to see what interesting twists and turns were likely to occur along the way.

The story starts with Lily and Sam each making separate visits to a fertility clinic where they each donate in return for a monetary payment which they use to help these towards their study costs. Neither of them had attended the counselling sessions offered before donating and as it comes time for them to make their last donation they are some what relieved that it will be finally all over as they start to query the meaning of just what takes place after the have made their donations.

They meet by chance outside the clinic and from then on their paths connect and they decide to find out what happened at the clinic where they made their donations. The discovery ends up being way more than the bargained for. Sam and Lily are shocked to find out what really took place behind the scenes at the clinic and Sam later discovers that through his donations at the clinic he has fathered a son. Just how he makes that discovery and what happens next makes for very interesting reading.

After reading this book I see online that this book has received some rather negative feedback. I found the storyline to flow rather well and had me keen to turn the pages and find out what was going to happen next.

A quick and easy read for Fern and I will be on the lookout for more of her books to add to my TBR pile.

If you would like to find out more about Fern Michaels and the books that she writes then check her out here.