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2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


1 / 30 books. 3% done!

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

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10 / 50 books. 20% done!

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge

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6 / 51 states. 12% done!

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

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6 / 50 books. 12% done!

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

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7 / 50 books. 14% done!

Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge

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10 / 52 books. 19% done!

2025 52 Club Reading Challenge

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9 / 52 books. 17% done!

2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

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7 / 40 books. 18% done!

2025 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

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4 / 25 cozies. 16% done!

2025 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2025 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

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7 / 26.2 miles. 27% done!

2025 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

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3 / 100 books. 3% done!

2025 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

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10 / 109 books. 9% done!

2025 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

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10 / 52 books. 19% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

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91 / 100 names. 91% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

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50 / 80 skills. 63% done!
Monday, October 03, 2011

And ... It's Another One for the DNF Pile

How many books have you started because they looked interesting only to abandon them a few chapters in because they just ... weren't? Tons? Me, too. A perfect example: My God, What Have We Done? by Susan V. Weiss. I liked the synopsis (this one is taken from Amazon):

In a world afflicted with war, toxicity, and hunger, does what we do in our private lives really matter? Fifty years after the creation of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, newlyweds Pauline and Clifford visit that once-secret city on their honeymoon, compelled by Pauline's fascination with Oppenheimer, the soulful scientist. The two stories emerging from this visit reverberate back and forth between the loneliness of a new mother at home in Boston and the isolation of an entire community dedicated to the development of the bomb. While Pauline struggles with unforeseen challenges of family life, Oppenheimer and his crew reckon with forces beyond all imagining. Finally the years of frantic research on the bomb culminate in a stunning test explosion that echoes a rupture in the couple's marriage. Against the backdrop of a civilization that's out of control, Pauline begins to understand the complex, potentially explosive physics of personal relationships. At once funny and dead serious, My God, What Have We Done? sifts through the ruins left by the bomb in search of a more worthy human achievement.

The book starts off serious, wordy, and kind of cold, narrated by a heroine who grated on my nerves almost from the moment I "met" her. Weiss writes well enough that I stuck with the story for 30 pages, hoping it would get better. Nope. Even though I found the subject of the atomic bomb interesting, nothing else about the book really grabbed my interest. So, I'm sticking it on the DNF pile and moving on.

Now, I have to admit that I'm getting picky in my old age. And impatient. So, it's quite possible that I didn't give this one enough of a chance. The book gets rave reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and GoodReads. For even more opinions, check out the stops on the book's online tour by clicking here.

Have you read My God, What Have We Done? Does it sound like something you'd be interested in? Did I abandon the book too soon? Any thoughts?

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Coram House by Bailey Seybolt

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My Salty Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows



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