Challenge Wrap Ups

Two challenges that I've been participating in, recently concluded with the end of the year. Here's how I did:




The TBR Challenge: my first challenge, the one that brought me to this world of blogging about books and where I learned that many many other book challenges exist!


For this challenge, I choose 12 books that had been sitting on my shelf forever (the rule is at least 6 months, many of mine had been years!) and read them throughout the year. I did REALLY well with this until it fell apart just this last month when I couldn't find my last book and couldn't get interested in any of my alternate books, so... I fell short ONE BOOK! Oh, well. Here's what I did finish:

• Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy
• Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Giliad by Marilynn Robinson
• The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
• The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
• Sea Glass by Anita Shreeve
• The Netherworld by George Gissing
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
• Zorro by Isabel Allende

And book I couldn't find: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket!





The Something About Me Challenge: this one was where we all suggested 5 books that we thought said something about us... then we choose, from all that HUGE list, some that we'd like to read. Of course, back in the summer, I was very optomistic, and made my list too long. I did read a bunch before the challenge officially started, so if you include that, I did okay!


From the official list I read:

• Evening Class by Maeve Binchy (Raidergirl)
• Ida Mae Tutweiler and the Traveling Tea Party by Ginnie Siena Bivona (Lynne)
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Maryanne)
• The Stand by Stephen King (A Book in the Life)
• Sea Glass by Anita Shreeve (Beachreader and Library Lady)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Diane)
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigiro (Lucca)

Ones I read before the official start of the challenge:

• Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald
• The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini
• The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Stephanie)
• So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson (BookInLife)
• Sixpence House by Paul Collins (Nattie)
• I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (Jill)

Ones I didn't get to that I'll still be working on:

• Tracon by Paul McElroy (Lisa)
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (3M)
• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (Megan)
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin (Stephanie)
• The March by E.L. Doctorow (Jill)
• The Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint Exupery (Soleil)
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Juli)
  
  

Review: Sea Glass by Anita Shreve

Book: Sea Glass by Anita Shreve

Rating: A

Genre: Literary Fiction

For: Both the TBR Challenge and the Something About Me Challenge

I'm finally catching up on some Anita Shreve books! The first one, A Pilot's Wife, I liked so-so, but this one, I really liked. I cared about the characters, and loved how all their lives came together, and apart, at the end.

This story takes place just as the stock market crashes in 1929 and how all the different characters deal with this tradgedy and how their lives are affected. It also centers around the mill workers strike and how that fires them up and gives them something to live for, yet also makes a complete mess of their lives.

Anyway, it is a sad story, but still, I enjoyed it and I think that if I lived by a beach, I could really get into collecting sea glass!

I've got a couple more Anita Shreve books on my shelves waiting for me, and soon, I'll be getting to them!

Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

BOOK: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: A, bordering on A+

This is my first official book read for the Something About Me Challenge. I know it's not quite August, when the challenge is supposed to start, but this book is due at the library this week, so I read it this weekend.... mostly all day Sunday and then dreamed about it all night last night!

Wow! What a painful, painful story! I knew it would be, but still, it's so hard to read about this stuff happening to the people in Afganistan. What great, strong women these characters were! I just want to cheer for them. This author sure knows how to write emotion. Great book!

Something About Me Challenge: Final List (I hope)

I know I picked too many, but some are cross overs from other challenges, and some I'll read anyway, challenge or not, so might as well add it, right?

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Juli)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigiro (Lucca)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Diane)
Sea Glass by Anita Shreeve (Beachreader and Library Lady)
The Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint Exupery (Soleil)
The March by E.L. Doctorow (Jill)
The Stand by Stephen King (A Book in the Life)
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Maryanne)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin (Stephanie)
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (Megan)
Ida Mae Tutweiler and the Traveling Tea Party by Ginnie Siena Bivona (Lynne)
Evening Class by Maeve Binchy (Raidergirl)
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (3M)
Tracon by Paul McElroy (Lisa)

I can't wait to get going!

Something About Me Challenge: Preliminary List

This challenge is becoming a bit overwhelming! Everyday a new list is posted, adding more books to my Want To Read list! So, like many others have been doing, I've already started reading some of these books, even though the official beginning of the challenge doesn't start until August.

My Pre-Challenge Books (including my some from my own "something about me" books that I hadn't even read yet... silly me!)

Read in June:

Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald (Suey)

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini (Suey)

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (Suey)

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Stephanie)

Plans for July

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson (BookInLife)

Operating Instructions by Anne Lamont (Nattie)

Sixpence House by Paul Collins (Nattie)

A Cook's Tour Anthony Bourdain (Athena)

Biblioholism by Tom Raabe (Twiga)

My Official Challenge List So Far... I may add a couple still

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Maryanne)

Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm by Kate Douglas (Stephanie)

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (Megan)

Ida Mae.... by Ginnie Siena Bivona (Lynne)

The Stand by Stephen King (BookInLife)

Evening Class by Maeve Binchy (Raidergirl)

Tracon by Paul McElroy (Lisa)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (3M)

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (Jill)

Then there's a huge list of "what I'll try to read later!" Maybe I'll post that another day.

My "Something About Me" Book List

I've finally come up with the following books for the Something About Me Challenge. Not easy! I always struggle with deciding whether to pick books I’ve read already, or picking ones I WANT to read... so I did a little of both.

My List of "Something About Me" Books:

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini. My other consuming hobby, after reading, is quilting. I’m not very good at it, but it sure is fun to do! This book is the first in a series called The Elm Creek Quilters Series, and my friend seems to love them, so I’ve been wanting to give them a try.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. No one else has listed this book yet have they? I admit, I’ve been swept up (or should I say sucked into? LOL!) in the whole Twilight books thing! I love them! I love teen romance stories! I love Stephenie’s style! I hope to write like her some day. (In my dreams...) I’m also finding that I’ve been increasingly attracted to the whole vampire genre and I’m really anxious to read some more books like this.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I couldn’t list books about me without some kind of Victorian era classic. It’s truly my favorite genre. I picked this one because it’s about time I re-read it and because there’s just something about this one that gets to me. Something about doomed romance and haunted characters, and ghosts and all that good deep stuff.

Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald. Being from Utah, I find it funny that I’ve never read this book, written by the author of Great Brain fame. I’ve heard it’s wonderfully funny and that fans of the Little House series (I’m thinking that’s many of us) love it. It’s non-fiction but I think loosely based on his family stories.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. Twice a year, I run the book fair at the elementary school. Often, I’ll read some of the book fair books and then talk them up. Last time, after talking about several books, a student raised her hand and said, "Did you read anything that WASN’T fantasy?" I realized that I hadn’t! I love YA fantasy and so I’ve picked this one because it’s been on my list forever to get to and maybe this will help me to finally do it! (Yes I know I’m supposed to read the books on everyone else’ list, but I figured I could read stuff on mine too!)

Anyway, so there you have it! Hopefully these books say a little bit about me!