Hi all! This is a few days late due to vacation, but I wanted to provide the final list of titles I read for the 2015 Popsugar Reading Challenge, along with a brief thought about each--basically whether I think it's worth reading or not. You can find links to the Goodreads listings for all of these books on my Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge shelf here.
-A book with more than 500 pages. For this I read Oliver Stone's The Untold History of the United States, which is a good history book that takes an alternative (but still factual) look at some aspects of the US's history. Worth reading for those who like history.
-A book published this year. The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy, which is by Julia Quinn and came out in January 2015. Quinn's books can be a bit syrupy, and I disliked this one more than her others. I'd say go for her Bridgerton series before this one.
-A book with a number in the title. Nayomi Munaweera's Island of a Thousand Mirrors, which takes place in Sri Lanka, is a bittersweet look at how the conflicts in race there manifest, and how they affect communities.
-A book with nonhuman characters. For this I read Brenda Pandos' The Emerald Talisman, which has vampires in it. I hated it. There are far better paranormal romances out there. Skip this one.
-A funny book. That would be Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple, which had me giggling to myself on several occasions. Definitely recommended!
-A
book by a female author. I read a ton of female authors, but for this one I used Bread & Butter by
Michelle Wildgen, which was a great character-driven book that revolves
around a trio of brothers in the restaurant business. I liked it, though those who like plot-driven books with lots of forward motion would likely be disappointed.
-A mystery or thriller. Well, I finally got around to reading Inferno. Thoughts? It's a Dan Brown book. If you liked the others, you'll probably like this, though I found the overall premise involving the virus to be more hokey than normal, and think it really backs Brown into a corner for future books.
-A book with a one-word title. Sand by Hugh Howey is a fabulous science-fiction read
in a really interesting setting with a great cast of characters. Highly, highly recommended.
-A book of short stories. Hilary Mantel's The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher was a very cool book of short stories that all hard really surreal aspects to them, but which were overall just real enough to be believable. I'm not a huge short story person, but this was excellent.
-A
book set in a different country. I love reading books set in
different countries, because I like to get a glimpse of places I will
likely never go myself. Aminta Arrington's Home is a Roof Over a Pig, which is a memoir set in China, filled this category, and I liked it well enough. But if slice-of-life memoirs aren't your thing, look elsewhere.
-A nonfiction book. Sarah Churchwell wrote (and I read) Careless People, which is about a murder that took place in the 1920s and how it might have influenced F. Scott Fitzgerald when he was writing The Great Gatsby. I loved this.
-A book based entirely off its cover. Ugh, what a disaster this one was! I read Dorthea Benton Frank's The Last Original Wife based
on the cover, and I hated it. It looked so beachy and light and
lovely, and it was a disaster that made me angry.
-A memoir. I read a lot of these, but for this particular category, let's go with All the Fishes Come Home to Roost, which is Rachel Manija Brown's memoir about growing up as an American kid in an ashram in India.
-A book you can finish in a day. After removing an earlier selection (Charlie Holmberg's The Master Magician) from this category because I didn't want to duplicate authors, I had to use Eloisa James' Three Weeks with Lady X. I can pretty much read any Eloisa James book in under a day, because they are all delicious, and I would recommend this to historical romance lovers--though reading her other Duchess books first might help for some context.
-A trilogy. I devoured and adored Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy early this year, which is made of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, The Crown of Embers, and The Bitter Kingdom.
These were some of the first books I read this year, and I absolutely
loved them. I'll definitely read them again, and they really got me
back in the writing mood!
-A book set in the future. I pretty much inhaled These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman. It's a beautiful young adult sci-fi story with a
wonderfully worked romance aspect, and I can't wait to read the
companion books.
-A book with a color in the title. Well, that would have to be Scarlet, Marissa Meyer's awesome sci-fi adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood, which picks up where her sci-fi version of Cinderella, Cinder, left off. The rest of the series was good, too, but Scarlet was definitely the strongest of the four.
-A book with magic. Vera Nazarian's magical Cobweb Bride definitely fits this category. It got off to a slow start, but was utterly enchanting (haha, I'm so funny) by the end.
-A book by an author you've never read before. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent fits this. I liked it, but it wasn't as mind-blowing as it was made out to be.
-A book that was originally written in a different language. Skylight by
Jose Saramago. It's a beautiful character-driven novel that was
originally written in Portuguese and wasn't published until after the
author's death because of an early snafu with a potential publisher.
I enjoyed it, but did find it to be a bit slow, even for a character-driven novel.
-A book set during Christmas. I hate books that are set during Christmas. I find them to be really gimmicky, all "love thy neighbor" and "God is great," which is super annoying to be hit over the head with again and again and again. But I did read Married by Midnight by Julianne MacLean earlier
this year, not realizing at first that it was set during Christmas when I picked it up. It
was okay, I guess, but it didn't leave me rushing to pick up the others
in the series.
-A book written by an author with your same initials. Well, my initials are CH, so I'm going with The Paper Magician by
Charlie Holmberg, which was a great Victorian-style fantasy about a
girl who learns paper magic and has to save her tutor after his heart is
literally stolen out of his chest. I loved it.
-A book a friend recommended. My friend Vilhelmina tore through Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses and pushed me to read it so we could discuss, so I tore through it, too. I liked it, a lot, but it left me a little bit nervous about the next book in the series.
-A book that made you cry. This was, unintentionally, How To Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz. Oh, Malcolm... A beautiful character-driven novel about three girls who come together and separate again over the course of their lives, and the triumphs and tragedies that drive their connections.
-A book you own but have never read. As I intended, I finished this one with The Martian by Andy Weir,
reading it after owning it for about six months. It's very realistic science fiction, a great intro to the genre for
those who are interested in the concept but find the more space-opera-y
stories too out there.
-A book based on or turned into a TV show. Again, as intended, I read Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark, the book that started the series that became the HBO show TrueBlood. As with the show, it was okay but I didn't like it. The whole necrophiliac aspect of vampire romances kind of creeps me out, to be honest...
-A
book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. I eventually used Elizabeth Gillbert's The Signature of All Things (which is partially set in Tahiti) for this category, because filling up a category was about all it was good for. Would not recommend.
-A book that became a movie. I read Monuments Men by Robert Edsel for this one, and really liked it. I thought it was going to closely overlap with The Rape of Europa, which I read in school, but it didn't. It's much more of a narrative history, and includes tons of stuff that Europa didn't even touch on in regards to the Monuments Men and their efforts to protect Europe's treasures during the Allied advance. Great for WWII history fans.
-A
book more than 100 years old. I'd originally planned to use 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea for this, but I really wasn't feeling that, so I
read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett instead.
Published in 1905, it fit the category, and I liked the story. It's very simple, but full of heart.
-A book that came out the year you were born. I read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander for this category, and had mixed feelings about it. I kind of hated Clare, and felt it was much too long, but I don't know...it kind of grew on me.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. I read Tamora Pierce's Battle Magic for
this, and was quite disappointed. This is definitely not her finest work, and I would really put it at the bottom of her works in quality. Read pretty much anything else by her first.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. I used Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit for
this, after some convoluted "reading list" math, and actually really liked it. I'm not a racing buff or fan, by any means, but this was a story with a lot of heart--and true, to boot!
-A book from your childhood.
I asked for the wonderful anniversary edition of the Harry Potter box
set for my birthday last month, and quickly read J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for
this. I read the book initially when I was pretty young (probably 9 or
10, I'd say) but it was definitely just as magical today as it was
then.
-A book that scares you. This was another category I ended up inadvertently filling, with Robert Levy's The Glittering World.
It was definitely very creepy and made me sort of nauseous, in a weird
way. But I don't think I would recommend it.
-A book with a love triangle. I read Kresley Cole's Endless Knight for this, along with its sequel Dead of Winter. I love this series. It's a guilty pleasure of mine, though I think it's probably going to get dragged out way longer than it should.
-A book set in high school. When I couldn't get my hands on Perks of Being a Wallflower, I read The Unraveling of Mercy Louis by Keija Parssinen instead. While I found the writing beautiful and the story compelling, I was frustrated by the ambiguity of the ending.
-A banned book. As planned, I read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini for
this. I can see why people banned it in certain schools and areas,
though I heartily disagree with their ideas for doing so, and feel that
the beauty of the book and the compelling plot line more than outweigh
any cursing or "dangerous" depictions of homosexuality that people
object to. I'd recommend it.
-A classic romance. Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina isn't a classic romance in the traditional sense, because not all aspects of it are romantic, or happy, but Tolstoy is, of course, a literary genius, and I think this is really worth reading. Much less philosophical than War and Peace, but with the same beautiful plot at heart.
-A book written by someone under 30. Allison Beckert volunteered her book Mishap Mansion as fitting this category, due to her age, so I bought it, read it...and didn't really enjoy it. I think there were some good ideas here but they weren't treated well, and the whole thing came off as annoying rather than enjoyable.
-A
popular author's first book. Terry Pratchett's The Carpet People filled this. It wasn't what I expected, and I found it a bit simplistic--not surprising, considering he originally wrote it when he was 16--but I liked it. Probably a necessary read for Pratchett fans, but I don't think it was the best book of his to start with.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See was absolutely beautiful and I can see why everyone loves it so much. You should read it, if you haven't already.
-A
book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good
student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one
exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor by Joanne B. Freeman. It had good structure and some interesting bits but was ungodly boring. Would not recommend for pleasure reading.
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de by Sergio Toppi put itself forth as an adaptation of "Scheherazade," but it fell flat in my opinion. It was notable for the beautiful art, but not for the storytelling.
-A book that takes place in your hometown. Second Position by Katherine Locke takes place in my second hometown of Washington, DC, and dealt with some very heavy subjects like amputation and miscarriage while being strikingly beautiful at the same time. Wonderful, but not light reading by any means.
-A play. I read Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit for this category. I know people like it, but I honestly can't recommend a play to be read. Go see it instead; it'll make more of an impact.
-A book you started but never finished. I'm glad I came back to Hal Duncan's Vellum for this one, because looking at it with more perspective and a fresh pair of eyes made it a book that I loved, rather than one I despised so much I couldn't finish it--but I think it only appeals to a certain type of reader. Tread with care.
-A book based on a true story. For this, I decided to use Kate Alcott's The Dressmaker, which relies heavily on the sinking of the Titanic and
the trials that followed. It's good, but I've read better; the main character was too lacking for my taste.
-A book your mom loves. My mom loves The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough,
and after reading it, I really enjoyed it, too. I bought my own copy after borrowing the one I read from the library, I enjoyed it so much. I think fans of Gone with the Wind's variety of historical romance and struggle would like this, though the settings are very different in both time and place.
-A book with antonyms in the title. I hadn't even realized I completed this category until Jeffrey Cook, author of Foul Is Fair,
pointed out that his title counted for it! Doi! This was good, but lacked the dark edge of most faerie books, which is (in my opinion) what makes them tantalizing.
-A book with bad reviews. I used Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements for this, after seeing the reviews when I finished the book--I hadn't looked at them in advance. The rating isn't terrible but the reviews certainly aren't favorable, and I could see why. I didn't hate it, but also didn't enjoy it. Just a meh title for me.
Showing posts with label 2015. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2015. Show all posts
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Popsugar Reading Challenge Update!
Hello out there! After a flag in my reading due to a few very busy weeks at work, I'm back up to my regular pace, and thought I'd check in with my reading challenge. I'm slowly whittling away at the categories, while mixing in a good number of non-challenge books as I do. So, since the last time we spoke, these are the categories I've completed, and what I have left to do.
Completed
-A book based on a true story. For this, I decided to use The Dressmaker, which relies heavily on the sinking of the Titanic and the trials that followed. I originally intended this title to fulfill the category of "A book that takes place in your hometown," for Washington, DC (my adopted hometown) but felt that not enough of the narrative took place in DC for it to really count. Luckily, it fulfills this category instead!
-A book your mom loves. My mom loves The Thorn Birds, and after reading it, I really enjoyed it to. What I did not enjoy so much was that, while I was reading it, I left it on the nightstand and her devil dog Fiona (they were visiting at the time) decided it looked like a good chew toy, so I had to buy the library a new copy. Which was more difficult than it sounds because the book isn't published in hardcover anymore!
-A book with antonyms in the title. I hadn't even realized I completed this category until Jeffrey Cook, author of Foul Is Fair, pointed out that his title counted for it! Doi! How could I have missed that? Well, it's a bonus, because I didn't think I'd have it done yet, but I do! Ha!
-A book with bad reviews. I technically used Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements for this, after seeing the reviews when I finished the book, but you could easily count Katie MacAlister's Improper English, too. Neither of these absolutely tanked in ratings, but the reviews, upon scrolling through, certainly aren't favorable.
In Progress
I'm reading several books for the challenge right now, so I thought I'd separate those out, too!
-A book that became a movie. As planned, I'm using Monuments Men for this one.
-A book more than 100 years old. I'd originally planned to use 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for this, but I really wasn't feeling that, so I'm reading A Little Princess instead. It was originally published in 1905, so it works!
-A book that came out the year you were born. I started Outlander for this category, as planned. It's...not quite what I thought it was? We'll see!
Still to Go
-A classic romance. I picked up Anna Karenina at a used bookstore a while back, so I'm going to use that one.
-A book written by someone under 30. Oh, this was a hard one to find a candidate for, because all of the authors I thought were really young are actually older than I thought! Oi. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to take up Veronica Roth's Divergent. I've avoided it until now, but now it seems to have become unavoidable.
-A popular author's first book. I wanted to go with a big author for this one, and because Terry Pratchett died recently, I've settled on The Carpet People.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. Well, I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce, but for some reason I haven't read Battle Magic yet, so that will fill this category.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Like pretty much everyone else out there, I'm going to knock this one out with All the Light We Cannot See.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. My to-read list is in a constant state of flux and doesn't really have a concrete "bottom," so at some point I'll just pick the most recently added book (which is, by default, at the bottom) and read that.
-A book that scares you. I have no idea for this one, honestly. Horror books don't actually scare me, so I think I might have to go with some nonfiction that's terrifyingly true. We'll see where that goes.
-A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor. It's apparently about early congressmen, senators, etc. being bitchy to each other, so it shouldn't be too bad of a read.
-A book from your childhood. The obvious one that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This might finally give me the excuse to order that new box set I've been eyeing up...
-A book with a love triangle. I've gotta fill this one with Endless Knight, Kresley Cole's sequel to Poison Princess. I loved Princess (review here), but haven't cracked Endless yet. But it has definitely got a love triangle.
-A book set in high school. Pretty sure that Perks of Being a Wallflower is going to flesh out this category. I kind of hate books set in high school, but Perks is supposed to be great, so I hope it won't let me down!
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de is a graphic novel inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights, and I've been eyeing it up for a while now. Plus, Scheherazade is pretty much my favorite fairy tale ever.
-A book that takes place in your hometown. After finding that The Dressmaker didn't really work for this one, I've re-directed myself toward Second Position by Katherine Locke. This takes place in DC.
-A play. I haven't decided on this yet, though I'll probably keep it basic and do Shakespeare.
-A banned book. Well, books in the US are never actually banned by the government, but according to a list of frequently challenged books, The Kite Runner fits this category. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, several years ago and liked it, so this should be a good contender.
-A book you started but never finished. I swear to year, this is the year I finally take down Vellum, which I have started multiple times but have never been able to complete. But this time, I will do it!
Completed
-A book based on a true story. For this, I decided to use The Dressmaker, which relies heavily on the sinking of the Titanic and the trials that followed. I originally intended this title to fulfill the category of "A book that takes place in your hometown," for Washington, DC (my adopted hometown) but felt that not enough of the narrative took place in DC for it to really count. Luckily, it fulfills this category instead!
-A book your mom loves. My mom loves The Thorn Birds, and after reading it, I really enjoyed it to. What I did not enjoy so much was that, while I was reading it, I left it on the nightstand and her devil dog Fiona (they were visiting at the time) decided it looked like a good chew toy, so I had to buy the library a new copy. Which was more difficult than it sounds because the book isn't published in hardcover anymore!
-A book with antonyms in the title. I hadn't even realized I completed this category until Jeffrey Cook, author of Foul Is Fair, pointed out that his title counted for it! Doi! How could I have missed that? Well, it's a bonus, because I didn't think I'd have it done yet, but I do! Ha!
-A book with bad reviews. I technically used Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements for this, after seeing the reviews when I finished the book, but you could easily count Katie MacAlister's Improper English, too. Neither of these absolutely tanked in ratings, but the reviews, upon scrolling through, certainly aren't favorable.
In Progress
I'm reading several books for the challenge right now, so I thought I'd separate those out, too!
-A book that became a movie. As planned, I'm using Monuments Men for this one.
-A book more than 100 years old. I'd originally planned to use 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for this, but I really wasn't feeling that, so I'm reading A Little Princess instead. It was originally published in 1905, so it works!
-A book that came out the year you were born. I started Outlander for this category, as planned. It's...not quite what I thought it was? We'll see!
Still to Go
-A classic romance. I picked up Anna Karenina at a used bookstore a while back, so I'm going to use that one.
-A book written by someone under 30. Oh, this was a hard one to find a candidate for, because all of the authors I thought were really young are actually older than I thought! Oi. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to take up Veronica Roth's Divergent. I've avoided it until now, but now it seems to have become unavoidable.
-A popular author's first book. I wanted to go with a big author for this one, and because Terry Pratchett died recently, I've settled on The Carpet People.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. Well, I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce, but for some reason I haven't read Battle Magic yet, so that will fill this category.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Like pretty much everyone else out there, I'm going to knock this one out with All the Light We Cannot See.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. My to-read list is in a constant state of flux and doesn't really have a concrete "bottom," so at some point I'll just pick the most recently added book (which is, by default, at the bottom) and read that.
-A book that scares you. I have no idea for this one, honestly. Horror books don't actually scare me, so I think I might have to go with some nonfiction that's terrifyingly true. We'll see where that goes.
-A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor. It's apparently about early congressmen, senators, etc. being bitchy to each other, so it shouldn't be too bad of a read.
-A book from your childhood. The obvious one that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This might finally give me the excuse to order that new box set I've been eyeing up...
-A book with a love triangle. I've gotta fill this one with Endless Knight, Kresley Cole's sequel to Poison Princess. I loved Princess (review here), but haven't cracked Endless yet. But it has definitely got a love triangle.
-A book set in high school. Pretty sure that Perks of Being a Wallflower is going to flesh out this category. I kind of hate books set in high school, but Perks is supposed to be great, so I hope it won't let me down!
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de is a graphic novel inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights, and I've been eyeing it up for a while now. Plus, Scheherazade is pretty much my favorite fairy tale ever.
-A book that takes place in your hometown. After finding that The Dressmaker didn't really work for this one, I've re-directed myself toward Second Position by Katherine Locke. This takes place in DC.
-A play. I haven't decided on this yet, though I'll probably keep it basic and do Shakespeare.
-A banned book. Well, books in the US are never actually banned by the government, but according to a list of frequently challenged books, The Kite Runner fits this category. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, several years ago and liked it, so this should be a good contender.
-A book you started but never finished. I swear to year, this is the year I finally take down Vellum, which I have started multiple times but have never been able to complete. But this time, I will do it!
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Popsugar Reading Challenge Updates!
Hellooooo out there! Since the last time we've chatted about this, I've knocked out a few more categories in the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge. You can view my original progress here. Since then, I've finished the following categories, and updated a few more that are still to go!
Completed
-A book a friend recommended. My friend Vilhelmina tore through Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses a few weeks ago, and when I saw that she'd rated it pretty highly, I said I'd have to read it soon--to which she gave an emphatic Yes so that we could discuss it! I liked it, a lot, but it left me a little bit nervous about the next book in the series.
-A book that made you cry. This was, unintentionally, How To Start a Fire. Oh, Malcolm...
-A book you own but have never read. As I intended, I finished this one with The Martian, reading it after owning it for about six months without ever reading it. It's very realistic science fiction, a great intro to the genre for those who are interested in the concept but find the more space-opera-y stories too out there.
-A book based on or turned into a TV show. Again, as intended, I read Dead Until Dark, the book that started the series that became the HBO show TrueBlood. One of my absolute favorite books, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, is the novelization of a mini-series of the same name that Gaiman worked on, but I wanted to include all new books in this challenge (with the exception of a book from my childhood) so I had to go for something a little different.
-A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. I hadn't decided on something to fill this category originally, but I've decided to use The Signature of All Things for it. This boot is set partially in Tahiti, a place I would love to visit--and I disliked the book so much that I figure I might as well get something out of it, so I'm counting it for this category.
With those out of the way, it leaves a few (well, a bunch) of categories still to be filled...
Still To Go
-A classic romance. I picked up Anna Karenina at a used bookstore a while back, so I'm going to use that one.
-A book that became a movie. I'll be filling this one with The Monuments Men, which has been on my Kindle for ages but I haven't opened yet. I don't actually read a lot of books that become movies, so this one was a harder category to find a candidate for.
-A book written by someone under 30. Oh, this was a hard one to find a candidate for, because all of the authors I thought were really young are actually older than I thought! Oi. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to take up Veronica Roth's Divergent. I've avoided it until now, but now it seems to have become unavoidable.
-A popular author's first book. I wanted to go with a big author for this one, and because Terry Pratchett died recently, I've settled on The Carpet People.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. Well, I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce, but for some reason I haven't read Battle Magic yet, so that will fill this category.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Like pretty much everyone else out there, I'm going to knock this one out with All the Light We Cannot See.
-A book based on a true story. I think I'm going to go with Seabiscuit for this one. I think that counts. The "based on" bit confuse me somewhat.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. My to-read list is in a constant state of flux and doesn't really have a concrete "bottom," so at some point I'll just pick the most recently added book (which is, by default, at the bottom) and read that.
-A book your mom loves. As my mother drunkenly told an Australian tourist while we were in Venice for my sister's wedding, her favorite book is The Thorn Birds, so I guess I'll be reading that for this category!
-A book that scares you. I have no idea for this one, honestly. Horror books don't actually scare me, so I think I might have to go with some nonfiction that's terrifyingly true. We'll see where that goes.
-A book more than 100 years old. Well, common domain books make this easy, and I think I'll continue my study of the classics with 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
-A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor. It's apparently about early congressmen, senators, etc. being bitchy to each other, so it shouldn't be too bad of a read.
-A book with antonyms in the title. I honestly don't know. I'll have to look for something, nothing comes to mind right away.
-A book that came out the year you were born. I looked up a list of books published in 1991 and discovered that's the year that Outlander was originally published in that year! This is great, because I recently bought the entire series when it was obscenely cheap on Amazon a couple of weeks ago.
-A book with bad reviews. I haven't decided yet on this one, either, but I'm dreading it...
-A book from your childhood. The obvious one that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This might finally give me the excuse to order that new box set I've been eyeing up...
-A book with a love triangle. I've gotta fill this one with Endless Knight, Kresley Cole's sequel to Poison Princess. I loved Princess (review here), but haven't cracked Endless yet. But it has definitely got a love triangle.
-A book set in high school. Pretty sure that Perks of Being a Wallflower is going to flesh out this category. I kind of hate books set in high school, but Perks is supposed to be great, so I hope it won't let me down!
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de is a graphic novel inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights, and I've been eyeing it up for a while now. Plus, Scheherazade is pretty much my favorite fairy tale ever.
-A book that takes place in your hometown. Well, despite some Googling, I couldn't find anything that takes place in Erie, PA, so I'm going with my second hometown here. I'll be reading The Dressmaker, which, according to my research, takes place at least partially in Washington, DC.
-A play. I haven't decided on this yet, though I'll probably keep it basic and do Shakespeare.
-A banned book. Well, books in the US are never actually banned by the government, but according to a list of frequently challenged books, The Kite Runner fits this category. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, several years ago and liked it, so this should be a good contender.
-A book you started but never finished. I swear to year, this is the year I finally take down Vellum, which I have started multiple times but have never been able to complete. But this time, I will do it!
Completed
-A book a friend recommended. My friend Vilhelmina tore through Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses a few weeks ago, and when I saw that she'd rated it pretty highly, I said I'd have to read it soon--to which she gave an emphatic Yes so that we could discuss it! I liked it, a lot, but it left me a little bit nervous about the next book in the series.
-A book that made you cry. This was, unintentionally, How To Start a Fire. Oh, Malcolm...
-A book you own but have never read. As I intended, I finished this one with The Martian, reading it after owning it for about six months without ever reading it. It's very realistic science fiction, a great intro to the genre for those who are interested in the concept but find the more space-opera-y stories too out there.
-A book based on or turned into a TV show. Again, as intended, I read Dead Until Dark, the book that started the series that became the HBO show TrueBlood. One of my absolute favorite books, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, is the novelization of a mini-series of the same name that Gaiman worked on, but I wanted to include all new books in this challenge (with the exception of a book from my childhood) so I had to go for something a little different.
-A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. I hadn't decided on something to fill this category originally, but I've decided to use The Signature of All Things for it. This boot is set partially in Tahiti, a place I would love to visit--and I disliked the book so much that I figure I might as well get something out of it, so I'm counting it for this category.
With those out of the way, it leaves a few (well, a bunch) of categories still to be filled...
Still To Go
-A classic romance. I picked up Anna Karenina at a used bookstore a while back, so I'm going to use that one.
-A book that became a movie. I'll be filling this one with The Monuments Men, which has been on my Kindle for ages but I haven't opened yet. I don't actually read a lot of books that become movies, so this one was a harder category to find a candidate for.
-A book written by someone under 30. Oh, this was a hard one to find a candidate for, because all of the authors I thought were really young are actually older than I thought! Oi. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to take up Veronica Roth's Divergent. I've avoided it until now, but now it seems to have become unavoidable.
-A popular author's first book. I wanted to go with a big author for this one, and because Terry Pratchett died recently, I've settled on The Carpet People.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. Well, I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce, but for some reason I haven't read Battle Magic yet, so that will fill this category.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Like pretty much everyone else out there, I'm going to knock this one out with All the Light We Cannot See.
-A book based on a true story. I think I'm going to go with Seabiscuit for this one. I think that counts. The "based on" bit confuse me somewhat.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. My to-read list is in a constant state of flux and doesn't really have a concrete "bottom," so at some point I'll just pick the most recently added book (which is, by default, at the bottom) and read that.
-A book your mom loves. As my mother drunkenly told an Australian tourist while we were in Venice for my sister's wedding, her favorite book is The Thorn Birds, so I guess I'll be reading that for this category!
-A book that scares you. I have no idea for this one, honestly. Horror books don't actually scare me, so I think I might have to go with some nonfiction that's terrifyingly true. We'll see where that goes.
-A book more than 100 years old. Well, common domain books make this easy, and I think I'll continue my study of the classics with 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
-A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor. It's apparently about early congressmen, senators, etc. being bitchy to each other, so it shouldn't be too bad of a read.
-A book with antonyms in the title. I honestly don't know. I'll have to look for something, nothing comes to mind right away.
-A book that came out the year you were born. I looked up a list of books published in 1991 and discovered that's the year that Outlander was originally published in that year! This is great, because I recently bought the entire series when it was obscenely cheap on Amazon a couple of weeks ago.
-A book with bad reviews. I haven't decided yet on this one, either, but I'm dreading it...
-A book from your childhood. The obvious one that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This might finally give me the excuse to order that new box set I've been eyeing up...
-A book with a love triangle. I've gotta fill this one with Endless Knight, Kresley Cole's sequel to Poison Princess. I loved Princess (review here), but haven't cracked Endless yet. But it has definitely got a love triangle.
-A book set in high school. Pretty sure that Perks of Being a Wallflower is going to flesh out this category. I kind of hate books set in high school, but Perks is supposed to be great, so I hope it won't let me down!
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de is a graphic novel inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights, and I've been eyeing it up for a while now. Plus, Scheherazade is pretty much my favorite fairy tale ever.
-A book that takes place in your hometown. Well, despite some Googling, I couldn't find anything that takes place in Erie, PA, so I'm going with my second hometown here. I'll be reading The Dressmaker, which, according to my research, takes place at least partially in Washington, DC.
-A play. I haven't decided on this yet, though I'll probably keep it basic and do Shakespeare.
-A banned book. Well, books in the US are never actually banned by the government, but according to a list of frequently challenged books, The Kite Runner fits this category. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, several years ago and liked it, so this should be a good contender.
-A book you started but never finished. I swear to year, this is the year I finally take down Vellum, which I have started multiple times but have never been able to complete. But this time, I will do it!
Monday, June 22, 2015
Checking In - PopSugar's 2015 Reading Challenge
Why hello out there! Can you hear me? Probably not. Though this isn't a book review, I thought it might be a fun thing to include on the blog for this week. A while ago, I decided to embark on PopSugar's 2015 Reading Challenge, and I wanted to share my progress so far! Here are the categories, how I've filled them, and how I'm planning to fill them.
Completed
-A book with more than 500 pages. Done! I read The Untold History of the United States earlier this year, and it clocked in at a whopping (and dense!) 784 pages. Some of that page count is references, but the content still took up significantly more than 500 pages. Fun fact: Peter Kuznik, one of the authors, is a professor at the university I attended and now work at! Go AU!
-A book published this year. Easy! The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy, because I love me a good historical romance and Julia Quinn is one of my favorites for a light and fast read. This one came out in January.
-A book with a number in the title. This one was a little harder, but I did read Island of a Thousand Mirrors recently, and that counts, because of the "Thousand" part. Right? Right.
-A book with nonhuman characters. I read The Emerald Talisman back in March, and it has vampires in it. I hated it. The review can be found here.
-A funny book. That would be Where'd You Go Bernadette, which had me giggling to myself on several occasions. Definitely recommended! Read the review here.
-A book by a female author. This might be hard for some, but not for me, because for some reason I seem to unconsciously favor female authors. But for now, let's go with Bread & Butter by Michelle Wildgen, which was a great character-driven book that revolves around a trio of brothers in the restaurant business.
-A mystery or thriller. Well, I finally got around to reading Inferno, so I guess that counts for this!
-A book with a one-word title. That's an easy one, too. I read Sand this spring and absolutely loved it. It's a fabulous science-fiction read in a really interesting setting with a great cast of characters. I made the boyfriend read this one, and he really enjoyed it, too.
-A book of short stories. I have a few candidates for this one; I was originally going to just go with Small Plates because I happened to pick it up from the popular reading section a the library, but after reading The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, I feel like I have to give that a shout out, too. Review for The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher is here.
-A book set in a different country. Another easy category, for which I can take my pick from a variety of books. I love reading books set in different countries, because I like to get a glimpse of places I will likely never go myself. So for this one, let's go with Home is a Roof Over a Pig, which is a memoir set in China.
-A nonfiction book. Again, not a hard one; I tend to read a lot of nonfiction. But one that comes to mind that I really enjoyed is Careless People, which is about a murder that took place in the 1920s and how it might have influenced F. Scott Fitzgerald when he was writing The Great Gatsby.
-A book based entirely off its cover. Ugh, what a disaster this one was! I read The Last Original Wife based on the cover, and I hated it. It looked so beachy and light and lovely, and it was a disaster that made me angry. You can read my review of it here.
-A memoir. I read a lot of these, but for this particular category, let's go with All the Fishes Come Home to Roost, which is Rachel Manija Brown's memoir about growing up as an American kid in an ashram in India.
-A book you can finish in a day. Ohhh, easy one. I plowed through The Master Magician in a few hours, but found it sadly lacking in comparison to the first two books in the trilogy.
-A trilogy. I devoured and adored Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy early this year, which is made of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, The Crown of Embers, and The Bitter Kingdom. These were some of the first books I read this year, and I absolutely loved them. I'll definitely read them again, and they really got me back in the writing mood!
-A book set in the future. I pretty much inhaled These Broken Stars over Spring Break. It's a beautiful young adult sci-fi story with a wonderfully worked romance aspect, and I can't wait to read the companion books.
-A book with a color in the title. Well, that would have to be Scarlet, Marissa Meyer's awesome sci-fi adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood, which picks up where her sci-fi version of Cinderella, Cinder, left off. I can't wait to get to Cress (which I've been putting off so as to eke out as much enjoyment as possible before Winter comes out--it cannot come soon enough!) and continue this series!
-A book with magic. The magical Cobweb Bride definitely fits this category. It got off to a slow start, but was utterly enchanting (haha, I'm so funny) by the end.
-A book by an author you've never read before. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent fits this. I liked it, but it wasn't as mind-blowing as it was made out to be.
-A book that was originally written in a different language. I'm currently reading Skylight by Jose Saramago. It's a beautiful character-driven novel that was originally written in Portuguese and wasn't published until after the author's death because of an early snafu with a potential publisher. I'm enjoying it so far.
-A book set during Christmas. I hate books that are set during Christmas. I find them to be really gimmicky. But I did read Married by Midnight earlier this year, not realizing at first that it was set during Christmas. It was okay, I guess, but it didn't leave me rushing to pick up the others in the series.
-A book written by an author with your same initials. Well, my initials are CH, so I'm going with The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg, which was a great Victorian-style fantasy about a girl who learns paper magic and has to save her tutor after his heart is literally stolen out of his chest. I loved it.
Still To Go
-A classic romance. I'm planning on squeezing in Wuthering Heights at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
-A book that became a movie. I'll be filling this one with The Monuments Men, which has been on my Kindle for ages but I haven't opened yet. I don't actually read a lot of books that become movies, so this one was a harder category to find a candidate for.
-A book written by someone under 30. Oh, this was a hard one to find a candidate for, because all of the authors I thought were really young are actually older than I thought! Oi. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to take up Veronica Roth's Divergent. I've avoided it until now, but now it seems to have become unavoidable.
-A popular author's first book. I wanted to go with a big author for this one, and because Terry Pratchett died recently, I've settled on The Carpet People.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. Well, I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce, but for some reason I haven't read Battle Magic yet, so that will fill this category.
-A book a friend recommended. Uhm...I don't know about this one yet. I'll have to ask around.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Like pretty much everyone else out there, I'm going to knock this one out with All the Light We Cannot See.
-A book based on a true story. I think I'm going to go with Seabiscuit for this one. I think that counts. The "based on" bit confuse me somewhat.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. My to-read list is in a constant state of flux and doesn't really have a concrete "bottom," so at some point I'll just pick the most recently added book (which is, by default, at the bottom) and read that.
-A book your mom loves. As my mother drunkenly told an Australian tourist while we were in Venice for my sister's wedding, her favorite book is The Thorn Birds, so I guess I'll be reading that for this category!
-A book that scares you. I have no idea for this one, honestly. Horror books don't actually scare me, so I think I might have to go with some nonfiction that's terrifyingly true. We'll see where that goes.
-A book more than 100 years old. Well, common domain books make this easy, and I think I'll continue my study of the classics with 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
-A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor. It's apparently about early congressmen, senators, etc. being bitchy to each other, so it shouldn't be too bad of a read.
-A book with antonyms in the title. I honestly don't know. I'll have to look for something, nothing comes to mind right away.
-A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. I haven't decided on this one yet...do fictional locations count? Like Narnia? Or other historical periods? We'll see. There's some serious potential here...
-A book that came out the year you were born. I don't know yet for this one. Anyone know any good books published in 1991?
-A book with bad reviews. I haven't decided yet on this one, either, but I'm dreading it...
-A book from your childhood. The obvious one that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This might finally give me the excuse to order that new box set I've been eyeing up...
-A book with a love triangle. I've gotta fill this one with Endless Knight, Kresley Cole's sequel to Poison Princess. I loved Princess (review here), but haven't cracked Endless yet. But it has definitely got a love triangle.
-A book set in high school. Pretty sure that Perks of Being a Wallflower is going to flesh out this category. I kind of hate books set in high school, but Perks is supposed to be great, so I hope it won't let me down!
-A book that made you cry. Can you really plan for these things? I don't know. I might have to re-read something to fulfill this...
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de is a graphic novel inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights, and I've been eyeing it up for a while now. Plus, Scheherazade is pretty much my favorite fairy tale ever.
-A book you own but have never read. That would be The Martian, which I've had for months but haven't read yet. I'd better get around to it before the movie comes out, too, which I guess means I have until early October to complete this category. Plenty of time my dear, plenty of time...
-A book that takes place in your hometown. Well, despite some Googling, I couldn't find anything that takes place in Erie, PA, so I'm going with my second hometown here. I'll be reading The Dressmaker, which, according to my research, takes place at least partially in Washington, DC.
-A play. I haven't decided on this yet, though I'll probably keep it basic and do Shakespeare.
-A banned book. Well, books in the US are never actually banned by the government, but according to a list of frequently challenged books, The Kite Runner fits this category. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, several years ago and liked it, so this should be a good contender.
-A book based on or turned into a TV show. For this one, I think I'll go with Dead Until Dark, which as we all know was made into the hit TV show True Blood.
-A book you started but never finished. I swear to year, this is the year I finally take down Vellum, which I have started multiple times but have never been able to complete. But this time, I will do it!
Well, that about sums it up... I'm not halfway done yet, from the looks of it, but I've got time. By the end of the year, these books are going down! If you're out there, are you doing any reading challenges? Or, better yet, do you have suggestions for the categories I haven't picked titles for yet? Let me know!
Completed
-A book with more than 500 pages. Done! I read The Untold History of the United States earlier this year, and it clocked in at a whopping (and dense!) 784 pages. Some of that page count is references, but the content still took up significantly more than 500 pages. Fun fact: Peter Kuznik, one of the authors, is a professor at the university I attended and now work at! Go AU!
-A book published this year. Easy! The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy, because I love me a good historical romance and Julia Quinn is one of my favorites for a light and fast read. This one came out in January.
-A book with a number in the title. This one was a little harder, but I did read Island of a Thousand Mirrors recently, and that counts, because of the "Thousand" part. Right? Right.
-A book with nonhuman characters. I read The Emerald Talisman back in March, and it has vampires in it. I hated it. The review can be found here.
-A funny book. That would be Where'd You Go Bernadette, which had me giggling to myself on several occasions. Definitely recommended! Read the review here.
-A book by a female author. This might be hard for some, but not for me, because for some reason I seem to unconsciously favor female authors. But for now, let's go with Bread & Butter by Michelle Wildgen, which was a great character-driven book that revolves around a trio of brothers in the restaurant business.
-A mystery or thriller. Well, I finally got around to reading Inferno, so I guess that counts for this!
-A book with a one-word title. That's an easy one, too. I read Sand this spring and absolutely loved it. It's a fabulous science-fiction read in a really interesting setting with a great cast of characters. I made the boyfriend read this one, and he really enjoyed it, too.
-A book of short stories. I have a few candidates for this one; I was originally going to just go with Small Plates because I happened to pick it up from the popular reading section a the library, but after reading The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, I feel like I have to give that a shout out, too. Review for The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher is here.
-A book set in a different country. Another easy category, for which I can take my pick from a variety of books. I love reading books set in different countries, because I like to get a glimpse of places I will likely never go myself. So for this one, let's go with Home is a Roof Over a Pig, which is a memoir set in China.
-A nonfiction book. Again, not a hard one; I tend to read a lot of nonfiction. But one that comes to mind that I really enjoyed is Careless People, which is about a murder that took place in the 1920s and how it might have influenced F. Scott Fitzgerald when he was writing The Great Gatsby.
-A book based entirely off its cover. Ugh, what a disaster this one was! I read The Last Original Wife based on the cover, and I hated it. It looked so beachy and light and lovely, and it was a disaster that made me angry. You can read my review of it here.
-A memoir. I read a lot of these, but for this particular category, let's go with All the Fishes Come Home to Roost, which is Rachel Manija Brown's memoir about growing up as an American kid in an ashram in India.
-A book you can finish in a day. Ohhh, easy one. I plowed through The Master Magician in a few hours, but found it sadly lacking in comparison to the first two books in the trilogy.
-A trilogy. I devoured and adored Rae Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy early this year, which is made of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, The Crown of Embers, and The Bitter Kingdom. These were some of the first books I read this year, and I absolutely loved them. I'll definitely read them again, and they really got me back in the writing mood!
-A book set in the future. I pretty much inhaled These Broken Stars over Spring Break. It's a beautiful young adult sci-fi story with a wonderfully worked romance aspect, and I can't wait to read the companion books.
-A book with a color in the title. Well, that would have to be Scarlet, Marissa Meyer's awesome sci-fi adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood, which picks up where her sci-fi version of Cinderella, Cinder, left off. I can't wait to get to Cress (which I've been putting off so as to eke out as much enjoyment as possible before Winter comes out--it cannot come soon enough!) and continue this series!
-A book with magic. The magical Cobweb Bride definitely fits this category. It got off to a slow start, but was utterly enchanting (haha, I'm so funny) by the end.
-A book by an author you've never read before. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent fits this. I liked it, but it wasn't as mind-blowing as it was made out to be.
-A book that was originally written in a different language. I'm currently reading Skylight by Jose Saramago. It's a beautiful character-driven novel that was originally written in Portuguese and wasn't published until after the author's death because of an early snafu with a potential publisher. I'm enjoying it so far.
-A book set during Christmas. I hate books that are set during Christmas. I find them to be really gimmicky. But I did read Married by Midnight earlier this year, not realizing at first that it was set during Christmas. It was okay, I guess, but it didn't leave me rushing to pick up the others in the series.
-A book written by an author with your same initials. Well, my initials are CH, so I'm going with The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg, which was a great Victorian-style fantasy about a girl who learns paper magic and has to save her tutor after his heart is literally stolen out of his chest. I loved it.
Still To Go
-A classic romance. I'm planning on squeezing in Wuthering Heights at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
-A book that became a movie. I'll be filling this one with The Monuments Men, which has been on my Kindle for ages but I haven't opened yet. I don't actually read a lot of books that become movies, so this one was a harder category to find a candidate for.
-A book written by someone under 30. Oh, this was a hard one to find a candidate for, because all of the authors I thought were really young are actually older than I thought! Oi. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to take up Veronica Roth's Divergent. I've avoided it until now, but now it seems to have become unavoidable.
-A popular author's first book. I wanted to go with a big author for this one, and because Terry Pratchett died recently, I've settled on The Carpet People.
-A book from an author you love but haven't read yet. Well, I absolutely adore Tamora Pierce, but for some reason I haven't read Battle Magic yet, so that will fill this category.
-A book a friend recommended. Uhm...I don't know about this one yet. I'll have to ask around.
-A Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Like pretty much everyone else out there, I'm going to knock this one out with All the Light We Cannot See.
-A book based on a true story. I think I'm going to go with Seabiscuit for this one. I think that counts. The "based on" bit confuse me somewhat.
-A book at the bottom of your to-read list. My to-read list is in a constant state of flux and doesn't really have a concrete "bottom," so at some point I'll just pick the most recently added book (which is, by default, at the bottom) and read that.
-A book your mom loves. As my mother drunkenly told an Australian tourist while we were in Venice for my sister's wedding, her favorite book is The Thorn Birds, so I guess I'll be reading that for this category!
-A book that scares you. I have no idea for this one, honestly. Horror books don't actually scare me, so I think I might have to go with some nonfiction that's terrifyingly true. We'll see where that goes.
-A book more than 100 years old. Well, common domain books make this easy, and I think I'll continue my study of the classics with 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
-A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't. I was a good student and read the books I was assigned, and I could only think of one exception that wasn't an actual textbook: Affairs of Honor. It's apparently about early congressmen, senators, etc. being bitchy to each other, so it shouldn't be too bad of a read.
-A book with antonyms in the title. I honestly don't know. I'll have to look for something, nothing comes to mind right away.
-A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. I haven't decided on this one yet...do fictional locations count? Like Narnia? Or other historical periods? We'll see. There's some serious potential here...
-A book that came out the year you were born. I don't know yet for this one. Anyone know any good books published in 1991?
-A book with bad reviews. I haven't decided yet on this one, either, but I'm dreading it...
-A book from your childhood. The obvious one that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This might finally give me the excuse to order that new box set I've been eyeing up...
-A book with a love triangle. I've gotta fill this one with Endless Knight, Kresley Cole's sequel to Poison Princess. I loved Princess (review here), but haven't cracked Endless yet. But it has definitely got a love triangle.
-A book set in high school. Pretty sure that Perks of Being a Wallflower is going to flesh out this category. I kind of hate books set in high school, but Perks is supposed to be great, so I hope it won't let me down!
-A book that made you cry. Can you really plan for these things? I don't know. I might have to re-read something to fulfill this...
-A graphic novel. Sharaz-de is a graphic novel inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights, and I've been eyeing it up for a while now. Plus, Scheherazade is pretty much my favorite fairy tale ever.
-A book you own but have never read. That would be The Martian, which I've had for months but haven't read yet. I'd better get around to it before the movie comes out, too, which I guess means I have until early October to complete this category. Plenty of time my dear, plenty of time...
-A book that takes place in your hometown. Well, despite some Googling, I couldn't find anything that takes place in Erie, PA, so I'm going with my second hometown here. I'll be reading The Dressmaker, which, according to my research, takes place at least partially in Washington, DC.
-A play. I haven't decided on this yet, though I'll probably keep it basic and do Shakespeare.
-A banned book. Well, books in the US are never actually banned by the government, but according to a list of frequently challenged books, The Kite Runner fits this category. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Hosseini, several years ago and liked it, so this should be a good contender.
-A book based on or turned into a TV show. For this one, I think I'll go with Dead Until Dark, which as we all know was made into the hit TV show True Blood.
-A book you started but never finished. I swear to year, this is the year I finally take down Vellum, which I have started multiple times but have never been able to complete. But this time, I will do it!
Well, that about sums it up... I'm not halfway done yet, from the looks of it, but I've got time. By the end of the year, these books are going down! If you're out there, are you doing any reading challenges? Or, better yet, do you have suggestions for the categories I haven't picked titles for yet? Let me know!
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