(So I originally had this scheduled for Wednesday, to go with "Weading Wednesdays" (ha!) but I decided screw it, it's my blog and my rules to break... so here, instead of Making Things Monday, is a huge update on the Weading Wednesdays!
When we last visited the Reading Challenge (ahem um...in
FEBRUARY...) I said I had read 7 books so far of the 50 (but had only posted about the first 6...)
1.
The People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau
#35/50: A book set in the future
2.
Lone Wolf, by Jodi Picoult
#16/50: A book from an author you love but haven't read yet
3.
Leaving Time, by Jodi Picoult
#38/50: A book that made you cry
4.
Big Girl Small, by Rachel DeWoskin
#41/50: A book by an author you've never read
5.
Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
#10/50: A mystery or thriller
6.
Still Alice, by Lisa Genova
#3/50: A book that became a movie
7.
Same Kind of Different As Me, by Ron Hall
#14/50: A nonfiction book
The updated list is now:
19 books read out of 50 - that's 38% done so far!
Which, considering we're officially 41% of the way through the year, is almost right on track!
Of course - my most recent book (over 1000 pages!!!) took me quite a bit more time than my usual novel... whew!
And there's no way I can keep up with reviewing every single book I'm reading (especially because some of them are, while pretty good, not quite worthy of a big review on here!)
(And sometimes the book is a weird fit for the category, but a few I just
made fit because I totally wanted to read the book, and just found a category that would work!) ((Also - there's some books that
wouldn't fit in any category, but they're still counted below because - hey, I want credit for them!!)
So here's the additional books read so far:
8.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeanette Walls
#26/50: A memoir (finished 3/10/15)
9.
Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell
#13/50: A book set in a different country (finished 3/16/15)
*This book - if you've seen the movie you know - was set over in the middle East (specifically Afghanistan). After
having seen the movie, it was pretty neat to read the book because I easily attached faces (although famous actor faces) to names. Such an incredible story!
10.
The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff
#22/50: A book that scares you* (finished 3/18/15)
*An interesting book... something about babies being stolen around birth to feed some weird creature/monster and Others replacing them, and even though the town members deep down know something's off, they don't say a word because it would disturb their perfect peaceful haven...
*I duplicated readings for this type of book, because - hellooooo see next book!
*
(11.) Rosemary's Baby, by Ira Levin
#22/50: A book that scares you (finished 4/7/15)
*A little bit disappointing, as it didn't really scare me much... the movie's probably a bit scarier!
12.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black
#34/50: A book with a love triangle (finished 3/24/15)
*So this love triangle is actually between a vampire, a human, and a human who turns into a vampire (pretty kinky right?) and was
so totally nothing to do with the main story line.
13.
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin
#24/50: A book based entirely on its cover (finished 3/27/15)
*I guess you'd need to see the title to accompany this category:
actually a pretty cool book...
14.
The Story Teller, by Jodi Picoult
#9/50: A book by a female author (finished 4/1/2015)
*This would be one of those categories that I read the book first and then fit it into this category in order to cross it off the list...
15.
What Alice Forgot, by
Liane Moriarty #8/50: A funny book (finished 4/2/2015)
*This wasn't quite purely comedy - about a women who has amnesia and doesn't remember a dead best friend, nor why her husband was leaving her - but it had funny parts, and was overall pretty good!
16. The Black Box, by Michael Crichton #37/50: A book with a color in the title (finished 4/4/2015)
17. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
#44/50: A book that was originally written in a different lanauge
*If you couldn't tell by the author's name, this novel was originally written in Spanish (and is set in Spain.) It was a very good read, and ran alot of parallels between the current character, who was telling/learning/discovering a story of an author who lived in the same neighborhood years before...
18.
Memory of Water, by Emmi Itäranta
#35/50: A book set in the future* (finished 4/24/15)
*This was another duplicate for a category I'd already ticked off the list, but the only category this book (which was pretty neat: an unspecified time in the future, where water is so precious a commodity, and the main character learns her father is a tea-master, complete with secret hidden spring) would fit in...
19.
Ten Beach Road, by Wendy Wax
#5/50: A book with a number in the title (finished 5/2/15)
*This book underpromised and overdelivered - three women brought together by a Bernie-Madoff-type scam, who pull together and rehab a once-gorgeous Spanish-style home in Florida... a fun read!
20.
Tin God, by Stacy Green
n/a - this book could NOT be fit into any category - but I still wanted to credit myself for a book read! (finished 5/4/15)
21.
One to Hold, by Tia Louise
#27/50: A book you can finish in a day (finished 5/8/15)
*So I don't remember what was going on that I was able to read this so quickly (it wasn't too short) but I flew through the pages (being honest here) because it was a HOT read... the first scene is a random (or so it seems!) hawt hook-up outside of a bar, in the deserts of Arizona at some retreat... a great summer read if you're needing some -ahem - warmups!
22.
She Belongs To Me, by
Carmen DeSousa n/a again - could NOT make this sucker fit into any category, but still want credit! (finished 5/10/15)
23. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell #1/50: A book with more than 500 pages (finished 5/31/15)
*and this would be the epic huge THOUSAND-PAGE undertaking of a novel that took me since the first day in Cancun (so two weeks!!) to read... of course, while on vacation I devoured the first 500 pages (it helped that we hung out in the room while Button napped each day... I got at least 2 hours reading done daily!) and then we got home and reading ground to a halt...
I finally finished last night.
And my first reaction was, SERIOUSLY?! with that ending?!
While the novel was phenomenal, and so well written, I was so dissatisfied with the abrupt ending that I even started looking up fan fiction today to see if anyone had written a more satisfying one! (not really - also, fan fiction can be VERY POORLY WRITTEN and after Mitchell's work, seem totally uncouth.) Of course, the ending as Mitchell wrote is ironic and literary genius, but so - so, UNSATISFYING for the at-heart romantics!!
But while I couldn't find any good fan fiction, you know what I did discover?
There's a sequel?!
The estate of Margaret Mitchell chose the author, Alexandra Ripley, to pen this sequel which, according to this description, sounds like it'll provide
my happy ending!
As the classic story, first told over half a century ago, moves forward,
the greatest love affair in all fiction is reignited; amidst heartbreak
and joy, the endless, consuming passion between Scarlett O'Hara and
Rhett Butler reaches its startling culmination.
So that's 19 out of 50 off The Reading Challenge List, and a total of 23 books read so far this year!
And I guess I know what I'm reading next! Now, just to find the category to cram it into!!
(also - yes, time is flying with a toddler - I'm 10 weeks now?! Thank baby jesus the doppler gives me that quick clip-clop of a heartbeat nearly immediately each time...)
