April Reads

I've decided to do a monthly listing of all that I've read and maybe highlight titles I really enjoyed. I've seen monthly wrap-ups on a few blogs, some I follow and others I don't. So this idea is definitely borrowed but not copied exactly. As least as far as I know.

I changed the numbering to keep track of the overall number of titles I've read so far.

April Books:

24. There's a Rat in My Soup: Could you Survive Medieval Food? by Chana Stiefel
25. Are You There God, It's Me Margaret? by Judy Blume
26. Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield*!
27. Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman by Marc Tyler Nobelman & Ross MacDonald (illustrator)
28. Something About America by Maria Testa"
29. Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber (audio)
30. The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld (illustrator)^
31. Whoogles by Kendall Almerico and Tess Hottenroth^
32. Chime by Franny Billingsly (audio)^
33. Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve (audio)^
34. Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson^
35. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (audio)^
36. Sugar Changed the World by Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos^
37. My Boyfriend is a Monster 1: I Love Him to Pieces by Evonne Tsang^
38. Axe Cop Volume 1 by Malachai Nicolle and Ethan Nicolle^
39. Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal^
40. Wandering Son Vol. 1 by Shimura Takako^
41. Dead on Town Line by Leslie Connor"
42. Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (audio)^
43. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
44. Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard^**

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I've read my first Judy Blume book this month. Even my non-reading friend was amazed that I hadn't read any of her books. A wrong has been righted and I've added titles to all but one of my challenges:

*Debut Challenge (1)
^Best of the Best Challenge (13)
" Off the Shelf Challenge (2)
! New Adult Challenge (1) (Updated 6/30)

Great video about the pervasiveness & dare I saw awesomeness of Judy Blume.





**Update 5/3/12: I originally listed Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey by mistake. Though the covers are different, they have a similar feel and my mistake on Shelfari migrated here. All's fixed!

In My Mailbox 25

IMM is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren.  The idea is to share books bought, borrowed, scavenged, traded and won.  For more information click here.

Lots of Best of the Best Challenge Materials! And a few other fun things.

Borrowed:

More Show Me How: Everything We Couldn't Fit in the First Book (not pictured)
The Hunger Games: Tribute Guide by Emily Seife
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone
Whoogles: Can a Dog Make a Woman Pregnant? And Hundreds of Other Searches That Make You Ask "Who Would Google that?
 

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (ebook)

Chime by Fanny Billingsly (eaudio)

Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve (eaudio)

Best of the Best Challenge!

Yalsa's HUB has thrown the gauntlet with the Best of the Best Challenge and I've decided to participate. The goal is to read/listen to 25 of the 80 titles on Yalsa's Best of the Best lists for 2012. Or if you're a super reader, read/listen to all 80 titles! Visit The Hub for further details and to sign up. Anyone can participate!

A goodreads fairy made a quick list of the 2012 Titles.

The challenge started April 1 and runs through June 30. I better get reading!

February Reads

I've decided to do a monthly listing of all that I've read and maybe highlight titles I really enjoyed. I've seen monthly wrap-ups on a few blogs, some I follow and others I don't. So this idea is definitely borrowed but not copied exactly. As least as far as I know.

February Books:

1.  Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri
2. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
3. The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart^
4. Level Up by Gene Luen Yang
5. Tankborn by Karen Sandler
6. Charmfall by Chloe Neill
7. Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary by Keshni Kashyap*
8. Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral
9.  Titanic Sinks! by Barry Denenberg
10. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

This month I finally read things related to my challenges aside from upping my count! ^ Off-the-shelf challenge and *Debut Novel.

Favorite (and most surprising) of Feb.

2012 Challenges

2012 Debut Author Challenge hosted by The Story Siren

Seriously, this year is the year. I feel it!

The deal: Read at least 12 young adult and/or middle grade debut novels. The major change this year is the deadline extension to January 31, 2013.


I only know of two titles right now that I would like to read that meet this challenge: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges and Tempest by Julie Cross.

Off the Shelf 2012 hosted by Bookish Ardour

I definitely own more books than I have time to read. Then I get them from library and there's no time to read what is already lying around my house since library books have a due date. Hence, I have shelves ridiculously full of books that I have never read. That's why I am taking the Off the Shelf challenge. It is an opportunity to read those that are unread and neglected.

The deal: Choose a level (listed on the site) and read titles owned prior to Jan. 1, 2012. This includes print, ebooks and audio books, if you happen to own them.  Anything acquired in 2012 doesn't count, since it hasn't had time to reach the neglected state.

Challenge Level: Trying - Read 15 books 
I have no list for this. I'll grab things as I feel the desire.

"New Adult" Book Challenge hosted by A Tapestry of Words

The New Adult challenge attempts to bring to light titles that fill the gap between the teen years in high and midlife often portrayed in young adult and adult titles. "New Adult" encompasses post-high school teens and early twenty somethings learning to make a way in the world. Living in a college town, being aware of these titles will certainly come in handy during reader's advisory.

The deal: Protagonists should be no younger than 18 and no older than 30. If the protagonist spends the majority of his/her time in High School, that's YA. Post high school is New Adult. Choose a level and enjoy!

Challenge Level: Just Graduated - Read a minimum of 3 New Adult Books
Titles I've been holding off on reading that meet this challenge: Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson, An Off Year by Claire Zulkey, and Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn.

Finally, I will once again try to read 100 books this year. I'm not officially signing up anywhere, just keeping it as a personal goal.


Anyone else taking any new and/or interesting challenges this year?

2011 Challenges Wrap Up

 I realize this normally happens very late on Dec. 31 or very early on Jan 1, but I'm definitely behind when it comes to my blog. I think of it often, but haven't had the time/motivation combo to pay it some love. I intend to kickstart it again soon.  But first, the year of failure limited success. Below is the final status of my challenges from 2011.


Catherine Ryan Hyde Challenge
The challenge: to read ONE title by author Catherine Ryan Hyde. I totally nailed this one! If I didn't then failure would have had to remain the word above. Though I haven't reviewed it for the blog, I read Second Hand Heart, which is technically an adult novel, but I feel falls into this newly minted "new adult" category that has been discussed recently. I'm very happy to have explored an author that I had yet to get around to reading, and hope to add more of her titles to my read pile. 

Debut Author Challenge
Unlike 2010, I had the entire year to read twelve little books. I had enough debuts in my possession to complete the challenge, but alas, it was not to be.
Titles for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge:
1. Cheesie Mack is Not a Genius or Anything by Steve Cotler
2. The Rendering by Joel Naftali
3. Gossip from the Girls' Room by Rose Cooper
4. The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines

That means I read one more debut this year than I did last year. So it's a partial success? Ok fine, I just don't like that it's all downhill from here.

100+ Book Challenge
So with this one, I wasn't as close as I would have liked. My grand total was 72 books. Unfortunately because of the way it works, some of my titles were left in the abyss between the years, so there's about four or five of them that I'm not really sure how/where to count. Not that they would have helped any.  The final* list is here.

*"Shelfari is off reading a short novel" so I can't compare my lists at the moment, so there may be an addition or two. Or not; I could just be hoping that I'm forgetting something.

Nanowrimo
I decided to try my hand yet again at writing 50,000 words in 30 days. I started off strong with about 3,000 words the first day. I peaked at 5,000. *Shrugs* It was a busy November.

So those were my challenges for 2011. Not the best year of reading stats wise, but I did discover some new authors that I enjoy and some fantastic reads. Plus there was that whole London trip.

Stay tuned for info on my 2012 Challenges and, ya know, maybe even some reviews.

Challenge Update

This year I've chosen to participate in three challenges, and now seems like a good time to evaluate how I'm doing.

The Catherine Ryan Hyde Challenge
The challenge is to read one, yes, just one book by Catherine Ryan Hyde. So far, I have not read that book. Looks like I need to make a trip to the bookstore.

The 2011 Debut Author Challenge
I thought I was doing pretty well with this one.  I feel like I type the word "debut" and tag posts 2011 DAC an awful lot.  And I do, but it's for IMM, not my reviews...oops. So far, I've read three debut novels. That just leaves nine to go. Luckily, I have ten debuts in my possession. I just need to get reading!

100+ Book Reading Challange
To do this one right, I should be around the halfway mark of fifty books. My last count has me with thirty-seven.  Hopefully catching up on the challenges above (and making good use of my over-abundance of travel time coming up) I'll get a bit closer to the halfway point. Even better, Shelfari might stop telling me that I'm behind my pace...whatever that means.

A Question Becomes a (Personal) Challenge

Does anyone else ever feel this way about their books?  (See these and other cool bookends here.)

I hope it is safe to say this: anyone with a bookshelf (or bookshelves as is the case with us more prolific readers) probably has at least one book that they have no read for one reason or another.  Sadly, I have realized that I have many more unread titles than I would like.  I've gone through phases where I've bought and bought and bought some more but I have not made it a priority to read those books.  For instance, when Mockinjay came out, I finally decided that I should read The Hunger Games series.  I bought all three, put them on my shelf, and that's where they've been ever since.  This is not the type of book-owner that I want to be.  If someone takes a peek at my shelves and asks for a recommendation, I don't want to say, "I haven't read that yet, or that either...or that."


But what do about it?  How do I drag myself away from the shiny new books and read those that have been languishing on my shelf for months, or worse, years?

The Answer: I'm creating a challenge for myself.  I am going to go through all the books in my apt (I have others elsewhere) make a list of titles that I have not read, and then actually read them.  During this time, I will limit the number of books that I purchase and the number of books I borrow from the library.  I've already been working at the second half of that, but as you may have noticed with my last IMM post, I have not done a very good job at limiting my purchases.  I'll definitely have to limit it to a number of books rather than a dollar amount, because I'm way too good at finding deals.  This will not only facilitate reading the books that I own, but it means that perhaps I can actually read the books I get from the library.

If anyone else has this or a similar problem or goal feel free to join me.


Lastly, I'd like to note that Kathy of Ms. Martin Teaches Media turned my thoughts in this direction with her Book Buying Ban.  I didn't want to go that route, but reading her posts made me want to know the numbers for sure when it comes to books owned vs. books owned and read.  I'll include updates along the way.

2011 Catherine Ryan Hyde Challenge!

Just an announcement that I am participating in the 2011 Catherine Ryan Hyde Challenge.  This challenge is hosted by Shooting Stars Mag (this link will take you to the challenge page).  It's an easier challenge than most: participants are to read at least one novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde with the option to read more.

At my library, we have a very long list of titles by this author, some of which are familiar--such as Pay it Forward and Diary of a Witness--while others are not.   I have not read any of her novels before, so it will be a treat to discover something new.