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OCTOBER - DECEMBER

First in a Series Challenge read to Mister Linky.

PLEASE NOTE:

J. Kaye from J. Kaye's Book Blog

will be hosting this challenge in 2009.

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NOVEMBER & DECEMBER

Young Adult Challenge read to Mister Linky.

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J. Kaye from J. Kaye's Book Blog

will be hosting this challenge in 2009.

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JULY - DECEMBER

Reading Full Circle Challenge read to Mister Linky.

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JULY - DECEMBER

ANYTHING AGATHA Challenge read to Mister Linky.

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Click on the button above to go to the
A ~ Z Reading Challenge on its own blog.

PLEASE NOTE:

Becky will be hosting this challenge in 2009

on its own blog titled A to Z Challenge.

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The Non-Fiction Five Challenge has expired!

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Trish from Trish's Reading Nook

will be hosting this challenge in 2009.

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SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER

2nds Challenge read to Mister Linky.

PLEASE NOTE:

J. Kaye from J. Kaye's Book Blog

will be hosting this challenge in 2009.

27th Challenge Completed!

The Reading Full Circle Challenge was created from observing the titles of the books on my TBR list.  Seeing the repetitive words in their titles, I decided to connect them via those individual words.  It ended up being a little more difficult than I thought it would be, but it was a lot of fun coming up with my final list.  

Reading Full Circle Challenge Reads:

A Child Called "It" (Pelzer)

Still Life (Penny)

A Thousand Bones (Parrish)

Life As We Knew It (Pfeffer)

Still Summer (Mitchard)

Book of a Thousand Days (Hale)

Last Days of Summer (Kluger)

Here is my original list of books with links to my thoughts.

  

Favorites:

A Child Called "It" (Pelzer)

Last Days of Summer (Kluger)

Least Favorite:

Book of a Thousand Days (Hale)

LAST DAYS OF SUMMER

Author:  Steve Kluger

Genre:  Fiction

Published:  1998

Personal Rating:  4.75/5

Yearly Count:  119

Brooklyn, New York is where 12-year-old Joey Margolis, a precocious Jewish boy, is coming-of-age during the early 1940s.  His love of baseball prompts him to write to Charlie Banks, the 3rd baseman of the New York Giants and asks him to "hit one out for him".  This event is the beginning of their relationship.

WOW!  Why isn't this book a bestseller?  It was fantastic.  Last Days of Summer is overflowing with something for everybody.  The story is told in letters, newspaper articles, telegrams, report cards, etc.  It contains an endearing story line, historical events, baseball, religion, Hollywood stars, politics, delightful characters, humor, and more!  At one point, I laughed until I cried.  I can't remember the last time that happened when reading a book.  After witnessing that uncontrolled laughing fit, my husband eagerly said, "Hurry up and finish that, so I can read it."  It was a pure joy.

Whether it was purposeful of not, the beginning kept me wondering what was true and what wasn't; therefore, it gets docked a quarter of a point.  Even so, it's a top-notch, poignant novel.  Now I'm on a quest to find other work by Kluger.

*Recommended By:  The Surly Bookseller, Redux (no review)

JULY

thru

DECEMBER

Mister Linky will be keeping track of our monthly reads. Please type your name and then the name of the book you have read in parentheses. To link your review, copy and paste the direct URL and press enter.

SAMPLE:

Your Name: Joy (One Foot in Eden)
Your URL: http://thoughtsofjoyblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/r-author-based-z-reads.html

JULY - DECEMBER
READING FULL CIRCLE CHALLENGE READS:

BOOK OF A THOUSAND DAYS

Author: Shannon Hale

Genre: YA Fantasy

Published: 2007

Personal Rating: 3/5

Yearly Count: 69

Dashti, the maid to Lady Saren, tells her story through her diary entries. It begins when Lady Saren refuses to marry the man her father has chosen for her; therefore, banishes her and Dashti to 7 years of imprisonment in a tower. Due to Dashti's loyalty to her Lady, she finds herself in the midst of deception in and out of the tower.

I enjoyed my first Hale book, The Goose Girl, so I decided to give this one a try. Unfortunately, it didn't go over as well. Stories that include gods in nine different realms, singing for healing purposes and other fantasy components are just not for me. (Knowing that this was YA fantasy, I had hoped that those parts would squeak by without me noticing too much. I noticed.) However, Dashti's voice came through clearly and I liked her. She held my interest.

I haven't given up on Hale. I think she's a great storyteller and still plan on continuing with the sequels to The Goose Girl. And, I'm hoping for a good outcome. Has Hale written anything outside this genre?

STILL SUMMER

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Genre: Fiction

Published: 2007

Personal Rating: 3.75/5

Yearly Count: 43

Twenty years after high school, four best friends decide to take a Caribbean sailing voyage together. One of the four has to back out at the last minute because her husband falls ill, so she is replaced with the 19 year old daughter of another. The four quickly discover their luxury vacation is not so luxurious when a storm causes great havoc.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. I wondered if I was going to get suburban drama on the sea or an adventure. There actually was both. The beginning was slow, consisting of tedious character building and delayed the actual plot for quite some time. When the four finally embarked the sailboat, the action began with relational drama and survival adventure.

The four women and the daughter each had distinctly unique personalities. I cared about them as a group, but I only liked little parts of them individually, resulting in no real connections. There was actually a lot of harsh words spoken that made me uneasy making it difficult to enjoy the book fully. However, I thought the thriller portion of the plot was very good and will seek out other work by Mitchard.

LIFE AS WE KNEW IT

Susan Beth Pfeffer

Genre: YA

Published: 2006

Personal Rating: 4.5/5

Yearly Count: 35

Life on Earth changes when an asteroid hits the moon. Life As We Knew It is 16-year-old Miranda's account of this devastating event via her journal entries.

The very realistic details of this plausible catastrophe had me turning off lights, looking at the trees in our yard as firewood, rationing food and water - okay, not really, but one morning I actually was very grateful for the heat and comfort I had when I woke up. Early on in the book, I wanted to run out to the store and get all the supplies that were mentioned or at the very least write them down (this was an audiobook) for possible later use. Seriously, this book caused me to think - to think about survival.

A plethera of topics were covered as well - relationships, education, spirituality, etc. It was filled with the natural questioning that one may expect to have due to the circumstances. While The Road (McCarthy) left me worn out and depleted afterwards, this book didn't wring me out, but it's powerful in its own right.

A THOUSAND BONES

P. J. Parrish

Genre: Crime Thriller

Published: 2007

Personal Rating: 4/5

Yearly Count: 14

P. J. Parrish is actually a sister team and this is the first in their new series starring Joette (Joe) Frye, who was plucked from their Louis Kincaid series. One sister is more adept at "character development" while the other's strength is the "gory stuff", so they make quite a pair . . . and it works!

In A Thousand Bones, Joe (note: pet peeve of mine - naming characters with cross gender names) who is currently on the Miami Police Department's Homicide Division shares with her lover, Louis (too close to Louise for my liking) Kincaid, about her past harrowing experience of being a rookie cop in Echo Bay, Michigan. Almost the entire book is told in flashback, which gives the reader a great understanding of Joe and how she dealt with chasing down a killer.

Ultimately, Joe's experience happened to be one of terror. The word choice and sentence structure contributed to a very fluent flow with no lulls in the story. I didn't find it to be a page-turner, yet I was always interested - making it a good, solid read. I look forward to following this series.

STILL LIFE

Louise Penny

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Published: 2006

Personal Rating: 4/5

Yearly Count: 12

This is the first in the Three Pines Mysteries, which is the name of a small Canadian village that experiences the death of a dear member. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his assistants (one of which is a student) investigate whether it is a hunting accident or an outright murder. It actually began a little slow, but ultimately that feeling ended up playing into the setting.

Armand Gamache, as the investigator that pries into the individual lives of the community, has a gentle, personable nature. He prides himself on being an observer and tries to guide and teach his assistant its importance. There is a bit of psychology involved as he gives his advice, which I found to deepen Gamache's character. He, also, treats everybody with respect, making him a very likeable character. I definitely want to go along with him on his next case.

A CHILD CALLED "IT"

Dave Pelzer

Genre: Memoir

Published: 1995

Personal Rating: 5/5

Yearly Count: 3

I was mesmerized by the contents in this book that I couldn't stop listening, yet was totally appalled at what I was hearing. It contained horrific, unthinkable acts of child abuse that just broke my heart. The resilience and determination of this little boy was remarkable - a true survivor! I HAVE to read the remaining books in the trilogy: The Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave.

JANUARY

thru

JUNE

Mister Linky will be keeping track of our monthly reads. Please type your name and then the name of the book you have read in parentheses. To link your review, copy and paste the direct URL and press enter.

SAMPLE:

Your Name: Joy (One Foot in Eden)
Your URL: http://thoughtsofjoyblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/r-author-based-z-reads.html

JANUARY - JUNE
READING FULL CIRCLE CHALLENGE READS:

COMPLETED: September, 2008

Hosted By: "Thoughts of Joy..."

(6 or more books/January - December, 2008)

Change of plans!

Due to the increased pressure I felt in having to read the CHUNKSTER, The Winter Rose, I have decided to eliminate it from my original list.

This is the NEW LIST as of February 17, 2008:

1. Life As We Knew It (Pfeffer)

(Finished: March, 2008)

2. A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive (Pelzer)

(Finished: January, 2008)

3. A Thousand Bones (Parrish)

(Finished: January, 2008)


4. Book of a Thousand Days (Hale)

(Finished: May, 2008)

5. Last Days of Summer (Kluger)

(Finished:  September, 2008)

6. Still Summer (Mitchard)

(Finished: April, 2008)

7. Still Life (Penny)

(Finished: January, 2008)

Just for Fun

This is a "challenge", but it's not your ordinary type of challenge. There are NO NEW BOOKS required! Actually, I encourage you to use book titles that are already on your lists to read. This is purely just for fun.

Here's how to play:

Use the common words from your book titles to connect the last title and the following title. For example:

Last Days of Summer

Book of a Thousand Days

A Thousand Bones

Winter's Bone

The last title in your list needs to share a word with the first title making it a full circle. You can see my list for this challenge here.

You MAY NOT:

~ change words like midwinter to winter

You MAY:

~ use titles that you already plan to read! However, if you want to use it for the purpose of creating a new list of books . . . go for it! Or you can use a combination of planned books and new books. Whatever works best for you.

~ make a word plural or singular (the example shows bone/bones)

~ use words like a, as, is, if, of, to, the, etc. whenever needed (although, try not to focus on those)

~ have six or more titles in your circle

~ read the book titles in any order during 2008

~ sign up with Mister Linky so everybody can see your linked books

The main purpose of this challenge is to have fun with words and see how all your books are linked together. Can you do it?

READING FULL CIRCLE PARTICIPANTS: