Sunday, June 25, 2017

Reading Challenge: Half-Way Point!

2017 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge
1. A book recommended by a librarian - The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
2. A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long - Up A Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
3. A book of letters - The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
4. An audiobook - Coraline by Neil Gaiman
5. A book by a person of color - Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title
7. A book that is a story within a story
8. A book with multiple authors - Troll’s Eye View by Ellen Datlow
9. An espionage thriller -
10. A book with a cat on the cover
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym - Who Could That Be At This Hour? By Lemony Snicket
12. A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability - Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison
14. A book involving travel - Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
15. A book with a subtitle
16. A book that's published in 2017
17. A book involving a mythical creature - Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
18. A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile - I Will Surprise My Friend! by Mo Williems
19. A book about food - Gut by Giuila Enders/Healthy Southwestern Cooking by Bob Wiseman
20. A book with career advice - Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective - White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
22. A steampunk novel - Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
23. A book with a red spine - Shade’s Children by Garth Nix
24. A book set in the wilderness - Breaking Trail by Arlene Blum
25. A book you loved as a child - Holes by Louis Sachar
26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited - What is Chemistry? By Peter Atkins
27. A book with a title that's a character's name - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
28. A novel set during wartime - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
29. A book with an unreliable narrator - The Pull of the Ocean by Jean-Claude Mourlevat
30. A book with pictures - Tales of Mystery and Madness by Edger Allen Poe
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
32. A book about an interesting woman - Florence Nightingale by Catherine Reef
33. A book set in two different time periods - Kindred by Octavia Butler
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title - The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
35. A book set in a hotel
36. A book written by someone you admire
37. A book that's becoming a movie in 2017 - Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
39. The first book in a series you haven't read before - Gone by Michael Grant
40. A book you bought on a trip
Advanced
1. A book recommended by an author you love
2. A bestseller from 2016
3. A book with a family member term in the title - The Color of Water by James McBride
4. A book that takes place over a character's life span
5. A book about an immigrant or refugee - Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
6. A book from a genre/subgenre you've never heard of -The Number Devil by Hans Enzenberger
7. A book with an eccentric character - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky
8. A book that's more than 800 pages - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. A book you got from a used book sale
10. A book that's been mentioned in another book
11. A book about a difficult topic - Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt
12. A book based on mythology 

Monday, June 5, 2017

Reading Challenge: May 2017


Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute (book with career advice)
Such a good book. A self-help/career advice sort of book told through a narrative. Are you in the box, or out of it?

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (book with a title that's a character's name)
What is beauty? What makes someone beautiful? Can evil people be beautiful? Can beautiful people be evil? A beautiful book about a beautiful man who does ugly things.

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt (book about a difficult topic)
This is one of those books that are hard to review. A tragic story about a 14-year-old boy struggling to get to his baby daughter, fighting against his father, social workers, detention, and stigmas. This book took on several difficult topics.

The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzenberger (book from a genre/subgenre you've never heard of)
For those of you wondering whether mathematical fiction exists, it does. Now, if that doesn't fill you with terror . . .

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky (book with an eccentric character)
A sad, difficult book. Some parts were definitely relateable, and I found it hard to think that there are people out there that could probably relate with all of it.

Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life by Arlene Blum (book set in the wilderness)
A fun, sometimes heartbreaking book. Blum began climbing mountains when she was in college and pressed upward, despite storms, conflict, sexism, and the ever-present threat of death.