Romance Reading Challenge Wrap Up

I can hear everybody cheering - this is the last wrap up post for now! It is the Romance Reading Challenge - you had to read at least 5 books - I stopped at 15.

1. - The Red Siren - M.L Tyndall
2. - Scream for Me - Karen Rose
3. - For the Love of Pete - Julia Harper
4. - The Valentine Edition - Robin Shope
5. - John's Quest - Cecelia Dowdy
6. - Simple Wishes - Lisa Dale
7. - Kiss - Ted Dekker and Erin Healy
8. - Marked by Passion - Kate Perry
9. - Deadly Charm - Claudia Mair Burney
10. - Yesterday's Embers - Deborah Raney
11. - Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark - Donna Lea Simpson
12. - An Offer You Can't Refuse - Jill Mansell
13. - Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
14. - Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man - Claudia Mair Burney
15. - Wild Highland Magic - Kendra Leigh Castle

Romance Reading Challenge

Read Your Name Challenge Wrap up

Never fear - I am almost done with my Wrap Up Challenge posts! This one you had to read a book beginning with the letters of your name -

• Kiss - Ted Dekker and Erin Healy
• Rachel's Tears - Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott
• I Do Again - Cheryl and Jeff Scruggs
• Scream for Me - Karen Rose
• Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee
• It's All About Us - Shelley Adina
• New York Debut - Melody Carlson
• Age Before Beauty - Virginia Smith

Read Your Name Challenge

New Author Challenge Wrap Up

Here are the 50 new authors that I read for this challenge:

1. - Shelley Adina - Be Strong and Curvaceous
2. - Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon - Walking with Wolf
3. - Cormac McCarthy - The Road
4. - Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones
5. - Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street
6. - M.L. Tyndall - The Red Siren
7. - Joyce Carol Oates - Black Water
8. - Matthew Stanford, PhD - Grace for the Afflicted
9. - Karen Rose - Scream for Me
10. - Julia Harper - For the Love of Pete
11. - Melody Carlson - Lost in Las Vegas
12. -Louis Sachar - Holes
13. - Rebeca Seitz - Scrapping Plans
14. - Bill Dallas - Lessons From San Quentin
15. - Cecelia Dowdy - John's Quest
16. - Debbie Viguie - The Spring of Candy Apples
17. - Kim Sunee - Trail of Crumbs
18. - Cheryl and Jeff Scruggs - I Do Again
19. - Virginia Smith - Age Before Beauty
20. - Ted Dekker and Erin Healy - Kiss
21. - Helen Hollick - The Kingmaking
22. - Eleanor Gustafson - The Stones
23. - Mike Dellosso - Scream
24. - Caroline B. Cooney - Diamonds in the Shadow
25. - Kate Perry - Marked by Passion
26. - Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell - Katt's in the Cradle
27. - Claudia Mair Burney - Deadly Charm
28. - Deborah Raney - Yesterday's Embers
29. - Donna Lea Simpson - Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark
30. - Jill Mansell - An Offer You Can't Refuse
31. - Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott - Rachel's Tears
32. - Adam Blumer - Fatal Illusions
33. - David Cristofano - The Girl She Used To Be
34. - Melissa Marr - Wicked Lovely
35. - Karen White - The Lost Hours
36. - Jenny B. Jones - So Not Happening
37. - Andy Andrews - The Noticer
38. - Kendra Leigh Castle - Wild Highland Magic
39. - Libby Malin - Fire Me
40. - Caryn Dahlstrand Rivedeneira - Mama's Got a Fake I.D.
41. - Rick Collignon - Madewell Brown
42. - Brandilyn and Amberly Collins - Always Watching
43. - Glenn Clark Douglas - The Lake That Stole Children
44. - Michael Malone - The Four Corners of the Sky
45. - Larissa Ione - Pleasure Unbound
46. - Daphne du Maurier - Frenchman's Creek
47. - Georgette Heyer - Why Shoot a Butler?
    
48. - Charlotte Grieg - A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosphy
    
49. - Laura Lippman - What the Dead Know
    
50. - Lisa Dale - Simple Wishes

New Author Challenge

Chick Lit Challenge WrapUp

Chick Lit Challenge is finished! Challenge was to read 10 chick lit books and I ended at 23. I just have too many challenges going on to keep track off the ones that I am actually done with!

1. Be Strong and Curvaceous - Shelley Adina
2. The Red Siren - M.L. Tyndall
3. For the Love of Pete - Julia Harper
4. Lost in Las Vegas - Melody Carlson
5. Scrapping Plans - Rebeca Seitz
6. The Valentine Edition - Robin Shope
7. It's All About Us - Shelley Adina
8. John's Quest - Cecelia Dowdy
9. Simple Wishes - Lisa Dale
10. The Spring of Candy Apples - Debbie Viguie
11. Age Before Beauty - Virginia Smith
12. The Fruit of My Lipstick - Shelley Adina
13. Marked by Passion - Kate Perry
14. Katt's in the Cradle - Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell
15. Deadly Charm - Claudia Mair Burney
16. Yesterday's Embers - Deborah Raney
17. An Offer You Can't Refuse - Jill Mansell
18. The Girl She Used To Be - David Cristofano
19. The Lost Hours - Karen White
20. So Not Happening - Jenny B. Jones
21. Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man - Claudia Mair Burney
22. New York Debut - Melody Carlson
23. Wild Highland Magic - Kendra Leigh Castle

Chick Lit Challenge

2009 Pub Challenge WrapUp

Another challenge done! Nine books were required - I stopped at 20. Since I am mainly reading ARCs right now it wasn't hard to get books published in 2009.

1. - For the Love of Pete - Julia Harper
2. - Scrapping Plans - Rebeca Seitz
3. Lessons From San Quentin - Bill Dallas
4. Simple Wishes - Lisa Dale
5. Age Before Beauty - Virginia Smith
6. This Side of Heaven - Karen Kingsbury
7. Scream - Mike Dellosso
8. Katt's in the Cradle - Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell
9. Marked by Passion - Kate Perry
   
10. - The Stones - Eleanor Gustafson
11. - Deadly Charm - Claudia Mair Burney
12. - Yesterday's Embers - Deborah Raney
13. - Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark - Donna Lea Simpson
14. - An Offer You Can't Refuse - Jill Mansell
15. - Fatal Illusions - Adam Blumer
16. - The Girl She Used to Be - David Cristofano
17. - The Lost Hours - Karen White
18. - Boneman's Daughter - Ted Dekker
19. - The Noticer - Andy Andrews
20. -Wild Highland Magic - Kendra Leigh Castle

2009 Pub Challenge

Chunkster Challenge WrapUp

I kicked butt on this challenge - and considering I had chosen Mor-book-ly Obese - there was a lot of book booty to kick! I read 7 chunksters (over 450 pages - okay, Frederica only had 446 but I counted it anyway!) My favorite was probably Scream for Me or Miranda's Big Mistake - but at 668 pages, Holly's Inbox was probably the quickest!

1. Scream for Me - Karen Rose -- 569 pages
   
2. The Four Corners of the Sky - Michael Malone -- 544 pages
   
3. Holly's Inbox - Holly Denham -- 668 pages
   
4. The Kingmaking - Helen Hollick -- 563 pages
   
5. The Stones - Eleanor Gustafson -- 593 pages
   
6. Frederica - Georgette Heyer -- 446 pages
   
7. Miranda's Big Mistake - Jill Mansell - 488 pages
   

Chunkster Challenge

Themed Reading Challenge Wrap Up

My original "theme" for this one bit the dust - and I went with books that had Dead or words that meant Dead in their title. I chose the first option which was to read 4 books with this theme. My favorite book of this bunch was hard to pick - but I think I will go with Fatal Illusions.

1. Deadly Charms - Claudia Mair Burney
2. Fatal Illusions - Adam Blumer
3. What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman
4. Talking to the Dead - Bonnie Grove

Themed Reading Challenge

Daring Book for Girls Wrap Up

I failed miserably at this challenge. It ended June 15 and I had only completed 4 of 9 books. I am going to go back though and make it a perpetual challenge for me as I really want to read the books listed in Daring Book for Girls. I was also able to pick up a copy of Daring Book for Girls for just a buck!

1. From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling
4. Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry

Daring Book For Girls Challenge

Book Awards II Challenge Wrap Up

Well, the Book Awards II Challenge ends today (or technically tomorrow) and I am going to fall 2 books short of the 10 I said I would read. Original challenge can be found at the Book Awards Reading Challenge blog. I really enjoyed this challenge because it got me to take a look at some books that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise - but that I really enjoyed. The following are the books that I finished:

1. Never Let Me Go by Kazua Ishiguro (Alex Award)
   
2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Alex Award)
   
3. From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Newbery Award)
   
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Bookseller's Award)
5. Holes by Louis Sachar (Newbery Award)
6. The House on Mango Street by Hannah Cisneros (American Book Awards)
7. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Quill Award) - Review not yet written
8. Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Newbery Award) - Review not yet written

My favorite book was definitely The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is supposed to be coming out as a movie (I hope soon) and can't wait to see it!

My least favorite was The House on Mango Street - but only because I am not a fan of short stories.

Christian Readers Challenge - Finished

Today is the final day of the Christian Readers Challenge.

The challenge was to read at least 5 (I think) Christian books between Jan 1 and Apr 30, 2009.

1. Be Strong & Curvaceous - Shelley Adina
2. Grace for the Afflicted - Matthew Stanley
3. Scrapping Plans - Rebeca Seitz
4. Lost in Las Vegas - Melody Carlson
5. The Red Siren - M.L. Tyndall
6. The Valentine Edition - Robin Shope
7. It's All About Us - Shelley Adina
8. Lessons From San Quentin - Bill Dallas
9. John's Quest - Cecelia Dowdy
10. The Spring of Candy Apples - Debbie Viguie
11. I Do Again - Cheryl and Jeff Scruggs
12. Age Before Beauty - Virginia Smith
13. Fruit of My Lipstick - Shelley Adina
14. Kiss - Ted Dekker and Erin Healy
15. This Side of Heaven - Karen Kingsbury
16. The Stones - Eleanor Gustafson
17. Diamonds in the Shadow - Caroline B. Cooney
18. Scream - Mike Dellosso
19. Katt's in the Cradle - Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell
20. Deadly Charm - Claudia Mair Burney
21. Yesterday's Embers - Deborah Raney
22. Rachel's Tears - Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott
23. Fatal Illusions - Adam Blumer
24. So Not Happening - Jenny B. Jones
25. Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man - Claudia Mair Burney
26. The Noticer - Andy Andrews
27. New York Debut - Melody Carlson

Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge Wrap-Up

Today is the final day of the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. It was required that you read 3 books. The books had to have a food name in the title OR be about cooking/eating OR have a place name in the title OR be about one (or more) person's travel experience OR be about a specific culture OR be by an author whose ethnicity is other than your own. They also needed to be middle-grade on up.

I was able to do four books:

1. Lessons From San Quentin - Bill Dallas (Place name in title)
2. The Spring of Candy Apples - Debbie Viguie (Food in title)
3. Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee (about food/eating, food in title, and author different ethnicity than mine)
4. The Fruit of My Lipstick - Shelley Adina (Food in title)
   

This was a fun challenge and I am glad that I participated. Thank you Book Nut for hosting!

New Classics Challenge Wrap Up!

Yeah! I finished this challenge! It ran from Aug 1, 2008 until Jan 31, 2009. Considering that as of the 1st of this year I had only read 1 of 6 books I didn't think I had a chance! Thanks to some great recommendations from the people over in the Yahoo group A Novel Challenge I succeeded!

I read the books The Handmaid's Tale, The Road, The Lovely Bones, Holes, The House on Mango Street and Black Water. My favorite out of this bunch was definitely The Road - I can't wait to see the movie! It was followed by both The Handmaid's Tale and The Lovely Bones. My least favorite was probably The House on Mango Street - but that is only because I don't care for short stories - this would be a good book for an English/literature class to study though. All of my reviews can be found here.

I am just going to continue doing my Happy Dance because I finished this challenge - I am going to try to get a giveaway up in the next couple of days - so be sure to check back!

Have a happy weekend!

From the Stacks - Challenge Completed!

Yeah! I completed my first challenge of 2009 - the From the Stacks Challenge that was being hosted! Of course this one started back in November, but was ending at the end of the month. My finished list did not resemble my actual completed list, but I got some of those TBRs out of my pile! For the challenge I read the following books:

Assaulted by Joy - Stephen Simpson
In the Shadow of Lions - Ginger Garrett
Drinkwater - Eric Hopkins
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Walking with Wolf - Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon

It feels good to have completed a challenge! Out of the 5 books The Road was probably my favorite, followed closely by Assaulted by Joy. My least favorite was Drinkwater.

September Short Story Challenge

Hey - read 4 short stories for the challenge this month - One was from Strange Highways by Dean Koontz - It was called "The Black Pumpkin". Normal scary story - kid meets creepy guy at pumpkin patch carving pumpkins (you get what you give) - brother buys creepy pumpkin - family gets killed by creepy pumpkin come to life. Very predictable story but fun for this time of year.

Also read 3 by Margo Lanagan out of Red Spikes. Couldn't really get into more than this from her. "Baby Jane" was probably the most fun to read of the three. Small army men like toys come to life - a queen, a servant and a bear. Queen is in labor - boy helps deliver baby. Queen gives him baby to take care of while they go back to fight creatures from boys nightmares.. Then there was "Monkey's Paternoster" - couldn't decide whether this was really supposed to be about monkey's or not - Leader of the pack was dying and there was a struggle for who was going to be the new leader (or bachelor) - just a weird read. The last one was "A Good Heart" which was just a sad story. Boy meets girl - Girl weds another - somewhere inbetween has a baby and either it dies, or she lets it die in woods - Boy discovers secret and keeps it because he loves her so.

Well, that is probably all of the short stories that I will be able to read for the month!

R.I.P. III Challenge

I grew up reading Stephen King, John Saul and Dean Koontz and later Anne Rice - but have to admit that it has been awhile since I have picked up one of their books. Here are the rules for this challenge:
1. R.I.P. III runs from September 1st through October 31st, 2008. But I’m no stickler, start reading now if you feel so inclined.

2. Choose one of more of the perils listed below:

Peril the First:
Read Four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose.
Peril the Second:
Read Two books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose.
Read One book of any length from one of the subgenres listed above.

This peril is for those who want to participate but don’t want to get bogged down in a long list of books. It is also for those who feel this type of reading is not their proverbial cup of tea but are willing to challenge themselves by giving just one book a try.

3. Leave a comment here announcing your intention to join and a link to the post* on your site, if you have one and choose to post about R.I.P. III.

4. Post links to your reviews on the R.I.P.ing Yarns Review Site. I am using last year’s review site and posting a new comment thread in which you can post this year’s reviews. That way you can also go back and check out last year’s reviews (you may have to hit the ‘click here’ link at the bottom of the post to get last year’s list to pop up).

5. The most important thing: Have Fun! R.I.P. III is more than just a reading challenge. There will be contests and giveaways and some of the subject matter of my regular posts, especially as we approach October, will be more in fitting with the R.I.P. III spirit. There are artists who have committed to interviews and sales and other tie-ins as well.


Here is my pool of books -
Red Spikes - Margo Lanagan
Duma Key - Stephen King
Sinister Shorts - Perri O'Shaughnessy
Strange Highways - Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz
Midnight Voices - John Saul
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Rest Falls Away - Colleen Gleason

Not sure which Peril I will be doing - need to see how the school year shapes up for my kids!

A Well-Rounded Challenge

Rules for a well-rounded challenge:
*Any combination of challenges works.
*You must be signed up with the other challenges.
*You may listen to eAudio, cassette tapes or compact discs.
*You may read all six books from the same challenge.
*To be well-rounded however means stretching yourself to include as many challenges (and books) as you can fit into this six month time frame.
*You don't have to blog or write a review (but you can if you want to).
*Even if a challenge begins after July you may use it for this challenge.
*Even if a challenge ends after 12/31/08 you may use it for this challenge.
*Sign-ups begin 6/1/08 and run through 7/15/08.
*This challenge will run through 12/31/08.

Have finished this challenge~!
1. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Daring Book for Girls Challenge)
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Unread Authors Challenge
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling (Books to Movie Challenge)
4. Water for Elephants - Book Awards
5. Coraline RIP III
6. The Maidenstone Lighthouse - Ghostly Challenge

A Ghostly Challenge

This should be a fun challenge! I love "ghostly" books - and Halloween is my favorite holiday!

For this challenge, you have from September 1 to October 31 to read 2 books that feature ghosts or are otherwise ghostly. Use your discretion.

1. All books are allowed, audiobooks, picture books, non fiction, fiction, short stories, whatever.
2. Books of short stories count as one book though.
3. Crossovers allowed.
4. You can make a list beforehand or add to it as you go.


I think my books are going to be:
A Certain Slant of Light Whitcomb, Laura
The Maidenstone Lighthouse O'Rourke, Sally Smith