Waiting on Wednesday (Jan 22, 2014)

 "Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.  It spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Two Sisters

by Mary Hogan

On Sale Date: March 4, 2014

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

A powerful and poignant debut novel about two sisters learning how to live with the emotional damage caused by years of keeping family secrets

The third child in a family that wanted only two, Muriel Sullivant has always been the outsider. Single, twenty-three, she's living in a New York City rent-stabilized walk-up, a bird's nest of an apartment outfitted as much by serendipity as by intent: note the three-legged bedside table, her squat hand-painted pine dresser, a splotchy framed mirror, the spindled bathroom corner shelf-all found curbside on garbage day.

Her perfect older sister, Pia, lives in an endless house in Connecticut with her handsome, thick-haired husband, Will, her tween daughter, Emma, and a frothy, russet-colored Labradoodle named Root Beer. Pia is altogether Muriel's opposite. Muriel eats takeout from the carton; Pia makes salads from the microgreens in her garden. Pia takes "me" time to pray and do yoga. She believes every word in the bible, her faith pure and unquestioning. Pia is remarkably like their mother, Lidia. Or so Lidia would have Pia believe. Muriel knows better. Years earlier she discovered the truth about her mother's lies-not that she'll ever tell.

The story begins on an ordinary Saturday which turns out to be anything but. When Pia calls Muriel out of the blue, Muriel expects the same lecture about slimming down, toning up, highlighting her hair, getting a better job, and moving into an elevator building. Only this time it's different. Distressingly so. Pia takes the train into the city to visit her sister and leave her with-yet another-terrible secret she is sworn to keep.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Book Review)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

first published in 1958

Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687.  Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met.  Kit's unconventional background and high-spirited ways immediately clash with the Puritanical lifestyle of her uncle's household, and despite her best efforts to adjust, it seems that Kit will never win the favor of those around her.

Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place, and just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit.  But Kit's friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her heart and her duty.

I chose this book to read as it is a Newbery Award winner.  I was pleasantly surprised how a book written in 1958 - about 1687 - still touched on many issues that can be found in today's society - prejudice, religious freedom/persecution, trying to find out where we fit in, love and loyalty.  Why is it that the more things change, the more they stay the same?  The persecution of the Quakers in 1687 - Jews in Hitler's Germany - and some would say Christians in America today. And I bet that everyone could name at least one person who had suffered prejudice in some way, shape or form.

Kit is targeted as being a witch on the ship over by a mean-spirited woman for the simple reasons that she can swim and read. Evidently if you don't "sink" in the water, it means you are a witch. Being raised in Barbados though, Kit grew up in the water and swimming was second nature to her. She was forced to leave Barbados though when her grandfather died and she was forced to sell off everything to pay his debts.

She makes her way to the home of her mother's sister, a woman she has never met, but to whom she has corresponded. They were not aware that she was coming for a visit, let alone an extended stay. But as she is family, they cannot turn her away.

Kit has a hard time fitting in her new family.  Her clothes are more flamboyant than the Puritan community where she now finds herself.  She has no work ethic as she had been allowed to run free on the island until her grandfather died.  She feels she is working from sun up to sun down and is still a burden on the family.  With what free time she does have, she finds herself in a nearby meadow befriending an old woman, Widow Tupper.  Because she is a Quaker, the townspeople believe she is a witch and avoid her at all costs.  She also has garnered the unwanted attention of a local boy, William, who seems to have set his sights on her as his future wife.

Whew, how much can a teenage girl handle in just a few months?  I really enjoyed the final conflict in the book and how loyalties are shown and love is offered. I am glad that I chose this book for my first Newbery Medal Winner to read.

Teaser Tuesdays (Jan 21, 2014)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Now the man's leathery face almost made her smile. Bodies on the outside wore experiences like souvenirs. (p 32, Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi)

Tuesday Intros (Jan 21, 2014)

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. Share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book you are reading or are thinking about reading.  Link up at Bibliophile by the Sea and check out some other firsts!

I will be sharing the first paragraph from Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert. 

Prologue

Naomi Hill stands center stage in a pool of light. Silver sequins teeter on the surface of the pale dress, her white arms rise like ribbons, palms facing the crowd as though to say, I can hold you all, I will. A note comes out of her--fills the room, clean, unwavering, unending--until a little vibrato appears near the end like a shiver, much the way David shivered over her in another life.  Tonight is her last show at the Blue Angel and you cannot tell by looking at her just how much has gone wrong. That our life, as it was, is over.  Her face says: I know exactly what I am and what I'm good at. It's this right here, right now.  My voice.  And your eyes on me.  There is nothing else.  Not anymore. 


Would you be hooked?

School Happenings

It has been awhile since I have posted any of the bulletin boards that I have done for the elementary school library that I work at - so please enjoy these pictures from November, December, and the one currently up:

November: Whooo is thankful for books?

Owl closeup

December: Reading Makes You Bright

Do you like his orange "carrot" nose?

January: Just updated the phrase to: Snow is falling and Books are calling.

Closeup

It's Monday! What are you reading? (Jan 21, 2014)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. 

Ok,so it is really Tuesday.  Whenever there is a school holiday on Monday it whacks my schedule on me.  I haven't read much lately as I think I am in need of new glasses.  My eyes are tiring very easily and start to burn when I read more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

Temperature check at 8:30AM: -1/Feels Like -20 degrees.  Good day to stay in and read!

Currently reading: 

Through the Ever Night
by Veronica Rossi

This is book two in the Under the Never Sky series.  We are introduced to some new characters right off the bat and am just starting to get everyone straight. 

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first. 

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night? 

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure-and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy

"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much." 

The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu, (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt).

When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river.... 

Bathroom Book:
I had been reading Agent of Influence by David Aaron.  I decided I really didn't like it and didn't want to waste any more time on it, so returned it to the library.  So this is my current read:

The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate

This one is a lot better suited for the few minutes that I actually get to read - it is a cute, humorous story so far. 

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

E-read:

Last Night at the Blue Angel
by Rebecca Rotert

Random Choice Read.  I have started this one, but my eyes are more irritated when I read online - so not getting far into it at this time. 

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s Chicago jazz scene, a highly ambitious and stylish literary debut that combines the atmosphere and period detail of Amor Towles' Rules of Civility with the emotional depth and drama of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, about a talented but troubled singer. precocious ten-year-old daughter, and their heartbreaking relationship.

It is the early 1960s, and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensions-segregation, sexual experimentation, free love, the Cold War-but it is also home to one of the country's most vibrant jazz scenes. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years. Finally, her big break arrives-the cover of Look magazine. But success has come at enormous personal cost. Beautiful and magnetic, Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her precocious ten-year-old daughter.

For Sophia, Naomi is the center of her universe. As the only child of a single, unconventional mother, growing up in an adult world, Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding. Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment, so she compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes. Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi-a situation that adds to Sophia's anxiety.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Sophia and Naomi, their powerful and wrenching story unfolds in layers, revealing Sophia's struggle for her mother's love with Naomi's desperate journey to stardom and the colorful cadre of close friends who shaped her along the way.

Sophisticated yet poignant, Last Night at the Blue Angel is an unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have. It is a story ripe with surprising twists and revelations, and an ending that is bound to break your heart.

Books I plan to start this week:

In the last post I had mentioned starting The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  I did start it, and realized that I had forgotten too much from the series so am going to reread them.  I am waiting for Life as We Knew It to be returned to the library so I can start over. 

Life as We Knew It
by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

Finished:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

Reviewing soon. 

Working on:

Still working on my snowman - am making him a little hat now.

I also dug out a needlepoint from last year.  This is called Baltimore Bride: Shimmering Hearts.  Not sure I like the teal colors that were recommended with the purple, but we are going to go with it and hope the overall looks good.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Jan 6, 2014)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. 

Ok, I have FINALLY posted all of the challenges (though who knows which ones could pop up at any time).  I have created new bookshelves for each challenge at Goodreads and have even added some books to the bookshelves that I would like to read for the challenges - so now I should actually start reading, right? 

Temperature check at 2pm: -12/Feels Like -39 degrees.

Currently reading:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

This won the Newbery Medal in 1959.

Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit's friendship with the "witch" is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft!

Bathroom Book:

Agent of Influence

by David Aaron

Not sure that I like this - but am far enough into it that I want to know what happens.

Written by the author of "State Scarlet", this thriller is set in Washington, Moscow and Wall Street. A media conglomerate has been targeted for takeover but the more Lyman learns, the more shady the deal seems. He is convinced that America's huge press empire could end up under Soviet control.

Books I plan to start this week:

The Shade of the Moon

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is the fourth book in The Last Survivors series.  I have read the rest of the series and just learned recently that another book had come out last year.  I have to reread through some of my reviews to familiarize myself with the characters again!

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?

Through the Ever Night
by Veronica Rossi

This is book two in the Under the Never Sky series.  I finished the first book last month.

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first. 

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night? 

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure-and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

Last Night at the Blue Angel
by Rebecca Rotert

Random Choice Read.

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s Chicago jazz scene, a highly ambitious and stylish literary debut that combines the atmosphere and period detail of Amor Towles' Rules of Civility with the emotional depth and drama of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, about a talented but troubled singer. precocious ten-year-old daughter, and their heartbreaking relationship.

It is the early 1960s, and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensions-segregation, sexual experimentation, free love, the Cold War-but it is also home to one of the country's most vibrant jazz scenes. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years. Finally, her big break arrives-the cover of Look magazine. But success has come at enormous personal cost. Beautiful and magnetic, Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her precocious ten-year-old daughter.

For Sophia, Naomi is the center of her universe. As the only child of a single, unconventional mother, growing up in an adult world, Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding. Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment, so she compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes. Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi-a situation that adds to Sophia's anxiety.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Sophia and Naomi, their powerful and wrenching story unfolds in layers, revealing Sophia's struggle for her mother's love with Naomi's desperate journey to stardom and the colorful cadre of close friends who shaped her along the way.

Sophisticated yet poignant, Last Night at the Blue Angel is an unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have. It is a story ripe with surprising twists and revelations, and an ending that is bound to break your heart.

Working on:

Ok, I know it doesn't look like much right now - but it is going to be a little snowman.  Felt like a good day to work on it!

What are you reading on this cold Monday?

Rory Gilmore Bucket Challenge - Perpetual

The Rory Gilmore Bucket Perpetual Challenge is being hosted at Just Another Rabid Reader.  Not sure if they are really still doing it though as the linky is closed, but I have wanted to do this for awhile - so this one might just be me.  Let me know if you would like to do it with me and maybe I will create a linky here. 

I loved Gilmore Girls when it was on and watch the reruns when ever I can, so I had to join this perpetual challenge.  The list of books are below. I have bolded those that I have read at some time in the past.  That is not to say that I won't reread them, but would like to try to read previously unread ones at this time.

1.) 1984 by George Orwell
2.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3.) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4.) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
5.) An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
6.) Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
7.) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8.) Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
9.) Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
10.) The Art of Fiction by Henry James
11.) The Art of War by Sun Tzu
12.) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
13.) Atonement by Ian McEwan
14.) Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
15.) The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16.) Babe by Dick King-Smith
17.) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
18.) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
19.) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
20.) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
21.) Beloved by Toni Morrison
22.) Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
23.) The Bhagava Gita
24.) The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a
Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
25.) Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
26.) A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
27.) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
28.) Brick Lane by Monica Ali
29.) Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
30.) Candide by Voltaire
31.) The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
32.) Carrie by Stephen King
33.) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
34.) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
35.) Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
36.) The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
37.) Christine by Stephen King
38.) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
39.) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
40.) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
41.) The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
42.) The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
43.) A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
44.) Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
45.) The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
46.) Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
47.) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
48.) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
49.) Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
50.) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
52.) The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
53.) The Crucible by Arthur Miller
54.) Cujo by Stephen King
55.) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
56.) Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
57.) David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
58.) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
59.) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
60.) Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
61.) Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
62.) Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
63.) Deenie by Judy Blume
64.) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed
America by Erik Larson
65.) The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee,
America by Erik Larson
66.)The Divine Comedy by Dante
67.) The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
68.) Don Quijote by Cervantes
69.) Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
70.) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
71.) Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
72.) Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
73.) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
74.) Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
75.) Eloise by Kay Thompson
76.) Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
77.)Emma by Jane Austen
78.) Empire Falls by Richard Russo
79.) Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
80.) Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
81.) Ethics by Spinoza
82.) Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
83.) Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
84.) Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
85.) Extravagance by Gary Krist
86.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
87.) Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
88.) The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
89.) Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
90.) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
91.) The Fellowship of the Ring:  Book 1 of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien 92.) Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
93.) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
94.) Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
95.) Fletch by Gregory McDonald
96.) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
97.) The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
98.) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
99.) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
100.) Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
101.) Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
102.) Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
103.) Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
104.) George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our
43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
105.) Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
106.) Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
107.) The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
108.) The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
109.) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
110.) Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
111.) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
112.) The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
113.) The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
114.) The Graduate by Charles Webb
115.) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
116.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
117.) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
118.) The Group by Mary McCarthy
119.) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
120.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling.
121.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling.122.) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
123.) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
124.) Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and
Curt Gentry
125.) Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
126.) Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
127.) Henry V by William Shakespeare
128.) High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
129.) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
130.) Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
131.) The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
132.) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
133.) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
134.) How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
135.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
136.) How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
137.) Howl by Allen Gingsburg
138.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
139.) The Iliad by Homer
140.) I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
141.) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
142.) Inferno by Dante
143.) Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
144.) Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
145.) It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
146.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
147.) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
148.) Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
149.) The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
150.) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
151.) Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
152.) The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
153.) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
154.) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
155.) Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
156.) The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
157.) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
158.) The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
159.) Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
160.) Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
161.) Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
162.) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
163.) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
164.) The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
165.) The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
166.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
167.) Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
168.) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
169.) The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
170.) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
171.) The Love Story by Erich Segal
172.) Macbeth by William Shakespeare
173.) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
174.) The Manticore by Robertson Davies
175.) Marathon Man by William Goldman
176.) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
177.) Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
178.) Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
179.) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
180.) The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
181.) Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
182.) The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
183.) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
184.) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
185.) The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
186.) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
187.) The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
188.) Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
189.) A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
190.) Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
191.) A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
192.) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
193.) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
194.) Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
195.) My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
196.) My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
197.) My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
198.) Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
199.) My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
200.) The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
201.) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
202.) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
203.) The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
204.) Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
205.) New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
206.) The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
207.) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
208.) Night by Elie Wiesel
209.) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
210.) The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke,
Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
211.) Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic
Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
212.) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
213.) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
214.) Old School by Tobias Wolff
215.) On the Road by Jack Kerouac
216.) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
217.) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
218.) The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
219.) Oracle Night by Paul Auster
220.) Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
221.) Othello by Shakespeare
222.) Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
223.) The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
224.) Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
225.) The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
226.) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
227.) The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
228.) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

229.) Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

230.) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
231.) Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
232.) Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
233.) Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian
McCain
234.) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
235.) The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
236.) The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
237.) The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of
Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
238.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
239.) Property by Valerie Martin
240.) Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
241.) Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
242.) Quattrocento by James Mckean
243.) A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
244.) Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
245.) The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
246.) The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
247.) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
248.) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
249.) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
250.) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
251.) Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
252.) The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
253.) R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
254.) Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
255.) Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
256.) Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
257.) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
258.) A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
259.) A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
260.) Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
270.) The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
271.) Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
272.) Sanctuary by William Faulkner
273.) Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
274.) Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
275.) The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
276.) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
277.) Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
278.) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
279.) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
280.) Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
281.) Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
282.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
283.) A Separate Peace by John Knowles
284.) Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
285.) Sexus by Henry Miller
286.) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
287.) Shane by Jack Shaefer
288.) The Shining by Stephen King
289.) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
290.) S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
291.) Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
292.) Small Island by Andrea Levy
293.) Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
294.) Snow White and Red Rose by Grimm Brothers 
295.) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of
the Modern World by Barrington Moore
296.) The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
297.) Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de
Burgos
298.) The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
299.) Songbook by Nick Hornby
300.) The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
301.) Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
302.) Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
303.) The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
304.) Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
305.) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
306.) The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
307.) A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
308.) Stuart Little by E. B. White
309.) Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
310.) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
311.) Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne
Collett
312.) Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
313.) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
314.) Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
315.) Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
316.) Time and Again by Jack Finney
317.) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
318.) To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
319.) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
320.) The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
321.) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
322.) The Trial by Franz Kafka
323.) The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
324.) Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
325.) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
326.) Ulysses by James Joyce
327.) The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
328.) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
329.) Unless by Carol Shields
330.) Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
331.) The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
332.) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
333.) Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third
series) by Joe Harvard
334.) The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
335.) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
336.) Walden by Henry David Thoreau
337.) Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
338.) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
339.) We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel
Sinker
340.) What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
341.) What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
342.) When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
343.) Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
344.) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
345.) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
346.) The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
347).  Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
348.) The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
349.) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Read One Million Pages - Perpetual Reading Challenge

Read One Million Pages is being hosted at Smiling Shelves. 

Pretty simple - Perpetual challenge - Read one million pages in your lifetime.  I am just curious how many pages I read - so am joining this to help me keep track!  Not sure how I am going to list it/track it on here, so that will be a work in progress.

249 pages - The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge

Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge is hosted Love Bites and Silk.  This is a crazy challenge with lots of little mini challenges and lots of rules.  I have just cut and pasted the rules from the host blog as I didn't think I could summarize them appropriately.

Timeline: 01 Jan 2014 – 31 Dec 2014

Here are the details:

• You will collect gems for each part of the challenge you complete.

The red gem

• Read 80 books in 2014. They can be any fiction genre and any length, as long as they are published and are available to purchase.
• Since this challenge is about going round the world, read books set in different locations of the world. For example, there shouldn't be two books set New York. 
• Complete this mini-challenge and collect the rare red gem.

The green gem

• Read at least one book set on each continent –Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and Antarctica. If you need help finding books set in Antarctica check out this Goodreads List.
• Complete this mini-challenge and collect all 7 green gems.

The yellow gem

• Read our selected book of the month. There will be one each month. Complete this mini-challenge and collect the 12 yellow gems.

The blue gem

• The coveted blue gem will be awarded to all those who complete all the mini-challenges and collect all the green, yellow and red gems. 

Please note:

• You don’t have to select your books ahead of time. Feel free to add them as you go along. Also feel free to change them if you list them and then change your mind at a later date.
• The books listed can also be used in other challenges.
• Feel free to join in at anytime, as long as the books are read in 2014.
• Book formats include paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks and audiobooks.
• This is a fiction only challenge.
• Anyone can join in. You don't need a blog. 
• Every month, there will be an Around-The-World-In-80-Days post where everyone can post links to their book reviews and discuss the books they've read.

Everyone who completes the challenge is entered in to a prize draw to win a $25 Gift card. The winner will be chosen and announced in January 2015.