Book Challenge- July 2006

[Kimberlina]

"Here's how it works- you set a goal for yourself as to how you want your current reading habits to change. Maybe you will read more "stuff" (intellectual) and less fluff. Maybe you will read more for pleasure. Maybe you want to read 30 books by the end of the year. Maybe you just want to track the books you are reading to see how many books you are actually reading. This goal can either be public- in this thread, in your signature, whatever- or it can be entirely private. It really doesn't matter- this is a personal challenge, like most of the challenges here, and not a competition at all.

Then, each month, you post in the monthly thread the books you have finished in that month. You give the title, author, a brief synopsis (no big spoilers, please) and whether you liked it/why.

I hope you'll all join me in the July Book Challenge."

[EmilyD]

My goals for July:

Finish reading:
Nothing to Fear but Ferrets and Fine Feathered Death by Linda O. Johnston
Not Buying it by Judith Levine

New books:
At Risk by Patricia Cornwell
5th Horseman by James Patterson
Straight into Darkness by Faye Kellerman

Possibles:
One Cold Night by Kate Pepper
Death Splits a Hair by Nancy Bell

I am thinking about getting the Egyptology series (from the library I think). I started it once and want to finish it, but will probably have to start it over again.

[dwallyfam]

Need to finish Chronicles of Narnia

Kellie

[autumnlynn]

For July I am going to have a change of pace and read "Seduction By The Book" by Linda Conrad.

[mom2matty]

I have a good list of books waiting to be read this month..........it will be a little harder finding time with the kids out of school but I am hoping to get through..........

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
House Works by Cynthia Townley Ewer
Nesting It's A Chick Thing by Ame Mahler Beanland and Emily Miles Terry
The Simple Living Guide by Janey Luhrs

[EmilyD]

I finished Not Buying it by Judith Levine last night. I was pretty disappointed in it. Not so much a study of frugality as a political diatribe.

I am about half through The Fifth Horseman by James Patterson.

I also picked up Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky, so will be adding it to my list for this month.

[jacqueline]

Got:

Kill Me by Stephen White
Countdown by Iris Johansen
The Husband by Dean Koontz
Dance of Death by Douglas Preston
Gone by Jonathan Kellerman

all on my reading list too!!

[mcphlips]

I'm new to this thread.. but definately IN. I love to read!
Currently I'm finisheing Book 2 of Dean Kootz's Frankenstein.

This month I want to try and finish 4 more books:
1) what ever my book club picks.. we meet july 12th
2) Goose in the Pond by Earlene Fowler
3)The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
4) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Happy Reading all

[Amanda W]

My goal for July is to read:

(Fiction) The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

(Nonfiction) Living Well on a Shoestring and What to Expect When You're Expecting.

[Kimberlina]

Did I ever mention that I don't actually have a goal? Hmmm...maybe I'll shoot for 50 books by December. Just for fun. I read so much it isn't really an effort. (Now, my REAL goal should be something like read LESS and mop the floor more, lol.)

So far for July:

13) The Ironwood tree
14) Lucinda's secret
15) The Wrath of Mulgarath

These are the last three books of the Spiderwicke Chronicles. Love the illustrations. (Tony DiTerlizzi) From his website:
"It all started with a mysterious letter left at a tiny bookstore for authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Its closing lines: "We just want people to know about this. The stuff that has happened to us could happen to anyone." Little could they imagine the remarkable adventure that awaited them, as they followed Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace (and a strange old book) into a world filled with elves, goblins, dwarves, trolls, and a fantastical menagerie of other creatures. The oddest part is in entering that world, they didn't leave this one!"

16) A Beautiful Child by Matt Birkbeck:
"Sharon Marshall was brilliant......
But Sharon had secrets. Deep, disturbing secrets so shocking and complex, and so unique, they took more than a decade to unravel.
A Beautiful Child explores one of the most baffling cases in the annals of American law enforcement. It tells the gripping true story of a gifted, yet mysterious young woman caught in the violent world of the murderous felon and fugitive she called her father.
A complex web of deception thirty-years in the making, Sharon Marshall’s incredible story, and the horrifying events that followed, fueled a dedicated FBI agent determined to unravel her secrets. But his efforts were thwarted at every turn by a nation’s failure.
What unfolds is a heartrending testament to the profound courage and perseverance of one woman trapped in the grip of extreme evil."

I had promised myself some time ago that I was going to stop reading true crime stories- they are just too depressing. This came on the heels of reading a book about a local woman (lived in Schenectady at the time) who killed all but one of her children. (I think 7 of them.) That was 5 years ago and I haven't read one since then. but I read about this book online somewhere and was drawn to it, because it is more about Sharon, the little girl who was abducted, and not so much about the man who committed the horrendous crime of abducting her and raising her as his daughter, then marrying her.

Anyway, this was a pretty interesting book, and it was a page-turner. I just wish that there were more answers, but they just don't exist, sadly enough.

17) The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant:
"Fans of Diamant's The Red Tent who were disappointed by her sophomore effort (Good Harbor) will be happy to find her back on historical turf in her latest, set in early 1800s Massachusetts. Inspired by the settlement of Dogtown, Diamant reimagines the community of castoffs—widows, prostitutes, orphans, African-Americans and ne'er-do-wells—all eking out a harsh living in the barren terrain of Cape Ann. Black Ruth, the African woman who dresses like a man and works as a stonemason; Mrs. Stanley, who runs the local brothel, and Judy Rhines, an unmarried white woman whose lover Cornelius is a freed slave, are among Dogtown's inhabitants who are considered suspect—even witches—by outsiders. Shifting perspectives among the various residents (including the settlement's dogs, who provide comfort to the lonely), Diamant brings the period alive with domestic details and movingly evokes the surprising bonds the outcasts form in their dying days. This chronicle of a dwindling community strikes a consistently melancholy tone—readers in search of happy endings won't find any here—but Diamant renders these forgotten lives with imagination and sensitivity."

This was actually a good read. I won't tell you it was nearly as good as The Red Tent- it wasn't- but it kept my interest. You don't get too attached to any one character, and you could almost believe these as real chronicles of the Cape Ann area.



I am currently working on Among The Hidden and Tears of the giraffe.

[EmilyD]

Yesterday, I finished reading The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon. I really liked this book. It chronicles a year in the life of a 14 year old who attempts suicide by setting himself afire. He is burned on 85 per cent of his body. The book covers his recovery in two hospitals and an outpatient psycological center.

He is honest, funny, sometimes really immature and other times wise beyond his years.

Right now I am reading Love in the Time of Cholesterol by Cecily Ross. It is another non-fiction about a man and woman copying with his heart disease and the ravages to their lifestyle.

[jzkitten]

I'm just going to keep track of how many books I've read this month. I use to read a lot but not so much any more. I need to get my library card. I've never been to library here yet. Last night I finished reading Two For The Dough by Janet Evanovich. Right now I'm rereading Three To Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich.

[tlenad]

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I just finished that book last week. I enjoyed it pretty well. Infact on my list of to be read this month is Son of a Witch which is the follow up to Wicked. I have all his books and am slowly making my way through the to be read pile.

Also on the list:

Through Violet Eyes by Stepehen Woodworth
The Cell by Stephen King
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell By Susanna Clarke

[Kimberlina]

I actually read Wicked last year- I actually didn't enjoy too much. I also read another of his books. I really thought I would like them, as that is a genre I tend to like, but I think I'm just not all that fond of his writing style. I do know a lot of people who have really liked his books, though.

[mcphlips]

I changed my mind about one the books.. or maybe I'll make it 5 this month. Currently I'm reading the Bookseller of Kabul. It is about the life of a bookseller in kabul, Afgahnastan after Seot.11th and the Taliban has been ousted. So far I am about 1/3 way through..very interesting read!