June 2009 Update

No matter what else happens, it has to have been a good reading month when you get a 5/5 read during the month, and I even managed to write a couple of reviews as well! Go me!

The books I read in June were:

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer 3.5/5
In the Woods by Tana French 4/5
To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt 4/5
Imitation in Death by J D Robb 4/5
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur 4.5/5
Betrayed by P C Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5
The Bridegroom by Linda Lael Miller 4/5
A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander 4/5
Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong 4.5/5
A Hollow Crown by Helen Hollick 4/5
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley 5/5
Sin and Scandal in England by Melody Thomas 3/5
The French Mistress: A Novel of the Duchess of Portsmouth and King Charles II by Susan Holloway Scott 4/5

I don't think I have made a lot of progress on my challenges this month.

I am still working my way towards completion of the 100+ Challenge. At the end of June I have completely 74 books so far this year, so three quarters of the way there.

I did manage to finish a couple of challenges though. The first was The Victorian Challenge. The three books I read for that were The Water Horse by Julia Gregson, Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn and, this month, A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander.

The second challenge that I completed this month was the Pub 09 challenge. The idea of this challenge was to read 9 books that were being published this year. Both The Bridegroom and The French Mistress fit this criteria, so another challenge done! (Completely irrelevant question warning! Am I the only person who always wants to type bridgegroom instead of bridegroom?)

There is one other challenge that is now complete and that is the I Suck At Challenges challenge! Thanks to Chris from Book-a-rama for coming up with such a fun idea!

I have to say that my current challenges section on my sidebar is looking decidely bare now. Maybe I need to go and find some new challenges to join in on. Any suggestions?

Better late than never!

I know that we are well and truly into June now, but I still haven't done my May reading update, so now that I can get back on the net, I thought this would be the first thing that I did!

So here are the books that I read in May.

The Terror by Dan Simmons 4.5
Children of Destiny by Elizabeth Chadwick 4
Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon 4.5
The girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson 4
Fish out of Water by Mary Janice Davidson 3.5
Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas 4
The Boat by Nam Le 4
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding Anthology 4
The Sharing Knife - Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold 4.5
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton 4.5
The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint 4
Her Only Desire by Gaelen Foley 4
Calamity Jayne by Kathleen Bacus 4
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith 4.5

As for how I am going with my many challenges, the answer is not too badly, although there are a couple that I am not sure that I will be able to finish on time.

The Book Awards II challenge finished on 1 June, and I very nearly made it. During May I read The Boat, and that left me one short of completing the challenge, but in the first couple of days of June I did finish In the Woods by Tana French which won a few awards (the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best First Novel, The Strand Magazine’s Best First Novel award and Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards) so I am going to count that as completed!

I haven't managed to read any books for either the Art History Challenge or the War Through the Generations challenge. I really need to look at my reading lists and work towards reading some more for these two challenges.

Another challenge that I have now completed is the Support Your Local Library Challenge that was being hosted by J Kaye from J Kaye's Book Blog. J Kaye is also hosting the 100+ Challenge, and as at the end of May I was up to book number 61 so well on target for completing this challenge in the next couple of months.

The Victorian Challenge is another that I am going to struggle to finish I think. I am currently reading Tasha Alexander's A Fatal Waltz which will count, but that will still be one book short. I have a couple of others in the TBR pile but I am not sure I will get to them before the end of June.

Another challenge that I completed this month was the Chunkster Challenge. After April I had only one more chunkster to read, so this month I actually read two - Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon and The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.

Not quite complete, but not too far off either, is the Pub09 Challenge. During May I read To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt and Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith. I have also read one other book in June which means that I only have one more book left to read in order to complete this challenge.

Sometimes you just seem to finish challenges without realising it. Last month I joined the Love Bites reading challenge, and this month I have read the two books that I needed to read in order to complete it - Betrayed by P C Cast and Kristin Cast, and Full Moon by Keri Arthur.

You know, my list of current challenges is looking a bit depleted. I might need to join some more!

April Update

Numbers wise my books read for this month seems to be a little down on a normal month (whatever normal is!) but for a change this doesn't really worry me that much. This is because in addition to the books listed below I also read more than 600 pages in two chunksters, which equates to 3 or 4 books.

The books I read this month were:

Tiger Claws by John Speed 3/5
The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh 4/5
Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry 4/5
Marked by PC Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon 3/5
Don't Bargain with a Devil by Sabrina Jeffries 4.5/5
Coraline by Neil Gaiman 4.5/5
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan 4.5/5
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner 4/5
The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson 5/5
Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell 4.5/5

The best book was The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson, and the biggest disappointment was Tiger Claws by John Speed.

I didn't do any reviews for April, although I do have a couple that are nearly ready to post! I think it is safe to say that this is a blog about books mostly these days. It's certainly not a review blog anymore!

It wasn't a bad month for reading challenges either.

I managed to read two books for the Book Awards Reading Challenge II - Shaun Tan's book was the Winner of the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel, and Coraline by Neil Gaiman won a whole bunch of awards when it came out.

For the Library Challenge, I have now read 36 books, so only 14 books left to go before I have completed this challenge, and for the 100+ Challenge I have completed 49 out of the 50 books required. Given that I have more than 60 books out from the library at the moment, I should be able to read both of these targets!

This month I read 3 Chunksters - Comanche Moon is 752 pages long, The Swan Maiden is 540 pages and Miranda's Big Mistake is 475 pages long. Only one more book to go and that challenge is complete.

It was a good month for the 2009 Pub challenge as well. The Swan Maiden and Don't Bargain with a Devil are both books that were (or are going to be) first published in 2009. Five more books to go in this challenge. Silver Phoenix was also just released but because it is a YA book it doesn't count for this challenge.

This month I read five books that would count for Once Upon a Time III - Marked, Silver Phoenix, Coraline, Silver Phoenix and The Thief - so in effect I have done all the reading I need to do to call this challenge complete! Yay!

Finally, I did join one new challenge this month - the Love Bites challenge. I think that Marked fits the criteria, so that is one book down, two to go on that challenge.

I was going to do my Library Loot post in this post as well, but I think I will save that for later today instead.

March Update

This month was a pretty good one reading wise. I ended up reading 17 books, but it is fair to say that I had a very average reviewing month, with only two reviews written! I do have a couple of reviews nearly written so we will see how we go with actually posting them!

New Year's Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini (4/5)
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (4/5)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (5/5)
The Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson (4/5)
Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn (4/5)
Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong (4/5)
Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood (3.5/5)
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich (3.5/5)
Angelique and the Sultan by Sergeanne Golon (4/5)
Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich (4/5)
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (4.5/5)
Night of Flames by Douglas W Jacobson (4.5/5)
Superior Saturday by Garth Nix (4/5)
Venus in Copper by Lindsey Davis (4/5)
An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell (4.5/5)
The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts (4/5)
Forbidden Fantasies anthology (4/5)

The end of the month means it is time to check out the progress on my challenges and to do my 'I Suck at Challenges' update.

By reading Silent in the Sanctuary, I finished the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, but I also joined two new challenges, Once Upon a Time III and The Love Bites Challenge. I have already read one of my books for Once Upon a Time III (Superior Saturday by Garth Nix) but haven't yet read anything for my other new challenge.

I managed to read two books for the Book Awards Reading Challenge - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. You might notice that I rated The Graveyard Book as a 5/5 read - my first, and only, so far this year. I think I still have four books to read to complete this challenge.

I read another book for the War Through the Generations challenge this month as well - Night of Flames by Douglas W Jacobson, so have three more books to read before the end of the year for this challenge.

I have read 37 books for the 100+ Reading Challenge, and 27 for the Library Challenge. My target for the Library Challenge is 50 books, so I am over half way through.

One more book to go to complete the Victorian Challenge after I read Silent in the Sanctuary in March. I just picked up Silent on the Moor from the library tonight so that may well be the third book for the challenge, although I do have at least one more book that fits so maybe it will be that one instead.

Silent in the Sanctuary also fitted for the Chunkster Challenge, so I have 4 books left to go to complete that challenge. The book that I am currently reading (Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry) fits for this challenge too.

Plum Spooky was the book I read for the 2009 Pub Challenge this month - 2 down, 7 to go!

January and February reads

I am no longer as good as I used to be at writing reviews of everything I read. I have loads and loads of half written reviews sitting in draft. Some of them may see the light of day at some point, but others will languish there in draft form forever! So, it seems like a good idea to do some kind of monthly round up of the books that I have read. This month I will post both January and Februarys reads but going forward it will be just one month. I will link where I have actually posted a review. If there are any books that you would really like to hear my thoughts on, leave a comment and I will do my best to complete the reviews and post them.


The books I read in January were:

The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason 4/5
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry 4/5
Naughty Neighbour by Janet Evanovich 4/5
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 4.5/5
The Leopard Unleashed by Elizabeth Chadwick 4/5
The Last Queen by C W Gortner 4.5/5
To Seduce a Bride by Nicole Jordan 3.5/5
Secrets of Surrender by Madeline Hunter 4.5/5

February reads were:

His Wicked Kiss by Gaelen Foley 4.5/5
The Water Horse by Julia Gregson 4.5/5
Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell 4/5
It by Stephen King 4/5
The Founding by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 4.5/
Foul Play by Janet Evanovich 3.5/5
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre 4/5
Snowy Night with a Stranger anthology 4/5
Portrait in Death by J D Robb 4.5/5
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik 4/5
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen 4.5/5
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach 4/5
Life as we knew it by Susan Pfeffer 4.5/5
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs 4.5/5
A Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland - DNF


As part of the I Suck at Challenges challenge, it is time for the February update.

February was actually a pretty good month for challenges. I finished the Bang Bang book challenge and the 2009 Sci-fi Experience and the Medieval Challenge.

I also read one book for the Chunkster Challenge (The Founding at 527 pages), two books for the Art History challenge (Tulip Fever and Signora da Vinci), one book for the War Through the Generations challenge (Briar Rose by Jane Yolen), one for the Pub 2009 challenge (Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell). So far for the 100+ Reading challenge I am up to book number 19 for the year, and in the Library Challenge I have already read 14 out of the 50 books that I set as a target for the year.

I am currently reading Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn and that one fits for two challenges so I already have a bit of a head start for March. .

The "I Suck at Challenges" Challenge

My name is Marg and I am a challenge-a-holic!

I join multiple challenges because I can't help myself. The reasons for joining are varied, from the fact that I have a special interest in the subject, to the button looks great, to the "I know I can achieve that challenges". The thing is, I don't always finish the challenges!

Chris from Book-a-rama understands that there are many bloggers out there with a similar problem, and so she has come up with the I Suck at Challenges Challenge.







There are two levels - the slackers who sign up for only one or two challenges but still don't complete them. The second level are those serial offenders, like me, who join multiple challenges, don't finish them but still join more!

The idea is to get some assistance with keeping track and there will be some book related prizes as well!

You can get all the details and sign up over at Book-a-Rama