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.

Love Bites Reading Challenge

How cute is that challenge button! No, even though I have joined challenges just for the buttons before, that is not my only reason for joining this time! I do enjoy some paranormal romance, and have plenty to read, I just need to hurry up and read them. This is a simple challenge:

All you need to do is read three paranormals with a romantic theme between 1st April and 30th June 2009.

My three books will most likely be:

Marked by P C Cast and Kristin Cast
Full Moon by Keri Arthur
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

This challenge is hosted by Royal Reviews, and there are some other great buttons available too, incuding a couple of Bill and Sookie from True Blood and Edward and Bella from Twilight.