TSS: April Reading Roundup

I have had such a good month in April, not because I read the most books for the year this month, because I didn't, but because for the most part I read my own books! I was particularly reminded that there was a reason why I go out of my way to buy the books that these particular authors write - because I really, really enjoy their work! Given that the month started with an emergency dash to the other side of the country I am pretty pleased with my reading month in most ways, including how many books I got through! The surprising thing was that reading my own books also was really beneficial for my library check outs as well - temporarily at least. I have already started rerequesting some of those books I had to return unread so we will see how that goes in the future!

Here is a list of the books that I read in April:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (4.5/5)
Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop (4/5)
When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason (4/5)**
The King's Favourite by Susan Holloway Scott (4/5)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (4.5/5)
The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran (4/5)
Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas (4/5)
The Endless Forest by Sara Donati (5/5)
Within the Hollow Crown by Margaret Campbell Barnes (3.5/5)

**Doesn't count for ROOB as I had started it before 1 April.

First things first, here is a recap of the rules of  the Reading Our Own Books Challenge that I was participating in. (You can read the full post here)

Each type of book you read will be assigned a value and the person with the lowest score wins.

The points values are:

• −5 points for reading a book from your TBR stack (owned before 15 March)
• −3 points for reading a review copy (review promised in April)
• −2 points for reading a library copy
• +6 points for reading a new book (owned or borrowed after 15 March)

So for this month I managed to read 7 books that I owned and 1 library copy, so my score was -38. In order to even out the variables like the fact that some of us read faster than others, or have more reading time, or like to read chunksters, in order to equalise the playing field, the score is divided by the number of books read, so my final score would be -4.5. Turns out that was enough for me to win, which I was very excited about! And my prize....more books! LOL!


I want to give a huge shout out to my fellow ROOB players. We had a lot of fun chatting through the month about how we were all going! So thanks to

• Vasilly (Natasha) from 1330v
• Carrie from Books and Movies
• Jennifer from The Literate Housewife Review
• Sarah from Puss Reboots
• Michelle from GalleySmith
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads

Honorary member: Jen from Devourer of Books

The good news is that we are talking about doing the challenge again in October, and we are currently talking about ways to include other people, and maybe a little tweaking of the rules to make it better for things like really old review books etc. Watch this space for more details!

So how did all this reading of my own books work out for all my ongoing challenges?

This month I watched the first couple of episodes of The Pacific, and so I made some progress on the Period Drama Challenge. I am looking forward to seeing more of the series and finding out what happens to the characters. I also have another Period Drama out from the library so I may even be able to complete this challenge. Actually, I might already have finished. Should check that out really!

I made no progress on a number of challenges. I don't actually expect to do any better on the Harry Potter Challenge before it finishes in July. I really should just declare challenge fail and be done with it on that one!

The book that I used for the Year of the Historical challenge for April was Colleen Gleason's book When Twilight Burns, which also counts towards the Vampire Series Challenge. This book and Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop both also counted as reads towards the Once Upon a Time IV challenge.

I made progress on the Romance Reading Challenge with the Meredith Duran book Duke of Shadows and Lisa Kleypas' Tempt Me at Midnight, and on the Chunkster challenge by reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson and The Endless Forest by Sara Donati. The King's Favourite, The Endless Forest and Within the Hollow Crown all counted for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge with the latter two also counting for the Pub 2010 challenge.

I have passed halfway for the 100+ Reading Challenge, but the one downside of ROOB was that I didn't make much progress on the Support Your Local Library Challenge!

So there you have it. My April reading month in review. Did you have a good reading month in April?

Alphabet in Historical:Fiction: J is for Joan, John of Gaunt and Junior kings

This week in the Alphabet in Historical Fiction challenge I am focusing on Margaret Campbell Barnes recently rereleased novel Within the Hollow Crown about Richard II. So where does the Js come from? Yes, you've caught me. It is a somewhat tenuous link, but I need to talk about the book and so when I realised that Richard II's mother was Joan of Kent, his uncle is John of Gaunt, and Richard himself was a very young king, well, there's my post for J! I will try to do better next time I promise.

Whilst there are the superstar kings and queens of English history (think Henry VII, Elizabeth I, Charles II, Henry and Eleanor etc) then there are the kings and queens that you know a little about, or those that you don't really know anything at all about!

Young Richard II is a reluctant king. He is not a warrior king like some of his predecessors especially his father who was known as the Black Prince, but a more urbane and cultured young man. Next to his more rambunctious Plantagenet cousins, Richard seems to be much less suited to the role of medieval king. Initially however he is controlled or guided if you like, by his uncles including John of Gaunt (who I first met in Anya Seton's wonderful novel Katherine).

The novel is broken into three parts. The first part focuses on one event that I had previously heard of - the Peasant's Rebellion as led by Wat Tyler. As I was reading through the story, I kept on trying to think of where exactly it was that I had previously heard. After quite a bit of thinking, I *think* it was mentioned in Katherine by Anya Seton. During this early episode Richard demonstrates his ability to relate to the common person, and realises that it is possible for him to obtain what he really wants - the love of his people. When he is betrayed to his people by the very people who are supposed to be guiding him, it is a blow to his pride, and to his reign.

The second part is primarily concerned with his marriage to Anne of Bohemia. A quick check of Wikipedia tells me that Anne was sister to Wencelas (presumable good king Wencelas as made famous in the Christmas Carol). Whilst initially not a love match, the marriage between Richard and Anne is portrayed by Campbell Barnes as one where understanding leads to love which leads to passion. The court that they head is cultured, and educated, with great style and fashion, and yet having a country at peace isn't enough for many of the courtiers and family members. Initially an unpopular marriage, Anne soons grows into her role as queen, and Richard begins to understand that it is possible for him to rule, and to reign outside of his strong-willed and ambitious uncles influence, thus setting in motion the events in the final third of the book.

Towards the end of his reign, and accordingly of the book, Richard seems to lose that common touch that characterised many of his early years, and to become a somewhat selfish leader. The people are dissatisfied, the court is dissatisfied, and for a medieval king that can mean only one thing - removal from the throne, one way or the other. As one rival for the throne falls, another steps in his place until eventually with more a whimper than a bang, Richard is usurped by the man who we now know as Henry IV.

The strange thing about this book is that I really, really struggled to read it. It took me nearly two weeks to read a 333 page book that I would normally expect to read in no more than three days. I am really not sure why because I have previously read other books by Margaret Campbell Barnes and enjoyed them. Maybe it was because I tried to read this as my reading-in-bed book as opposed to my reading-on-the-train book, or maybe it really just wasn't the time for me to read this book. When I was reading it at night I found it difficult to stay awake, but when I changed it into my train book it was interesting enough, but at the end of the day when I put the book down I really had to force myself to pick it up again. Who knows, maybe it just isn't ever going to be the book for me, but I hope not because I will be disappointed if that is the case.

Here is the blurb for the book:

A Reluctant King, a Desperate nation, and the most misunderstood reign in history.

Unlike his fatherthe Black Prince, or his namesake King Richard the Lionheart, Richard II never really wanted to be king. But the mantle of royalty is thrust upon his shoulder at age eleven, in a time when England is racked by unrest and class warfare. A leader unexpected as he is inexperienced. Richard must find a way to triumph over a fierce conflict more destructive than any foreign enemy. Blessed with the ability to take the pulse of the common people, Richard proves himself a true Plantagenet in standing down a peasant revolt.

In the midst of a tender, exquisite love with Anne of Bohemia, Richard finds the strength to outwit the schemes of his uncles and cousin Henry Bolingbroke and stay on the throne, holiding the country in the palm of his hand. But as Richard slowly begins to lose the common touch by which he had ruled so brilliantly, he needs to find the courage to consider England.

Widely acclaimed historical fiction master Margaret Campbell Barnes showcases the true spirit of a much-maligned king whose imaginative and intelligent spirit broke hard against the war-mongering world, and who wanted nothing more than the love of England.

As well as counting for the Alphabet in Historical Fiction, this book also counts for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, 2010 Pub Challenge and ROOB.

Rating 3.5/5

TSS: The Reading Our Own Books challenge edition

You may have noticed that I read a lot of books from the library. I also get a few review books to read, and so I keep spreadsheets to help me keep track of when my library books are due back, and when reviews are due. The one thing that you may notice is missing is that I have not mentioned the books that I actually buy myself. When do I read them? Well, the short answer is I don't, or at least I don't often read them. In fact, if I look at the list of books that I have read this year, I had only read 2 books that I acquired myself.

I was lucky enough to be on Twitter (usually I miss all the good stuff) when a whole group of people were talking about exactly do you get around to reading the authors and books you wanted so much that you were prepared to buy them? And so, the Reading Our Own Books challenge was born! The idea is that in the month of April the participants will be trying to read their own books. Each type of book you read will be assigned a value and the person with the lowest score wins.

The points values are:

• −5 points for reading a book from your TBR stack (owned before 15 March)
• −3 points for reading a review copy (review promised in April)
• −2 points for reading a library copy
• +6 points for reading a new book (owned or borrowed after 15 March)

If you can read only from your own books then you have every chance of winning, but most of us have at least a couple of review books, or library books that we really want to read so I am sure it won't be that straight forward for any of us!

Only books started before 1 April and finished before 30 April count for the challenge.

So, if for example, I read 4 books from my TBR stack, 2 review copies, 3 library books, and 1 new book, here's how I'd figure my score:

(4 × −5) + (2 × −3) + (3 × −2) + (1 × 6) = −20 + −6 + −6 + 6 = −26

In order to even out the variables like the fact that some of us read faster than others, or have more reading time, or like to read chunksters, in order to equalise the playing field, the score is going to be divided by the number of books read, so my final score would be -2.6. (Thanks to bethfish for the example!)

Who knows if that would be enough to win! And what is the prize if you do win? Well, aside from bragging rights, each of the other players gets to send the winner a book from their TBR shelves!

The other players in this edition of the game are:

• Vasilly (Natasha) from 1330v
• Carrie from Books and Movies
• Jennifer from The Literate Housewife Review
• Sarah from Puss Reboots
• Michelle from GalleySmith
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads

Honorary member: Jen from Devourer of Books
Part of the reason that this is a closed group challenge is because of the prize aspect. However, if you want to play along please feel free to keep score. Maybe you will beat all of us. There is already some talk of doing the challenge again later in the year as well! And if you are interested you can follow our progress on Twitter by using the #roob tag.

When I started looking at the books that I might read for this challenge, I got so excited. I have already finished finished Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, and started Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop, and other books that I might read include Jasper Fforde, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Puallina Simons, Stieg Larssson, C S Harris, Patricia Briggs, Lisa Kleypas and many, many others!

The interesting thing is that this challenge has already had a beneficial effect on my library list as well, which I really wasn't expecting. The main reason for this is the heavy penalty associated with books acquired (even from the library) after 15 March so instead of automatically requesting books, I have been adding them to my list to request later! I will still be reading at least one library book, but for the most part I will be returning more than I borrow for a few weeks! Who knows I might even get my library list down below 40 again to a much more manageable level.

How do you juggle reading books from the library versus review books versus your own books? Do you just read whatever you feel like or do you have some method of juggling priorities?