2015 Reading Challenge: Week 9

This week, I finished up Seance In Sepia.  A pretty quick and easy read.  It was a little slow to get started, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and I enjoyed it.  It's a historical mystery (complete with smoking gun), told with a contemporary story - both focused around an old photograph found in a book.  It's filled with all kinds of interesting tidbits about turn-of-the-century seances, police investigations, and Free Love and the feminist movement.

I started East, at the suggestion of a friend - I originally had a book (Jabberwocky) that was billed in the Goodreads blurb as a book about how Lewis Carroll wrote the original poem, but... well.. it apparently was only that in passing and not something I was interested in reading once I looked it more closely.  East, however, is exactly the kind of book I like.  It's a re-telling of the East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairy tale, which is one of my favorites.  I'm just starting it, but I suspect this one will go right up there with Bitter Greens for great books I've read this year.

WEEKS & TOPICS

1. a book with more than 500 pages: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth. FINISHED.

2. a romance: Katherine by Anya Seton. FINISHED

3. a book that became a movie: The Hours by Michael Cunningham. FINISHED.

4. a book published this year: The House of Hawthorne by Erika Robuck.

5. a book with a number in the title:  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. FINISHED.

6. a book written by someone under 30: Eragon by Christopher Paolini. FINISHED.

7. a book with nonhuman characters:  The Greyfriar by Susan Griffith.  FINISHED.

8. a funny book: Bossypants by Tina Fey.  FINISHED.

9. a book by a female author: Fever 1793 by Laurie Anderson.  FINISHED.

10. a mystery or thriller:  Séance in Sepia by Michelle Black. FINISHED.

11. a book with a one-word title: East by Edith Pattou

12. a book of short stories:  Snow White, Blood Red anthology.

13. a book set in a different country: The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak.

14. a nonfiction book:  The Fossil Hunter by Shelley Emling.

15. a popular author's first book: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

16. a book from your favorite author that you haven't read yet: Forests of the Heart by Charles deLint.  FINISHED.

17. a book a friend recommended: Botelo by Alyson Hagy.

18. a Pulitzer-prize winning book: Andersonville by MacKinley Kantor.

19. a book based on a true story: The Wild Princess by Mary Hart Perry.

20. a book at the bottom of your to read list: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson.

21. a book your mom or dad loves: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

22. a book that scares you: The Blackhouse by Peter May.

23. a book more than 100 years old: Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.

24. a book based entirely on its cover: Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliot.

25. a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

26. a memoir:  Two Rings by Millie Werber and Eve Keller

27. a book you can finish in a day

28. a book with antonyms in the title: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

29. a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit: Iceland by Betsy Tobin.

30. a book that came out the year you were born: Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser.

31. a book with bad reviews: Moon People?

32. a trilogy (the first):  Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clarke.

33. a trilogy (the second) Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clarke.

34. a trilogy (the third)  Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clarke.

35. a book from your childhood: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.  FINISHED.

36. a book with a love triangle: Muse by Mary Novak.

37. a book set in the future

38. a book set in high school: The Small Rain by Madeline L’Engle.

39. a book with a color in the title:  A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones.

40. a book that made/makes you cry

41. a book with magic: Grave Witch by Kalayna Price.

42. a graphic novel

43. a book by an author you've never read before:  My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

44. a book you own but have never read: The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro.

45. a book that takes place in your hometown: Magic America by C.E. Medford.

46. a book that was originally written in another language: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

47. a book set during Christmas (or similar holiday): A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas.

48. a book written by an author with your same initials: Silver Lies by Ann Parker.

49. a play

50. a banned book: Beloved by Toni Morrison.

51. a book based on OR turned into a tv show: Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs.

52. a book you started but never finished:  The Heresy of Dr. Dee by Phil Rickman.