2015 Reading Challenge: Week 23

A bunch of books to talk about this week!  I finished up Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey.  This was not Anne's "masterpiece", but rather, the first book she wrote and it is heavily based on her personal experiences as a governess.  I suppose I had in my head that all of the Bronte sisters wrote very heavy, dark kinds of books, but this one is sort of "Bronte lite."   To be honest, not a lot that happens in this book either with plot development or character development.  Agnes starts out as a fairly sheltered but basically kind and good young woman and she continues to be both those things throughout the book, despite dealing with absolutely rotten and spoiled children. I was happy to see that Anne wrote Agnes a happy ending with her curate that she didn't have for herself.  I liked that this story ended on a positive note - I liked Agnes.

I then turned to my "book based on a true story", The Wild Princess.  And when I say "based on", I mean VERY VERY loosely based.  It's the story of one of Queen Victoria's daughters, the Princess Louise.  The true story part is that she was considered a "wild child" in her youth, and she did attend an art school and rubbed elbows with bohemian artist types, and there was a plot to murder the queen during her lifetime (several actually, but specifically the one addressed in this book), but there's a lot of this book that definitely falls into the fiction category.  Louise did marry the Earl of Argyll, and they didn't have any children, but there was no actual proof he was gay and there certainly was no documentation that she had a dashing American military hero as her lover for 40+ years, nor is there any proof at all that she assisted said dashing hero with the investigation into the plot against Victoria.  Entertaining?  Yes, absolutely.  A fun summer read, but not one to pick up if you are actually hoping to learn a lot about the Princess that's fact.

And finally (I'm on a roll this week!), I started and finished  Clockwork Angel.  LOVED this book - all kinds of fun things I enjoy rolled into one.  A great heroine (Tessa), some steampunk things (like automatons), a secret society (a couple, actually), adventure, sword-fighting, secret runes and things not initially as they seemed.  This is definitely heavy in the fiction category, but a perfect travel book that kept me entertained in my hotel room in Texas this week when I was really too tired to knit. Having finished this one up, I've downloaded the next 2 in the series to complete my trilogy component of the challenge - which I'm looking forward to this week!

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.  FINISHED.

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.  FINISHED.

12. a book of short stories:  Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles deLint.  FINISHED.

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

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

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

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. FINISHED.

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.  FINISHED.

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.  FINISHED.

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. FINISHED.

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. FINISHED.

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.