2015 Reading Challenge: Week 24

Apparently after weeks of NOT reading much, I'm now on an intensive reading kick.  Maybe it's the summer weather?  At any rate, this week I:

Read books 2 and 3 in the "Clockwork" trilogy, the Clockwork Prince and the Clockwork Princess.  I thoroughly enjoyed this series.  I was 110% engaged with the characters, and wanted to follow all the story lines through to the very end.  Even better?  This author has several other books that explore some of the minor characters she created in this trilogy, plus another trilogy set in the same steampunk-y London.  I am so happy I've been able to find a group of new-to-me authors during this challenge who I know will now be on the go-to list when I need something great to read.

I also read Grave Witch.  It was a fun summer-type read, although I have read other books on witches/folks who commune with the spirits, and enjoyed several of those better.  A B- for me.  It was an easy, lite read, and entertaining, but nothing over-the-top great.

I started Andersonville.  I have to be  honest with you - I'm 4 chapters into it (and it's a LONG book), and I'm not sure I can finish it.  I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for a few more chapters, but right now it feels very disjointed to me (with a billion and one characters tossed in there), and it's feeling a lot like work and not a fun read, so I'm not sure I can slog through the entire book.  I don't have an immediate replacement for it either for the topic, so I'll have to think about what else I would read in it's place.  Stay tuned on that one.

(I should note that while I am not on week 24 of reading strictly going by the list, I have finished 25 books so am sort of kind of ahead for a change.)

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:  India Black by Carol Karr.

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.  FINISHED.

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

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: Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

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

39. a book with a color in the title: Scarlet by A.C Gaughen.

40. a book that made/makes you cry

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

42. a graphic novel: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

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: Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende.

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.