2017 Reading Challenge Update

A bunch of things to check off the read list:

For week 10 - A dual timeline novel: The Girl Who Came Home,  Liked but didn't love this book; it was a bit scattered for me.  The main story line is about the wreck of the Titanic and one of the survivors.  The back store/dual timeline part of it is present day where the granddaughter of the survivor slowly unearths the history of her grandmother's voyage on the boat.  I'd classify this one as a light read - a good summer beach book - but not a page-turner.

For week 14: A book with a strong female character: The Ornatrix by Kate Howard.  Oddly enough the main character is not the strongest female character in this book, but rather the protagonist.  The main character is a girl born with a discolored mark in the shape of a bird on her face, Flavia.  Her family shuttles her off to a convent, embarrassed by this "defect" and she attaches herself to a former Venetian courtesan who knows the secrets of all kinds of beauty creams - including one to cover that blemish in her skin.  The courtesan is at the center of the story, filled with deception and deceit and some very erratic behavior.  Flavia is willing to risk everything in order to achieve the perfect receipe for makeup to recreate herself into something more beautiful. An interesting character study but a bit slow in places.

For week 33: A magical realism novel: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I'm honestly not sure how this one wasn't on my radar.  Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, and this book didn't disappoint.  I LOVED it.  All the things I love wrapped up in one tidy package.  Gaiman creates a magical world that bridges the gap between childhood and adulthood, fantasy and reality, and good and evil.  One of the things I love best about his writing is that I am instantly drawn into the story and willing to sit back and let him drive without questioning where he's taking me.  I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come and hoping to find pieces of it in my dreams.  (Bonus points for the fact that the character of Lettie Hemstock's Gram reminds me a whole lot of my own grandmother.)


The 2017 List
1. A book from the Goodreads Choice Awards 2016
2. A book with at least 2 perspectives (multiple points of view): Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce.
3. A book you meant to read in 2016
4. A title that doesn't contain the letter "E":  
5. A historical fiction
6. A book being released as a movie in 2017:  Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout. 
7. A book with an animal on the cover or in the title
8. A book written by a person of color
9. A book in the middle of your To Be Read list:
10. A dual-timeline novel: The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor.
11. A category from another challenge: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.
12. A book based on a myth:  Summerlong by Peter Beagle.
13. A book recommended by one of your favorite authors
14. A book with a strong female character: The Ornatrix by Kate Howard.
15. A book written or set in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland)
16. A mystery
17. A book with illustrations:  Prairie Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
18. A really long book (600+ pages)
19. A New York Times best-seller
20. A book that you've owned for a while but haven't gotten around to reading
21. A book that is a continuation of a book you've already read
22. A book by an author you haven't read before:  The Secrets of Wishtide, by Kate Saunders.
23. A book from the BBC "The Big Read" list (link)
24. A book written by at least two authors
25. A book about a famous historical figure
26. An adventure book
27. A book by one of your favorite authors
28. A non-fiction
29. A book published outside the 4 major publishing houses (Simon & Schuster; HarperCollins; Penguin Random House; Hachette Livre) - check all the editions
30. A book from Goodreads Top 100 YA Books (link)
31. A book from a sub-genre of your favorite genre
32. A book with a long title (5+ words, excluding subtitle):  I Shall Be Near to You by Erin McCabe.
33. A magical realism novel: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.
34. A book set in or by an author from the Southern Hemisphere
35. A book where one of the main characters is royalty
36. A Hugo Award winner or nominee (link)
37. A book you choose randomly
38. A novel inspired by a work of classic literature
39. An epistolary fiction
40. A book published in 2017
41. A book with an unreliable narrator: His Bloody Project by Graeme McRae Burnet.
42. A best book of the 21st century (so far)
43. A book with a chilling atmosphere (scary, unsettling, cold):  Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase.
44. A recommendation from "What Should I Read Next" (link)
45. A book with a one-word title: Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
46. A time travel novel
47. A past suggestion that didn't win (link)
48. A banned book
49. A book from someone else's bookshelf
50. A Penguin Modern Classic - any edition
51. A collection (e.g. essays, short stories, poetry, plays) : Beyond the Woods; Fairy Tales Retold by Paula Guran.
52. A book set in a fictional location