Tag Archives: Book Reading challenge

More from the reading challenges. Have you read any of these books?

Hi there!

With all the things that draw my attention, and as a family caregiver, I fell behind again! I am still reading, but more slowly, so I haven’t as many books to list here as I had hoped to have read by now. I also found that I am changing some around on my reading challenge lists, but since they are of my own choosing I can do that. Because it makes my lists not quite accurate for posting here, from now on I will combine them into one list for you to read. The books below are quite a variety.

  1. The Stationery Shop – by Marjan Kamali
  2. 6 Week Money Challenge – by Steve Repak
  3. Amanda in Spain: The Girl in the Painting – by Darlene Foster
  4. Life of Pi – by Yann Martel
  5. Eat Pray Love – by Elizabeth Gilbert
  6. The Fault in Our Stars – by John Green
  7. Grandma Says – by Cindy Day
  8. Country of the Heart – by Barbara Wersba
  9. The Black Kids – by Christina Hammonds Reed
  10. The Happiest Man on Earth – by Eddie Jaku
  11. Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden – by Jessica Walliser
  12. A Tale of Two Cities – by Charles Dickens
  13. Into Thin Air: a personal account of the Mount Everest Disaster – by Jon Krakauer
  14. Cyrano – by Edmond Rostad; Geraldine McCaughrean

I currently have eight other books in various stages of being read.

Two questions for you this time: Have you read any of the above? Do you usually have more than one book on the go at once?

Thanks for reading … And Sharing! Do Come back for more!

 

Advertisement

Brief Book Reviews: Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman; My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante; The Answer is … Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek; The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Hi Everyone!

Here are brief reviews of four more of the books I’ve read for the challenges this year. I’m a little later with this than I planned to be, and more are coming.

Title: Catherine, Called Birdy

Author: Karen Cushman

Published: July 2019

This is an interesting fictional journal by a young girl in medieval times. Intriguing, funny, full of angst – the diary tells of Catherine’s hilarious attempts to not be betrothed to anyone not of her own choosing. Her father has other ideas, usually uninteresting, well-off, older men. The entries also tell of the poor life she lived and what life was like then.

I chose this book for the 52BookClub challenge for prompt #42 – “An epistolary,” and also for the Indigo reading challenge for the prompt “a prize-winning book” as it was a Newbery honor book.

Title: My Brilliant Friend

Author: Elena Ferrante

Published: September 2012

Two girls from poor families in Italy compete with one another and cheer each other on through childhood, school years, and eventually different paths in adulthood. It is a story of privilege and wealth, poverty and hard work, adolescent discoveries and rivalries, love, and hard decisions. The characters draw the reader into their lives and earn her/his interest and caring. Interesting story.

I chose this book for the 52BookClub reading challenge and used it for prompt #9 – “set in a Mediterranean country”, and in the Indigo 2021 reading challenge for prompt “a book in another format: (eBook/audiobook).”

Title: The Answer Is … Reflections on My Life

Author: Alex Trebek

Published: July 2020

Alex Trebek, Jeopardy game show host, was a Canadian who made his mark and became well loved and respected by millions of people in Canada and the US. In this memoir he talks about things openly, things from his own life experience, including his decades of hosting a popular quiz show and the many steps he took to get there. Very interesting, touching, informative.

I chose this book as my read in the 52BookClub for prompt #14 – “written by an author over 65 (when published).” Alex Trebek was 79 when his book was published.

Title: The Sun Down Motel

Author: Simone St. James

Published: February 2020

In the 1980’s several young women in one small town were murdered, and the body of a missing girl was never found. Over 30 years later, Carly, the niece of the missing girl, begins investigating by taking a job as night clerk in the Sun Down Motel where her aunt had worked that shift. Strange and creepy things happen, and Carly finds herself involved in a dangerous situation when she becomes suspicious of a certain man. This is an intriguing story in which reality and the supernatural collide. The reader is taken back and forth over time lines in following the story from different viewpoints of both Carly and her aunt from years before. A little creepy, a little strange, a lot mysterious and clue-seeking combine to make this a good murder mystery with a serious twist.

This book is my choice for prompt #40 – “Found via Bookstagram” for the 52BookClub challenge.

Have you read, or are you interested in reading any of these?

Thanks for reading, and … Blessings on your day!

Book Reading Challenges

Hello Everyone! I hope somebody is still out there.

How are you doing? What’s up in your life and how are you staying sane, happy, and busy? It’s certainly been a challenging year (plus) with COVID and isolation and everything that comes with that – and it continues. I hope you’re all keeping safe and well.

I am still involved in caring for a family member, ten complete years now back and forth weekly. During that time, life has brought many changes, sorrows, and stresses, but blessings as well. We have a new grandbaby boy, as of October, and he is a blessing no one believed would happen. His mum and dad are so in love with this little guy, born a year and a half after they were married. At least once a week I babysit him so his mom can work at the office instead of trying to do it all from home.

Do you have any surprises and blessings to tell about?

Just to update you a little …

As I shared with you in a much earlier post, I have moved from writing into painting – which is on hold for the second time because of the pandemic. And as you likely know, I am a book lover so I’ve gone deeper into reading reading reading. At the beginning of the year I took on reading challenges so that I can work my way through the large number of yet unread books I have purchased over the years – mostly discounted and at book sales. I am compulsively lovingly adding to my accumulation, hoping to eventually set up my own personal library in one of the former bedrooms in our house.

In this post I am going to tell you about the reading challenges and perhaps I can share about my painting in a later post.

On Goodreads I accepted an invitation to join the 52BookClub – the challenge to read 52 books in 52 weeks, by following prompts for each week. They don’t have to be done in order, so I chose not to read them in order of prompts which are listed at the beginning.

From Indigo I accepted the challenge of reading 21 books in this year, also following prompts. A few of them line up with 52BookClub prompts, so I can use one book for both.

On Goodreads I also accepted the challenge to read Agatha Christie books with no set deadline. I have a few of hers that I haven’t read yet, and got a few more at a book sale a few weeks ago. I’ve yet to start that one.

Our local library issues a summer reading challenge too, which I tried last year and will likely do again. I’m continually keeping my library ladies busy.

I almost forgot … Goodreads challenges readers to set a personal goal, and mine has been high the past few years, but this year I lowered it. 700 is my goal, which includes all genres and mostly picture books – whatever I can read. Although I am not writing picture books now I am still reading them and sharing them. Always learning.

Because I’m slowly trying to figure out how to maneuver the changes made to WordPress, I haven’t been able to update my homepage much, but I plan to do that. I’ll show there the books I’ve read for the challenges – once I figure it out!

Perhaps you will find that you’ve read some of the titles I have selected for prompts, or maybe you will be encouraged to read some on my list. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading and travelling to different places through books.

Shown above are some of the many books I have on hand to read. This is before I purchased many more at the book sale in April. The ones stacked in front are chosen for prompts, and in my journal on the desk I’m keeping track.

I’m currently reading How NOT to Die by Michael Greger. (such a good book!) And I’m reading The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner, having loved the movie starring Will Smith.

What are you reading these days?

Thanks for reading this post, and … Blessings on your day! Let’s be in touch – social distancing, of course.

100 children’s books to read in your lifetime

As you know, I love lists. I enjoy going through lists like this one and checking off the ones I’ve completed.

I found a reading challenge you’d perhaps like to take on.

Here are the top 100 Children’s Books to Read in your Lifetime as chosen by Goodreads readers and Amazon editors. These books are for age 12 or younger but are enjoyed by all ages and readers. Books listed in a series have been combined. 

Which of these have you read? In green are the ones I’ve read.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J. K. Rowling

2. Charlotte’s Web – E. B. White

3. The Chronicles of Narnia – C. S. Lewis

4. Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown

5. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle

6. Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak

7. The Giver – Lois Lowry

8. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

9. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Barrett

10. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

11. The Cat in the Hat – Dr. Seuss

12. The House at Pooh Corner – A. A. Milne

13. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum

14. Where the Sidewalk Ends – Shel Silverstein

15. Madeline – Ludwig Bemelmens

16. Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

17. The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien

18. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle

19. The Story of Ferdinand – Munro Leaf

20. Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder

21. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel – Virginia Lee Burton

22. Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss

23. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

24. Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren

25. Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales – the Brothers Grimm

26. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg

27. Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock – Carolyn Keene

28. Press Here – Hervé Tullet

29. The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster

30. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain

31. Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell

32. Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site – Sherri Duskey Rinker

33. The Wind in the Willows -Kenneth Grahame

34. The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

35. Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie

36. Number the Stars – Lois Lowry

37. Holes – Louis Sachar

38. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan

39. Wonder – R. J. Palacio

40. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

41. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! – Dr. Seuss

42. The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein

43. Flora and the Flamingo – Molly Idle

44. Curious George – Margret & H. A. Rey

45. Amelia Bedelia – Peggy Parish

46. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson

47. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

48. Matilda – Roald Dahl

49. Heidi – Johanna Spyri

50. The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

51. The Snowy Day – Ezra Jack Keats

52. Ivy and Bean – Annie Barrows

53. The Boxcar Children – Gertrude C. Warner

54. A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett

55. Peek-A Who? – Nina Laden

56. The Paper Bag Princess Robert Munsch

57. Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt

58. The Day the Crayons Quit – Drew Daywalt

59. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

60. Hatchet – Gary Paulsen

61. Bread and Jam for Francis – Russell Hoban

62. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson

63. The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams

64. Because of Winn Dixie – Kate DiCamillo

65. The One and Only Ivan – Katherine Applegate

66. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare

67. The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter

68. The BFG – Roald Dahl

69. The Call of the Wild – Jack London

70. A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond

71. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Beverly Cleary

72. The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 – Christopher Paul Curtis

73. Oh, the Places You’ll Go – Dr. Seuss

74. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective – Donald J. Sobol

75. Harold and the Purple Crayon – Crockett Johnson

76. Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine

77. Fantastic Mr. Fox – Roald Dahl

78. Going Over – Beth Kephart

79. Achren (The Chronicles of Prydain) – Lloyd Alexander

80. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – Judi Barrett

81. The Twits – Roald Dahl

82. Inkheart – Cornelia Funke

83. White Fang – Jack London

84. Rhyme Schemer – K. A. Holt

85. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken

86. Esperanza Rising – Pam Muñoz Ryan

87. The Dark Is Rising – Susan Cooper

88. The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick

89. Danny, the Champion of the World – Roald Dahl

90. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi

91. When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead

92. A Girl of the Limberlost – Gene Stratton-Porter

93. Bud Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis

94. Daddy Long Legs – Jean Webster

95. Bambi – Felix Salten  (I’ve only read the Disney version of this one)

96. Low Riders in Space – Cathy Camper

97. The Once and Future King – T. H. White

98. Flora and Ulysses – Kate DiCamillo

99. Pictures of Hollis Woods – Patricia Reilly Giff

100. Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery

Out of 100 books read, the average score is 33. I was doing pretty well, until two-thirds of the way through the list. My score is 40, and I have 5 more that I’ve not completed.

What is your score? Are there any on the list you want to read?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

‘Read More Books’ challenge: Week 12: 572-623 of the list of 623 of the best books ever!

Are you ready for week twelve of our Read More Books challenge?

Read HERE to learn about it. Although this is the last post of my reading challenge, it’s never too late to check what volumes you may have read on the popular books list. Be sure to visit the site where this list originated, noted at the end.

Look at the ones you may have missed or want to review:

WEEK 1  WEEK 2   WEEK 3  WEEK 4   WEEK 5    WEEK 6  WEEK 7   WEEK 8  WEEK 9   WEEK 10  WEEK 11

How did you do with your reading? Even if you didn’t finish the book you selected, it counts if you select one for this week to add to your TBR pile.

Here is week twelve’s list of books – 51 this time and the final list in this compilation: (Please take note of the credits at the end.)

572. Money — by Martin Amis
573. The Universal Baseball Association, inc. — by Robert Coover
574. Creamy and Delicious — by Steve Katz
575. Tobacco Road — by Erskine Caldwell
576. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge — by Rainer Maria Rilke
577. The Selfish Gene — by Richard Dawkins
578. The Blue Sword — by Robin McKinley
579. An Artist of the Floating World — by Kazuo Ishiguro
580. This Side of Paradise — by F. Scott Fitzgerald
581. Rubyfruit Jungle — by Rita Mae Brown
582. Jurassic Park — by Michael Crichton
583. La Modification — by Michel Butor
584. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money — by John Maynard Keynes
585. The Clan of the Cave Bear — by Jean M. Auel
586. The Colour of Magic — by Terry Pratchett
587. More Than Human — by Theodore Sturgeon
588. The Origins of Totalitarianism — by Hannah Arendt
589. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting — by Milan Kundera
590. The Prince of Tides — by Pat Conroy
591. The Alchemist — by Paulo Coelho
592. Goodbye to All That — by Robert Graves
593. Cry, the Beloved Country — by Alan Paton
594. Mulligan Stew — by Gilbert Sorrentino
595. L. A. Confidential — by James Ellroy
596. The Affluent Society — by John Kenneth Galbraith
597. The Rosy Crucifixion — by Henry Miller
598. Katherine — by Anya Seton
599. A Little Princess — by Frances Hodgson Burnett
600. The Beautiful and Damned — by F. Scott Fitzgerald
601. Wise Children — by Angela Carter
602. The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights — by Richard Burton
603. A People’s History of the United States — by Howard Zinn
604. The Van — by Roddy Doyle
605. The Good Soldier Svejk — by Jaroslav Hasek
606. The Autobiography of Malcolm X — by Malcolm X
607. Easy Travel to Other Planets — by Ted Mooney
608. The Postman Always Rings Twice — by James M. Cain
609. Where Angels Fear to Tread — by E. M. Forster
610. Sometimes a Great Notion — by Ken Kesey
611. Gaston, tome 1 — by André Franquin
612. Tours of the Black Clock — by Steve Erickson
613. Girls in Love — by Jacqueline Wilson
614. Earthly Powers — by Anthony Burgess
615. Eminent Victorians — by Lytton Strachey
616. The Ginger Man — by J. P. Donleavy
617. Hawaii — by James A. Michener
618. In Memoriam to Identity — by Kathy Acker
619. The Princess Diaries — by Meg Cabot
620. The Second World War — by Winston S. Churchill
621. The Education of Little Tree — by Forrest Carter
622. The Horse Whisperer — by Nicholas Evans
623. Hogg — by Samuel R. Delany
 

Note: I got permission to share this list on my blog. Please go HERE for the complete list of “623 of the best books ever written”; see them all at once for yourself with full colour book covers. (Thank you, Stuart, for allowing me to share your list over twelve blog posts.) Stuart has also provided links to Amazon for purchasing your own copies of the books you want to read, so please visit his site and bookmark it. This will make it easier for you to revisit the complete list and shop easier, plus read reviews on Amazon by other readers.

I hope you enjoyed this walk through a library of some of the best books ever written. It seemed a fun way to bring to your attention many more books than you may have considered reading. This exercise has shown me I am not the reader I thought I was, and stirred my interest in many of the books on this list.

I love to hear from you!  From the above list:
  • Which books have you read?
  • Which books do you want to read?
  • Which books are you going to obtain this week?(Even if you did not officially take the Read More Books challenge I would love to hear about your reading.)

Thank you for going on this adventure with books with me. Now, to sum it all up, if you would like to go back over all twelve posts that make up this list, once you add up the ones you’ve read I’d like to know how many you can claim to have read. Please leave a comment.     

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂