Wrap-Up Post for the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge 2016

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge 2016

Here is the hosting page for the challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

Each month has a motif or theme that you have to read a book in. I completed all of them except for July.

January
* Who Dunnit? Crack the case and solve the mystery
The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill. Finished January 3
February
* New Releases. Read a book released in the last year
Where Secrets Sleep by Marta Perry. Finished February 18
March
* Take a Trip. Time travel or read a book set in a different country than where you live
A Pair of Docks by Jennifer Ellis. Finished March 28 (time travel)
April
* Best of the Best. Read a book that has won recognition or a literary award
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. Finished April 26
May
* Story of Survival. Make it out alive, beat the odds, save yourself stories. Think beyond the typical.
Asking For It by Louise O'Neill. Finished May 9
June
* Girlxoxo Recommends. Check the host site for recommendations
Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Finished June 28
July
* LOL. Hilarious memoirs, silly chick lit, comedic scifi. Pick a book that is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. [Did not read a book for this category]
August
* Genre Jumble. Read from a genre you don't normally read from.
You're Not Lost If You Can Still See the Truck by Bill Heavey. Finished August 26
September
* Steampunk, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. Something from one of these genres.
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard. Finished September 25
October
* Things that Go Bump in the Night. Cozy mystery ghost stories, paranormal creeptastic, murder mysteries - it's up to you.
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley. Finished October 11
November
* Fiction Takes a Break. Anything nonfiction
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell. Finished November 14
December
* That's a wrap. Finish a series you've been meaning to finish or read the next book in a series you started by never finished.
The Slow Waltz of Turtles by Katherine Pancol. Finished December 31

The Slow Waltz of Turtles

Finished December 31
The Slow Waltz of Turtles by Katherine Pancol, translated by William Rodarmor

This book is the follow up the The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles, which introduced us to Josephine Cortes. Here Josephine has moved to a new apartment in a better neighbourhood, but she doesn't feel at home there, and still goes back to her old neighbourhood to shop. Her younger daughter Zoe lives with her, but Hortense has achieved a place at a fashion school in London and spends most of the year there. Hortense knows what she wants and is driven to achieve it. Josephine's sister has suffered a breakdown and as the book begins is in a mental hospital. Her husband Philippe has taken their son to London and is learning to live a new life there.
Josephine's mother Henriette is obsessed with her estranged husband's new life, refusing to grant him a divorce and working to try and make his lover's life unhappy.
As Josephine learns to be more confident in what she truly wants and to draw lines against those that she begins to understand don't value her as a person, she gains strength and self-awareness slowly. She has always been a woman who puts others before herself, and this is a hard habit to change.
Put off by the snobbishness of her new neighbours, Josephine befriends the concierge Iphigenie, improving her situation as she does.
Early in her new home, Josephine is walking home one evening through the nearby park, only to be attacked by a stranger. Only something she is carrying saves her life, and she grows wary of her new neighbourhood. When a woman she knows is killed, she becomes more fearful. When more murders connected to her new home occur, she begins to eye both her new neighbours and old acquaintances with concern. When she befriends a badly scarred stray dog and names him Du Guesclin, after the Black Dog of Broceliande, one of the greatest warriors of his generation, yet a notoriously ugly man. She takes the dog in, offering love and companionship and enriching her and Zoe's lives.
As we gradually learn the sad story of the deaths, we become aware that what we see of people isn't always the truth, and the secrets people live with are sometimes too much to bear.
The title does have meaning that we only learn toward the end, a bittersweet story of love and cruelty, This book has a bit of fantasy to it as well that adds another layer. A great read.

Wrap-Up Post for Books in Translation Challenge 2016

Books in Translation Challenge 2016

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

This challenge ran for the 2016 calendar year.

There are four levels for this challenge. I went for the highest level, Linguist, which means I needed to read 10-12 books translated into English, and I only read nine. So I didn't complete this successfully (despite having many translated books on my shelves waiting to be read!) They did cover 5 languages though, which isn't bad.

1. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-Mi Hwang. Translated from Korean. Finished March 13
2. Red Lights by Simenon. Translated from French. Finished April 16
3. The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano. Translated from French. Finished September 8
4. A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas. Translated from French. Finished October 10
5. Blitz by David Trueba. Translated from Spanish. Finished November 26
6. Schlump by Hans Herbert Grimm. Translated from German. Finished December 1
7. If Venice Dies by Salvatore Settis. Translated from Italian. Finished December 12
8. Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto. Translated from Spanish. Finished December 15
9. The Slow Waltz of Turtles by Katherine Pancol. Translated from French. Finished December 31

Wrap-Up Post for the Aussie Author Challenge 2016

Aussie Author Challenge 2016

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

This challenge ran for the 2016 calendar year. I did not complete it successfully

There are three challenge levels, and I went for the lowest one, Wallaby, which required me to read 3 books by Australian authors of which at least one is male, at least one is female, and at least one is new to me. I only read two, both female authors.

1. Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Finished June 28. (female and new to me)
2. Tumbledown Manor by Helen Brown. Finished December 24 (female and new to me)

Wrap-Up Post for Eclectic Reading Challenge 2016

I did really badly on this challenge for 2016.

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

It ran for the 2016 calendar year. Books may be in any format. Books can only be used for one category.

There are 12 categories to read in. You have to complete all 12. I only completed three.

1. A book about books (fiction or nonfiction)
     Read This! Finished November 23
2. Serial killer thriller
     Huntress Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff. Finished January 9
3. Paranormal romance
4. A novel set on an island
5. Investigative journalism (nonfiction)
6. Disaster fiction
7. Steampunk scifi
8. Any book shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
9. Psychology (nonfiction)
10. Immigrant Experience fiction
11. YA historical fiction
12. A debut author in 2016
     Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Finished April 30

Wrap-Up Post for Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2016

I didn't quite finish the Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2016. I have started a book beginning with X (The XYZ Factor) and have a couple books starting with V handy, but didn't get to them. It was fun reading though.

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

The idea was to read books that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Disregard first words such as 'a', 'an' and 'the'. For the difficult letters of Q, X, and Z, the word does not have to be the first word of the title.  Books can be read in any order.

Here are my books:
A - The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor. Finished July 24
B - The Bob Watson by Greg Bardsley. Finished August 28
C - Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander. Finished March 20
D - Drink Dirt Eat Stone by Kyle Fleishman. Finished March 6
E - The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton. Finished July 1
F - Front Runner by Felix Francis. Finished January 31
G - The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. Finished January 7
H - Huntress Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff. Finished January 9
I - The In-Between Hour by Barbara Claypole While. Finished January 19
J - The January Dancer by Michael Flynn. Finished April 6
K - A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller. Finished November 24
L - Light Years by Caroline Woodward. Finished January 2
M - Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee. Finished February 13
N - The Northern Queen by Kelly Evans. Finished March 3
O - An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris. Finished October 19
P - Prisoner of Warren by Andreas Oertel. Finished January 31
Q - Quality of Care by Elizabeth Letts. Finished December 17
R - Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble. Finished January 14
S - The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill. Finished January 3
T - Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann. Finished January 11
U - The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan. Finished April 24
V
W - The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly. Read by Jeff Harding. Finished January 25
X
Y - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Finished April 2
Z - Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto. Finished December 15

Wrap-Up Page for Banned Books Challenge 2016

Banned Books Challenge 2016 Wrap-Up

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

The challenge ran for the 2016 calendar year.

There are five levels for this challenge. I went for the second level, Trouble-Maker at 3-5 books, but only read two.

1. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, Finished March 9. Proof of banning.
2. Schlump by Hans Herbert Grimm. Finished December 1. Burned by fascists in Germany and banned during WWII.

What's In a Name Reading Challenge 2017

This is always a fun challenge to do, so I'm signing up for it again for 2017.

Here are the basics.

The challenge runs from January to December 2017.
You need to read books in the following categories, and the host gives examples for each category at the host page.

1. A number in numbers (examples: 84 Charing Cross Road; 12 Years a Slave; 31 Dream Street)
2. A building (examples: The Old Curiosity Shop; I Capture the Castle; House of Shadows; The Invisible Library; Jamaica Inn)
3. A title which has an X somewhere in it (examples: The Girl Next Door; The Running Vixen)
4. A compass direction (examples: North and South; Guardians of the West; The Shadow in the North; NW)
5. An item/items of cutlery (examples: The Subtle Knife; Our Spoons Came from Woolworths)
6. A title in which at least two words share the same first letter -- alliteration! (examples: The Great Gatsby; The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite; Gone Girl; The Cuckoo's Calling)

I'm looking towards my shelves now for possibilities.

Wrap-Up Post for What's in a Name Reading Challenge 2016

What's In a Name Challenge 2016

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page.

It ran for the 2016 calendar year.You had to read a book from each of the categories, and some examples are giving at the hosting page. The category has to be in the title of the book.
I missed one of the categories this year, so didn't complete the challenge.

My books:
1. A country [Did not complete]
2. An item of clothing
     Nine Women, One Dress by Jane L. Rosen. Finished April 10
3. An item of furniture
     Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch. Finished December 14
4. A profession
    The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell. Finished March 12
5. A month of the year
   The January Dancer by Michael Flynn. Finished April 6
6. The word 'tree'
   The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark. Finished April 7

Wrap-Up Post for Literary Loner Reading Challenge 2016

Literary Loner Reading Challenge 2016

This was a new challenge being offered for the first time.

Here is the hosting page for this challenge. Here is my sign-up page for this challenge.

There were two ways to play it: character loners and author loners. I did the character loner version (mostly because I can easily tell if a character is a loner, outcast, recluse, wallflower, or introvert, and I'd have to do research on the authors)

The challenge ran for the 2016 calendar year, and books had to be started after January 1st, so no finishing ones already begun for this. Re-reads were allowed, but I didn't do any. Books could be in all genres, fiction and nonfiction and all formats. Overlaps with other challenges were fine.

You decided your own level for this challenge, so I set mine at 5 books, and I successfully completed the challenge.

My books read:
1. Light Years by Caroline Woodward. Finished January 2 (working as a lighthouse keeper is definitely a job for an introvert)
2. The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. Finished January 7 (several of the characters taking main roles in this book are loners)
3. Huntress Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff. Finished January 9 (both the FBI agent and the woman he is tracking are loners)
4. The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill. Finished January 16 (Simon Serrailler is a man who seldom lets others close to him personally)
5. Drink Dirt Eat Stone by Kyle Fleishman. Finished March 6 (Tristan Stonehorse is a man who walks a lonely path)
6. The Maid's Version by Daneil Woodrell. Finished March 12 (Alma Dunahew has few friends, isolated by her pursue of justice for her sister)
7. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Finished April 2 (Bartle is definitely a loner)
8. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. Finished April 26. (Saul Indian Horse is a loner by circumstances more than choice)
9. Asking For It by Louise O'Neill. Finished May 9. (Emma is a loner despite her public persona)
10. Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Finished June 28. (Micah is a loner, partially because of her lying)
11. Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett. Finished June 30 (The unnamed narrator lives alone)
12. Lauchlin of the Bad Heart by D.R. MacDonald. Finished August 22 (Lauchlin lives a lonely life)
13. Blitz by David Trueba. Finished November 26 (Beto, the main character is definitely a loner)
14. Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto. Finished December 15 (Zama is a man separated from others by his birth and profession)
15. Miss Jane by Brad Watson. Finished December 18 (Jane is a loner due to her circumstances)