Bookshelf


books!
Originally uploaded by kyria!
Do you love books? Check out this page to find out which clubs and challenges (some by others, some self imposed) that I am participating in and to see book reviews for some of the books I have read! Also, you can friend me on Goodreads to see what else I have been reading! 


You may also like my list of some of my favorite reads from 2010 and  2011.

This page is structured like this: 
(3) Blogger Book Clubs
(4) List of Book Reviews
(7) Tips and Tricks 

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(1) Bookmark Break Challenge 2012 
AubrieAnne over at Who's Your Editor is doing a Bookmark Break Challenge 2012 where you list all the books you read this year. I read more books (66) than she did in 2011! If I read more books than she does in 2012, I win a prize! Wish me luck! 

Here are the books I have read so far. I put stars behind the ones I have not or probably will not review (based on 5 star system: 1 - bad, 2 - okay, 3 - good, 4 - very good, 5 - excellent)


January: (6)
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton****
Still Missing - Chevy Stevens****
Secrets of an Old Typewriter - Susie Duncan Sexton**
Hot Ticket - Tracy Marchini ***
Wingtips Under a Bolivian Poncho - Bruce N. Anderson**
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (12 in 2012 Book Challenge #1)****

February:(5)
If You Could See me Now -- Celia Ahern (12 in 2012 Book Challenge #2)**
Sarah's Key - Tatiana De Rosney (#twookclub Feb book)****
Tisha -  Robert Specht****
The Choice - Nicholas Sparks (12 in 2012 Book Challenge #3)**

March: (2)
Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay - Christopher Benfey (review here)
Blame it on Paris - Laura Florand (12 in 2012 Book Challenge #4)

April: (6)
Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer***
The Guy Not Taken - Jennifer Weiner (12 in 2012 Book Challenge #5)**
Train Like a Mother - Dimity McDowell & Sarah Bowen Shea (review here)
Ape House - Sarah Gruen****
The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory****
***

May:
Secret Daughter - Shilpi Somaya Gowda****
The Year of Fog -- Michelle Richmond (May BC book)**
Winter Garden -- Kristin Hannah (Apr BC book)***
Anybody Out There - Marian Keyes**
Saving Ruth - Zoe Fishman (review on it's way)
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

--------- As of May 15, 2012 Total Book Count: 24 --------
What I am reading now:
The Travel Writers Handbook - Jacqueline Butler
Kitchen Chinese - Ann Mah


On Deck:
The Fit Executive - Christopher P. Neck and Kenneth H. Cooper
Forever Paris - Christina Henry de Tessan
Hidden Gardens of Paris - Susan Cahill
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This entails getting rid of books I already have, rather than buying new ones! I challenge myself to read one book a month from my bookshelf, and then give it away (or keep it only if it's really, really great)! I can get the rest of my books from the library, but my challenge is to not BUY any books in 2012!

#1: The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood ****
#2: If You Could See me Now -- Celia Ahern **
#3: The Choice - Nicholas Sparks**
#4: Blame it on Paris - Laura Florand**
#5: The Guy Not Taken - Jennifer Weiner**
#6: The Wedding - Nicholas Sparks

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(3) Blogger Book Clubs

The Many Thoughts of A Reader Blogger Book Club (discussion every other Friday):
November 2011 Group Read: The Postmistress - Sarah Blake****
December 2011 Group Read: The Invisible Bridge - Julie Orringer****
January 2012 Group Read: State of Wonder - Anne Patchett (DNR)
February 2012 Group Read: Rebbecca - Daphne Du Maurier**
March 2012 Group Read: The Violets of March - Sarah Jio (DNR)
April 2012 Group Read: Winter Garden -- Kristin Hannah***
May 2012 Group Read: The Year of Fog -- Michelle Richmond** 
June 2012 Group Read: 


Jan 2012: discussion 01.29.12: The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides (DNR)
Feb 2012: discussion 02.26.12: Sarah's Key  - Tatiana de Rosnay****
Mar 2012: discussion 03.25.12: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - 



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(4) Book Reviews (in order of date read)

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Handle With Care - Jodi Picoult
Julie and Julia - Julie Powell
Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
Tarantula Woman  - Donald O'Donovan (review here)
My Korean Deli - Ben Ryder Howe (review here)
Thalo Blue - Jason McEntyre (review here)
Olga, A Daughter's Tale - Marie Campbell (review here)
Train Like a Mother - Dimity McDowell & Sarah Bowen Shea (review here)
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(5) The Busy Bookworm Challenge

This challenge was actually in 2010. Although I read a lot of books, I did not get around to reading any all of these. So here is the list. I do plan to complete it someday!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins READ 11.11
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford READ 02.12
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger READ 2009
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Leaf by Jo-Ann M. Rodriguez
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon READ 2005
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein READ 11.11

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(6) Classic Reads  I still have a long way to go to complete this list! 

READ: 
Catch-22 1961 by Joseph Heller
Crime and Punishment 1886 by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Don Quixote 1612 by Miguel de Cervantes
Gone with the Wind 1936 by Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath 1939 by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Heart of Darkness 1902 by Joseph Conrad
Jane Eyre 1847 by Charlotte Bronte
Lord of the Flies 1954 by William Golding
The Old Man and the Sea 1952 by Ernest Hemingway
Robinson Crusoe 1719 by Daniel Defoe
The Scarlet Letter 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorn
Their Eyes Were Watching God 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird 1960 by Harper Lee

HAVE BUT NOT READ: 
The Complete Sherlock Holmes 1936 by Arthur Conan Doyle (have)
Moby Dick 1851 by Herman Melville (have)
Pride and Prejudice 1813 by Jane Austen (have)

NOT READ:

All Quiet on the Western Front 1929 by Erich Maria Remarque
Beloved 1987 by Toni Morrison
The Best Short Stories 1945 by O. Henry
Brave New World 1932 by Aldous Huxley
The Call of the Wild 1903 by Jack London
The Catcher in the Rye 1951 by J.D. Salinger
Cry, the Beloved Country 1948 by Alan Paton
Ethan Frome 1911 by Edith Wharton
The Good Earth 1931 by Pearl S. Buck
Invisible Man 1952 by Ralph Ellison
My Antonia 1918 by Willa Cather
Native Son 1940 by Richard Wright
Nineteen Eighty Four 1949 by George Orwell
Of Human Bondage 1915 by W. Somerset Maugham
Of Mice and Men 1937 by John Steinbeck
The Red Badge of Courage 1895 by Stephen Crane
A Separate Peace 1959 by John Knowles
Silas Marner 1861 by George Eliot
The Sound and the Fury 1929 by William Faulkner
The Stranger 1946 by Albert Camus
A Tale of Two Cities 1859 by Charles Dickens
Tales 1952 by Edgar Allan Poe
Tess of the D’Urbervilles 1891 by Thomas Hardy
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe
War and Peace 1889 by Leo Tolstoy
Winesburg, Ohio 1919 by Sherwood Anderson

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(7) Tips and Tricks

Here are a few sites for free books that I have used and have had success with. 
Project Gutenberg - free ebooks (public domain)
Librovox -  free audiobooks (public domain)
Amazon has a bunch of free ebooks for Kindle, which you can download (also for free) onto your computer, iPhone or, obviously, Kindle, if you have one.  
Librarything - similar to Goodreads, but if you promise to review books, publishers will sometimes send them to you for free.
Booksneeze - if you promise to review the book on your blog and Amazon or other site, they will send you one for free. These seem to mainly be Christian reading however.
Dorrance - Publisher who will give you a free book if you review it on your blog, LibraryThing, Amazon and Goodreads. 

Check out this site for more tips that I have not tried yet, but may be useful.















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