End Of The Year Reflections

As the year 2007 ends and a new year of reading begins, I wanted to take a moment to reflect what I was able to accomplish this year.

I was able to maintain this reading blog all year... and had a blast doing so!

I discovered the world of reading challenges!

I found others like myself who love to read and love to share their thoughts about what they have read through their blogs!

I finished 53 books in twelve months! (And they were not all chick-lit books!)

As for my favorite book this year, I can't really say I had a favorite. I read a lot of very different kinds of books this year, so my reward is that I expanded my reading boundaries (comfort zone) farther than I ever have. For that, I am very happy and satisfied with my 2007 reading list!

I completed 6 reading challenges:
2007 TBR Challenge
Banned Books Challenge
Medical Mystery Challenge
Newbery Challenge
2nds Challenge
Christian Genre Challenge

Happy New Year!

And here's to a new year of reading!

The Short Story Reading Challenge

With five options to choose from and twelve months to read ten selections, I couldn't help myself! The Short Story Reading Challenge will be a great opportunity for me to expand my reading choices and to explore a genre I don't typically read on any regular basis. I want to have some fun with this challenge, so I am not going to post a list of short stories to read. I am going to use the challenge to enjoy selections between the many books I will be reading throughout the year and then post the reviews after I have read each story. This challenge should be bring a breath of fresh air to my reading adventures.

Ever After

Their daughter was praying, no doubt. Thanking God, because no matter how hard the journey, they were here. Where they had always belonged. ... The bridge to this place had been built with wisdom and prayer and love and sacrifice. But most of all, it had been built by God. ... The miracle God had given them was greater than either of them had imagined possible. Because they had found something they never really believed they'd find, something only God could've given them. A place to start and stand and build upon. A place to love and laugh and live. Precious, priceless common ground. (p.329)

The second book in the Lost Love Series by Karen Kingsbury, Ever After is a story about love and sacrifice, patriotism and war, and opposing views and common ground. Two stories take place in this book: one, the continuing story of Lauren and Shane and their reunion, troubled when they cannot find common ground in their beliefs toward faith and war; and two, the story of Emily and Justin and their new found love, shattered by a loss due to a soldier's ultimate sacrifice for his country. Karen Kingsbury makes quite a case for our soldiers and for our country's involvement in the current war overseas. However, her views show that she has done her research on the subject. It does drag out the beginning of the book, though, and the storyline takes a while to get underway. The ending is very touching and thought provoking which made the book worth the read.

A guy who would forever believe in himself, in his future, in his reason for being alive. And one day --- no matter how long or sad the good-bye --- they would see him again and know the impact he'd made, the legacy he'd left behind, the lives that had been changed. (p.303)

Ever after's worth waiting for. Don't you think? (p.103)

Faith, wisdom, prayer, love and sacrifice... five powerful themes that Karen Kingsbury continues to write into her inspiring stories. And they are found once again in her book Ever After.

Reading My Name Challenge

Yes, another challenge for 2008 caught my eye and I just could not resist. The Reading My Name Challenge runs 2/1/08 to 5/1/08 and the goal is to read at least two books by an author that shares your name. So after a little investigation at PaperbackSwap and my local library, I created the following list for this challenge:

Breaking The Silence by Diane Chamberlain

Going To Bend by Diane Hammond

Alternates (just in case):

Kiss River by Diane Chamberlain

Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson

I never really considered reading someone who shares my name before, so this will prove to be an interesting twist to my list of books and challenges for the upcoming year!

2007 TBR Challenge --- Completed

The 2007 TBR Challenge was my very first challenge! I am now proud to say that I made it through twelve books in twelve months, books that had been collecting dust on my shelves or have been awaiting my attention because because of recommendations from the past year, to complete this challenge!

My list for the 2007 TBR Challenge (listed in alphabetical order):

1. a lotus grows in the mud by Goldie Hawn
2. Atonement by Ian McEwan
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
4. Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran
6. Lessons For Living by John Paul II
7. The Loop by Nicholas Evans
8. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
9. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (did not read)
10. Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir
11. Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steele
12. Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

I did not read my #9 selection due to time constraints and non-interest at the moment. (I had just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and did not wish to read another similar-themed book in the same month.) Instead I read a selection from my alternate list:

Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts

I can not say I have just one favorite book because all of the selections were outstanding in their own rights. But I can say that my top three picks as favorites would be: Atonement, Esperanza Rising, and Stolen Lives. My least favorite book would be On The Road.

This was a great challenge! I truly enjoyed reading for it, however I will not be participating in the 2008 TBR Challenge due to my addiction to book challenges which has me participating in several others in the upcoming new year.

Blue Smoke

"It's all around. The fire. The heat, the smoke, the light. It talks. You can hear it mutter, sing, roar. It has speech. It fascinates me. It pulls at me. It always has, since the night I stood on the sidewalk with a glass of ginger ale and watched it dance behind the glass at Sirico's. I understand his...attachment to it. ... I understand why he chooses it, or it chooses him. I can see the steps that brought us here, all of us. ... I can see what he's doing, why. More, why he has to do it. The fire fascinates him, too." (p.428)

In true Nora Roberts form, Blue Smoke is a page turner that includes love, family, and mystery. Catarina Hale, better known as Reena, becomes a member of the city arson unit's task force after a past experience with fire and a lot of hard work and study to reach this goal. Along the way, mysterious fires that seemed unconnected start making a pattern that leads to only one explanation: revenge toward Reena. Can she figure out the who, how, and why of these fires before they further affect those whom she loves?

Add to the mix her large Italian family that is tightly knit together, a love at first sight encounter that takes a few years to find, and the mystery of the fires, you now have a great story. The fire scenes are not overly graphic, but one revenge scene towards the end is a bit unsettling. Although I quickly figured out the "who done it" part, the guilty character stays one step ahead of Reena to add to the suspense of the ending.

I am a big fan of Nora Roberts and reading Blue Smoke confirms the many reasons why. I have read several of her novels and trilogies and plan to continue enjoying her books in the future.

The Romance Reading Challenge

Officially a reading challenge junkie, I have decided to add one additional challenge to my list of 2008 challenges... at least for now. The Romance Reading Challenge has been wooing me for awhile now, probably due to my romantic nature and my desire to escape into a good romance novel now and then.

So in the spirit of love, here's my list of romantic escapes:

Five Romance Books to read from January 2008 to December 2008:

Cloud Nine by Luanne Rice
Dual Images by Nora Roberts
Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Moment To Moment by Barbara Delinsky
Texas Neighbors by Debra White Smith

Three Romance Books to act as alternates (ok, just extra reads):

The Rocky Road to Romance by Janet Evanovich
The Secret Hour by Luanne Rice
Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella

Ahhhh, love is in the air!

Catalog

Booking Through Thursday for 12/13/07

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about?? (grin)) If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

I discovered Library Thing through members of my online reading groups and challenges earlier this year, but I never utilized its services. As for cataloguing my books online, I do not use any site to catalog my books. The closest thing I have to this idea is my list of posted books at PaperbackSwap. But those are the books I've read or have been given to pass along to other readers.

So, what method do I use? Hehehehe... the bookshelf method of course! The books aren't catalogued physically on paper or computer, they are just organized for me to find them.

My bed has a headboard that includes small bookshelves. On one side I have my current read and next TBR book. On the other side I have the beginnings of two series (JD Robb and Patricia Cornwell), multiple books of any particular author (primarily Luanne Rice, Nora Roberts, & Danielle Steel right now), and a few other odds and ends that found their way to that shelf. As for the actual bookshelf in the bedroom, I have the books organized into sections: books for challenges, books saved for other people, books together by series (if I have any at the time), and books given to me to read in the future. And finally, there is the shelf that includes the books I have received from Amazon or PaperbackSwap over the past few months.

How's that for organization?!?!?!

As for the books I've read, well... they get passed on to other readers after I've read them (part of the above organization). Also this past year I began this blog to review the books I've read for both challenges and pleasure. I guess this is the closest I will come to cataloguing books I've read.

A Thousand Spendid Suns

"I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on. Laila thinks of her own life and all that has happened to her, and she is astonished that she too has survived, that she is alive and sitting in this taxi listening to this man's story. (p.350)

I have been anxiously waiting to read this book since the day I heard it was out. I read The Kite Runner three years ago and loved it. And I have read nothing but good reviews for Khaled Hosseini's newest release A Thousand Splendid Suns. Finally I had a chance to read it and I believe this book is worth every word of praise that it has received!

A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of two women, Mariam and Laila, and their experiences with family, marriage, society and life during very unstable times. The story takes place in Afghanistan and chronicles its political unrest over three decades. The women come from very different backgrounds but eventually find one another for strength, courage, protection, and friendship. Their story will tug on your heartstrings in ways that you can't imagine, and Mariam and Laila's lives will leave a imprint on you after you have finished reading the book.

Seldom do I find an author that writes with such quality and with such emotion as I have with Khaled Hosseini. Not an emotionally easy read, A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of the best books I have read all year.

Christian Genre Challenge --- Completed

This challenge was a wonderful chance to read not only Christian-based books but also to explore the different genres within Christian writing. Over the past five months I have read five excellent books:

Transparent by Sarah Zacharias Davis

Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Lessons For Living by John Paul II

Even Now by Karen Kingsbury

The Case Of The Autumn Rose by Rick Acker

I think my favorite was Transparent, but all five were winners in my opinion. I really enjoyed reading from the different genres. I have been a past reader of Christian fiction, especially women's fiction, but there's more out there to be read.....which was the whole purpose of this great challenge!

The Case Of The Autumn Rose

Madame Dragonfly sighed. "It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," she said. "It's a black pearl as big as your fist." She balled her right hand into a fist and held it up. Kirstin made a fist too, and noticed that hers was actually bigger than Madame Dragonfly's. "It's perfectly round without the slightest flaw," she continued. "It's completely black when you look at it indoors, but if you look at it in the sun, it has a sheen, an iridescence, like the hint of a rainbow. And if you hold it in front of the sun, you see a most beautiful glow of gold and pink and red all around its edge. A poet who saw it centuries ago said that it is like light from heaven let in through a crack in the world. (pp.121-122)

Part of the Davis Detective Mysteries, The Case Of The Autumn Rose by Rick Acker is the story of two teenage detectives who assist a young Asian woman in finding the treasure that her father promised her before he disappeared from her life. Arthur and Kirstin Davis receive a mysterious phone call one day from a young business woman who requested some simple information in exchange for a large fee for their services. But the simple information turns out to be much more complicated and life threatening than both teens anticipated. The information leads them on a search for a stolen pearl that also has the interest of a "jeans-and-T-shirt gang" from Vietnam.

"It's beautiful!" she gasped. "It's like... like...," she struggled for words to describe it, "like a halo or... like a sunrise in heaven."
"That's how it got its name," said Mr. LeGrand. ... "He (the priest) meant that the deep black of the pearl symbolized death and the beautiful light symbolized life after death. He named it Autumn Rose," (p.158)

Full of drama and action, pre-teens are sure to love this exciting mystery. It has a little of everything to interest both boys and girls. And it is Christian-based so parents need not worry about language or inappropriate actions. The mystery unwinds throughout the whole story and the message that unfolds is meaningful to all ages. It was a quick read for me and I loved it from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend The Case Of The Autumn Rose by Rick Acker to pre-teen readers who enjoy a good mystery!