Another challenge finished

I finished my "What's In a Name Challenge" today. This was a fun challenge. I particularly had to think to find something that I wanted to read, and hadn't read already, with a creepy crawly in the title. Even though I've finished this challenge, I'm going to keep listing the books that I read by the corresponding categories, just because it's fun.

Of the books that I read for this challenge The Poisonwood Bible was my favorite. I'm glad I needed to read a creepy crawly title, because I had not read any George R.R. Martin before this and I am looking forward now, even more, to reading A Game of Thrones.

1. A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title: Beach Music by Pat Conroy (3/22/2012) A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova (5/27/2012)
2. A book with something you'd see in the sky in the title:  The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (3/13/2012)
3. A book with a creepy crawly in the title:  In the House of the Worm by George R.R. Martin (6/12/2012)
4. A book with a type of house in the title: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (6/1/2012)
5. A book with something you'd carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1/8/2012), Gun Games by Faye Kellerman (1/14/2012), The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak (2/21/2012), The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (4/8/202, Old Possums Book of Practical Cats (4/23/2012)
6. A book with a something you'd find on a calendar in the title: Proposed:  April Lady by Georgette Heyer (2/23/2012), A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle (2/25/2012)

End of May round-up

May wasn't a particularly eventful reading month. I didn't finish any challenges, but I did make a bit of progress. I did add a new five year non-fiction challenge, for which I have already read a couple of books. As of May 31, I had finished 51 books. I read five non-fiction books in May; three of those were memoirs. I also had my first book discussion with my new group. Fun!

43. Needful Things by Stephen King (5/1/2012) (Library) (Eclectic)
44. Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster (5/4/2012) (Memoir)(Nonfiction)
45. Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson (5/4/2012) (Romance) (Library)
46. No Matter What . . .They'll Call This Book Racist by Harry Stein (5/10/2012) (Nonfiction)
47. Dorchester Terrace by Anne Perry (5/13/2012)(Mystery) (Library)
48. Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester (5/15/2012) (Non-fiction) (Library)
49. Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer (5/22/2012) (Historical Romance) (Ebook)
50. Boob Hell by Rebekah Curtis (5/24/2012) (Non-fiction) (Ebook) (Memoir)
51. A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova (5/27/2012) (Memoir) (Non-fiction)

Review: Georgette Heyer's Regency World

Reading Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester makes me want to go back and read every Georgette Heyer book that I've already read and pay closer attention, maybe make an effort to pick out the real people. And though I have figured out much of the slang and many of the societal references after reading a number of Heyer's novels, I plan to order a copy of this to have on hand. This is an enjoyable light history and a fun reference work for history buffs and Heyer fans alike.

Now to go download an as-yet-unread Heyer onto my Kindle to read tonight.

(And if you've never read Georgette Heyer, you are missing out!)

Review: Jeneration X

I have been waiting months for Jen Lancaster's latest memoir, Jeneration X,  to come out. From the moment I discovered Bitter is the New Black, I was hooked. Jen's books have made me laugh out loud. They've made tears run down my cheeks.

Until this one. It was funny, but I never laughed out loud once. I still love Jen, but I think that maybe I'm having a harder time identifying with--and being amused by--her exploits now that we're both in our mid-40s, than I did when I was a 40 year old reading about her adventures in her twenties. Maybe it's harder to be really funny about a cushy life in an up-scale Chicago suburb than about the stuff she was dealing with before. Some of her stories seem to be retreads. Or maybe it's just me.

I'll still buy her next one, hoping to find the laughs again, but this one was a disappointment.

As of May 1

I am finished with the Eclectic Reader Challenge. I had a good month of reading this month. I finished the Mystery & Suspense Challenge as of the 27th. I am at 10 of 11-20 in the TBR Challenge, plus I'm reading some books that I've long intended to read! I have technically completed the Memoir Challenge with five of five to nine, but I'm going for nine. I've got one to three left for the Foodies and have also finished the Dystopia Challenge as of 4/4. I need one more for the European and two more for What's in a Name. I have also made progress on my Gaps list and have finished 28 of the 100 books that I  need to finish by December 2015.

Last month's reading, with the first book of may tacked on.

32. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (4/3/2012) (Gaps) (Library)
33. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (4/4/2012) (Library) (Dystopia)
34. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (4/8/202) ( Fantasy)
35. Kill Shot by Vince Flynn  (4/10/2012) (Eclectic) (Library)
36. Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen (4/12/2012) (Mystery) (Library)
37. The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler (4/13/2012) (Library)
38. The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin (4/20/2012) (Library)
   ***Abandoned uncompleted: The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski (4/22/2012)
39. The Death of Riley by Rhys Bowen (4/23/2012) (Mystery)( Library)
40. Old Possums Book of Practical Cats (4/23/2012) (Library) (Gaps)
41. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (4/24/2012) (Gaps) (TBR)
42. Fall from Grace by Richard North Patterson (4/27/2012) (Library) (Mystery)
43. Needful Things by Stephen King (5/1/2012) (Library) (Eclectic)

Another long-term challenge

I saw this non-fiction challenge tonight and it appealed to me. It will take me a few days to completely assemble my list, but here is the beginning. I may make some adjustments. This is a list of at least 50 non-fiction books that I want to read in the next five years. I'm using the NF from my Filling in the Gaps list and the NF from my TBR pile to start with. My starting date is April 23, 2012, to be completed April 23, 2017.

1. Zion on the Mississippi by Walter Forster
2. Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie
3. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
4. The President and the Assassin:Terror and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller
5. Handling the Word of Truth by John Pless
6. Catherine the Great by Robert Massie
7. The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris
8. Churchill by Paul Johnson
9. The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar
10. The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
11. Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer
12. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
13. A Life Worth Living by John Holt
14. Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536 by Reston
15. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
16. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
17. The Guns of August by Barabara Tuchman
18. The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
19. The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales
20. The Histories by Herodotus
21. The New Vichy Syndrome by Theodore Dalrymple
22. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
23. Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer
24. The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
25. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
26. Decision Points by George W. Bush
27. Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove
28. Known and Unknown by Donald Rumsfeld      
29. The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World by John O'Sullivan
30. Statecraft by Margaret Thatcher     
31. Wodehouse: A life
32. John Adams by David McCollough
33. Thunderstruck by Eric Larson
34. In the Garden of Beasts by Eric Larson
35. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
36. 1491 by Charles C. Mann
37. A Mountain of Crumbs  
38. They Came in Ships
39. Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough
40.  Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
41. City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era by Michael Gerson
42. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin
43. Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Shell 
44. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 
45. Remaking the Heartland: Middle America Since the 1950s by Robert Wuthnow
46. Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster (5/4/2012)
47. My Love Affair With England: A Traveler's Memoir by Susan Toth
48. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1/20/2013)
49.  Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl (4/7/2014)
50. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
51. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
52.  The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
53.  Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder (12/5/2014)
54. West from Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder
55. 1453 by Roger Crowley
56. Finding Your German Ancestors by Kevan Hansen 
57. Brunellesci's Dome by Ross King (1/9/2015)
58. The New Testament in His Blood by Burnell F. Eckardt, Jr. 
59. Women Pastors Edited by Matthew Harrison & John Pless
60. Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester (5/15/2012)

Third month down, the year's 1/4 over

March was a slow month, but I'm doing pretty well on my challenges.  The Moonstone really slowed me down. Beach Music was another slower read, as was All the King's Men, which I finished in April. I didn't love The Moonstone. I enjoyed Beach Music, but I was ready for it to be over before it was. Based purely on enjoyment, Delirium, a young adult dystopian novel, was my favorite that I read this month.


26. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (3/13/2012) (Name) (Mystery) (Gaps) (TBR) (Ebook)
27. Wheat Belly by William Davis, M.D. (3/16/2012) (Nonfiction) (Library)
28. Beach Music by Pat Conroy (3/22/2012) (Library) (Name) (Gaps) (TBR)
29. Victims by Jonathan Kellerman (3/23/2012) (Library) (Mystery)
30. Delirium by Lauren Oliver  (3/25/2012) (Library) (Dystopia) (Eclectic)
31. I'm Not Leaving by Carl Wilkens (3/25/2012) ( Memoir) (Library)