October in Review

So, October was my least productive reading month of the year. In the end, I only read 12 books. It was just a busy month and I never seemed to be able to find the time to read! Hopefully November and December are a bit better.

I started off the month with my favourite read of the month, The Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden. It was a really good book, one of my favourite of the year. If you get a chance to read it, you should.

Then I moved on to China Mieville's new book, Un Lun Dun. It came out earlier this year. I have not reviewed it yet, but I did think it was a cute book. He also illustrated it, so it had fun pictures.

I read three Giller-nominated books. Two that made the short list: Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay and A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin. Then, I read Soucouyant by David Chariandy. This book made the long-list of the Giller, but it is also in the short-list for the Governor General's Award. It was a good book, but I really think there were other books that should have made the short list. If A Secret Between Us won the Giller, I would be happier about that than if Late Nights on Air did. If Soucouyant wins, I will be left wondering why. It is a good book, but not great.

The rest of the books I read are:

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. I have had this book for a while, but I was never fond of In the Skin of a Lion, so I kept putting the reading of anymore books by him off. Then, I read Diversidero because it is nominated for a Giller, and I found that I liked him after all.

Swing Low: A Life by Miriam Toews. I bought this after reading A Complicated Kindness, but just did not get to it before now. It is a book about what life must have been like for her elderly father who was forgetting and suffering from manic depression. It was a very interesting read.

I read a biography of Shakespeare, which I have never done before. It was Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson. I had also never read Bill Bryson before, but had always meant to. It was very interesting. Most of I had heard before because we really do not know very much about Shakespeare, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.

Christmas came early in book form. I read Christine Kringle by Lynn Brittany. It was a very enjoyable and cute book! I will be reviewing it soon, and as soon as I have the time to do so, I will be interviewing the author on my blog.

I am clearing out my Shannon Hale to-be-read pile. I only have River Secrets left because I read Princess Academy this month. I think if I read River Secrets by the end of the year I will have read all of Shannon Hale's young adult books in one year.

I read one of the Canada Reads nominees that I had been trying to read this year: Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis. It was good, about an immigrant family living in Canada. I also read Set the Seas on Fire, which is a science fiction novel set during the Napoleonic Wars. It was a good read.

The best thing about only reading 12 books is that I liked them all, there are none that I could say were really bad.

September in Review

September has come and gone, and now on this early October morning, I have to share my reading experiences. Well, I do not have to, I want to. The biggest problem with this being October is I am very very far behind on my reviews, I still have books from August to review. I will hopefully begin working on this starting later today. So, on to September. I read 18 books this month. Some were really good, while others were really bad. My favourite read for the month is hard to choose. So, my top five (in no particular order) were:

Mister Pip
Peony in Love by Lisa See
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda
Golden Fool by Robin Hobb

The break-down. I read four sci-fi/fantasy books:
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (for the Cardathon)
Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green (for the R.I.P Challenge)
Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green (for the R.I.P. Challenge)
Golden Fool by Robin Hobb (Counts for the Cardathon Challenge)

I read some non-fiction, which I seem to be doing very well at lately. I read:
Why We Read What We Read (Which actually greatly disappointed me)
Baptism of Fire (Really interesting)
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda
Be the Pack Leader by Cesar Millan
Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan
The Staircase Letters
The Dangerous Book for Dogs (A parody, but does have truthful information)

I read two of the books short-listed for the Booker:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (If this book wins, I am never following the Bookers again)
Mister Pip (I hope this book wins. It's my favourite of the three I have read, and the only reason I have not read the other three is because one just became available, one takes several weeks to ship, and one is not available. So, I read what I could easily read.)

I read a few Canadian books:
Baptism of Fire
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (for my Giller-a-thon)
October by Richard Wright (for my Giller-a-thon)
The Staircase Letters

(More Giller-a-thon in October, I got a bit side-tracked!)

The other books I read were:
Mademoiselle Victorine (Horrible book)
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (started off slow but was really good by the end)
Peony in Love by Lisa See (Great historical fiction book)

Challenge Break-down:
2 Giller-a-thon books (Diversadero and October)
3 R.I.P. Books (I hope to read more in October. I just was not in the right mood for this genre last month).
2 Cardathon Books (Ender's Game and Golden Fool)
3 Four-Legged Friends Books (Cesar's Way, Be a Pack Leader, and The Dangerous Book for Dogs)

My least favourite reads of the month...
Mademoiselle Victorine
Why we Read What we Read
The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Biggest disappointment of the month?
October by Richard Wright. (Do not get me wrong, I really liked that book, but I have been reading him for years, I always get excited about his new books, but I cannot seem to get into them. I keep expecting a book that is better than his Giller and Governor General winning book, and I have not seen it yet. But, until I do, I will keep reading!)

I will review the books that I have not reviewed already sometime soon!

This month was interesting. I seem to have bailed on the R.I.P. challenge. The thought of some of those books just did not work for me last month. I hope to read a few more this month, but not sure how that will work out.

The biggest thing in September was losing Sandy. I am still having some issues with that. Things are getting better, but when I wake up in the morning I still have moments where I expect her to be there. Then I wake up fully, and I am sad. Sometimes that will happen through the day, I will have moments where I hear things and think 'that's just Sandy doing something' and then it will register with me that she is not making that noise. It has been hard. I also lost two cats, too, and I have similar moments with that. I come home at night and there is no cat to let in, I don't use the top of the dryer because that is where their food dish used to be (habit), etc. I am still not used to having such a quiet house.

So, it would not be fair to review the month without the final good byes.

Snowball
14 Years Old
February 1993-September 2007

Sam
15 Years Old
May 1992-September 2007

Sandy ('Rascal')
12 Years Old
August 1995-September 2007
(Also included in above picture are 'Baby' Atra and 'Baby' Miko)

September was a horrible month. I have had all three of those animals since they were really little, and I was not that old either. I picked them out, named them (well, I called Sandy 'Rascal', but my father named her), and cared for them for years. Thanks to everyone for all your well-wishes! At least I have my challenge going on!

August in Review

So, in August I read 18 books. I am behind in reviews, though, so I have not reviewed 18 books. This brings me up to 142 books for year, which is not a bad number at all!

This was sort of Star Trek month. I read a lot of books from that series. I used to read the books all the time about ten years ago. I am not even sure what inspired me to pick the series back up, but I did. My first voyage back into Star Trek was a Next Generation book, The Battle of Betazed. It was a very nice return to a series I have always had a fond spot for. Then, I read A Time to Born which is the first book in a Next Generation mini-series that I have always wanted to read. I read a novelization of the very last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, All Good Things... I have always had a fond spot for this episode, so I am happy to finally read the book. I also started a Star Trek series that I had never read before, The New Frontier series.

In August I read the first four books in the series, and I really enjoyed them: House of Cards, Into the Void, The Two-Front War, and End Game. I read a book in Star Trek: The Next Generation that goes after the last movie, Nemesis, called Death in Winter. It tied up some loose ends left over from that movie. I also checked in with the Voyager crew to read two books that happen after they get back from the Delta Quadrant: Home-Coming and The Father Shore. And, lastly, I read a collection of related stories that take place in the time of Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was called Mirror Universe: Glass Empires. It has a sequel about the other three series (including Star Trek: New Frontier) that I look forward to reading.

Other than that, I read these books:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (cannot wait to read Peony in Love)
The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (a reread)
Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls by Danielle Wood (not a big fan of this book, not reviewed)
Suth's Story by Peter Dickinson (not a fan of this either, review forth-coming)


So, the Star Trek books were fun and enjoyable reads. My favourite read of the month is probably Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. I always enjoy C.S. Lewis, and the Daniel Tammet book was interesting. Everything else was just okay or really bad. If I did not read Star Trek this month it would have been a mostly mediocre month.

July in Review

July was a very slow month reading-wise. I just had a very hard time finding time to read lately.

The Complete List:
Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman
Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
Swordbird
Moonrise by Erin Hunter
The History of the Hobbit: Mr. Baggins
The Huntress by Susan Carroll
Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe
The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong

For such a small pile, for me anyways, I read some really good books. Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind was really good. I cannot wait to get around to the next book in the series. The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey was a very interesting retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The History of the Hobbit: Mr. Baggins was really really worthwhile. I cannot wait to read the sequel. The Huntress was a book I had been waiting for for a while, and I was really happy with it. The Kitchen Boy was a very interesting book about the last Czar and his family and The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor was a very good Canadian history book.

Then, there were the rest of the books. Some of them were okay, like Dragons of the Winter Night, but some of them were really bad, like Luck in the Shadows.

Today in the Life of Me

So, today is Monday, July 2nd, and I am going to try and update my blog more starting today. We will see how that works out.

Anyways, today was an interesting day! I went to a baby shower. One of my friends is due to have her baby on July 22nd, and this was actually her second baby shower and I was invited to both of them! The first shower I bought her usesful stuff: baby shampoo, soap, towels, etc and put it in a basket. (Compared to everyone else, I bought her a lot.) Then today came, and I decided to go to this one as well because she lives in New Brunswick now and I hardly see her.

This showers present was a baby blanket that my mother made in Harry Potter colours (red and gold). She did not take a picture, though, so I do not have one to share. She is making another one, but in different colours, so I will take a picture of that so that people can have a general idea. Why Harry Potter colours? Because the baby is due on the 22nd, the day after the new book comes out. She LOVES Harry Potter, so it seemed a fitting combination. Even though I do not think the father of the baby appreciates Harry Potter very much.

The shower was sad in a way, but I have felt this at other ways too. We are drifting apart. She is getting married in August, and I strongly feel I will go to the wedding and we will go our separate ways. Geography started it, but then she got back with her ex-boyfriend last summer, got engaged to him a month later, and somewhere in October became pregnant. She only has a small guest list for the wedding, and I am going, but I wondered one of the times we were talking about it if she really wanted to. It might be because so much changed in such a short time, but anyways.

I have to say, I could not imagine having a baby, well, ever, but least of all right now. I know people do it, and I applaud you for it, but there are so many things that I want to do before I settle down. I think the 50's are the new 30's because women are doing all the things later in life that they did not get to do when they were younger because they were wives and mothers. I am not ready for that chapter in my life. And, I would rather not hear "you will change your mind." I hear that enough in person, and I honestly do not understand why people are so against the idea of me not wanting children, but they are!

Kind of reminds me about talking to people about my degree. Everyone just assumes I am going to be a teacher, and they look at me like I have six heads when I say that I am not really sure I want to be a teacher. I know lots of people that are going into education next year, but it never really interested me. Mind you, I have no idea what I want to do next, but I find that people are pestering me a great deal to find out. I think that if you do not know, people can be a lot more benefical if they did not pester and suggest constantly. That's just me!

In other news, I am reading my beloved fantasy again. I found I did not read enough last month and I missed it. I am also trying to catch up on reviews, posting both on here and Twisted Kingdom. I posted a review of Roger Zelazny's The Guns of Avalon on Twisted Kingdom today. A great series, and good timing too because it is BAFAB week again. I a,m not sure if I am going to buy a book this time around or not, I have considered it. If I do it will be mid week before I announce it. Last time I gave away The Birth House to a lucky reader. Anyways, this week I am looking forward to receiving some new Gaiman books. Canada Day is a great holiday, but it made me have to wait for my mail! Also, we just got Sunday Shopping, so this was the first year that everything was open on Canada Day. It was weird! Some things were closed today (government things, and some of the smaller businesses), but a lot of things were open today as well. So, I went to the bookstore... and came out EMPTY-HANDED! Go me!

One thing I find myself contemplating at this point in my life is what the hell I am going to do with all my books when I figure out what I want to do and have to move! I get rid of the books I do not like, but I still have a lot of books... In other news, Barnes and Noble FINALLY has a decent book description for the new Susan Carroll book coming out in July:

Fun, intricately plotted and with lots of derring-do, Carroll's latest should be popular with fans of historical romance. With a temper to match her fiery hair, Catriona O'Hanlon leaves her liege, Ariane, the Lady of the Fair Isle, to locate a sorceress's daughter and bring her to the Faire Isle, where she can be protected from the Dark Queen and the coven of the Silver Rose. The girl's father, Martin Le Loup, is living incognito with his daughter in London as dapper Englishman Martin Wolfe. Martin's an agent for Queen Elizabeth's spymaster and is conflicted about his job to ferret out Catholic threats to her majesty. As Cat and Martin spar with and fall for one another, danger lurks in the forms of the coven and the Medici. Carroll strikes a balance between froth and craftsmanship.

How exciting! I roughly counted... and of the 110 books I have read as of June 30, 2007... 48 of them I owned prior to 2007. The rest I bought, received from publishers and authors, or got with credit at the second hand store in 2007. There are also books that I read for classes. I am actually impressed. I wish it was a bit higher, but it is about half. Credit at the second hand store has killed me this year as to amount of books coming in... I take books out of my house, and bring more in with the credit. Less than what I take out, but I have had about 2-300 dollars worth of credit over the last six months....

Happy Canada Day, June in Review

Just wanted to take this time to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA! Hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday weekend. For those that are curious, Canada is 140 today.

Another month draws to an end. June was actually a rather good reading month quantity wise, but unfortunately there were a few books this month that I was not very fond of.

My first read of the month was Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. I really liked this book, and I think it was one of my favourite reads of the year so far, so I decided to read City of Shadows by her, and I have to say, I really did not like that book at all! (Review forth-coming). I am hopeful that when the sequel to Mistress of the Art of Death comes out next year it will be comparable to the book that comes before it and not City of Shadows.

I read a few young adult books this month. Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda was a very cute book, and I would like to read more from this author. Midnight by Erin Hunter, which I read for the What Would Harry Read blog, was an enjoyable book told from the perspective of a cat. I have the next book in the series coming to me soon, so I look forward to checking in with my cats. Enna Burning disappointed me. It was not anywhere near as good as the book that came before it, The Goose Girl. I have the third book here to read, River Secrets, and I am hopeful that it will be back on track! The Dead Girls' Dance (review forth-coming on Twisted Kingdom) was another enjoyable read in Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series. I also read Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. This book, review forth-coming, has been on my wish list forever and I was very disappointed by it.

The rest of the books that I read and was disappointed by are Dawn by Elie Wiesel (review forth-coming). The book was not terrible, but it was nothing like Night. I think because it was a trilogy I thought there was something different to expect. I had high hopes for Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland, but the main character spent most of the book annoying me. The Ladies Lending Library (review forth-coming) would be an excellent beach read, I can see it being very popular for that sort of thing this summer, but it did not appeal to me. I liked the introduction, had very high hopes for it, but it did not really work for me. I also did not like On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. That is not a big thing for me, though, he is either an author that I love (Atonement) or I do not really like at all (Amsterdam).

So, people are probably wondering, besides Mistress of the Art of Death and the few young adult books that were all right, did I like anything that I read this month? I did. For all the books that let me down, there were others that gave me hope. Middlesex was a very amazing novel that I think everyone should take the time to read. You should also read The Virgin Suicides by him, that was an amazing book as well. P.S., I Love You was a surprisingly fun read (yet depressing) read. It is not my normal sort of read, but I think that Cecelia Ahern is a good read when you need something light. I actually might see the movie, and I am not big on chick flicks.

Madame Zee by Pearl Luke was an awesome impulse buy. I had never heard of it before, but I saw it at Costco and took a chance on it. Luke does Canadian authors proud! Couldn't Keep it to Myself was a brilliant collection of stories about what it is like to be a woman in the justice system. While it may not represent every woman in jail today, it really opened my eyes. Another good book was Blood of Flowers. It was not my normal historical fiction read, and it was nice to get out of my comfort zone. I am looking forward to another book by her.

For good fantasy this month, I read Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason and Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (review forth-coming). Both of them are great authors that I have read before and I know I can count on for good reading. I also read two books by James Rollins this month, which I think people know is one of my favourite authors. He might not be "real literature", but he writes an entertaining story. Deep Fathom and Black Order were both wonderful books from him.

June also saw the death and controversy over the death of wrestler Chris Benoit. I am still baffled by the whole thing because even if I am not a big wrestling fan, I know lots of people that are, so I am actually paying attention to the news to see what they learn. In other non-book news, there were lots of floods in the US and England, so I hope everyone made it out of those instances safe and sound!

In book news, June saw the end of the Once Upon a Time Challenge, my favourite kind of challenge because it was fun, and the Chunkster Challenge, a challenge that showed me that I read more book over 400 pages than I thought. I already posted my concluding thoughts on the Once Upon a Time Challenge, and I finished up the Chunkster Challenge a while ago.

May in Review

I read 19 books in May, which was very impressive considering I went on a trip and graduated from university this month. At the beginning of the month, May was looking like my worst reading month ever, but I am glad that it turned out to be a good reading month after all.

First up, I don't like my reviewing method for books, so you will likely see a change in my review style when I write my next review. I have a very hard time putting a rating to a book, so I think I might just skip them all together. I am one of those people that hated being graded in school and thought that your future should not be decided by a bunch of numbers. It is the same with authors. I will talk about their books, give a indication of my feelings on them and what did and did not work for me, but no more numbers.

My first read for May, which I did not decide to review was Over the Falls. This was a touristy book that I picked up in Ontario in the hopes that it would answer some of my questions about the Falls. Instead I seem to now know a fair amount about the Daredevils of the Falls, and still have questions. I have since picked up Niagara by Pierre Berton in the hopes that it will off aid.

The book I counted for the Back to History Challenge was The Invasion of Canada by Pierre Berton. It also counted as my O'Canada Read because it is a book about the history of the War of 1812 which occurred on Canadian soil.

Fantasy books that I read this month:
The Briar King by Greg Keyes. Book one in a recent trilogy.
Clockwork by Philip Pullman. I had to buy this for school one year, but then we never read it, so I did just to get it moved off the TBR pile. Review to come sometime.
Magician:Apprentice by Raymond Feist. Book one in the Riftwar Saga, Feist may be one of my new fantasy favourites. Have to see what happens when I read another book by him.
The Dream-Maker's Magic by Sharon Shinn. I FINALLY finished this young adult trilogy by Sharon Shinn. I think this book was probably my favourite, but I enjoyed the whole trilogy.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddon. Another new trilogy, no wonder my list of series/trilogies is so long, I started a bunch this month alone! Book two will be out in October.
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny. Yes, another series, but it seems to be my curse. I won this back during Buy a Friend a Book week, so I could not resist picking it up. I also read book two in this series at the very last minute.

Non-fiction Reads for the month:
I did not join the Non-fiction Five challenge, but I seem to be reading a lot more non-fiction than I have in previous years. This month, the non-fiction books that I read are:
The Invasion of Canada by Pierre Berton, which I have reviewed.
28 Stories of AIDs in Africa by Stephaine Nolen, which I have reviewed.
Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller. I read this book because the author received an honourary doctrate at my graduation.
Always Fresh. The story of the man behind Tim Hortons, which is seriously a Canadian icon. It was a very interesting look at the coffee shop that people visit daily.
Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home. I think EVERYONE should have this book. I learned a lot of things that I did not know, and about something that people use daily.

I read two Newbery Award winning books in the spirit of the challenge circulating around the blogosphere:
Caddie Woodlawn and Sounder. Both have been on the reading pile for a very long time.

I also read Witch Child by Celia Rees, All in Together Girls by Kate Sutherland, Loyalty in Death by J.D. Robb, and A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly.

The best read, for me, of this month was 28:Stories of AIDs in Africa. My least favourite read was actually Sounder. I know it won a big award, but I just did not like it. Other than that, I really liked everything I read this month.

April in Review

So, I am back from my trip and I am trying to get everything organized. The first thing I did was finish off some of my challenges. I was thinking of them as reading one book each month for each challenge, but it sort of limited my ability to go in any other challenges because I already had so many things to read. That meant that I finished off all of them except for the O'Canada Challenge and the Back to History Challenge. I had been reading books that fit the criteria for the challenges, so it is nice to have them finished off and be able to start some other books and challenges.

Reads in April:

For the Back to History Challenge, I read I Was Amelia Earhart. It had been on the reading pile for a while, so it was nice to finally read it.

Then, I read Coraline by Neil Gaiman for the Once Upon a Time Challenge. I have decided to continue to include any fantasy books I read in that challenge until its completion, even if I am done.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret was an impulse buy and read which I really enjoyed was a very nice change from the "regular" reading.

Helpless by Barbara Gowdy and The Extra Large Medium were both for the Spring Reading Challenge which I have completed.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, Flight of the Nighthawks by Raymond Feist, and Glass Houses by Rachel Caine are all for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Then, there were the school books:
The Great Influenza
Cultural Anthropology
Classic Readings in Cultural Anthropology
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind
The Victorian Era

Tempting Darkness was a book by Rene Lyons that I received from the author, and I look forward to reading the other two books by. The second book in her series comes out in print this month, actually, so be sure and check that out.

The Measure of a Man by Sydney Poitier was my non-fiction read for this month. It was a very interesting read.

I read three Kelley Armstrong's books in April: Bitten, Stolen, and Dime Store Magic.

So, for April I read 19 books. Hopefully now that classes are done I can read for fun and in larger quantity. Any books that have not been reviewed yet are forth-coming.

My favourite read of the month is hard to pick. I really liked Kelley Armstrong, Raymond Feist is an author I am looking forward to reading more from, and The Goose Girl was an interesting fairy tale retelling. Overall, other than the dull school books, it was a good month, and some of the school books were actually not that bad.

March in Review

Books read in March 2007:

1. Map of Bones by James Rollins
2. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (for school)
3. Wideacre by Philippa Gregory
4. Valiant by Holly Black
5. Pistache by Sebastion Faulks
6. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran (review forthcoming closer to release date)
7. A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
8. Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb
9. Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda
10.The Revenger's Tragedy (for school)
11.The Birth House by Ami McKay (reread for school)
12.The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
13.Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange
14.Dragons of the Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
15.Misfortune's End by Paula Phelan
16.Storm Front by Jim Butcher (finished sort of on the border of March and April)

TBR Challenge:
For the TBR Challenge I counted Map of Bones by James Rollins. He is one of my favourite authors, it just seems to take a bit to get me inspired to read him because I do not want to rush through his books. It is nice to have a challenge inspiring me to dig through my TBR pile.

Chunkster Challenge:
I also counted Map of Bones for the Chunkster Challenge as it is 560 pages.

Spring Reading Thing:
I just joined this reading challenge this month, and I have all ready read three books for it: Never Have your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, and Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange.

12 Months of Fantasy:
I did not read as much fantasy this month as I normally do, so I actually did not read a book for this. I am not too concerned because I read more than one in January and February, so I really could just count passed months books. What I will likely do it just count two reads from this month.

O'Canada Challenge:
I counted The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. I actually liked this book by her, I am not a big Atwood fan.

Back to History Challenge:
The terrible Wideacre by Philippa Gregory. That was a challenge, all right!

Once Upon a Time Challenge:
Another new challenge which I am aiming to read 5 books in. So far I finished: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, as well as Storm Front by Jim Butcher. This take care of one regular fantasy read and one urban fantasy read. In a dreamworld, I would like to read at least ten of the books on this list by the time the challenge is over, but a lot can happen between now and then.

*** Edited to Add***

People always ask me what my favourite book read is, and I always forget to add it. I think for this month it was Michelle Moran's Nefertiti for historical fiction, Dragons of the Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda for non-fiction. All three of these books were great! I liked other books, too, mind you, but I can my least favourite read no problem. Shall we guess? If you said Wideacre by Philippa Gregory, you are one hundred percent correct. Oh, and Map of Bones by James Rollins for general fiction was another favourite. So, I read 4 really really good books this month, some really good ones, and then one that I would like to never have to see again. Overall, pretty good reading month!

Also, I have not reviewed it yet, but I think most people know that Pride and Prejudice is doing very well on the Ten Books You Cannot Live Without thing, so I just wanted to point out that Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange is currently in stores, and as fan fiction goes, it was a pretty interesting look at Mr. Darcy's side of the story. The review should be up soon.

February in Review

This is the best February in history! Normally February is a very slow reading month for me, but even without the Renaissance plays of death, I did pretty good reading 18 books. It was a mostly fantasy month for me, with the majority of my steps out of that genre being for school.

The boring plays that I read for school were:
The Maiden's Tragedy
The Tragedy of Valentinian
The Spanish Tragedy
Atheist's Tragedy
The Maid's Tragedy

As I said in another post, I am not reviewing them. I do not have much love for them, and I would like to not have to think about them outside of class. On to more interesting stuff.

The most exciting read for me this month? Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. It was not my favourite read, it was just the book I looked forward to reading the most.

Getting it out of the way quickly, not counting the plays, my least favourite read was Sula by Toni Morrison (review pending). I try! I know that she is great, but this is the second time I have read her, and I am just not her biggest fan! I do not know if I will try again.

Best new author of the month: Tough call... I think I would have to say Robin Hobb. I really liked Fool's Errand and I have another book on deck to read by her.

My favourite read of the month, though, is so hard! There were no fives, and the majority of the books were really good! I do not think I can honestly pick a favourite, sorry for the cowardly way out of not choosing! I was most disappointed by First Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick, though.

Anyways, on with the books!
Back to History Challenge, I read the very disappointed First Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick.

For the TBR challenge, I chose Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb. It has been on the pile for a while, and I am glad that I actually got around to reading it!

The Chunkster Challenge shows me reading another one of the great books by Jack Whyte. I simply love that series so far, and was very happy with book 3, The Eagle's Brood (review pending). Amazon is telling me that this book only had just over 400 pages, I seriously thought it was over 600, but I do not have the book by me to verify. I know that it was longer than 500 pages.

I finally read Heir to the Shadows, which I counted as my 12 Months of Fantasy read. I took a really long time getting around to this book, and I am so glad that I finally did! (review pending)

From the Canadian scene I counted O.R. Melling's The Summer King and The Light-Bearer's Daughter. I plan to read the last book this month as well as another Canadian book. I tried to read the fourth book right away, but I have a very hard time reading the same author right in a row.

I am also proud to announce that I finally have gotten around to reading this years Canadian Reads by finishing Children of my Heart by Gabrielle Roy. (review pending) Thanks Random House! I also read another book from them, The Silver Bough by Lisa Tuttle. That was a very interesting book!

As a result of school stuff, only seven of the books I read this month came off the TBR pile, but that is better than none! I am still seeming to read more female authors than males, which is actually unintentional. I will try to throw some more men into the mix.

The complete list for February:
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
An Earthly Knight by Janet Elizabeth McNaughton
The Silver Bough by Lisa Tuttle
The Summer King by O.R. Melling
The Light-Bearer's Daughter by O.R. Melling
Quinine by Fiammetta Rocco
Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
Wing of Love by Danya Hart
Heirs to the Shadows by Anne Bishop
The Eagle's Brood by Jack Whyte
Children of my Heart by Gabrielle Roy
Sula by Toni Morrison

I will hopefully get caught up on my reviews next week and then I will link it so that all the titles go to their reviews (except the plays). I want to get it done soon because I do not want to get too far behind for next month.

If I was smart, I would pile up the books I read and take a picture instead of using the same three or four book piles over and over again...

January In Review

I apologize for the mass reviews today, but I was trying to start February with a clean slate. As a result, I sort of forgot to put the fantasy reviews on Twisted Kingdom. I just got on a roll and it was not until afterwards that I noticed what I did. I'll link them from there and hopefully remember to post in the right place next month!

I am trying to be more organized with my books, so I am doing this month in review posts. I just want to see what my reading styles are like from month to month.

The most interesting thing is that I read 16 books this month, and 15 of them were by female authors. That was unintentional, but a very interesting number.

I finished the From the Stacks Challenge. I learned that I am no good with making lists, so I just read books that met the criteria. The five books are listed below, and if you click on them you can see reviews:
1. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland
2. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
3. One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey
4. The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll
5. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland

I read my first "Chunkster" for the year, which, actually, was shorter than a couple of the books I read this month, but I am counting it as my chunkster anyways.
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. (470 pages)

I completed the first book for the O'Canada Challenge. Originally I was going to read The Time in Between by David Bergen, but I found it boring, so I just counted Sandra Gulland's The Last Great Dance on Earth. She lives part-time in Canada, and that trilogy has been waiting a while to be read, so it works for me.

For the fantasy challenge, I counted New Moon by Stephanie Meyer.
For the Back to History challenge it was The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll.

Lastly, I read the first TBR Challenge book, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank.

The only challenge I am crashing and burning at is the Classics Challenge. It is mostly related to reading Renaissance Plays for school and not wanting to read anything else of the "classic" genre afterwards. If February goes the same, I think I will save that challenge for later in the year.

Other than that, I read seven authors that were new to me this month (not counting book two and three of the Josephine B. Trilogy). Twelve of the books I read I bought prior to 2007. A lot of them came out in 2006, though, I would like to try and go even further back in the coming months. Get the piles cleaned out that much more.

The rest of the books I read this month were:
1. The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
2. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
3. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
4. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
5. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
6. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen