2014 Reading Challenges: Round 1

(from MamPrint)

Well, it’s that time of year again and if my list of challenges I’m considering was a pile of books it would look like that picture on the left. I love challenges! I want to do ALL of the challenges. And if I pick that many, I will be very stressed out later, so this is my preliminary list which I will narrow down before doing a sign-up post later. If, unlike me, you’re having trouble finding enough challenges, be sure to check out Novel Challenges and thank the wonderful admins who have collected so many challenges in one place. And now, round 1 of narrowing down challenge choices!

Monday Musing About Read-a-longs

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I’ve been a bit reluctant to try a read-a-long because I hated the idea of having to read a book at a particular (slow!) rate. However, the past month there were two I just couldn’t pass up. Allison at The Book Wheel and Rebecca at  Love at First Book co-hosted a read-a-long of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. At the same time, Suey at It’s All About Books, Kami at Kami’s Library Thoughts, and Kathy at Read This Instead hosted a read-a-long of The Book Thief. Here’s what I liked and didn’t like about the experience of doing these read-a-longs.

Book to Movie Challenge Check-In

Hi all! I can’t believe it’s October already and we’re three-quarters of the way through the Book to Movie Challenge! I’m finally starting to get caught up, having read eight books and watched six movies (review of The Count of Monte Cristo movie to come). So far, I think my favorite movie was The King’s Speech  and my favorite book was Sense and Sensibility. And now on to how everyone else is doing!

Monday Musings About Bloggiesta

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I’m feeling a bit under the weather today so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I met almost all of my Bloggiesta goals. I finished cross-listing posts to 2 of 3 sites I use, wrote 3 of the 6 reviews I wanted to, and did 8 min-challenges even though I was only shooting for 6. Although I slept through the Saturday twitter chat, I had a lot of fun with the Sunday one. Here’s a list of what I got done:

Monday Musing About Short Story Collections

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I don’t read many collections of short stories, but I have twice since I started blogging. Each time I begin to write a review, I’m confronted by a dilemma. How do you review a collection with a lot of short stories? Do you review each separately? Or do you try to review them all together?

Early Decision

Title: Early Decision
Author: Lacy Crawford
Source: from publisher for TLC book tour
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: Although I disliked not knowing what was fact and what was fiction, the believable, self-consistent characters made the story feel very real and gave it a strong emotional impact.

Author Lacy Crawford has been a private college application counselor for 15 years. Her experiences help write the protagonist Anne, as well as the kids Anne is helping through the college application process. Anne officially helps with essays and SAT prep, but her primary value to the parents is as someone they can freak out to and who can help communicate with their kids. Anne herself sees her role as helping their children achieve independence, using the essay writing to help them find their own voice. Given her highly unpleasant boyfriend, Anne could use some of that independence herself.