November 2012 Update

November has been a good reading month for me. I have been choosing books in order to finish some of my 2012 reading challenges. This month I took part in Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 hosted by Jenn over at jennsbookshelves.
I have finished 13 books this month and I am getting close to finishing most of my challenges.

This is the list of my reading this month:

1. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson  
2. No Hand to Hold & No Legs to Dance on: A Thalidomide Survivor's Story by Louise Medus 
3. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild  
4. Foretold by Jana Oliver
5. Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
6. Ægteskab for Amatører (The Amateur Marriage) by Anne Tyler
7. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa 
8. Delirium by Lauren Oliver 
9. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes 
10. Y by Bonnie Rozanski
11. Changes by Jim Butcher
12. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness 
13. Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

All my posts from November are HERE

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

When an unknown someone shoots him and leaves him to die, Harry Dresden hopes he might be heading to a better place. Unfortunately, being dead doesn’t make Harry’s life any easier. Trapped between life and death, he learns that his friends are in serious trouble. Only by finding his murderer can he save his friends and move on—a feat which would be a lot easier if he had a body and access to his powers. Worse still are the malevolent shadows that roam Chicago, controlled by a dark entity that wants Harry to suffer even in death. Now, the late Harry Dresden will have to pull off the ultimate trick without using any magic—or face an eternity as just another lost soul… From Goodreads.

Another Harry Dresden book and now he is dead. He still has to fight and combat evil in order to save friends from the mess he unintentionally has created. His friends are in a bad way battling evil and grieving for the loss of Harry. An old enemy reappears and is as strong as ever and Harry also has to figure out who killed him. This book had a twist I hadn't seen coming and I liked that. Now I am looking forward to Cold Days which was published on Kindle yesterday.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
Finishing the Series Reading Challenge

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

As a world-ending war surges to life around them, Todd and Viola face monstrous decisions. The indigenous Spackle, thinking and acting as one, have mobilized to avenge their murdered people. Ruthless human leaders prepare to defend their factions at all costs, even as a convoy of new settlers approaches. And as the ceaseless Noise lays all thoughts bare, the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many. The consequences of each action, each word, are unspeakably vast: To follow a tyrant or a terrorist? To save the life of the one you love most or thousands of strangers? To believe in redemption or assume it is lost? Becoming adults amid the turmoil, Todd and Viola question all they have known, racing through horror and outrage toward a shocking finale. From Goodreads.

I liked this book but I didn't like it as much as the two first books in the trilogy. I finished book two The Ask and The Answer in April and actually thought I would read this book quite soon after but I just didn't. Instead it has taken me seven months to get to it and I think it is because it started to become very political and that is not for me. There is now a war with 3 different groups. The Mayor Prentiss, the Mistress Coyle and the Land. The two first are trying to outsmart each other and the two main characters Todd and Viola are again stuck on different sides, Viola with Mistress Coyle and Todd with Mayor Prentiss even though they don't trust either of them. Everything of course goes wrong before the end. I think the end is fitting. This is a good book but make sure to read the two first books in the series as this book shouldn't be read until after those.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Finishing the Series Reading Challenge

Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2012 - Start

Michelle @ The True Book Addict is hosting the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2012.

I took part in the 2011 challenge and have been waiting for the challenge to start again this year. Then I go and miss the start of it.
Never mind I am joining now.

My goal will be the level of Christmas Tree to read 5-6 books and I will also join for the additional level of Fa La La La Films:  watch a bunch or a few Christmas movies...it's up to you!

This is some of the book I might read during this December:

1. The Christmas Angel by Abbie Farwell Brown (100 pages)
2. A Little Book for Christmas by Cyrus Townsend Brady (116 pages)
3. Christmas Eve at Swamp's End by Norman Duncan (32 pages)
4. Embers of the Raven: a Christmas Story from Greenland by Chris Paton (short)
5. The Christmas Bake-Off by Abby Clements (25 pages)
6. A Simple Amish Christmas by Vanetta Chapman (290 pages)
7. Snowed Under: A Christmas Story by Jude Ryan (44 pages)
8. Falling for Christmas by Debbie Macomber (433 pages)
9. One Imperfect Christmas by Myra Johnson (281 pages)
10. Christmas with Grandma Elsie by Martha Finley (237 pages)
11. Bah, Humbug! (A Romantic Comedy Christmas Novella) by Heather Horrock (96 pages)

Some of the films I am going to watch are:

1. The Polar Express, 
2. While You Were Sleeping, 
3. Christmas Story, 
4. A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart edition). 

The last two are repeats from last year but they are brilliant films so that is fine. The first two I have also seen before but they didn't make it on the list last year so we will watch them this year. I hope to watch more.

I will not start my reading until December

HERE is where all the posts for this challenge will be

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 November 22-25 Finished

Thanks to Jenn from jennsbookshelves for hosting this challenge.

I have now finished this challenge. I reached my goal of reading 3 books but not everything went according to plan. In my update I mentioned that I wanted to finish my third book on Saturday and hopefully start Monsters of Men on Sunday.
I did finish Changes by Jim Butcher on Saturday or rather I guess it was Sunday as it was about 1am. But I haven't read anything today.
I liked all three books I read this weekend but mostly Changes by Jim Butcher.

This is the three books I read and which challenges they counted towards:

1. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes toward 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge and A-Z Book Challenge 2012.
2. Y by Bonnie Rozanski toward A-Z Book Challenge 2012.
3. Changes by Jim Butcher toward Finishing the Series.

 This weekend has helped me quite well towards finishing my challenges for 2012.

Changes by Jim Butcher

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.
Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world...
He's fighting to save his child. From Goodreads

I said it last time I read one of the Harry Dresden books and I will say it again. I really like this series! There are two left, Ghost Story and then Cold Days that is being released the 29th of November on Kindle.
This one takes a whole new turn when Harry finds out he has an eight year old kid and the Red Vampires has taken her. He will do anything to save her. He again has to fight a lot of evil helped by friends, other people and beings only a little less evil than the enemy. All ends reasonably well or not.

This book qualifies for: 
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge,
Finishing the Series Reading Challenge,
Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012

Reading Challenge Addict 2012 Finished

Thank you Cheryl and Gina at readingchallengeaddict for hosting this challenge.

When I started this challenge I decided to go for the level of "On the Roof" 6-10 Challenges (Entered & Completed) as I have never taken part in any reading challenges before Dewey's Read-a-Thon October 2011.
Well, I got hooked and I ended up entered 24 Challenges and of these I finished 22.
So I guess I have now reached level "Out of This World" 16+ Challenges (Entered & Completed)

THIS is the list of all the challenges I have completed in 2012
HERE are all the posts for this challenge.

Reading Challenge Addict 2012 Challenge List

This is the list of the challenges I have entered and completed in 2012.

1. A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon January 23 - 29
2. All the Books of Pern Challenge 2012
3. The Magical March Reading Challenge!
4. Dewey's Read-a-Thon April 2012
5. Spring Into Horror Read-a-Thon
6. FrightFall Read-a-Thon October 1-7 2012
7. Dewey's Read-a-Thon October 2012
8. 22 on 22 Read-a-Thon
9. Season of the Witch October 2012
10. 2012 Ebook Challenge
11. Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge 2012
12. 2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
13. 100 Books In A Year Challenge
14. Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge
15. 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge
16. A - Z Challenge 2012
17. Reading Challenge Addict 2012
18. Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 November 22-25
19. 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge
20. Finishing the Series Reading Challenge 2012
21. Scavenger Hunt 2012 Reading Challenge
22. Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2012

A-Z Book Challenge 2012 Finished

 

Thank you Laurel-Rain Snow at curlupandread for hosting this challenge.

This was an interesting challenge and I decided to add the three letters æ-ø-å from my own language (Danish) to the challenge.
It has not been an easy challenge but it has been fun to try and find the last letters that were missing, I am guessing that x and y are some of the more difficult letters to find. I will also admit that finding books with æ-ø-å was also pretty difficult but I did manage to find books from my local library.
This is definitely a challenge I would like to join again in 2013.

THIS is the list of the 29+ books I have read for this challenge.
HERE  is all the posts for this challenge.

A-Z Book Challenge 2012 Book List

This is the list of the 29 books I have read for this challenge. This list only has the first book of each letter after I joined the challenge. There are of course more books with some of the same letters and they can be found in my posts for this challenge.

A: Always the Baker Never the Bride
B: Brides Baby The
C: Chicken Soup for the Soul Love Stories
D: Darkhouse
E: Eagle of the Ninth The 

F: Fierce Dawn
G: Graceling,
H: Hellbound Heart the
I: Inside Out
J: Jewels 

K: Karrusellen
L: Lirael
M: Modesty Blaise
N: No Hand to Hold & No Legs to Dance on: A Thalidomide Survivor's Story,
O: Outside In
P: Proven Guilty
Q: Quietus
R: Road The
S: Snow People The
T: Thirteen
U: Un Lun Dun
V: Vampire's Warden the
W: Wandering Valkyr The
X: Xoe: or Vampires, and Werewolves, and Demons, Oh My!,
Y: Y by Bonnie Rozanski
Z: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Æ: Ægteskab for Amatører
Ø: Øjne i Mørket
Å: Åndesøstre

All the posts for this challenge can be found HERE

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 update

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 update.

It is the end of day two and my reading is going according to plan. I have just finished my second book.
I have the last few days been suffering from a cold and have not felt like going out. Luckily the worst was actually over before the Reading Weekend started so I have had no problems reading.
I have decided to start Changes by Jim Butcher next and I am sure I will finish it tomorrow and then I can make a start of Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness on Sunday.

Y by Bonnie Rozanski

The year is 2011, the place, New York City. A mysterious microbe has begun to infect women of child-bearing age. Though the medical establishment writes it off as a simple flu, and the epidemic appears to be dying out, a young New York obstetrician confronts a conundrum. In the past year, the ratio of boys to girls born in her practice has declined precipitously. Dr. Deborah Kruger suspects the truth: that infected women are no longer able to give birth to male children.
With the help of her husband Larry, a computer analyst, Deborah tracks the epicenter to New York City, from which the infection is already bursting forth. And, as years pass, despite hundreds of laboratories at work on it, the microbe continues to overrun borders and envelop the Earth. With Science unable to stop it, and the contagion rippling worldwide in an AIDS-like pandemic, how will society cope in an increasingly female world?
Unquestionably, some changes are inevitable. Companies hire more women; who assume more leadership positions, replacing the male hierarchy with their own female style of management, to great success. Among the younger generation, monogamy is increasingly replaced by polygamy. Wars decrease. Crime falls. Football attendance is down. Ballet is up.
"Y" follows three New York City families for an entire generation, each with its own story. The blue-collar husband proves unable to deal with a wife who has become the major bread-winner. The yuppie husband does well in his career but cannot resist the temptations of a workplace with limitless young women. His wife, turned off from men entirely, will leave him and become a force to reckon with in her own right. And, along the way, the children of all three families struggle to find mates and to secure their own places in this new, topsy-turvy world. From Goodreads.

This book is by some described as a thriller, to me a thriller is a scary book and this is not scary. It is a story about the changes that happens when hardly any boys are born in a generation. Bonnie Rozanski has done a good job of describing different types of men and different types of women, how they interact and how they change when  society is suddenly dominated by women. It is also about  the moral of cloning. I enjoyed this book.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons.
Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell’s undertow.
Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she’ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives – including her own. From Goodreads.

I like the idea of people getting a familiar, an animal companion, when they commit a crime. This is a very interesting read and it takes several twists that I didn't expect which I really like. What I didn't like is that the book is full of foreign words that even though they make sense in a sentence just make the whole read more difficult. Words such as: nyangas, sangomas and muti. This distracted me from enjoying the book as much as would have liked.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012,
2012 Sci-Fi Challenge,
2012 Ebook Challenge,
Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 November 22-25 Start

It is time to start Thankfully Reading weekend.

My goal is, as mentioned in my sign up post, to read 3 books toward my 2012 Reading Challenges.
This is my list to choose from:

1. Changes by Jim Butcher toward Finishing the Series.
2. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes toward 2012 Sci-Fi Challenge and A-Z Book Challenge 2012.
3. "Y" by Bonnie Rozanski toward A-Z Book Challenge 2012.
4. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness toward Finishing the Series.

I think I will start with Zoo City, continue with "Y" and finish of with Monsters of Men. If there is more time I will start Changes. All my books will be ebooks.

2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge Finished

Thank you Jennifer at Reading with Tequila for hosting this challenge.

One of the rules of the challenge was: Rereads do not count towards the completion of the challenge. The challenge is about discovering books that are new to you.

There were a few books on the list that I had already read. Such as:  The Harry Potter Books, The name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, Dibs in Search of Self by Virgina M. Axline, Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher and more. But I still had no trouble finding enough other books to set myself a goal.

My goal for this challenge was to reach level III - Read 15 books from the 2011 Book Blogger Recommendation List.
I have reached this goal the 21st of November after reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

I have discovered several new authors through this challenge and will continue to read their books.

THIS is the list of the 15 books I have read for this challenge.
HERE is all the posts for this challenge.

2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge Book List

This is the list of the 15 books I have read for this challenge.

1.  Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (number 28 on the list)
2. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (number 223 on the list)
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (number 1 on the list)
4. Glass Houses by Rachel Caine (number 131 on the list)
5. Fire by Kristin Cashore (number 179 on the list)
6. The knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (number 144 on the list)
7. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (number 83 on the list)
8. Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison (number 202 on the list)
9. Un Lun Dun by China Miéville (number 119 on the list)
10. Divergent by Veronica Roth (number 2 on the list)
11. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder (number 254 on the list)
12. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson  (number 108 on the list)
13. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (number 125 on the list)
14. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (number 208 on the list)
15. Delirium by Lauren Oliver  (number 9 on the list)

HERE is all the posts for this challenge.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it. Then, at last, they found the cure. Now, everything is different. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. But then, with only ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable...

I like this book and it was interesting to read about a world where love is a disease and has to be cured at the age of 18. Until then girls and boys are kept as separate as possible and are not allowed to congregate at all. There is not a happy ending to this book and it ends in a cliffhanger. I will at some point read the other two books in the series and maybe also the two short stories as they are about characters it would be nice to know more about.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge (number 9)

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase has never fit in at her small-town high school, and now, on the eve of her 16th birthday, she discovers why. When her half brother is kidnapped, Meghan is drawn into a fantastical world she never imagined--the world of Faery, where anything you see may try to eat you, and Meghan is the daughter of the summer faery king. Now she will journey into the depths of Faery to face an unknown enemy . . . and beg the help of a winter prince who might as soon kill her as let her touch his icy heart. The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series. From Goodreads.

Quite a few authors are now using the world of the Fey as setting for their books, all of course slightly different but usually there is the Winter Fey and the Summer Fey. Julie Kagawa has added the Iron Fey which is deadly to the rest of the Fay as they can't touch iron. An interesting addition and I am looking forward to read more of this series, I think I already have the next two books on my Kindle.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge, 
2012 Ebook Challenge,
2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge (number 208)

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2012 November 22-25

Thankfully Reading Weekend hosted by Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves.

I nearly missed this, I am glad I didn't as the Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011 was one of the first reading challenges I took part in.
I am Danish and I do not celebrate Thanksgiving and I haven't been Black Friday shopping either but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy a weekend of reading.

My goal for these four days will be to finish 3 books toward my 2012 Reading Challenges.

Ægteskab for Amatører (The Amateur Marriage) by Anne Tyler

The plot concerns the marriage of Michael Anton and Pauline Barclay, who meet when he tends to her bloodied brow in his family's grocery store, located in a primarily Eastern European conclave in Baltimore, in December 1941. They marry after Michael is discharged from the Army with a permanent injury caused by a deliberate shot from someone he assaulted.
Michael and Pauline settle in a small apartment above the store, but their widely different temperaments and expectations quickly create dissension in the relationship. He is repressed, controlling, and quiet; she is loud, emotional, and romantic. At Pauline's insistence, they move to the suburbs, where they raise three children: Lindy, George and Karen.
Lindy runs away to San Francisco in 1960 and becomes involved in the growing drug culture. Eight years later, her parents retrieve Pagan, their three-year-old grandchild, while Lindy detoxes in a rehab community. The slowly-crumbling marriage finally dissolves when Michael leaves Pauline on their 30th anniversary. For Michael, convinced that he and Pauline didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing when they married or how to conduct a marriage (that they were "amateurs"), divorce is a salvation. For Pauline, it's a tragedy that leaves her in despair.

This is an okay book but no more. It is about a very dysfunctional family and it reminded me of another book. I remembered the title, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, but not the author. I just found out it was also an Anne Tyler book. This book was not for me.

This book qualifies for:
100 books in a year Reading Challenge 2012, 
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge,
A-Z  Book Challenge 2012