2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge Finished

2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge hosted by the Literary Exploration Group on Goodreads.

It’s real simple; below you will see an easy (12 books), hard (24 books) or insane (36 books) challenge. Each genre links to the Goodreads genre page if you need some suggestions on what to read. We want you to have some fun and explore; hopefully you might find a new genre that peaks your interest. To sign up either join the Literary Exploration book club on Goodreads and talk about your progress with others involved or for the bloggers out there, if you want to add it as part of your blogging experience simply let us know with a link (to your Literary Exploration Challenge page) in the comments below so our readers can see how you are going.

I have now completed the insane level of this challenge, to read a book from 36 different genres. It has not been easy but it has been interesting. 

I will take part again in 2014

THIS is where all posts for this challenge is.

My bookshelf on Goodreads for this challenge.
  
List of books:

1. Adventure: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
2. Auto-Biography/Biography: Old Before My Time: Hayley Okines' Life with Progeria by Hayley Okines, Kerry Okines, Alison Stokes
3. Chick-Lit: Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues by Trisha Ashley
4. Childrens Book: The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
5. Classics: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
6. Cyberpunk: Burning Crome by William Gibson
7. Drama: Buried Child by Sam Shepard 
8. Dystopian: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
9. Educational: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
10. Erotica: My Familiar Stranger by Victoria Danann     
11. Espionage: Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
12. Fantasy: The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
13. Graphic Novels: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
14. Gothic: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
15. Hard-Boiled: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
16. Historical Fiction: Sharpe's Prey by Bernard Cornwell
17. Horror: Manhattan Grimoire by Sandy DeLuca
18. Humour: WLT: A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor
19. Literary Fiction: Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
20. Magical Realism: Skellig by David Almond
21. Mystery: Dogs Don't Lie by Clea Simon
22. Noir: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
23. Non Fiction: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
24. Paranormal: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
25. Philosophical: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
26. Poetry: When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
27. Post-Apocalyptic: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
28. Romance: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
29. Science Fiction: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
30. Steampunk: Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
31. Supernatural: Moon dance by J.R. Rain
32. Thriller: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
33. True Crime: Worm: The First Digital World War by Mark Bowden
34. Urban Fantasy: Sterling by Dannika Dark
35. Victorian: Her Own Devices by Shelley Adina
36. Young Adult: The Scourge by A.G. Henley

Buried Child by Sam Shepard

A newly revised edition of an American classic, Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize—winning Buried Child is as fierce and unforgettable as it was when it was first produced more than twenty-five years ago.
A scene of madness greets Vince and his girlfriend as they arrive at the squalid farmhouse of Vince’s hard-drinking grandparents, who seem to have no idea who he is. Nor does his father, Tilden, a hulking former All-American footballer, or his uncle, who has lost one of his legs to a chain saw. Only the memory of an unwanted child, buried in an undisclosed location, can hope to deliver this family. From Goodreads.

This is one weird and absurd play. I am not sure how much I liked it but I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next and that is what got it 3 Polar Bears instead of just 2. This play has not made me want to read more by Sam Shepard.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Christmas Spirit Read-a-Thon
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
A Book A Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues.
But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...?
No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself... From Goodreads.





I enjoyed this more than expected, an unsolved mystery discussed years later. I really liked the twist at the end of the story. The characters of the two journalists Dave and Vince are brilliant.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Christmas Spirit Read-a-Thon
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge

Burning Chrome by William Gibson

Ten brilliant, streetwise, high-resolution stories from the man who coined the word cyberspace. Gibson's vision has become a touchstone in the emerging order of the 21st Century, from the computer-enhanced hustlers of Johnny Mnemonic to the technofetishist blues of Burning Chrome. With their vividly human characters and their remorseless, hot-wired futures, these stories are simultaneously science fiction at its sharpest and instantly recognizable Polaroids of the postmodern condition. From Goodreads.
 

This collection of short stories was okay. Cyberpunk will never become one of my favourite genres but that doesn't mean I won't read it again.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Peake's gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, begins with the superlative Titus Groan, a darkly humorous, stunningly complex tale of the first two years in the life of the heir to an ancient, rambling castle. The Gormenghast royal family, the castle's decidedly eccentric staff, and the peasant artisans living around the dreary, crumbling structure make up the cast of characters in this engrossing story. Peake's command of language and unique style set the tone and shape of an intricate, slow-moving world of ritual and stasis:  
The walls of the vast room which were streaming with calid moisture, were built with gray slabs of stone and were the personal concern of a company of eighteen men known as the 'Grey Scrubbers'.... On every day of the year from three hours before daybreak until about eleven o'clock, when the scaffolding and ladders became a hindrance to the cooks, the Grey Scrubbers fulfilled their hereditary calling. Peake has been compared to Dickens, Tolkien, and Peacock, but Titus Groan is truly unique. Unforgettable characters with names like Steerpike and Prunesquallor make their way through an architecturally stifling world, with lots of dark corners around to dampen any whimsy that might arise. This true classic is a feast of words unlike anything else in the world of fantasy. Those who explore Gormenghast castle will be richly rewarded.  From Goodreads.

It might be a gothic masterpiece but I thought it was long and boring with only one slightly interesting character in it. I will not be continuing this trilogy.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
A Book A Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory.
Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.
All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart. From Goodreads.

I read this for my Literary Exploration challenge as my espionage book. This is not a genre I usually like to read but this was a pleasant surprise. I like us following "The Needle" for several years.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Mammoth Book Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge

When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

In all likelihood, your mother or father read you these poems and remember their parents reading the same. This collection of poetry by the creator of Winnie the Pooh was first published in 1924. With its companion volume Now We Are Six, the little books became two of the biggest bestsellers in publishing history. Children all over the world have heard about changing the guard at Buckingham Palace; James James Morrison Morrison Weather by George Dupree; the three little foxes who kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes; and, of course, Christopher Robin, named for A.A. Milne's son. Adults and older children will enjoy Milne's poems too, as some of his humor is subtly directed at a more sophisticated audience. But younger children are the ones who love the naughty Mary Jane (lovely rice pudding again?) and the bears on the corners of London's streets. Read these poems aloud and pass along (or start) a family tradition. (Ages 5 to 9) From Goodreads.



I needed to read poetry for a challenge, I am not interested in poetry. This is why I chose this Winnie The Pooh poetry and it was cute, as I had hoped.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Dewey's Read-a-Thon October 2013

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Hailed as a comics masterpiece, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS is Frank Miller's (300 and SIN CITY) reinvention of the legend of Batman. It remains an undisputed classic, one of the most influential stories ever told in comics, and is a book cited by the filmmakers as an inspiration for the most recent Batman movies.
It is ten years after an aging Batman has retired, and Gotham City has sunk deeper into decadence and lawlessness. Now, when his city needs him most, the Dark Knight returns in a blaze of glory. Joined by Carrie Kelly, a teenage female Robin, Batman takes to the streets to end the threat of the mutant gangs that have overrun the city. And after facing off against his two greatest enemies, the Joker and Two-Face, for the final time Batman finds himself in mortal combat with his former ally, Superman, in a battle that only one of them will survive. From Goodreads




I really didn't like this. As my graphic novel I should perhaps have chosen a lighter read. This is most likely great for Batman fans.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Dewey's Read-a-Thon October 2013

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in. From Goodreads.

I used to like mystery books, I read a lot of Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell but I don't enjoy them as much any more. They are usually okay but I prefer fantasy and paranormal.
That said I didn't actually guess who did it and that, of course, is what I like in a mystery book.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge
September 2013 Takeover Challenge
Ten Book Author Train Challenge

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."
The protagonist Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores the issues of religion and spirituality from an early age and survives 227 days shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean. From Goodreads.

A lot of people rave about Life of Pi, unfortunately I don't think it was as good as that. It might have been a mistake on my part to read this book only a few weeks after seeing the film. I think the film was quite true to the book so I was reading something I already knew which made me feel the book was a bit drawn out..
I usually try to read a book before seeing the film.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
NBRC Stuck in a Rut
Bout of Books Read-a-Thon 8.0
Author Alphabet Reading Challenge
Setting Alphabet Reading Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
2013 Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.uk 8th of May 2011)
A Book A Day Keeps the Boredom at Bay Reading Challenge

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

"One day in 1993, high up in the world's most inhospitable mountains, Greg Mortenson wandered lost and alone, broken in body and spirit, after a failed attempt to climb K2, the world's deadliest peak.
When the people of an impoverished village in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya took him in and nursed him back to health, Mortenson made an impulsive promise: He would return one day and build them a school.
Although he was a homeless "climbing bum" living out of his aging Buick in Berkeley, California, Mortenson sold what few possessions he had to launch one of the most remarkable humanitarian campaigns of our time."
"Three Cups of Tea" traces Mortenson's decade-long odyssey to build schools, especially for girls, throughout the region that gave birth to the Taliban and sanctuary to Al Qaeda.
While he wages war with the root causes of terrorism - poverty and ignorance - by providing both girls and boys with a balanced, nonextremist education. Mortenson must survive a kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, death threats from Americans who consider him a traitor, and wrenching separations from his family."
Today, as the director of the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson has built fifty-five schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan's poorest communities. And as this real-life Indiana Jones from Montana crisscrosses the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush fighting to keep these schools functioning, he provides not only hope to tens of thousands of children, but living proof that one passionately dedicated person truly can change the world. From Goodreads.

This book describes a very good cause, providing for schools in quite poor areas facing huge challenges. I am supportive of the cause but wary of a book that is purely praising the author himself.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
NBRC Stuck in a Rut
Beat the Heat Readathon 2013
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge

Her Own Devices by Shelley Adina

Escaped lunatics, lost children, vengeful lords, and love. Really, the situation is becoming quite impossible.
Seventeen-year-old Lady Claire Trevelyan, left alone after the Arabian Bubble financial disaster claims home and family, now leads the cleverest gang in the London underworld. Between outwitting a rival gang, inventing a device that will net her and her scientist employer worldwide fame, and keeping her mother from marrying her off, she can almost forget that a powerful lord wants to get closer ... and if he succeeds, can destroy it all with a single word ... From Goodreads

I haven't read much steampunk but I am enjoying this series by Shelley Adina and have already bought the third book in the series to read in the near future. Claire is a likeable, resourceful and very responsible heroine and I am looking forward to read more about her and her charges.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Sequel Reading Challenge
Get Steampunk’d 2013
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge 

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life—mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design drone—and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore.
With irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan has crafted a literary adventure story for the twenty-first century, evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or a young Umberto Eco, but with a unique and feisty sensibility that’s rare to the world of literary fiction. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave, a modern-day cabinet of wonders ready to give a jolt of energy to every curious reader, no matter the time of day. From Goodreads

This was a real page turner. It is a mystery book not about murders but about books and I was pleasantly surprised when I read it. I was afraid it might be a "dry" book but it was far from it and I can recommend this book to anyone.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge

Chocolate Shoes And Wedding Blues by Trisha Ashley

When Tansy Poole inherits a run-down shoe shop tucked away in the village of Sticklepond, ‘Cinderella’s Slippers’ is born – providing the footwear to make any fairytale wedding come true…
Carrying everything a bride would want to walk down the aisle in, Tansy’s shop soon expands to carry shoe-themed wedding favours, bridesmaid gifts and even delicious chocolate shoes. It’s the dream destination for any shoe-lover!
If only everything in her personal life could be as heavenly – but with a fiancé trying to make her fit into a size 8 wedding dress, not to mention the recent discovery of disturbing family revelations, Tansy takes refuge in the shop’s success.
But one man isn’t thrilled by the stream of customers hot-footing it to Cinderella’s Slippers… Actor Ivo Hawksley, resident of the cottage next to the shop, is troubled by a dark secret in his past and has come to Sticklepond to nurse his own broken heart.
However, Ivo realises that he and Tansy have a link in their past and soon, they both find out how secrets shared can make a very strong bond indeed… From Goodreads.

I really enjoy Trisha Ashley's books. They are cosy, happy ending, chick-lit books and they always have interesting side characters in them.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge

Sharpe's Prey by Bernard Cornwell

It is 1807 and Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, recently returned to England, is offered a new job: go to Copenhagen, help the Honourable John Lavisser deliver a bribe, and so stop a war. It seems very easy.
But nothing is easy in a Europe stirred by French ambitions. The Danes possess a battle fleet that could replace every warship the French lost at Trafalgar and Napoleon's forces are gathering to take it. The British must stop them.
Sharpe is ordered to protect Lavisser against the French agents who infest the Danish capital. It is a shadow war of spies and brutality in which Sharpe is a sacrificial pawn. But sometimes pawns can change the game.
As the Danish army attempts to raise the British siege, it is met by Sir Arthur Wellesley with a force of redcoats and riflemen. Copenhagen is doomed, IN nights of merciless British bombardment, Sharpe must protect a woman, hunt a traitor and stay alive. From Goodreads


This book only just made it to 3 Polar Bears. I needed a book that was historical fiction and a book that was number 5 in a series and this book fit. Another reason to choose this book was that most of it takes place in Denmark and, as I am Danish, this appealed to me. After reading it, which at times was hard going, I must admit that it taking place in Denmark just wasn't enough when I am no fan of military books. I liked the main character which was part of bringing this from 2 to 3 Polar Bears.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Sequel Reading Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge (historical fiction)

WLT: A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor

See what WLT was "really like" before it became the radio station featured in the Robert Altman film.
In 1926, brothers Ray and Roy Soderbjerrg plunge into radio by founding Station WLT (With Lettuce and Tomato) in order to rescue their failing restaurant and become the Sandwich Kings of South Minneapolis. For the next 25 years, the "Friendly Neighbor" station produces a dazzling-not to mention, odd-array of shows and stars.
Brilliantly weaving together the real lives and radio lives of his characters, Garrison Keillor has given us a comic, poignant, and slightly steamy novel, full of romance, intrigue, tough business, and loose living. From Goodreads.

This book was unfortunately not as humorous as I had hoped. I like stuff from Lake Wobegon and I will read some of that instead.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront. From Goodreads.

I didn't like this book and found it extremely boring. Half the book is a description of clothes the main character and everybody else he is with are wearing. "Price is wearing a six-button wool and silk suit by Ermenegildo Zegna, a cotton shirt with French cuffs by Ike Behar, a Ralph Lauren silk tie and leather wing tips by Fratelli Rossetti." And so it continues throughout the book. There is also a detailed account of 3-4 different song artist's songs - also boring even though I actually like the singers / groups.
Yes there is also the very detailed account of the torture and murders he commits but that is just plain gory. 

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Ebook Challenge
Spring into Horror 2013
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Dewey's Read-a-Thon April 2013
Let Me Count the Ways Reading Challenge 2013 (399 pages)

Manhattan Grimoire by Sandy DeLuca

A crippling blizzard, grisly discoveries in an old church in Harlem, a small apartment building cut off by the mounting storm, its tenants trapped with a vicious killer that may or may not be human, and an unholy manuscript stolen from a dead sorcerer that could very well hold the secrets to opening the gates of Hell.
Gina has seen strange visions since childhood. Her mother was considered insane for having the same affliction, and before her disappearance, Gina's sister Allie was obsessed with black magic and "saw" things too. It eventually led her to a depraved conjurer known as Mojo DeCanne, a man who possessed a book of demonic spells Allie stole and hid in Gina's apartment in the days before she vanished. Now, as Manhattan braces for the worst snowstorm in decades, and Gina's visions become worse, blurring the lines between nightmare and reality, Mojo DeCanne has come looking for what is his. In order to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance and the meaning behind her own shattered life, Gina must first survive the night and somehow stop an unimaginable evil from fulfilling its horrific destiny. Darkness falls on Manhattan. The blizzard grows worse. And the lights go out. From Goodreads

I was not convinced by the horror in this book. The end hints that everything had just been going on in the main character's Gina's mind because of some hallucinogenic narcotics even as she still believes everything.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Tower Teams Read 2013-2
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Women Challenge
Quick fix Challenge 2013 (180 pages)
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Spring into Horror 2013
2013 Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.uk 8th of January 2013)
Let Me Count the Ways Reading Challenge 2013 (180 pages)

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.
At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire’s talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices . . .
When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . . From Goodreads.

My first steampunk read and it didn't disappoint. I have just bought book two in this series and I am looking forward to reading it. I like it when I enjoy a free book so much that it makes me buy more books by the author.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Tower Teams Read 2013
Serious Readers 2013
Get Steampunk’d 2013
2013 Ebook Challenge
2013 Women Challenge
Quick fix Challenge 2013 (203 pages)
2013 1st In A Series Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
2013 Why Buy the Cow? Reading Challenge (free on Amazon.uk 23rd of January 2013)
Let Me Count the Ways Reading Challenge 2013 (203 pages)

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

"Somewhere," muses Noah Calhoun, while sitting on his porch in the moonight, "there were people making love." The Notebook, a Southern-fried story of love-lost-and-found-again, revolves around a single time-honored romantic dilemma: will beautiful Allison Nelson stay with Mr. Respectability (to whom she happens to be engaged), or will she hook up with Noah, the romantic rascal she left so many years ago? We're not telling, but you have two guesses and the first one doesn't count. Decades later, after Allison develops Alzheimer's, her beau uses "the notebook" to read her the story of the great love she's plumb forgot. From Goodreads.

A heart-warming story about a romance that spans a whole lifetime. It also tells about some of the heartbreak a lot of relatives of Alzheimer patients go through. Well worth the read and I am looking forward to reading more books by Nicholas Sparks.

This book qualifies for:
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Tower Teams Read 2013
Serious Readers 2013
2013 Ebook Challenge
Quick fix Challenge 2013 (210 pages)
2013 Nicholas Sparks Reading Challenge
2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Let Me Count the Ways Reading Challenge 2013 (210 pages)