Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy! - Finished

 Let's Play Jeopardy! hosted by Crazy Challenge Connection on Goodreads.

I have now completed this challenge with a few months to spare and it was quite fun. I am really enjoying taking part in challenges on Goodreads.

LET'S PLAY JEOPARDY!
Timeframe: 8/1/14 to 3/1/15

As with the TV game, we will divide our challenge into Jeopardy, Double Jeopardy, and Final Jeopardy, with tasks to complete for each section. Each portion of the game has a specific set of task options. When you have completed the game, you will have read 22 books. You can play the game as many times as you wish.

You must roll all categories for the game before beginning the challenge!

JEOPARDY ROUND (Categories)

* For the Jeopardy round, set the random # here from 1-25 and choose 6 numbers. Match those #'s to the proper category in the Jeopardy section, and those are your 1st 6 topics. Read a book for 1 of the options in each topic.
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* The Jeopardy round contains one Daily Double. To complete the DD, you must read 1 extra book in any of the topics you chose, using one of the other task options for that category.
1.

When you have completed the Jeopardy round, move on to Double Jeopardy.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY (categories)

* For Double Jeopardy, set the random # again here from 1-25 and choose 6 more numbers, this time from the Double Jeopardy section. Now you must read 2 books per category/task. Each of the two books must be from a different task option within the category. These 12 books must be finished before moving on to Final Jeopardy.
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2.
3.
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6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

* The Double Jeopardy round contains two Daily Doubles. To complete these DD, you must read 2 more books, choosing any of the categories listed below as Double Jeopardy tasks.
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2.

FINAL JEOPARDY

* For Final Jeopardy, set the random # here from 1-50 and choose a category, but this should not be one of the categories you used for either of the previous two rounds. Then complete one task from that category.
1.

Congratulations--you're a champion! 

This is the tasks I had to do according to my random roll.

Jeopardy: Read 1 book from each task + 1 extra from one of them for Daily Double

✔ J-19: Ships – Read a book with a boat or ship on the cover OR a book that is set, at least partially, on a ship OR a book with a title that is only 4 letters.
Dragonsblood by Todd J. McCaffrey 

✔ J-10:Fashion – Read a book set in New York City or Paris OR with a character who is fashion-conscious OR a book published in 2013 or 2014.
Macaron Murder by Harper Lin 

✔ J-11: Feathered Friends – Read a book with feathers on the cover OR book with a type of bird in the title OR where the author’s first AND last initials are found in FEATHEREDFRIENDS.
Casino Royale: James Bond 007 by Ian Fleming 

✔ J-16: The Plant Kingdom – Read a book with a title that starts with a letter in PLANT OR with a green cover OR a book that is set wholly in one location.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

✔ J-6: Colleges & Universities – Read a book set in a high school or college OR with a character who is a teacher OR a book with a highly intelligent character OR with a cover that shows a color representing your alma mater. (Tell us the school and the school colors. It can be college, high school, or elementary school.)
Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

✔ J-14: Languages – Read a book that has been translated from another language into English OR a book with some sort of foreign word in the title OR includes some sort of communication format (email, diary, letter, text).
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

✔ Daily Double: The book fits 2 jeopardy tasks: J-19: Ships – a book with a title that is only 4 letters + J-10:Fashion – a character who is fashion-conscious
Kept by Elle Field

Double Jeopardy: Read 2 books from each task + 1 extra from two of them for Daily Double

✔ DJ-21:Table Manners – Read a book with any place setting item on the cover (fork, spoon, knife, plate, cup, napkin) OR with a character or author with the name Amy or Vanderbilt or Emily or Post (No other names will be accepted.) OR a book where the characters eat a meal together.
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (meal together)
Monsters by C. Gockel (Main character is Amy)

✔ DJ-19: Sports – Read a book with a character who plays a sport OR a non-fiction book about sports OR a book with at least 3 people on the cover.
A Dangerous Witch by Debora Geary (at least 3 people on cover)
Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella (book about baseball players)

✔ DJ-7: The Civil War – Read a book set in the 1800’s OR a book with “War” on the main genre page OR a book with a hat on the cover. (Daily Double)
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein  (war)
Dracula by Bram Stoker  (1800)

✔ DJ-20: Storms – Read a book with a natural disaster OR with the word STORM (or some other precipitation word) in the title OR with a storm of some kind that occurs in the story.
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl (storm while they sail)
quiet storm by Romanus Gabriel  (Storm in title)

✔ DJ-8: Constellations – Read a book with a star or any geometric shape on the cover OR with “Astronomy” or “Science” on the main genre page OR a book where the author’s first AND last initial can be found in CONSTELLATION.
The Marriage Bargain by Sandra Edwards
The Magician by Michael Scott (geometric shapes on cover)

✔ DJ-9: Crime & Punishment – Read a book marked “True Crime” on the main genre page (Daily Double) OR with an author whose last initial is C or P OR any type of weapon on the cover.
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
The Sorceress by Michael Scott 

✔ Daily Double
1. True of Blood by Bonnie Lamer
2. PARENTS WHO KILLED THEIR CHILDREN: FILICIDE by R.J. Parker

Final Jeopardy:

43 (=DJ18):
Shakespeare – Read a book set in England OR read a play (must be 150 pages long) OR read a book with a celebrity or well-known figure involved in the story.
The House At Riverton by Kate Morton 

Books Jeopardy:

1. Macaron Murder by Harper Lin 
2. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 
3. Casino Royale: James Bond 007 by Ian Fleming 
4. Dragonsblood by Todd J. McCaffrey  
5. Kept by Elle Field
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky   
7. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
8. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 
9. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein 
10. A Dangerous Witch by Debora Geary 
11. Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl 
12. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
13. Monsters by C. Gockel
14. The Marriage Bargain by Sandra Edwards
15. Dracula by Bram Stoker 
16. True of Blood by Bonnie Lamer
17. Quiet storm by Romanus Gabriel 
18. The Magician by Michael Scott
19. The Sorceress by Michael Scott 
20. PARENTS WHO KILLED THEIR CHILDREN: FILICIDE by R.J. Parker 
21. Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella  
22. The House At Riverton by Kate Morton 

The House At Riverton by Kate Morton

Summer 1924
On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.
Winter 1999
Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories - long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind - begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.
Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story. From Goodreads.


Historical fiction is not one of my favourite genres but this was quite good and I like the way it is told from the housemaid's side. This was a 3 polar bears book for me the whole way through but the ending pulled it up to 4. The whole book was leading up to the end but it was still different than expected and that was good.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge 2014
2014 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge
2014 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection A-Z Locations - 2014
Novel Books & Reading Challenges - Baby Got Book
Novel Books & Reading Challenges Tower Teams III 

Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

The book that inspired the movie Field of Dreams.
The voice of a baseball announcer tells the Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella: "If you build it, he will come."
"He" is Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ray's hero.
"It" is a baseball stadium which Ray carves out of his cornfield.
Like the movie FIELD OF DREAMS that was made from this novel, SHOELESS JOE is about baseball. But it's also about love and the power of dreams to make people come alive…. From Goodreads.

This was okay. It was at times interesting but I think it would probably be better if you know something about baseball as the names of baseball players are all over the book and I guess all the names are the names of real baseball players.
I have never seen a game of baseball, it is a minor sport in Denmark and there are only a few teams. (I had to check the internet to see if we even had the game in Denmark at all).

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection A-Z Locations - 2014
CCC-Read your age
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge

PARENTS WHO KILLED THEIR CHILDREN: FILICIDE by R.J. Parker

A clear-eyed view on the most heartbreaking of crimes
The killing of a child is always an aberration, we can never forget it because it takes such diligence to try to understand, rather than simply lock away the killer and brand him or her a monster. What really incites parents to kill their children? This book portrays ten filicidal killers, people's whose names--Andrea Yates, Diane Downs, Susan Smith, Jeffrey MacDonald--received a great deal of media attention. The author explores the reasons, from addiction to sociopathy, insanity to altruism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - "{A}valuable resource and reference book for Criminologists and Psychologists on the fraught subject of maternal filicide, supported with ten case studies." From Goodreads.






This was hard to read. Mothers and fathers killing their children for one reason or another. I read mostly fiction and this is so much more scary because it is true.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Eclectic Reader Challenge 2014 
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!

The Sorceress by Michael Scott

Dr. John Dee has destroyed Paris in his mission to find Nicholas Flamel and Sophie and Josh Newman. The two missing pages of the book of Abraham the Mage are still with them and the Dark Elders need them for the Final Summoning. They will not rest until they are in power and the human race has been destroyed.
Nicholas Flamel knows he must protect Josh and Sophie and the pages from the Dark Elders. For this he must rely on Clarent - the sister sword to Excalibur - and the sword's evil power makes it nearly impossible to use without darkness seeping into the soul of whoever wields it.
What will be the price to pay for the twins to remain protected and the Dark Elders to be defeated? From Goodreads.






Another enjoyable book in this series. Nicholas Flamel has brought Sophie and Josh from Paris to London but they are of course still followed by John Dee and the Dark Elders.
Like they met Joan of Arc in Paris, it is Shakespeare they meet in London. I like the way famous people and mythological creatures are a part of this story.
There are another 3 books in this series and I have just ordered the next book from the library.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy! 
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

The Magician by Michael Scott

After fleeing Ojai, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scatty emerge in Paris, the City of Lights. Home for Nicholas Flamel. Only this homecoming is anything but sweet. Perenelle is still locked up back in Alcatraz and Paris is teeming with enemies. Niccolo Machiavelli, immortal author and celebrated art collector, is working for Dee. He's after them, and time is running out for Nicholas and Perenelle. For every day spent without the Book of Abraham the Mage, they age one year-their magic becoming weaker and their bodies more frail. For Flamel, the Prophecy is becoming more and more clear.
It's time for Sophie to learn the second elemental magic: Fire Magic. And there's only one man who can teach it to her: Flamel's old student, the Comte de Saint-Germain-alchemist, magician, and rock star. Josh and Sophie Newman are the world's only hope-if they don't turn on each other. From Goodreads.




This is my kind of book, though it is more than twice as long as my last book it felt shorter. The twins Josh and Sophie together with Nicholas Flamel and others are fighting mythical creatures. We know who the bad guys are but then again it is not all black and white. Also Josh is having a hard time accepting that Sophie has been awakened and he hasn't. I am looking forward to continuing this series.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: 2014 Chubby Chunkster
Crazy Challenge Connection - Oktoberfest
Crazy Challenge Connection - Bookshelf Battle Team Challenge #4
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Quiet storm by Romanus Gabriel

Becky Douglas and Eugene Thompson have one thing in common: they hate romance. Becky derives pleasure from hurting men. She has broken quite some hearts and will not hesitate to break more should she have the opportunity. Eugene always has one question: if he doesn’t give his heart to any woman how can his heart be broken by any woman? When these two meet, their refusal to respect each other is natural. From Goodreads.

This was a quick read but unfortunately not great. I usually don't get bothered by spelling mistakes but in this book they annoyed me. Becky and Eugene hate romance but of course end up loving each other. I am glad I did not pay for this book.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
CCC A-Z Book Titles 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Oktoberfest
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge

True of Blood by Bonnie Lamer

"I have a television so I know what a family is supposed to look like but mine is nothing like that. To begin with, both my parents are dead. Not the kind of dead where you bury them in the ground, say some nice words, cry a lot and then never see them again. Nope, when they died they refused to ‘go into the light’ or whatever it is you’re supposed to do when you die. Instead, they came back home. As ghosts. Have you ever been sent to your room by a parent who has no corporeal form? I have and it sucks..."
Xandra Illuminata Smith has lived for the last three years with ghosts as parents but her life gets even stranger after her seventeenth birthday when she finds out that her mother is actually a Witch in hiding and her biological father, whom she knew nothing about, is a Fairy and King of the Fae realm.
Xandra is the first Witch Fairy to be born in thousands of years for very good reason. No one should be able to control that much magic and Xandra was never meant to be born at all but her mother has managed to keep her hidden away until now.
The Witches want her dead and the Fairies want her blood, for only her blood will reopen the gateway to the Fae realm and allow them back into this realm to take revenge on humans and Witches alike for having banished them hundreds of years ago.
Xandra has very little time to learn how to use her powerful Witch and Fairy magic that has been bound since her birth while running from the Fairies who managed to jump realms and want to take her blood to set the others free. She needs someone to teach her and her parents enlist the help of one powerful Fairy who claims to want to keep the realms closed to each other. He will help keep her safe and alive as she learns, at least that's what he says... From Goodreads.

This is a cute and also fun young adult book. Xandra doesn't want magic to be true and suddenly has to fight for her life while learning to use her witch / fairy powers. And, yes there is a bit of romance as well. Being a YA book, it was an easy read. I might read a few more books in this series this month.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge
2014 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Oktoberfest
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection - Sub-Genre Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Jonathon Harker travels to Transylvania in Eastern Europe to do business with a mysterious man, Count Dracula.
On his way to the count's castle he is warned by many, even provided with crucifixes, and almost attacked by wolves.
To his surprise, upon reaching the castle, Harker is confronted by a professional and gentle man - that is up until he realises he has been made the count's prisoner. While he is under serious threat in the castle, strange things happen elsewhere - a Russian ship is wrecked and a woman is found with bite-marks on her neck.
The great power and ambition of the count manifests itself in deaths and looming evils, causing a group, including the escaped Harker, to hunt Dracula down and kill him.
Dracula is an intense horror flavoured with the perils of seduction, desire and identity. From Goodreads.




I needed to read this for several challenges but I have kept putting it off as I have a problem with classics. This was better than expected and of course it helps it is in my favourite genre of paranormal.
We don't actually see much of Dracula but everything is about what he does, what he can do and how to hunt him.
Dracula is a truly evil vampire and nothing matters to him but his own survival.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
Eclectic Reader Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon
Crazy Challenge Connection 2014 RaT #9
FrightFall Read-a-Thon 2014

The Marriage Bargain by Sandra Edwards

Camille Chandler is a tabloid journalist whose career is right on track--until her boss sees a curious ad in the L.A. Trades.
Wanted: Single actress for an extended gig abroad.
France's mega-rich playboy Julian de Laurent is up to something and Camille's boss expects her to find out what. Who knew the eccentric gazillionaire was looking to hire a temporary wife?
When Camille refuses to accept Julian's proposal--and secretly write a juicy tell-all about the de Laurent family--she's fired and left financially destitute, forcing her to entertain Julian's proposal for real.
But what'll happen at the end of the contract period, after Camille has spent six months as the wife of a man she learns is capable of stealing her heart? From Goodreads.






This was an okay romance. Not very plausible but a quick, cosy read.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge 2014
CCC A-Z Authors 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Oktoberfest
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (E-seal)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon
Crazy Challenge Connection 2014 RaT #9

Monsters by C. Gockel

After being attacked by a serial killer, saved by Loki — so-called God of Mischief, Lies and Chaos — dragged to Alfheim, losing every cent in her bank account, and caring for her grandmother, Amy Lewis has lost her scholarship to veterinary school. But it’s alright. She has a plan. If she manages to keep her day job as a receptionist, and her night job as a vet tech, she may be able to get her scholarship reinstated and save enough money for the dreaded ‘miscellaneous fees.’
Too bad her day boss is unbearable...
Agent Steve Rogers has political aspirations, but when a suitcase nuke turns out to be something much worse and so-called Norse gods start showing up in his life, he has a priority shift.
Meanwhile, Loki’s priorities and plans haven’t changed at all. He wants Asgard to burn. Of course, earthly pleasures can be so distracting.
These three disparate characters have little in common, but they’ll have to join forces to save earth from trolls, wyrms, frost giant invasions, and an old evil growing beneath Chicago’s streets.
In this second volume of “I Bring the Fire,” chaos comes to our world and decides to stay. The nine realms will never be the same. From Goodreads.

Book 1 in this series had a very abrupt ending and I knew I wanted to read the second. Unfortunately it often takes me a long time to get to the next in the series, this time over a year. This meant I actually went back and read the last chapter in the first book just to remind myself of the story.
In this second book Loki is trying to free Cera, an entity, that has been captured on earth by the help of Odin. Amy is mad at Loki but of course also in love with him. This book introduce Steve, an agent, who is part of the team looking after the entity. I now need to read the third book.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Crazy Challenge Connection - Oktoberfest
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection - Sub-Genre Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (L-wolf)
Crazy Challenge Connection 2014 RaT #9

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

This is the first book in the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials, from Philip Pullman. Set in a parallel world very similar to our own, Northern Lights tells the compelling story of 12-year-old Lyra's quest to rescue her friend and find her father, aided by her daemon, an armoured bear, and a witch-queen. This prize-winning tale is narrated with vigour and dynamism by the author and a full cast. Written and read by Philip Pullman. From Goodreads.

It is quite a while since I read this trilogy and it is interesting listening to them. This is different from the other audio-books I have listened to as this is narrated by Philip Pullman and a full cast, that makes it special.
Just now it is Banned Books Week 2014 - Affirm the Freedom to Read in USA. I am very lucky to be in a country that does not ban books and let me have the right to chose whichever book I want to read. Why would I mention that in this post? Well this book has at least been challenged (groups have tried to get it banned) if not banned in some schools and libraries in the States.
I believe in the right to read anything you want. There are books I will not read but it is my choice not because somebody else decides it has bad language, wrong religious viewpoints or any other reason they can think of.

This book qualifies for:
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - September 2014 Creature ~ Witches!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (L-vulture)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

"Am going to cross Pacific on a wooden raft to support a theory that the South Sea islands were peopled from Peru. Will you come?...Reply at once." That is how six brave & inquisitive men came to seek a dangerous path to test a scientific theory.
On a primitive raft made of 40' balsa logs & named Kon-Tiki in honor of a legendary sun king, Heyerdahl & five companions deliberately risked their lives to show that the ancient Peruvians could have made the 4300-mile voyage to the Polynesian islands on similar craft.
Life on the raft was strange & wonderful. Perhaps the most amazing part of the whole voyage was that not once during the 101 days were the men bored. The always present danger of storms (& the storms themselves), the eternal, ever-changing sea & sky, & their own ingenuity took care of that. & the huge company of fish. They encountered the rare whale shark--"Walt Disney, with all his powers of imagination, could not have created a more hair-raising monster"--& they were the 1st men ever to see a live snake mackerel.
On every page of this true record--from the actual building of the raft thru all the dangerous & comic adventures on the sea to the spectacular crash-landing & the native islanders' hula dances--each reader will find a wholesome & spellbinding escape from the 20th century. From Goodreads.

This was quite interesting, all of it. The whole preparation, the trip itself and the end of the trip. Thor Heyerdahl and his companions survived an impossible trip. I am impressed by this undertaking. Now I want to watch the film.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Bookshelf Battle Team Challenge #4
Crazy Challenge Connection - Oktoberfest
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

A Dangerous Witch by Debora Geary

It's the end of an era. This is the final release in the world of A Modern Witch. If you haven't met my witches yet, this is not the book you want to read . Go find A Modern Witch and begin where it all started.
I figure the final book doesn't need much introduction. Take one last journey with your favorite witches as an oversized marble calls another member of Witch Central on a journey...
Thank you for reading. It has been an amazing honor to be Witch Central's chief storyteller for the last four years. From Goodreads.

I am going to miss Debora Geary's books about the witches at Witch Central. This book is as usual about Nell, Daniel and their family and friends.
These books are very easy to read. They are cosy, sometimes sad, lots of humour and they all end happily.
If you want to read the books, you have to start with A Modern Witch. Each book as such is a standalone with an end but there are so many characters that it is necessary to read the books in order to figure them out.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - September 2014 Creature ~ Witches!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

In one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe--and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind's most frightening enemy. From Goodreads.

This was okay, I liked most of it. It was interesting enough to follow Juan Rico through training and in combat. But there were parts that I found boring, especially a long section while he was at officer training. I have seen the film but can't really remember it, I will watch it again.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Bookshelf Battle Team Challenge #4
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection - Sub-Genre Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (R-zorilla)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

All the Pretty Horses, the first novel of the Border Trilogy, published in 1992, was an international bestseller, winning both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It tells the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself the last bewildered survivor of generations of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he ever imagined. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.  From Goodreads.

This wasn't as good as I had hoped. It is an interesting tale of John Grady, a young man (16 years old), and his friend going from Texas to Mexico and all that happens on this trip. It just didn't grip me and I found it quite depressing. I don't think I am going to continue this trilogy.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Bookshelf Battle Team Challenge #4
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (A-zorilla)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

HEATHER WELLS ROCKS!
Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two -- and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.
The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen -- not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives -- even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!
But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . . From Goodreads.

This was okay. It is a very light read. Chick lit with a cosy mystery (if you can call several murders cosy) thrown in. It had its fun moments but it was also very repetitive. I got this from the library and I might continue the series at a later date (if I can get them from the library).

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
The Challenge Factory - R4: Team Challenge SSS
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a freshman.
And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his year yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.
Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sidelines forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up. From Goodreads.



This wasn't as good as I had hoped. It touches a lot of difficult issues like rape, abuse, abortion, suicide, drugs and more but some of the topics are just mentioned and it does not seem to have influenced the people it happened to very much. I am not sure I will read more from this author.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection Chinese New Year Challenge
Nothing but Reading Challenges Wheel-A-Thon
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Crazy Challenge Connection - Sub-Genre Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges - 50 States Challenge
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Kept by Elle Field

Life hasn't quite worked out how Arielle Lockley planned. Becoming the next Coco Chanel, not shopping at Chanel, was always her childhood dream but somehow she's ended up as a kept woman, living the jet set lifestyle with boyfriend Piers.
When the recession hits, it's not just the economy that takes a tumble. Broke and homeless with zero job prospects, can Arielle find her way again in time or will she always have to be a kept woman? From Goodreads.

This was only just okay. I am not sure there is a single character in this book I actually like. Arielle is a shopoholic selfish woman, she does redeem herself in the end of the book but it still didn't make me like her. I am extremely glad this book was free.

This book qualifies for:
2014 Ebook challenge
2014 Read Your Freebies! Reading Challenge
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Nothing but Reading Challenges Wheel-A-Thon
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet (E-raven)
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon

Dragonsblood by Todd J. McCaffrey

Never in the dramatic history of Pern has there been a more dire emergency than that which faces the young dragonrider Lorana. A mysterious fatal illness is striking dragons. The epidemic is spreading like wildfire . . . and the next deadly cycle of Threadfall is only days away. Somehow, Lorana must find a cure before the dragons-including her own beloved Arith-succumb to the sickness, leaving Pern undefended.
The lyrics of an all-but-forgotten song seem to point toward an answer from nearly five hundred years in the past, when Kitti Ping and her daughter Wind Blossom bred the first dragons from their smaller cousins, the fire-lizards. No doubt the first colonists possessed the advanced technology to find the cure for which Lorana seeks, but over the centuries, that knowledge has been lost.
Or has it?
For in the distant past, an aged Wind Blossom worries that the germs that affect the fire-lizards may one day turn on larger prey-and unleash a plague that will destroy the dragons, Pern's only defenders against Thread. But as her people struggle to survive, Wind Blossom has neither the time nor the resources to expend on a future that may never arrive-until suddenly she uncovers evidence that her worst fears will come true.
Now two brave women, separated by hundreds of years but joined by bonds transcending time, will become unknowing allies in a desperate race against sickness and Threadfall, with nothing less than the survival of all life on Pern at stake. From Goodreads.

I really like the Dragonriders of Pern series. Originally written by Anne McCaffrey but the later ones written by her son Todd.
I enjoyed this, it was interesting how the present was tied in with the past. Lorana was a perfect heroine and Wind Blossom an interesting person.
I will continue reading this series.

This book qualifies for:
I Love Library Books Reading Challenge 2014
You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge 2014
Romance Readers Reading Challenges: 2014 Chubby Chunkster
Nothing but Reading Challenges Wheel-A-Thon
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
Crazy Challenge Connection - Let's Play Jeopardy!
Nothing but Reading Challenges - Spell it Out - Animal Alphabet
Crazy Challenge Connection Monopoly
Crazy Challenge Connection Scrabble, anyone?
Crazy Challenge Connection Bard of Avon