Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 9

Today's Challenge:

Merry Christmas Eve.  For today's activity I want everyone to think about books that have Christmas as an important part of the story.  Post the cover and the synopsis so we can see what it is about.  

My submission:
I have only read one Christmas book recently.  Christmas is Murder is a mystery book.  Rex Graves is a barrister who is visiting staying at the Swanmere Manor Hotel for Christmas.  As soon as he arrives he and the other guests are snowed in.  Rex must become an amature detective when he discovers that one of the guests has been murdered.   

Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 8

Today's challenge:
Sometimes books can surprise us in a good way and sometimes they can surprise us in a bad way.  A book you might have been waiting to come out for a year could be a total bomb once you finally get to read it and a book you drag your feet about reading can turn out to be the best book ever. Today let's explore those books. Create a blog post featuring a HIT and a MISS.  Come back and link it using the Simply Linked.

My Submission:

Thankfully, I have had more hits than misses this year.  I always enjoy a good book, and some people would say that I never read a bad book.  I can almost always find something redeeming about a book.  If I can't, then the book is truly awful.  I can't say that about my submissions today.  I thought it would be fun to add a couple of hits and misses, and I also thought it would be fun to look at a hit and a miss by the same author.

Hit:

Going Bovine totally surprised me as a hit.  It sounded like an interesting premise, but it was a very thick book, and I wondered if the author could keep my attention for that length of time, especially after reading another book by this author that didn't really measure up (see below).  For my full review of this book click here.

Another hit for me this year was Twenty Boy Summer, which was a shock to me, to say the least.  I fully expected to dislike this book.  I only read it for my Young Adult Literature class.  I thought it was going to be a superficial teenage novel with no depth.  I was shocked to find that the book did have depth and that the characters were three dimensional.  I sympathized with them and loved to see them mature and change over the course of the story. 

Miss:

A Great and Terrible Beauty, also by Libba Bray, was a book that I thought I would enjoy.  However, I found it to be lacking.  It has none of the wit and humor of Going Bovine and the storyline drags on in places. I do know people who enjoyed this book, but it just wasn't interesting enough for me to continue on with this series.

Shiver is another book that I looked forward to reading.  It is also a book that I felt was lacking.  I am very skilled at letting my imagination slip into a book, but this book was just too out there for me.  No, it wasn't the premise of the book that was hard for me to buy; the premise intrigued me and caused me to pick the book up in the first place.  It was the characters that were hard for me to believe.  The dialogue seemed so unreal, and the characters did not seem like real people to me at all.  I can enjoy any fantasy book, as long as I can relate to the characters and see them live and breathe.  These characters seemed like shadows on the wall.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 7

Today's Challenge:

For this activity we want you to dig through your memory and come up with your favorite character of the year.  It doesn't have to be a book released this year, but it has to be a character you read about this year. Create a post and come back and link it using the Simply Linked at the bottom of this post.

This is a difficult challenge for me since I tend to love so many of the characters I read about it.  However, the one who keeps coming back to me, as I try to sift through the huge number of books that I've read this year, is Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss is everything I like in a character.  She is a strong person, but she isn't perfect.  She makes mistakes, but usually when she is least comfortable with herself, her true self takes over and she does the right thing.  I am really looking forward to seeing the movie, yet at the same time, I am wary of movie versions of books that I like.

I just hope that the movie does it justice and that it doesn't saturate everything until we're sick of it.  It seems that has almost happened to Twilight lately.  I also hope that the actress who plays Katniss will be able to portray her as a strong, likeable character. 

I guess I'll have to wait until March to find out!

Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 6

Here is the challenge for Day 6:

What you have to do is this - figure out the title of the book by the synonyms I used for them. (I apologize in advance for how silly these probably are, but really, my creativity only goes so far.) Do the best you can.  The person with the most correct answers wins. If there is a tie, Julie and I will draw names out of a hat.

Fill out the Google form below in order to be eligible for the prize.

I'll post the answers after the winner is announced.

1. INTERSTATE TO HADES
2. THE UNENDING GRIN
3. FEMALE ABDUCTED
4. CARDINAL MITTEN
5. FIBBER
6. THE UNENDING SMOOCH
7. THE STERLING CUTLASS
8. ASSASSIN ITALIAN FOOD
9. MURKY EXISTENCE
10. SMALL MALE SIBLING

Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 5

Today's challenge:

Reject by Monica D. Cartwright

Tom has felt rejected his entire life by his family, his peers, and his community.  Then one fateful night, he rejects them all and decides to leave his home forever.  What he didn't count on was a life-changing car accident that would send him on a path he could never have imagined.  Will Tom be able to recover and face his demons, or will he always be the reject he believes himself to be?

HBRC Day 5 - Create-a-Cover

This is one of my favorites, folks.  Get ready to get those creative juices flowing.

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml

The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Picnik, or something similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.
5 - Link your Book Cover post using Simply Linked.

In terms of the activity for the HBRC, we're asking the participants to create the cover and write a short synopsis to go along with it. What is your book about?  We can't wait to read your ideas.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 4

Okay, I'm late getting started (as usual) with the Holiday Break Reading Challenge.  But, I guess I should say better late than never!  For today's challenge, I had to find a blog that discusses one of my favorite genres of books.  I love fantasy and many of the best fantasy books are written for young adult readers.  I found Wants and Worlds and thought that this would be a good choice for this challenge. 

Young Adult Literature - Artichoke's Heart

Supplee, S. (2008). Artichoke's Heart. New York: Dutton Books.

I read Artichoke's Heart to satisfy an assignment for my Young Adult Literature class.  The assignment was to read two books recommended by teenagers, one girl and one boy.  I read Monster after a teenage boy in my sophomore English class recommended it to me.  This book was passed on to me from a senior girl who was in my Pre-AP English class two years ago.  I must say, that I am glad that I got to read this book.  I think that the topics it deals with are so important for many teenage girls.  The main character must learn to cope with many problems in her life.  Rosemary Goode is overweight, lacking self-esteem, and dealing with her mother's cancer diagnosis.  On top of these problems, she is also trying to deal with the feeling of being an outsider, since her mother always sides with her aunt over everything.  Both her mother and her aunt try to pressure Rosemary into losing weight.  When she finally does start to come to terms with many of the underlying issues she has in her life, she is finally able to like herself and gain self-confidence.  In addition, she also loses fifty pounds.  Throughout this process, she becomes friends with a girl who she used to think had it all, and falls in love with the handsome, sensitive "jock" who sees her for the person she really is.  Rosemary's story sets a good example for any teenage girl who has ever had the feeling that she just isn't good enough.  Not only that, but Rosemary is a likeable character who makes the reader sympathize with her pain and laugh at her witty humor.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I had the chance to experience it.  Thanks, Courtney!