Kassilem's (Melissa) 2014 Challenge

Hello everyone. My name is Melissa. I’m 22 years old, in my last year of college at Boise State University before I head off to the Peace Corps. This will be my fourth year on ‘LT 75 Books Challenge’, and even though I consistently read more than 75 books each year I can’t bring myself to leave this group. So here I am again.

For those who have not followed my threads before, I like to read fantasy, historical fiction & GLBT but that is certainly not all you will see here. I never know what I’ll get my hands on. However if it helps, my favorite authors are as follows: Elizabeth Chadwick, Lynn Flewelling, Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb, W. A. Hoffman, George R. R. Martin, Sarah Monette, Melanie Rawn, Patrick Rothfuss, Brent Weeks and Bart Yates.

I also keep a thread dedicated to the graphic novels I read each year. 2014's GN count can be found HERE

Please feel free to snoop or take/leave recommendations! I’m looking forward to the reading in 2014.

Past '75 Book Challenge' threads:
2011 Challenge Part 1, Part 2
2012 Challenge Part 1
2013 Challenge Part 1, Part 2

Past GN Count threads:
2011 GN Count
2012 GN Count
2013 GN Count

Statistics:
Reading Statistics

Books Read in 2014

Here starts the challenge! Below will be a condensed list of what I read, while in the posts below I'll put my reviews. Happy reading!!

January:
1. Ender's Game - Orsen Scott Card (Post 32)
2. Legion – Brandon Sanderson (Post 39)
3. Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik (Post 37)
4. Once We Were - Kat Zhang (Post 59)
5. Where She Went - Gayle Forman (Post 65)
6. The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister - George R. R. Martin (Post 82)
7. When the World Calls - Stanley Meisler (Post 85)
8. The Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin (Post 88)
9. Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians - Brandon Sanderson (Post 91)
10. Hunter-Gatherer Foraging: Five Simple Models - Robert Bettinger (Post 97)

Feburary:
11. The Realm of Possibility - David Levithan (Post 110)
12. The Foraging Spectrum - Robert L. Kelly (Post 113)
13. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin (Post 116)
14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling (Post 120)
15. The Wood of Suicides - Laura Elizabeth Woollett (Post 121)

March:
16. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (Post 133)
17. Every You, Every Me - David Levithan (Post 147)
18. Red Rising - Pierce Brown (Post 150)
19. Changers Book One: Drew - T Cooper (Post 153)
20. A Searing Wind - Michael & Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Post 155)

April:
21. Human Variation - Stephen Molnar (Post 160)
22. Night Broken - Patricia Briggs (Post 163)
23. The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood (Post 164)
24. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (Post 169)
25. Surviving the Extremes - Kenneth Kamler (Post 176)
26. MaddAddam – Margaret Atwood (Post 177)

May:
27. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling (Post 182)
28. The Bone Woman - Clea Koff (Post 187)
29. The King: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood - J. R. Ward (Post 198)
30. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling (Post 206)
31. Starters - Lissa Price (Post 210)
32. The Eternity Cure - Julie Kagawa (Post 214)
33. Kosher Lust - Shmuley Boteach (Post 215)
34. Chemistry: A Molecular Approach - Nivaldo Tro (post 216)
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling (Post 217)
36. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (Ppst 221)
37. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (Post 224)
38. Fair Game - Patricia Briggs (Post 226)
39. Body of Evidence - Patricia Cornwell (Post 227)

Off-the-Shelf Challenge
This is a challenge that never seems to end. I can’t seem to get through this list, and I just decided to add all my non-fiction onto the list as well. Hopefully this year I can get through them all since I will be moving overseas in 2015 and won’t be able to bring most of them. So here’s my challenge to myself. Read the below books within the year of 2014.

Black Sun Rising - C. S. Friedman
The Gold Falcon - Katharine Kerr
Banewreaker - Jacqueline Carey
Sacajewea - Anna Lee Waldo
Maia - Richard Adams (Donated 5/3)
Wyrms - Orsen Scott Card
The Magician's Apprentice - Trudi Canavan
Wraeththu - Storm Constantine
The Summoner - Gail Z Martin
The Blood King - Gail Z Martin
People of the Wolf - Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Donated 5/3)
Daughter of the Blood - Anne Bishop
Path of Revenge - Russell Kirkpatrick
Adam's Navel - Michael Sims
A Dance With Dragons - 1:Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
American Gods – Neil Gaiman
Human Nature: Opposing Viewpoints - Mark Ray Schmidt
Pulling Your Own Strings - Dr. Wayne Dyer (Donated 5/3)
A Short History of the World – John M. Roberts (Donated 5/3)
Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates - Robert Ritchie
Timelines of World History - John B. Teeple
1,000 Years, 1,000 People -Agnes Hooper Gottlieb
Battle Cries - James Inglis
The Atlantis Blueprint: Unlocking the Ancient Mysteries of a Long-Lost Civilization - Colin Wilson (Donated 5/3)
The Complete Book of World History - Carson-Dellosa Publishing
Writing the Breakout Novel - Donald Maass
Techniques of the Selling Writer - Dwight V. Swain

Reading Bingo Challenge
Ah, I'm a sucker for cool reading memes and challenges, etc. So when I saw this on Judy's and Roni's threads I couldn't help but want to participate as well. :) I wont be "trying" to fill these out, but I think it will be a blast to see if my books fit on it. (PS. This thread is where you can join the party)



Regular Bingo
More than 500 pages: A Game of Thrones
Forgotten Classic:
Book that became a movie: Ender's Game
Published this year: Red Rising
Number in the title: Hunter-Gatherer Foraging: Five Simple Models
Written by someone under 30:
Book with non-human characters: Throne of Jade
Funny Book:
Female Author: Night Broken
Book with a mystery: Fair Game
One-Word Title: Legion
Book of short stories:
Set on a different continent: Surviving the Extremes
Non-Fiction: When the World Calls
First book by a favourite author:
Heard about online: The Wood of Suicides
Best-selling book: MaddAddam
Based on a true story: A Searing Wind
Book at the bottom of TBR pile: Pride and Prejudice
Book my friend loves:
Book that scares me: Oryx and Crake
More than 10 years old: The Wizard of Earthsea
Second book in a series: The Year of the Flood
Blue cover: Human Variation



YA Bingo
Book with female heroine: Once We Were
Book set in a high school: The Realm of Possibility
Last of a trilogy:
Book with 'color' in the title:
First book in series: Changers Book One: Drew
Book set in the future: Starters
Book with a break-up:
Book without a love triangle: The Eternity Cure
Book that became a movie: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Book set in Paris:
Book set in the past:
Book with magic: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Book set in summer:
Book with a dragon: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Book that made you cry:
Graphic novel: A Bride's Story, Vol. 5
Book based on a myth:
Classic YA: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Book with a Lion, Witch or Wardrobe:
Book with an incredible fight scene:
Book heard about online: Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
Book set in another world:
Book with epic love story:
Book with music: Where She Went

First off here’s a great book meme for 2013, since it’s so fun. Then some statistics:

Describe yourself: The Different Girl
Describe how you feel: What’s Left of Me
Describe where you currently live: Where You Are
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Way of Kings
Your favorite form of transportation: Dragonflight
Your best friend is: The Giver
You and your friends are: Wild Girls, Wild Nights
What’s the weather like: Coming of the Storm
You fear: People of the Lie
What is the best advice you have to give: Unwind
Thought for the day: The Fault in our Stars
How I would like to die: The Memory of Light
My soul’s present condition: Changes

***

2013 Statistics (abridged)
*More complete statistics can be found on my Statistic’s page: HERE

Books: 120
Pages: 50,171

~2.3 books per week
~962 pages per week

Time Range: 1870s-2013
Format: Dead Tree (60); Audiobook (60)
Top 3 categories: TBR (41); Walk By-Pick Up (24); Textbook (17)
Top 4 genres: Non-Fiction (32); Epic Fantasy (18); Urban Fantasy (15); Anthropology (15)

5 Stars (12):
Raised By Wolves: Brethren / The Way of Kings / The Immense Journey / The Fault in our Stars / Every Day / A Memory of Light / The Giver / The Alchemist / Bones of Contention / Why Evolution is True / Two Boys Kissing, The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps

Additonal - Graphic Novels read: 82

***

2012 Statistics (abridged)
*More complete statistics can be found on my Statistic’s page: HERE

Books: 138
Pages: 62,775

~2.6 books per week
~1,203 pages per week

Time Range: 1910s - 2012
Format: Dead Tree (104); Audiobook (34)
Top 3 categories: Walk By-Pick Up (39); Rereads (33); TBR (22)
Top 4 genres: Epic Fantasy (28); GLBT (24); High Fantasy (19); Non-Fiction (18)

5 Stars (38):
In the Hand of the Goddess / Writing to Change the World / The Lover's Dictionary / Stone of Tears / Blood of the Fold / Raised By Wolves: Brethren / Raised by Wolves: Matelot / Raised By Wolves: Treasure / Raised By Wolves: Wolves / Temple of the Winds / A Companion to Wolves / Maledicte / Lord of Chaos / Assassin's Apprentice / Faith of the Fallen / Royal Assassin / Assassin's Quest / Don't Let Me Go / Naked Empire / Golden Fool / Leave Myself Behind / Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You / Fool's Fate / Something Like Summer / Chainfire / Side Jobs / The Song of Achilles / The Valley of the Horses / The Blinding Knife / Confessor / Break / The Immortal Rules / Dragon Haven / The Gathering Storm / Sociocultural Theory in Anthropology The Happiness Advantage / Towers of Midnight / Every Day / Cold Days

Additonal - Graphic Novels read: 85

***

2011 Statistics (abridged)
*More complete statistics can be found on my Statistic’s page: HERE

Books: 82
Pages: 39,011

~1.6 books per week
~750 pages per week

Time Range: 1960s - 2011
Format: Dead Tree (73); Audiobook (9)
Top 3 categories: Walk By-Pick Up (28); TBR (22); Off Bookshelf (13)
Top 4 genres: Urban Fantasy (22); High Fantasy (21); Romance (17); Mystery (16)

5 Stars (23):
The Black Prism / Magic's Pawn / Magic's Promise / Magic's Price / Shadow Magic / The Way of the Shadows / A Strong and Sudden Thaw / Beyond the Shadows / The Bone Doll's Twin / Hidden Warrior / The Oracle's Queen / The Wise Man's Fear / Evil at Heart / Wizard's First Rule / White Night / Guns, Germs, and Steel / Changes / The Eye of the World / Melusine / The Virtu / Origins Reconsidered / The Great Hunt / Alanna / A Lady Awakened

Additonal - Graphic Novels read: 226

Welcome back!

Hi Melissa!

Melissa - I have been missing out by not keeping an eye squarely on your thread. A separate stats page! wonderful idea.

Look forward to keeping up a bit better in 2014.

Starred for reading in 2014!

Hi Melissa, thanks for stopping by my thread. I must confess to lurking in yours in 2013 and admiring all the graphic novels you read. Also, I didn't realize you lived in Boise. I'm from northern Nevada and have a lot of friends and family that live there. My best friend actually graduated from Boise State this year. Small world!

Thanks Jim! And Welcome Diana. Hello back at you. :)

Paul - I love compiling the stats on my reading and seeing patterns or noticing that even though my book count was higher or lower than other years, the page counts were around the same. Plus I'm a little OCD so knowing exactly how much I read and what kinds of books I read keeps me feeling updated and happy. And don't feel too bad about not keeping up. I was particularly bad at it myself in the last half of 2013.

Morphy - Glad to have you again! I'll be watching for your thread as well.

Marie - Thanks! Three years ago I never saw myself reading graphic novels. But my sister got my into the Bleach series and it's never been the same since. I know some reviewers don't include graphic novels in their count since their so short and mostly full of artwork, but I believe that if they tell a story and are in the catalogue, they count (I suppose if short stories where in the catalog I would be including them as well). And some of the graphic novels I've read tell amazing stories. :) Anyways, that is neat that you have a friend who just graduated from Boise State. It really is a small world. I've met all kinds of people in the last year who are connected to my family in some way.

*peeks around the corner*

*sneaks into thread*

*decorates every available space with shiny star stickers*

*creeps away on tiptoes*

:) *admires all the shiny stars*

In the spirit of New Years, I’ve been thinking of all I will hope to accomplish this year, and decided to share.

1. Finish my degree in Anthropology and graduate
2. Finish and present my undergraduate research
3. Apply and get accepted into the Peace Crops
4. Study for and take the GRE
5. Get to the gym four times a week
6. Pay off my car
7. Finish my cross-stitch
8. Finish my first novel and get a good start on my second
9. Read 75 books
10. Be happy

So, earlier in 2013 I finished my first big cross-stitch. (You can find a picture on my 2013 Part 1 thread, post 51). Unfortunately, or fortunately, I kind of got hooked on cross-stitch after that. When I finished it, I immediately went to get another. I haven't had time to work on this second one for the last few months while in school, but I'm hoping to get back to it this year. Actually I need to finish it this year before moving overseas.

I like to cross-stitch when listening to audio books. It give's me something to do with my hands so that I feel busy. Here it is so far:

Wow, thats a big one! You've got a great start on it; all that water looks loke a doozy. It looks like you do all of one color at a time, which is how I would do it. It was always frustrating when a color had just scattered one-or-two stitches here and there because I had to go back later to put them in. :)

I'm a "start at the top left and move right and down" cross-stitcher.

14: I can barely thread a needle, so wow! I'd like to learn to knit so I feel busy while listening to audio books, but I usually just listen to them when I'm driving or at the gym.

I do try to do all one color before moving on. I can't always because if I have to count more than twenty squares over or up then there's a high risk I'll miscount and get the thread in the wrong place. I hate to thread a few squares then have to switch colors, so I would never be able to do the top down like Morphy.

Actually this cross-stitch has 'half cross' which is new to me, it only being my second stitch project. I didn't realize at first so some of the blue water and sky has more thread then it's supposed to. But I decided to not worry about it and just continue. I'll buy more thread if I need to.

I started listening to audio books when I was finishing my first project, but I quickly saw how awesome audio books were so I've also begun to listen to them when I drive and work-out at the gym. That's when I got my audio books in the last few months while I was in school: on my drive to and from and between classes when I was walking across campus. I have to be careful though to not get too saturated and mix it up with music now and again. I was so busy reading textbooks all semester long this fall however that audio books was the primary way I was able to get some fiction in.

2013 statistics are up. Refer above to post 4.
I love looking at stats!

I can see that over the last three years I have increased the number of audiobooks I listen to.

I've branched out into older books; going further back in time each year.

My book count was different in 2011 & 2012 but I'd actually read the same out of pages. In 2013, I read about 13,000 words less than in previous years.

Graphic Novels are the top genre for all three years. Not what I would classify myself as reading the most of, but there's the proof, as least by book count. They are short and sweet, and tend to add up.

(P.S. Don't try to do a lot of math around midnight. I think it broke my brain.)

To a fellow stataholic - have a wonderful 2014.

Oh, well, I'm not a perfectionist about it. It's more of a "in general." I'll finish a thread before changing colors. I won't do a couple squares then change colors and do a couple more with a different thread! However, I won't go over more than two or so empty squares either. I have very neat backs!

Love your year-end stats, hugely impressed with your 2014 list of things to accomplish and think your cross stitch project looks wonderful! I don't have the patients for cross stitch, or at least I didn't years ago on my last attempt at one. Maybe it is time to try again.... I am always on the look out for something I can do while watching TV shows and movies that capture my other half's attention more than mine.

Thanks Paul. You too!

And that makes more sense Morphy :). That what I did on the last project now that I think of it. I worked on one animal at a time, switching colors when I needed.

How do you keep track of all the thread and which symbols/numbers are which thread? Last time I cut a tiny bit off each thread and taped next to their corresponding symbols, and then all the thread when into a zip-lock. This time however I had double the amount of thread so I put five or six different colors in one bag and labeled the colors to with their numbers/symbol, keeping all the shades of one color separate, if that makes sense.

Hi Lori! Thank you and welcome. I'm a bit of an overachiever but I'm hoping for a successful year. You know I never would have thought I would have the patience to do cross-stitch. And I suppose I didn't until I discovered audio books. Then I got really into finishing the cross-stitch (I'm also a bit obsessive about finishing things) and started doing it while watching the little TV that I did watch. I also got my brother to play a video game I was having a hard time getting through and I cross-stitched while I watched him. That way I got the story of the video game and worked on my project. I loved finding new ways to multi-task with the cross-stitch.

And oh man I write a lot, huh? :)

>14 Kassilem:: Oh, that's lovely! I'm the same - I love to cross stitch while listening to audio books.

Melissa, I'm starring this one if only to see photos of your progress on that cross stitch project. I'm sure I'll find some enjoyable books too, but I have always had a weakness for lighthouse cross stitch patterns. I haven't cross stitched as much lately, but I do have several UFO projects that I really should get back to working on. With the progressive lenses, the vision issues with working on evenweave should not be present.

Hi, Melissa! Got you starred now... We do seem to have a lot of tastes in common! Love the cross stitch too, I knit while I'm listening to audiobooks myself. Good luck with the Peace Corps application! One of my good friends who I worked with when I was out in Iowa in 2012 just got accepted, and she's really excited.

I'll have you know, Melissa, that I pulled out an old shoebox full of floss and fabric today! I couldn't help myself! I'm starting small to get the feel of it again, and my left hand is aching after just 30 minutes, but it may well become a happy hobby again. :)

ETA: I have a thread card for the flosses on a project-- you loop the colors through a hole and write in pencil the number or symbol.

>23 Kassilem: I don't do kits. All my flosses are on bobbins marked with the DMC number. I have five boxes of flosses filled with just about every DMC color. When I start a pattern, I pull all the numbered bobbins I need and put them in a big Ziploc.

Ahhh!!! When I was in university, I cross-stitched alllllll the time... I have a box full of floss and fabric and patterns as well. I do miss it, but somewhere along the way life got so busy and I stopped with many half-completed patterns. I'd love to get back into it... maybe talking about it and seeing your projects on your thread will inspired me.

I cross-stitch on occasion and do a variation on Kathy's approach if it's a kit. I'll take the sheet of cardboard that's usually in the kit, use a single hole-punch for each thread colour, and then loop the thread through each one, labeling as I go.

Welcome Amber! I had no idea so many people here did it. It's kind of relaxing too. And kind of hard to put down once I get going. I've gone hours at a time just stitching away.

Lori, I'll be sure to put updates up once in a while. We'll see how much I can get done once my semester begins. The last one took up all of my free time. But if not, I'll have some time in the summer. I finished most of what's already completed last summer. :)

Thanks Marcia! I keep going back and forth between nervousness and excitement. I should just slow down and get the application done first. After all I'm not accepted yet. But if I do get accepted it will be a huge step. I can't live at home forever, and I don't want to go right into graduate school yet without a clear focus. It seems right. I know I can do it. And while two years is a long time, it's not in the long run. I'm excited to broaden my life, I guess. Ah, I get more excited every time I talk about it. It's only in the lag periods that I get nervous.

:) Kathy, that's awesome! I only did twenty minutes yesterday myself. Couldn't seem to find the energy to do any single thing for more than that. I may have to try yours and Mickey's (Welcome Micky!) thread organization style.

Faith, I'll be sure to try and inspire you! :)

Thanks everyone!

1. Ender's Game - Orsen Scott Card
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 324
Rating: 4 Stars
(Off Bookshelf)

Summary:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is one of them. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. Is Ender the general Earth needs? The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long.

Thoughts:
Wow. I’ve been meaning to read this book for years. I mentioned as such last year to my father and he gave me his copy of the book. So I finally picked it up. I get why so many people like it. I’m not huge into books about aliens or space settings, never have been, but I was drawn in. The book was a little depressing, which almost threw me. I’m in a weird funk this winter so depressing books seem even more depressing than usual. And while the book isn’t very big, it felt really long. I probably should as it follows Ender from when he is four to when he is I don’t know how old – but old. I’m not sure how I feel about the twist at the end that I heard everyone never pictured happening, but I think I liked it. And it looks like I’m just in time to see the new movie on this book. However, I’m not sure if I want to see it or not. This will be a book I will need to think about for a few days, to really take in. It’s good writing, and it’s a good story. I’d be interested in reading some of the other books that are related, such as Ender’s Shadow at some point, which I hear is the same story but from Bean’s eyes. I’m glad I finally got to this one.

Favorite Line:
‘The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.’ (Postscript)

This was a graphic novel: all graphic novels have been moved here

This was a graphic novel: all graphic novels have been moved here

This was a graphic novel: all graphic novels have been moved here

We had a wonderful cross stitch shop here in town that just closed down due to the owner's retirement. I began using fibers from other vendors for the most part because she always had them. I still have quite a stash of DMC fibers too, but I really prefer Crescent Colors, Weeks Dye Works, Sampler (Gentle Arts), etc. I've got a few metallics from Kreinik too. I guess I'll be heading into Pigeon Forge to do most of my cross stitch shopping now, but I really don't like that shop as well. It's the closest one though so it will have to do.

Hmm... So I did some calculations and without Graphic Novels these are my totals from the last few years:

2011: 82 books
2012: 138 books
2013: 119 books

Much more realistic. :)

I've been thinking about the graphic novels. I've been thinking of maybe starting a separate thread for the graphic novels I read. Actually I really like the idea of keeping them separate now that I've thought of it. I don't want to NOT record them, but I don’t want them taking over my threads either. Because they are so short, it’s easy for the GN number to pile up. Which is why in 2011, my total was 308. That was the year I read three huge graphic novel series.

Going back and changing all my stats is a little daunting, but I think it would more realistically show my reading over the years.

Lori T., I went into a Joann Fabrics but couldn't find hardly anything, so I bought the lighthouse cross-stitch online from amazon. I'll have to look around here and see if we have a specific cross-stitch store.

Annnnnnd.... I've got all the graphic novels copied over onto different threads. (2014's graphic novel count can be found HERE!) This way, I can continue to keep track of the graphic novels I read but they won't clog up this thread and double my number count. If you liked seeing what GN I was reading, please join me there.

Next task is to go back through my statistic and fix the numbers. (o.0)

And, while I was tediously copying and pasting, I listened to this audio book:



2. Legion – Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 88
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are mad. A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people—Stephen calls them aspects—to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretation, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems…for a price. His brain is getting a little crowded, however, and the aspects have a tendency of taking on lives of their own. When a company hires him to recover stolen property—a camera that can allegedly take pictures of the past—Stephen finds himself in an adventure crossing oceans and fighting terrorists. What he discovers may upend the foundation of three major world religions—and, perhaps, give him a vital clue into the true nature of his aspects.

Thoughts:
This was kind of an odd book. I liked it. But it felt more like a TV show episode than a book. I suppose I don’t read very many novelettes or short stories and that if I did, it wouldn’t be that strange. This story is pretty detailed so I felt as if I was only getting a little of the overall story. I feel there is so much more that can be said about Stephen and his hallucinations. I feel kind of cheated that all I got was this. As always, Sanderson has some great and unique ideas, which is why I like reading his books. This one however may find its place on the bottom of the like scale of his books.

Favorite Line:
“You aren't insane, then."
"Heavens no," I said. I eyed her. "You don't accept that."
You see people that aren't there Mr. Leeds. It's a difficult fact to get around.
"And, yet, I live a good life," I said. "Tell me. Why would you consider me insane, but the man who can't hold a job, who cheats on his wife, who can't keep his temper in check, you call him sane?”

I had the privilege of heading Sanderson read Legion out loud at a sci-fi convention a few years ago. I really enjoyed it at the time, though it was quite different from his usual offerings. Like you, I felt there was so much more potential to the story, and I hoped that he would expand on it. (Who knows, at some point he might.)

32: Excellent book. The movie is also really well done. They cast a perfect Ender.

39: I have never tried Sanderson before. Would this be a good place to start?

I use Hoffman Distributing's directory to find cross stitch shops: http://hoffmandis.com/index.cfm?page=shops

This is my favorite shop for cross stitch patterns. I just love them:

http://www.xs-collectibles.com/

Faith, I am hoping he will. It's a very interesting concept, something I would like to see him take further. I am surprised at how many books he gets published. It seems every time I turn around there's another Sanderson book :)

Marie, I would suggest reading something else from Sanderson first. My first was Warbreaker and I loved it. Other's I know liked Mistborn the best. My sister in particular liked his Elantris the best. I feel they display his writing talent more. But Legion is an interesting one. And I am looking forward to seeing Ender's Game the movie, once it's on DVD.

Thank you Lori T. & Amber! Lori, I searched the directory and unfortunately there is no store in Boise. But there's one in a town near here. And Amber, I am in love with that site you linked me. There are some really fantastic works available pictured there. My favorite so far is 'By the Wayside'.

Yes! Statistics have been corrected, with the deletion of the graphic novels. Post 4 has been updated. So's here what 2013 actually looked like:

2013 Statistics (abridged)
*More complete statistics can be found on my Statistic’s page: HERE

Books: 120
Pages: 50,171

~2.3 books per week
~962 pages per week

Time Range: 1870s-2013
Format: Dead Tree (60); Audiobook (60)
Top 3 categories: TBR (41); Walk By-Pick Up (24); Textbook (17)
Top 4 genres: Non-Fiction (32); Epic Fantasy (18); Urban Fantasy (15); Anthropology (15)

5 Stars (12):
Raised By Wolves: Brethren / The Way of Kings / The Immense Journey / The Fault in our Stars / Every Day / A Memory of Light / The Giver / The Alchemist / Bones of Contention / Why Evolution is True / Two Boys Kissing / The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps

Additonal - Graphic Novels read: 82

>41 RosyLibrarian: In an entirely different direction, Marie, the only Sanderson I've read is his Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series, which might catch your fancy for obvious reasons (librarians really can't resist books about librarians, can we?).

3. Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik
Genre: High Fantasy
Pages: 432
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
When Britain intercepted a French ship and its precious cargo–an unhatched dragon’s egg–Capt. Will Laurence of HMS Reliant unexpectedly became master and commander of the noble dragon he named Temeraire. Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British hands–and an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate. Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Temeraire back to the Far East–a long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await.

Thoughts:
This is definitely a middle book. The majority of the book was taken up by the travel to China, a very long journey. Relationships are made or deepened, new characters are introduced, new plotlines revealed, but not much else. There was mostly just character development, with a few interspersed scenes of action to keep the reader reading. If this quality had been in a standalone novel I would have dropped the book. Since it was the middle book of a trilogy, I decided to stick with it to see if the third book got any better. The writing is still pretty good, but the plot of this particular book could have benefited from something more.

Favorite Line:
"It is different for dragons than for people," Laurence said. "Among other things, women must bear children, and care for them through childhood, where your kind lay eggs and hatch ready to look to your own needs.
Temeraire blinked at this intelligence. "You do not hatch out of eggs?" he asked, in deep fascination. "How then--"
"I beg your pardon, I think I see Purbeck looking for me," Riley said, very hastily, and escaped at a speed remarkable, Laurence thought somewhat resentfully, in a man who had lately consumed nearly a quarter his own weight in food.

My first and only Sanderson was The Rithmatist last year and it was highly compelling. I'm looking forward to more in that series. I have Steelheart and The Emperor's Soul waiting for me to get to.

My poor husband was feeling sad that the series he's been reading for the last several years just ended, so I bought him Way of Kings for Christmas. I'm hoping he'll enjoy it because that's going to be another long series to get into.

46: Bahaha, so true. We librarians love a good book about us!

47: Lovely review, I've been meaning to get to that series for awhile but I wanted to be in a fantasy mood. Man, your thread is a reminder of all things I want to read. :D

I like your taste! Ender's Game was one of my favorite books in high school, and when I reread it a little bit ago I was really pleased that it still held up, more or less. If you are thinking about reading some of the other books at some point, I guess I'd say that the Bean books (meaning Ender's Shadow and the rest) follow the characters and immediate world of Ender's Game, and that the adult Ender books (starting with Speaker for the Dead) only have one or two crossover characters, but are good thematic sequels since they deal with the next time humanity encountered an alien civilization.

I also find the Temeraire books really charming. I haven't heard of Legion, but it sounds interesting!

New Year greetings, Melissa. I dropped by to place my star and then saw that you have already got a number of books completed. I seem to be gettng off to a very slow start in my reading this year, first by being away and now with so much thread reading to do here. Looking forward to following your thread again this year.

Hello Melissa, dropping by to return the favor of your visit! I liked Ender's Game myself. As another graphic novel fan I have placed my star and look forward to following your thread this year!

Kathy, I tried getting The Rithmatist on audio a little while ago but it came in WMA not MP4, so I wasn't able to listen to it. Oh well, some other time this year. As for The Way of Kings, I ended up really liking that book. Also listened to that one on audio; it was very well done. I hope your husband likes the series. I hear the next book is due to come in March if I'm not mistaken. I don't know how Sanderson does it, writing all those books so fast and having them come out so well. :) If you don't mind my asking, what was the series you're husband just finished?

And Marie, I'm flattered. :) I do love being able to share appreciation for books.

legxleg, welcome and thank you! I went and looked and we share 111 books. :) And on the random generated list I saw What's Left of Me, which is kind of ironic as I just finished the second book to that series last night and will be putting the review up soon. Anyways, I think I will look to reading some more of the Ender books. I liked Bean so I might start with him. I think Legion is a 2012 book; I hadn't heard of it much either but I saw the Sanderson name so I grabbed it.

Welcome Judy! Happy new years. I suppose I always read a lot in the beginnings of the year. I'm off school, at least for another two weeks, so I try to get in as much as I can. Good luck with your reading. I'll be keeping an eye on your thread again as well. :)

My favorite Sanderson I've read so far is Emperor's Soul, which is pretty short, or Warbreaker, which is a hug chunkster.

I'm happy to join in with the Sanderson appreciation – I've read all his books except for the Alcatraz kids' series (of which I've only read one). He's one of my favourite authors.

Ah I missed you Abigail! Your post must have come in when I was typing. Welcome! I decided to keep my graphic novel count on a separate thread this year, so they don't clog up my 75 book count. I didn't use to care but I've read a LOT of graphic novels in the last few years so I finally decided to keep them separate and do two counts. So, anyways, the graphic novels I read will be HERE just in case you missed the post earlier. :)

Marcia, Emperor's Soul is still on my list. I can't seem to find it. But eventually. And I loved Warbreaker.

:) Welcome Kriti! We all must be on the threads at the same time because I missed you too. I never have thought of reading his Alcatraz books. I suppose they just look so different from what he's written recently. Did you enjoy the one Alcatraz you did read?

#57: Hi Melissa :) Sanderson likes to dabble in very different books – he's talked a lot about how he needs to write books that are very different back-to-back so that he doesn't burn out. The Alcatraz book was fun, but I didn't find it as compelling as his other work – it's aimed at middle grade readers, and it shows. His YA books, The Rithmatist and Steelheart, are aimed at a slightly older audience and still have a lot of his trademark worldbuilding/magic systems.

4. Once We Were - Kat Zhang
Genre: Dystopia
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 Stars
(New)

Summary:
Addie and Eva escaped imprisonment at a horrific psychiatric hospital. Now they should be safe, living among an underground hybrid movement. But safety is starting to feel constricting. Faced with the possibility of being in hiding forever, the girls are eager to help bring about change—now. The answer seems to lie within a splinter group willing to go to extremes for hybrid freedom, but as Addie and Eva fall ever deeper into their plans, what they thought was the solution to their problems just might be the thing that destroys everything—including their bond to each other.

Thoughts:
I really liked the first book of this Hybrid series What's Left of Me, so I hoped that I would like this one just as much. At first the book got off to a slow start but it soon picked up. It wasn't packed with action, but you two souls sharing a body, it’s bound to get interesting. While the first book focused on being hybrid in a world that thinks it’s a disease and needs to be cured, this one focused more on the difficulties of sharing a body such as trust and privacy. The book also dealt with morality a little. People may have treated you cruelly, but does that justify you hurting them? I find I was proud of Addie and Eva’s decisions in the end even though I was biting my nails in horror at what they were willing to do. It makes it worse when bad things happen to someone because they allowed themselves to be put in that position to save other people. I was worried that this book would be another one of those stories where the characters escape a horrible situation only to be put back into it, or something worse. I was pleased that this didn’t turn out to be one of those stories. I don’t mind them all the time, but this story has more potential than a story set in an institution. I am eagerly looking forward to the third installment. This is good writing and a very interesting plot conflict.

Favorite Line:
“Sometimes we make mistakes, Eva. Sometimes we make mistakes and they’re so terrible the word mistake doesn’t seem big enough to encompass it. But it happens. And the only way to ever make up for it is by cleaning up the mess.”

Hmm.. well perhaps I'll get to the Alcatraz books sometime in the future but for now there are plenty of other books I'd like to get to. :) Thanks!

Aww, I'm sorry you didn't like Throne of Jade more.

It's hard thinking of my favourite Sanderson book, and I haven't even read them all. Maybe Elantris, which was the first one I read. I also really liked Warbreaker and The Rithmatist. Pretty much the only ones I'm not a fan of are the Mistborn books. And I haven't yet read The Way of Kings (I think I'd prefer to wait until there are at least a few books in the series available) or various short stories/novellas.

Melissa, he was reading Donaldson's Thomas Covenant chronicles. The Last Dark is supposed to be the last book of the series which spanned... 35 years? Something like that. My husband picked up the first book probably 15 years ago now.

Melissa, if you think the Temeraire books are a trilogy, you've got a big surprise ahead of you! ;-)

Zoe, it happens right? It amazing how your mood or what's going on around you can affect things like that. I listened to the book on audio as well and I know sometimes that affects my end reflections.

And Kathy, I was wondering if that was it! I knew the last book had just come. I started that series seven-ish years ago, got to The Runes of the Earth and then had to wait for the next book to come out. I never did get to them afterwards and now I feel like I would want to do some re-reading before getting back into them.

Roni, is there six right now? I guess I assumed the first three completed the trilogy and the others were a sequel trilogy. Well I can't say I'm surprised. I tend to pick long series even by accident.

5. Where She Went - Gayle Forman
Genre: Gothic Fiction
Pages: 304
Rating: 4 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
In the three years since the tragic accident Mia barely survived in If I Stay, she and high school ex-boyfriend Adam have lived separate lives on opposite coasts. But then Adam, now the dissatisfied front man of popular LA-based band Collateral Damage, stops over in New York City for one night before kicking off the European leg of his tour. It happens to be the same evening that Mia, now well on her way to becoming a renowned cellist, is performing at Carnegie Hall. Adam buys a ticket, planning to slip in and out, but Mia spots him and for the first time in years they’re face-to-face with each other and their shared past. Over the course of one evening, as Adam and Mia traverse the city’s streets, they relive the four days Mia spent in the intensive care unit as well as her departure to Juilliard and from the life she knew. Emotionally raw and incredibly moving, Gayle Forman again showcases her considerable talent for drawing complex characters who face impossible decisions and then bear the consequences.

Thoughts:
This was an emotional but great sequel to If I Stay. Forman’s writing brings out the emotions well. And the narrator of the audio book for this novel, Dan Bittner, did a wonderful job expressing those emotions in the voices. The book is first person so sometimes it’s unclear what really happened, but that makes it even better when in the end, you figure out what did happen. You read what Adam thinks and fears happened when Mia stopped talking to him and then later in the book when Mia tells him her side of it, you get the whole picture. The book also does a lot of talking in the past. Every other chapter Adam talks about the past. There were a few instances where I almost wished it didn’t jump back and forth so much, that it would have just started at where it began. However at other times I thought it worked very well. I puts you right in the middle of things when Adam is already on the breaking point, a little insane, and in need of a drastic change, then shows how he ended up there, albeit in a very twisty turvie kind of way. Regardless, I enjoyed the book and the characters and the conflict. I can only imagine how hard it is to ask someone to stay alive, even if that means they don’t want you in their life anymore as a reminder, and then have it happen. They are alive, but they also leave you. How do you deal with the anger and betrayal while knowing that you told them it would be okay if they did exactly that, like with Adam’s situation? How do you deal with hating someone you used to love because they asked you to stay even though it’s so painful to be alive when the rest of your family died, like Mia dealt with? The characters make this story. And their struggles with love, life, and hardship are heart-breaking. The book does end on a happy note, but it’s gothic fiction for a reason.

Favorite Line:
‘It's my turn to see you through,' she whispers, coming back to me and wrapping me in her blanket as I lose my shit all over again. She holds me until I recover my Y chromosome.

65: LOVE Gayle Forman. I think this is her best series. Have you tried her other one - Just One Day and Just One Year?

Not yet. I didn't even know they existed until this morning when I looked Forman up on amazon. I'm definetly going to be looking for them however. I really like her writing.

>66 RosyLibrarian:/67: I just discovered that Forman has that new series, too! I really enjoyed If I Stay and Where She Went as well, so I'll be looking for her new ones as well.

67/68: I didn't love them as much as If I Stay, but they were still very enjoyable. I'm excited to see what she does next.

Have a wonderful weekend, Melissa!

Morning Melissa, have a great weekend.

Thanks! You both too! I spent all week working on grants and applications so this weekend I'm hoping to finally get some writing and serious reading in.

Oh and Marie, me too! I will be sure to find her other two but I'm also excited to see what she gives us next.

Ah, I'm a sucker for cool reading memes and challenges, etc. So when I saw this on Judy's and Roni's threads I couldn't help but want to participate as well. :) I wont be "trying" to fill this, but I think it will be a blast to see if my books fit on it. So far it seems they have :) I've already filled five. I may finish this earlier than expected.

PS. This thread is where you can join the party. I'll be posting there and here. :) Thanks Judy & Roni!

Melissa's Bingo Card:


Book that became a movie: Ender's Game
Book with non-human characters: Throne of Jade
Female Author: Where She Went
One-Word Title: Legion
Second book in a series: Once We Were

De nada!

I love that Bingo challenge too Melissa - wish I hadn't over stretched myself already or I would be joining the ladies "eyes-down" already.

Have a good weekend.

Thanks Paul! You too. :)

I have a feeling that we will all find the Bingo Challenge easy to start with when there are so many spaces to fill, but later on we will find ourselves searching through our stacks for a particular book to fill one of these last few squares.

Definetly!

True, I have one book that fills up tons of squares now, but it wasn't even that great a book, lol! Hoping to replace those markers with something much better as the year goes on.

I haven't had a chance to start filling in the card, but I will in the next couple of weeks. I have a paint program I can use to mark it up.

6. The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Reference
Pages: 192
Rating: 3 Stars
(Walk By-Pick Up)

Summary:
The jealous masses of the Seven Kingdoms may call him Halfman, but none have ever accused Tyrion Lannister of being a halfwit. His golden tongue has saved his skin slightly more often than it has landed him in mortal peril. Now, this special illustrated volume preserves his most essential knowledge for future generations.

Thoughts:
This is a nice idea for ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ fans. But it’s very short, and limited. I think a book of very good quotes from multiple characters would have been more interesting to read in my own opinion. I read all these quotes in a matter of maybe ten minutes I think. And only a few did I really find “essential knowledge”. I am rereading the Song of Fire and Ice series again so it was interesting to pick this book up after seeing it but it was not anything phenomenal.

Interesting book by Martin, Melissa, but I really think it would be wise for me to start the series to appreciate its glories.

Have a lovely weekend.

Paul, I always recommend the series to everyone. Just beware at the same time. They are not nice books. :)

7. When the World Calls - Stanley Meisler
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Pages: 252
Rating: 4 Stars
(Walk By-Pick Up)

Summary:
When the World Calls is the first complete and balanced look at the Peace Corps’s first fifty years. Revelatory and candid, journalist Stanley Meisler’s engaging narrative exposes Washington infighting, presidential influence, and the Volunteers’ unique struggles abroad. He deftly unpacks the complicated history with sharp analysis and memorable anecdotes, taking readers on a global trek starting with the historic first contingent of Volunteers to Ghana on August 30, 1961. In the years since, in spite of setbacks, the ethos of the Peace Corps has endured, largely due to the perseverance of the 200,000 Volunteers themselves, whose shared commitment to effect positive global change has been a constant in one of our most complex—and valued—institutions.

Thoughts:
There are dozens of books about Peace Corps experiences, but this book details the Peace Corps organization itself and its history. And it’s not all pretty. It was actually a refreshing book because it didn’t try to hide the problems with Peace Corps and its mistakes and failures. You get both the good and the bad here. I have to say though, it got pretty dry sometimes and I had to push to get through some chapters. It was interesting to see what the Peace Corps have gone thorough in the last fifty years however. It’s clear that many presidents wanted to us the organization as a tool for political gain. The organization was not always popular. But it is also clear that it has done amazing things. I could have wished for more on that topic, all that the Peace Corps have accomplished. It was only briefly touched on in the afterwards. The book was interesting if not really that engaging. A definite recommendation for anyone thinking of joining the Peace Corps but I would also recommend other Peace Corps books as this one is limited to certain topics.

Favorite Line:
‘Every American of goodwill we send abroad is another chance to make America known to a world that often dears and suspects us. And every American who returns from that service is a gift: a citizen who strengthens us with firsthand knowledge of the world.’

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

85: The Peace Core is such an interesting organization. I listened to a podcast about it from How Stuff Works and liked that they gave both the good and bad. I also didn't know how strict the criteria was for joining. I only know of one former classmate who served and he seemed to rather like it.

Everyone I have talked to who served overseas through the Peace Corps said they loved it. :)

8. The Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre: High Fantasy, Lit Classic
Pages: 320
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

Thoughts:
This is a fun, easy read. Almost too easy. I found that there was the same thing happening that I find happing in many books that were written sixty some years ago. There is more telling than showing and I particularly like the ‘showing’ in my reading. I also wasn’t impressed with the magic system. Anything is possible here. Yet I didn’t necessarily dislike the book. Just wasn’t impressed with it. But I’m glad I got it checked off my list.

Favorite Line:
“To light a candle is to cast a shadow...”

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

Hi Melissa, I haven't read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin and I am planning on trying The Wizard of Earthsea. I don't mind the easy reading part, just hope it is able to hold my interest and isn't too dated.

Judy, I listened to it on audio and it held my interest fairly well. But I can't say for sure. I've listened to some huge audio books in the last year, like 40 hours of audio. So when I listen to a 6 hour audio I usually find them eay to get through no matter how interesting the book itself is. But might as well give it a try, right?

On another note, school has started and of course it has TAKEN OVER MY LIFE! ACK! And I'm not driving to school anymore so I have less time to actually listen to my audio books than usual. But I did managed to get in a short audio in the last week. I'll get the review in tonight.

9. Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 320
Rating: 4 Stars
(Walk By-Pick Up)

Summary:
A hero with an incredible talent...for breaking things. A life-or-death mission...to rescue a bag of sand. A fearsome threat from a powerful secret network...the evil Librarians. Alcatraz Smedry doesn't seem destined for anything but disaster. On his 13th birthday he receives a bag of sand, which is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians plotting to take over the world. The sand will give the Librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!...by infiltrating the local library, armed with nothing but eyeglasses and a talent for klutziness.

Thoughts:
This was an entertaining book. It felt kind of like a mix between Harry Potter and the movies ‘The Librarian…’ and something else. I don’t know. It was interesting. The humor is not something I necessary think is funny, but there was a quirkiness to it that grows on you. I can tell that this is a book that younger kids would like but I also liked it alright. It’s a fit-all kind of book. I liked how the character was writing the book as if everything was real and the reader was in the dark. It draws the reader in, the way he narrators as if he is the author as well as the character. This book doesn’t have any phenomenal philosophy in it, or life lessons, or inspiring quotes, it’s not even a very high four star - but it’s a good read. It’s great to see that even Sanderson’s early works were pretty good.

Favorite Line:
“Authors also create lovable, friendly characters, then proceed to do terrible things to them, like throw them in unsightly librarian-controlled dungeons. This makes readers feel hurt and worried for the characters. The simple truth is that authors like making people squirm. If this weren't the case, all novels would be filled completely with cute bunnies having birthday parties.”

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

>91 Kassilem: Glad you liked it, Melissa. I am extraordinarly fond of the Alcatraz series - partly because its humour appeals to me and partly because it has librarians. As a librarian, I'm always disposed to like a book that portrays my kind. ;)

Hope you manage to squeeze in a bit of down time this weekend with the back to school crunch.

Melissa & Judy: Oh, I *loved* the Earthsea books when I read them last year! Ged gets better and better as the series goes along (yes, I'm a little bit in love with him, I admit).

Thanks, Amber, I am hoping to explore a few Sci-Fi authors this year and Ursula Le Guin is one that's at the top of my list.

Hope school is allowing you at least a little time for yourself Melissa. I may try to read The Wizard of Earthsea this year myself.

MickyFine, I was a librarian for four years myself so I especially like books that feature libraries and librarians. Haven't read very many, but I hope to find some more soon. :)

Amber, I'll have to look into the rest of the series some time.

Paul, it's not really. But like last semester I just accepted too many positions and opportunities. I am learning so much about myself as a leader and about the world, etc. but it does come at a price - mostly my free time and some of my sanity. And first weeks are always hard because there is no rhythm set yet. I also always overcompensate in the first weeks because I don't know yet how much work I need to do to have a grasp on the classes until later.

I did get another book in. A textbook! First week of classes and I've finished a textbook already! It was short and the class is very top heavy with a lot of reading in the first half of the class, but the very idea of already having one under my belt is crazy. :)

10. Hunter-Gatherer Foraging: Five Simple Models - Robert Bettinger
Genre: Non-Fiction, Anthropology
Pages: 124
Rating: 3 Stars
(Textbook)

Summary:
This is a primer on foraging models relevant to the study of hunter-gatherers. It is intended for students new to the subject matter, especially those with little mathematical training, and similarly challenged ethnographers, ethnologists, and archaeologists who are familiar with the principles of foraging theory but have never mastered any of its individual models. There are more of them than one might think. The diet breadth model is the backbone of hunter-gatherer foraging research.

Thoughts:
I don’t particularly like math. I thought I had mostly gotten away from it by being in the field of Anthropology. Some math is necessary – you can’t every totally get away from it, but I thought I was away from all the formulas. I was mistaken. Anthropology has recently begun looking at research in a very different way than 20th century anthropologists – looking at cultures with an evolutionary and behavioral ecological viewpoint. This includes models, formulas – hard science. I enjoyed the premise of this book. I particularly enjoyed the introduction which explained why these new paradigms and models are so important and yet restricting at the same time. But then it got into the math. I did okay with the diet breath model. I could follow that and see the applicability. The other four models however sort of lost me. I got the gist but my eyes tend to glaze when there’s pages after pages of formulas. This is something I need to work on changing. Perhaps it would have been better if I’d taken more time to get through the book, and really focused on what the formulas were saying. But well… priorities. This wasn’t high on the list. Anyways, let me get off my personal tangent. The book is fairly simple to understand if you’ve read books like this before and if you have a background in anthropology. If not, it may blow your mind and not in a good way. It’s a book that takes focus. But it’s not long. Definitely a good basic read for those in this field.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

>97 Kassilem: The title sounded interesting. The contents not so much! I thought it was about hunter-gathering methods not mathematical models!

LOL! I had the same thoughts as Morphy about Hunter-Gatherer Foraging!

Morphy & Judy, my thoughts exactly when I bought the book for class. Then I started reading it. Blah.

Love the Alcatraz books! Also, whaddaya know, I purchased A Wizard of Earthsea earlier this month and plan to read it in February. I've heard it's very good, but written in that older style of fantasy / sci-fi where they do a lot more "telling" than we're used to these days. I don't mind it too much, so long as I know what I'm getting into before I open the book!

Hello Melissa, hope your week has been going well. As for the Alcatraz books - I haven't read them myself, but my younger sister adores them. She can never stop laughing while she is reading them.

Faith, I hope you enjoy it! The Alcatraz books are a series I'm going to have to continue.

And Abigail, I don't know if I should answer your question, I may begin ranting. :) Lets just say it's been stressful. But today wasn't too bad. I had a good lunch with a potential candidate for our department. I defended my grant and received full funding to host the department's second annual symposium, and tomorrow I will be helping at an Archaeology booth at the STEM Day Fair, which should be pretty fun. :)

Reading Stats: Jan

Books: 10
Pages: 2,708

Format:
Dead Tree: 4
Audiobook: 6

Category:
TBR: 4
Walk By-Pick Up: 3
Off Bookshelf: 1
Textbooks: 1
New: 1

Stars:
4 Stars: 5
3 Stars: 5

Time Range:
1960-1969: 1
1980-1989: 1
2000-2009: 3
2010-2014: 5

Genres:
Science Fiction: 2
High Fantasy: 2
Non-Fiction: 2
Epic Fantasy: 1
Dystopia: 1
Gothic Fiction: 1
Reference: 1
Anthropology: 1
Lit Classic: 1
History: 1

Graphic Novels read: 14 ('GN count' Thread can be found HERE)

Melissa - Nice and varied reading for January - didn't realise that fantasy had so many sub-genres hahaha.

Ah, you can find ALL kinds of subgenres now-a-days. :) I like to sub divide my fantasy because I read so much of it and I like to keep track of the core differnces they have. I use four subgenres for fantasy:

High Fantasy: This has a 'medieval' feel. There tends to be dragons, kings, heros, etc.
Epic Fantasy: These books feature characters that goes from low beginnings to becoming a hero. There is usually a very large cast of characters and books tend to span many years as the character grows up.
Gothic Fantasy: This is the 'horror' in fantasy. Vampires, supernatural, tragedy, etc.
Urban Fantasy: And these are set in modern times with modern technology but include the supernatural or magic.

There's overlap.

I admit. I'm a big fantasy fan. :)

I just separate it into two: Fantasy (not our world or in our world but very different - "elves in the woods") and Contemporary Fantasy (our world with magical/supernatural beings - "elves in the mall").

>106 Kassilem:: Oh, I like your breakdown of the sub-genres! :)

Morphy, I thinks it's fascinating to see how different people categorize things differently. :)

And thanks Amber!

Update: Four weeks of school done; twelve more to go. I cannot WAIT to be rid of this soul sucking schedule.

11. The Realm of Possibility - David Levithan
Genre: Romance
Pages: 210
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Through a series of poems, Levithan introduces readers to a group of friends and acquaintances, including a gay couple celebrating their one-year anniversary, a girl whose mother is dying and an outsider who fills his notebook with "ink explosions of thought." His characters represent a diverse range of sexuality, race and social standing, and most struggle with love relationships, from a boy who wants to help his anorexic girlfriend, to a girl with an unrequited crush on a straight friend. The author experiments with different voices and styles

Thoughts:
David Levithan is an author that I have determined deserves for me to read everything he has written. I’m getting closer to catching up with his number of books. Having said that this one didn’t grab me like his other books grabbed me. I can appreciate the different styles and voices Levithan plays with here. I can appreciate the different kinds of love. But I didn’t feel much emotion while reading it, like I expected to from experiencing Levithan’s other books. Perhaps it was the poetry aspect; perhaps it’s my own exhaustion filled life right now. Who knows. Regardless, it’s one more of his books down. I’m am still very much interested in seeing what else he was written.

Favorite Line:
Here’s what I know about the realm of possibility—
it is always expanding, it is never what you think
it is. Everything around us was once deemed
impossible. From the airplane overhead to
the phones in our pockets to the choir girl
putting her arm around the metalhead.
As hard as it is for us to see sometimes, we all exist
within the realm of possibility. Most of the limits
are of our own world’s devising. And yet,
every day we each do so many things
that were once impossible to us.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

>110 Kassilem: I like David Levithan but I ditched this one just because I could not handle an entire novella in poetry. Just not for me. But I'm glad you made it through.

I can't usually handle that much poetry myself. But I've gotten VERY good at completing tasks on my list, and that one sort of just became a task on my list along with my textbook reading this weekend.

12. The Foraging Spectrum - Robert L. Kelly
Genre: Non-Fiction, Anthropoogy
Pages: 365
Rating: 3 Stars
(Textbook)

Summary:
The author wrote this book primarily for his archaeology students, to show them how dangerous anthropological analogy is and how variable the actual practices of foragers of the recent past and today are. His survey of anthropological literature points to differences in foraging societies' patterns of diet, mobility, sharing, land tenure, exchange, gender relations, division of labour, marriage, descent and political organisation. By considering the actual, not imagined, reasons behind diverse behaviour this book argues for a revision of many archaeological models of prehistory.

Thoughts:
The book I just read previously, The Realm of Possibility sort of fits here to. The whole book discusses the variation and possibilities you can find in hunter-gatherer groups. Band level groups are not always what we used to think of them as; always mobile, egalitarian where everyone in the band is equal, etc. The book is dry, as expected for this type of material. I don’t know if there is a way to make this not dry. But it’s got really great information. It challenges the way anthropologists look at hunter-gatherers. So why the three stars? Well, partly because it was required reading and I tend to not like books as much when I’m forced to read it by weekly deadlines. And partly because this is not material I am looking to study. I think its interesting stuff, but I would have rather been reading something else. If you are interested in studying archaeology and/or hunter-gatherers, this may be the perfect book for you however.

I wish the book had been more enjoyable. I'd like to read a more popular science treatment of hunter-gather societies. If you come across one, let me know!

I'll definitely let you know :)

13. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 835
Rating: 5 Stars
(Re-Read)

Summary:
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Thoughts:
It’s been years since I first read this book. I remember flying through the four books and then hitting that six year gap between the fourth and fifth book. Then when the sixth book came out I wanted to reread the series to refresh myself and really take in how the epic story had progressed. However I kept putting it off and off, because if you haven’t realized yet, these books are massive. When the TV show began I said again that I would reread the series. Then after a while I wondered if I shouldn’t just wait until all the books in the series had been written so I didn’t have to wait between each book and then have to reread the series each time a new one came out. However, I fear I would be waiting decades if I chose that path. This progressed into deciding I wanted to listen to the book on audio this time. That plan was waylaid because I did not like the narrator. Finally I sat down and listened to two or three hours and viola, I got used to the sound of the narrator’s voice. There are still some parts of the book that the narrator’s intonation or pitch annoyed me, but you have to take the good with the bad when listening to audio books. I’m glad I went that route in the end. I would not have finished it if I had tried to read the hardcopy while going to school. Anyways, let me get off my sidetrack there. Hmmm… What do you say about A Game of Thrones? That it is an epic masterpiece? That goes without saying. Just look at the ratio of 5 stars to all other ratings on Amazon. The book is also very depressing however. That ‘life isn’t fair’ times a hundred. However the characters are so taken care of in the writing that you just fall in love with them. Alas, that makes it worse when they are killed off. There are also characters that you wish you could just strangle. The ability to make your readers invest that much emotion into a character is a great accomplishment in its own right. It’s a huge book, and a huge series so be prepared to invest a lot of time into it. I’ve noticed though that when you have a series this involved, with so many characters and plotlines the books tend to get book and the series long. Look at the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind or the Eye of the World series by Robert Jordan. This series however may reach beyond those ones. This is not fantasy as we are used to it. It’s much too big for that. The villains are smart and vicious and they win much more than you would ever like. Your heroes die. Life lessons hurt. The weak always lose to the strong. On it goes. There is no happy ending in sight here. The book is graphically horrendous. And yet I find I love this series. The writing just pulls me in. The story shows life, not an imagined fairytale. I love fairytales but reality will pull more deeply at your heartstrings. And maybe it’s a learning experience: if you see how horrible people really can be, how they HAVE been really (just look at the world’s history!) maybe we can be better people. I also think the books challenges readers to look at all points. Damn those ‘villains’, let’s call them, make my toes curl but you only have to listen to find that they have fairly justifiable reasons behind their actions too. Now, some of these characters are such sick, mad, whatever you want to call them. We are generally, though, what the world and others make us. It brings up the issue of what really is right and wrong. It depends on the light you look at the issue in. What is good and evil. What is acceptable or not? What is the best thing to do, even if it’s not the right thing to do. On and on. This book really has so much in it, if you look and search for the deeper points. Anyways, I’ve blabbed on a lot here. Suffice to say this is tough but wonderful book.

Favorite Line:
No way to pick only a few here. You just open a random page and I bet you will find something.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

I have this series on my wishlist and I love the TV series but it has also cause the series to slip to the bottom of the pile. I will probably finish watching the TV series then wait awhile before starting to read the series. This is backwards to what I usually do, but I am loving discovering this story through the show.

I just read A Game of Thrones for the first time and love the detail Martin puts into his world building. His characters are well drawn - some more so than others - and I am looking forward to starting book two in the series, after I take a break from it. I need this story in small doses... kind of like the speed at which Martin writes it. ;-)

Judy, the newest season of Game fo Thrones is suppose to air on April 6. I'm way excited about it. I love the TV show.

Lori, ha! Yes this is definetly a series to take your time with and take breaks from.

14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 309
Rating: 4 Stars
(ReRead)

Summary:
Harry Potter has no idea how famous he is. That's because he's being raised by his miserable aunt and uncle who are terrified Harry will learn that he's really a wizard, just as his parents were. But everything changes when Harry is summoned to attend an infamous school for wizards, and he begins to discover some clues about his illustrious birthright. From the surprising way he is greeted by a lovable giant, to the unique curriculum and colorful faculty at his unusual school, Harry finds himself drawn deep inside a mystical world he never knew existed and closer to his own noble destiny.

Thoughts:
I’m not sure what to say about this book. Everything has pretty much been said a hundred times over by other reviewers. I like the series. I loved this first book and the next two when I was much younger. I read them a dozen times. After this read, at least a decade later, I didn’t love it nearly as much, but that was expected. There were things that I found annoying about how things were handled, but this was a book written for a younger audience so you have to expect that the plot doesn’t always seem totally realistic. I enjoyed finding parts of the book that weren’t in the movie, and there were even a few things I caught that I had missed the first times. Anyways, it’s a good book, good series, good characters, etc.. No need to recommend this one because I haven’t met a person who hasn’t read the book.

Favorite Line:
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

15. The Wood of Suicides – Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Genre: Gothic Fiction
Pages: 191
Rating: 4 Stars
(Early Reviewer)

Summary:
Woollett's narrator, Laurel Marks is a stunning, repressed seventeen-year-old schoolgirl. She also has a weakness for older men most of all her father, whom she'll do anything to impress. After his sudden death, Laurel is sent off to a boarding school where she shortly latches onto a new love-object: her English teacher, Mr. Hugh Steadman. Following an encounter in the woods, a flirtation develops between the two, marked by hopeful highs and suicidal lows, on Laurel's part. Their romance is eventually consummated one November afternoon, in the arbor where they first met. But Laurel's middle-aged teacher proves to be a more violent lover than she ever anticipated. Like the doomed chase between Daphne and Apollo, Steadman pursues and Laurel recedes.

Thoughts:
This is not an easy book to read. This is an inside look at a girl’s life as it spirals out of control. However, the prose was very lyrical and beautiful. That caused it to be expressive. I enjoyed the way Woollett played with words. This is the big reasons why this book is a four star for me. Without the language it would have been a three star. The story wasn’t bad, but I felt cheated at the end of the book. I didn’t understand what had happened. There was no closure or understanding. Too bad.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

Reading Stats: Feb

Books: 5
Pages: 1910

Format:
Dead Tree: 3
Audiobook: 2

Category:
TBR: 1
Reread: 2
Textbooks: 1
Early Reviewer: 1

Stars:
5 Stars: 1
4 Stars: 2
3 Stars: 2

Time Range:
1990-1999: 2
2000-2009: 2
2010-2014: 1

Genres:
Epic Fantasy: 2
Gothic Fiction: 1
Non-Fiction: 1
Anthropology: 1
Romance: 1

Additional Graphic Novels read: 2 ('GN count' Thread can be found HERE)

>121 Kassilem: I was curious about the title. It looks to be a reference to Dante's depiction of suicides and the profligate in his Inferno. Hmmm. Looks like one I might want to take a look at!

High Melissa, have a great Monday.

Jim, that's exactly what it refers to. :) Annnnd, someday I'll get to Dante.

Thanks Abigail! Hope yours was great too.

A quick quote from Wikipedia's summary of Inferno:

Middle ring: In this ring are suicides and profligates. The suicides – the violent against self – are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees and then fed upon by Harpies. ... The trees are a metaphor for the state of mind in which suicide is committed. Dante learns that these suicides, unique among the dead, will not be corporally resurrected after the final judgement since they gave away their bodies through suicide; instead they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses hanging from the thorny limbs. The other residents of this ring are the profligates, who destroyed their lives by destroying the means by which life is sustained – i.e., money and property. They are perpetually chased and mauled by ferocious dogs. The destruction wrought upon the wood by the profligates' flight and punishment as they crash through the undergrowth causes further suffering to the suicides, who cannot move out of the way (Canto XIII).

>116 Kassilem: I'm trying to read the Martin series but I'm going to do it very slowly. While Martin's a good writer, I can only take so much of his depressing books. I've read A Game of Thrones. I'll get to A Clash of Kings in the next month or two.

Jim, interesting. :) Horrific but interesting. Dante is definetly someone I need to look at in the future.

Morphy, that's what I'm thinking of doing too. I love his books but it was very depressing listening to it this time and I can't really afford to allow myself to get to down this semester. I'm already on the edge. Maybe over the summer when it's sunny outside and I'm not so stressed.

Life update:
I just finished a weekend of my department's Anthropological Conference that I helped plan and organize. I've been working on this since January and have put a lot into it. It was a three day event with speakers from all over the northwest. It went really well but WOW am I glad it's over. Trying to create that event while taking classes and working and all the other crazy things I said yes to this semester... well it wasn't always pretty.

I doubt it's all going to get better because the undergraduate research I'm doing is finally picking up speed and I need to get a poster out soon to present at the fairs and conferences, but hopefully I'll have At LEAST a little more energy to commit here and do more than glance at threads.

I just wanted to thank those that have continued to comment here despite my late and lackluster responses. I really appreciate it. I hope to return the favors. :)

I'm glad your conference went so well. I know it had to have been a lot of work. You go, girl, on your assignments and the research--this too will end!

Roni, it will! :) I got through my last semester which was just as stressful in a different ways. I'll get through this one. I'm just taking it week by week. The semester is half over and spring break (!!) is coming up very soon. I'm so excited to just sit out in the sun and read!

Congrats on pulling off the conference, Melissa. That's going to look excellent on your CV. :)

Thanks Micky. It certainly is! This is why I found it hard to say no to a lot of what I'm doing. These are fantastic opportunities that don't just happen all the time. I felt I couldn't pass them up. And I certainly learned a lot. I now qaulify as an event's coordinator. I don't know if I'll ever need that skill again to such a degree but it opens so many doors. I just had to sactifice my social life and a little of my sanity but I'm positive it will be worth it later on.

16. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Pages: 389
Rating: 5 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

Thoughts:
I loved this book. I am fascinated with genetics and mutations, with human variation, so this was right up my alley. It’s a horrific take on what could happen. But it’s not unbelievable. Atwood certainly did her homework. This is all likely with the way we are growing as a species , manipulating genes and always wanting more, better. This is my first book of Atwood’s so I can’t say much about how the language relates to her other works, but I found I liked the prose and the expressions used a lot. I liked that a lot of this book was ‘shown’ not ‘told’. I wished to see more of Jimmy/Snowman in the present. The majority of the book is Jimmy’s past which is how we see what happened to get him where he is in the present. When I heard that this was only the first of a trilogy, however, I felt better about this. I will definitely be looking for the next one soon.

Favorite Line:
After everything that's happened, how can the world still be so beautiful? Because it is.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

I'm reading that series as well and I'm also loving it. I read the first 2 books at the end of last year and I'm waiting for the final book to move out of the "New Books" section at my library. A fair warning though, Jimmy is almost completely absent from the 2nd book. It focuses on another character entirely. However, even though I havn't read it yet, it looks like he is back again in book 3, so you can still look forward to what is going on with him in the present. :)

Stephen, I read that last night after writing my review and looking at finding the next book. At first I was dissapointed but I do like Atwood's writing so I was able to psyche myself up again for the second. :)

Yeah, you can imagine how I felt, when I made the unfortunate discovery after reading a couple chapters and realizing Jimmy wasn't being mentioned. It's a wonderful book, however, so I quickly put Jimmy in the back of my mind and embraced the new character. :)

133: Great review and book. That trilogy might honestly be in my top three because it is crafted so beautifully and is full of such beautiful satire.

I think you will love books 2 and 3. Everything comes together so beautifully.

(Also, A Handmaiden's Tale is wonderful.)

Stephen, I can imagine it very well. I've come across that in other series a couple of times myself. When it's good writing though it usually doesn't matter in the end. I just got the second and third on audio yesterday and a looking forward to starting them. I hope you get your copy soon too. :)

Marie, thanks! I'm positive I'll like the 2nd and 3rd from all the good things I've heard about the series. A Handmaiden's Tale has already gone onto my TBR list.

I just wanted to put a reminder here that I keep track of my Graphic Novel reading on a separate thread found HERE.

I've only read one book for March so far but I was just updating my GN thread and realized I have read a bit of graphic novels this month. All I really have time to read in bed before falling asleep.

Anyways, I'm just getting into the Marvel comics so if anyone is interested in those I would love to gather some discussion on those. I'm interested in getting involved in those comics but I feel I'm running blind in my selections. :)

Yeah, I imagine getting into Marvel would be difficult, the collection is so enormous and I'd be at a loss as to where to start. Plus I'd be all OCD and want to read everything in chronological order, from the beginning...the VERY beginning. :P

Yes, Jimmy shows up in the 3rd book, MaddAddam. I wouldn't call him a main character, but he is a significant secondary character.

Stephen, that's exactly what I first wanted to do. I certainly am a little OCD in that way. I doubt that it will be possible though.

Morphy, I'm looking forward to reading about him. I'm just uploaded The Year of the Flood to my ipod actually, so soon.

MrMorphy, who is a Marvel reader, says to try the X-Men. You want the collection that starts with Giant Size #1 and regular issue #94. These are from the 70s. These comics show the origins of many of the characters in the movies.

Awesome! Thank you Morphy and MrMorphy.

Kyran is an ardent Marvel comic man. Mangga and Marvel. His reproductions of some of the story boards are mightily impressive to my untutored eye.

Have a lovely weekend, Melissa.

Thanks Paul. I'll have to look Kyran up. I hope your weekend was great as well!

17. Every You, Every Me - David Levithan
Genre: Gothic Fiction
Pages: 248
Rating: 4 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he's been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan's starting to believe it's Ariel that's behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself. Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.

Thoughts:
First of all, I really like David Levithan’s writing. He has some very interesting ideas. IN this case, writing a novel around photographs. Photographs he never knew what of until he received them from a photographer who didn’t know what the book was about. It was interesting. At first I was sort of irritated because half the text is crossed out and trying to read it creates long run on sentences. But I quickly got used to it and soon it actually told much more about the story and the character. Levithan has such talent with words and expressions. I’m definitely glad I got to this one. Reading his books always give me something to think about it. There’s always something deeper to find in his books.

Favorite Line:
‘I don’t want you to think I got though this undamaged, okay? But I'm learning to live with it. Because otherwise, teh damage is all you are.'

I have a slew of David Levithan books on my wishlist so I hardly need more but Every You, Every Me sounds intriguing. On the list it goes!

Glad I could give you a book bullet. I sure you will like it.

18. Red Rising - Pierce Brown
Genre: Dystopia
Pages: 382
Rating: 4 Stars
(Early Reviewer)

Summary:
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Thoughts:
It took me a while to get to this one. First there was some trouble getting it mailed to me. Then I got busy with school. Then I kept looking at the length of the book. Then I saw a quick glance at a review that didn’t like the book. But finally, I picked it up. I’m glad I did. It turns out I liked the book. A lot. It sort of reminds me of the Hunger Game books, but better; there’s more to the story. More to invest in. It’s not a five star because there could have been more done with the society itself, more explaining. But without that it still flowed well. I enjoyed the characters, the plot and the conflict. I enjoyed being invested in Darrow. If you like Dystopia or epic fantasy stories this is a book you should read. The next book comes out this later this year and I will certainly be picking it up.

Favorite Line:
“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power.”

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

I kept trying to snag a copy of that book (It either came up twice in ER or was in the Member's Giveaway section) but didn't manage to get one. I'm glad you liked it though! I'm always deterred when I get a review copy and it's a chunkster. I sometimes wish LT would include page numbers in the description for it's Early Reviewer books.

Stephen, me too! I love getting knew books but sometimes they don't turn out like you expected and when they're long, that's a lot of time to invest in just trying to finish it. So I always worry a little on the long books.

19. Changers Book One: Drew - T Cooper & Allison Clock-Cooper
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Gender Bender
Pages: 288
Rating: 2 Stars
(Early Reviewer)

Summary:
Changers Book One: Drew opens on the eve of Ethan Miller's freshman year of high school in a brand-new town. Everything is looking up in life. Until the next morning. When Ethan awakens as a girl. Ethan is a Changer, a little-known, ancient race of humans who live out each of their four years of high school as a different person. After graduation, Changers choose which version of themselves they will be forever--and no, they cannot go back to who they were before the changes began. Ethan must now live as Drew Bohner--a petite blonde with an unfortunate last name--and navigate the treacherous waters of freshman year while also following the rules: Never tell anyone what you are. Never disobey the Changers Council. And never, ever fall in love with another Changer. Oh, and Drew also has to battle a creepy underground syndicate called “Abiders” (as well as the sadistic school queen bee, Chloe). And she can't even confide in her best friend Audrey, who can never know the real her, without risking both of their lives.

Thoughts:
I have to be honest, I read thirty pages into this book and then scanned the rest. I couldn't make myself read through the rest word by word. It was too juvenile for me. Too predictable, to simple. I really just couldn't do it. Perhaps it's a mood because there are other juvenile books that I do like - usually high or epic fantasy. This was a fantasy and has a great plot story, and perhaps that’s where I went wrong. I had high expectations for this book because I was very interested in the plot and conflict. But it didn't meet my expectations. I don't understand all the raving I have heard about the book. It's too bad. I don't like when I get a book that I don't like to this extent, but unfortunately it happens.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

Haha, that is an unfortunate last name. I think it's a missed opprotunity that the name wasn't Shirley A. Bohner.

What reference is that, if any? I haven't heard it.

20. A Searing Wind - Michael & Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 624
Rating: 4 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Once exiled by the Chicaza for cowardice in battle, Black Shell nevertheless dedicates his soul to stemming the onslaught of the Kristiano invaders and protecting his people. He and his beautiful wife, Pearl Hand, have fought the enemy from the Florida peninsula through the very heart of native America. They have seen the shackled slaves, heard the broken promises—and they have learned of de Soto’s plans to _target the Chicaza. Obsessed with setting the perfect trap, Black Shell gambles everything to preserve his people’s fragile existence— their pride, traditions, even their winter stockpiles of food and supplies. But the stakes are raised to their greatest heights when he and Pearl Hand must walk boldly into de Soto’s camp and engage the cunning monster in a desperate game of wits in order to decide the fate of a continent.

Thoughts:
This is the last book in this series. It's my first book series from these authors, and I'm happy with them. They are archaeologists who know their stuff. And they're good writers on top of it. I particularly like the history since I know some of it from school, but the best is the way the history comes alive with this storytelling. It's fictional and some things are made up to help create such a great story but most of it is based on true events. This is the kind of series that makes you want to go find out more about the history. That is powerful. I am looking forward to reading more from these authors.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

Saying it out loud sounds like 'surely a boner.' :P

ohhhhhh. Ha. :)

Reading Stats: March

Books: 5
Pages: 1,931

Format:
Dead Tree: 3
Audiobook: 2

Category:
TBR: 3
Early Reviewer: 2

Stars:
5 Stars: 1
4 Stars: 3
2 Stars: 1

Time Range:
2000-2009: 1
2010-2014: 4

Genres:
Dystopia: 2
Science Fiction: 1
Historical Fiction: 1
Urban Fantasy: 1
Gender Bender: 1
Gothic Fiction: 1

Graphic Novels read: 14 ('GN count' Thread can be found HERE)

21. Human Variation - Stephen Molnar
Genre: Non-Fiction, Anthropology
Pages: 416
Rating: 3 Stars
(Textbook)

Summary:
This classic introduction to human variation has been updated to include the issues and controversies facing the contemporary study of diversity. Covers the adaptation of complex traits; how the race concept shapes our perspective of health and disease; the distribution of human differences; and human variability and behavior. For those studying anthropology, biology, evolution, or human variation or human diversity.

Thoughts:
This was a hard book to read. I almost gave it a two star for that but the topics covered are interesting for me. It just forced you to concentrate very hard to understand what was being said half the time. Also, sa a textbook, it is overflowing with knowledge and information. Too much really to take in, in my opinion. It just dumps the information on you without any ease or transitions. Very dry.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

Have a weekend full of fabulousness Melissa!

Thanks! You too

22. Night Broken - Patricia Briggs
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 Stars
(New)

Summary:

An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from a stalker. Adam isn’t the kind of man to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about the situation isn’t right. Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s stalker is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.

Thoughts:
I was worried I wouldn't like this book. The dust cover originally sounded as if there was going to be a cat fight between Mercy and Christy and I could just picture Mercy getting hurt, leaving, etc. I wasn't really interested in that but I wanted to continue the series anyways. I was thus very happy when the story didn't turn out that way. Instead it was almost on par with Brigg's other books. Very engaging - I had a hard time putting it down and didn't get much sleep the past two nights as a result. And I just love Mercy. While the main story here is Christy and her non-human stalker, other pieces get pulled in that keeps it flowing from the previous books and adds more than can be worked off of. I am definitely looking forward to seeing if another book to the series is in the making. The series is getting up near the two digits now but I can’t bring myself to mine all that much here.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

23. The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Pages: 448
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
In this second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, the long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away.

Thoughts:
I did not like this volume as much as I liked the first book. It was more about the two woman’s lives before the ‘flood’ and whereas Jimmy’s past in the last book was full of how different the world is compared to ours, this one had less of that and more of the daily grim in that world. There’s more to why I didn’t like it as much but I can’t yet put my finger on it. It looks like some reviewers who did not like the first book as much liked this one. I’m the opposite. It almost reached a four star towards the end when the book picked up with present action instead of past occurrences, but it didn’t quite make it there. I still listened to the whole audio book because I knew they’d run into Jimmy at the end and I want to know how that works out. I will be reading/listening to the next book. As an aside, the songs were actually sung out in the audio book which was really neat.

Favorite Line:
What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

>164 Kassilem: Sorry you didn't like this one more. Oryx and Crake is probably my favorite with TYOTF being tied with MaddAddam. It's hard to choose actually because they are all such different books for being set in the same place with some of the same people.

It seems like everyone is liking Night Broken. I am still on Frost Burned, and am dying to get to it. My mum says I need to hurry up so that we can talk about it.

>163 Kassilem: Seems like you enjoyed Night Broken about as much as I did. I loved how Mercy flailed about at first when Christie arrived but eventually showed her what's what. And as you said - without a cat fight. It was very real.

Marie, maybe that means I will like the third one while I didn't like this one, if it's different. :)

Abby, if you're enjoying the series so far you will love Night Broken. I myself didn't like her last three volumes as much as I liked her first four books in the series. I think this last one is on par with the first four books.

Morphy, it was and I appreciated it that way. Mercy is a good person. :)

24. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Genre: Romance
Pages: 183
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Nick frequents New York’s indie rock scene nursing a broken heart and Norah is questioning all of her assumptions about the world. Though they have nothing in common except for their taste in music, their chance encounter leads to an all-night quest to find a legendary band’s secret show and ends up becoming the first date that could change both their lives.

Thoughts:
I was worried about this book. The other book I read by Cohn and Levithan I didn't like. It's on my TBR because David Levithan is an author whose bibliography is one I'm determine to complete, since I love his writing so much. But I didn't like how juvenile Dash and Lily's Book of Dares was. This book was very different; much more vulgar. The vulgarity is the reason I rated it so low. Too many ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’ for my liking. It’s a very explicit young adult book, an adult young-adult book. But I did like it more than Cohn and Levithan’s other co-authored book. An easy five hours of listening.

Favorite Line:
“Why do we even bother? Why do we make ourselves so open to such easy damage? Is it all loneliness? Is it all fear? Or is it just to experience those narcotic moments of belonging with someone else?”

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

In the beginning of this thread I made some new years resolutions (I've copied them below). I wanted to share that I have completed one of them! Yay!! The others are slow going, although I have applied to the Peace Corps and am just waiting on the acceptance.

1. Finish my degree in Anthropology and graduate
✔ 2. Finish and present my undergraduate research
3. Apply and get accepted into the Peace Crops
4. Study for and take the GRE
5. Get to the gym four times a week
6. Pay off my car
7. Finish my cross-stitch
8. Finish my first novel and get a good start on my second
9. Read 75 books
10. Be happy

Anyways, I've included a picture of the poster and me (right) below:

Congratulations!

Huzzah! And great picture. It's always nice to have a face to picture. :)

>170 Kassilem: I always make 10 goals a year too. I've never hit all of them in a year, but it makes me feel good about progressing towards something.

Congrats on your poster! Love the picture too. Your necklace is tres chic!

Way to keep on track, Melissa. Looks like you have set yourself some great goals and are going to have a very successful and meaningful year.

Thanks Lori!

And Mickly, it certainly is. I was never comfortable putting up my face online like this before but I've come to trust this website and the people here and I know that I like to put faces to names myself so I though it was time.

Thank you Marie, that necklace is one of my favorites. I never really thought accessorizing was needed until I started wearing nice blouses. Then I realized something you have to have accessories. :) And I also think making those goals was good for me. It does feel like I have a solid focus on life when I look at them.

Judith, I certainly hope to have a successful year. At the moment I'm just trying to pass this semester's classes. It's been a very rough few months. But I have my finals in three weeks and then it's summer!

I'm already packing my summer up (of course!) with funded research, a cell biology class and GRE study and test-taking. But I'm really hoping things happen at a slower pace. :)

25. Surviving the Extremes - Kenneth Kamler
Genre: Non-Fiction, Anthropology
Pages: 336
Rating: 4 Stars
(Textbook)

Summary:
A true-life scientific thriller no reader will forget, Surviving the Extremes takes us to the farthest reaches of the earth as well as into the uncharted territory within the human body, spirit, and brain. A vice president of the legendary Explorers Club, as well as surgeon, explorer, and masterful storyteller, Dr. Kenneth Kamler has spent years discovering what happens to the human body in extreme environmental conditions. Divided into six sections—jungle, high seas, desert, underwater, high altitude, and outer space—this book uses firsthand testimony and documented accounts to investigate the science of what a body goes through and explains why people survive—and why they sometimes don’t.

Thoughts:
This was a fascinating book! I knew I would like it when I bought it for my ‘human variation’ class a few months ago. I didn’t know it until just two minutes ago but Ken talks about a tragedy on Everest in this book which is actually what the book ‘Into Thin Air’ by Jon Krakauer is about, a book I have wanted to read for a while. But really, what I loved about this book was the knowledge available here. There are tons of facts here about what your body goes through molecularly and macro-ly when under extreme whether that extreme pressure, not enough pressure, searing temperatures, searing cold temperatures, etc. There’s some very handy advice prevalent throughout the book. There’s stories of tragedies and miracles. And Ken is a pretty good writer as well. The only quirk I noticed that stuck with me is that the first chapter on the Amazonian jungle felt more like a memoir while the rest felt like what I had expected – humans surviving in extremes. There was too much narrating his own experience in the jungle. But that was the only chapter that I thought it was too much. The book is highly readable in my opinion. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the human body, the human will to survive, and/or the world’s extreme environments. I feel this book can offer a lot to a lot of different people.

Favorite Line:
A dream may spring from the mind, but it needs a brain to contain it and a living body to sustain it.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

26. MaddAddam: A Novel – Margaret Atwood
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Pages: 416
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb.

Thoughts:
I still didn’t like this book as much as I had hoped. It was about on par with the second book for me. Too much past story for characters I’m was never invested in. I don’t understand why I didn’t mind Jimmy’s past but did mind Jeb’s past or Adam’s past but I did very much, so much that I admit to skipping a few pages here and there (or as it was, a few minutes in the audio book) just to get along with the story. I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t even like Jimmy in this last book even though I really liked him in the first book Oryx and Crake. Overall, the last two books for not my cup of tea. I didn’t feel a sense of closure for the end of the trilogy either. I am looking forward to some of Atwood’s other books but this one fell flat for me. Oh well.

Favorite Line:
There's the story, then there's the real story, then there's the story of how the story came to be told. Then there's what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

>288 Noooo, I'm sorry you didn't like the last two books. I absolutely adored them, but I can see how they might not be for everyone. Hopefully the next one is a success!

>170 Kassilem: Wow, congrats! The poster looks great!

Judith, there is always that risk huh. I'm not quite what my next one will be. I'm kind of all over the place while trying to finish up school in the next three weeks. :)

And thank you, Amber! I was very excited about it when I got it printed.

Reading Stats: April

Books: 6
Pages: 2,151

Format:
Dead Tree: 3
Audiobook: 3

Category:
TBR: 3
Textbook: 2
New: 1

Stars:
4 Stars: 2
3 Stars: 4

Time Range:
2000-2009: 3
2010-2014: 3

Genres:
Non-Fiction: 2
Anthropology: 2
Science Fiction: 2
Dystopia: 2
Urban Fantasy: 1
Romance: 1

Graphic Novels read: 12 ('GN count' Thread can be found HERE)

27. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 Stars
(Re-Read)

Summary:
The Dursleys were so mean that hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike. And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny. But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone--or something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry Potter himself?

Thoughts:
I kept picturing the video game based off this book as I listened to it. I must have watched my brother play the game to much. :) Anyways, I don’t think I could possibly not enjoy this book, or series for that matter. It’s certainly not always realistic (even for a magical world) but there are some books where you just don’t need to have it make sense. I wonder if that’s because of how popular they are or if that’s why they became so popular. They are not books that will make you giggle yourself out of your seat or get teary eyed, but they have a charming quality to them. I suppose you just get invested in the characters and that’s that. I am glad I’m rereading this series. It’s been a few years since I’ve gone through the series and it’s interesting to remember the difference between the books and the movies which are much fresher in my mind at the moment. Actually the first two movies followed the books very closely. I am looking forward to listening to the next, the third, book.

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

Question for everyone/anyone:

What do you do with the early reviewers that you don't like? I'm doing some early spring cleaing (since I should be studying for finals) and have a bunch of ERs I don't know what to do with. Can't donate them to the library since they aren't the final copies. I'm not really into keeping them boxed up to sell on amazon or here since I'm living in my parents house and don't really have a place to store them.

Any suggestions?

>183 Kassilem: The library might take them for their book sale.

Do you live in an apartment or condo building with a laundry area? Our building has a free library set up in one corner of the laundry area where people can leave and take books. That is where I donate my ER books that I don't want to keep. My previous office also had a bring and take shelf in the stationary cupboard that operated on the same principle. That is about all of the suggestions I have.

Micky, My initial impression was that they wouldn't, but I should call and ask. You might be right about hem taking them for their sales.

Lori, I don't live near anything like that. But you just inspired me to look around on the web to see if there is anything close like that. I really really don't want to just throw them away (That's blasphemy). Thanks!

28. The Bone Woman - Clea Koff
Genre: Memoir, Anthropology
Pages: 271
Rating: 3 Stars
(Book Club)

Summary:
In 1994, Rwanda was the scene of the first acts since World War II to be legally defined as genocide. Two years later, Clea Koff, a twenty-three-year-old forensic anthropologist, left the safe confines of a lab in Berkeley, California, to serve as one of sixteen scientists chosen by the United Nations to unearth the physical evidence of the Rwandan genocide. Over the next four years, Koff’s grueling investigations took her across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century. The Bone Woman is Koff’s unflinching, riveting account of her seven UN missions to Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Rwanda, as she shares what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, and what she learned about the world.

Thoughts:
This was an interesting book. It was the winner of a vote students in my department choose as the book our Anthropology Club would read this semester. I’m interested in forensics already so I wasn’t worried that I wouldn’t like the book. And I did find it interesting. But I didn’t get much more out of it either. There were tidbits of life in a profession like this that I found very usual, but I already knew the forensic facts. The book was much more about her experiences and emotions, which was, again, interesting but not eye opening, at least for me. I do think it was an excellent book choice for an Anthropology Book Club. And for beginners readers of this type of material/profession, it was very easy to read; not a lot of jargon to bog you down.

>187 Kassilem: That one sounds really interesting to me actually. I think it's because I watch the TV show Bones too much...

:) I love that Forensic is getting so popular. I can't watch the show myself because I just criticize all they get wrong and can't actually enjoy just watching it. But I am glad it's getting attention

>189 Kassilem: I just watch David Boreanaz and there isn't much to criticize there! ;)

That is true :)

I really like your Reading Bingo Challenge pic! :) I just might try this. Thanks!

Re: what do do with ARC's that you don't want to keep - I have taken an armful into a local center for seniors. They were quite happy to take them.

Sara, it is actually pretty fun to see how your books fit into the cards. :)

Judy, That is a great idea. I actually have one of those in the neighborhood. I migh take a few down there. Thank you for the suggestion.

I know, I love the idea! I almost got a bingo from what I've read so far, but I've been a slow reader this year. Btw, congrats on getting a bingo on the first one! :)

>190 RosyLibrarian: Ha! *Raises hand* Guilty.

Hi, Melissa!

Thanks Sara!

And hello back Amber :) Hope life is treating you well

MY FINALS ARE DONE! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! One more semester but most imprtantly, I finally have a few months off! :)



29. The King: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood - J. R. Ward
Genre: Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 592
Rating: 4 Stars
(New)

Summary:
After turning his back on the throne for centuries, Wrath, son of Wrath, finally assumed his father’s mantle--with the help of his beloved mate. But the crown sets heavily on his head. As the war with the Lessening Society rages on, and the threat from the Band of Bastards truly hits home, he is forced to make choices that put everything--and everyone--at risk. Beth Randall thought she knew what she was getting into when she mated the last pure blooded vampire on the planet: An easy ride was not it. But when she decides she wants a child, she’s unprepared for Wrath’s response--or the distance it creates between them. The question is, will true love win out... or tortured legacy take over?

Thoughts:
A lot of people didn’t like this book, at least as much as they expected to. I found I did like it. I may have just been in the exact right mindset for it or because I listened to it on audio. I just didn’t get the feeling that anything was a distraction, like others thought. I enjoyed all the characters and their plot lines. I guess I feel as if this is nothing new. Each book has had other plotlines weaved into the main plotline. Otherwise it’d take double the amount of books to get all the stories out there. I do agree with some reviewers however in the wish for more of the brothers. I did feel their lack in this book, but I’ve been feeling that for the last few books too. I will definitely be rereading this series in the near future. I think there is a little disconnect between all the characters but I don’t know how J R Ward would be able to get around that with the amount of characters now in the mansion and all the different stories. It’d be even more of a mess to try to stage everyone. It’s not perfect for sure, but I still thought it was a great book that I enjoyed listening to.

Congrats on the end of finals! :)

>198 Kassilem: Woo hoo - one more semester! Congratulations!

Hooray for finishing up your finals! I bet it feels good knowing you have some time off and have only one more semister to go.

Yay for finals being completed!

Thanks Sara, Marie, Judy & Lori!! I am so excited to be almost done. And this summer will hopefully be great. I plan on getting a lot fo reading and writing in.

Congrats, and a happy Tuesday to you!

Happy Tuesday to you as well :) And thank you!

30. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 448
Rating: 5 Stars
(Reread)

Summary:
For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts...he's at Hogwarts." Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.

Thoughts:
This is the book in the series that I think is the turning point. Things begin to get serious and you start to invest in the characters a little more than you have for the first two books. There is less of the unrealistic happenings. There’s still a few parts that seem too good to be true and it has the almost fairy tale ending like expected, but the book has an overall more grown-up feel. You also get to learn much more about Harry’s parents and their friends and rivals, which is a treat. There’s a lot of humor. I listened to the audio book in the car with my siblings for our road-trip and we all loved it, laughing the whole time. I doubt that anyone has not read this series but if you haven’t I highly recommend that you do. It’s a fun series that just keeps getting better with each book.

Favorite Line:
“Bad news, Harry. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She – er, got a bit shirty with me. Told me I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about staying alive. Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first.”

>206 Kassilem: Whoa, I have never seen that cover before. The title looks so weird in that font!

:) The other covers are classics but I do like these ones better.

It's summer time and I'm finally off school for a while. I've found myself obsessed with my crossstitch again. :) There will probably be a lot of audio books in the next few weeks and I plow through this

31. Starters - Lissa Price
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Pages: 336
Rating: 4 Stars
(Walk By-Pick Up)

Summary:
Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter. Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined.

Thoughts:
Dystopia certainly seems like the new genre that everyone is writing on now. And you’d think that after so many you’d see everything. But this one was new for me. I liked the premise behind the story for it’s uniqueness. I could see the reality behind it, how it might come to happen – the renting bodies aspect. I can’t imagine something like this in reality but the ideas behind it, the want of avoiding old age, is very much real. There was some nice twists in the book that surprised me and a few predictable spots. While I doubt I would reread this book I did enjoy it a lot and am looking forward to the next book.

Favorite Line:
“No one ever complained about a fat brain. No one ever accused their brain of being too short or too tall, too wide or too narrow. Or ugly. It either worked or it didn't, and mine worked just fine.”

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

>209 Kassilem: I did a cross-stitch picture similar to that one once. I kind of quit doing cross-stitch in a period when I didn't have progressive lenses on my glasses. It was just too difficult to keep switching or adding pairs of glasses so I could move between working with the fabric and thread and the pattern. I have no excuse now except that I have too many other irons in the fire. I do hope to get back to it at some point.

That's some amazing cross-stitching! And I love the cover for Starters. I see it all the time at work, but I've never read it. (starts up some Alice Cooper)

Lori, I hope you do at some point. I myself find cross-stitching kind of obsessive when I have the time for it. I suppose it's watching the picture emerge with each hour you put into it. I find it fascinating and often have to force myself to stop stitching to do things like eat and sleep. :)

Sara, you work at a library then? I used to as well. Best job ever.

32. The Eternity Cure - Julie Kagawa
Genre: Gothic Fantasy
Pages: 446
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one rule left: Blood calls to blood. She has done the unthinkable: died so that she might continue to live. Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what Allie finds there will change the world forever— there's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago—and this strain is deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries, if Allie can get to him in time.

Thoughts:
It’s almost a four star. Almost. The reason being for the lower rate is that I felt not much happened in this book. There wasn’t enough maybe, and the characters felt rather two dimensional, not what I expected after reading the first book in this series. The ending almost over-shadows the rest of the book and begs me to give it a higher rating, but overall the book felt like a middle book – more like a filler. There could have been so much more here. And yet I still liked it; had a hard time putting it down. The ending is a bit of a cliff-hanger as well and now I am desperate to get my hands on the next. That is also another reason I almost gave it a four star. But alas. I am looking forward to the next book but hope it is on par with the first book and not this one.

Favorite Line:
“I’m fine Zeke,” I told him, squeezing his arm. “We’re both still here.”
He drew in a slow breath, “Allie…”
“Oh, don’t mind me,” came an extremely sarcastic voice near the wall. “You two go ahead and make out – I’ll just sit here and bleed quietly.”
(Pg 213)

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

33. Kosher Lust - Shmuley Boteach
Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology
Pages: 213
Rating: 1 Star
(Early Reviewer)

Summary:
Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy and girl enjoy the sparks in the early years, but eventually settle into a comfortable friendship, and all passion disappears from their marriage. That s just the way it goes, right? In this book, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach explains why the prioritizing of love and companionship in marriage is all wrong, and why we should not go quietly into that dark night of celibate marriage. It is not love, Rabbi Shmuley shows, but lust that is the glue of a marriage.

Thoughts:
This book did not get very many good reviews, and sadly I have to agree with those reviewers. This book was not to my liking at all. I suppose I expected more of a psychological premise to the book but that’s that what I got. I do not believe that lust trumps love. I don’t believe that love trumps lust either. This is way too black and white. Marriage is not black and white. Humans are not black and white. Gay men, lesbians, transgender, etc. are not mentioned at all. What does that say about the book? And there’s not really a practical counters to what the rabbi is arguing is the cause of the amount of divorces in the world now a days. I had a very very hard time getting through this book. I’ll admit that I did not read every word; couldn’t bring myself too. I had to read other books while I read this one just so I could put it down every once in a while to take a break. Not recommended.

34. Chemistry: A Molecular Approach - Nivaldo Tro
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science
Pages: 1224
Rating: 3 Stars
(Textbook)

Summary:
This innovative text explains difficult concepts in a relevant, student-oriented manner. Chemistry is presented visually through multi-level images—macroscopic, molecular and symbolic representations—helping you see the connections among the formulas (symbolic), the world around you (macroscopic), and the atoms and molecules that make up the world (molecular). Among other revisions, the Second Edition offers a crisp new design, adds more challenging problems, and significantly revises coverage of electrochemistry.

Thoughts:
I almost forgot I had finally finished this book. Thank goodness. I have hard feelings about my chemistry class I took this semester and some of those feelings have slipped into hard feelings for chemistry itself and this book. But that is me. Chemistry is not my forte. It’s not something I like or am good at. However this book did help me understand things that I could not understand from my class lectures or the professor. It was good with explaining the material and showing enough examples. It did was it was meant to.

35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 752
Rating: 5 Stars
(Reread)

Summary:
Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly.

Thoughts:
This is the book in the series where the intrigue really picks up. People say things that you have no hope of interpreting unless you’ve already read the whole series and are rereading the books. Things happen that don’t really make that much of an impression but later on turn out to be important to the plotline. This book probably took much longer to write than the first three books in the series for these very reasons. It also shows that Rowling got better at writing as she wrote the series. This is also a turning point in the series for obvious reasons if you’ve read the book. Nothing will be the same again. I forgot how much is in the book that was not in the movie. I enjoyed remembering why certain things happened but there were some things that I didn’t remember and thus was shocked all over again. Highly recommended series if you’ve been living under a rock and have not yet picked these books up.

Favorite Line:
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

Looks like you have done some good reading this month. Well, I don't know if the chemistry book was that fun, but kudos to you for reading a textbook! In college I barely read any textbook cover to cover, which is maddening when I think about how much money I spent.

#213: Yep, I've been enslaved in the library system. One too many late fines, so I'm having to work them off. ;) Agreed: library work is pretty cool. Very nice perks!

On to the wishlist pile with The Eternity Cure and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (acutally, I own the Harry Potter book, but I haven't cracked the series open yet *hangs head in shame*). Thanks! :)

Marie, textbooks are soooo expensive aren't they? That's one reason I try to read all of my textbooks. That Chemistry one I've been working through for two whole semesters. I'm very glad I'm finally done with it and the two semester classes. Now... on to Organic Chemistry :)

Sara, I loved the perks of working at the library! Wish I was still working at one, but it isn't as felxible as the one I work during my school semesters. Nor the one I have this summer - cleaning the house daily for my family. Only a few hours a day and I can listen to an audiobook while I work! I'm sure I'll be going through tons of books this summer for that very reason. But working at the library was my first job ever and it will always be my favorite.

36. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Genre: Lit Classic
Pages: 108
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
One of the most popular and most quoted books in English, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was the creation of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a distinguished scholar, mathematician and author who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. Written for young readers but enjoyed equally by adults, the wonderfully fantastic tale is credited with revolutionizing children's literature and liberating it from didactic constraints. The story is deeply but gently satiric, enlivened with an imaginative plot and brilliant use of nonsense, as it relates Alice's adventures in a bizarre, topsy-turvy land underground.

Thoughts:
I have this long list of books from BBC of the best literary books to read that I plan on going through. Most of the books on the list are books that I have heard others talking about for years. They are the classics that I feel I must read eventually to know anything about what is being said about them, and have something of my own to comment. This book was on the list. I’ve seen the Disney animation years ago and so that was what I was going off of for expectations. While it had its many differences as movies versus books are bound to have, it was at its core, the same – a little weird. I sort of enjoyed listening o the book but I was left with the feeling I had after watching the movie – what a curious story. Yet maybe the whole idea was about a child’s imagination? I’m not sure. I do know that not much of the book made sense and yet that seemed to be the intent. As said in the summary this is a ‘brilliant use of nonsense’. But the book isn’t very long and while nonsensical, it is still a bit enjoyable.

Favorite Line:
“You would have to be half mad to dream me up.”

>221 Kassilem: Yup, the point of these stories is that there didn't have to be a point. However, if you want some stronger themes, pick up Through the Looking Glass

:) I've got that one on my list as well and in my itunes so it should be coming soon.

37. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Lit Classic
Pages: 258
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.

Thoughts:
I thought I might not like this book. I can never seem to get into these kinds of books – the classic life stories. But I ended up not not liking it. Even if I didn’t necessarily like it either, if that makes sense. I suppose I’m a bit indifferent about it. It was neither bad nor something I particularly enjoyed. I did appreciate the way Elizabeth was not like what the general populace of women was in those times. And I appreciated Darcy’s attitude, as well as the language used. It was readable but still used a deal of formal language. But I couldn’t get into the story. I’m a fantasy and action fan through and through. And yet I’m glad I read this book finally. It’s just one of those books you ought to know something about and not simply because you watched the movie.

Favorite Line:
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

I'm reading Alice in Wonderland right now, and am quite liking it. It's so silly and has absolutely no premise.

38. Fair Game - Patricia Briggs
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 304
Rating: 4 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
Now that the werewolves gave revealed themselves to humans, they can't afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked int he past much now be punished, and the strain of doing his father's dirty work is taking a toll on Charles. Nevertheless, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston when the FBI requests the pack's help on a local serial-killer case. They quickly realize that the last two victims were werewolves, and identify others originally thought human as fae. Someone is _targeting the preternatural. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer’s sights.

Thoughts:
I think this is the best out of the three in this series. I really got into the book. It’s on par with Moon Called and some of the Mercy books. It was written fairly recently so that could be why. There are authors out there who can get better the more they write. I thought Briggs was losing that a little lately until I read this book and her latest, Night Broken. I’m really glad she’s not. But now I’m all caught up on her werewolf series. I’m going to have to go read some of her other series now. If you’re a fan of Briggs, this is certainly a series you’ll want to read.

Favorite Line:
He bowed her head, working his hands; then he turned and started walking backwards again, facing her. Anna followed, keeping a sharp eye out for things he might back into or over. She wondered is Isaac did this all the time – and, if so, how he avoided getting photos in the paper with captions like “Local Alpha Trips over Child” or “Wolf Versus Street Sign, Street Sign Wins.”
(Pg 223)

*This is a BINGO book! Refer to Post 3*

39. Body of Evidence - Patricia Cornwell
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 448
Rating: 3 Stars
(TBR)

Summary:
A reclusive author, Beryl Madison finds no safe haven from months of menacing phone calls—or the tormented feeling that her every move is being watched. When the writer is found slain in her own home, Kay Scarpetta pieces together the intricate forensic evidence—while unwittingly edging closer to a killer waiting in the shadows.

Thoughts:
I found that I had a hard time getting into this book. I remember liking the first book, Postmortem. Not my reaction for this one. I suppose I was frustrated when this book turned out basically exactly like the first. It was imaginable for the killer to go after Kay in the first book but I did not see any reason that she had to be a victim again in this book. She’s a medical examiner, an occupation that generally doesn’t get one into those sorts of situations. There was also much less about her profession, that of coroner, and much more about the investigation going on outside of the office. I do hear though that some of the later books are much better. It’s still a series interesting enough that I will probably continue with it but it has been moved from my immediate ‘To Read List’ to one of lesser priority.

Reading Stats: May

Books: 13
Pages: 5,752

Format:
Dead Tree: 5
Audiobook: 8

Category:
TBR: 5
Reread: 3
New: 1
Textbook: 1
Book Club: 1
Walk By-Pick Up: 1
Early Reviewer: 1

Stars:
5 Stars: 2
4 Stars: 4
3 Stars: 6
1 Stars: 1

Time Range:
1810-1819: 1
1860-1869: 1
1990-1999: 1
2000-2009: 4
2010-2014: 6

Genres:
Epic Fantasy: 3
Lit Classics: 2
Urban Fantasy: 2
Non-Fiction: 2
Gothic Fantasy: 1
Anthropology: 1
Memoir: 1
Science Fiction: 1
Dystopia: 1
Romance: 1
Pyschology: 1
Science: 1
Mystery: 1
Thriller: 1

Graphic Novels read: 2 ('GN count' Thread can be found HERE)

My second thread of the year can be found HERE.

I forgot to do it the new way but this link should take you there all the same. :) Cheers!