Nine Stories

Title: Nine Stories

Author: J. D. Salinger

Genre: Short Stories

Time: 5.2 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book of short stories

2015 Book Challenge update

sooo.. I have like 29 book categories under the 2015 Book Challenge left.  Finding the necessary books is already a challenge, but finding one that I would enjoy is making it hard.  Given that it's already the middle of November, I don't know if I'll get to ever finish this.

But the competitor in me really wants to complete this challenge.  So I told myself that if I could finish everything by the end of November, as a reward, I get to read whatever I want in December.

Constance

Title: Constance

Author: Rosie Thomas

Genre: Contemporary

Time: 6.4 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book written by an author with your same initials

Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery at Snow Lodge

Title: Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery at Snow Lodge

Author: Laura Lee Hope

Genre: Children’s Book, Mystery

Time: 1.8 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book from your childhood

Pretty Book

Saw this yesterday at the bookstore.  This book is soo pretty!  It was so pretty, I had to take a picture of it.  I dunno if the photo does it justice but I loved the dark pink edges and the cotton-candy colors on the hardbound cover.  It reminds me of the old hardbound books I used to see in the library.  I couldn't help it, so I took a few sniffs.  I probably looked weird doing it.

I thought this would have been perfect for the 2015 Book Challenge: a book based entirely on its cover.  But then it's a thesaurus, specifically, a flavor thesaurus book.  So, it's for cooking.  Ha!  Me and cooking get along well like oil and water.  Oh well. I just thought to share it.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Genre: Mystery, Horror, Suspense, Gothic

Time: 1.5 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book more that 100 years old

2014 Book List

Thanks to the beauty of technology, I was able to recap what I read in 2014.  Total number for 2014 is... 103!

But since this is just based on the ebook reader app on my phone, the number could be higher.  I still have to track down the non ebooks/real books and the ebooks I read in my hubby's phone ebook reader app.

So for now, here's the initial list:

Lavender Morning

Title: Lavender Morning
Author: Jude Deveraux
Genre: Romance
Time: half to a whole day

2015 Book Challenge Update

A few months back, I decided not anymore to do the 2015 Book Challenge because I was having a hard time finding books I liked that would fit the categories.  I decided to go back to reading for fun.  Well, what do you know... some of the books I've read fits the categories.  Maybe I will finish this challenge.

The Solomon Curse

Title: The Solomon Curse
Author: Clive Cussler
Genre: Mystery
Time: A day to A day and a half

Purity

Title: Purity

Author: Jonathan Franzen

Genre: Historical? Political?

Time: 14.7 hours
2015 Book Challenge: a book with more than 500 pages

Bookworms Unite

now I know why Belle stayed... I'd probably do the same thing if it means I can have all the books I want.

A Hundred Summers

Title: A Hundred Summers

Author: Beatriz Williams

Genre: Romance, Historical

Time: 4.3 hours

Only A Kiss

Title: Only A Kiss

Author: Mary Balogh

Genre: Historical Romance

Time: Unfinished

The Secret Life of Violet Grant

Title: The Secret Life of Violet Grant

Author: Beatriz Williams

Genre: Historical

Time: 4.5 hours

Undercover

 

Title: Undercover

Author: Danielle Steele

Genre: Romance

Time: 4.6 hours

MMA Romance Novels

My hubby always complains how those Greek Billionaires in my romance novels have 6-pack abs when they're very busy in the boardroom running companies.  Well, he can't complain anymore with these hot , buff men.  Apparently, MMA is a new genre in romance novels.  But it's not entirely new to me.  I've already read an MMA-theme romance book 2 years ago, Seducing Cinderalla by Gina Maxwell but I wasn't into MMA yet at that time so I'm kinda curious to read one of these now that I've started following UFC, One FC, etc.

Three Wishes

Title: Three Wishes

Author: Liane Moriarty

Genre: Humor

Time: 6.8 hours

2015 Book Challenge: Finished in One Sitting

Tiny Little Thing

Title: Tiny Little Thing

Author: Beatriz Williams

Genre: Romance, Historical

Time: 4.8 hours

Brown-Eyed Girl

Title: Brown-Eyed Girl

Author: Lisa Kleypas

Genre: Romance

Time: did not finish 

First of all, I would like to say that I love, love, love Lisa Kleypas.  She is one of the few authors that I collect the “real” books of.  She is the author that I re-read books of.  Some of her books I have re-read at like 5 to 7 times!  Yes, she is that good.  When she switched to Contemporary Romance from Historical Romance, I would say that I would prefer her earlier historical romance books.  But her Contemporary Romances were still very good.  I have read all her books.  So I am now constantly checking if she has published any new books.   

So I “ran out of books to read” (I usually find like 10-15 books then read them all and when I’m done with them or don’t feel like reading the ones left, I would then look for a new set of 10-15 books to blow through) so I was looking for new set to read when I discovered that Lisa Kleypas wrote a new book.  It felt like a delightful surprise.  You know that feeling you get when you “discover “money on the pockets of you jeans you haven’t worn for a while.  This was it. 

As I started reading Brown-Eyed Girl, I was waiting for the “hook”.  You know that part of the book where the author starts to draw you into that new world?  Well, as a progressed, it never came.  In fact, it was worse than no hook.. it was awful!  But it cannot be.. this is Lisa Kleypas!  So I trudged on.. and on.. but there was no way around it.  It really was awful.  I even thought that maybe I got the wrong ebook by mistake.  So I decided to search the net to see what the others thought of the book.. and I wasn’t imagining it.  the consensus was, it sucked. 

After reading the bad reviews, I decided to march on.  It’s Lisa Kleypas, it couldn’t be that bad, could it?  But try as I might, I just couldn’t do it.  I didn’t finish the book.  The characters were just soo annoying and the storyline dragged on.  But the book might say Lisa Kleypas but this was not a Lisa Kleypas book.  I truly hope this was a one-off kinda thing because, as I’ve said, I really, really love Lisa Kleypas.  With Lilian Jackson Braun and Jackie Collins passing away, I have fewer authors left who I collect books of.