The Morcai Battalion

Title: The Morcai Battalion

Author: Diana Palmer

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Time: 4.7 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book based entirely on its cover 

2015 Book Challenge

So it's 2 days 'till 2015 ends and I'm 8 books away from finishing the challenge.  I am officially saying that I won't be able to finish it in time.  There are 2 books that are not available here where I am spending my holidays.  Plus, I just want to enjoy my holiday break like catching up with old friends and hanging out with the family. 

Maybe if I extend the challenge 10 days into 2016?  We'll see.

Worst. Person. Ever.

Title: Worst. Person. Ever.

Author: Douglas Coupland

Genre: Humor

Time: 4.7 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book with bad reviews

Undead and Unwed

Title: Undead and Unwed

Author: Mary Janice Davidson

Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Vampires, Humor

Time: 2.7 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book with nonhuman characters

Blockade Billy

Title: Blockade Billy

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Suspense

Time: 1.8 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book that scares you

Lolita

Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir Nabokov

Genre: Fiction

Time: 6.6 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book that was originally written in a different language

Dare

Title: Dare

Author: Allie Juliette Mousseau

Genre: Series, Romance, MMA 

Time: hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book based on a true story

Phantom of the Opera

Title: Phantom of the Opera

Author: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe

Genre: Play

Time: 1.8 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a play

In The Garden Series 3: Red Lily

Title: In The Garden Series 3: Red Lily

Author: Nora Roberts

Genre: Romance, Mystery

Time:  hours

2015 Book Challenge: a trilogy

In The Garden Series 2: Black Rose

Title: In The Garden Series 2: Black Rose

Author: Nora Roberts

Genre: Romance, Mystery

Time:  hours

2015 Book Challenge: a trilogy

In The Garden Series 1: Blue Dahlia

Title: In The Garden Series 1: Blue Dahlia

Author: Nora Roberts

Genre: Romance, Mystery

Time:  hours

2015 Book Challenge: a trilogy

American Psycho

 

Title: American Psycho

Author: Bret Easton Ellis

Genre: Transgressive Fiction, Satire, Post Modern

Time: 8 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a banned book

For the Love of Reading

So I came from a Parent-Teacher-Conference for my son.  The teacher said he needs to read more books so that it can help strengthen his vocabulary and spelling and also help with his writing skills.  I totally agree with all of this. 

The thing is, ever since he started grade school, I have been trying to get him to read books.  I was looking for a boy’s version of what the Sweet Valley Kids was for me.  Or maybe this generation’s Bobbsey Twins.  I have tried to find books he would be interested in—comic books, story books, K-Zone, kiddie book versions about movies and tv shows he liked, choose-you-own-adventures kinda books but nothing really clicked.  

I thought the love of reading books was something you can teach but seeing it with my kid plus finding out that another kid (who is a year younger) had already blew through the Harry Potter series made me realize that you are either a book person or you are not.   

My penchant for book collecting started way earlier during pre-school but the love of reading started around seven or eight years old.  I remember finishing a Sweet Valley Kids Book and thinking to myself, I wanna read more of these.  I was so stoked when I discovered the treasure trove of Bobbsey Twins books in our library. And then there was a family trip to the neighboring city and I begged my parents to buy me a book about Philippine Monsters.  I was poring over that book for the rest of the trip.  And I could go on and on.   

This unexplainable desire to read books is not shared by everyone.  With my own siblings, one brother is like me and the two others aren’t avid book readers.  I know that my hubby, in his entire life, has not read a single book cover-to-cover.  There are just people who are not into reading.  There are people who like to read once in a while.  And there are people like me, who “chain reads”. 

Maybe my kid isn’t a “chain-reader” like me.   But I’m still hoping to he’d fit into the middle category of “people who like to read once in a while.”

Heartburn

Title: Heartburn

Author: Nora Ephron

Genre: Humor

Time: 3.5 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book that came out the year you were born

Letters to a Young Poet

Title: Letters to a Young Poet

Author: Rainer Maria Rilke

Genre: Nonfiction, Poetry

Time: 2.5 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t

Still Alice

Title: Still Alice

Author: Lisa Genova

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary

Time: 3.9 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book that became a movie

Sh*t My Dad Says

Title: Sh*t My Dad Says

Author: Justin Halpern

Genre: Non-Fiction, Humor

Time: 2.2 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a nonfiction book

Olive Kitteridge

Title: Olive Kitteridge

Author: Elizabeth Strout

Genre: Short Stories

Time: 6.8 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a Pulitzer prize-winning book

Practical Magic

Title: Practical Magic

Author: Alice Hoffman

Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Romance, Magic

Hours: 5.2 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book with magic

Nine Stories

Title: Nine Stories

Author: J. D. Salinger

Genre: Short Stories

Time: 5.2 hours

2015 Book Challenge: a book of short stories