2012 Reading Challenges

This challenge looks like a lot of fun and Im curious to see where my reading will lead me! Thanks for sponsoring it Book Journey!!
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"Water or Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen




This was a pretty good book. It was really slow going until the last 3-4 chapters. Reading about a circus train was very interesting though! I'd enjoy reading more about circus trains and the people who lived and worked on them.



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Left Neglected by Lisa Genova




Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children—Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month-old Linus.



Between recruiting the best and brightest minds as the vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting; shuttling the kids to soccer, day care, and piano lessons; convincing her son's teacher that he may not, in fact, have ADD; and making it home in time for dinner, it's a wonder this over-scheduled, over-achieving Harvard graduate has time to breathe.



A self-confessed balloon about to burst, Sarah miraculously manages every minute of her life like an air traffic controller. Until one fateful day, while driving to work and trying to make a phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her jam-packed life come to a screeching halt.



A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world, and for once, Sarah relinquishes control to those around her, including her formerly absent mother. Without the ability to even floss her own teeth, she struggles to find answers about her past and her uncertain future.



Now, as she wills herself to regain her independence and heal, Sarah must learn that her real destiny—her new, true life—may in fact lie far from the world of conference calls and spreadsheets. And that a happiness and peace greater than all the success in the world is close within reach, if only she slows down long enough to notice.







This was a pretty quick read with a message that I need to hear every once inawhile. I can't be everywhere all the time and give everyone 100% of everything and keep everything afloat.







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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling




Finally finished the last book in this series! It took me 2 years of on/off reading and Im so glad that I committed to it and finished the series.



The ending was great. I haven't seen any of the movies so it was all new to me. I had no idea if Harry would live or die. I really enjoyed this series!!



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Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this awhile ago. It was hard to get through as some of Moore's books are. You really have to be in the mood to read a novel by Christopher Moore and Im not sure I was quite in the right frame of mind when I started this book. It was funny but not as much as I thought it would be, but again I probably should of waited until I was ready for Moore's style.







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Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo




Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.



Colton said he met his miscarried sister whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.



Told by the father but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready there is a coming last battle.



This special keepsake edition is designed especially for gift-giving. New material includes a presentation page, 16-page color photo section, and a "Reflecting on Heaven" guide to enhance the reader's experience.



I thought this was an ok book but not one that "changed my life". A little far fetched.



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"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins




I really enjoyed this book and Im looking forward to reading the next book in the series.



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24 hour Read-a-thon

A couple years ago I heard about a 24 hour read-a-thon where people all over the world sign up for a challenge to do nothing but read 24 straight hours. Impossible right? I think so too! But I've read of people actually doing it! I've wanted to do it since I heard about it, sounds like so much fun and I love to read, but I have kids..no way could I do it. Well I finally decided to sign up and just do what I could do. It's not about *finishing* the challenge for me, but just participating in it. If you want to join me here's where you can sign up! 24hourreadathon.com

"The Regulators" by Richard Bachman

An evil creature called Tak uses the imagination of an autistic boy to shift a
residential street in small-town Ohio into a world so bizarre and brutal that
only a child could think it up. It's as two-dimensional and gaudy as a kid's
comic book, but for this reviewer, The Regulators is a gripping adventure tale
about what happens when a mind fixated on TV (especially old Westerns and a
cartoon called MotoKops 2200) runs amok.

This is not a book I would of picked up on my own. It was my first Stephen
King book. I read it with a yahoo reading group. I am so glad it was choosen
for the group and Im really glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and read it!
It was a bit gory detailed but I would read something else by King if the mood
struck me. He writes a great story!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling




Third book in Harry Potter series.



Im slowly making my way through this series. I read this in October 2010.



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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling




First book in Harry Potter series.



I must be one of the last people on earth who hasn't read this series or watched the movie.



I started reading these summer 2010. It's a good series so far, but something I need to read in stages.



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Music

I finally had the time to figure out how to add my playlist on here. WOW did that take awhile!! I accomplished something today..it's not a total sluff off day.

"Room" by Emma Donoghue

In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary.

"A book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up, the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days."
Audrey Niffeneger (author of The Time Travelers Wife).

I included Ms. Neffeneger's quote cause that's exactly the way I felt after reading this book. It was breathtaking and heartwrenching.

"Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin

In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades.

I really enjoyed this book.

For my BFF Nicki!

Love ya girl!!!

"The Accidental Mother" by Rowan Coleman

Coleman makes her U.S. debut with a disarmingly sweet tale of motherhood and reluctant love. London party planner Sophie Mills becomes the improbable guardian of sisters 6-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Izzy after their single mom, Sophie's childhood best friend Carrie Stiles, dies in a car accident. Life suddenly gets very complicated and dirty for the hyper-organized career chick, and a panicked Sophie figures she'd better launch a search for the girls' long-missing dad before maternal mayhem wreaks havoc on her busy life. But once found, mysterious charity worker Louis Gregory triggers Sophie's own overwhelming sense of loss for her late dad and dead pal Carrie. And for the first time in her life, Sophie is forced to jump into the middle of life instead of planning it from a safe distance. Love isn't the instant fix for Sophie's fragile makeshift family, but Coleman shows how it can kick-start a lonely heart.

This book was "eeehh". I liked it enough to finish it (which honestly isn't really saying much cause I have a real hard time quitting a book once I start it). It was read-worthy to see Sophie go through the changes she went through while taking care of Izzy and Bella. There is a sequel to this book "The Accidental Family" and I will NOT be reading that book. If that says anything..

New Year..New Hope

Well let's breath some life into this blog. I think Im going to turn blog into my bookreading blog. I don't know..it might take on a life of it's own. Guess I'll wait and see.