Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up

End of Event Meme:

1) What hour was most daunting for you?
-Honestly, the first couple of hours were. I'm just not a morning person, and I couldn't wake myself up enough to really get into the book I was reading (though it's a favorite).
2) Could you list a few high interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
-Children's/Middle-Grade books are always great for read-a-thons. Roald Dahl was a fun, fast read and I really loved reading the Sweet Valley book. If you're a fan of any of the SV series, I would definitely recommend rereading a favorite or even picking up one you haven't read/can't remember reading. I still have a few Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University books from years ago that I may pick back up again for the next read-a-thon.
3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-Thon next year?
-I liked when we took a "count" of people still participating in the later hours of the read-a-thon (maybe around Hour 18 or so) by using Mr. Linky. It made it easier to visit with bloggers who were still active.
Also, for the mini-challenges that required pictures (one's taken personally), I would have liked a second option since I am not able to upload pictures to my computer from my phone and could not participate in those challenges, though I would have really liked too. I'm not sure how much of a problem this was for other people, though.
4) What do you think worked really well in this year's Read-a-Thon?
-I think the Cheerleaders were great and were able to get around to all participants at least once. It's always nice to receive a comment and some encouragement :)
5) How many books did you read?
-I read 2 full books and partially read 3 others.
6) What were the names of the books you read?
The Christmas Ghost and The Witches were the two books I read in full. I also read the last 70 pages of The Great Gatsby, I read 79 pages of Witness in Death, and about 150 pages of Fables and Reflections (so approximately 693 pages all together).
7) Which book did you enjoy the most?
-The Christmas Ghost
8) Which book did you enjoy the least?
-I really can't say. I enjoyed all the books I read a lot. Fables and Reflections was a bit stranger than I was used to (it's a graphic novel about dreams, but there's so much more to it) and I was too tired to really get into The Great Gatsby. However, I still loved reading both, so I can't honestly answer this question.
9) If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice . . . ?
-I wasn't a Cheerleader
10) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-Thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
-I will definitely be participating again and I will, of course, be a Reader but I think I'd also like to be a Cheerleader for a couple hours next time too.

Read-a-Thon Hours 19-24

Hours 19-22:

I planned to only take a half hour break but that stretched into an hour and a half before I finally picked up my next book. I read 79 pages of Witness in Death in the past hour, but I am going to set it aside now so that I can start the graphic novel Fables and Reflections, which I really wanted to get to for the read-a-thon. Since WiD is a reread, I don't mind saving the rest for another day. I'm going to try really hard to finish Fables before the read-a-thon ends. Wish me luck!

Hours 23-24:

Well, I made it over halfway through Fables. The pages aren't numbered, but I'm going to estimate that I read about 150 pages of the novel overall. Not bad.

I didn't actually make an official goal, but I was hoping I would read at least four full books. As it is, I read two full books and partially read three others, so in page numbers I think I fell a book short, but I'm happy enough with what I accomplished.

Read-a-Thon Hours 13-18

Hour 13:

Mid-Event Survey:

1) How are you doing? Sleepy?
-Nope, but that's just because I fell asleep just 2 hours into the read-a-thon (sad, I know). But now I am raring to go and will hopefully stay alert and reading for quite a few more hours yet.
2) What have you finished reading?
-I finished The Great Gatsby and The Christmas Ghost
3) What is your favorite read so far?
The Christmas Ghost- it was just such a fun, quick read and it really made me feel accomplished since I was able to finish it in under two hours :)
4) What about your favorite snacks?
-I've enjoyed my Lipton tea the most so far. I didn't plan out my snacks for this read-a-thon so I haven't eaten anything special (just a Lean Cuisine meal and a couple of slices of mushroom pizza)
5) Have you found any new blogs through the read-a-thon?
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to look at the other blogs, though I really hoped to do that a lot this time around. I slept through the morning and felt behind on my challenge, so I have been focusing on my reading. I only just started looking at other blogs this past hour. Hopefully, I can spare some time later this evening to check out more blogs and cheer some more people on.

Hour 14: Started reading The Witches by Roald Dahl and am 60 pages in so far.

Stella Matutina's Picturrific Mini-Challenge

I found this image at the Open Market blog. In the book I'm reading, The Witches, the main character is a little boy who is beginning to train two white mice that his grandmother gave him. He hasn't trained them to ride mini-scooters (yet), but he has trained them to crawl up his arm and to walk a tight-rope.

Hour 15:

Fall Challenge

For the past three years, my family and I have taken a scenic train ride through the Carolina Mountains (Great Smoky Mountain Railroad). We look at the multi-colored leaves and then hang out by the Tuckasegee River for a while and drink hot chocolate. It's really nice. I love the mountains in the Fall.










Hours 16-18:

I finished The Witches (208 pages), my third book of the challenge. Now I really want to watch the movie with Angelica Huston. It's one of my favorite movies to watch around this time of the year.

I'll be starting Witness in Death next, but first I'm going to take a little break and grab a snack. I'm starving!

Read-a-Thon Hours 7-12

Hours 7-11:

After my disastrous beginning, I am now finally starting my second book, The Christmas Ghost. I probably won't start participating in mini-challenges or do much online for another few hours so that I can try and catch up. I want to at least finish this book first and be into another before I distract myself. Off I go!

Update: I finished The Christmas Ghost (186 pages) and it was a wonderful, quick read! A perfect holiday book! I'm watching Halloweentown High with my mother right now, so I think I'll finish watching it while participating in mini-challenges and visiting other blogs for the next hour (Hour 12). I'll start my next book in Hour 13--not sure what it'll be just yet.

Hour 12:

Joystory's Literacy Mini-Challenge

This picture reminded me of myself when I was first learning tor read. Or, technically, it reminded me of stories my mom told me about myself, since I don't really remember it that clearly. She would tell me how everyday when I came home from kindergarten, I would head straight to my room and get a pile of books (The Berenstain Bears and Little Critters were my favorites) and sit there for hours teaching myself to read from them. She said I looked like I wasn't really having fun but was just absolutely determined to learn. I can't say for sure if I actually enjoyed myself during those moments or not, but I know that I loved reading as early as age 7 and that my love of reading has continued to this day. :)

Marking Books Mini-Challenge

Option 2: I'm always taking the free bookmarks that my libraries offer at the desk. I used to have about two dozen, but since I came home after graduating from college, I seem to have lost most of them. I only have about 6 library bookmarks now and a couple of fancier bookmarks with tassels that I bought. I have no idea what happened to all the others. I love to have a large variety because I like to try and match my bookmark to the cover of my book if I can (either by color or theme--example, if I'm reading a sci-fi novel I choose a bookmark with stars on it or something).

When I can't find a bookmark, I usually use a business card that I see lying around or my library receipt, but I tend to swap those out for real bookmarks as soon as I can.

Read-a-Thon Hours 1-6

I will probably not update every hour, but I'll try to update every 2 to 3 hours.

Hours 1-6:

Introductory Questionnaire:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
-North Carolina!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
-That's a tough one, but I think I'm going to go with The Christmas Ghost. It was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, and I'm really looking forward to reading it again after so many years.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
-I didn't actually plan out snacks this time, but my mind is already on the bean and cheese burrito I want to have for lunch (about four hours from now).
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
-I graduated from the University of North Carolina in Asheville this May with a B.A. in Literature, and I am planning on going back to school next year to get my teaching license for Special Education!
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what's one thing you'll do differently today?
-Well, the fact that I'm starting this read-a-thon in the first hour is already different. Last year, I didn't begin the read-a-thon until mid-afternoon (around Hour 7).


Ugh, not off to a great start. I should have known better than to try and wake up early on a Saturday. I'm just not a morning person whatsoever. Though I managed to finish The Great Gatsby at the end of Hour 2, I was already feeling really tired, after never quite fully waking up. I decided to close my eyes for a little power  nap and ended up sleeping for six more hours! That's what I get for not sleeping well the night before, I guess  :/

Well, I should hopefully be good to go now, and maybe I'll even be able to stay up really late. I could even make it to Hour 24 and then forget the fiasco of this morning!

Pages Read: 70
Books Finished: The Great Gatsby

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon October 2012

Well, it's been a few months since I've blogged, but after someone casually mentioned Dewey's Read-a-Thon on Goodreads a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to get back in the blogosphere and join! I loved participating in the read-a-thon last October and I was so disappointed I couldn't join in April due to finals. Last time, I didn't really start the read-a-thon until the sixth hour or so (maybe even later, I can't remember), but I want to try and start it on the first hour this time.

I came up with a list of books to choose from during the read-a-thon:

 

     
 I only have about 80 more pages to read in The Great Gatsby, so I'll probably start with that book. It'll be nice to say I finished a book in the first hour or so (even though it was really just 80 pages). I have also read over 200 pages of The Snow Child, but I'm not sure I'll actually pick it up during the read-a-thon to finish. It's a slow read for me, so it's not really the best choice for a read-a-thon, but I have it in my pile anyway in case I find myself too daunted at some point  today to start yet another book. Three books are rereads--the two In Death books and the Sweet Valley Twins A Christmas Ghost. This was my favorite SVT book when I was a kid and I've been wanting to reread it around the holidays for some time. I'm pretty sure I'll get to this book before the end. The two In Death books I should be able to finish in a couple of hours-they're always fast reads for me. I plan to save Fables and Reflections for last. I learned that graphic novels are always good to have around at the end of a read-a-thon after regular prose novels start to become blurry after so many hours of reading ;)

Review: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Title: Switched (Trylle #1)
Author: Amanda Hocking
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 293
Where I Got This Book: LibraryThing Early Reviewers (ARC)
Rating: 5 Stars

Goodreads Summary: When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes. 

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

My Thoughts: I really loved this book. I thought Wendy was a wonderful, strong character who was really able to handle all that was going on when placed in such a tough position. I loved all the scenes when she butted heads with Elora, the Queen of Trylle. She never became submissive to her but really held her own and spoke up for herself. I also loved the connection she had with her brother and I thought her conflictions about leaving home to go to Trylle where she "truly belonged" was nicely done. I read some reviews where people thought that this part was rushed and that not enough time was given to really show Wendy's struggles over leaving her aunt and brother, but I didn't feel that way. I was really able to feel Wendy's sadness about having to leave her family, presumably forever.

The world of Trylle was really well done and I loved learning about all of the different powers that the trolls had. This was a completely new concept for me and I was very fascinated by it. I'm excited to learn what powers Wendy may develop other than her power of persuasion, if in fact she does have another power. It seems to me she may have a power similar to the Queen's-there were a couple of scenes that hinted at that-but I won't say anymore about that in fear of spoiling it for others.

I thought the budding attraction between Wendy and Finn was a little disappointing and I wished that more had happened between them. Their relationship really didn't grow much and I don't think there were all that many scenes with just the two of them, but I thought the ending was amazing as well heartbreaking at the same time. I will definitely be buying the other two books in this trilogy. This book was a favorite of the year.

In My Mailbox (2)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme that was inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie and created by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Share the books you bought, borrowed, won or received for review.

  

  

Bought:

Graveminder by Melissa Marr

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready

Spindle's End by Robin McKinley

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Won:

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab (thanks Michelle @ Book Briefs!) 

Audition by Stacia Ward Kehow (thanks Stacked! )

Library:

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

The Classics Club

Jillian @ A Room of One's Own just began The Classics Club. Of course, as I soon as I heard about it, I couldn't help but join in and set up another challenge for myself. I'm a book challenge addict.

For the club, you can pick 50+ classic novels and set a goal for yourself to read all the classics off that list within a five-year period. I just plan to list all of the classics I've been interested in reading for a while, including rereads, as well as books by authors I've enjoyed in the past. You can check out my club list of books on The Classics Club page that I created specifically for this challenge.

I've been reading so much Young Adult over the past few years, and I 'm really looking forward to this change in my reading. I devoured classics in high school and I want to get back to them and just read them for enjoyment again instead of having to analyze everything about them like I've been doing in all of my literature classes. Now that I'm graduating in May, it's the perfect time to get back to reading the classics for fun! Whoo! :)

Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Living Dead Girl
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 170
Where I Got This Book: Own
Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Summary: "Once upon a time, I was a little girl who disappeared.
Once upon a time, my name was not Alice.
Once upon a time, I didn't know how lucky I was."


When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends -- her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.

Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.

This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.


My Thoughts: Wow. This has to be the most disturbing book I've ever read. There is no way that you can read Living Dead Girl and not be affected.

I thought it was really effective how Scott opened up the book by having the first few paragraphs narrated by a neighbor. He's completely oblivious to the horrendous situation that Alice is in and actually comments on how ungrateful he thinks she is-like most daughters are, apparently-because she doesn't thank Ray when he opens the door for her. The reader becomes instantly aware at how skilled Ray is at creating this charming persona. Everyone falls for him and thinks he's so sweet and such a wonderful father. Alice is all alone in knowing what a monster he really is.

Ray has got to be the most hateful character I've come across in literature. He actually thinks that he loves Alice and that she should love him in return for all of the things he does for her. It's beyond disturbing. Scott doesn't gloss over the details but goes into all of the things that Alice is forced to do. She suffers every single abuse that a person can go through--sexual, physical, verbal, emotional. He starves her in order to keep her at 100 pounds, so that she still feels like a ten-year-old girl. So sick.

I'm not sure what to think about the ending. It didn't feel conclusive, and I would describe it as open-ended. There are two possibilities that the reader is left with for how Alice's horror story ends, and one is more pessimistic than the other. I don't know what it says about me, but I was leaning more towards the less happy ending. Just from the way it all played out, I thought that ending made more sense. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I unfortunately have to leave my thoughts vague. I would love to talk about the ending with someone whose read the book.

Living Dead Girl is not for the lighthearted. This book packs an emotional punch, and the story will stay with you forever, so be prepared for that if you choose to pick it up.

Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon Updates and Challenges

Day 1:
Pages Read: 186
Books Finished: 1 (The Iron King)
Books Started: 0
Challenges Completed: 0

Well, I finished The Iron King, so I'm very happy about that! It was a great book with so much going on and non-stop action. After finishing it, though, I got caught up in other things and never started Light In August so I'm a little behind, but that's okay. Hopefully, I can catch up today. I was also hoping to take part in the third challenge and show off my reading space, but when I went to connect my phone to my computer, I experienced some problems. The phone is practically brand new too, and one of the main reasons I bought it was so that I could transfer pictures to my computer! I hope I can get that all worked out soon, though probably not this weekend.

Day 2:
Pages Read: 125
Books Finished: 0
Books Started: 3 (Light in August, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Memory in Death)
Challenges Completed: 3

Well, I read the number of pages I wanted to for LiA and IitLoaSG for Saturday, but I never picked up Dark Passages. As it turned out, I came across Memory in Death (one of my favorites in the J.D. Robb series) on a free book shelf on my campus while I was reading Light in August, and I opted to reread a bit of that book in the evening instead. I don't know why, but I've been craving romances for the past few weeks, and I just couldn't resist Roarke and Eve. I seriously doubt I'll finish Dark Passages before the weekend ends now, and it doesn't look like I'll start Guernsey at all, but I should at least finish my reading assignments for class.

Oh! But this morning I found out I won the giveaway for Challenge #6 (hosted by Michelle @ Book Briefs)! Yay! I chose The Near Witch by Victoria Swab. I can't wait to receive it!

Challenge #4: The Wicked Winter Ball (Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer)

Using book covers, show us what you will wear and who you bring!

My dress:

The black ruffled dress from the cover of Torment. Gorgeous!!


And my date:

Ash from The Iron Fey series! I am so in love with him right now!

Challenge #6: Picture Puzzle (Michelle @ Book Briefs)

Rules: First pick your book. The pick pictures that represent words in the book's title. Put the pictures/clues together so people can guess what the book title is. Get creative and make it as challenging as you want.

My book picture puzzle:

**Hint: This is an adult fiction Japanese novel

Day 3:
Pages Read: 185
Books Finished: --
Books Started: --
Books Read: Memory in Death and Light in August
Challenges Completed: --

Looking at the stats for Sunday, you would think I wasn't even participating in the readathon that day. I got distracted with Memory in Death (which I wasn't even planning on reading for the readathon), and of the 185 pages I read that day, 168 pages were from the J.D. Robb book. I never even picked up Dark Passages, Poisonwood Bible or Guernsey at all over the weekend, but oh well. I still had fun. And I hope to join in on the Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon in June.

Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon

The Wicked Winter Read-a-Thon is hosted by Rebecca @ Kindle Fire and April @ My Shelf Confessions.

This read-a-thon starts today (Feb. 3rd) and lasts until Sunday, Feb. 5th. I decided to join at the last minute because I plan to read a lot this weekend. I have three novels I want to finish, plus three books for school I need to read a good chunk of by Monday.

If you're interested in joining, you can sign-up as late as midnight on February 4th (the first link on this post will take you to the sign-up page). There are also challenges going on during the read-a-thon with different prizes offered for each. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!



For the read-a-thon, I would like to read:

I started The Iron King on Thursday evening, and I am currently on page 228. I hope to finish it tonight.

I've been reading Dark Passages for . . . oh, over a month now I guess. I'm really enjoying it, but I keep getting distracted and putting it aside for other paranormal books that are heavier on the romance than this one is. I only have 100 pages left to read of it now, so hopefully I can knock out the rest of the book tomorrow.

I doubt I'll able to finish this book before the weekend's over, but I will try to make it through as much as I can on Saturday and Sunday.

******************************************

Now, for the books I need to read for school:

I am about 80 pages into this book and I am LOVING it! I need to read 60 more pages by Wednesday, but since I want to focus on a critical analysis paper for another class during the week, I want to read as much of the 60 pages as I can squeeze in over the weekend, leaving my weekdays as free as possible to focus on the essay.

I'm taking a Faulkner seminar this semester, and again, I am LOVING it, but it's a tough class with lots of reading. I need to read about 120 pages of Light in August by Tuesday, but the assignment for Thursday is to read 130 more pages, which will be really difficult to do in just two days. So, I want to get through as much of Light in August as I can to hopefully lighten up my reading load for Tuesday and Wednesday. This will actually be a reread because I read it a couple of years ago (for pleasure), but two years may as well by two hundred for how much I actually remember about this book. It's not that I didn't like it (it's actually my favorite Faulkner novel), but after a few years, memories start to fade. . .

I only need to read 55 pages from this book by Monday, but when I glanced through the book a couple of days ago, I saw that the writing looked really dense, the type was tiny and the paragraphs would often be a page long. All of this spells out a tough read that will definitely take longer to get through than you'd first assume just going off of the number of pages assigned.

So, those are all of the books I hope to read through over the next three days. Good luck to me. :)

Review: Pink by Lili Wilkinson

Title: Pink
Author: Lili Wilkinson
Pages: 304
Publisher: Harper Collins
Where I Got This Book: Goodreads' Giveaways
Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Summary: Ava has a secret. She is tired of her ultracool attitude, ultra-radical politics, and ultrablack clothing. She's ready to try something new--she's even ready to "be" someone new. Someone who fits in, someone with a gorgeous boyfriend, someone who wears pink.


Transferring to Billy Hughes School for Academic Excellence is the perfect chance to try on a new identity. But just in case things don't work out, Ava is hiding her new interests from her parents, and "especially" from her old girlfriend.

Secrets have a way of being hard to keep, though, and Ava finds that changing herself is more complicated than changing her wardrobe. Even getting involved in the school musical raises issues she never imagined. As she faces surprising choices and unforeseen consequences, Ava wonders if she will "ever" figure out who she really wants to be.


Humor, heart, and the joys of drama--on- and offstage--combine in Ava's delight-fully colorful journey of self-discovery.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. The beginning reminded me a bit of the Shopaholics series-it had the same humor. Ava would often find herself in embarrassing situations, and since I am so sensitive to a character's humiliation, I found myself cringing a lot in empathy.

I thought the characters were great, especially Sam and Jules, who were so funny and sweet. I wish I'd had friends like that in high school, who throw around different bits of trivia and go out on those awesome missions (seriously, how fun would it be to sail a couch down a river?) and go to one of those 24-hour sci-fi movie marathons. It's geeky, but it sounds so fun.

The ending was nice. Everything wasn't wrapped up in a nice pink bow (haha) but it was satisfying and realistic. Ava is still trying to understand who she is at the end, but she has a better handle on her life and where she wants to be.

**I received an ARC copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Why I Love Wednesdays: Book Challenges (!!)

Why I Love Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Alexis at Reflections of a Bookaholic. Every Wednesday, she discusses a different literary topic. The topic this week is your favorite book challenge for 2012.

Why I Love . . . The Dusty Bookshelf Challenge

I was originally going to write about the seasonal challenges I participate in for one of my Goodreads' groups. We do that challenge twice a year, and there are 34 different tasks to complete, each worth a certain number of points. The tasks always add to my reading experience because they are so diverse and sometimes require you to really dig around and look into books/authors you have never heard of before in order to find a book that works for that task. Check out my Fall/Winter challenge task list on my Challenges page to get an idea of what the tasks are all about.

For this post, though, I want to focus on a challenge that I just discovered today at Alysia's blog. It is The Dusty Bookshelf Challenge hosted by Jessica @ Books: A True Story. The challenge is to read books that you've owned for a while or books that you've been wanting to read for a LONG time. 

I'm using this post as my announcement post for the challenge as well. I own 125(!) books, but instead of listing them all, I'm just going to list the ones that have been on my shelves for a year or longer (at some point I might add a TBR page to my blog that lists all the books I own and still need to read):


Adult Fiction
-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-The Stand by Stephen King
-The Shining by Stephen King
-Widow for One Year by John Irving
-The Cider House Rules by John Irving 
-A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
-Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
-Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
-The Risk Pool by Richard Russo
-Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
-Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
-The Island by Victoria Hislop
-Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
-The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
-Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
-The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George
-Helen of Troy by Margaret George
-Atonement by Ian McEwan
-A Carnivore's Inquiry by Sabina Murray
-The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
-Poison by Kathryn Harrison
-Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
-The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
-The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
-The Red Tent by Anita Diamont
-Playing Botticelli by Liza Nelson
-The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
-We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
-Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
-Set in Motion by Valerie Martin
-The Girls by Lori Lansens
-31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
-Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
-The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
-The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet
-The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
-Perfume by Patrick Suskind
-Cassie Draws the Universe by P.S. Baber
-No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook . . . (this one has a long title) by Edgardo Vega Yunque

Classics
-1984 by George Orwell
-The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
-Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
-The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
-Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
-Ada, or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
-The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
-Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
-Watership Down by Richard Adams
-Metamorphosis by Ovid
-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
-The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas


Young Adult
-Eragon by Christopher Paolini
-Firelight by Sophie Jordan
-Wither by Lauren DeStefano
-Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
-Ruined by Paula Morris


Non-Fiction
-Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
-Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
-An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
-The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
-The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
-Personal History by Katharine Graham
-Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
-When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank T. Vertosick
-360 Degrees Longitude by John Higham

Whew! I know that from the look of this list I should aim for the highest level in this challenge, but since this list isn't including all of the newer books I bought that I really want to get to, I'm going to aim for Cobwebs (10-15 books).