Week 6

The momentum continues... Work has been really hectic of late, but I'm still on top with the reading. I've achieved this through my subscription to audible.com. I spend at least an hour and half each day commuting to and from work. At the end of the working day, I switch off and sink my thoughts into the current book I'm listening to. I see you was one of those books. This book was chosen by my online reading book club. The narration was just brilliant. In fact, over the weekend I just hopped into bed and listened to the final chapters. It was a thrilling page turner, that I give 5 out of 5 stars!!

Zoe Walker spots her photo in the classifieds of a newspaper and is puzzled. She sees a woman who was mugged in the tube, photo appear in the classifieds as well. Immediately she reports to police. When shes the news-story of a murder of the next victim of stolen identity, she becomes gravely concerned about her own life and feels someone is stalking her. Seriously I loved the twists and turns in this audiobook and can't wait to discuss it with my group.

The book is set in London and we will be visiting this year, I can't wait to ride the tube and see all the train stops listed in the story. 

The next book was a bit of a miss for me. I listened thinking it would be a comedy. However, I did not smile or laugh once. It is a collection of essays about Mindy Kaling's life. I did feel her strength of character in one of the final essays when she is working with a stylist for a photo shoot. But apart from that I'm lucky I didnt fall asleep driving on the way from work. 

That's nine books read for the Goodreads book and Ultimate Reading challenge.

Week 5

Into the water by Paula Hawkins was suggested by a book club that I was thinking of joining. I had read Girl on the Train when it came out a few years ago and loved the fast pace thrill of a read. So I couldn’t wait to read her latest release. This one took me a while to get into the story. It was told in too many character’s voice. I found it hard to track all of them. But once I reached Part 2, it was a real page turner. A woman, Nel has suspiciously died at the “drowning pool”, her daughter, Lena, ‘s friend, Katie suicided in the same pool of water just months ago. What are the secrets of this water hole? Why have so many women died here? A real page turner when you get past the style of writing.

Another book read for my Ultimate reading challenge, a book published in the past year.

That’s a total of 7 books towards the Ultimate Reading and Goodreads challenges.

Week 4

Many friends have recommended the author Jodi Picoult to me. I have tried many times to read her novels but I think the thickness of the novel has overwhelmed me, and I have not started them. Erin's book challenge was the perfect opportunity to discover her. Handle with care is about a family where their youngest daughter has severe osteogensis imperfecta.

I found this book to be an engrossing read. As soon as I started I was hooked, and I couldn't believe how quickly I was turning the pages. Charlotte, the mother, tries to give her daughter the best treatment and after a disastrous first family holiday, the family see a lawyer to see what their legal opportunities are. After careful consideration, Charlotte decides to sue her best friend ob/gyn putting stress on the entire family. 

As well as a book crossed off for Erin's challenge, this book counts as another towards my Goodreads and my Ultimate Reading Challenge. 

Week 3

After reading Wildflower Hill at the end of last year, I couldn't wait to read more from this author. Lighthouse Bay, did not disappoint. This novel is told in two voices in two different years 1901 and 2012 through the characters Isabelle Winterbourne; a wife of a jeweller from England who survives a shipwreck and Libby Slater; who used to live in Lighthouse Bay, and has returned from Paris after 20 years after her lover dies. It is a fantastic story about this town and the secrets it hides. I read this for Erin's challenge; Read a book that starts with the letter L. This is my second book finished for this challenge. I also crossed it off as "A book that you own".

My second read this week was a play. I have not read a play since high school. In high school, we read  The Crucible and quite a few Shakespeare plays. I was a bit hesitant to read this genre again. However, upon reading the first two pages of this play. Tennessee Williams had created a vivid image of the scene with the two main character Brick and Cat, and I wanted to know more about their story. It would have been quite a controversial story at the time. This play was told in three acts, in this version Act 3, has a rewrite for the New York theatrical production. I read it considering which one I preferred. I personally like the original version. I googled the play after reading and discovered it has been made into a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, I would be interested in seeing how they adapted it to the screen, and whether it captivated the audience like the written version.

I have read 5 books towards my Goodreads challenge and the Ultimate Reading Challenge. I am hoping this early boost in the reading will assist when I am back to work. 

Week 2

After forcing myself to read more of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I put it away as I had actually turned myself off reading. I had ordered a second hand copy of Girl Gone Greek and it arrived in the mail this week. Perfect timing! It has a brilliant blue window shutters on the cover, and with it being Summer and staying at home these holidays, it was the perfect cure for my wanderlust. 

When ordering I didn't realise that it was a self published debut novel for this author. She has written two more books about travelling to Greece and the Greek Isles. In this novel, it recounts life as an English teacher in Greece over the course of a year. It is organised into seasons of the year and was a very enjoyable read. It had the most descriptive paragraphs of places she visited over the course of her year teaching. 

This is another book read towards my reading challenges. So I am at 3 books in total for my Ultimate Reading and Goodreads reading challenge. 23 countries explored in my Read around the world challenge. 🇬🇷

Week 1

The first book I read in 2018 was A Quiver Full of Arrows. I had discovered Jeffrey Archer in January 2017, and this book was on a sale table in a Bowral book shop. I didn't realise when I purchased it, that it was a book of short stories. I devoured this book quickly. One of my favourite short stories in the collection is the first one, The Chinese Statue. Its an eclectic mix of short stories that made it an average book to read. 

This book was on a list I discovered on Pinterest entitled, 50 Empowering Books for Women...I added it on my audible app. I don't know if I feel it was a book that I felt empowered reading. Amy Schumer is an award winning comedian, actress and writer. I had seen her in a couple of movies, Trainwreck and more recently Snatched. The book has the same raunchy style of humour she is renown for, and that isn't my particular love of comedy. At times I found it rude, I listened to the story and would have been embarrassed if others heard me listening. Amy writes about a lot about her family, living in New York, on becoming a comedian and starring in Trainwreck. The stories that she narrates in the audio version of her book, is at times quite sad. Especially when she talks about her dad and family break up. I didn't love her before I read the book and after reading it, I feel the same, overall it was an average read. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a book that I read when I was in school. I can't remember if we studied this book or Tom Sawyer for English class. Rereading this book was completely different the second time. It also took me a few days to get into it, and its still unfinished. I was actually surprised we read Mark Twain in high school now. Thinking back, we read a lot of British and American literature classics and Shakespeare for English. Now that I am a teacher, I am surprised we didn't any Australian literature. This book was actually written very colloquially in Huckleberry's voice. It has really poor grammar. I hope my son doesn't have to read it in high school, now in retrospect. I think there is a lot more quality Australian literature which is an exemplar of colloquial writing, or imagery.  A classic American story but for now, its a DNF, a did not finish. I will look for another book for Erin's Reading Challenge. 

And so after the first week, I have read two novels towards the Ultimate Reading Challenge, and one towards Erin's Reading Challenge 8.0.

2018 Reading Challenges

I have a big TBR ( a to be read pile), after finishing my Masters at the end of last year I also have a lot of spare time on my hands. Rather than reading uni notes, I am determined to get through my TBR and audible downloads.

The reading challenge is one way to get through the shelves of books. Erin's book challenge is one of the reading challenges I have looked at but have never finished!!  Here is this year's list and the titles that I think I can read from my TBR pile:

Book Challenge by Erin 8.0 Categories

* 5 points: Freebie - Read a book that is at least 200 pages. A quiver full of arrows by Jeffrey Archer

* 10 points: Read a book that starts with the letter "L" Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley Freeman

* 10 points: Read a book that has a (mostly) red cover The Hypnotist's Love story by Liane Moriarty

* 15 points: Read a book with the character's name in the title The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

*20 points: Read a book from this list: Book Riot's 100 Must read books with plot Twists The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

* 20 points: Read a book with the words "house" or "home" in the title Keepers of the House by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

* 25 points: Read a book by an author whose first and last name begins with the same letter At Home with The Templetons by Monica McInerney

* 30 points: Read a book that was originally published in a different language than your own The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek translated by Joachim Neugroshel

* 30 points: Read a book where most of the action takes place on a form of transportation A Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes

* 35 points: Read a book with a character that suffers from a debilitating physical illness Handle with Care by Jodi Piccoult

Goodreads Challenge: For the past two years I have pledged that I will read 24 books, working on 2 books per month and have exceeded this both years. So this year I have increased to 36 books that's 3 per month.  

2018 Ultimate Reading Challenge: This is a big commitment, I would love to achieve this one. The commitment is one book a week. I think that is a bit much, but I'm willing to give it a try and read some new genres. 

I have the joined two book clubs, one online and one with a girl from work. One of the book clubs chose "I See You" by Clare Mackintosh... I already had this on my audible app so I thought I would join them to get me to listen to it.  The other group chose Into the Water by Paula Hawkins which I got for Christmas. 

I will continue chipping away from my Read around the world Challenge.... looking forward to visiting lots of places through the world of story.