December Monthly Run down

This month was a VERY slow reading month for me! I only read 4 books, and one was a freebie novella on my Kindle.

I read
1. "Evergreen" by Richard Taylor This was the short Novella. It was fun, but just something to fill in time while waiting for my hubby to run an errand while I waited in the car! (4 out of 5 stars)

2. "Christmas on Main Street" By JoAnn Ross A book with 4 Christmas short stories in it. A fun and light read to get me in the holiday spirit! (5 out of 5 stars)

3. "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.  I think I would have enjoyed this one more had I not fallen into my slump about the time I picked this one up. It is less than 400 pages and took me 19 days to finish!! It was good, I was just having one of those times, when everything else seemed to be catching my attention everytime I picked this up! I will be continuing on with this series. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

4. "Knit the Season" By: Kate Jacobs.  A fun light holiday read that also took me WAY too long to finish because of before mentioned slump.( Rated this one 4 out of 5 stars)

I was hoping to also finish "The Time Travelers Wife" By Audrey Niffennegger, but with my slump, and holiday stuff, that just wasn't in the cards. I did, however, start it, and am enjoying it so far. And will definitely be finishing it in January.

That's all for now! I will be posting a January TBR post soon! Thank you for reading! Happy New Year!!

Monthly rundown: April!

Boy am I behind...as usual on this!

In April I only got 4 books read...a sad, sad month for reading!

1. The Appeal by John Grisham

2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

3. Sammy's Hill By: Kristin Gore

4. Summer Breeze By: Catherine Anderson

All four were on my TBR challenge for the year, which I finish at the beginning of May. Boy do I need to catch up on reviews!!

(Late) March monthly run down

Boy have I been neglecting this blog!!! Oops...Well, the year is still not half over yet, so I still have time to redeem myself!!

Anyway, I had a good reading month in March here is what I got to:

1. Every Breath you Take by: Ann Rule

2. Nostalgic Noel By: Various Authors

3. Girl's Night In By: Various Authors

4. Ask again Later By: Jill A. Davis

5. Waiting to Exhale By: Terry McMillan

And I almost had a 6th finish, but it was finished April 1st...so can't count for March. Sadly, it is the ONLY book I have been able to finish in April. I am currently reading two books which I think I may be able to finish this week, lets hope, or April's list will be VERY sad!

September Monthly run down, and an answer to a question in comments!

Wow! September really was a HORRIBLE reading month! I only got 3 books read...why? you ask? Because I decided to try to stick to reading a horrible book that is about a million pages long that is just a waste of time. Which one might that be? "The Shelters of Stone" by Jean M. Auel.

This book is the 5th book in her Earth Children's series. It took her 12 years to write, and most of her fans, who loved the first four books are mostly dissapointed in this work. The reviews at goodreads aren't good. I am struggling to get through this thing. The only reason I am STILL reading it, is that I have invested time in getting through over 500 of the 700+ pages and I see the end is near, but I find myself doing so much skimming...sad. I was totally looking forward to this work too! There is a 6th inthe series, and I hear it is worse than this one. I borrowed it from a friend, and I think I will be returning it without even cracking it open.

On the other hand I did finish three really great books:
1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
2.Conquering Depression By: Mark A. Sutton and Bruce Hennigan
and
3. All Together Dead By: Charlaine Harris

I am STILL slogging through The Shelters of Stone. I still have a little over 200 pages left of this one. I confess, I keep turning the page hoping something happens! but nothing ever does! It's just more of the same old boring drivel. I am also curious to see how she ends this, despite the fact that I don't think anything exciting will happen. And there have been plenty of opportunity for drama, but she never grabs it! Just a few incidents here and there, and I think that is why I keep going, just about the time I wanna give up, there is a bit of excitement, but she never runs with that storyline, she just goes back to the boring descriptions of everything in minute detail, and repeating herself over and over and over.

Well, if I ever get this book done, I will be picking up The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, World without End, and maybe Blood of the Fold, the third book in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind....another three that are over 700 pages, and one is over 1000! Or! Maybe I'll go for some light reading, some Emily Giffin, or Karen Kingsbury. I know I want to read/reread some of my true ghost story books in lieu of the Halloween/fall spirit...no pun intended! I just ordered a new Ghosty Book on Amazon last week, and am hoping it shows up before October is gone!

Ok, and now to answer Booklady who asked how I liked War and Peace and if I had plans to read any more of Tolstoys stuff.
I enjoyed it alot! I have read Anna Karenina, and loved it also. I do have his other works on my "To read someday" list, but there are none on my TBR shelf as of yet. Maybe I will have to remedy that here soon!

June Reads

This month has not been too bad with the reading, I think it coulda been a bit better, but I am stuck reading 2 chunksters (one of which is War and Peace) and also The House of Mirth, which is a classic, so it's not an easy read per se...so towards the end of the month I decided to pick up two easy fun and light reads (One by Sarah Dessen, and one by Emily Giffin) and finished those two in a matter of three days after not having finished a single one for almost 2 weeks straight.

Well lets see what I got to:

1)The Memory Keepers Daughter By: Kim Edwards 5/5
2) The Interruption of Everything By: Terry MacMillan 5/5
3. The Red Queen By: Philippa Greggory 5/5
4) Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World By: Joanna Weaver 5/5
5) That summer by Sarah Dessen 5/5
6) Something Blue By Emily Giffin 5/5

So I read quite a few really great books this month!! Or I guess I should say I FINISHED a few good books this month! I am still sloggin through War and Peace, which totally slowed me down, but I am on page 1070 out of 1455 on that one, so less than 400 pages now!! Exciting! So I was reading some not so great books as well, but all the ones I finished I loved! Some really really great stuff!

TBR Challenge Books: 2
Non fiction: 1
Library: 3

July: Monthly Rundown

Due to morning sickness I only got to 4 this month:

1. Outer Banks
2. Keeping the Moon
3. Anne Frank: the diary of a young girl
4. Moment to Moment

Re-Read: 1
Classic: 1
Dr. Boxalls list: 1

June: Monthly Rundown

This month proved to be a much more productive reading month than last month! I got 7 done!

1. The Worlds Most Haunted Places
2. Wizards first rule
3. Gilead
4. Vanishing Acts
5. Mother of Pearl
6. C is for Corpse
7. Great Expectations


TBR challenge: 2
Classics: 1
Paranormal: 1
Pulitzer: 1

New Genre: 1

April: Monthly Run-down

April wasn't a bad month for reading. I set a goal to read 7 books, and I did just that. Here's what I devoured:

1. Weep No more my Lady by Mary higgins Clark
2. Living Dead in Dallas By: Charlaine Harris
3. Leaving Ireland By: Ann Moore
4. Stillwatch by Mary Higgins Clark
5. The Magnificent Ambersons By: Booth Tarkington
6. The Kite Runner By: Khaled Hosseini
7. A Cry in the Night By: Mary Higgins Clark

TBR challenge: 1
Classics: 1
Pulitzer: 1

I read alot of Mary Higgins Clark, as I had a three in one book of hers, I actually have another one as well in my TBR shelf that I may get to later on this year. I was pleasantly surprised that I met my goal to read 7 books this month.

Yearly book count: 30
Yearly page count: 10,059

February: Monthly Run-Down

1. The Restoration
2. A Modest Proposal
3. Little Women
4. The Historian
5. Water Dancers
6. Dead Until Dark
7. Captivated

Non-Fiction: 1
Classics: 2
Library: 3
Dr. Boxall's 1001 list: 2

Yearly page count: 6,070
Yearly book count: 18

January Reads: Monthly Rundown

1. Dracula by: B. Stoker
2. The Other Queen By: P. Gregory
3. Then Came Heaven By: L. Spencer
4. The Inheritance By: LM Alcott
5. Foul Play By: J. Evanovich
6. Gracelin O'Malley By: A. Moore
7. My Sunshine By: C. Anderson
8. Catch-22 By: J. Heller
9. A Girl's Best Friend By: K. Billerbeck
10. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County By: T. Baker
11. Moral Disorder By: M. Atwood

Classics: 2
Audio: 3

Yearly page count: 2,937

December Reads

1. Slammerkin By E. Donoghue
2. The Christmas Theif By M. Higgins clark
3. The Age of Innocence By: Edith Wharton
4. The Nanny Diaries by: E. Laughlin
5. Christmas Wishes By D. Macomber
6. Ghost Chronicles By: Maureen Wood
7. Eclipse By: S. Meyer
8. Breaking Dawn By: S. Meyer


Not a bad month in lieu of all the Holiday hooplah!

Challenges met: 75 books read for the Year

Non fiction: 1
Classics: 1
Pulitzer Prize winner: 1

Next year I would like to, again, finish 75 books, and try to post to this blog ALOT more often! It's sad that I only posted 37 times this year, and I read 75 books, which means not a whole lot of reviews happened....so next year I am definitely going to work on that!

Also, thank you to all my new followers! I am hoping maybe you will motivate me to keep on top of this blog!

Yearly for 2009:
Books read: 75
Pages read: 26,462

November Reads

1. The Quilters Kitchen J. Chiaverini
2. Joy Luck Club A. Tan
3. Babylon Sisters P. Cleage
4. Heart and Soul M. Binchy
5. Wuthering Heights E. Bronte
6. New Moon S. Meyer

Libray:4
Classics: 1

October Reads

1. Baby Proof E. Griffin
2. The Fountainhead A. Rand
3. The Bestseller O. Goldsmith
4. Thursdays at Eight D. Macomber
5. Househusband A. Hudler

Challenge met: 60 Book Challenge for 2009

September Reads

1. Don't Look Down J. Crusie
2. My Sisters Keeper J. Piccoult
3. Home Song L. Spencer
4. The Amber Spyglass P. Pullman
5. The Summer I Dared B. Delinsky
6. The House of the Seven Gables N. Hawthorne


Audio:1
Classics: 1
challenges met: 18,000 pages for the year 2009

August Reads

1. Twilight S. Meyer
2. Mrs. Dalloway V. Woolfe
3. The Jane Austen Book Club K.J Fowler
4. B is for Burglar S. Grafton
5. The Guardian N. Sparks
6. The Other Boleyn Girl P. Greggory
7. Angels All Over Town L. Rice
8. Catching Heaven S. Hall
9. The Subtle Knife P. Pullman

Classics: 1
Audio: 2

July Reads

1. Daring to Dream N. Roberts
2. Holding the Dream N. Roberts
3. Land of A Hundred Wonders L. Kagen
4. Finding the Dream N. Roberts
5. Moby Dick H. Melville
6. Miranda Blue Calling
7. Full House J. Evanovich
8. Atonement I. McEwan

Classics: 1
Pulitzer: 1

Not working sure helped me get more reading in this month.

June Reads

1. The Reading group E. Noble
2. The Grief club M. Beattie
3. Middlesex J. Euginides
4. While They're at War K. Henderson
5. Miss Julia Meets Her Match A. Ross
6. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons L. Landvick
7. The Mirror L. Freed

I got a few more books read this month, as I didn't have the internet to distract me as we just arrived Japan and were trying to get settled.

Non-Fiction-2
Pulitzer-1

May Reads

1. All This Belongs to Me A. Hudler
2. Ghosts of the Range D. Munn
3. I do (But I don't) C. Lockwood
4. Just Beyond the Clouds K. Kingsbury
5. A little Help from Above S. Rosenberg
6. The New codependency M. Beattie


This was a busy month trying to move to Japan, so didn't have a whole lot of time to read, but I did get a few in.

Non-Fiction: 2
Challenges met: Spring Reading Thing for 2009

April Reads

1. The Sandcastle RM Brown
2. Texas Haunted Forts E. Coleman
3. Colony A.R. Siddons
4. The Blind Assassin M. Atwood
5. City Ghosts B. Sammons
6. Emma J. Austen
7. The Lucky One N. Sparks
8. The Clan of the Cave Bear J.M. Auel

Re-reads:2
Library: 2
Classics: 1
Audio:1

March Reads

1. Being Committed A. Maxted
2. Dreamland S. Dessen
3. Ghost stories of Georgia C. Wangler
4. Getting Over it A. Maxted
5. Ghost Stories of California B. Smith

Non Fiction: 2