Reading Review for June & July
I never got around to posting a reading review for June. It looks as though I read a ton, although I’ve listed both June and July.
I read a total of 28 books during the month of June and July. You can see those listed below. Unfortunately, most have yet to have a review written up as I was without a computer for this past week. So watch for those coming up.
Speaking of computers, I’ve ordered a laptop. I’ve never had one and am really excited. It won’t be here for a couple of more weeks, but my husbands office was really generous and loaned us a tower so we wouldn’t be without internet at home until then! How cool are they! Now, I have a TON of catching up to do.
This brings my yearly total to 25 Adult Fiction, 25 Young Adult Fiction/Non-Fiction, 32 Juvenile Fiction/Non-Fiction, 2 parenting and 14 Non-Fiction for a total of 97 books. You know, in case your actually keeping track of me (which I know you actually have lives, therefore, why am I even telling you these numbers).
Here’s my reading review for June & July:
Fiction
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Young Adult Fiction
Madapple by Christina Meldrum
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Libertad by Alma Fullerton
Juvenile/MG Fiction
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Tiger Rising by Kate KiCamillo
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Farworld, Water Keep by J. Scott Savage
The Willoughby’s by Lois Lowry
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
Non-Fiction
Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin (Graphic Memoir)
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Young Adult)
The Sudan Project: Rebuilding with the People of Darfur, A Young Person’s Guide by Melissa Leembrugeen (Juvenile)
Admit One: A Journey Into Film by Emmett James
Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway
Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife by Irene Spencer
Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine (Juvenile)
The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman
Abandoned Books
Keeper and Kid by Edward Hardy
Of these books, I break down my recommendations like this:
Highly Recommended (this recommendation usually for social issues)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife by Irene Spencer
Escape by Carolyn Jessop
I Enjoyed and Would Recommend
The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Madapple by Christina Meldrum
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Libertad by Alma Fullerton
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Tiger Rising by Kate KiCamillo
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Farworld, Water Keep by J. Scott Savage
The Willoughby’s by Lois Lowry
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin (Graphic Memoir)
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Young Adult)
The Sudan Project: Rebuilding with the People of Darfur, A Young Person’s Guide by Melissa Leembrugeen (Juvenile)
Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway
Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine (Juvenile)
Good but Maybe You’ll Like It More Than Me
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Admit One: A Journey Into Film by Emmett James
Not Worth It
Keeper and Kid by Edward Hardy
Challenge Updates
The Callapidder Days 2008 Spring Reading Thing hosted by Katrina challenge ended in June. I’m really late wrapping this one up. This is the original list. As you can see I didn’t get to all of them, but I got most.
I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
Mud City by Deborah Ellis
The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Visit my Challenge Blog for progress on all of my challenges. Challenges that I’m currently participating in are, that is ones I’ve not (click on link to be taken to my book list, challenge details, how and where to sign up, etc.):
Trish’s Classics Challenge
3M’s1% Well-Read Challenge
Joy’s A-Z Challenge
Africa Reading Challenge
Lynne’s I Heard it Through the Grapevine Challenge
Joy’s Non-Fiction Five Challenge
My own 52 books in 52 weeks list.
Thanks to everybody who made this a great month (make that two months)!
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I’ll be interested in knowing how you like the labtop. i think it would be great to have one, but I love my double screens and the raised keyboard letters. I guess you get used to whatever, though, right?
I really really want to read Half of a Yellow Sun soon. hopefully this month but it seems to keep getting pushed back for other books. You had a great couple of months!!
on August 4th, 2008 at 1:41 pmTrish – I’m going to be interested in how I like it as well. Like I said, I’ve never had one. What I am looking forward to, is not being stuck in one room. Especially since I have two little ones in the house. I can take it outside while they play, sit on the couch if they are watching a movie, etc. I feel like they get upset whenever I go upstairs to hope on for a few minutes.
And our computer room is also our guest room. We have company A LOT. My in-laws are actually coming this Friday for ten days. Whenever we have anybody sleeping in that room, I can’t access the computer like I want to. So it will be nice to have something mobile, especially when we go on vacations. We have a bad habit of staying three weeks at a time in Hawaii (my husband’s family is from Hawaii) and now that I’ve started blogging, I can’t imagine not checking internet for three weeks.
But we still plan on getting another desktop to replace our dead one. So we won’t be without one completely. My husband says I used the computer to much, so he was all for getting me my own so he could reclaim so of his time. So glad to hear that you use double monitors. So do we! I love it.
on August 4th, 2008 at 2:33 pmI’m very interested to hear what you think of “The Alchemist” and “Admit One,” mainly because those are two books I really didn’t care for and I want to see what you have to say about them, particularly “The Alchemist” since you seem to have liked it better than I did.
on August 4th, 2008 at 2:45 pmMy husband and I both have laptops. I can’t imagine sharing and I can’t imagine being tied down. I LOVE to take it out on the back deck with the baby in the early morning. Or to take it into the kitchen to make an interesting recipe without printing it.
I had Shattered Dreams from the library, but had to return it before I got to it. I might put it on my PBS list instead. I already have Escape on the list. I ordered Briar Rose because of you and I have had Love Walked In forever, but haven’t read it.
SO many good books lately, I need more time in my day! (Or to put that laptop down and walk away…)
on August 4th, 2008 at 4:09 pmlet me tell you this – once you have a laptop you will never ever go back to the desktop.. the freedom to sit wherever you want is amazing.. i got my first laptop a year ago and now it is an extended part of my body!!
on August 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pmyour reading list is amazing.. i am so envious of the fact that you managed to read so much this year!!
Yay about the new laptop! You’ve read a lot of books! I wish I’ve more time to catch up on my reading…
on August 4th, 2008 at 9:04 pmYou will love the freedom of the laptop! My husband uses his mostly in our TV room while I’m stuck in the small, hot, office with the tower PC. He can go on our front porch or back porch if he wants a change a scenery or to see what’s going on in the neighborhood while he checks email or surfs the net. My laptop is so ancient (like 7 years old) it hardly ever works without being plugged in – a laptop of my own is my next investment.
I was wondering… when you read more than one book at a time do you have a problem remembering where you are with them?
on August 4th, 2008 at 9:34 pmJen – I actually saw your review of Admit One but didn’t take time to comment as I was at the public library at the time. After I read it I thought, hey, Jen just wrote my review! I thought it was enjoyable but I wasn’t sure why he was trying to go with the movie tie-ins. I really wanted to enjoy it because my husband and I are big movie buffs. As for The Alchemist, my neighborhood book club is meeting this Thursday to discuss it. I’ll get more insight then. I just had read The Little Prince and while this one reminded me of that one, I really liked this one a lot better.
Lisa – Go get back Shattered Dreams. I seriously could not put it down. Glad to hear that you like your laptop. I’m getting excited now!
Ramya – Pretty much I’ve stopped watching TV and I don’t have a clue what’s going on in the world anymore. I certainly didn’t read this much before the blog.
Melody – I wish I had time to catch up on my book reviews. In-laws are coming this week, so I’m cleaning house!
Amber – I try to not have two fiction books going on at the same time unless one is a really long one and another is a middle reader that I usually can finish up in a day or two. I’ve found that sometimes I need that small little book to break up the longer ones. Lately, I’ve had more than one non-fiction going at the same time but I can go for days before I pick one back up. Usually these are not memoirs but rather parenting (I honestly read these ones in the bathroom but maybe that’s telling too much), or something of the likes. I’ve started Three Cups of Tea but haven’t picked it up again for over a week and We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow You Will Be Killed With Your Families was interrupted by Breaking Dawn.
on August 4th, 2008 at 9:57 pmthere is a world outside??:) i’m pretty much in the same state as you.. all that I do after getting back from work is catch up on my reading and then log into google reader to catch up on the blogs that I regularly follow.. i don’t seem to have time for anything else! but now, i am taking time off to watch some news and make myself more “aware”..
on August 5th, 2008 at 7:32 amWowza…that is one massive pile of reading, even for two months! Way to go, Natasha! And happy belated anniversary!
on August 5th, 2008 at 1:43 pmRamya – I think I need to subscribe to a news service via my reader that way I won’t feel like an idiot when it comes to what’s going on.
Debi – Thanks. I still have most of them sitting here waiting for a review. I keep forgetting that I need to be reviewing as fast as I get them read! Thanks for the well wishes!
on August 5th, 2008 at 5:28 pmLaptops are amazing! I adore mine
on August 5th, 2008 at 9:23 pm