August 2014 Wrap-Up

Here's a summary of my book-related activity for August.

Books I read (linked to the reviews)

The Hunt (The Hunt #1) by Andrew Fukuda (TBR pile)
Blackwater Lights by Michael M. Hughes (NetGalley)
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn (new book)
The Philosopher's Apprentice by James Morrow (TBR pile)

Books I bought

The Book of David
by Anonymous

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The Kill Order by
James Dashner

Four by Veronica Roth

Progress on challenges

I read 2 books for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

I completed the following squares for the Book Bingo Challenge: 3 books from my TBR pile

I read 1 book for the Diversity on the Shelf Challenge.

I read 0 banned or challenged books.

I read 1 book written by women.

I read 1 book for the Seriously Series Challenge.

Progress on my TBR pile: I added 4 books to my to read list and removed 4, so my pile stayed the same size this month!

A Three-Month Wrap-Up

Here I am! I'm still alive! :) School, work, etc., have kept me from blogging (and slowed down my reading a whole bunch, too). For the first time, I've been so busy I haven't even posted monthly wrap-ups this summer. So, here's a great big wrap-up for May, June, and July 2014!

Books I read (linked to the reviews)

May:
The Fire (Northwest Passage #4) by John A. Heldt (review copy)
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway (new book)

June:
The Fate of the Dwarves (The Dwarves #4) by Markus Heitz (TBR)

July:
Darkborn (Darkborn #1) by Alison Sinclair (TBR)
Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (new book)

Books I bought

May:

A Boy of Good Breeding
by Miriam Toews

101 Creepy Creature Jokes
by Jovial Bob Stine

101 School Cafeteria Jokes
by Jovial Bob Stine

101 Vacation Jokes
by Jovial Bob Stine

The Bar Code Tattoo
by Suzanne Weyn

101 Silly Monster Jokes
by Jovial Bob Stine

June: none!

July:

For Elise by
Oriole A. Vane Veldhuis

Hollow Earth by John
Barrowman & Carole E. Barrowman

"When Did You See Her Last?"
by Lemony Snicket

Another Pan by
Daniel & Dina Nayeri

The Kneebone Boy
by Ellen Potter

Pirate Cinema by
Cory Doctorow

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Zia by Scott O'Dell

Indiana Jones and the Giants
of the Silver Tower
by R.L. Stine

The Beast Handbook
by Jovial Bob Stine

Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized
Autobiography

It's the First Day of School...
Forever! by R.L. Stine

The Treasures of Weatherby
by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi

Books I bought at the Children's Hospital Book Market in May

The Morgaine Saga
by C.J. Cherryh

Jack of Kinrowan
by Charles de Lint

The Whim of the Dragon
by Pamela Dean

The Dead of Midnight
by Catherine Hunter

Apocalypse of the Dead
by Joe McKinney

Manitoba Book of Everything

Bone Dance
by Emma Bull

Books I got for my birthday in May!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Freefall by Joss Whedon

Books I got for contributing to a Kickstarter campaign

The Seekers by Brendan Myers

Books I got for free!

Can you believe someone left a hardcover copy of Under the Dome (in great condition!) in my apartment's foyer, in the spot where people leave stuff they don't want? Sweet!

Under the Dome
by Stephen King

Crisis by Robin Cook

Progress on challenges

I read 2 books for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

I completed the following squares for the Book Bingo Challenge:

I read 0 books for the Diversity on the Shelf Challenge.

I read 0 banned or challenged books.

I read 1 book written by women.

I read 3 books for the Seriously Series Challenge.

Progress on my TBR pile:
May: I added 15 books to my to read list and removed 2, so my pile increased by 13 this month!
June: I added 0 books to my to read list and removed 1, so my pile decreased by 1 this month!
July: I added 16 books to my to read list and removed 2, so my pile increased by 14 this month!

April 2014 Wrap-Up

Here's a summary of my book-related activity for April. There was a 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, which allowed me to finally make some progress! On the other hand, there was a Children's Hospital Book Market, which means I also bought more books than usual. I regret nothing.

Books I read (linked to the reviews)

Canadian Government in Transition by Robert J. Jackson and Doreen Jackson (textbook)
The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate (TBR pile)
Namesake by Sue MacLeod (new book)
Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison (re-read)
Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al. (TBR pile)
Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews (TBR pile)
Blind Date by R.L. Stine (TBR pile)

Books I bought

Namesake by Sue MacLeod

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

Books I bought at the Children's Hospital Book Market (they deserve their own heading)

White Tiger
by Kylie Chan

Assassin's Apprentice
by Robin Hobb

WebMage by
Kelly McCullough

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

George's Marvelous Medicine
by Roald Dahl

Zapped in Space
by R.L. Stine

Lady of Avalon by
Marion Zimmer Bradley

Shelf Life by various

Books I won in the Goodreads First Reads program

The Confabulist by Steven Galloway

Progress on challenges

I didn't pick a Random Read this month since I still haven't read my March Random Read.

I read 4 books for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

I completed the following squares for the Book Bingo Challenge: 2 books from my TBR pile, 2 books that are part of a series, FREE SQUARE

I read 0 books for the Diversity on the Shelf Challenge.

I read 0 banned or challenged books.

I read 4 books written by women.

I read 2 books for the Seriously Series Challenge.

Progress on my TBR pile: I added 11 books to my to read list and removed 6, so my pile increased by 5 this month!

Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison

Title: Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #3)
Author: Louise Rennison
Publication Date: 2001
Length: 183 pages

Warning: This is a review of the third book in the series, and may therefore contain spoilers from the first two books.

So, Georgia is back with Robbie (sigh), but her new relationship is interrupted when she's forced to go on vacation to Scotland  (Och Aye land) with her family. While there, she meets another weird guy, this one a Scottish bloke she nicknames Jock McThick, and he touches her basooma in the dark. (Poor Georgia's basoomas can't catch a break from these weird guys!)

The ongoing issue in this book is Georgia's red-bottomosity, ie. having the general horn, ie. wanting all the boys. She's got the Sex God now, like she (misguidedly, I think) wanted, and now suddenly she has feelings for Dave the Laugh, who was just her Red Herring before. She didn't appreciate him when she had him, despite him being adorable, but now that he's dating her friend Ellen suddenly she sees his appeal. Good grief, Georgia.

So basically, more Georgia being ridiculous, and more of me laughing uncontrollably. I really love this series.

5 stars.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Publication Date: 1953
Length: 184 pages

Guy Montag is a fireman, but in this dystopian future, that doesn't mean putting out fires. It means starting fires to burn illegal books. But this book is about more than just book-burning, because more than just books have been destroyed. Seemingly most intelligence and other interesting things have been eliminated. People entertain themselves with their TV walls all day. The idea is that people are "happier" because they only experience simple, happy media, rather than complicated things that make one think. This has made people horrifyingly mindless and complacent.

When Montag meets a girl who likes going for walks and chooses odd topics of conversation, his dissatisfaction with his life intensifies and he starts to question the way things are. Before you know it, he's defying the principles he has proudly helped enforce for his whole life, hiding books in his home and making contact with others who have kept intellectualism alive.

I feel like I had to read this book, as a fan of dystopians, but I don't really feel like I got anything out of it. It's an interesting premise, and the story was pretty good, but it didn't thrill me. And thinking back on it now, I find that it hasn't really stuck with me.

3 stars.

Mt. TBR, all in one place!

Inspired by the picture on Stacy's Books of her TBR pile, I decided to take one of my own. I had never before put all of my to-read books in one pile. They're normally somewhat split up by bookshelf, but not perfectly, since I like to keep all the books by one author together even if I've read only some of them. So this was a fun and surprising experience for me. I did not, for example, realise just how much of my TBR pile was made up of R.L. Stine books!

So here it is! Behold the great Mt. TBR:

And now, the same pile in panorama view (which was my attempt to get a closer shot without cutting off the edges, which I'm not sure really helped):

I counted the pile (yes, seriously) and got 744, which is a bit worrisome because according to Goodreads there are supposed to be 752 books there. So, an audit of my book collection may be in order!