New Author Challenge 2010

Hosted By: Literary Escapism
January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010

I had a lot of fun participating in this one the past year, and while I’m hesitant to commit to 50 authors again, I know I have at least 50 new ones on my shelves, not to mention all the others on my wishlist. Can’t wait to get started!

Monthly Mixer Mele

Jen’s book talk is hosting this challenge that just started in November. It runs from November 1, 2009 to November 2, 2010. It’s pretty self explanatory, but the idea is to read a book where either the title or the author fits the letter of the months.

N
O
V
E
M
B
E
R

Double Cross by James Patterson
E
C
E
M
B
E
R

J
A
N
U
A
R
Y

F
E
B
R
U
A
R
Y

M
A
R
C
H

A
P
R
I
L

M
A
Y

J
U
N
E

J
U
L
Y

A
U
G
U
S
T

S
E
P
T
E
M
B
E
R

O
C
T
O
B
E
R

N
O
V
E
M
B
E
R

Challenge Complete – 999 Challenge

 

Well, Ididn’t quite make it to the early finish date (two books left at that point), but I did make it before the end of the year. I’m still working on 999×2 and it’s slow to start but now that I can pretty much add all my books there, I should be good to go (hopefully). Can’t wait for the next round, already planning my categories.

I – TBR List

1. Mystic River by Dennis Lehan
2. You Know You’re a Writer When by Adair Lara
3. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4. Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
5. Love Letters of Great Men by John C. Kirkland
6. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
7. Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
8. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
9. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

II – 1,001 Books You Must Read

1. Watchmen by Alan Moore
2. Atonement by Ian McEwan
3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
5. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
6. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
7. Aesop’s Fables by Aesopus
8. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
9. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

III – Favorite Authors/Next in Series

1. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton
2. Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
3. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
4. Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
5. Love is a Many Trousered Thing by Louise Rennison
6. Stop in the Name of Pants by Louise Rennison
7. Step on a Crack by James Patterson
8. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
9. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

IV – Books Published in 2009

1. The Noticer by Andy Andrews
2. 8th Confession by James Patterson
3. Swimsuit by James Patterson
4. Run For Your Life by James Patterson
5. Fool by Christopher Moore
6. Twilight Director’s Notebook by Catherine Hardwicke
7. Mommywood by Tori Spelling
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
9. Take Your Shirt Off and Cry by Nancy Balbirer

V – Children/Young Adult

1. Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers by Louise Rennison
2. Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
3. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide by Holly Black
4. The Witches by Roald Dahl
5. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone by Holly Black
6. The Spiderwick Chronicles: Lucinda’s Secret by Holly Black
7. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Ironwood Tree by Holly Black
8. Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
9. Spiderwick Chronicles: The Wrath of Mulgarath by Holly Black

VI -  Non-Fiction

1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
2. The 1996 What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
3. Maus by Art Spiegelman
4. Maus II by Art Spiegelman
5. If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
6. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
7. Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi
8. The Writer’s Idea Book by Jack Heffron
9. The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan

VII – Alex Cross Novels

1. Pop Goes the Weasel
2. Roses are Red
3. Violets are Blue
4. Four Blind Mice
5. Big Bad Wolf
6. London Bridges
7. Mary Mary
8. Cross
9. Double Cross

VIII – First Time Authors

1. One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
2. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
4. Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
5. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
6. The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner
7. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
8. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
9. Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center

IX – Made Into Movies

1. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
4. Sin City: The Hard Goodbye (Vol. 1) by Frank Miller
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
6. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
7. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
8. 300 by Frank Miller
9. 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles

345 Challenge

Hosted By: Chick Loves Lit
August 1, 2009 – August 1, 2010

Another great challenge, one of my favorites because it involves reading series books. I’m late starting, but I’m going to be good and fair and start from today’s date and go until August, because I know I’ve read a lot of series this year and could easily finish this quickly if I went back through August.

The idea is to read 3 books in one series, 4 in another, and 5 in a third. They don’t have to be in order, or start to finish, or even a trilogy (for the 3).

Alex Cross Series (James Patterson)

1. Double Cross
2. Cross Country
3. Alex Cross’s Trial

Harry Bosch Series (Michael Connelly)

1. Angels Flight
2. A Darkness More Than Night
3. City of Bones
4. Lost Light

Stephanie Plum Series (Janet Evanovich)

1. Seven Up
2. Hard Eight
3. To the Nines
4. Ten Big Ones
5. Eleven on Top

REVIEW: Double Cross

Title: Double Cross
Author: James Patterson
Finished: November 5, 2009
Pages: 389
Published: 2007

I’m getting closer to finishing the Alex Cross series, or at least catching up. Each mystery is its own, and often times you can just pick one up and not need the back story too much.

In Double Cross, Alex finds himself hunted by two killers – one new and one extremely familiar. He’s also got a new love that brings him back into the mix. It seems like this book jumps in time some, Alex has been working at his practice for some time, not solving crimes but helping people through their issues. When he finds himself back at a crime scene with his detective girlfriend old memories start flooding back and he finds how much he really misses it.

I loved this mystery because at some times it was hard to determine which killer was doing what, or if there was a trick somewhere in there and I kept second guessing. I like Alex evolving, his children growing, and he’s starting to find what really matters after a change in his life.

*challenges: 999 challenge, 100+ challenge, series challenge season 3, james patterson challenge, fall into reading, countdown challenge, 345 reading challenge, monthly mixer mele