Ashe Library Winter Reading Challenge discussion

Read two books. Select two different choices from the following options:

A. Name--Read a book by an author with the initials of your first and last name. Use whatever first and last name you use for official business. Your first and last initial should match the author's first and last name initials, but they may be in either order, ex.: My initials are SM; I could read authors with initials SM or MS.

B. Date of Birth--Read a book first published in the decade of your birth. For example, if you were born in 1976, read a book published between 1970-1979.

C. Eye Color--Choose a book with either the word of your eye color in the title (brown, black, blue, hazel, green, etc.) or with mainly that color on the cover. If your eyes are two different colors or you wear colored contacts, you may choose which to use.

D. Hair Color--Choose a book with a pictures of person with the same color hair as yours. Cover model need not have any other points of reference. Required:Include cover picture when posting. If there is more than one person on the cover, indicate which one you used when posting.

E. Height-- Measure your height in inches or centimeters. Read a corresponding book from a series by using any of the resulting digits. Example: If you are 65 inches tall, you may read either book 5 or book 6 from a series. If you are 157 cm, read 1, 5, or 7. If one of the digits is a 0, you may read a non-series book. Round your measurement to the nearest whole number and isolate a single digit number from your measurement. Required: Be sure to include your height measurement when posting.

F. Address--Read a book set in or about the state, province, or area of your birth. If it is not evident from the title, please note when posting.

Option B - I read Rosie's Walk ... published in 1968 (from the decade of my birth year). This book is recommended for ages 0-3 but you can still enjoy it as an adult! Read my review here review of Rosie's Walk

I hope I can find another book to complete this task.

Option A - I read Steve Martin's book Shopgirl

My initials are the same as his. I really admire his talent and have been a fan of his comedy since the days of King Tut. This book is a short novella and is the first written work of his I've read. I consider it a romance and is surprisingly good. I wouldn't give it 5 stars though, and I did like the movie version better. Here is a link to my review ... review of Shopgirl.

And here is a study on Steve Martins' head ...
I am in awe!

C. I read Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich. The cover is mostly blue and I have blue eyes. Like the first book in this series this was a cute fluffy mystery that has some nice humorous moments that made me laugh. It was enjoyable enough that I will likely keep reading the series if it continues. 299pgs


D. The second book I read for this challenge was Front and Center by Catherine G. Murdock. Like the girl DJ on the cover I have brown hair. This is the final book in the Dairy Queen series and provides a nice conclusion to a series I really enjoyed. This a coming of age story about a quiet girl struggling to find out what she wants for her future. It is one of the better YA series I have read in the last few years. 254 pgs

Option C: Eye color: mostly brown cover Nicholas Nickelby (817 pages) a masterpiece and wonderful read. I loved the characters, tales of adventure, friendship, and family. The ending was satisfying and left me feeling I was leaving old friends.


http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/5...
The Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron (261 pages) The setting of this book is in a county outside Raleigh, "Colton County" but most likely Johnston. I lived in this area for 40 years after attending Campbell U and then NCSU. I loved the references to places I know and good ol' boy politics. The cover has been changed since the first printing and did not pop-up in this database.

I read The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed. I was quite taken with this book written by Lee Smith back in 1968 when she was an undergraduate at Hollins College. Told from the perspective of a nine year old girl, Susan, it tells the story of her summer which starts out bright, carefree and promise filled but involves into childhood lost and illusions shattered. The characters are rich and her constant reference to her mother as The Queen, her older sister, The Princess and her married mother's boyfriend as the Baron provides an immediate insight into her perception of those around her. The back cover describes the book as "Lyrical and fanciful in spite of its dark moments." Ashe County has read other Lee Smith books as part of On the Same Page so others may be particularly interested in this one. 180 pages. This book fits item B as it is a book written in the decade of my birth.

For the second book of this challenge, I re-read Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I always loved these books as a child and some of my earliest memories of my childhood were sitting on the lower bunk of my bunkbeds with my mother in the center flanked by my brother and me on either side. When they made the books into a TV series I was hooked and every week we watched enthralled to see what the Ingalls family would face that episode. I was thrilled that my own children enjoyed them so much and the whole series of books were on our boat when we went cruising for 2 years. Every child should read or have these read to them. 238 pages. Laura on the cover has brown hair which fits item D. My hair is brown (but I'm not going to fess up to the gray flecks)

Option C:This World We Live In My eyes have a sort of blue/green/grey thing going, and this cover covers them all. This was a kinda depressing book (it IS dystopian) and when I finished it I had the impression that things were not going to get any better. I guess you could say that it was quite effective.
Option D:The woman on the cover of The Garden of Happy Endings has the same color of hair I used to have (and still do to some extent). Barbara O'Neal used to be Barbara Samuel and also wrote romances under yet another name (which presently escapes me). She's good at what she does and has won several RITA Awards. She's also a charming person. She met one of my former book clubs and showed us around Pueblo, which is the setting for a number of her books (including this one). I enjoy her books partly because of where they take place, but mostly because I enjoy meeting her characters and watching them work through the problems they encounter. AND there's a happy ending which is a pleasant change from much of the fiction I read.

I read Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts for option C. I enjoyed the book but felt it left a lot hanging in the end. 320 pages

The second book I read was Night by Elie Wiesel. I chose this book under option B. This book was first published in 1958. A moving book about a young Jewish boy and his experiences in a Nazi Death Camp. Very touching and emotional as it should be. 120 pages.