.:.Book Bodega.:. discussion

Here are the rules...

1. Challenge will run from June 1 to August 31.

2. You must read at least 1 book from each category.

3. Must update your entry post as you read.
(See previous challenge threads for examples.)
No last minute completed entries. Dates are taken into consideration should we have a tie for the winner.

4. Winner will be the person that reads the MOST books this summer.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, here are the challenge categories:

1. SOMETHING OLD
Read a classic. For help, check out this list.

2. SOMETHING NEW
Read a new release (published this year).

3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Borrow a book from a friend or finally read that book a friend has been suggesting for ages.

4. SOMETHING BLUE
Read a book with the word blue in the title or a book with a blue cover.

5. SOMETHING FREE
Read whatever your little heart desires.



There you have it.
2013's Summer Reading Challenge


Good Luck, Enjoy, and Happy Reading!

Something Old
Anne of Green Gables
(Haven't read this book since I was 12 years old. I've been wanting to read it again. Seems like the perfect time.)

Something New
Just One Day
LOVE Gayle Forman! - finished July 14, 2013

Something Borrowed
Neverwhere
Sam, I promise to read it this summer! - didn't finish July 3, 2013

Something Blue
The Fault in Our Stars

Something Free
Beautiful Creatures: The Graphic Novel - finished June 9, 2013

Boundless
I've had this book for months and still haven't gotten to it. - finished July 5, 2013

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Continuing my HP series re-read.

New Moon: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 - finished June 29, 2013

The Brilliant Book Of Doctor Who 2011 - finished July 30, 2013


This is the summer of reading catch-up.

Something Old:
(Anne of Green Gables read with Li) Finished 6/7/13 - sorry Li, couldn't resist!
Circle of Friends finished 7/7/13 - not really "old," per se, but a fun re-read.



Something New
Dead Ever After finished 7/20/13 - light summer read that finishes off the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Satisfying ending.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane finished 7/3/13

Something Borrowed
The Giver finished 6/19/13 - liked it better than Gathering Blue

The House Girl finished 7/27/13

Something Blue
Gathering Blue finished 6/8/13 - quick read!
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal (has a blue cover) finished 6/23/13
Blue Nights finished 7/6/13 - very quick read; I actually liked The Year of Magical Thinking, but this one just felt too self-indulgent.

Something Free

The Prince of Mist - Finished 6/2/13 - I've fallen in love with Zafon's adult books. This was his first book and targeted a YA audience. It was okay, but felt a bit rushed and wasn't as well developed as his other books. Still, I'll read its companion book, The Midnight Palace. quick read!

The Night Strangers finished 6/10/13 - this just became available on my library e-book queue and it was a pretty quick read. It's sort of Rosemary's Baby meets The Shining meets The Haunting of Hill House. Not bad, but not as good as I wanted it to be.

A Week in Winter finished 6/21/13 Fun,light, feel-good, post-Ireland summer read.

Messenger finished 6/28/13 - liked this better than Gathering Blue as well.

Son finished 7/5/13 - okay - it was an easy read, but I really got bogged down in part 2 when the author goes into meticulous detail about events that don't warrant meticulous detail. I find these Giver books, overall, a little too neat and clean. A character finds out a secret about his or her community and, with little thought or conflict, defies the community. There are few obstacles to their actions. And the author doesn't do a very good job of world-building. There are these random dystopian communities all over the world - each at various levels of technological development - and they don't communicate with each other, and there's no unifying principle to explain why the world is as it is. It's like she creates situations, evil characters, etc, with no rhyme or reason. Anyway, that's my rant!

The Girl in the Garden finished 7/10/13 - fairly absorbing story, quick read. You can pretty much see the "twists" coming from a mile away, but that didn't take away the enjoyment.
Sold finished 7/12/13 - very fast read; dealt with the serious issue of children in Nepal being sold into prostitution. I wanted to like the book itself more than I did, but it was fairly straightforward and, at times, the style was a bit annoying, although I do appreciate it for what it was.

The Road finished 7/16/13 I seriously think I'm the only person who hadn't read this. Not a particularly quick or easy read, but I really liked it for the relationship between father and son, and the spark of hope that was somehow kept alive.

Boys Without Names finished 7/31/13 - short read about child labor in India. Similar to Sold, but more engaging!

Doctor Who: Summer Falls finished 8/16/13 - fun Doctor Who tie-in book!

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery finished 8/15/13 more Doctor Who tie-in. It was okay.

Orphan Train finished 8/31/13

@Mia - yey!! It's a date.

1. SOMETHING OLD
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

2. SOMETHING NEW
Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson -finished 7/19/13
Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
The Woman Upstairsby Claire Messud

3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Finish the The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess)
The Reluctant FundamentalistBy Mohsin Hamid - finished 6/12/13
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

4. SOMETHING BLUE
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Gathering Blue (The Giver, #2) by Lois Lowry 6/20/13

5. SOMETHING FREE
Finish the The Giver series by Lois Lowry (The Messenger 6/24/13 [i liked better than Gathering Blue], The Son 7/5/13)
finish the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver
(Annabel, Requiem, Hana, Pandemonium, Raven, Requiem, Alex)
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

Li - you didn't read Just One Day? Why did I think you did?? And, yes - read Neverwhere!!!

Do you have to start the books on June 1 or after or just finish them then? Thanks!

The challenge runs from June 1 and ends August 31. We start reading our choices on June 1.

Is this like before - we make a list of target reads, but, if we change our list, that's okay? I may just never get around to Love in the Time of Cholera, but I'm gonna try.

Yup! We're not married to our choices. As long as your reads fall under a category, you're all good.

1. SOMETHING OLD
Kidnapped 8/17/13

2. SOMETHING NEW
Whiskey Beach Finished 6/15

3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Finished 7/10/13
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 8/2/13
Quotations to Cheer You Up When the World Is Getting You Down: More Than 750 Sayings and Anecdotes 8/22/13
The Christmas Shoppe 8/25/13


4. SOMETHING BLUE
Town in a Blueberry Jam 7/4/13


5. SOMETHING FREE
Town in a Lobster Stew 8/31/13
The Cellist of Sarajevo 8/29/13
True Surrealism 8/24/13
Reconstructing Amelia 8/15/13
On Grace by Susie Orman Schnall 8/9/13
Classified as Murder 7/27/13
One Good Knight 7/21/13
Murder Past Due 7/1/13
The Silent Ghost 6/29/13 This was a novella so kinda short and my very first Ebook. I don't have an Ereader so I read it on my smart phone. I could get hooked!

1. SOMETHING OLD
Read a classic.



2. SOMETHING NEW
Read a new release (published this year).



3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Borrow a book from a friend or finally read that book a friend has been suggesting for ages.


4. SOMETHING BLUE
Read a book with the word blue in the title or a book with a blue cover.


5. SOMETHING FREE



Yay! Can't wait. Looking forward to see what everyone is reading. :D

Sammee wrote: "1. SOMETHING OLD
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

2. SOMETHING NEW
Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegge

3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Finish the The Infernal Devices s..."

Summer Sisters is one of my all time favorites! :D

Karen wrote: "1. SOMETHING OLD
The Canterbury Tales

2. SOMETHING NEW
Whiskey Beach Can't wait to start tomorrow at the gym. It's my hour bike ride day.

3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Harry Potter and the Chamber of..."

Murder Past Due looks good! :D

1. SOMETHING OLD ( Finished June 7, 2013 )
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

2. SOMETHING NEW ( Finished June 11, 2013 )
Melissa: A Father's Lessons from a Daughter's Suicide by Frank Page

3. SOMETHING BORROWED( Finished June 14, 2013 )
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

4. SOMETHING BLUE
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

5. SOMETHING FREE ( Finished June 5, 2013 )
Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander

Just picked up Gathering Blue and The Midnight Palace from the library! And started my Anne of Green Gables re-read (so much fun).

Loved Gathering Blue. You'll finish it on 1 train ride. LOL

Li wrote: "Loved Gathering Blue. You'll finish it on 1 train ride. LOL"

I agree, Gathering Blue is a good read. I'm excited that you're re-reading Anne of Green Gables, I LOVE that book, it's probably one of my favourites and I like to try and re-read it every year or two. :)

Just texted Sammee this question: do I need to read The Giver before Gathering Blue?

Not really but you should. The Giver provides a good intro to the type of world Lowry has created. Besides, The Giver is AMAZING and Gathering Blue is VERY GOOD.
Both are short reads. I def recommend reading both in the appropriate order.

I liked The Giver more than Gathering Blue though both were great reads. You don't need one to understand the other but I would also recommend reading both! :)

Hmmm. Can you talk to the library for me? I have Gathering Blue now, and I'm #1 on the waiting list for The Giver. Guess I'll start with Midnight Palace and see if The Giver is available soon!

Vanessa wrote: "Li wrote: "Loved Gathering Blue. You'll finish it on 1 train ride. LOL"

I agree, Gathering Blue is a good read. I'm excited that you're re-reading Anne of Green Gables, I LOVE that book, it's pr..."

Yeah - I love Anne of Green Gables! The rest of the books in the series got progressively less well-done, I thought, and I didn't like the Emily of New Moon series as much (but read them all, of course)! I think she used up most of her "good" stuff on Anne, and then tried the formula again and again with other protagonists with a bit less success. Curious to see what you think of The Blue Castle, which I didn't read.


So - question: if we want to discuss specific books on this summer reading challenge, do we just do it here, as we seem to be doing, or is there a separate thread for that? :-) And, Li - hope you start Anne soon! I'm slowing down my reading of her so we can read together...

We have a book discussions category. You can post a topic there.

Mia, you better stop reading Anne altogether. LOL!! I'm STILL on The Dovekeepers and I must finish it. It's like a personal mission now. I'm sick of seeing it on my nightstand (as much as I'm enjoying the book).
School is really interfering with my reading time.

Well, Li, if you prefer Statistics to Anne, I can't do anything about it. I may just need to keep reading, then, and we can wait to discuss it after you've gotten to it. :-) (I gave up on Dovekeepers for the time being, but it's still on my shelf.)

Karen ebooks are addictive! I was just hanging out at the library today - returned some books and hung out to read & kill time - when my reserved book showed up! Son (the 4th book from The Giver series)! Yay! Also didn't realize that Under the Dome is now on tv. Must watch...

@Mia watching and reading Under the Dome. Told hubby I want a tablet. Hubby told me to get used to disappointment. Told hubby I could get a new hubby who has a tablet they don't mind sharing. I think I won that one but still no tablet. Life is good!

LOL, Kai! The TV version of Under the Dome is different from the book in a lot of ways! (I guess CBS didn't think that Junior hanging out with dead bodies made for good television.)

Being home with a summer cold during a long weekend/heat wave definitely promotes more reading! Also, I tend to go on some major reading kicks and this is one of them. It's great to have something to read on the subway and during weekend mornings. Not so great when I'm drawn into a book and it happens to be a weekday evening, though!

Sarah wrote: "Karen wrote: "1. SOMETHING OLD
The Canterbury Tales

2. SOMETHING NEW
Whiskey Beach Can't wait to start tomorrow at the gym. It's my hour bike ride day.

3. SOMETHING BORROWED
Harry Potter and ..."

Sarah - Murder Past Due was good. I got the 2nd book in the series from the library and am going to start it today.

Well today ends the summer reading challenge and I finished one last book in time to add to my list. This is the first reading challenge I actually participated in and I enjoyed it very much. I'm so very happy that I managed to get a book in every category! I was thinking that maybe we could have a Holiday reading challenge sometime, just a suggestion.

I'm home, a bit under the weather today, and am reading one last summer book too! Thought I'd read more in August over vacation but ended up not. Yeah, it is really fun to see what everyone is reading! Still waiting for library to come up with our September books...

@ Mia....so sorry you aren't feeling well. Sending good thoughts your way so that tomorrow is a better day. (I am sincere though I sound like a greeting card!)

@GreetingCardKai...Thanks! Just a minor tummy buggy feeling that led me to cancel gym and social plans and just chill out close to home. Feeling much better now, although not sure I'm ready for food yet! Turned out to be a really nice chill-out day in spite of the slightly icky factor of not feeling 100%. :-)