Newbery Reading Challenge Post #1

I recently finished The One and Only Ivan, and find myself wondering why I let it sit on my Kindle for so very long. Ivan's voice is amazing, and you immediately find yourself pulling for the great ape. I also love all of the secondary characters, but Bob had to have been my favorite hands down. I will admit to having a tear or two fall as I read this story. This is one that I will be reading to my students during testing week.

On a side note, I visited Zoo Atlanta, where the real life Ivan wound up. I wonder now if I possibly saw him in his new domain. I'm hoping that I did.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a heartwarming read, with an amazing lead character that you can't help but fall in love with.

My Newbery Challenge total: 3 points

This book should be read by EVERYONE!!!

This year for Christmas my lovely sweetie gave me a $250 gift card to Book-A-Million. I was so happy...he knows me so well. On my first visit to the bookstore, I stumbled across this lovely title. As I read the blurb on the back I became immediately interested! I'm so glad I picked up this book that I had heard little to nothing about. I feel like I somehow have unearthed a gem. Something that the world had yet to discover.

I don't want to give too much away, because I feel that my not knowing much played a huge part in my enjoyment of the book. I will say that this book follows Finny and Autumn, two teenagers who have spent their lives living next door to each other. Their mothers are best friends, and they were born in the same month. This book follows Finny (whom I immediately fell in love with) and Autumn over their high school years. The years in which the people whom you thought would be your best friends forever, start to veer off in different directions, into different social groups. Despite all of this, Finny and Autumn still have a connection....it is this connection that will reach into your chest and grab a tight hold of your heart.

I can't scream my recommendation from the rooftops loud enough, "YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK ASAP!" You will thank me  for it.

5 out of 5 Stars....hands down...no hesitation.

Another Great Reading Week

It seems that the Bout of Books read-a-thon kick started a month of reading. So far this month I have read 14 books and 2 novellas. This is great considering my Goodreads goal is 125 books.

This week I finished Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I enjoyed the book, but like Divergent more. Divergent was a little more action packed I think. Insurgent was filled with a lot more exposition. Not that exposition is bad, but going from Divergent straight into the sequel definitely made the difference more pronounced.

Next, I read I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler. My cousin Mary recommended this book, and I did enjoy it, but not as much as some of my other reads this month. While reading that, I was listening to Crash by Lisa McMann. I really enjoyed reading her previous series, and I wanted to check this one out. I'm so glad that my library had the audiobook.

My next two books I purchased because they were really cheap Kindle Deals. The first, Falling for Her Fiance by Cindi Madsen. was only .99. How could I pass that up? It was a quick read, and also a good way to clear my mind of the cancer portion of I'm Not Her. Finally, I snatched up Rule by Jay Crownover. I have seen this pop up on other book blogs, so I decided to give it a shot. I enjoyed it a great deal....even if I'm not into all the body piercing involved.

Finally, I started reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Unfortunately, I've been a bit spoiled about the ending, but hopefully not too much. I'm almost halfway through with the book, and since tomorrow is a holiday I hope to finish it up.

I hope everyone else had a great reading week!

4 out of 5 stars

3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5 out of 5 stars

3 out of 5 stars

3.5 out of 5

Bout of Books 9.0 Day 7 Update

The final day of Bout of Books was a great reading day for me. I finished the two books I had started Saturday, plus another light and easy read that was on my Kindle. I also began Insurgent, but only got 23 pages in. I'm so glad that I decided to participate in this reading challenge and will be doing Bout of Books 10!

SUNDAY'S TOTALS:

PAGES READ: 774

BOOKS COMPLETED:


I highly recommend this book! So glad I stumbled across it!

Wasn't in love with this one. The last half was better than the first, but this was not my favorite read of the challenge.

These Brazen Entangled novels are my guilty pleasure. I haven't read one that I didn't enjoy. 

TOTAL BOOKS READ DURING BOUT OF BOOKS 9.0: 

7 BOOKS AND 2 NOVELLAS

TOTAL PAGES READ SO FAR:

2,152

Bout of Book 9.0 Day 6 Update

Day six started off slow for me. I didn't start reading until late in the afternoon. I got carried away watching booktube videos. While watching The Little Book Owl's Top 13 of 2013, she mentioned a book called Making Faces that caught my eye. So, I went on Amazon and downloaded it to my Kindle. I had already started reading How to Love, but it just wasn't holding my interest. I didn't have that problem with Making Faces at all. I was immediately pulled into the story and was so glad that I had downloaded it to my Kindle.

SATURDAY'S TOTALS:

PAGES READ: 375

BOOKS COMPLETED: 

This novella was just what I needed after reading A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

BOOKS STARTED:

I read 283 pages of this book. Don't let the cover fool you, this book is very good and extremely emotional. I read 283 pages.

I read 47 pages. It's not a bad story, I just couldn't quite get into it. Going to try again tomorrow.

TOTAL BOOKS READ SO FAR: 

4 BOOKS AND 2 NOVELLAS

TOTAL PAGES READ SO FAR:

1,378

Bout of Books 9.0 Day 5 update

Bout of Books Day 5 was pretty good. I'm please with my progress so far, as this is my first time participating in a read-a-thon of any kind. My cousin will be able to start Insurgent by Veronica Roth with me tomorrow, so I wanted to start something that I could finish in one day. That book turned out to be A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

What can I say about this book? This is one I couldn't have read eight years ago....or even five years ago. My mother passed away eight years ago after a brave and courageous seven year battle against two types of cancer. She beat the breast cancer, but the ovarian cancer was a stealthy bitch. It still took two and half years for the ovarian cancer to take her from me....in the end, she was tired and ready, me...well, I had to get there. My mother had been, and still is, my rock...the foundation that I was built upon. She will always be the strongest woman I have ever known.  Because of this, I could relate to the character of Conor...maybe a little too much. I was much older than the thirteen year old Conor, but like him, my father wasn't in the picture.

I thought I would breeze through this book. I read the paperback (but will be investing in the hardcover soon), and at only 225 pages in length with a larger font than a normal book, I figured I could read this in only a few hours. However, the memories of dealing with my Mom and her illness would creep into my thoughts as I was reading. This didn't take away from the experience, in fact it actually made it better. I wound up taking my time and savoring every word.

This was my first experience with Patrick Ness, and it won't be my last. I know this was a little rambly, and maybe it won't make sense to anyone other than me...but these are my thoughts on the book, as scattered as those may be.

FRIDAY'S TOTALS:

PAGES READ: 225

BOOKS COMPLETED: 

TOTAL BOOKS READ SO FAR: 

4 BOOKS AND 1 NOVELLA

TOTAL PAGES READ SO FAR:

1,OO4


  NEXT BOOKS:

After being put through the emotional wringer with A Monster Calls, I need something a little light, fluffy, and a bit sexy. I love the Entangled Brazen line, and I recently picked this up for just .99 cents on my Kindle. 

I plan on reading How to Love and Insurgent at the same time. My cousin has finally finished Divergent, so we are going to read the second one together. 

The Newberry Reading Challenge 2014

As I was looking at other book blogs during Bout of Books, I stumbled upon Smiling Shelves and her Newberry Book Challenge. I thought this would be a great one for me to participate in since I teach the 4th grade. I'm always adding new books to my classroom library, and I'd love to revisit some books that I read as a child.

The guidelines are as follows:

Each book you read is worth points. You get:
3 points for a Newbery Medal Winner
2 points for a Newbery Honor Book
1 point for a Caldecott Medal Winner (Gotta give the picture books some love, too.)

In addition to that, you pick a level to aim for:
 L'Engle: 15 - 29 points
Spinelli: 30 - 44 points
Avi: 45 - 59 points
Lowry: 60 - 74 points
 Konigsburg: 75+ points

Since I love to read Maniac Magee to my students every year, I'm going to aim for Spinelli.

If you think you might be interested, go check out Smiling Shelves and join in the fun.