Category: Books and Reading
12 Stories for Late at Night is the second of three anthologies edited by Alfred Hitchcock that I read for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge this year. It contained some of the creepiest stories of the year, including “The Cocoon” by John B. L. Goodwin, “Vintage Season” by C. L. Moore, and “Our Feather Friends” by Philip McDonald. I always enjoy these Hitchcock anthologies, but this is one of the better collections, especially since it contains several top tier authors including Ray Bradbury, M. R. James...
The Read-along Is Nearly Here It’s less than a week until the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along begins, and I’m excited to have so many of you along for the ride. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or if you haven’t had the chance to sign up, be sure to read the post announcing the read-along for all details. Also, be sure to follow this blog so you don’t miss any posts about the read-along throughout the year. There are lots of ways to follow along. You can...
It’s time now for me to make my case in Bev’s Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge. The challenge was to read a certain number of mysteries and link them in a chain of evidence from one to the other. As she explained: To follow a set of clues furnished by the mystery books you read to create a body of evidence to support a book court case. Each book clue should lead you to your next read. The connection can be anything at all from author names to...
The Back to the Classics Challenge was hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate, who asked participants to read a classic in one of twelve different categories. For completing 6, 9, or 12 books, participants also earned entries into a drawing for a $30 Amazon gift card. I finished and reviewed the full twelve books, but at times it was a chore. I had difficulty making it through Far from the Madding Crowd, The Trial, and Dead Souls. On the other hand, Rebecca and Kristin Lavransdatter were books I couldn’t wait to get back...
The goal of the European Reading Challenge hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader was to read books from different European countries. There were several different levels to choose from, each of which was represented by a different level of hotel accommodation: FIVE STAR (DELUXE ENTOURAGE): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries. FOUR STAR (HONEYMOONER): Read four qualifying books. THREE STAR (BUSINESS TRAVELER): Read three qualifying books. TWO STAR (ADVENTURER): Read two qualifying books. ONE STAR (PENSIONE WEEKENDER): Read...
Hunted Down by Charles Dickens is a novella divided into five parts and recently published as a stand-alone Kindle ebook from Open Road Media. Hunted Down has all the hallmarks of a Dickens story: characters with evocative names (Julius Slinkton, Miss Niner), wonderful Victorian sentences, and a mysterious plot. Unfortunately, the mystery takes a while to get going and the climax isn’t up to Dickens’ typical standards. Still, it didn’t take long to read, it only cost me 99 cents, and the story wasn’t horrible, only disappointingly average. For...
My whole life had been a chronology of—changes. I had already read The Autobiography of Malcolm X once before, but it still held my interest this time around. Malcolm X led one of the most dramatic and tragic lives of the twentieth century, and as he says, his whole life was a chronology of changes. He chronicles them all in his autobiography, which reads like a spiritual confession. I was impressed by Malcolm X’s willingness to share the personal details of his life, especially his wayward youth. The book...
Jay at Bibliophilopolis is once again hosting the “Deal Me In” Short Story Reading Challenge, and I am definitely back for another year of reading one short story per week. I have so many short story anthologies sitting on my To-Be-Read shelves that I think I could probably do this challenge for the next fifteen years. The unique and fun part of this challenge is that it involves using a deck of cards. Here’s how Jay describes it: Before you get started reading, come up with a roster...
So a man must learn to accept, when he produces offspring from his own body, that his heart will burn if he loses them or if the world goes against them. God, who gave them souls, is the one who owns them—not I. Kristin Lavrandsatter by Sigrid Undset is a book that everyone should read, for a multitude of reasons. First, it is a beautiful work of historical fiction set in medieval Norway, a time of political unrest, plague, and physical struggle. Next, it is the story of...
Last year I read a paltry three nonfiction books, so I’m glad Katie at Doing Dewey is hosting a nonfiction challenge for 2018. It’s a flexible challenge, so I’m going to keep it simple by reading a few nonfiction books that have been on my radar for awhile. I’m hoping to triple my nonfiction reading by reading nine books in 2018. Katie’s challenge is also going to feature a giveaway, Twitter chats, and a quarterly group read-along. Be sure to check out all the details at the 2018...
The British Book Challenge is back again this year, hosted by Chelley at Tales of Yesterday. I read a lot of British classics, so it was easy to decide to participate. Here are the details: The British Books Challenge is a reading challenge that will be running here on Tales Of Yesterday between 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2018 and the main focus of the challenge is reading and reviewing books by British authors. This challenge is available for all bloggers and/or booktubers who review books on their...
Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews is hosting the 2018 Victorian Reading Challenge, a challenge I have not tried before. Since I have so many Victorian books on my Classics Club list, I’m going to give it a go. Becky has a checklist of different types of Victorian books and several options to choose from, with the only requirement being to read a minimum of four Victorian books: Option A. Read alphabetically A-Z with authors OR titles OR a blend of authors/titles. I’ve decided that from now on X...
