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Hello members. I notices our membership has grown quite a bit in the last few weeks. Thank you to everyone who is joining and participating and helping each other out. This your group, too. Feel free to start discussions and participate in all our sections and challenges.

I've been so incredibly busy I've had almost zero reading time this week. I've fallen behind. I'm currently reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower and loving it. I'm hoping I'll have that finished tonight.

How many books have you finished this week? What books did you finish/start? Are you enjoying your current read?

This week's question: What book made you want to read. I think almost everyone remembers that first book that touched you and made your realize how amazing other worlds can be. For me it was The Giver. I still reread it often.

Don't forget to check in at our 'pages read' discussion if you're participating in that! I'll be posting that update right after this one. Happy reading!

This week I finished The Help for the book a friend recommended and Four: A Divergent Story Collection for the book written by someone under 30. I enjoyed The Help, and Four was just a nice read from another character's point of view.

I have started Kaleidoscope for the book your mom loves. I am having trouble getting into it. I never really found Danielle Steel to be a very intriguing author. I never read any of her books because I have never felt compelled to. Maybe I'll have a different opinion after I finish the book, but we will see.

For me, it would have to be The Harry Potter series. It may be cliche' since the books and movies are so popular, but the memory of reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time will always stay with me.

This week, I completed Redeployment (short stories), which was striking and heartbreaking. I wish I had taken more time with each story; by the time I finished it, I felt sort of empty after reading so many traumatic stories, even knowing it's fiction.

I also started The Accident, which I think I'm going to use for my book with bad reviews, although that may be stretching a bit. It's pretty good, but hasn't drawn me in as much as I expected it to. Have about 40 pages left. Guess we'll see how it goes.

And to answer your question: Harry Potter, all the way. That's also why I consider it my favourite book.

Finished "All Quiet on the Western Front" (book you should have read in school) and started "Cell" by Stephen King (a book that scares you) this week .

I finished One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories and started The Wizard of Oz(book from your childhood) and my ARC of A Head Full of Ghosts (book that scares you). I will be starting All the Light We Cannot See for a book with more than 500 pages.

The Wizard of Oz is the book that made me want to read. Loved it as a kid and still love it now.

I finished Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Tales of Beedle the Bard and Divergent and I started Four.

I'm currently working my way through Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales for a book that I've started but never finished. I don't think I ever realized quite how many fairy tales he wrote. Some of them have surprised me as stories I remember hearing as a child but didn't attribute to him, while others are completely new.

I think the first books that really made me love reading were the Nancy Drew books. I had a hard time learning to read (they put me in remedial reading in 1st grade) and I think Nancy Drew was the first time I read books and just enjoyed it without it being a chore. Then by third grade, when I started reading Harry Potter, my language arts teacher told my mom I was one of the best readers in the grade. It just goes to show you that it's all a matter of finding the right book.

Last week, I started/finished A Sudden Light by Garth Stein for "a book with a nonhuman character." I think this was a lot more fun than reading Animal Farm as I'd planned to do.

I don't remember a time when I didn't read. Some of my earliest childhood memories were sitting on my grandmother's lap reading Good Housekeeping magazine with her. The books I loved as a child were classic series like the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder or The Boxcar Children from Gertrude Chandler Warner. I remember anxiously waiting for the interlibrary loan to bring me a new book to read.

As of last week, I'd finished 25/50 prompts.

This week I read Anna and the French Kiss for a book with a love triangle, and it was really not great. I probably would have abandoned it hadn't it been for the challenge! I have also read Nine Stories by JD Salinger for the short stories prompt - this was a real challenge for me as I don't like reading short stories (by the time I start getting invested they're over!), but this is the whole point of this challenge, isn't it, getting out of our comfort zones.

I have now read 40 books. Don't know if it's doable but I'd quite like to finish before the summer as that's my busiest time at work and won't read much (or at all) after late June.

I read Everything Leads to You for a book at the bottom of your to-read pile and I actually really liked it so that was cool. :) I'm currently making my way through Bedtime Stories for my collection of short stories. Most of the short stories have been pretty meh but I like the last one that I read and Neil Gaiman's story well enough. I'm also reading Four: A Divergent Story Collection for a book by someone under 30. I was reading books that didn't check off prompts but now my reading is lining up with this challenge again which is cool. :)

I sm currently reading A Dance with Dragons as the book to read with more than 500 pages. It's dragging a bit but I always do want to find out what happens next. I think the two books that made me realize compassion more than other worlds were The Phantom of the Opera and Phantom, Phantom by Susan Kay I could say carried me to another world erotic possibilities at a young age. *blush*

This week I read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling. It didn't fulfill a prompt for me but I was looking for something fun. I have now started The Rent Collector. The books that hooked me on reading were Nancy Drew mysteries. I was in third grade and went to a library (for the 2nd time in my life) with a friend. She suggested Nancy Drew. I had them all read by the end of summer.

I finished "mean streak" which I used for the "written by a woman" prompt. (Seriously what a weird prompt...) I'm currently reading One Plus One for my book with a number in the title prompt.
But I love your follow up question. The book I remember that flipped a switch for me was reading howliday inn in 2nd grade. I thought I was so awesome for having read that great big chapter book all by myself then and it was "scary" no less. I do not remember a time that I didn't love to read.

I just finished my "nonfiction book." Since I just joined I will have to add my other books that I have read later, but this book "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchesterhas to be one of the best books I have read in a long time. I really had never thought about how a dictionary came about. This is the story of the contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary, that took 50 to 60 years and often a lifetime of the dedicated contributors. The "madman" truly was "mad," and a murderer. The professor was a truly dedicated lexicologist. Fascinating reading.

This process is going slower for me then I thought it would. I finished reading Mr. Mercedes from Stephen King which is my book by an author I haven't read before. It was a really good book, but a very intense read. I had to take a small break from reading after I read it. I'm now reading my nonfiction book called Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb. It's the story of how they hunted down Adolph Eichmann after the Holocaust. It's written for young adults but has been a pretty good read so far.

I've still been busy reading other things not for this challenge but my own reading.

My Reading Challenge List so far: 36/52


This week I’ve finished:

✔️26) A memoir: A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

✔️35) A book set in the future: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells



Still can’t get into these at the moment, but have started:

40) A graphic novel: The Compleat Moonshadow by J.M. DeMatteis, Jon J. Muth

50) A book you started but never finished: The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

I finished Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks for prompt 41: a book by an author I had never read before.

My reading challenge 15/52 including 2 of three for the trilogy prompt..

5/11. I finished Long Lankin by John Banville, a book of his early short stories. I have loved his later work but did not care for this book at all.

I am currently reading The Third Plate : Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber for prompt # 19 (which may be interpreting that prompt loosely as it is a non fiction book based on the author's experiences) and The Known World by Edward P Jones for prompt # 18 a Pulitzer Prize winner.

I just finished my "book recommended by a friend." In visiting with a friend at the library when I ultimately checked this book out on her recommendation of the detective series by Elizabeth George. A Great Deliverance was a great murder mystery/psychological and moral character insight type of story. Will definitely be reading more of this series, but taking a break from this genre to start Lonesome Dove for my Pulitzer Prize winner choice. Of course, this one might take me until the end of the year, it is huge, so will be reading other books along side it.

Cheryl wrote: "I just finished my "nonfiction book." Since I just joined I will have to add my other books that I have read later, but this book "The Professor and the Madman" [bookcover:The Professor and the Ma..."
This one's on my list so it's good to know you liked it.

This week I finished 3 books which brought me to 22 for the year:

1. The Golden Compass (#7 A book with nonhuman characters): I enjoyed this, but not as much as I had hoped I would. I will probably end up reading the other two books in the trilogy, but I have decided to use the Newsflesh trilogy for the trilogy prompt.

2. San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats (#5 A book with a number in the title): Speaking of the Newsflesh trilogy, this is a prequel to the events of those novels. Pretty good read, though not on par with the original trilogy.

3. Night (#44 A book that was originally written in a different language): Beautifully written and terribly sad.

This week I started Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor for prompt #35 A book set in the future. I haven't gotten very far into it, but so far so good. I love the beginning of a sci-fi novel, where you are trying to figure out the rules.

As far as the question of the week goes, I can't really remember a time when I didn't love to read or be read to, but I loved The Chronicles of Narnia as a kid. Also the Little House books. And there was a book called Teena and the Magic Pot that my brother and I used to ask our Grandma to read to us over and over. And she always did, even though it must have been 100s of times. Happy Mother's Day, we miss you, Grandma! XOXO

The World in Half by Christina Henriquez for and author with my initials. I finished it early this morning. Started out strong could have used a bit more thought in how to end it. I don't have a problem with things not being neatly wrapped up but somehow it just seemed a rushed.