13 in '13 Challenge Wrap Up

 

 When I first signed up for this challenge I suggested to the organiser (who is a friend as well) that instead of me having to read 13 books, that she set 13 different genres for me. Agreeing that by doing so it may take me more than a month to complete (and in reality, it would have taken me 2.5 months, but lets not quibble over small matters) Miss Dove set the following categories.

Mystery
Romance
Thriller
Drama  

Historical 

Fantasy
Sci-fi
Non-fiction  

Graphic novel
Autobiography
Motivational
Spiritual
Poetry 

My finished list looks like this.

Mystery - The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
Romance - The Sheikh's Love Child - Kate Hewitt
Thriller - Flash and Bones - Kathy Reichs
Drama - Blood - Tony Birch
Historical - The Great Divorce - Ilyon Woo
Fantasy - The Child Thief - Brom
Sci-fi - Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
Non-fiction - The F Word: How We Learned to Swear by Feminism - Jane Caro & Catherine Fox
Graphic novel - Maus - Art Spiegelman
Autobiography - Ten Hail Marys - Kate Howarth
Motivational - The Good Life - Hugh Mackay
Spiritual  - Drink, Smoke, Pass out: An Unlikely Spiritual Journey - Judith Lucy
Poetry - Anonymous Premonition - Yvette Holt

Interestingly, 8 of the 13 were by Australian authors and 12 were new authors to me.

Pick of the bunch for me would have to be Maus. Incredibly powerful and lead me to read a couple of other graphic novels. Blood by Tony Birch would also have to be highly recommended.  Worse read of the lot was The Sheikh's Love Child, which sent me off on yet another feminist rant.

I enjoyed this challenge and Miss Dove has promised us a new one for 2014 so I will be watching with interest. In the meantime I'm trying to decide what other challenges I will take part in - if any...Either way I will continue to track what I read in one form or another.

Wishing you all a 2014 full of great books. 

Aussie Author Challenge 2013

I love my Aussie authors and always make an effort to read the books short listed for the Children's Book of The Year Awards - especially in the Young Adult category. So once again I am signing up for this.

I'm going for the Fair Dinkum level which requires me to:

- Read and review 12 books by Australian Authors
- Ensure at least 4 of the authors are male, at least 4 of the authors are female and at least 4 of the authors are new to you
- Ensure at least 2 of the books are non-fiction and at least 4 fiction genres are represented amongst your 12 titles.

If you want to see my list of reads, it will be here. 

If you want to join the challenge, click the link on my side bar!

85

That is the number of books I read in 2012. Down on 2011 which was 103 reads.

I finished the year off with this:

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Finishing it on New Years Eve, giving me my 85th book for the year. You can view the whole list here.

As for my other 2012 challenges - A bit of a mixed result.

What's in a Name Challenge - I managed 4 of the 6 books for this challenge.

EBook Challenge - I made my original target of 10 books for this challenge and decided to go for 25. Missed it by 1! Mind you, my Kindle died twice this year so maybe if that hadn't happened...

Aussie Authors Challenge - was aiming for 12, read 20

Dystopia Challenge - totally failed at this one. Was aiming for between 4 and 7, read 2. I really struggled to find adult dystopian that interested me this year.

I've only signed up for one challenge in 2013 so far. Little White Dove's 13 in 13 challenge - with some modified rules. I'm not sure if I will go for any others, although I will continue to track my reading with a 2013 list. The only other challenge I'm contemplating is an ebook one and maybe an Aussie Author one - I like to set myself up for success!

As previously mentioned I'm also looking at changing the direction of this blog. I have decided to keep the sewing one separate. However you may find more than just book reviews appearing here. I often have thoughts about politics and other aspects of life I want to share and have decided to do it here rather than start another blog. I hope that whatever I do you find it interesting enough to pop in every now and then!

My First Challenge for 2013

A friend of mine, who writes the gorgeous blog Little White Dove was disappointed with her lack of reading this year. Now before you say (think) any thing - she is a writer, prolific crafter, photographer and mum - not surprised she hasn't had much reading time! Anyway, to challenge herself to read more she has started the 13 in'13 reading challenge. Put quite simply, read 13 books ( of the no-pictures-not-for-small-people variety) in 2013.

Now when I said I might sign up for this challenge I could hear the cyber snickers.

I think you'll leave the rest of us in your dust!! 

Kylie will kick our butts.

(Quotes from FB!)

So to make it more interesting, I (and anyone else who choose to) will have to read 13 books from 13 different genres. The list is:
  
Mystery
Romance
Thriller
Drama
Historical
Fantasy
Sci-fi
Non-fiction
Graphic novel
Autobiography
Motivational
Spiritual 
Poetry

I'm putting in my own condition that they cannot be re-reads - nothing I have read before! I am open to suggestions for any of the categories - especially motivational and spiritual - not books I naturally choose. Please give me some ideas!