Good-bye, 2010

I just finished rereading The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares.

Here's a little recap of my reading year:
Number of books read: 71 (22 were rereads)
Number of pages read: 19,256
Favorite book read: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

The 4 Month Challenge, December review:
I read eight books for a total of 75 points.

And that's it for 2010. Hope 2011's even better.

STANFORD BEAT UCONN!!!!

And it was a thing of beauty. Score: 71-59.

Stanford's women's basketball team was the last team to beat UConn in the NCAA Final Four in early April 2008 and they ended UConn's record-breaking 90 game winning streak tonight (Thursday night). The game also marks the Cardinals's 52 consecutive win at home.

Taking the TBR Dare

I just signed up for the TBR Dare. I'm in for the whole thing, going until April 1 (my birthday coincidentally). Hopefully I"ll make but I'm expecting to fail spectacularly.

Out with a Bang Readathon Update 2

I finished The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I love the whole series. I read each one when I was (almost) the same age as the characters. I think Ann Brashares does a great job of capturing what it is to be a teenage girl. I'm always amazed when adults get it right. I've already forgotten what it was to be a teenager (so much that I don't think I could convincingly write about being a teenager), but rereading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants brought me right back to when I was 15. This is partly because of nostalgia but mostly because of Brashares's ability to convey both the joys and pains of being a teenager.

I'm now torn between what I should read next. As I was reading Sisterhood, I had the overwhelming desire to read the second novel and to read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (which also has a sequel). I think I'm going to try and squeeze in Stargirl tonight and possibly start another novel. We'll see how that goes.

MINI UPDATE

I think I have to give up the idea that I will finish reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. I got no reading done this morning. We took down our Christmas tree instead. And now I'm off to a basketball game (Stanford vs UConn... it's going to be big). Since that has basically eaten up my entire day, I'm going to try and finish Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares before the new year. Two books seems manageable. Three might have been possible, but I also want to hang out with my family/do things other than read in the last two days of 2010.

Out with a Bang Readathon update

I started The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I'm hoping to finish all four by the new year, but at the rate I'm going I might make it through two. I also wanted to reread The Last Summer (of You and Me) but I highly doubt that will happen. I know I could at least get through all the Traveling Pants books if I just sit and read, but there are so many other things that need doing too. Maybe I'm just bad at readathons.

I'm still working my way through The King of Attolia. If The Queen of Attolia is all about war and battles (I know I said it was about politics, but I'm taking that back). The King of Attolia is all about politics. It sounds boring, fake politics in a fake world, but I can't stop reading. Probably because it doesn't feel fake. The characters and their problems feel very real. I might just have to stay up until I finish it.

In other news, today is the start of the Out with a Bang Readathon (it runs from Dec 29-31). I just decided to join. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a few more rereads so I'll be ready to start on my TBR pile (and the TBR Dare) come January 1.

I finished The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner around midnight last night. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner has a twist at the end, but I had forgotten that Turner did the same in TQoA. I'm now rereading The King of Attolia, trying to get in all my rereads before the new year when I might participate in this challenge. We'll see how the next week goes.

And to end this post here's The Queen and the Soldier by Suzanne Vega. Turner's books always make me think of this song. 

Image from Google

There are 10 days left in 2010. Crazy.

What I've done today:
* slept in
* finished my Christmas shopping (almost)
* finished The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
* listened to Teenage Dream by Katy Perry on repeat obsessively

What I'm going to do today:
* see Burlesque
* finish my Christmas shopping (completely)
* buy rice

What I should do today (but won't do):
* clean

Thrilling, huh?

I also realized I read a TON of YA fiction this year. Over half of the books I read could be counted as YA novels. Pretty good.

PS I looked at my goodreads and I don't think I read any books in January 2010... appalling but understandable (I had just finished my seminar and strangely, I tend to read less during vacation). I'll do better in January 2011.

Shakespeare Reading Challenge

THE PLAYS (taken from wikipedia)
Comedies

    * The Tempest

    * The Two Gentlemen of Verona

    * The Merry Wives of Windsor

    * Measure for Measure

    * The Comedy of Errors

    * Much Ado About Nothing

    * Love's Labour's Lost

    * A Midsummer Night's Dream

    * The Merchant of Venice

    * As You Like It

    * The Taming of the Shrew

    * All's Well That Ends Well

    * Twelfth Night

    * The Winter's Tale

    * Pericles, Prince of Tyre (not included in the First Folio)

    * The Two Noble Kinsmen (not included in the First Folio) (of doubtful authorship; may have been written in collaboration with John Fletcher)

Histories

    * King John

    * Richard II

    * Henry IV, Part 1

    * Henry IV, Part 2

    * Henry V

    * Henry VI, Part 1

    * Henry VI, Part 2

    * Henry VI, Part 3

    * Richard III

    * Henry VIII

Tragedies

    * Troilus and Cressida

    * Coriolanus

    * Titus Andronicus

    * Romeo and Juliet

    * Timon of Athens

    * Julius Caesar

    * Macbeth

    * Hamlet

    * King Lear

    * Othello

    * Antony and Cleopatra

    * Cymbeline

The bolded titles are the plays I've read. Some in high school, most in college. I was supposed to read Two Gentlemen of Verona as summer reading before my senior year (it was one of five works we had to read, the others being Frankenstein, Ivanhoe, 1984 and something I can't remember now). 

 I definitely want to read Othello, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice. I think I'll aim to read another tragedy and one history to round out my 6 for the year. If I decide to up it to 12, I'll probably try to read two more plays from each category.

I'm on a reading roll lately. I think it helps that I 1) only read two five books in November and 2) am rereading children's books from my youth.

I just finished The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. I loved this book. I wasn't so young the first time I read it (I was 14 I think?). I also read The Queen of Attolia around this time. I then kind of forgot about the books until a few years (maybe six?) later when I realized there was another book in the series and one more to be published.

I bought The King of Attolia and read it a couple of summers ago. I enjoyed it but was struck by how slow it was and how much of the book was about politics.

Rereading The Thief, I realize that it was much the same as The King of Attolia (maybe substitute politics for geography in this one though). It was so slow, most of the book is description of the geography of the countries as the characters travel through them, one of the most exciting parts is downplayed as it's happening and is only relayed to the reader through a story told after the fact. It actually has a lot of elements that I hated in Lord of the Rings (yes, I hate them). But for some reason I loved the book when I was younger (it's a great story despite my complaints above) and I can't hate it now.

I'm hoping to get through The Queen of Attolia soon. I don't remember liking that one as much as The Thief. I can't even remember the story. Hopefully it won't disappoint.

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”

-Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, Lemony Snicket

Warning: This review contains minor (mostly vague) spoilers. 

I recently reread When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. I first read it one summer - I think I was eleven or twelve - while I was staying at my grandmother's house. I liked it a lot.

When I started rereading it - a decade later - I thought I felt like I was reading an entirely different book.

I was amazed at the small details I remembered, Scarlett's lip gloss, Kate's POW bracelets, Juan's five iron. But I had forgotten whole characters and story lines. I thought there was much more about Toby (the main character) and his crush in the story. I completely forgot that his mother is absent the entire time.

However, I liked the book just as much the second time around, maybe more. It made me nostalgic for my own childhood when I first read it. But it also made me nostalgic for a childhood I never had (the book is set in a small town in Texas in 1971).
 
I also like that Holt writes about heavy subjects - the book touches on death, divorce, obesity/otherness, adolescence - without feeling preachy. There is a subtlety - Holt never beats her reader over the head with a message of acceptance - and a simplicity to her writing that make this book a good read for anyone (although that could be the nostalgia talking).

The 4 Month Challenge, Month 1 Progress

FIVE POINT CHALLENGES:

Read a book by your favourite author

Read a YA book, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt 

Read a book written in 2010

Read a book with a colour/color in the title, Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Read a book set in any country other than your own, The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

TEN POINT CHALLENGES:

Read a book with any ‘family’ name in it.  Eg: Father, daughter, uncle, etc., The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

Read a book you’ve read before, Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech

Read a fantasy book, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Read a book a book you’ve been meaning to read for ages

Read a book set in the same country you live in, The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

FIFTEEN POINT CHALLENGES:

Read a book written before you were born

Read a book suggested by a blog

Read a book set in a country/place you’d like to visit

Read a book about a person who is still alive (Memoir, bio, auto-bio, etc)

Read a book that is the first in a series

TWENTY POINT CHALLENGES

Read a book about a person who is passed (Memoir, bio, auto-bio, etc)

Read a classic you’ve never read before

Read a book you need to read for another challenge

Read a book of short stories

Read a book with a food in the title, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket


Total points: 75

Challenges

These are the challenges I'm going to attempt in the next year (slash the end of this one). 

The Four Month Challenge December 2010 - March 2011

Off the Shelf Challenge January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2011
     I'm going to commit to Making a Dent (30 books) but I'm hoping I'll be able to get through 50 (On a Roll)

Shakespeare Reading Challenge January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2011
     I'm going to commit to Desdemona (6 plays), but I'd like to make it to Henry V (12 plays)