July Book Blowout Book #5

I finished Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman last night. It was heartbreakingly sad but very beautiful. Mary Cassatt is my favorite painter so I really enjoyed this book. It's a keeper and will never be leaving my house.

So in finishing this book I made my goal of five books for the month of July. Woohoo! I finished two books that had been hanging around forever and read faster than I normally would. I enjoyed the challenge and hope to do another.

July Book Blowout Book #4

I finished The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark. I have been reading this off and on for months now and finally finished it this morning. I am just not a fan of short stories so it took me longer to finished than it should have. It evens by book count for this month out to four. One more book to go for the months goal.

July Book Blowout Book #3 1/2

I enjoyed At Wick's End much more than I thought I would. I didn't figure out who the killer was for quite some time and even then it was just a hunch, I wasn't sure till right near the end. Even then there were enough suspects to make you suspect a lot of people. It was a light read but an enjoyable one. I definitely plan on reading the rest of the series.

July Book Blowout Book #3

I started and finished Letter from the Inside by John Marsden this week. What a disappointment. I love his series and was looking forward to this book. I found it depressing and the ending was sad and horrible. Definitely not a keeper for me.

(Technically this is book 2 1/2 since the first book I finished I had started in June. I didn't realize that when I started though and Book 2 1/2 sounds silly.)

July Book Blowout Book #2

I finished Hickory Dickory Stalk by Susan Rogers Cooper last night. It was a wonderful book and I didn't figure out who the killer was till they told me. I love that! This is the second book in this series and I can't wait to read the rest of them.
This is the second book towards my July Blowout challenge of 5.

The New Classics Challenge

I am taking part in another challenge. Here is the list of books that Entertainment Weekly has chosen as the New Classics. I have bolded the ones I have already read (sadly, only one, though I did make it half way through The Lovely Bones) and have indicated the 6 I plan to read and review by January 31, 2008 by turning them lilac.

Edited 7/24/08 I realized I only chose 5 books so came back to choose a 6th.

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

July Blowout Meme

1. Describe yourself in one sentence A crazy redheaded cat rescuer from Texas who now lives in NC and loves her husband, her dog, her cats and books.

2. What book will you start the challenge with? I'm going to finish up the ones I have been reading first. Since I am late getting to this meme I finished Nursery Cries by Ayelet Waldman first.

3. Where is your favourite place to read? Laying across my bed.

4. What is your favourite book of all time? The Stand by Stephen King

5. Remind us all of your challenge target 5 books

July Book Blowout Book #1

I finished Nursery Crimes by Ayelet Waldman late last night. It was a good book and a fun read. I did figure out who the killer was about half way through but I think that's due to me reading so many mysteries. This is the first book towards my July Blowout challenge of 5.