2013 Literary Exploration Reading Challenge - Close Enough

Update 1/1/2014: I finished 26 out of the 36 I chose. Not to bad for a year full of children responsibilities and a new job.

It’s simple; you can choose from an easy (12 books), hard (24 books) or insane (36 books) challenge. Each genre links to the Goodreads genre page if you need some suggestions on what to read. We want you to have some fun and explore; hopefully you might find a new genre that peaks your interest. To sign up either join the Literary Exploration book club on Goodreads and talk about your progress with others involved or for the bloggers out there, if you want to add it as part of your blogging experience simply let us know with a link (to your Literary Exploration Challenge page) in the comments below so our readers can see how you are going. Go here to learn more.

I chose Insane because - I am.

Insane Challenge

Bold means they are read.

1. Adventure Graceling
2. Auto-Biography/Biography A Heart for Freedom
3. Chick-Lit Remember Me?
4. Childrens Book Get Out of Bed!
5. Classics The Prince and the Pauper
6. Cyberpunk 1984
7. Drama The Importance of Being Ernest
8. Dystopian Crossed
9. Educational Who Moved My Cheese?
10. Erotica Epistolary Up the Downstaircase
11. Espionage Code Name Verity
12. Fantasy Howl's Moving Castle
13. Graphic Novels Calamity Jack
14. Gothic Jane Eyre
15. Hard-Boiled Indemnity Only - Paretsky
16. Historical Fiction Pope Joan
17. Horror Dracula or Frankestein
18. Humour Lucky Change
19. Literary Fiction The Dovekeepers
20. Magical Realism Life of Pi
21. Mystery Whose Body?
22. Noir The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
23. Non Fiction Who Moved My Cheese?
24. Paranormal Lancaster House
25. Philosophical Sophie's World
26. Poetry The Surrender Tree
27. Post-Apocalyptic Legend
28. Romance To Whisper Her Name
29. Science Fiction Zoorgamazoo
30. Steampunk Lady of Devices
31. Supernatural
32. Thriller The Lifeboat
33. True Crime The Devil in the White City
34. Urban Fantasy The Secret Hour
35. Victorian The Traitor in the Tunnel
36. Young Adult Wintergirls

April Keyword Challenge

For April the Keyword options were secret, shadow, whisper, flower, garden, home, friend, gentle, little, light. I chose a book with garden in the title, but it was also about secrets, and flowers, friends, and home.

The book is The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton published in 2008.

The Forgotten Garden is a tale of mystery and intrigue. It weaves fairytales and history together into a wonderful tale of good triumphing over evil and knowledge clearing away darkness.

The chapters are a jumble of stories telling the story of Nell and the Mountrachets , similarly to the way a box of family history documents tells the story of a family. Documents come out in a confused way until slowly a picture is pieced together of the lineage and histories of the people flesh out.

Along with the story lines from 1907-1913, 1975, and 2005, Morton entwines fairy tales written by one character, the Authoress, Eliza Makepeace, daughter of Georgiana Mountrachet Makepeace. The tales have a deeper meaning as all fairy stories do.

I was fascinated by all of the stories and while I did figure out one of the mysteries, I didn’t understand the motive at all until the end. And yes I liked the fairytale ending.

This challenge is hosted by Kim at Bookmarks to Blog. Find reviews of other books there.

Monthly Keyword Challenge 2013

This was originally posted over at my other blogspot site.

Since I'm now putting reviews here, I thought I'd move it over to make more sense.

Kim at Bookmark to Blog has chosen ten key words associated with each month in 2013. My task is to read one book each month whose title includes one or more of the key words for that month.

GUIDELINES  

* The title you choose can be a variation on one of the key words. For example- your title could include the word 'snowing' or 'snowflake' even though the key word is 'snow.'

*Key words can be tweaked. For example- You could read "Cinder" or "Ashes" for the key word 'Fire' and that would be just fine. If the key word is 'family' then your title could include the word 'sister' or 'mother.'If the key word is 'food' then your title could include the word 'cake.'

* Link up at the challenge site (click above) to participate and add additional links any time you post about the challenge or post about a book you read for the challenge.

Monthly Key Words:

     

 My Plan:

January - Wintergirls - 1/5/2013
February - What Hearts - 2/2/2013
March - The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had - 3/29/2013
April - The Forgotten Garden - 4/29/2013
May - The Boy Who Drew Birds A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - 5/13/2013
June - My Only Sunshine 6/7/2013
July - West With the Night
August - All Set Sail: A Romance of the Flying Cloud
September - These Old Shades
October - Tell Her It's Murder
November - Behind the Beautiful Forevers
December - A Hope in the Unseen