Monday 2 November 2009

Monthly Roundup / End of RIP challenge

Hello folks,

Sorry I abandoned you all this weekend. It was just far too hectic in our household and I knew I just wouldn't have time to visit anyone, so I thought it best to stay off altogether. Halloween took hold in our house and the planning for it just took so much time. Then the kids were off to a party yesterday and I am still playing catch up since the holiday.

I thought I would do my monthly roundup today, as well as wrap up the RIP challenge.

Firstly the monthly roundup.

This has been a really poor reading month for me. I only managed to read seven books and out of those I have only got around to reviewing three, so I am going to be a bit heavy on the reviews over the next few days to clear the backlog.

Here are seven books that I have read this month.

1) Uglies by Scott Westerfield

2) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

3) Amy & Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout.

4) Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

5) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

6) Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris

7) Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See

I usually read so many more than that a month, but in my defence, I was on holiday for a week and the kids have been off all of this week, so not much time to read. I really enjoyed all the books that I read. Out of them all, I think my favourite would have to be Shiver. I would highly recommend this one.

I am happy to say that in October I managed to finish the 100 books Challenge, with still two months to go. If you click here, you will see the books I have read this year to get me to 100. I am not too sure if I will manage the other challenges so easily, unless my reading speed picks up.
I also want to wrap up the RIP challenge, which I completed and which finished yesterday.

I managed to read eight books for this challenge which mainly consisted of ghost stories and Gothic thrillers. Here is my list.

1) Angelica by Arthur Phillips
2) The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
3) Flyte by Angie Sage
4) The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshlyn Jackson
5) Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
6) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
7)The Spellbound Hotel by Tom Eglington
8) Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris

I am really pleased to have read eight books for this challenge as I only signed up for four.

How are you doing with your challenges this week.

22 comments:

  1. Badly. Simple answer to that :D Both reading and crafting I'm so way behind on. Finished The Host though, loved it... more than Twilight if I'm honest ;)

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  2. You read some good books in October. DId you like Snow Flower?
    Have a great week!

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  3. Carmen - a few people have said that they prefered The Host to Twilight. I have still to read it,.

    Mary - Snow Flower was such a beautiful book, but so sad.

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  4. Seven books. That's good going.
    At the moment, I don't seem to be reading nearly as much - due to my having read a couple of poor books lately? Perhaps.
    Congratulations also on your challenge.

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  5. Twice as many books as you signed up for is really good. Give yourself a pat on the back. Have a great week and happy reading!

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  6. Hi, Vivienne! You read a lot of du Maurier! Have you read her collection of short stories? The one with The Birds and Don't Look Now? It's probably one of her best work. Of course, I still haven't read Rebecca though. But after reading your review, I just have to read it sometime soon. I just have to get a bok with the cover similar to the one in your review. What we have here is the uninspired orange cover.

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  7. Congratulations on completing the challenges! I didn't know you celebrate Halloween there. They didn't celebrate it in France when we lived there so I thought it was an American holiday.

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  8. You read some great books and had challenge success too--cONGRATS I loved Snowflower :)

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  9. I don't think you need any defense...if you ask me 7 books is still a great month! But especially so with all that you've had going.

    And congrats of finishing up the 100+. WOOHOO!!!!

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  10. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Catching Fire.

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  11. Congratulations! I'm so jealous you got to 100. My sneaky goal is to read some short but sweet books to pad my numbers. Don't tell!

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  12. Petty Witter - when you read a couple of duff books, it really slows you down and puts you off reading anymore.

    Kaye - thanks

    Peter - no I haven't read her short stories yet. I shall definetly try and get hold of them. The Daphne Du Maurier books came out in a collection, all with covers like that. I suppose they were to make them look a bit more modern.

    Bermudaonion - yes we celebrate Halloween too. Not as well as America, but it is improving every year. We do trick or treating down our street and I decorate for the event.

    Debi and Diane - thank you.

    Louise - reviewing Catching Fire on Wednesday.

    Amanda - good luck, you will get there in the end.

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  13. Wow! You did a fantastic "job" with this challenge--double the amount you planned! I only read and posted about one book for this challenge. But I had a great time with it, and enjoy Carl's blog so much. :-)

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  14. Nothing to apologize, Vivienne! It happens to us all. Congratulations on finishing those challenges :)

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  15. congratulations on finishing RIP..
    wow.. well geez 7 books in one month would be impossible for me unless they were small like comic books! lol.. It amazes me that women with families can read much of anything!!

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  16. Congrats on your awesome progress with this challenge! I'm doing well on some challenges and terribly on others. It's kind of random actually (but then so is my methods of fulfilling the challenges, so there you go).

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  17. I think you had a great month! Anytime I read 5 or more books is a great month for me. ;) I finished a couple of challenges this month and dumped a couple that I just know I can't finish. I hope you write a review of Snow Flower and Sleep Pale Sister.
    *Smiles*

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  18. ha! i'm still working on my ONLY challenge--a summer 2009 reading one--and hope to finish it by summer 2010.

    you did a great job this month! i just picked up uglies from the library...but think i have to read pretties first because i don't know what's flying...

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  19. Suko - thanks. Carl's blog is fantastic.

    Nymeth - thanks.

    DesLily - I always feel bad that I spend my evenings reading. I don't really like to watch television, so I would rather read. It is hard when you have a family as well.

    Alyce - I am pretty sure there are challenges that I just won't finish by the end of the year.

    Kim- my review of Snow Flower will be up next week.

    Natalie - you need to read Uglies first.

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  20. You did great with the challenge and it looks like you had a good reading month, even if it was only 7 books :)

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  21. You did a fabulous job in October! I so enjoyed SNOW FLOWER and like you said, it's a sad book.

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Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.