Today I finished Joyce Carol Oates’, The Man Without a Shadow (to be reviewed on this blog soon). This marks the halfway mark another blogger and I took on together to read a book beginning with each letter of the alphabet (not counting “A,” “An,” and “The.”). We have both decided to take a break from this challenge until next summer, when we will begin with “N” and continue to the end.
To review, here are the books I’ve read for this challenge:
All the Missing Girls, a mystery/thriller told in reverse by Megan Miranda (This book is reviewed earlier in this blog; use the search box to find a review.)
The Beekeeper’s Daughter There are about four or five books “out there” by this title, but the one I read was by Santa Montefiore. (It, too was reviewed on this blog.)
Coming Home, an inspirational book basically the story of the Prodigal Son (with applications) borrowed from my church library.
The Distant Hours, a novel written by Australian author Kate Morton, also reviewed on this blog
Emerald City, an exquisite collection of short stories by Manhattan Beach’s author, Jennifer Egan (reviewed previously)
The Fortelling, by Alice Hoffman (reviewed as well)
Give a Boy A Gun, a novel written by Todd Strasser, which includes on each page snippets from news headlines of school shootings (reviewed on PWR (Powerful Women Readers) also)
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, a Third Tuesday Book Club selection (reviewed on this blog)
I Thought I Was the Only One (But I Wasn’t) by Bene Brown (reviewed as well)
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie poems by Maya Angelou (mentioned in post “Reading Outside One’s Genre” here at PWR
Kiss Her Goodbye by Wendy Corsi (reviewed on post, “A Couple of Really Good Reads”)
The Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane, Book Two of the YA series “The Last Apprentice” (mentioned in Sunday (Evening ) Post for May 7, 2018 here at PWR)
The Man Without a Shadow by Joyce Carol Oates (to be reviewed soon)
Summarizing, three are considered YA books, although as an adult I really enjoyed them all. Only two non-fiction book made my challenge, despite a desire to “read outside my standard, go-to genre, so I have begun a fascinating non-fiction selection, Born Fighting: How the Scots Irish Shaped America by James Webb. I started it this week and am on page 103. It promises to be interesting and informative.
I completed two books by favorite authors, Alice Hoffman and Joyce Carol Oates. There is only one book of short stories, but during the challenge I read another book of short stories, out of order of the alphabet, Tom Hanks’ (Yes, that Tom Hanks) Uncommon Type (reviewed on PWR during The Alphabet Challenge). There is only one book of poetry I read for the challenge, but another I read during the challenge, blogger and author Colin Chappells’ Just Thinking (reviewed as well). There were two mystery/thrillers, two novels which included mystery and romance as well (The Beekeeper’s Daughter and The Distant Hours).
If nothing else, I have proved I am what I usually describe myself as, when asked, “What kind of books do you like?’ I always answer, “I am an eclectic reader; I’ll read anything!”
From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.
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