BOOK RIOT’S 2017 READ HARDER CHALLENGE

I'll be doing Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge again in 2017. Click on the link to see more.

1. Read a book about sports: Chasing Stanley--Deirdre Martin
2. Read a debut novel: The Sky is Everywhere--Jandy Nelson
3. Read a book about books: Reading Lolita in Tehran--Azar Nafisi
4. Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author: The Way to Paradise--Mario Vargas Llosa
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative: Interpreter of Maladies--Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Read an all-ages comic: Are You My Mother?--Alison Bechdel
7. Read a book published between 1900 and 1950: Quicksand--Nella Larsen
8. Read a travel memoir:   Where the Bluebird Sings to theLemonade Springs--Wallace Stegner
9. Read a book you’ve read before: Little House in the Big Woods--Laura Ingalls Wilder
10. Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location: 12th of Never-- James Patterson
11. Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location: The Abominable Man--Maj Sjowall
12. Read a fantasy novel: Beast--Donna Jo Napoli
13. Read a nonfiction book about technology: Love is a Mix Tape--Rob Sheffield
14. Read a book about war:  Slaughterhouse Five--Kurt Vonnegut
15. Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+: Ash--Malinda Lo
16. Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country:  Black Beauty--Anna Sewell
17. Read a classic by an author of color:  The Blacker the Berry--Wallace Thurman
18. Read a superhero comic with a female lead: El Deafo--Cece Bell
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey (From Daniel José Older, author of Salsa Nocturna, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, and YA novel Shadowshaper): Chanda's Secrets--Allan Stratton
20. Read an LGBTQ+ romance novel (From Sarah MacLean, author of ten bestselling historical romance novels): When She Woke--Hillary Jordan
21. Read a book published by a micropress. (From Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, Marvel’s World of Wakanda, and the forthcoming Hunger and Difficult Women):  Beautiful, Brilliant, Borderline--Angelo H. Hudson, Jr.
22. Read a collection of stories by a woman. (From Celeste Ng, author Everything I Never Told You and the forthcoming Little Fires Everywhere): Bitch--Elizabeth Wurtzel
23. Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love. (From Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of the Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty mystery series, including The Unquiet Dead, The Language of Secrets, and the forthcoming Among the Ruins):  The Epic of Gilgamesh
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color. (From Jacqueline Koyanagi, author of sci-fi novel Ascension):  The Hate U Give--Angie Thomas

Challenge completed on October 16

2017 Audiobook Challenge Sign Up

The annual audiobook challenge at Hot Listens is up now. The challenge has a new co-host this year, Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  Even though I did not make it to 30 this year, I will try  for that many again next year.

The Audiobook Challenge is back for 2017! 

Join Hot Listens and our new co-host Caffeinated Book Reviewer for the 5th year of great audio books.

Audiobooks are great for those times you want to read but can’t for some reason like driving, doing chores, working out, or if you’re one of the lucky ones like me, listen to them at work.

I hope all those new and old junkies can join us once again for The 2017 Audiobook Challenge.

Listening has never been better!  Thanks to the continued popularity of Audiobooks just about everything is being published on audio…YAY!

We will hold 2 updates with giveaways. First update will be June 30th, 2017 and the final update will be Dec 15, 2017

There has never been a better time for reading with our ears 

Here is what I am listening to:

1. Hope--Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus
2. More Brains Than Bullets/The Road to Casas Piedras/West of Dodge--Louis L'Amour
3. The Language of Flowers--Vanessa Diffenbaugh
4. Killing Reagan--Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
5. Catch Me--Lisa Gardner
6. Crenshaw--Katherine Applegate
7. Fish in a Tree--Lynda Mullally Hunt
8. Fuzzy Mud--Louis Sachar
9. Night Fall--Nelson DeMille
10. The Neighbor--Lisa Gardner
11. The House--Danielle Steel
12. Ice Bound--Dr. Jerri Nielsen
13. The Oregon Trail--Rinker Buck
14. Happier at Home--Gretchen Rubin
15. Smoke Screen--Sandra Brown
16. The Princess Diaries--Meg Cabot
17. Princess in the Spotlight--Meg Cabot
18. Little House in the Big Woods--Laura Ingalls Wilder
19. Lilly's Big Day and Other Stories--Kevin Henkes
20. Love You Forever: The Best of Robert Munsch
21. Dragon of the Red Dawn--Mary Pope Osborne
22. Monday With a Mad Genius--Mary Pope Osborne
23. Dark Day in the Deep Sea-Mary Pope Osborne
24. Little House on the Prairie--Laura Ingalls Wilder
25. Truly Madly Guilty--Liane Moriarty
26. The Spiderwick Chronicles 1-5--Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
27. Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: The Nixie's Song--Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
28. The Nix--Nathan Hill
29. The Apple Orchard--Susan Wiggs
30. Sun Moon Stars Rain--Jan Cheripko

Challenge completed on December 9

THE 2017 DIVERSE BOOKS READING CHALLENGE

Chasing Fairytales will again be hosting the Diverse Reads Challenge.  Click to sign up and see more info.

For newbies to the challenge - what is it all about? Well, we want to encourage the reading and support of diverse books and marginalized voices, and therefore this challenge hopes to help you read more diversely in 2017!

HOW DO WE CLASSIFY A BOOK AS DIVERSE?

The main character - or one of the leads, who preferably has a POV - has to belong to a diverse group. According to the definition of We Need Diverse Books

"We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities*, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.

*We subscribe to a broad definition of disability, which includes but is not limited to physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, chronic conditions, and mental illnesses (this may also include addiction). Furthermore, we subscribe to a social model of disability, which presents disability as created by barriers in the social environment, due to lack of equal access, stereotyping, and other forms of marginalization."

Furthermore if you have any doubt regarding whether a book is diverse or not, feel free to ask either Shelly or Me via twitter. I am @chasingfaes and Shelly is @shellysrambles.

Here is what I am reading:

1. City of Women--David R. Gilliam
2. To All The Boys I've Loved Before--Jenny Han
3. More Brains Than Bullets/The Road to Casas Piedras/West of Dodge--Louis L'Amour
4. Epic of Gilgamesh
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--Rebecca Skloot
6. Quicksand--Nella Larsen
7. Are You My Mother?--Alison Bechtel
8. The Blacker the Berry--Wallace Thurman
9. Openly Bob--Bob Smith
10. I Got the Rhythm--Connie Schofield Morrion
11. El Deaf--Cece Bell
12. Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer--Carole Boston Weatherford
13. Fish in a Tree--Lynda Mullally Hunt
14. Lipstick Jihad--Azadeh Maven
15. Ash--Malinda Lo
16. Let's Dance a Waltz Vol. 1--Natsumi Ando
17. If You Come Softly--Jacqueline Woodson
18. Nothing--Robin Friedman
19. La Cucina--Lily Prior
20. Orphan Train--Christina Baker Kline
21. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly--Jean-Dominique Bauby
22. Willow Weep for Me--Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
23. The Rules Do Not Apply--Ariel Levy
24. Yaqui Delgado Want to  Kick Your Ass--Meg Medina
25. Britt-Marie Was Here--Fredrik Backman
26. Everything, Everything--Nicola Yoon
27. We Are the Goldens--Dana Reinhardt
28. Ice Bound--Dr. Jeri Nielsen
29. Crossing to Safety--Wallace Stegner
30. The Oregon Trail--Rinker Buck
31. I'll Give You the Sun--Jandy Nelson
32. Crime and Punishment--Fyodor Dostoevsky
33. Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls--Lynn Weingarten
34. This Is Where It Ends--Marieke Nijkamp
35. The Secrets of My Life--Caitlyn Jenner
36. Carry On--Rainbow Rowell
37. Luckiest Girl Alive--Jessica Knoll
38. Reading Lolita in Tehran--Azar Nafisi
39. The View From Saturday--E.L. Konigsburg
40. The Glass Castle--Jeannette Walls
41. The Rum Diary--Hunter S. Thompson
42. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda--Becky Albertalli
43. The Hate U Give--Angie Thomas
44. Dragon of the Red Dawn--Mary Pope Osborne
45. Monday With a Mad Genius--Mary Pope Osborne
46. Dark Day in the Deep Sea--Mary Pope Osborne
47. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life--Benjamin Alire Saenz
48. Who's That Girl--Blair Thornburgh
49. Interpreter of Maladies--Jhumpa Lahiri
50. Southern Discomfort--Rita Mae Brown
51. Chanda's Secrets--Allan Stratton
52. Little House on the Prairie--Laura Ingalls Wilder
53. Beautiful Ruins--Jess Walter
54. I Can't Make This Up--Kevin Hart
55. Holding Up the Universe--Jennifer Niven
56. Everyone's Dead But Us--Mark Richard Zubro
57. Ming Tea Murder--Laura Childs
58. Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: The Nixie's Song--Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
59. The Importance of Being Earnest--Oscar Wilde
60. The Shack--William Paul Young
61. Ghosts--Raina Telgemeier
62. Goodbye, Vitamin--Rachel Khong
63. The Turn of the Screw--Henry James
64. The Way to Paradise--Mario Vargas Llosa
65. Blood Red, Snow White--Marcus Sedgwick
66. The Nix--Nathan Hill
67. Dear Martin--Nic Stone
68. Desperately Seeking Paradise--Ziauddin Sardar
69. The Apple Orchard--Susan Wiggs
70. Drama--Raina Telgemeier
71. Life Studies--Susan Vreeland

Calling challenge complete on December 19

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My Gingerbread House

For our art class at work last week, we made gingerbread houses using graham crackers. I'd never made one until then.

WritersLife.org: The Best Christmas Gifts For Writers

With Christmas approaching, what do you plan to get the writers in your life as a gift? Here is what Writerslife.org suggests:

A diary

Writers often find it difficult to juggle their time effectively. Buy them a great diary to help them! A diary is useful for keeping up with all the appointments and ‘to do’ lists of everyday life, but you could also encourage them to have a separate ‘writing’ diary. They could use this to keep track of their writing, to schedule in time to write and to set aims and goals for themselves. It might just be the best present you’ve ever given them.

A notebook

Writers are nothing without their notebooks, and for most, it is a true pleasure to pull theirs out and scribble in ideas, words, quotes, and pictures of things that help them create. Make their note taking a true pleasure by getting them a notebook you know they will love. They might prefer a pocket-sized thing that is easy to carry around or a great heaving beast they can cram with cuttings and write in until it’s all falling to bits and bursting at the seams!

I already have one or two of both of these, but I guess the more the better.

A writing retreat

If you want to treat your writer to a truly special gift this Christmas, why not book them on a writers retreat? This is the perfect gift for those writers who want to get more writing done but never feel they have any time to do it. Give them this as a Christmas gift, and then they’ll have no excuse!

Well, I guess this all depends on location, for me anyway. I'm not sure about a retreat, per se, but I have been wanting to attend a writer's conference. The local bar owner in my town has mentioned going to several already, and I believe she said something about one coming up in San Francisco next February. I live only about 100 miles from SF, so that might be a good idea.  I'm still hoping to find a writers group nearby to get some feedback, but still to no avail. 

A word a day books

Words are a writer’s best friend, but they can also be pesky little troublemakers at times. Make sure your loved one never gets writer’s block again with a word a day book. There are loads of different versions out there which help writers expand their vocabulary, learn the history and origin of different words and discover some great new parts of the English language they never knew existed!

Story cubes

Story cubes are the perfect gift for writers! Whenever they get stuck for something to write, they can use these great little cubes to come up with ideas for new ones. They are so much fun to use and brilliant for motivating writers to get down to work as well.

 I guess I could use either of these. And by coincidence, I saw something last week at Walgreens that appeared to be the above-mentioned story cubes. I thought about getting them myself, but hesitated. Maybe later, if no one decided to give them to me, which I doubt :) When I saw these things at the store, I was reminded of an exercise I used in my class a few months ago:

This is basically the same idea as the story cubes, using standard dice and ideas from the list above. 

A collection of books you think they’d love

 Writers love to read, and the more we read, the better we get at our craft. Why not give a writer a selection of different books you think would inspire them or just ones that you hold dear yourself? Write a little note in each explaining why you think they would love it – they are sure to find it truly touching, and you never know, it might inspire their next great novel!

I bet most of you would agree on this one. Or would you let them decide for themselves by giving them a gift card to either Barnes & Noble or Amazon? 

Writing software

A more practical gift, but still a good one. There is some brilliant writing software out there that can really help the writer in your life with getting that novel down and keeping track of editing. It might not be pretty or romantic, but they are still sure to appreciate it.

I must confess I'm still using my old computer, but that will be changing soon. More to come.  

I'm sure gifts for writing aren't just limited to those quoted from the article. I was immediately reminded of something I bought several years ago when I worked at Home Goods. 

The No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit Hardcover – September 14, 2006

by Chris Baty  (Author)4.3 out of 5 stars

Some people I know didn't think this seems like a real way to help writers, that it seems more like a gag gift. I haven't tried to use it, but who knows? It might be fun. The result might be ridiculous, but may evolve into something worth writing and revising. There is even a new updated version of the kit.  And the entry suggests similar items including the Amazing Story Generator and the Writer's Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises for Inspiring the "Write" Side of Your Brain,  among other items. 

What do you think of these ideas? Would you give these to the writers in your life? If you are a writer, would you like to receive any of these?

2017 Steampunk Reading Challenge

I'll be doing this one again, starting with the first level. Sign up here.

Challenge Guidelines

1. This challenge will run from January 1st, 2017 to December 31st, 2017. Signups will be open until December 1st, 2017.
2. Anyone can enter, as long as you are posting your reviews/book talks somewhere that you can link to them. Whether that is on your blog, Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon, etc.
3. Rereads are allowed as long as you have a review/book talk to go along with that for the 2017 year.
4. The link ups for each quarter will go live on the first day of each quarter. And they will be open until the next link up is live.
5. Use #2017SRC on social media to show off your updates for the challenge and of course to make more friends!

What Books Count?

Any book that has Steampunk elements in it. The book can be in any other genre (Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade) and have other sub genres (paranormal, romance, etc) as long as it has Steampunk elements within it!

Helpful Book Lists!

Goodreads Steampunk

Popular Steampunk Books

Best Steampunk Books

Levels

1-5 – Shipmate

6-10 – Navigator

11-15 – Mortician

15-20 – Electrologist

21-25 – Aetherist

26+ – Aeronaut

My books for this one:

1. Soulless--Gail Carrier
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone--Laini Taylor
3. Legend: The Graphic Novel--Leigh Dragoon
4. Prodigy: The Graphic Novel--Leigh Dragoon
5. Champion: The Graphic Novel--Leigh Dragoon
6. Heartless--Marissa Meyer
7. Caraval--Stephanie Garber

Challenge completed on November 30

2017 Dystopia Reading Challenge

Here is it again at Cornerfolds.  Along with the levels, there is also an optional bingo card. even though I read more than 30 books this year, I will still start out at the first level and see where I go from there. Click above to see more.


Welcome to the third annual Dystopia Reading Challenge! 2017 will my third year hosting the challenge and my second hosting alongside Claudia from My Soul Called Life! There will be giveaways, possible read-a-longs, and badges awarded! Our big addition to the challenge this year is Dystopia Bingo! Check it out further down!


THE GUIDELINES
» This challenge will run from January 1, 2017 - December 31, 2017.
» You can join at anytime before November 1, 2017.
» Books must be read and reviewed in 2017.
» Audiobooks, re-reads, short stories, and crossovers are fine.
» You don't have to be a book blogger to participate! You can track your progress on Goodreads, Shelfari, Booklikes, etc.
» Sign up below with your post, shelf, etc. and leave a comment letting us know what your personal goal is.
» Link up your reviews each month on the post we'll provide!

Here is what I am reading:

1. Beast--Donna Jo Napoli
2. Slaughterhouse Five--Kurt Vonnegut
3. The Goose Girl--Shannon Hale
4. Lost Horizon--James Hilton
5. The Chocolate War--Robert Cormier
6. Soulless--Gail Carrier
7. Ash--Malinda Lo
8. Fuzzy Mud--Louis Sachar
9. When She Woke--Hillary Jordan
10. Daughter of Smoke and Bone--Laini Taylor
11. 1984--George Orwell
12. All Our Wrong Todays--Elan Mastai
13. Bloodlines--Richelle Mead
14. The Girl With All the Gifts--M.R. Carey
15. Nightlight: A Parody--Harvard Lampoon
16. Zombies Calling--Faith Erin Hicks
17. Legend: The Graphic Novel--Leigh Dragoon
18. Prodigy: The Graphic Novel--Leigh Dragoon
19. Champion: The Graphic Novel--Leigh Dragoon
20. Blood Red, Snow White--Marcus Sedgwick
21. Heartless--Marissa Meyer
22. Snow & Rose--Emily Winfield Martin
23. Caraval--Stephanie Garber
24. One Second After--William R. Forstchen

Challenge completed on December 13