2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

I liked this idea on January, so a new thread for February sounds nice.
What did you read this past month? Following the order or not ;)

My list
The original Challenge:
5. a book with a number in the title: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. ***
6. a book written by someone under 30: Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near. *****
7. a book with nonhuman characters: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. ****
8. a funny book The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. ****
9. a book by a female author: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. *****

Side-reads
Graphic novels & manga:
V for Vendetta **
Princeless Book Two ***
Horimiya 1-6

Books:
Love, Death and Tea ****
The Crown Conspiracy ***(*)
The Jester (short story) ****
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland ***


This was a very nice month for me, with some great books and good writing. I think I'm really comfortable with female authors. I'm in track with the challenge and pretty happy with my choices for the moment.
3 of my side-reads books were lovely and funny, I'll continue to read these 2 authors for sure. The Girl was pleasant but not interesting enough.

I read:
Catherine, Called Birdy
Good Wives
Midnight Magic

I am so behind! I only joined about a week ago, and those are all I've had time for. I'm really working on Gone With The Wind.

February:
Week 5 - Once in a Blue Moon: A Novel by Leanna Ellis
Week 6 - The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Week 7 - Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
Week 8 - The Lutheran Ladies' Circle: Plucking One String by Kris Knorr
Week 9 - Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

Sidereads:
Miller's Creek Forgiveness Collection: Christian Romantic Suspense and Companion Bible Study by Cathy Bryant
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy by David Soman and Jacky Davis
Otis by Loren Long
If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Joffe Numeroff
The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
What The Fox Learnt: Four Fables from Aesop by Aesop
A Yellow Jellow, What Did You Say? by J. Kaylin
The Children of the King by Max Lucado
DK Readers L4: LEGO Friends: Welcome to Heartlake City by Helen Murray
Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure by Stan Berenstain
Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
Meet the Buddies by Catherine Hapka
Disney Bedtime Favorites by Annie Auerbach
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
Amazed By Dinosaurs by Kathryn Knight
An Apple Core, a Toilet: Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood by Tom Purcell
Take Care, Good Knight by Shelley Moore Thomas
The Berenstain Bears Come Clean for School by Jan Berenstain
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain adapted by Nicole Vittiglio
Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss

As I stated in another post, I'm spending way too much time reading, but I'm having a blast! I need balance! I haven't read much in the last few years and am making up for lost time! Plus I'm reading to my daughter on a much more consistent basis. Each night we read one or two of her short books and work on a chapter book.

Finished 7 categories in February for a total of 18 for the year.

I had a really bad month with personal stuff so definitely didn't remain on track for the challenge. I usually don't share overly personal stuff but since it ends so positively then I will. We were informed that our chocolate lab had an extremely invasive cancer (she's 12). Since I no longer live at home, I flew there to essentially say goodbye. But I told my mom she should get a second opinion for something so major. So she took her somewhere else and she's now being treated for something entirely different that only needs medication. Needless to say, we won't be going to that vet anymore.

But I read One Plus One by Jojo Moyes and started In the Woods by Tana French.

It's too bad that I get motion sickness on airplanes or I would have been much further!

Laura wrote: "I had a really bad month with personal stuff so definitely didn't remain on track for the challenge. I usually don't share overly personal stuff but since it ends so positively then I will. We were..."

Wow Laura, talk about an exhausting month! Thank god you pushed your mom to get that second opinion. Losing family is too much and that worry consumes all of your time - I'm impressed you got any reading done, to be honest.

Great post idea Zaz!

I started the 2015 challenge late January/early February and, in attempts to not burn myself out, I am very relaxed. I try to follow the order simply because it's easier to make the next book decision, but I'm not forcing myself to read one a week.

For the challenge:
Week 4 - Too Many White Men by J. G. Alt (**)
Week 5 - 1st to Die by James Patterson (*)
Week 7 - Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (****)
Week 16 - By the Light of the Mood by Dean Koontz (*)

Side Reads:
Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (***)
The Poet by Michael Connelly (*****)

Currently Reading:
Week 6 - Welcome to the Real World by Lauren Berger (54%)
Week 8 - Bossypants by Tina Fey (87%)
Week 9 - Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin (63%)
Week 11 - Endangered by C. J. Box (5%)
Week 13 - Private London by James Patterson (7%)
Every Dead Thing by John Connolly (7%)

Feb recap: Mixing up my weeks...
week 13: The Girl on the train by Hawkins
week 32: Habits of the house by Weldon
week 33: Long live the king by Weldon
week 34: The New Countess by Weldon
week 9: A Circle of wives by LaPlante
week 4: Descent by Johnston
week 27: Nantucket Christmas by Thayer
week 6: before I go by Weston

side reads: books to grandchildren

This month I read:
Week 3: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Week 4: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Week 5: No Second Chance by Harlan Coben
Week 6: Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
Week 7: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Week 8: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler
Week 10: The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh
Week 11: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Week 12: Life Lessons For Women: 7 Essential Ingredients for a Balanced Life by
Jack Canfield
Week 13: Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Week 15: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Week 16: Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

I've definitely caught up (and then some!) this month, after not finishing a single book in January.

Week 31: Lolita
Week 46: Peter Pan
Week 16: Dead and Gone
Week 23: Frankenstein
Week 40: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
Week 20: Brave New World
Week 33: Pinocchio
Week 11: Night
Week 8: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Week 41: The Awakening
Week 2: Emma
Week 38: The Little Prince
Week 27: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Week 3: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Week 5: 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account
Week 1: Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Week 7: The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

Side reads & new books I've read to my daughter

Children Make Terrible Pets - and it's true, they really do ...
Are You My Mother?
The Giving Tree
The Invisible Boy
How to Heal a Broken Wing

Whoa ... I really did read a lot of books last month.

The original Challenge:
5. a book with a number in the title: 1984 by George Orwell
6. a book written by someone under 30: Red Rising by Pierce Brown
7. a book with nonhuman characters: Rising and Descending by Holly Kelly and Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
8. a funny book: Can You Keep a Secret?by Sophie Kinsella
17.A Book A Friend Recommended: Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir By Jenny Lawson
26. A Memoir: Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hatedby Alison Arngrim
27. A Book You Can Finish In A Day: Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters by Mallory Ortberg

Side Reads
1.Full Moon Risingby Keri Arthur

That's really my only side read this month because I managed to work the other 3 into my list for this challenge!

The Challenge
2. A romance: The Virgin's Lover - finished 2/2/15
5. A book with a number in the title: Two Boys Kissing - finished 2/19/15
8. A funny book: The Well of Lost Plots - currently reading

Non-Challenge Reads
The Girl With All the Gifts
All the Bright Places
The Magician King
My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going with Your Gut
The Jaguar's Children

See, this is my problem. I have too many side reads going for other challenges. I will just have to pick it up for March - get my other books read as well as try and get caught up on this challenge.

I like seeing how everyone's got on each month. Tammy, you're on fire and Laura, I'm glad your dog is getting the right treatment, how awful for you all!

Challenge reads:
Week 5: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (29/01/15 - 04/02/15)
Week 6: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (05/02/15 - 07/02/15)
Week 7: Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien (12/02/15 - 13/02/15)
Week 8: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (19/02/15)
Week 9: The Game by Laurie R. King (26/02/15 - currently reading)

Side Reads:
Nightfall by Stephen Leather (08/02/15 - 11/02/15)
Midnight by Stephen Leather (13/02/15 - 15/02/15)
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (15/02/15 - 18/02/15)
Cursed by Stephen Leather (18/02/15)
Nightmare by Stephen Leather (19/02/15 - 23/02/15)
Nightshade by Stephen Leather (23/02/15 - 25/02/15)

I wouldn't normally read that number of books from the same series as I have with the Stephen Leather books, but I've been borrowing them from a colleague at work and they're being passed around the rest of my team so I wanted to get through them quickly to pass them on.

Turns out no one else reads as fast as me, so I'm taking a bit longer to get around to the last one and focusing on my current challenge read which is taking forever to get through!

Ok, so i just joined this group in mid february (around the 17th i think) so i've had a rather late start. I've also been going out of order a bit, but the books i finished in february for the 2015 challenge are:

week 10: Misery by Stephen King
week 11: Horns by Joe Hill

i'm currently reading Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf for week 43 (i know, way out there...but i've got a co-worker pestering me to finish it so we can talk about it lol). and my next read starting tomorrow once i finish Roger Rabbit is going to be either The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien for week 7 or Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James for week 5.

Kate wrote: "The Challenge
2. A romance: The Virgin's Lover - finished 2/2/15
5. A book with a number in the title: Two Boys Kissing - finished 2/19/15
8. A funny book: [book:The We..."

Some of those you just surely be able to use for this challenge? the magician king could,do,for the book with magic - she says having no idea what the book is about but going to,add it to the to read list anyway... ;0)

Michelle wrote: "Some of those you just surely be able to use for this challenge? the magician king could,do,for the book with magic - she says having no idea what the book is about but going to,add it to the to read list anyway... ;0)"

Haha. Well, read The Magicians first. They're really good books.

And yeah, there are books there that I could use for later challenges. But I'm trying not to skip that far ahead. If I get stuck later on, I'll fit in some of these, though. :)

It's great that you guys are still able to do side reads and other challenges in addition to this challenge. I find myself so laser focused on this challenge, that I don't want to do any other ones. Hopefully, I'll finish early, then tackle another challenge.