Reading Challenge Update: February 2014

Here is where I stand with the challenges I have joined after the month of February (only challenges that I read books for this month are featured here):

Ebook (7/25)
4. Greystone Valley by Charlie Brooks
5. Spell Struck by Ariella Moon
6. Spellbound by Samantha Combs
7. The Demon's Wife by Rick Hautala

Audio Book (4/25)
4. Rotters by Daniel Kraus

Graphic Novel (5/12)
5. Over the Rainbow by Tom Hutchinson, Alisson Borges, & Kate Finnegan

100 Books in a Year (27/100)
18. Greystone Valley by Charlie Brooks
19. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
20. Over the Rainbow by Tom Hutchinson, Alisson Borges, & Kate Finnegan
21. Spell Struck by Ariella Moon
22. Rotters by Daniel Kraus
23. Spellbound by Samantha Combs
24. I Am Abraham by Jerome Charyn
25. The Demon's Wife by Rick Hautala
26. Promise Bound by Anne Greenwood Brown
27. The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill

Historical Fiction (4/15)
4. I Am Abraham by Jerome Charyn

British Book (3/12)
2. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
3. The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill

Free Reads (11/30)
8. Greystone Valley by Charlie Brooks
9. Spell Struck by Ariella Moon
10. Rotters by Daniel Kraus
11. Spellbound by Samantha Combs
12. The Demon's Wife by Rick Hautala

Witches & Witchcraft (4/5)
2. Greystone Valley by Charlie Brooks
3. Spell Struck by Ariella Moon
4. Spellbound by Samantha Combs

Author Alphabet (11/26)
10. Spell Struck by Ariella Moon
11. The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill

YA Mythology (3/12)
3. Promise Bound by Anne Greenwood Brown

Elsewhere Online: February 2014

As you know from my Stacking the Shelves posts, I review for two other websites (bookloons.com and bittenbybooks.com). As I cannot post my reviews there and here, but I would still like to count the books I read for the challenges, I am going to have a post like this at the end of the every month listing the books I reviewed and what challenges the went towards.

Title: Promise Bound
Author: Anne Greenwood Brown

Challenges: YA Mythology, 100 Books in a Year

Title: The Mist in the Mirror

Author: Susan Hill

Challenges: British Book, Author Alphabet, 100 Books in a Year

The Demon's Wife

Title: The Demon's Wife
Author: Rich Haulata

Publisher: JournalStone
ISBN: 978-1-936564-98-9

Why Read?: Early Review
Challenges: E-Book, Free Reads, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: This is a fun and unique read about a demon wanting to go good for a woman. The story is intricate, but the ending seems rushed and just not fully formed.

Rating: 3 stars

Spellbound

Title: Spellbound
Author: Samantha Combs

Publisher: Astraea
ISBN: 978-1-936852-36-9

Why Read?: Book Club
Challenges: E-Book, Free Reads, Witches & Witchcraft, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I really wanted to like this book.  The premise was pretty awesome, but there were just too many inconsistencies for me and too many things happened just like magic (no pun intended).  Also, many things did not seem realistic and definitely not contemporary for today's teens - I was feeling a 90s vibe.

Rating: 2 stars

Rotters

Title: Rotters
Author: Daniel Kraus

Publisher: Listening Library
ISBN: 9780449014950

Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: Audio Book, Free Reads, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: OMG. This was unlike any book I have ever read. It was dark and gets kinda psychological towards the end, so I would categorize it as Horror, but not a traditional horror. The narration also set the tone, but the parts with repetitions just seemed odd when listening.

Rating: 4 stars

I Am Abraham

I Am Abraham

by Jerome Charyn

published by Liveright

2014

ISBN 978-0-87140-427-5

Why Read?: Review

Challenges:  Historical Fiction, 100 Books in a Year

Jerome Charyn is known for taking historical characters and telling their story.  In I Am Abraham, he turns to the great American president, Abraham Lincoln, also dramatizing a nation at war with itself.

Charyn starts his story with a young Abe Lincoln washing up in New Salem, Illinois.  From there, we follow his military and political career, as well as his love life.  Charyn does not end with Lincoln’s assassination; rather, this known ending is covered in the prologue, which really makes for a unique story devise.

I Am Abraham is the third book by Jerome Charyn I have read.  While I loved his YA novel, Back to Battan, his two adult novels I have read, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson and now I Am Abraham, have not sat well with me.  There is no denying that Charyn is an expert historical fiction writer, and therein lies the problem.  He brings these famous people to life with such believable rawness, that they become too human, even unlikeable.  He really brings the feel of the times through with excellent descriptions and accurate language, more so than other writers of the genre, and this I do appreciate.

I Am Lincoln is one of those books that is very hard to review.  Jerome Charyn’s writing definitely rates a 5, but the presentation is so off-putting to me, that personally I would rate the book a 1 if asked for my non-reviewer opinion.  I think I will have to split the difference.

Rating: 3/5

Stacking the Shelves: 2/16-2/22

For review:

Dancing Shadows, Tramping Hooves by Dianne Ascroft