The Book Challenge Update

Reading has taken a back burner to Real Life and School.  Still, I have managed to finish a few tales worth mentioning.

First and foremost, I finished reading A Discovery of Witches: A Novel.  It has to be the most amazing book I have read in a long time!  It is a romantic tale, but not in the typical romance style of writing.  Without the relationship between the two main characters, you wouldn't have much of a story.  But the romance takes a back burner to the plot, which is complex and rich in historical and scientific detail.  Seriously detailed.  Think The Da Vinci Code with a lot of weight and substance.  And with chapters longer than two pages.  Do you like witches and vampire stories? Then you MUST read this book.

I was sucked into this story & refused to emerge until I was finished.  Once finished I howled in frustration because this was an Advanced Readers Copy, so you can't even get it in the stores until February and the sequel is in the distant future.  Sigh.  Curse you ms. caboo for loaning me this book!

Speaking of ms. caboo and books, I won a copy of The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All from her last month.  This was a quick, easy read about someone who suffered at the hands of Bernie Madoff.  I don't fully understand the entire situation, but basically Madoff conned a lot of people into believing he was protecting their money when in fact he was just taking it.  The author had all her money with Madoff so when he went down, she lost everything.  The book is about how she recovered from her loss.  She may have had an enviable life, with a fantastic apartment in New York and sophisticated tastes.  But she also worked hard for that lifestyle, so when she lost everything, she lost BIG.



On the lighter side of things, I read Great Gals: Inspired Ideas for Living a Kick-Ass Lifeby Summer Pierre.  It is basically a summary of important women in history, but it is also a journal with writing prompts after each entry.  Considering it is part journal, it was a BIG MISTAKE on my part to read it as an ebook.  Of course, if I really wanted to I could transfer the writing prompts to a journal of my own choosing.


At any rate, I'm continuing to read even though school has started up again for me (only 9 more Mondays until Spring Break!).  Currently, I have my nose in:  The Montessori Method, Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education (2nd Edition), and In the Company of Vampires: A Dark OnesNovel.

In honor of the first week of the reading challenge, I would like to pass on the book that I won from ms. caboo -The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All.  If you are interested in reading this book, just leave a comment (open to entries from around the world).  I will pick a winner from random next Saturday, January 15.

What have you been reading?