April 2015 Wrap Up

April 2015

April was a busy month for me! We 'stay-cationed', we visited family, my nephew was born, we celebrated Earth Day, and somehow I managed to get some reading done! Ok, it was all in the middle of the night and mostly because I've been taking advantage of my library's digital lending library but I feel a little accomplished this month! I read more than just a few children's books! Woo hoo!

BOOKS I READ

Challenge Progress

(See My Overall Progress Here)

New Places Visited:

Orlando, Florida (Paper Towns)

Denver, Colorado (The Death Cure)

I forgot to pay attention to the locations in 'Trigger Warning'

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No progress

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ABC READING CHALLENGE

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How did you guys do with your goals this month?

Featured Freebie: Everville series

Everville series by Roy Hill

The City of Worms (Book #2)

GET YOUR FREE ECOPY NOW

ENDS APRIL 27th

Goodreads | Amazon

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The Rise of Mallory (Book #3)

FREE 

APRIL 27th - May 1st

Goodreads | Amazon

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Keep an eye out for the FOURTH book in the Everville series: The Fall of Brackenbone

(COMING SOON)

Goodreads | Amazon

Top Ten Tuesday #53

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Top Ten All Time Favorite Authors

Neil Gaiman

I love his unique storytelling style and am always excited to read his books.

J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter will always be a big part of my life and I love her for it.  I've yet to read any of her adult novels but I definitely plan to.

Anne Rice

It's been a while since I've read anything of hers but I loved The Vampire Chronicles as a young adult.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I'll always love the fantasy world that he created.

Maggie Stiefvater

I mostly love how quirky and fun she is. She's an artist, musician, and a lover of muscle cars. This woman has so much talent!

Patricia A. McKillip

I read one of her books several years ago and then read everything else of her's that I could get my hands on. I'm still trying to find some of her earlier works.

R.A. Salvatore

I kind of LOVE his Forgotten Realms fantasy novels. His battle scenes are awesome and his characters are so memorable. 

Stacking the Shelves #47

It's been a few months since I've had the time to get a STS up but it still won't be a very big one. I've mostly been getting picture books for my daughter but I did get a few things for myself. 

{Covers link to Goodreads}

GIFTED

   

My husband surprised me with 'A Dance With Dragons' and also bought 'The Lorax' for our daughter. 

WON

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

(Thank you, Eve!)

PURCHASED

I purchased a couple of Dr. Seuss books for my daughter. Brand new, I must mention. I'm not even going to get into the used children's books I purchased in the past few months! 

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What did you add to your shelves? 

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher:  Speak

Publication Date: October 16, 2008

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Length: 305 pages
Source: Borrowed

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N 

Literary Awards:

Anthony Award Nominee for Best Children's/Young Adult Novel (2009)

CORINE Internationaler Buchpreis for Young Adults (2010)

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2008)

Edgar Award for Best Young Adult (2009)

YALSA Teens' Top Ten (2009)

Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2011)

SYNOPSIS: 

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open his window and climbs into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew. 

MY THOUGHTS:

I've been meaning to read this book since I read 'Looking For Alaska' back in 2011 but never could get my hands on it. Now that the trailer for the movie adaptation is out I knew I had to jump on this before it became another book in a long list of books that I ended up watching before reading the book because there just wasn't any time to do so. I remember hearing about the 'wanderlust' that people got from this book and overall thinking it was an epic road trip adventure story. Either someone lied to me or I just heard what I wanted to hear and ignored the rest. This book is not an epic road trip adventure story. The road trip starts in the last 20% of the book! 

I think this book had potential but fell short. The beginning was fun and interesting and I enjoyed reading Margo and Q's late night revenge exploits and I thought it was going to be this great clever mystery that we all figured out together but the middle of this book dragged on and on. Every time I thought Q was going to come across some amazing clue obvious only to him, he just didn't. I actually kind of worry about the obsessiveness that this kid has towards his neighbor. No wonder she always kept her shades closed. Creepy neighbor kid with an unhealthy crush. Ok, I'm just kidding. He wasn't that bad. But you have to wonder. 

The road trip was short-lived and the ending was pretty disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting but it was more than just that. The upside to reading this was that I get to add a location to my Around the World Challenge map.

My Rating:
2 1/2 stars

2015 ABC CHALLENGE

I've been doing this challenge since 2013 (my best year so far) and I have no idea where I came across it first but I mentioned in an old post that there is a group on Shelfari called 'Read the Alphabet' where you can find the rules if you are interested. I mostly just do this as a personal challenge. It helps keep my titles a little diversified since it's really easy to end up reading tons of books that start with 'The'. 

Here's my progress so far: 

(CR) = Currently Reading

A

B

C

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (CR)

D

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Death Cure by James Dashner

E

The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum

F

Fable: Blood of Heroes by Jim C. Hines

G

H

I

J

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

K

The Kill Order by James Dashner

L

The Library of Souls (#3) by Ransom Riggs

M

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan (CR)

N

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

O
Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The October Faction (#1) by Steve Niles

P
Paper Towns by John Green
The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Q

R

The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum

S

The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George 
Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty

T

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
Tik Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum

U

V

W

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski 
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

X

Y

Z

March 2015 Wrap Up

Another month in which I was mostly MIA from the bookish community. We stay busy every day and always have story time but I don't have much time to read anything just for myself. I did finish 2 books this month, though. 

Challenge Progress

I read nothing from my TBR pile. :(

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No new places visited.

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OTHER BOOKS READ

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner

Total Books Read: 2

Anticipating April 2015 - New Releases

April 2015
New Releases

{Covers link to Goodreads}

MOST ANTICIPATED

Nothing that REALLY interests me this month. :(

PIQUES MY INTEREST

OTHER
Sequels to series I haven't started yet