June 2009 Wrap-Up

Books read and reviewed this month:
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacob -- 4 roses -- Excellent
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger -- 4 roses -- Excellent
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen -- 4.5 roses -- Highly Recommended
Shimmer by Eric Barnes -- 4 roses -- Excellent

Books read but need to be reviewed:
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer -- 4.5 roses -- Highly Recommended
Nothing to Fear by Karen Rose -- 5 roses -- Loved it!

Books abandoned:
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky -- for now at least -- I’ve finished the 1st half of the book and am taking a break. I’ll eventually get back to this, I hope.

Favorite book read this month: Nothing to Fear was fantastic! As usual, Karen Rose scared the pants off of me (in a good way ). Garden Spells, Life As We Knew It, and Shimmer are also very, very good.

Books I could have done without: None. I had another really great reading month. No duds.

Challenges completed: None. But, I’m getting ever closer...

Challenges joined:
What an Animal II Reading Challenge - read books with animals in them or on the covers
Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge - read all the Sookie Stackhouse books (I’ve already read the 1st one, so I have a head-start. Always a good thing...)

Challenge progress: (those without an end date end on 12/31)
Countdown Challenge (ends 9/9/09) - 38/45
Chunkster Challenge (ends 11/15/09) - 3/5
Book Awards III Challenge - 0/5
999 Challenge - 33/81
TBR Challenge - 2/12
Support Your Local Library Challenge - 17/25
Read Your Own Books (RYOB) Challenge - 24/50
100+ Challenge - 41/100
Pages Read Challenge - 12,202/30,000
What an Animal II (ends 2/28/10) - 0/6
Sookie Stackhouse Challenge (ends 6/30/10) - 1/9
Perpetual Challenges:
New Classics Challenge - 22/100 (0 this month)
Around the World in 80 Books - 10/80 (0 this month)
Science in Fiction - 7 read (1 this month)
Book Around the States Challenge - 24/51 (1 this month)
Raved-About Reads - 17 read (4 this month) -- This explains why there weren't many duds.

Books I planned to read, but didn’t get around to:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Currently Reading:
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Plans for July:
Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr
Prayers for Bobby by Leroy Aarons (book club pick)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (award winner, book club pick)
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
You Can’t Hide by Karen Rose
Count to Ten by Karen Rose
Dirty Little Secrets by Julie Leto

Anyone read any of these? Have a recommendation on where to start?