Well Seasoned Reader Challnge

Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge.
Rule #1: The challenge runs from January 1 to March 31. (No cheating and starting before!)
Rule #2: You must read three books. After that, it's up to you how much you want to read.
Rule #3: The books must:
have a food name in the titleORbe about cooking/eatingORhave a place name in the titleORbe about one (or more) person's travel experienceORbe about a specific cultureORbe by an author whose ethnicity is other than your own (see, I squeezed it in!)

I'll leave it up to you to choose how the three books you read fit the criteria.

Rule #4: They must be middle-grade on up, but can be either fiction or non-fiction.The purpose, this winter, is to take yourself someplace out of the ordinary, to go on a literary trip, whether that be challenging your expectations, discovering a new place, or enjoying the experience of reading about good food, places, and people.

My Choices

1) Someone’s Travel Experiences- Extra Virgin: Amongst the Olive Groves of Liguria by Annie Hawes

2) Cooking/ Eating (I hope drink can be included) Cider with Rosier by Laurie Lee

3) Place name in the title- Espresso Tales: The Latest from 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

What's in a Name?

What’s in a Name?


Dates: January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009*
The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories. You may overlap books with other challenges, but please don't use the same book for more than one category.
1. A book with a "profession" in its title.
My Choice- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

2. A book with a "time of day" in its title.
My Choice- Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy

3. A book with a "relative" in its title.
My Choice- Daughter of the East- An Autobiography by Benazir Bhutto

4. A book with a "body part" in its title.
My Choice- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

5. A book with a "building" in its title.
My Choice- Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

6. A book with a "medical condition" in its title.
My Choice- TBD

Personal Challenge- Reading around the World

Personal Challenge
Reading around the World- I have realised that I focus my reading mainly on books from the UK and US and would like to broaden my horizons. My personal challenge is each month to read a book from a different country (more if possible!) and write a brief review of it. I will aim to complete this over the next 12 months going November to November. I am going to create a proposed list of books but I will be flexible and change them if necessary.

November 2008 (France) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick- read

December (China) Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah

January 2009
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November

Bookish Things

I have been off sick today so while I have been recuperating I have spent a lovely few hours doing book related things!
- Updated LibraryThing
- visited some favourite blogs and found some new ones
- sorted out some books that I am going to put on RISI, BookMooch or release for BookCrossing.

The only thing I have not managed to do much is actually read a book!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

I started and finished this last night and have to say it is a wonderfully illustrated book and a heartwarming story! I ordered it on a whim from amazon and was so pleased I did. Worth it just for the pictures alone, pictures that are an integral part of the story.

Last night I also started Brave New Word by Aldous Huxley, I thought I had read it years ago but none of it is familiar!

Hope everyone is well, would anyone like to tell me about any new blogs that have started up since I was last around a few months ago:)

Results of BAFAB.....

...Thanks to everyone for their comments, emails etc I can proudly announce that the winner was Icecream from BCF and once I get their address the book will be winging its way to them next weekend:)



In other news I finished No Time for Goodbye last night and have picked up Marshmallows for Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson.

Buy a Friend a Book

Or in my case give a friend a book! Just caught sight of this on a few people's blogs and have wanted to participate for ages! I have just caught it in time so if you would like one of the following books either email me or put a comment to this post. I will then get my lovely OH to pick a name out of a hat and that person will find a book winging their way to them in the next week! OK the choices are
The Shakespeare Secret by J.L. Carrell
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor.
The Devil Wears Prada by Louise Weisberger


A mix of books and I hope people can find at least one on there that they like! When I have finished some reports I will come back and add some amazon links so people don't have to do a search to find what books are about.

The Thirteenth Tale and other things

I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night and absolutely loved it, for the past few days I have barely been able to put it down and that has not happened to me in a while! I have now started No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay and this seems like it will be a good read as well so I am on a roll with good books!

I have also joined BookMooch today which is wildly exciting as it is another place to get books! In fact after I do some blog reading I am heading back there to add some more books!

New Read- The Thirteenth Tale

I have now finished Touching the Void and have started The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A book about books, I always love those! Reading has come to a halt though at the moment as last night got a phone call to say my mum was being taken into hospital so it was a midnight dash to where she lives. She is alright thankfully but I am now waiting to find out when I can see her again, can't settle to a book so thought I would sit here and talk random rubbish to try and keep my mind occupied. And now I cannot think of any random rubbish to say :(

Trying out Neil Gaiman finally

I was in the school library trying to find a book to read to my class when I saw Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I read the first chapter to my class and they, and me, are completely engrossed! There were audible cheers when we were able to read part of chapter 2 when we were waiting to be called to a school event. So a big thumbs up from my class!

I am also working hard on my website, it is so exciting! Nothing fancy but just a little place to call my own:)

Hello from a.book.in.the.life

I am putting together a website and am trying to change all my book related things to the same kind of name. As a result my book blog needed to be changed and so I had to start a new one. I deliberated between who to have my blog with but decided to stick with blogger. My aim, when I work out how to do it, is have my blog on my website. Any ideas on how to do this let me know lol!

http://abookinthelife.blogspot.com/