It's Monday

What Are you Reading on Mondays is a weekly meme posted by J. Kaye.

Once again it time to look back at the past week and see what was accomplished. I did get a bit side tracked towards the end of the week, and I seem to be having a difficult time writing my reviews for the books I finished. I am hoping my writing muse, who seems to be on vacation  at the moment, will return and give me a hand and soon!

I finished Jack Tumor by Anthony McGowan. It was a hilarious story about a nerdy young man who has a talking tumor in his head. Told from a first person perspective, Hector has some real problems, only one of which is the talking tumor. McGowan is British and the humor while dry at times was laugh out loud funny too making this a fun read. (See the full review)

I also finished Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson, I read a review of this book at Book Shelves of Doom and put it on my must read list, and it also ended up satisfying one of my  Last Chance Challenges. While there is much to like about this book, I found the pace slow and tedious, and I really had a hard time getting through it. At the same time Ibbotson's writing is beautifully descriptive, and her characters are well-developed. It is impossible not to fall in love with Tally and root for Karil.

One unexpected read that I finished was Atherton The House of Power by Patrick Carman. It was unexpected for a couple of reasons. One, I had started this book early this fall because it was one of the book battle books that I was suppose to write questions for. However, after the first fifty pages I stopped reading it and forgot about the questions. Tonight the book battle committee will be meeting to go over all the questions written for the twenty books on the list and I was reminded last week that I still needed to write questions for this book, oops! So, dutifully I began to read the book again, and I am glad I did. Turns out that once you make it through those first fifty or so pages, the pace of the book picks up and reveals an interesting and unusual story.

This Week's Reading Plans

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

Still in My Pile

Impossible by Nancy Welin

The Fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti

So what are you reading?

On a side note, I want to first congratulate J. Kaye for  receiving several awards, which she more than deserves, and I also want to thank her for mentioning my blog. It sure boosted my spirits a lot! Thanks J. Kaye.


I have also completed the National Just Read More Novels Challenge by finishing ten novels in January (my original goal), but I still have a week before February begins; I think I may just be able to finish a few more.