CHALLENGE: 100 Books in 2015

I see others make this challenge at the beginning of the year and I keep meaning to, so this year I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is and actually do it. I’ll update this list with books I read and how I read them. I challenge you to do the same! I know your asking… Why? What’s the point? If you didn’t know I have a bit of a reading habit and by bit….well, let’s say I’ve been in trouble before from buying too many books. I don’t go over budget with shoes, or such. Books are my weakness. They are my escape. I read every. single day. If I don’t read I’m grumpy. Anywho, back to the point… why?

1. I’ll get a wee bit smarter. Some of the books may be historical, some may be fiction, some may be horror, some may be for children or teens, and some may be well…..smut. However, I usually come upon a word that I don’t know. Either the definition or the pronunciation and I’ll look it up. While I don’t use many big words in conversation I like to have the knowledge of them. After all words are power.

2. I show my kids that reading is fundamental AND fun. My mom passed this love of reading on to me at an early age. She gave me lots of freedom. If I could read then I was allowed to read it. Lots of great conversations happened from reading books together. I’ve already passed this on to Gabriel who is 13. He’s read the Harry Potter series in its entirety over 7 times. Sometimes with me, sometimes at school, and sometimes just for fun. He also read his first Stephen King novel last year and we talked about it for hours after. It’s bonding time and it’s sharing a secret of a book. I highly encourage it and now I’m seeing my youngest (10) loving to read almost as much as we do.

3. I like to let my imagination roam. That may seem silly to you, but there is nothing like diving into an Epic series and getting lost. Conjuring up the authors words and seeing it like a movie playing in your head. They way you may be on Chapter 1 page 20 and look up at 2 in the morning and you just have 1 more chapter to go. It’s thrilling and you don’t even leave your house.

These challenges normally have rules, but I’m a bump the system kinda girl. If it’s a book it counts. Kindle, actual book, library book, even fanfiction if that’s what you like to read. (no judgements I promise) If you have a blog then blog your efforts. Post on social media if you want. I’ll be using the #100BookChallenge2015 as a hashtag. Some use Goodreads to count your books. If you can there’s an excellent group HERE Good Luck! Many pages to you and lets get this thing started!

1. Voyager (Outlander, Book 3)

From the author of the breathtaking bestsellers Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, the extraordinary saga continues.

Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her… and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.

Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her…the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland… and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite—or forever doom—her timeless love.

Length: 1072 Pages
Finished on: January 4th 2015

2. Drums Of Autumn (Outlander, Book 4)

The magnificent saga continues….

It began in Scotland, at an ancient stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past—or the grave. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice. Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became legend—a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in frontier America. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century. Their daughter, Brianna….

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the stone circle and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history…and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past…or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong….

Length: 1088 Pages
Finished on: January 27th 2015

3. The Fiery Cross (Outlander, Book 5)

New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon mesmerized readers with her award-winning Outlander novels, four dazzling tales featuring eighteenth-century Scotsman James Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall. Now, in this eagerly awaited fifth volume, Diana Gabaldon continues their extraordinary saga, a masterpiece of pure storytelling that is her most astonishing Outlander novel yet….

The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser’s wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveler’ s certain knowledge. Claire’s unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead—or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

Length: 1456 Pages
Finished on: February 16th 2015

4. NOS4A2

NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.

Length: 995 Pages
Finished on: February 24th 2015

5. American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Novel

First published in 2001, American Gods became an instant classic—an intellectual and artistic benchmark from the multiple-award-winning master of innovative fiction, Neil Gaiman. Now discover the mystery and magic of American Gods in this tenth anniversary edition. Newly updated and expanded with the author’s preferred text, this commemorative volume is a true celebration of a modern masterpiece by the one, the only, Neil Gaiman.

A storm is coming . . .

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.

But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined—it is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own. Along the way Shadow will learn that the past never dies; that everyone, including his beloved Laura, harbors secrets; and that dreams, totems, legends, and myths are more real than we know. Ultimately, he will discover that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing—an epic war for the very soul of America—and that he is standing squarely in its path.

Relevant and prescient, American Gods has been lauded for its brilliant synthesis of “mystery, satire, sex, horror, and poetic prose” (Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World) and as a modern phantasmagoria that “distills the essence of America” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). It is, quite simply, an outstanding work of literary imagination that will endure for generations.

Length: 565 Pages
Finished on: March 10th 2015

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