30 Day Book Challenge Day 30

Day Thirty – Favourite Coffee Table Book

What’s a coffee table book? We had this on our table for a while: 101 Really Bad Ideas by Dave Skinner.

Summary From Goodreads

Ever thought about doing something you shouldn’t? Luckily, so have Dave Skinner and cartoonist Henry Paker, and their suggestions include: Don’t arm wrestle a pirate …Don’t trust anyone with a pixellated face …Don’t play sudoku on acid …And don’t go bowling with zombies101 hilarious ideas that will result in severe embarrassment, excruciating pain, or an untimely death, handily thought up and illustrated by someone else.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 29

Day Twenty-Nine – Book You Are Currently Reading

Currently reading Die For Me by Amy Plum. It’s okay.

Summary From Goodreads

My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.

Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I’m fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family’s—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

30 Day Book Challenge Day 28

Day Twenty-Eight – Last Book You Read

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong. Really enjoyed it. Not much more to say than that.

Summary From Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn’t know much about her background – the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip – but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.

Until now.

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town – from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend’s hidden talent for “feeling” out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya’s biological parents and it’s easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet. 

30 Day Book Challenge Day 27

Day Twenty-Seven – Favourite Fiction Book

More favourites? Thought I’d done two of these already. I’m running out of favourites… Eh, I’ll go for this one. Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Summary From Goodreads

Two brothers get their hands on a case full of cash — and are out to spend it before it becomes worthless — in this thrilling novel from author Frank Cottrell Boyce. Filled with English-set action and cool suspense, Boyce’s debut novel for younger audiences follows Anthony and religious saints–obsessed Damian Cunningham, who come upon a hoard of cash that mysteriously lands at their feet. Because of the looming replacement of the British pound by Euro currency, Anthony and Damian realize they have only 17 days to spend the money before it’s taken out of circulation. The trouble for these two boys? Getting rid of money fast enough isn’t as easy as it sounds, and they soon learn that thieves are on the prowl to reclaim their lost treasure. Boyce has served an absorbing, fast-paced read that will keep you turning the pages until the end.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 26

Day Twenty-Six – Favourite Non-Fiction Book

I’m not a big fan of Non-Fiction, but I do have a bit of an obsession with Occult reference books. My favourite is this one: The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures by John and Caitlin Matthews.

Discover an incredible world full of every magical creature you could possibly imagine…

From unicorns, salamanders, satyrs, giants, elves and trolls, to dragons, nymphs, mermaids, werewolves and griffins – take an enchanting journey through the history, folklore, and mythology of these beasts from virtually every culture in the world. With stories and amazing facts on even the most obscure and mythological creature, this is a cornucopia of magic and myth.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 25

Day Twenty-Five – Favourite Book You Read In School

I think I’ve said this many times before, so I’ll be quick about it. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Summary From Goodreads

“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel; a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man’s struggle for justice; but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

One of the best-loved classics of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. It was also named the best novel of the twentieth century by librarians across the country (Library Journal). HarperCollins is proud to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication with this special hardcover edition.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 24

Day Twenty-Four – Book That Contains Your Favourite Scene

Best scene in a book ever has to be in The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, where the main character, Mary, is searching through a house and finds a zombie baby. Unable to bite, it poses no threat to anyone, just lies in its cot undying. Mary picks up the baby for one last cuddle, then drops it out of the window in a blunt show of the horror of the world they lived in. Brilliant, heartbreaking scene.

Summary From Goodreads

In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

30 Day Book Challenge Day 23

Day Twenty-Three – Book You Tell People You’ve Read, But Haven’t

I pretend I’ve read books I haven’t at work all the time, as my colleagues are very much into their Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyres, whereas I’m more YA and Urban Fantasy… The last one I pretended I read was actually Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Summary From Goodreads

Charlotte Bronte’s impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine–one whose virtuous integrity, keen intellect and tireless perseverance broke through class barriers to win equal stature with the man she loved. Hailed by William Makepeace Thackeray as “the masterwork of great genius,” Jane Eyre is still regarded, over a century later, as one of the finest novels in English literature.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 22

Day Twenty-Two – Book You Plan To Read Next

Next on the pile is this one: Looking For Alaska by John Green

Summary From Goodreads

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (François Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 21

Day Twenty-One – Favourite Picture Book From Childhood

Clearly a dead old school choice this one, as I found it hard to find even a description on the internet. I loved this when I was little, though, and I wish our tattered old copy was still around somewhere. Bears In Pairs by Niki Yektai.

Summary

Forty-eight Bears — Whole In Pairs — Parafe Through The Pages On Their Way To A Party. Here Are Bears On Skatteboards, Bears In Hardhats, And Even A Bear With Chicken Pox!