I think I’ve finally reached a Wednesday where I’m not posting a sign-up for a reading challenge. I started Smiling Shelves in June, and ten of the thirteen Wednesdays have been sign-up posts. That’s rather a lot of reading challenges. So let me share something I’ve discovered since beginning this blog:

I love reading challenges.

I had never joined a reading challenge before June, so I had no idea that my competitiveness would join with my love of reading to create somewhat of a monster. I love the idea of reading for a purpose. I love the way this draws me to read books I would never have discovered otherwise. Case in point: Xingu and Other Stories by Edith Wharton (reviewed yesterday – read all about it here). The reading-challenge monster said that I had to have a title that actually started with X for my A-Z Reading Challenge. Did you know that there are not many titles that start with X? When I discovered this one, I was ecstatic. This is a book that I never would have picked up, let alone known about, if not for the A-Z Challenge. And it is far from the only book that I have read just because it helps me with one of my challenges. The list is long.

There can be the occasional awkward moment, though, when inspired by the reading-challenge monster. Not that long ago, I spent 20 minutes scouring the library shelf of E authors. I needed one for my A-Z Challenge, but I wasn’t satisfied with just meeting that requirement. I’m also working on the Color-Coded Challenge, and I needed a book title with brown or black in the title. So I had two missions to accomplish with one book (hopefully). I would imagine that library shelves do not typically receive the amount of attention that I paid them that day, and I do not typically receive the amount of strange looks I garnered by pouring over all the book titles in such detail. My mission was successful, though! I found Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

Despite those moments when I get way too into this reading challenge thing, I would say that it is good for me as a reader. I read books and discover new authors that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I connect with other readers and bloggers. I learn to stretch myself. And I find a great sense of accomplishment (because the reading-challenge monster says that I will never leave a challenge uncompleted).

So how do you feel about reading challenges? Do you love them or hate them? Embrace them or avoid them? Do you find them fun or stressful? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

It’s been awhile since I’ve read any classic literature. Since I’ve discovered the world of book blogging, my reading tastes have tended towards contemporary fiction with a bit of nonfiction and a smattering of YA. I used to read a fair amount of classics in high school and college – even (gasp!) just for fun, not because they were assigned. Since that’s fallen off recently, I decided to join the Classics Club in an attempt to remedy this lack. I figured that would give me some motivation to pick up a book that requires a bigger investment of time and attention.

I am so glad I did. I read Xingu by Edith Wharton last week, and I remembered all the reasons I love classic literature. Wharton writes with a complete mastery of storytelling that seems to be missing in much of today’s literature. (Please don’t get me wrong. There are many extremely well-written and profound books published today. But I think we can all agree that there are many – too many – that are not that well-written and are far from profound.) Xingu is a short story, by the way, and the copy that I had also included seven other short stories by Wharton. Each one was an example in and of itself of the crafting of a story. Some of them were creepy – I did not know that Wharton wrote ghost stories. But each story gave so much credit to the reader. “Coming Home,” for example, left more unsaid than said at the end of the story, but I had no trouble figuring out what Wharton meant. I was just repeatedly awed by the way that Wharton could give the reader information without ever saying it outright. It really takes a talented writer to be able to accomplish what she did with each of these short stories.

I know I’ve told you pretty much nothing about the plot of any of these stories, but I don’t want to give anything away. Each story needs to be discovered for itself. And I highly encourage you to discover the short stories of Edith Wharton. They are well worth the search (and it may be a bit difficult – I had to request Xingu from my library’s storage). It’s refreshing and rejuvenating to read the works of someone who has mastered the art of storytelling.

Well, reality hit this week. This was our first week of school, and suddenly my evenings were filled, not with reading or blogging, but with paper grading and lesson planning. My reading pace will now slow down drastically for the next nine months. But I did have a great week with my new fourth graders, and I'm always excited about spreading my love of reading to them!

Monster Review-a-thon Wrap-Up (success!)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu - Review
My sign-up post for the Monthly Mix-Up Mania Challenge
Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman - Review
Reviewlets (mini-reviews) of Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and The Little Women Letters

Xingu and Other Stories by Edith Wharton (review coming tomorrow)
The Menagerie by Tui and Kari Sutherland
Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

Two library books due Wednesday (I sense a renewal of them in the near future. . .):
Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
One for the Books by Joe Queenan

A great start to an intriguing trilogy. I loved the Russian elements of the book’s atmosphere. The Darkling is an appropriately terrifying villain. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel!

I read the sequel to Shadow and Bone before I had a chance to post the above review (I just couldn’t wait any longer!), so I thought I might as well just add this on here. Siege and Storm continues the wonderfully twisty storyline of Shadow and Bone. It’s the second book of the Grisha trilogy, but it does not suffer from the typical afflictions that second books usually do. Bardugo provides the perfect blend of suspense and humor. This is a trilogy that is well worth your time to read.

I had every intention of writing a full review for this book, but I let too much time pass between reading it and writing about it to remember everything I wanted to say (won’t let that happen again). Here’s what I do remember – I loved the characters from this book. It’s about three sisters, who are descended from Jo March (who is fictional, of course, but go with it). The relationship and interactions between the sisters are drawn perfectly. I enjoyed the bickering just as much as the loving moments. I only wish that I would have reread Little Women by Louisa May Alcott before picking up this book. It’s been many years since I’ve read it, and many of the allusions were lost on me. This book is a fun look at the importance of family and how our ancestors shape who we are.

Eighty Days is a story of a race – a race around the world. In 1889, two female reporters set off in opposite directions to race around the world. Nellie Bly, who had made a name for herself in undercover reporting, wanted to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg from Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, which had been published 16 years ago. She had been begging her editor for a year to let her attempt this race against time. Elizabeth Bisland, a literary reviewer, was begged by her editor to set off as soon as possible after Nellie and try to beat her back to New York.

This sounds like a great premise for a suspenseful novel. But it’s not a novel. This all really happened. And that’s what makes this book so fascinating. This is not the author’s imagination at work, describing what this race may have been like. This is the world – and world travel, in all its steam-powered glory – as it really was in 1889.

Goodman does a wonderful job of showing Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland as real people. Much of his source material was drawn from their journals of their trips. The chapters alternate between the two women, but he describes their journeys in parallel, so the suspense is kept until the very end. I actually found myself feeling stressed halfway through the book, as yet another snag in the travel plans hit.

This race around the world is an event I never would have known about if not for Goodman’s book. It’s an event well worth knowing! I don’t think I would have the courage even now, in 2013, to set off on an around the world voyage by myself. Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland deserve all sorts of credit and recognition. I’m so glad Matthew Goodman has done his part to bring their fascinating journeys to light.

Okay, this challenge just sounded fun. Basically, you spell out the names of the months with book titles. So for January, you need a book title with a word that starts with J, a different title with a word that starts with A, a different title with a word that start with N, etc., etc. I love challenges that require a bit of creative finagling with book titles. And this is a two-year challenge, so the pressure is off!

I've begun an Other Reading Challenges page to keep track of challenges that last beyond this calendar year. Since that applies to this challenge, you can go there to see how I'm doing. I think I'm doing surprisingly well, considering I didn't plan out any of my titles in advance!

I am running into difficulty finding titles with words that begin with Y or U. Apparently I haven't read any Y ones yet this year. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My reading conditions for this book were not ideal. Let’s start with that. First of all, it’s science fiction – a genre I’ve dabbled with, but not too deeply. Secondly, I rushed through it, reading it all in one day so I could return my library books on time. I will readily admit that I did not give this book the time or attention it deserves. So take my review with a grain of salt.

My general impression of this book is that it’s confusing. It involves time travel, which is becoming big in the world of YA and contemporary fiction. But this is the science fictional spin on it, so it’s rather more technical than a simple plot device. The main character is a time travel technician. He fixes people’s broken time machines. He’s a bit of a loner, preferring to hang out outside of time in his own time machine. His father has gone missing, and the overarching theme of the book is this tortured father-son relationship. Then he gets stuck in a time loop and things get even more complicated.

I found many similarities to Douglas Adams’ A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but with less humor. Douglas Adams crossed with Jean-Paul Sartre, with a dash of Jasper Fforde thrown in (in the science fictional aspects of the world). The author seemed to be confused about exactly what style of writing he was aiming for.

If I had more time to read this book, I probably would have liked it better. I could have reread and actually tried to understand the more technical aspects of the world. I could have dived deeper into examining the relationship between the father and the son. I have no doubt that this is a book that holds truth about our world and our relationships. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have the time to find it.

So I almost failed this review-a-thon. Massively. My goal was to write my 5 backlogged reviews, along with reviews for what I read this week (which was 3 more books). Eight reviews total. As of Saturday night (actually, as of Sunday at 3ish p.m.), I had written one. That's right. Just one. I was all ready to write my wrap-up post as an epic fail.

And then Sunday around 4 p.m., my brain kicked into review-writing mode, big time. It took me 45 minutes to fold a load of laundry because I kept thinking up things to write in my reviews. So what's the bottom line?

That's right. I wrote seven reviews on Sunday (that's four more than I've ever written before in one day). All 8 reviews are done, and I can begin the school year with a clear conscience! Hooray for this review-a-thon!

In case you're curious, here are the books I wrote reviews for this week:

• 365 Nights by Charla Muller
• The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway
• The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly (review will be posted Friday)
• Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman (review will be posted Thursday)
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• The J.M. Barrie Ladies' Swimming Society by Barbara Zitwer
• Julie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (review will be posted Friday)