Not signed up for YALSA’s 2014 Hub Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. Anything you’ve read since February 3 counts, so sign up now!
Hey, readers! How many more of you have finished the challenge? I know there is at least person who conquered this challenge and read everything! That is some amazing reading! If you have finished, I will be sending you emails soon with your badges. Those of you still reading, keep at it! You have plenty of time to finish before June 22.
I am going on vacation this coming weekend and was thinking of reading ONE book from this year’s challenge. What should I read? I was looking at Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Thoughts? Let me know what I should read in the comments!
As I said before, I’m not participating in the challenge this year, but I have been following along on social media by checking the Goodreads 2014 Hub Challenge Group and the #hubchallenge hashtag. We’ve collected some tweets from your fellow participants– join the conversation if you haven’t already!
Keep reading, and remember, you have plenty of time to get through this challenge; it ends at 11:59PM EST on June 22nd. Please keep reading and tracking your progress and check back here each Sunday to let us know how you are doing and to see how other folks are doing.
If you are have already completed the challenge by reading or listening to 25 titles from the list of eligible books, be sure to fill out the form below so we can send you your Challenge Finisher badge, get in touch to coordinate your reader’s response and, perhaps best of all, to notify you if you win our exciting grand prize drawing! Be sure to use an email you check frequently and do not fill out this form until you have completed the challenge by reading 25 titles.
I finished and commented on my last post! Book 24 & 25 were In the Shadows of Blackbirds (slow moving, good, not something i would pick up without the challenge) and War Brothers the graphic novel (intense!). I hope to finish a few more soon!
I finished 2 this week and only have 2 left to read!
#22 – March: Book One – Hard to dislike a book like this. An interesting and intense historical moment captured in creative way with incredible art to accompany it. I really liked the first person perspective of John Lewis incorporated into the narration.
#23 – Help for the Haunted – Definitely one of my top books for the challenge! I was absolutely captivated by the mystical, creepy tone combined with the beautiful writing. The story was so compelling too! Reading this made me want to read everything else John Searles has written.
21 done, 4 to go. Finished Better Nate Than Ever – really enjoyed it. Fast pace, something fresh!!! Really made me cheer him on! This week trying Carter Final Gets It to see what the cult following is – I guess you cannot just buy this book anywhere any more.
Faythe – I recommend Winger if you haven’t tried it. Or Between Shades of Grey. But I haven’t tried the one you were thinking of reading, so I’m sure that will be great – have fun!
With the 2 books I read this week, it’s 82 down and 1 to go.
Dogs of War – 3.5/5 – If this had been written in a different format, it would have received a 4.5/5. Stories were really compelling &, if you are a dog lover, you would really like this book.
As I am not into GNs, I didn’t particularly care for all the art. Sorry.
The Universe Versus Alex Woods – 3/5 – Really good story, but author had a few too many wordy areas and was fixated a little too much on Kurt Vonnegut.
Read this week: Max Berry’s Lexicon (absorbing) and McBride’s Hold Me Closer Necromancer (meh, but I’m not a fan of paranormal fiction)/
I’ve read 2 more since my last check in, bringing my total to 22.
#21 If You Could Be Mine—I liked how completely in a different world from mine it was, while still being in the real world. A really interesting look at things in a completely different part of the world. Some things frustrated me, but it fit within the frame and context of the story. I was extremely pleased with the ending.
#22 I Am the Messenger—I liked parts of it and the overall arc of the book, but I have this feeling that I didn’t really get it.
Finished two more this week – Getting the Girl and Out of the Easy. For me, they were both just okay. I really expected to enjoy Out of the Easy, I liked her first book so much. However, I just never got particularly invested in any of the characters (in either book). I liked them, I just really did not care what happened to them. In both of these books I think the ultimate resolutions were telegraphed very early on in the book. Sometimes that makes you want to see what happens or want to see how the author makes it happen, but for me, it was more a case of, yep that is what I thought was going to happen. I am almost finished with the Boy on the Wooden Box. My current total is 57 read. I think I have five or six more from the challenge waiting for me and maybe two others still waiting to arrive from my holds requests.
Only got to read one book this week: March Book 1. Thoroughly enjoyed.
My current total is 14.
I missed posting on Sunday, so here’ my late post. I finished listening to Two Boys Kissing and was really taken with it. I need to read through the print version for the challenge and will report more then. Still working on Dogs of War and currently listening to Viva Jacquelina. I’m only half-way through, so it’s going to be a long haul with this one. When I first heard the opening reader, I thought it was going to be truly fun, but after listening a good while, I grew weary. I don’t know if it’s the reader or the content. Not my type, I imagine.
Getting down to the 25th…
Charlene – I agree with you on Viva Jacquelina. The reader is hard to listen to/understand and the content is just boring. Took me a while to finish it and did not enjoy at all.
I read Out of the Easy and How to Speak Dog and will finish Boy Nobody in the next few days. This will bring my total to 13. I liked (but didn’t love) Out of the Easy. How to Speak Dog was cute and had great pictures, but I sometimes felt that the pictures didn’t match with the captions very well. I’m liking Boy Nobody so far though the plot strains credibility at times.
I am about half way done with FreakBoy, yet another book on the challenge that is pulling at the heartstrings, Clark writes really well and I love how some of the verses are in the image of the thought, I love that kind of creativity. I am at 20.5, so close.
Faythe – Suggestions fro vacation? Golden Boy (Sullivan), Out of the Easy, Proxy, Sea of Tranquility, Belle Epoque, The Testing & as a humerous read, Beauty Queens. All were, in my opinion, really good books. Enjoy!
Three more this week, bringing it to a total of 21 (31)! I finished Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac, which I really enjoyed. As I said on Goodreads, it’s a great mixture of future dystopia and Chiracahua Apache culture, and I love seeing a Native girl front and center in this kind of story. I did think the world building could have used more fleshing out, as well as characters besides Lozen, but on the whole I very much liked it.
I also read Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan, which was very engaging, about a topic that needs more exposure. I liked Habo’s voice, and the message of believing in yourself.
Last, I read Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina. I really liked how it deals with bullying by kind of making Yaqui this shadow figure, and getting into why Piddy doesn’t tell what’s going on for so long. I do like that she transferred out too – sometimes, that IS the best solution, and most of the time the idea of ‘fighting’ or ‘putting up with it’ is touted as the right way to do it. I also liked that the main cast is female and Latina. A good read.