May 2009 Summation

Here is an abstract of my literary doings in May.

Books Read

It Sucked and Then I Cried, by Heather B. Armstrong – 5/4/2009
The Last Queen, by C. W. Gortner – 5/7/2009
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford – 5/11/2009
The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman – 5/12/2009
No One You Know, by Michelle Richmond – 5/16/2009
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart – 5/16/2009
The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – 5/29/2009

May Total = 7
Year-to-Date Total = 29

While I’m still mulling this one, I think my favorite book of May was The Angel’s Game.

Book Club

Everyone is Beautiful, by Katherine Center – Meeting: May 19, 2009
Persuasion, by Jane Austen – Online discussion

We had a very satisfactory discussion of Everyone is Beautiful. Every one of my book club members liked it, and a few found it to be life-altering. And, I really enjoyed Persuasion, my second Austen experience.

Our selections for June are Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons (face-to-face discussion) and 1984, by George Orwell (online discussion).

Challenges

Here’s my exceedingly long challenge list. Check out my Challenges page for updates all month long. This month I completed four challenges!

Book Awards II Challenge – 10/10 COMPLETED
Really Old Classics Challenge – 0/2 [ends 7/31/2009]
Themed Reading Challenge – 0/4 [ends 7/31/2009]
Chunkster Challenge – 6/6 COMPLETED
Book Awards III Challenge – 0/5 [ends 12/1/2009]
100+ Reading Challenge – 29/100 [ends 12/31/2009]
A Novel Challenge – 9/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
2009 Pub Challenge – 10/9 COMPLETED
A to Z Challenge – 16/26 [ends 12/31/2009]
ARC Reading Challenge – 13/22 [ends 12/31/2009]
Blog Improvement Project – 6/24 [ends 12/31/2009]
Casual Classics Challenge – 2/4 [ends 12/31/2009]
My Year of Reading Dangerously – 3/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
New Authors Challenge – 20/20 COMPLETED
Read Your Own Books Challenge – 23/50 [ends 12/31/2009]
Support Your Local Library Challenge – 5/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
TBR Lite Challenge – 0/6 [ends 12/31/2009]
What’s in a Name? Challenge – 3/6 [ends 12/31/2009]
YA Challenge – 5/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
Elizabeth Gaskell Mini-Challenge – 0/2 [ends 6/1/2010]

The Pulitzer Project – 8/83 [perpetual]
The Printz Project – 2/10 (+4 Honor books) [perpetual]
The Newberry Project – 16/88 (+7 Honor books) [perpetual]

Monthly Highlights

• I launched the Book Blog Guild! I’m still working all of the details out as I go, but this will hopefully grow into a hub of the book blog community. I hope you’ll consider joining.
• I continued my New Release feature that appears every Tuesday.
• I participated in two blog tours: Jamie Ford’s tour of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and C.W. Gortner’s tour of The Last Queen.
• I also posted two posts about blogging: 5 Ways to Get Review Copies of Books and Connecting Via Social Media
• And, I participated in Library Loot.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog this month!

Related posts:

1. June 2009 Summation
2. July 2009 Summation
3. November 2009 Summation

Tagged as: Book Club