50 Book Challenge 2012 + Giveaway

I didn’t manage to reach my goal of 50 books for this year, but I did get through a variety of books and discovered some new favourites. As I did in 2011, I will be hosting a Christmas giveaway with my favourite books from this year. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post letting me know which of the following books you would most like to receive: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace, The Beach by Alex Garland, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood or The Secret History by Donna Tartt. The winners will be announced on January 18th, 2013 and please note that this giveaway is open to everyone, even my international readers. Good luck!

2012 50 Book Challenge Update #3

I’m a little bit behind in this challenge (9 books behind, according to good reads) but as the weather warms up I’ll hopefully be spending more time outside in the sun catching up on my reading. Since my last update, I’ve finished the following books:

The Enemy by Charlie Higgins – I picked this up purely because the story revolves around a zombie apocalypse, which turned out to be a mistake because I wasn’t that impressed by it. It’s a young adult novel and the characters in the story were just a bit to young for me to relate to.

The Ice Man (confessions of a mafia contract killer) by Philip Carlo – This was the latest choice for the book club that my close girlfriends and I have together, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I’ve never really been a fan of true crime stories but this was rather captivating. If you’re a fan of the Sopranos this book might interest you.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth – This is the second book in the Divergent series (trilogy?) and I enjoyed it just as much as the first. It’s a super easy read, but I found the dystopian storyline really interesting and the female protagonist was only mildly annoying which was a nice change.

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell – I enjoyed this book and managed to get through it in a couple of days and now I’m curious to watch the film adaptation. It’s quite bleak, so if you’re in the mood for something depressing maybe check this out.

Post-Mortem by Patricia Cornwell – I was in the mood for a quick and easy read when I picked this out of the 3000 books on my kindle. I don’t normally read books like this but I liked it and I think I’ll be reading more from Patricia Cornwell in the future.

Four Past Midnight by Stephen King – I’ve never been a huge fan of short story collections and this was no exception. As with all of the Stephen King books I’ve read in the past, each story ended with a great big WTF and not in a good way.

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer – I picked up this book with no real expectations as to what it would be like, and I have to say it surprised me. This was one of those books that sits with you for a little while after you read it, and so much so for me that I watched the film adaptation a day after finishing the book because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. A very interesting (true) story.

Jaws by Peter Benchley – I liked this book but it deviated from the plot of the film quite a bit which I wasn’t expecting it to do. A fun read but not something I’d suggest picking up if you’re planning on going to the beach any time soon.
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