Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan

Our state has school vacation this week. So, what do I do? Finish the book I'm reading on the first free night. Finish my next book the next morning. I love having time to read. I've also gotten 1 letter written. I have a goal to write 2 more tonight.

       I received this book from NetGalley so I was a little surprised to see that it had been published in 2011. It won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Children (2012). It is about a boy who lives in Chang'An China but decides that he'd like to join a caravan on the Silk Road in an effort to learn more about his father, who had been killed by bandits before his birth. Along the way, he helps take care of the animals in the caravan and is charged to help care for a princess that the caravan has been assigned to deliver to her new husband. 

     To be 100% honest, I don't have a lot of experience with Asia or Asian culture. I really enjoyed learning more about the silk road, different cultures and nomadic life. I am definitely passing this book to both of my sons to read. I will also ask our school librarian if she knows this book yet. I would highly recommend it.  Thanks to NetGalley.

     I am using this book as my Keyword Reading Challenge for February. The keyword I used for this book is "and." I'm going to go search my tbr pile to see if I have any other ones that might fulfill the February keywords.

        

Dr. Mutter's Marvels

 

     I have always enjoyed reading about other people's lives and when I heard of this book about a man I had only known for his odd medical museum (which I had never been to), I was curious to read it. After reading Quakery, which was about medical practices in the past, I have become even more interested in this history of medicine. I really enjoyed Aptowicz's writing style and I found myself pretty engrossed in the book. I had no idea about Mutter's life (sorry, I don't know how to type an umlaut, if anyone is annoyed by that)- the loss of his parents, his eccentricities, his medical practice or his own health problems. I enjoyed this book a lot, though found myself slowing down in my reading a bit after a busy month.

January 2018-> on to February

    So far I am not a fan of 2018. Normally I can look on the bright side and not focus on negativity. After the first few tragedies, I pretty much gave up on most of my January goals and concentrated on just getting through everyday life.  Personally, January was awful and I am hoping that February ends up being a lot better.

 

Here's to a fresh start...

          One of my favorite things about February is Lettermo, The Month of Letters challenge. I'm looking forward to giving myself time to catch up with my mail and sort my thoughts out. I have sorely missed sitting down to write. If you've ever enjoyed sending or receiving mail, check out the event. I'll touch base again soon!

Mail goals week 1

    If you've been on this blog for a while, you probably know that I started this blog to challenge myself to attempt to send (and hopefully receive) 1 piece of mail for each day of the year. (It was a leap year that year.) After failing for 2 years, I finally reached my goal of sending 366 pieces of mail on the 3rd year. Because I have not been as successful at giving myself some time each day to connect with people, I've decided to reattempt this goal.  I will try to post weekly to keep myself on track. These posts may be short and to the point.

Letters in my "respond pile:" 10? (I just noticed that some of my old letters got mixed in there. Ugh) Letter writers- do you always respond in the order received? I do. Here's my problem. I started writing a letter months ago in a notebook I was trying to use up and I LOST IT. I was quite a few pages in and would hate to start over, but this has been the hold up. Seriously, I'm really OCD about this stuff and my books. Some day I will have an organized life. Until then... my reply pile has ten letters.

Mail sent this week 1/1-1/6): 5 postcards, 1 card
Received this week: 1 postcard and 1 card from the Secret Christmas RR. (1 card that is pictured I received before the new year so I didn't count it in my log)

From Italy. This card also benefits Unicef. 

 From Russia- I really enjoyed this card. It was so elegant looking

From Belarus- I got this one right after the one from Russia. Very similar and pretty. There was a great snowman stamp on the back too.

The Darkest Evening of the Year

  

Book 1 of 2018.   All through middle school and high school I read a ton of Dean Koontz books. I recently read an ARC (The Whispering Room) that I got from NetGalley.  This book had been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while so I used it to fulfill the first Keyword Reading Challenge book as well as my first book for the Mount TBR Challenge.

     This book was about a woman named Amy, who after some tragedies in life, had devoted her life to  start an organization to rescue golden retrievers. I know that Mr. Koontz also has a golden retriever and seems to be quite the dog lover. I like animals, but I'm not super passionate about them, so this story line might not have been as impactful to me as it might to some other folks. Amy gets called to rescue a dog named Nickie who brings back a lot of connections to her past. In the meantime, Amy's boyfriend, Brian is also dealing with issues from his past- mainly a psychotic old girlfriend who has custody of his daughter. 

     This story had some good twists in it. If you read a lot of Koontz, you could probably guess which direction some of the story lines will head in. It was not my favorite book of his, but I didn't dislike it either. 

     Book #2 is an advanced reader copy from NetGalley.

Reading Challenge Stats

Mount TBR 1/36

Keyword Reading Challenge 1/12

Goodreads Challenge 1/60

Reading Challenges 2018

     I finished all of my reading goals in 2017! Unfortunately, I got absolutely no input on my reading challenges for 2018. So, I'm playing it safe and just going with what I enjoyed. I have other goals for myself in 2018 but might take it month by month instead of making crazy year long lists for myself. Here are the 3 reading challenges I would like to complete in 2018.

Mount TBR Challenge:


   Last year, I challenged myself to get to the top of Mount Blanc- reading 24 books from my TBR pile. This year I will attempt to climb Vancouver, which has 36 books.

The Monthly Keyword Challenge:

   You may remember that I attempted this challenge last year, but the person who hosted the challenge gave up her blog. (Thank Claudia for all the hard work you did if you are reading this.) Luckily, Bev at My Reader's Block decided to host this challenge this year. So, I'm in again. Here's the list of words I have to work around.
 
You'd be surprised how difficult this is sometimes, especially if I'm trying to pick from my TBR pile.

I'm upping my Goodreads challenge by 10 books this year. So, in 2018, I'd like to read a minimum of 60 books. I would also love to make some new friends on Goodreads, so if you are a member and would like to meet some new people, send me a message and I will add you as a friend.

   How did you do on your 2017 goals? Do you have any books that you've recently read that you are excited about? How about any book releases coming up that you can't wait for? 

Reading Challenge Suggestions 2018?

Although I'm not QUITE finished yet, I really enjoyed my reading challenged this year and I've been doing well with them. I'm looking for new challenges next year. This year I did 3- one for Goodreads (just a challenge to read a number of books), Mount TBR (to read from my to be read pile- I think I'm going to do this one again since it cleared some clutter and made me feel less guilty to be buried in books) and the Monthly Keyword Reading challenge (which the owner took down in April, but I finished all the way to December.) What challenges are you participating in/running? I'd love some suggestions so I can set my reading goals over the next few days. Thanks!
   Hope you had a Merry Christmas!