My Very Versatile 5 Book Challenge Experience

I guess it’s time to share my 5 Book Challenge experience.

Firstly, I’d like to list down the books I selected for the challenge:

• Adriana Trigiani Brava Valentine (Contemporary American Fiction/Romance)

• Wilbur Smith The Seventh Scroll (Historical Fiction/Adventure/Mystery)

• Bibish The Dancer from Khiva (Memoir) (just in case Bibish’s Memoir genre wouldn’t count towards the Popular Team choice)

• Santa Montefiore The Affair (Saga)

• Dexter Palmer  The Dream of Perpetual Motion (Science Fiction/Steampunk)

• Seth Grahame-Smith  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Horror)

Secondly, I’d like to contemplate on the mode I was reading these 5 (6) challenging books. Instead of picking up the one genre I’ve never read before or liked to read the least, I’ve decided to throw my fishing net over the huge amount of a variety of New Titles we are receiving daily. My efforts were not in vain and I’ve pulled out quite an impressive amount of new titles (The Affair, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), or even new authors (!), like Dexter Palmer, or Bibish.

My choice of: “Let it be one book from each particular genre” was really paying off during my reading hours and this is why: if I found some authors to be extremely challenging, like Dexter Palmer, for instance, to the point when I wanted to return the book back unfinished (sounds like a real blasphemy for the librarian!), I would simply switch onto reading a book from a more pleasant genre to me, like Adriana Trigiani’s Brava Valentine, which is considered by many literary critics, including me:), “the tiramisu for the soul”. After  having a slice of a “tiramisu for soul”, I’d return back to the least favourite author. This method worked very well for me, saving me from committing a real crime of throwing the least favourite reading back into Returns boxes before actually finishing with them!

Brava Valentine is the second in the series of  Valentine  books. What I really enjoyed about this book is that one can find everything (or almost everything) in it: family, drama, love story, adventure, contemporary American fiction in its best embodiment! If you are a big fan of Jane Austen translated into today’s environment plus  a bit of  You’ve Got Mail  movie type of person, then, Valentine is your next stop.

All in all, I’ve greatly enjoyed myself during the 5 Book challenge, practically, because you turn your attention to the writers, titles or genres you’ll never think of reading first place and, when you are finished with these readings, you cannot help the feeling of complete satisfaction with yourself, similar to the Olympic champion’s feeling when he finishes his marathon. Bouquet to Bronwyn – now I am not feeling uncomfortable when I hear the mysterious word Steampunk any more!   I would gladly take part in the next 5 Book Challenge. Would you?

Read more of Victoria’s Challenges.

What’s the lure of vampires? Cornelia’s challenge

So far I have never been tempted to read anything to do with the suckers. Why did I change my mind then? A colleague recommended Sunshine by Robin McKinley as the best in literary terms.

The book is heaven for readers with a sweet tooth. Rae, also known as Sunshine, is an expert baker and dessert maker in the family’s restaurant, and the names of her sweet creations all sound similar to ‘death by chocolate’. The world is populated by humans, demons, weres, and by night, vampires.

Vampires are nasties who want to take over the world but there is always the odd one who is different. Constantine is not a knight in shining armour but still he is the good one. Pity though his looks…his eyes have the colour of stagnant bog water and his skin’s colour is that of old mushrooms. I don’t want to spoil it for other newcomers so will not give anything further away.