POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2019

Happy November Readers!

The weather is cooling, reading by a fireplace (real or the one on your tv) is becoming more comfortable, and the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge for 2019 has dropped!

Now, this list is one of my favorites every year. 52 books to read, averaging one a week, of varying topics; always a sure fire way to broaden ones literary horizons, and rapidly escape the comforts of the familiar.

Happy Planning!

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

One January Two Thousand and Eighteen

Good Evening Readers,

Did the first day of the new year treat you well? Mine did. Put in new bookshelves, read Celtic Gods and Heroes by Marie-Lousie Sjoestedt (Pop Sugar 2018 - A book about or tied to your heritage.) I also started reading Ulysses by James Joyce on the Serial Reader App, and holy crap do I ever understand why this book is so impossible for people.

The Serial App is giving me a piece a day to read, for 109 days. April 19, 2018 cannot come quickly enough! This is one impossible read that is seriously giving me Quixotic vibes; and I may just need to read it under a tilted windmill.

However tomorrow's piece is new, and one day closer to an end goal. Plus, I have another quick book to read on my Kindle for the Pop Sugar challenge, one that takes place on a different planet. All leading up to spending the bulk of my time reading a Cyberpunk tale.

Until next time,
XoXo
BrainyHeroine

And the Winners Are...

Happy Sunday Readers!!

This past week the Pop Sugar 2018 Reading Challenge came out!! Yay! So I've spent the week assembling titles just like last December. 

The winners are...

Book Title	Author
White Oleander	Janet Fitch
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land	Monica Hesse
Legendary (Caraval #2)	Stephanie Garber
The Palace Job (Rouges of the Republic #1)	Patrick Weekes
The Ice Princess (Fjallbacka #1)	Camilla Lackberg
Whisper of the Moon Moth	Lindsay Jayne Ashford
Butterfly Island	Corina Bomann
4:50 From Paddington	Agatha Christie
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer	Patrick Suskind
H is for Hawk	Helen Macdonald
The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1)	Robert Galbraith  (J.K. Rowling)
Of Fire and Stars	Audrey Coulthurst
Les Liaisons Dangereuses	Pierre-Ambroise  Choderlos De Laclos
The Star Touched Queen	Roshani Chokshi
Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits are Taking Over the World	Leslie Simon
Furiously Happy	Jenny Lawson
Fingersmith	Sarah Waters
Welcome to Nightvale	Joseph Fink &  Jeffrey Cranor
Kulti	Marianne Zapata
Freud's Mistress	Karen Mack
Bellman & Black	Diane Setterfield
Smilla's Sense of Snow	Peter Hoeg
Passenger	Alexandra Bracken
The Mists of Avalon	Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Girl From Everywhere	Heidi Heilig
All the Birds in the Sky	Charlie Jane Anders
Beyond Our Stars	Marie Langager
Valley of the Dolls	Jacqueline Susann
The Halloween Tree	Ray Bradbury
White Bodies	Jane Robins
People of the Book	Geraldine Brooks
Second Life (Reese Witherspoon)	S.j. Watson
The Phantom Tollbooth	Norton Juster &  Jules Feiffer
The Case for Jamie (A Charlotte Holmes Novel)	Brittany Cavallaro
Dark Matter	Blake Crouch
The Miseducation of Cameron Post	Emily M. Danforth
January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month that Changed America Forever	James Robenalt
Cloud Atlas	David Mitchell
The Library at Mount Char	Scott Hawkins
2015 A Trillogy : Queen of Hearts	Colleen Oakes
The Women	TC Boyle
Nexus	Ramez Naam
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly	Stephanie Oakes
Celtic Gods and Heroes	Marie-Louise Sjoestedt
The Peach Keeper	Sarah Addison Allen
Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics	Robert Gilmore
The Witches of New York	Ami McKay
Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters: From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima	James Mahaffrey
Red Clocks	Leni Zumas
The Last Painting of Sarah de Vos	Dominic Smith

Until Next Time, 

XoXo

BrainyHeroine

An Intelligence Gathering Mission....

Dun dun duh duh dun dun....dun dun duh duh dun dun....dun dun dun...

Hello!

With the success of the #JulyIsStrange read-a-long and interest in a future read-a-long I am gathering some intel. I'm looking to do an #ImpossibleRead later in the year, thinking September/October and would like some input on what that means to you! If you could kindly complete the following survey I'd appreciate it!

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Tindrliterate

Evening All,

Today's prompt for the bout of books read it on it is kind of weird for me anyway. You see we have to create a literary dating profile for our favorite literary character. And after spending today thinking about who is my favorite literary character, I could only come up with Edmund Dantes; you know the hot smoldering Revenge fueled guy from The Count of Monte Cristo, yeah him.

So for better or worse, swipe me?

Edmund Dantes
Loyal, Ruggedly Handsome, loves to keep things simple. Fall in lvoe with me and I'll tie the knot, literally, around your finger. Likes to play the long game, our relationship can take a long time running, I'm good at waiting for, and getting, what I want.

I am so sorry for any one of you who actually reads this! I gotta do each challenge man!

Until Tomorrow!

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

February is a Fickle Month

Happy Sunday All,

February, month two of 2017, 28 days of wintery bliss that somehow always goes by far to fast. February, the month where I don't feel like I accomplished as much as I wanted to regarding my reading goals. February, the month that distracted me like no other this year! Oh February, by Tuesday you will end, March will begin, and I have a plan; yes I have a plan to March straight into these reading challenges with vigor and coffee. So much coffee.

To date I've completed the following challenges:

BOOK RIOT READ HARDER
Read a book about books	The Book Jumper	Mechthild Glaser	384
Read a book published between 1900 and 1950	The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	156
Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location	Tulip Fever (Amsterdam)	Deborah Moggach	288
Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey	Norwegian Wood	Haruki Murakami	296
Read a book published by a micro-press	Margaret The First	Danielle Dutton	176
POP SUGAR
A book of letters	The Private Letters of Countess Erzesbet Bathory	Kimberly Craft	142
An audio book	Caraval	Stephanie Garber	416
A book that's a story within a story	The Miniaturist	Jessie Burton	416
An espionage thriller	Bad Monkey	Matt Ruff	241
A book by an author who uses a pseudonym	The Silent Wife	A.S.A Harrison	326
A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read	How to fight presidents	Daniel O'Brien	272
A book involving travel	Passenger/Wayfarer (Time travel)	Alexandra Bracken	1018
A book that's published in 2017	The Possessions	Sarah Flannery Murphy	368
A book involving a mythical creature	The Bear and the Nightengale	Katherine Arden	336
A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
A book with career advice	Getting an Academic Job in History	Dana Polanichka	112
A book with pictures	Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula	Enid A. Goldber & Norman Itzkowitz	128
The first in a series you haven't read before	Under Different Stars	Amy A Bartol	297
A book with an eccentric character	The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared	Jonas Jonasson & Rod Bradbury	396
A book you got from a used book sale	The Last Lecture	Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow	206
#LitsyAtoZ
Book A	All The Ugly and Wonderful Things	Bryn Greenwood	352
Book Z	Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald	Therese Ann Fowler	375

Moving on into March I'm realizing that I need to get focused again; books can be distracting, who would have known?

Since it seems that the area I'm lacking in the most at present is my #LitsyAtoZ books they're going to be my March focus. My plan is to read at least five books slated out for that challenge and one for each of the others. Seven challenge slated books, and then whatever else I want to read. Gotta love having that goal right? 

Until next time, 

XoXo 

BrainyHeroine

Catching Up and Checking In

Happy President's Day!

And on this celebratory day, (where it should be mandatory that the government give us free cake) I am thrilled to say I've completed my challenge list. No, I haven't completed my challenges, well not all of them at least, but I've finished the list for Popsugar and Read Harder so that I'll stop getting distracted with other books and then hope I can fit them in somewhere. Book distraction is a real thing, and it is a real issue for me. I'm a hopper, so at any given time I'm reading/listening to about four or five books. Truly, this is madness.

Since I've been off the last few days this has been my only goal. Now that I've reached said goal I can go through the process of crossing off the books I've read, updating my Goodreads page (which I suck at on a good day sometimes) and tallying up reading challenges. This will also let me move forward with written reviews of the book, more in-depth blog posts about reading, and hopefully I won't lose my damn mind along the way. February is almost over and I feel that in the shortest month of the year I've truly come up short on my reading goals, mainly due to life and reading distractions.

If you're interested, below is the master list I've come up with. I'm not posting what challenge they fit since I don't want complete and utter spoilers haha, but I think I've come up with a pretty impressive list. (NO REPEATS! That deserves a cake on merit alone!)

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Title of Book	Author	Page Count
A Moment on the Edge	Elizabeth George	560
Accidental Empress	Alison Pataki	512
All The Bright Places	Jennifer Niven	378
All The Ugly and Wonderful Things	Bryn Greenwood	352
Almost a Woman	Esmeralda Santiago	336
Americanah	Chimamanda Mgozi Adichie	477
Antarctica	Claire Keegan	224
Bad Monkey	Matt Ruff	241
Bear, Otter & The Kid	T.J Klune	350
Behold the Dreamers	Imbolo Mbue	400
Bird Box	Josh Malerman	262
Boy Meets Boy	David Leviathan	226
Bridge of Spies: A True Story of the Cold War	Giles Whittell	303
Broken Monsters	Lauren Beukes	464
Caraval	Stephanie Garber	416
Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger	288
City of Light City of Poison	Holly Tucker	336
Count of Monte Cristo (mentioned in Butterfly Garden)	Alexander Dumas	1276
Dark Matter	Blake Crouch	354
Eligible	Curtis Sittenfeld	512
Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr	Nancy Isenberg	560
Frankenstein	Mary Shelley	166
Getting an Academic Job in History	Dana Polanichka	112
Hard Luck: Harvey Haddix and the Greatest Game Ever Lost	Lew Freedman	210
Hidden Figures	Margot Lee Shetterly	373
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents	Julia Alvarez	304
How to fight presidents	Daniel O'Brien	272
I Let You Go	Clare Mackintosh	384
January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month that Changed America Forever	James Robenalt	420
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norell	Susannah Clarke	1006
Julie & Julia	Julie Powell	310
Katherine	Anya Seton	500
Life After Life	Kate Atkinson	531
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk	Kathleen Rooney	287
Margaret The First	Danielle Dutton	176
Matilda	Roald Dahl	240
Missing, Presumed	Susie Steiner	369
Monstress	Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda, Rus Wooton	202
Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur #1	Brandon Monclare, Amy Reeder, Natacha Bustos (illustrator)	24
My Lady Jane	Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows	512
My Name is Red	Orhan Pamuk & Erdag M. Goknar	417
Norwegian Wood	Haruki Murakami	296
Orange is the New Black	Piper Kerman	298
Passengar/Wayfarer	Alexandra Bracken	1018
Personal History	Katherine Grahm	642
Pleasantville	Attica Locke	433
Queen of the Night	Alexander Chee	576
Ready Player One	Ernest Cline	374
Rebecca	Daphne du Maurier	393
Rise of the Rocket Girls	Nathalia Holt	352
Saffron Skies	Lesley Loko	613
Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils	Lynda Pryne	288
Sisi: Empress On Her Own	Alison Pataki	464
Sisters In Law	Linda Hirshman	390
Swing Time	Zadie Smith	453
Tales of a Severed Head	Rachida Madani, Marilyn Hacker	176
The 19th Wife	David Ebershoff	530
The Bear and the Nightegale	Katherine Arden	336
The Book Jumper	Mechthild Glaser	384
The Case of Jack the Nipper	H.L. Stephens	328
The Couple Next Door	Shari Lapena	313
The Eyre Affair: Thursday Next #1	Jasper Fforde	374
The Geek Feminist Revolution	Kameron Hurley	288
The Ghost Bride	Yangsze Choo	368
The Girls	Emma Cline	368
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	156
The History of Wolves	Emily Fridlund	288
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared	Jonas Jonasson & Rod Bradbury	396
The Inheritance Trilogy	N. K. Jemsin	1453
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution	Walter Issacson	528
The Invisible Man	Ralph Ellison	610
The Last Lecture	Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow	206
The Lonely Hearts Hotel	Heather O'Neill	400
The Lost Sisterhood	Anne Fortier	608
The Luckiest Girl Alive	Jessica Knoll	352
The Mercer Girls	Libbie Hawker	430
The Mermaids Daughter	Ann Claycomb	448
The Miniaturist	Jessie Burton	416
The Mists of Avalon	Marion Zimmer Bradley	1737
The Muse	Jessie Burton	416
The Nest	Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney	368
The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman	256
The Possessions	Sarah Flannery Murphy	368
The Private Letters of Countess Erzesbet Bathory	Kimberly Craft	142
The Rooms	Lauren Oliver	320
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific	J. Maarten Troost	272
The Shining Girls	Lauren Beukes	375
The Silent WIfe	A.S.A Harrison	326
The Star Touched Queen	Roshani Chokshi	342
THe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet	David Mitchell	479
The Trespasser	Tana French	449
The Unraveling of Mercy Louis	Keija Parssinen	336
The Verdict	Nick Stone	512
The Virgin Cure	Ami McKay	356
Tulip Fever	Deborah Moggach	288
Under Different Stars	Amy A Bartol	297
Underground Railroad	Colson Whitehead	306
Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula	Enid A. Goldber & Norman Itzkowitz	128
What She Knew	Gilly McMillian	699
Xanadu	John Man	352
You Will Know Me	Meg Abbot	352
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald	Therese Anne Fowler	384