{"id":712,"date":"2015-06-20T09:03:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T16:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/?p=712"},"modified":"2015-07-05T18:55:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T01:55:25","slug":"summer-reading-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"Summer Reading Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"summer2015\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ever since I finished my Princess Diaries binge read I\u2019ve been feeling a little lost and disorganized in my reading choices. I keep asking myself \u201cwhat next?\u201d Getting no good answers, I end up grabbing something off my bookshelf that I give little or no attention to.<\/p>\n

Last week I came across a summer reading challenge proposed by Diana at Little Miss Drama Queen<\/a>. I\u2019ve never participated in a reading challenge but in light of my need to focus my reading I decided this would be a good one to try. Diana has a list of 10 types of books to read by September 13, 2015. It\u2019s a pretty lofty goal for me but I\u2019m willing to give it a shot.<\/p>\n

Here are the books I\u2019ve chosen:<\/p>\n

1. A book recommended by a friend \u2013 Mindfulness In Plain English<\/a><\/i> by Bhante Gunaratana<\/span><\/h3>\n

My friend Sue is always recommending books to me and they are usually good picks. She is currently reading Mindfulness In Plain English<\/i> so I thought I\u2019d give it a shot as well.<\/p>\n

2. A book that has been sitting on your shelf for over a year – Educating Caroline<\/a><\/i> by Meg Cabot <\/span><\/h3>\n

You didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get by without listing a Meg Cabot book did you? Educating Caroline is one of her old regency romances that I still haven\u2019t read.<\/p>\n

3. A book you read a long time ago and don\u2019t remember – Back Roads<\/a><\/i> by Tawni O\u2019Dell<\/span><\/h3>\n

I was concerned I wouldn\u2019t be able to find something for this category since I tend to have a good memory of the books I read. I was going to cheat and pick a book I really liked and wanted to read again. However, when I looked at my bookshelf I found Back Roads<\/i> and realized it would fit the bill perfectly. I have a vague recollection reading this book and do remember the snarky tone of the narrator. But for the life of me, I can\u2019t remember what the heck the book is about. The synopsis seems interesting so I\u2019m looking forward to the (re)-read.<\/p>\n

4. A book from your to be read list – Shrinkage<\/a><\/i> by Bryan Bishop<\/span><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve been wanting to read this book ever since I heard about it on the Adam Carolla podcast.<\/p>\n

5. A book you never heard of – Hello I Love You<\/a><\/i> by Katie M. Stout<\/span><\/h3>\n

So much to choose from for this category! In order to avoid getting overwhelmed I decided to be quick and choose the first book that grabbed my attention. The premise of this one did the trick: a super rich girl runs away to boarding school and falls in love with a Korean rock star. MJ at Howdy YAL, where I first saw the book, gave it a \u201cmeh\u201d review, as did others as I found out, but I\u2019m going to go for it anyway.<\/p>\n

6. A classic – Pride and Prejudice<\/a><\/i> by Jane Austen<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m embarrassed to admit how many classics I have not read. This is one of them.<\/p>\n

7. A book you started but never finished – Work as a Spiritual Practice<\/a><\/i> by Lewis Richmond<\/p>\n

I enjoyed this book when I first started it years ago and have been wanting to finish it for a long time.<\/p>\n

8. A new release – Reasons to Stay Alive<\/a><\/i> by Matt Haig<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been following Matt on Twitter for quite a while and have been wanting to read his memoir which came out earlier this year.<\/p>\n

9. A book outside of your typical genre – A Good Marriage<\/a><\/i> by Stephen King<\/p>\n

Thrillers are typically not my thing, too stressful, but I\u2019ve been wanting to try Stephen King for years so here goes!<\/p>\n

10. A chunkster (400+ pages) – The Rebels<\/a><\/i> by John Jakes<\/p>\n

This is the next volume in the Kent Family Chronicles which has been on my list for a while. It\u2019s 467 pages so qualifies as a short chunkster. Shhhh! Don\u2019t tell anyone but I\u2019m going to read the e-book version to save my wrists.<\/p>\n

As you can see from the date on the banner I am already late with this challenge, eeeek! Time to get reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since I finished my Princess Diaries binge read I\u2019ve been feeling a little lost and disorganized in my reading choices. I keep asking myself \u201cwhat next?\u201d Getting no good answers, I end up grabbing something off my bookshelf that I give little or no attention to. Last week I came across a summer reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-reading-challenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjessop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}