Sunday Salon | The 342,745 Ways to Herd Cats Challenge

Hello Saloners – do come in – it’s still quite early but I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d get things ready for your visit today.

It’s been a busy week here, I’ve picked up some new books, been gifted some book tokens, finished one book and started another – oh and found another challenge

Let’s start with the challenge -

I heard about this one from Dewey – and of course it was this adorable pussycat that actually caught my eye – who wouldn’t want to have him snoozing in their sidebar??

Too long; Didn’t Read – that’s what the cat is saying – in case you were wondering

The aim of the challenge is to recommend ten of your favourite books – and then pick at least three from everyone else’s lists to read between May 1 and November 30. What could be easier? I also like the fact that I get to read other people’s favourite books.

To get started head to Renay’s information page

Here are my 10 recommendations – I’ve tried to cross some genres, and included new and old favourites:

My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes – Jodi Picoult

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly

River Deep – Rowan Coleman

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Big Stone Gap – Adriana Trigiani

Sea Glass – Anita Shreve

Three Wishes – Liane Moriarty

Anne of Green Gables – L.M.Montgomery

I’ve had a search through the other lists and have chosen:

March by Geraldine Brooks (from Dewey’s list)

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrel (from Alix’s list)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Asichie (from Gautami’s list)

There are so many great books to choose from! I have to admit though after some debate I have picked three that are already on my TBR – I really need to get them read before I start buying more books! The great thing about this challenge though is that there are some great lists of books to choose from for when our TBRs do run dry!

So what do you think? Want to play along? Go and check out the challenge details.

Tracking down a lost book

When I was a kid the best bit about Saturday afternoons was that we visited the library – and each week I’d bring home a stack of new books to delight over. There was one particular book that I remember as being heart wrenching and had me sobbing like a baby… but I could never remember the name of the book or who wrote it… until today!

While looking for books to read for the Herding Cats challenge I stumbled across Corinne’s list where she recommends a book written by Cynthia Voigt. The cogs in my brain started turning – I remember that author – I thought. So I looked her up on Amazon – Ah yes – she wrote the novels about the Tillermans. Hang on a minute, one of those books was called The Runner… could it possibly be the elusive book?? To be honest I’m not 100% sure – but I do remember loving the Tillerman series so I’m adding it to my wish list right away! Thanks Corinne

What I’m reading

Yesterday I finished reading Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes – I’m a big fan of Picoult’s books and really enjoyed this one – although I was slightly disappointed by the end – you can read the review here if you missed it yesterday.

Last night I picked up 26a by Diana Evans – this book has been on my wish list for a while – though I can’t remember who inspired me to put it there. I got hold of a copy through Read it Swap it (great place to get books for the price of postage!). My first impressions are mixed. The first page seems to describe two small animals crossing a road and becoming road kill – but is actually a description of the birth of the twins that the story revolves around… very odd! I think moving from Picoult’s easy flowing story writing to this more complicated and descriptive prose may take some getting used to – but I’ll hang in there and see how it all turns out.

Introducing Weekly Geeks

Dewey has dreamt up another challenge for us all to participate in – a blogging challenge! She’s going to post a new theme each Saturday – and we can choose to participate in all or just some of them. Some example themes could be “catch up on library books”, “redecorate your blog” or “organise your challenges”. I think it sounds like an excellent idea – do your blog *housekeeping* on a Saturday ready for the arrival of the Saloners on a Sunday

To sign up head on over to The Hidden Side of the Leaf and do the Mr Linky thing – hope to see you there.

Earning pennies for new books

If you’ve read any of my reviews then you will probably have noticed that I have an Amazon associates account as I usually pop a *buy this book* link in each one. I’ve decided to promote this a bit more on my site – and any time I mention a book I’ll be linking out to Amazon. As I’m in the UK the links will be to the UK site – but I do have a US account so I may add some US links in future. If you are thinking of buying a book that I’ve written about I would appreciate it if you used the links on my site – after all every penny earnt goes towards buying new books to keep the site going

I tend to buy most of my books from Amazon myself – so if you have an Associates account then let me know and I’ll come and buy my books via your site instead of going directly to Amazon.

Advertisement over I think that’s all my book blogging news for this week! Thanks for stopping by and hope to see y’all next Sunday

Take Care

Mrs S