888 Challenge Update

What I’m reading: The Charm School by Nelson DeMille

What I’m working on: Subplots and a few turning points in Slayer. (And just getting back to that writing habit.)

You may remember that back in early January of this year, I blogged about the 8 books in 8 categories challenge I under took. Well, today is 6 months in and 6 months to go, so I thought I’d post a half-way point update on my progress. I’m actually just a touch ahead of schedule since I’m allowed 8 overlaps. I’m aiming for 56 books by the end of 2008.

If you’ll notice, I’ve modified my categories a bit since I started. I also listed titles I planned to read at that point, but I should know better than to stick to such a strict plan. I tend to gravitate to lots of different kinds of books, and my mood is likely to change frequently, so I'm reading what I like as long as it can loosely fit one of my categories. As you can see from my modifications, that's not too hard.

Did you take the challenge? How are you doing? Look back at the last 6 months --- whether you took the challenge or not --- what great books have you read?

888 Challenge*8 books/8 categories*
(Allowed 8 overlaps) for a total of 56 books (not 64)

I. Romance novels:
1. The CEO’s Scandalous Affair (The Garrison’s) by Roxanne St. Claire (Silhouette Desire)
2. Seduced by the Wealthy Playboy (The Garrison’s) by Sara Orwig (Silhouette Desire)
3. Burning Up by Sarah Mayberry (Harlequin Blaze)

II. Continue 8 series I’ve already started
1. The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann (starts the Trouble Shooters series – which I read out of order)
2. Blood Fever by Karen Marie Moning (2nd in Moning’s Fever series)
3. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyers (3rd in the Twilight series)
4. Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas (sequel to Sugar Daddy)

III. Young Adult/Youth
1. Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz
2. Over Sea, Under Stone: Book 1 of the Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper (audio)
3. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
4. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
5. London Calling by Edward Bloor

IV. Book Club books (TBA – of course – as we select them).
1. Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas (Discussion on January 14th)
2. Poison Study by Maria Snyder (Discussion February 10th)
3. Breaking Point by Suzanne Brockmann (Discussion March 9th)
4. Can You Keep a Secret by Sophia Kinsella (April discussion)
5. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter (May discussion)
6. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (June discussion)

Published Novellas/Short Stories by CFRWA Friends
1. Poor Me by Dara Edmondson & Raina Edmondson (Wild Rose Press)
2. The Fortune Teller’s Lay (Wilder Rose Press) by Lara Dien
3. In Time for Christmas by Cheryl Alldredge (from Coffee Time Romance)
4. Christmas at Home by Leanne L. Burroughs (in the Christmas Wishes Anthology)

VI. Books by Authors I Haven’t Yet Read
1. Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy
2. Madapple by Christina Meldrum
3. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
4. Runemarks by Joanne Harris
5. How Far is the Ocean from Here by Amy Shearn

VII. Audio Books
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis
3. Great Expecations by Charles Dickens
4. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
5. The Charm School by Nelson DeMille


VIII. Other books I want to read that don’t fit elsewhere
1. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
3. Writing the Break-Out Novel by Donald Maass