2009 ANC Mini Challenges

January 1 - December 31, 2009

Here are the 12 challenges:

1. Read a collection of short stories and either blog about it, OR tell the group about what you read.


2. Read a play. Blog about it, OR tell the group about your experience.


3. Read a nonfiction book; write a review on your blog or post it to the group.


4. Read 2 essays from the same collection; write a review on your blog or tell the group about what you read.


5. Go to a book event; blog about it or tell the group about it.


6. Borrow a library book, read it and review it on your blog (or tell the group about it).


7. Read a book by a new to you author. Do a little research on the author…do they have a blog? How many books have they written? Have they won any prizes? Where do they live? etc… Blog about the book you read and the author OR tell the group about them.


8. Make a donation. You can either donate to an organization that supports reading OR make a physical donation of a book (or books) to ANYONE. Blog about it or tell the group what you did.


9. Promote literacy. This is wide open - use your imagination. You could give a child a book, or read a book to someone who cannot read, or volunteer at an event which promotes literacy, or donate to your local library, or write something on your blog with a link to a group which promotes literacy, or anything in between. The only rule with this one is that you must PROMOTE literacy in some way…


10. Participate in a buddy read or Group discussion. This can be a face to face group, an on-line group or a one on one discussion with a friend who read the same book. Either way, blog about your experience or share with the group. Did the discussion give you greater appreciation or insight into what you read?


11. Read a book outside your comfort level or from a genre you don’t normally read. Blog about it, or tell the group about it.


12. Read a classic (defined as anything published before 1970). Tell us why it fits the category of being a classic. Write a review or tell the group about the book.
    

Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, Book 4); by Jim Butcher

Finished Reading: 13th March 2009
Reviewed By: Liza the Librarian

For the past couple of months or so, I have been indulging myself with The Dresden Files Series. It is pretty much a thriller with a twist. Featuring Harry Dresden, a private detective, who also happened to be the only um... "known" wizard in the mortal world. He also works as a consultant for SI (Special Investigations), which specialised in unsolved cases. He has a ghost who inhabited a skull, named Bob, and Mister, a pet cat (that's pretty much abnormal in size), and they live in a basement somewhere in Chicago. The series pretty much pulling me into the story from one book to another and I can't seem to stop! The series, currently, is at it's 11th book in publication. It also has it's own TV Series, if anybody is interested.

So about Summer Knight. The story just continues off from the last book 'Grave Peril', and yes you have to read from the first book cause it would just confuse you if you start reading from middle of nowhere. Harry Dresden faced the White Council for what he did in the last book and is also in the middle of a beginning of a breakdown. (sort of). The Seasons faeries are running the weather havoc, there's a murder and he has to solved it, his young werewolves friends are his sidekicks, and of course there's a girl involved to make things interesting. To make him more busy, he has to look for a missing girl so he could pay for his rent!

Things I've enjoyed: How the events just won't slow down and fast pace for read. Danger after danger and complication after complication. It's not too much but it's good enough to get through you as a reader and not put it down. Plus Harry just have a good sense of weird humor here and there.

Things I didn’t enjoy: Well.. nothing so far.

Reason for reading: I love it! I would like to finish the series hope Jim Butcher won't end it any soon.

Rating: Pretty high. Recommending it to Pre-Us up.

Recommends to: Harry Potter, Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff fans would love this.

Publisher: Roc Publication
Date: September 2002
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Series: The Dresden Files
Author Web Site: Jim Butcher

Product Description:
Private detective/wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is suckered into tangling in the affairs of Faerie, where the fate of the entire world-and his soul-are at stake.