Must Read in 2014 - First Quarter Update

 I'm highly motivated by goal setting.

Unless those goals involve getting my butt on the elliptical, or keeping my house clean, or cooking dinner every night.

Wait... let me rephrase that. I'm highly motivated by setting reading goals. I got through all the Newbery books in under 2 years. I've hit my Goodreads goals each year (with the help of some great picture books and graphic novels).

So when I decided to pick thirty-six books for my Must Read challenge, I knew I could do it. As it turns out, I may need to add more books to the list. I'll decide on that after second quarter.

Here's what I've read so far from my challenge list, with the most recent on the top.

Comes out in July. I absolutely adored Sidekicked... and this one was almost as good.

HOW did I miss this lovely tale by Laurel Snyder? So very good. A magic wall that transports kids to new locations? Genius!

Good, but not great. I didn't buy the romance angle at all, though, and my favorite character died way too soon.

With thanks to @LoveofXena for this one... a great science fiction book where the "Supers" aren't out to help humanity. My older son is reading it now and greatly enjoying it too.

Amazing. Not as keen on the ending, though. I ended up as part of the blog tour, and the author has a VERY entertaining set of answers for my questions!

I really enjoyed this one. Amazingly enough, the first person to grab this off my shelf is a fifth grade boy. He's enjoying the chance to read it during our state testing.

Awww... YES! Wonderful, unique take on vampires. This gets a HIGH FIVE from me.


Excellent end to the series. If you haven't made time to start this trilogy... do it! The first book is still my favorite, though.


Creepy and cool. The vintage photos in the book definitely enhanced the tale. My god-daughter insisted I read it.

Another HIGH FIVE from me! Science fiction meets fairy tales with kick BUTT characters. YEP!

This was a five, but a medium five. Interesting and funny MG science fiction.

Awesome. A sweeping discussion of all of American History from a civil rights perspective.

Audio book - Neil Gaiman is amazing as a writer AND a reader. I loved this.


Another solid middle grade science fiction. Lots of action and adventure. I also hosted an author interview for this one.

Part of my Cybils duties. Very ... odd... and interesting. The art is so distinctive.


I wasn't as keen on this one as so many others have been. I felt like it plodded along too much. Still - a great example of nonfiction in a graphic novel format.

Awesome! Oh, this reminds me.. I need to add the sequel to my overall reading list!





There you have it... I have completed 17 of my original 36 "Must Read" titles so far. I was tempted to push through just one more to get an even half for this post, but I'm in the middle of several other titles.

I'm currently listening to a Must Read (started today)


and reading another Must Read (Kathy and I chose it as our current Batty title)












I'm considering what to add to my list, since it seems to help focus me as I choose my books. Probably the Grisha trilogy, since the final book comes out in June. Maybe a favorite or two to reread...

I'll decide soon. Maybe I'll add another 9. That's just one extra per month. That would make an average of 3 a month for the rest of the year... which seems pretty doable.



In March, I really tried to make all my Slice posts separate from any bookish posts. But I just finished 31 straight days of doing that, so today they are combined into one. My reading life is a pretty immense part of my whole life, so I'm going with it for today.

I’m participating in a writing community at Two Writing Teachers. We write about a little "slice of our life" each Tuesday. In March - we attempt to write a slice EVERY day! Head over to their blog for the link up.

If you stop by and have written your own slice, please leave the link in the comments so I can easily find your post!