Thursday, January 31, 2013

Introducing... The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Introducing books through the first paragraph or so...

Jun Do's mother was a singer. That was all Jun Do's father, the Orphan Master, would say about her. The Orphan Master kept a photograph of a woman in his small room at Long Tomorrows. She was quite lovely-- eyes large and sideways looking, lips pursed with an unspoken word. Since beautiful women in the provinces get shipped to Pyongyang, that's certainly what had happened to his mother. The real proof of this was the Orphan Master himself. At night, he'd drink, and from the barracks, the orphan would hear him weeping and lamenting, striking half-heard bargains with the woman in the photograph. Only Jun Do was allowed to comfort him, to finally take the bottle from his hands.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Challenges 2012 Re-Cap

Well, I went lighter on the challenges in 2012, and it meant more success in meeting my goals.


My goal for this year was 35 books. I wound up finishing 2012 with 39 books read and reviewed, plus two that I did not finish (DNF).



My goal for this challenge was 4 books from my "Bucket List". I got through 3. Eh.



My goal for this one was 10. I had 15 on my list as "read", so I was feeling pretty good about this one. But now I read over the "rules" again and realized that most of my books don't qualify, as the majority were acquired from Netgalley. So this challenge was a bust! But I did get a few legitimate ones on it.



My goal on this one was 4-6 books. I read 6 books that I'd won, so I met my goal.



I did well with this challenge. I was simply trying to get at least one book per month to meet this challenge, and I wound up with 23 total-- nearly double my goal!


So that's where I stand on 2012. I haven't signed up for any challenges for 2013 as of yet. But I do still have my four perpetual challenges continuing. So I may decide to simply stick with my perpetual challenges for 2013.

Have fun everyone!