Zaz’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2014)

Zaz’s comments from the 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] group.

The 2nd round titles are now available! There are some interesting write-in, I recognized books from my to-read list and others seem good. My write-in in Fantasy is now in the list, I'm pretty happy :)

It's a GR Choice Awards nominee! I'm curious to know what you'll think about it as, obviously, it's popular.

The only series I finished this year are Divergent, Legend and Riyria :p
You can use the first three books in a series and it seems you haven't read The Giver (oooooohhhh). You definitely need to try them and they are children-young adult so you'll read them fast!

I'll read Mistborn next year too, the books are really big and I've things I want to read before :)

I'm planning to read this one at some point. It's nice to learn the love triangle was ok, because they are not my favorite things in books.

Yes, this year lots of sequels are popular!

I've to find some time next year to read this one, everybody is rating it very high :)

As you are a proud member of this group and we like to use the challenge as we wish, we decided that week 2 is a romance (modern or classic, as members prefer). So you can put Winter there ;)

Which book did you read? The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Did you enjoy it? Yes, there are stars in my eyes!

Are some elves, Santa Claus or gifts involved in the story? Claus of course, before and while he became Santa. Plenty of gifts, starting with wooden ones. And nymphs, fairies, etc.

Was it an happy story? Yes, a magical one with all the children in the world who are happy because of Claus!

Almost finished the challenge, only 3 books left :)

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus was a very nice Christmas book. Now I'm looking forward to the elves, deers and Claus to bring me my christmas gifts (ok, now the delivery is more done by Amazon :p). It was well done, I'm definitely a fan of Baum (Wizard of Oz) and I'm totally disappointed there's no translation, it would have been nice to offer it to my nephew.

I cheated for "in your hometown" and chose Blameless (Soulless 3), which has a part in France. It was better than the 2nd and I was really pleased to come back to this world.

Side-reads:
- Books:
The Crown Tower is one of the prequels of the Riyria series and it was great. I'm looking forward to the next one! :)
Les Disparus du Clairdelune. I went to buy the book for the release :D I read the first earlier this year and was looking forward (a lot) to the sequel. I was wonderful (again). It's sad it isn't translated in english!
My Heart and Other Black Holes, interesting topic but I'm not fully convinced by the characterization for the boy.
The Honest Truth, I'm comparing this a lot with Stargirl, even if it's not at all the same subject. But it's moving in the same way, with an important topic and well done characters.

- Graphic novels:
Hey, Wait... I didn't like this one, too much depressing.
Wayward, Vol. 2: Ties That Bind, art still gorgeous and the story continues to be interesting.

- Others:
The Day the Crayons Quit was a nice picture book.

Which book did you read? Revolting Rhymes

Did you enjoy it? Yes, it was short and Dahl really twisted the fairy tales.

What were the things leading to the ban, in your opinion? Dahl is usually an author for kids and I'm pretty sure this book is not really aimed at children (some langage and bittersweet stories), so I suppose it was very confusing for some people, leading to the ban.

You had finished Week 50! You read a banned book.

This discussion thread is solely for your progress. (Book discussions go in individual threads.)

Which book did you read?

Did you enjoy it?

What were the things leading to the ban, in your opinion?

You had finished Week 49! You read a play.

This discussion thread is solely for your progress. (Book discussions go in individual threads.)

Which play did you read?

Did you enjoy it?

Do you usually read plays?

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ok, I think I can survive the grammar, so I'll have a look at it if I like The Rest of Us Just Live Here :)

How was The Knife of Never? I read A Monster Calls and really enjoyed how the story was told. I've 2 other books by this author on my TBR :)

I totally agree Jody :)

Heather, you can read a picture book for the birth week if nothing else interest you. I saw several picture books in members' plans for other categories. I'm a big picture books reader so I won't tell you "nooo this isn't literature!" ;)
Agatha Christie is a good writer, I hope you'll like more the story after some new chapters!

I think that the awards are, before all, a thing for the authors as they are prices for "best books". Thing is that just being nominated on GR totally increase the notoriety of the book and it's already a total reward for the authors (2 charts: here and here). So don't feel bad voting for a book when you haven't read the others, authors really don't care!
I like to pick books nominated but I don't really look at the winner :)

Not surprised with the selection as, for the genres I watched this year, the nominated were selected in the GR monthly lists, etc.
Voted for 2 of my favorites (both 5 stars and enjoyed a lot) in YA fantasy and Graphic novels. I'm currently reading one of the Adult fantasy, so maybe I'll vote for it (pretty sure it won't win as there is Big Big authors in the batch) and maybe I'll participate the Debut author if I've enough time to read one.

Which book did you read? Blameless

Did you enjoy it? Yes, a pleasant book in the series.

Did you choose a book set in/near your current city or your birth city? I totally cheated as there's nothing near my cities apart books from unknown authors (and I won't pay $15 for these kind of books). So, I read a book with a part happening in my country (which was interesting as the author is not from my country).

Did you have lots of choices for this topic? No. It's the worst topic in the challenge for me.

Which book did you read? The Cloud Hunters

Did you enjoy it? The world building was great, the story was ok, so overall, I enjoyed the book.

Did you have difficulties to find an author? Yes and I was lucky to find one who write children books.

Will you read more from this author? I shelved another title, I'm curious to see more of his work, but I probably won't read it soon.