Ally's A-Z Challenge

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Challenge runs from Jan 1st 2014 to Dec 31st 2014



A -American Gods by Neil Gaiman Jan 1/14 ★★★☆☆
B -Bird Box by Josh Malerman June 13/14 ★★★★☆
C -Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge Jan 21/14 ★★★☆☆
D -Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle ★★★★★
E -Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier Jan 8/14 ★★★★☆
F -The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa Mar 18/14 ★★★☆☆
G -The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey Apr 2/14 ★★★★☆
H -Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan Apr 12/14 ★★★★★
I -The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells Feb 8/14 ★★★★☆
J -Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Jan 25/14 ★★★★★
K -Doctor Sleep by Stephen King June 28/14 ★★★★★
L -The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Feb 15/14 ★★★★★
M -The Martian by Andy Weir Mar 11/14 ★★★★★
N -1984 by George Orwell Mar 25/14 ★★★☆☆
O -Old Man's War by John Scalzi May 4/14 ★★★☆☆
P -Prodigy by Marie Lu Mar 3/14 ★★★☆☆
Q -Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
R -Red Rising by Pierce Brown Sept 5/15 ★★★☆☆
S -The Star Thief by Jamie Grey May 17/14 ★★★★☆
T -The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson Aug 15/14 ★★★★☆
U -The Unbound by Victoria Schwab Oct 12/14 ★★★★★
V -The Vines by Christopher Rice Oct 28/14 ★★☆☆☆
W -White Night by Jim Butcher Sept 29/14 ★★☆☆☆
X - Influx by Daniel Suarez June 9/14 ★★★★☆
Y -The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey Oct 21/14 ★☆☆☆☆
Z -Lock In by John Scalzi Sept 26/14 ★★★☆☆

[Kristie, Moderator]

Great list Ally! I love the 2013 twist. :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Thanks Kristie! "A" will be replaced by Allegiant by the end of the week! Woohoo!

[Kristie, Moderator]

Very good! I'm looking forward to reading that one too, but I still need to read Insurgent! There's just never enough time...

[Anima]

Welcome to the challenge, Ally! Have a great time reading :)

[Sandy from Alaska]

Ally, thanks for putting the stars by the books. It was really helpful! I'm going to copy your style!!

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Thanks Anima! X & Z are driving me CRAZY!
Sandy, I actually copied the stars from Kristie. I'm a sneaky star thief!

[Sandy from Alaska]

Thanks Kristie!

[Kristie, Moderator]

Lol! You're welcome to them. :) I will post some links to some X and Z books for you when I am at a computer. I have a pretty good list started.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

I would really appreciate that Kristie. I know they exist. The challenge is finding ones I actually WANT to read.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Ok, so here goes:

X:
XO I've seen has good reviews.
Xenocide Part of the Ender's Game series.
Xingu Short story.
Xoe: or Vampires, and Werewolves, and Demons, Oh My!
x0
Xor: The Shape of Darkness
The Xeno Solution

Z:
Zero Visibility
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
z2
Zombie Fallout

Those are my ideas for X and Z! :) I haven't read them myself, so I can't say how they are. Hopefully, one of them looks good to you!

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Thanks for the list Kristie! There's a couple that look pretty interesting. (Especially the one on Zelda Fitzgerald)
I went digging and found X Isle as well.
I just wish these X and Z's had more consistent reviews.
I might just end up throwing all these suggestions in a hat and seeing which gets pulled.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

I was almost done (3 books left) and then I decided to make the challenge harder on myself. Only 2013 releases. I had to bend rules to make it work (and be enjoyable reading).

[Anima]

Great, ☆ally☆ ! It can be really interesting to prepare A-Z for 2013 releases only, I am curious about your reading list for this second challenge :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

I cheated on W, X, and Y. I'm going to hold off on reading the ones nominated for GCA until the Choice Awards Challenge begins so it counts toward that! :)

[[deleted user]]

Zoo by James Patterson sounds interesting. and
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: A Novel by Michael Dorris does too.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Linda wrote: "Zoo by James Patterson sounds interesting. and
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: A Novel by Michael Dorris does too."

Thanks Linda, I started reading Zoo. The first few chapters were interesting and then I lost interest.
It also came out in 2012, and for this challenge I'm only counting 2013 releases toward my challenge.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Thanks Tullia. I did 2013 only so I could vote for GCA. I will definitely be doing it again in 2014.

[Kristie, Moderator]

If you're looking for another Z book, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald also came out in 2013. I haven't read it, but it was a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee. It would count towards your Goodreads Choice Awards reading challenge for this year too, if you're participating.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

After changing the books around no less than a dozen times...
Completing books I would have normally burned...
And after seeing that I've left the worst for last... I've decided to abandon this challenge. I've thought about it for weeks. Initially it was fun, LOTS of fun. But now its forced reading, its frustrating me and its not fun.
So goodluck to all with their challenges, you have more willpower than I.

[Lynn, Moderator]

I came to that conclusion quite a while ago :)
Realised that eventually I'd be reading books that I wasn't really bothered about to fit the letters I had left and ignoring the ones that I wanted to read.

After joining a IRL book club in 2012 which had me doing exactly that, reading books I didn't want to it resulted in my hardly reading anything all year. I had made a promise to myself this year to only read books I wanted to ... which has resulted in my reading 100+ books :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Tullia, I like the DNF idea. I need to learn how to quit books I don't enjoy. Only in books it seems am I an eternal optimist. I dropped Oryx and Crake and I don't regret it AT ALL. I know a lot of people LOVE that series, I wanted to love it too.. I just couldn't.
And Lynn I 100% agree, and congrats on the 100+ books.
I might pick this back up, I know I have time.. If it happens, it happens... if not at least I'll have read books I enjoy.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

I reviewed my read list for 2013 and after finishing "The Never List", which belongs in the "Never read this List", and cheating with X I realized I actually completed this.
So... in an effort to quit walking away from things that frustrate me, here we go again in 2014. Haha. New list is at the very top with the old one. We'll see how many characters Goodreads allows!

[Anima]

Congrats of finishing the first challenge. You have a very interesting second list :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Thanks! I'm sure the list will change about 100 times before completion...again! :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Posted my colour challenge at the top w/ other challenges. I chose medium because I have (i think) 5 other challenges this year. I left out Multi because really any cover that has more than one colour is a Multi. Also I'm a lawless rule breaker! Yeehaw!

[Kristie, Moderator]

☆ally☆ wrote: "Also I'm a lawless rule breaker! Yeehaw!"

lol - Go, ☆ally☆!!

Tullia - You should join. They're fun, easy challenges. :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Worst case scenario come December - i'll read some picture books!

[Lynn, Moderator]

ha ha ha, good idea!

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Ok, I'm changing my Colour Challenge to hard, because I just realized the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is basically the rainbow in itself.

[Lynn, Moderator]

Yup, they have definitely helped :)

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Colour Challenge completed :) Woohoo!

This was fun! I'm going to keep adding to it for the rest of the year and make a rainbow :)

[Lynn, Moderator]

Well done! :)

That's a good idea, if I get bored one day I might go back through my back and add to my list.

[sonya]

Good list ally. Ill add mr mercedes to my list. I love king

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Awesome! Let me know what you think of it!

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

10 more til my 2 A-Z challenges are done for this year!
2 1/2 months. Should be doable.
This is the problem with setting challenges while unemployed and then finding employment! LOL

[Kristie, Moderator]

I completely understand that! I just started a new job and have had practically no reading time. I'm hoping to finish my A-Z challenge on time too. I think I have 5 or maybe 6 left to go.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

Glad I'm not alone. I won't make the same mistake next year!