Reading Challenge 2015: Half the year is gone

I challenged myself to read 100 books again this year. I made it last year by reading 106 total! You can see the whole lot of them here. I don't think I'll be even close this year. As we head into July I'm only at 37 for the year so far. Ah well. Since I have gotten so far without posting about them, I'm not going to go back and talk about every single one, but I thought I would tell you about the ones I really loved. So here is part one of that!

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews This one has been on my list forever but when I saw the movie coming out I knew I had to get on it. It is a wonderful example of good Young Adult Fiction. It was funny and original and I kind of loved that the main story wasn't about two people falling in love. Because that doesn't happen at all! It is more about friendship and growing up and self confidence. The main character is a senior in high school who has gotten through his entire academic career by not making enemies, while at the same time making no friends. He hangs out with this guy Earl and they remake movies that they love "but more stupid." We went to see the movie last week and I LOVED it! It really captured the feeling of the book. //

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead I finished this book yesterday and the conclusion was so GOOD and satisfying that I got chills! The story is told from the point of view of a young girl who finds a mysterious note. You don't really know where it is going for most of the book, but it didn't bother me. I love the way everything is revealed and I know I'll read this book again.  It also isn't very long, I read it in two days. Highly recommend! //

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson This one is a collection of Noelle's weekly online comic Nimona. I started reading it online a while ago but once I saw that it was going to come out collected in a book I decided to wait. I'm so glad I did, I devoured it in one sitting and have been trying to get Travis to read it ever since! The love Noelle's drawing style and the story is so funny and cool and touching. Nimona is a shape shifter who shows up at the layer of villain Ballister Blackheart and wants to be his sidekick. They have battles with his nemesis Sir Goldenloin and things aren't as they seem. Since doing this webcomic Noelle has gone on to much success in the comics world, I've been following her on tumblr forever and am happy she is doing so well. I hope she draws a follow up to Nimona some day. //

Uprooted by Naomi Novik If you are a fan of fantasy and books with magic, you have got to read this! The story is about a valley where one girl is taken every ten years to live with "The Dragon", a wizard. As you can probably guess the main girl gets picked and goes to the Dragon's tower. It starts like this: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” I loved the mythology of this book and the characters and was kind of disappointed that it is a stand alone and not part of a series.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins This book is super popular right now. I was 275th on the list at the library! I finally got to check it out and it was a great summer read. Lots of build up and mystery and several plot twists I didn't see coming. Really fun if you are into that kind of thing.

And those are some I've read but not going to talk about. The only REAL duds were Sugarbabe and Oogy.