What am I Reading this Year? 2015 Reading Challenge

For anyone who personally knows me, you know I read. A lot. I pretty much always have a book with me, either a paper book or one on the Kindle app on my phone/iPad. While I read a ton and I read quickly, I cannot read more than one book at a time. I don't know why but I have never been able to. If I try it usually just ends in my reading one really quickly so that I can get through it and finish the other one. On the same thought: I cannot not finish a book. There have been very, very few books that I've put down and not picked back up to continue, even if they are spectacularly bad. Just another weird thing, I guess.

My favorite genre of books is definitely historical fiction. I'm obsessed with Tudor-period England and Cleopatra/Caesar relations, but I generally like any historical setting well enough. Those aren't the only books I'll read though, I'm pretty much down for most things if they sound interesting or are written by an author I know I have read and liked before.

Goodreads is a good website for keeping an inventory of what you have and have not read, along with getting suggestions for what to read next. At the beginning of the year I joined the "Reading Challenge" and set a goal to read 35 books in 2015...I'm not really that close to meeting my goal, but I still have hope!

I am currently reading The Virgin's Daughters by Jeane Westin and I'm about half finished. It is pretty good so far! I have exactly 12 books left on my bookshelf that are unread and that is how many I need to reach the goal of 35...

Below are the 22 books I have read thus far in 2015:

1. The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon's Court by Michelle Moran
• I hadn't read much about Napoleon, but this was a well-written and interesting account of Marie-Louise of Austria's marriage. There are several narrators, which I don't really like, but the story and content are good. 
2. The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith
• This book inserts a 100% fictional character and inserts her into all of these well-recorded historical events and the result is wonderful. 
3. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• I'm ashamed to say I'd never read this before. It was great; if you like the movies, read the books! 
4. The Lost World by Michael Crichton
• If you read one, you've gotta read the other. 
5. We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill
• Historical account (not a novelization) of Queen Victoria - a bit tedious and boring, but it was a lot of new information for me so I learned some stuff. 
6. Serena by Ron Rash
• I seriously loved this book. It is also a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper - I think it is currently on Netflix. READ THE BOOK FIRST.  
7. To the Tower Born: A Novel of the Lost Princes by Robin Maxwell
• Not going to lie, I don't remember a lot about this so it must not have been that great...
8. The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory
• Philippa Gregory is one of my favorite authors and this was no exception. It can get boring reading about the same characters in book after book, but she is picking up the stories of the lesser-known people who surrounded the big players during the Tudor era. 
9. Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston
• Fan fiction. Meh. Quick read, not written well, kind of boring. 
10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• I think I read this in about 4 hours, but that's because it is YA lit. Pretty good, definitely made me cry a bit though. 
11. The Iron King by Maurice Druon
• "The original Game of Thrones" -George RR Martin; "boring af" -me
12. Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir
• Well written, classic story, interesting first person narrative.
13. The Spanish Bride:A Novel of Catherine of Aragon by Lauren Gardner
• Meh. Tried to cover too broad of a story in too short of a book. 
14. The Earl's Inconvenient Wife by Ruth Ann Nordin
• Ha, you get what you pay for...AKA this was free on Kindle. Not good, just not good. 
15. Madam Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran
• One of my favorites thus far of 2015! It's the dramatized story of the famous wax-maker and how her life was intertwined with the royal family and the revolutionaries. 
16. Mary, Queen of France by Jean Plaidy
• One of Jean Plaidy's early works - written around the 1950s and you can tell. The language is primitive and the narrative is watered down. 
17. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James 
• More fan fiction - honestly, the BBC miniseries was better. 
18. Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox
• Julia Fox tells a story by using preserved documents, letters, and historical accounts. Similar in style to We Two, but definitely more interesting. 
19. The Choice by Suzanne Woods Fisher
• Another free book on Kindle about an Amish woman who is facing some choices about her life and religion. I generally like books set in the Amish community, but this one wasn't great. 
20. Queen of this Realm by Jean Plaidy
• One of Jean Plaidy's later books, so the writing is more refined and deeper. This was much better than Mary, Queen of France. 
21. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence 
• A classic. A weird, weird classic. I didn't really like it, but I can definitely see why it was so controversial at the time of publication. It was probably considered pretty graphic for the 1920s England. 
22. P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
• I didn't even know the movie was based on a book until I came across this on the clearance rack at Half Price Books. It was witty and entertaining, definitely a quick-read. Not a literary masterpiece by any means, but it was good.

Next week I will give you my favorite books of all time!