Mel's Random June 2012

June is over and 2012 is now half way over! I have to confess it's been a very busy month as I've had family visiting from overseas, a hen weekend and a week off that was full of catching up with friends. The hen weekend was a real highlight as it included a chocolate feast, a night dancing away to the cheesiest of songs and some fun at the seaside! Yep, I had a great weekend in Brighton - although brunch on the beach was a little windy!

Brighton's West Pier

I decided last month to dedicate June to Joyful reading and focussed heavily on books I wanted to read for a while - one reason why there are so many books that are part of a series. It was a lovely change to read book that I wanted to rather than on review copies. This meant I read a lot more books than normal - something to be said for happy reading! 

So how did this impact the reading situation?

Books
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next #6) - Jasper Fforde (TBR Reading Pile Challenge and British Book Challenge)
The Enemy - Charlie Higson (TBR Reading Pile Challenge and British Book Challenge)
Magic In The Blood (Allie Beckstrom #2) - Devon Monk
Mastiff (Beka Cooper #3) - Tamora Pierce (TBR Reading Pile Challenge)
Sins of the Demon (Kara Gillian #4) - Diana Rowland
Blood and Bullets (Deacon Chalk #1) - James R Tuck
Divergent - Veronica Roth (TBR Reading Challenge)
Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1) - Richelle Mead (TBR Reading Pile Challenge)
The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) - Richelle Mead

E-Books
Closed Hearts (Mindjackers #2) - Susan Kaye Quinn
Blue Blooded Vamp (Sabina Kane #5) - Jaye Wells
The Unholy (Krewe of Hunters #5) - Heather Graham
Waiting For Midnight - Merrie Destefano
The Spirit War (Legend of Eli Monpress #4) - Rachel Aaron
That Thing At The Zoo (Deacon Chalk #0.5) - James R Tuck
Spider's Lullaby (Deacon Chalk #1.5) - James R Tuck

AudioBook
Stardust - Neil Gaiman

Sarah's Reviews
Rogue (Shifters #2) - Rachel Vincent
Reckoning (Strange Angels #5) - Lili St Crow

Regular Posts
Same Book/Different Cover looked at Storm Front by Jim Butcher
In addition there were the usual wishlist posts, in my mailbox and Throwback Thursdays.

So updating the challenges -
British Books Challenge - 17 Read
2012 TBR Reading Pile Challenge - 25 Read, 5

Best of the Bunch: Lots of great reading this month but my favourite was The Spirit War by Rachel Aaron!


Honourable Mentions: The Enemy, Sins of the Demons and Blue Blooded Vamp were all fantastic reads as well!



Bookish News!

In addition to all my personal news I also wanted to share a couple of Bookish News bits I spotted around the web.

Transworld Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Transworld, (one of my favourite publishers for non-genre books!) is running a summer challenge to read and review a wide variety of historical fictions! Just pick the four book you want to read and they'll send you your first pick. Once you read it and publish your review, they'll send you the next book! Interested? Find more details here!

Become a Character In A Book!
Dakota Banks is running a fantastic competition where you can name a character in the next Mortal Path book! How cool would that be? You can put your own name in and star in the story yourself! I've already entered but if you are interested have a look here...

15 Years of Harry Potter!
It's been 15 years since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published! For some reason I was sure it had been longer as Harry and his friends are such an important part of popular culture these days - even for us muggles! To celebrate Bloomsbury have launched a competition to find the UK's biggest Potter fan (sorry international peeps!). The prize is a family holiday to teh Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida AND a leather bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!
What do you have to do?  

Bloomsbury is inviting fans to write a letter of no more than 50 words explaining why they love HARRY POTTER. We are looking for the most creative, clever and entertaining reasons and, while the word limit is set to a strict 50 words, entrants are encouraged to draw, doodle and make their letters as elaborate as possible.

HARRY POTTER fans canonly enter by visiting a local bookshop or library and posting their letter in the specially designed postboxes. Over 1800 bookshops and libraries have already signed up to take part. The competition will run from Tuesday 26^th June to Tuesday 31^st July 2012 after which we will name the UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan. The winner and runners up will be announced on Saturday 1^st September.

The competition is an ideal opportunity for fans to show how much they love HARRY POTTER as well as supporting their local bookshop or library. Details of how to enter and a list of participating bookshops and libraries can be found on the website:

www.bloomsbury.com/harrypottercompetition

So that's it for my month - how was yours?