A to Z Reading Challenge - Completed

I finished the A to Z Reading Challenge a few weeks ago. I did a mixture of Fiction and Non-Fiction. 

A to Z Reading Challenge 

A -- Ain't Burned All The Bright - Jason Reynolds ‡

B -- The Bell Jar (50th Anniversary) - Sylvia Plath ‡

C -- Carrie Soto is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid

D -- The Devil At His Elbow - Valerie Bauerlein

E -- Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters - Andrew Morton

F -- From Here to the Great Unknown - Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough

G -- The Guncle Abroad (The Guncle, #2) - Steven Rowley

H -- The House of Hidden Meanings - RuPaul

I -- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou ‡

J -- Journey Into Darkness (Mindhunter, #2) - John Douglas & Mark Olshaker,

K -- Karma - Boy George

L -- The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work For Change Without Losing Your Joy - Karen Walrond

M -- Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life is Not Okay - Cyndie Spiegel

N -- Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice - Virginia Roberts Giuffre

O -- The Opposite of Loneliness - Marina Keegan

P -- Pretty Girls - Karin Slaughter

Q -- The Queen's English: The Young Reader's LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases - Chloe O. Davis

R -- Radiant Rebellion: Reclaim Aging, Practice Joy, and Rase a Little Hell - Karen Walrond

S -- Sociopath: A Memoir - Patric Gagne, PhD

T -- The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1) - Richard Osman

U -- Under the Whispering Door - T.J. Klune

V -- The Virgin Suicides (25th Anniversary Edition) - Jeffrey Eugenides ‡

W -- What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing - Oprah Winfrey & Bruce D. Perry, MD. PhD

X -- Anxious People - Fredrik Backman

Y -- You (You, #1) - Caroline Kepnes ‡

Z -- Zero Days - Ruth Ware

One Word Title -- Acres - Kendra Barnes

Color on the Cover -- The Color Purple - Alice Walker ‡

Number in the Title -- 11/22/63 - Stephen King

Animal on the Cover -- Lily and the Octopus - Steven Rowley

Template can be found on Pinterest via @the.readindraven

* Books that have been read 2 times

† Books that have been read 3 times

‡ Books that are Banned

Rainbow Reading Challenge - Completed

I finished the Rainbow Reading Challenge a few months ago. I did a mixture of Fiction and Non-Fiction. 

Rainbow Reading Challenge 

Red -- Radiant Rebellion - Karen Walrond 

Orange -- The Diary of a Young Girl (75th Anniversary - The Definitive Edition) - Anne Franke * ‡

Yellow -- Carrie Soto is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Green -- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0) - Suzanne Collins

Dark Blue -- Somebody's Daughter - Ashley C. Ford

Light Blue -- Summer Sisters - Judy Blume

Purple -- Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) - Suzanne Collins 

Pink -- Let's Call Her Barbie - Renee Olson

White -- The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas ‡

Black -- Newtown: An American Tragedy - Matthew Lysiak 

Brown -- Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey

Grey -- Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty

Template can be found on Pinterest via @emilyreads15

* Books that have been read 2 times

† Books that have been read 3 times

‡ Books that are Banned

Goodreads Review - "The Devil at His Elbow"

The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty by Valerie Bauerlein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I highly recommend this book even if you've already seen documentaries about the Murdaugh family. This is the best book out there on this story. There's so much information on this family and the tragedies surrounding them. The writing was so good and it flowed very well.


There were a few quotes that stuck out to me:

"Alex had his secrets.  So did his forefathers.  Alex’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather could make secrets disappear, and they had taught Alex to embrace the family ethos: To live above the law, you must become the law."

"For more than a century, the Murdaughs had practiced the art of putting a polished sheen over the mess of reality.

"Waters pressed Alex on the magnitude of his success and influence. There was an absurdity to Alex's disputing something so plainly true, as if he were so accustomed to swimming in the water of privilege, he forgot it was water at all."

"A dominant impression, shared by many, was that Moselle felt like a place where the barrier between the living and the dead was very thin."

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Goodreads Review - "The Texas Tower Sniper"

The Texas Tower Sniper: The Terrifying True Story of Charles Whitman by Ryan Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

History that’s worth learning about…

I read this book in order to understand more about the shooting and the shooter.

I’m a bit disappointed in how the author filled in the story with information that would be impossible to know. He wrote a lot about what the shooter and the victims (those that died) were thinking during the shooting. How could he possibly know what Charlie’s mother was thinking when he got to the house to kill her. I understand that Charlie wrote a lot about what happened to him but he didn’t write about any of it during the shooting and neither did the victims that died.

It’s a book worth reading to get information on what happened so I would still recommend the book.

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Date Read: 12 - 23 Sep 2024

Goodreads Reviews - "A Mother's Reckoning"

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I actually read this book back in 2017 and forgot to add my review to Goodreads. This book was amazing and insightful, to say the least. I encourage anyone who ever faulted the parents of the Columbine shooting, to pick up this book with an open mind and read it. To anyone who has lost a child to suicide, read this book.
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I'll never forget that summer after the shooting in 1999 when our youth group stood outside of the school to pray.
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"The best way to eliminate the belief that people with mental illness issues are violent is to help them so that they're not violent" --Dr. Kent Kiehl

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Date Read: 26 Feb - 26 Aug 2017

Goodreads Review - "The Perfect Father"

The Perfect Father: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder by John Glatt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Best author for true crime stories!!

This book was written really well and I would definitely recommend this author for other true crime stories. Such a sad story but I believe (in my opinion) it was written from an unbiased view and told both sides of the story.

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Date Read: 16 - 18 Apr 2023