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And Then There Were None
My Rating: 4 out of 5  

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Today I have finished my tenth book in two months (with two days to spare!). And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is said to be the #1 bestselling mystery novel of all time and I am glad I chose it as the finale for my Summer Reading Challenge. Ten strangers are lured to a mysterious island where, one by one, the group is murdered in an unsolvable crime. The first time I read it, over ten years ago, I never could have guessed who the murderer was. While it was a slow read for me in the beginning this time (since I knew the culprit), about halfway through I got sucked into the suspense all over again. The last 20 pages are completely captivating.

When I first started this challenge, I simply wanted to re-spark my interest in reading and in the past two months I have certainly accomplished that. I remember now that books offer more than a pleasurable pastime; they invite you to engage that childlike imagination that tends to get stifled in the monotony of adult work and responsibility, to escape into a journey where I am not the center of the story. No one will argue that that's an unhealthy thing, especially in today's society.

I don't know what my next reading challenge will be yet, but I look forward to finding new stories that prompt me to question, to analyze, to sympathize and to celebrate. In this challenge, about half of the books I read are old favorites. I don't know if I want to continue re-reading old books I haven't read in a while or go for new entirely new books. I was thinking maybe of trying the Harry Potter series or the Chronicles of Narnia but I might put those on the back burner to do something simple, say reading two new books in a month. I definitely won't try to read another ten books in two months for a while. It was a bit too ambitious a goal to make a normal habit. If you have any book suggestions or an idea for a new challenge, I would love to hear it! Please let me know on Facebook or Twitter @KeishaLBrown.

FINISHED BOOKS:
#1 - The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#2 - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
#3 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
#4 - Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
#5 - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
#6 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
# 7 - The Importance of Being Ernest (a play) by Oscar Wilde
# 8 - The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
#9 - The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#10 - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie