Once Upon A Time UPDATE

And Neverwhere [by Neil Gaiman] Read Along 

Once upon a time I used to blog more often than once every 10 days! Seriously, it has been over a week since my last post and even longer since I've visited most of your blogs. I just hate when that happens. A little speed bump in the life of a blogger, I suppose. Needless to say I'm so sorry!!!! Let's catch up this week! On the bright side, at least I've been reading! So far this month I've read four books and am nearly finished with the fifth, so I can't complain there. It's about halfway through the time period set aside for the Once Upon A Time VI Reading Challenge that I joined over at Carl's blog Stainless Steel Droppings and I thought I'd do a little update on my progress. Let you know what I've been reading and remind me what I still need to read by the end of June.

I decided to participate in Quest the Third which requires me to read one book in each of the following four sub genres: fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, and mythology and read Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

So far I have read If I Die by Rachel Vincent for the folklore requirement. If I Die is the fifth book in the young adult Soul Screamers series that deals with bean sidhes, reapers, maras, syphons, hellions and other beings from folklore about death, spirits and the after life. The author seamlessly melds very realistic, modern teenage drama with fantasy elements in fast paced, suspenseful stories. The author never takes the easy road with her characters, which I appreciate. They make some bold--and sometimes poor-- decisions, but that's part of what makes them so realistic. Teens sometimes mess up. They take risks, get in trouble, they argue, they hurt each other's feelings, and sometimes they really care about each other more than anything else in the world and often do the right thing.

Right now I'm reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for the fantasy element of the challenge. It's also one of the books that Carl has chosen for a group read along. I don't think you have to be participating in Once Upon A Time to join in. So if you've always wanted to read Neverwhere or a book by Neil Gaiman or if you'd just like to do a read along, why not check it out? Visit Stainless Steel Droppings at The Nevewhere Read Along and join in. This week is week one for which we're reading the Prologue through Chapter Five, posting our discussion Q&A on Monday, May 21, so you're not even late!

I feel obligated to tell you, however, that the book is so good that you might just have trouble stopping at Chapter Five. You might start reading it and then all of a sudden discover you're on Chapter Thirteen with less than 100 pages to go to the end and you just can't stop reading!!! I happen to know this from personal experience. ; )

After Neverwhere, I'll be looking to read a fairy tale, a mythological book and Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm pretty sure I'm going to read either Cat's Tale or Ember by Bettie Sharpe for the fairy tale. I'm still thinking to read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, but I'm not sure if I want to read it just now.

Do you have any recommendations for a mythological story?