Reading Challenge 2015: Update

I've been busy this summer, and I have some more posts to make regarding my Colorado Bucket List, but first how about some updates on that reading challenge?

Here's a reminder of the things that were on the list:

I already posted about a book in a genre I don't typically read (my choice here kind of felt like a cheat, but oh well). Now I can add a book from my childhood (okay, more than one book from my childhood).

I'm currently working on a book recommended by someone with great taste and a book that was originally written in a different language (technically the first book could also be the second book, but I think I'm going to split them up because again, that would be cheating...). I've also finished a book I've been meaning to read (for about 15 years or more), and I'll report on that one later.

So here are the books:

First, a book from my childhood. In this case, I not only read a book from my childhood, but the book from my childhood, as in the exact same paperback, which I stole from my mom when I was visiting recently (okay, I didn't really steal it cause I asked first). Here's the book:

I read a lot of Andre Norton when I was a kid. And by a lot I mean A LOT. This book is about a dude who specializes in gemstones, the freaky-weird stone he inherits from his father, and his telepathic cat-critter Eet. I remember pretending to be Murdoc Jern and hunting through the front yard for cool-looking rocks, but I didn't actually remember much of the book. Except for Eet. Telepathic cats tend to stick with you.

I also re-read The Beast Master, which was one of my favs. I had a bigtime crush on Hosteen Storm, and I remember crouching over my typewriter writing a story that was a total ripoff of this book when I was probably 10 or so. Here's that original paperback from when I read it as a kid, although I did the reread on audiobook because I saw it at the library and thought, Wow, I didn't know you could get Andre Norton audiobooks!

I enjoyed reading both of these, though I liked The Beast Master more. I think it was because The Zero Stone, is written in first person, and Norton's style, which is a bit sticky and overwrought at the best of times, is even moreso in first person. I'd still like to read the sequel, and I've already started the sequel to The Beast Master. I also discovered the series was extended starting fairly recently with a new Beast Master and her adventures. Somehow I don't really want to read those, though. Hosteen Storm will always be the Beast Master to me.