Sorry it took me awhile to set up this year’s 2011 Pub Challenge. This year, I did away with the restriction on children/YA books. The requirement is 11 books, though! Click the above icon to sign up.
It’s difficult to know which books I’ll want to read for the challenge this year, but below is a preliminary list. Any recommendations?
Sign-ups for Book Awards V are at the Book Awards Challenge site. This time all that’s required is reading 5 books from 5 different awards. My list of possibles is here:
Home by Marilynne Robinson (Orange Prize)
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Printz)
Moon over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool (Newbery)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (Pulitzer)
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (Nebula)
I will probably change this list as whim takes me.
I hope everyone had fun reading from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list in the last challenge. Are you ready to try it again? This time, since the editors have a 2010 edition out and have added even more titles to the list, the challenge only has one option: read 13 books from the 1294 titles that have ever been on any list (2006, 2008, or 2010).
The challenge runs from April 1, 2010 through April 30, 2011.
Click the pic at the right to sign-up.
My pool of choices, with 1001 editions in parentheses:
The Once Upon a Time Challenge is one of my favorite challenges every year. It’s always fun coming up with a list and this year is no different. I’m going for Quest the First, in which the goal is to read 5 books in any qualifying category. These are my possible reads for the challenge:
I have several perpetual challenges going on, and last year it was my goal to read 6 books in each category. I made my goal in some categories but not in others. This year, I’ll have two different levels. Some categories will have a 6 book goal, and some will have a 3 book goal. I’ll list some possible titles below under each category, but I do reserve the right to change my titles at any time.
Here is the plan for 2010:
Pulitzer Prize – 6 titles
2010 winner
2002 – Empire Falls (Russo)
2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
1992 – A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
1989 – Breathing Lessons (Tyler)
1981 – A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
1937 – Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1936 – Honey in the Horn (Davis)
1935 – Now in November (Johnson)
1925 – So Big (Ferber)
Booker Prize – 6 titles
2010 winner
1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan
1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
1982 Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
1981 Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Newbery Medal – 6 titles
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The View from Saturday by Konigsburg
Holes by Sachar
NYT Notable – 6 titles
American Rust by Phillipp Meyer
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Orange Prize – 3 titles
2009 Home, by Marilynne Robinson
2008 The Road Home, by Rose Tremain
2006 On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
2005 We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
2004 Small Island, by Andrea Levy
2002 Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
2001 The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville
1998 Larry’s Party, by Carol Shields
Printz Project – 3 titles
2009 Jellicoe Road by Marchetta
2006 Looking for Alaska by John Green
2001 Kit’s Wilderness by Steve Almond
Nobel laureates – 3 titles from 3 different laureates
This year I made the Book Awards Challenge quite a bit more difficult by requiring 10 different awards, but it’s okay to cheat a little, too. For instance, I’m mostly interested in the Pulitzer, Orange, and Booker winners, but I can still find some of those winners on other lists, too. So of course it’s acceptable to use double winners in that manner. For instance Lonesome Dove (a Pulitzer) also won the Spur Award, and Bel Canto (an Orange) also won the PEN/Faulkner. There are other examples below as well. In looking at my list below, I’m really surprised that I have that many titles as possibles for the Nebula. Maybe I need to read more from that award!
Hope everyone has fun attempting this challenge.
Here is what I’m thinking about for the Book Awards IV:
Anthony Award – She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb
Booker Prize – Disgrace by Coetzee
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize – Andrea Levy, Small Island
OR Kate Grenville, The Secret River
OR Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (U.S. title: Someone Knows My Name)
Costa/Whitbread – Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves
Edgar – Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
Giller – Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman
Hugo – To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
IMPAC – Michael Thomas, Man Gone Down OR Rawi Hage, De Niro’s Game OR Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums
James Tait Black – Rosalind Belben, Our Horses in Egypt
Kiriyama Prize – Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Miles Franklin - Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
NBCC – Jane Smiley A Thousand Acres
Nebula – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon OR The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon OR American Gods by Neil Gaiman OR Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler OR Doomsday Book by Connie Willis OR Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card OR Neuromancer by William Gibson
Newbery – Lynne Rae Perkins Criss Cross
Orange Prize – Home – Robinson OR On Beauty – Smith OR The Idea of Perfection – Grenville OR Larry’s Party – Shields
PEN/Faulkner - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
PEN/Hemingway – Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Printz – Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta OR Looking for Alaska, John Green
Pulitzer – Empire Falls – Richard Russo OR American Pastoral - Philip Roth OR Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler
Spur – Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
OR Tallgrass By Sandra Dallas
OR The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udal
World Fantasy Award - Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay OR Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
list in the last challenge. Are you ready to try it again? This time, since the editors have a 2010 edition out and have added even more titles to the list, the challenge only has one option: read 13 books from the 1294 titles that have ever been on any list (2006, 2008, or 2010).
