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, [...]]]>

Click to sign up

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?

• The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
• Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
• Delirium by Lauren Oliver
• Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
• Across the Universe by Beth Revis

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:

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 [...]]]>

Click to sign up

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:

1. Small Island by Andrea Levy
2. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
3. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
4. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
5. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein
• This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Borowski
• The River Between – Ngugi wa Thiong’o
• Villette by Charlotte Bronte
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Barbery (2010)
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (2006)
• Home by Marilynne Robinson (2010)
• What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Kafka on the Shore by Murakami (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Possession by A.S. Byatt (2006)
• Watchmen by Alan Moore (2006, 2008, 2010)
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (2006, 2008, 2010)
• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Ficciones by Borges (2006)
• Labyrinths by Borges (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak (2006, 2008, 2010)
• How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Deep River by Shusaku Endo (2008, 2010)
• Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Love Medicine by Louise Erdich (2008, 2010)
• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Some Prefer Nettles by Tanizaki (2008, 2010)
• Rashomon – Akutagawa Ryunosuke (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Kokoro – Natsume Soseki (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Hunger – Knut Hamsun (2006, 2008, 2010)
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (2006)
• I, Robot – Isaac Asimov (2006, 2008, 2010)
• The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien (2006, 2008, 2010)

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 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:

1. The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
2. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
3. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
4. The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer
5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

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, [...]]]>

Click to go to site

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

Thanks to those 2009 Pub challenge participants who made it a great success! I hope you’ll consider joining the 2010 Pub as well. For those who didn’t participate last year but want to read more 2010 releases, join us. New members are always welcome! The challenge lasts [...]]]>

Click to sign up

Thanks to those 2009 Pub challenge participants who made it a great success! I hope you’ll consider joining the 2010 Pub as well. For those who didn’t participate last year but want to read more 2010 releases, join us. New members are always welcome! The challenge lasts for all of 2010.

Here are the 2010 rules:

1. Read a minimum of 10 books first published in 2010. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2010, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2009, and then published in the USA in 2010, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2010.
2. No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
3. At least 5 titles must be fiction.
4. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
5. You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.
6. Sign up at the Pub Challenge site using Mr. Linky.
7. Have fun reading your 2010 books!

10 months. 10 awards.

Thanks to all those who participated in the first three book awards challenges!! Are you up for a fourth? The challenge for Book Awards IV will last for 10 months, from January 1 through November 1, 2010.

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Only 16 current year titles this year. My favorites are marked with an asterix (*), and my #1 favorite is double asterixed (**).

These are the 2009 titles that I read this year:

We had to give 5 book recommendations, and then choose titles from a master list. My [...]]]> Renay from Bottle of Shine (who is an absolute hoot!)  hosted this fun challenge again, thanks Renay!

We had to give 5 book recommendations, and then choose titles from a master list. My goal was 5, and I read 6.

My 5 suggestions were:

1. The Houskeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (read in ‘09) — Sweet, tender story about mathematics, baseball, memory, and finding family.
2. The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho (read in ‘09) — I love Coelho, and this book raises an important question on the issue of whether humans are basically good or basically evil.
3. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (read in ‘08) — This was recommended by Dewey last round, and it was one of the titles I read for the challenge and absolutely loved.  This one is NOT just for kids!
4. Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (read in ‘08) — Very quirky book that I enjoyed because I felt Galchen had a unique writing style and because I got the inside jokes and references about Argentina. A NYT Notable book.
5. Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman (read in ‘08) — Scarily enough, this book describes the small town I grew up in almost exactly.

The books I read for the challenge were:

1. Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Jane Patillo
2. The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson
3. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
4. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
5. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
6. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

The requirement was 5, and I ended up with 6 awards:

My goal was 6 [...]]]> Well, I made some goals but failed at others. I’m very happy that I was able to complete my goals for the Pulitzer, Newbery, Notable, and Nobel lists. I’m really disappointed, though, that I only read 2 Bookers, 2 Oranges, and 3 Science in Fiction books. But there’s always next year, right?

My goal was 6 in each category, and here’s how I did:

Pulitzers (6 titles)

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2008)
2. The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973)
3. A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1987)
4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1932)
5. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1921)
6. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

Booker Prize (6 titles)

1. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
2. The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro

Orange Prize (6 titles)

1. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (1997)
2. Property by Valerie Martin (2003)

Newbery Award (6 titles)

1. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
2. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
3. Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
4. The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
5. Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
6. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
7. Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Nobel laureates (6 titles)

1. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
2. Thousand Cranes by Yaunari Kawabata
3. A Tale of Two Gardens by Octavio Paz
4. Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
5. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
6. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
7. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof
8. Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset

Notable Books (6 titles)

1. Finn by Jon Clinch (2008 ALA)
2. Petropolis by Anya Ulinich (2007 CSM)
3. Mistik Lake by Martha Brook (2007 PW)
4. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junor Diaz (2007 NYT)
5. The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro (2007 NYT)
6. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (2007 PW)
7. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti (2008 NYT)
8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009 CSM)
9. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009 NYT)
10. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008 PW)
11. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (2009 PW)

I’m really excited about this challenge so I can read everyone’s reviews and recommendations. I have a feeling my tbr is going to get ever higher. The challenge lasts until November 2010, and more information can be found at the Women Unbound Challenge site.

There are three options:

Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. Dark Fantasy. Gothic. Horror. Supernatural.

Carl’s R.I.P challenges are so much fun, but usually I just barely make the minimum required. I’m pretty proud of myself this year. Do you see the list below — I killed it (no pun intended)! I went with Peril the First, which was to read [...]]]>

Click for more info

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

Carl’s R.I.P challenges are so much fun, but usually I just barely make the minimum required. I’m pretty proud of myself this year. Do you see the list below — I killed it (no pun intended)! I went with Peril the First, which was to read 4 books from any subgenre, but I ended up reading 22. Including mysteries and thrillers allowed me to read more books than I normally would, and I also really got into some series books as well — Twilight, Chief Inspector Gamache, Sookie Stackhouse, and the Hunger Games. I enjoyed all the books I read, but my favorites were the titles with a single asterix below. My least favorites were probably the Sookie Stackhouse books and the manga Vampire Knight. I really enjoyed Sookie at first, but then it just got into too much s*x and oc*ult stuff for my tastes and Vampire Knight was just okay. I doubt I’ll continue on with either series, but who knows by next year. The double asterixes are for those titles that best fit what I consider to be the mood of the R.I.P. Challenge.

Thanks so much, Carl, and I’ll look forward to next year!

The books I read:

1. *Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice**
2. *Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury**
3. *The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
4. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
5. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
6. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
7. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
8. Still Life by Louise Penny
9. A Fatal Grace (aka Dead Cold) by Louise Penny
10. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
11. A Rule Against Murder (aka The Murder Stone) by Louise Penny
12. *The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
13. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
14. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
15. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
16. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill**
17. The Inhabited World by David Long
18. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman**
19. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
20. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
21. Vampire Knight Vol 1 by Matsuri Hino
22. *The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova**

Ones I really wanted to read but didn’t have time for:

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari

Bart’s Bookshelf is hosting a YA Dystopian Reading Challenge from October 15 through December 31, 2009. The only requirement is that we read 1-4 young adult dystopian books. I love dystopian lit, so now twisting of my arm is necessary. I plan on reading at least two (but may read more):