Non-Fiction Five '09

Dates: May 1st through September 30th of 2009

Host: Trish

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 5 non-fiction books, with at least one of them in a different "category" than the rest.

My list of possibles:

*Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer (science)
*The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Mark Schultz (science)
*The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (history)
*Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (graphic memoir)
*The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarte Troost (travel)
*Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul by Edward Humes (current events)
*Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (diary)
*The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (medicine)
*Zodiac by Robert Graysmith (true crime)
*College-Prep Homeschooling: Your Complete Guide to Homeschooling through High School by David P. Byers, Ph.D. and Chandra Byers (how-to)
*Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (economics/sociology)
*Walden by Henry David Thoreau (environmental essay)
*Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon (economics/travel)
*Pedro and Me by Judd Winick (memoir?)
*Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog by Kitty Burns Florey (language/writing)
*Normal by Amy Bloom (sociology/science)
*Affluenza by DeGraaf, Winn, and Naylor (sociology/economics/environment)
*A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld (history/personal stories)

The Countdown Challenge

Dates: August 8th 2008 through September 9th 2009

Host: 3M

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 9 books published in 2009, 8 books published in 2008, 7 books published in 2007...all the way down to 1 book published in 2001.

My list (unofficially, of course):

2009:

1. The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Mark Schultz
2. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

2008:

1. The Missing Girl by Norma Mazer Fox
2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
3. The Floods: Good Neighbors by Colin Thompson
4. The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
5. The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey
6. Amulet: Book One The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
7. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A. Ahmed
8. The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

2007:

1. Double Cross by James Patterson
2. 50 Reasons to Buy Fair Trade by Miles Litvinoff and John Madeley
3. That's Life: Finding Scrapbook Inspiration in the Everday by Nic Howard
4. Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese
5. The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech
6. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
7. Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon

2006:

1. Bizenghast Two by M. Alice LeGrow
2. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
3. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
4. House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-Torn Zimbabwe by Christina Lamb
5. George & Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism by Charlotte Moore
6. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

2005:

1. Looking for Alaska by John Green
2. Bizenghast One by M. Alice LeGrow
3. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti
4.
5.

2004:

1. Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule
2. Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
3. Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham
4.

2003:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
2. Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
3. Death: At Death's Door by Jill Thompson

2002:

1. Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess
2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

2001:

1. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

The 999 Challenge

Dates: January 1st through September 9th, 2009

Host: ?

For details: Click here (sign ups) or here (the blog).

The Challenge (put simply): Read nine books from each of nine categories of your own choosing. Nine books may overlap with one another.

My list (again, I'm just doing this unofficially):

Young adult:
1. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti
2. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
3. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
4. The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot
5. Nation by Terry Pratchett
6. Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
7. The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci
8. Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin
9.

War theme (fiction and/or non-fiction):
1. House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-Torn Zimbabwe by Christina Lamb
2. Fax From Sarajevo by Joe Kubert
3. ...I never saw another butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Set in countries other than U.S.:
1. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
2. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti
3. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD
4. Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon
5. No More Strangers Now interviews by Tim McKee
6. Legend of Chun Hyang by CLAMP
7.
8.
9.

Children's Classics:
1. The House With the Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Science Fiction:
1. The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge by Harry Harrison
2. The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Borrowed from Rich:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Borrowed from Annie:
1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Novellas (less than 250 pages):
1. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
2. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
5. Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin
6.
7.
8.
9.

One-word titles:
1. Rose by Jeff Smith
2. Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
3. Normal by Amy Bloom
4. Affluenza by John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor
5. Normal by Amy Bloom
6. Affluenza by DeGraaf, Winn, and Naylor
7.
8.
9.

Eco Reading Challenge

Date: May 1st through September 1st of 2009

Host: Chris.

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read 1-5 books related to the environment or green-living, plus commit one green reading act (see Chris's post for explanation).

My list (I'm shooting for three, but will count it as a success if I finish one):

*Walden by Henry David Thoreau

*Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

*Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

*The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson

*Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon

*Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf, David Winn, and Thomas Naylor

...or whatever strikes my fancy

Notes:
I love this challenge! I have no idea yet what my green reading act may be...we already do all the things she had listed, right down to already planting a new tree in our yard this year. But hopefully I'll be able to come up with something new.