Southern Reading Challenge 3

Date: May 15th through August 15th of 2009

Host: Maggie

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read three books set in the south by southern authors.

My list:

*A Painted House by John Grisham

*A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

*The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

...or whatever strikes my fancy at the time

Notes:
Maybe the third year is the charm when it comes to actually finishing this challenge. ;) I considered not joining this year...I mean one can only fail at something so many times before one starts feeling like a real loser, right? But then I got to thinking about a couple of books that I likely wouldn't have read if not for this challenge, like The Secret Life of Bees and Sonny's House of Spies, and it made me sad to think that I might be passing up finding another treasure like those if I didn't join. Sound reasoning, if you ask me.

What an Animal Reading Challenge

Dates: July 1st, 2008 through June 30, 2009

Host: Kristi

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read 6 books with any combination of the following: animal in the title, animal on the cover, animal plays big part in book, main character turns into an animal.

My list of possibles (after wasting a great deal of time pulling out every book with an animal in its title off my TBR shelves, excluding books that are in the middle of a series):

*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

*The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge by Harry Harrison

*The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World by Harry Harrison

*Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed

*The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

*Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan

*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

*The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

*Lord of the Flies by William Golding

*The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

*The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

*Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey (thanks, Jean!)

*The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman

*The Ugly Duckling by Iris Johansen

*Dark Horse by Tami Hoag

*Stone Monkey by Jeffery Deaver

*Wolf by Gillian Cross

*May-Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson

*Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul by Edward Humes

*The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

*Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

*The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

*The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie

*The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell

*...I never saw another butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944

*The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot

*The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater

Well, I definitely have a eclectic mix to choose from anyway. :)

Once Upon a Time III

Dates: March 21st through June 20th of 2009

Host: Carl

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): There are actually a number of different options, but in general it just involves reading books from the fantasy/folklore/fairy tale/mythology realms.

Okay, so here's a potential pool of each of the categories:

Myth:
*A Taste of Earth and Other Legends of Vietnam by Thich Nhat Hanh
*Native American Myths by Diana Ferguson
*Warriors Gods & Spirits from Central & South American Mythology by Douglas Gifford
*The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
*The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursa
*The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
*Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
*The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman

Folklore:
*The Book of Ballads by Charles Vess and others
*Outfoxing Fear: Folktales from Around the World edited by Kathleen Ragan
*Best-Loved Folktales of the World selected by Joanna Cole (though I won't read all of this during the challenge)
*Legend of Chun Hyang by CLAMP

Fairy Tale:
*The Illustrated Treasury of Fairy Tales designed by Rita Marshall
*Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (though I won't read all of this during the challenge)
*The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales (though I won't read all of this during the challenge)
*Pay the Piper: A Rock 'N' Roll Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
*The Sisters Grimm: The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley
*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
*The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech
*Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
*Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
*Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham

Fantasy:
*The Princess Bride by William Goldman
*The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
*Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
*The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
*Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip
*What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire
*Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest by Matt Haig
*The Book Without Words by Avi
*Strange Roads by Peter S. Beagle
*River Secrets by Shannon Hale
*Attica by Garry Kilworth


And possible books to mine stories for Short Story Weekends:
*The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
*M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman
*Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
*Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
*The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
*Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy edited by Ekaterina Sedia

Spring Reading Thing 2009

Dates: March 20th through June 20th of 2009

Host: Katrina

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Make a list of things to read this spring...and read them.

Notes:
*The Spring Reading Thing in 2007 was the very first reading challenge I ever joined. :) Just look where it's led.
*I love that we can add other reading goals, along with or instead of, a list of books. Very cool idea!

My list:

Books:
*Fax From Sarajevo by Joe Kubert
*The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
*Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby
*Nation by Terry Pratchett
*The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
*The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going
*...I never saw another butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944
*Step on a Crack by James Patterson

Books to read to boys:
*Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater
*The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater
*Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest by Matt Haig

Misc.:
*read 5 scrapbooking ideas books and/or magazines from stack
*read and recycle 10 other magazines from stack

Book Awards II

Dates: August 1st, 2008 through June 1st, 2009

Host: 3M

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read 10 award winners. Must encompass winners from at least 5 different awards.

My list of possibles:

*The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh (Arthur C. Clarke Award 1997)

*Lisey's Story by Stephen King (Bram Stoker Award 2006)

*lost boy, lost girl by Peter Straub (Bram Stoker Award 2003)

*Bag of Bones by Stephen King (Bram Stoker Award 1998)

*Fax From Sarajevo by Joe Kubert (Eisner Award: Best Graphic Album 1997)

*A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (Carnegie Medal 2003)

*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (Carnegie Medal 2001)

*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Costa/Whitbread 2003 and Alex Award 2004)

*Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (Hugo Award 1987 and Nebula Award 1986)

*The Road by Cormac McCarthy (James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2006 and Pulitzer Prize 2007)

*Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear (Nebula Award 2000)

*Dune by Frank Herbert (Nebula Award 1965 and Hugo Award 1966)

*The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Newbery Award 1979)

*The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Newbery Award 1959)

*The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (Christopher Award 2007)

*American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Printz Award 2007)

*Looking for Alaska by John Green (Printz Award 2006)

*How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (Printz Award 2005)

*The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Pulitzer Prize 1975)

*All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Pulitzer Prize 1947)

*A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Royal Society Prize 2004)

*Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (World Fantasy Award 2005 and Hugo Award 2005)

*The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (Alex Awards 2007)

*The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Alex Awards 2007)

*Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Alex Awards 2006)

*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Alex Awards 2006)

*The Class Castle by Jeannette Walls (Alex Awards 2006)

*Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan (Alex Awards 2005)

*The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Alex Award 2004)

*Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (Alex Award 2003)

*Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (Alex Award 2002)

*Stardust by Neil Gaiman (Alex Award 2000)

*The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa (Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2007)

*The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright (Pulitzer Prize 2007)

*What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Costa First Novel Award 2007)

Exploration: Reading Latin America

Dates: January 1st through April 30th of 2009

Host: Katrina

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read four books, fiction or non-fiction, from/about Latin America. There are a variety of different options.

My list:

*A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet by Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela

*The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie

*The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner

*News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Diversity Rocks Reading Challenge

***Yeah! I made it!***

Dates: January 1st through February 28th of 2009 (?)

Host: Ali

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): There are several options. I'm choosing The Non-Joiner level, reading one book by a non-white author.

My list of possibles:

*In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD

*Fledgling by Octavia Butler

*Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers edited by Shyam Selvadurai

*The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie

*Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino

*The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid