What an Animal 2

Date: July 1st of 2009 through February 28th of 2010

Host: Kristi

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read six books that have an animal in the title, on the cover, or playing a major role in the book. Fiction or non-fiction.

My list (to be announced as I go):
*Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog by Kitty Florey Burns

Japanese Literature Challenge 3

Date: July 30th of 2009 through January 30 of 2010.

Host: Bellezza

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read at least one book of Japanese origin. Yep, that's it. And dammit, this year I'm actually going to do it! I am!

My list of possibles (I will count myself a success if I read just one of these, but really, truly I hope I manage more than that!):

*Basho: The Complete Haiku

*Grotesque and/or Out by Natsuo Kirino

*some manga (possibly some Fruit Baskets by Natsuki Takaya)

*The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Colorful Reading Challenge

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: Rebecca

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 9 books with a color in the title. There are six required colors (red, white, blue, black, silver, and gold), and the other three are reader's choice.

My tentative list:

Red: Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech

White: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.

Blue: The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

Black: Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden

Silver: The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett

Gold: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Green: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Yellow: The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic that Shaped Our History by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Rose: Rose Madder by Stephen King

Young Adult Challenge '09

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: J.Kaye

For Details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 12 young adult books.

My list of possibles:

*An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

*Paper Towns by John Green

*A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti

*Nation by Terry Pratchett

*How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

*The Hollow People by Brian Keaney

*Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

*Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

*The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

*Gossamer by Lois Lowry

*Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

*Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones

*Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

*The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

*Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

*Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

*The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

*The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

*The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

*American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

*Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

*Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

*Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin

*The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

*The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

21 Cultures Challenge

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: Lost in Books

For Details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 21 books about 21 different cultures, modern or traditional. Books can be fictional, but must not be about a fictional culture.

My list of possibles:

*The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost (Tarawa)

*Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost (Fiji and Vanuatu)

*The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U (Burma)

*The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly (Thailand)

*Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang (China)

*Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (China)

*Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)

*Legend of Chun Hyang by CLAMP (Korea)

*A Taste of Earth and Other Legends of Vietnam by Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnam)

*The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)

*In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD (Saudi Arabia)

*The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Iran)

*I’jaam by Sinan Antoon (Iraq)

*A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti (Israel/Gaza)

*The Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)

*Antipode by Heather E. Heying (Madagascar)

*Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell (Sierra Leone)

*They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein (Sudan)

*House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-Torn Zimbabwe by Christina Lamb (Zimbabwe)

*ZenZele by J. Nozipo Maraire (Zimbabwe)

*Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)

*Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Kenya)

*A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche (Rwanda)

*King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (Congo region)

*No More Strangers Now interviews by Tim McKee (South Africa)

*Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Sweden)

*Winterwood by Patrick McCabe (Ireland)

*The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman (England)

*The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (England)

*The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (Germany)

*Fax from Sarajevo by Joe Kubert (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

*The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie (Nicaragua)

*The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Chile)

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

*The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic)

*Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston (Haiti and Jamaica)

*Almost Heaven by Martin Fletcher (rural U.S.)

*The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Puritan New England)

*Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden (Cree of northern Ontario, Canada)

*Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson (Haisla of British Columbia, Canada)

*Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon (many indigenous cultures around the world)

Young Readers Challenge

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: Becky

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read at least 12 children's books (anything written to be read, or read aloud, to children 12 and under).

My list (to be filled in as I go):
1. Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner
2. Have You Got My Purr? by Judy West
3. Toots the Cat by Karla Kuskin
4. Comic Adventures of Boots by Satoshi Kitamura
5. Cat and Fish by Joan Grant
6. Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
7. Circle of Cats by Charles de Lint
8. Cat, What Is That? by Tony Johnston
9. The Scaredy Cats by Barbara Bottner
10. The Cat Who Walked Across France by Kate Banks
11.
12.

Dream King Challenge

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: Jessi

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): There are several levels of participation, but the basic gist is reading Neil Gaiman works in a variety of categories and watching one movie.

My list:

*The Wolves in the Walls (children/young adult)

*Fragile Things (short story collection)

*Anansi Boys (novel)

*The Sandman: Doll's House (graphic novel)
bonus for category:
--The Sandman: Dream Country
--The Sandman: Season of Mists
--The Sandman: A Game of You

*Mirrormask (audiobook)

*The 13 Clocks (other: Neil approved reading)

*Death: At Death's Door by Jill Thompson (Neil spin-offs)

*Stardust (movie)