UPDATE: Completed Challenges

It's time to update some challenges I've completed recently:



Once upon a Time Challenge Mar 21 - June 21/08

goal: Read 5 books in the fantasy/fairy tale/folklore genre.
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
The Complete Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde
Beauty, by Robin McKinley
Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I'm learning that this isn't my favorite genre, it can be rather hit or miss.
Hits: The Goose Girl and Zel
Misses: Stardust and Oscar Wilde

But Carl V still rocks and I'll definitely be around for his RIP III in the fall.

In the Pub '08 all year
Goal: read 8 books published in 2008
1. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
2. The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space by Jim Lebans
3. The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason
4. The Ravine by Paul Quarrington
5. A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
6. The Outcast by Sadie Jones
7. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
8. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

I was quite surprised how easy this one was, but getting advanced copies, winning books, and just being more aware of new releases made this one easy. There are some great books on this list. Favorite: Remember Me?, but they were all good and I would recommend any of them for different readers. A toast to 3M(Michelle) for hosting this and bringing me into the new release section of the bookstore. There is still time to join this challenge, the year is only half over.

Heard it Through the Grapevine May 1 - Nov 30/08
Goal: read 3 books that have been recommended to you

1. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, recommended by 3M at onemorechapter
2. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill both recommended by kookiejar at a fraternity of dreamers
3. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips, recommended by tinylittlelibrarian, and kookiejar

Haven't got to yet, but still plan to:
1. Sacred Cows by Karen E. Olsen, recommended by chris at book-a-rama
2. Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos, recommended by literary feline at musings of...
3. Then We Came to The End by Joshua Ferris, also by kookiejar

You can't go wrong with this challenge, because all the best people with the best taste are suggesting great reads. Thanks to Lynne at her little corner of the world for putting this one together. There is a whole blog for this one that I didn't join mostly so Iwouldn't get even more recommendations, but there is still time to join up; three books in four months? Easy.

Chunkster Challenge 2 til Dec 20th, beating the Christmas rush

Goal: read 4 books, each over 450 pages.

from the original list:
1. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak: 550 pages
3. The Night Watch, Sarah Waters: 503 pages
6. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith: 483 pages
8. Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons, Lorna Landvik, 483 pages

The best of these is The Book Thief, but none felt like a chunkster, which is the best compliment I can give a big book. Thanks to think pink dana for hosting this one. You should see all the Chunksters that have been read already for this one.

BOOK: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

Chunkster Challenge; Booker shortlist 2006; an Orange July

The Night Watch is post war London, but going back in time, as we follow four main characters. It's an interesting technique in that we know the ending and the past is hinted at, so the story is how they got there. In the first part of the book 1947, we meet Kay, a woman who dresses as a man and can't seem to find the purpose she had during the war as an ambulance driver; Duncan, working in a factory, but who spent the war in prison; Viv, escaping her day job as a match maker to have trysts with her married lover Reggie; and Helen, who works with Viv, and is desperately jealous of her lover, a writer named Julia. The first part sets up the second section, 1944, and all the situations and ways that the charcters overlap to give us 1947. The final section, 1941 is almost not needed, but it does give the first meetings and ultimate set ups.

I raced through 1944, with many oh! moments as things became clear. Ultimately, it was a very sad book as you realize the characters and their choices and how depressing their lives were at the end. I should go back and read the first part again, but I hate to do that. Nobody is very happy and I guess that's the result of war, but also it is the choices they made. The characters spend the war thinking things will change, it will all be better, but it's just their life and things don't change that dramatically. In the same way that overweight people think their life will be better if only they can lose weight, but the things that made them unhappy are still there; or people who win the lottery think their lives will all be better, but it's not money that made them unhappy in the first place.

Wartime London with the blitzes and warnings was described vividly. I was struck with the difference in war scenes from other books I've read recently, like The Cellist of Sarajevo and A Long Way Gone (Sierra Leone.) Both of those were civil wars with rebels taking over. London had a desperate feel, but at least they were all in it together. The government had departments set up to reimburse people who had been bombed. The enemy was clear - the Germans, and they were under attack and all working together, by Jimmy. The civil war states are so less clear, and there is no help for the citizens since it is some of the citizens who are the enemy. Not that London was a good place to be, but it was a clearly defined war as opposed to Bosnia or Sierra Leone where no one was helping anyone, just people living and hoping this was not their life forever.

This book finishes the Chunkster Challenge, and a personal 'check off the list' book that I've been meaning to read for a year now. Plus I've read one for the Orange July.

BOOK: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith


chunkster challenge 483 p; what's in a name? plant in title category; decades challenge 1940s



This is a book I've been meaning to read for quite a while, so it ended up being on several challenge lists, most notably the chunkster challenge. At 483 pages, it took a while to read. Francie Nolan grows up from 10 til 17 years old, during the early part of the 20th century. Smith provides a view of life, based on her life, of poor working class Americans living in Brooklyn. It was a time of vast changes, but with so little historically happening, it's a time I haven't read much about. It's not prohibition, it's not the first World War, it's not nation building. I enjoyed it, but I think if I had read it as a much younger person, it might have had more impact on me. There were parts that touched me a lot, but in other places I found it a bit preachy. The funniest part was when Francie's brother tried to buy sauerkraut once the Americans had joined the war, and he forgot to order it as Liberty Cabbage. Freedom Fries anyone?

It was an epic novel, following one family's journey, during a much simpler time of life. A glimpse of life when the difference between rich and poor was very noticeable, when a family's pride was all they had as they struggled to better themselves. A real American dream novel.

CHALLENGE: Chunkster Challenge 2

the definition: chunkster - a book with more than 450 pages; a kick-ass novel; method of combining reading and arm-lifts.

the preamble: Last year, I looked at Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in the library, and decided I didn't really want to carry a brick around for 5 months while I tried to read it. Also, this was my toughest challenge last year.

the rationale: I really didn't want to sign up for this because chunkster books scare me. I worry I won't like it, that it will take too long to finish when there are so many other more reasonable books (250 - 400 pages) out there. But I probably read at least 4 big books in a year. It helps that I am reading The Book Thief right now, weighing in at about 545 pages. As well, so far I am sticking with Les Miserables at livejournal, a chapter a day. That's two right there. So let's make a little list of books I know I'd like to read, and see what it looks like.

the list:

1. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak: 550 pages
2. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo: ? but it's 365 chapters
3. The Night Watch, Sarah Waters: 503 pages
4. Lisey's Story, Stephen King: 653 pages
5. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl: 514 pages
6. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith: 483 pages
7. The Boleyn Inheritance, Philippa Gregory: 518 pages
8. Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons, Lorna Landvik, 483 pages
   

the caving: I am sure I can read 4 of these by December 20th, 2008.

the credits: think pink dana is hosting this year, since bookfool is looking after her mother, and we are all thinking of them.