999 Challenge book list

I'm feeling extremely ambitious right now, so I went ahead and signed up for this challenge along with all my others. There will be significant overlap between them, but it still means committing to reading a lot more books in 1 year than I usually do. "I can do it" is now my mantra.

For this one, the idea is to read 9 books in each of 9 different self-made categories, for a total of 81 books. Whew! A little overlap between categories is allowed, but no more than 9 books total, so the minimum to read is still 72. And to make it as challenging as possible, the goal is to finish by 9/9/09.

There is a website for the challenge here, but the heart of the challenge is happening at LibraryThing here. (Side note: I made the button myself, but anyone is welcome to grab it).

Okay, so what am I going to tackle? I'm keeping my options open for specific books and will post them as I read them. The categories I've chosen are:

1. 1001 Books

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -- review

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie -- review

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre -- review

The Cubs and Other Stories by Mario Vargas Llosa -- review

Middlemarch by George Eliot -- review

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen -- review

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley -- review

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- review

2. Man Booker and National Book Award winners and finalists

Atonement by Ian McEwan -- review

The World According to Garp by John Irving -- review

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul -- review

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth -- review

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor - review

3. Through the Decades (overlaps with Decades '09 challenge)

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne -- review

The Fall of the House of Usher and other stories by Edgar Allen Poe -- review

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle -- review

Howards End by E. M. Forster -- review

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- review

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells -- review

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell -- review

Nana by Emile Zola -- review

4. Dewey's Books (overlaps with Dewey's Books challenge)

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de St.-Exupéry -- review

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman -- review

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett -- review

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer -- review

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris -- review

Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World by Roger E. Axtell -- review

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton -- review

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer -- review

5. C.S. Lewis nonfiction

The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis -- review

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis -- review

The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis -- review

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis -- review

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

6. Biographies -- COMPLETE

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography by Marion Meade -- review

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1750-1832 by Stella Tillyard -- review

Josephine: A Life of the Empress by Carolly Erickson -- review

Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III by Flora Fraser -- review

Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson by Adam Sisman -- review

Daughter of China: A True Story of Love and Betrayal by Meihong Xu and Larry Engelmann -- review

Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford -- review

Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration by Antonia Fraser -- review

Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller -- review

7. Travel -- COMPLETE

Bella Tuscany: the Sweet Life in Italy by Frances Mayes -- review

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald -- review

The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah -- review

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson -- review

Everyday Life in Imperial Japan by Charles J. Dunn -- review

Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey by Alison Wearing -- review

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert -- review

Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle -- review

A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat by Jeremy Seal -- review

8. Catholicism -- COMPLETE

Catholicism for Dummies by Rev. John Trigilio Jr. and Rev. Kenneth Brighenti -- review

The Rosary: A Journey to the Beloved by Gary Jansen -- review

On Being Catholic by Thomas Howard -- review

The Catholic Woman: Difficult Choices in a Modern World by Jeanne Pieper -- review

The Truth of Catholicism: Inside the Essential Teachings and Controversies of the Church Today by George Weigel -- review

Gift and Mystery: On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination by Pope John Paul II -- review

Catholicism Today: A Survey of Catholic Belief and Practice by Matthew Kohmescher -- review

What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life by Thomas Groome -- review

No Greater Love by Mother Theresa -- review

9. Dewey Decimal (overlaps with Dewey Decimal challenge) -- COMPLETE

The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them by Roxanne Coady and Joy Johannessen -- review

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell -- review

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester -- review

Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country by Joe Queenan -- review

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer -- review

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein -- review

Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope by Shirin Ebadi -- review

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier -- review

Outline of English Architecture by A. H. Gardner -- review

A to Z Challenge book list

Becky from Becky's Book Reviews is taking over as host of this challenge for 2009. As you'd expect, the goal is to read one book for every letter of the alphabet. You can read more and sign up here. She's added some options this year to make it a bit easier on us:

Option A: Read authors A to Z. Commit to reading 26 books theoretically speaking.

Option B: Read titles A to Z. Commit to reading 26 books theoretically speaking.

Option C: Read both authors A to Z and titles A to Z (52 books; this is the challenge Joy created)

Option D: Read internationally A to Z (books representing 26 different countries) (The books could be from international authors (writers from that country); however, it's fine if a book is only set in that country. If need be, instead of countries one could use cities, states, regions, etc. The idea is to use proper place names. If you'd like you could even use a few fictional countries.)

Option E: Read 26 Alphabet books. Embrace your inner child and go visit the children's section!

I'm officially going to choose Option A, but am unofficially going to be trying for Option C (just because I've lost my mind and signed up for WAY TOO MANY challenges already). No way am I going to attempt to pick out things ahead of time, though, so I'll just add them here as I read them.

Book list:

A: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier -- review

B: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- review

C: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie -- review

D: Everyday Life in Imperial Japan by Charles J. Dunn -- review

E: Josephine: A Life of the Empress by Carolly Erickson -- review

F: Howards End by E. M. Forster -- review

G: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell -- review

H: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -- review

I: The World According to Garp by John Irving -- review

J: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

K: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer -- review

L: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre -- review

M: Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald -- review

N: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger -- review

O: A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor - review

P: The Fall of the House of Usher and other stories by Edgar Allen Poe -- review

Q: Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country by Joe Queenan -- review

R: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling -- review

S: The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah -- review

T: Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1750-1832 by Stella Tillyard -- review

U: Morality Play by Barry Unsworth -- review

V: Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne -- review

W: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester -- review

X: Daughter of China: A True Story of Love and Betrayal by Meihong Xu and Larry Engelmann -- review

Y: Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus -- review

Z: Nana by Emile Zola -- review

Dewey Decimal System Challenge book list

The goal is to read one book from each of the Dewey Decimal classification codes. You can read more and sign up here. Here's what I've picked (some I can't decide, so I'm giving myself a choice):

000 - Generalities: The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them by Roxanne Coady and Joy Johannessen -- completed 2/13/09; review here

100 - Philosophy and Psychology: Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein -- completed 5/1/09; review here

200 - Religion: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer -- completed 1/27/09; review here

300 - Social Sciences: Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope by Shirin Ebadi -- completed 5/29/09; review here

400 - Language: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester -- completed 3/9/09; review here

500 - Natural Sciences + Math: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier -- completed 6/19/09; review here

600 - Technology: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell -- completed 2/24/09; review here

700 - The Arts: Outline of English Architecture by A. H. Gardner -- completed 7/14/09; review here

800 - Literature and Rhetoric: Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson by Adam Sisman -- completed 7/11/09; review here

900 - Geography and History: Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country by Joe Queenan -- completed 1/21/09; review here

The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

Title: The Rapture of Canaan

Author: Sheri Reynolds

First Published: 1996

No. of Pages: 322

Synopsis (from B&N): "At the Church of Fire and Brimstone and Gods Almighty Baptizing Wind, Grandpa Herman makes the rules for everyone, and everyone obeys, or else. Try as she might, Ninah can't resist her prayer partner, James, and finds herself pregnant. She fears the wrath of Grandpa Herman, the congregation and God Himself. But the events that follow show Ninah that God's ways are more mysterious than even Grandpa Herman understands."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

Comments and Critique: I read this book in 2 days flat, so that should tell you something about how quickly this story moved. The story is told in the 1st person -- I think every perspective has pros and cons and I can't say I prefer one to the other, but for ease of reading 1st person wins hands down. No muss, no fuss. This book didn't have the in-depth character development you'd get with 3rd person, but the characters weren't flat and they struck me as true to life. All in all, a good story and well-written.

Would You Recommend This Book to Others: Yes.

Challenges: 2008 TBR Challenge

What's In a Name 2 Challenge book list

*Dates: January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009

*The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a "profession" in its title. Examples might include: The Book Thief, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Historian

2. A book with a "time of day" in its title. Examples might include: Twilight, Four Past Midnight, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

3. A book with a "relative" in its title. Examples might include: Eight Cousins, My Father's Dragon, The Daughter of Time

4. A book with a "body part" in its title. Examples might include: The Bluest Eye, Bag of Bones, The Heart of Darkness

5. A book with a "building" in its title. Examples might include: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Little House on the Prairie, The Looming Tower

6. A book with a "medical condition" in its title. Examples might include: Insomnia, Coma, The Plague

*You may overlap books with other challenges, but please don't use the same book for more than one category. You can change your books at any time. Sign-up here.

Took me over a month to make my choices, but here they are (again shamelessly overlapping):

Profession: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester -- completed 3/9/09; review here

Time of day: Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Relative: Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country by Joe Queenan -- completed 1/21/09; review here

Body part: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Building: The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews by Edgar Allen Poe -- completed 1/24/09; review here

Medical condition: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling -- completed 7/24/09; review here

TBR Lite Challenge book list

For those who love the original TBR Challenge, but need a little less “pressure” on their reading, the TBR Challenge *LITE* offers you that option!

You have your choice of ONE of the 3 options:

OPTION A: read 6 books in 12 months ~ your list of books CANNOT be changed, but you are allowed to have an “Alternates” list to choose from (like in the Original TBR Challenge).

OPTION B: read 6 books in 12 months ~ you CAN change your reading list throughout the year

OPTION C: make up a list of however many books you think you could get read in 12 months, as long as they are from your TBR stack/list, and then read them between January 1st and December 31st. You must have at least 3 books on your list.

The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2009. Sign-ups are now open and can be done here.

I'm going with Option B because I always change my mind partway through. But I'm also shamelessly overlapping with multiple challenges, so it might not change. My list:

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley -- review here

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle -- review here

Howards End by E. M. Forster -- review here

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- review here

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein -- review here

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen -- review here

World Citizen Challenge book list

Eva from A Striped Armchair is hosting this challenge focused on non-fiction and the world around us. There are several ways of participating (you can read the details in Eva's post here), with the maximum commitment being to read 7 books, 1 each from the categories of politics, economics, history, culture or anthropology/sociology, worldwide issues, and memoirs/autobiographies, and 1 extra book from 1 category. My undergrad degree is in politics and history, so this is right up my alley! For the most part, I have no idea what I'll read but here's my tentative list so far:

Politics: Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope by Shirin Ebadi -- completed 5/29/09; review here

Economics: Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus -- completed 3/22/09; review here

History: King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild -- completed 5/16/09; review here

Culture or Anthropology/Sociology: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer -- completed 1/27/09; review here

Worldwide Issues: Gestures: The Do's and Taboos of Body Language Around the World by Roger E. Axtell -- completed 6/18/09; review here

Memoirs/Autobiographies: The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah -- completed 3/25/09; review here

7th book: Everyday Life in Imperial Japan by Charles J. Dunn -- completed 6/7/09; review here

18th and 19th Century Women Writers Challenge book list

The ever-busy Becky from Becky's Book Reviews is hosting this challenge, which will run from January 1 through December 31, 2009. Participants should read no fewer than four and no more than twelve books written by women who lived and wrote between 1700 and 1900.

What books don't count...if an author was born during this time period, but didn't publish anything until the next century. Post-1900 books are NOT allowed. There is a small loophole here. If a book was written during these two centuries 1700-1900 and was not published until after the author's death...and that publication date just happened to be in the 1900s or 2000s...then that would count.

Overlaps with other challenges are allowed.

I've picked five books for this one (years indicate when first published):

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853) -- completed 6/7/09; review

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (1818) -- completed 9/1/09; review

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847) -- completed 4/29/09; review

Middlemarch by George Eliot (1873) -- completed 7/12/09; review

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811) -- completed 7/21/09; review

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: Purple Hibiscus

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

First Published: 2004

No. of Pages: 320

Synopsis (from B&N): "Fifteen-year-old Kambili's world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home.

When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father's authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways. This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

Comments and Critique: I loved this book! This is one of the best books that I've read in years. The author pulls you in right from the start and makes you care about the characters, in part because she makes them so real. Their dialogue and actions never seem forced or out of sync. The overall language and sentence structure are absolutely beautiful. I can't think of a single thing negative to say about this book, other than I hated to get to the end.

Would You Recommend This Book to Others: Yes, no hesitation.

Challenges: Orbis Terrarum; Man Booker; What's In a Name?

What's in a Name Challenge completed

January through December, 2008

I managed to finish this challenge with less than 2 weeks to spare. Below are the books I read, with links to those that I reviewed:

Color = Black Dogs by Ian McEwen -- review here

First Name = The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton -- review here

Animal = A Good Dog: The Story of Orson, Who Changed My Life by Jon Katz -- review here

Plant = Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- review here

Place = Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nifisi

Weather = Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson -- review here

Be sure to check out What's in a Name II here. There's 6 new categories for 2009.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Title: Snow Falling on Cedars

Author: David Guterson

First Published: 1994

No. of Pages: 460

Synopsis (from B&N): "In 1954 a fisherman from San Piedro Island in Puget Sound is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese-American is charged with his murder. The trial is haunted by memories of what happened to the Japanese residents during World War II when the entire community was sent into exile."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

Comments and Critique: I found the characterization here generally satisfying. I became emotionally connected to many of the characters, which for me is the key to a good book. The plot held my interest and the descriptions of the surroundings, both natural and manmade, made them come alive in my mind's eye.

While this book was good, it wasn't a perfect novel. There were a few hiccups, usually early in the book, in which the author seemed to be trying too hard to make a point. The physical descriptions of some of the characters struck me as being fairly stereotypical (the strong, virile macho man is of course married to the gorgeous blonde with big boobs ; the lawyer is a transplanted Matlock-type), which kept me from connecting with them more than I did.

I found the author's constant descriptions of the characters sex lives very disconcerting. References would have been bad enough, but several paragraphs about every major character was over the top and often irrevelant to the story. And in those cases in which it was relevant, I felt that the use of sex to make the point was the easy way out. A better novel would have had more finesse and used some other facet of a person's life to get the message across. Or at least used different facets for some of the characters, instead of using sex for all of them. For instance, I found the author's description of one of the characters actual impotence as a clumsy way of showing his fear of intellectual impotence.

I know I've focused more on the negatives than the positives, and I don't want to give the impression of a bad book. I guess the problem is that the good is not great and the bad is not horrible -- it's all just average. Overall, I liked the book but a part of me wishes I'd picked something else.

Challenges: What's in a Name?; Book Awards II

Dewey's Books Challenge book list

As a dedicated reader of The Hidden Side of a Leaf, how could I not sign up for this challenge? I know many of you feel the same.

You can join the challenge at the dedicated blog. There are two ways to join this challenge:

1. Pick one book from each of the 6 years that Dewey has archives of. You can access her archives by clicking on the archive link in the sidebar of her website. It’s a dropdown menu. For instance, you would read one book that she reviewed in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 for a total of six books.

2. The other option is to read 5 books that Dewey reviewed. These can be from any year and I’m guessing that each of us has at least 5 books on our TBR list because of Dewey!

And the rules:

1. Choose either option 1 or 2 from above.

2. Commit to read your books (either 5 or 6 depending on which option you choose) throughout 2009. The challenge will end on December 31, 2009 but we’ll go ahead and unofficially start it right away! We’ll officially start it on January 1st, 2009.

3. Check back to the dedicated blog often for reviews and prize giveaways!

Dewey reviewed so many great books that I decided not to commit to any particular books at this time, but to pick a bunch of possibilities and choose from that list as I go along. The list I picked is:

33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History by Tonya Bolden

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer -- completed 5/10/09; review here

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them by Roxanne Coady and Joy Johannessen -- completed 2/13/09; review here

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Cultural Amnesia by Clive James

Drop City by T.C. Boyle

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer

Gestures: The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World by Roger E. Axtell

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle

March by Geraldine Brooks

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman -- completed 4/24/09; review here

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de St.-Exupéry -- completed 4/18/09; review here

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein -- completed 5/1/09; review here

The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett -- completed 5/8/09; review here

When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Decades '09 Challenge book list

I'm definitely signing up for this challenge and I already have my books picked out. The basic rules are:

1. Read a minimum of 9 books in 9 consecutive decades in ‘09.

2. Books published in the 2000’s do not count.

3. Titles may be cross-posted with any other challenge.

4. You may change your list at any time.

I've decided to go for older books and most will be cross-posted to other challenges. My list consists of:

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe (1839) -- completed 1/24/09; review here

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847) -- completed 4/29/09; review here

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853) -- completed 6/7/09; review here

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (1860)

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1873) -- completed 3/21/09; review here

Nana by Emile Zola (1880) -- completed 10/11/09; review

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (1897) -- completed 4/21/09; review here

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902) -- completed 3/15/09; review here

Howards End by E.M. Forster (1910) -- completed 1/14/09; review here

Challenges for 2009

Like many of you, I've started thinking about my challenges for next year. I had planned not to commit myself to any more, but come on, who are we kidding? There's just too many great ones to resist. I don't believe for a minute that I'll actually complete all of these, but I'm pretty sure the book gods will not smite me for failing to complete my self-imposed commitments.

Here's what I'm currently thinking of joining for 2009, with a short description of each. You can check out the challenges in depth by clicking on the links. I've got a lot of my books picked out already, but I could still use some suggestions for various things. I've got the needed info listed following the descriptions -- if you can help me out I'd be forever grateful!

1. What's in a Name 2009, dedicated blog: read 1 book from each of 6 categories (book with profession in title, book with time of day in title, book with relative in title, book with body part in title, book with building in title, book with medical condition in title). Need medical condition book.

2. A to Z Challenge, dedicated blog: read authors A-Z. Need authors whose last names start with O, P, U, X, and Y.

3. Celebrate the Author Challenge, dedicated blog: pick an author's birthday for each month of the year and read 1 book by each author.

4. 18th and 19th Century Women Writers Challenge, information blog: read between 4 and 12 books written by women who lived and wrote from 1700 to 1900.

5. Decades '09 Challenge, dedicated blog: read at least 9 books from 9 consecutive decades (1 per decade; none in 21st century).

6. 999 Challenge, dedicated blog: read 9 books in each of 9 self-made categories, overlaps between categories okay for 9 books only.

7. Dewey's Books Challenge, dedicated blog: read 6 books that Dewey read and/or reviewed.

8. World Citizen Challenge, information blog: read 1 book from each of 7 categories (politics, economics, history, culture or anthropology/sociology, worldwide issues, memoirs/autobiographies, repeat one category). Need economics (have already read Freakonomics) and worldwide issues.

9. TBR Lite Challenge, dedicated blog: read 6 books from TBR mountain.

10. Dewey Decimal System Challenge, information blog: read 1 book from each of the Dewey Decimal Classification Codes. Need codes 400 - Language and 600 - Technology.

11. Orbis Terrarum 2009, information blog: read 1 book each by 9 different authors from 9 different countries.

12. My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge, dedicated blog: read 12 books that you consider "dangerous" in some way.

Oh, and lest we forget that I've still got the Banned Books Challenge, the 1% Well-Read Challenge, the Lit Flicks Challenge, and the Book Awards II Challenge to finish in 2009. Yeah, nothing like biting off more than you can chew.

The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV by W. H. Lewis

Title: The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV

Author: W. H. Lewis

First Published: 1953

No. of Pages: 336

Synopsis (from Amazon): "Pleasures and palaces are, of course, an enormously entertaining part of this vivid account of France under Louis XIV. More important is the author's exploration of the political, economic, social and artistic forces that developed during the long reign of the Sun-King. It was an age of contradictions and compromises and high taxes and formal manners. And to the day he died Louis XIV ate with his fingers and acted like God. The opening account of Louis XIV's private life and loves sets the pace for this witty, provocative account of a century that, like our own, was a time of transition, dissatisfaction and progress. This was the age of Moliere, Racine, Corneille...the age of the salons and the graceful correspondents. And also an age that sent thousands of Huguenots to the galleys, the notorious death ships that served as seventeenth-century concentration camps."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Nonfiction

Comments and Critique: This book presents an interesting overview of France during the reign of Louis XIV, covering the period of 1638-1715. It gives a brief bio of Louis but is not solely concerned with him or the aristocracy. Instead, the book contains chapters on such things as medicine of the time, life in a typical French town, being a country gentleman, and female education. It's all very interesting and the book is easy to read and understand. I did find the chapter on the Church a little confusing and I wish the author had provided more background information. The way that chapter is presented seems to assume that the reader has a basic understanding of the history of the Catholic Church. My only other complaint is that the author included a number of phrases or sentences in French without translation, which is obviously only meaningful for someone who reads French (not me). Considering the author was British (and, incidentally, the brother of C.S. Lewis) and not American, I don't know if assuming that your readers are bilingual is a valid assumption or not, but it frustrating to keep coming across things and not know what the author meant.

I should also point out that, while this book appears to be well researched, it is not a scholarly book. It does not directly reference other scholarly books, it does not contain footnotes, and it does not provide an in-depth analysis of the topics presented. That said, this book does provide a very good general overview of the time period and would be an excellent introductory book for that period of French history.

Would You Recommend This Book to Others: Yes, especially anyone who reads classic literature set in Europe (I'm assuming that conditions were approximately the same in most European nations at the time), or is interested in European history in general.

Challenges: 2008 TBR Challenge

Used book buys of the week (thru Dec. 7)

Picked up some more great titles this past week. I'm officially out of room in my bookshelves, they are packed full, but that wasn't going to stop me from buying more -- I'm sure most (or all) of you understand. Here's this week's haul:

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor

Drown by Junot Diaz

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

The Forsythe Saga by John Galsworthy

The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie

Ironweed by William J. Kennedy

Jazz by Toni Morrison

Rosshalde by Herman Hesse

Story of O by Pauline Reage

Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia by W. Bruce Lincoln

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius

What Makes Us Catholic by Thomas H. Groome

3 challenges completed

**EDIT BELOW FOR ORBIS TERRARUM POST-CHALLENGE SURVEY

I finished up 2 challenges this past week; only 1 more to go before the end of the year. I should make it, unless the last book is a snooze. I also finished up a 3rd challenge a while back but never posted about it, so I thought I might as well cover it here. As usual, I haven't kept up with my reviews, so catching up on those will give me one New Year's resolution that's not a complete pipe dream. Here's what I read, with links to my reviews where appropriate.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Germany) --review here

The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation by Paulo Coehlo (Brazil)

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Wales) -- review here

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (U.S.A.) -- review here

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Canada) -- review here

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia) -- review here

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) -- review here

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azir Nafisi (Iran)

** Answers to b's post-challenge survey:

1.) What did you like about the challenge? It encouraged me to read books I might not have picked up right away.
2.) What would you like to see change for next year? A dedicated blog for reviews, discussions, etc.
3.) About the rules, or the non-existent rules...did you like that? Yes, I tend to lose interest partway through most challenges, so having fewer rules helps because I can adjust as needed.
4.) Are you going to join us next year? Absolutely!!
5.) Pretty please give me any suggestions for changes, the betterment of the challenge, or just anything that you would like to see changed for next year. I'd love to have a master list of books and countries, it would help in making future choices.
6.) Would you like the challenge to be more involved? What if we read books together sometimes? Would that interest you? Reading together would be cool.
7.) would you be interested in helping somehow next year? How would you like to help? I'd love to help, whatever you need me to do. (Maybe the aforementioned master list?)

Black Dogs by Ian McEwen (shortlist, 1992) -- review here

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (shortlist, 2002) -- review here

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (winner, 1997)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (winner, 2002) -- review here

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (longlist, 2004) -- review here

Time's Arrow by Martin Amis (shortlist, 1991) -- review here




Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (fiction) -- review here

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho (fiction)

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton (fiction) -- review here

Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki (nonfiction)

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (nonfiction)

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (nonfiction)

King George V by Kenneth Rose (nonfiction)

Literary Feuds: A Century of Celebrated Quarrels--From Mark Twain to Tom Wolfe by Anthony Arthur (nonfiction)

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival Under Saddam Hussein by Jean Sasson (nonfiction) -- review here

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (fiction) -- review here

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang (fiction) -- review here

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (fiction)