2011 Graphic Novels Challenge

Vasilly is the new host for the 2011 Graphic Novels Challenge, hosted on a dedicated blog.

The challenge runs from January to December 2011. I'm going for the intermediate level, which means 3-10 books.

I always want to include more graphic novels in my reading and a challenge is the perfect way to plan it in!

Completed: 0/3-10 as of January 1, 2011

Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1) by Neil Gaiman
Fables 3: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Buffy Omnnibus, vol. 2 by Joss Whedon et. al.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Chick Lit Challenge

Twiga at Journey to the End of the TBR Pile is once again hosting the Chick Lit Challenge for 2011.

The challenge is to read 8 chicklit books in 2011 - I enjoy fun chicklit so I'm in. :-)

Completed: ALL 8/8 as of December 30, 2011 (see my wrap-up post here)

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
Dating Big Bird by Laura Zigman
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot
Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise
Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson
something by Marian Keyes
The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble
The Class by Eric Segal
The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
One Day by David Nicholls

Steampunk Challenge

The Bookkeeper is organising a Steampunk Challenge.

I've never read anything that would classify as 'setampunk' and I'm really intrigued by these books. :-)

The challenge started in October so I'm a bit late, but it goes on until October 2011 so I still have time. No commitment is needed so we'll see how things go!

Completed: 0 as of January 1, 2011

Leviathan by Scott Westerfield
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Girl Genius, vol. 1 by Phil Foglio

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

The women over at Historical Tapestry are hosting the Historical Fiction Challenge.

I alwazs want to read more historical fiction - I love learning about life in other time periods and, as long as they're well-researched, historical fiction books are great for that.

This challenge has several levels and I choose the 'Daring and Curious' level, so 5 books in 2011. The great thing is that all historical fiction counts - including YA and fantasy. yay!

Some ideas are below, but I'm not committing to a list!

Completed: 2/5 as of July 28, 2011

Soulless by Gail Carriger
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison

Challenge: The 2011 Challenge

Bart of Bart's Bookshelf is hosting the 2011 Challenge, which features a whole series of categories participants need to fill. I'm a total sucker for categories. :-)

I need to read 2 books per category, but can read only 1 book for two of the categories, for a total of 20 books. For details, visit the intro post.

Completed: ALL 20/20 as of December 30, 2011 (see my wrap-up post here)

1. To YA or not YA... (one YA and one adult fiction)
Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter
The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble

2. ...with a twist (subgenres, steampunk and historical)
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

3. Hot off the presses
Winterborne by Augusta Blythe
Ravenstoke by Augusta Blythe

4. It wasn't me! (a.k.a. Bad Bloggers)
Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

5. Show it who's boss! (TBR pile)
Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons by Lorna Landvik
Wicked by Gregory Maguire

6. Babelfish (books in translation)
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac

7. Willpower? What willpower? (newly bought books)
The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

8. Mind the gap! (to finish a trilogy or series)
Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter

9. Back in the day (re-reads)
The Cat in The Hat by Dr Seuss
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss

10. Way back when (published before I was born)
A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

11. Slim pickings (novellas)
Gigi by Colette

Southern Reading Challenge

Jen of The Introverted Reader is hosting the Southern Literature Challenge. There are many levels, but I'll be ambitious with this one and go for the highest one - Level 4-Y'all come back now, y'hear!, which means reading 4 books. I really enjoy that Southern feel so I'm hoping this will be easy to do!

Completed: 0/4 as of January 1, 2011

Murder Runs in the Family by Anne George
Daisy Day and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc by Loraine Despres
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Challenge: 2011 TBR Challenge

I need this challenge - I have sooo many books that have been sitting on my shelves for years and years. At least if I put some of them on a list I remember that I have them. :-)

The TBR challenge is hosted by Adam, a.k.a. The Roofbeam Reader, and requires participants to read 12 books that have been on their shelves for over a year. A list is required and is considered final on January 1, 2011, when the challenge starts. It lasts all year.

I just walked around the house and looked at my bookshelves and selected the books below. Maybe they'll be lucky and will finally get read!

Completed: 0/12 as of January 1, 2011

1. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
2. The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
3. The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
4. Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen
5. The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble
6. A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
7. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg
8. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
9. Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
10. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
11. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
12. Making History by Stephen Fry

Two alternates:

1. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
2. Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore

Challenge: 2011 Seconds Challenge

Katy from A Few More Pages is hosting the 2011 Seconds Challenge. There are too many authors I've only read once, so this one will be good for me. The books can be second ones in a series so that should help some of those series I started too! :-)

There are several levels and I'll be going for "A few more bites", i.e. 6 books. A list of possibilities is below.

Completed: 1/6 as of February 3, 2011

The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (I read The Goose Girl)
A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King (second in the Mary Russell series, after The Beekeeper's Apprentice)
The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell (second in the Kurt Wallander series, after Faceless Killers)
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (I read Wicked Lovely)
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Alborn (I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
The Likeness by Tana French (I read In the Woods)
Two Caravans by Maryna Levycka (I read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian)
The Glass Demon by Helen Grant (I read The Vanishing of Katharina Linden)
What I was by Meg Rosoff (I read How I Live Now)
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (I read On Beauty)
Ludmilla's Broken English by D.B.C. Pierre (I read Vernon God Little)
Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor (I read Star of the Sea)
something by Sarah Waters (I read Fingersmith)
something by Elizabeth Strout (I read Olive Kitteridge)
something by Emma Donaghue (I read Room)
something by Jane Yolen (I read Briar Rose)
something by Banana Yoshimoto (I read Kitchen)
something by Octavia E. Butler (I read Kindred)

Challenge: What's in a Name 4

Beth of Beth Fish Reads is hosting the What's in a Name challenge - fun unrelated categories I love making lists for! :-) The 2010 edition was great fun - and one of the few challenges I actually completed during this busy year. This year's categories are below - getting more and more creative, I think!

If you have any suggestions let me know - I can't think of many choices for some of the categories!

The challenge runs from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.

Completed: ALL 6/6 as of December 30, 2011 (see my wrap-up post here)

A book with a number in the title: The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

A book with jewelery or a gem in the title: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

A book with a size in the title: The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne

A book with travel or movement in the title: When you Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

A book with evil in the title: Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler

A book with a life stage in the title: Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Challenge: Ireland Reading Challenge 2011

I don't think I can put off signing up for 2011 challenges any longer and the Ireland Reading Challenge is the perfect one to start with. Hosted by Carrie from Books and Movies, it's all about reading Irish authors or books set in Ireland with several levels - I'm going for the Luck o'the Irish level, which means 4 books.

Sign-ups and all information is here.

The challenge runs from January 1, 2011 to November 30, 2011. My list of possibilities is below.

Completed: 0/4 as of January 1, 2011

Ulysses by James Joyce (only if Trish organises a read-along!)
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor
The Likeness by Tana French
The Gathering by Anne Enright
How the Irish saved civilization by Thomas Cahill
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
My Left Foot by Christy Brown

One, Two, Theme! We're hosting a challenge!

It seems that Alex and I are announcing too much at once, but we couldn't wait any longer with this fun project.

We've been talking about reading by themes, to get into subject areas, find out more about certain things. We wanted to finally do what we always say when we read an interesting book - 'I must read up on that sometime'. Well, 'sometime' has arrived and we decided to welcome it warmly and stuff it into a challenge format.

We set up a separate blog where you can sign up and read about the challenge and eventually, hopefully look at all the themes that bloggers are exploring. Unless no one signs up.

I noticed that the tendency in the blogosphere is going towards themes anyway though (see Eva's thoughtful post) so hopefully people WILL sign up.

The idea is to identify subjects that you want to know more about, then rank them in some way to show that you want to go more in depth on some and less so on others. So for theme one you'd read one book, for theme two, two books and so on. From theme 2 onwards you need to read at least one fiction and one non-fiction.

We're very excited about this. :-) If you want to focus and organise your reading next year, join us here!

Here are the themes that I'll be exploring, along with some book ideas. I might add some or change some, who knows, but this is what I'm starting with. Let me know if there's something you think I should add! I have no idea of how I'll rank the themes, I'm leaving that bit open!

(see my wrap-up post here)

New York
- The Island at the Centre of the World by Russell Shorto
- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
- Ironweed by William Kennedy
- Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Ancient Egypt
- Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
- Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods by Dimitri Meeks

Pagan Europe
- A History of Pagan Europe by Prudence Jones
- The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece by Sue Blundell

Witchcraft
- The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story by Angela Bourke

Quantum Theory
- Physics of the Soul: The Quantum Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation and Immortality by Amit Goswani
- What the Bleep do We Know!?: Discovering the Endless Possibilities for Altering your Everyday Reality by William Arntz
- Quantum Questions: Mystical writings of the World's Greatest Physicists by Ken Wilber

Reincarnation and the Afterlife
- Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss
- Talking to the Dead by Barbara Weisberg

Magic
- The Mystic Foundation: Understanding and Exploring the Magical Universe by Christopher Penczak
- The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells: The Ultimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts by Judika Illes

Food and nutrition
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
Nurturing Superwoman by Carolyn Moody

Challenge with blogging friend Alex

As you know, Alex from The Sleepless Reader and I both live in Brussels and met 'for real' a couple of months ago. We've been meeting regularly, for lunch at a cute bookstore in town, great fun! Obviously we talk about books a lot and it seems that we like a lot of the same ones. We decided to do a challenge together, where Alex gives me 5 book titles to read in 2011 and I give her 5 as well. I know that Nymeth has done this with Rhinoa and it's always looked like fun.

Here's what we came up with - I stole the book cover collages from Alex. ;-)

This is what Alex wants me to read next year:

(see my wrap-up post here)

And this is what I want Alex to read:

Pretty exciting, eh? I must admit that Alex's choices for me seem daunting. But I guess that's what this challenge is about, to read some books that are not ones I'd heard of or would necessarily choose myself. Plus I think that Alex is really, really cool and I totally trust her taste in books.

I'm really looking forward to starting and I think I'll do so before 2011 even, if Alex agrees!