Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Another one that I loved doing last year and the 2009 version promises to be bigger and better! For all info and to sign-up, visit the dedicated blog - and don't miss Bethany's blog either, Orbis Terrarum is her fabulous idea.

The challenge is to read 9 books by authors from 9 different countries in 9 months. My possibilities are listed below.

Completed: ALL 9/9 as of 19 August 2009 (read my wrap-up post)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Sweden)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Poland)
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Mexico)
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
The Bone People by Keri Hulme (New Zealand)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (the Ukraine)
Seek the Fair Land by Walter Macken (Ireland)
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Germany)
The White Tiger by Aravind Ariga (India)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (France)
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (Italy)
Wild Swans by Jung Chang (China)
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Czech Republic)
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (United States)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canada)
A Midsummer Night's Dream by Wiliam Shakespeare (United Kingdom)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (France)

8 comments:

Ana S. said...

Good luck, you challenge-crazed person :P You picked some good ones. Love in the Time of Cholera is one of my all-time favourites.

joanna said...

Really? I'm scared of that one, it sounds so serious and heavy...

Kristen said...

Oooh. Thanks for the heads up on this one. It would merge nicely with the Lost in Translation and Around the World in 80 Books Challenges, wouldn't it?!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Great list! I loved The Bone People--hope you do, too. I haven't signed up officially for this one yet, but I do have my list written out.

joanna said...

Kristen - indeed it would! :-)

Trish - i've heard interesting things about The Bone People! Looking forward to seeing your list!

Hannah Furst said...

I recently saw your post about reading Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française. I wanted to pass along some information on an exciting new exhibition about Némirovsky's life, work, and legacy at the Museum of Jewish Heritage —A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City. Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française, which will run through the middle of March, will include powerful rare artifacts — the actual handwritten manuscript for Suite Française, the valise in which it was found, and many personal papers and family photos. The majority of these documents and artifacts have never been outside of France. For fans of her work, this exhibition is an opportunity to really “get to know” Irene. And for those who can’t visit, there will be a special website that will live on the Museum’s site www.mjhnyc.org/irene

The Museum will host several public programs over the course of the exhibition’s run that will put Némirovsky’s work and life into historical and literary context. Book clubs and groups are invited to the Museum for tours and discussions in the exhibition’s adjacent Salon (by appointment). It is the Museum’s hope that the exhibit will engage visitors and promote dialogue about this extraordinary writer and the complex time in which she lived and died. To book a group tour, please contact Chris Lopez at 646.437.4304 or clopez@mjhnyc.org.

Please visit our website at www.mjhnyc.org for up-to-date information about upcoming public programs or to join our e-bulletin list.

Thanks for sharing this info with your readers. If you need any more, please do not hesitate to contact me at hfurst@mjhnyc.org

Reg / Steve said...

Read Stieg Larsson, definitely (if I do say so myself). The best you'll find from Sweden. --Reg Keeland http://reg-stieglarssonsenglishtranslator.blogspot.com/

joanna said...

Hannah - thanks for the info!

Reg - I'm looking forward to it, I've heard so many good things!