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Wendy's Pick and Categories
Friday, December 26, 2008

December 26, 2008: UPDATE on Challenge

It is evident I will not complete this challenge - BUT, I am happy with how I did. Out of the 8 categories I chose to read from, I completed half of them (Books Around the World, Books on my TBR shelf for more than a Year, Non Fiction Books and Notables). For the other categories, I completed the following: 2 out of 8 Pulitzers, 5 out of 8 Bookers, 4 out of 8 Banned Books, and 5 out of 8 Classics. Next year I will be focusing more on the award winning books on my shelf. Many thanks to Michelle for hosting this complex, and rewarding challenge!

Here are my current categories and picks for 2008 (overlaps are in red):

8 Pulitzers

1. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones
2. The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington
3. So Big, by Edna Ferber (COMPLETED January 17, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
4. Breathing Lessons, by Anne Tyler
5. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner (COMPLETED April 17, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
6. —
7. —
8. —

8 Bookers

1. The Ghost Road, by Pat Barker (COMPLETED December 25, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
   
2. Hotel Du Lac, by Anita Brookner (COMPLETED July 22, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
3. G, by John Berger
4. Oscar and Lucinda, by Peter Carey
5. Sacred Hunger, by Barry Unsworth
6. The Gathering, by Anne Enright (COMPLETED March 9, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
7. Life and Times of Michael K, by J.M. Coetzee (COMPLETED February 17, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
8. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (COMPLETED June 23, 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)

8 Books Around the World

1. Independent People, by Halldor Laxness (COMPLETED May 5, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
2. The White Mary, by Kira Salak (COMPLETED July 16, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
3. Atonement, by Ian McEwan (COMPLETED June 17, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
4. The Colour, by Rose Tremain (COMPLETED August 25, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
5. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (COMPLETED July 4, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
6. The Translator, by Daoud Hari (COMPLETED February 15, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
7. Alentejo Blue, by Monica Ali (COMPLETED February 22, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
8. Laughing Without An Accent, by Firoozeh Dumas (COMPLETED May 17, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)

8 Books that have Sat on my TBR Shelf for More than a Year

1. The World Below, by Sue Miller (COMPLETED April 26, 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
2. Regeneration, by Pat Barker (COMPLETED December 14, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
3. Lost and Found, by Jacqueline Sheehan (COMPLETED April 21, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
4. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink (COMPLETED August 15, 2008; rated 1.5/5; read my review)
5. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver (COMPLETED July 12, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
6. The Eye in the Door, by Pat Barker (COMPLETED December 21, 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
7. Before You Know Kindness, by Chris Bohjalian (COMPLETED May 31, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
8. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (COMPLETED November 7, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)

8 Non Fiction Books

1. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, by Elizabeth McCracken (Completed October 24, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
2. Black Wave, by John and Jean Silverwood (Completed November 11, 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
3. The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman (COMPLETED May 12, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
4. Laughing Without An Accent, by Firoozeh Dumas (COMPLETED May 18, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
5. Gifts From The Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Completed October 28, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
6. Have You Found Her: A Memoir, by Janice Erlbaum (COMPLETED January 14, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
7. Ships Without A Shore, by Anne R. Pierce PhD (COMPLETED September 16, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
8. Alpine Americas, by Olaf Soot and Don Mellor (COMPLETED November 2, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
   

8 Banned Books

1. The Women of Rome, by Alberto Moravia
2. The Toilers of the Sea, by Victor Hugo
3. Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe
4. The Giver, by Lois Lowry (COMPLETED January 1, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
5. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison (COMPLETED February 25, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (COMPLETED June 13, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (COMPLETED March 21, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
8. —

8 Notables From This Site

1. The Secret River, by Kate Grenville (Completed October 13, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
2. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Moshin Hamid (Completed January 11, 2008, rated 4/5; read my review)
3. The Gathering, by Anne Enright (COMPLETED March 9, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
4. After Dark, by Haruki Murakami (from NYT Most Notable - 2007) - Completed October 28, 2008; rated 2/5; read my review.
5. Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida (COMPLETED September 30, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
6. Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo (COMPLETED June 7, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
7. On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan (from NYT Most Notable - 2007) - Completed August 11, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review.
8. The View From Castle Rock, by Alice Munro (from NYT Most Notable - 2007) - Completed September 28, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review.

8 Classics

1. Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (Completed January 25, 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
2. Home of the Gentry, by Ivan Turgenev (Completed June 19, 2008; rated 3/5; read my review)
3. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (COMPLETED November 7, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
4. The Ghost Road, by Pat Barker (COMPLETED December 25, 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
5. Emma, by Jane Austen
6. Wuthering Heights, by Emil Bronte
7. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
8. Gifts From The Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Completed October 28, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)

Posted by Wendy at 12/26/2008 11:00:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Around the World, Banned Books, Bookers, Classics, Non-fiction, Notables, Pulitzers, TBR stacks, Wendy

raidergirl3's list of 888 lists
Saturday, November 22, 2008

November 22 - Whew, this one is done. It was so much fun picking the lists and crossing them off as completed. Great list of books. Thanks Michelle, for hosting this one, and making us all join in the madness.

As I complete a book or two, I'll link to my review, date it, and bold it.
running total: 64/64 (because I read six books that overlap!)
8/8 categories completed.

Aaah, lists, beautiful lists. I like the flexibility of this idea. Commence:

8 Canadian Books finished as of July 30
1. Yellowknife - Steve Zipp Mar 24
2. The End of East - Jen Sookfong Lee Mar 7
3. The Ravine - Paul Quarrington Apr 8
4. Latitudes of Melt - Joan Clark April 5
5. How to Be a Canadian - Will and Ian Ferguson May 25
6. The Birth House - Ami McKay July 30
7. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen July 4
8. Crow Lake - Mary Lawson July 12

8 Bookers (Man Booker Challenge: 4 winners, 4 shortlisted) finished as of July 10
1. Atonement - Ian McEwan sl Feb 17
2. The Remains of the Day - Kazou Ishiguru Jan 12
3. The Life and Times of Michael K - JM Coetzee Mar 8
4. Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner June 30
5. The Night Watch - Sarah Waters sl July 10
6. The Gathering - Anne Enright Apr 23
7. Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones sl Apri 19
8. In the Country of Men - Hisham Matar sl May 20

8 Books About Books (goes with the themed challenge) finished as of Feb 13
1. The Book Thief Markus Zusak Jan 11
2. 84 Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff Jan 12
3. Housekeeping vs the Dirt Nick Hornby Jan 8
4. Booked to Die John Dunning Feb 3
5. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader Anne Fadiman Jan 28
6. The Case of the Missing Books Ian Sansom Jan 16
7. Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi Feb 13
8. The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde Jan 25

8 More from the Something About Me Challenge finished as of June 8
1. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde Jan 25
2. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helen Hanff Jan 12
3. Booked to Die - John Dunning Feb 3
4. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd May 30
5. The Awakening - Kate Chopin June 8
6. Angry Housewives Eating BonBons - Lorna Landvik Mar 3
7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith May 3
8. The Remains of the Day - Kazou Ishiguro Jan 12

8 Mysteries from Around the World finished as of Nov 17
1. Terra Cotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri (Italy) March 10
2. Silence of the Grave - Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland) Feb 23
3. The Snack Thief - Andrea Camilleri (Italy) July 6
4. Shadow Family - Miyuki Miyabe (Japan) May 31
5. Flying Too High - Kerry Greenwood (Australia) August 20
6. Who Killed Palomino Molero? - Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) Oct 4
7. The Xibalba Murders - Lyn Hamilton (Mexico) Nov 17
8. All She Was Worth - Miyuki Miyabe (Japan) Nov 2

8 Nonfiction (goes with the In Their Shoes challenge) finished as of July 20
1. Never Have Your Dog Stuffed - Alan Alda Feb 11
2. Running With Scissors - Augustus Burrows July 15
3. Persepolis 1, and 2 - Marjane Satrapi Jan 30
4. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson May 17
5. Maus I and II - Art Spiegelman July 20
6. Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi Feb 13
7. Brainiac - Ken Jennings Jan 6
8. A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah June 21


8 Young Adult Books (goes with Joy's YAC) finished as of Mar 23
1. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson Mar 14
2. Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell Feb 4
3. The Princess Academy - Shannon Hale Mar 16
4. Vegan Virgin Valentine - Carolyn Mackler Mar 21
5. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn and David Levithan Mar 8
6. Zel - Donna Jo Napoli Mar 23
7. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things - Carolyn Mackler Feb 19
8. So Long, Jackie Robinson - Nancy Russell Feb 15

8 books published in 2008. (In the Pub Challenge) finished as of June 24
1. Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella Feb 26
2. The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space - Jim Lebans Feb 24
3. The Bleeding Dusk - Colleen Gleason Mar 21
4. The Ravine - Paul Quarrington Apr 8
5. An Exploding Case of Mangoes - Mohammed Hanif June 23
6. The Outcast - Sadie Jones Apr 27
7. Mudbound - Hillary Jordan June 24
8. The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway June 5

Posted by raidergirl3 at 11/22/2008 10:00:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Bookers, Books about Books, Canadian authors, More Something About Me, Mysteries (world), Non-fiction, Published in 2008, raidergirl3, Young Adult

Yati's list
Saturday, November 1, 2008

Hi everyone. Here's my list for the challenge. The first group overlaps with Dewey's Man Booker challenge.

Booker prize winners and shortlisted or longlisted titles

1. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
   » completed 22 March 2008
2. Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
3. Possession: A Romance by AS Byatt
   » completed 7 July 2008
4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
5. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
6. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
   » completed 13 July 2008
7. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
   » completed 10 October 2008
8. number9dream by David Mitchell
   » completed 4 June 2008
9. The Accidental by Ali Smith
10. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
11. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
12. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
    » completed 22 May 2008

classics

1. Tales from the Thousand and One Nights by Anonymous
2. East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjørnsen
   » completed 21 September 2008
3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
   » completed 25 August 2008
5. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
6. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
7. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
8. A Room with a View by EM Forster

books set (at least partly) in Asia

1. My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey
2. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
3. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
   » completed 30 October 2008
4. A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
5. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
   » completed 1 March 2008
6. The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
7. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
8. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
9. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

young adult/juvenile fiction

1. Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond
   » completed 23 February 2008
2. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
   » completed 24 April 2008
3. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
   » completed 11 February 2008
4. Postcards from No Man’s Land by Aidan Chambers
   » completed 5 April 2008
5. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
   » completed 3 May 2008
6. Just in Case by Meg Rosoff
   » completed 4 May 2008
7. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
   » completed 14 May 2008
8. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
   » completed 19 April 2008

speculative fiction

1. Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
   » completed 15 February 2008
2. The Giver by Lois Lowry
   » completed 26 April 2008
3. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
   » completed 15 May 2008
4. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A McKillip
   » completed 3 May 2008
5. Winter Rose by Patricia A McKillip
   » completed 20 March 2008
6. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
   » completed 1 March 2008
7. Temeraire by Naomi Novik
   » completed 21 February 2008
8. Starcross by Philip Reeve
   » completed 24 March 2008

recommended by my sister

1. Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard
2. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernièrs
3. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
4. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
5. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
6. A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
7. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
8. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

other books we own

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
   » completed 19 October 2008
2. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
   » completed 1 May 2008
3. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
   » completed 19 October 2008
4. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
   » completed 29 February 2008
5. King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
   » completed 30 September 2008
6. Predator’s Gold by Philip Reeve
   » completed 4 October 2008
7. The Name of the Wind by Philip Rothfuss
   » completed 14 October 2008
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
   » completed 15 May 2008

(not the first book!) in a series

1. Queens’ Play by Dorothy Dunnet
   » completed 16 March 2008
2. The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnet
   » completed 26 March 2008
3. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett
   » completed 28 March 2008
4. The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett
   » completed 30 March 2008
5. Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett
   » completed 1 April 2008
6. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle
   » completed 3 January 2008
7. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
   » completed 10 March 2008
8. The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
   » completed 21 August 2008

There are currently four overlaps: Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard, The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng, A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul and Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

The list is also mirrored at my site here.

Posted by Y at 11/01/2008 10:30:00 PM 0 comments  

Labels: already owned, Bookers, books set in Asia, Classics, In a series, recommendations, speculative fiction, Yati, Young Adult

Dew's categories
Saturday, September 1, 2007

Hi everyone! I'm excited about this challenge. I made my categories, but since 2008 is still 4 months away, I think I'll hold off on listing specific books yet.

Categories:

1. Children's literature. This can overlap my plan to continue reading Newbery winners as part of the Newbery Project.

2. Pulitzer Prize winners. This will go along with my plan to continue being part of the Pulitzer project.

3. New York Times Notable Books. This is in hopes that there'll be another Notable Books challenge like there was this year.

4. Printz Award winners or Honor books: This less well-known award is the equivalent of the Newbery for Young Adult literature. This can overlap my plan to host a Printz challenge sometime in the near future.

5. Booker Prize books: I want to read so many of these that I might want to host a challenge for them, too, or maybe I'll just read them on my own.

6. New in 2007/2008 books: So that I leave plenty of room for exciting new books I'll want to read.

7. TBR books: So I can keep working on taming that beast.

8. Graphic novels: My husband has the entire Sandman series, and I have criminally left them all unread except the first book. Plus I love graphic novels in general, and there'll be others I want to read.

Posted by Dewey at 9/01/2007 06:07:00 PM 5 comments  

Labels: Bookers, Dewey, Graphic Novels, kidlit, New in 07/08, NY Times Notables, Printz, Pulitzers, TBR stacks