KristenR’s Comments (group member since Aug 18, 2010)

KristenR’s comments from the The Well-Rounded Reader group.

The Golden Acorn - Catherine Cooper

This was an ok children's book...had some great elements, but overall wasn't anything particularly memorable

I haven't added any more to this challenge (though I am sporadically reading Journey to the West...at nearly 2400 pages it's taking me a while :)

I have decided to take the time limit off this challenge. I've realized it is silly to try and complete it in one year...and if I didn't finish I'd keep at it anyway.

Oh my goodness, I have had absolutely no time or energy to read. I'm hoping once I get my life back after the recital (I work at a dance studio) I'll get back into the swing of things and read some of these books that are calling my name.

I have added 3 books to my author challenge:

The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex
They Had Goat Heads - D. Harlan Wilson
Soul - Tobsha Learner

2011

Jan-Mar

1. Good Night Moon - Rudy Rucker+

-Asimov's SCience Fiction Jan, 2011
-2. Visitors - Steve Rasnic Tem
-3. Interloper - Ian McHugh
-4. Ashes on the Water - Gwendolyn Clare

5. Bad Luck, Trouble, Death, and Vampire Sex - Garth Nix

-Asimov's Science Fiction Mar, 2011
-6. The Most Important Thing in the World - Steve Bein
-7. Lost in the Memory Palace, I Found You - Nick Wolven
-8. God in the Sky - An Owomoyela

I've added The Wind-up Bird Chronicle for Japanese. A strange book - I haven't figured out what I think about it yet.

hehe... I don't think I'll finish it...more languages kept popping up as I made my list, but it was fun to compile :)

A-Z titles


A -- Agent to the Stars -------------------- N -- The Novel
B -- Blockade Billy ------------------------O -- Ozma of Oz
C -- Christine Falls ---------------------- P -- Peacemaker
D -- Dorothy and The Wizard in Oz ------ Q -- The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness
E -- Elric: The Stealer of Souls ---------- R -- Reunion In Death
F -- The Frog King --------------------S -- Seduction in Death
G -- The God Project ---------------- T -- Touch of Evil
H -- The History of the Devil -------U -- Up to No Good
I -- Impulse ------------------------- V -- A Visit From the Goon Squad
J -- Judge & Jury----------------------W -- Wintertide
K -- Kraken ------------------------- X -- Xerxes - Makers of History
L -- Land of Ash ------------------- Y -- The Year of Fog
M -- Mozart's Sister ------------ Z -- A Zombie's History of the United States

Here's my tentative list for my language challenge:

French -- Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb
Japanese -- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami
Korean -- Hwang Sun-won
Portuguese -- Seeing by José Saramago
Swedish -- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
Arabic -- A Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
Italian -- If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
Dutch -- The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch
Danish -- Anecdotes of Destiny by Isak Dinesen
Polish -- One Human Minute by Stanislaw Lem
Bosnian -- Death and the Dervish by Mesa Selimovic
Hebrew -- Black Box by Amos Oz
Norwegian -- Aliss at the Fire by Jon Fosse
Hindi -- The Gift of a Cow by Premchand
Chinese -- Journey to the West
Hungarian -- Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi
Icelandic -- Independent people : an epic by Halldór Laxness
Indonesian -- Atheis by Achdiat K Mihardja
Finnish -- Purge by Sofi Oksanen
Urdu -- The lightning should have fallen on Ghalib : selected poems of Ghalib
Czech -- The Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera
Latin -- The Golden Ass by Apuleius
Yiddish -- Isaac Bashevis Singer
Spanish -- In Her Absence by Antonio Muñoz Molina
German -- Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann
Russian
Greek
Still need some recommendations for:
Thai
Bulgarian
Romanian
Vietnamese
(and any language I might have missed)

A-Z Authors


A -- Peter Abrahams ---------N
B -- J.G. Ballard ----------- O
C -- Catherine Cooper ------ P
D -- Joseph Delaney ------------Q -- Kwei Quartey
E -- Kim Edwards --------------- R -- Adam Rex
F -- Anne Frasier------------- S -- Terese Svoboda
G -- Mira Grant ------------- T -- Ben Tanzer
H -- Dick Houston ------------ U
I -- V
J -- Maureen Johnson ---------- W -- D. Harlan Wilson
K -- Leslie Kelly ---------- X -- Xiao, Xiaoda
L -- Tobsha Learner ---------Y
M - Elizabeth C. Mock -- Z - Claire Zulkey

Yay! Night of the Living Trekkies was my last A-Z title! Hope everyone joins me in the new year with a whole new challenge!

The Zero - Jess Walter (audio - 4 stars)

1.5 books left and the title challenge is done...just squeaking by on that one :)

Queer Stories for Boys and Girls - Edward Eggleston

XYZ A Detective Story - Anna Katherine Green (94 pages - 4 stars)

Eden - Phil Rossi (audio - 3 stars)

Ugh...November was a desert! The only time I had to read was right before bed.

Puck of Pook's Hill - Rudyard Kipling
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

Old Man's War - John Scalzi (314 pages - 5 stars)
Kiln People - David Brin (459 pages - 2 stars)

Welcome, Lorren

I look forward to seeing what you're reading! (and congrats on the marriage :) What are you studying in school?

I get sidetracked too, but I tend to flounder if I don't have a plan (I do the same thing with my knitting.) I'm flexible enough that I can read book club reads and random stuff that crosses my path, but having that plan helps me avoid that overwhelmed feeling I get when I can't decide what to read next. Because I really feel lost when I'm not in the middle of a book :)

I've decided to add another challenge for next near.

I figure if a goal was met too easily, it wasn't much of a challenge, so in addition to the A-Z title and author and the genre challenge, I'm going to add a "translated from..." challenge. Here are 25 languages (I probably missed a couple of major ones, but this is a start.) I want to read a book that was originally written in each of these languages.

English
French
Spanish
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Chinese
Hindi
Portuguese
Swedish
Arabic
German
Italian
Greek
Dutch
Polish
Hungarian
Czech
Bulgarian
Icelandic
Finnish
Russian
Hebrew
Thai
Norwegian

I'm not going to start this until January 2011, but it was an impulse and if I didn't get a post up I thought I might forget.

Thanks! I had fun with this...I kind of have the feeling I'm missing some genres, though.