Short and Sweet (December 2015)

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

This one will be good for helping to complete those yearly book goals we've made. ;)

Read one book from each of three categories listed below to complete the challenge. You can do the challenge as many times as you want between now and Dec. 31, 2015.

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

Pick Three...

1) a play
2) a poetry collection
3) a single volume of a graphic novel series
4) a novelette
5) a novela
6) a children's book
7) a book for readers 6-12
8) a YA book
9) a short story famous enough to have its own GR listing
10) a fanfiction story (please link)

Short story--2,000--7,500 words.
Novelette--7,500--17,500 words.
Novella--17,500--40,000 words.

You can also go by page number if you don't have access to the word count. A short novel would be under 250 pages. But if it's a bit more, say, under 300 pages, that's fine.

**GR has some good suggestions if you go through LISTOPEIA and put "novelette" into the search lists box.

[Cindy]

Can we combine this with the December Holiday challenge and read a Christmas short story or novella?

[Cindy]

Can you explain in page numbers the difference between a short story, novella and a novelette? I looked it up on Google and got confused. They were using word counts. Some short stories are novellas. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is considered a novella, I would call it a short story.

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

Usually cross-overs are reserved for the year-long challenges. For example, the 50 Book Challenge has a Christmas setting as one of the categories. A Christmas-setting-book could be used for both the longer challenge and the single book challenge.

I do not have page equivalents for short story, novel, novelette. Only word counts. Mostly because print size varies so much, sometimes requiring many more pages for larger print.

An example would be Kate Chopin's The Awakening, which mostly listed as between about 195-220 pages. I would consider it a novella. (However, there is one listing at 400+ pages. Must be large print or annotation.) Whereas, her story, A Pair of Silk Stockings, is usually found in collections of short stories and is only a few pages long. (Both are terrific, BTW.)

Using your search engine or the GR Listopea lists may help you find something for these categories. Also, sometimes there are labels in the book description on GoodReads or Amazon. If you can't find a word count, use your best discretion.

[Cindy]

Here is my plan for now
A play- The Sea-Gull by Anton Chekhov
A novella-The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin
A short story-A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

Looks great, Cindy. I love that you're taking advantage of the season!

[Cindy]

Challenge complete

I really enjoyed this challenge, it was fun. I found two very good short stories or novellas, The Romance of a Christmas Card and A Country Christmas. They were both warm and inviting stories, great for the holiday season. A Country Christmas made me homesick. I am becoming a huge fan of Louisa May Alcott.

[Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge]

Great job! Yes, she's wonderful. I very much enjoyed The Abbot's Ghost, another Alcott Christmas story.

[Cindy]

The Abbot's Ghost is next on my TBR list of short stories or The Blue Carbuncle, a Sherlock Holmes story.