A-Z Author Challenge - 2016

[Julie]

Congrats on finishing Anetq :-)

I always love to see the lists of what others read - great inspiration for this year and coming years challenges.

Personally I'm only missing two authors to finish - Y and O.

[Anetq]

Julie wrote: "Personally I'm only missing two authors to finish - Y and O. "

Oooooh please let me recommend Sofi Oksanen if you haven't got something else lined up for it? I really liked her writing :)

[Julie]

Anetq wrote: "Julie wrote: "Personally I'm only missing two authors to finish - Y and O. "

Oooooh please let me recommend Sofi Oksanen if you haven't got something else lined up for it? I reall..."

I had thought about reading Kenzaburō Ōe as I'm trying to read more Nobel Laureates, but I might try Oksanen instead - my library has Renselse as an audiobook, so might do it for my next 'car-book'

[Pink]

I've completed my Z author with We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which I really enjoyed.

That leaves me just two to go, Q and U!

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Pink wrote: "I've completed my Z author with We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which I really enjoyed.

That leaves me just two to go, Q and U!"

I've added that one for my 2017 challenge!

[Anetq]

Julie wrote: "I might try Oksanen instead - my library has Renselse as an audiobook, so might do it for my next 'car-book'"
I really liked that one - and she is very talked about as a future prize winner ;)

[Pink]

U completed with an unknown - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It was okay, but not great, though part of the problem could have been the translation. Just Q now.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Pink wrote: "U completed with an unknown - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It was okay, but not great, though part of the problem could have been the translation. Just Q now."

Great idea!!!

[Zoe]

Challenge Complete

A Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin
B Anne Brontë - Agnes Grey
C Albert Camus - The Stranger
D Alan Duff - Once Were Warriors
E T.S.Elliot - The Waste Land and Other Poems
F Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique
G Maurice Gee - Plumb
H Hermann Hesse - Siddartha
I Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
J Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
K Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis
L Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
M Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca
N Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
O George Orwell - 1984
P Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
Q Anna Quindlen - How Reading Changed My Life
R Sethy John Regenvanu - Laef Blong Mi: From Village to Nation
S Tayeb Salih - Season of Migration to the North
T Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
U Singrid Unset - Kristin Lavransdatter
V Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five
W Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse
X Xenophon - Apology of Socrates
Y Yeonmi Park - In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
Z Norbert Zongo - The Parachute Drop

[Pink]

Well done Zoe!

[Kathleen]

Congrats Zoe, and I am totally stealing your X idea next year!

[Pink]

Finished! This was my final list.

A Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince
B Brian Friel - Dancing at Lughnasa
C Claire Fuller - Our Endless Numbered Days
D Dalton Trumbo - Johnny Got His Gun
E Elizabeth Kolbert - The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
F Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment
G George Eliot - Silas Marner
H Ted Hughes - Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow
I Henrik Ibsen - A Doll's House
J Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
K Khaled Hosseini - And the Mountains Echoed
L D.H. Lawrence - The Virgin and the Gipsy
M Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto
N Naomi Klein - No Logo
O Oliver Sacks - Awakenings
P Laline Paull - The Bees
Q Thomas de Quincey - Confessions of an English Opium Eater
R Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
S Françoise Sagan - Bonjour tristesse
T Colm Tóibín - Nora Webster
U Unknown - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
V V.S. Pritchett - Chekhov
W H.G. Wells - The Island of Dr. Moreau
X Xenophon - Apology of Socrates
Y Yasmina Reza - 'Art'
Z Yevgeny Zamyatin - We

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Congratulations to both Zoe and Pink. I'm sure it feels good to be done.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Congrats for both of you,

[Kathleen]

Yay--you did it! (Unknown! Great idea that I may copy.)

[Erin]

Woo Hoo! I finished the author challenge! I have enjoyed participating but feel free to read and enjoy whatever I wish from now on. I won't be doing a reading challenge next year... so good luck to anyone that is.

[Pink]

Well done, I understand that feeling of wanting the freedom to read whatever you want to. Even though I've signed myself up for all the challenges next year! Good luck with whatever you choose :)

[Julie]

I'm done as well :-) Last two authors were Sofi Oksanen and Mo Yan both highly recommendable

[Erin]

In Mid-September I really didn't think I would make it. I had to sneak in a few children's books to complete the quota!

A-Z Author Challenge Jan 1-Dec 31, 2016

26/26 completed - Done and dusted 12th December 2016!

A. Cecilia Ahern - The Gift - 24th July 2016
B. Charlotte Bronte - Villette - 15th March 2016
C. Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Affair at Style - 9th Jan 2016
D. Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - 26th March
E. Eleanor Estes - The hundred dresses - 23rd November
F. Ian Fleming - Octopussy &The Living Daylights - 29th Aug 2016
G. William Golding - Lord of the Flies - 21st Jan 2016
H. Aldous Huxley - Brave New World - 24th Jan 2016
I. Washington Irving - The legend of sleepy Hollow - 3rd Sept 2016
J. Shirley Jackson - The Lottery - 10th August 2016
K. Stephen King - On Writing - 22nd March 2016
L. Ursula Le guin - A wizard of Earthsea - 31st July 2016
M. Clare Mackintosh - I let you go - 12th Jan 2016
N. David Nicholls - One day - 7th August 2016
O. George Orwell - Animal Farm - 8th July 2016
P. Philippa Pearce - A Dog So Small - 24th March 2016
Q. Anna Quindlen - Miller's Valley - 19th Nov 2016
R. Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea - 23rd March 2016
S. Muriel Spark - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - 19th March 2016
T. J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit - 11th Jan 2016
U. Alfred Uhry - Driving Miss Daisy - 27th November 2016
V. Chris Van Allsburg - The Polar Express - 11th December 2016
W. Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse - 15th August 2016
X. Xinran - Buy me the sky - 25th Oct 2016
Y. Luke Young - Friends with partial benefits - 4th Sept 2016
Z. Sara Zarr - Roomies - 31st August 2016

[Erin]

Pink wrote: "Well done, I understand that feeling of wanting the freedom to read whatever you want to. Even though I've signed myself up for all the challenges next year! Good luck with whatever you choose :)"

I'm hoping to follow the monthly selections rather than devise a new list.

[Pink]

Well done on completing the challenge Julie :)

Odwyer, there's nothing wrong with including some children's lit to make things easier. I hope you enjoyed them. I'm glad you'll be reading more of the monthly selections next year, I hope to read more of the groups picks in 2017 as well :)

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Congrats Odwyer & I love some children's lit!

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I guess this is the month for challenges to finish up. Congratulations Julie and Odwyer

[Kathleen]

I was driven to finish this and do it with all female authors, so I used Mary Ashley Townsend's pen name "Xariffa" for my "X" and read a short collection of her poems online. They weren't bad. But my last book for this challenge was fabulous, Isabel Allende's The Japanese Lover.

Here's the whole list. Happy New Year everyone!

AMaya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter completed 1/26/16 ****
BCharlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre completed 8/3/16 *****
CAgatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, completed 5/7/16 **
DJoan Didion, Play It as It Lays, completed 9/7/16 ****
EGeorge Eliot, Middlemarch, completed 3/8/16 *****
FAnne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, completed 2/6/16 *****
GCristina García, Dreaming in Cuban, completed 8/31/16 ***
HZora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, completed 5/31/16 *****
IIsabel Allende, The Japanese Lover, completed 12/31/16 ****
JShirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, 9/2/16 ****
KJoy Kogawa, Obasan, 10/21/16 **
LAudre Lorde, Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New, completed 4/3/16 ****
MKatherine Mansfield, In a German Pension: 13 Stories completed 9/14/16 ****
N Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran Completed 2/28/16 ****
O Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find Completed 1/16/16 ****
P Proulx, Annie, Brokeback Mountain Completed 1/2/16 ****
Q Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life Completed 2/20/16 *** AND Good Dog. Stay. Completed 2/13/16 ***
R Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea Completed 1/9/16 ****
SAnna Sewell, Black Beauty completed 5/16/16 ****
TClaudia Tate, Black Women Writers at Work, completed 11/22/16 ****
UJenny Uglow, George Eliot completed 5/2/16 ****
VVirginia Woolf, Night and Day completed 11/30/15 *****
WAlice Walker. The Color Purple completed 4/10/16 *****
X "Xariffa" AKA Mary Ashley Townsend, Down the Bayou and Other Poems completed 12/30/16 ***
Y Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen Completed 2/21/16 ***
ZCharlotte Zolotow, Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present Completed 1/23/16 **

[Kathleen]

Matt wrote: "Great list Kathleen! Congrats and Happy New Year!"

Thank you Matt! Happy New Year to you too!

[Laurie]

Kathleen wrote: "I was driven to finish this and do it with all female authors, so I used Mary Ashley Townsend's pen name "Xariffa" for my "X" and read a short collection of her poems online. They weren't bad. But ..."

Congratulations on finishing, Kathleen. I love that you used entirely female authors. My goal for 2017 is to read mostly female authors since I typically read less than 50% women authors each year. So well done!!

[Pink]

Well done to everyone who completed this challenge in 2016!

I'll leave this thread here for a few days, to give everyone a chance to update, then I'll move it to the archives folder (where it will still be open for comments)

[Kathleen]

Laurie wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "I was driven to finish this and do it with all female authors, so I used Mary Ashley Townsend's pen name "Xariffa" for my "X" and read a short collection of her poems online. They ..."

Thank you Laurie! Good luck with your goal--mine was lots of fun.