1st Quarter Challenge: Box Sets

[Ashlee]

keen to follow may join

[Caro]

I was thinking this one quite hard... I decide I will do a women around the world boxset. For this Challenge I will select women that are not from US or UK since the majority of my books tend to be for either of these countries....

I will select five books for this:

Women around the World

1. Margaret Atwood with The Handmaid's Tale(Canada)
2. Sonali Dev with The Bollywood Bride (India)
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Americanah or Half of a Yellow Sun. I still do not know which one to read first (Nigeria)
4. Carla Guelfenbein with Contigo en la distancia (Chile)
5.Susana y Elvira with Lo entendimos todo mal (Colombia)

[Amanda]

Movie Night

1. Unleashing Mr. Darcy 1/31/16
2. The Choice 2/17/16
3. Asking for Trouble 2/9/16
4. Room 3/4/16
5. P.S. I Love You 3/11/16
6. Bridget Jones's Diary 3/16/16

6/6

[Adriana]

Stately Reads
Until Friday Night (Alabama)
The Sea of Tranquility (Florida)
Almost Home (Illinois)
That’s Not Hay in My Hair (Texas)

Running with Wolves
Once in a Full Moon
The Beginning: Born at Midnight and Awake at Dawn
Taken at Dusk

Princess Power!
Princess Academy
Dealing with Dragons
Princess Ben
Beyond the Hundred Kingdoms
Wisdom's Kiss

Living in the Past
My Faire Lady
Colonial Madness
Scarlet
Jane Eyre

2/16 books

[Chantal]

I'm in! 3 box sets, 3 books each

Will give it a think and add my books later.

[Cheri]

This is a fantastic idea -- I love it! I've made two boxed sets of 3 books each on topics I've been planning to read more about:
Note - some substitutions have been made, but the substituted books still work in the topic.

CHALLENGE COMPLETED!!

Out of China Crost the Bay
books translated from Chinese
✔ 1. China in Ten Words by Yu Hua (5 stars)
✔ 2. Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo (4 stars)
✔ 3. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (4 stars)

Ladies First
books with feminist themes
✔ 1. Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future! by Kate Schatz (5 stars)
✔ 2. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Krizhnik (5 stars)
✔ 3. My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (5 stars)

[Chantal]

Ok, 3 Boxed Sets, 3 Books Each

Specters
1. Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places, by Brad Steiger
2. The Witches, Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff
3. The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende

Spectrum

1. Children with Starving Brains - A medical treatment guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder by Jaquelyne McCandless
2. Musique autiste - vivre et composer avec le syndrome Asperger, par Antoine Ouellette
3. M is for Autism , by Students of Limpsfield Grange School

Tell it Like it IS
1. The Wild Truth, by Carine Mccandleuss
2. It's a Long Story, by Willy Nelson
3. What I talk about when I Talk about Running, Haruki Murakami

[Rebecca]

I have read the first two book of the chronicles of Narnia - the magicians nephew and also the lion the witch and the wardrobe and I am now on to the horse and his boy and I am starting the hobbit and then will go on with the lord of the rings

[Erika]

I'm going to sign up for 12 books total, please. 4 sets of 3:


Things with Wings
01. A Wild Swan: And Other Tales by Michael Cunningham
02. Birds of America: Stories by Lorrie Moore
03. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang

Creepy Graphic Novels
01. Preacher, Book 2 by Garth Ennis
02. The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
03. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann

Written in Verse
01. Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
02. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
03. Selected Verse: Revised Bilingual Edition by Federico Garcia Lorca

Favorite Authors Revisited
01. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
02. Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving
03. Speak Easy by Catherynne M. Valente

[Caro]

I decide to make a second box set! So here it goes the full list:


The challenge was to create a Box Set so I decide to create one with women around the world. To make it a real Challenge I exclude women from US and UK since most of my readings are from there. The second one is to force me to read more nonfiction books the second box is just a series of four books.

Women around the World

1. Margaret Atwood with The Handmaid's Tale(Canada)
2. Sonali Dev with The Bollywood Bride (India)
3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Americanah or Half of a Yellow Sun. I still do not know which one to read first (Nigeria)
4. Carla Guelfenbein with Contigo en la distancia (Chile)
5.Susana y Elvira with Lo entendimos todo mal (Colombia)

Let's get real

1.The Witches: Salem, 1692
2. Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
3. The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
4.What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

[Katherine]

1st Quarter Challenge: Box Sets. Jan 1st-March 31st 2016
Box sets created: 5. Number of books to read: 24
Read: 24/24

Magic and mayhem: Why think when you can dream. 4/4 ✔
(view spoiler)[
1. Color Me A Crime - READ
2. Beneath the Crashing Waves - READ
3. If Only It Were True - READ
4. Djinngle Bells - READ
(hide spoiler)]

Fairy tales will withstand time: Read on faithful travelers! 6/6 ✔
(view spoiler)[
1. Cat's Tale: A Fairy Tale Retold - READ
2. Zombie Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection - READ
3. Cinder - READ
4. Cinderella - READ
5. Faerie Tale Collection Box Set #1: Cinderella / Hansel and Gretel / Jack and the Beanstalk - READ
6. Beauty and the Beast - READ
(hide spoiler)]

Gods/goddesses/demigods and Immortals: Gods among men. 5/5 ✔
(view spoiler)[
1. Naruto, Vol. 26: Awakening - READ
2. A Touch of Dead - READ
3. Naruto, Vol. 25: Brothers - READ
4. The Lost Hero - READ
5. Naruto, Vol. 20: Naruto vs. Sasuke - READ
(hide spoiler)]

Emotionally or physically strong characters: Fight to live! 5/5 ✔
(view spoiler)[
1. C791 - READ
2. Scandal's Child - READ
3. A Careless Wind - READ
4. Sumomomo, Momomo Vol. 4 - READ
5. Sumomomo, Momomo Vol. 5 - READ
(hide spoiler)]

Apocalyptic/Dystopian: Horror is always horrible. 4/4 ✔
(view spoiler)[
1. Zom-B Baby - READ
2. Zombie Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection - READ
3. Divergent (Divergent, #1) - READ
4. Free Four: Tobias Tells the Divergent Knife-Throwing Scene - READ
(hide spoiler)]

[Delmy]

This is a really great challenge, I hope we see it again or as a yearly challenge. you guys are so creative! :)

[Ceira]

2/6 read

Born at Midnight
City of Ashes

[Kelly]

Updated message #28.

The Little Prince ✔
The Grownup ✔

3/12

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated to here. Congrats to all of you speed readers working on your 3rd or 4th book I am impressed. I just finished my first. I love the creativity and fun everyone is having.

Delmy even if it doesn't come back you can do it as a personal challenge in your corner. I agree though it be fun to see and lad again.

[Janet]

Read the 1st of 6(around the world)

EuropeGoodnight Mister Tom

[Adriana]

Stately Reads
Until Friday Night (Alabama)
The Sea of Tranquility (Florida)
Almost Home (Illinois)
That’s Not Hay in My Hair (Texas)

Running with Wolves
Once in a Full Moon
The Beginning: Born at Midnight and Awake at Dawn
Taken at Dusk

Princess Power!
Princess Academy
Dealing with Dragons
Princess Ben
Beyond the Hundred Kingdoms
Wisdom's Kiss

Living in the Past
My Faire Lady
Colonial Madness
Scarlet
Jane Eyre

3/16 books

[Amanda]

I've added another box set to message 76. I have now 2 box sets with 3 books each. I noticed that I'm in the list with 0/6 already. It must be intuition!

[Chantal]

Adding another box set

Forget-me-not
1. See Jane Run by Joy Fielding
2. We Were Liars by e. Lockhart
3. The Memory Box by Eva Lesko Natiello

* Still Alice would be a good one too for this set, but I've already read it!
So I have them all together, here are the other sets I had already posted:

Specters
1. Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places, by Brad Steiger
2. The Witches, Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff
3. The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende

Spectrum

1. Children with Starving Brains - A medical treatment guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder by Jaquelyne McCandless
2. Musique autiste - vivre et composer avec le syndrome Asperger, par Antoine Ouellette
3. M is for Autism , by Students of Limpsfield Grange School

Tell it Like it IS
1. The Wild Truth, by Carine Mccandleuss
2. It's a Long Story, by Willy Nelson
3. What I talk about when I Talk about Running, Haruki Murakami

[Rebecca]

I have finished reading The Horse and His Boy from the Chronicles of Narnia and now up to book four prince Caspian and i am still reading the hobbit

LotR
Hobbit- reading
Lord of the rings 1-3 - not yet started

The Chronicles of Narnia
The magicians nephew- done
The lion, the witch and the wardrobe- done
The horse and his boy- done
Prince Caspian - reading
book 5- not started
book 6
book 7


3/11

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated to here. Please let me know if i have made any mistakes.

[Maureen]

I'm in for 3 boxes and 20 books, I will determine everything as I go

1st Quarter Challenge
Duration: January 1, - March 31, 2016
For one of our 1st Quarter Challenge, we want to give you all the power. We would like to see you build your own box set.

Many of us already own some famous series box sets like the Harry Potter Series and The Lord of the Rings set, and then there are the classic box sets from authors like Jane Austen and Jules Verne. Book stores often offer sets revolving around a genre like romance or mysteries, but how would you make your box set? You can do set up your box set with any theme you like, such as "Colors of the Rainbow," "Women of the 19th Century," or even, "Books I'm Reading because I Should Have Read Them in High School." It really is up to whatever you desire as long as you have 3 or more books in it!

For this challenge, chose the number of books you would like to read, and how many box sets you would like to make. You must name each box set, and each set should have a theme, but you are not limited to what you see suggested.
Please be creative!

I want to make 3 boxes with 20 books (TBD)

[Maria]

1/9

Classics I should have already read by now.

1
2
3
4
5

James Patterson books

1 Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas 1-1-16
2
3
4. 

[Alexander]

It's very interesting! I've thought for a long time to read books on which some songs of my favorite band are based. Iron Maiden is known to draw their inspiration from literature, so my Box Set will be for seven of those books:

Maiden's Inspiration Box Set
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Where Eagles Dare
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Stranger in a Strange Land
Childhood's End
Lord of the Flies
Out of the Silent Planet (this one actually gave only the name to their song, but I'll include it also)

[Maria]

Alexander wrote: "It's very interesting! I've thought for a long time to read books on which some songs of my favorite band are based. Iron Maiden is known to draw their inspiration from literature, so my Box Set wi..."

That is such a good idea. I wish I would have thought of that. I just read Ready Player One and they bring up a ton of songs.

[Chantal]

Alexander- I love your Iron Maiden box set! IM is my all time favorite.

[Alexander]

Maria, Chanta thank you. It's great to meet like-minded people in the group.

[Cassandra]

Military Crime Thriller
The Heist - January 4
3 stars

2/12

[Winter, Group Reads]

Message 17. 1/7

[Jo]

My boxed set will help me pass the time until The Walking Dead comes back on:

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Carol Peletier:
1. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
2. Zomb-Pocalypse--finished 1/12
3. The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor - Part One
4. The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor - Part Two
The Walking Dead Psychology: Psych of the Living Dead
5. Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing
6. Horror After 9/11: World of Fear, Cinema of Terror--finished 2/4/2016
7. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film
8. Poplit, Popcult, and the X-Files: Critical Exploration
9. Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader
10. Feed--completed 1/7/2016

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated to here. you guys are extremely creative!

[Meg]

I would like to join please Blagica. I will start with 2x5 for now.

Counting
1. One Plus One
2. Second Shift: Order
3. Third Shift: Pact
4. Fourth of July Creek
5.Give Me Five

Exploring East Asia
1. Hardboiled and Hard Luck (Japan)
2. Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather (China)
3. A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power (N Korea)
4. The Orphan Master's Son (N Korea)
5. A Wild Sheep Chase (Japan)

[Chelsea]

COMPLETED!!!!!

Victoria Schwab

1- The Archived
2- The Unbound
3- Vicious
4- A Gathering of Shadows

Next book in a series

5- Scarlet
6- Clockwork Prince
7- Ten Thousand Skies Above You
8- City of Fallen Angels
9- Winter

Timey Wimey

10- Passenger
11-The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
12- The Love That Split the World

[Adriana]

Stately Reads
Until Friday Night (Alabama)
The Sea of Tranquility (Florida)
Almost Home (Illinois)
That’s Not Hay in My Hair (Texas)

Running with Wolves
Once in a Full Moon
The Beginning: Born at Midnight and Awake at Dawn
Taken at Dusk

Princess Power!
Princess Academy
Dealing with Dragons
Princess Ben
Beyond the Hundred Kingdoms
Wisdom's Kiss

Living in the Past
My Faire Lady
Colonial Madness
Scarlet
Jane Eyre

4/16 books

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

This looks like fun. I'm in for 12.
3/12 as of 2/17/16

First or next books in Fantasy Series
1. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson The Stormlight Archive #2
2. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson Mistborn #1
✔ 3. The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice The Vampire Chronicles #6 1/10/16
✔ 4. Lasher by Anne Rice Lives of the Mayfair Witches #2 2/8/16

Are you afraid of the dark?
✔ 5. Green Darkness by Anya Seton 1/24/16
6. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware Currently reading 2/17/16
7. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King
8. After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Oldest Audible purchases never read (why?)
9. The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts and an Epilogue by Fyodor Dostoyevsky purchased 11/26/09 (just haven't gotten to it yet)
10. Ringworld by Larry Niven purchased 12/08/09 (freebie)
11. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole purchased 12/08/09 (freebie)
12. The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch purchased 06/22/10 (I believe another freebie)

[Jessica]

Jo wrote: "My boxed set will help me pass the time until The Walking Dead comes back on:

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Carol Peletier:
1. [book:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living D..."

I, too, want to be Carol when I grow up :)

[Blagica , Challenges]

Meg wrote: "I would like to join please Blagica. I will start with 2x5 for now. added for 10 books and I like your counting idea

Counting
1. One Plus One
2. Second Shift: Order
3. Third Shift: Pact
4. [book:Fo..."

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated here welcome to you all!

[Clare]

Message 63 updated with first book for my box sets

[Karen]

Countdown!

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
Signs Preceding the End of the World
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Sorrows of Young Werther
All My Puny Sorrows
The Funeral Party
The Wake
Ava

[Misha]

I'm in!
Sign me up for 2 box sets of 3 please!!

Books my Friends are Raving about
Books that I started but never finished

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated to here

[Janet]

Read the 2nd book of 6 for my Around the World box set

North America The Assistant

[Chantal]

Read 1 book from the Spectres box set I created:
Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated to here.
Laurie I didn't see you post that you finished your first book I think that check means your done please let me know.

[Cynthia]

I've decided to join in!

I'll go for 2 box sets

Box 1: Short and Sweet
Read 10 short stories

Box 2: Love in different genre
Read 3 books that contain love stories within different genres.
1. Distopian
2. Classic romance
3. Fantasy

I've already finished the first book in the second box set with The Heir

[Jo]

Jessica wrote: "Jo wrote: "My boxed set will help me pass the time until The Walking Dead comes back on:

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Carol Peletier:
1. [book:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from t..."

Carol is my queen!

And if you do as she says, you get cookies! ;)

[Blagica , Challenges]

updated to here. does anyone have a favorite from what they have read so far?

[Jessica]

Updated Message #71. Books completed:

Still I Rise:

1) The Danish Girl
2) Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
3) Bad Feminist
4) Twelve Years a Slave
5)
6)
7)
8)

Agnosticism Can Be Fun

1) God Is Disappointed in You
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

5/14

[Blagica , Challenges]

Awesome Job Jessica