March Challenge: Courage

[Charity]

Updated message 9.

2/3

[Emma]

Update msg 25 - finished 3/3

[Annette]

Annette wrote: "Sign me up for 1, thank you. I'm starting out slow, I'm new."
Ok I read A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home. I'm not sure how this man survived his childhood and came out not just surviving, but thrived.

I also read I Am Malala, but the writing style was so difficult to read, I skimmed a lot of it.

[Blagica , Challenges]

3/2 Fatal Vision

i am listing this for this challenge because Alfred Kassab and his wife, Mildred the parents of Colette the wife of this crazy killer never gave up hope until they say him put in jail and that shows courage!

[Fr. Andrew]

Completed!
I may or may not get more read by the 31st, but posting this just in case.

1. Deadly Class, Vol. 3: The Snake Pit by Rick Remender (3/1/16) - High school kids in an impossible situation - going up against the most violent people you can imagine. In this volume, the protagonist even has to go against his own friends. This is a graphic novel, emphasis on the graphic!
2. Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović - (3/14/16) - A girl goes on with her life in the middle-literally-of bombs falling around her
3. Batman: Bruce Wayne, Murderer? by Greg Rucka (3/24/16) (It's Batman, the definition of courage, yes?)

[Stephanie]

Completed :-)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt ⭐️

[Bobbi]

Everything's updated to 108. Congratulations to everyone who has finished! To everyone else, don't panic, you still have time to have some fun and read. ;)

[Geri]

Updated post 17
I finished "To kill a mockingbird"
My challenge is completed. :)

[Rachel]

Update to post #48 -- I know I already finished, but I wanted to add the last book I read: Always Watching. It's about a psychiatrist who is working with a patient who has left a commune. Working with her brings back repressed memories of her own past at the commune and she faces threats when she tries to dig into it and find out what really happened.

[Wanda]

Update to post 45.
I am reading which is my last book in the challenge. I have finished by Jessica James. So by month's end I will have read 5/5, On to April!

[Erika]

I've finished my goal of reading 3 books for this challenge! :)

01. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
This book continues to be banned in schools across the country. It's the story of a young black girl who is sexually abused by her father. Not only was Morrison's writing of this story courageous, but the characters in it demonstrate courage in the face of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles.

02. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Much like her beloved collection of prose poetry Citizen: An American Lyric, this collection tears down the establishments in the US that perpetuate discrimination against blacks and women. Claudia Rankine's voice is like a wave of power and clarity washing over you.

03. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into going into this book. This memoir chronicles Maggie's marriage to her transgender husband and the birth of their son and so much more. It was absolutely inspiring and I can't imagine the strength that it took Nelson to write so coherently and intelligently about such intimate topics.

[Bobbi]

4/4. Please see my post on the first page for justifications if you'd like them.

Updated to here.

[Stephanie]

Update: I know it is almost the end of the month, but I read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" yesterday and I couldn't have it not count towards this. Charlie is not only brave in this book for stepping out of his comfort zone and "participating in life" (as he calls it), but for coping with childhood abuse and the attitude he takes at the end of the book. I won't say much more than that just in case people haven't read it, but it is a really good book and I very much recommend it. That takes me up to 7/5.

[Nicole]

*Update*

1. = I'd consider space exploration to take a lot of courage, especially when many of the missions that the characters take place in have a chance of over 50% death from accidents. There are also instances of bravery when characters try to save other characters or stand against authority figures.

2. = I think it takes a great deal of courage to confront your past, your feelings, to admit your feelings, your insecurities, and open up about it to others.

Goal Met So Far: 2/1

[Fr. Andrew]

I don't see myself finishing a book by tomorrow, so I can call this one complete

Read 4 books out of 3

1. Deadly Class, Vol. 3: The Snake Pit by Rick Remender (3/1/16) - High school kids in an impossible situation - going up against the most violent people you can imagine. In this volume, the protagonist even has to go against his own friends. This is a graphic novel, emphasis on the graphic!
2. Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović - (3/14/16) - A girl goes on with her life in the middle-literally-of bombs falling around her
3. Batman: Bruce Wayne, Murderer? by Greg Rucka (3/24/16) (It's Batman, the definition of courage, yes?)
4. Liberator, Vol. 1: Rage Ignition by Matt Miner (Animal Rights undercover action stuff)

[Katharine]

updated message 27

[Janine]

Challenge completed! Updated message 5. 2/2

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano. This book is honest and frank, and the author isn't afraid to speak out against prejudice she's faced, and stand up for others.


Honestly, I think lots of the books I read this month can fit under this theme in some way:
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto - Frankie is left all alone as a young child in a foreign country and goes through so many different trials, especially in his younger years.
Lirael - both main characters don't 'fit in' with their assigned roles and then go seeking out danger that terrifies them for the sake of others.
Americanah - The main character Ifemelu moves abroad all alone from Nigeria to the US.
A Darker Shade of Magic - Lila follows adventure despite peril at every corner. Even attempting to travel between worlds, something with a high probability of killing her or leaving her trapped in some kind of limbo!

[Amanda]

Updated #20

2/2 Challenge completed

2. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang Completed 28/03/16 Rating 4 stars

Jung Chang has written a family history written around the lives of her grandmother, her mother and herself. It begins with traditional China, through the rise of Communism and the leadership of Chairman Mao and ends with the author's acceptance of the West.

This is what Jung Chang had to say about the first twenty-six years of her life and this sums it up:

"I had experienced privilege as well as denunciation, courage as well as fear, seen kindness and loyalty as well as the depths of human ugliness. Amid suffering, ruin, and death, I had above all known love and the indestructible human capacity to survive and to pursue happiness."