JP's 2022 Challenge Buffet

[JP]

This is my first challenge buffet. Here we go!

Completed:
#1 New & Old TBR 8/22/22
#2 Second Place or Worse 3/27/22
#3 The Decade Challenge 10/28/22
#3 The Century Challenge 10/13/22
#4 Members Choice 2/19/22
#5 Short Story Challenge 7/26/22
#6 2022 Group Reads Challenge 11/1/22
#7 New Authors 1/22/22
#8 Passage of Time 11/23/22
#9 Fiction/Non-Fiction 11/12/22
#10 Half a Millennium Challenge 11/30/22
#11 Old and New Linked Categories 11/21/22
#12 A - Z Author 9/20/22
#13 A - Z Title 9/8/22

[JP]

✓#1 New & Old TBR

✓12/12 Complete

Old School
✓1. Dumas: The Corsican Brothers (1844) The Corsican Brothers
✓2. Zola: Thérèse Raquin (1867) Thérèse Raquin
✓3. James: Washington Square (1880) Washington Square
New School
✓4. Morrison: Beloved (1987) Beloved
5. Bellow: Herzog (1963) Herzog
✓6. Mann: The Magic Mountain (1924) The Magic Mountain
My Wild Card Six
✓7. Rijneveld: The Discomfort of Evening (2018) The Discomfort of Evening
✓8. Choi: Trust Exercise (2019) Trust Exercise
9. Oyeyemi: Peaces (2021) Peaces
✓10. Beatty: The Sellout (2015) The Sellout
11. Besson: Lie With Me (2017) Lie With Me
✓12. Bennett: The Vanishing Half (2020) The Vanishing Half
Alternates
✓13. Arudpragasm: A Passage North (2021) A Passage North
✓14. Lockwood: No One Is Talking About This (2021) No One Is Talking About This
✓15. Mohamed: The Fortune Men (2021) The Fortune Men

[JP]

✓#2 Second Place or Worse

✓7/7 Complete

New School
✓1. Burroughs: Queer (pub. 1985) Queer
✓2. Highsmith: The Price of Salt (1952) The Price of Salt
Old School
✓3. Zola: Thérèse Raquin (1867) Thérèse Raquin
✓4. James: Washington Square (1880) Washington Square
Short Story/Novella
✓5. Thurber: The 13 Clocks (1950) The 13 Clocks
✓6. Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent (1800) Castle Rackrent
Quarterly Long Read
✓7. Mann: The Magic Mountain (1924) The Magic Mountain

[JP]

✓#3 Decade and Century Challenges

The Decade Challenge
✓10/10 Complete

✓1955 - Dennis: Auntie Mame Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade
✓1956 - Wodehouse: Over Seventy Over Seventy
✓1957 - Nash: You Can't Get There From Here You Can't Get There from Here
✓1958 - Achebe: Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart
✓1959 - Queneau: Zazie in the Metro Zazie in the Metro
✓1960 - Dick: Dr. Futurity Dr. Futurity
✓1961 - Gorey: The Curious Sofa The Curious Sofa
✓1962 - Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle We Have Always Lived in the Castle
✓1963 - Updike: The Centaur The Centaur
✓1964 - Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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The Century Challenge
✓10/10 Complete

✓1830 - 1839 Balzac: Père Goriot (1835) Père Goriot
✓1840 - 1849 Dumas: The Corsican Brothers (1844) The Corsican Brothers
✓1850 - 1859 Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin
✓1860 - 1869 Zola: Thérèse Raquin (1867) Thérèse Raquin
✓1870 - 1879 Verne: Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) Around the World in Eighty Days
✓1880 - 1889 James: Washington Square (1880) Washington Square
✓1890 - 1899 Wells: The War of the Worlds (1897) The War of the Worlds
✓1900 - 1909 Grahame: The Wind in the Willows (1908) The Wind in the Willows
✓1910 - 1909 Wodehouse: Piccadilly Jim (1918) Piccadilly Jim
✓1920 - 1929 Mann: The Magic Mountain (1924) The Magic Mountain

[JP]

✓#4 Members Choice Challenge

✓12/12 Complete 2/19/22

✓1. 19th Century - Dumas: The Corsican Brothers (1844) The Corsican Brothers
✓2. 20th Century - Kesselring: Arsenic and Old Lace (1939) Arsenic and Old Lace
✓3. 21st Century - Arudpragasam: A Passage North (2021) A Passage North
✓4. Current or Past Group Read - Sartre: Nausea (1938) Nausea
✓5. Author Not Read Before - Updike: The Centaur (1963) The Centaur
✓6. Diversity Classic - Morrison: Beloved (1987) Beloved
✓7. Science Fiction - Capek: R.U.R. (1920) R.U.R.
✓8. Book in Translation - Dostoevsky: The Gambler (1866) The Gambler
✓9. Banned Book - Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin - banned in Russia and the Confederate States.
✓10. Nonfiction - White: Proust (1999) Marcel Proust
✓11. Mystery/Crime - Zola: Thérèse Requin (1867) Thérèse Raquin
✓12. Horror or Humor - Le Fanu: Carmilla (1872) Carmilla

[JP]

✓#5 Short Story Challenge

✓24/24 Complete

I'm thinking of focusing on stories from The New Yorker. William Shawn started editing the magazine in 1952. Let's see how many good stories I can find from that year!

✓1. Robert M. Coates: "Storm" (Jan. 12, 1952)
✓2. Roald Dahl: "A Dip in the Pool" (Jan. 19, 1952)
✓3. Peter de Vries: "Touch and Go" (Jan. 26, 1952)
✓4. Vladimir Nabokov: "Lance" (Feb. 2, 1952)
✓5. Elizabeth Taylor: "The Idea of Age" (Feb. 9, 1952)
✓6. James Thurber: "Photograph Album; Time Exposure" (Feb. 16, 1952)
✓7. Louise Field Cooper: "Triangle" (Feb. 23, 1952)
✓8. Ida Treat: "L'Amie du Serpent" (Mar. 1, 1952)
✓9. Frances Gray Patton: "Let It Rest" (Mar. 8, 1952)
✓10. Geoffrey T. Hellman: "Will You Have Pablo or Pablum?" (Mar. 15, 1952)
**At this point, I'm switching to stories from current issues of The New Yorker.
✓11. Tessa Hadley: "After the Funeral" (Mar. 28, 2022)
✓12. Artem Chapeye: "The Ukraine" (April 4, 2022)
✓13. Kevin Barry: "The Pub with No Beer" (April 11, 2022)
✓14. Sheila Heti: "Just a Little Fever" (April 18, 2022)
✓15. Elif Batuman: "The Repugnant Conclusion" (April 25 & May 2, 2022)
✓16. Said Sayrafiezadeh: "Nondisclosure Agreement" (May 9, 2022)
✓17. Mohsin Hamid: "The Face in the Mirror" (May 16, 2022)
✓18. Jamil Jan Kochai: "Occupational Hazards" (May 23, 2022)
✓19. Claire-Louise Bennett: "Invisible Bird" (May 30, 2022)
✓20. Joshua Ferris: "The Boy Upstairs" (June 6, 2022)
✓21. Souvankham Thammavongsa: "Trash" (June 13, 2022)
✓22. André Alexis: "Houyhnhnm" (June 20, 2022)
✓23. Etgar Keret: "Mitzvah" (June 27, 2022)
✓24. Lauren Groff: "To Sunland" (July 4, 2022)

[JP]

✓#6 2022 Group Reads Challenge

12/12 Complete

✓1. Dostoevsky: The Gambler (1866) The Gambler
✓2. Le Fanu: Carmilla (1872) Carmilla
✓3. Sartre: Nausea (1939) Nausea
✓4. Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises (1926) The Sun Also Rises
✓5. Haggard: King Solomon's Mines (1885) King Solomon's Mines
✓6. Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener (1853) Bartleby the Scrivener
✓7. Saramago: Blindness (1995) Blindness
✓8. Borges: The Library of Babel (1941) The Library of Babel
✓9. Tolstoy: The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) The Kreutzer Sonata
✓10. Maupassant: The Hand (1875) The Hand
✓11. Mann: The Magic Mountain (1924) The Magic Mountain
✓12. Woolf: The Mark on the Wall (1917) The Mark on the Wall

[JP]

✓#7 New Authors

✓9/6 Complete 1/22/22

✓1. Shipstead: Great Circle Great Circle
✓2. Peters: Detransition, Baby Detransition, Baby
✓3. Cusk: Second Place Second Place
✓4. Morrison: Beloved (1987) Beloved
✓5. Dostoevsky: The Gambler The Gambler
✓6. Le Fanu: Carmilla (1872) Carmilla
✓7. Rijneveld: The Discomfort of Evening The Discomfort of Evening
✓8. Mohamed: The Fortune Men (2021) The Fortune Men
✓9. Updike: The Centaur (1963) The Centaur
+lots more

[JP]

✓#8 Passage of Time

✓10/10 Complete

✓1964
✓1. Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2. Selby: Last Exit to Brooklyn Last Exit to Brooklyn
✓3. Sontag: Notes on Camp Notes on Camp
4. Bellow: Herzog Herzog
✓5. Dick: Martian Time-Slip Martian Time-Slip
✓6. Isherwood: A Single Man A Single Man
7. Kaufman: Up the Down Staircase Up the Down Staircase
8. Merrill: The Pushcart War The Pushcart War
9. Golding: The Spire The Spire
✓10. Alexander: The Book of Three The Book of Three

✓1939
1. Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath
✓2. Wodehouse: Uncle Fred in the Springtime Uncle Fred in the Springtime
3. West: The Day of the Locust The Day of the Locust
4. Sartre: The Wall The Wall
✓5. Kesselring: Arsenic and Old Lace Arsenic and Old Lace
6. Orwell: Coming Up for Air Coming Up for Air
✓7. Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin Goodbye to Berlin
✓8. Thurber: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
9. Faulkner: The Wild Palms The Wild Palms
✓10. Hellman: The Little Foxes The Little Foxes

[JP]

✓#9 Fiction/Non-Fiction

✓5 Pairs Complete

✓1. The Siege of Leningrad
✓F - Benioff: City of Thieves (2008) City of Thieves
✓NF - Anderson: Symphony for the City of the Dead (2015)Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

✓2. Provence
✓F - Sagan: Bonjour, Tristesse (1954) Bonjour tristesse
✓NF - Mayle: A Year in Provence (1989) A Year in Provence

✓3. Existentialism
✓F - Sartre: Nausea (1938) Nausea
✓NF - Sartre: Existentialism is a Humanism (1946) Existentialism is a Humanism

✓4. Isherwood in Berlin
✓F - Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin (1939) Goodbye to Berlin
✓NF - Isherwood: Christopher and His Kind (1976) Christopher and His Kind

✓5. William S. Burroughs
✓F - Burroughs: Queer (1985) Queer
✓NF - Odier, Burroughs: The Job (1969) The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs

[JP]

#10 Half a Millennium Challenge

Now that all the other challenges are (almost) finished, I'm going to give this one a shot!

5/5 Complete

✓1615 - Galileo: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
✓1715 - Defoe: An Appeal to Honour and Justice An Appeal to Honour and Justice, Though It Be of His Worst Enemies. Being A True Account of His Conduct in Public Affairs
✓1815 - Austen: Emma Emma
✓1915 - Wodehouse: Psmith, Journalist Psmith, Journalist
✓2015 - Beatty: The Sellout The Sellout

[JP]

✓#11 Old and New Linked Categories

5/5 Pairs Complete

✓1. Castles
✓Old - Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent (1800) Castle Rackrent
✓New - Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) We Have Always Lived in the Castle

✓2. Disapproving Fathers
✓Old - James: Washington Square (1880) Washington Square
✓New - Wodehouse: Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (1972) Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin

✓3. Slavery
✓Old - Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin
✓New - Morrison: Beloved (1987) Beloved

✓4. Provence
✓Old - Zola: The Fortune of the Rougons (1871) The Fortune of the Rougons
✓New - Sagan: Bonjour, Tristesse (1954) Bonjour tristesse

✓5. Vampires
✓Old - Le Fanu: Carmila (1872) Carmilla
✓New - Zárate: The Route of Ice and Salt (1998) The Route of Ice and Salt

[JP]

✓#12 A - Z Author

✓26/26 Complete

✓A - Arudpragasam: A Passage North (2021) A Passage North
✓B - Burroughs: Queer (1985) Queer
✓C - Cusk: Second Place (2021) Second Place
✓D - Dumas: The Corsican Brothers (1844) The Corsican Brothers
✓E - Edgeworth: Castle Rackrent (1800) Castle Rackrent
✓F - Fosse: The Other Name (2019) The Other Name: Septology I-II
✓G - Grahame: The Wind in the Willows (1908) The Wind in the Willows
✓H - Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises (1926) The Sun Also Rises
✓I - Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin (1934) Goodbye to Berlin
✓J - James: Washington Square (1880) Washington Square
✓K - Kesselring: Arsenic and Old Lace (1939) Arsenic and Old Lace
✓L - Le Fanu: Carmilla (1872) Carmilla
✓M - Morrison: Beloved (1987) Beloved
✓N - Nava: The Little Death (1986) The Little Death
✓O - Ojeda: Jawbone (2022) Jawbone
✓P - Pratchett: The Light Fantastic (1986) The Light Fantastic
✓Q - Queneau: Zazie in the Metro (1959) Zazie in the Metro
✓R - Rijneveld: The Discomfort of Evening (2018) The Discomfort of Evening
✓S - Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin
✓T - Thurber: The 13 Clocks (1950) The 13 Clocks
✓U - Updike: The Centaur (1963) The Centaur
✓V - Verne: Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) Around the World in Eighty Days
✓W - Wodehouse: Over Seventy (1956) Over Seventy
✓X - Xu/Walker: Mooncakes (2019) Mooncakes
✓Y - Yu: Interior Chinatown (2020) Interior Chinatown
✓Z - Zola: Thérèse Raquin (1867) Thérèse Raquin

[JP]

✓#13 A - Z Title

✓26/26 Complete

✓A - Arsenic and Old Lace (Kesselring, 1939) Arsenic and Old Lace
✓B - Beloved (Morrison, 1987) Beloved
✓C - The Corsican Brothers (Dumas, 1844) The Corsican Brothers
✓D - Detransition, Baby (Peters, 2021) Detransition, Baby
✓E - Equal Rites (Pratchett, 1987) Equal Rites
✓F - The Fortune Men (Mohamed, 2021) The Fortune Men
✓G - The Gambler (Dostoevsky, 1866) The Gambler
✓H - Heaven (Kawakami, 2009) Heaven
✓I - An Island (Jennings, 2020) An Island
✓J - Jawbone (Ojeda, 2022) Jawbone
✓K - King Solomon's Mines (Haggard, 1885) King Solomon's Mines
✓L - The Light Fantastic (Pratchett, 1986) The Light Fantastic
✓M - The Magic Mountain (Mann, 1924) The Magic Mountain
✓N - Nausea (Sartre, 1938) Nausea
✓O - Over Seventy (Wodehouse, 1956) Over Seventy
✓P - The Price of Salt (Highsmith, 1952) The Price of Salt
✓Q - Queer (Burroughs, 1985) Queer
✓R - Reaper Man (Pratchett, 1991) Reaper Man
✓S - The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway, 1926) The Sun Also Rises
✓T - Thérèse Raquin (Zola, 1867) Thérèse Raquin
✓U - Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe, 1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin
✓V - The Vanishing Half (Bennett, 2020) The Vanishing Half
✓W - Washington Square (James, 1880) Washington Square
✓X - Xingu (Wharton, 1900) Xingu
✓Y - A Year in Provence (Mayle, 1989) A Year in Provence
✓Z - Zazie in the Metro (Queneau, 1959) Zazie in the Metro

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Welcome to the feast, JP

[JP]

Sara wrote: "Welcome to the feast, JP"

Thanks, Sara!

[Lynn, New School Classics]

For your first buffet you are really tearing through the Challenges. Nice job!! I like your categories in the Linked Categories Challenge. They are simple and to the point.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Wow, I agree with Lynn, you are tearing through this!

[JP]

Lynn wrote: "For your first buffet you are really tearing through the Challenges. Nice job!! I like your categories in the Linked Categories Challenge. They are simple and to the point."

Thanks, Lynn and Sara. I got thrown off in June by The Books of Jacob and took a 6-week break from reading. I'm back on track now and feeling hopeful about finishing several more challenges.

[JP]

Woo-hoo! I just finished my last of the 13 challenges for 2022! This was so fun - it gave me some structure for figuring out good things to read, and it inspired me to read some books that had been on my TBR list for a while.

This leaves me with December for some palate-cleansers before diving into the 2023 buffet. I've got my eye on some recent books that I bought this year, like Foster, Dr. No, Leopoldstadt, and Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.