Help Me Finish the Challenge!

[Abigail]

NOVEMBER 21: I AM GOING TO MAKE IT! I'm on my last book. Thanks, everyone, for all the terrific suggestions! They definitely made a difference.

[Edited for ones I've crossed off my list.:]

I have 21 days to finish the challenge. I have 17 books to go. I know I won't make it if I stick with some of my choices. I'm betting a few other people are in the same boat, so I'm starting a thread for us. I'm including what I need below, hoping for some good recommendations. I hope others will write back with ideas and/or post if they need suggestions for quick books too.

MY LIST
Does anyone have some good, quick suggestions for the following tasks?

5.3: Sea Travel (can this be less than 100 pages since it's a 5-pointer?)
5.7: Most Thankful For (can this be less than 100 pages since it's a 5-pointer?)
10.4: Hispanic Heritage Month: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile
10.5: Oktoberfest: German author/German setting
10.8: Random Word Generator. My words are Steering, Drift, or Pick
15.2: Alternative History
15.5: Two books originally written in the same language (that isn't English)
15.6: Arts
15.8: Geography. My initials are A (lots of options: Austria, Australia, Antigua, Albania, Afghanistan, and on and on and on) and V (limited to I think Vietnam and Venezuela, though I might have forgotten one).
20.1: Julie KS: Christian fiction
25.5: Janice: Fortune/prophecy
25.6: BJ: Assassinated presidents/world leaders. I know this is 500+ pages, so I'll take any recommendations that are QUICK reads. I've started Dark Horse, but I'm not so far along that I can't switch to something else (incl. two shorter books, right?), if they're especially easy reads.
50.1: Still haven't read for senses or emotions.

Any suggestions are very much welcome -- and thank you!!

[Literally]

5.3-- "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" by Avi
(This is YA, maybe 200 something pages, but it's a very quick read. You could finish it in 1 day.)

10.5-- "Siddhartha" or "Steppenwolf" by Herman Hesse (skinny books, but still over 100 pages so you won't feel guilty), "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke (looks large, but it's YA), "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak (quick and very engaging, looks thick, but it's YA) or "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende (also YA, maybe 300 pages)

15.2-- "Blonde Roots" by Bernadine Evaristo (very interesting adult read, but it's going by quickly for me)

[Petra]

5.3 Sea Travel: The Old Man and The Sea or Treasure Island (the audio versions are really good and these are interesting stories for the commute)

15.8 On The Beach by Nevil Shute takes place in Australia

20.1 The Screwtape Letters - interesting, humourous

50.1a (5 senses): The Last Chinese Chef. I just finished this one. It's a wonderful story, easy to read and full of taste and texture of food.

[Greyweather]

5.3: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.7: It might help if we knew what you felt thankful for.
10.5: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
10.8: In the Drift by Michael Swanwick
15.2: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick or The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock
15.5: Any two of José Saramago's books. Or any two Natsume Soseki books.
15.6: Macbeth
20.1: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
25.5: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

[Petra]

I forgot about The Sparrow. I'd highly recommend this one.

[Krista]

I read one of the Chronicles of Narnia books, The Magician's Nephew for Julie's task 20.1. It was a fast read, and new material for me.

For the senses portion of the 50 point task I read Hands of My Father A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love. It was a wonderful book. A 5 star for me, and Donna Jo gave it 5 stars too. Her rating is what originally pointed me in the direction of this specific book, and boy am I thankful to have found it. I bought a copy of it already to give to my Mom for Christmas. (I read a library book originally.)

10.8 Random Word 'Pick':
A Bone to Pick Aurora Teagarden mystery #2 in series by Charlaine Harris. I have this on my TBR shelf. I imagine it would be a quick read.

[Katie]

I'm not sure if it was in question, but yes, you can use books less than 100 pages for 5 point tasks (sparingly).

For 5.3 (sea travel), I read The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad, which was around 60 pages and still pretty good. Plus, I didn't feel like I was cutting corners on length because it's Conrad.

For 10.5 (oktoberfest), I found The Reader by Bernhard Schlink to be a really quick read (quicker than some of the shorter books I've read). Hesse does have some short books, including Siddhartha, though I think The Journey to the East, Demian, and Knulp are shorter, if you can find them. I wouldn't consider Steppenwolf to be a particularly quick read, though I guess the speed depends on the reader. All Hesse is good reads, IMO.

For 15.5 (foreign language), I was going to write something snarky, like "don't pick Russian," but I just read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, which was a surprisingly quick read and very good. Also, Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky is fairly short and a pretty good read. That is assuming, of course, you aren't fluent in Russian.

For 15.8 (initials), Annie John A Novel by Jamaica Kinkaid is a great little book, set in Antigua.

For 50.1 (emotions section), I read a collection of Poe (fear/terror) that was NOT a quick read, but I'm sure you could find a short one with only two, three, four short stories.

Read strong!! I hope you finish. :-)

[Jennifer]

For sea travel, Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis will work.

[Heidi]

I read Resistance, by Owen Sheers for 15.2 and loved it!

[Abigail]

You guys are awesome! Thank you so much. Keep the suggestions coming. I'm finishing up my teacher book for 10.10 -- hopefully today -- and heading to the library to get some of the suggestions above, too. Yay!

[Sarita]

Abigail wrote: "You guys are awesome! Thank you so much. Keep the suggestions coming. I'm finishing up my teacher book for 10.10 -- hopefully today -- and heading to the library to get some of the suggestions abov..."

For senses I read The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry. It's a lovely book and an easy read, most versions are 100+ pages. The sense is sight (the Prince can "see" with his imagination).

[Amy]

For 15.5, I'd recommend reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Both were originally written in Swedish, and are so engaging you'll find them hard to put down.

[Angela]

I agree with Amy...I read those two books for that challenge and loved them!

[Amy]

There's also Let the Right One In, originally written in Swedish if you'd like a variety. I didn't think that was nearly as good as the first 2 choices though. It's a pretty hefty book, but it went by really quickly.

[kiki]

10.4 Like Water for Chocolate takes place in Mexico and is a pretty quick (and fabulous!) read!

10.5 i'll agree with Jennifer and suggest Siddhartha...it's pretty quick!

good luck! :)

[Deedee]

20.1 Home for Christmas by Andrew M. Greeley is quick. Greeley tells the story mostly by dialogue, which is difficult to do well, but IMHO he does. The book is also only 193 pages long.
Good luck!

[scherzo♫]

5.3 Wizard of Earthsea and Prince Caspian are two of my all time favorite books.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader is another sea voyage in the Chronicles of Narnia

15.2 Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card 256pp is alternative American history with folk magic -- fast and good

20.1 Any of the Chronicles of Narnia
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Prince Caspian
The Horse and His Boy
The Last Battle
The Silver Chair
Magician's Nephew

also Orson Scott Card's books are usually Christian parables (some more overtly than others)

25.5 My book for this task was a slow read. A quick scan through the books read for this task -- these might be fast:

The Fortunes of Indigo Skye 298pp
Deadly Little Secret 288pp
The Celestine Prophecy 246pp

50.1 Emotions
From your TBR list --
The Last Days of Dogtown A Novel 263pp

[scherzo♫]

5.7 What are you thankful for?

[Abigail]

Thanks, everyone! I just crossed 10.8, 20.1, and 50.1's senses section off my list. The next one will take me a little longer, I'm sure, but OH is this so helpful!

[Abigail]

Oh, and PJReads -- I'm thankful for *so* many things, I think it'd be easy to fit a lot of books in that slot. My family, love, intelligence, creativity, tolerance (at least in the environment I'm in), nature, time to myself, health, past experiences, constant learning... One reason I left it open so long is because I figured I could fit just about anything there if I was rushed for the end of the challenge. ;)

[scherzo♫]

Abigail wrote: "Oh, and PJReads -- I'm thankful for *so* many things, I think it'd be easy to fit a lot of books in that slot. My family, love, intelligence, creativity, tolerance (at least in the environment I'm ..."

Do you have a book less than 100 pages in mind for 5.7? If not, then The Maytrees 240pp from your TBR list fits several of the things you're thankful for.

The Maytrees A Novel

[Sara ♥]

I just saw this thread, but

5.7 - MOST THANKFUL FOR - Yes, it can be under 100 pages. During the Spring Challenge, a bunch of us (under a time crunch like you) read The Giving Tree, which only has 64 pages (and is mostly pictures).

10.4 - CHILE - I read Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly, which is a 128-page juvenile fiction book with pictures and a really large font... ;)

10.5 - GERMAN - What about Night? I believe Cynthia OK'd it... 120 pages

25.5 - FORTUNE - The Fortunes of Indigo Skye WAS a pretty quick little read about an 18-year-old waitress who is left a 2.5 million dollar tip... and how she reacts to that...

[scherzo♫]

Abigail's latest status:

TOTALS:
Points: 520
Books: 60
Pages: 15,293
Tasks: 38

The hardest thing is knowing that I have just six books to read and one movie to watch -- so I know that I have a chance of making it! -- but that also means I am ignoring my book list for the Winter Challenge. Oh, how I want to play with that!!! :)

Go, Abigail! We're all rooting for you!

[Abigail]

Thanks, PJReads! And thank you for having such a wide range of books that fits into your 50.1 task. I'm saving my emotions part of that until nearly last, I think, since I can fit whatever I want into the time allowed almost. :)

[Kay]

For the French books, did anyone suggest The Stranger? (I believe The Little Prince was also originally in French and might be over 100 pages depending on the edition).

[Kay]

Abigail wrote: "[Edited for ones I've crossed off my list.:]

I have 21 days to finish the challenge. I have 17 books to go. I know I won't make it if I stick with some of my choices. I'm betting a few other peopl..."

Also, isn't Vatican City technically a country? There might be more books dealing with that than the other countries you listed.

[Abigail]

Thank you, everyone! I just updated my original post. I'm down to just one book, and I'm reading one I really want -- not one that is just plain quick. I can't thank you all enough for your wonderful suggestions. I'm not sure if I'd have made it otherwise -- especially since, when I started this thread, I was debating on whether I should even try such a crazy thing.

Thanks!!!!

[Katie]

Yay! Good for you. Glad to help.

[scherzo♫]

Wonderful!

[Bluemoon]

Go Abigail you can do it!!!!