The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
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WINTER CHALLENGE 2009-2010
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WINTER CHALLENGE 2009-2010 COMPLETED TASKS
Finished 2 more tasks...10.4. WINNERS CHOICE
Wendy- Unaccustomed Earth**
I had a really hard time with this book. Too grounded in reality for my taste.
15.2 ADVENTURES WITH ALICE AND LEWIS -
A. Pieces of Happily Ever After***- Character named Alice
AND
B.
The Magician's Nephew**** Setting-Narnia.
Total points: 245
I completed Task 25.4 (If I Could Turn Back Time) by reading The Blood of Flowers: A Novel by Anita Amirrezvani (set in 17th Century Persia) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (set in 19th Century China).Both Anita Amirrezvani and Lisa See are Goodreads Authors.
Blood of Flowers is a beautifully rich and textured story of a young girl who dreams of being a carpet designer and knotter, a trade/career meant only for men. This poor girl goes through many trials but stays true to her conscience and beliefs.
I really enjoyed the fables and tales interwoven in the story.
Snow Flower And The Secret Fan tells the life friendship of two girls as they grow up, marry and have children. It's a life of trials and cultural customs and isolation that puts pressure on all relationships to survive. A beautiful and poignant story.
Which time in history would I prefer? Both cultures and times had large restrictions for women but, if I had to choose, I would choose 17th Century Persia. The women, although bound by many restrictions, were freer than the women of 19th Century China. They could have friendships, visit their friends, go shopping, go to worship. And they didn't have to have their feet bound.
Finished another one:5.5 A LIBRARIANS JOB IS NEVER DONE - In Honor Of February Being Library Lovers Month…
A. Visit Your Local Library And Ask One Of The Librarians To Recommend Their Favorite Book And Then Read That Book.
Coralie wrote: "Our library has little cards attached to the shelves saying "The staff recommends ...." That must be a popular Library thing to do, as our local library also has a shelf called: "We Recommend". The Librarian told me that every library worker gets to put one book on the shelf. The Luxe was one of the books on that shelf.
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen (Hardcover, 433 pages)
The Luxe is a Young Adult book, the first of a series. The main characters are very wealthy teenagers in New York City Society during 1899. It's not historically accurate at all, but historical accuracy is not the point of the novel. Instead, The Luxe is similiar to a fantastical novel about high school, with people as realistic as those on Disney TV show "Zoey 101". The novel revolves around the friendships (and enemies) between different members of the school.
395 + 5 = 400
Tasks Completed: 21
Points for this task: 5
Points thus far: 400/1100
Books read: 29
Pages Read: 8592
Task 20.3 Group Read: The Princess Bride by William GoldmanTasks: 12
Books: 14
Total Pages: 4249
Total Points: 165/1100
A big task done:35.3 Book with second(s),minute, hour, day, week,month,season,year in title: Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron, 303pp read 1/23/2010.
Books read 44/79+
Tasks completed 28/58
Points 570/1100
Pages read 14155
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Task-3Points-30
Books Read-
Black box by Julie Schumacher Pages-164
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Pages-316
Everyone Else's Parents Said Yes by Paula Danziger Pages-115
Percy Jackson and the Olympians:The Titans Curse by Rick Riordan Pages-312
Our computer died a couple of weeks ago (the hard drive was wiped) and we've been slowly getting everything back up and running so I am way behind in recording my completed tasks. I have completed all of the following for a total additional points of 120 points.
5-9. Isn't it Romantic, read a book with Chocolate in the title. Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson. 5 points
10-5A. Read The Color Purple by Alice Walker for an additional 10 points.
10-7, A Small Screen story. I love old reruns of Murder She Wrote and so I read Murder She Wrote: The Maine Mutiny by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain. 10 points.
15-3 Was a two part challenge. I read Catering to Nobody, A Goldie Bear mystery by Diane Mott Davidson for the first part and the autobiography of Julia Child, a woman I really do admire. The book was called My Life in France. Additional 15 points.
20-2. I read A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou which was one of her autobiography books. This one started a few days before the assassination of Malcolm X and ended with the assassination of Martin Luther King. A really wonderful book.
20 more points.
25-2 was about friendship. I think the friendships I have with the women in my life are such blessings. They have kept me sane when life was not and kept me whole when it felt like everything around me was fallding apart. They share jokes and laughter and tears. The women in the Quilting group portrayed in the very wonderful book Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas showed all of these aspects of friendship. They were there for each other in sickness, when they lost children to war and murder, they cooked, and laughed and cried together. 25 Additional points.
35-4. New Year's Resolution. My New Year's Resolution is to cook more for my family, to learn more about cooking in general and to slowing become a better cook. For 35-4A, I read The School of Essential Ingredients (containing School, i.e. learning, and Ingredients, so much a part of cooking, in the title). For 35-4B, I read the non-fictional account of a student at the American Culinary School called The Making of a Chef. 35 more points.
This should give me 120 more points for a total of 260 points.
25.1 1001 Books: I, Robot and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timeTotal: 25 + 1075 (from earlier) = 1100 points
All done! ^_^
15.3 What Women WantA. I read Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. This is the first a series about the main character DJ a young girl who decides to play high school football. 4* Really enjoyed. Can't wait to read more. B. My Life in France - Julia Child's memoir about her years in France. 4* another great story.
Total Points - 160
Books Read - 11
Tasks completed - 8
Total pages read - 3,875
Finished 15.9, Out with the Old/In with the NewFor the "Old" book I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This book has been sitting on my shelf I think since it came out (8 years or so). About time I read it. Not a huge fan of it though.
For the "New" book, I read Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. Never read anything by him before, and I liked this book.
New Total: 95 points
Mod
A. The Silver Pigs and
B. Climb to Conquer: The Untold Story of WWII's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops
I enjoyed them both. Silver Pigs introduces Marcus Didius Falco- a private informer (detective) in 70 A.D. Rome. Very likable characters with great historical detail. Climb to Conquer was an average book about extraordinary men. The writing was sometimes clumsy and redundant, but the accomplishments of the 10th Mountain Division were amazing.
+50
total 1100
That finished the season for me. 82 books and 24,306 pages. 27 4 or 5 stars, 48 3 stars, only 7 1 or 2 stars. Thank you all for your reviews and suggestions.
Cynthia, as always, Thank You! Thank You!
Now I have to figure out what to read next!
Congratulations, MsAnderson!! That's awesome!
10.6 Local Literature Lovers. Read a five-star book from someone in your area.I picked Heather's list. (Hi, Heather!)
She had given Rachel and Leah by Orson Scott Card 5-stars. I have to say that I really agree with her. It had the same feel as Red Tent which I read years ago. It gave such depth to the characters from the old testament and really made them feel real. Plus I enjoyed it so much that I got another book this week from the same series. Rachel. Looking forward to reading it.
Sorry, forgot to add...5.5 A LIBRARIANS JOB IS NEVER DONE - In Honor Of February Being Library Lovers Month…
I was looking for an audio book to listen to at work and was near our teen section when I asked since I figure that won't be so jarring when interrupted. The librarian suggested A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. (Not sure how audio books are treated, and trying not to do too many YA books) I really didn't mind doing my files because the story moved along quite quickly. Part Little Princess and part fantasy, Gemma finds herself at Spence Academy after the tragic death of her mother. The true nature of her death being covered up, though Gemma had visions of what happened. Part one of a series.
Thank you! And congratulations to DLMRose, for finishing, too! Unfortunately, now I need to clean my apartment, which is nowhere near as fun as reading. Good luck to everyone else in finishing their books!
Finished 20.1Revisited task 15.14 in the help thread, reading a book that had been translated
Read The Angel's GAme by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, originally written in Spanish
Nr points 330
Nr books 17
Nr tasks 12
30 points-Color by NumbersGreenwitch by Susan Cooper
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
new total: 45 points
hoorah!
15.3: women you want to read For part 1 I read Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. For part 2 I read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
New point total: 135
I just finished task 5.5, read a book recommended by a librarian - for this challenge,I read Bird in Hand, which was recommended by my librarian friend Cara.My total is now 55 points.
Laura FL
10.5 - POPULARITY CONTEST – Discovering The Hot Books Of 2009…. My birthday is in May and I chose to read Dark Places. I gave it 4 stars.
10.8 - OH CANADA! - To Commemorate The Upcoming Winter Olympics That Will Be Held In Vancouver, Canada - Read A Novel Written By A Canadian Author, Set In Canada, Or A Non-Fiction Book About Canada.
I read Waiting for Columbus and the author is Canadian. I gave it 3 stars.
The author is also a Goodreads author :)
25.6 - STEPHANIE US' TASK - ISLAND DREAMS
I read The Housekeeper and the Professor which takes place in Japan. I gave it 4 stars.
30.9 - RACHEL LEE'S TASK - THE NEWBERY AWARD
Winter Break Was Always My Favorite Growing Up Because I Got To Read So Many New Books And Usually My Aunt (An English Teacher) Would Bring Me The Newbery Award Winner From That Year For My Present.
Pick A Year And Read Both The Newbery Winner And One Of The Honor Books From That Year. Then Let Us Know Which You Thought Was Better And Why.
I read The Graveyard Bookwhich was a Newberry Winner in 2009. (gave it 3 stars) Then, I read Savvy which was an honor book that year. (gave it 4 stars) I think that Savvy was a much better book. I enjoyed it much more than the Graveyard Book which just did not live up to my expectations about it. I found Savvy to be such an enchanting little book and The Graveyard book to be a major disappointment.
Neil Gaiman is a Goodreads author.
Totals as of 1/24/10:
540/1150 Points
38/81 Books Read
41/81 Books Outstanding
20.2 Revisiting the Past - Bonnie’s Task - Read A Book Outside Your Normal Genre(s): Living in Hope and History: Notes from Our Century. I typically read fiction and very rarely read an enitre non-fiction book. This compilation of Nadine Gordimer's essays was fascinating when she wrote about literature, but my mind glazed over when attempting to read the academic discussions of philosophy or history.Pages read: 5897
Books read: 19+
Tasks completed: 16
Total Points: 395
Liz (Bklyn)
I finished task 5.3 (about a monarch) by reading The Constant Princess. It was a pretty entertaining read, but not my favorite by this author.That should bring me to 135 points
Finally, some points for the board - I've been so busy at work I've barely had two seconds to read! I completed Roseann's Resolution task with Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors and Eric Blehm's The Last Season - my resolution is to do more nature walks in 2010, so the Doyle picks up "walk" and the Blehm is about a park ranger known for finding lost hikers who went missing himself.Current Total: 475 points
Finished Task 30.4Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Liz wrote: "Elizabeth (NC) wrote: "Ok, I am very sad because my main computer with all my lists has died--so I'm hoping that I don't repeat any books (or leave any out for that matter!) And I have no idea how ..."Thank you! I knew there was a way I could access my old posts, but had no clue--I love that people look out for each other here! (Now, of course, I need to immediately write down this your post number, because I will promptly forget it!)
I finished task 10.6 by reading The Giver which was a five star pick on local reader's Tisa Lynn's shelf. I really enjoyed it and could not put it down until I finished it. I also gave it 5 stars.My total is now 310.
Ellen wrote: "Our computer died a couple of weeks ago (the hard drive was wiped) and we've been slowly getting everything back up and running so I am way behind in recording my completed tasks. I have compl..."
I feel for you Ellen. My computer is in the shop and I have my fingers crossed that it will be able to be saved.
Congrats to the finishers so far. As always, I am amazed, in awe and maybe a little afraid of your reading powers.
I've done a lot of reading this past week, but only two tasks finished.10.3 RENAISSANCE READING
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonTruly a classic--I'm so glad that educators have been including this into their curricula for the past thirty or so years.
30.3 BJ ROSE'S TASK - SNOWED IN AND LOVING IT
Storm Warning, Storm Rising and Storm Breaking 1303 pages all by Mercedes Lackey
Another Heralds of Valdemar trilogy--this time magic snaps back.
As Ms. Lackey has been writing in this world for many years, it is amazing that her later works are so comfortable, but still fresh and exciting.
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Finished:30.3 - BJ Rose 825 pages
Generation A - Douglas Coupland - 272 pages
Blueberry Muffin Murder - Joanne Fluke - 320 pages
Village School - Miss Read - 240 pages
832 pages total
TOTAL POINTS = 170
For Task 25.8Murphy Must have Been a Mother (and other laws I live by) by Teresa Bloomingdale
and
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
25.3 Sara Nicole's Task - A Game of ClueA. Suspect (White)
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
B. Weapons (Poison)
Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss
C. both books are from the library
Total points: 435
20.8 MICHELLE US' TASK - JANUARY 30TH IS INANE ANSWERING MACHINE DAYThe Day Where We Try To Bring An End To All Of Those Mindless, Endlessly Long, Beeping And Otherwise Inane Answering Machine Messages That Annoy, Waste Time And Try The Patience Of Poor Unfortunate Callers.
In Honor Of This Silly Holiday...
A. Read A Book With An Unnecessarily Long Title (At Least 7 Words)
And To Make Up For It...
B. Read A Book With A Very Short Title (1 Word).
For this task I read Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" by Debbie Viguie back in December for the 7 word title and then I just finished Scorched by Sharon Ashwood for the 1 word title.
Total Points: 465/1100
Books Read: 36
Tasks Completed: 27/58
Hurray for Ms Anderson and dlmrose for finishing.
10.2 (Braille-Loss of the senses)In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir
byNeil White (3 stars)
Until I read this book, I had no idea that Hansen's Disease, otherwise known as leprosy, existed in the U.S. In fact, there are about 6,500 cases in this country.
This memoir was written by a wealthy magazine mogul, who was sentenced to a year, in a Louisiana prison, for floating checks. The jail shared grounds with one of last two remaining "leprosy colonies" stationed in America. One day he is a CEO; the next day he is working in a cafeteria serving patients' needs. His sense of entitlement fades slightly as he gets to know the victims and their plights.
White's journalistic instinct kicks in, and he learns that many of the patients were brought to the colony while they were children. They were taken away in the night by "officials", who whisked them away from their families never to be seen again. Already lost and "contained", the victims of this terrible malady often become blind and unable to walk. Maybe, even worse, many lose their sense of touch and, sometimes, their limbs because the disease effects their nerves. Therefore, they can't care for themselves; eating, brushing their teeth, and etc. become impossible. Some hurt themselves and don't even know it.
To add insult to injury, the patients had to share their home with convicts. There was consistent debate, throughout the book, who was in more danger, the patients or the convicts. It is still unknown, how Hansen's Disease is spread, so many of the imprisoned treated the ill with malaise.
This could have been a better book, if White focused a little more on the patients, and less on himself. Yet, it was a real eye-opener.
+10
total: 120
books: 10
tasks: 10
Another one bites the dust! Finished 25.10
a
(Fitzpatrick is a Goodreads author) Surprisingly good. Granted it's cheesy teen fiction, but a great book to read if you need to escape from life for a bit. b. Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 1. GREAT series. I'm officially hooked. I've read 2 more volumes after this and am waiting to borrow the rest from a friend.
5.5 A Librarian's job is never doneRead The Well of Lost Plots
5.10 the allure of alliteration
Read Rendezvous with Rama
finished task 30.5 by reading The Book Thief(narrated by death) and The First Man(published posthumously). the book thief was lovely and painfully sad. the first man didn't hold up to other works by camus, but it was unfinished, so...
Total Points: 645/1100
Books Read: 37/81
Tasks Completed: 26/58
Tasks in Progress: 2
At long last, another task:5.3 Doomed Queens by Kris Waldherr, bringing me to 390/1100
and 6863 pages
Congrats to all the finishers thus far! I will just be happy when I reach my goal soon.Another task down....10.7 Small Screen
I read Dead as a Doornail which is 5th in the Sookie Stackhouse series from the HBO series True Blood. I gave it 3 stars.
Tasks Completed: 24
Points for this task: 10
Points thus far: 420/1100
Books read: 35
Pages read: 10067
Finished 30.3:Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Rachel Fershleiser (219 pages)
The Fireman's Wife: A Novel by Jack Riggs (300 pages)
The Position: A Novel by Meg Wolitzer (307 pages)
For a total of 826 pages.
Total Points: 230
whew, another big one down...35.1 Fun with the Dewey Decimal System
I struggled with this one due to my library's limited selection (and of course my own pickiness). But, starting with my 240 page book from fall, I settled on:
242.8 Poems and Prayers of Inspiration - this book is not listed on Goodreads but it seems to be part of a series by an 'inspirational' publishing house. Kind of like a Time/Life series. It featured prayers and poems by famous authors (Dickens, Donne, Milton for example) and clergy (Merton, Augustine, St Francis, etc) along with brief biographies. Lovely pictures too of churches, art, and stained glass. Lots of writers I didn't expect and some less-well-known choices made it an enjoyable anthology.
Adding 251 from that book, I found
493.1 Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt by Maria Carmela Betro. Some very basic overview of the writing system, but most of this book is like a dictionary of hieroglyphic symbols and their meaning. Really this book is intended I think for students of linguistics or Egyptology, or maybe even art history, as a lot of the information was immaterial to me; but the author took care in most cases to include cultural and historical details about the symbols which were the most interesting to read. I surprised myself last night while watching a show about the Sphinx and being able to identify a couple of the hieroglyphs highlighted on the show. Yay, learning!
Congratulations to early winners: Roseann, Cheryl, Ms. Andersson & DLMRose!!
20.1 Civil Rights - Pillar of Fire : America in the King Years 1963-65
Big Book = 768 pp
1075 points
5.3 ROYAL READING - Read A Novel Featuring A Monarch As A Main Character - Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 by Patricia C. McKissack. Historical fiction about an actual queen.Total Points: 365/1100
Tasks Completed: 23/58
Tasks in Progress: 7
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The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
The Bloodshed Of The Betrayed (other topics)Winter's Child (other topics)
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School (other topics)
Don't Try This At Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs (other topics)
Magic Study (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Kate Mosse (other topics)Louise Rennison (other topics)
Robert Louis Stevenson (other topics)
William Golding (other topics)
Laura Childs (other topics)
More...
Book with a map Going Rogue: An American Life. Has a map of the world "from the north" to prove that yes, you really can see Russia from Alaska (sorry couldn't resist, that book was AWFUL)
Book with extra content The City of Dreaming Books. It has various text format changing (size, font type, etc), several drawings that show symbols etc and help the story along (the triadic circle, a business card, the circular musical scale, the impossible key) and an unusual format choice for one of the bits of dialog. Instead of "blah blah," he said, its more of a play format.