What's in a Name Challenge

This here What's in a Name Challenge just looks adorable. I have to sign up!

Here's How It Works

Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, read one book in each of the following categories:
1. A book with a number in the title: First to Die, Seven Up, Thirteen Reasons Why
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title: Diamond Ruby, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Opal Deception
3. A book with a size in the title: Wide Sargasso Sea, Small Wars, Little Bee
4. A book with travel or movement in the title: Dead Witch Walking, Crawling with Zombies, Time Traveler's Wife
5. A book with evil in the title: Bad Marie, Fallen, Wicked Lovely
6. A book with a life stage in the title: No Country for Old Men, Brideshead Revisited, Bog Child

The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category.


Interesting, right? Well, I think so, anyway, and that's what counts! I have noooooo idea what I'll pick for this, but if you've got ideas, send them my way!

Number: Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy Sayers (Review)
Jewelry: The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud (Review)
Size: Thinner, by Richard Bachman (Review)
Travel: Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach (Review)
Evil: In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (Review)
Life: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach (Review)

TBR Challenge

I think the TBR Challenge is going to be really good for me — I am constantly making lists of books to read for other challenges and then NEVER READING THEM. Which is not useful for, you know, getting books read, though I do often end up finding new books to love. But I do have way too many books that I've been meaning to read for years (but not On the Road anymore!), so I think I'm going to throw them up here and finally get 'em done.

The rules:

* the challenge is to read 12 TBR books in 12 months — you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you wanna do it.
* you should have a list posted somewhere for others to see
* you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, of the current year!!!
* you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list).
* audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed
* re-reads are NOT allowed, as they aren’t TRUE “TBRs”
* you CAN overlap with other challenges
* OPTIONAL: you can join the Yahoo! Group created for participants of the TBR Challenge, if you want to have a place to keep your list, or just to share with others about how you’re doing!


The list:
1. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien (Review)
2. Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
3. World Without End, by Ken Follett (Review)
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (Review)
5. Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
6. To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis (Review)
7. The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux (Review)
8. The Shining, by Stephen King (Review)
9. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Review)
10. A Fine and Private Place, by Peter S. Beagle
11. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach (Review)
12. Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones

I'm not going to list any alternates, because I will read these books, darn it! I hope.

A to Z Challenge 2011

I think it's pretty safe to say that I failed last year's A to Z Challenge — there are four days left in the year, I've got six books to go, and I don't foresee finishing the one I've got that quickly! But I am certainly willing to give this challenge another go!

This year's A to Z is quite the same as last year's, but in case you don't remember the rules...

"How does this reading challenge work? Choose the option that works best for you...

Authors -- Read alphabetically by author. Commit to 26 books.
Titles -- Read alphabetically by title. Commit to 26 books.
Authors & Titles -- Commit to reading 52 books

How strict is the 26 or 52? I know it isn't always easy to find those difficult letters. The thought of finding the X's (for example) might scare folks away. It shouldn't! I'm a merciful host! (Ask anyone!)

If you want to give the X's a go... For authors, try to find an X in the first name, middle name, or last name. For titles, it doesn't have to be the starting word. Try to find an X somewhere in a title, and it'd count in my book.

Still can't find a book for the letter you need? I'll take your word for it. I've been there. I know. If your library doesn't see the need to order books just because it starts with an X, then I don't blame you for not wanting to special order a book that you may or may not enjoy. You gave it your best, don't feel bad. You can still make this challenge work for you."

Oh, I will! Prepare to be astonished! I'm going to try for all 52 again this year, since I came so close, but I think I'll try starting with those hard letters this time.

Authors (21/26)
A — Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Review)
B — Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie (Review)
C — Dead Man's Folly, by Agatha Christie (Review)
D — The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi (Review)
E — A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (Review)
F — The Sea of Trolls, by Nancy Farmer (Review)
G — Still Alice, by Lisa Genova (Review)
H — Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill (Review)
I —
J — 13 Little Blue Envelopes, by Maureen Johnson (Review)
K — Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A.S. King (Review)
L — The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry (Review)
M — Regarding Ducks and Universes, by Neve Maslakovic (Review)
N —
O — Death Note Vol. 7, by Tsugumi Ohba (Review)
P — The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha (Review)
Q —
R — The Dark and Hollow Places, by Carrie Ryan (Review)
S — The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud (Review)
T — The Secret History, by Donna Tartt (Review)
U —
V — The Partly Cloudy Patriot, by Sarah Vowell (Review)
W — I Saw You..., edited by Julia Wertz (Review)
X —
Y — How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu (Review)
Z — The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (Review)


Titles (22/26)
A — The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (Review)
B — Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach (Review)
C —
D — The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean (Review)
E — The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fford (Review)
F — Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy Sayers (Review)
G — The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud (Review)
H — The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Review)
I — In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (Review)
J — Juniper Berry, by M.P. Kozlowsky (Review)
K —
L — The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor (Review)
M — The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart (Review)
N — The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (Review)
O — One of Our Thursdays is Missing, by Jasper Fforde (Review)
P — The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux (Review)
Q —
R — The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud (Review)
S — Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach (Review)
T — Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, by John Grisham (Review)
U — The Unwritten Vol. 1, by Mike Carey (Review)
V — V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore (Review)
W — Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan (Review)
X —
Y — The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion (Review)
Z — Zombie, Ohio, by Scott Kenemore (Review)

The Caretaker of Lorne Field, by Dave Zeltserman

You may vaguely remember this title from my post on books that followed me home, like, forever ago. I had given Zeltserman's other book, Killer, first dibs on being read, but I didn't get very into it and this A to Z Challenge isn't going on much longer so I picked up Caretaker instead, hoping it would be better.

Boy, is it. The non-alphabet-related reason I had picked this book up was that it mentioned James M. Cain, whom I currently adore, on the cover, and I'd say that NPR is right with that comparison. Zeltserman creates an odd situation, throws a bunch of people into it, and then sees what they have to do to fix it.

I'm not kidding about the odd situation, either — the caretaker of the title spends his days out at the field of the title pulling up monsters that look like weeds but that if left to grow for only a few days will get ginormous and eat the entire world. Nomnomnom.

Or... maybe they're just weeds. The caretaker, Jack Durkin, certainly thinks they're monsters, and so do some of the older community members who have been around to see other Durkins take care of the field (there's a 300-year-old contract involved), but the majority of everyone is pretty sure they're just weeds, including Durkin's wife, who is getting a little sick of being ridiculously poor and thinks that Durkin needs to just get a new job already and stop being a lazy person who weeds for 12 hours a day.

Durkin doesn't like being so disrespected, so he figures out a way to prove that the weeds aren't weeds, but in the process of doing so some TERRIBLE HORRIBLE things happen that might be the monsters' fault or might be Durkin's fault or might be just an accident. And I changed my mind about which one it was just about every page for the last half of the book.

So it's pretty exciting, and a little brain-exploding, and it also throws in a ton of Cain-style completely depressing. Zeltserman takes it a little too far at the end, making the book several pages longer than it strictly needs to be and passing up a few good stopping points, but I was thoroughly satisfied with the ending so that's all right.

Recommendation: For the person who doesn't like to know what's happening at any given moment and/or who likes an existential crisis or two.

Rating: 9/10
(A to Z Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Death Note Vol. 6, by Tsugumi Ohba

Oh. Em. Gee.

This is another of the books I've read recently only because they were due back at the library. After things got very wonky in the last book, I was not sure I was going to like this next one.

But I did.

Things? Still wonky. L still doesn't trust Light, which is as it should be, but now also he's decided to go after Kira whatever the costs while the ex-police guys are like, um, shouldn't we try to stop him killing people even if we can't catch him? So there is a split, and Light gets caught on L's side even though he doesn't like it on account of the handcuffs that keep him attached to L at all times. Oh, and also on account of his girl-thing Misa being really excited about being used as bait to find Kira.

But! While Misa is doing the bait thing, she discovers that in fact she used to be a Kira and that Light was also one (they had made themselves forget this previously), so now she has even more leverage with the new Kira, provided she doesn't slip up in front of the people who want to capture her. Who are also the people she is acting as bait for. And it's all crazy and stuff.

But but! It gets even crazier when the plans start to come together and the new Kira is being chased and herded and almost caught... but then the book ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. And to make things worse, my husband says that what happens next is EVEN MORE INSANE. I am going to have to go track down book 7, like, yesterday. Sigh.

Recommendation: This stuff is insane, yo. Read it if you don't mind your brains EXPLODING EVERYWHERE.

Rating: 8/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
Rhinoa's Ramblings

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

How to Be Alone, by Jonathan Franzen

I was so sure this post was going to go up after my book club discussed it, but unfortunately our discussion has been postponed indefinitely. I say this because I found myself not particularly enjoying the essays in this book, but I am almost positive that I will like them more after I have a chance to talk about them with people who did like them.

And I think my dislike stems largely from something that Franzen mentions in his essay "Mr. Difficult," in regards to a particular woman that once wrote to him. "She began by listing thirty fancy words and phrases from my novel, words like 'diurnality' and 'antipodes,' phrases like 'electro-pointillist Santa Claus faces.' She then posed the dreadful question: 'Who is it you are writing for? It surely could not be the average person who just enjoys a good read.'"

This woman makes Franzen out to be a "pompous snob," but I wouldn't go that far. And I am certainly not afraid of big words or opposed to working through a difficult book that has an excellent payoff. I just found, as I was reading, that Franzen was writing this book for a set of people of which I am definitely not a part, though I couldn't tell you what particular set that might be. Writerly people? Big word collectors? Hipsters?

Whoever it is, it's a group that follows Franzen Logic. To me, his essays tended to ramble on, hopping from topic to topic without terribly much in the way of transition and sometimes without much in the way of sense. I often found myself thinking, "How did we get here? Didn't we start somewhere else? Whatever, I'll just keep going and hope it comes back."

On a small plus side, I really only felt this detachment from the writing in Franzen's more personal essays, the ones where he talks about himself and his life and his opinions a lot. Most of the essays in this book fall into that category. But he also throws in a few journalistic pieces, about things like crappy Chicago mail delivery, the history of cigarettes and cigarette companies, and a high-security prison and the town that surrounds it. And those, I thought, were incredibly well-done, possibly because they required more focus than the personal essays and definitely because I have more interest in strange facts than strange opinions.

Now I'm curious to read some of Franzen's fiction, which I hope to be more like these latter pieces. I suppose I should pick up Freedom anyway, what with all the hype about it, yes?

Recommendation: Again, I'm not really sure what sort of person would like all of Franzen's essays, but I'm pretty certain that everyone can find at least one essay in here to like.

Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

2011 Global Reading Challenge

I've done the Orbis Terrarum Challenge for the past two years, but I always end up using English-speaking countries to fill it up, and I can never convince myself to do otherwise. But! I saw this similar challenge making the rounds, and it looks like the best chance I'll have of breaking out of my Anglophone rut. But, because I know that I am lame, I am going to stick to the "easy" version of the challenge, and just hope I do better. :)

The rules!

Read one novel from each of these continents in the course of 2011:

Africa
Asia
Australasia
Europe
North America
South America (please include Central America where it is most convenient for you)

The Seventh Continent (here you can either choose Antarctica or your own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it).

From your own continent: try to find a country, state or author that is new to you.


I'm hoping I can handle that -- if you have any good suggestions, let me have them! I'm putting, oh look, my entire pool of books from the last Orbis Terrarum back on this list, because I never read what I think I'm going to.

Africa:
Asia: Death Note Vol. 7, by Tsugumi Ohba (Review) Japan
Australasia: Death of a Fool, by Ngaio Marsh (Review) New Zealand
Europe: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Review) Sweden
North America: A Red Herring Without Mustard, by Alan Bradley (Review) Canada
South America:
Seventh Continent: