Themed Reading Challenge 2010

***Challenge ended. See my wrap-up post here.***

Dates: 14 February to 14 August, 2010
Hosted by: Caribousmom

Guidelines:

• This is a six month challenge designed to help readers clear books from their to-be-read stacks which center around a common theme or themes.
• Readers may join at ANY TIME between now and August 14th.
• Books should be chosen from the reader's TBR pile (this may be an actual physical pile or a virtual pile).
• The goal is to read AT LEAST 5 books linked by theme.
• Overlaps with other challenges are allowed.
• Readers may change their list of books or their theme(s) at any time.

There are three different levels of participation:

1. Read at least five books sharing the same theme.
2. Read at least five books sharing TWO themes.
3. Read at least five books sharing MORE than TWO themes.

Readers decide on their own themes, which can be geographic, genre, author, subject matter, or anything in between!

See my original post about the challenge here.
See my wrap-up post here.
See the challenge announcement page here.
See the list of reviews here.

I'm signing up for level one (at least five books that share a single theme). And for my theme, I'm choosing "Women of a Certain Age" (that is, books with older female protagonists).

MY READING LIST:

1. Mrs. Malory and Any Man's Death. Hazel Holt [Review to come]
2. A Stitch in Time (Needlework/Betsy Devonshire series). Monica Ferris [Review to come]
3. The Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton [See Review]
   
4. The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Cathleen Schine [Review to come]
   

List of Possibilities:

Alice I Have Been. Melanie Benjamin
All Passion Spent. Vita Sackville-West
Back When We Were Grownups. Anne Tyler
Eve's Daughters. Lynn Austin
For My Daughters. Barbara Delinsky
Heat Wave. Penelope Lively
July and August. Nancy Clark
Jumping the Queue. Mary Wesley
Kinds of Love. May Sarton
Last Lovers. William Wharton
Loop Group. Larry McMurtry
Lunch at the Piccadilly. Clyde Edgerton
Miss Bunting. Angela Thirkell
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. Ann B. Ross
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. Elizabeth Taylor
My House In Umbria. William Trevor
Not That Sort of Girl. Mary Wesley
Seek My Face. John Updike
Spiderweb. Penelope Lively
The Art of Mending. Elizabeth Berg
The Cranford novels. Elizabeth Gaskell
The Dorothy Martin mysteries. Jeanne M. Dams
The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Muriel Barbery
The Magnificent Spinster: A Novel. May Sarton
The Miss Silver mysteries. Patricia Wentworth
The Mrs. Bradley mysteries. Gladys Mitchell
The Mrs. Jeffries mysteries. Emily Brightwell
The Mrs. Malory mysteries. Hazel Holt
The Needlework (Betsy Devonshire) mysteries. Monica Ferris
Travels With My Aunt. Graham Greene
Walking Across Egypt. Clyde Edgerton