Friday, February 26, 2010

Memorable Memoir Reading Challenge

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

Dates: 1 January to 31 December, 2010
Hosted by: Melissa of The Betty and Boo Chronicles

Guidelines:
  • Read at least four books during 2010; but more than four is OK.
  • Choices can come from memoirs, autobiographies, diaries, letters ("Basically, if you think it is the stuff of memoir, it counts.").
  • Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
  • Audio-books and e-books are allowed.
  • No lists are required, but you can make one if you want.

See my original post about the challenge here.
See my wrap-up post here.
See the announcement/sign-up page here.
See the review page here.


MY READING LIST (books read):
  1. Just Kids. Patti Smith (reading now)


LIST OF POSSIBLE CHOICES:
American Girl: Scenes from a Small-Town Childhood. Mary Cantwell
And I Worked at the Writer's Trade.
Malcolm Cowley
A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict.
John Baxter
Books: A Memoir
.
Larry McMurtry
Bookshop at 10 Curzon St: Letters between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill, 1952-73.
John S. Smith, ed.
D.V.
Diana Vreeland
Here At The New Yorker.
Brendan Gill
Hons and Rebels.
Jessica Mitford
Intellectual Memoirs: New York, 1936-1938.
Mary McCarthy
Just Kids
. Patti Smith
Kafka Was All the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir. Anatole Broyard
Literary Life: A Second Memoir. Larry McMurtry
Losing Mum and Pup. Christopher Buckley
Manhattan, '45. James/Jan Morris
Manhattan, When I Was Young. Mary Cantwell
Memoirs of Montparnasse. John Glassco
My Dark Places. James Ellroy
My Word is My Bond. Roger Moore
New York Days. Willie Morris
Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Passion. Madeline B. Stern and Leona Rostenberg
Out of Africa. Isak Dinesen
The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws. Margaret Drabble
Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World. Alexander Bloom
Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar Nafisi
Shakespeare and Company. Sylvia Beach
Sixpence House. Paul Collins
So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading. Sara Nelson
The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan Didion
The Years With Ross. James Thurber
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, A History. Lewis Buzbee

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The New York Challenge

Dates: 1 February through 15 May, 2010
Hosted by: Jill of Fizzy Thoughts

Guidelines:
  • Read one book (or more) set in New York City, and post your review.
  • All genres are OK - fiction, nonfiction, poetry, prose, graphic novels, audio-books, or even guidebooks. It just has to have New York City as its primary setting.
  • No re-reads.
  • There will be monthly mini-challenges, and a separate link for posting reviews.

See my original post about the challenge here.
See the challenge announcement/sign-up page here.
See the review page here.

MY READING LIST (books read):
  1. The Hypnotist. M.J. Rose [See Review]

LIST OF POSSIBILITIES:
  • Fiction
    The Book of Daniel. E.L. Doctorow
    The Company She Keeps.
    Mary McCarthy
    The Doorbell Rang.
    Rex Stout
    The Family Man.
    Elinor Lipman
    Heroic Measures
    . Jill Ciment
    The House of Mirth. Edith Wharton
    In the Night Cafe. Joyce Johnson
    Laura. Vera Caspary
    Lethal Legacy. Linda Fairstein
    Manhattan Monologues: Stories. Louis Auchincloss
    Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer. Steven Millhauser
    Minor Characters. Joyce Johnson
    The New York Trilogy. Paul Auster
    Old New York. Edith Wharton
    Relic. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
    Tales of Manhattan. Louis Auchincloss
    The Thin Man. Dashiell Hammett
    This Dame for Hire. Sandra Scoppettone
    Time and Again. Jack Finney
    The Unpossessed: A Novel of the Thirties. Tess Slesinger
    World's Fair. E.L. Doctorow

  • Nonfiction
    Apple of My Eye. Helene Hanff
    Book Row: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade.
    Marvin Mondlin
    Here At The New Yorker.
    Brendan Gill
    Intellectual Memoirs: New York, 1936-1938.
    Mary McCarthy
    Kafka Was All the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir.
    Anatole Broyard
    Manhattan '45
    . Jan Morris
    Manhattan, When I Was Young. Mary Cantwell
    New York Days. Willie Morris
    Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World. Alexander Bloom
    The Story of the Armory Show. Milton W. Brown
    The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan Didion
    The Years with Ross. James Thurber