Friday, September 24, 2010

Fall Into Reading 2010

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

Dates: 22 September through 20 December 2010
Hosted by: Katrina at Callapidder Days

Guidelines (quoted from the challenge website):
  • Make a list of books you want to read (or finish reading) this fall. Your list can be as long or as short as you’d like. (Also, feel free to modify your list during the challenge if it’s not working for you.)
  • Write a blog post containing your list and submit it...using the Mr. Linky [on the challenge announcement page].
  • Get reading! The challenge goes from today, September 22nd, through December 20th.
  • Check out other participants’ lists and add to your own to-read-someday pile!
  • Write a post about your challenge experience in December, telling us all about whether you reached your goals and how Fall Into Reading went for you. But remember: this is a low-pressure challenge that should be fun. As long as you do some reading this fall (and enjoy it!), that’s good enough for me.

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


MY BOOK LIST (Books Read):
  1. Cards on the Table. Agatha Christie [See Review]
  2. The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons [See Review]
  3. Book of Shadows. Alexandra Sokoloff [Review to come]
  4. Animal Farm. George Orwell [Review to come - maybe]
  5. The Dark Half. Stephen King [Review to come]
  6. After Claude. Iris Owens [See Review]
  7. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. Helen Grant [Review to come]
  8. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson [Review to come]
  9. The Distant Hours. Kate Morton [Review to come]
  10. Juliet. Anne Fortier [See Review]
  11. The Weird Sisters. Eleanor Brown [See Review]
  12. The Thirty-Nine Steps. John Buchan [See Review]

OTHER POSSIBILITIES (Fiction):
Afternoon Men. Anthony Powell
Alice I Have Been. Melanie Benjamin
Appointment in Samarra. John O'Hara
Bad Boy. Peter Robinson
Dead Man's Folly. Agatha Christie
The Distant Hours. Kate Morton
The House on Tradd Street. Karen White
I Am Madame X. Gioia Diliberto
Moonlight Mile. Dennis Lehane
Mr. Murder. Dean Koontz
Mrs. McGinty's Dead. Agatha Christie
The Prince of Mist. Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Relic. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Room. Emma Donoghue
The Sign of the Book. John Dunning
Spiderweb. Penelope Lively
A Stir of Echoes. Richard Matheson
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise. Julia Stuart
The Women. T.C. Boyle
Something by Nina Bawden
Something by Muriel Spark

OTHER POSSIBILITIES (nonfiction):
Books: A Memoir. Larry McMurtry
Just Kids. Patti Smith
Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter. Antonia Fraser
My Reading Life. Pat Conroy
Strapless. Deborah Davis
The Pattern in the Carpet. Margaret Drabble

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The RIP V Challenge

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

Dates: September 1 through October 31, 2010
Hosted by: Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings

Guidelines:

There are several different levels of participation:
  • Peril the First: Read four books of any length, from any subgenre you choose.
  • Peril the Second: Read two books of any length, from any subgenre you choose.
  • Peril the Third: Read one book of any length, from any subgenre you choose.
  • Short Story Peril: An extra option, for those who want to participate in Short Story Sundays.
  • Peril on the Screen: Another extra option, for those who like to watch scary or suspenseful fare on the large or small screen.
Choose your books from the following subgenres:
  • Mystery
  • Suspense
  • Thriller
  • Dark Fantasy
  • Gothic
  • Horror
  • Supernatural
See my original post about the Challenge here.
See my wrap-up post here.
See the Challenge announcement page here.
See the Challenge review page here.

I'm going to be signing up at the Peril the First level (four books), and combining that with Peril on the Screen and maybe a bit of Short Story Peril, if all goes well.

MY BOOK LIST (books read):
  1. The Inheritance. Simon Tolkien [See Review]
  2. Cards on the Table. Agatha Christie [See Review]
  3. The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons [See Review]
  4. Book of Shadows. Alexandra Sokoloff [Review to come]
  5. The Dark Half. Stephen King [Review to come]
  6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson [Review to come]

MY SCREEN PERIL LIST (films/TV shows watched):
  1. Midsomer Murders: "Sauce for the Goose" (TV series; Episode #807, 2005)
  2. Midsomer Murders: "Midsomer Rhapsody" (TV series; Episode #808, 2005)
  3. Midsomer Murders: "The House in the Woods" (TV series; Episode #901, 2005)
  4. Midsomer Murders: "Dead Letters" (TV series; Episode #902, 2005)
  5. Midsomer Murders: "Vixen's Run" (TV series; Episode # 903, 2005)
  6. Midsomer Murders: "Down Among the Dead Men" (TV series; Episode #904, 2005)
  7. Midsomer Murders: "Death in Chorus" (TV series; Episode #905, 2006)
  8. Midsomer Murders: "Country Matters" (TV series; Episode #906, 2006)
  9. Midsomer Murders: "Last Year's Model" (TV series; Episode #907, 2006)
  10. Inspector Lewis: "Counter Culture Blues" (TV series; 2010)
  11. Inspector Lewis: "The Dead of Winter" (TV series; 2010)
  12. Inspector Lewis: "Dark Matter" (TV series; 2010)
  13. Inspector Lewis: "Your Sudden Death Question" (TV series; 2010)
  14. Inspector Lewis: "Falling Darkness" (TV series; 2010)
  15. Inspector Morse: "Last Bus from Woodstock" (TV series; 1988)
  16. Inspector Morse: "The Settling of the Sun" (TV series; 1988)
  17. Inspector Morse: "Second Time Around" (TV series; 1991)
  18. Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (film; 1972)
  19. The Bourne Supremacy (film; 2004)
  20. The Bourne Ultimatum (film; 2007)
  21. The Brides of Dracula (film; 1960)
  22. The Curse of Frankenstein (film; 1957)
  23. Curse of the Demon (film; 1957)
  24. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (film; 1964)
  25. The Dark Half (film; 1993)
  26. Dark Mirror (film; 2007)
  27. Dead of Night (film; 1945)
  28. Dracula, Prince of Darkness (film; 1966)
  29. Five Million Years to Earth (film; 1967)
  30. The Forgotten (film; 2004)
  31. Frankenstein Created Woman (film; 1967)
  32. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (film; 1969)
  33. The Haunting (film; 1963)
  34. The Mummy's Shroud (film; 1967)
  35. The Revenge of Frankenstein (film; 1958)
  36. Secrets Inside the Walls (film; 2010)
  37. Session 9 (film; 2001)
  38. The Talented Mr. Ripley (film; 1999)
  39. These Are the Damned (film; 1962)
  40. The Uninvited (film; 1944)
  41. X The Unknown (film; 1956)