Battle of the Prizes, American Version

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

Dates: 1 February 2010 to 31 January 2011
Hosted by: Rose City Reader

Guidelines:

• This challenge pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award in the American version of the Battle of the Prizes.
  
  
• Chose three books that you have not read before:
  1) One that won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award
  2) One that won the Pulitzer but not the National
  3) One that won the National but not the Pulitzer
  
  
• OPTION: For those who have already read all six of the double-dippers, or otherwise do not want to read one of those six, pick two Pulitzer winners and two National winners for a total of four books.
  
  
• Read all books between February 1, 2030 and January 31, 2011.
  
  
• Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged!
  
  
• You do not have to commit to your choices now; you can change your mind about books at any time.
  
  
• You do not need a blog to participate; and reviews, although encouraged, are not required.

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

MY READING LIST (books read):

1. Tinkers. Paul Harding: Pulitzer 2010 [See Review]
   
2. The Magnificent Ambersons. Booth Tarkington: Pulitzer 1919 [Review to come]

List of possibilities:

• Pulitzer Winners:
  
  His Family. Ernest Poole (1918)
  The Magnificent Ambersons. Booth Tarkington (1919)
  Early Autumn. Louis Bromfield (1927)
  The Late George Apley. John P. Marquand (1938)
  In This Our Life. Ellen Glasgow (1942)
  The Keepers of the House. Shirley Ann Grau (1965)
  Angle of Repose. Wallace Stegner (1972)
  Rabbit At Rest. John Updike (1991)
  The Stone Diaries. Carol Shields (1995)
  Martin Dressler. Steven Millhauser (1997)
  American Pastoral. Philip Roth (1998)
  The Hours. Michael Cunningham (1999)
  Olive Kitteridge. Elizabeth Strout (2009)
  
  
• National Book Award Winners:
  
  Ten North Frederick. John O'Hara (1956)
  The Waters of Kronos. Conrad Richter (1961)
  Morte D'Urban. J.F. Powers (1963)
  The Spectator Bird. Wallace Stegner (1977)
  Plains Song. Wright Morris (1981)
  World's Fair. E.L. Doctorow (1986)
  Charming Billy. Alice McDermott (1998)
  Three Junes. Julia Glass (2002)
  The Echo Maker. Richard Powers (2006)
  
  

Books of the Century Challenge

 

***Challenge not active*** 

Dates: This is a perpetual challenge, beginning in 2010
Hosted by: Tim (A Progressive on the Prairie)

Guidelines:

• This challenge is based on Daniel Immerwahr's Books of the Century website.
• The challenge provides an opportunity to "combine some excellent and classic reading from the history of popular American reading."
• Given the number of books, this will be a perpetual challenge.
• Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

At least for the first year, the levels of participation will be:

• Popular Literary Culture 101 -- Five books from the entire list.
• Popular Literary Culture 201 -- Ten books from the entire list.
• Popular Literary Culture 301 -- One book from any of five different decades on the list.
• Popular Literary Culture 401 -- One book from each decade on the list.
• Master's in Popular Literary Culture -- Twenty books from the entire list, with at least each decade represented once.
• Doctorate in Popular Literary Culture -- Two or more books from each decade on the list.

See my original post about the challenge here.
See the challenge announcement page here.
See the challenge blog here.
See Daniel Immerwahr's Books of the Century website here.

I'm going to start off at the first level: Popular Literary Culture 101; so I'll be reading a total of five books from the list.

MY READING LIST:

1. Contact. Carl Sagan (published 1985) [See Review]
2. Animal Farm. George Orwell (published 1945) [Review to come]
3. The Man in Lower Ten. Mary Roberts Rinehart (published 1906) [See Review]

List of Possibilities:

• 1900-1909:
  The Golden Bowl. Henry James
  The House of Mirth. Edith Wharton
  The Man in Lower Ten. Mary Roberts Rinehart
  The Old Wives' Tale. Arnold Bennett
  The Wings of the Dove. Henry James
  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum
  
• 1910-1919:
  The Ambassadors. Henry James
  The Magnificent Ambersons. Booth Tarkington
  Swann's Way. Marcel Proust
  The Window at the White Cat. Mary Roberts Rinehart
  Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson
  
• 1920-1929:
  Babbitt. Sinclair Lewis
  The Bishop Murder Case. S.S. Van Dine
  The Enchanted April. "Elizabeth"
  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Anita Loos
  Good-bye to All That. Robert Graves
  The Greene Murder Case. S.S. Van Dine
  The Hotel. Elizabeth Bowen
  Jalna. Mazo de la Roche
  The Magic Mountain. Thomas Mann
  Main Street. Sinclair Lewis
  
• 1930-1939:
  Appointment in Samara. John O'Hara
  The Big Sleep. Raymond Chandler
  Call It Sleep. Henry Roth
  Invitation to the Waltz. Rosamond Lehmann
  Seven Gothic Tales. Isak Dinesen
  
• 1940-1949:
  Animal Farm. George Orwell
  Father of the Bride. Edward Streeter
  The Human Comedy. William Saroyan
  Mistress Masham's Repose. T.H. White
  Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Eric Hodgins
  Random Harvest. James Hilton
  
• 1950-1959:
  The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Sloan Wilson
  Peyton Place. Grace Metalious
  
• 1960-1969:
  Portnoy's Complaint. Philip Roth
  Rabbit, Run. John Updike
  
• 1970-1979:
  Angle of Repose. Wallace Stegner
  The Best and the Brightest. David Halberstam
  Captains and the Kings. Taylor Caldwell
  Condominium. John D. MacDonald
  The Day of the Jackal. Frederick Forsyth
  The Dead Zone. Stephen King
  Evergreen. Belva Plain
  The Greek Treasure. Irving Stone
  How to Save Your Own Life. Erica Jong
  If on a winter's night a traveler. Italo Calvino
  The Passions of the Mind. Irving Stone
  Play It As It Lays. Joan Didion
  Rabbit Redux. John Updike
  Time and Again. Jack Finney
  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. John Le Carre
  Touch Not the Cat. Mary Stewart
  Travels With My Aunt. Graham Greene
  
• 1980-1989:
  ". . . And the Ladies of the Club." Helen Hooven Santmyer
  The Bourne Identity. Robert Ludlum
  Contact. Carl Sagan
  Lake Wobegon Days. Garrison Keillor
  The Parsifal Mosaic. Robert Ludlum
  The Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follet
  Texas. James A. Michener
  
• 1990-1999:
  The Celestine Prophecy. James Redfield
  The Hours. Michael Cunningham
  September. Rosamunde Pilcher

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

A to Z Challenge 2010

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

Dates: 1 January to 31 December 2010
Hosted by: Becky of Becky's Book Reviews

Guidelines:

Read 26 or 52 books:

• 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.

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

I'll be reading 26 books, chosen alphabetically by title.

MY READING LIST:

A: (The) Anthologist. Nicholson Baker [See Review]
B: (The) Brontes Went to Woolworths. Rachel Ferguson [See Review]
C: Contact. Carl Sagan [See Review]
D: Damaged. Alex Kava [See Review]
E: (The) Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder [See Review]
F: (The) Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton [See Review]
G: (The) Good Psychologist. Noel Shpancer [See Review]
H: (The) House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons [See Review]
I: Innocent. Scott Turow [See Review]
J: Juliet. Anne Fortier [See Review]
K:
L: Live To Tell. Lisa Gardner [See Review]
M: (The) Map of True Places. Brunonia Barry [See Review]
N: Noah's Compass. Anne Tyler [Review to come]
O: Operation Terror. Murray Leinster [Review to come]
P: People of the Book. Geraldine Brooks [Review to come]
Q: Quattrocento. James McKean [See Review]
R: (The) Raphael Affair. Iain Pears [See Review]
S: (The) Swimming Pool. Holly LeCraw [See Review]
T: Tinkers. Paul Harding [See Review]
U
V: Venom. Joan Brady [See Review]
W: We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson [Review to come]
X
Y:
Z:

Decades 2010

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

Dates: 1 January to 31 December 2010
Hosted by: Michelle at 1MoreChapter

Guidelines:

• Read a minimum of ten books in 2010, which were published in ten consecutive decades.
• Books published since 2000 don't count.
• Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
• Lists can be changed at any time.

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

I'll be reading books from the 20th Century, 1900-1999.

MY READING LIST (with links to reviews):

1. 1900-1909:
   
2. 1910-1919: The Thirty-Nine Steps. John Buchan
   
3. 1920-1929:
   
4. 1930-1939: The Brontes Went to Woolworths. Rachel Ferguson
   
5. 1940-1949: Animal Farm. George Orwell [Review to come]
   
6. 1950-1959:
   
7. 1960-1969: The Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder
   
8. 1970-1979: The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons
   
9. 1980-1989: Contact. Carl Sagan
   
10. 1990-1999: The Raphael Affair. Iain Pears
    

RYOB (Read Your Own Books) Challenge 2010

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

Dates: 1 January to 31 December 2010
Hosted by: MizB's Reading Challenges

Guidelines:

• Pick a number of books you'd like to read in one year; choose them from your OWN collection; read them between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.
• Audio-books and e-books are allowed, but re-reads are not.
• You don't need a blog to participate.

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

I'm planning to read at least twenty books from my own collection for the challenge.

MY READING LIST:

1. Venom. Joan Brady (ARC) [See Review]
2. People of the Book. Geraldine Brooks [Review to come]
   
3. Mrs. Malory and Any Man's Death. Hazel Holt [Review to come]
   
4. The Brontes Went to Woolworths. Rachel Ferguson [See Review]
   
5. Heresy. S.J. Parris [Review to come]
   
6. A Stitch in Time. Monica Ferris [Review to come]
   
7. The Swimming Pool. Holly LeCraw [See Review]
8. An American Type. Henry Roth [See Review]
   
9. A River in the Sky. Elizabeth Peters [See Review]
10. Live To Tell. Lisa Gardner [See Review]
    
11. The Map of True Places. Brunonia Barry [See Review]
12. Innocent. Scott Turow [See Review]
    
13. The Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton [See Review]
    
14. The Spider Bites. Medora Sale [Review to come]
15. The Good Psychologist. Noam Shpancer [See Review]
    
16. Damaged. Alex Kava [See Review]
17. The Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder [See Review]
18. Think of a Number. John Verdon [Review to come]
19. All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost. Lan Samantha Chang [See Review]
20. The Convent. Panos Karnezis [See Review]
21. The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons [See Review]
    
22. Animal Farm. George Orwell [Review to come - maybe]
    
23. After Claude. Iris Owens [See Review]
24. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson [Review to come]
    
25. Juliet. Anne Fortier [See Review]
    
26. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. Helen Grant [Review to come]
    
27. The Distant Hours. Kate Morton [Review to come]
    
28. The Weird Sisters. Eleanor Brown [See Review]
    
29. The Thirty-Nine Steps. John Buchan [See Review]
30. Operation Terror. Murray Leinster [Review to come]
    

The 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

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

Dates: 1 January to 31 December 2010
Hosted by: J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog

Guidelines:

• Read a set number of books from your local public library.
• Anyone can join; you don't need a blog to participate.
• Reviews are not required.
• Audio, e-books, young adult, young reader, re-reads are all allowed - anything counts as long as it's checked out from the library.
• There's no need to list your books in advance - you can choose as you go. If you do make a list, it can be changed at any time as necessary.
• Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

Levels of Participation:

• The Mini - Check out and read 25 library books.
• Just My Size - Check out and read 50 library books.
• Stepping It Up - Check out and read 75 library books.
• Super Size Me - Check out and read 100 library books.

I'm signing up at the "Mini" Level (25 books).

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

MY READING LIST:

1. The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy. Nick Bantock [See Review]
   
2. The Anthologist. Nicholson Baker [See Review]
   
3. The Raphael Affair. Iain Pears [See Review]
   
4. Quattrocento. James McKean [See Review]
5. Contact. Carl Sagan [See Review]
   
6. A Fair Maiden. Joyce Carol Oates [Review to come]
7. Before the Throne. Naguib Mahfouz [Review to come]
8. Tinkers. Paul Harding [See Review]
   
9. The Last Child. John Hart [Review to come]
   
10. The Hypnotist. M.J. Rose [See Review]
    
11. The Magicians. Lev Grossman [Review to come]
    
12. The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Cathleen Schine [Review to come]
    
13. Noah's Compass. Anne Tyler [Review to come]
    
14. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Alan Bradley [Review to come]
    
15. The Inheritance. Simon Tolkien [See Review]
    
16. Cards on the Table. Agatha Christie [See Review]
17. Book of Shadows. Alexandra Sokoloff [Review to come]
    
18. The Dark Half. Stephen King [Review to come]