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

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