Bridget's Challenge List

I am picking the books as I go and this list represents those I have completed.

Books by Authors New to Me
1. Every Boy's Got One, Meg Cabot
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
3. The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
4. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Sweetsmoke, David Fuller
6. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
7. Gap Creek, Robert Morgan - REPEAT!
8. A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine, Marina Lewycka - REPEAT!

Books from “1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die”
1. Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne
2. House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
4. The Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis
5. A Room with a View, E.M. Forster
6. A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine, Marina Lewycka
7. The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri - REPEAT!
8. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon - REPEAT!

Books from “The Reader's Choice”
1. The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester
2. The English Patient, Michael Ondaajte
3. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
4. Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
5. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcie
6. The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
7. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom - REPEAT!
8. In the Time of Butterflies - Julia Alvarez

Biographies/Memoirs
1. First Lady of the Confederacy, Joan E. Cashin (Varina Davis)
2. Mary Todd Lincoln: Biography, Jean H. Baker
3. Martha Washington: An American Life, Patricia Brady
4. Pope John Paul II, Tad Szulc
5. Anchored in Love, John Carter Cash (June Carter Cash)
6. The Extraordinary Mrs. R, William Turner Levy
7. Amelia Earheart: The Sky's No Limit, Lori Van Pelt
8. Invisible Women, Qanta Ahmed

Other Nonfiction:
1. September 11: An Oral History, Dean E. Murphy
2. Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy
3. In Arabian Nights, Tahir Shah
4. Dream Lucky, Roxanne Orgill
5. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
6. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
7. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
8. Three Signs of a Miserable Job, Patrick Lencioni

Books from Oprah's list
1. Stones from the River, Ursula Hegi
2. The Pilot's Wife, Anita Shreve
3. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
4. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
5. Gap Creek, Robert Morgan
6. Night, Eli Weisel - REPEAT!
7. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - REPEAT!
8. Back Roads, Tawni O'Dell

Books Set in Other Countries
1. Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres - Greece
2. The Noodle Maker, Ma Jian - China
3. Fingersmith, Sarah Waters - England
4. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith - Botswana
5. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - Russia
6. Night, Eli Weisel - Germany
7. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia - Cuba - REPEAT!
8. Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis - Israel - REPEAT!

Award Winning Books
1. Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold - 2004 Hugo Award
2. Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee - 1999 Booker Award
3. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John Le Carre - 1965 Edgar Award
4. The Chili Queen, Sandra Dallas - 2003 Spur Award for Best Western Novel
5. The Known World, Edward P Jones - 2004 National Book Critics Circle fiction prize
6. Waiting, Ha Jin - 1999 National Book Award for Fiction
7. The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester - 1998 Salon Magazine Nonfiction Award - REPEAT!
8. The Road, Cormac McCarthy - 2007 Pulitzer, Fiction - REPEAT!

Finished my first non-fiction tonight - an oral history of 9/11. It was very touching, but not as sad as I thought. It only made me cry every other chapter.

I'm making good progress, but I think as the weather gets nice I will slow down. I'm really enjoying looking at the lists of what everyone else reads and I hope you all post a note or two on the ones you especially enjoy. Happy reading!

Oh drat! I started The Deep End of the Ocean only to realize midway through the second chapter that I had already read it! There are too many books I want to read to read them twice. So I'm switching to Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi.

I feel your pain. One of the main reasons I joined LibraryThing was to avoid an accidental reread.

Finished Stones from the River today. I liked it and was interested to read some of the reviews posted on LT. I didn't like the end as much as the rest of the book - the whole thing of Trudi's storytelling got a little old.

Now I've started my first biography - First Lady of the Confederacy about the wife of Jefferson Davis. I rarely read non-fiction of any kind, except cookbooks, so I thought this would be a challenge. But I'm already almost 1/3 of the way through it thanks to a day off work and finding it to be very interesting.

First Lady of the Confederacy sounds really interesting...thanks, I think you helped me find my first nonfiction :-)

Jennyifer24, I definitely recommend this book. Varina Davis was an amazing women for the times in which she lived. I'm thinking that I might do my entire biography category on First Ladies.

I've finished the David biography and started two new books - Paladin of Souls for by Award Winners category and Learn to Garden for Other Nonfiction. I don't usually read Sci-Fi, so that I'm curious how Paladin of Souls will go. But the gardening book already has me yearning for warmer weather.

Finished Paladin of Souls last night and have started Journey to the Centre of the Earth for my 1001 books category. Paladin of Souls was a very different read for me, but I enjoyed it. Are any of you fans of this series or genre? It's shelved under SciFi but I think it probably qualifies better as Fantasy.

I'm setting a pretty good pace this month and hoping to get ahead while it's cold and there isn't much else to do. Journey should go fairly quickly and I'm still working on the gardening book for my Other Nonfiction list. I hope to finish both over this long weekend, then I think I will head to the library and look for something to fit in my Books Set in Other Countries. Suggestions are welcome!!

I loved Paladin of Souls--have you read the first book in the series, The Curse of Chalion? There is also a third book in the series, The Hallowed Hunt. I only recently discovered Lois McMaster Bujold, and she has become a quick favorite. Her fantasy is well developed, as she is careful to make the rules and mythologies of her universe consistent and interesting.

Her new series, The Sharing Knife, is also very good, though I've only read the first book--I'm waiting for the second to come out in paperback.

Finished Journey to the Centre of the Earth tonight - it took longer than I had hoped. Real life has gotten in the way of reading this week! Now I need to decide what's next. I have two categories where I haven't finished my first, so I think I will comb the bookshelf for something that fits.

BTW - SaraHope, thanks for the titles for LMB. I would like to read more, but this challenge prevents me from straying too much. Maybe next year!

Another one down! I've just finished The Professor and the Madman for my "Books from The Reader's Choice" category. I thought the story was pretty interesting and for the most part it was well written. There were a few times when the author went off on a tangent that made my eyes start to glaze over, but he got back on track after a few paragraphs - or pages.

I'd like to write a review of this book, but I can't figure out how. Help?

For a review --
. go to Your Library
. click on the book's title to get to the book's Main Page
. in the menu column on the left, click on Edit Book
. in the Book Details tab, the 5th section down is Your Review -- type your review in the box (or paste, e.g. from Word)
. click Save at the top or the very bottom

After it's posted, link to it on your page here. Click on the little chain at the bottom of your review -- that'll take you to the page for your individual review, so you can link to it rather than users having to scroll through all the reviews for that book.

Thanks DM! I got the review written, although I still have to figure out the linking part.

Tonight I finished Corelli's Mandolin. I thought it was very good. It could fit in several of my categories, but I am putting it down for Books Set in Other Countries.

I'm curious if any of you have both read this book and seen the movie and what you thought. I haven't decided if I want to see the movie or not.

I've now finished one book in each category. I'm not sure what I will tackle next.

Corelli's Mandolin is on my to-read list for books made into movies. I saw the movie several years ago, and remember really enjoying it. I'm sorry, I only have vague memories, but I did think it was good.

If you're looking for another book set in another country, The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham is really fantastic. It was also one of those rare cases where I thought the movie was as good as the book (probably because it stayed so true to the writing).

Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely put that one on my list.

The darn library branch I went to didn't have The Painted Veil so that one is on hold for now. However, I picked up a pretty good stack of books, all of which I hope to read by my birthday on March 27. After that, I hurried home to finish House of Leaves for my 1001 category. That one had been in my TBR pile for a long time. I liked the Navidson story, got bored with Zampano's writing, and thought Johnny Truant's bit was okay. I hope it's not cheating that I didn't read all the appendices, but I was ready to be done with that book.

So now I have a 3/27 sub-challenge to my 888 challenge. I'm not sure which category they'll fall into - many fit several - but these are my upcoming read:

The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian. I'm starting with this.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography
Disgrace
The English Patient
Profiles in Courage
In Arabian Nights - hmmmm no touchstone for this? It's by Tahir Shah
The Chili Queen
The Undertaker's Wife

I think I am in for some good reading this month!

I finished The Noodle Maker tonight. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but not bad. I liked how the different stories told all had a connection. If you like books that are a bit off-beat, I'd recommend trying this.

Next, I'll either start Disgrace or The Chili Queen. Probably the latter - it looks like pretty easy read, but it won the Spur Award so it ought to be good.

I just finished Disgrace which was my first Coetzee novel. I thought it was very good. Does anyone want to offer up their favorite Coetzee novel? He has quite a few on the 1001 Books list, so I will certainly be reading more of them.

My next book will be Profiles in Courage for the "Other Non-Fiction" list. It also won the Pulitzer, so it could go under award winners as well.

I've finished Profiles in Courage for my Other Nonfiction list and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold for Award Winners. Profiles could also have gone under Award Winners, as it received the Pulitzer, and Spy could have gone under several other categories.

I enjoyed both books. I'm not one for writing reviews, but if you have an interest in history, you would probably like Profiles.

Next up.....who knows?

Finished The Chili Queen and started a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln.

The Chili Queen was good. There were some unexpected plot twists that made it hard to put the book down for the night. Even if you aren't big on Western fiction, this was a good book.

I've just finished The English Patient which I will put toward my Reader's Choice category. I really liked this book. I'm going to download the movie from iTunes because I have heard it was a very good adaptation. It also counts to the 1,001 Movies list my husband and I decided to tackle.

Next up, I will finish the bio of Mary Tood Lincoln.

Tonight, I've finished a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln. I think it was nearly as sad as any fiction book I've read recently. I had an interesting discussion with my husband and a friend, both of whom had read accounts of Abraham Lincoln's life and had a very negative view of his wife. I think the myths about Mary being a shrew and insane are unfair and inaccurate, although she certainly was not the nicest of women. The author was obviously on her side and after reading this account, I am too! What a sad tale.

This makes just the second book I've finished this March, although I am half way through One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I hope to get to four, but I'll need to pick up the pace to finish the challenge!

Finished up One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That was a funny, sad, great book. I can't wait to watch the movie - which I've never seen - with my husband. In addition to my 1001 books goal, he and I are working on the 1001 movie list together.

I'm also very excited because I just saw that I got an Early Reviewers book! It's my first and I'll use it in my Other Nonfiction category.

Knocked out two more this weekend, both of which were very good. In Arabian Nights tells of a man's journey to find the story in his heart and provides some insight into life in the Middle East. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was excellent.

Since my last post, I've finished The Pilot's Wife and Dream Lucky, which was my first book from the Early Reviewer program. I almost got through The Road by Cormac McCarthy (the touchstones are insisting I mean On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

To fix the touchstone, just enter the book title as normal: under the Jack Kerouac touchstone that comes up in the right hand panel you will see the word 'others' in brackets: if you click on this you will be able to select from a range of other possibilities for your book, one of which is the correct one by Cormac McCarthy.

Thanks for the tip...I'll try it here.

The Road

Sweet!

I finished Fingersmith last night. It took me forever, not because of the book, but because there is so much else going on right now! The book was really good. The twists in the plot were fantastic and I thought the character development was very good. The sexual overtones were a little stronger that the other Sarah Waters book I read, but it was not distracting from the plot.

Hopefully, I can get back on track with my reading!

Since my last post, i"ve finished As I Lay Dying for my Oprah's list category, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency for Other Countries, and Stiff for other nonfiction. I did not like Faulkner's style of writing. Detective Agency was just okay for me. But I loved, loved, loved Mary Roach's book about all the ways human cadavers are used. It was interesting, not too graphic (at least for me) and laugh out loud funny in some places.

Since last post, have finished Martha Washington: An American Life, Tuesdays with Morrie, and The Known World.

So....it took me two months to read three books. I've finished Anna Karenina which I will put under "Other Countries" as it took place in Russia. For a school project, I read Pope John Paul II which I'll throw into Biographies, and tonight I finished The Last Temptation of Christ, which was excellent and goes into my 1001 category.

Off on vacation tomorrow, so I hope to get a few more read.

Managed to get a few finished while on vacation:

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris for Other Nonfiction
Waiting by Ha Jin for Award Winners
Night by Eli Wiesel for Other Countries
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro for Authors New to Me

I need to try and stay on this pace to finish, because I am trying not to overlap. Next up is Sweetsmoke, an Early Reviewer book that came in the mail while I was out of town.

Since my last post, I've finished Sweetsmoke, which I got via the Early Reviewers program. It was very good. I put that in my New Authors category. I moved on to Animal Dreams, which I liked, but not as much as The Poisonwood Bible. Last but not least, I read Gap Creek. Not great, but good. That goes in my Oprah category and Animal Dreams goes in Readers Choice.

That puts me at 41 books total. I'm not sure I will get to 64, but I'm glad I signed up for the challenge. It definitely got me back into reading.

Finished Three Signs of a Miserable Job, which completes my Other Nonfiction category. Yay! It's good to have one totally done! I also read A Room with a View for the 1,001 category.

How is your challenge going ? Met many good books?

Further to your comment on my challenge thread I just thought I'd let you know that I've started on Birdsong- which you recommended to me !

I'm doing pretty well....a little slower than I'd like, but I've read a lot of great books and many more and varied than I would have read without the challenge.

I hope you like Birdsong!

Since my 9/16 update, I have finished a number of books:

Anchored in Love, a biography of June Carter Cash written by her son; Dreaming in Cuban, The Extraordinary Mrs R. about Eleanor Roosevelt; The Accidental Tourist; The Secret Life of Bees; Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit; and A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine.

I am currently reading the e-book offered through the early reviewers program, Invisible Women and am planning to start on The Corrections. At this point, I think I can manage 56 books, but 64 is starting to look out of reach.

Almost done....I went ahead and put in books that would work for two categories, leaving me just two to read. If I finish the Invisible Woman e-book and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I'll be done! I'm looking forward to the 2009 challenge, but I think I will plan on the overlaps from the outset and then remove them if I can.

I finished Invisible Women, which I counted as a Biography. I started Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but wasn't enjoying it, so I switched to In the Time of Butterflies. I'm about half way done and that will finish out my Readers Choice category and the challenge. So I'll be posting my last update in a day or two - just in time!

Woo-hoo! I finished In the Time of Butterflies last night. I like it very much - almost as much as I liked finishing this challenge. I had to use all my overlap spots, but Nickelini convinced me that was a good thing. This is more than I have read in a long time, and I am looking forward to the 999 challenge! See you all there....

Congrats on finishing your 888 Challenge! :)
--BJ