dudes22 1010 challenge - late to the party

Well - I've been dithering around for a couple of weeks now over whether to try this or not, but since I see others with a goal of less than 100 books, I've decided to try it. I'm also doing the Books off the Shelf Challenge and think that I can use them together to whittle down my TBR pile. Will give me some focus as I stand before the big TBR pile.

I'm planning on reading 5 books in each of 10 categories. As I've seen in others threads, I may have to change my categories as I go along or move books around or maybe read more than 5 in a category.




So - the categories I'm going to go with are:

1. Are you Sure We're Related? - books about families, sisters, mothers, etc 5 of 5 -done
2. Good Things Come From Little Packages - books by RI authors (my home state) 5 of 5 done
3. Yummy, Yummy - books about food or somehow related to food 5 of 5 done
4. Where Am I? - books with places in the titles 5 of 5 done
5. Stick 'Em Up - mystery, crime 5 of 5 - done
6. I'm Just a Kid at Heart - YA and children's books 5 of 5 done
7. On Beyond Zebra - books about animals, animal in title, animal picture on cover, etc. 5 of 5 done
8. Night Out with the Girls - chick lit 5 of 5 done
9. Read All About It - books about books, bookclubs 5 of 5 done
10. If nothing Fits - miscellaneous for anything else 5 of 5 done

Since I've already begun the BOTS challenge, I'll be filling them in first.

Are You Sure We're Related?

1. The Zoo Keeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
2. Being Mrs Alcott by Nancy Geary
3. Pieces of My Sister's Life by Elizabeth Joy Arnold
4. The Good Sister by Diana Diamond
5. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Good Things Come From Little Packages

1. Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine by Ann Hood
2. Rogue's Justice by Thomas Gately Briody
3. Ruby by Ann Hood
4. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
5. The Addict by Michael Stein

Yummy, Yummy

1. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
2. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
3. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
4. The Coffee Trader by David Liss
5. Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

Where Am I?

1. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
2. The Distance From Normandy by Jonathan Hull
3. A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi
4. Home to Italy by Peter Pezzelli
5. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Stick 'Em Up

1. Sea Change by Robert Parker
2. The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly
3. Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell
4. L.A. Dead by Stuart Woods
5. The Alpine Quilt by Mary Daheim

I'm Just a Kid at Heart

1. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
2. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo
3. Mrs. Mike by Nancy & Benedict Freeman
4. The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright
5. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

On Beyond Zebra

1. Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish by Mark Levin
2. Dog House: A Love Story by Carol Prisant
3. An Inconvenient Elephant by Judy Reene Singer
4. Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz
5. A Dog About Town by J.F. Englert

Night Out With the Girls

1. Beginner's Greek by James Collins
2. Nantucket Nights byElin Hilderbrand
3. Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews
4. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan
5. The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

Read All About It

1. The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble
2. The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman
3. The Bookshop: A Novel by Penelope Fitzgerald
4. So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson
5. Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg & Madeleine Stern

If Nothing Fits

1. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
2. Critical Care by Theresa Brown
3. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
4. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
5. Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish

Picked up Sea Change in the book box at the diner where we go for breakfast on Mondays. It was right after Parker died, so I thought reading it was the least I could do. Part of the Jesse Stone series - he's a police chief, dead body is found, hence the mystery. Very short book. Not too much depth, rather as I remember Parker's books.

The Zoo Keeper's Wife is the story of the couple who ran the Warsaw Zoo at the beginning of WW II. They manged to hide and save many Jews by using the cages and their home. This was written based on the wife's diary that she kept. Lots of dates, names, and places. A little confusing but fascinating at the same time.

Being Mrs Alcott is the story of a woman coming to terms with the decisions she has made over the years. Taking place from the 1960's though the 1990's, the story moves from current day to the past and back again. Just a so-so book

Pieces of My Sister's Life is the story of twins who fall in love with the same boy, have an awful fight and don't speak to each over for 13 years. Then the illness of one pulls the other back and the story moves back and forth to show you how they got where they are and how they make up for the past.

There are a few other twists to the plot. I picked this up to read as Block Island , where the book takes place, is just a boat ride away.

Although not intentional, I seem to be filling up my first category right away. The Good Sister is a pyschological thriller of two sisters, one of whom is trying to kill the other. With plenty of twists and turns it's hard to figure out who the killer is until the end. I kept thinking I knew and then would change my mind only to change it again.

Welcome dudes22, looks like you're off to a good start. I read The Good Sister last year, and I kept changing my mind about which one was trying to kill the other too!

I'm going to keep an eye out for your Rhode Island authors category. I still need a book with a Rhode Island setting for my 50 states challenge. I've read, Snow Island, the first of Katherine Towler's books in the past. Although she has another book I could use to meet the challenge, I'd like to find another author, if possible. I read one of Phyllis Whitney's books that was set in Newport way back in the 1970s too.

>18 thornton37814: Actually Pieces of my Sister's Life is set on Block Island which is in RI. I have a couple of Ann Hood's books (who lives in RI) which will probably be on that list, but I'm not sure if they're actually set in RI. I heard her speak last year at the library where my sister works and it was wonderful.

Well - I finished Shanghai Girls by Lisa See this afternoon. Looks like I've already finished the first category although I may move this later. Over on the BOTS challenge, lbradf noticed that I had a feminine/family theme going and I was going to continue in that vein, but since I decided to do this, I'm going to find a book from another category to start.

Anyway - I didn't enjoy Shanghai Girls as much as I did "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" or "Peony in Love". I found the historical parts interesting as there was lot I didn't know but I disliked the relationship between the sisters. I'm having a hard time expressing all my thoughts, so I think I'll leave this for now and come back to it after I've thought about it a little more.

The Good Sister sounds like a good read. I really enjoyed The Zookeeper's Wife when I read it, but I agree that it was a little confusing. I wanted a 'Where are they now' sort of thing at the end too.

I finished 2 books while on vacation -

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway and The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble.

Comments on each are in my thread in the Books off the Shelf Challenge.

Finally finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova which I enjoyed. The story of a girl who finds a book and some letters of her father's. The story moves from the present to her father's past when he received the book and began his search for Dracula. The story is told in the first person for the first 100 pages or so and from 3 different people. The author does an excellent job of building the suspense gradually through those first 100 pages until I was hooked. The story was extensive, covering many countries and people in the search for Dracula and his grave. I can't make any comparisons to Bram Stoker's Dracula because I've never read it, but this was more about the search than it was about vampires.

edited to add my review

Finished Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine by Ann Hood. The story of 3 women who meet in college and the different paths that their lives took. Not an overly long book. I thought the book was a little disjointed and the ending was unsatisfying in the sense that I felt she just stopped writing leaving things kind of up-in-the-air. And I didn't understand what the title had to do with the story. I checked and this was her first book, so that may explain some of it.

I've been curious about Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild ever since Meg Ryan mentioned it in the movie "You've Got Mail". Cute enough story - 'nuff said. I'll pass it along to my granddaughter and see what she says.

Well here it is the end of March and I've only read 11 books this year so far. Going to have to step up the pace. Or pick shorter books. Or spend less time reading all these threads - I'm *worried* I might miss a good recommendation on a book. Jan - 6, Feb - 1, Mar - 4. Just heard I'm getting an ER book - now I need to figure out what category to fit it into.

I just finished Beginner's Greek by James Collins. There are about 25 reviews on it already and since I have no strong feelings one way or the other, I'm rating it a 3 and leaving the reviews to others. It was an OK book - boy meets girl, gets phone #, loses phone #, she marries his best friend, he gets married, her husband dies, etc,etc. You know from about page 3 that they'll eventually end up together, it's just the convoluted way they get there. Since I can't find a better category, I'm putting it in Miscellaneous for now.

I got my ER book from Mar today - Critical Care by Theresa Brown so I'll be starting that next.

Decided to move Beginner's Greek to my chick lit category because I'm afraid I'm filling up my miscellaneous category to fast. And that's because I had to put my ER book in miscellaneous because it didn't fit in anything else.

I've finished my ER book Critical Care by Therea Brown and I posted my review so I won't repeat myself here. Overall, not very good. Only because she gave a good explanation of how the chemo process works toward the end of the book did I give it a 3. I'm going to pass it along to my daughter-in-law who is a nurse and see what she thinks.

I also finished The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister while I was thinking about my ER review. It's the story of a cooking class and it tells the backstory of each person in the class, one person per chapter. The class meets once a month and, although there are no actual recipes in the book, tells what they are making.

I saw on DeltaQueen's thread on the BOTS challenge a review of one of Barbara Cleverly's books and realized that I had a couple of her books on my shelf also. So I pulled the first of the series The Last Kashmiri Rose and enjoyed it a lot. Although some of the British terms were unfamiliar to me, I didn't find that it detracted from the story. Depending on how my categories shake out, I might pull the second one off the shelf later this year.

Story of a Scotland Yard Inspector who has been in India for 6 months and gets pulled into a case of suspected suicide/murder just as he is getting ready to go home. He discovers clues which seem to link other accidents which may be murders and sets out to find out who did it. I gave it 4 stars.

Finished The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo today. Gave it to my granddaughter for Christmas, but she had already read it so I put it on my shelf. I found this a delightful story. I can so see a young reader enjoying this book.

>29 dudes22: So far I've read the first 4 books in that series and liked them a lot. I've got a couple more on my TBR shelves waiting their turn. The 4th book is the last one set in India. I've enjoyed the Indian setting so much that I guess I'm a little afraid that I'll be disappointed by the ones set somewhere else!

I just added 3 &4 to my wishlist in BM but I'm hoping to find at least one of them at one of the FOL sales this spring. I also have book 2 in her other series. Won't read til I get book 1. I need to work on some of my other categories, so will put off book 2 for a little while.

Finished Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. I love food and reading this was wonderful. I had to keep wiping the drool off my chin. Story of Ruth Reichl and her time at the New York Times as the restaurant critic. She used lots of disguises to fool the restaurants about who she was. A very interesting read.

Finished Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish by Mark Levin. As much as I like stories about animals, this just didn't do it for me. I felt it was a rather self-indulgent story with a lot of repitition.

Finished Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell. One of the Kay Scarpetta series. Same characters, same basic story, but a good read and a cliff hanger at the end.

Hi dudes22, I have Garlic and Sapphires on my wish list, so was glad to read that you enjoyed it. Heaven knows when I'll get around to it but one of these days ...

I've just finished The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman. I've put it in my Read All About It category based on the reporter in the book. The story is actually 2 stories - one about the threft of some alchemical instruments in the 12th century, their dispersal and subsequent reaquisition, and one about a current day murder and a reporter who (in the course of writing an obituary about the murder victim) finds more than he bargained for.

The stories of the alchemical instruments were interesting, who wanted them, what they were supposed to do. The story of the reporter who is writing the obituary of the person murdered was ok. At times the explanations seemed a little draggy, the romance a little too convient. Still, I did enjoy it.

Finished an ER book Dog House: A Love Story by Carol Prisant. a couple of weeks ago but delayed writing my review because there were things about the book I didn't like and I needed to think about what to write. Then I got notified that I was getting another ER book and decided I'd better get on the horse and get going with my review.

I think I'm still a little behind in my goal for this year, so I'm off to read. I have a few going at once, so if I can finish them up, I might be on schedule by the end of the month.

37: Glad that you enjoyed The Geographer's Library, that's one that I've circled around for a while now. I know what you mean, about reading a few books at once. I know I'm in trouble if my "currently reading" total gets to 3 - and now I've picked up and am reading 7. I'm so ashamed that I haven't even updated my list here on LT! Yikes! Last night I made good headway on a book so I'm feeling a little better, but I too just received an ER book yesterday, so I need to get reading! Good luck to you!

Just finished Mrs. Mike by Nancy & Benedict Freeman one of my favorite books from when I was young. I found it in the book exchange box at the diner where my hubby and I have breakfast on Mondays. It looks like it's from the mid sixties and the price was only .40.

Looks like I could be halfway to my goal by the end of June.

Next one done - The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. I saw a post about this book somewhere on LT which is why I decided to read it, hoping it would be a good book for my grandaughter. But I think she's a little too old for it. I found it very similar to The Boxcar Children , probably my most favorite book when I was young. I'll probably try to pick up the others in this series.

I've also finished An Inconvenient Elephant by Judy Reene Singer, an ER book. I've posted my review so I won't repeat it here, I'll just say that I enjoyed the book and will probably go back to read her first book when I get a chance.

With the 2 books I finshed so far this weekend, I'm halfway to my goals this year.

The first I finished was Nantucket Nights by Elin Hilderbrand. Good chick-lit book about friendships and how they can change. Three friend that live on Nantucket spend the Friday night of every Labor Day weekend at a beach overnight, eating, drinking, and sharing secrets. This year one of them goes into the ocean and doesn't return. This is the pebble that causes ripples affecting first the 2 other friends and then family, etc. Good beach read.

The other I finished was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. It's the story of her and her family moving from Arizona to southern Appalachia to live on a farm and try to live a year from what they grew on the farm and from other local farmers. It was published in 2007 and some of the information that might have been new to me then is more commonly known and has been written about more since her book came out. But for an overall look at how America eats and gets her food, it was wonderful -and a little scary. The back of the book also has references, websites and other resources for the interested.

I've often thought that it would be easy to eat local if you live where there are alot of different foods grown (i.e. California) but much harder where the growing season is much shorter and less eclectic. Ms Kingsolver's book allows that every little bit of change makes a difference. And she doesn't get a "preachy" tone that says you must give up everything that you can't get locally. Her book endeavors to encourage you to be a better, more aware consumer of what it costs to get food to the table - time, land, energy. There is so much I loved about this book. This one stays on my limited shelves.

I see that a few of my categories are coming along and almost done. Trying to decide to spread out a few more books among categories or finsh one or two so I feel like I'm making a lot of progress.

Nice reviews - and congrats on your halfway-mark! I had often looked at AVM, and wondered about it. Because I live in Wisconsin - we're not necessarily known for our long "growing" seasons to put it mildly - I wondered if I could accomplish something a little less extreme than what Ms. Kingsolver did. I've decided to put in a small veg garden next year and see what comes of it. I thought about doing a CSA share this year, but never got around to it in time. Perhaps I'll pick this book up at the library in a few weeks (I've got 3 doorstops checked out now - yikes).

Also, I hear you on your uneven category reading. I've got a few that have only 1 or 2 sad little books in it, and a few others that are completed. I say shoot for completing one or two so you do feel a bit more accomplished and then worry about filling in the gaps. Once I had my first category completed I felt relieved at having gotten so far. Now all I have to do is make a concerted effort to read some of those "thin" categories!

Good luck on keeping up with the challenge - I really enjoy reading your thread!

>46 LauraBrook: Thanks - Although I felt discourage a few times while reading AVM, I ultimately reached the conculion that every little bit helps. I'm in RI and our growing season isn't particularly long either. I do have one category completed, but that was almost by mistake. I just decided on a category when I joined that challenge that my first 3 books would fit into.

Anyway - I just finished a slim, little book The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. Story of Florence Green, a widow in a small town in England, who decides to open a bookshop. Although her intentions are good, not everyone thinks that that's the best idea and the book tells how she copes with the ensuing events.

The Distance From Normandy by Jonathan Hull.

I had read Mr Hull's first book Losing Julia and liked it a lot. so I was happy to find another book by him. It's the story of a seventeen year old boy who gets kicked out of school for pulling a knife on another student. His mother is rather disfunctional in a normal way, and so his grandfather offers to have the boy come and live with him during his 3 week suspension.

The story fluctuates between the current day and the grandfather's memories of what happened to him during WW II. Eventually he decides to take his grandson to France to try and get him to understand and appreciate what happened there.

I enjoyed this book also. Mr Hull has an easy readable style. Too bad he's only written 2 books.

My goal for now is to get 3 books read in each category to impel me on my way for the last half of the year.

Rogue's Justice by Thomas Gately Briody is a mystery which takes place in Rhode Island written by a Rhode Islander. In this book, Michael Carolina, a TV reporter, returns to RI after his girlfriend, who is also a TV reporter is murdered. Michael was sailing in the Pacific and Lilly had just met him to sail with him for a few weeks. Upon his return, he starts to investigate what she might have been working on that got her killed. This was a fun read. The author liberally sprinkles in the nuances of RI speech patterns, RI places, and RI politics.

@49, I'll have to remember that one for my 50 States Mystery challenge.

I've been considering starting one of the 50 State challenges. Sounds interesting. Not sure I'd go with mysteries, although I do like them. Maybe just any book/any state. I'll have to zip over and look at your list when I get a minute. And check out the 50 state group.

I've been considering starting one of the 50 State challenges. Sounds interesting. Not sure I'd go with mysteries, although I do like them. Maybe just any book/any state. I'll have to zip over and look at your list when I get a minute. And check out the 50 state group.

I already had a Reading Globally challenge underway when I started my other place challenges (European & 50 US States) so decided to differentiate between them by making the latter based purely on mystery, crime, thrillers and the like.

I'm gonna go check your's out when I get a minute.

Finished Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews. This was an easy quick chick-lit book. It's the story of Gina who has a cooking show on Georgia PBS. Her show gets cancelled by the sponsor and her producer pitches her to the Cooking Channel. Meanwhile on another southern TV channel, Tate has a cooking show on hunting and fishing and cooking. His producer also pitches his show to the Cooking Channel. Owner of the Cooking Channel thinks they should have a reality show cook-off between the two to decide who gets to be on the Cooking Channel. I'm not a big fan of reality shows, so maybe that's why I found it just so-so.

Book 31: A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi. A stranger approaches Ms de Blasi in Venice and tells her that she is his destiny. Pretty soon she sells her house in America and moves to Venice to marry the stranger and live. Made me wish I could live in Venice as she told about the nooks and crannies that tourists never see.

Book 32: Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz. Another of his non-fiction books about his dogs and his life on the farm in Vermont. I like his books because I also have a border collie and like to hear about life on the farm, but some might find this somewhat redundant and similar to his other dog books. But I'll still read more.

can't get the touchstone to work

Book 33: The Tales of the Beedle Bard by J.K. Rowling. This completes my second category. Fairy tales of the magical kind ala the Harry Potter books.

Book 34: Ruby by Ann Hood. This is the story of a woman whose husband was killed while out jogging. The story starts a year later when she finally starts to begin making decisions about how to continue her life without him. She decides that it's time to sell the house they owned in RI and goes to close it up. While there she meets and befriends a pregnant 15 year old girl. She also decides that she would like to adopt the baby also.

I had previously read her first book earlier this year for my "Good Things Come From Little Packages" category of books by RI authors. This one is her 7th book and I could see the difference in how her writing had grown and changed from the first book.

Book 35: The Little Friend by Donna Tartt.

Although I found this to be a rather bleak story at times, I thought the author's writing was excellent. I wondered at the beginning why this story would take 500 pages, but it's because she decribes things in great detail. Some might find that this makes the story drag at times, but there is a lot of levels to this story. I'll probably read her other book at some point.

Book 36: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

I had originally planned to read this next year, but when my girlfriend asked me to go to the movie with her, I decided to read it before we went. I only got about 20 pages into it before we went, and I had seen/read a review which said that if you had read the book, you would understand the background of the movie and it would not seem so superficial, and I have to agree with that.

Plenty of reviews already on LT so I won't say too much. I did find the section on India thought-provoking, probably because I know very little about Yoga.

Book 37: Home to Italy by Peter Pezzelli

Nice weekend read. A little old man, Peppi, returns to His hometown in Italy after his wife dies. He plans to live in the family mill but finds that it was destroyed in an earthquake. So he lives with his childhood friend who has a daughter whose husband died 10 years previously. Also involves bicycling.

Book 38: L.A. Dead by Stuart Woods

This Stone Barrington mystery starts with Stone in Venice to marry his friend Dino's sister-in-law. After the civil ceremony but before the religious ceremony, Stone gets a call from L.A. telling him that Vince Calder a famous actor has been murdered and his wife is a suspect. Arrinton Calder was once a lover of Stone's and he had planned to ask her to marry him. Before he could, she went to L.A. and met and married Vince Calder. Stone leaves for L.A. right away and gets involved in the murder. His "wife" is less than happy (make that murderously upset). Typical murder mystery but a fun read.

Book 39: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Sad to say, this is the first book of short stories that I've read. However, I found that I did like the stories in this book. Because she's a local author, I have a few of her books on my shelf and will probably read another to complete this category.

*and I'm guessing the touchstone won't work here either*

Book 40: The Alpine Quilt by Mary Daheim

This book is one of a series (The Alpine A..., The Alpine B..., etc) of cozy mysteries which take place in the town of Alpine, Ore. I found I was a little confused at the beginning because of all the characters that the author mentions. They were probably introduced in some prior book. The owner/editor of the local weekly paper helps solve murder in the town. Not a series I will probably read again.

>63 dudes22: I read the first book in Daheim's Alpine series years ago, but I didn't like it as well as her B&B series. I've never picked up another one in that series.

>64 thornton37814: maybe I'll try one of those sometime.

I've read all of the books in Daheim's B&B series (I'm reading the brand new one Loco Motive right now, but I've read only a few in her Alpine series. Maybe someday I'll read more of these but I never liked them as much.

Well I do have the first one of that series in my TBR pile, so maybe I'll see if that series is more to my liking.

Book 41: So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson
Sara Nelson has written a book about a year when she decides to read 52 books, one each week, and write her thoughts on this. I expected a "week 1 book 1" style of books and reviews, but Ms Nelson has approached the process differently. She instead analizes why she chooses the books she does, when she does. Some of it was interesting - I gave it 3.5 stars.

Book 42: Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan. Starts off with Rose (the middle-aged woman) being dumped by her husband for a younger woman that also happens to be her assistant. She then loses her job to the same woman and is forced to examine the life she's had so far and start over. Pretty standard stuff - lots of looking back at her life nd marriage and children and how things went and how things are now. Pleasant enough read - no hard thinking required.

Nice reviews! I have "So Many Books..." on my shelf, and the fact that it's set up differently than I expected makes me want to bump it up my TBR heap a little farther now.

Book 43 - The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

I got a lot more out of this book than I expected to going in. The story is about 8 women who decide one night to just up and start walking. There are chapters about each woman, her background, her thoughts, her hopes and dreams. Then there are chapters about other people, unknown to the women, who are affected by hearing the story. I found this to be a thought-provoking story and I like the style of writing. I have another of the author's books on my shelves and may try to get to it before the year is over.

The completes my 4th category for this year. Even tho I'm not doing a full challenge this year, I'm happy about this.

Congrats on completing your 4th category!

Book 44: The Coffee Trader by David Liss
Category: Yummy! Yummy!

In Amsterdam 1659, the Exchange operates similar to the Commodities Exchange of today. Men buy, sell, bet, and gamble on the prices of whale oil, brandy, spices, etc. Miguel Lienzo is one of these men, a Portuguese-Jew who has fallen on hard times and is basically broke. He meets Geertruid who convinces him that coffee is about to become popular and he concocts a scheme to corner the market and make lots of money. There are plots, sub-plots, twists-on-plots, twist-on-sub-plots.... you get the idea. A very good story from Liss who combines historical detail with a good story. One of the better books I've read this year.

I've been on vacation so am just now catching up on all the reading others have been doing. Didn't get as much read as I had hoped.

Great review of The Coffee Trader. I had it on my list for this year, but it will make a good fit in next year's historical fiction category so I will bump this one as a book to read in 2011.

Book 45: Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg & Madeleine Stern
Category: Read All About It

This book is the story of life-long friends and business partners Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. They get to spend their lives searching for books, buying books, selling books and writing books. They discovered the stories that Louisa May Alcott wrote to support her family before she wrote Little Women as Jo did in the story.

Although I found it slow going at times and I didn't get many of the French phrases, I still enjoyed the book overall.

For me, this completes my 5th category.

Book 46: Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish
Category: If Nothing Else Fits

Annie Freeman dies before this book starts. She asks that 5 of her friends take her ashes to various cities that have meant something to her and leave some at each place. She has planned everything which is to take place over 10 days-2 weeks; airfare, hotels, etc. People who have reviewed this book already did not seem, for the most part, to like it. I, however, found that the thoughts of the friends while on the trip, the questions about their own lives, their thoughts on how Annie had affected their lives, were all thoughts that people have when someone close to them dies. I think that it is very close to the top of the list of books I've read this year.

This completes my 6th category and since I'm in the middle of 2 more books right now, I'm pretty sure I should reach my goal before the end of the year.

Oooh, Annie Freeman looks good to me. Hit by a Book Bullet, but what are you going to do?!? Nice review, BTW.

She has a couple more that I'm thinking of putting on my list for next year.

Book 47: The Addict by Michael Stein

The author is a doctor and professor of medicine in RI who treats addicts at his hospital clinic for a study of buprenorphine which is supposed to help people addicted to opiates. The book follows one of his patients through a year in his program. It explores/explains the reasons for addiction and the difficulty in remaining drug-free. He also introduces a few side patients to shows how addiction affects people differently.

I have a nephew who got addicted to OxyContin after an automobile accident so I read this book hoping to get a better understanding of addiction. I did find out a lot reading this book.

Book 48: A Dog About Town by J.F. Englert

Harry's girlfriend Imogen went out one night for bread and never came back. Now Harry and her dog Randolph are living together. What Harry doesn't know is that Randolph can think and reason and read. The book is told from Randolph's point of view.

Harry goes to a seance and, while there, one of the other guests is killed. Randolph decides that he has to help Harry figure out who did it - among other things, leaving Harry messages written in Alph-Bits cereal.

I realize that some people are put off by books written from the point of view of an animal, but I found this a cute, cozy mystery, just right at this time of year. I have the next one in the series and will probably read it next year.

Book 49: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

The story of Gus (Augusta) who has a cooking show on a TV network. She been a single mother for a number of years since her husband died and is still trying to manage her dauaghter's lives even though they are both in their twenties. The ratings of her show are down and the network head decides to bring in a co-host (a former Miss Spain) to boost the ratings. He also decides to make it a live show. Typical conflicts arise and are solved. There are many side characters and lots of side stories which all get resolved in the end. Overall a pleasant enough read.

Book 50: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

I'm in a turmoil about this book. First, I have to confess, I didn't even finish it. I made it about 2/3 of the way and then it's been sitting on my nightstand since Oct waiting for me to return. I think that the main reason was that it didn't turn out to be what I expected from the description on the back cover. I thought it was going to be about the book club the author held in Tehran and the books her students read and their reactions. And the first chapter was pretty much that and I enjoyed that chapter.

Then the book became more of a memoir of the author's life in Tehran and although what life was like in Tehran during the 1980s under the Ayatolla Khomeini took over, I lost some interest in the book. The author obviously had a fantastic grasp and knowledge of literature and the books she was teaching, but the book just didn't speak to me. Some of the analogies between the books she was teaching and the life in Tehran, for me, became lost in the details. I felt more like I was plodding through just to finish. And so, sad to say, I didn't.

Well those are my last 2 books - I'm finished for this year. Only 50 books but that's about all I can manage in a year at this point in time.

I really enjoyed this and the Books off the Shelf Challenge - the first times I've tried a challenge and looking forward to next year's challenges. Makes an interesting way to choose my reading - all those books I have seem so worthy to be read. And so many good suggestions from others. I have a new ER book that I'll be starting and I think that will be my first book for the next year.

Now I need to go look over my reads for best of the year, fiction, non-fiction, and worst of the year and go log those into the appropriate threads along with the fact that I'm done thread.

Congratulations on completing your challenge. It was a shame your last book didn't live up to expectations but at least you've had a good year overall.

Congrats on finishing! Happy holidays, and I look forward to following your reading in 2011!

Congratulations on finishing your challenge! It makes a nice present to yourself!

Congratulations!

Congratulations indeed! Looking forward to your 2011 reads!

Congrats! I'm sorry Reading Lolita in Tehran didn't do it for you..

Congrats on the finish!

Well done!

Thank you all so much! Looking forward to 2011!