requesting your... HELP!!!

okay, yes crazy...i am that. i am going to do this challenge, but I need three books, books that would really interest me, that I cannot put down...ANY SUGGESTIONS!?!!?

I have read Secret Life of Bees, and Uncle Tom's Cabin, and I almost considered re-reading both since i LOVED them, but do you have a suggestion for me? I was even thinking about Killer Angels, since we own it and my hubby (B) loved it. I also have read the Divine Secrets of the YA-YA sisterhood, or something like that...and it was good, really good....Oh, and To Kill a Mocking Bird, I think that has to be from the south as well.

I need suggestions though, because I did not grow up here, I am not sure what would even be considered for this challenge, and i am currently starting WAY LATE....so I need to get these books now! I know I have tons of these books in my library, but I just don't know which they are!! I would rather not buy new books, since I have just done that (several times), which are your faves?? Your ultimate faves from the south, I want to know...if I have them I will read them!!!

HELP!!!!

the chicklit challenge!

I am joining on for this challenge hosted by Journey to the End of TBR.
Here are the rules:
Read at least 3 chick lit books. (Chick lit - as defined by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_lit)
Tell us what you thought of what you read.
Dates for this challenge are June 1 to September 1.

Books can overlap with other challenges. Your list can change as needed. I will also leave it to your discretion as to whether a book is considered chick lit or not.

For my books I am going to choose to read:

- Hindi-Bindy Club by Monica Pradhan
- Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
- Shopaholic Ties the Not by Sophie Kinsella

My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge:

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!!

My Year of Reading Dangerously...seriously, what a title!? Who wouldn't want to join with that one! This one is for those of us who have been intimidates (scared) of reading certain books, authors, genres, and so on. There is an official list of books that you can read, or you can make up your own scary list! I joined this one, it looked like too much fun. There are 12 picks for this one...so it is a longer list of books. I chose many off of the actual list, because it is always more fun to read with others, and there are many that I am interested on the official list.

1*Franny and Zooey- JD Salinger (Philosophical!)
2*Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy (LONG)
3*Confessions of a Shopaholic- Sophie Kinsella (chick lit!)
4*Moving Parts- Magdalena Tulli (on parts of speech)
5*I'jaam: an Iraqi Rhapsody- Sinan Antoon (Iraq, during Saddam regime)
6*Animal, Vegetable, Miracle- Barbra Kingsolver
7*Voice of Glass/ Voix de Glace- Alta Ifland (poetry, deep poetry)
8*187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border- Juan Felipe Herrera (Mexican relations)
9*The Writing Circle - Rozena Maart (rape, incest and recovery)
10*Two Brothers: One North, One South- David H. Jones (civil war historical fiction)
11*Invasion of the Bible Thumpers- Skookum Maguire ( loggers, life and the Pacific Northwest)
12*Persepolis and Persepolis 2 - Marjane Satrapi ( graphic novels!!)

NOTE: Completed books in ORANGE.

Novella Challenge! (COMPLETE)

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!

What is a novella?? And why read one? According to wikipedia a novella is:

A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. While there is some disagreement of what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000….Occasionally, longer works are referred to as novellas, with some academics positing 100,000 words as the novella‒novel threshold.

And the reason for reading them is that they are short!!! That will be a fun one for me!

This Challenge is to read 6 novellas between April 2008 and September 2008. If you are interested go to: The Novella Challenge!

My 6 Books for the Novella Challenge are:


Franny and Zooey- JD Salinger
Town House-Tish Cohen
Sarajevo Marlboro-Miljenko Jergovic
Farmworker's Daughter- Rose Castillo Gibault
The Waitress Was New- Dominique Fabre
Moving Parts- Magdalena Tulli

NOTE: Completed books in orange.

The Eponymous Challenge- COMPLETE!!!

Challenge Complete!!!!!

I joined The Eponymous Challenge! What is that?
According to Coversgirl this is the way an Eponymous Challenge works:

The challenge will run from 1 March to 31 May, 2008.

During that time your mission should you choose to accept it is to read 4 books whose titles are the name of one or more of the characters (e.g. Evelina, Oscar and Lucinda); or a description of one or more of the characters (e.g. The Merchant of Venice, Sylvia’s Lovers).

Non-fiction books and overlaps with other challenges are welcome, as are books named after four-legged characters.

Here are my Books for this Challenge:

Franny and Zooey- JD Salinger
Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy
Farmworker's Daughter- Rose Castillo Gibault
The Waitress Was New- Dominique Fabre
Confessions of a Shopaholic- Sophie Kinsella

Challenge Complete!!!!!

The Complete Booker Project!

I am going to read all 41 winners off of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction! I am doing this over at The Complete Booker Project blog, and here on my page too.

Okay, so there are only 41!?!? I think I can do that! (let's see!) It may take a while.
I have not read ANY of the books on the Man Booker list!! yep, that is true! So, I'll need to get moving here, right? Here are the ones that I own that I will work on first.

2006 - The Inheritance of Loss (Desai)
2002 - Life of Pi (Martel)
1997 - The God of Small Things (Roy)

* Completed books will be in Orange.

Read the Nobels

There is a lot of work for me to do on the Nobels! I am in the Read the Nobels project, so I am slowly going to work on this. Have you read these?

Here is what I have read so far:

1990- Octavio Paz
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; o, Las trampas de la fe. – Barcelona : Seix Barral, 1982

1982- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Relato de un naufrago. – Barcelona: Tusquets, 1970
Del amor y otros demonios. – Madrid: Mondadori, 1994
Memoria de mis putas tristes. – New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004
1970- Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
The Nobel Lecture on Literature 1972
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 1963

1968- Yasunari Kawabata
Thousand Cranes / translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. – New York : Knopf, 1959

1967- Miguel Angel Asturias
Sociologia guatemalteca : El problema social del indio., 1923
El Señor Presidente. – Mexico City : Costa-Amic, 1946
Hombres de maíz. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1949

1907- Rudyard Kippling
Jungle Book, 1894


Will read soon:

1949- William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying. – New York : Cape & Smith, 1930
2001-Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
The Mystic Masseur. – London: Deutsch, 1957.
2000- Gao Xingjian
Soul Mountain / transl. by Mabel Lee. – HarperCollins, 1999.
1983- William Golding
Lord of the Flies-1954

* Completed books off the "will read soon" list will be ORANGE.

The Orange Project!

WHat is the Orange Prize Project? It is a Project that does not have a time limit (unlike a challenge) in which you read off the lists of selected books for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction! This is a prize given to female authors, and there are many on the list that are way too exciting!!

I haven't read many of the books on these lists, so I decided to join and to give it a shot. Here it goes. (this is a long list...)

bold: titles I own
italics: am dying to read, need to get my hands on!
orange: titles I've read
black: titles I will read in 2008 ( I decided on 3 that I already own and if I can I'll do more!)

The Orange Prize for Fiction

2007
Winner:
Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Shortlist:
Arlington Park, by Rachel Cusk
The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, by Xiaolu Guo
The Observations, by Jane Harris
Digging to America, by Anne Tyler

Longlist:
Poppy Shakespeare, by Clare Allan
Peripheral Vision, by Patricia Ferguson
Over, by Margaret Forster
The Dissident, by Nell Freudenberger
When to Walk, by Rebecca Gowers
Carry Me Down, by MJ Hyland
The Girls, by Lori Lansens
Alligator, by Lisa Moore
What Was Lost, by Catherine O'Flynn
The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney
Careless, by Deborah Robertson
Afterwards, by Rachel Seiffert
Ten Days in the Hills, by Jane Smiley
The Housekeeper, by Melanie Wallace

2006
Winner:
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith

Shortlist:
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss (rated 4.5/5 review here)
Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel
The Accidental, by Ali Smith
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, by Carrie Tiffany
The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters

Longlist:
Minaret, by Leila Aboulela
Harbor, by Lorraine Adams
Disobedience, by Naomi Alderman
Watch Me Disappear, by Jill Dawson
House of Orphans, by Helen Dunmore
The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory
White Ghost Girls, by Alice Greenway
Dreams of Speaking, by Gail Jones
Lost in the Forest, by Sue Miller
Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld
Frangipani, by Celestine Hitiura Vaite
The Position, by Meg Wolitzer

2005
Winner:
We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver

Shortlist:
Old Filth, by Jane Gardam
The Mammoth Cheese, by Sheri Holman
Liars and Saints, by Maile Meloy
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka

Longlist:
Away From You, by Melanie Finn
Black Dirt, by Nell Leyshon
Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson
Escape Routes for Beginners, by Kira Cochrane
The Falls, by Joyce Carol Oates
It So Happens, by Patricia Ferguson
The Mysteries of Glass, by Sue Gee
Nelson's Daughter, by Miranda Hearn
The Remedy, by Michele Lovric
The River, by Tricia Wastvedt
The Great Stink, by Clare Clark
Tatty, by Christine Dwyer Hickey
The Zigzag Way, by Anita Desai
Ursula, Under, by Ingrid Hill

2004
Winner:
Small Island, by Andrea Levy

Shortlist:
Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ice Road, by Gillian Slovo
The Colour, by Rose Tremain

Longlist:
Brick Lane, by Monica Ali
The Sari Shop, by Rupa Bajwa
Kith and Kin, by Stevie Davies
State of Happiness, by Stella Duffy
The Flood, by Maggie Gee
The Electric Michelangelo, by Sarah Hall
Notes on a Scandal, by Zoe Heller
The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri (rated 4/5 )
A Visit from Voltaire, by Dinah Lee Kung
Gilgamesh, by Joan London
The Internationals, by Sarah May
Love, by Toni Morrison
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
The Amateur Marriage, by Anne Tyler

2003
Winner:
Property, by Valerie Martin

Shortlist:
Buddha Da, by Anne Donovan
Heligoland, by Shena Mackay
Unless, by Carol Shields
The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith
The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt

Longlist:
Special, by Bella Bathhurst
Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros
English Correspondence, by Janet Davey
Dot in the Universe, by Lucy Ellmann
What the Birds See, by Sonya Hartnett
What I Loved, by Siri Hustvedt
War Crimes for the Home, by Liz Jensen
The Solace of Leaving Early, by Haven Kimmel
In the Forest, by Edna O'Brien
Fox Girl, by Okja Keller
When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka
Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
The Cutting Room, by Louise Welsh
Water Street, by Crystal Wilkinson

2002
Winner:
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

Shortlist:
No Bones, by Anna Burns
The Siege, by Helen Dunmore
The White Family, by Maggie Gee
A Child's Book of True Crime, by Chloe Hooper
Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters

Longlist:
Pop, by Kitty Aldridge
A True Story Based on Lies, by Jennifer Clement
Now You See Me, by Lesley Glaister
The Element of Water, by Stevie Davies
Five Quarters of an Orange, by Joanne Harris
Niagara Falls All Over Again, by Elizabeth McCracken
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk (rated 4.5/5 review here)
Middle Ages, by Joyce Carol Oates
The Story of My Face, by Kathy Page
Crawling at Night, by Nani Power
La Cucina, by Lily Prior
The Hero's Walk, by Anita Rau Badami
Sister Crazy, by Emma Richler
The Dark Room, by Rachel Seiffert

2001
Winner:
The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville

Shortlist:
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
Fred & Edie, by Jill Dawson
Hotel World, by Ali Smith
Homestead, by Rosina Lippi
Horse Heaven, by Jane Smiley

Longlist:
The Hiding Place, by Trezza Azzopardi
In the Blue House, by Meaghan Delahunt
The Last Samurai, by Helen Dewitt
Fish, Blood & Bone, by Leslie Forbes
The Wild, by Esther Freud
Dog Days, Glenn Miller Nights, by Laurie Graham
Nowhere Else on Earth, by Josephine Humphreys
Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund
From Caucasia, with Love, by Danzy Senna
The Bonesetter's Daughter, by Amy Tan
The PowerBook, by Jeanette Winterson
MotherKind, by Jayne Ann Phillips

2000
Winner:
When I Lived in Modern Times, by Linda Grant

Shortlist:
If I Told You Once, by Judy Budnitz
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
The Dancers Dancing, by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

Longlist:
The Translator, by Leila Aboulela
Girl With A Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
Fasting, Feasting, by Anita Desai
A Dangerous Vine, by Barbara Ewing
Danny Boy, by Jo-Ann Goodwin
A Sin of Colour, by Sunetra Gupt
Born Free, by Laura Hird
Everything You Need, by A.L. Kennedy
The Hunter, by Julia Leigh
Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, by Gina B. Nahai
Island, by Jane Rogers
Last Chance Texaco, by Christine Pountney
What the Body Remembers, by Shauna Singh Baldwin


1999
Winner:
A Crime in the Neighborhood, by Suzanne Berne

Shortlist:
The Short History of a Prince, by Jane Hamilton
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Paradise, by Toni Morrison
The Leper's Companions, by Julia Blackburn
Visible Worlds, by Marilyn Bowering

Longlist:
Master Georgie, by Beryl Bainbridge
The Voyage of the Narwhal, by Andrea Barrett
In A Fishbone Church, by Catherine Chidgey
Crocodile Soup, by Julia Darling
Restitution, by Maureen Duffy
Trumpet, by Jackie Kay
Comfort Woman, by Nora Okja Keller
Buxton Spice, by Oonya Kempadoo
The Vintner's Luck, by Elizabeth Knox
Marchlands, by Karla Kuban
The Giant O'Brien, by Hilary Mantel
The Most Wanted, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
A History of Silence, by Barbara Neil
Evening News, by Marly Swick


1998
Winner:
Larry's Party, by Carol Shield

Shortlist:
Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirsten Bakis
The Ventriloquist's Tale, by Pauline Melville
The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett
Love Like Hate Adore, by Deirdre Purcell
The Weight of Water, by Anita Shreve

Longlist:
Bitter Grounds, by Sandra Benitez
Man or Mango? by Lucy Ellmann
Gaglow, by Esther Freud
The Aguero Sisters, by Cristina Garcia
The House Gun, by Nadine Gordimer
The Breaking, by Kathryn Heyman
Round Rock, by Michelle Huneven
Ark Baby, by Liz Jensen
Undiscovered Country, by Christina Koning
The Orchard, by Drusilla Modjeska
Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen
Impossible Saints, by Michele Roberts
The Underpainter, by Jane Urquhart
Baby Love, by Louis Young

1997
Winner:
Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels

Shortlist:
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
One by One in the Darkness, by Deirdre Madden
Accordion Crimes, by E. Annie Proulx
Hen's Teeth, by Manda Scott
I Was Amelia Earhart, by Jane Mendelsohn


Longlist:
Every Man For Himself, by Beryl Bainbridge
Death Comes for Peter Pan, by Joan Brady
The Mistress of Spices, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Last Thing He Wanted, by Joan Didion
The Cast Iron Shore, by Linda Grant
The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, by Siri Hustvedt
The Autobiography of My Mother, by Jamaica Kincaid
With Child, by Laurie R. King
Fall On Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald
All the Blood is Red, by Leone Ross
Red Leaves, by Paulina Simons
Anita and Me, by Meera Syal
Gut Symmetries, by Jeanette Winterson
The Frequency of Souls, by Mary Kay Zuravleff

1996
Winner:
A Spell of Winter, by Helen Dunmore

Shortlist:
The Book of Colour, by Julia Blackburn
Spinsters, by Pagan Kennedy
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan
Ladder of Years, by Anne Tyler
Eveless Eden, by Marianne Wiggins

Longlist:
The Ghost Road, by Pat Barker
Official and Doubtful, by Ajay Close
The Rape of Sita, by Lindsey Collen
Keeping Up with Magda, by Isla Dewar
The Blue Flower, by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Private Parts of Women, by Lesley Glaister
The Passion of Alice, by Stephanie Grant
Egg Dancing, by Liz Jensen
So I Am Glad, by A.L. Kennedy
Never Far From Nowhere, by Andrea Levy
Mother of Pearl, by Mary Morrissy
Promised Lands, by Jane Rogers
River Lines, by Elspeth Sandys

Orange Prize for New Writers

2007
The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly - WINNER
Poppy Shakespeare, by Clare Allan
Bitter Sweets, by Roopa Farooki

2006
Disobedience, by Naomi Alderman - WINNER
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, by Yiyun Li
The Dream Life of Sukhanov, by Olga Grushin

2005
26a, by Diana Evans - WINNER
Lucky Girls, by Nell Freudenberger
How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff

WOW, I have A LOT of work to do!!!

Chunkster Challenge 2008

If you are a lover of long saga-esk books, try the Chunkster Challenge 2008
You are supposed to read at least 4 books that are over 450 pages each. I choose to do a couple more, but that is only because the doubled up for other challenges.

The Chunky Chunkster Challenge:
(Consisting of large/massive good books)
1.) Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
2.) Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
3.)What is the What, by Dave Eggers
4.)The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
5.)Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood

NOTE: Completed books in ORANGE.

Banned Book Challenge!

Fahrenheit 451: Freedom to Read is hosting the banned book challenge!! I decided to join this one too! The challenge is to read as many books as you can from the Pelham Public Library Banned Book list 2008(you choose the number now) and finish them by the end of June! Go check it out and let me know if you join so that I can see which books you a re choosing.
I chose to do four books between now and the end of June, I can always do more off of the banned book list, but here are some that I'd like to complete:

1.) As I Lay Dying
2.)?
3.) Love in the Time of Cholera
4.) The Scarlet Letter

NOTE: Completed books in RED.