Completed challenges

Reading Challenges 2010

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril V

Books read:

1. I Am Legend – Richard Matheson(my review)
2. Tales of the Slayers – Joss Whedon et al (my review)
3. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruis Zafon (my review)

4. A Graveyard for Lunatics – Ray Bradbury (my review)

5. The Fall – Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (my review)

6. The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson (my review)

The Pool:

The Fall – Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag – Alan Bradley
The Last Temptation – Neil Gaiman
Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
The Sister – Poppy Adams
The Heretic’s Daughter – Kathleen Kent
I am legend – Richard Matheson
Button, Button : Uncanny Stories – Richard Matheson
A Graveyard for Lunatics : Another tale of two cities – Ray Bradbury
Oh and whatever related graphic novels/comics I can get my hands on

Reading the World Challenge – Completed!

Choose one book from/about/by or illustrated by someone from each of the seven continents. (By beginning in February 2010, I will need to finish this challenge by July 2010).

Books Read:

Africa – Morocco

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi (my review)

Antarctica

Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler (my review)

The Crystal Desert by David Campbell (my review)

North America – Canada

Island by Alistair MacLeod (my review)

Europe – Portugal

Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago (my review)

Asia – Sri Lanka

Reef by Romesh Gunesekera (my review)

Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje (my review)

South America – Argentina

The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene (my review)

Australasia – New Zealand

The Bone People by Keri Hulme (my review)

My pool of books:

Africa – Morocco
Secret Son – Laila Lalami
In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams – Tahir Shah
Dreams Of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood – Fatima Mernissi
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail – Malika Oufkir
The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles

Antarctica
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica – Sara Wheeler
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage – Alfred Lansing
Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer – Lynne Cox

Asia – Sri Lanka
Mosquito – Roma Tearne
The Last Theorem – Arthur C Clarke and Frederik Pohl
Bringing Tony Home – Tissa Abēsēkara
The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon – Edie Meidav
Anil’s Ghost: A Novel – Michael Ondaatje
Reef – Romesh Gunesekera

Australasia – New Zealand
The Garden Party and Other Stories – Katherine Mansfield
The Bone People – Keri Hulme
Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook – Martin Dugard
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before – Tony Horwitz

Europe – Portugal
Death with Interruptions – Jose Saramago
Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal’s History and Culture – Jose Saramago
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe – Laurence Bergreen
Alentejo Blue – Monica Ali
The Inquisitors’ Manual – Antonio Lobo Antunes

North America – Canada
Fall On Your Knees – Ann-Marie MacDonald
Island: The Complete Stories – Alistair MacLeod
The End of East: A Novel – Jen Sookfong Lee
Through Black Spruce: A Novel – Joseph Boyden
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams: A Novel – Wayne Johnston

South America – Argentina
Collected Fictions – Jorge Luis Borges
Borges: Selected Non-Fictions – Jorge Luis Borges
Evita: In My Own Words – Eva Peron
The Tunnel – Ernesto Sabato
Leopoldina’s Dream – Silvina Ocampo

Women Unbound

1. Food and Loathing: A Life Measured Out in Calories by Betsy Lerner (reviewed 13 November 2009)

2. Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez (reviewed 17 November 2009)

3. Nobody Said Not To Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn by Ken Cuthbertson (reviewed 30 November 2009)

4. Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel (reviewed 7 December 2009)

5. An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken (reviewed 8 December 2009)

6. Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia by Sheila and Lisa Himmel (reviewed 14 January 2010)

7. Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl (reviewed 26 January 2010)

8. Unless by Carol Shields (reviewed 7 March 2010)

My pool:

Fiction

The Female Man by Joanna Russ

Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

The Scent of the Gods by Fiona Cheong

Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman

Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin

Evelina by Frances Burney

The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min

Non-fiction

Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures by Kyoko Mori

Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture by Katy Peiss

Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body by Courtney E. Martin

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf

Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia by Sheila and Lisa Himmel

Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks (from Eva’s list)

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip (from Eva’s list)

Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog (Vasilly’s list)

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelous (Eva’s list)

Amended to add:
(4 Nov 2009)
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez
Food and Loathing: A Life Measured Out in Calories by Betsy L erner

Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man by Dale Petersen

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir By Elizabeth McCracken

Sci-fi Challenge

The challenge runs from August 28, 2009 to August 8, 2010.

1. The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (read 29 September 2009)
2. The Children of Men by P.D. James (read 10 October 2009)
3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (read 5 November 2009)
4. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke (reviewed 23 January 2009)
5. The  Unit by Ninni Holmqvist (reviewed 23 February 2010)
6. The City and the City by China Mieville (reviewed 11 March 2010)
7. Passage by Connie Willis (reviewed 18 May 2010)
8. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (reviewed 5 June 2010)

The Pool:
The Children of Men – P.D. James
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1)- Naomi Novik
Red Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
Passage – Connie Willis
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- Philip K. Dick
Childhood’s End - Arthur C. Clarke
The Female Man – Joanna Russ
The Other End of Time – Frederik Pohl
The Illustrated Man – Ray Bradbury
The Telling – Ursula K Le Guin
Woman on the Edge of Time – Marge Piercy
Fledgling – Octavia Butler

RIP IV

1. Affinity by Sarah Waters (completed 31 August 2009)
2. The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (completed 8 September 2009)
3. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (completed 11 September 2009)
4. The Collector of Hearts by Joyce Carol Oates (completed 17 September 2009)
5. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (completed 28 September 2009).

The rest of the pool
The Stand by Stephen King
The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton

(RIP IV reviews page)