The Challenge Factory discussion

Yearly Challenge

Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2016

Read a horror book: NOS4A2 2/1/2016
Read a nonfiction book about science: A Brief History of Time 1/16/16
Read a collection of essays: Gratitude
Read a book out loud to someone else
Read a middle grade novel: Harry Potter
Read a biography (not memoir or autobiography): Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel: Brave New World
Read a book originally published in the decade you were born: The Master and Margarita 6/9/2016
Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie Award: The Girl With All the Gifts
Read a book over 500 pages long: The Queen of the Night
Read a book under 100 pages: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender: In the Dark Room
Read a book that is set in the Middle East: The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East 8/11/16
Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia: The Vegetarian 6/10/2016
Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900 Wolf Hall 1/24/2016
Read the first book in a series by a person of color: Dawn
Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened 2/7/16
Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie.Debate which is better: Child 44 The book was better
Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes: Men Explain Things to Me
Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction): Inferno
Read a book about politics, in your country or another: All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror 7/2/2016
Read a food memoir: Under the Tuscan Sun
Read a play: A Doll's House 4/1/2016
Read a book with a main character that has a mental illness: Challenger Deep 1/27/2016 The Vegetarian 6/10/2016

January Stats



S Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (Audible)★★★★ 1/16/16
N NOS4A2 (Audible) ★★★★ 2/1/2016
O [sub] How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease (Audible & own HB) ★★★★ 1/12/2016
W Wolf Hall (Library HB) ★★★★★ 1/24/2016

Challenger Deep (Audible) ★★★★★ 1/27/2016


“Another man would have trouble imagining it, but he has no trouble. The red of a carpet’s ground, the flush of the robin’s breast or the chaffinch, the red of a wax seal or the heart of the rose: implanted in his landscape, cered in his inner eye, and caught in the glint of a ruby, in the color of blood, the cardinal is alive and speaking. Look at my face: I am not afraid of any man alive.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

Favorite:


Audible - 4
Library HB - 1

February Stats: 4/4 Complete




L The Library at Mount Char (Audible) 2/9/16 ★★★
O Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (Own PB) 2/21/16 ★★★★★
V [sub:series binge] Bring Up the Bodies (Library HB) 2/1/16 ★★★★★
E Exile (Audible) 2/14/16 ★★★★

Career of Evil (Audible) 2/5/16 ★★★★
Hyperbole and a Half (Library HB) 2/7/16 ★★★
Child 44 (Borrowed PB) 2/17/2016 ★★★★★
Brave New World (Borrowed PB) 2/22/16 ★★★
The Girl with All the Gifts (Audible) 2/25/16 ★★★★

“Before a Cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend,
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream;
And you might now and then supply
Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie,
Some potted grouse, or salmon paste —
He's sure to have his personal taste.
(I know a Cat, who makes a habit
Of eating nothing else but rabbit,
And when he's finished, licks his paws
So's not to waste the onion sauce.)
A Cat's entitled to expect
These evidences of respect.
And so in time you reach your aim,
And finally call him by his name.”
― T.S. Eliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

Favorite:


Audible - 4
Library HB - 2
Borrowed PB - 2
Owned PB - 1

March Stats



P Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges Own HB 3/23/2016 ★★★
I Inferno Own Audible 3/16/2016 ★★★
S Elizabeth Strout, My Name Is Lucy Barton Own HB 3/3/2016 ★★★★
C Alexander Chee, The Queen of the Night Own HB 3/9/16 ★★★★★
E Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Own Audible 3/14/16 ★★★★★
S Johanna Sinisalo, The Core of the Sun Own PB 3/16/2016 ★★★★★

Evil Next Door: The Untold Stories of a Killer Undone by DNA Library ebook 3/21/2016 ★★★★
A Head Full of Ghosts Own Audible 3/29/2016 ★★★★

"Her promise wasn't a real one. It was simply the dot at the end of her sentence." --Paul Tremblay, Head Full of Ghosts

“Impostorism causes us to overthink and second-guess. It makes us fixate on how we think others are judging us (in these fixations, we’re usually wrong), then fixate some more on how those judgments might poison our interactions. We’re scattered—worrying that we underprepared, obsessing about what we should be doing, mentally reviewing what we said five seconds earlier, fretting about what people think of us and what that will mean for us tomorrow.”
― Amy Cuddy, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges

Favorites:

April Stats



number9dream (Own PB) 4/13/2016 ★★★★
A Doll's House (Audible) 4/1/2016 ★★★
The Visitor (Audible) 4/16/2016 ★★★
Slaughterhouse-Five (Audible) 4/28/2016 ★★★★

“A book you finish reading is not the same book it was before you read it.”
― David Mitchell, number9dream

"Remember our father's words, Takara: the body is the outermost layer of the mind."
― David Mitchell, number9dream


"You don't so much solve problems, as live through them."
― David Mitchell, number9dream

"And so it goes." Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

Favorite:

May Stats



S. 5/17/2016 own HB ★★★
The Sparrow 5/18/2016 own Audible ★★★★★
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America Borrowed 5/29/2016 ★★★★
Sleeping Giants Own Audible 5/4/2016 ★★★★★

Favorite:

June Stats

The Master and Margarita Own PB 6/9/2016 ★★★★
The Golem and the Jinni Own audible 6/7/2016 ★★★★★
The Picture of Dorian Gray Own audible 6/18/2016 ★★★
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales Own audible 6/25/2016 ★★★★★
The VegetarianOwn audible 6/10/2016 ★★★

“The one charm of the past is that it is the past. But women never know when the curtain has fallen. They always want a sixth act,”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“What is done is done. What is past is past."
"You call yesterday the past?"
"What has the actual lapse of time got to do with it? It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods, and sickly thoughts.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Favorites:

July 2016 Stats


B The Beach (audible) 7/19/16 ★★
E Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms Own PB ★★ 7/10/2016
A All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (audible) ★★★★★ 7/2/2016
C Blake Crouch, Wayward audible 7/22/16 ★★
H

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Own PB ★★★★ 7/24/2016

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms


No Favorite

Audible-3
Owned PB-2

August Stats

L The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (Audible) ★★★★ 8/11/2016
E Eowyn Ivey, To The Bright Edge of the World Library HB ★★★★★ 8/22/2016
O Bill O'Reilly, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (Audible) ★★★ 8/02/2016



The Fireman (own HB) ★★★★ 8/17/2016
Redemption Road (own HB) ★★★08/6//2016
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey (Library ebook) ★★★★ 8/12/2016
Dark Matter (Audible)★★★ 8/16/2016
Lord of the Flies(Overdrive audio) ★★★★★ 8/25/2016
The Woman in Cabin 10 ★★★ 8/24/2016

Favorite:


Audible-3
Overdrive Audio-1
Library HB-1
Library e-book-1
Owned HB-3

“There's something horribly unfair about dying in the middle of a good story, before you have a chance to see how it all comes out. Of course, I suppose everyone ALWAYS dies in the middle of a good story, in a sense. Your own story. Or the story of your grandchildren. Death is a raw deal for narrative junkies.”
― Joe Hill, The Fireman

“His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

September TBR

Definite reads:
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone-Own PB-Start Sept 1
2. Men Explain Things to Me-Book Riot-Library PB-return Sept 6
3. Under the Tuscan Sun-Book Riot- Library ebook- return Sept 6
4. The Book of Unknown Americans: read by Sept 23
5. The Hotel Verdonne-Read by Sept 10
6. The Dark Tower: Audible
7. Art and Fear

Possible Reads:
8. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
9. The Summer Before the War
10. City of Mirrors
11. Blind Assassin
12. The Lake House
13. The Goldfinch