The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

Finally getting some points on the board:

15.2 ADVENTURES WITH ALICE AND LEWIS: The Marvellous Land of Oz

30.7 MULTI-TASKING: Slaughterhouse-Five
It actually fit more than two tasks, but I will assign it to 25.7 The Lost Generation and 30.10 Color by Numbers

Just finished task 10.3 -- I read Santa & Pete. I did not realize how much I would enjoy this book. The grandfather was amazing. And I love New York city history. Being Jewish, I never imagined I would read so many Christmas books!

total: 140
books: 7
total pages: 2,111

15.7 - FOOD + FAMILY AND/OR FRIENDS = READING FUN
A. Read A Novel With Recipes Or A Cookbook.
AND
B. Prepare One Or More Of The Recipes From The Book And Share It With Others (Family/Friends/Co-Workers Etc.).

I read The Pioneer Woman Cooks Recipes from an Accidental Ranch Wife (4 STARS) which is an amazing cookbook! If you love her blog, you will LOVE this book. It is pure Ree - fantastic reading, incredible recipes and just overall fun! I loved reading her recipes (and her usual fun thoughts/advice dispersed throughout) as well as her inserts about life on a ranch. This is definitely one I will purchase for my cookbook collection - just wonderful!

I made the Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich for the family and they were in heaven! YUM! Nothing healthy about this one but it was incredible! And tonight, I plan to make the potato skins from the book - they look amazing and I'm a potato skin kind of girl :)

This task completion brings me to 150 points with 9 tasks completed!

Oh and I forgot to add that for 15.8 I watched the following:

All 3 "The Santa Clause" Movies (A yearly tradition for me)
Christmas with the Kranks
Christmas Vacation
And a bunch of made for tv gooey mushy chick christmas movies.

20.1 MOST IMPROVED PLAYER - BETH MN'S TASK - REVISITING THE PAST 3. For Valentine’s Day: Read A Book With The Word Chocolate (Or Type Of Chocolate Or Other Candy) In The Title, Then Eat That Kind Of Chocolate Or Candy.Read The Bride Wore Chocolate The book has several recipes.

Books Read: 12
Pages Read: 3500
Tasks Completed: 10

Completed 20.1 Revisiting the past, I used Fall Challenge 25.3. WENDY'S TASK - Harvey Milk, The First Openly Gay Man To Be Elected To Public Office In California, Was Murdered On November 27, 1978. In Honor Of Him Read A Book With A Positive Gay Or Lesbian Character and read My Most Excellent Year A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park.

I'm so glad for this task as I hadn't been able to get to in the Fall and had been wanting to read this book for ages and it didn't disappoint! I was alternately laughing out loud and close to tears because it was so sweet. This was a 5 star for me!

Total points: 145

5.1. THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY- I read Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire- I hated this novel at the beginning but by the middle I was hooked. He always puts a lot of detail into the characters which always brings me around. 3 Stars
Pages read: 779
Books read: 2
Tasks completed: 2
Total Points: 10

I completed Task 30.9 (Newbery Award) with the 1990 Winner, Number the Stars, and the honor book, Afternoon of the Elves.

Number The Stars is a lovely book about friendship, humanity and growing up. Anna-Marie learns what it means to be brave and true to yourself and your beliefs. I also enjoyed the epilogue by the author at the end telling of what is true, what is fiction about the story. It made the story more poignant and real.

Afternoon of the Elves was also about friendship but in a darker, more harmful way. Hillary befriends Sarah-Kate, a child in desperate need of help but who keeps that need hidden. The friendship that developes is unhealthy in the sense that secrets must be kept and, in the end, some stealing is required.

I prefer Number The Stars because the secrets within it are for "good", while the secrets in Afternoon of the Elves are for "bad". I felt sorry for Sarah-Kate, who as a child was trying her best in an adult world, but her methods, although understandable, would have been harmful to herself and Hillary. Also, Number The Stars had a definite ending while Afternoon of the Elves left Hillary angry, uncertain and distrustful.

Finished 30.9 Rachel Lee's task-Newberry Awards

2004 Winner: the Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
honor: Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes
I liked both stories for different reasons. I liked Despereaux the best because I can read it to both my 2 year old and 7 year old and they would both liked it. I liked the fairy tale qualities of it and the underlying messages.

For task 35.1 I started with 309 pages ( for Julie and Julia)
307 Home Girl Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block by Judith Matloff

add 250 +/- 2

558 Devil in the Mountain A Search for the Origin of the Andes by Simon Lamb

One more down:

10.9 PEARL HARBOR Swimsuit by James Patterson

Previously Completed Tasks
25.5 This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

20.3 The Stupidest Angel A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Version 2.0 by Christopher Moore.

25.6 Behaving Badly by Isabel Wolff

Total Points: 80
Tasks Completed: 4 (and 2 half tasks)
Books Read: 6

30.5 - Posthumously Speaking: The Third Policeman Library Edition can actually be used for both parts of the task -- it is narrated by a dead man and it was published after the author's death (I am using it for the former) and Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of mesmerizing & depressing stories. It was published posthumously.


Pages read: 1202
Books read: 7+
Tasks completed: 6
Total Points: 150
Liz (Bklyn)

10.7Winter Frost R D Wingfield. My fave tv show is a detective show called Frost- based on these books.

5pt:#1 Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier; based in part on The Frog Prince.
5pt:#4 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; Hugo Award for Best Novel, 2009

I have finished the following tasks:

My resolution for 2010 is to get better and more sleep so I read the following books:
35.4A The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay
35.4B Sleep - You Questions Answered

25.10ADeal With This Deal With This by Lucy Moore--need I give the reason that this SMOKIN' cover caught my eye?
25.10B Real - VOlume 1 by Takehiko Inoue This book was so confusing because you were supposed to start reading from the back of the book and move forward. I had trouble keeping the storyline in correct order. I hated this book!

That adds 60 points I think

Ok so I didn't add the book correctly let me try again AND describe it

Deal With This


This book cover has a hot hot man with his shirt open to reveal a very toned man. I thought that this cover was SMOKIN! an dI loved the book too. I couldn't put it down.

Finished:

30.6. Dream Vacation Spot - L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
I've been dreaming of a warmer place already this winter and I've never been to L.A. I'm not sure how much I'd love the movie star paparazzi aspects of L.A. as depicted in this book, but I'm sure I'd love the warm weather, palm trees, and incredibly sights. I always think it's amazing to see places that you've seen on TV in real life.

TOTAL = 65 POINTS

So I finished another task today:

25.2: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares.

What friendship means to me: To have someone to share with - share the worries, the tears, the losses, the successes and the laughs.

Total points: 50.

#15.2 I decided to go with C.S. Lewis for both parts of this challenge, and chose books from the series that I have not read before:

a) Author named Lewis: The Horse and His Boy
I wasn't sure at first that I would like this, but I soon got caught up in this story of talking horses stolen from Narnia, a young boy who runs away to keep his 'father' from selling him (turns out the man is not really his father after all!), and a young girl who is escaping from an unwanted marriage. They all end up in Narnia through their own efforts and the ongoing help of Aslan. I loved the repeating refrain from Aslan whenever one of them asked what happened to (name inserted), and Aslan would say that that was the other person's story, not theirs.

b) Takes place in fictional land: Narnia, of course: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - I can't believe it took me so long to read this; I've seen the movies several times (live-action and animated versions)

Total Pages Read = 3,496

Total Points = 155

For task 5.7, I read Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. She was born the same year as me, so we are both Oxen.

And for 25.10 I read by Lev Grossman. The tree on the front is really cool.

I also read for the Graphic Novel part of the task.


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15.2 Adventures with Alice and Lewis
A)Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
B)The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Picture Book by C.S. Lewis

20.2 Rookie of the Year (Beth MN)
I chose task 25.3 Lisa's task: read a book of at least 700 pages
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (754 pages)

30.1 Bonnie's Task
A) New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (published in 2006)
B) My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (movie in 2009)

30.7 Jan the Gryphon's Task
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
This book fits the following tasks:
30.1 Bonnie's task (both parts a & b)
25.10 Emily's task (part a)
15.2 Adventures with Alice & Lewis (part a)

Total points: 155

35.4 The Dog Listener
Jane Fennell
and
Game Control
Lionel Shriver

I read A Feast for Crows for BJ Rose's task (30.3 - snowed in and loving it). The book was 1060 pages long, and it took me a quite a while to read since I was busy with finals and moving.

I loved the book, George R. R. Martin is great but he'd be a whole lot better if he'd get more books out in a reasonable time frame. Not sure how I'm going to be able to wait for the 5th book.

I believe this should bring me up to 40 points and should give me a "ticket" for reading a 1000+ page book.

30.8 Exploring with Lewis and Clark

New Found Land Lewis & Clark's Voyage of Discovery by Allan Wolf is about the expedition itself. It is told in the voices of twelve members of the Corps of Discovery, including Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea, and most interestingly, Lewis's newfoundland dog. The book is written mostly in poetic form, with some excerpts from actual journals and letters, and the voice of the dog, which is actually pretty eloquent prose. I thought this book was amazing. The format gave each character a clear and distinct voice and provided several perspectives for the action in the story. A section at the end of the book briefly detailed the known historical facts of the characters involved. I can imagine that not everyone would find this book as captivating as I did, but for me it was a 5-star, and I can be stingy with those.

For the non-fiction portion of this task, I read My sixty years on the plains Trapping, trading, and Indian fighting, a memoir of a trapper who began his career trapping and exploring the western US in the 1840s. He has many tales of Indian encounters, both friendly and not-so-friendly, and some descriptions of daily life for trappers and mountain men.

I thought the two books complemented each other nicely; although the memoir began nearly 40 years after the expedition, the trapper's wilderness struggles and encounters with Indians were very similar to the Corps' and Hamilton covered some of the same ground as the Corps in the northern Rockies. I wished the memoir had the excellent maps to accompany it as the other book did.

I really enjoyed this task; I am a history buff anyway but this is not the period or geography I usually go for. I have learned a lot and am really interested in reading further in this area. It has also been a nice follow up from our summer vacation, when we visted Montana and Wyoming. Thanks Kari for this excellent task!

210 points total

Amy wrote: "I read A Feast for Crows for BJ Rose's task (30.3 - snowed in and loving it). The book was 1060 pages long, and it took me a quite a while to read since I was busy with finals and movi..."

I love his books. I read all the ones that are out.

I finished task 15.2 for which I chose to read 2 books from The Chronicles of Narnia series: Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Author: C.S Lewis, both take place in fictional land: Narnia.

New Point Total: 130
Task Completed: 6
Tasks in Progress: 4
Books Read: 14
Pages Read: 4335

Another couple completed:

5.2 Flag Maker: Star Bright! A Christmas Story by Andrew Greeley

An okay Christmas story – lot’s of comparisons of Irish Catholic traditions and Russian Othodox traditions. A bit preachy. 3 stars

35.3 DLM Rose - It's About Time
This Year It Will Be Different by Mauve Binchy

A very enchanting and uplifting group of stories about Christmas written by a master storyteller. Each story focuses on changes in the person and the holiday during this year. Full of rich characterizations and unusual plots. A must read for any season. Very different from the boilerplate Christmas fare. 5 stars

POINTS 320
TASKS 16
BOOKS 21`
PAGES 4466

CHRISTMAS BOOKS 15

Finished:
25.3 Sara Nicole's Task A game of Clue

A. Plum What A Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden, a GoodReads author. Pretty insipid, 1 *

B. Poison

The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards. Police procedural with some literary overtones in the Lake District.

Both books were from my local Public Library.

Melissa wrote: "30.8 Exploring with Lewis and Clark

New Found Land Lewis & Clark's Voyage of Discovery by Allan Wolf is about the expedition itself. It is told in the voices of twelve members of ..."


Melissa, I loved when I read it several years ago, and found all the different perspectives, especially the dog, refreshing.

35.3: It's About Time - Nineteen Minutes by Jodie Picoult

Books Read: 4
Tasks Completed: 4
Pages Read: 1594
Total Points: 50

Here is the task I finished this week:

15.8 Silver Screen Celebrations
I read Hercule Poirot's Christmas, an enjoyable Christmas murder mystery. I watched Santa Clause 2 for my Christmas movie.

Total points: 50

30.9 The Newbery Award: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli & The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

These were the winner & honor from 1991. Maniac Magee was far superior to True Confessions. True Confessions was both dull and irritating, while Maniac Magee was as fun and whimsical as I remember it being when I read it as a child.

Books Read: 6
Tasks Completed: 5
Pages Read: 1933
Total Points: 80

Finished task 5.8: Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear. I thoroughly enjoyed this "cozy mystery", all the threads were well woven and finished off, there was even a little tear towards the end! 3.5*
TOTAL POINTS = 25

Finished task 30.9: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman the winner of the Newberry Award in 1996 and What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman - one of the honor books of the same year.

I definitely preferred the Midwife's Apprentice simply because the characters were much more developed and therefore I was much more interested in finding out what happened next. What Jamie Saw is about a very serious topic, however, I still didn't really find myself caring for Jamie.

Total Points: 80.

OK, I'm finally starting to speed up a bit. Austenland was a fun bit of fluff, don't we all wish we could meet Mr. Darcy? The Alice Hoffman was, well Alice Hoffman, I enjoy about the first one-third, then I become antsy for something to HAPPEN! Ghost Map got a little preachy toward the end, as a physician I wish he had stuck more to the epidemiologic mystery side of the story. Finally, The Star Garden was great, a very refreshing book for me. I would really like to read the first one, this book as a stand alone makes you feel as if you are dropped in the middle of the story 4*s.

25.10 Book with cover that attracts you and a graphic novel: Austenland and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Shannon Hale and Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, 386pp, read 12/14/2009 and 12/19/2009.

25.8 Book with at least 7 word title AND book with 1 word title: Leviathan and Ghost Map The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science Cities and the Modern World by Scott Westerfeld and Steven Johnson, 696pp, read 12/4/2009 and 12/19/2009.

5.2 Betsy Ross, Book with red, white and blue cover OR stars and/or strips in title: The Star Garden by Nancy Turner, 304pp, read 12/19/2009.

Books read 20/77+
Tasks completed 11/58
Points 165/1100
Pages read 6088


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Dlmrose wrote: "I finished 25.10, Emily's cover/graphic novel with
and

I picked Shiver for this task without knowing i..."

That's so interesting - I too had completely missed the wolf on the cover until you pointed it out. I'm hoping to read Shiver this time around too. Glad you enjoyed it!

And for graphic novels, you may have better luck with stories that don't have such a "canon" that they are a part of; I think the authors of graphic novel series often expect that you have been along on the ride for the majority of the character development. I have trouble sometimes jumping into X-Men graphic novels because I haven't read them all and they are often so different than the films. Whereas Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I've seen the TV show (more than once), so I am able to jump right in. You might have better luck with books like Persepolis 1 The Story of a Childhood or even a series but starting from the beginning (like Fables Legends in Exile or Y The Last Man Vol. 1 Unmanned both of which I loved).

I finished 5.9. I read Love in the Time of Cholera. I LOVED that book. It has definitely become one of my favorites. I love his style and I just was so fascinated by the storyline and the characters.

New Total:

Jamie(24)--55 points

Snowed in this weekend so I finished another task.
10.1 - Under the Big Top
Geek Love by Kathrine Dunn 348 pages
10 point task - second task completed for a current total of 45 points.
Don't ask what I thought of this book. I'm too nauseous to think about this book anymore. Wanted to like but just found it too gross.

For 5.9 ISN'T IT ROMANTIC I've read Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt, for 10.10 Glory by Nabokov and for 25.9. BRIDGIT'S TASK - THE WORLD OF BOOKS, Tolkien's The Hobbit (which included two maps) and Ada or Adour by Nabokov (which had a family tree at the beginning]. That's a total of 180 points. Oh and both Possession and Ada or Adour are 500+ pages books.

Emily wrote: "Dlmrose wrote: "I finished 25.10, Emily's cover/graphic novel with
and

I picked Shiver for this task with..."

Maggie Stiefvater came to our school to talk about her book. I wanted to read it but never got around to it.

30.3 - BJ ROSE'S TASK - SNOWED IN AND LOVING IT
When The Weather Keeps You Housebound, Make The Most Of It! Grab Books By Your Favorite Authors - Or Try Some New Ones - And Read 825 Pages Or More. Any Genre! No Re-Reads For This, But Audiobooks Are Fine. List The Books You Read & # Of Pages For Each When Claiming Your Points.

I read 3 books for this task - 2 authors new to me and one favorite author - for a total of 930 pages. The books I read are Something Missing A Novel (304 pgs, 4 STARS), Grave Secret (306 pgs, 4 STARS), and How to Read Novels Like a Professor A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form (320 pgs, 3 STARS).

So, that gives me 30 more points for a total of 180!

And, Matthew Dicks is a goodreads author :)

I finished 30.1 by reading A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (published in 2009) - really good - I like her short stories and was impressed by this novel. I also read The Good German which was made into a movie in 2006. I liked the book, didn't love it, but would like to see the movie.

I also finished 10.7 by reading True Stories of Law & Order The Real Crimes Behind the Best Episodes of the Hit TV Show which was nice brain candy - I LOOOOVE my Law & Order!

That should be 40 more points bringing me to 120 :)

I completed Task 25.9 by reading Maus I A Survivor's Tale My Father Bleeds History, which contains maps of Poland, and Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions, which contains geometric diagrams to illustrate the concepts being described. I can't link to it directly but I read the copy with the squares on the cover, which has well over 100 pages. It includes an introduction that describes Victorian society and the author's background. The most interesting thing in the introduction was that the author originally published this work anonymously under the name "A. Square".
Both are good stories. Flatland took a few pages to get into the style of writing. It's very Victorian.

Maus I is the first graphic novel I've read and I found it fascinating. The story is one that is hard to tell at any time and the graphics format really brings out the hardships and terror. It's amazing how the graphics and words work together to bring out so much extra detail to the story.

Flatland packs a lot of issues into a little book.
The first part of the book tells of the structure and thinking of the society of Flatland. The two-dimensional world is filled with brutality and conformity. Those who digress from the expected or have knowledge that they shouldn't find themselves either exterminated or imprisoned, depending upon social status.
The second part explains the concepts of zero-, one- and three- dimensions to a creature living in the two-dimensional world.
Along the way, this book touches on religion, philosophy, social classes & expectations. A lot of punch in a small book.

Hello!

I completed the following:

Task 15.7 ~ Reading Fun by reading the book Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl. I then made the recipe "Artpark Brownies", given on page 244 of the edition I have. They were simple to make and the recipe turned out a chocolatey-delicious treat!

Reichl is an American food writer, co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth, and the last editor-in-chief of the now shuttered Gourmet magazine. She has written and funny and poignant coming-of-age memoir centred on her love of food and her attempts at making sense of the world, one recipe at a time. This book is the first of three in her memoir series and I will definitely be reading the next two instalments!





# of pages read: 1933/25936
# of points accrued: 115/1100
# tasks completed: 4/58
# books read: 6/78

10.7 - SMALL SCREEN STORIES - Read A Book Inspired By, OR Was The Inspiration For, OR Is In Some Way Related To Your Favorite Television Show (Past Or Present)

I read The Lost Chronicles The Official Companion Book because LOST is one of my all time favorite TV shows (and in honor of the fact that this is the last season of the show). I gave it 3 stars because although it was an interesting book, there wasn't nearly as much 'meat' as I'd hoped it would have.

So, that's 10 more points for a new total of 190!

Hi!

I completed Task 30-10.

This was a two part challenge, the first book needed to include a happy color and the second had to include a number.

I read Two Little Girls in Blue for the first and Four and Twenty Blackbirds for the second.

This gives me an additional 30 points, 105 points in total.

Completed another task today!
25.3 Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu & The Black Dagger Brotherhood An Insider's Guide by J.R. Ward (Dagger in the title)
Both books are from my personal Library



Completed Tasks

25.3 Carmilla & The Black Dagger Brotherhood An Insider's Guide
25.6 Emma

35.3 The Xander Years, Volume 1


Total Points = 85
Tasks Completed = 3
Books read = 4
Pages read = 1,141


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I completed task 5.7 (Zodiac task) by reading The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan. He's a Dragon in the Zodiac calendar (born June 1964) and I'm a Dragon as well (born June 1988).

That should bring me up to 45 points

I completed task 20.1 MOST IMPROVED PLAYER - CHERYL ME'S TASK - CIVIL RIGHTS by reading Four Spirits A Novel by Sena Jeter Naslund (500+ pages). I gave this book 5 stars.

Total points= 55

I finished 5.6, dirty job with
Driver Six Weeks in an Eighteen-Wheeler

I could never drive a tractor trailer.
This book chronicled Wilson's experiences during his over-the-road truck driving training. I was comforted by the driver's depth of instruction, care and attention, and appreciation for the geography and people he encountered. I was dismayed by all that can and does go wrong regarding weather, equipment failure, and driver error. A bit long, but an interesting read.

+5
total 370