The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

10.3 Renaissance Reading - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I figured I'd read a book from the author being honored. Once less book to inquire about whether or not it fits the task. Definitely not disappointed since it is such a great book.

Total Points: 190/1100
Tasks Completed: 12/58
Tasks in Progress: 9


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Finished task 25.2 by reading The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg. This book revolves around a girl who is a junior in high school and is fed up with having her heart broken. Together with her best friends, she forms The Lonely Hearts Club. The girls in this club realize the importance of friendship and that they don't need a guy to make them happy. They just need confidence in themselves and love for each other.

This book was dead-on in describing what friendship means to me. It means putting your friends (especially when they need you most) ahead of your boyfriends/date. Making time for each other, and celebrating being women. Being honest with each other and supporting of your friends' decisions, and offering advice when it is most needed.

155 points total

I completed these tasks..

5.6 IT'S A DIRTY JOB BUT… - In The Fall Challenge We Read About Our Current And Dream Job So For This Task...
A. Read A Novel Where The Main Character Does A Job You Could Never Imagine Doing.
I read Eve of Destruction by S.J. Day, the main character is a demon assassin for God. I don't think I could assassinate anything!

30.9 RACHEL LEE'S TASK - THE NEWBERY AWARD
Winter Break Was Always My Favorite Growing Up Because I Got To Read So Many New Books And Usually My Aunt (An English Teacher) Would Bring Me The Newbery Award Winner From That Year For My Present.
Pick A Year And Read Both The Newbery Winner And One Of The Honor Books From That Year. Then Let Us Know Which You Thought Was Better And Why.
I read 2004 Medal winner The Tale of Despereaux Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread and 2009 Honor Book Olive's Ocean I guess I liked Olive's Ocean better. I'm not really a big fan of young adult stories so neither one really excited me.

Total Points: 315/1100
Books Read: 20
Tasks Completed: 17/58

I really enjoyed this last book - one of the best Aunt Dimitys I've read and a lovely cosy mystery.

5.8 Cozy mystery – Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin by Nancy Atherton

TOTALS:
135 points
13 books
10 tasks
4721 pages
1 task in progress

Finished task 10.4: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys from Fall Challenge Winner BJ Rose's 5* read list. I also give it 5*, a very atmospheric, emotionally tense story - when I got to the end I felt that I'd been holding my breath all the way through.
Finished task 15.7: Jamie's Kitchen by Jamie Oliver and making Pot Roast Chicken for supper tonight, can't wait, all his recipes are so yummy!
TOTAL POINTS = 135

I finished 10.7, small screen stories, with

The Unfinished Bombing Oklahoma City in American Memory
My favorite tv show is Saving Grace. It takes place in Oklahoma City and Grace's sister was killed in the bombing. TNT has canceled the show, but there are still 9 more episodes to air.

+10
total 510

I completed task
35.1. PJ READS TASK - FUN WITH THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM –
The book I rated among the highest was Great Garden Companions A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden, which had 288 pages.
For A I read 289.3092,(Religon: Other denominations and Sects)
EscapeEscape.
For B I read 540,(Modern Physics) Napoleon's Buttons How 17 Molecules Changed History.

I have to add I was very disappointed to see the task was changed to allow fiction about the category. This was the most original challenge in a long time and I shared it with many people outside goodreads as the perfect way to expand your boundaries. It was challenging to find something and I spent significant time in the library walking back and forth between the stacks to find a pair I could live with. It's a "challenge" people. It isn't supposed to always be easy and fit neatly in your TBR stack.
In the original version, I thought this task was inspired! Thanks.

Total points: 165
Total pages: 3604

Finished 10.1 Under the Big Top

Wonder When You'll Miss Me A Novel by Amanda Davis - About a troubled teen who runs away and joins the circus. What is it about circus life that is so dark? Anyway, I was enjoying this book, tragedies and all, until it stopped. That was the problem, it didn't really have an ending, it just sort of stopped. bleah.

350 points total

Just finished task 15.6 Gift and Giving

Snow which is based on Snow White. One of my most treasured gifts is a door hanging cross-stitch my grandmother made me when I was little that has Snow White and the 7 dwarfs on it with all the woodland animals. She kept it in her home until I was out of college and then passed it to me. It is a wonderful heirloom that I hang proudly in my home. My daughter now loves looking at it and learning all the characters and I can tell her stories about her great-grandmother.
As for giving, I gave clothing to Goodwill.

Tasks Completed: 14
Points for this task: 15
Points thus far: 210/1100
Books read: 24
Pages read: 7069 (updated 12/31)

Finally finished another task

25.8 Long title - I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell and one word title Sleepless. The first book is a waste of time, but the second was quite good. I gave Sleepless 4 stars.

Total Points - 45 + 25 = 70
Total Books - 6
Total Pages - 2069

Finished A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for 5.1 yesterday. And i have now officially topped 150 books for 2009!

Total: 20 points

Nicely done, Bridgit! :D

1. BONNIE'S TASK - CELEBRATE THE END OF THE DECADE (2000-9)!
A. Read One Book That Was Published In The Past Decade.
AND
B. One Book That Was Made Into A Movie In The Past Decade.

For task A. I read The Hunger Games
For task B. I read Skipping Christmas The movie was named Christmas with the Kranks.

Both good books especially The Hunger Games.

Total Points 70


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15.3 Female Author + Series + Female MC - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Women I Admire by A Woman - When Everything Changed The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins

... many women I admire, including:
Bella Abzug, Sylvia Acevedo, Susan B. Anthony, Ella Baker, Erma Bombeck,
Shirley Chisholm, Septima Clark, Hillary Clinton, Nora Ephron, Betty Friedan,
Lillian Garland, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martha Griffiths, Edith Green,
Fannie Lou Hamer, Molly Ivins, Barbara Jordan, Lilly Ledbetter, Patricia Lorance,
Patsy Mink, Pauli Murray, Sandra Day O’Connor, Margaret Chase Smith, Diane Watson
and many others.

Tasks completed = 25
Tasks started = 2
Books read = 40
Pages read = 12,512
Points = 600

For 301, I read Princess on the Brink by Meg Cabot, which was published in 2000-2009 (REALLY didn't like this one -- bleech) and

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (made into a movie in 2000-2009). I gave this one 4 stars -- it was great. Though "I am Legend" is the first story, and I wish I'd read the others first. The stories are really classic horror stories, and I think I would have read "I am Legend" a bit differently (and enjoyed it even more) if I had read that one once the others had gotten me into the "mood" of his writing.

I have 425 points, I believe.

One more down--

30.2--BEGGARS IN SPAIN by Nancy Kress (1993-won Nebula 1992)
I hardly ever reread stories, but this is one I do every chance I get. I just love the idea of the "Sleepless", being able to read and learn without having to doze. This story tells of parents who genetically engineer their children to never sleep. It becomes an issue when the children are able to do more, and earn more, than "Sleepers" and a social scism occurs.
&

THE BIG EMPTY by J. B. Stephens (2004)
This was a YA novel about the world after a supervirus has killed most of the population. Marshall Law has taken over and everyone is being told they have to move to the coasts and leave the middle of the US which has been deemed unihabitable due to the flu. The story follows a few groups of people who are looking for the elusive "Novo Mundum" where people can live without fear of being killed by the military which shoots first and asks questions later.

There wasn't that much of a time difference between these two novels (1993 vs. 2004), but I liked the fact that they both had sociological aspects. I liked both for different reasons. I felt the Kress story was more thought out, but the YA novel also showed that children thrown into difficult situations are able to cope and ultimately survive. While I still think the "Beggars" was a better novel, I did enjoy "The Big Empty".

This brings me to 940 points!!

30.3 Snowed in (as snowed in as it can be for 70 degrees) and loving it.

I read two by Cornelia Funke: Inheart (535 pgs), which I loved, and The Thief Lord (341 pgs), which I was very disappointed by.


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25.5 - Odd Man Out: July's People. A fascinating book written in 1981 and set during a fictional civil war in South Africa.

Pages read: 3376
Books read: 12+
Tasks completed: 12
Total Points: 280
Liz (Bklyn)

Happy almost-new-year everyone! I finished 2 more tasks - I thought I would get more reading time in over my trip to Virginia but spending 12 hours on the traffic-bound highway did not help!!!

5.1 I read Briar Rose which is about the Sleeping Beauty story. I really like a lot of Disney movies but Sleeping Beauty is one of my OLD favorites. I enjoyed the book, too.

and

35.3 I read The Hour I First Believed A Novel which is also over 700 pages for the big books ticket. I always have mixed feelings about Wally Lamb and this book was no exception but you've got to be impressed at the sheer number of current events that were worked in here!

That should add 40 more points, I believe giving me 160.

Another one down...
10.8 Oh Canada!
The Tent by Margaret Atwood who is Canadian. Great fast read of short stories. It also includes some of her own illustrations.

Hope everyone has a great New Year!!

Tasks Completed: 15
Points for this task: 10
Points thus far: 220/1100
Books read: 25
Pages read: 7245 (updated 12/31)

Just finished 30-9, I picked 2005 and read: 'Criss Cross' by Lynne Rae Perkins and 'Hitler Youth' by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

I liked both of the books for very different reasons, Criss Cross is a great coming of age sort of novel-I liked the characters and their story. Hitler Youth was an interesting historical book. I can't really say that I liked one more than the other, they are too different to compare in that way.

375 points.

For 25.9, I read Stella the Star Fairy by Daisy Meadows. This is one of a series of kids' books about various fairies and the two human girls who help them. It has a map in the front showing the various locations in the human and fairy worlds.

For the second part I read The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. It has many different things interspersed in the story: graphic representations of math problems, posters done by the main characters for a contest they enter, etc. Cute book.

This brings my total to 450.

I finished 10.3, Renaissance Reading, with
The Power of Pride Stylemakers and Rulebreakers of the Harlem Renaissance

+10
total 520

I just finished task 30.3 Snowed in and Lovin' It. I read The Clinton Tapes (668 pages) and Inside the Kingdom by Carmen Bin Laden. (219) For a total of 887

total points: 200/1100
toal pages: 3833

I forgot to mention in the above task that I am claiming "I like big books and I cannot lie." The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President" is 668 pages

10.9 Hawaii - The Descendants A Novel

Kaui Hart Hemmings is a GoodReads author.

610 Points

I completed task
35.1. PJ READS TASK - FUN WITH THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM –

Highest rated: Julian Comstock A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Hardback, 416 pages)


I had PJReads approve both of the books that I read for the task.

(A) Read A Book Related to The Dewey Decimal Subject That Matches (+/-2) The Number Of Pages Of One Of The Books You Rated Highest From The 2009 Fall Challenge

417 Dialectology & historical linguistics

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold Story of English by John H. McWhorter (Hardback, 230 pages)

Why is English the way it is? McWhorter theorizes that Old English was changed significantly by the large numbers of Celts and Vikings who learned English as a second language, and in so doing created a language that stands alone among European languages as one free of gendered nouns. Fascinating book, recommended to anyone interested in languages or linguistics.


(B) For The Second Book, Imagining The Dewey Decimal Numbers As A Circle With 000 Following 999, Move Forward Or Backward 250 Numbers (+/-2) From The Subject Chosen For The First Book (OR Forward Or Backward From Your Original Page Count Number.)

664 Food technology

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (Hardcover, 288 pages)

The first two chapters were the best ones. Standage describes how humans have been engineering plants and animals for thousands of years, mainly by choosing what plants to plant and what animals to breed. A lot of existing plants and animals could not exist in the wild anymore, due to the centuries of selection by humans of attributes that benefit humans but make it harder for domesticated plants and animals to exist without humans. The other chapters were OK but not as interesting as the first two chapters.
Standage’s other books A History of the World in 6 Glasses and The Victorian Internet were better.

195+35=230




Tasks Completed: 12
Points for this task: 35
Points thus far: 230/1100
Books read: 15
Pages Read: 4407

I completed 30.7 by reading Hester A Novel which fits into the Island Dreams task as well as the If I Could Turn Back Time task. I received an ARC of this book through the Goodreads Giveaways. I gave this book 4 stars and thoroughly enjoyed it! Oh also Paula Reed is a Goodreads Author.

My total is now 200 points.

I completed task 30.9 The Newberry Awards
I read "The Midwife's Apprentice" which was the award book and "What Jamie Saw" which was the honor book. I preferred "The Midwife's Apprentice". It cracked me up with all its old wives tales about bringing babies into the world.

I didn't like "What Jamie Saw" as much. For a book with a serious subject there wasn't much climax or enough of the subject. It left me wanting more. I only give it 2 and a half stars.

Completed Tasks 11
Books Read 14
Total Points: 185

9. BRIDGIT'S TASK - THE WORLD OF BOOKS
To Honor The Authors That Go Beyond Just The Written Word In Order To Fully Realize The World They Have Created, Lets Read…

A. Any Book That Has A Map Included (Real Or Imaginary).

AND

B. Any Book That Has Extra Content, Such As: A Timeline, Family Tree, Glossary Of Terms, List Of Characters, Drawings Or Symbols Within The Text (NOT ILLUSTRATIONS), OR Unusual Text Layouts/Formatting (Ex. House Of Leaves).

For A. I read which included a map of the community the book takes place in. I gave the book 4 stars.

For B. I read which included a number of extra content items including lists of the climbers, detailed photos of the various points on the mountain and interesting drawings about mountain climbing. I gave this one 4 stars.

This gives me 295 points, I've completed 16 tasks, & read 22 books!

OH! And Michael Grant is a goodreads author :)

Just finished 35.3, read The One-Minute Cleaner Plain & Simple 500 Tips for Cleaning Smarter, not Harder. I'm so glad I finally read it, it's been sitting on my shelf for a while and it was really interesting to someone who's as clutterblind as I am.

Surprised myself by actually meeting my first goal in this challenge: to reach 200 points by the end of December. So I guess it's time to set another goal: 350 points by midway point. Hmm, that's only two weeks away!

5.9 Isn't It Romantic? Read a book with...romance... in the title
To Romance a Charming Rogue A Novel by Nicole Jordan 12.7.09

10.2 Louis Louis: In Honor of Louis Braille: a deaf boy has moved into town and teaches sign language to the children
The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery #21 by Jerry West 12.30.09

10.9 Remembering Pearl Harbor: the author of my book was born in Hawaii AND the story took place in Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor Child A Child's View of Pearl Harbor From Attack to Peace by Dorinda Makanaonalani 12.31.09
There were quite a few 'oh, my' moments, but the most poignant was about the Marine Corps bugler who was stationed on the USS West Virginia on December 7, 1941. On the 50th anniversary of the attack, he met a pilot who flew one of the torpedo bombers. They became friends, and with money supplied by the Japanese pilot, the bugler bought two roses (one for each of them), took them to the Arizona Memorial where he placed the roses by the wall of names and played taps - once a month for the rest of his life!

25.9 Bridgit's Task: The World of Books
A. A book that has a map included: The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters 12.19.09
B. A book with Family Trees & Glossary of Terms (Carpathian dictionary): Dark Curse by Christine Feehan 12.21.09

Total Pages = 5,025

Total Points = 205

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

Ending the old year with a good book is never a bad thing!

For 25.5, I read (and enjoyed!)
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NOTE: She is a GoodReads author.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Finished two tasks:

30.1 Bonnie's End of the Decade with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a book published in the last decade and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a book made into a movie in the last decade.

35.3 DLM Rose's Task It's About Time with My Most Excellent Year A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, which I absolutely loved. I got very attached to the characters and want to know what happens next... definitely need a sequel.

It's been awhile since I posted but I completed a last task for 2009.

I completed Task 25.3 (The Game of Clue) by listening to and reading two books from my personal library: Running with Scissors A Memoir, audio narrated by the author Augusten Burroughs, and Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff.

I enjoyed both books.
I had read Augusten's brother's memoirs, Look Me in the Eye My Life with Asperger's, a few years back and my heart goes out to both boys. They had a terrible, neglectful childhood. I can't imagine leaving a child with the Finch family. Although there may be some false/exagerrated memories mentioned, I believe the story to be basically true as both books told pretty much the same story while the boys were under the care of their parents. What came through in this story was Augusten's hope that he could rise from the situation that he found himself in. Although he didn't believe that he could or ever would move out of that world, another part of him believed that he might, just possibly, one day find the way. I gave this one a solid 3* but it may deserve better. I have to give it another think and may raise my rating.

Bad Monkeys was my first Matt Ruff book and I'll be reading others. This book was a total schizophrenic ride of a book. Jane Charlotte, the heroine, tells her story while being held in the mental ward of a prison after she kills someone. Her story is bizarre and unusual, to say the least. After a troubled youth, where she is kicked out of home and introduced to drugs, Jane finds herself in the employ of a nameless Organization where she works in a department called Bad Monkeys, which is responsible for killing irredeemable people (those who are truly Evil). It is, of course, a secret organization with fantastical tools to accomplish their missions, conspiracies, etc.
The beginning of the book is stronger than the end but the story is so unusual and the Reader never really knows what's true or what version of the story is true that the reading is quite compelling. There are twists and turns throughout the book that take the reader in various directions.
It was a very entertaining book.

One last one before the ball drops here on the west coast--

10.8--THE END OF EAST by Jen Sookfong Lee

I liked this story of three generations of a Chinese imigrant family whose grandfather moved to Canada in the late 1800's. It was an engrosing story with interesting characters. A good end to this year of reading.

This brings me to 950 points and a new ticker to meet the New Year!!

just completed safe house by meg cabbot for red white and blue 5.2 total point go 65

20.2 Civil rights.
read The Secret Life of Bees

Deedee wrote: "I completed task
35.1. PJ READS TASK - FUN WITH THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM –

Highest rated: Julian Comstock A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Hardback,..."


I'm excited to see this book. I have the same two Dewey Decimal numbers and was looking forward to finding a good linguistics book. I think I am going to read The Zen of Sushi for the food technology part.

30-10 is done, I read 'Crome Yellow' by Aldous Huxley and '92 Pacific Boulevard' by Debbie Macomber.

405 points.

For task 10.4 I read a book from Jan the Gryphon's list Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

Jan, I aswked you once if you had read the Divine secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood and you hadn't. If you liked this book I think you woiuld like that one.

For Task 10.1 my favorite Disney movie was Beauty and the Beast. When my stepkids were little I had all the songs and most of the dialog memorized they watched it so much. I read Mrs. Beast by Pamela Ditchoff It tells the stories of "Where are they now" of 4 princesses.

15.6 - I just completed!

The book was The Best Day of Someone Else's Life by Kerry Reichs AND the gift was life. My mother gave this gift to me with the help of my father 22, almost 23 years ago and it's a gift I truly treasure. It's my favorite because I do not believe that you could ask for a better gift than life.

AND I gave back by donating $50.00 to ASPCA - which I feel they do not appreciate because of the letter I got back from them, thanking me for my donation but asking for more! Anyways... that's 15 points added on to my 25 points which gives me....

40!

For Task 30.6 Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs It takes place on a private Greek island and the main character moves there and has to attend a high school where all the other students are descended from the greek gods.

I've always wanted to go to Greece (plan to go on a Med cruise next summer so I'll get my wish) and I always liked mythology. This was a fun, quick read.

I completed two tasks:

5.1: One of my favorite Disney movies is The Little Mermaid (mainly cuz I always wanted to be a redhead) so I read Midnight Pearls A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" by Debbie Vigue.

5.2: Betsey Ross - I read Crazy Ladies A Novel by Michelle Lee West. The cover was red, white and blue. The books was definitely full of crazy ladies. It follows a southern family through their ups and downs and lots of insanity.

Total: 10 points.

Finished 5.9 (Isn't It Romantic)

Endless Love by Scott Spencer (4 stars)

I'm usually not a fan of the romance genre. So, for this task, I looked for a Valentine title with a twist. I remember, as a kid, my usually liberal parents not allowing me to watch the movie version of this book. Therefore, I've always been interested in reading the book and watching the movie, which is, now, hard to find. As I expected, this is not a typical novel about love. It begins with the lead character, David, burning down the house of his "beloved" Jade with her and her family inside. It is a book about an exhausting obsession and the consequences of allowing relationships to become the key to defining one's self-worth and self-knowing. What interested me most was that, although, David is quite unlikable and weak, I couldn't help but to have a sense of connection to his character. He has moments of insight into his own motives, I feel many could understand. One of the most powerful passages in the book relates to how David defines the difference and the boundaries between our "private" and "public" selves.

+5
Total Points: 65
Tasks: 6
Books: 6

I completed 10.9. REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR

I read
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. I gave the book 4 stars, I knew nothing about the "lepers" in Hawai'i and found the book to be informative and moving.

10 points!

Total Points: 165
Total Books Read: 12
Total Pages Read: 3, 965
Tasks in Process: 3 (30.1, 30.3; 35.3)

I completed task 30.6. WENDY'S TASK - WINTER VACATION DREAMS by reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I studied in Madrid for a semester when in college. I traveled the country quite bit during that time and fell in love with it. I spent a long weekend in Barcelona and would love to go back and get to know it better.

Total points = 105

Finally, something to add! I finished Jan's Multi-tasking challenge with Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, which works for at least 4 tasks - 10.10 (From Russia With Love), 15.5 (my last name starts with L, and the first person listed for Latvia ranks this as a 5-star read), 25.1 (1001 Books to Read Before You Die), and 30.5 (Bulgakov died before this was published). I've been meaning to read this book for a while but just never fit it in, so it's fun to see how many ways I could have used it this time!

Current Total: 285 points

I completed two tasks.

10.6 LOCAL LITERATURE LOVERS - Thailand, the person I chose is kukee. And the book is Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus. Quite interesting book and kukee's bookshelve is also interesting. Thanks to kukee and the person who set this question.

35.3 DLM ROSE'S TASK - IT'S ABOUT TIME
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen


Points earned : 45
previous : 95
Total points : 140

4. WINNERS CHOICE
A. Read A 5-Star Book From One Of The Winners Of The Fall Challenge (If You Are A Winner You Can't Use Your Own List)
Speak by Laurie Halse Andeson-1/1
On Diane's shelf
Also a GR author

New Total 75