Thought I'd jump on the bandwagon with the Alphabet challenges; my TBR has got enough letters to give me a good starting point but I'm short a few letters.
I'm actually shocked I have no 'C' authors at the moment because I've read a ridiculous number over the last few months (or at least it seems that way)

Here's the list I've cobbled together thus far:

A- The Summoning , Kelley Armstrong
B - Rebel Angels, Libba Bray
C- Fire, Kristin Cashore
D- A Gathering Light, Jennifer Donnelly
E - Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
F- Diary of a Young girl , Anne Frank
G- The Princess Bride by William Goldman
H- Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris
I- Splendor, Anna Godbersen FREE READ
J- Pagan in Exile, Catherine Jinks
K- My Best Friend's Girl, Dorothy Koomson
L- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , Stieg Larsson
M- Sunshine, Robin Mckinley
N- Blue Moon, Alyson Noel
O- The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa
P- My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Piccoult
Q- The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn
R- The Prefect, Alastair Reynolds
S- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Mary Ann Shaffer
T- The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkein
U- Montmorency and the Assassins by Eleanor Updale
V- Stray by Rachel Vincent
W- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
X-
Y-
Z- The Prophecy of the Sisters, Michelle Zink

Can anyone make some suggestions to fill in my gaps? I know this list is hideously varied but skew ideas towards the fantasy and historical fiction end of things if that will help :)

Message edited by its author, Dec 3, 2009, 8:02am.

I don't know if you want to count her as C or O, but may I suggest something by Carol O'Connell. Both Judas Child and Bone by Bone are stand-alone novels.

Hmm Bone by Bone sounds rather intriguing I may add her in as the 'C' author as I've just been considering The Housekeeper and the Professor as my 'O' author after seeing it rec'd over in the Green Dragon.
I know i'm probably stretching it slightly having O' Connell as a 'C' author but what the heck - I'm making up my own rules :P

exactly! I hope you enjoy it.

Your challenge, your rules :)
Welcome on board.

Hi LadyViolet, another suggestion for a C author would be Suzanne Collins. Hunger Games is an exceptional YA fantasy.

Thanks for that DeltaQueen but unfortunately (or fortunately ?) I've already read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and loved them both and since i want to use this challenge to shrink my TBR pile re-reads shall not be allowed.

Ever read anything by C. J. Cherryh? She has written both SF and Fantasy... and she has quite a distinctive style - maybe you may try her for a C?

I am loving what you entitled your thread LadyVi. Very catchy!~!
Welcome aboard and I am happy to meet you.
belva

Oh I am so jealous that you have already read Catching Fire. My library doesn't even have it yet and there is a huge wait-list for it!

Good to see you over here LadyViolet! And I LOVE Alphabetti Spaghetti - who knew mealtimes could be such fun?!

I bottled out of Austen or Dumas so far - in favour of Amis and (Conan) Doyle - but I might read My Sister's Keeper under 'P' (just to see what all the fuss is about). 'Z' is either going to be The Book Thief or The Angel's Game so I might be comparing notes later on!

AnnieMod - Hmm I haven't.. may have to have an investigate into her books

Ellie - tis good to be here! Hehe i may have to buy a can for fun times' sake. Depending on how much reading stamina i can muster I will either read the Dumas or i will also opt for the Conan Doyle's as I have all of his Sherlock holmes books now after an awesome BHF find.

After raiding the book fair that was going on in town today I came away with three books totalling £6.50 which is pretty darn good and I also found a potential 'C' author in Elizabeth Chadwick's Shadows and Strongholds
and another option for 'D' with Jennifer Donnelly's A Gathering Light.

or i will also opt for the Conan Doyle's as I have all of his Sherlock holmes books now after an awesome BHF find.

Would Conan Doyle not qualify for your C read?

well my library on here puts them after the 'C' authors so old Arthur gets stuck as a 'D' :)
boy this is not the time to be online after slightly exceeding my limits in alcohol consumption tonight - my coherency currently fails majorly and spelling is taking a *lot* a effort to keep straight.

To me Conan is like a middle name - so I'm taking Doyle as the basis for the alphabet placement. If it's double-barrelled the first name counts, if they're separate names I use the last one. And I always put things like de Bernieres and du Maurier under 'D'...

Personally, I've always treated Conan as a surname. You never see his name as just Arthur Doyle but you always get Conan Doyle when the first name is missed off. But anyway, it's LadyVi's challenge and she can put him where she likes :)

Haha - 'Arthur Doyle' definitely doesn't sound as impressive as 'SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE' does it?! Sounds like a nice old bloke working his allotment between mugs of strong tea...

>17 Ellie that made me giggle - Imagine if Holmes himself was pottering about an allotment with his pipe and mug of tea :P

Right I've made a few changes to my challenge - switched Persuasion for Mansfield Park although since all my Austen books are in one massive omnibus I could switch again depending on my mood. Added in my Elizabeth Chadwick book and changed the Dumas book for A Gathering Light which i'm much more likely to get finished before I grow too old. Also changed my 'W' book for The Picture of Dorian Gray which is a darn sight shorter than the Brent Weeks book which has been sat half-read for months now.

And finally I've actually got a book read! Finished Blue Moon by Alyson Noel last night and my rather pathetic excuse for a review will be located in my 50 books challenge thread. I will post a link as soon as i resolve the other issues I have to deal with currently *grr stupid online banking*

Mansfield Park and Dorian Gray - good choice! And may I add *grr stupid Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs* to your 'financial issues' list?!

Now, I just need to STOP being distracted by the LT threads and actually read Rupert Everett for a bit...

Message edited by its author, Sep 25, 2009, 9:41am.

Of course you may ;) I may also add *grr stupid student finance england* cos they're buggering up most of this years intake's loans >:(

I may now jettison Neil Gaiman for William Goldman's The Princess Bride which i "accidentally" found in the BHF shop (I soo wasn't supposed to be in there :P) cripes that place is far too dangerous for weak-willed people like myself to go near!

Oh yeah, I have that affliction too! Like, I might be popping to the Co-op for a sandwich and "accidentally" go to Help the Aged, or need to go to the post office and "accidentally" detour (across town) to Mind. Dreadful, dreadful affliction. :-)

The Princess Bride is one of my possibilities for 'G' too... not decided yet!

I have a terrible affliction of continually going in the co-op to buy kinder eggs (i have half my desk covered with the damn toys) but thankfully i can't continue that habit now i don't work there anymore - costs too much. hehe

My only problem with The Princess Bride is that if you've seen the movie then you've read the book. The adaptation follows the novel almost exactly.

fortunately for me I haven't seen the film yet so it's all good! :D

#23 - Oh, but my favorite scene from the book (with the Princess and her wigs) wasn't in the movie. That alone is worth reading the book for.

Well after a week with very little reading I've finally got my second ABC read done which was the brilliant The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and I'm very happy to have gotten round to reading it. It could have been lounging on my TBR for many moons had i not chosen it for this challenge which would have been an awful shame. When I update my 50 book challenge (which is waaay past 50 now but the name still stands) i shall post the link to post of my thoughts of this book :)

Not sure what'll be next will decide later.

Isn't it a great accomplishment to read a book that, not only, has been languishing on the shelves for way too long only to find that it was also very enjoyable?!
I look forward to your next pick.

Last night I finished my 'G' read which i swapped from American Gods to The Princess bride because i had it with me when i wanted to read something.
Loved the book soo much although I have some questions which I would like answering by any folks who've also read it please.
This is gonna be spoiler-ish so if you've not read The Princess Bride then i suggest you close your eyes NOW!!

1. It is my assumption that Simon Morgenstern is a figment of Goldman's very active imagination and all his continual references to him and another Florinese matters are completely made-up and designed to dupe the gullible folks who take fiction too literally.
Am I correct in this assumption?

2. Who the hell is supposed to be dead at the end cos I got very confused when it said that Buttercup was "lost" after the hideously lengthy labour and Fezzik cut the baby out of her with Inigo's sword. Yet on the opposite page it was saying how Buttercup thought Fezzik was an excellent babysitter and left the child with him most of the time. Quoi?? explanations please?

3. This'll be my last- what is with the hefty introduction making plentiful references to the film and to the abridgment which isn't an abridgment at all :S or is it that my copy has lots of extraneous material??

Thank you for any answers given they'll be greatly appreciated as i do hate being confused.

Currently have a re-read of The Goose Girl for fun but that won't count towards any of my challenges. Also started reading the second Alanna book by Tamora Pierce in french as practise and for my own amusement.

#28 LV - it's been several years since I read Princess Bride, but I also thought it was great fun (so is the movie - have you seen it?). As for your questions: 1. It was also my assumption that Morgenstern was really just another character in the book. In the movie, the introductory scene has a grandfather reading the book "by S Morgenstern" to his grandson who is sick in bed. Later, when I first read the book, I wondered if it was an abridgement of the "original" Morgenstern book, but now I think that reference, and the aside references to Florin, were just devices by the author to fill out his story. 2. Oh my, it's been too long since I've read the book - I don't remember that part! 3. I wonder if the book wasn't actually written AFTER the movie, or if it began life as a screenplay and then published as a novel - I thought that was a little strange, too. Actually, the book and the movie are almost identical - which is another reason why I suspect that the movie came first.

#28 LadyViolet -

1) S. Morgenstern is an imaginary author (all from Goldman's fertile imagination)

2 & 3) I get the feeling that the book must have been re-written. The ending that is in yours and the introduction are not in my copy.

#29

The book (copyright 1973) originally pre-dates the film (1987) but Goldman wrote a lot of screenplays and adaptations for films so I am not surprised that they are nearly identical.

Message edited by its author, Oct 6, 2009, 11:13am.

>30 Calm apparently the additional material at the end of my copy was put in for the special edition that i have so i may have inadvertedly spoiled that part for you- oopsies sorry :(

Finished another of my ABC reads last night so i could bring back another book to swap with something else from my library at home.
Read: Pagan in Exile by Catherine Jinks which was very entertaining and i'm looking forward to eventually reading the third book and whenever i get hold of the fourth book and the follow-on book Babylonne i'll read those as well.
While i'm home for the weekend i may get something else read but i do have to fit in some uni work as well hmm... time management classes would be soo useful right now

I'm going to be uber sneaky and switch my 'A' read to the book I finished earlier because it's highly unlikely that i'm going to get round to reading any Austen books for a while since my omnibus is still at home and it'll be very difficult to get it here. Maybe later this month when my parents come to visit i can request they bring it... oh no i don't want them rooting about in my book cupboard they may find all the books i've bought and not told them about... :P
Anyways finished The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong this afternoon and I shall now try to direct a link to the specific post where i stuck my quasi-review... Here methinks

Oh heck i hope that works.
Also i may be sneaky again and swap my 'C' read now that I have Fire but i could always do both that and a Chadwick book and leave out an obscure letter like 'X'
so many decisions...

Hi LadyViolet - 'sneaking' is good and completely okay with me ;-) I am waiting for the 'dud' book that I have to abandon unfinished and commence a frantic search for a replacement... it is bound to happen for me at some point in the challenge, so flexibility is the key!

Happy reading!

Message edited by its author, Oct 13, 2009, 10:19pm.

>33 hehe it's not that I think i won't like certain books it's more that I won't be able to read them for a while being a fair distance away from the majority of my library so any replacements is more out of convenience for me than dislike.

Was really bad and read the entirety of Fire by Kristin Cashore last night when i should have been sleeping or better yet, working. But i don't actually care cos it was an awesome book and i'm now seriously disappointed that i have to wait for Kristin to finish her third book before i can devour another installment from this wonderful world. Once i update my 50 book challenge thread with my proper (but still rather pathetic) review i'll whack the link in here :)

Went slightly crazy last night and read the whole of Princess Academy by Shannon Hale but since i first read that several months ago it doesn't count for my challenges.
But i also finished off The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer. What a gorgeous book! It is quite possibly one of the most wonderful books i've read this year and I might be sorely tempted to re-read it before long. Again when i write up my thoughts in my 50 book thread i'll post a link- i'm currently too tired to write coherently and i'm going to take nap ;)

Right since i've now updated my main Challenge thread I've got the link for the reviews pertaining to Fire and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
LadyV's 50 book Challenge Thread

Thanks for the reviews on Fire and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I am planning on reading them both next year during my 1010 Challenge. Now I am really looking forward to them!

no problemo i've read some cracking books so far this month and they were pretty much the top two although my reviewing skills need a fair bit of honing ;) I blather far too much to make sense the majority of the time.

Right although this isn't to announce I've read another book for this challenge (i have recently read a book but since i've already done my "S" i can't really put it in.
Borrowed some books from the library today and two of them I will sneakily switcharoo with the ones already put up for that letter.
Swapping Rebecca for Sunshine cos i'm more likely to get the McKinley book read before the Du Maurier (terribly sorry Daphne)
Swapping The book Thief for The Prophecy of the sisters
also borrowed a book by P.G. Wodehouse but i forgot i already did my "w" read , darn.

You could always do a titles challenge as well as authors and then you could fit more in ^_^

Hmm possibly I'd had to have a look at the books i've read recently and see how many fit. just from thinking about i know that a couple have "P"'s as the title letter (ignoring any articles before them) and there may be a few "S"'s as well. Why do i always read books with the same author or title initials?

Wahey! got two more books knocked off for this challenge - finished Sunshine and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over the weekend but until I update my 50 book challenge I won't be able to put the link here to the reviews.

Gah I'm so terrible with updating this things! I'm going to update my 50 Book challenge thread after this so I'll be able to link to the "reviews".
Read all of The Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink erm this morning (started at 2am) so I'm currently shattered but it's nothing a good strong brew can't fix ;)
I'll be back soonish with the links to my reviews.

Righty-o here's the link to the reviews for the books mention in #42
Reviews!

M'lady Violet... I just bought Sunshine and am looking to buy Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in my next marathon book-shopping session, so I'm heading over to your reviews prontissimo.

Hopefully my ABCs might speed up a bit now I've finished Madame Bovary, especially since I'll be reading some easier stuff alongside the group read of People of the Book... you're racing ahead with yours!

ETA: Reviews read - good, you liked them both... :-)

Message edited by its author, Oct 31, 2009, 9:28am.

Well howdy there Ellie I do hope you enjoy reading Sunshine when you get round to it :)
I've probably got too much time on my hands that I should be using for more productive ends but I can't help my ways. Maybe if i get all my ABC books read before the end of the year I can concentrate more next year on my work (she says hopefully)

Methinks I'll start on my "E" read later on as I don't really want to creep myself out too badly on halloween although it's going to be weird enough doing a load of laundry at 9pm tonight when there may be crazy peeps running about the place :S

You mean no madcap Halloween parties for the uni girl?! To be fair, I'll be spending my evening watching Merlin, ironing and reading, so I can hardly talk...

Nah I'm not all that social anyway and I went out last night so tonight I'll be staying in maybe cradling a few vodka and cokes and read or watch dvds. My idea of heaven.. lol

Me neither on the social thing, and me too on the heaven thing - I'm going Merlin with sandwiches, ironing to get it out the way, then reading and watching DVDs, hopefully with popcorn and chocolate buttons. Only problem is, I had my very first filling on Wednesday and I don't know what's going off but every so often my tooth feels like someone's sticking a dagger in it. So maybe not the popcorn...

Message edited by its author, Oct 31, 2009, 10:51am.

hmm yes popcorn doesn't sound like the best idea so soon after a filling. Darn I don't think I have any chocolatey snack food in the flat! bugger i may have to go get some at some point ..

Right now, even opening my mouth/breathing doesn't sound like the best idea so soon after a filling... I might have to go down the 'little Halloween drink' route myself if this keeps up, numb the pain the alternative way!

Now, go, fly, get chocolate - it wouldn't be a good Halloween OR a good lazy night in without it!

hehe nothing like a bit of liquer-flavoured pain killer.
I'll dash off to the shops as soon as I've got my lazy self fit for public viewing, lord knows what people walking along the prom must have thought if they saw me running round the kitchen in me jammies earlier !

Oh Rach I might have a suggestion for your Y book The Shack by William P. Young
I havent read it but its suppose to be good and its only £3.98 on the zon or 3 for 2 in stones at the mo!

ooh i'll have an investigates of that, i may also have look-see about a Robyn Young book cos I think he/she ? has a historical fiction trilogy which looks interesting :)
No idea what i'm gonna do about "X" though cos there'll only be chinese authors who'll have a surname like that :S

You could always use it as a freebie to read whatever you fancy on the day...

Hmm that sounds like a plan - I may use it for The Company of Liars which has been half finished for 2+ months now so it'll give me incentive to finally finish it.

Oh I went a little mental last night and read 3 books, two of which were for this challenge.
Yesterday I went to the library and got three books for my obscure letters "I", "Q" and "O" and I've already read The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa and The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn. Just got Absent Light by Eve Isherwood to go which is this crime novel which caught my eye as it's set in the West Midlands which is unusual to say the least. I'm hoping I'll be able to get through it.

I think I only read a few pages of some non-Alphabetti book last night. I watched Merlin, but then the ironing took soooooo long that it took up most of Strictly, then I just had to leave it on to watch the brilliant professional dancers during the voting, then... well, let's just say Halloween seemed to twinkle by without me having done anything productive at all!

Oh i was all bluster when i said i was going to get some work done yesterday- didn't do a sodding thing which means i've gotta spend basically the rest of today working and hoping to hell i can prep well enough for a seminar i have tomorrow oh pants and i have french listening work so i need to use to the uni language lab - gah i may have to make a foray up to the campus :(

Right here's the Linky link for The Prophecy of the Sisters and The Ivy Chronicles with the review of Tempted thrown in for free ;)
I'll get the link for The Diving Pool eventually.

I've got another book done - my "E" read Wildthorn by Jane Eagland which was very enjoyable and I don't regret buying a copy instead of borrowing it first :)
Will do the review over on my other thread soonish (Hopefully tonight or maybe tomorrow)
I've only actually 4 more letters which I can do from here as the other 8 books i've pencilled in are at home in my cupboard so when i go back later this month I've got to lug a load of books to put away and bring back at least half of the books i need for the challenge to last me until I finish for christmas.

Gah I need to put in the link for the other reviews I've done!
More Reviews!

There you go folks! I may have a couple of others to add soonish when i've finished Stray

I've got my "V" read done now finished Stray on Monday and actually read another book by Rachel Vincent which won't get added here but will be on my main 50 book thread when I get round to updating it.
I'm tempted to abandon my alloted "I" book as I just don't feel in the mood for crime novels unless it happens to be the third Millennium book which I may break down and buy soon from the anticipation. So I think I'm going to use this letter as a free read along with "X" as there's little to no chance of me finding a book to fit that letter.

If your looking for something different for your "I" read your could try Larissa Ione she has a parnormal romance series out that is really very good, might be worth a try.

Ooh paranormal romance sounds right up my street-my only challenge will be whether I can find any of her books around here... off the to the 'Zon I go to investigate!

M'lady - I'm seriously considering jacking in my 'I' read too. One on the Brontes and their context, which is interesting but pretty dense and some of the sentences seem to have been written a bit backwards, so they don't read right. One on a woman moving to Marrakech, which is just rubbish so far... Hmmm, what could I read instead??? MWAHAHAHA!

Wow it's taken me forever but I've finally got another book read- my uni work has suddenly ramped up to excruciatingly painful levels so I haven't had time to read much over the last week or two. But I managed to get my "U" read done with Montmorency and the Assassins by Eleanor Updale - If i get round to updating my other thread before christmas I'll post the link for the review here :)

Good news: I thought I was getting tonsillitis but it's gone away, I've finished the group read of People of the Book so I can carry on with my ABC Challenge, and that 'I' read about a woman moving to Marrakech is way better than I thought to start with. Turns out I was just tired, never conducive to reading enjoyment...

Good luck with the uni work - just keep looking forward to all that festive reading time!

Since I've finally updated my 50 Book thread I can stick a link here for the reviews although for the "U", "V" & "H" reads the reviews are pretty much one liners which are very helpful but when i get really far behind I do only write dinky reviews.
Oh an I swapped my original "H" read for Charlaine Harris' Dead to the World
Linky-link to reviews!!!

I finished reading A Gathering Light- Jennifer Donnelly this morning which was excellent for all I bought wholly off a recommendation from Jess and knew nothing about it beforehand. When I update my other thread which I'm hoping to do later today I'll post a link to my review (which shouldn't be as pathetic as last time with the one-liners)
I'm contemplating whether to count my reading of Splendor as my "I"/Free read cos "G" is pretty close so why not? That way I'll only have 8 books left to read which I may probably not manage by the end of the year since I've still got Rebel Angels, Fellowship of the Ring and Absolution Gap which are three of the chunkiest and potentially hard-going books I have. I may get one done before year's end but i am convinced it will carry over which is fine as I do want to get those books read.

You're almost done! The Fellowship of the Ring isn't as bad as you might think - once you get going you might find yourself flying through it. I don't think I'm going to be done by the end of the year at this rate and since I really want to try an (abridged) 1010 Challenge, I might start reading my leftover letters in random order now rather than going letter by letter through the alphabet... That way I can read more or less whatever takes my fancy from my TBR pile and should have less left to slot into my 1010 come January!

I have actually read the FOTR before but I can't remember most of it so it almost counts like I've never read it. I am gonna try and get through it but I think all those songs and poems will get on my nerves by the end of it and I have the horrible feeling that I'm gonna sit there going "oh that bit was in the films, that wasn't!" et al. which will be very bad of me and I wouldn't blame anyone who really loves the books if they wanted to box my ears for having such a blasphemous mindset. :S

And I am going to pop Splendor in as my "I" read cos I really can't be bothered to look properly for an "I" book.

Aaaand finally I shall provide ze link for my other thread where ze reviews for my last two reads are lurking (I'm really hoping my HTML coding works)
Ze Reviews

I have finished another book for this challenge which was certainly unexpected. Instead of reading Absolution Gap for my "R" read I read The Prefect which is by the same author but it is a prequel to the series of which Absolution gap is the third book. For all it was a rather hard sci-fi book I managed to keep up quite well and actually enjoyed it a fair bit. Hopefully I'll get the courage up to read the rest of the Reynolds books i have at home although I think I may have to go back to the start and make a time-line of events so i remember what's happened. I will post the link to my review ... soon...