monkeyreader's 12-in-12

I'm doing this at work on break (since i work at the library) so my mind is fresh on my categories! I'm going for 5-6 books in each category since this is my first challenge - except for the two monthly categories - but I will fill out 12 in each in case I read faster than I think. I dont mean to sound like I'm stealing others categories either but I've never done this before and I needed ideas. So here we go!

***I AM NOW STARTING THIS CHALLENGE SEPTEMBER 1ST***




1. Mysteries - they ARE my favorite!
2. Graphic Novels - I still like picture books!
3. Gram's Recommendations - My Gram reads a lot, so we'll see what she thinks I'll like.
4. Pretty Colors - Novels with a color in the title.
5. Happy Birthday - Monthly I will choose an author with a birthday on the 12th of the month.
6. Dear Diary - I enjoy books written in letter/diary form.
7. Science Fiction - We have a pretty good selection here.
8. Happy Holidays - Again, monthly, I will choose a book centered around a holiday in that month. I know a few mysteries....
9. In the Beginning - These will be books that are the first in a series. That I will probably end up starting....
10. Romance Novels - Apparently they're really good...
11. Biographies - self-explanatory.
12. It Was A Book First! - These are books that are now "major motion pictures"!!

And I'll throw in an Overflow category in case something I want to read doesn't really fall into a category.

Welcome monkeyreader. Don't worry about borrowing ideas for categories, we all do it. You've chosen some great categories and I'm looking forward to seeing how you fill them.

1. Mysteries

1. 1st to Die - James Patterson
2. The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
3.
4.
5.
6.

2. Graphic Novels

1. Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - Bryan Lee O'Malley
2. Honey and Clover, Volume 1 - Chica Umino
3. Honey and Clover, Volume 2 - Chica Umino
4. Honey and Clover, Volume 3 - Chica Umino
5. Honey and Clover, Volume 4 - Chica Umino
6. Honey and Clover, Volume 5 - Chica Umino
7. Honey and Clover, Volume 6 - Chica Umino
8. Honey and Clover, Volume 7 - Chica Umino

3. Gram's Recommendations

1. The Lady's Slipper - Deborah Swift
2. A Daughter's Walk - Jane Kirkpatrick
3. The Bride's House - Sandra Dallas
4. A Turn In The Road - Debbie Macomber
5. 44 Charles Street - Danielle Steel
6. A Widow For One Year - John Irving
7. Three Wishes - Barbara Delinsky

Thanks for the welcome Delta and I'm very excited about it! I'm filling them with possibilities right now.

4. Pretty Colors

1. Red
2. Orange
3. Yellow
4. Green
5. Blue
6. Purple
7. Pink
8. Black
9. White
10. Grey
11. Silver
12. Gold

5. Happy Birthday

Luckily, I found authors whose birthdays all fell on the 12th of the month!

1. January - Jack London (1/12/1876)
2. February - Judy Blume (2/12/1938)
3. March - Sandra Brown (3/12/1948)
4. April - Tom Clancy (4/12/1947)
5. May - Carolyn Haines (5/12/1953)
6. June - Tess Gerritsen (6/12/1953)
7. July - Donald E. Westlake (7/12/1933)
8. August - William Goldman (8/12/1931)
9. September - Something's Cooking - Joanne Pence (9/12/????)
10. October - Paula Gosling (10/12/1939)
11. November - Charlotte MacLeod (11/12/1922)
12. December - Don Pendleton (12/12/1927)

6. Dear Diary

1. Heart On My Sleeve - Ellen Wittlinger
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7. Science Fiction

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

8. Happy Holidays

1. January - New Years Day New Year's Eve Murder - Leslie Meier
2. February - Valentines Day
3. March - St. Patricks Day
4. April - April Fool's Day
5. May - Mother's Day
6. June - Father's Day
7. July - Independence Day
8. August - I'll take bucketyell's idea and read a cultural book.
9. September - Labor Day Labor Day - Joyce Maynard
10. October - Halloween
11. November - Thanksgiving Day
12. December - Christmas

9. In The Beginning

1. 16 Lighthouse Road - Debbie Macomber
2. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
3.
4.
5.
6.

10. Romance Novels

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

11. Biographies

1. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
2. Seriously...I'm Kidding - Ellen DeGeneres
3. Orange Is The New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison - Piper Kerman
4.
5.
6.

12. It Was A Book First!

1. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
3.
4.
5.
6.

OVERFLOW

1. I Am America (And So Can You!) - Stephen Colbert
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Love your categories, mysteries are my favorite also! I'm also impressed that you found 12 authors with birthdays on the 12th!

There aren't any holidays in August but it is National Harvest Month so maybe you could go with that.
I agree with jonesli about the birthdays, amazing!

In Canada, we have a Civic holiday in August. Sadly, having no idea why some of us have it off (but happy to take it off!), I looked it up and it's supposedly a generic holiday with events celebrating local culture, history and achievement (it's really just a drunkfest where I live so can't confirm any of these events). So maybe you pick a book that is a historical biography? Or something celebrating a culture different from your own?

Thanks all for the support!

This is the website for the birthdays if you want to use it: http://authdir.net/

good categories - may I suggest my name is red for your colour category? also the Mars books (red mars, green mars, blue mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson - although they would also fit your SF category...

anyhow good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions psutto! I'll look into those.

I've not read it yet, but I have Silver: My Own Tale As Written By Me With a Goodly Amount of Murder by Edward Chupack that's a leftover from a color challenge I did 2 years ago. It's about Long John Silver and some of the other pirates from Treasure Island, and John is telling his life story on a ship on his way back to England to be hanged. I haven't read any pirate fiction that I can remember, but the title got me to buy it, so ... maybe you'll like it? Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Looking forward to your reading adventures next year!

Thank you LauraBrook I appreciate any suggestions! Thanks for following!

Science Fiction, Graphic Novels and Movie categories always pique my interest. Good luck with your challenge.

Great categories! Love the graphics - my favorite being the one for your Pretty Colors category - I just keep going back to it! I also love the books you have tracked down for your Happy Holidays category.

Love the birthday category idea! Good luck next year, look forward to lurking in this thread :-)

Lurk on, readers! Thanks for all the support. Just got back from Books & Co. the the Greene and let me tell you, I lurked for an hour! Picked up a few paperback romances and, of course, joined the Books-a-Million club. DISCOUNTS!!!!

Great setup! How many of your birthday writers will be new aquaintances for you?

29> I am familiar with the first four, however have only read the first two!

Im am excited to say that I have decided to start my readings tomorrow, September 1st. As I just finished Following Polly and have nothing else to read, I shall start my birthday category with Joanne Pence and my holiday category with Labor Day! Keep checking back with me :)

Welcome to the challenge! For diary/letters how about Daddy Long Legs and Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. As for sf, there's going to be a group read of The Windup Girl too if you are interested in that book. I've heard it's a bit ghastly.

Love your pictures for the categories! I'll chime in with a recommendation for the letters-category: 84, Charing Cross Road if you haven't already read it.

31> Thanks for the welcome and recommendations :)
32> Everyone loves the pictures it seems! I'll have to continue that ritual in future years :) And thanks for the recommendation!

I'll second the rec for Daddy Long Legs and the sequel, Dear Enemy. If you like reading the classics, I really enjoyed the long-ish novel Evelina: Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney.

FANNY BURNEY!!!! I have a LIST of books I want to read by Fanny Burney!! That made me excited :)

Just the fact that I work at our local library has got me freaking ready to start reading! There always seems to be so many books to read and so little time to read them all.

Yay for Fanny Burney! And oh, you work at a library! Dream job for a book nerd like me. :)

There always seems to be so many books to read and so little time to read them all.

True dat.

I do work at the library and it had always been my dream job and I finally got it. Been there a year now :)

Congratulations!

I FINISHED MY FIRST BOOK!!!! Is it always this exciting???

@ 39 -- Haha, just wait until you finish your first category!

@39 Yeah! Do tell us more about the 1st to Die!

Ok in one word, INTENSE!! Seriously I thought I had the killer pegged about four times but ya know it's James Patterson so of course it wasn't that guy. Or the other guy or that one chick. No it was the person in the background that showed up like 3/4 of the way into the book and talked maybe twice. It was that person. Me being me, I did cry at the end because I'm a sucker for love and there was a little element of love in this particular work. But the little of it there was, it was INTENSE as well!!! I hope to continue this series throughout the year. The reason I pegged this under "Mysteries" and not "In The Beginning" was because of the undeniable fact that I have so many series lined up for that category I have to start putting them in their respective genres. I can't just pick twelve, believe it or not.

All in all an amazing book and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys INTENSE murder mysteries. And suspense. Lots of suspense.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the Women's Murder Club series. I am also a big fan of the author's Alex Cross series as well.

Congratulations on getting that first book under your belt. It's great to see such fresh enthusiasm!

Congrats - and just wait til you get to book 3! I just finished #4 yesterday and have #5 waiting and staring at me from the shelf.

You know, I used to be a big fan of Patterson. I kept on top of all the Alex Cross stuff as well as the Women's Murder Club but over the last few years, I find that he is just getting way too weird. It's like he is constanting trying to find creepier, bloodier ways to kill people. But, he has a HUGE fan club so perhaps I am just growing more finicky in my old age :)

Congrats on your first one! Wait until you really start filling in the categories - it's kind of neat to watch ones thread grow over time!

Ah! That makes me curious to read Patterson. He's got a YA series too that is hugely popular and I have one of those books. They've got winged kids in them, or something like that.

I've only read one Patterson and it was horrible, so I'm guessing if you're trying him for the first time you should try one of his earlier books (the one I read, The Postcard Killers, was cowritten with a Swedish author).

Everyone has their own opinion of every author. I, myself, do the horrible thing of judging books by their covers. Which I actually get from my Gram who does the same thing! If I like the title or the cover, I read the back or the flap. Then I'll read the book. Embarrassing, but true.

@49 You're not the only one. At some convention, I heard about a bookseller who was fantastic at predicting sales. This bookseller did it by the cover art. Sad, but true. Who hasn't picked up a book and realized they'd be embarrassed to carry it around because the cover art was so bad!

Well Book #2 down the drain. I just finished Labor Day. My Gram read it first while i read 1st to Die and we both enjoyed it greatly. It was one of those books where I don't know what exactly drew me into it, but I had to keep reading. It was a sad story about love and sex mostly, but very interesting and don't let the sex part discourage you from reading this book. They talk about it as a drug, an addiction that is hard to break, but when love is included, it's a whole different story. Growing up a thirteen year old boy with divorced parents and a convict living in your home with your mother, it actually makes for a good story. Read it.

Labor Day looks like typical YA subject matter, but it is written for an adult reader? Am I right? It looks like most people who have read it, liked it.
P.S. Move your dog!

52 - yes it is written for and categorized in Adult Fiction.
Haha. Got it :) Moved my puppy!

>31 cammykitty: I picked up The Windup Girl when I randomly saw it doing a shelf check at the library. I read the flap and it does sound interesting. With my stack of 12 other books i have checked out (with no problem of late fees, being an employee :) I'll get to it eventually!

Finally finished Something's Cooking. I have so much going on this month. I'm glad I started this challenge early though, if this is any indication of how next year will be!

I know what you mean, I've been beyond busy these last 2 months that I haven't even had a chance to read 1 book, I'm feelling so out of sorts about it, as I usually can read about 8 to 10 books a month. Here's hoping that both our next years will be more relaxed with lots of good reads

NO internet makes Abby sad :( I have to now get on at work. This is so frustrating. But thanks to psutto, I am reading and very much enjoying Red Mars! It takes a while to get through the beginning but once they start to travel it gets pretty interesting and Im curious as to why the next two are green and blue mars!

hope you enjoy them!

Just got my nook today :) the SimpleTouch reader! So excited. Thought I'd let you all know also I'm on kind of a reading slump. I've been on a cross-stitch run and haven't felt like reading. But now I'm sure I'll pick it back up!

Let us know what you think of your nook!!! & nothing wrong with being in a cross-stitch binge.

my nook is my new baby. now i have my iPod and my nook. 2 kids. here we go ;) haha but anyway i got The Help and am reading that currently. on my nook :D i love it so much i really do! it's the easiest thing to learn to mess with in the world. an iPad is way more complicated. the nook Color is more complicated! my iPod itself is probably harder to figure out than my nook. i love it.

I may just have to get one for myself after Xmas .... must .... resist .... temptation

HAHA! That's what I kept telling myself but my grama kept showing them to me and I just told her look, I'm saving both you and mom money. now you can just get me accessories for it!

I'm a Nook owner, too - glad you are enjoying yours! I absolutely love it :)

I have been informed that I too will be a "Nooker" after Xmas...! :) Can't wait!

Ex_ i'm curious which Nook you have! I was tempted with the Nook Color but I found it was just like an iPad after playing around with it and was not ready to pay the extra money for a bunch of apps i wouldnt use.

I have finished The Help and all I can say is that it's the most frustrating book I've read.

@ 67 -- In what way frustrating? I've never read The Help, but everybody I've talked to seems to love it...so I'm very curious to hear a different perspective!

It's just one of those books where the evil character is so frustrating in the way they do things. I don't want to give away anything but she is rude and selfish and cares nothing about the help. And the sad thing is, that's the way things really were back then. And it frustrates me that things couldn't be the way they are now any sooner back then. No one even tried to accept the fact that they are people just like us, just because they look different or act different or talk or live differently does not mean that they aren't human or have feelings or a heart.

I did love it. It's very inspiring and in depth. The way she describes how they lived was very precise and made you feel like you were living right along with the help and the ladies who hired them.

I would recommend it to anyone. I think everyone should read this and it should be required in high school.

I agree about the evil character. I had a love-hate relationship with The Help when I read it and came away thinking that any book that can generate strong feelings /opinions in me about the characters and the situation is a good book.

>70 lkernagh: I agree completely. My grama is in the process of reading it and she feels the same way.

Happy to meet another library employee. I am the only person working in a 2000-student high school library except when the Librarian/Teacher has a week with us. I have yet to read The Help but I will, maybe next year. I hope you like The Windup Girl. It blew my socks off!

>72 mamzel: Yes! I love the library. And I'm out of the public eye now, too. I got moved up to our Resource department so I handle the in-and-out daily flow of books in the county/state/country. It gets pretty insane but it keeps me busy!

That must be hard watching all those pretty books go through without stopping to read them!

Oh we do though! Especially the cookbooks, craft books and anything to do with animals.

Ten books down :)