Belladonna's 2013 Category Challenge

I am excited to do this again this year. I did it in 2010 and kind of fizzled out part of the way through. Then I attempted it again and 2011 and got nowhere.

I will be doing this in conjunction with the Books off the Shelf Challenge (ROOT 2013).

I have based my challenge on my favorite TV show/obsession. Doctor Who!

Since I generally read around 100 books a year, I am going to shoot for 8 books per category this year. I will be doing star ratings based on my least to most favorite companions as follows:

1 star: Oy!! Donna Noble is like fingernails on a chalkboard (Horrible)
2 stars: Would you like some cheese with that whine, Rose Tyler? (Decent)
3 stars: Just like Jack Harkness, this book could have gone either way. ;) (Good)
4 stars: Rory Williams' only flaw is his bad taste in women (Great)
5 stars: River Song is my hero! (Excellent)

Here are my categories: (subject to change because, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, time is more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey...stuff.)

Category #1: Bad Wolf (Fairytales/Retellings)
Category #2: The Doctor's Wife (Urban Fantasy)
Category #3: The Girl in the Fireplace (Historical Fiction)
Category #4: The Girl Who Waited (Books I have been eagerly anticipating)
Category #5: The Curse of the Black Spot (Sea Creatures, Mermaids, Selkies, Pirates)
Category #6: The Impossible Astronaut (Scifi)
Category #7: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (Fantasy)
Category #8: Human Nature (Jane Austen)
Category #9: The Lodger (Contemporary)
Category #10: Silence in the Library (Books about books)
Category #11: The End of the World (Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian)
Category #12: Tooth and Claw (Horror)
Category #13: The Doctor's Daughter (Young Adult)

Category #1: Bad Wolf (Fairytales/Retellings)

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Possibilities:

Sisters Red - Jackson Pierce
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
The Perilous Gard - Elizabeth Marie Pope
An Earthly Knight - Janet McNaughton
The Girl with Glass Feet - Ali Shaw
In The Forest Of Forgetting - Theodora Goss
Once Upon a Time (She Said) - Jane Yolen
My Name is Rapunzel - K.C. Hilton
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins - Emma Donoghue
Fitcher's Brides - Gregory Frost
The Princess Curse - Merrie Haskell

Category #2: The Doctor's Wife (Urban Fantasy)

1. Blood Domination - Connie Suttle ★★★★★
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Possibilities:

Moonshine - Alaya Johnson
Except the Queen - Jane Yolen
Spellbinder - Melanie Rawn
Gil's All Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez
Naked Brunch - Sparkle Hayter
Death's Daughter - Amber Benson
The Law of Nines - Terry Goodkind
Blood and Iron - Elizabeth Bear
Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews
Nightwatch - Sergei Lukyanenko
A Local Habitation - Seanan McGuire
Prospero Lost - L. Jagi Lamplighter
Unclean Spirits - M.L.N. Hanover

Category #3: The Girl in the Fireplace (Historical Fiction)

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Possibilities:

The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
The House at Riverton - Kate Morton
The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton
The Distant Hours - Kate Morton
A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
The Silver Blade - Sally Gardner
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette - Carolly Erickson
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
The Gods are Thirsty - Tanith Lee
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
The Aviary Gate - Katie Hickman
The Fiend in Human - John MacLachlan Gray
The Book of Unholy Mischief - Elle Newmark
In the Company of the Courtesan - Sarah Dunant
The Meaning of Night - Michael Cox
The Observations - Jane Harris
Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart
Wideacre - Philippa Gregory
The Mesmerist - Barbara Ewing
Secrets of a Lady - Tracy Grant
The Robber Bridegroom - Eudora Welty
Passion - Jude Morgan
Indiscretion - Jude Morgan
The Year-God's Daughter - Rebecca Lochlann
The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Pötzsch

Category #4: The Girl Who Waited (Books I have been eagerly anticipating)

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Possibilities:

The Reckoning - Alma Katsu
Days of Blood & Starlight - Laini Taylor
Without a Summer - Mary Robinette Kowal
Scarlet - Marissa Meyer
Lost Lake - Sarah Addison Allen
Star Cursed - Jessica Spotswood
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells - Ellen Datlow
Dracomachia - Rachel Hartman
The Sweetest Dark - Shana Abe
Belle Epoque- Elizabeth Ross
Dark Triumph - R.L. LaFevers
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - Holly Black
Water Witch - Carol Goodman

Category #5: The Curse of the Black Spot (Sea Creatures, Mermaids, Selkies, Pirates)

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Possibilities:

Mermaid- Carolyn Turgeon
Lies Beneath - Anne Greenwood Brown
Sea Change - Aimee Friedman
Monstrous Beauty - Elizabeth Fama
The Sea-Hawk - Rafael Sabatini
Piratica - Tanith Lee
The Sweet Trade - Elizabeth Garrett
The Assassin's Curse - Cassandra Rose Clarke
Fathom - Cherie Priest
Siren - Cheryl Sawyer
Diving Belles - Lucy Wood

Category #6: The Impossible Astronaut (Scifi)

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Possibilities:

Across the Universe -Beth Revis
Echo City - Tim Lebbon
Hull Zero Three - Greg Bear
Eggheads - Emily Devenport
Fledgling - Octavia E. Butler
Vanishing Acts - Ellen Datlow
Nightfall - Isaac Asimov
Sassinak - Anne McCaffrey
Partners in Necessity - Sharon Lee
The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi
Grimspace - Ann Aguirre
The Difference Engine - William Gibson

Category #7: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (Fantasy)

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Possibilities:

The Summoner - Gail Martin
Scarlet and the White Wolf - Kirby Crow
Fantastic Alice - Margaret Weiss
To Ride Hell's Chasm - Janny Wurts
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
The Death of the Necromancer - Martha Wells
Riddle Master - Patricia A. McKillip
Wildwood Dancing - Juliet Marillier
The Elder Scrolls - Greg Keyes
The Adamantine Palace - Stephen Deas
The Court of the Air - Stephen Hunt
Of Blood and Honey - Stina Leicht
The Magician King - Lev Grossman
Falling Kingdoms - Morgan Rhodes
Advent - James Treadwell
The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson
Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner
The War Of The Flowers - Tad Williams
The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon

Category #8: Human Nature (Jane Austen)

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Possibilities:

Mr. Darcy's Diary - Amanda Grange
Dancing with Mr. Darcy - Sarah Waters
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen - Syrie James
Old Friends and New Fancies - Sybil G. Brinton
Bespelling Jane Austen - Mary Balogh
Jane Austen Ruined my Life - Beth Pattillo
Death Comes to Pemberley - P.D. James
Mr Darcy Takes a Wife - Linda Berdoll
Mr. Darcy's Daughters - Elizabeth Aston
The Man Who Loved Jane Austen - Sally Smith O'Rourke
None But You - Susan Kaye
Jane and the Damned - Janet Mullany
Definitely Not Mr. Darcy - Karen Doornebos

Category #9: The Lodger (Contemporary)

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Possibilities:

Veronica - Nicholas Christopher
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Tiffany Baker
The Story Sisters - Alice Hoffman
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender
How to Be Good - Nick Hornby
An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
If I Stay - Gayle Forman
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell
What My Best Friend Did: A Novel - Lucy Dawson
Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight - Jennifer E. Smith
Forbidden - Tabitha Suzuma
Bookends - Jane Green

Category #10: Silence in the Library (Books about Books)

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Possibilities:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
The Book of Air and Shadows - Michael Gruber
The Geographer's Library - Jon Fasman
Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman
The Library at Night - Alberto Manguel
Sixpence House - Paul Collins
The City of Dreaming Books - Walter Moers
The Secret of Lost Things - Sheridan Hay
Howard's End is on the Landing - Susan Hill
The House of Paper - Carlos Maria Dominguez
Possession - A.S. Byatt
Between Two Ends - David Ward
Storybound - Marissa Burt
In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians - Michael Cart
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store - Robin Sloan
Shelf Life: Fantastic Celebrating Bookstores - Greg Ketter
The Heroines - Eileen Favorite
The Door to Lost Pages - Claude Lalumiere

Category #11: The End of the World (Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian)

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Possibilities:

The Reapers are the Angels - Alden Bell
Autumn - David Moody
Veracity - Laura Bynum
The Kindling - Jennifer Armstrong
The Things that Keep us Here - Carla Buckley
The Physiognomy - Jeffrey Ford
The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
The Passage - Justin Cronin
Into the Forest - Jean Hegland
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Skinned - Robin Wasserman
Strain 2: The Fall - Guillermo Del Toro
Blindness - Jose Saramago
The Scorch Trials - James Dashner
The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde
Fever - Lauren DeStefano
The Demi-Monde : Winter - Rod Rees
The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri S. Tepper
Under the Dome - Stephen King
Pure - Julianna Baggott
The Unidentified - Rae Mariz
The Way We Fall - Megan Crewe
The Returners - Gemma Malley

Category #12: Tooth and Claw (Horror)

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Possibilities:

The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer - Lucy Weston
Horns - Joe Hill
Lady Lazarus - Michele Lang
The Red Tree - Caitlin R. Kiernan
The Thief of Always - Clive Barker
No Doors, No Windows - Joe Schreiber
The Tale of Halcyon Crane - Wendy Webb
The Good House - Tananarive Due
Frostbite - David Wellington
Little Vampire Women - Louisa May Alcott
Mister B. Gone - Clive Barker
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
The Last Werewolf - Glen Duncan
The Night Strangers - Christopher A. Bohjalian
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
Nocturnes - John Connolly
The Overnight - Ramsey Campbell

Category #13: The Doctor's Daughter (Young Adult)

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Possibilities:

Girl in the Arena - Lise Haines
Pegasus - Robin McKinley
Indigara - Tanith Lee
The Swan Maiden - Heather Tomlinson
Murkmere - Patricia Elliot
Darkborn - Alison Sinclair
Tanglewreck - Jeanette Winterson
The Diviners - Libba Bray
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Team Human - Sarah Rees Brennan
The Book of Blood and Shadow - Robin Wasserman
Legacy - Cayla Kluver
Falling to Ash - Karen Mahoney
Wentworth Hall - Abby Grahame
Crewel - Gennifer Albin
The Aviary - Kathleen O'Dell
Amber House - Kelly Moore

List of all books read in 2013 with star ratings*:

January:

Blood Domination - Connie Suttle ★★★★★

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

*Star ratings explained Doctor Who style:

1 star: Oy!! Donna Noble is like fingernails on a chalkboard (Horrible)
2 stars: Would you like some cheese with that whine, Rose Tyler? (Decent)
3 stars: Just like Jack Harkness, this book could have gone either way. ;) (Good)
4 stars: Rory Williams' only flaw is his bad taste in women (Great)
5 stars: River Song is my hero! (Excellent)

"Hello, Sweetie!"

Oh, this place is a dangerous place to be. Not only do you get hit by book bullets on a regular basis but TV bullets too? First Warehouse 13 and now Doctor Who. One of my friends has been nagging about DW for ages and I've never cared much but I think I'm going to be worn down soon... :)

Looking forward to seeing what books you come up with, especially the fairytale retellings as I'm quite fond of those (when done right).

Hi I Love your categories and I am curious what you will be reading next year. Some of our categories are the same :)

Words cannot express how much I approve of your theme :D :D :D Love the rating system too, especially the three-star one ;) Looking forward to seeing what you fill those categories with!

Yay, a Jane Austen category! Also, The Perilous Gard is wonderful -- lots of great possibilities here!

Love the categories and I am really looking forward to your Fairytale retellings, historical fiction and contemporary categories. I can see I will have a lot of fun following your reading in 2013 - and I will come away with more than a few book bullets as well!

looking forward to lurking here next year ;-)

Even though I'm not familiar with Dr Who, I think your rating system is great. Will be lurking also. I see you have 3 Kate Morton books on your possibilities - I just finished The House at Riverton and can recommend it. I have The Forgotten Garden, another one of hers, on my list for 14.

I've read several of the "Jane Austen" books that you have on your list. Hope you enjoy them.

Great categories! Looking forward to seeing your reads.

Hmm I haven't heard of many of those books! Look forward to seeing what you think of them!

I'm one looking forward to a new season of Dr. Who and I love your categories!

Welcome back to the challenge. I can see I'll be dropping by often as your categories are very intriguing and I'll be wanting to see how you fill them.

Welcome back! And, what a great theme!!!! I was thinking of maybe doing Dr. Who next year so I'll see how you do. (Except Donna would be a five-star for me!)

Love the pictures too, obviously. In hindsight, it's a little weird that the actress who played the doctor's daughter is now David Tennant's baby-mama! :)

Thanks for the warm welcome and all of the Doctor Who love as well. For those of you who have not yet been sucked the series, try it. It is made of awesome.

@christina_reads - I am excited about reading The Perilous Gard. I have had it for many years and just rediscovered it whilst organizing my shelves.

@dudes22 - The Forgotten Garden was one of my top 5 favorite books the year I read it. That is why I have all of her other books on my TBR pile.

@cyderry - I have so many "Austen" books on my shelves that I have to start working through them this year or I will end up with an entire bookcase of them. Are there any that you would suggest that are better than others?

@Eva - Donna would be 5 star for you? Really? I found her super annoying the great majority of the time. Also, a lot of people don't know that the actress who played the Doctor's daughter is also the real daughter of Doctor #5 (Peter Davison). So she played the Doctor's daughter, is the daughter of a former Doctor and now had a daughter by Doctor #10 (David Tennant). I love trivia! :)

It helps that I am a Catherine Tate fan to begin with, but I did love that she didn't constantly need to be rescued like the others. And she's funny, and you can't beat funny in my book. Martha was good too for not having to be rescued, but then she developed the stupid crush on the doctor and then she got dumb too. Rory is also a favorite, of course! :)

I also forgot to mention that my goal is for at least half of the books in this challenge to come from my books I already own. Books acquired after 12/31/12 do not count.

Better go shopping now, then.

There are a lot of interesting titles in your possibilities lists.

33> I got 12 books in the mail today from a friend I met through LT. She has an free ARC cart at her library and she gathers stuff I might be interested in. She did good this time. I can't wait to get started!

Every time I drop by, I'm reminded of the last RVing trip we took. We stopped at a rest area (in Georgia I think) and as I was going into the ladies rest room, I was behind a woman who was wearing a halter top. On her back was a large tattoo. I could see perhaps the top third of it. It was the T.A.R.D.I.S.

I tried to catch her up but I was too desperate to hit that bathroom and she was headed the other way.

OOO I would have liked to have seen that. I don't know that I would ever get a TARDIS tattoo but I could totally see getting the Seal of Rassilion!

I counted all of my unread books for my ROOT (Read Our Own Tomes) Challenge that I am also going to be participating in. There were 700+ (Which I have decided to stop counting and just call 750). So, that being said, the majority of my books in this challenge will most likely be books already on my shelves. I am going to shun the local library for as much of 2013 as I can manage (sad) and I am going to stick firmly to my 100 pages make or break rule. If I read a book and I don't like it by the 100th page, I am not going to finish it. Life is too short to read junky books.

Great lists of possible books to read. Many are ones I've had my eyes on so I can't wait to find out what you think of them. I'm also doing a Books Off My Bookshelves (BOMBs) challenge (I decided to keep the old acronym, I like it), though I'm only (only, haha) at about 425 TBR. Good luck with your challenge.

#37 - I periodically use the seal of rassilion as an identifier icon. few people know what it is ;)

I completely agree with assigning Donna Noble to the 1-star position. I've never made it through the whole of her season.

Great categories. In your list of possible reads you have listed several books that a) I have read b) plan to read in 2013 c) or hope to read in the future but are unable to slot into my 2013 Challenge.

I am a devoted Dr Who fan. I am lucky (or some might say elderly enough) to have seen all episodes of Dr Who including the lost episodes of the first and second Doctor. My earliest crush was for the Second Doctor's companion , Jamie McCrimmon, and that crush is probably why I have a fetish for men wearing kilts.

Great theme and well put together challenge. Many of your possibilities look intriguing so I'll look forward to seeing what you think especially when you include a Glen Duncan book in there.

I just went on a Dr. Who marathon (yay streaming and boy are some of those Holiday specials sad). Your rating system is great although I would have flipped Rory and River.

->44 Tanglewood:
They are so very good at tugging at the heartstrings with those specials! :)

I've enjoyed the Austen P&P sequels by Carrie Bebris, Elizabeth Aston, and Rebecca Ann Collins. I've only made it halfway through Collins', and have 2 left by Aston.

>44 Tanglewood:, 45: And season finales! I'm always a wreck after watching one of those.

I LOVE your challenge theme and categories. I'm kicking myself for not thinking about this. I tried it with Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode titles, but not enough of them fit the genres I read. There's only one problem -- there are not enough pictures of Rory in your thread.
I love how we all watch the same show but have different favorites. My personal rating system would be: 1 star - Amy Pond, 2 stars- Rose Tyler, 3 stars- Captain Jack, 4 stars- Professor River Song, 5 Stars - Rory Williams. If we happened to find ourselves in an alternate timeline where Rory doesn't exist, then 5 stars = Donna Noble.
Looking forward to seeing your reads, you have a lot of great possibilities.

I can't believe I hadn't starred you! Now that Eris has me hooked on Doctor Who (I knew it was just a matter of time before someone would push me into it) I'm loving your categories even more than before.

As I'm watching it from the very beginning and none of them have arrived yet, I can't comment on your rating system. (Though from the one recent episode I've seen, I really quite like Amy Pond - but I agree with the Doctor that she should've stuf with Amelia.)

So am I the only one who thinks 5 stars = Martha Jones? (If the Doctor himself is an option, then 5 = David Tennant for sure!) Of course, I've never made it past series 4, because I can't stand Donna, so I'm completely unfamiliar with Amy, Rory, and River Song.

I liked Martha Jones a lot. She falls behind Rory, River Song, and Amy for me. Donna has been the only companion that I really couldn't stand.

I think I will really like the new companion. I liked her in the one episode where she was making soufflés.

I like Souffle Girl as well. I just watched the Christmas special this past weekend and then discovered there will be no more episodes until April. Drat! I like most of the companions. The only one I didn't really care for was Martha. Donna grew on me after a few episodes, when she stopped yelling so much and her caring personality started to come through.