Dejah_Thoris' 16 x 16 Challenge!

Greetings, all, and Happy New Year!

I'm back again for the Category Challenge. In 2015, I managed to track all my reading, but I didn't post much to my threads or those of others. As always, I will try to improve!

I'm always so impressed with the clever category schemes that everyone here on LT seems to come up with, but this year I'm not feeling terribly creative - you'll have to forgive my plain and straightforward approach!

There are many things I love about the Category Challenge Group. I love the CATs and KITs and I filled several BINGO cards last year. I also managed to finish all 15 of my categories last year, although my book distribution was, shall we say, a bit uneven. As a result, I've tweaked my categories this year, with a bit more emphasis on geography and some categories designed to capture a few books from the genre categories in which much of my reading falls. I've chosen to go with 16 categories and while I'll be satisfied with 12 books in each, I'm going to aim for the complete 16 x 16. We'll see!

I'll participate in the CATS, AlphaKit and both BINGO options. ETA: In 2015, 12.5% of my reading (1 book in 8) was nonfiction. I'd like to increase that in 1 book in 6.

Let's get started!

Category #1: Pulitzer Prize for Drama Finalists and Winning Plays

1. A Perfect Ganesh by Terrence McNally (Finalist, 1994)
2. Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies (Winner, 2000)
3. The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry (Finalist, 1997)
4. Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley (Winner, 2005)

Category #2: Other Plays and Poetry

1. Do Not Go Gentle by Suzan L. Zeder
2. Voyage: The Coast of Utopia Part I by Tom Stoppard
3. Shipwreck: The Coast of Utopia Part II by Tom Stoppard
4. Salvage: The Coast of Utopia Part III by Tom Stoppard
5. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Category #3: Science Fiction

1. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
2. Podkayne of Mars by Rpbert A. Heinlein
3. Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein
4. Gateway by Frederik Pohl
5. Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein

Category #4: Fantasy

1. The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson
2. A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson
3. Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews
4. Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
5. Beauty by Robin McKinley
6. Among Others by Jo Walton
7. Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance
8. Tempt the Stars by Karen Chance
9. Con & Conjure by Lisa Shearin

Category #5: Mysteries

1. Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh
2. Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske
3. Death of a Peer by Ngaio Marsh
4. Miss Zukas and the Island Murders by Jo Dereske
5. Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
6. Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
7. Death of a Butterfly by Margaret Maron

Category #6: Books by new to me authors

1. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
2. Lacey and His Friends by David Drake
3. The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
4. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
5. Quicksand by Carolyn Baugh
6. Summer at Sea by Beth Labonte
7. Queen Victoria's Revenge by Harry Harrison

Category #7: Books read before or within 6 months after their publication date

1. Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz
2. Brotherhood in Death by J. D. Robb
3. No Shred of Evidence by Charles Todd
4. The Brimstone Deception by Lisa Shearin
5. Time of Fog and Fire by Rhys Bowen
6. Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

Category #8: History

1. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford''s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Gandin
2. The Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It by Travis McDade
3. Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time by Michael Downing

Category #9: Other Nonfiction

1. Holy Ghosts: Or How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night by Gary Jansen
2. The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Didier Lefevre, Emmanuel Guibert
3. If Nuns Ruled the World: Ten Sisters on a Mission by Jo Piazza
4. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
5. The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff

Category #10: The United States

1. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
2. Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death by Jo Dereske
3. Georgia Women: A Celebration edited by Barbara B. Reitt
4. The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West
5. One Coffee With by Margaret Maron
6. Like One of the Family: Conversations From a Domestic's Life by Alice Childress

Category #11: Great Britain and Canada

1. Overture to Death by Nagio Marsh (WB #14, Golden Age, card #1)
2. Stealing Princes by Tyne O'Connell (WB #10, Set in Europe, card #1)
3. Crooked House by Agatha Christie
4. Carry On, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
5. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
6. Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton

Category #12: Europe

1. The Morisot Connection by Estelle Ryan (France)
2. Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley (Italy)

Category #14: South America (including some Caribbean)

1. San Rafael, Camba Town: Life in a Lowland Bolivian Peasant Community by Allyn MacLean Stearman (Bolivia, nonfiction)
2. Invisible Country by Annamaria Alfieri (Paraguay, fiction)
3. Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Chile, nonfiction)
4. Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur (Guyana, nonfiction)
5. The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes by Wade Davis (Colombia, nonfiction)
6. The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller (Ecuador, nonfiction)
--. The House of Paper by Carlos Maria Dominguez (Argentina and Uruguay, novella)
7. The Hacienda by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran (Venezuela, memoir)
8. Blood Tango by Annamaria Alfieri (Argentina, fiction)
9. Equatoria by Richard and Sally Price (French Guiana and Suriname, nonfiction)
10. The Tree of Red Stars by Tessa Bridal (Uruguay)

Category #15: The Rest of the World

1. Joe and Azat by Jesse Lonergan (Turkmenistan)
2. This Is Bishkek, Baby by Fogarty Wells (Kyrgyzstan)
3. The Devil and the Disappearing Sea by Rob Ferguson (Central Asia / Former Soviet Republics)
4. The Cave of the Yellow Dog by Byamsuren Davaa and Lisa Reisch (Mongolia)
5. The Soul of Kazakhstan by Walter Estep and Alma Kunanbay (Kazakhstan)

Category #16: Carefree (whatever I want, lol)

1. Love Beyond Time by Bethany Claire

General BINGO!



1. Devut: One Coffee With by Margaret Maron
2. GN: Joe and Azat by Jesse Lonergan
3. Less than 200: Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. About a writer: Holy Ghosts: Or How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night by Gary Jansen
6. Wordplay: Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh
7. Job or Hobby: The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller
8. Body of Water: The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes by Wade Davis
9. Food is Important: Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies
10. Self Published: This Is Bishkek, Baby by Fogarty Wells
11. Indigenous: The Cave of the Yellow Dog by Byambasuren Davaa and Lisa Reisch
12. In Translation: The Soul of Kazakhstan by Walter Estep and Alma Kunanbay
13. Read a CAT: The Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It by Travis McDade
14. 1916: Like One of the Family: Conversations From a Domestic's Life by Alice Childress
15. Theater: A Perfect Ganesh by Terrance McNally
16. One Word Title: Beauty by Robin McKinley
17. Airplane Flight: Queen Victoria's Revenge by Harry Harrison
18. Focus on Art: Equatoria by Richard Price and Sally Price
19. Environment: The Devil and the Disappearing Sea by Rob Ferguson
20. Senior Citizen: Do Not Go Gentle by Suzan L. Zeder
21. Autobiography or Memoir: The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Didier Lefevre, Emmanuel Guibert
22. Adventure: Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein
23. Coming of Age: The Tree of the Red Stars by Tessa Bridal
24. Before I was born: Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein
25. Survival: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Women's BINGO!



1. New to Me: If Nuns Ruled the World by Jo Piazza
2. Over 60: Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz
6. Set in Latin America or Asia: Invisible Country by Annamaria Alfieri
7. Made Into Movie: The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
8. Female Critter: The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprisinf Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
9. Before 2000: Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
10. Set in Europe, etc.: Stealing Princes by Tyne O'Connell
12. Award Winner: Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur
13. Middle Square: Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske
14. Golden Age Detective Fiction: Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh
16. Nontraditional: The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill
17. Less than 10 years old: Blood Tango by Annamaria Alfieri
18. TBR: San Rafael, Camba Town: Life in a Lowland Bolivian Peasant Community by Allyn Maclean Stearman
19. Memoir: The Hacienda by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran
20. Spy: Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
21. Short Stories: Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
22. Science: The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo by Clea Koff

reserved

Yeah! It looks good. I'm reading eastern South America so it will be good to compare notes with you!

Smart setup with a lot of room to include CAT books. Enjoy your reading! :)

Yay for that carefree category. Good luck with the challenge.

Nice categories!

Welcome back and here's to a wonderful new year of reading!

Nice set-up and great categories!

It's always great to see you around. Will be checking in to see what you are reading.

So excited to see you back, Dejah!

Happy New Year, Dejah! I'm so happy to see you back!

Welcome back and have a great reading year!!

Thank you all for coming by to visit! Happy New Year!

>21 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie! I can't wait to find out what South American reading you're doing!

>22 Chrischi_HH: I do enjoy the CATs (typed with two actual cats on top of me) and I've always liked grouping things geographically. I hope you have a wonderful year of reading, too!

>23 majkia: Thank you, Jean! I tried to come up with categories that would cover everything, but I decided to add Carefree just in case, lol.

>24 luvamystery65: Welcome Roberta! It's a simple plan, but I think it will work for me.

>25 mamzel: Thank you, mamzel. I hope it's a fabulous year for you, too!

>26 -Eva-: Hello and thank you! Maybe I'll manage to be more creative with my categories next year, lol.

>27 thornton37814: Please feel free to drop in any time - I'll try to do better about having something interesting here to read about.

>28 lkernagh: Thanks! I kept listing my books in 2015, but I just didn't say much (ok - anything) about them. I lurked a bit, though......

>29 cbl_tn: Happy New Year to you, Carrie! I can't believe it's 2016!

>30 rabbitprincess: Thank you! Wishes for excellent reading all around!

Nice categories. Good to see you back for 2016, Dejah.

Happy New Year and enjoy your reading!

>32 lindapanzo: Hi, Linda - and thanks! I hope 2016 is off to a great start for you!

>33 MissWatson: Thank yo for dropping by, Birgit! I hope you have a wonderful year of reading, too.

Happy New Year, it's great to see you back and already off to such a great start.

>35 DeltaQueen50: And Happy New Year to you, too, Judy! I'm 8 books into the year and I've yet to write a word about any of them. Sheer laziness.....

Welcome back Dejah! Hope you have a great reading year. Can't wait to see what poetry you read this year.

I'm sure I'll enjoy following your reading this year - we have some similar categories.

A good bunch of categories that should provide plenty of options for your reading year. Good luck with your challenge!

>36 Dejah_Thoris: I'm feeling your laziness about reviews. I'm only going to post reviews/thoughts about books I really love. The rest may just get one line yay, meh or blech.

Ha, Dejah! We'll accept a list. Need enough activity to know you're alive!

Goodness - it's been a while since I've posted on my own thread! Welcome to all my kind visitors!

>37 VioletBramble: Hi Kelly! I'm starting off the year with Life On Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith. Then we'll see what else comes along....

>38 LisaMorr: I'll have to drop by and see what you're reading, too. You may have some ideas for me!

>39 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks! I definitely tried to keep things flexible - too flexible, maybe. But I know I'll love the reading.

>40 luvamystery65: I've gotten a few short comments written, which I'll post momentarily. I should follow your plan and stick to a line or two.....

Here are some quick comments about the books I've started 2016 with:

1. San Rafael, Camba Town: Life in a Lowland Bolivian Peasant Community by Allyn MacLean Stearman (Challenge #14, South America)
I’ve had this one kicking around for a while and I’m glad I finally got around to it. It’s a community study of a small town in the lowlands of eastern Bolivia, based on information collected by the author during a four year stay in the late 1960s, three years as a Peace Corps volunteer, one living as a local. Several years after she returned to the U.S., she began graduate work toward in Anthropology. Married and pregnant, she had trouble being taken seriously as a student by some of her professors. Given that she might miss a final (due to childbirth), one of her professors agreed she could write a paper instead. Knowing the professor was not happy with the situation and with her 4.0 at risk, she wrote a book length term paper that became San Rafael, Camba Town. She got her A.

2. Invisible Country by Annamaria Aflieri (Challenge #14, South America)
This was a historical mystery set in Paraguay during the latter days of the Paraguayan War (1864 – 1870), also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, which pitted Paraguay against the combined might of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. This is the second of Alfieri’s mysteries I’ve read, and I think her greatest skill in the historical settings and use of actual/real individuals in her plots. In the two I’ve read, the mystery, while important, seemed less important (and interesting) than the where and when.

3. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (Challenge #3, Science Fiction)
I’ve been meaning to read this science fiction award winner, well, forever. Good reading. I strongly suspect that Haldeman had read Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and the people who made it into a movie were influenced by Forever War.

4. Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh (Challenge #11, Great Britain and Canada)
I’m up to 1939 in my Ngaio Marsh / Inspector Alleyn reread. While Overture to Death isn’t one of my favorites, it’s still pretty good.

5. Clandestine in Chile: the Adventures of Miguel Littin by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Challenge #14, South America)
Film director Miguel Littin was banned from returning home, Chile, after the Pinochet coup. Some years later, he decides to sneak back in to the country and to film a documentary about conditions under and opinions about the Pinochet regime. His friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez interviewed him for 18 hours and distilled it down to one short book. It reads like a memoir (1st person) but the construction is by a Nobel Laureate. Nice.

6. Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein (Challenge #3, Science Fiction)
I continue my in order rereading of Heinlein – I’ve always been fond of Poddy. Having recently reread all of his short stories, it’s interesting to see the development of a female teenage narrator from several short stories which I like very much – Poor Daddy, Cliff and the Calories and The Bulletin Board, which are rarely read and The Menace From Earth, which is known to most of his fans.

7. Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur (Challenge #14, South America)
This book deserves a more complete and compelling review than I’m going to take the time to write. It’s a rather fascinating attempt by the author (born in Guyana, moved to the U.S. at the age of 6) to trace the history of her grandmother who traveled as an indentured servant from India to the colony of British Guiana. Better than 3.5 million indentured servants were shipped to other British colonies in large part to fill the labor need resulting from the end of slavery and the slave trade. While Bahadur is largely unsuccessful in learning many details about her grandmother, she passes on a great deal about other indentured servants and the process as a whole. I must admit to having been woefully ignorant about Indo-Caribbeans and found much of the book fascinating.

8. The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes by Wade Davis (Challenge #14, South America)
Schultes was arguably the greatest explorer of the Amazon region of the 20th century. He was a botanist and eventually Harvard professor who had a surprising amount to do with the availability of psychotropic (recreational and otherwise) drugs. Much more importantly, he came to know the Amazon, both its people and plants, like few others. Over the years he took many photographs that showcase cultures that are now irrevocably changed. The text of the book is mainly from a much longer biography of Schultes, but the photos are the reason to get it.

9. Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz (Category #7, Newly Published)
This was easy, fun, escapist reading. Nothing demanding – popcorn. Overly twisty ending.
10. Stealing Princes by Tyne O’Connell (Category #11, Great Britain and Canada)
More easy reading, this time goofy YA set in a posh British public school. Idiotic, but for some reason I’m finding the series amusing.

11. The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller (Challenge #14, South America)
Initially, I was very disappointed in this highly touted book by travel writer Tom Miller; the early chapters seem superficial and even cruel in their humor. I stuck with it, though, and am glad I did. It turned out to be an entertaining look at Ecuador (where the awkwardly misnamed Panama Hats are made) and well worth my time. Toward the end of the book, the author takes a side trip (completely unrelated to hats) to the Ecuadorian Amazon to an oil drilling operation. While there, he travels to a settlement of the Cofan people, who were visited and photographed by Richard Evans Schultes decades earlier. Their situation had changed considerably by the 1980s when Miller visited and today the Cofan fight for their continued existence, mainly in the courtroom and the press. I love it when concentrated reading about a region results in unexpected connections.

--. The House of Paper by Carlos Maria Dominguez (Challenge #14, South America)
This novella by Uruguayan author Carlos Maria Dominguez is a warning to the folly of obsession with books. It was entertaining, and a little horrifying!

12. Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein (Category #3, Science Fiction)
ARE YOU A COWARD? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential, willing to travel, no family or emotional ties, indomitably courageous and handsome of face and figure. Permanent employment, very high pay, glorious adventure, great danger. You must apply in person...
Yet another Heinlein, and great fun at that. Heinlein is known for lulling the reader along and then suddenly taking a drastic turn that entirely changes the feel of what you’re reading. There first novel where he obviously does this is Stranger in a Strange Land, but it’s in something of a class by itself. Glory Road is the first of his, shall we say, more normal novels, where you just don’t see it coming. Except, of course, that I’ve read it several times before….

Enough for tonight. Goodnight, all.

Wow! You've read a lot this month! I know you said (either on this thread or another one) that you wished you could read one set in every South American country this month. I don't think I'd want to do it in a month, but I would like to do that in a year maybe--but probably not this one.

Looks like a great selection of books this month! Very cool that two of your books ended up connecting in some way -- I love when that happens!

I'm going to have to get back to Ngaio Marsh sometime. Maybe Overture to Death will be my next one.

>45 thornton37814: It's been a good month for reading so far - I've enjoyed most of it very much. I still have 4 South American countries to go (3 countries and 1 dependent state - 2 if you count the Falkland Islands): French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay. I suspect I'll get to two more, probably Suriname and French Guiana. The book I'd like to read for Peru is HUGE, so I may drift over into February with it.

>46 rabbitprincess: I enjoy book connections so much! of course, sometimes one book simply leads you to another. So many possibilities! How much of Marsh have you read?

>47 Dejah_Thoris: According to my Goodreads records (which go back a bit further than LT), I've read 18 Marshes. But six of these I don't really remember, because I read them before either GR or LT, so let's say I've actually read 12. Still, both figures are more than I expected!

Wow, that's some great progress! Putting a few of those on my wishlist for my (lifelong?) South America read... :)

>48 rabbitprincess: So you've read quite a few of the Alleyn books! As I'm working back through them all, I have found that there are several I don't remember much about - just enough to think maybe I remember who the murderer is only to find out that I'm completely wrong, lol.

>49 -Eva-: I'm really enjoying my South America themed reading this month - hooray for GEOCat over on the 16 x 16 Challenge thread! A truly steady diest of it would be to much, but I've interspersed other, lighter books which has helped. I'm going to come up a little short on reading one for each country, though, mostly because I have nothing I urgently want to read for Peru, which is probably the South American nation about which I've read the most (along with Bolivia).

>50 Dejah_Thoris:
I read a lot of Colombian literature when I was at Uni, but I'm sadly under-read in the other countries. :)

>51 -Eva-: In truth, I'm not at all well read in Latin American literature - most of my reading has been nonfiction. I don't read all that much literary fiction, no matter what country it's from!

When the GEOCat was first announced, I started thinking of all the nonfiction books I would read. When everyone started adding books to the wiki, I realized more people were thinking of reading fiction. I'm trying to balance it a little, but I'm still leaning toward nonfiction.

I've been ignoring my thread - a not uncommon situation. I'm still doing plenty of reading and listing all my books - and I'm participating in the various CATs and KITs, so I'm not completely AWOL, just quiet.....

Just had a look at your lists. Holy cow, you almost have a full blackout on the Bingo! Excellent work :D

>54 rabbitprincess: Why thank you! I'm going to have to put some effort into the remaining categories - the right books just haven't come to me yet for those.

The BINGO categories seem harder to me this year - and the Women's Pup card even more so. of course the whole idea to to expand our reading range, right?