Kate's 50 Book Challenge for 2008

Ok, I'd like to say I could do 100 books this year, but that is just not realistic. With a one-year old on my hands and a very busy job, I just don't see it happening. However, I love challenges! 50 books seems like a reachable goal for me and I'm really trying to read all the books by my favorite authors this year. Second challenge is to finish books that I currently own, instead of buying new ones or going to the library. So here is my list for 2008 (ahem, with the knowledge that it is amendable with regard to book club selections, etc.), divided into Fiction and Nonfiction titles:

Fiction:
1. Happenstance
2. Collected Stories by Carol Shields
3. The end of Alice
4. Jack by A.M. Homes
5. In a country of mothers
6. Things you should know: a collection of stories
7. Plum Wine
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
9. Harry Potter and the deathly hallows by J.K. Rowling
10. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
11. Lord John and the Hand of Devils
12. The Golden Compass
13. The Subtle Knife
14. The Amber Spyglass
15. Straight Man
16. Empire Falls
17. Bridge of Sighs
18. Fleshmarket Alley
19. Crime School
20. The Floating Girl
21. In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden
22. Saturday by Ian McEwan
23. Enduring Love
24. Special Topics in Calamity Physics
25. One Good Turn

Nonfiction:
26. A Girl Named Zippy
27. Into Thin Air
28. Mask of Motherhood
29. The Price of Motherhood
30. Operating Instructions
31. The Portable Atheist
32. How Language Works:
33. Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich
34. A Problem from Hell America and the Age of Genocide
35. Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
36. American Theocracy
37. Reading Like a Writer
38. It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons
39. King Leopold's Ghost
40. Down to Earth Sociology
41. Rereading America
42. Educating for Democracy:
43. The Cheating of America
44. No Logo:
45. Branded Nation:
46. Media Unlimited:
47. The Anarchist in the Library:
48. The World is Flat:
49. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student
50. Autobiography of a face

Finished This Book Will Save Your Life, which wasn't on my list but I will include here now and The Golden Compass last week. The last is a wonderful fantasy novel, intelligent and well-written, with lots of moral quandaries. It left me wanting more! I am currently working on Plum Wine for book club this weekend. Hope to fiinish soon so I can start The Subtle Knife!

Finished Plum Wine last weekend. Was disappointed in the main character's lack of backbone. I felt like she was moping around for this man who betrayed her. It just felt like she should have been stronger. Good writing, lots of detail about the Japanese setting, which was interesting. Needed more about the Hiroshima backstory.

Will need to take Educating for Democracy off the list. I was supposed to read it for a faculty book discussion and didn't make it. I am really slowing down this year! I finished The Subtle Knife by Pullman and LOVED it. In fact, I think it is even better than The Golden Compass. I am working on The Amber Spyglass so I can finish off the trilogy, although now I see that there is another book, Lyra's Oxford which also features Lyra Silvertongue, although its not in the series. May have to check that one out. I enjoy Pullman's writing -- he is so engaging and intellectual. Doesn't "write down" for young adults. The fantasy elements are superb and the worlds are so realistic and I feel like I am there.

Finished The Amber Spyglass, Lord John and Brotherhood of the Blade, and One Good Turn. All on my list. Making slow progress. Also finished the following graphic novels/comic book compilations which were not on original list:
1. Y: The Last Man, Vol I: Unmanned
2. Y: The Last Man, Vol II: Cycles
3. Fables: Legends in Exile, Vol. I
4. Daddy's Girl by Debbie Dreschler
5. Jessica Farm, Vol. I

Its been a while, but here is a list of what I have finished since April:
6. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
7. Jack by A.M. Homes
8. In a Country of Mothers, by A.M. Homes
9. In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden, by Kathleen Cambor
10. The Size of the World by Joan Silber
Only the two A.M. Homes novels and In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden were on the original list.

Time to evaluate how the challenge went.
Ended up finishing 41 books in 2008, just 9 shy of my 50 book challenge. I think that was pretty good for me, considering I only finished 33 books in 2007. Here are the rest of my list of books finished in 2008:

18. The Mistress's Daughter, by A.M. Homes
19. Survival of the Sickest: The surprising connections between disease and longevity, by Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince
20. When You are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
21. Isaac's Storm: A man, a time, and the deadliest hurricane in history, by Erik Larson
22. Not the End of the World: stories, by Kate Atkinson
23. Inglorious: a novel, by Joanna Kavenna
24. Taking Back the Vote: getting American youth involved in our democracy, by Jane Eisner
25. Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood
26. King Leopold's Ghost: a story of greed, terror and heroism in colonial Africa, by Adam Hothschild
27. A Girl Named Zippy: Growing up small in Mooreland, Indiana, by Haven Kimmel
28. The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the birth of modern geology, by Simon Winchester
29. The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta
30. Duplicate Keys, by Jane Smiley
31. At Paradise Gate, by Jane Smiley
32. Barn Blind, by Jane Smiley
33. Fancy Strut, by Lee Smith
34. The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference, by Malcolm Gladwell
35. Black Hole, by Charles Burns
36. Gemma Bovery, by Posy Simmonds
37. Fun Home: A family tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel
38. House, by Josh Simmons
39. Godless, by Pete Hautman
40. Homeless Bird, Gloria Whelan
41. Harley, like a Person, by Cat Bauer

The last three are YA novels and were all read in April; my list was messed up in the translation from notebook to computer screen. #35-38 are all graphic novels.
It seems that making it to 50, or somewhat close to 50, is predicated on completing some easy, fast reads. Thus, I'm hoping to include a mixture of graphic novels, children's books and YA literature in the 2009 challenge.

I only ended up finishing 10 out of the 25 listed on my proposed fiction list and 2 out of the 25 on my nonfiction list. Will try to better anticipate my reading lusts next year!