joining my first challenge

I just joined lt and realized I have so many tbr books. This challenge will help my clear some of those.
These are my categories:
1-Bronte, Austen, and Eliot
2-Biography/Memoir
3-Chunksters(more than 500 pages)
4-Books in a Series
5-Young Adult
6-World at War
7-American West
8-Non-fiction
9-Just Because

I have most of my books chosen but reserve the right to substitute. Wish me luck!

Hi, shaunnas!
Good luck and happy reading! :) I think you are brave to have a whole category of 500+ pages. But those are some of the best books.
--BJ

Love your categories! Welcome aboard. It will be fun to see what you choose to read.

Category 1--great idea! Will these be new reads or rereads--I love those authors and plan to read some Anne Bronte (the only one I haven't read before) in my challenge and maybe an Eliot I haven't read yet.

You should have a great and varied reading year.

Bronte, Austen, and Eliot

1-Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
2-Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
3-Persuasion by Jane Austen
4-Villette by Charlotte Bronte
5-The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
6-Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
7-Middlemarch by George Eliot
8-Silas Marner by George Eliot
9-The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Biography/Memoir

1-The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein
2-Truman by David McCullough
3-Only a Few Bones by John Philip Colletta
4-Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
5-Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
6-Personal History by Katharine Graham
7-Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
8-Under a Wing by Reeve Lindbergh
9-This House of Sky by Ivan Doig

Chunksters

1-The Physician by Noah Gordon (720 pages)
2-Sacajawea by Anna Waldo (1424 pages)
3-Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye (960 pages)
4-A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (624 pages)
5-The Source by James Michener (928 pages)
6-First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (931 pages)
7-Cane River by Lalita Tademy (584 pages)
8-Russka by Edward Rutherfurd (1040 pages)
9-The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Series

1-Surprise Packages by Nancy Anderson
2-The Brothers by Chris Stewart
3-Cordelia Underwood by Van Reid
4-Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
5-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
6-Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
7-Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
8-At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
9-

Young Adult

1-Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
2-The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
3-Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
4-The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson
5-Our House by Pat Conrad
6-
7-
8-
9-

Non-fiction

1-Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
2-The Mayflower by Nathan Philbrick
3-Triangle, the Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle
4-Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald W. Walker
5-We'll Find the Place by Richard E. Bennett
6-Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
7-Three Weeks with by Brother by Nicholas Sparks
8-Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
9-Wild Swans by Jung Chang

World at War

1-Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon
2-The Wall by John Hersey
3-Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
4-Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
5-All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarfqua
6-Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
7-The Ice Soldier by Paul Watkins
8-Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
9-Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi

The American West

1-The Gates of the Alamo by Stephen Harrigan
2-The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
3-Giant Joshua by Maurine Whipple
4-Lantern in her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich
5-The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas
6-Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
7-Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow
8-Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker
9-

Just Because

1-The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
2-I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
3-The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook
4-Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
5-Airs above the Ground by Mary Stewart
6-The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
7-What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
8-
9-

After typing in all those books I realize that this list is quite ambitious.
Since this is my first challenge, I will begin today and my goal is to finish in 2009.
I better stop typing and start reading!

Love your American West category - I don't know any of these books yet, but will try to find some for myself. Am looking forward to your comments about them.

I really loved Cordelia Underwood. And I hadn't heard anything about the new M. T. Anderson book. I can't wait to see what you think.

I really enjoyed both Stones from the River and Cane River- I hope you do too!

I really like the books you have chosen. Some I have read, some I know of and some I have never heard of!

Good luck with Category 1, it's ambitious to try and get through them all! I'm an Austen/Bronte fan so I'm sure they will all be great reads.

Category 3 I have read the last three on the list and liked them all. Russka gets overshadowed by London and Sarum etc but it was actually my favourite by Rutherford that I have read, I haven't read the Irish one.

Goodnight Mister Tom is very much read in NZ by teens ans a lot of times even as a reading assignment for school. It's great (from memory.. read it 10 years ago!) It could also fall into your 'War' category if you needed :).

I Capture the Castle is a 2-generation family favorite for me. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about it.

Wow! I have so many of the books on your list. I love your category Chunksters.

One of my absolute favorite chunksters of all time, which I read about every 2-3 years, is The Source by James Michener. I hope you like it.

Stones from the River, I Capture the Castle, Born on a Blue Day, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Jane Austen.... lots and lots of good reads.

Have fun!

>6 shaunnas:, 19
I'm in the midst of a looong-book challenge too, and a historical-fiction phase, and you prompted me to look at The Source. Sounds terrific, and finally gets me into a Michener!

I Capture the Castle is a wonderful book. I envy you reading it for the first time.

I think "chunksters" will be a fun category, two of my favorite books (admittedly, a long, long list) are A Suitable Boy and The Crimson Petal and the White, both of which qualify.

There are some great books in here - I've really enjoyed the Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome series. I've just read The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing - it is really good and wasn't at all what I expected.

#21 The Crimson Petal and the White is a great book, which I just gave to my 78 year old mother to read because I kept telling her about it. I think she can handle it, lol.

I am going to read The Apple, Michel Faber as part of my 999 because the short stories supposedly tie up some of the "loose ends",we'll see.

Reading Lolita in Tehran was one of my top five books last year and actually influenced a lot of the reading i've done since. I think you'll enjoy Airs Above the Ground--before i had to leave them behind when we moved, I owned and had read all the books Mary Stewart had written; this was a good one!

I Capture the Castle is also a good book--and it could go into YA if you need another "Just Because" spot!

Angela Ashes was the first memoir I read that i really loved and started me reading them on a regular basis. Infidel is on my list of favorites this year and Truman is in my 999 challenge.

I've already mention how much I like your first category. I am looking forward to your reactions to the books you read--several on your list are books I plan to read later and will enjoy getting your opinion. We seem to have quite similar tastes.