nmhale, take two

I'm well into the challenge by this point, and making decent progress. I'm surprised to see that I've made some real gains in the non-fiction category!

I've had to rely on a lot of small books or children's books to keep my numbers up. I'm a huge reader, but a bit slow. Still, this has been fun. I can't help thinking up new categories that I wish I was reading. I'm being disciplined and sticking to my chosen ones for this challenge, though.

The categories for this year are:

1) Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs 9/9 Completed!
2) Unfinished College Books 9/9 Completed!
3) Books Read to My Daughter 9/9 Completed!
4) Norton Critical Edition Classics and Virago Modern Classics 9/9 Completed!
5) Fairy Tales or Fairy Tale Re-tellings 9/9 Completed!
6) Magical Realism 9/9
7) New Books by Favorite Old Authors 9/9 Completed!
8) Non-Fiction 9/9 Completed!
9) YA Lit and Children's Fiction 9/9 Completed!

Category 1: Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs

1) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
4/5 stars

2) Diary of Lady Murasaki by Shikibu Murasaki
3/5 stars

3) Persepolis II by Marjane Satrapi
4/5 stars

4) Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron all and Denver Moore
4/5 stars

5) Daddy Needs a Drink by Robert Wilder
3.5/5 stars

6) Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
3/5 stars

7) Baby Laughs by Jenny McCarthy
3/5 stars

8) Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
4/5 stars

9) Naked by David Sedaris
4/5 stars

Category 2: Unfinished College Books

1) Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
3.5/5 stars

2) Asian American Literature: An Anthology edited by Shirley Lim
4/5 stars

3) Rhetoric and Poetics by Aristotle
3/5 stars

4) Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
2/5 stars

5) Possession by A.S. Byatt
5/5 stars

6) Dubliners by James Joyce
4/5 stars

7) Libra by Don Delillo
3.5/5 stars

8) How Children Develop by Robert Siegler
4/5 stars

9) Children's Literature: An Invitation to the World by Diana Mitchell
4/5 stars

Category 3: Books Read to my Daughter

1) The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
4/5 stars

2) Spot Goes to School by Eric Hill
3/5 stars

3) Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
4/5 stars

4) Cinderella Skeleton by Robert San Souci
3.5/5 stars

5) How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen
4.5/5 stars

6) Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
3/5 stars

7) Gossie by Olivier Dunrea
4/5 stars

8) Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
4.5/5 stars

9) Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman
5/5 stars

10) Hey, Al by Arthur Yorinks
3/5 stars

11) Noah's Ark by Peter Spiers
4/5 stars

12) The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
4/5 stars

13) Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday by the Berenstains
4/5 stars

Category 4: Norton Critical Edition Classics or Virago Modern Classics

1) Plagued by the Nightingale by Kay Boyle
4/5 stars

2) A View of the Harbor by Elizabeth Taylor
4/5 star

3) The Third Miss Symons by F.M. Mayor
3/5 stars

4) Women Against Men by Storm Jameson
2.5/5 stars

5) The Persimmon Tree and Other Stories by Marjorie Barnard
3.5/5 stars

6) Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizaeth von Arnim
3/5 stars

7) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
4/5 stars

8) One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
3/5 stars

9) The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
4/5 stars

Category 5: Fairy Tales or Fairy Tale Re-tellings

1) Cinderellis and the Glass Hill by Gail Carson Levine
3.5/5 stars

2) A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales by Datlow and Windling
3/5 stars

3) Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham
3/5 stars

4) Fables: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham
4/5 stars

5) Scarlet Moon by Debbie Vigue
3.5/5 stars

6) The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
4/5 stars

7) Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey
4/5 stars

8) The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey
3.5/5 stars

9) The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Steven Brust
4/5 stars

Category 6: Magical Realism

1) Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
4/5 stars

2) Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4/5 stars

3) Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
3.5/5 stars

4) The General in his Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3/5 stars

5) Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3/5 stars

6) Innocent Erendira by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3/5 stars

7) House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
4.5/5 stars

8) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
4/5 stars

9) Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4/5 stars

Category 7: New Books by Favorite Old Authors

1) The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
4/5 stars

2) Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
3.5/4 stars

3) Death of a Peer by Ngaio Marsh
4/5 stars

4) The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
4/5 stars

5) In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
3/5 stars

6) Among the Shadows by L.M. Montgomery
3.5/5 stars

7) Squire by Tamora Pierce
4/5 stars

8) Death on Demand by Caroline Hart
4/5 stars

9) The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce
4/5 stars

Category 8: Non-Fiction

1) Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
2/5 stars

2) Loving Our Kids On Purpose by Danny Silk
5/5 stars

3) Hiroshima by John Hersey
4/5 stars

4) Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
4.5/5 stars

5) Beijing Top Ten by DK
3/5 stars

6) Behave Yourself by Michael Powell
3.5/5 stars

7) The Great Fire by Jim Murphy
4/5 stars

8) Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother's Soul by Canfield et. al.
3/5 stars

9) Anonymous: Jesus Hidden Years by Alicia Britt Chole
4.55 stars

Category 9: YA Lit and Children's Fiction

1) The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
3/5 stars

2) Stories to Solve by George Shannon
3/5 stars

3) Still More Stories to Solve by George Shannon
3/5 stars

4) The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
4/5 stars

5) The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
4.5/5 stars

6) The Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
3/5 stars

7) Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
4/5 stars

8) Twenty One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
3/5 stars

9) Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
3.5/5 stars

Bonus Category: Graphic Novels

1) Hana Kimi Volume 23
2) Fruits Basket Volume 1
3) Fruits Basket Volume 2
4) Fruits Basket Volume 3
5) Ouran High Host Club Volume 6
6) Persepolis*
7) Fruits Basket Volume 4
8) Fruits Basket Volume 5
9) Ouran High Host Club Volume 7
10) Ouran High Host Club Volume 8
11) Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall*
12) Marmalade Boy Volume 6
13) Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders Volume 1
14) Clamp no Kiseki Volume 12
15) Clamp no Kiseki Volume 5
16) Clamp no Kiseki Volume 6
17) Tsubasa Reservoir Volume 14
18) Clamp no Kiseki Volume 7
19) Marmalade Boy Volume 7
20) Magic Knight Rayearth II Volume 1
21) Tokyo Mew Mew Volume 2
22) Man of Many Faces Volume 1
23) Marmalade Boy Volume 8
24) Man of Many Faces Volume 2
25) Duklyon, Clamp School Defenders Volume 2
26) Fruits Basket Volume 6
27) Fruits Basket Volume 7
28) Fruits Basket Volume 8
29) Fruits Basket Volume 9
30) Fruits Basket Volume 10
31) Persepolis 2*

I love my graphic novels, including manga, but I generally consider them the fluffiest of my fluff reading. (Of course, some graphic novels are quite serious and literary, but most I read are not.) I don't want to count them as part of my challenge, but I'll just make a bonus category here to document. Especially since I am going a little manga crazy here at the start of a new year.

*Since this is just a bonus category, I will list all my overlaps (like Persepolis which counts as a more literary and serious type) here.

I have now read a book in all categories, and completed one whole category. Woo-hoo!

Adding a new category, just because I've been reading so many books not on my challenge, which I didn't think I would do. :) A lot of them are new-to-me authors, and I dropped that one in favor of reading to my daughter. I might read 9 of those this year, anyway!

All entries marked with a * are new authors that I'm trying.

1. Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg*
4/5 stars
This one is for a reading/eating/movie book group that I am starting with my friends. This is our first book. Yay!

2. The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer*
3.5/5 stars
I gave in to temptation and tried out Heyer. She was a lot of fun.

3. The Eyeless by Lance Parkin*
3/5 stars
I am a Doctor Who addict.

4. The Black Widow by Carolyn Keene
Really mediocre quality Nancy Drew books that I can't help liking because I was in love with them when I was a preteen.

5. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey*
4/5 stars
This was an ARC book, and I was happy to have it as my first. A compelling mystery that doesn't slip into genre mediocrity, but rises above with depth, great characters, and an absorbing setting.

6. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.*
A supernatural romp that was fun but at times dark and gruesome.

7. Serving Crazy with Curry by Amulya Malladi*
Another book for my reading/eating book group. I was pleasantly surprised by this one and really enjoyed it.

8. Bozo and the Storyteller by Tom Glaister*
An ARC book that I don't remember requesting. :) Not my cup of tea, an okay story that missed its potential, for me.

9. Vampire Diaries:The Awakening and the Struggle by L.J. Smith*
I was watching the series and decided to try the books. Just an okay vampire series.

10. The Chocolate Cat Caper by JoAnna Carl*
I read this mystery for my food/book group. An average mystery, it didn't draw me in enough to seek out more in the series.

11. Why Shoot the Butler? by Georgette Heyer
Thoroughly conventional novel, but I enjoyed this one. I liked the characters and setting enough to overlook the mediocre mystery.

I really enjoyed Wife of the Gods, and even cooler, I got a message from the author, saying he appreciated my review. How cool is that? It made my day.

re: Wife of the Gods, I had a message from the author thanking me for my review... and I haven't reviewed it. I don't even own it. Weird.

I just finished Fried Green Tomatoes myself and absolutely loved it, just as much as the movie.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It will be fun to see what other new authors your read.

That is really nifty, cmbohn. Maybe the author will send me a message after I review it, too! That personal touch makes me really root for an author. Also, his book is great so far.

But how weird, Victoria, maybe someone else who has a user name like yours didn't get their thank you message, huh?

blondierocket, I really enjoyed the book, too! It was a fast read, with strong characters and a really fantastic setting. I mean, that book should be used in writing workshops as an illustration of the effects of good setting, don't you think? We're doing that book in this book group which I set up here in Tucson, and I'm looking forward to the discussion. :)

Whee! Another category complete!

Of course, it's the children's books category, not too surprising there as a lot of the books are fast reads. And I notice a lack of YA books (they've all gone in my new books by old favorites category so far) but I'll leave it up, in case I read more this year that don't fit anywhere else.

Also, I've hit the halfway mark. A little behind, but I have hopes that I can catch up by the end of the year.

You are really close on some of your other categories. Keep it up!

Wow! Your progress is really good!

One tip for your fairytale category: Daughter of the forest by Juliet Marillier. Really lovely and a fast read!

Another category complete! I have been reading, even if I've been away from LT for a loong time, but alas, many of the books I've read have not been on my challenge. The batch of books I'm at right now will fill up some more slots, though!