Zoe's 101010

I didn't even finish my 888 (edit: or 999), but I'm going to give this a try anyway! This message will contain a list of all the books that I actually read this year. Message #2 will be my list of planned reading, but I'm not really worried about sticking to that plan--it's just interesting to see how much of my reading I can predict in advance! I am going to make an effort to stick to my categories once I've chosen them, but they're entirely subject to change until January 1... and if necessary, I'll change them even after that! Hehehe.

I'm starting with a half-challenge. Each time I finish one of my half-categories, I'll choose whether to extend that category to a full one or start another entirely different category.

Completed Categories

Historical Fantasy (5/5)
His Majesty's Dragon
Throne of Jade
Black Powder War
Empire of Ivory
Victory of Eagles

Dystopia, Post-Apocalyptic, and other Disasters (5/5)
The Things That Keep Us Here
How I Live Now
Birthmarked
Obernewtyn
The Carbon Diaries: 2015

Fantasy and Supernatural (5/5)
Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
Shiver
Puppet Master
Nightlight: A Parody
Tyger Tyger

Group Reads and ER (5/5)
Elisha's Bones
Briar Rose
Tongues of Serpents
Folly
Sabriel

TIOLI Challenge (5/5)
Some Rain Must Fall
Alchemy and Meggy Swann
Lips Touch: Three Times
American Gods
Half the Sky

Children's and YA (5/5)
The Willoughbys
The Birthday Ball
Lirael
The Contest
The Climb

Categories in Progress

Dewey Decimal Challenge (3/5)
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Ancient World (2/5)
A History of the Ancient Near East
Inventing Superstition

Dystopia, Post-Apocalyptic, and other Disasters II (2/5)
The Windup Girl
Ship Breaker

Non-Fiction (4/5)
Predictably Irrational
The Unlikely Disciple
Culture Smart! Tanzania
Into Thin Air

Education and Intelligence (1/5)
Three Cups of Tea

New York (3/5)
The Dead and the Gone
When You Reach Me
Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York

Steampunk (4/5)
Soulless
The Anubis Gates
Changeless
The Affinity Bridge

Children's and YA II
The Summit

TIOLI Challenge II (4/5)
Before I Fall
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Daddy Long Legs
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

Just Because (2/5)
Mr. Impossible
Makers

These are the books that I plan to read (or at least, they'll be here soon):

Dewey Decimal Challenge

Edison's Eve
Islam: A Short History
The Pope and the Heretic
Island of the Colourblind
Aristotle's Children

Empires of the Word
The Gnostic Gospels
Tulipomania
The Abolition of Man

Ancient World

The Lost World of Old Europe
A History of the Ancient Near East
The Heavenly Writing
The Greeks and the Irrational
The Mathematics of Ancient Iraq

Beyond the Edge of the Sea
Flow Down Like Silver
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language
Libraries in the Ancient World
The Silver Pigs

The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone
They Wrote on Clay
Funeral Games
Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World
The Eagle of the Ninth
Ancient Astrology
Elisha's Bones

Math or Science

Euclid's Elements, Volume 1
Proofs and Refutations
Hypatia of Alexandria
Einstein's Dreams
The Philosophy of Mathematics: An Introductory Essay

Euclid's Window
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
Aladdin's Lamp
The Man Who Knew Infinity
The Difference Engine

Foreign Language (including French)

Voyage au Centre de la Terre
Modern Literary Arabic
1001 Pitfalls in German
Les Trois Mousquetaires
Herodotus Volume 1: Books 1 and 2 (Loeb)

Selected Folktales/Ausgewälte Märchen
Les Misérables, vol. 1
*Les Misérables, vol. 2
Lettres persanes
Guide républicain

Dystopias: Fact and Fiction

Obernewytn
The Handmaid's Tale
*Catching Fire
*Hunger Games 3
$20 Per Gallon

Among the Brave
Among the Enemy
Among the Free
The Diamond of Darkhold
Oryx and Crake

*The Ecotechnic Future
Brave New World Revisited

Fairies, Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Myth

Briar Rose
The Lightbearer's Daughter
Fire and Hemlock
Straw Into Gold
Celtic Wonder-Tales

Weight
The War for the Oaks
Beauty Sleep
*The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
The Stolen Child

Fantasy and Supernatural

Sabriel (reread)
Lirael
Abhorsen
Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia
Shiver

Terrier
*Bloodhound
*Mastiff
Wise Child
*Alcatraz 4
Secret Vampire
Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall
Wise Child

Education and Intelligence

The Gatekeepers
The Bell Curve
The Mismeasure of Man
The Blank Slate
Educating Scholars

*Embracing the Wide Sky
*Real Education
What's Wrong with University
The Learning Gap
Miseducation
Failing Our Kids

New York

The Luxe
Murder on Astor Place
Inside the Apple
*The Dead and the Gone
*All-of-a-Kind Family

*How the Other Half Lives
*Sidewalk
*The Sun and the Moon
*Subwayland
*Report from Ground Zero

Just Because

The Host
Across the Endless River
Three Cups of Tea
*Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls
Foucault's Pendulum

Travels with Herodotus
*The Meaning of Night
Dracula
Motel of the Mysteries
In Arabian Nights

Possible Extra Categories
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Children's Classics
Classic Literature
Group Reads
LT's Top 200
Steampunk
Slavery and Race Relations

I'm doing an America category, so we'll have to compare books. It sounds like fun.

I'll probably borrow a lot of ideas from your list! I don't really know where to start. I've been looking a bit at the 50 State Challenge group for suggestions, but there's a lot of material to go through there.

Are you reading your French books in French?

I remember reading Les Mis for the first time. It took me a good chunk of the summer. I was too young for it and kept forgetting who was who and what was going on. If only the internet had existed. Wikipedia would have made it so much easier to understand!

>5 VictoriaPL: Yup, that's the plan. I have a feeling that will end up being one of my neglected categories.... I'll probably try some easier books first, but I really want to read Les Mis because I love the play. And I hate to read books in translation when I know I could theoretically struggle through the original. So, we'll see how it goes....

I'm impressed!
I've had some French but I was never proficient at it. There's no way I could go through my Dumas books in the original!

I'm impressed as well. I sometimes wish I was better at languages. I'm sure people miss out reading in translation, but at least we can share the stories.

I'd hold off on being impressed until I actually read it--making the list is the easy part! :D

I should add, I think I've missed a lot by refusing to read things in translation--I could have been sharing a lot more stories by now :(

I'm going to add a single book in french to my challenge. I managed to read four, so far, this year in German, and found my reading ability increasing as I went. I'm not going to try for anything huge, though, maybe Les Liaisons Dangereuses or Therese Desqueyroux.

Can you recommend any easy German books? I'm currently working my way through a dual-language edition of Grimm's fairy tales, but I'm not sure where to go after that. My German is not very good.

For myself, it worked to ease in with YA and children's chapter books. I read a few by German authors (although it's not easy to find them as until recently writing children's books was considered for writers who couldn't measure up to writing adult literature) and books set in German-speaking countries (which meant I read a lot of escaping-from-the-Nazis type stuff). There is a lot of fantasy stuff out there now, like books by Cornelia Funke. It helps to read stuff you like rather than what you think you should.

Children's/YA stuff like Cornelia Funke is a good idea. I guess the next question is, where do you get these books? I usually look to university bookstores for foreign language books, but they seem to focus on the serious literary classics.

I use BookMooch.com, which is an international book trading site. It takes awhile and you have to be flexible about the specific titles, but it's cheap. Amazon is another option.

Just made this post in Ivyd's challenge and I guess it applies here to and I hope you don't mind. Can I suggest Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist for consideration in your Fairy Tales, Legends and Folklore category. He's not an author that would spring readily to mind for something like this but I read this as part of my 999 challenge and think it's the best thing he's written.

Hmm, I may have to consider BookMooch. The problem is, I don't like giving books away! I've also heard that, unintuitive though it may seem, BookMooching can actually result in terrible increases in the TBR pile ;)

>16 AHS-Wolfy: Absolutely, suggestions are always welcome! The worst that can happen is that I don't get around to reading the book, and even then, I'm always happy to have heard of something new. I've actually never read anything by Feist, so maybe this is the place to start.

> 12 - Years upon years ago, when the world was new and all, I took 8 years of German because I am not good at learning languages and it was easier to take one forever than to try another. I found 20th century German and Swiss plays pretty good, and Siddharta was fairly easy to get through. I also think that the sentimentalism of Siddharta is less cloying in the German because the music isn't lost. The German language supports it better, I think. And then, on the completely other end of the spectrum, there is Kafka's bug story, the name of which I forget in both languages. The one with Gregor.

The bug story is called The Metamorphosis. But "Käfergeschichte" would be a good title too :-)

I am so impressed by (and envious of) those of you who can read books in their original language. As much as I love the English language, I've never been any good at learning any others, and I always wonder what I'm missing in translations.

At least for me, there's a big difference between being *able* to read a book in its original language and actually doing it. It takes so much more time and concentration that I don't do it nearly as much as I should.

#20 I agree completely. My HS foreign language was Latin - not many books available in that language anymore, even if I'd learned it well enough to read. ;)

My foreign language in HS also was Latin. I read the Aeneid in Latin but that was it. Then, in college, in lieu of a language, I took "literature in translation" and read a lot of Heinrich Boll and Gunther Grass, etc.

@ #21 I totally agree. I'm swedish, and while I'm very comfortable in english (about a third of the books I read are in english) my lackluster german would probably benefit greatly from me actually using it. But the effort seems to be som big, I never make it a priority. I just feel I don't have the time. Shame, really.

Latin. I never learned English grammar properly until my German-born Latin teacher had to make me understand it in order to teach me Latin. Which was a painful but highly useful experience. Never went past the second year, however. Caesar's Gallic Wars not highly motivating to mid-teen American girl child. Lists of armaments and people dying in ravines. Oh. Joy.

#25 The most useful thing Latin did for me was improve my English comprehension. It taught me to recognize roots of words and be able to figure out meanings of words I'd never seen before. I'll bet it improved my English ACT score by 3 or 4 points. Since then, I've learned to apply the same skill to other Romance languages, so I can sometimes get a feel for the meaning of French or Spanish words, even though I don't know either language.

@25 :: The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts. :)

> 27 - Or so Caesar thought. Probably a boatload more complex than that, tribes and conquerers being what they tend to be.

> 26 - Agreed on the leg up with other languages, not to mention botanical terms. Also way good as SAT prep, supposing one is over-focused on that.

Still. Armament counts. Body counts. Steep ravines to be shot at in. Not my schtick.

@#27 For a second there, I thought you were quoting Asterix :)

@29 :: Next best thing. :)

I never learned English grammar properly until my German-born Latin teacher had to make me understand it in order to teach me Latin.

Studying foreign languages is definitely the best way to learn English grammar! At least with the way English classes function today.

I also like being able to figure out words from their roots, or even just being able to get a sense of what area a word might be from. It helps when playing Balderdash ;)

I should add that I'm also planning to include language study books in my foreign language category. If I read a book about German grammar, it's going on the list even if most of it is written in English.

*Wave of admiration* Seeing as learning languages is tough for me, I am seriously impressed that you will be including language study books in your reading.

I think language study books will actually be easier than a lot of the books in this category. I can certainly read a German grammar book more easily than a real book written in German, as long as I don't try to read it all at once.

Also, I'm starting to think that this category is just way too ambitious. It just may kill me... though I'm hoping it will just make me stronger. I just read that people are planning a group read of Herodotus.

New here and don't know where to go but I'm reading Flow Down Like Silver by Ki Longfellow because I was so impressed by The Secret Magdalene. So far, I am enthralled. There's a movie coming out about Hypatia. With this book and that movie perhaps people will know who Hypatia was. Longfellow's Hypatia is as wonderful as her Magdalene.

I have a feeling Flow Down Like Silver may not make it onto next year's list... I may have to read it sooner!

_Zoe_,

14 years ago I tried to read my first full book in English - the only things I had read in English before this were passages and short stories from my English textbooks. Took me about a month and a half and I think I spent more time searching something in the dictionary than actually reading (and the book does not even use complicated words (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd). The second one (To Kill a Mockingbird) took me about two weeks. These days I read equally fast in Bulgarian and English and as long as the book is not Ulysses or something similar I have no issues with it. So I suspect that if you read 2 books in French, the third one will be going much faster than you expect.

Edit: typo.

I hope so! I'm planning to start with Voyage au Centre de la Terre (which I have in a children's edition--I hope it isn't altered) and Candide, which I hope will be a good way to ease into it. But I think the Trois Mousquetaires group read is coming up early in the year, so I may run out of time for easing....

I did the same with books in German -- the first took forever and I missed a lot of the nuance, but later the same year I managed the first two of the Steig Larsson trilogy and while they took me a lot longer than it would have in English, I had no trouble following the rather complex plots. I do plan to do a few books in French this year, but not Les Trois Mousquetaires!

re 34 & 35> Glad to hear that Flow Down Like Silver is so good. I'm quite sure that I won't be able to wait until next year to read it.

>39 ivyd: I had to order some school books from amazon a few minutes ago, and guess what slipped in? ;)

Good for you, Zoe! Despite my good intentions to read the 4 books that just arrived in the past 2 days, I just may have to stop by the bookstore on my way home this evening...

Well, now that the book has arrived, I feel like I need to save it for a time when I'm less busy so that I can fully appreciate it... have you read it yet?

Also, I'm considering completely revising my approach to this challenge. As I get towards the end of my 999 Challenge (well, more or less), I find that I'm starting to feel a bit restricted in my book choices. I want to have broader categories so that my reading fits in, but I want to have more specific categories so that they're actually meaningful.... So I'm considering doing 20 categories of 5 books rather than 10 categories of 10. Then, at least in theory, I could be very specific while still having plenty of choice. Hmm....

>42 _Zoe_: I had the strangest experience. I did stop by Barnes & Noble to get Flow Down Like Silver. I couldn't find it, so asked at the information desk. He told me that it hadn't been published; they'd apparently changed their minds about publishing it. I said, "Yes, it has; there are people who have read it, and it was on your website a couple of days ago." He said, "They must have read ARCs, because it wasn't published, and it's not on the website," and showed me the website without the book.

I'm 99% certain that I'd looked up the book on B&N a few days before we talked about it, but sure enough -- when I got home and tried to look it up, it wasn't there. Tried Powell's -- not there either. But Amazon did have it in paperback, so I ordered it, and it arrived a couple of days ago. I'm guessing that maybe they didn't publish the planned hardback? But why only Amazon would have the paperback doesn't make any sense to me. Very strange!

I'm in the middle of The Girl Who Played with Fire right now, but will probably read Flow Down Like Silver next.

I felt rather restricted as I finished the 999 Challenge, too. Not that I didn't want to read the books, but just didn't like feeling I couldn't choose whatever I wanted next. Being so close to the end, my desire to complete the challenge won out over my desire to choose other books. Although I've read over 100 books already this year, that's far more than my usual, so I don't really anticipate that I'll complete the 1010. I think my real goal is probably 5 books in each category, and if I have more in any categories that will be great. I do like listing my books in categories, though, so I want to participate.

As the publisher of Flow Down Like Silver, Eio Books, I would like to apologize for the current limited availability. The book has been published and is available on Amazon.com or directly from our website, eiobooks.com, or from the flowdownlikesilver.com website.
The book IS available through all the normal channels but unfortunately they are slow to get books listed (despite our electronic age there is a time lag as new titles get added to the various distributor databases). Please rest assured that your favorite local bookstore, or website, will have Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexadria by Ki Longellow, available within the next couple of weeks.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Shane Roberts
Publisher, Eio Books

>44 eioshane: Thanks for stopping by to explain the situation! It's really great that you took the time to do that. If I hadn't already purchased the book, I would now be even more likely to do so :)

>43 ivyd: Ivyd, I'm sorry I didn't respond to your message earlier (I could have sworn I did... I guess sometimes I just think about what I'm going to write and don't actually get around to it). Anyway, I was going to speculate about the weird situation at B&N, but I guess that's not necessary anymore ;)

As for feeling limited in the 999, I hope my desire to finish the challenge will also win out in the end. At the very least, I'm not too opposed to changing my categories there and adding in another pretty generic one--I'm thinking "New-to-me Authors", which I could probably fill already. I'm also struggling from a sheer numbers point of view, though, so I'll almost certainly have to allow the 9 duplicates, which I had been hoping to avoid :(

5 books per category sounds like a good goal for the 101010; I'd be happy if I accomplished that, especially since I seem to keep trying for harder and harder categories. Completing the full challenge would be pretty much impossible for me, but I also enjoy the categories, so I figure I might as well make the attempt.

Very interesting, and it was nice of him to respond, although he didn't really explain what the problem has been.

I finished The Girl Who Played with Fire (great book!) and have started Flow Down Like Silver. I'm fascinated, but not far enough along to have any opinions.

I'm thinking I should probably only do the 101010 half-challenge: 5 books from each of the 10 categories. I feel like I've already gotten into full-out easy books mode to finish my 999, and there are still two months left in the year. So since I don't want to spend all of next year reading exclusively YA and children's books, I think I'll be better off with a lower numerical goal.

Okay, I've decided to begin my challenge today, sort of. I'm still working on my 999, so I'll only count books here if they don't fit in any 999 categories (or if the relevant 999 categories are full). Then, to make up for doing a bit of 101010 reading during the last two months of this year, I'll let myself count books read in January and February 2010 towards my 999 Challenge. I think this will let me have the best of both worlds: I can start reading from my exciting new 101010 categories right away without sacrificing my 999.

I'm going to start with a 101010 half-challenge, 5 books in each category.

To keep it from seeming too restrictive towards the end, I'm going to add a new category each time I finish one. This may be another of the same category, bringing the total books for that category to 10, or it may be something completely different. I hope this will keep the challenge feeling fresh throughout the year.

Oh, and I've also gone through and filled in possible reads for all my categories. These may change up until January, and even after my plan is finalized I won't necessarily stick to it ;)

I might get to a different Hypatia book than yours this challenge. Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Matyr by Michael A.B. Deakin. Also just ran the tagmash- Hypatia, fiction. It had never been mashed. I have no idea why Dracula showed up. Was Hypatia mentioned in Dracula? The four results.

Hypatia by Charles Kingsley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Remembering Hypatia: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Brian Trent
Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria by Ki Longfellow

No matter how one slices and dices it, Hypatia can't be put in ancient Egypt unless there's a time travel element involved. I might have to try the Longfellow or Kingsley along with the non-fiction Hypatia.

It will be interesting to compare our Hypatia books if we do both end up reading them!

I'm actually planning to read Flow Down Like Silver too, if I don't get to it already this year (and Dracula, for what that's worth--hah!). Have you read Longfellow's The Secret Magdalene?

I think it's probably just a loose interpretation of the term "ancient Egypt". Looking at the ratings and first review, though, I can't say I'd be particularly inspired to read that book in any case.

I haven't read The Secret Magdalene. I added it my ever-growing TBR list(s). I also have a fiction collection on LT for books that have more than a 100 ratings with a higher than 4.0 rating (100+4+) so it has a spot in that collection now. At 4.77 it more than qualified. I've had pretty good reading luck with that collection. I have one for non-fiction also.

That's a good idea for a collection. I may have to add something like that myself (but for now, I enjoyed looking through yours.)

#53 That is a fantastic idea - I'm going to go look at yours, and will also think about doing something similar.

Since you two went and looked at my 100+4+ books, I had to go look too. I put books there when I enter them on LT but hadn't looked at the whole collections for a bit. I'm happy! I've got some great books coming up. At least that's how it's supposed to work.

#56 VG - you inspired me to add 2 new collections - "Odds Are" for the 4.0 or better books with at least 100 raters ("odds are" I'll like them, too), and "Overwhelming Odds" for books that are still 4.0 or better after 500 ratings (now there are "overwhelming odds" that I'll also like these books). One is a subset of the other. I'm not sure if there is any valuable distinction - except that some books are even more popular than others - but I'll keep them for a while and see how I like them. Thanks for a great idea - it was fun to see which of my books made the cut and which didn't (a few surprises).

I'm thinking of doing the same sort of thing, with average ratings, but maybe 4.1 or so rather than just 4.0. Is there an easy way to check the ratings, though? I wish we could have a sortable average rating column.

#58 I don't know - there's a lot of function that I don't know how to use - I just looked at each book that showed more than 100 copies. I looked to see if we had an average rating column that could be displayed, but didn't notice one.

Time for a category change already! I've added a category called Dystopias: Fact and Fiction. This will include non-fiction about topics like peak oil as well as dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction.

To make room for this category, I've had to sacrifice Children's/YA Fiction. Most of these books should fit in other categories anyway, and if not, there's always Just Because. I've also expanded Fantasy to Fantasy and Supernatural, so more of the YA books can fit in there.

Quite a few of us reading dystopian books in the 1010....

Maybe we could have a group read or two? I'm already thinking of doing Oryx and Crake for the Atwood in April....

I've already purchased a copy of The Handmaid's Tale for the April read. I think I tried O&C one time and failed miserably. But let me think on it, I might give it another go.

Maybe I should do The Handmaid's Tale instead; I haven't read it either (I'm ashamed to say that I've never read any Atwood at all). I even got my copy of The Handmaid's Tale signed in person, before the days of the Long Pen, and I felt pretty silly when I had absolutely nothing to say to her....

That would be awesome Zoe, I'd love to discuss it with you. I've never really connected with Atwood, but I'm hoping I will this go around.

Author signings can be awkward. I went to see Elizabeth Hand at a con that was also attended by George R.R. Martin. Of course, he had the lion's share of the fans and her panel was nearly empty. I got to ask as many questions as I wanted to and I felt like I was gushing at her but I did get some background on several of my favorite characters.

edited to fix touchstone

Ooo I am also reading Obernewytn this year. I have had it for ages and haven't read it yet for some reason.

I would also recommend Forever for your New York category.

I was thinking about sneaking Forever into my Historical Fiction category this year. Good to see it recommended!

Ha, I was just saying in another thread that I had bought Obernewtyn a while ago and didn't read it because I didn't actually know what it was about, and someone else said the same thing. I wonder if anyone else is planning to read it this year... maybe we could do a group read.

Forever sounds like an interesting one!

I've run into a slight problem. I finally read Anne of Green Gables for the upcoming group read, and now there's a whole series that doesn't fit into any of my categories.... I think I'd ultimately like to add a Lucy Maud Montgomery category, since it would be easy to fill, but there's nothing I'm willing to give up and I'm not really eager to add an eleventh category at the very beginning (though my plan is that as I progress and finish my half-categories, I will add new ones). So for now I may stick all the L.M. Montgomery books in my Just Because category, which will fill up quickly, at which point I'll rename it to "Lucy Maud Montgomery" and add a new Just Because category. So complicated already....

I am having the same problem. I am planning on just sticking my dystopian reads in my Bonus Category and then maybe if I get a bunch I will turn that into its on category and then add a new Bonus Category. LOL

I can't believe im stressing out about it already and I haven't actually read any books for this challenge yet! I hope I don't end up psyching myself out.

A group read of Obernewtyn would be fun. I think its funny that you said you didn't know what it was about. I just started hearing about it again recently on several 1010 threads and I was like "Oh, it's a dystopian book? Maybe I should go back and reread the blurb again."

Well, you could square the category ten. ;) Using the infinity symbol is probably not a good idea though. Your categories, like most in this challenge, are neat and copacetic. Mine are a chaotic mess. My categories will emerge from that jumble while most will merge their individual books into a category. I was pretty sure I couldn't stick to ten categories. It's probably not done in the manner this challenge was set up to be done but I think it will work for me. And nobody has called for kicking me out of the challenge (yet). By no means am I suggesting others abandon the pre-set structures of their challenges. In fact, I think it's one of the main reasons this challenge is so popular. Besides, it is kind of fun watching the restructuring and changes made to categories.

>70 Belladonna1975: Ha, I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in several respects. I definitely had no idea that Obernewtyn was a dystopia, even though I own the book. I'll post in the Group Reads thread and see if there's any other interest.

>71 VisibleGhost: Yeah, I really like the categories so I don't want to start without them. I was hoping to partially get around the 10-category limit by allowing myself up to 20 half-categories (though I know there will be some repeats). But the goal was to add more categories as I finished the first ones, not to add more categories before I've even begun the challenge! I'll take some comfort from knowing that my struggles with my categories can provide entertainment for others, though ;)

I totally understand the desire for an LM Montgomery category. I did that in 2009. I had read all of the Anne books, so my goal was 9 non-Anne books. I enjoyed all of them. I recommend Blue Castle and Magic for Marigold. The Pat and Emily books are good too, but those two stick out from this year. My favorites are still the Anne books.

I love discovering prolific new writers. I'm glad to hear that her other books are good too!

A Lucy Maud Montgomery category is a great idea... I'm actually regretting not doing one for my own challenge, since I intend to reread all the Anne books, and probably the Emily books, this year.

For dystopias, have you read Genesis by Bernard Beckett? It's very short, but very interesting, and I think it's something that you would like because of your math/science bend.

Well, it's still not too late to change the categories to fit the books... ;)

I haven't yet read Genesis, though I do have it on my wishlist. I can't remember where I heard of it--if you read it this year, it probably came from your thread!

I read Genesis in September, I think? And yeah, it's never too late to change categories! I may just have an extra LMM category for bonus points, lol. Or I could get rid of foreign authors... Lucy Maud is Canadian, after all.

After a slow start, I've finally finished a book for this challenge!



Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia, in my Fantasy and Supernatural category--which I have a feeling is one that will get extended to the full 10 books.

This is the third in Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz series, which is light, silly, and intended for children, but which I find entertaining all the same. I enjoy books that make me laugh, even though I found the writing a bit grating at times. I'd definitely recommend this series to anyone looking for a light, fun fantasy read that doesn't take itself too seriously.

I think I've signed up for too many challenges, or am recording my reading too carefully in each thread! This is about the tenth message I've had to update after finishing a book this morning.





Elisha's Bones in the Just Because category. I was considering fitting this under Ancient World since it's an archaeological thriller, and other archaeology books would fit there, but I decided the archaeology component isn't significant enough.

This was a (belated) ER book, so here's my review:

I have to say, this book was not nearly as bad as I'd expected. I requested it from Early Reviewers because I was intrigued by the description, but came to expect the worst when I found out after the fact that a) It was from a Christian publisher and b) The average rating was below 3 stars, which is pretty terrible.

My first concern turned out to be entirely unfounded. Despite coming from a Christian publisher, this book isn't particularly preachy; the main character is extremely skeptical about the existence of God throughout most of the book, and as a non-Christian I found nothing to be troubled by even at the end.

My second concern was a bit more valid; this isn't a great book by any means. Especially after the halfway point, I got a bit tired of the repetitious nature of the plot: Protagonist visits old friend to ask for help. Old friend is assassinated in front of protagonist, while protagonist barely escapes with his life. Rinse and repeat. Still, the book wasn't nearly as awful as it could have been either. There was enough of interest to keep me reading, and I did ultimately come to care about the characters. I've certainly received ER books that were much worse. Considering that this is an Advanced Reader Copy of a debut book, I'm perhaps inclined to be more forgiving than some. While I can't really recommend this novel in itself, I do think the author has potential for the future.

"I think I've signed up for too many challenges, or am recording my reading too carefully in each thread!"

Repetition is good! It'll lock those books in your memory. Of course, if it's a bad book you're trying to forget, that's not so good!

I don't know; I'm being lazy by copy-and-pasting my reviews, so I'm not sure how much I'll get out of the exercise....

I just finished another book in my Fantasy and Supernatural category--I have a feeling that one will be filling up fast.





Soulless. This was a really fun read that I discovered in the 75 Book Challenge. Soulless combines elements of a lot of different genres: it's set in a Victorian world where vampires and werewolves are integrated into society, and there are some steampunk elements too. I was intrigued by the whole premise, and I found the worldbuilding very satisfying. The story was entertaining too, with plenty of amusing social interactions and also an engaging overall plot. I do have to add a minor complaint about the proofreading: at first I was willing to forgive all the sentence fragments as deliberate attempts at emphasis, but then I came to one horribly mangled Latin phrase that pulled me completely out of the story. Apparently this sentence was constructed by looking up the relevant words in the dictionary and paying no attention to how they should fit together grammatically, which is just lazy. I really don't appreciate it when the editors count on the reader's ignorance to save them from the bother of doing their work properly.

That said, I'm happy to have read this book and am definitely looking forward to the sequel. I was glad to see that it's only a couple of months away!

I've read two good reviews of Soulless in the past two or three days. It's definitely on my TBR pile now!

I noticed the editing issues with Soulless too but I still enjoyed it and plan on reading the second one this year. You have to love a woman who uses a silver tipped parasol as a weapon!

Victoria, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Yup, I definitely loved the parasol as weapon. I was actually a bit disappointed that she didn't use it more throughout the book!

79, 80,
Yeah, Ive noticed that for myself as well - and have found myself reading multiple copies of others' reviews in multiple groups/threads as well... which is fine, it's good to see that folks are so diligent.

I'm starting to think I may just cut down on the number of places I start posting to... and either just link to the other thread or not post... I dunno. Have others encountered similarly?

I've noticed that some people do that, but I always find it disappointing when the thread of theirs that I actually want to follow just has links to some other group. Usually I don't follow through on the links and ultimately end up ignoring the thread because it has so little of interest in it. So personally, I'm going to maintain my threads in every group that I'm participating in.

I've already determined that I'm not going to be capable of unique posts in all three challenge forums, and am basically waiting to see how many people just copy/paste. If it seems common and acceptable, I'll do that. In the meantime, I'm sort of alternating.

I really don't think copy and pasting is a problem. I usually add at least a bit of comment that relates to the specific challenge, anyway: which category it counts in for 1010, or whether it's part of a subchallenge in the 75 Book Challenge, or who recommended it if I heard about it in one of the groups.

#85, et seq., I guess I do a combination of these solutions. I write a "review" on the 75 book challenge thread, which is where I post every single book I read. I'll cut and paste it here if it counts towards this challenge (together with a note about which category it is being counted in). But normally, if it counts towards another challenge, I'll write a shorter summary of my reactions, focusing on the particular goal of that challenge. I'll admit that I do sometimes get frustrated reading the same review in 2 or 3 threads when I follow the same person in several groups. But usually, each group generates different comments and those are interesting to read, so I don't really mind.

I use the c&p method when a book fits more than 1 challenge. Not everyone is doing the same challenges so different people may see comments in different threads. Anyone who is doing the same challenges that I am will probably realise it's the same post in each anyway so will just look in the one.

I'll admit that I do sometimes get frustrated reading the same review in 2 or 3 threads when I follow the same person in several groups.

I hope I don't annoy you too much :(

Maybe the reason copied reviews don't bother me is because I skim a lot anyway. Too many threads and too little time.... so jumping over a review that I've already seen elsewhere isn't a big deal.

I hope I don't annoy you too much :(

Not me

I tend to cut and paste my review and then alter it to fit the challenge or focus on different aspects of the book with each thread. I don't follow links generally, and if a thread is all links, I don't read it, figuring that the person's priorities are with another forum/blog and posting in the forum I'm reading is an afterthought. It does help a little, since I'm following so many threads; there are so many good ones!

#91 No! not at all! I've learned that when I'm in a hurry that I don't need to open all your threads if you've posted one new message on each one and the first one has a new review. I just wait until more comments have been posted and read them all at once. I did come across a little strong - sorry about that. My frustration has always been with myself for taking time to open all the threads when time was short and I really wanted to see different comments - not with you or anyone else for posting the same review in several places.

Don't worry, no harm done :)

I used to have the same problem with opening threads too soon rather than waiting until new comments accumulated, but there are so many threads now that I'm behind even on the ones I've starred. I guess that could be a good thing?

#95 Thanks. :-) It seems that there are too many threads somethimes and it IS hard to keep up even on the starred ones. I don't know if it's good - lots of good books and conversation on those threads, but sometimes I go too fast and don't really see them. I find myself looking for the folks that I "know" best when I don't have time for all of them.

I'm just catching up on reading the posts on this group. Souless sounds like a good read, though I'm meant to be ignoring vampires this year.

Hi, Zoe!

I do a lot of the cut-and-paste thing, with minor changes relevant to the thread. I just don't have time to fuss over a lot of changes in my posts to different threads. I'd rather spend a few more minutes catching up on other people's threads, since I'm always behind even in my starred threads (which are many).

I admit, I do a lot of skimming as I read other people's threads, too, especially if I recognize a "duplicate" posting and/or there is a lot of discussion about a book that definitely isn't for me.

I will also admit, I do consider the 75 challenge my primary thread, simply because ALL the books I read count there, so I usually post there first to make sure I don't miss any, then post relevant reading to other challenge threads.

>96 sjmccreary: I definitely look for the people I "know" best too, but I don't think that's a bad thing. When I have more time I still like to open a random thread, and I figure I can also find new people by seeing their posts in other threads that I do read.

>97 avatiakh: I think you're the second person who's said that Soulless sounds interesting but that they're done with vampires for now! If you do decide to read it, though, it also happens to be a debut novel for TIOLI, and three people have already read it this month....

>98 tymfos: Hi Terri! Thanks for stopping by. I guess I'm fortunate(?) to read slowly enough that every book can count for this challenge as well, so that makes it easier in a way.

Wow, your list looks great! I see that you've got Weight on your list. Have you read The Penelopiad? Of the two, I liked it much better, though I usually love Winterson's writing. I think Margaret Atwood is at her absolute best in The Penelopiad. I'll be checking back for your Ancient World category - some of those might end up on my list!

Yay, I'm glad someone is interested in my Ancient World category! I hope some of my reads do make it onto your list :)

I haven't read The Penelopiad, though it's on the list of books to get to eventually. I admit, I bought Weight because it was on sale for $3, so I hope it's not too bad....

For your list of "Fairies, Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Myth", you could also look at Chimera by John Barth. It's beautifully written but seems to have fallen off most reader's radar screens. Barth's presentation of women occasionally leaves something to be desired, but at other times he can be breathtaking.

Thank you for that recommendation! I'm especially happy because I happen to own a copy of that book already, and it's been sitting unread on my shelf for years. Any encouragement toward books already in the TBR pile is fantastic!

Oh, Weight isn't bad. It's good, it's just not brilliant.

103> I look forward to your review!

The review of Chimera may be a long time coming--I've left the book in "storage" at my parents' house, so I can't get at it until the summer. I will try to read it at some point this year, though!

In the meantime, here's my review of The Dead and the Gone, which I'm counting in my New York category because it's set in Manhattan. Copied word-for-word from my 75 Book Challenge thread, so feel free to skip it....



This is the companion to Life as We Knew It, a YA novel about the struggle to survive in a world crippled by natural disasters. Life As We Knew It was fantastic, so I decided to read this one as well even though I had heard that it wasn't as good.

And the reviews were right; this was a disappointment, especially coming as a follow-up to such a great book. I don't regret the tiime spent reading it, but it managed to fall a bit flat for me despite containing some pretty horrific goings-on. I think, compared to Life As We Knew It, there were two main reasons that this didn't really work for me. First, I found it much more difficult to relate to the main character. The protagonist of Life As We Knew It is female, middle class, growing up in a suburban lifestyle pretty much the same as I did. The male protagonist in The Dead and the Gone comes from an extremely traditional and religious family, where the man of the house makes all the decisions, to the extent that a teenaged boy left in charge of his family might choose to send his two-years-younger sister off to a convent and not bother telling her until he came to take her from school and put her on the bus. A twelve-year-old girl is expected to do all the cooking and cleaning for her older brother, who has no idea what to do with a box of pasta. Becoming a nun is mentioned as a likely future on more than one occasion. This just isn't my world, and I think the effect of seeing the familiar world crumbling as the novel unfolds is lessened when it wasn't that familiar to begin with.

My other issue is that I really like books where the characters struggle for survival, relying on their ingenuity and so on to get by. This is what I expected to happen here, but throughout most of the book they didn't really have to do anything. Lunches were provided at school and other food handouts were provided once a week, so that starvation never really seemed like it could be an issue until the very end. Likewise, the electricity came on periodically so that they could boil water in the microwave, and the heating oil lasted almost until the end, and the whole survival thing just didn't seem like a lot of work.

And yet, despite all that, I'm still tempted to read the third book in the series when it comes out later this year, so this one can't have been all bad. I definitely recommend Life As We Knew It, anyway; just proceed with caution after that.

I have had Life as We Knew it on my radar for a while now. I am glad to hear that the first one is great. Alot of trilogies (in my opinion) suffer from the sophomore slump so hopefully the third book (which is supposed to be a melding of the characters from books 1 and 2 will be better.

I think I'll wait for the reviews before reading the third one. I'm always a bit suspicious of books that bring together previously-separate characters, because it doesn't always seem natural. I hope you do read and enjoy Life As We Knew it, though!

When You Reach Me, for my New York category. I'm not sure how this category is working out; this is the second book I've read this year with a New York setting, and they've both been pretty disappointing. I think I may stop this category at 5 and move on to a new one.

And here's my review of the book, copied from my 75 Book Challenge thread. Warning: potential spoilers, though if you've looked at the tag cloud you've seen it already.

I fully expected to love this children's book; I had heard great things about it from several trustworthy people in this group, and it had just won the Newbery Medal, and it had been heavily influenced by A Wrinkle in Time and included elements of time travel. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, I think I may have suffered from too-high expectations going into this book, because it ultimately left me feeling flat. The interactions between the characters didn't seem real to me; relationships tended to be based on sudden, grand revelations rather than gradual and natural developments. When the main character did carry on real conversations with others, I found that I didn't particularly like her; for someone who had read A Wrinkle in Time a hundred times, she showed remarkably little curiosity about the puzzles posed by time travel and preferred to scornfully dismiss the topic as "too weird" than to have fun imagining the possible implications. And when time travel did make an appearance in the story itself, the revelations felt almost anti-climactic after the elaborate build-up. There just wasn't enough complexity there. I was especially disappointed when the promised explanation for one character's strange behaviour turned out to have nothing to do with the main mystery at all, but instead was an exaggerated reaction to one of those "grand revelations" that apparently determined the course of all relationships.

Overall, this wasn't a bad book, but I don't think I'd recommend it.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is set in New York (for most of it, it starts and ends in CT) and is always a good read.
Just trying to help make something in your NY category not be as disappointing as the first two have been.

Thanks for that suggestion! I've heard good things about that book before and somehow just never managed to get around to it. I see that it won a Newbery Medal, so maybe I can fit it in for this month's TIOLI....

#110 - From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is my favourite kids book ever. And I've always thought that a certain scene in The Royal Tannenbaums was a big shout-out to it.

Ah, see, my first message was a simple mention because you might have already read it. If you've never read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler then I have to come back and give a much heartier recommendation. It is great. I read the book when I was young, and then last month I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed that experience as well.

And, as you pointed out, it fits the TIOLI challenge as well!

Or maybe I should encourage you to pick up The Handmaid's Tale to match my Canada Reads for the TIOLI challenge this month. That would bring a point to the challenge. :-)

Okay, I will definitely put From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler on the list of books to read this year, if not this month--I already have three more February TIOLI books that I'm planning to get to, in addition to the one I already finished, so I don't know how I'll fit everything in! But I'll see if I can squeeze in The Handmaid's Tale too; you never know. I think I may end up carrying over incomplete challenges into March, because there are just so many good Newbery books and Canada Reads.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does TIOLI stand for?

TIOLI is the Take It Or Leave It challenge, which is part of the 75 Book Challenge group. Each month people come up with different challenges to be done over the course of the month. For February, the categories include a book with a red spine, a Newbery Medal winner, and a Canada Reads book. I've been finding that it's a great way to work on the TBR pile, because there's an incentive to read the book in question right now rather than putting it off yet again. You can read more about it here.

Mr. Impossible. Well, my mother and sister will be overjoyed: after years of resistance, I've finally given in and read a romance novel. When I was under a lot of stress over the holidays, my mother declared that I needed some light reads, and somehow seven romances ended up in my suitcase. So as I was trying to recover from a horrible cold this past week, I decided to give one a try. And I admit, I enjoyed it.

First, I loved the setting: Mr. Impossible takes place in Egypt in the early 19th century, where the English are competing with the French to discover valuable antiquities and be the first to decipher hieroglyphics. Daphne Pembroke is a widow and a scholar working hard to solve the mystery of ancient Egyptian writing, but since a female scholar wouldn't be taken seriously, she pretends that her brother Miles is the scholar and presents her work in his name. But when Miles purchases an expensive papyrus as a gift for his sister, suspicions that he's discovered the secret of hieroglyphics and directions to a pharaoh's treasure result in his kidnapping, and Daphne must try to save him....

The beginning of the book was really a lot of fun, with a sort of over-the-top political intriguing that actually had me laughing out loud at times. I want to read more stories like this, that have an interesting historical setting but don't take themselves too seriously.

And then there's the romance aspect. The male hero is certainly appealing, and I enjoyed the non-physical development of their relationship--the banter, and so on. I was less interested in their thoughts about each other's bodies, and toward the end of the book I felt like the romance really slowed down the plot. I know, the romance is supposed to be the plot, but I wanted more than that. So, I don't think I've quite been converted into a regular romance-reader yet, but I do plan to read more of them occasionally. I give this book 3.5 stars overall.

Everything above was copied from my 75 Book Challenge thread; new comments begin here:

I've categorized this under Just Because for now. Like Elisha's Bones, it has an archaeological component, but I'm not sure it's quite significant enough to warrant a spot in my Ancient World category. Since I now have two of these archaeological-fiction books in my Just Because category, though, I think I should add a new category to hold them--maybe "Archaeology in Fiction"?

It was my plan from the beginning to add new half-categories as I finished old ones, and it's getting to the point where I can start thinking about that. Other than the archaeology-fiction thing, the main spot where I'll run into issues based on my reading patterns so far is my Fantasy and Supernatural category. I've already read three of five books there, so I'll clearly need to expand on it by the end of the year. The obvious solution is to split it into two categories, one pure Fantasy and one pure Supernatural, but I'm also tempted to add a Steampunk category, which would include Soulless (already read and currently in Fantasy/Supernatural), the two sequels expected later this year, and The Anubis Gates and any other steampunk group reads in the 75 Book Challenge group. My New York category should be completed fairly soon, so maybe I can replace that with Steampunk.

@118 :: Mr. Impossible sounds like fun! I've read a couple other books by Loretta Chase and have been undecided about trying this one, but I think I will. :)

Also, if you enjoyed the romance-without-explicit-sex and witty-banter aspects of the novel, you would probably like Georgette Heyer's Regency romances. There are no sex scenes, but the stories are romantic and a lot of fun! The Grand Sophy, Sylvester, and Cotillion are some of my favorites.

I hope you enjoy Mr. Impossible! Thanks for the Georgette Heyer suggestions. My mother surprisingly seems to have none of those in her vast romance collection, so I may have to search them out on my own.

@120 :: I hope you enjoy Heyer if you decide to go for it. I'm not much of a romance-novel reader myself, but I absolutely love her books!

Oh, good! Recommendations from someone who doesn't read a lot of romance novels mean a lot. I'll definitely get to the books eventually, it's only a matter of when....

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. This one goes in my Dewey Decimal Challenge category--it's a 796. Finally, some progress in one of my non-fluff categories! This is the first non-fiction book I've finished all year.

To minimize effort, I'm again copying my review from my 75 Book Challenge thread. I think I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with challenges; I may give up on maintaining multiple threads next year. Anyway, the review:

I'm not a runner, but the description of this book intrigued me. It's just fun to read about travels to exotic locations in search of isolated peoples who are capable of incredible physical feats. My complete inability to run probably made the whole thing even more awe-inspiring to me; though I'd like to, I can't really imagine myself running a hundred-mile race.

Other highlights of the book included a discussion of how running shoes are actually bad for our feet (one study showed that runners wearing shoes that cost $95 or more had more than twice as many injuries as those whose shoes cost less than $40), because it's pretty shocking that an enormous and profitable industry can be based entirely on false premises.

And there was a fascinating section on the role running played in human evolution, including ideas about why homo sapiens survived when the stronger, bigger-brained Neanderthals disappeared.

Basically, there's probably something for everyone here. While I did feel that the book dragged slightly with the profiles of individual runners near the middle, in general I found that the interesting subject-matter and casual writing style kept me turning the pages quickly. I've come away from the book with a sense that I've learned a lot and with a desire to take up running myself (though I'm not particularly optimistic about my chances of success there!). I'm wavering between 4 and 4.5 stars.

I've decided to add a Steampunk category, which already contains two books. It was difficult to choose another category to get rid of, but for now I've sadly eliminated Fairies, Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Myth. I hope to add it back later when I finish with one of my other categories. I admit, it was tempting to get rid of a harder category like Foreign Language, but I figured I need all the encouragement I can get there.

The change was partially motivated by a book I just finished: The Anubis Gates.



I read this for the 75 Book Challenge Steampunk group read, which is taking place because everyone read and enjoyed Soulless in January. Since the group read is going to continue with more books, and there are two sequels to Soulless expected later this year, the addition of a Steampunk category was pretty much a no-brainer.

I've always wondered about The Anubis Gates. Looking forward to your review!

I would definitely recommend giving it a try! If you're wondering very strongly about it, there's even still time to get in on the 75 Book Challenge group read, since it just started today ;)

124- You've punked the poor little fairies? Maybe there is some Fairypunk out there. I still have Born to Run on the TBR lists. It's interesting to see how long this book has been appearing on the bestseller lists. Now I'll have to decide whether to read your thoughts on Anubis Gates before I read it or after.

Hehe. But it was a difficult decision... especially because I'll be reading Briar Rose for the group read in the next week or so, and it would have gone in that category!

The tagmash for fairies, steampunk actually contains 17 books, starting with The Iron Dragon's Daughter (fairypunk as a tag, unfortunately, is non-existent). There are some on that list that I've read and wouldn't have considered steampunk, though.

Anyway, I like to think that my poor abandoned category will be back eventually. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it knocked out Foreign Language in the end. We'll see.

As for the Anubis Gates, depending on how quickly you recover and read your copy, maybe the decision will be made for you. I'm not planning to write a review until the discussion is done, and once I've put it off that long my true procrastinating nature may come to the fore....

Wow! I googled Fairypunk. There is a style of dress called Fairy Punk. Instead of dark and somber like the Goths, it's bright and cheerful. Though it looks like the two groups hang. I didn't know that. Then again, I'm old and out of touch.

Huh, who knew?

I've fallen behind here again.



I read Briar Rose for the group read. It should have gone in the fairy tales category, but for now I have nowhere to put it. It's not fantasy. I may have to get rid of a different category for now.

Then I read Puppet Master, which I've currently listed as fantasy, though it might have enough folklore elements to belong in the missing category too.



Set in 1898 Prague, this story revolves are the Puppet Master of the title and his scheme to take control of the land, hypnotizing the crowds who come to his puppet shows and using some sort of dark magic to transform people into marionettes.

The heroine, Milena, is trying to come to terms with the disappearance of her mother, who vanished shortly after Milena's father plummeted to his death while setting up for his own puppet show. Of course, the different plot threads turn out to be connected in various ways....

I know exactly why I picked up this book--the description reminded me of aspects of The Anubis Gates, which I loved when I read it last week for the group discussion. Unfortunately, Owen is not Tim Powers. While her ideas had a lot of potential, I found that the story never really gripped me. Maybe it's not fair to compare a children's book to an adult novel and expect that they'll have equal depth, but after reading the two so close together, the comparison is inevitable.

Strangely, I find that I actually like Puppet Master more now that I'm done with it than I did as I was reading. There are certain images and concepts that will stick with me, despite the lack of excitement of the story itself.

One minor rant: why do publishers put the pronunciation guide at the end of the story? Do they expect that people read the end of the book before the beginning? I still enjoyed finding out about the pronunciation after the fact, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I could have had all the Czech names right in my head as I went along! Of course, I also found it strange that accents were included in the pronunciation guide and glossary but not in the story itself, so I'm not sure how much the pronunciation guide would have helped, but still!



Then The Things That Keep Us Here. This is the story of one family's struggle to survive an avian influenza pandemic. I love this sort of apocalyptic survival story, so I had to pick this one up immediately when I read about it on Steph Su's thread.

In some ways, The Things That Keep Us Here reminded me a lot of Life As We Knew It, a book that I loved when I read it a couple of years ago. Society shuts down and people withdraw into their houses, trying to draw out their food supplies and gathering firewood to keep them warm through a winter without electricity.

Where Life As We Knew It is YA, though, this is an adult book, maybe more specifically a "woman's book". Ann is a mother going through a divorce and still trying to come to grips with the death of her infant son ten years before.

I appreciated the extra length and depth that an adult book allows, but I did find it hard to relate to relate to Ann's character, especially at first. Maybe it's because I'm not a mother myself. There was one scene in particular, near the middle of the book--don't read this paragraph if you're afraid of slight spoilers--, where Ann's best friend, dying of influenza, knocks on the door and begs Ann to take her baby. She says that the baby already had the flu, so he's now immune and not carrying the virus. But Ann, thinking that a mother would say anything to save her child, doesn't believe her and leaves the baby outside on the doorstep in the cold, rather than risk infecting her own daughters. I have to say, I found this really shocking. But at the same time, the fact that the book raises such difficult moral issues is one of its greatest strengths.

I do want to emphasize that this book is about family, not about society. Other than the increasing lawlessness, we hear hardly anything about what's going on in the outside world. And maybe this is for the best, because I found the parts that dealt with society's broader response to the problem were some of the weakest in the book and often just didn't ring true. We know that schools would close, yes. But would the university dorms close with only a few hours' notice, leaving some students with nowhere to spend the night? Would researchers studying avian influenza immediately be told that the building was closing and they had to go home? All of this supposedly happened when the WHO pandemic alert level reached Stage 5, but we actually got to Stage 6 last year, and the world didn't pre-emptively shut down.

So it was just as well that this book focused on family. As contact with the outside world disappeared, the story just got better. And it was fast-paced and interesting all the way. I'm definitely glad I read this one.

I think I need to rename my Dystopias category to include this sort of book as well.

I'm adding a new category and declaring it finished at the same time (I've fallen a bit behind here....):

Historical Fantasy (5/5)
His Majesty's Dragon
Throne of Jade
Black Powder War
Empire of Ivory
Victory of Eagles



These are the five currently-available books in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which combines the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. Obviously I enjoyed them, since I read five in just over a week.

I still have ten categories on the go after completing this one, but now I only have 9 (or maybe 19) more to finish.

Hooray for Temeraire! I have all 5 of these books on my shelves, but so far I've only read the first 3. Love them!

>133 christina_reads: I love them too, I can't wait for the sixth!



Three Cups of Tea. I'm counting this in my Education and Intelligence category, though it wasn't quite what I had in mind when I chose that category. I don't really have much to say about this book that I'm sure everyone knows about already: a failed mountain climber is taken in by a tiny village in northern Pakistan, and promises to return to build them a school. It was a quicker read than I'd expected, and I also learned more than I'd expected about Pakistan and Afghanistan. Still, I only give it 4 stars; it wasn't quite as amazing as its popularity might suggest. I do plan to read Mortenson's next book eventually, though.

Changeless, in my Steampunk category.

Ugh. Please don't force me to read the next book in a series by introducing major new plot elements a few pages from the end and leaving them totally unresolved. I want to go on with a series because I'm enjoying spending time in that world, not because I was tricked by a cliffhanger ending. The ending of Changeless just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Of course, I'm more forgiving of these underhanded tactics when I've been thoroughly enjoying the reading experience up to that point. Unfortunately, I can't quite say that that was the case here. It took about half the book before I was really engaged in the story at all, and even then there were elements that irked me.

I read in an author interview that while Soulless was structured like a romance, Changeless was supposed to be more like a mystery. Unfortunately, I think that some of the silliness that worked so well in a lighthearted romance didn't quite hit the mark here. It was one thing for Alexia's empty-headed friend Ivy Hisselpenny to be concerned only with hats and manners when there wasn't really much at stake, or at least nothing that wasn't being concealed from her; but in the context of someone hanging on for dear life, at risk of plummeting to sure death at any moment, or when people were being poisoned or shot at, her absolute idiocy was just grating.

I also think that Changeless in general is lacking some of the interest of Soulless because the world is already established, and we mainly have to rely on plot and characters to keep us engaged now. One of the things I loved about Soulless was the unique setting and the descriptions of how vampires and werewolves were integrated into Victorian society.

Let me re-iterate here that these comments are coming from someone who absolutely loved Soulless. It's not by coincidence that I read Changeless as soon as it was released; I had been looking forward to this book for months. I'm sad to say that it was ultimately a bit of a disappointment.

And yet, when it comes to the final judgement, should you read this book? If you liked Soulless, of course you should, though I might advise waiting until September when the third book is released. And if you haven't read Soulless, I would highly recommend it. Even after being underwhelmed by Changeless, I'm looking forward to reading more of Carriger's work in the future.