State of the Blog: Part Three, the Challenges

Fall is in the air! I am running out of time to finish my challenges.

To keep track of my reading for the year, I like to do quarterly blog assessment posts.  This one takes a look at the challenges I'm working on in 2011. The first part addressed my lists. Part Two dealt with my author lists.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these same challenges, please leave a comment here on on my main challenge post. I would like to read your main challenge pages and any reviews.

CHALLENGES HOSTED BY ROSE CITY READER

I am hosting the two Battle of the Prizes Challenges again in 2011. The challenges run from February 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012.



2011 Battle of the Prizes: American Version

 

Like in past years, this challenge pits National Book Award winners against Pulitzer Prize winners. There are two ways to participate -- either read one book that won the Pulitzer Prize, one that won the National Book Award, and one that won both; or read two Pulizer winners and two National winners.

I'm going with the 4-book option this year.  I've read one of each so far:

• Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, for one of my Pulitzer choices (reviewed here);
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, for one of my National Choices (reviewed here).

Possible National Award winners for my second choice:

1. The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
2. Them by Joyce Carol Oates
3. Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers
4. The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program, so I could scratch it off two lists)

 Possible Pulitzer winners for my second choice:

1. One of Ours by Willa Cather
2. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

2011 Battle of the Prizes: British Version

Just as in 2010, this challenge is to read books that won the Man Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.  This has the same set up -- either read one winner of each prize and a double-dipper, or read two of each.

I will have to go with the 4-book option, because I've read all three of the double-dippers. So far, I've read:

• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for a Booker choice (reviewed here);
• Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd for a Black choice (reviewed here).

Other possible Booker picks are:

1. How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman 
2. Shindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Other possible James Tait Black picks are:

1. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
2. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

2011 CHALLENGES I AM PARTICIPATING IN

The challenge titles link to my main challenge posts.

Foodie's Reading Challenge

Margot at Joyfully Retired is hosting a challenge for 2011 that I am very excited about: The Foodie's Reading Challenge!

I signed up at the "Bon Vivant" level to read four to six books.  I've already read four, and will probably read some more before the end of the year. I am on a Food Freedom kick, so food books are stacking up on my nightstand.

So far, I've read:

1. The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here)
2. Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin (reviewed here)
3. American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen (reviewed here)
4. The Onmivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (which I haven't reviewed yet, but discussed here)

Others in the running include (in no particular order):

• The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert
• James Beard on Food Delights and Prejudices by James Beard
• On the Town in New York by Michael Batterberry
• Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk
• The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl
• Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
• Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones
• American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
• Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller
• French Spirits: A House, a Village, and a Love Affair in Burgundy by Jeffrey Greene
• A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher
• The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons
• Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

And it might be a good idea to include this one:

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

Chunkster Reading Challenge 

 

Wendy at caribousmom is hosting this fun challenge again this year.  The challenge sign-up post is here.

Since I didn't reach my chunkster goal in 2010, I am scaling down a bit in 2011 and signing up for the "Chubby Chunkster" level this year.  That means reading four books over 450 pages long.

So far, I've only read one chunkster with my eyes. I've read a couple more with my ears, but audiobooks don't count -- the tactility of big fat books is a main point of the challenge.

So far, I overlapped with the Foodie challenge on The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here), is quite the Chunkster.

I'm still planning on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.  That's my "big book" for 2011.  I don't know which others will strike my fancy.

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge is hosted by My Reader's Block.  The goal is to read mysteries written before 1960.  I signed up at the "In a Murderous Mood" level with the goal of reading four to six books, by at least two different authors, by the end of the year.

So far, I have read six, but I only reviewed one. So I have completed the challenge, but in a pretty half-assed way.

1. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthor Conan Doyle
2. The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
4. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (reviewed here)
5. The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
6. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers 

Birth Year Reading Challenge 2011

I am participating in this challenge, but I keep forgetting to put up a post.  Or to read the books.

But I finally got my hands on a copy of The Anti-Death League by Kingsley Amis (on the Burgess list), so I am going to get at least one candle.

Any ideas for other books published in 1966?

International Anita Brookner Day

I had good intentions for participating in International Anita Brookner Day.  I finished my one book, A Friend From England, but I didn't review it. I hope that Thomas at My Porch hosts the challenge again next year so I can have a second chance.