2009 Reading Challenges I'm doing

I'm going to do at least three reading challenges in 2009. They are "A to Z Challenge" and "What's in a Name" challenge. I may add others, but for now these are the two I'm most set on doing. For the "A to Z" challenge I'm going to do the option to read Authors, by last name, A to Z. And I'm going to do "Celebrate the Author" where you chose one author each month whose birthday it is. Sounds fun, too!

I will post lots of reviews coming up, so stay tuned and check back when you can.

Update - Using my blog for Reading Challenges

I'm planning on doing some reading challenges in 2009. I've been involved in some challenges through 'shelfari' like Play Book Tag challenges. Will begin to use this as my reading list for upcoming 2009 book/reading challenges.

An attempt at "War and Peace"

I picked up a new translation of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and am making that my "winter book." But, I will read other things will attempting to finish the 1300 pages of this book. So far, I'm only 120 pages into it, Part One was good, it dealt mostly with the main characters pre-war life in Moscow and/or Petersburg. Part Two is now into "getting ready for the war" and it's a bit slow going, and a bit of challenge. I decided to read this, after seeing that this new edition was on a number of book critic's top choices of 2007. Stay tuned, we'll see how I make out.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Devastating. Touching. Just two words to describe this incredible novel by the author of "The Kite Runner." This time, Khaled Hosseini takes into the lives of two very heroic Afghan women. Two women of different generations, both forced into marriage to the same abusive man. Mariam is just 15 when she is forced to marry Rasheed, who was 40. Then 18 years later, Rasheed marries (for reasons that make more sense in the novel) Laila. Mariam is sort of a "mother/sister" to Laila. This story is about what they endure as women during the tumultuous times of war in Afghanistan during the 1990s and into today. There are scenes that are very moving, many that are very difficult to think about, and overall a story of survival. This is a must read.

Watership Down

I first read this amazing book when it come out in the 1970s, as a teenager. I loved it then and I still love it now. At least once a year for the past three or more years I pick it up and read it again. That's what I'm doing now, reading "Watership Down" again. A fantastic story about the lives of rabbits as a certain number of them leave their warren to find a new home, as one of them, Fiver is his name, has a premonition of "bad things to come." Fiver's brother, Hazel, leads them on a journey to a new home, with a lot of adventures along the way. This story "humanizes" the rabbits, we see them as having fears, and emotions such as we humans have. This is a classic, if you're never read it, you'll be hooked by this fantastic story.

The Devil in the White City

This spring I read a great book called "The Devil in the White City" and it's an historical book about the building of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, revolving around two main real life persons, Daniel Burnham the architect behind the design of this World's Fair, and H.H. Holmes, probably America's first serial killer, who was doing his bad deeds in southern Chicago at the time leading up to and during the Exposition of 1893. There was no real connection between these two persons, they just happened to each have been doing "big things" in Chicago at the same time. Very fascinating story, and a true one. The book reads like a great novel, but the fact that it's all true is even more compelling.

Pride and Prejudice

Believe it or not, although I was an English major in college, and have read many many classics during that time, and in my personal life, I have never read a Jane Austen novel. Well, that is now changing. I picked up "Pride and Prejudice" along with two other of her novels and am enthralled. Of course I've seen the movie version of a number of her novels, but reading them is so different. The characters are so much more rich and engaging, of course. "Pride and Prejudice" is an excellent love story and an excellent fall out of love story, or will love happen story. The character of Mr. Darcy, for one thing, is much more than what I've seen him portrayed in film versions of this story. Is he basically kind of a jerk or just misunderstood/misrepresented? I'm almost through with this story, and will probably move onto "Sense and Sensibility" next. Stay tuned...