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Man, am I ever a sucker for a reading challenge!

Okay, so this is really just a place holder post while I think about what to read.

Okay, I've got a tentative list...

Books from your shelves
1. The Bridge of Sighs
2. Interred With Their Bones
3. The Black Tower
4. I Capture the Castle
5. Stones From the River

Books You Have Borrowed
1. Murder at the Opera
2. Last Night at Chateau Marmont
3. Talking to Girls about Duran Duran
4. Does the Noise in my Head Bother You?
5. A Dog's Purpose

Recommended Books
1. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
2. Oryx and Crake
3. The Year of the Flood
4. Mr. Timothy
5.

Dreading to Tackle
1. We Need to Talk About Kevin
2. The Post-birthday World
3. The Bell Jar
4. Drood
5. The French Lieutenant's Woman

On Your TBR the Longest
1. 84 Charing Cross Road
2. Portrait of a Killer
3. She's Not There
4. The Sociopath Next Door
5. Thinking in Pictures

Shortest Books
1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
2. The Lambs of London
3. As She Climbed Across the Table
4. The Bad Book Affair
5. You Don't Love Me Yet

Spell Something with Picture Books
A
L
Y
S
S
A

Non-fiction
1. Almost French
2. Affluenza
3. Stolen Innocence
4. Not Buying It
5. You're Wearing That?

Books From Series
1. The Girl Who Played with Fire
2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
3. A Noble Radiance
4. Wilful Behaviour
5. A Sea of Troubles

Books Started but Never Finished
1. Palace Walk
2. The Book Of Lost Things
3. Lord John and the Private Matter
4. the Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
5.

No guarantees I'll actually follow this list. :)

**Edited to reflect use of the Beta page numbers guide for the Shortest Books list.

And I'll be starting off by reading something not on my lists; therefore, please ignore the above.

From the borrowed books section:

Apologize, Apologize! by Elizabeth Kelly.

This was a book club book, and so fabulous! The characters are all really nutty. Collie Flanagan is the only halfway normal member of a seriously dysfunctional family. His mom is prone to hystrionics (and that's being generous). His father is your typical Irish drunk character. Uncle Tom lives with them to cook and clean, but he's a nutter, too. They call the grandfather The Falcon. And his brother is the golden child. The one they all love.

Feel free to adjust your list as you go along, Adrienne. You're welcome to add to your list or replace a book you haven't read yet - whichever you choose.

I think what I'll do is start a new list with just the books I have read. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Borrowed Books
1. Apologize, Apologize by Elizabeth Kelly


Shortest Books
1. The Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade. This was exactly what I needed. I needed light and fluffy and not too thought-requiring.

Alona is the most popular girl in school. Until she gets hit by a bus in the street and killed. She comes back as a ghost, except no one can see her. Well, Except for Will Killian, a boy she would barely have noticed in life, aside from to make fun of his clothes.

Borrowed Books
1. Apologize Apologize
2. The Ghost and the Goth

3 books total.

Adrienne wrote: "The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade. This was exactly what I needed. I needed light and fluffy and not too thought-requiring.

Alona is the most popular girl in school. Until ..."

Adrienne, I just had to chuckle. . . you described your book as light and fluffy then opened with "until she gets hit by a bus in the street and killed." Ummmmmm. . .

LOL ;)

Ha! Yeah, okay. Fluff is subjective?

Picture books!

Snow White: Silver Anniversary Edition

and

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Spell a Word
A
L
Y
Snow White
Stinky Cheese Man
A

5 total books.

I don't want to get edit my original list because I want to see how much my ending list differs from it, so, I will create a new list here to add to as I go. This is purely for my own organizational benefit, so feel free to ignore.

Books from your shelves
1. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
2. I Capture the Castle
3. Cassandra and Jane
4. Read This Next
5. 43 Old Cemetery Road: Dying to Meet You

Books You Have Borrowed
1. Apologize, Apologize
2. The Ghost and the Goth
3. This Must Be the Place
4. Kings of the Earth
5. Strip

Recommended Books
1. The Financial Lives of the Poets
2. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
3. Oryx and Crake
4. Library Wars Vol. 1
5. Women Food and God

Dreading to Tackle
1. Drood (length)
2.
3.
4.
5.

On Your TBR the Longest
1. 84 Charing Cross Road
2. Portrait of a Killer
3. She's Not There
4.
5.

Shortest Books
1. The Lambs of London
2. You Don't Love Me Yet
3. As She Climbed Across the Table
4. A Briefer History of Time
5. Every Day is a Good Day

Spell Something with Picture Books
A - Adele and Simon
L - The Lion and the Mouse
Y - Yertle the Turtle
S - Snow White
S - Stinky Cheese Man
A - Adele and Simon in America

Non-fiction
1. The Millionaire Next Door
2. Talking to Girls About Duran Duran
3. Sh*t My Dad Says
4. The Wordy Shipmates
5. Tattoos and Tequila

Books From Series
1. Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron
2. Breaking Dawn
3. Book Lust to Go
4. Book Lust
5. The Charming Quirks of Others

Books Started but Never Finished
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

I love "The Stinky Cheese Man" :0)

The Lion & the Mouse

The Millionaire Next Door - Very enlightening. I love this kind of statistical comparison stuff.

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield. - Fascinating and fun. The author takes us through the 80's as he remembers them, that is to say, musically. I didn't recognize all the songs, but I sure like the way he writes about them.

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. This started out a twitter account and has blossomed into this book. The author must have nerves of steel to have grown up with this guy. He says all the things we wish we could say.

This Must Be the Place: A Novel by Kate Racculia. Loved loved loved this book!!! Loved the storytelling, the pacing, the humor, the inside jokes, the characters. So good. Read it in 3 days and had to make myself stop to go to sleep. Did I mention I loved it?

So I found that several of the books I had posted on my Borrowed Books list, are actually not very good books. So, I have replaced them with others.

Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch. Fabulous fabulous book. I absolutely loved it. Very spare, subtle writing. Did I mention it was great?

Strip by Thomas Perry. Also quite good. Small time LA gangster goes after the wrong guy, but the guy he's gone after is crafty and smart and is going to make him sorry. Also, the detective involved has two wives and two sets of children. This situation is about to reach critical mass as the oldest kids get ready to go off to college.

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories A Favorite from my childhood.

You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem - I'm not really sure about this one, yet. The main character seems really great, but by the end I kind of hated her. The story was good and quirky in that Lethem kind of way, but I felt bad about not liking the girl by the end of it.

Portrait of a Killer: Jack The Ripper - Case Closed by Patricia Cornwall

I reviewed this on the Biography thread, so I'll just recap, here.

It was much more readable than I expected. Most likely she is correct, but it's really hard to prove after 120 years.

Yikes! I just realized I didn't review 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

I enjoyed this little book. It is a series of letters written over several decades between a woman in New York and a bookstore in London. She is quite a character. I will read this again and again.

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders was fascinating if only for the depiction of her poor beleaguered wife.

I'm glad to see you liked 84, Charing Cross Road, Adrienne! I have it sitting here waiting for me in my TBR-right-away pile. :)

Adèle & Simon and Adèle & Simon in America finish up my picture books task.

I enjoyed these books because of the seek-and-find aspect. Poor little Simon can't hang onto his belongings! On each page he loses another one, much to older sister Adele's consternation. The lost item is in the picture somewhere for the reader to spot.

My kids (aged 8 and 10) enjoyed looking for the items also.

Books 19/51
Tasks 2/10

Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers by Nancy Pearl

I love this set of books. I don't even particularly care for travel books, but I love reading Pearl's little snippet reviews. And I did find a bunch of books to add to my list.

Books 20/51
Tasks 2/10

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

This book gets more fun as she finds her (dry, sarcastic) voice. Admittedly, the Puritans are not a "fun" topic. She manages to find some things to poke fun at them for, occasionally.

Books 21/51
Tasks 3/10

Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron by Stephanie Barron is the next in the Jane Austen mystery series. I have read them all and really enjoy reading about Jane Austen running around solving murders.

Books 22/51
Tasks 3/10

As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem

Not being a physicist didn't stop me from enjoying this book. The poor guy's girlfriend left him for a black hole she fell in love with in a physics lab. He has to figure out how to save her from herself.

Breaking Dawn Decided it was finally time to read it.

Tattoos and Tequila by Vince Neil I have been waiting for this book for 2 years. It was so worth it.

25/51
3/10

Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl. She could write about watching paint dry and I would read it.

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter. It's a pretty touchy subject for a lot of people, but it adds a bit of humor to an otherwise depressing situation. Guy gets laid off and in a moment of duress decides to become a drug dealer.

27/51
3/10

Adrienne wrote: "Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl. She could write about watching paint dry and I would read it."

lol.....had to put this book on my tbr list

The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith.

I don't know why I keep reading this series. I am increasingly annoyed by the main character. She jumps to ridiculous conclusions and won't listen to reason when it's presented to her. She agonizes over every little feeling. And the author can't decide what viewpoint he wants to use. Mostly, it's told from the point of view of the main character, but then, out of nowhere, a paragraph is told from the point of view of her love interest. Wha? Gr.

28/51
4/10

A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking

I certainly didn't understand it all, but I did learn a lot.

29/51
4/10

Every Day Is a Good Dayby Wilma Mankiller

Mankiller was the Chief of the Cherokee Nation in the 80's and 90's. This is a collection of conversations she has had with various indigenous women from all over he country about what it means to be a Native American woman today.

30/51
5/10

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

This got increasingly hard to believe as it went on, but the writing is fabulous.

31/51
5/10

Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 1 is a manga about the fictional battle between the library and the government agency that wants to censor books. I thought it was pretty lame, really. Maybe I'm not a big fan of the genre.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood What a fabulous book! Except the ending. Arrrgh! That's all I'll say about that, but sheesh! Her writing is fantastic. I read it really slowly to savor it all.

33/51
5/10

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett was interesting, but not very thrilling. The thief is a narcissistic sociopath, so it's hard to feel his pain.

34/51
5/10

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is a quick, delightful read with a fun, engaging narrator

Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth is fascinating. I like what she posits. Interestingly, this self-help book for women with food issues (which I got from the library) was strewn with food stains. Hmmm.

36/51 books
6/10 tasks

Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley is really well researched, but is basically a biography of Jane Austen as told by her sister.

37/51 books
6/10 tasks

Read This Next: 500 of the Best Books You'll Ever Read by Sandra Newmann and Howard Mittelmark

I picked this book up because I love books about books. Boy did I get a surprise. This book is hysterical!!! All the way through. Little nuggets of hilarity interspersed with all the regular book suggestions.

Adrienne wrote: "Read This Next: 500 of the Best Books You'll Ever Read by Sandra Newmann and Howard Mittelmark

I picked this book up because I love books about books. Boy did I get a surprise. Th..."

on tbr list......sounds interesting

Dying to Meet You: 43 Old Cemetery Road by Kate Kline is a fun, quick, epistolary novel about a haunted house in a tiny town and its inhabitants. Very punny.

39/51 books
7/10 tasks

Totally loved Drood by Dan Simmons, even though it took me about 3 weeks to read it.

40/51 books
7/10 tasks