Reading Full Circle Challenge

I have got to stop signing up for challenges. I know that. Nobody needs to tell me. Actually, I put my foot down and told myself, "NO MORE." But as you can see I am joining another challenge.

It was the button that did it! Not really, although I do love the button. It was the challenge of taking books I've already listed for other challenges and connecting them in a full circle.

You can read all the particulars of this challenge and sign up yourself at Joy's blog. The basics are to link one book to another using a word in the title. The last book in the list needs to connect to the first. The contest runs from Jan through Dec 2008 and you can decide to read 6 or more books.

I went with 12 books - all are books that I already own, except for 2. That's not too bad, is it? One of the books I'm buying used for a penny + S&H and the other I can check out from the library. Here's the list:

1. Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
2. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
3. A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi
4. The Day the World Came to Town
5. Pumpkin Town! Or, Nothing Is Better or Worse Than Pumpkins by Katie McKy
6. Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
7. Still Life by Louise Penny
8. Murder Gets a Life by Anne George
9. Murder on the Rocks by Karen MacInerney
10. The Light at Tern Rock by Julia L. Sauer
11. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
12. Fatastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger by Laurence Leamer

Book to Movie Challenge Finished

This was a really fun challenge to participate in. My thanks go to Callista at SMS Book Reviews who hosted the Book to Movie Challenge. The books and movies I reviewed for this challenge were:
1. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
2. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil by E.L. Konisburg

My favorite was The Scarlet Pimpernel, both book and movie. I most surprised with how good the book and the movie for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were. I liked the Newbery Award-winning Mixed-Up Files, but didn't care for the movie.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

by E.L. Konisburg

I've heard people say that they really identified with a character in a story, but it's never happened to me. Until now. And it only happened at the beginning and the end of this book.

The main character is an 11-year-old girl named Caudia who doesn't feel fully appreciated by her family so she decides to run away from home. That's not the part that I identify with, though I could. JK

This is the description of Claudia that sounds like me.

"She studied maps and the tour guide book of the American Automobile Association and reviewed every field trip her class had ever taken. She made a specialized geography course for herself. There were even some pamphlets about the museum around the house, which she researched."

"Once she made up her mind to go, she enjoyed the planning almost as much as she enjoyed spending money. Planning long and well was one of her special talents."

I love to plan for trips, to find all the little-know as well as the 'must see' places of interest that are close to the road we'll be taking. I like to read books that set the mood and I enjoy gathering interest facts to share with my husband as we travel. Of course, I have to write all this down or it's forgotten long before the trip occurs.

Another identifying feeling:

"She never liked feeling either very hot or very cold, and she hated feeling both at the same time."

Sadly, this one is true of me also.

"Her net profit, therefore, would be as great as that of someone who read a great deal but remembered very little."

This is the story of a young girl and little brother who run away from home to the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art. They live there for over a week. I enjoyed this book by the same author of The View From Saturday which also won a Newbery Award.

Just a few more passages that I liked.

"But lying in bed just before going to sleep is the worst time for organized thinking; it is the best time for free thinking. Ideas drift like clouds in an undecided breeze, taking first this direction and then that."

"Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around."

Here Mrs. Frankweiler disagrees with Claudia's idea that you should learn one new thing every day.

"I don't agree with that. I think you shuld learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, they you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."

How did the movie compare to the book? The movie changed quite a few things and it was boring. Yawn! I only watched an hour and then had to turn it off. I didn't get bored with the book. My suggestion: Read the book and forget about the movie.

Jane Austen Mini-Challenge

Another great challenge - this one is not just for reading, but for watching. Becky of Becky's Book Reviews is hosting this fun Austen Mini-Challenge.

The aim is to read and/or watch at least two Jane Austen novels/movies in 2008. Masterpiece Theatre is showing all 6 movies in the 2008 season.

Becky is making the challenge very easy and fun. You can either read or watch a Jane Austen related book or movie. She even said we could watch Becoming Jane if we wanted to. I want to!

I am going to try to watch all 6 of the Masterpiece Theatre's selections:
1. Emma
2. Mansfield Park
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Persuasion
5. Pride and Prejudice (Ahhhh...)
6. Sense and Sensibility

AND I want to read 2 of Austen's books other than Pride and Prejudice which I've already read.

AND for an extra umph and reward I want to read Becoming Jane and then watch that movie.

Thanks Becky, for designing this great challenge. I'm really looking forward to this. And didn't Booknut create a perfect button for the challenge? Awesome, Booknut.

The Bookman's Wake

by John Dunning

I read Booked to Die earlier in the year and really liked the writing, the mystery and the main character. I knew then that I would want to read more books in the Cliff Janeway series. When Verbivore came up with the Reading the Author Challenge I didn't have to make any hard decisions on which author I would read.

The Bookman's Wake was the New York Time's notable book of the year in 1995 and was even better than Booked to Die, which makes me even more excited to read the other 3 books in the series.

The lead character is a Denver policeman who retired to open up a used book store. He's also a book scout who becomes embroiled in murder cases. This time he is coaxed into going to Seattle to track down a young book thief and possible murderer.

A few passages that stood out at the time I read them:

"Forget what you thought you knew and maybe you'll learn something."

"I read somewhere that fiction's the only way you can really tell the truth."

"Lighter fluid is one of the book scouts's major tools, used for removing stickers from book jackets safely and without a trace. Paper can be soaked in it without getting stained, wrinklet, or otherwise damaged, unless someone remembers what lighter fluid's really for and sets it on fire."

I like the references to books and the interesting tidbits about book scouting. Of course, if that's all these books promised I probably wouldn't read anymore. Dunning does a wonderful job of building his characters and developing a thoughtful mystery. I look forward to book 3, The Bookman's Promise.