888 Reading Challenge

Hostess: 3M of the fabulous 1 More Chapter blog

The Goal: Read 8 books in each of 8 different categories in 2008 - Participants choose their own categories

Time Frame: Jan 1 - Dec 31, 2008

Challenge Page: 888 - All the rules and the participants (with their lists) can be found on this page.

After much deliberation I have chosen the following categories and books. Books that overlap are highlighted.

Young Adult Novels
1. River Secrets by Shannon Hale
2. Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
3. Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
4. Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
5. The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
6. The Astonishing Life of Octavia Nothing by M.T. Anderson
7. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
8. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

First in a Series
1. Magyk
2. Jane & the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor
3. The Queen's Man by Sharon K. Penman
4. High Rhymes and Misdemeanors by Diana Killian
5. Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
6. The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block
7. Goodnight, Irene by Jan Burke
8. The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters

Favorite Authors
1. Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
2. Touchstone by Laurie King
3. The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
4. We Shall Not Sleep by Anne Perry
5. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
6. Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
7. Everywhere That Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline (her 1st book)
8. The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters

Books from Eight Different States
1. O' Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Massachusetts)
2. Witches' Bane by Susan Wittig Albert (Texas)
3. Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass (Tennessee)
4. Goodnight, Irene by Jan Burke (California)
5. Spartina (John Casey) (Rhode Island)
6. Murder on the Rocks by Karen MacInerney (Maine)
7. The Romance Reader by Abraham Pearl (New York)
8. Murder Runs in the Family by Anne George

Fantasy
1. The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
2. Yarrow by Charles de Lint
3. Wildwood by Charles de Lint
4. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
5. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
6. Cruel Miracles by Orson Scott Card
7. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
8. Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card

Mysteries
1. Death of a Mystery Writer by Robert Barnard
2. Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear
3. The Body in the Kelp by Katherine Hall Page
4. The Queen's Man by Sharon K. Penman
5. Murder on the Rocks by Karen MacInerney
6. High Rhymes and Misdemeanors by Diana Killian
7. Alone by Lisa Gardner
8. Murder Runs in the Family by Anne George

Books That Have Languished on My Shelves for Over a Year
1. Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
2. Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Look by Katharine Weber
3. Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
4. A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss
5. Cassndra Lost by Joanna Catherine Scott
6. Green Darkness by Anya Seton
7. A Catch of Consequence by Diana Norman
8. Grandmother and the Priests

Books I've Received Free (Contests, ARCs, Gifts)
1. The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose
2. Birth House by Ami McKay
3. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
4. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
5. The Constant Princess by Phillippa Gregory
6. 3:16 by Max Lucado
7. Everything by Design: My Life as an Architect by Alan Lapidus
8. Alone by Lisa Gardner
9. Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
10. On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad
11. A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

Whew! Am I up to this big of a challenge? The really great thing about this list is that all the books, except one, are books that I own.

The Canadian Book Challenge, Eh?

John from The Book Mine Set is hosting this challenge which runs from NOW until July 1 (Canada Day). The goal is to read 13 books (because there are 13 Canadian provinces, mate). He has lists of books from each of the provinces, but is allowing us to choose our own method for selecting the books we want to read.

My method: Read from the books I already own. I did an inventory and I have about 16 Canadian books by Canadian authors that I have NOT read. At least, that I KNOW are Canadian authors. There may be others, but for now, I have 13 books.
1. I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven (British Columbia)
2. Wildwood by Charles de Lint (Ottawa, Ontario)
3. Yarrow by Charles de Lint (Ottawa, Ontario)
4. Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (Prince Edward Island)
5. Birth House by Ami McKay (Nova Scotia)
6. Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler (Nova Scotia)
7. Pelagie: The Return to Acadie by Antonine Maillet and Philip Stratford (Nova Scotia)
8. Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey (Newfoundland)
9. Random Passage (Newfoundland)
10. Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (Newfoundland)
11. The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede (Newfoundland)
12. Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark (Newfoundland)
13. A Word for Home by Joan Clark (Newfoundland)

I'm heavy on the maritime provinces, aren't I? If I get all these read I'll be ready for a trip to some of the provinces I've never visited. Trips always spark a purchase of new, indigenous reading material.

R.I.P. II Challenge Finished

Another successful year of creepy, skin-crawling stories. My thanks go to Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings for again hosting this seasonal challenge. I have enjoyed it immensely.

The books I've read for this challenge are

Bones by Jan Burke

Lily Dale: Awakening by Wendy Corsi Staub

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Gift from the Sea

by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I read this book for the Something About Me Challenge. It's one of Alisonwonderland's selections. This review could take pages of 'internet paper' if I wrote all the meaningful quotes I've marked in the book. I'm really glad I chose to read this book. Thanks, Alison for the great suggestion.

Lindbergh takes a needed break from her hectic life to the solitude of a small beach cabin. There she gathers shells and ponders how their design signifies stages in a woman's life. Gift From the Sea is reflective, contemplative journal writing that Lindbergh edited to share with the world.

There are passages galore that spoke to me with their beautiful simplicity and sage wisdom. Words that reaffirmed my beliefs and self-concepts. Others that caused my thinking to grow beyond its bonds. I enjoy that feeling of stretching and growth.

I read a library copy and now will have to buy my own so I can transfer my bookdarts and leave them in place. Books like this are great to have on my bedside table and open up and randomly read passages I've marked.

This quote helped me to identify for myself one reason I like to travel and be away from home on my vacations. "The past and the future are cut off; only the present remains. One lives like a child or a saint in the immediacy of here and now. People become like islands in such an atmosphere, self-contained, whole and serene."

Here's a feeling we can all identify: "What we fear is not so much that our energy may be leaking away through small outlets as that it may be going 'down the drain.'"

"Purposeful giving is not as apt to deplete ones resources; it belongs to that natural order of giving that seems to renew itself even in the act of depletion. The more one gives, the more one has to give."

One of my favorite discussions in the book was that of romantic love. Such moments are fleeting, but valid and can be revisited. Feelings of love ebb and flow just as life, energy and seasons do. Too many panic when the honeymoon ends and real life creeps in and the romance thins. Romance and love need to be kindled and cherished.

I highly recommend this book that still speaks wisdom over 50 years after being written. It's a sweet, gem of a book.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

by Robert Louis Stevens

After finishing Jekyll and Hyde I felt much the same as I did when I finished Dracula. Enlightened. All my life I have seen or heard tidbits of information from the book and I've seen distortions of the original story but now I KNOW the original. Puzzle pieces of information fit together, characters are more than a name or a bit of trivia, and in both cases, the original telling of the story is better than any movie or take off.

It's refreshing to read a classic that a regular person can understand why it's been a beloved story for so many years. As the story progressed I compared it in my mind's eye to eating an artichoke. Each leaf brought you closer to the heart of the matter, but revealed only a tantalizing morsel at a time. The story was told from Dr. Jekyll's friend's point of view. He had to work to reveal each part of the mystery. I can see that reading this book without knowing the heart, the climax, the end; the reader would be as confused and curious as Jekyll's friend. Even knowing the climax of the story, Stevenson's writing held me captive.

Jekyll and Hyde was published in 1886. It would have made a great pick for the 15 Decades/15 Books Challenge. I would encourage you to consider it for next years Decades Challenge.

Now to compare the book to the movie, rather the musical. That's right - a musical of Jekyll and Hyde. It's actually pretty good. Ready for another shock? The lead is played by David Hasselhoff! You know, the Bay Watch and Knight Rider guy.

I thought the musical was marvelous and Hasselhoff does a amazing job - amazing because I was surprised, but he was also good. His depiction of the battle between Jekyll and Hyde for control of their shared body is outstanding. You really need to see it.

How did it compare to the book? The movie takes lots of liberty. In the book Jekyll is a middle-aged man (50-ish) and Hyde transforms into a younger, evil man. The movie has both men in their late 20s, and Jekyll is engaged to be married. There's no love interest in the book. Murders in the book - one; several in the movie. The movie is told from Jekyll's point of view and the book from the friend's.

My recommendation would be to read the book first and then watch the musical. Both worthwhile, but the book is the best.