First, thanks to Random.org we have a winner for Joshua Henkin’s signed copy of Matrimony. Congratulations to Michelle! Thanks again to Josh for the copy and for everyone who participated in the drawing.
Moving on to reading challenges once again. I am throwing in the towel on the Short Story reading challenge. Thank you to Kate for hosting. I was so close as I just needed one more short story collection and four short stories but what I did read I enjoyed a lot. Life Studies, Farewell Navigator and The Best Place to Be were all quite different and very enjoyable. I also got to read a couple of short stories by Alice Munro, finally. So I would definitely call this a success despite not finishing it.
Now, it was hard to pass up on challenges like My Year of Reading Dangerously, The World Citizen Challenge, the Manga challenge, and War Through the Generations challenge but I need some control over here. Still, I am squeezing in one more reading challenge and then just saving some room for shorter challenges, like the R.I.P. and Once Upon a Time challenges.
So for my last challenge I decided to participate in Dewey’s Books reading challenge hosted by Chris & Robin. I couldn’t pass up on this one.
The challenge runs through the year and there are several options. I’m going to go with option two, which requires reading five books from Dewey’s reviews. Here are my choices:
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
- The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
- We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
- Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos
Now I just have one more challenge to wrap up, so I better go and finish that book. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
A Thousand Splendid Suns is also there on my list. Talking about control, you feel better after u see.. HOW many Challenges I have joined!
I am a challengomaniac I think !
Getting to read good books is definitely what matters, regardless of whether or not we finish 🙂
I think a challenge has done its job if you’ve read things you might not have otherwise, so good job with the short story challenge!
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a great book, i just loved it…
if you like this one, i am sure you will also like “Kite Runner” by the same author….
Best of luck for your challenges!
I have to make a 2009 challenges post myself – I am having a hard time deciding which ones to do versus not. I have unofficially thrown in the towel on the short story challenge as well as the chunkster challenge. My success rate with challenges is not all that great but still I enjoy them!
I keep running in to these wonderful sounding challenges, but I am resisting. The two I have planned for should keep me busy enough. I think I will finish out the short story challenge. I’ve done pretty well on my short stories this year, but I think I’m going to change things a bit for next year! I want to read both the Black and the Shriver books, too!
Congrats to michelle. I’m glad I ordered from your shop when I did…I noticed you are taking some deserved time off for the holiday. Have a great time.
Great list of books for the challenge. I’ve read A Thousand Splendid Suns and Broken for You. BTW, I’m the Kristy who bought one of your journals. I can’t wait for my niece to open it Christmas Eve.
We’re so glad you are joining us for the Dewey’s Books Reading Challenge! There are so many good ideas for challenges out there right now — it’s really hard to resist signing up for each one of them. But I agree with Dorothy W. The important things are being introduced to new books, and to new blogging friends.
veens – Ha,ha… I need to catch up with you and see how many challenges you’ve taken on 🙂
Nymeth – Exactly! Oh and of course making more bookish friends 🙂
Dorothy W. – Challenges have definitely opened up my reading horizons so it’s been fun. Granted, now I have so many more books to read on my list 😉
iselldreams – I did read The Kite Runner and found it very moving. I’m looking forward to this one!
Lesley – ooh, I can’t wait to see which ones you’ll join! There really were a few more I wanted to join but I must resist 🙂
Danielle – That’s great that you’ll finish the short story challenge. You seem to have read a lot of good shorts this year. Now, you’ll do a long book probably right? I love your long reading projects 🙂
Serena – Ah, thanks. Yes, I am closing shop for a little bit but hopefully I’m recharging and finally coming up with some new journals in 09 🙂
Kristy – Ah, thank you for letting me know! You’ll have to let me know what your niece thinks 🙂
Robin – I just couldn’t pass up on this one. Dewey was such a wonderful part of our community and this seems like something she’d love to see us do! Thanks for hosting 🙂
Congratulations, Michele, on winning the MATRIMONY giveaway, and thanks to all of you for entering. If you didn’t win, I hope you’ll consider buying a copy of MATRIMONY. Also, I’ve been participating in a lot of book group discussions of MATRIMONY, and I’d be delighted to participate in your book group discussion. If you’re interested, you can reach me at Jhenkin [at] SLC [dot] edu. Thanks, and happy holidays!
Josh
http://www.joshuahenkin.com
i have wanted to read We Have to Talk About Kevin for a while now, and also A Thousand Splendid Suns. Its a great list!
Thanks again for hosting the giveaway 🙂 I’m thrilled!
A Thousand Splendid Suns is on my list of possibilities for this challenge. So many that I want to read though! I quite enjoyed We Need to Talk About Kevin when I read it a few years ago. Have fun with your choices.