Back to the Classics Challenge 2013

Hosted by Sarah @ Sarah Reads Too Much

The goal is to read a classic for each of the six required categories. There will also be five optional categories for those who wish to read more. For more info and sign-up go here.

I've chosen titles for most of the categories but I do have a tendency to change my mind so they may not be what I end up reading.

The Required Categories:

A 19th Century Classic - Germinal by Emile Zola

A 20th Century Classic - The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

A Pre-18th or 18th Century Classic -Beowulf

A Classic that relates to the African-American Experience -  - Not yet decided

A Classic Adventure - Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

A Classic that prominently features an Animal  - Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson

Optional Categories:

Re-read a Classic - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

A Russian Classic - Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

A Classic Non-Fiction title - Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves

A Classic Children's/Young Adult title - The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Classic Short Stories - Katherine Mansfield

TBR Pile Challenge 2013

Hosted by Adam @ Roof Beam Reader the goal of this challenge is to read 12 books which have been on the bookshelf or TBR for at least one year.

My bookshelf is miniscule. Last year I didn't even have enough books to be able to take part in the challenge. This year the numbers have grown considerably and I'll be very happy if I can read those that remain from 2011.

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Possession - A S Byatt
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Map of Love - Ahdaf Soueif
The Glass Palace - Amitrav Ghosh
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin
Lover's Knots - Marion Halligan
The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier (Jan 2013)
The Frozen Heart - Almudena Grandea
South Riding - Winifred Holtby
Middlemarch - George Eliot

Alternates
Revelations - C J Sansom
The Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Goff

Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2013 - Scattergories

Hosted by Bev @ My Reader's Block

The Challenge " This year I'm offering a bit of a smorgasbord with a theme of "Scattergories."  You will see listed below a set of Vintage Categories.  Your mission, should you wish to accept it, will be to fulfill at least 8 of the categories.  Feel free to get creative with the categories--if you can make a book fit the category and sell the fit in your review/comment, then it's in.

 *All novels must have been originally written before 1960 and be from the mystery category (crime fiction, detective fiction, espionage, etc.).  Short story collections (whether published pre-1960 or not) are permissible provided all of the stories included in the collection were originally written pre-1960.  Please remember that some of our Vintage authors wrote well after 1959--so keep an eye on the original publish date

*Each book may count for only one category.

More info here

The Scattergories

1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7. World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9. A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10. Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods : a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13. Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14. Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15. Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16. Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17. Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18. Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19. Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc.  OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22. Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23. The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24. A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie]; Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25. Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26. Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27. Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28. Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29. The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone?Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) OR a mystery featuring a judge, lawyer, barrister, D.A., etc.
30. Get Out of Jail Free: This is a freebie category.  One per customer.  You tell me what special category the book fits ("It's got an awesome cover!"..."First book I grabbed off my shelf") and it counts.  Only thing I won't take is "It's a Vintage Mystery!"--that's a given. :-)


Will be fun to see how many I can cross off the list!

1. Hag's Nook by John Dickson Carr - Scattergorie 5 - Jolly Olde England

2. Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer - Scattergorie 23 - The Butler did it.....or not!

What's In A Name Challenge 6

January 1 and December 31, 2013

The What's In A Name Challenge hosted at BethFishReads is one of my favourites. The goal is to read one book with a word in the title to fit each of the following six categories.

• A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title: Deep down True, The Girl Below, The Diva Digs up the Dirt
• A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title: Loose Lips Sink Ships, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Breadcrumbs
• A book with a party or celebration in the title: A Feast for Crows, A Wedding in Haiti, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness
• A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title: Burning for Revenge, Fireworks over Toccoa, Catching Fire
• A book with an emotion in the title: Baltimore Blues, Say You're Sorry, Dreams of Joy
• A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title: The Book of Lost Fragrances, The World We Found, A Discovery of Witches

The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category. For more info click on the link above.

1
2. Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde
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4
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6. Lost Voices by Christopher Koch

Canadian Book Challenge 6

Hosted by John Mutford @ The Book Mine Set

The Challenge: to read and review 13 or more Canadian books in a one year span - Canada Day to Canada Day. Reviews must be posted online and participants are asked to share links to their reviews with other participants. Canadian books can include any form or genre and can be written by Canadian authors ( by birth or immigration) or about Canadians. For more info click link above.

Every year I think about joining this challenge but then let it pass because I'm already overloaded with challenges. This year I cut back drastically on challenges and as I'm progressing well with all of them have decided there is room for one more. I know our library has an excellent selection of Canadian authors and look forward to seeking out those I haven't read.

1. The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay
2. Random Passage by Bernice Morgan
3. Waiting for Time by Bernice Morgan
4. The Outlander by Gil Adamson
5. Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen
6. Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart
7. Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood