Book Challenges
Here’s a summary and update on the challenges I’m participating in 2010.

2010 Mixology
This is less of a challenge and more of goal setting for the year. The purpose is to get you thinking about how many books you want to read and what ‘mix’ of books that will include. All the details are here.

My 2010 Goals
1. 40 books total (For a list of this year’s books, go here.)
2. 10 “New to me” Award-winning authors (authors I’ve never read but have won awards)

  • Sadie Jones (The Outcast won the 2008 Costa Award for best First Novel)
  • Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin won the 2009 National Book Award)
  • Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
  • John Maxwell (won the Harold Longman Best Business Book of 2006 Award)
  • Yann Martel (Life of Pi won the Man Booker Prize in 2002)
  • Wally Lamb (Connecticut Book Award, 2008)
  • Edward P. Jones (The Known World won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
  • Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize)
  • Joseph J. Ellis (Founding Brothers won the Pulitzer Prize for History)
  • Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book won both the 2009 Newberry Medal and 2010 Carnegie Medal in Literature)

3. 8 non-fiction

4. 5 classics

5. 6 review or ARC books

6. 12 from my TBR (See below…)
7. 15 audio books (in addition to the 40 read; go here for the list)

2010 To Be Read Challenge

You can find the rules for the TBR Challenge here, and my initial post about it is here. And, three frequent readers of BBB have posted their lists here.
My list of books for this challenge are here. (If they are highlighted, that means they have been read and reviewed.)
Who Moved My Cheese by Dr. Spenser Johnson
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
The Children’s Book by AS Byatt
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout
The Art of Keeping Secrets by Patti Callahan Henry
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller
Into the Tunnel by Goltz Aly
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Saints at the River by Ron Rash
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Alternates:
1984 by George Orwell
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
The Return by Victoria Hislop
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Into Thin Air by Jo Krakauer
Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
Juniper Tree Burning by Goldberry Long
The Thief Taker by Janet Gleeson
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald

ThemeQuest 2010
Seven books with the same theme; I’ve chosen “the power of the written word.” At least two fiction and two non-fiction. All the rules are here. I’ll keep a list on this page, and the title will link to its review. You can find the themes and lists for readers of BBB who joined with me here.

1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
2. The Hour I First Believed
3. Reading Lolita in Tehran
4. My Name is Memory
5. Founding Brothers
6. People of the Book
7. The Bible

Challenge 24
Here’s a list of the books I’ve purchased in 2010 – not to exceed 24!

1. Saving CeeCee Honeycut (1/21 – $15.07 from Amazon; book club pick; update – sold on Amazon and recouped $8.01)
2. Cutting for Stone (2/24 – $7.49; book club pick)
3. Olive Kitteridge (2/24 – $8.40; book club pick)
4. Let the Great World Spin (2/24 – $7.50; work book club pick)
5. Spooner ($2; library sale)
6. YaYas in Bloom($2; library sale)
7. The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle ($1; library sale)
8. The Known World ($1; library sale)
9. The Moon in the Mango Tree ($4.80; book club pick)
10. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder ($4.59; book club pick)
11. The 12 Secrets of Creative Women
12. A Prayer for Owen Meany



The 2010 Pub Challenge
Ten books that were published in 2010. (Click on title for review.)
1. The Wife’s Tale (Feb. 2010)
2. The Memory Thief (March 2010)
3. Men and Dogs (April 2010)
4. Fireworks over Toccoa (March 2010)
5. Captivity (June 2010)
6. Life in Spite of Me (May 2010)
7. My Name is Memory (June 2010)
8. Still Missing (July 2010)
9. A Reliable Wife (January 2010)
10. The Lovers (July 2010)
11. The Distant Hours (November 2010)

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