Spiritually Speaking Challenge

Spirituality is one of my interests and passions, so this challenge, which can be found here, really spoke to me. I haven't decided on all of my books yet, but here are a few I am considering:

Eat, Pray, Love--Elizabeth Gilbert
The Life of Pi--Yann Martel
You Are a Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience--Bob Frissell

What's in a Name? challenge

COMPLETED AS OF 12/1/09!!!!!

This is a unique and fun challenge, in which you pick books whose titles fall into some sort of theme. You can read all the details, and sign up if you wish, here. The themes for this year are a profession, a time of day, a relative, a body part, a building, and a medical condition. And the books I have chosen are:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter--Carson McCullers (profession) (11/20/09)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time--Mark Haddon (time of day) 12/1/09)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter--Kim Edwards (relative) (11/6/09)
Cat's Eye--Margaret Atwood (body part) (2/28/09)
House of Sand and Fog--Andre Dubus III (building) (11/9/09)
As I Lay Dying--William Faulkner (I assume dying is considered a medical condition!) (11/28/09)

Number's Challenge

This is a new one for me for this year. The idea is to pick five books that have numbers in the title--two of which are NOT in any other challenges. You can read all about it (and sign up) here.

(1/5)--DID NOT FINISH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fahrenheit 451--Ray Bradbury
Four's Crossing--Nancy Garden
The Life of Pi--Yann Martel
The Once and Future King--T.H. White (3/27/09)
Sin in the Second City--Karen Abbot

Decades 2009!

So this year I plan on doing this challenge correctly--last year I read books that were SET in the different decades, rather than PUBLISHED in different decades. You can read all the rules and sign up here.

FINISHED AS OF 12/14/09!!! My favorite read was probably Beloved; my least favorite was On the Road.


1910s: Riders of the Purple Sage--Zane Grey (12/8/09)
1920s: The Sun Also Rises--Ernest Hemingway (12/14/09)
1930s: As I Lay Dying--William Faulkner (11/28/09)
1940s: Animal Farm--George Orwell (1/10/09)
1950s: On the Road--Jack Kerouac (10/26/09)
1960s: Uncharted Stars--Andre Norton (11/26/09)
1970s: The Bluest Eye--Toni Morrison
1980s: Beloved--Toni Morrison (1/3/09)
1990s: Into Thin Air--Jon Krakauer (1/2/09)

TBR 2009

Here we go! This is my list of books I have been meaning to read for some time, but haven't gotten around to yet, so I will read them during the course of the year 2009! You can find the challenge sign-up here, and you can find the books I read last year (one more to go in my main list!) and links to their reviews here.

FINISHED AS OF 11/6/09!!!!! (8 regular; 5 alternates). I am going to keep trying to read more, especially on my regular list, but it feels good to have a challenge behind me. My favorite book from these was probably House of the Scorpion, but many were really, really good--The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Paradise, Into Think Air, Duma Key, The Virgin Suicides, House of Sand and Fog. My least favorite was probably Ophelia Speaks--the adolescent voice got tiring after a while.

Main List:

On the Road--Jack Kerouac (10/26/09)
Lord of the Rings--J.R.R. Tolkein (11/4/09)
Into Thin Air--Jon Krakauer (1/2/09)
Fablehaven--Brandon Mull (3/14/09)
Searching For the Sound--Phil Lesh
A Brief History of Time--Stephen Hawking
House of Sand and Fog--Andre Dubus III (11/9/09)
Duma Key--Stephen King (6/27/09)
Blaze--Stephen King
The Virgin Suicides--Jeffrey Eugenides (1/13/09)
Animal Farm--George Orwell (1/10/09)
The Crossing--Cormac McCarthy

Alternate List:

The Memory Keeper's Daughter--Kim Edwards (11/6/09)
Ophelia Speaks--Sara Shandler (5/23/09)
Paradise--Toni Morrison (4/3/09)
The Wastelands, Love Songs...--T.S. Eliot
Cat's Eye--Margaret Atwood (2/28/09)
Danse Macabre--Stephen King
I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon--Phillip K. Dick
Breaking Her Fall--
House of Scorpion--Nancy Farmer (5/9/09)
Your Writing Coach (didn't get to it this year!)
The Writer's Toolkit
I, Robot--Issac Asimov

Young Adult Challenge 2009!

Here is my reading list for the 2009 Young Adult Reading Challenge, hosted by J.Kaye!
FINISHED AS OF 10/17/09!!!!

1. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (3/14/09)
2. Ophelia Speaks by Sara Shandler (5/23/09)
3. The Forever King by Molly Cochran (1/30/09)
4. The Sword of the Rightful King by Jane Yolen (1/17/09)
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 9/28/09)
6. The House of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (5/9/09)
7. Speak by Laurie Hale Andersen (8/25/09)
8. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (2/8/09)
9. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (4/13/09)
10. Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee (10/17/09)
11. Can't Get There From Here by Todd Strasser (1/23/09)
12. Glass by Ellen Hopkins (3/1/09)

(You can view last years list, and links to the reviews, here)

Reading Challenges for 2009...

So in the next few days I'm going to begin posting my reading lists for the 2009 challenges. The challenges I'm thinking of joining are:

The A-Z challenge (Read books with titles beginning A-Z)
100 + Reading challenge (call me crazy--read 100 or more books in 2009)
Decades '09 (this time I'll do it correctly, by publication date)
TBR '09 (same rules apply, though there are new variations this year)
Young Adult '09 (ditto)
Casual Classics Challenge (4 classics)
Numbers Challenge (5 books with numbers in the title)
Themed Reading (read 4-6 books linked by a particular theme)
What's in a Name? (read 6 books with particular items named in the title)
Spiritually Seeking Challenge (6 books that have to do with spirituality)

I'll decide on book lists soon!

Blue Light--Walter Mosely

Year Published: 1999
Pages: 400
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3/5

This was a really weird book. I really disliked the first two-thirds of it, but by the end I was sort of captivated. Until the very end, which was sort of like a cold bucket of water.

I'm not sure that I can really explain the plot of this book. I'm not sure that I understand it. Basically, one day blue light comes down and infuses several people from earth--from San Francisco in the late 60s, to be more specific. The people whom the light has touched become sort of demigods, and they spread their word and recruit more followers through blood and sex. This rouses the interest of an evil being, known as "death" to the blue light people (or "Blues" as they are referred to in the book), and he comes to kill them in very horrific and gory detail. Many of them die, but those that are left flee and are called to a "safe zone" in the redwood forests of California, where they are led by a strange forestkeeper (sort of an archetypical "green man" figure) to help seed the world with "blue" trees. Here they live a peaceful, innocent existence, where they are among others like themselves and grapple with their true natures. Then the bad guy comes.

The battle that ensues is not what disappointed me about the ending, and I won't spoil it by explaining what did. (If anyone has actually read this book and wants to discuss it, feel free to email me!) I liked the part of the book that took place in the forest; I found myself sucked into their carefree, primal and feral world. And I like the premise, though I can't exactly enunciate it--that humans are pods waiting to be seeded and sprout into evolution. But a lot of the book had a dark seedy feel to it, and it created a lot of unanswered questions.

Challenge/s: TBR
Book-a-week # 61

Dragonwing--Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Year Published: 1990
Pages: 480
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5

Finally I read this book (which has been floating around my bookshelf for years), and now I want to read the series.

I don't know why it took me so long to read it--I loved the Dragonlance series by the same authors. Maybe I was worried it would be too different than those books, which I adored. Or maybe time got in the way. Whatever it was, I'm glad I read it now. It sets the scene for a struggle between two races of demigods, the Patryns and the Sartans. Other races featured in this book are elves, dwarves (Gegs), and humans. All races are divided and mistrustful of one another; it appears that some sort of apocalypse separated them. The world is divided into three realms--the low realm, which is closest to land and on which resides the dwarves, the mid-realm, which is floating in air and occupied by elves and humans, and the high realm, which is above a crust of ice where the highest order of human magicians live. There is also an underrealm which contains a labyrinth where the Patryn were imprisoned--and forgotten--by the Sartans, causing the current conflict.

The book begins with a hired assassin (Hugh the Hand) given the task of killing a king's son--a bright, cheerful boy of about nine. He and the boy, Prince Bane, leave under the pretext that he is protecting the boy from enemies, and Bane's servant, Alfred, follows them. As they journey, Hugh begins to realize there is more to both of them than he bargained for. They end up stranded in low realm, where the dwarves are undergoing a revolution, where they meet Haplo, a mysterious figure from the underworld, and his remarkable dog. The journey takes them up to the High Realm where they must confront one of the more powerful magi--and where the true battle begins.

I loved this book. I loved the complexity of the worlds and races involved (how they create cultures, history, language, terrain!), I loved how bits and pieces were revealed as I read on, I loved the multi-faceted characters. (Who is good in this book? Who is evil? This is not so black and white!) I am definately planning on reading the next book in the series.

Challenge/s: TBR
Book-a-Week # 60

The Sound and the Fury--William Faulkner

Year Published: 1929
Pages: 378
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5

When I first began reading this book, I had no idea what was going on. Why were events streaming from one to the next, and where the heck was the punctuation? Welcome to the wonderful world of Faulkner, whom I had never read before. I will try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but pieces of the story will probably leak out. I'm not sure that that would've ruined my experience--it probably would've made it easier for me to grasp the storyline.

The novel is a story of a prominent southern family's downfall, but it is not told in a straightforward manner. The first part is told from Benjie's point of view. Benjie is a grown man who suffers from mental retardation, and his concept of time is nonexistent. Therefore his memories lapse from today to twenty years ago to five years ago to this morning. They are all centered around his sister Caddie (who begins the family's shame) and the family's pasture (which is sold to pay for his brother Quentin's Harvard education, and becomes a golf course).

The next section is Quentin's, and is eighteen years previous. This is where we learn of Caddie's discrepancies. Quentin is so shamed by his sister's indecency--and by his thoughts and stirrings for her--that he loses his mind, and this section is stream-of-consciousness rambling as he wanders the streets of Boston. He ultimately drowns himself.

Next we hear from Jason, one of the most unlikeable characters ever created. Jason's story is told straightforward, but his sexism, racism, and contempt for his family make this section almost as difficult to read as the others. He is now the head of the family, where he makes life difficult for the servants and his sister Caddie's illegitimate daughter, who lives with them.

The last section is third person narration, and follows Dilsey, the long-time family servant. After this section an appendix tells some of the ancestral family history, clears up some of the confusion, and affirms some of what we have guessed.

As difficult as this book was to read, I really liked it. The writing can be hauntingly beautiful, and the family becomes more and more vivid as one reads. I plan on reading more Faulkner--perhaps As I Lay Dying?

Challenge/s: TBR (alt), Decades, Naming Conventions, 1% Well Read, States (MS)
Book-a-Week # 59

That Was Then, This is Now--S.E. Hinton

Year Published: 1971
Pages: 160
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 4/5

All of Hinton's books for teens were favorites of mine since grammar school. This one deals with issues of drugs and morality. Bryon and Mark are best friends and have lived together like brothers since Mark's parents fatally shot each other in a drunken argument when Mark was young. But their friendship is tested by issues of morality. Grappling with immense emotional changes and struggling to come to terms with the death of a friend, Bryon is forced to make a decision between his friend and what he feels is right.

Simple writing, an easy read, and slightly dated. But still worth reading.

Challenge/s: Read it Again, States (OK)
Book-a-Week # 58

Dolores Claiborne--Stephen King

Year Published: 1993
Pages:
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5

Good ol' King, never disappoints. At least not much. This book, for one, wasn't disappointing in the least. Dolores Claiborne has been charged with the murder of her boss, an older, disagreeable, lonely rich widow. So she gives her confession--but not for the crime they are expecting to hear about.

The entire book is told in Dolores' voice, as a transcript of her confession at the police station (with the exception of a few newspaper clippings at the end). And her voice is gritty and real. King is a master at characterization, and this is no exception. It is amazing how much he is able to tell through the eyes of only one character. Dolores' story is instantly captivating, and her life is filled with sadness, pain and strength. And I even liked the ending.

Challenge/s: Decades, Naming Conventions
Book-a-Week # 57

Tortilla Flat--John Steinbeck

Year Published: 1935
Pages: 244
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed this book. It is meant to be an analogy of the King Arthur saga, but set in southern California in the depression, and characterized with paisonos--several-generation Mexican Americans with a distinct culture and way of life. I adored the paisanos, whose main concerns were to find ways to obtain more liquor and who spent much time rationalizing their actions against their moral code--and always finding amusing ways to do so. The story was passionate and humorous. I didn't really get the Arthurian thing, but I'm not too well-versed in Arthurian lore to begin with. I will say that I read the story before the foreward (to avoid spoilers), and after reading the foreward was the first time it occurred to me that Steinbeck's portrayal of his characters was offensive to Mexican-Americans. Afterwards it certainly made sense, but as I was reading it seemed to me that he was referring to specific individuals who formed their own cultural group, rather than an entire ethnic group who adhered to a different set of standards. An interesting controversy, either way.

Challenge/s: Decades, Naming Conventions
Book-a-Week # 56

Sundog--Jim Harrison

Year Published: 1991
Pages: 244
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5

I have no idea where this book came from; it's been on my bookshelf for ages and I finally decided to read it. At first I thought I was going to hate it. It seemed colorless and boring, narrated in first-person by a self-centered author sent to write a biography on an engineer. But as characters were introduced and the subject's story began to be revealed, I realized this book was far more than I expected. Strang, the engineer, is suffering from a nerve disorder brought on by ingesting an herb in a foreign land (a common treatment for the natives there, but too much for him). Confined to a wheelchair and attended by a beautiful Costa Rican dancer, he tries to bring back the use of his damaged legs. His work had led him all over the world, and the story he tells is honest, raw, sexual and strong. The ending of this book is a sort of beautiful yet obscure triumph.

Challenge/s: TBR
Book-a-Week # 55

Foundation--Issac Asimov

Year Published: 1951
Pages: 256
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5

I'm not the hugest sci-fi fan, but I thought it was high time I read some Asimov. Pretty amazing stuff, actually, considering where technology was at the time it was written. In this series (of which I have only read this one), a foundation of scientists (psychohistorians, who are sort of statisticians who predict human behavior based on mathematical probability) realize the end of the world is imminent and come up with a way to preserve society. They pick people to send to different ends of the universe, and set into motion a plan, one that is wholly dependent upon the lead psychohistorian's predictions. And then we get to watch it unfold. It was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read, if somewhat dry and, well, scientific. I do plan on finishing the series next year.

Challenge/s: Naming Conventions; 1% Well Read
Book-a-Week # 54