2015 European Reading Challenge WINNER!

THIS IS THE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT POST FOR 2015

TO FIND THE 2015 REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO FIND THE 2015 WRAP UP POSTS, GO TO THIS PAGE

THE 2016 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE IS LIVE NOW -- GO TO THIS PAGE TO SIGN UP OR READ MORE

2015 was the fourth year for this challenge, which involves reading books set in different European countries or written by authors from different European countries.

Big thanks to all the participants who joined me for the Grand Tour!

JET SETTER GRAND PRIZE WINNER

We had a dark horse winner this year. Jim Casterline, a faithful reader but non-blogger got involved late and, as allowed, posted his reviews in comments on the review page. Jim read a lot of classics and his pithy reviews are worth reading! He won the Jet Setter Grand Prize for reading books from 15 different European countries! He won a $25 gift card to Powell's Books.

Honorary Mention (but no prizes) go to eight other participants. In years past, HM went to those who read 10 or more qualifying books (meaning books set in different countries, by different authors). This year, I'm awarding HM to those who posted wrap up posts on the Wrap Up page because I appreciate these posts very much for making my job of figuring out the winner so much easier!

• Bev at My Reader's Block (11)
• Shonna at Canadian Bookworm (10)
• Maphead (10)
• Avid Series Reader (30 books from 8 countries)
• Julie at Smiling Shelves (7)
• Jen at The Introverted Reader (6)
• Sherrie at Food for Thought (5)
• Mave at LibriAmoriMiei (5)

Congratulations to all the readers who completed the challenge! For those who finished the challenge but didn't post a wrap-up, feel free to do so now and link it on this page here.

JOIN THE 2016 CHALLENGE! SIGN UP HERE

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

2015 Challenge: My Wrap Up Post for the European Reading Challenge: COMPLETED!

TO POST YOUR 2015 WRAP UP, GO HERE

TO POST A 2015 REVIEW, GO HERE

TO SIGN UP FOR THE 2016 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE, GO HERE

This is my wrap-up post for the 2015 European Reading Challenge. 

BOOKS I READ

The Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle (France)

A Thousand Bells at Noon: A Roman's Guide to the Secrets and Pleasures of His Native City by Franco G. Romagnoli (Italy)

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (United Kingdom)

The Charm School by Nelson DeMille (Russia)

The Dinner by Herman Koch (Holland)

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi (Germany)

The Bat by Jo Nesbo (Norway)

Skios by Michael Frayn (Greece)

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one book last week, and I am really into it. I'm only reading fun, enjoyable books right now, nothing too heavy or taxing, because I am getting ready for a big sex abuse trial that starts in January and my brain does not have the capacity for anything complex.



Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. A food memoir is perfect for me right now. I don't have time to make my traditional Christmas favorites, so listening to someone talk about food is a good substitute.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

My sister gave me a book last week and it looks great!



The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones. Jones published Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and went on to become America's most famous food writing editor,editing the works of Child, James Beard, Madhur Jaffrey, and others.

This looks like just the thing to salvage my 2015 Foodies Read Challenge!

2015 Challenge: Vintage Mystery, Silver: INCOMPLETE

INCOMPLETE

Although I read eight books for this challenge, I failed to get BINGO. I read indiscriminately and can't seem to get a rw of six no matter how I try to make it work. Oh well! There's always 2016!

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I'm signing up late for the Vintage Mystery Challenge in the Silver category.

Every year I sign up for the Vintage Mystery Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. Last year was the first time I successfully finished, but I've always had fun and the challenge introduces me to authors I haven't read before (Ngaio Marsh and Micheal Innes, for example) and inspires me to read the old mysteries I love but never seem to get around to (Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, for example).

The original idea of the challenge was to read mysteries from the Golden Age of mystery writing, meaning those published prior to 1960. Bev added a "Silver" level last year for mysteries published between 1960 and 1989.

I signed up again this year for the Gold category, but here it is September and I haven't read a single qualifying book. So I decided to re-energize my mystery reading with this late entry into the Silver category. I've binged on five qualifying audiobooks in the last three weeks.

Like last year, there is a BINGO theme this year, which mixes it up a bit. You complete the challenge by filling in six in a row or the four corners and any other two. You can use one Free Space as a wild card to complete the bingo.

BOOKS READ

I haven't figured out yet what bingo spaces to cover.

• The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry (Edgar winner)
• The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie
• Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard
• The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block
• A Caribbean Mystery  by Agatha Christie
• The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
• Promised Land by Robert B. Parker
• In the Frame by Dick Francis

NOTE:

Updated December 24, 2015

2015 CHALLENGE: Vintage Mystery

Every year I sign up for the Vintage Mystery Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. Last year was the first time I successfully finished, but I've always had fun and the challenge introduces me to authors I haven't read before (Ngaio Marsh and Micheal Innes, for example) and inspires me to read the old mysteries I love but never seem to get around to (Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, for example).

The idea of the challenge is to read mysteries from the Golden Age of mystery writing, meaning those published prior to 1960. Bev added a "Silver" level last year for mysteries published between 1960 and 1989, but I am singing up again only for the Gold category.

Like last year, there is a BINGO theme this year, which mixes it up a bit. You complete the challenge by filling in six in a row or the four corners and any other two. You can use one Free Space as a wild card to complete the bingo.

BOOKS FINISHED

None yet. I'm off to a very slow start this year. 

NOTE: Updated May 29, 2015.

2015 CHALLENGE: Chunkster Challenge: COMPLETED

COMPLETED

I even passed by stretch goal by reading 17 chunksters this year. This is a challenge I often struggle with and I read almost three times as many chunksters this year as I normally do. Several were particularly slow going, ether for good reasons, like Nabokov's Collected Short Stories, or not, like Guard of Honor that may have won the Pulitzer Prize but hasn't stood the test of time.

My chunkster jag this year is part of the reason I am going to fall short of reading a 100 books i 2015, and far short of my usual 110 or so. It looks like I'll come in right around 95.

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The CHUNKSTER CHALLENGE was started by Wendy at Caribousmom and is now hosted by Vasilly at 1330V. The sign-up page is here.

The basic idea is to read books with 450 pages or more. E-books and audiobooks count, as do collections of short stories, essays, or poems. Pretty much the only thing that doesn't count is graphic novels.

This is a self-motivating challenge. Now that audiobooks count, I am going to set a goal of 12 books, with a stretch goal of 15.

BOOKS FINISHED

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1024 pages)

The Collected Stories by Vladimir Nabokov (720 pages)

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (512 pages)

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (512 pages)

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi (525 pages)

The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies (480 pages)

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass (528 pages)

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille (528 pages)

Personal by Lee Child (544)

The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington by Gregg Herken (494)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771)

Wickford Point by John P. Marquand (464)

A Bromfield Galaxy: The Green Bay Tree, Early Autumn, and A Good Woman by Louis Bromfield (Pulitzer Prize winner) (639)

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (624)

Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Pulitzer Prize winner) (635)

Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (496)

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (480)

BOOK POSSIBILITIES

We'll see what others pop up.

NOTE: Updated December 24, 2015

Review: Skios

Every year, the Fred Toppler Foundation on the Greek isle of Skios hosts the Great European House Party where guests come to study European culture for a long weekend culminating in a keynote address by a noted expert in something or another.

Until this year, when things go haywire. Oliver Fox, landing on Skios for a naughty weekend with a woman he’s known for five minutes, grabs Dr. Norman Wilfrid’s suitcase by mistake and identity on a whim. This leaves Dr. Wilfrid in a taxi to a villa on the other side of the island with nothing but his lecture notes for the Fred Toppler Keynote Address.

From there on, it’s nothing but mistaken identity, near misses, in-one-door-out-the-other, in-one-bed-out-the-other, prat falls, and laugh lines. The Toppler Foundation guests adore the younger, charming version of Dr. Wilfrid. The real Dr. Wilfrid falls into a herd of goats. Of course Fox’s weekend companion shows up, as does his long-suffering girlfriend. The Greeks can’t understand the Anglophones; the Anglophones can’t understand the Greeks. Hilarity ensues.

Michael Frayn wrote the side-splitting and perpetually-running play, Noises Off, so it is no surprise that he could take a similar formula for intricate farce, set it on a Greek Island, and come up with a winner. Skios is non-stop funny.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other Michael Frayn book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Skios counts as one of my books for my 2015 Mt. TBR Challenge.

Book Beginning: Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Oscar Wilde was a dazzling conversationalist: once heard never forgotten.

-- Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford.

This has been sitting on my TBR shelf forever! I am finally getting to it because of my idiosyncratic selection method for my 2015 Mt. TBR challenge.

Review: Things Invisible to See

GREAT VALENTINE GIFT IDEA!

Magical realism and baseball are two things I steer clear of in novels, but Things Invisible to See by Nancy Willard makes me rethink my prejudices. For one thing, there is very little in the way of actual baseball, for a book that starts off with:

In Paradise, on the banks of the River of Time, the Lord of the Universe is playing ball with His archangels.

And while there is plenty of magical realism to go around, no one bit gets played to death, which is my biggest gripe.

The story involves twin brothers from Ann Arbor in WWII, one who makes a deal with Death to save the paralyzed girl he loves. But can his sandlot baseball team really beat a team of baseball’s dead legendary players?

You have to read this adorably imaginative, quirky, and irresistibly romantic novel to find out.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of Things Invisible to See listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

I'm gave this one a go because it is on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 Novels by Women and was one of the books I randomly selected for my personal TBR challenge this year. I am so glad I did!

2015 CHALLENGE: 2X15 & Mt. TBR -- COMPLETED!

COMPLETED!

2X15: A PERSONAL TBR CHALLENGE

Like I did last year, I am combining the Mt. TBR Challenge with my own, idiosyncratic TBR challenge. I am going to read 30 books for this part of the challenge, one from each of the separate shelves on my TBR bookcases – 23 fiction books, and 7 non-fiction books. Instead of picking any book that looked good from each shelf, I picked the 15th book on each shelf.

This formulaic selection process yielded a random assortment of books. There are a couple of prize winners on the list, a few classics, some pop fiction, and a bunch of crazy stuff that tells me I either have diverse and wide-ranging taste or I need to clean out my TBR shelves! I like this goofy method of picking the books for my TBR challenge because it gets be reading the books that have sat on my shelves for too long.

These are the books in alphabetical order by author. I was planning on reading them in this order, but decided to mix them all up instead.

I also swapped a couple from the original list. Instead of Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which I found impossible, I read The View from Castle Rock and became a late but stalwart Alice Munro fan. Instead of The Mansion, which I didn't realize was the final book in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy, I am going to read The Marriage Plot.

THE 2X15 LIST

Difficulties with Girls by Kingsley Amis FINISHED

Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford FINISHED

A Bromfield Galaxy by Louis Bromfield (Early Autumn, The Green Bay Tree, A Good Woman) FINISHED

Getting It Right by William F. Buckley Jr. FINISHED

Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens FINISHED

I was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley FINISHED

Oh. Play that Thing by Roddy Doyle FINISHED

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides FINISHED

The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman FINISHED

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass FINISHED

The New York Stories by Elizabeth Hardwick FINISHED

Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month is Enchanted by Annie Hawes FINISHED

Fling: Short Stories by John Hersey FINISHED

Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala FINISHED

Southern Ladies & Gentlemen by Florence King FINISHED

Nice Work by David Lodge FINISHED

Wickford Point by Marquand FINISHED

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious FINISHED

A Writer’s House in Wales by Jan Morris FINISHED

The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro FINISHED

Collected Stories by Dorothy Parker FINISHED

Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker (Edgar winner) FINISHED

The Rise & Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman FINISHED

A Thousand Bells at Noon: A Roman Reveals the Secrets and Pleasures of His Native City by G. Franco Romagnoli FINISHED

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth FINISHED

Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley FINISHED

Felicia’s Journey by William Trevor FINISHED (Costa BOTY)

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall FINISHED

Things Invisible to See by Nancy Willard FINISHED (reviewed here)

On Writing Well by William Zinsser FINISHED

I hope to get through many more TBR books, but hit or miss, whatever catches my fancy. I’ll list those here as I go along.

OTHER MT. TBR BOOKS

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (chunkster)

For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance, edited by Victoria Zackheim (2014 TBR Challenge)

Portrait of a Woman in White by Susan Winkler (reviewed here)

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (chunkster; 2014 TBR Challenge)

Skios by Michael Frayn

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (chunkster)

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi (chunkster; Erica Jong)

The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille (chunkster)

The Untouchable by John Banville

How to be Good by Nick Hornby

Comeback by Dick Francis

The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving by Randy Alcorn

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry (Edgar winner)

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

The Charm School by Nelson DeMille (chunkster)

Promised Land by Robert B. Parker

The Spire by William Golding

Big Money by P. G. Wodehouse

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates



UPDATED: December 26, 2015

2015 European Reading Challenge: Wrap Up Page

The European Reading Challenge
January 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016

THIS IS THE PAGE FOR WRAP UP POSTS.

TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE.

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

If you have finished the challenge at whatever level you signed up for, and if you did a wrap up post, please enter a link to your wrap up post here.  Please link to your wrap up post, NOT the main page of your blog.

LINK YOUR WRAP UP POST HERE:

2015 European Reading Challenge: Review Page

The European Reading Challenge
January 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016

THIS IS THE PAGE TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS.

IF YOU HAVE FINISHED, WRAP UP POSTS GO HERE.

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

When you review a book for the 2015 European Reading Challenge, please add it to this list using the linky widget below.  Please link to your review post, NOT the main page of your blog. If you don't have a blog, post your reviews in comments on this page.

NOTE: There is overlap in January 2015 between the last month of the 2014 challenge and the first month of the 2015 challenge. If you participated both years, only count books read in January in one of the years, not both.

Please put your name or the name of your blog, the name of the book you reviewed, and the country of the book or author. For example: Rose City Reader, Doctor Zhivago, Russia.

LIST YOUR REVIEW HERE:

2015 CHALLENGE: Foodies Read -- INCOMPLETE

INCOMPLETE!

I didn't come anywhere close to finishing this challenge this year! I only read two food-related books, far short of my usual stack. I hope to make up for the loss in 2016.

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Margot from Joyfully Retired started the Foodies Read Challenge a couple of years ago, before passing the torch to Vicki from I'd Rather Be at the Beach, who now hosts the challenge on its own site, which this year is Foodies Read 2015.

This is always one of my favorite challenges.  I'm signing up again this year for the Pastry Chef level to read four to eight food books in 2015.

BOOKS READ

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton

BOOK POSSIBILITIES

There are several possibilities on my TBR shelves, including:

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk

The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer

Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones

A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher

The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons

Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano


NOTE: Updated on December 27, 2015

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads