2012 Challenge: Memorable Memoirs

FINISHED

Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles is hosting the 2012 Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge. I am signing up at the Autobiographer level to read five to nine memoirs in 2012, although I think I will be closer to five than nine. [UPDATE: It looks like I will get to nine!]

One of my general reading goals for this new year is to read more of the non-fiction books on my TBR shelves. This challenge dovetails with the Non-Fiction, Non-Memoir Challenge I am also doing.

Click the button or the link above to go to the challenge post for details and to sign up.

BOOKS, POSSIBILITIES, REVIEWS

Those I have read are in red, with links to reviews, if applicable.

Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard (reviewed here)

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl (reviewed here)

Vie de France: Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley by James Haller (reviewed here)

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

Witness by Whittaker Chambers (reviewed here)

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Books by Larry McMurtry

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

Shaken and Stirred: Through the Martini Glass and Other Drinking Adventures by William L. Hamilton

My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

Writing Places: The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher by Howard Zinsser (not reviewed)

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell (not reviewed)

Lift by Kelly Corrigan (not reviewed)

There is a lot of crossover possibility with this list. All will crossover with the TBR challenges I joined, and others will count for the Foodie's Challenge, the Chunkster Challenge, or the European Reading Challenge.

NOTES

Last updated on December 28, 2012. I've now read eight, which means I've finished the challenge, but I hope to finish Personal History by Katharine graham before the end of the year.

Opening Sentence of the New Year: Soldiers in Hiding

It gives me pleasure to hinder American tourists occasionally.

-- Soldiers in Hiding by Richard Wiley.

A Bambara proverb goes thus: "go to the village where you don't have a house, but take your roof with you." 

-- from the new Introduction by Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Soldiers in Hiding won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award.  This edition is published by  Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, with a new preface by the author.




A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.

2012 Challenge: TBR Pile Challenge

 

(incomplete)

I've already signed up for two TBR challenges for 2012: the Mt. TBR Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block and the Off the Shelf challenge hosted by the team at Bookish Ardour.

Adam at Roof Beam Reader is hosting a similar challenge he calls the TBR Pile Challenge.  This is for books that have been on your TBR shelf for more than a year -- since before January 1, 2011.

I signed up because I like the commitment demanded of participants, who must pick 12 books to read and review.  I plan to use this challenge to finally read some books that I have been meaning to read for many years. And I plan to maximize crossover with other challenges.

Click the button or the link above for details.

MY BOOKS

The date after the book is when I added the book to my TBR shelf -- not when it was published.
The books I have finished are in red.

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (2001) (Non-Fiction, Non-Memoirs Challenge; Back to the Classics Challenge; reviewed here)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre (1982) (reviewed here)

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (2003) (a Pulitzer winner for the Battle of the Prizes, American Version; reviewed here)

Friends and Lovers by Helen McInnes (2007) (Vintage Mystery Challenge); not reviewed)

The Comedians by Graham Greene (1998) (Books Published in the First years of My Life Challenge; reviewed here)

On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution by Michael and Ariane Batterberry (Non-Fiction, Non-Memoirs Challenge; reviewed here)

How To Read and Why by Harold Bloom (2009) (Non-Fiction, Non-Memoirs Challenge reviewed here);

Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (2009) (What's in a Name Challenge; a National winner for the Battle of the Prizes, American Version; reviewed here)

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (2001) (a Booker winner for the Battle of the Prizes, British Version); reviewed here)

World Without End by Ken Follett (2010) (Chunkster Challenge; Tea & Books Reading Challenge; reviewed here)

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1992) (Chunkster Challenge; Tea & Books Reading Challenge)

Redemption by Leon Uris (2007) (Chunkster Challenge)

TWO ALTERNATES

Witness by Whittaker Chambers (2009) (Chunkster Challenge; Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge; reviewed here)

Personal History by Katharine Graham (2007) (Chunkster Challenge; Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge)

NOTES

Last updated January 9, 2013.  Katharine Graham killed this one for me. I just couldn't get finished with her autobiography before the end of the year.

Review of the Day: Worth Dying For

 

Worth Dying For is Lee Child’s 15th book featuring ex-military cop, Jack Reacher. This one has Reacher fighting the bad guys in Nebraska farm country, 60 miles from the nearest local police.

All Reacher books could have the same review: “A breakneck thriller that will keep you up late turning pages.” These books are all about action, excitement, and plot. Not that the plots are complex, but there is always a lot going on. The central story is always Beowulf fighting Grendel – the big, strong, stranger who sweeps in to protect the townsfolk from a monster.

And it works. Over and over. These books are paperback crack.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

This counts as one of my books for the 2011 Chunkster Challenge.  Although, I have to say that these 525 or so pages went by a lot faster than most.  500+ pages of the adventures of Jack Reacher aren't like reading The Adventures of Augie March, for example.  No criticism intended for either Child or Bellow.

2012 European Reading Challenge: Review List

The European Reading Challenge
January 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013

THIS IS THE PAGE TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS.

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

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

TO ADD YOUR WRAP UP POST, GO TO THIS PAGE. 

When you review a book for the 2012 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.

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 Zhvago, Russia.

If Mr. Linky acts up, please leave a comment with a link to your review and I will figure out how to add it. 

LIST YOUR REVIEWS HERE

MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

The European Reading Challenge lets participants tour Europe through books. For all the details and to sign up, please visit the main challenge page.

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.