Modern Mommies discussion

...thanks for the awesome idea. I'm gonna try this too. Both the Title and the Author. Although, X for author is gonna be tricky..

Updated December 7th, 2009 -- FINISHED CHALLENGE

A-Z Title Challenge

A: Assination Vacation (Vowell), American Gods (Gaiman)
B: B is for Burglar (Grafton), Blue Like Jazz (Miller), The Beekeeper's Apprentice (King), Blessings (Quindlen)
C: C is for Corpse (Grafton), The Children's Hospital (Adrian)
D: D is for Deadbeat (Grafton)
E: The Eyre Affair (Fforde), E is for Evidence (Grafton)
F: F is for Fugitive (Grafton)
G: The Great Divorce (Lewis)
H: The House on Mango Street (Cisneros)
I: I am the Messenger (Zusak)
J: Julie and Julia (Powell)
K: Kitchen (Yoshimoto)
L: The Long Goodbye (Chandler), The Lost Symbol (Brown)
M: Mudbound (Jordan), Motherhood is not for Wimps (Soutter-Schwarzer), Murder on the Orient Express (Christie)
N: Netherland (O'Neill), Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
O:Operating Instructions (Lamott), Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway), On Writing (King)
P: Peace Like a River (Enger), Picture Bride (Uchida), Pharmakon (Wittenborn), Persepolis 2 (Satrapi)
Q: The Quiet American (Greene)
R: The Road (McCarthy)
S: Spook (Roach), The Secret History (Tartt), The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Bradley), Saul and Patsy (Baxter), Shutter Island (Lehane), The Sparrow (Russel)
T: The Time Traveler's Wife (Niffenegger)
U: Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer)
V: Vandal (Michael Simmons)
W: The Westing Game (Raskin), White Oleander (Fitch)
X: Xcusable(ine) (Lynch)
Y: The Year of Magical Thinking (Didion)
Z: Z is for Zachariah (O'Brien)

A-Z Author Challenge

A: Adrian, Chris (The Children's Hospital)
B: Bradley, Alan (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie), Brown, Dan (The Lost Symbol)
C: Cisneros, Sandra (The House on Mango Street), Chandler, Raymond (The Long Goodbye), Christie, Agatha (Murder on the Orient Express)
D: Didion, Joan (The Year of Magical Thinking)
E: Enger, Leif (Peace Like a River)
F: Fforde, Jasper (The Eyre Affair), Fitch, Janet (White Oleander)
G: Gaiman, Neil (American Gods), Grafton, Sue (B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, D is for Deadbeat, E is for Evidence, F is for Fugitive), Greene, Graham (The Quiet American)
H: Heminway, Ernest (The Old Man and the Sea)
I: Ishiguro, Kazuo (Never Let Me Go)
J: Jordan, Hillary (Mudbound)
K: King, Laurie R. (The Beekeeper's Apprentice), Krakauer, Jon (Under the Banner of Heaven), King, Stephen (On Writing)
L: Lamott, Anne (Operating Instructions), Lewis, C.S. (The Great Divorce), Lehane, Dennis (Shutter Island), Lynch, Chris (IneXcusable)
N: Niffenegger, Audrey (The Time Traveler's Wife)
M: Miller, Donald (Blue Like Jazz), McCarthy, Cormac (The Road)
O: O'Neill, Joseph (Netherland), O'Brien, Robert (Z is for Zachariah)
P: Powell, Julie (Julie and Julia)
Q: Quindlen, Anna (Blessings)
R: Raskin, Ellen (The Westing Game), Roach, Mary (Spook), Russel, Mary Doria (The Sparrow)
S: Soutter-Schwarzer, Elizabeth (Motherhood is not for Wimps), Simmons, Michael (Vandal), Satrapi, Marjane (Persepolis 2)
T: Tartt, Donna (The Secret History)
U: Uchida, Yoshiko (Picture Bride)
V: Vowell, Sarah (Assassination Vacation)
W: Wittenborn, Dirk (Pharmakon)
X: Xter(Ba), Charles (Saul and Patsy)
Y: Young, William (The Shack), Yoshimoto, Banana (Kitchen)
Z: Zusak, Markus (I am the Messenger)

Updated as of 6/29/2009...

...Doesn't seem like I have too much more to go. I am planning:

The Poisonwood Bible for my title 'P'
Alias Grace by Atwood for my author 'A'
Kitchen by Yoshimoto for my title 'K'
The Long Goodbye by Chandler for my title 'L'
Norwegian Wood by Murakami for my title 'N'

I'm willing to accept some suggestions on the missing letters!

Shelbi, Alias Grace is a wonderful book! Love to hear your thoughts on it.

I think that some of the letters will be extremely difficult to find so I'm going to be satisfied if I can have the letter in the name or title of what I read. For x I thought I would read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which I've heard is wonderful and for fun I'd thought I'd read World War Z a zombie story (I love a good zombie story!)
Exodus would be another good one but it's pretty lengthy and after The Count of Monte Cristo and The Stand I'm not sure I could manage another lengthy read anytime soon. What to read for Q escapes me right now...

I'd be interested to hear what ideas/books others may have for the tough letters.

Let's see:

Titles --
For Z:

There is The Zookeeper's Wife. And I also found a YA book that is supposed to be pretty fantastic, even for adults, called Z is for Zachariah. If you're looking for Z in the title, A girl Named Zippy could count.

X is tough.

I'm thinking of reading the Ender Wiggins Saga -- my boy students LOVE those books. And the third in the series is called Xenocide. I read a little bit of Ender's Game and really enjoyed it.

Q - You could read How to Make an American Quilt. Or look for any book with Quilting in the title. The Quiet American by Graham Greene. The Queen's Fool -- the sequel to The Other Boleyn Girl?

For the authors, I think I will just go to our biggest book store, start in Fiction and then meander around until I see something that interests me. Titles might be harder.

Still, for authors, there is that elusive X. I think I'll have to go the same route and find an author with an X in his/her name.

Oooh, I like the idea of The Quiet American. Thanks for the recommendation. I've been wanting to read Greene for a while now.

You're welcome!

I picked up some books at our favorite books store for my other vowel authors.

For E: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
I: Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
O: Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
U: Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida

I'll need to go revisit titles. Got some good suggestions from my friend Sunshine! Those should help.

I'd be very interested in your thoughts on Peace Like A River. I ordered it from Book of the Month Club but I've yet to receive it. I've heard such good things about it...you got some good titles there.

Sherry --

Just finished Peace Like a River -- I'll try to ponder it and write a review soon. I liked it, but I wasn't crazy in love with it. My first initial thoughts: I think Enger could have used some better editing. There were (while beautifully written) scenes and episodes that didn't contribute to the book much and slowed down the story at hand. I couldn't tell if something was important or if it was a tangent. Sometimes authors can add detail without it seeming too bloated -- sometimes it felt like Enger said, "I have this great idea and I wrote it well...I've got to keep it in there somehow..." even if it seemed out-of-place.

But in general, I think it's a great little story with some fun narrative devices at play. Well worth reading, but it's not one I'd grab and shove and someone and say: "READ this."

Good to know Shelbi. I was sort of on the fence about this one after having read the first chapter...

Cheated on the 'x' for author...

...I am getting close to finishing. BUT - I have this HUGE stack of books I want to read and none of them fit the letters I need. *sigh*

DONE with my author alphabet! Yay!!

Finished the YA book Inexcusable today for my title 'X'. So...one more book to go.

Congratulations Shelbi! You did a GREAT job!

Doing good shelbi!

Sherry -- I am plugging through The Quiet American as my last book. I can't seem to get into it!! Did you read it? Did you like it?

I'm sooooo close and so uninspired. :-/

Afraid not. I cheated and placed All Quiet on the Western Front in the Q spot. There's a new baby in the house (I'm a joyful new Grammie!) and I definitely seem to be under the influence of baby brain. I'll be reading and if I hear her the book is quickly set aside to go spend time with her.

Needless to say I won't be achieving some of the goals I set for myself this year...

Sorry to hear The Quiet American is tough to get into, but I feel glad to have passed on it. :)

I'm about half-way through now.

It's extraordinarily well written -- so, I'd keep it on your list for the future.

But since it's almost December...it's my last book to finish my goal...and it's definitely a book that requires some brain power...maybe I needed to read it earlier in the year? Although, my son is turning one -- earlier in the year I had a lot of baby brain moments too. I swear, if I wasn't keeping a list...I would already have forgotten half the books I read this year. :-)

Lol! Me too! But think how proud you'll feel when you finish this and achieve your goal. The last one! Good for you!

Finished the 2009 challenge! Off to plot and plan for 2010 and the rest of this year.

Phew!

Shelbi, your finished lists are a thing of beauty. Congrats!

Shelbi, Shelbi, Shelbi. You are much more motivated than I. Great job. Make your 2010 Challenge one I can keep up with. Maybe I'll actually stick with it next year. Did you buy most of the books you read for your 2009 Challenge? Can I borrow your favorite ones?

I love the idea of reading, is it a book a week? How do you decide what 52 books you will read? I see the use of the alphabet for title and author. That's cool. What other ways have y'all come up with lists? Would you suggest I just go for it and plan 52 books or start smaller like 26 books? I do work full time but have summers off. I'm open for suggestions.

Lydia, make it your own. You can challenge yourself to read a certain number of classics, a total number of books, titles that begin A to Z, authors' names that begin A to Z, or any combination of those. Good Luck

I liked the A-Z challenge because I could read a variety of books. I guess I read 46 in 2009 so far...and I'll probably finish a few more before the clock turns midnight on December 31st. But that was with a brand new baby. Honestly, I'm thinking I'll have less time to read with a toddler this year.

I haven't decided on my 2010 challenge yet. But I like the idea of reading a book a week too. (On average...)

Another cool idea would be to read a book that either takes place in or was written by someone from one of the 50 states. I was leaning toward that one too...

One I plan on doing this year is around the world in 80 books. I don't know if I'll manage that many but I like the idea of reading on a global scale!

Oh...I like that one!!!

All right Sherry - it's decided. I'm gonna steal your idea AND blog about it too. :-) Soooo excited. Thank you!!!

Wow, Shelbi. Do you have you first few books picked out already? I don't really have any big reading plans for this year. I just haven't had a lot of time. I guess with Mila so busy now and trying to go down to just one nap, I should probably shower during that nap instead of getting caught up in a book!

Oohhh, i like that idea Shelbi. Can you give a link for those of us who'd love to follow your journey?

Yup!

It's:

http://aroundtheworldin80books.wordpr...

Carrie: Yeah, I have the luxury of having a job where reading can be built into the curriculum. In my reading intervention classes, we read for 55 minutes 3 days a week. And then my juniors get Reading Wednesdays. So...every Wednesday, I just read: The whole 8 hours. I don't know if I can do it, to be honest...but I'm gonna try!

Thanks Shelbi. Having read through the first posts has me definitely anticipating more. I especially appreciated your thoughtful and balanced review of the Guernsey(sp) book. A book I have avoided for just the reasons you had articulated. Very well said!