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message 1: by Melissa (last edited Jan 03, 2015 06:05PM) (new)

Melissa | 1379 comments Mod
Do you like to read Biographies, Autobiographies or Memoirs? Then this is the challenge for you!


This is an open challenge that will run from January through September 2015. All you have to do is read a biography, autobiography or memoir about someone and post it here. You can post as you go or challenge yourself more by setting before you begin the number and title of books that you are going to read.

1. Read about an Entertainer of some kind: theater, movies, dancing, singing, comedy any form of entertainment goes.

2. Leader of a country, past or present whether it is a king, queen, president or dictator is your choice.

3. A criminal or "infamous" character.

4. An Athlete, if you consider it a sport then it qualifies.

5. A hero, or "selfless" person. (This is a pretty broad category)



These can be people past or present, whoever it is that interests you.


message 2: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments Notice how optimistic I am in January? Yeah, I'm in for this one too.


message 3: by Melissa (new)

Melissa | 1379 comments Mod
I thought you might like this one. It will be a hard one for me to get done.


message 4: by Melissa (new)

Melissa | 1379 comments Mod
I just finished Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughterfor this challenge.

I've owned it for a while and it took a while to get through as it was written in the "hillbilly tone" that Loretta apparently still talks in.

Interesting history this woman has had, I would have liked to have read more about her career but it seemed to veer off in to more of her opinions on things than her history.


message 5: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments Okay, Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps is a biography of Jack Mandelbaum. His story qualifies as heroic, and he certainly engaged in many selfless acts, so I'm counting it for #5 of this challenge. Four to go!


message 6: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments I just finished My Life in France by Julia Child. Since she was a celebrity chef she counts as an entertainer, right? Two down, three to go!


message 7: by Melissa (new)

Melissa | 1379 comments Mod
Wow, look at you burn through your summer reading list.


message 8: by Laura (new)

Laura Martin-la | 6 comments A testament of freedom: Dietrich Bonnhoeffer by Dietrich Bonnhoeffer. Teacher, profit of the nation's era and his riveting and untimely pursuit of peace while Hitler formed his own Reich religion and percussions.


message 9: by Laura (new)

Laura Martin-la | 6 comments Persecution..


message 10: by Lea Ann (last edited Jun 21, 2015 06:00PM) (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments Melissa wrote: Wow, look at you burn through your summer reading list.

Now I'm stuck in the middle of a book. I need to power read tonight and tomorrow and get through it. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich


message 11: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments Lea wrote: "I just finished My Life in France by Julia Child. Since she was a celebrity chef she counts as an entertainer, right? Two down, three to go!"

Okay, why did I think entertainer was on this list? I must have been dreaming. lol


message 12: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments I just finished Up in the Air The Story of Bessie Coleman by Philip S. Hart . This is a middle grades read that I grabbed out of my library at school. I'm counting it as a sport biography because she was the first African American female pilot and held exhibition shows. Pretty interesting story.


message 13: by Melissa (new)

Melissa | 1379 comments Mod
Lea wrote: "Lea wrote: "I just finished My Life in France by Julia Child. Since she was a celebrity chef she counts as an entertainer, right? Two down, three to go!"

Okay, why did I think entertai..."


Entertainer is on the list, its #1 .... lol


message 14: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments Melissa wrote: "Lea wrote: "Lea wrote: "I just finished My Life in France by Julia Child. Since she was a celebrity chef she counts as an entertainer, right? Two down, three to go!"

Okay, why did I th..."


Apparently, I need to put my contact in. lol


message 15: by Lea Ann (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments Just finished The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette by Marie-France Boyer . In this book her life is explained and reflected by the spaces in which she lived and the lavish design choices she made in the French court.


message 16: by Lea Ann (last edited Aug 19, 2015 02:30AM) (new)

Lea Ann (buntingla) | 765 comments I finished my last book just in time! Finally, a challenge I finished!!! My "infamous" bio was on Alexander the Great - not a criminal (well, I guess that depends on who you ask), but definitely infamous and another example from history of how absolute power corrupts.

1. Read about an Entertainer of some kind: theater, movies, dancing, singing, comedy any form of entertainment goes. My Life in France

2. Leader of a country, past or present whether it is a king, queen, president or dictator is your choice. The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette

3. A criminal or "infamous" character. Alexander the Great: Master of the Ancient World

4. An Athlete, if you consider it a sport then it qualifies.Up in the Air: The Story of Bessie Coleman

5. A hero, or "selfless" person. (This is a pretty broad category)Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps


message 17: by Melissa (new)

Melissa | 1379 comments Mod
I did not do so well with this one!


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