It’s January again, so it’s time for another reading challenge courtesy of Authors Water Cooler. The Challenge consists of a list of 50 categories/subjects for a book, 12 of which we can choose with the option of extra credit if we finish early. Some categories are new, some were carried over from last year. Last …
Who I Am by Peter Townsend Harper Collins Publishers, Kindle edition, 2012 [For extra credit: A biography or autobiography about someone still alive.] I had planned to finish up my 2017 Reading Challenge with Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon, by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, but it was stolen, along …
The King of the Fields by Isaac Bashevis Singer Broadway Paperbacks, New York, 2010 [Challenge # 5: A translation.] This is my next-to-last Challenge read for the year, and I want to reiterate, it’s been fun. Many of the books I’ve read are from the stash I collected over the years, and each has an …
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued his Empire by Jack Weatherford Broadway Paperbacks, New York, 2010 [Challenge # 9: A book about a person you know little about.] Winding up my book challenges for 2017. Am looking forward to next years’ reading. Who knows where it will …
A Wrinkle in Time by Madelene L’Engle Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010 (Originally published in 1962) [Challenge # 3: A book you loved as a child.] Like many children of a certain generation, I read Madeleine L’Engle’s classic SF novel A Wrinkle in Time in fifth or sixth grade and fell in love with it. …
Yellowtail, Crown Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief As told to Michael Oren Fitzgerald University of Oklahoma Press, 1991 [Challenge # 8: A book with a color in the title] This book wasn’t at all what I expected. I thought it would be a straightforward bio, like Lame Deer Speaks. Instead it was more of …
Harm by Brian W. Aldiss Ballantine Books, New York, 2007 [Challenge # 10: A book based in a religion not your own.] British SF author Brian W. Aldiss, who died recently at the age of 92, was one prolific writer. He started his SF writing career in 1954 and by the end of it, had …
Dungeon Quest by Joe Daly Fantagraphics, 2010 As I often do, I picked up this graphic novel at random. The name intrigued me, as it implied AD&D gaming sessions, and also the figurine on the cover, which did not fit the name at all. It seemed more Pre-Columbian, Toltec maybe, except for that very big …
Cinder by Marisa Meyer Macmillan, 2012 [Challenge # 4:A book you started last year and haven’t yet finished.] I started Cinder last year. It was one of the first ebooks I ever bought because I could not seem to finish the hardback I had borrowed from the library. Then, after working on it intermittently, I …
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See Random House, 2006 [Challenge #2: A book taking place in Asia] Of all the books I’ve read in the first half of the year, this is the one that’s stuck with me the most, because it delivered far more than the blurb and cursory glances …