11 in 11 Category Challenge - The First Quarter

The first 31 books of my 11 in 11 Category Challenge . As with last year, I am speeding through the first lot of books, this is because I am at my parents' house with a huge number of books to choose from.  From previous experience, the second half of the year is always harder as I look for books to complete categories.

Category 1:  Latin America

1. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts
2. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord ** 1001 Book
3. Malinche

Category 2: 1001 Books

1. The Idiot
2. Of Mice and Men
3. Schooling
4. Pereira Maintains

Category 3: History  (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

1. The Help
2. The Bamboo Palace

3. Ivanhoe

Category 5: Asia

1. The Good Earth

2. The Inheritance of Loss ** 1001 Book

3. Eating Chinese Food Naked

Category 7: German Speaking World

1. Dragon Rider
2. Candide *1001 Book, main character from Westfalen.

Category 8: Film & Adaptations

1. The French Lieutentant's Woman ** 1001 Book
2. Bleak House ** 1001 Book
3. Wicked
4. Crash ** 1001 Book
5. The Notebook
6. A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Stories ** 1001 Book
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland **1001 Book
8. The Time Machine **1001 Book

Category 9: Links

 

1. Son of a Witch part of Wicked series
2. A Lion among Men part of Wicked series

 

Category 10: Travel

1. Three moons in Vietnam

Category 11: British Authors

1. It Could Happen to You
2. Cold Comfort Farm **1001 Book
3. I was Jane Austen's Best Friend
4. Mrs Fry's Diary 

Some of the books may end up in different categories, especially as I am trying to read as many 1001 books as possible this year (15 read so far).  I am also trying to read books I already own, I have a veritable Andean mountain of books to read in my room.  Some have been there for years, not because I don't want to reason, but because, for some reason or another, I keep overlooking them.  One such book was Schooling, as well as  Louis de Bernières' Latin American Trilogy.

Top reads so far include:

French Lieutenant's woman, I just couldn't put this one down.

I also really liked The Help, a look at life in America's South as the Civil Rights Movement hots up.

The Good Earth, a book that had been on my wishlist, didn't disappoint.

Cold Comfort Farm was hilarious, I can't believe that I had never come across it before.
Pereira Maintains , interestingly I have read another translation of this book, but it was before I lived in Portugal, so this one struck me more.  Through meeting a young dissident, Pereira decides to challenge Salazar's regime.

Duffers - 

Bleak House, I found this hard to get into and to get through. I was also disappointed by Malinche, which was not up to the standard of Laura Esquivel's 1001 Book, Like Water for Chocolate .

52 1001 Books in 2010

I thought I would sign up again for Read 10 1001 Books to read before you die books this year (2... , a challenge set by katrinat on Bookcrossing.  I managed to read a 1001 book a week last year, so here is this year's attempt.  A little slower this year, travelling makes it hard as I wasn't always able to find 1001 books in the book exchanges, though I did read some tomes, which I would have kept putting off at home.

1. The Old Man and the Sea-1001-Library Book 
2. The Grass Is Singing
3. Black Dogs
4. Watchmen (1001 Library Book) a graphic novel, recently filmed
5. A Kestrel for a Knave (Penguin Modern Classics)
6. The Midwich Cuckoos
7. The Siege of Krishnapur
8. Embers
9. Brideshead Revisited
10. The Plot Against America
11. Les Miserables (Penguin Classics)
12. Blue of Noon
13. Invisible
14. Vile Bodies
15. The Singapore Grip
16. The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries), nice to a mystery on the list
17. The Red and The Black
18. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 
19. The White Tiger
20. Professor's House
21. Love in a Cold Climate (Penguin Modern Classics)
22. The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale For A Land-Baby
23. The Return of the Native (English Library)
24. At Lady Molly's
25. August Is a Wicked Month (1001 book)
26. Troubles
27. Hangover Square
28. Life and Times of Michael K
29. Brothers Karamazov
30. The Divine Comedy: Inferno v. 1
31. 2666
32. North and South (Penguin Classics)
33. Madame Bovary
34. The Bell Jar
35. The Cranford Chronicles
36. The Children's Book
37. The French Lieutenant's woman
38. The Idiot
39. Bleak House
40. Of Mice and Men
41. The murder of Roger Ackroyd  reread
42. The Purloined Letter
43. Crash
44. Cold Comfort Farm
45. Schooling
46. The Inheritance of Loss
47. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord
48. A Christmas Carol
49. Candide
50. Breakfast at Tiffany's

51. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

52. The Time Machine


I still think that  J.G. Farrell's books were really good (7,15 and 26), but the real gem was 2666 , a tome of a book, but worth every page.  It is actually 5 books in one volume, which makes it less daunting to read than say A Suitable Boy (a great book, but one I only read because I took it as my only book on a very long journey).  I also loved  Embers, a book I had never even heard of, a definite find.  My worst read was Bleak House, it just really didn't grab me.   Too much detail, too many characters, a struggle.

As I was due to be spending time travelling in Latin America, I wanted to read more of the books from that region, 2666 (written by a Chilean writer), Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord (set in a fictional country),  The Life and Times of Oscar Wao (a precocious Domincan Republican) and a surprise entry, Candide , in which the action moves around the world.


It is pleasing to see that the books ranged in years published, I did read some of the new additions:  The Children's Book,  Invisible , The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and The White Tiger.  I enjoyed all 4 and agree with their addition in the new editon.

Film Bookbox

The second round of my Film Bookbox arrived home today despite the recent snow fall, an early Christmas present :)

Nice to see a mix of books, more to go on my TBR pile :S
Some mysterious books, The Moonstone,  The Da Vinci Code, Jamaica Inn and Silence of the Lambs .
Brokeback Mountain, Oscar winning
Goodnight Mister Tom, I read this years ago, but will have to reread it, such a great book.

My Summer of Love
Around the World in 80 Days, a classic
The Constant Gardner
Bridget Jones's Diary
Breakheart Pass

Girl with a Pearl Earring
Revolutionary Road - been wanting to read this for years

The Wicked Years

I picked up Son of a Witch from the book exchange at the Black Cat Hostel, Asuncion. I already had Wicked at home, but had not yet read it. When I arrived in the States, I went to Barnes and Noble to buy another copy of Wicked, and found there was a third in the series as well, A Lion among Men. A fourth is in the pipeline, but wait for it to come out.

Wicked - This is the other side of the story, here we hear about Elphaba's life leading up to her being known as the Wicked Witch of the East. We go right back to her birth, a green-skinned baby, with her parents believing that she is some sort of punishment for their wrongs. Right from the start, Elphaba is pretty hard to love, she looks strange, she has teeth better suited for a crocodile and a personality to match.
I have never read Baum's books, just seen two films, but Maguire does seem to try and match up his version with the timeline of the original.
This is no book for weens, it deal with other issues, such as the treatment of animals and Animals (such as the Cowardly Lion), as well as the different peoples under the leadership of the Wizard.
The action also moves right around the different lands under the Wizard's control, bringing up the differences between the peoples. There was something rather First-Among- Equals-esque about Elphaba's time at Shiz University, where she meets those that will feature later in her life, including a few characters you will recognise from the film.
I really enjoyed this, but felt that the end was a bit rushed, I wanted to know more of what happened. Luckily I already had the next 2 books in the series.

Son of a Witch is the second book in the Wicked series, with the action continuing a few years after the end of the first. The protagonist is Liir, the possible son of Elphaba, who is found near death at the start. All is not well, the authorities are cracking down on the people in all of the lands. Liir starts as an innocent, but becomes involved in the darker side of life in Oz, especially in his spell in the army.
This is a more complex book, Liir is no hero, well not in the classic sense, he is complicated, but he is living in complicated times. As he journeys, he tries to sort out his feelings towards his mother, indeed trying to find out if she even was his mother, certainly it his relationship with Elphaba which colours all of his others.
Unlike the first book, which has a more definite ending, I felt this one was more of an interim book.

The third volume, A Lion among Men, has a new protagonist, this time it is Brrr's turn, or should I say the Cowardly Lion. Brrr is another ambiguous character, he thinks of himself as good, but his cowardice and complicity has further reaching effects than he would care to admit.
Part of his tale is his trying to find his family, he doesn't remember how he came to be living alone in the forest. We also read of his meeting and time with Dorothy.
I wasn't as enthused at this as with the previous 2, but probably more because I wanted to tell Brrr to grow a pair, rather than the writing.

A South American Catch

So far this is my first catch from my trip, here's hoping there will be some more.

The Glass Castle - a very strange memoir. I left it in Patagonia at a lovely hostel, Hostel Pioneros, in el Chalten.

11 in 11 Category Challenge

11 in 11 Category Challenge .  There are different versions of the challenge, but I am going for 11 books in 11 categories with 20 in a bonus section.    I have kept some of the same categories as last year, but have changed a couple.  Here are my categories:

Category 1:  Latin America

In the 999 Challenge I had a Portuguese speaking world category and in the 1010 Challenge, a Spanish speaking one.  This time I thought I would concentrate on Latin America related books as I am curretntly travelling there.  As Latin America can be taken in many ways, here it will be all countries (or regions - like Quebec) in the Americas speaking a Latin language. 

Category 2: 1001 Books

I have the all singing and dancing spreadsheet and would like to boost my stats. I had this category over the last 2 challenges as well, spurring me on with my 1001 reading. I have enjoyed reading 1001 books as it has definitely broadened my reading, getting round to reading those classics and also putting me in touch with many new authors.

Already read
1. The French Lieutenant's Woman - excellent
2. The Idiot
3. Bleak House - hard going
4. Of Mice and Men
5. Crash
6. Cold Comfort Farm

Category 3: History
Fiction and Non-Fiction


Another returning category as this is an area I enjoy reading about.  I hope to have more non-fiction here this year.
Already read:
1. The Help
2. The Bamboo Palace

Category 4: Olympic

I am taking part in Bookcrossing's Olympic Challenge, one book per competing country before the opening ceremony in London.Category 4: Olympic


Category 5: Asia

I was born in Asia and so have always had a fascination with this diverse continent.  I also have a large amount of Asia related books on my TBR pile.

Already read:
1. Three Moons in Vietnam
2. The Good Earth
3. The Bamboo Palace



Category 6: Not in English

I am a linguist, so should be reading AMAP in Spanish, German and Portuguese.

Category 7: German Speaking World


In the 999 Challenge, I looked at the Portuguese Speaking World, in the 1010 Challenge I concentrated on the Spanish, so this time the German is up.

Category 8: Film & Adaptations

I love the cinema and I watch a lot of adaptations, even though when they vary wildly from the book I do get rather annoyed!
Already read:
1. The French Lieutentant's Woman ** 1001 Book
2. Bleak House ** 1001 Book
3. Wicked
4. Crash ** 1001 Book
5. The Notebook


Category 9: Links

Any book that is linked with another I read, could be because Librarything puts it in the recommended section of the book entry or it is mentioned in the book.


Already read:
1. Son of a Witch -  part of Wicked series
2. A Lion among Men -  part of Wicked series

Category 10: Travel

My favourite hobby ;)  Fiction, non-fiction

Already read:
1. Three moons in Vietnam


Category 11: British Authors

Already read:
1. The French Lieutenant's Woman
2. Bleak House
3. Crash
4. It Could Happen to You
5. Cold Comfort Farm

Final Stop - Washington DC

The final place on my Americas Trip was DC, spending time with my family, heading to museums, drinking coffee and reading books. I didn't really do much reading in Panama, hot and humid weather doesn't really make you want to do anything.
I finally finished The Idiot, a good read, but it was dense. Next up was Bamboo Palace, all about Lao and the final days of the monarchy. I left them in one of the many Starbucks. Unfortunately, I left them after finishing them at the cafe, sitting next to the coffee counter, which meant I smelled like coffee for the next 3 days!
I lifted The Good Earth from the truck in Patagonia, a book I had been wanting to read for ages. It follows a peasant farmer's journey through life, from finding a wife, to moving up the line, at a time when China was changing rapidly.
I managed to finish Bleak House, a really tough one, I just didn't connect with it.
I had picked up Son of a Witch in Paraguay and decided to got to Barnes and Noble to pick up Wicked, the first in the series. A very strange series it is indeed, they even had a third book, A Lion among Men. Like most people, I have seen the film, The Wizard of Oz, but know nothing about the Oz series, I didn't even know that there was a series of Oz books. It is refreshing to see the story from the other side, the Wicked Witch of the East becoming the woman we saw cackling and melting. There is a fourth volume coming out.