I know that a lot of people wonder why anyone would read essays for fun. I’ve heard comments like, “Aren’t those the horrible things we were forced to write in school?” But essays can be so much more than three points and a conclusion. I read essays to learn, to laugh, to understand, to be convinced, to live vicariously through the author, to explore other people’s points of view.

Personally, I love travel essays, essays about literature, personal essays, essays about history – and so much more. If you’re not sure exactly what I’m talking about, I hope you’ll peruse some of my reviews and reviews from last year’s participants that I’m linking to in this post – they’ll give you a good idea of the variety of essay collections available. The lowest commitment level for the challenge is only 10 essays – that’s less than one per month. I challenge you to give it a try!

~ The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ The Conscious Reader, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ “The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes, reviewed at C’est la vie!

~ Far and Away: A Prize Every Time by Neil Peart, reviewed at The Written World

~ The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorie Authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games Trilogy, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ “Growing Pains” by Michael Thomas Ford, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ “Helping Students Understand Assessment” by Jan Chappuis, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ “Life Without Go-Go Boots” by Barbara Kingsolver, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood, reviewed at C’est la vie!

~ “Notable Quotables” by Louis Menand, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ “Scenarios on the Use of Formative Classroom Assessments” by Cassandra Erkens, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ “Solipsism” by Ander Monson, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie, & Folklore in the Literature of Childhood by Jane Yolen, reviewed at Books and Movies

~ “What It Means to Be an American” by Qiong Li and Marilynn B. Brewer (and six other essays), reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ “What Makes Superman So Darned American” by Gary Engle, reviewed at The Conscientious Reader

~ “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision” by Adrienne Rich, reviewed at C’est la vie!

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Here’s a HUGE list of suggested authors and titles in case you’re joining – or thinking about joining – the 2012 Ireland Reading Challenge.

(If you already know what you’re reading for the challenge, and simply want to vote on the read-along book, please scroll to the bottom of the post. )

Irish authors:

Cecilia Ahern
John Banville (also writes mysteries under the name Benjamin Black)
Samuel Beckett
Brendan Behan
Maeve Binchy
John Boyne
Declan Burke
Thomas Cahill
Eoin Colfer
Seamus Deane
Frank Delaney
Emma Donoghue
Siobhan Dowd
Roddy Doyle
Anne Enright
Patricia Falvey
Tana French
Andrew Greeley
Seamus Heaney
James Joyce
Patrick Kavanaugh
Cathy Kelly
Mary Pat Kelly
Marian Keyes
Morgan Llywelyn
Antonia Logue
Colum McCann
Pete McCarthy
Frank McCourt
John McGahern
Eoin McNamee
Stuart Neville
Edna O’Brien
Flann O’Brien
Brendan O’Carroll
Sean O’Reilly
John Patrick Shanley
Christine Shea
Bram Stoker
Colm Toibin
Patrick Taylor
Oscar Wilde
Robert McLiam Wilson
W.B. Yeats

Megan at Po(sey) Sessions pointed me to this database of science fiction and fantasy set in Ireland.

I’ve also created a review database of Ireland Challenge Reviews that has a ton of titles with links to reviews.

Now there’s no room for “I don’t know what I’d read” when it comes to the Ireland Challenge! Click over and join – I dare you.

If you are interested in joining a read-along in March, please vote here:

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ireland reading challenge, read-alongs

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Well, I held out hope until the last minute that I would complete this challenge, but it’s not going to happen. My final tally for books read in 2011 is 192, three short of beating last year’s total. I’m okay with that, though – no guilt, right?

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2012 Graham Greene Challenge

2012 Essay Challenge

2012 Ireland Challenge

2012 Where Are You Reading Challenge

Merely Mystery Reading Challenge 2012

The TBR Double Dare

What’s in a Name 5

2012 War Through the Generations Challenge

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Discussion starters:

~ Chrisbookarama: Twitter break

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ The End of Everything by Megan Abbott, reviewed by Swapna at S. Krishna’s Books

Reading challenges:

~ Wendy from Caribousmom and Vasilly at 1330v are hosting the Chunky Book Club and the Chunkster Reading Challenge.

Book to movie news:

~ Leonardo DiCaprio will star in the film version of Devil in the White City.

Other bookish links:

~ Amy is hosting the Faith and Fiction Round Table again next year, with some differences. It is open to anyone, and their will be four books read throughout the year, with a discussion following each book. If you’re interested in exploring the way faith is explored in fiction, you should definitely consider reading along!

~ Fashion designers sketch Katniss’s Fire Dress – I think most of these are hideous!

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: book to film, faith 'n' fiction, hunger games, reading challenges, TBR list, twitter

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Challenge host: Savvy Verse & Wit
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: Read at least one book of poetry throughout the year – I’m challenging myself to 5.

1. Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life Selected and Introduced by Robert Hass
2. Poems to Read: A New Favorite Poem Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz
3. Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems by Billy Collins
4. World War I British Poets

Challenge host: Gothic Reading Challenge Blog
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: The Darkness Within – Read 5 novels with Gothic elements

1. The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
2. Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Challenge host: S. Krishna’s Books
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: South Asian Wanderer – 3 books

1. Unaccustomed Earth: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also, Vasilly challenged me to read five books in a list-swap challenge; I completed one.

As these were all challenges with small commitments, I should have been able to complete them. But, sometimes the reading mood can be a fickle thing, and so I simply didn’t get to the books that would help me check these challenges off my list. I feel especially bad about the list I was given by Vasilly, as I only read one of the books.

And so, I have decided to limit the number of challenges I sign up for in 2012. Many of the challenges I completed this year (audiobooks, historical fiction, dystopian) weren’t really challenges, as I would have read those books anyway. I’m going to stick to challenges that are quirky or that truly challenge me to expand my reading tastes. I will also, of course, do the three challenges that I am hosting.

So, look for a few challenge posts to go up in the next couple of days.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Challenge host: The Bookette
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: The Royal Family – Read 12 books by British authors in 2011
Completed: 22 books

Challenge host: Bookish Ardour
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: Contagion – Choose 15 books to read
Completed: 19 books

Challenge host: Graphic Novels Challenge Blog
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: Intermediate level – three to ten books
Completed: 5 books

Challenge host: Historical Tapestry
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: Severe Bookaholism: 20 books
Completed: 28 books

Challenge host: Books and Movies
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through November 30, 2011
Challenge commitment: To read 30 essays
Completed: 47 essays

Challenge host: Books and Movies
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through November 30, 2011
Challenge commitment: Kiss the Blarney Stone level – 6 books
Completed: 12 books

Challenge host: Books and Movies
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: Diving headfirst – 6 books, including one essay or poetry collection
Completed: 6 books – two essay collections, 4 novels

Challenge host: Literary Escapism
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: I am committing to reading novels by 50 new authors in 2011
Completed: 86 books by new-to-me authors

Challenge host: POC Challenge Blog
Challenge time frame: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011
Challenge commitment: Level 4 – Read 10-15 POC books
Completed: 12 books

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: reading challenges

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1. The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin – my review
2. My Name is Mary Sutter by Mary Sutter – my review
3. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

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This year, I hosted the Wendell Berry Reading Challenge because I wanted to introduce people to an author that I absolutely adore. I didn’t have a great response, but it prompted me to read some of my own unread Berry books and I have enjoyed each one.

For 2012, I wanted to host a challenge to help me read more of an author I keep meaning to dive into. Then a few months ago Bookmarks Magazine did a profile of Graham Greene, and I was reminded how much I loved The Quiet American. At that moment, the Graham Greene Reading Challenge was born.

Here’s a short bio on Greene, taken from Goodreads, who took it from Wikipedia:

Graham Greene was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.

Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a “Catholic novelist” rather than as a “novelist who happened to be Catholic,” Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair, and The Power and the Glory. Works such as The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana and The Human Factor also show an avid interest in the workings of international politics and espionage.

Wikipedia also has a complete Graham Greene biography.

For those of you interested in joining me in the challenge, here are the details:

~ The challenge runs from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012.

~ Any books read for this challenge can also apply to other challenges you are working on.

~ Re-reads are allowed; audiobooks are allowed.

~ Choose your commitment level:

Dangling your toes: 1 book
Getting your feet wet: 2 books
Wading on in: 3 books
Diving headfirst: 4 books

~ Write up a post indicating that you are participating (feel free to copy the lovely graphic at the top of this post), and then add your challenge post’s link to the Mr. Linky on the main challenge page.

~ You don’t have to list your books ahead of time – just have fun reading throughout the year.

In addition, I will be hosting a read-along in the spring of a Graham Greene title – either The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair, or Brighton Rock. If you want to participate and have a preference of which title, please let me know in the comments.

I hope some of you will join me!

Sign up here:

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: graham greene reading challenge, reading challenges

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Welcome to the fourth annual Essay Reading Challenge! If you’re an avid essay reader, or just want to expand your reading horizons a bit, this is the challenge for you. If you’re thinking, “What would I read?” – stay tuned: I’ll have a post up with suggestions later in the week.

~ This challenge runs from January 1, 2012 through November 30, 2012.

~ If you read a book of essays, that book can also apply to any other challenges you are working on.

~ Choose a goal of reading 10, 20, or 30 essays, and then write a challenge post, linking back to this post. Feel free to copy and paste the above image into your challenge post.

~ Copy your challenge post’s link into the Mr. Linky below or on the main challenge page.

~ You don’t have to list your essays ahead of time – just have fun reading throughout the year.

~ I will put up a page for the challenge in my header, and add a Mr. Linky for essay reviews and wrap-up posts as the year goes on.

~ Everyone who completes the challenge and writes at least one review will be eligible for the giveaway prize: A copy of Best American Essays 2012.

~ I will put up a wrap-up and giveaway post sometime early in December – that’s why the challenge only runs through November.

Sign up here:

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: essay reading challenge, reading challenges

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