My final selection for Joy's Nonfiction Five Challenge are . . .Death's Acre by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson [read]
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer [read]
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfeld [read]
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer [read]
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach [read]
Alternates/Bonus
Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Bilbioholism by Tom Raabe
The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad
I purposefully selected books that have been lounging in my TBR room for awhile now, waiting patiently for their turn. I tried to pick a variety, although I am not sure how successful my attempt at that was. As you can see, I have too many alternates. I enlisted my husband's help in selecting my final five, and the four alternates repeatedly found their among the finals at one point or another. While I would love to read them during the challenge months and will make some sort of effort to do so, only time will tell.
Update on other Challenges:
Last month I finished my second chunkster book for the Chunkster Challenge, and I hope to be starting my final selection the beginning of next month. If I can manage it, I may even read one or two of my bonus chunksters as well!
I'm right on schedule for the 2007 TBR Challenge, having read two books so far. I am still trying to decide which book to read for March of my remaining 10. So many choices!
Two books arrived in the mail from the editor at Curled Up With a Good Book for my review. I was in the mood for something different when I selected the titles and am looking forward to seeing how they turn out.
With the arrival of those two review books, my plans to start on my first New York Notable Fiction Challenge book after I finish reading my current novel flew out the window. The guilt started to creep in a little as everyone in the challenge began posting their progress, while I have made absolutely none; however, I soon quashed that. I will get to that wonderful list of books when I can and no sooner. I have enough stress in my life to let the fun stuff start giving me a headache too after all.
Off Topic (Shameless Plug):
My loving and supportive (he rarely moans about my ever growing TBR collection) husband, Anjin, began a new blog recently called Bullet Points, devoted to his interest in gaming and comic books. Even though I may not always have the faintest clue what he's talking about, I do love his sense of humor.
I liked the Bookseller of Kabul.
ReplyDeleteThe Bookseller of Kabul was a shoe in until I started looking over my list this morning and decided there wasn't enough variety. And so Into the Wild took its place. I do hope to read it anyway though.
ReplyDeleteDeath's Acre is FANTASTIC! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mary Roach is coming to a writing conference here over the summer. I'm hoping for a departmental scholarship to go because it's freakin' expensive.
Biblioholism by Tom Raabe is fantastic! Full of great quotes that ring so true. I just loved it. It's one that I want to re-read at some point. I've decided on my final 5 for the challenge, maybe I should go ahead and post them.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing great on the Chunkster challenge! I'm about 3/4 of the way through my 2nd one at the moment. I'm starting to wish I had given myself a smaller challenge - I'm trying to read 5 chunksters by the end of June. I DNF The Fountainhead in Feb, which set me back a little.
ReplyDeleteNo guilt from the NYT Notable Books Challenge, Literary Feline! You will get to them whenever you can enjoy them and shouldn't feel like you have to read them any sooner than that.
ReplyDeleteAndi - Looking back at my TBR notes, I see that you are the one who initially recommended Death's Acre (through BookCrazy, I think). It took me a while, but I finally got a copy of the book in June of last year. Now I actually get the chance to read it. :-) Thank you for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteAnd good luck getting that departmental scholarship!
Debi - Biblioholism looks like it will be a funny book. I'm not expecting it to be much help for my "problem," but I do expect a few laughs. :-)
Nyssaneala - I admit I kind of took the challenge out of it by limiting myself to three books, but at least that left the challenge of actually picking up the three 800+ books I selected to read.
Good luck to you with your chunksters. It's still early enough, and so you have time. :-)
PoT - Ah, thanks. I feel better now that I have several of the books I want to read.
Great choices! I'm going to read THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE, too, and am very curious about SPOOK. I look forward to your review.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joy. It was a hard choice to make, narrowing it down to just five. Of course, with the alternates, I really chose 9, didn't I? I'm looking forward to reading each and every one of them.
ReplyDeleteAh, you've finalised "Spook"? I'm still decided between "Stiff" and "Spook" for the Non-Fic Five Challenge - can't decide.
ReplyDeleteINto the Wild is a good book, sad, but good.
ReplyDeleteDark Orpheus - I figured Spook would be a nice light and funny book to read among some of the more serious topics. I read Stiff a couple of years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. Whichever you decide on, I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteChris - Sad seems to be a bit of a theme for me so far this year.:-) I'm looking forward to giving Into the Wild a try.
emma is on my tbr list - its the last austen book i have to read to have read them all.
ReplyDeleteGood Job on the chunksters. I too am half way through my second chunk. After that i have only one book left. I had made the 'mistake' in the begining of chosing a particular book for the particular month when signing up originally for the tbr challenge and am now happy that I did. the first opportunity I have in a month to start a new book I check which I chose from my list and pick it up. It doesnt leave me much room for what I FEEL like reading but I noticed that if the book is good, my mood soon changes for it. So far so good!!
I did sign up for the Non Fiction challenge which I have to post my list up for it very soon. I have the pile all ready though so thats going to be great. Its at the same time as my own challenge but thats alright... too much reading never bothered me.
I like the challenges because it forces me to recognize what I have on my shelves and what i have not been paying attention to. Don't let it ever become stressful though!!! Reading is work but of the pleasurable kind ;)
Thank you, Nessie. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, the challenges have a way of lining up my reading for the month and I have very little room for extras. It's worked out well so far because I've been able to choose among my lists the books that that best suit my mood. However, sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of reading them ALL. I'd read just as much without the challenge lists and so it must be the having an actual list that creates that feeling. It feels sort of binding, perhaps? Hmm.