2010 Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

This is the first year I’ve been a maniac for reading challenges, and I don’t regret it one bit. It could have been otherwise.

One of the reasons I didn’t major in English was that I didn’t want reading to be “ruined.” In a similar way, I’m cautious about signing up for reading challenges. I want to make sure there’s more serendipity than structure in my reading life.

In 2010, I under-challenged myself in some areas, and over-challenged myself in only one instance (ironically, with my own reading challenge).

Here’s the final reading challenge wrap-up for the lovely year 2010:

ThemeQuest Reading Challenge

Completed, and just barely, through some pretty sneaky cheating (11 books read)

Who thought this thing up?! I signed up for the Theme Supreme level, and it nearly kicked my little patootie. In the end, I pretty much cheated with fiction books #2 and #3 (dang! Thought I only needed 2 fiction books! Again, I will ask: Who made up these rules?!)

U.S. Presidents Reading Project

Well underway this lifelong challenge (22 books read)

I love this challenge. I’ve read biographies of exactly half of the presidents: 22 completed, 22 to go. The toughies lie ahead: Hayes, Buchanan, Fillmore… Meanwhile, I’ll continue to read about JFK and LBJ all the time, even though they’re already officially checked off the list. (See intro paragraphs above: I want to read what I want to read!)

2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge (75 book level)

Completed (133 books read)

I’m all about supporting libraries. Should have signed up for the 100 book level, and that’s my goal for 2011.

Time Travel Reading Challenge

Completed (3 books read)

I discovered I’d already read most of the really good time travel books. But this challenge inspired me to read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, which I adored.

2010 Pub Challenge

Completed (10+ books read)

I’m always surprised how many recently-published books I read.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction Reading Challenge

Completed (8+ books read)

For a nonfiction fiend, so this challenge was a breeze (and a pleasure!)

2010 Mixology

Completed (133 books read)

This challenge is completely fun.

Mixology categories with actual books read and goal:

Total books: 133 read (goal: 75)

Newly published: 44 (goal: 10)

Biographies: 12 (goal: 10)

Audiobooks: 20 (goal: 5)

Romance: 18 (goal: 5)

In 2011, I’m still approaching the challenge thing with a certain amount of care. There are a couple that I almost said “yes” to, but I’m going to hold back. But there are a couple of others that I’ll add to the mix for next year. I’m looking forward to 2011!

Wishing you all a very happy New Year --

Best Reading of 2010

It’s been one he** of a good reading year. I don’t know that I’ve had so much fun reading since my Nancy Drew days!

Since I love year-in-review, best-of-the-year lists, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite books of 2010.

Not all of these books were published in 2010, but most of them were.

Basically, this is a list of the books I read in 2010 that I liked best.

And, because I couldn’t help myself, I wrote about each one of them here. (Click the title below to see what I said.)

Fiction

Bliss, Remembered by Frank Deford

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Mystery

Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

Children’s Fiction

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Nonfiction

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin

The Fiddler in the Subway: The True Story of What Happened When a World-Class Violinist Played for Handouts... and Other Virtuosic Performances by America's Foremost Feature Writer by Gene Weingarten

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

I am outrageously grateful to these authors for enriching my life this year.

Judging a book by its cover

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood by Jane Leavy

It ain’t often that I go choosing a book because I’m instantly infatuated with the guy on the cover. But it ain’t every book that has the grinning Mickey Mantle looking back at you.

Normally I’m not this bossy on the blog, but I need for you to do this:

Click this link to the book cover.

Then return here. OK? I’ll wait.

Now—see what I mean? Is that not the most alluring cover ever?

We’ve previously established that I’m no sports fan.*

In fact, last month, if you’d said, “Tell me what you know about Mickey Mantle,” I’d’ve said, “Baseball player. During the 1940s or ’50s, I think?” I’m not kidding you. That’s all I had, and part of it was part-wrong. (1950s-1960s was his era as a pro.)

So now I know lots more, and some of it is so good it makes a person get a little weepy. And some of it is so unpleasant it makes a person wish it weren’t true.

And all of it, as written by Jane Leavy, is even better than the book cover.

Leavy’s a former sports writer for the Washington Post, and her writing is pure wonderful.

Each chapter of this book addresses a significant date in Mantle’s life. At first, I was disappointed that this wasn’t the plain old biography treatment, and then, as I read on, I was really glad the author chose this format. It works.

The other thing that really makes this book amazing is that Leavy dices up her description of her 1983 (semi-disastrous) interview with Mantle, and sections of that story are scattered throughout the book.

While I was reading it, this was the book I didn’t want to put down, and for which I neglected the other books I was reading.

Yes, I’m talking about a sports biography.

Even if you care nothing for baseball, you can believe me when I say that this book is one of the best biographies of 2010.

Full disclosure: Then I had to haul out the old tape of That Touch of Mink, because this book told me that Mickey Mantle had a cameo in it. Who knew?!

* From this book, I learned what a switch hitter is. (Mickey Mantle was one.)

CartoonistCrush

Herblock: A Cartoonist’s Life: Self-Portrait and Views of Washington from Roosevelt to Clinton by Herbert Block

I adore Herblock. His cartoons have made me laugh out loud. Often. And still. Even some of the cartoons I’ve seen oodles of times crack me up every time.

I swear: I started smiling broadly and had to work hard to prevent the laugh-out-loud thing—probably seeming like I had some serious issues or was newly madly in love—the other day at the grocery store, when thinking about this one. It’s my most favorite.

In this book, as in his cartoons, Herblock pulls no punches. In fact, he’s pretty darn scathing about those he didn’t like (we’re looking at you, Reagan, Eisenhower, Carter). And pretty gentle toward those he thought were OK (Humphrey, Kennedy).

So, since this is the more eye-widening-with-delight stuff, here’s one sample of the harsh (yet/therefore wildly entertaining) statements:

“Since his 1974 resignation, there have been periodic Nixon rehabilitations, often advanced by magazines and TV programs that apparently found they could tap a public fascination similar to the interest in chainsaw massacres and bloodsucking bats.” (p. 234)

There’s a fair amount of political commentary here, so this book suited me just fine. But there’s also enough info about Herblock himself to qualify this puppy as an autobiography.

And, being something of a muckety-muck himself in Washington, Herblock rubbed shoulders with lots of Names. He drops them gently.

He seems like a modest sort, which is impressive given his own stature as a Name.

The other thing a person can forget is this: Herblock was smart as all hell. Cartoons seem like they’re fun and games, but his stuff really sings… and stings.

Let’s be happy: There’s Herblock stuff ...all over... the interwebs.

100+ Reading Challenge

Midway through 2010, I was kicking myself for not signing up for the 100+ books reading challenge.

This year, I'm participating!

Amy, at My Overstuffed Bookshelf, is hosting the 100+ Reading Challenge.

Here are the guidelines:

"1. The goal is to read 100 or more books. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate. Posting on GoodReads or wherever you post your reviews is good enough.

2. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Manga, Graphic Novels, Library books, Novellas, Young Reader, Nonfiction – as long as the book has an ISBN or equivalent or can be purchased as such, the book counts.

What doesn't count: Individual short stories or individual books in the Bible.

3. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

4. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.

5. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2011. Books started before the 1st do not count. You can join at anytime."

This page will be my home base for this reading challenge.

Books I Read in 2011

1. Just Kids by Patti Smith

2. Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro

3. Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz

4. Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

5. Hey Buddy: In Pursuit of Buddy Holly, My New Buddy John, and My Lost Decade of Music by Gary W. Moore

6. The President's Lady: A Novel about Rachel and Andrew Jackson by Irving Stone

7. Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The World Shares Its Grief: Letters, November 1963 by Jay Mulvaney and Paul De Angelis

8. Bird Cloud: A Memoir by Annie Proulx

9. The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman

10. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

11. How to Live, or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

12. Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy

13. The Natural by Bernard Malamud

14. Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr

15. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

16. 5th Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

17. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

18. True Grit by Charles Portis

19. Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

20. Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books by William Kuhn

21. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

22. Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow

23. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

24. The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer

25. Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

26. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels—A Love Story by Ree Drummond

27. The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir

28. The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

29. Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad

30. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein

31. Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers (audiobook)

32. The Sun's Bride by Gillian Bradshaw

33. The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story by Robert Baer and Dayna Baer

34. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

35. Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella

36. Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan by Del Quentin Wilber

37. Goody Hall by Natalie Babbitt

38. The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things by Neil Pasricha

39. What's a Disorganized Person to Do? by Stacey Platt

40. The Still Point by Amy Sackville

41. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

42. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin E. P. Seligman

43. The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy by Liz Weston

44. Bossypants by Tina Fey

45. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

46. She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy

47. The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst

48. The Path to Power by Robert A. Caro (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)

49. The Great Circle by Peter Prince

50. If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster

51. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

52. Women of Magdalene by Rosemary Poole-Carter

53. Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin

54. Spider Web by Earlene Fowler

55. Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness by Neil Strauss

56. Life by Keith Richards

57. The Good Among the Great: 19 Traits of the Most Admirable, Creative, and Joyous People by Donald Van de Mark

58. Christy by Catherine Marshall

59. Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson

60. Red on Red by Edward Conlon

61. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

62. Vanity Fair's Presidential Profiles edited by Graydon Carter

63. Chocolate Chocolate: The True Story of Two Sisters, Tons of Treats, and the Little Shop that Could by Frances ark and Ginger Park

64. My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock

65. The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

66. Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller

67. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

68. Kate: The Making of a Princess by Claudia Joseph

69. Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

70. The Alienist by Caleb Carr

71. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

72. Jackdaws by Ken Follett

73. The Godfather by Mario Puzo

74. Original Sin by Beth McMullen

75. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

76. This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

77. The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream by Suze Orman

78. An Accidental Sportswriter: A Memoir by Robert Lipsyte

79. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

80. Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy

81. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

82. Corn Flakes with John Lennon by Robert Hilburn

83. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs

84. Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper by Geoffrey Gray

85. Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr

86. Last Men Out: The True Story of America’s Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

87. Pirate King by Laurie R. King

88. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

89. English Creek by Ivan Doig

90. Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr
91. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
92. Saratoga by David Garland
93. The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst
94. D.C. Noir edited by George Pelecanos
95. The President’s Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office by John Bredar
96. After This by Alice McDermott
97. Killing Floor by Lee Child
98. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
99. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
100. The Last Striptease by Michael Wiley
101. The Blood Red Indian Summer by David Handler
102. Steal the Show by Thomas Kaufman
103. Boston Noir edited by Dennis Lehane
104. Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy: Interviews with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1964
105. Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler
106. What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
107. The Dogs of War: The Courage, Love, and Loyalty of Military Working Dogs by Lisa Rogak
108. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: My Life on the Dork Side by Julie Halpern
109. Mrs. Nixon by Ann Beattie
110. Heart of a Lion by Gilbert Morris
111. A Place Called Trinity by Delia Parr
112. Laura Rider's Masterpiece by Jane Hamilton
113. V Is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
114. Blue Blood by Edward Conlon

Book dominoes

This is entertaining as all heck. And I'm glad I didn't have to set it up.

Silent? Not exactly...

Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President by Donald R. McCoy

Coolidge. Really, what can one say?

God knows he didn’t say much. But when he did speak, usually it was worth the wait.

(That's him on the left, with his wife Grace next to him. March 4, 1925 -- Inauguration Day)

(photo credit: Library of Congress)

This book, which gives a clear sense of the type of person—and president—Coolidge was, gave me a much greater appreciation for the guy. I like the dry-witted folks, so Coolidge is my kind of fellow. I feel like I can understand him.

The thing that still stuns me is that he became president. Actually, I’m stunned that he wanted to become president. Such an introvert really isn’t particularly suited to the role, methinks.

And, yes, as a president, we’re looking at a fairly mediocre specimen. (And it ain’t just me; the 2009 C-SPAN Historians Presidential Leadership Survey places him in 26^th place. Not horrible, but not where you really want to be. But hell, he edged out Nixon for 26^th!)

The other thing that becomes evident is that Grace Coolidge, beyond having one of the greatest First Lady portraits ever, was enormously helpful to her husband because of her social skills. She had the gift.

Coolidge biographies aren’t exactly thick on the ground. So I turned to the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop’s “Essential Presidential Book Shelf” to find a recommendation. This is one of two Coolidge biographies they suggest, and it does everything a presidential biography should do.

It gives us the human being, and it shows us how he gained the presidency and how he performed there. And I think McCoy gives a clear-eyed view. Also, some of his sentences are beautiful things.

Some of the material (dear heaven, please cut it out with the farm subsidy talk and all that discussion of tariffs!) was a bit dry, but some of it was surprising. For example, did you know the whole Harding scandal blew up during Coolidge’s presidency? Harding was already safe in his grave, and Coolidge was left to deal.

And I tend to forget that the Coolidge’s eldest son, still a teenager, died during their White House years, due to an infection. So they were dealing with grieving, in addition to the usual grief that the presidency entails.

Reading this book before a visit to the fine Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & Museum (which displays Coolidge’s mechanical horse! And the Sioux headdress!) made the experience all the richer.

Book Club: Age 4

People, here’s the thing:

It’s December, and we all know what that means.

Yes, I’m talking about year-end lists.

Stuff like: year’s best, year in review… This is what makes December great.

I’m kicking us off with the Book Club Age 4 Extravaganza.

I’ve refrained from doing a quarterly update, and now here’s 6-months’-worth all at once. Can you even handle the excitement?

To recap, here’s our Age 3 ½ list.

Here’s what we wild maniacs have been reading since then:

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Giant by Edna Ferber

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Two of them I loved.

Two of them I hated.

One of them I’ve read twice, and it was pretty good.

(Here are the clues: I reviewed the ones I loved. The one I’ve read twice was written by an author whose first and last names begin with the same letter.)

We did a theme thing for a while, reading books of the 1950s, then books of the 1940s. Then we busted free and read Palahniuk, which I gave 2 stars only because its plot twisted in unexpected ways that helped to redeem its overall ickiness.

I’m going to stop right there, with ickiness.

(No, I can’t do that to you! Here’s what we’re reading next: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I picked it because Citizen Reader is a true believer in its goodness.)

Audiobook challenge!

Bewitched Bookworms are offering an audiobook challenge that sounds truly challenging -- and I'm signing up.

They call it the "Whisper Stories in My Ear" 2011 audiobook challenge.

Here is a synopsis of the guidelines:

Should you choose to participate in this challenge, your goal is to read at least twelve (12) audiobooks (no matter the length). Twelve is the minimum to be entered in the Grand Prize at the end of the Year.

When you post your Review you have to say that you listened to the audiobook version of the book, who was the narrator, the length of time the audiobook ran and your separate rating/impression for the audiobook (how you liked the narration of the story beyond what you thought of the story itself).

The challenge runs from January 1st to December 31st, 2011. You can join at anytime you want! It doesn't matter what audiobook you are listening to,
no matter the genre or the length!

100 hours: Whispering My Love

200 hours: Can't Keep Quiet

300 hours: Singing It From The Mountain Tops

400 hours: Megaphone Shout

I'm going to sign up for the 100-hour level, because honestly I'm clueless about the number of hours of audiobooks I listen to each year.

I'm looking forward to this challenge!

Audiobooks Read

1. Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

2. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

3. The Natural by Bernard Malamud

4. Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

5. Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

6. Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad

7. The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst

8. At Home by Bill Bryson

9. Bossypants by Tina Fey

10. Life by Keith Richards

11. The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

12. Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy: Interviews with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1964


Total number of hours: 139

Think: wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald... kind of

Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye

This book snuck up on me. During the first few pages, I was feeling a little bit iggis, and then the really bad stuff started and I was in.

Here’s the bad stuff: Noah’s elderly father, Olaf, is dying, and so Noah returns to northern Minnesota to be with him during his final days.

More bad stuff: Thirty-some-odd years earlier, Olaf was one of only three survivors of a Lake Superior ship disaster. (Oh, I love reading about the ship wrecks!)

So, while it seems that Olaf—once big and powerful—is now weak due to his age and illness, we learn that he has been a broken man for decades, ever since the ship’s foundering.

And that has meant that Olaf has not been much of a father to Noah, who, as a boy, admired his father, anyway—and who, as an adult, has avoided him due to his instability.

But, during the weeks they spend together, Olaf tells his son the full story of his ship’s sinking, and, without anything getting all treacly or nauseating—and mercifully without actually saying the words—they forgive each other for their failures as father and son. Thank goodness it’s all too raw to be at all heartwarming. (I hate heartwarming.)

I discovered this book via the National Reading Group Month list, and I’m glad I did.

Booking Through Thursday: Crappy

From Booking Through Thursday, here's this week's question:

Do you ever crave reading crappy books?

My answer is simple:

1. Please see this previous post.

2. At this very second, my iPod is recharging so I can continue to listen to The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown.

Is this stuff actually crappy? Maybe it's more like candy.

Off soon to happily continue to rot my brain with the literary equivalent of sugar...

44th President

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick

Because I could check it out as an eBook, and because I’m doing the U.S. Presidents Reading Project, I did something I don’t usually do: I read a biography of a current president.

Usually, I like to wait a while.

Sure, I’ll read the books about the campaign, but I usually wait for a decade or so after the presidential years before reading an actual biography of a president.

But, against all odds, I read this 600+ page eBook, and I enjoyed it.

The thing this book really does is give a person a clear sense of Barack Obama’s background and his ambitions. It also gives a great sense of context about President Obama's significance in the civil rights movement.

Before reading this book, I knew his general bio, sure. But this book filled in the details. It’s filled with information derived from interviews with many people from his inner circle, and I love that stuff.

But, I know in 10 or 20 years or so, I’m going to want to read a book about his presidential years. That’s the stuff I really, really like.

I want more! (What else is new?)

Tea Time with Marce is hosting the I Want More 2011 Book Challenge. I'm in!

(Confession: Great-looking logos are a serious enticement for me to participate in challenges.

I also judge books by their covers. Come on, you do it, too, if you're really honest about it! [Right?])

Here are the premise and the guidelines:

Have you read a book and at the end said you must read another by this author but haven't? Then this Challenge is for you, what are you waiting for. :-) There are so many amazing authors but sometimes we get caught up in reading all the new we forget about the authors that have already impressed, excited us, gave us what all readers want, a great read, that wow moment, so this Challenge is to show all the authors that have pleased us already how thankful we are by reading more of their literary works.

* Challenge Dates: January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2011

* All Genres are Welcome

* This challenge does NOT include Series, only stand alone

* See Levels below, you can change at any time if increasing, you cannot decrease once signed up.

* All forms of books will count - eBooks, Audiobooks, etc

* You do not have to list the chosen books ahead of time and your choices can crossover into other challenges you have joined.

* If you participate in this challenge please signup below. Either post and link back here with your direct link to your intro challenge post or put Challenge Button on sidebar linking back here please. In your post give us an idea of what authors impressed you so now You Want More.

* Monthly Giveaways - More details to follow soon


Level of Participation

Waited too long: 2 - 4 books
Give me more: 5 - 8 books
Never too much: 9 - 12 books

I am going to participate at the "Waited Too Long" level, which means I'll select 2-4 books by authors I've read before.

While I am not committing to any authors in particular until I test-drive the books (fussy, I know, but life is too short to spend on books one doesn't like!) I will say that these authors are already on my list of authors to consider for this challenge:

Tim O’Brien

Natalie Babbitt

Jonathan Tropper

Bill Bryson

Rebecca Stead

I'll use this page as my home base for this challenge. I can already tell: this will be a good one!

Books Read

1. Goody Hall by Natalie Babbitt

2. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

E-Book Challenge!

The Ladybug Reads is hosting a brilliant thing: the 2011 E-Book Challenge.

And I'm signing on.

My first inclination was to do the 6-book level, but then I thought, "This is supposed to be a challenge," so I'm going for the 12-book "Addicted" level.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

--Non-bloggers: Include your information in the comment section.

2. There are four levels:

-- Curious – Read 3 e-books.

-- Fascinated – Read 6 e-books.

-- Addicted – Read 12 e-books.

-- Obsessed – Read 20 e-books.

3. Any genre counts.

4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.

5. Challenge begins January 1, 2011 and lasts until December 31, 2011.

Nook Color, you're going to be seeing a lot of me next year.

This posting will be my home base for the E-Book Challenge.

eBooks Read in 2011

1. Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz

2. The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman

3. 5th Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

4. The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things by Neil Pasricha

5. The Still Point by Amy Sackville

6. Kate: The Making of a Princess by Claudia Joseph
7. D.C. Noir edited by George Pelecanos
8. Boston Noir edited by Dennis Lehane
9. The Dogs of War: The Courage, Love, and Loyalty of Military Working Dogs by Lisa Rogak
10. Mrs. Nixon by Ann Beattie

Memoir: smiley variety

Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Some books make me nostalgic for an era before my birth. This is one of those books.

Doris Kearns grew up in the ’50s, and she makes it sound pretty darn good. (Though—gotta say—my ’70s childhood is pretty sparkly from this vantage point, too…)

Now, this book often is described as a book about how the author became a lifelong baseball fan when she was a young girl (at age 6, to be exact).

But, not-a-sports-fan that I am, I can attest that there’s tons and tons and tons more to this book than baseball. However, if baseball is a requirement for happiness for you as a reader, you’ll find that Doris Kearns Goodwin’s delight in the sport proves that she’s on your team.

I know the current trend is for memoirs to be all about horrible childhoods. Lots of people really like reading that stuff. Me, I detest those books. They make me go into a protective crouch. (I’m not naming names—those people have already suffered enough, don’t you think?—but you know what books I’m talking about.)

I like the “I had a good—but still interesting—childhood” books, and this definitely qualifies.

The thing that makes this book worth reading is that Doris Kearns Goodwin can really tell a story. This isn’t just any old someone rambling about their shiny, happy childhood; this is Doris Kearns Goodwin telling us her story, and she and her family are charming and funny and decent. And the fact that the little girl in this story grew up to be Doris Kearns Goodwin, the charming and smiley political biographer… Really, how can a person resist her story?

Book bliss

It's an embarrassment of riches around here, I'm telling you.

I've got the ARC of the new Tess Monaghan mystery on my Nook, American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush (my favorite presidential years!) is on the table before me, and I just finished a highbrow work of biography.

Yes, I'm speaking of William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls.

It was exactly what you'd expect, and I raced through it with great delight.

Dudes, I am seriously taking a vacation day on April 29* to rise with the chickens -- because though it's a national holiday in the UK, we former colonists will have to make special plans.

Fortunately, I'm a resourceful Yank.

And I own three alarm clocks.

*If this date fails to ring bells, here's the poop, in a mere two words: ROYAL WEDDING!!!

Damn. I tell you: Life is good.