A Month of Favorites is hosted by Girlxoxo, Traveling with T, and Andi at Estella’s Revenge! 

Today’s topic is a review or discussion of your choice, so I’m turning my attention to READING CHALLENGES!

So last year I didn’t commit to many reading challenges, just a few short ones like Diversiverse, Nonfiction November, RIP and Once Upon a Time – I fully intend to rejoin these shorter challenges in 2015 too! These shorter ones tend to work better for me as I never can remember to stick to my challenge lists! But one thing that challenges make me do is sit down and write about the books I read. And that is something I really need to do more of! I’m hoping these challenges will add to my reading experience in 2015!

It’s going to be 2015!! And we are still not living on the moon! My younger self would be so disappointed.

Foodies Read 2015

Food and books. What better than that??!

I’m going for Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books

The Reach of a Chef – Michael Ruhlman
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks – Kathleen Flinn
Eat To Live: Healthy Asian Recipes – Sylvia Tan
Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America – Chen Yong
The Language of Food: A Linguist reads the Menu – Dan Jurafsky
The secret financial life of food: from commodities markets to supermarkets – Kara Newman
The third plate: field notes on the future of food – Dan Barber
Burnt toast makes you sing good: a memoir of food and love from an American Midwest family – Kathleen Flinn
Provence, 1970: MFK Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste – Luke Barr

 

 

 

 

Back to the Classics 

Ok! So I need to read more classics. And I like that the cut-off date is 1965 – or at least 50 years ago. That I can do! I’m listing books in all twelve categories, which is a bit ambitious. I just hope to be able to complete six categories. But I tell you, I had such fun putting this list together!

 

A 19th Century Classic
Ruth – Elizabeth Gaskell (pub. 1853)

The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells (pub. 1897)

A 20th Century Classic

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey (pub. 1962)

They came like swallows – William Maxwell (pub. 1937)

Tender is the Night – F Scott Fitzgerald (published 1933)

A Classic by a Woman Author.

Frenchman’s Creek – Daphne DuMaurier (pub. 1941)

A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry (pub. 1959)

A Classic in Translation

The Pillow Book – Sei Shōnagon (translated from Japanese, pub. 1002)

I am a Cat – Sōseki Natsume (translated from Japanese, pub. 1905)

A Very Long Classic Novel — a single work of 500 pages or longer

Shirley – Charlotte Bronte (pub. 1849, 624 pages)

A Classic Novella — any work shorter than 250 pages

The Pearl – John Steinbeck (pub. 1945)

Candide – Voltaire (pub. 1759)

The Duel – Giacomo Casanova (pub. 1789)

A Classic with a Person’s Name in the Title

Heidi – Johanna Spyri (pub. 1880)

Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell (pub. 1848)

Lady Susan – Jane Austen (pub. 1791)

A Humorous or Satirical Classic

Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K Jerome (pub. 1889)

The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves #2) – P.G. Wodehouse (pub. 1923)

A Tale of a Tub – Jonathan Swift (pub. 1704)

A Forgotten Classic

When the Sleeper Wakes – H.G. Wells (pub. 1899)

Love On The Dole – Walter Greenwood (pub. 1933)

Four girls and a compact – Annie Hamilton Donnell (pub. 1906)

A Nonfiction Classic

Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer (pub. 1952)

Kon-Tiki – Thor Heyerdahl (pub. 1948)

A Classic Children’s Book.

The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien (published 1937)

Pinocchio –  Carlo Collodi (pub. 1880)

A Classic Play

A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams (pub. 1947)

Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller (pub. 1949)

 

Reading England 2015

And because I cannot resist a good map-banner-thing. And it kind of ties in with the classics challenge above! I first saw this on Much Madness is Divinest Sense

I’m going for:

Level two: 4 – 6 counties

The first five counties I picked because of the books suggested, London as an alternate, and Sussex because I once lived there

Cumbria: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Devon: Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore or And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (which is according to this list, set in Devon, and since it’s published in 1939, it’s kind of a classic, right?)

Gloucestershire: Cider With Rose by Laurie Lee

Lancashire: The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

Yorkshire: The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith

London: Keep the Apidistra Flying by George Orwell

Sussex:  The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer

Yorkshire: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (I hope it’s ok that I reread this – it was something I read many years ago as a child, and am now curious to see if I would enjoy it!)

PS I might have to change the counties/books chosen here depending on the availability of the books from the library!

 

What reading challenges are you thinking of joining next year?