Tag / challenges

by Sharlene

RIP X is here!

ripx

Image used with permission, property of Abigail Larson.

It’s the tenth year of RIP! I’ve taken part in RIP since RIP VI (and still have yet to read Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, which was on my first RIP list). This year, RIP is hosted by Andi and Heather. But the challenge is still the same:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

That is what embodies the stories, written and visual, that we celebrate with the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril event.

As time has wound on, we’ve discovered that simple rules are best:

1. Have fun reading (and watching).
2. Share that fun with others.

R.I.P. X officially runs from September 1st through October 31st.

peril1

As usual, I will be going with Peril the First.

Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux…or anyone in between.

As October is also Diversiverse, I wanted to try to read some RIP-related books by authors of diverse backgrounds.

After a bit of googling, I discovered some lists online:
Black women in horror writing
A Goodreads list of black women horror writers
A list on Tor.com of SF by women and people of colour
A Goodreads list of Japanese Horror fiction
Catherine Sampson’s top 10 Asian crime fiction
Asian crime fiction writers (Wikipedia)

Here’s what I hope to read!

 

 

The Strange Library – Haruki Murakami (translated)
The Goddess Chronicle – Natsuo Kirino (translated)
A Loyal Character Dancer – Qiu Xiaolong (translated)
Dawn – Octavia Butler
Six suspects – Vikas Swarup
The Good House – Tananarive Due
The Hunter: A Detective Takako Otomichi Mystery – Asa Nonami (translated)
A Stranger in Olondria – Sofia Samatar

(The following titles were those I already listed on my Diversiverse sign-up post)

The Fifth Season – NK Jemisin
Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho
Spirits Abroad – Zen Cho
Skin Folk – Nalo Hopkinson
The Grace of Kings – Ken Liu
How about you? Have you signed up? What books do you plan on reading?  

by Sharlene

Challenges for 2012 – aka the overly ambitious post (updated)

I’ve been salivating at various bloggers’ list of reading challenges for 2012 so here I am, jumping into the fray.

Foodies Read 2 Challenge for 2012

I’m going for Pastry Chef, which means I have to read 4 to 8 food books in 2012. DONE!

My pool (mostly taken from Serious Reads – and depending on my library’s catalogue):

The table comes first : family, France, and the meaning of food – Adam Gopnik
The kitchen counter cooking school : how a few simple lessons transformed nine culinary novices into fearless home cooks – Kathleen Flinn
Don’t kill the birthday girl : tales from an allergic life – Sandra Beasley
How to eat a small country : a family’s pursuit of happiness, one meal at a time – Amy Finley
Beaten, seared, and sauced : on becoming a chef at the Culinary Institute of America – Jonathan Dixon
A tiger in the kitchen : a memoir of food and family – Cheryl Lu-lien Tan
Fannie’s last supper : re-creating one amazing meal from Fannie Farmer’s 1896 cookbook – Christopher Kimball
Blood, bones, and butter – Gabrielle Hamilton
The dirty life : on farming, food, and love – Kristin Kimball
Memories of a lost Egypt : a memoir with recipes – Colette Rossant
97 Orchard : an edible history of five immigrant families in one New York tenement – Jane Ziegelman (via Buried in Print)

Musings of a Bookshop Girl’s Mixing it Up challenge sounds fun. Here are the categories (and some possible reads):

1. Classics

Read: Night and Day – Virginia Woolf
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

2. Biography

Read: Too close to the sun: The Audacious life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton – Sara Wheeler

3. Cookery, food and wine

Read: A Tiger in the Kitchen – Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Blood, bones, and butter – Gabrielle Hamilton
The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the meaning of food – Adam Gopnik
Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life – Sandra Beasley
The Fourth Star: Dispatches from Inside Daniel Boulud’s Celebrated New York Restaurant – Leslie Brenner
Far Flung and Well Fed – R.W. Apple Jr
Life is Meals – James and Kay Salter

4. History

Read:
Yellow Wind – David Grossman

5. Modern fiction
The Lake – Banana Yoshimoto
The Confessions of Noa Weber – Gail Hareven
Brothers – Yu Hua
The Last Brother – Nathacha Appanah

6. Graphic novels and manga

Read: Hereville: how Mirka got her sword – Barry Deutsch
Castle Waiting 2 – Linda Medley
Empire State – Jason Shiga

7.  Crime and mystery

Read: Out by Natsuo Kirino

The Devotion of Suspect X – Keigo Higashino
The Winter Queen – Boris Akunin

8. Horror

Read: Locke and Key – Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
The Last Werewolf – Glen Duncan

9. Romance
Read: Dating Mr December – Phillipa Ashley

10. Science fiction and fantasy
Beggars in Spain – Nancy Kress
The Wayfarer Redemption – Sara Douglass
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld – Patricia McKillip
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
The Broken Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin

11. Travel

Read: Among Flowers: a walk in the Himalaya – Jamaica Kincaid

12. Poetry and drama
Dark Emperor and other poems of the night – Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

13. Journalism and humour

Read:  Hark! A vagrant – Kate Beaton (does it count if I didn’t review this book?)

14. Science and natural history

Read: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating – Elisabeth Tova Bailey

15. Children’s and Young adult

Read: Round Trip by Ann Jonas
A Book of Sleep – Il Sung Na
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken

Eep! – Joke van Leeuwen

16. Social sciences and philosophy

Read: Is that a Fish in your Ear? – David Bellos

 

I’m gunning for: ALL THE TRIMMINGS AND A CHERRY ON TOP: Going for gold with the full 16! Erm yeah, the post is titled ‘overly ambitious’ after all!

War Through the Generations

Dip: Read 1-3 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.

Pool:
Regeneration; The Eye in the Door; The Ghost Road – Pat Barker
Back to the front : an accidental historian walks the trenches of World War I – Stephen O’Shea

Read: All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

Are you taking part in any of these? What other challenges have sparked your interest?

by Sharlene

Joining RIP VI

It is an appropriately gloomy foggy morning to be writing this post. I have been hesitating about joining another challenge this year, as my reading speed is far from the usual, thanks to a certain wee fella. But my Google Reader feed is just overflowing with all these posts about RIP VI, and I try not to read them, but I can’t help it! The selections are so tempting. The artwork is gorgeous, as always. And the theme ever such fun:
Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

So here I am, jumping into the fray with my list:
Poe’s Children The New Horror: An Anthology – edited by Peter Straub
The woman in black – Susan Hill
Ysabel – Guy Gavriel Kay
Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier
A discovery of witches – Deborah Harkness
In the Woods – Tana French
The last werewolf – Glen Duncan
The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
Chocky – John Wyndham
The terror – Dan Simmons
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

So I am going to try for Peril the First, where four books is the goal. Better start reading!