Posts Tagged ‘book challenge’

Clover Bee & Reverie

cloverbee2 Clover Bee & Reverie

When I found this poetry challenge at Clover, Bee and Reverie: A Poetry Challenge, hosted by Lu of Regular Rumination, I immediately knew I’d join.

While I do enjoy it, I believe I’d be more at ease with writing poetry if I read more of it. It will also be a treat just to study and enjoy the magic that is poetry.

The purpose of this challenge is to encourage more people to read and enjoy books of poetry. This years challenge will go through 12/31/2010.

There are four levels of participation:

Couplet: Read 2 books of poetry

Limerick: Read 5 books of poetry, and finish at least one badge

Octave: Read 8 books of poetry, and finish at least two badges

Sonnet: Read 14 books of poetry, and finish two badges, and one expert badge.

What is a badge? A badge just means you need to read two books of poetry that are connected in some way: same time period, some subject matter, same form, same author, etc. An expert badge means four books, same constraints. Some possible badges:

Light Verse or Humorous Verse
Folk Poetry/Folk Songs
Epic Poetry / Long Poetry
Translated Poetry
Beat Poetry
Modernists
Ancient Greece and Rome
Asian Poetry
Romantics
Victorian Poetry
19th Century American
Age of Reason
Parody
Contemporary Poetry
Elizabethan/Tudor
Metaphysical
Baroque
Narrative poetry
Elegy
Prose poetry
Post-modern
Drama
Lyric
Confessional
Political Poetry
Minority Poetry
Mystical

If you have another interest not listed here, let us know, we’ll add it to the list.

Finally – the Free Verse Option. We know that some people want to read lots of poems from lots of different authors. Because of this, we’ve set up an equivalency: 20 individual poems = one book of poetry. So, if you WANTED to, for instance, for the couplet level, you could just read 40 individual poems, instead of two books of poems.

I’ve decided to join at the Octave level but might move up to Sonnet if time allows.

My tentative poetry book list is:

  1. Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
  2. Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death
  3. Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka by Midaregami
  4. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (if I can get a copy)
  5. Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings Edited by Richard S. Kennedy

If you decide to take on this challenge, sign up here and please let me know so I can check in on your progress and thoughts on what you’ve read. I do hope you’ll join us!

Sunday Salon & 2010 Book Challenges

publarge2010 300x244 Sunday Salon & 2010 Book Challenges

I discovered and am joining The 2010 Pub Challenge hosted by Michelle at 1More Chapter. You might want to join, too.

The rules seem easy to live by:

  • Read a minimum of 10 books first published in 2010. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audiobooks, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2010, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2009, and then published in the USA in 2010, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2010.
  • No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
  • At least 5 titles must be fiction.
  • Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
  • You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.
  • Sign up at the Pub Challenge site using Mr. Linky.
  • Have fun reading your 2010 books!

Tentative Reading List:

  1. Choices to follow

shortstoryreadingchallenge Sunday Salon & 2010 Book Challenges

Another cool book challenge I’ve joined is The Short Story Reading Challenge hosted by Kate. You’ll find the group blog for this challenge HERE.

I joined a similar challenge near the end of last year and didn’t have enough time to complete it. Hopefully, starting in January will help! There are four goal options to choose from and I’m choosing #1.

#1 – If you’re short on time, you can simply commit to reading ten short stories by ten different authors over the course of 2010. If you’re relatively new to reading short stories, any ten will do.

Tentative Reading List:  Stories from

  1. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
  2. The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories Edited by Peter Haining
  3. …and more.

thriller Sunday Salon & 2010 Book Challenges

This awesome challenge is hosted at Book Chick City and I, for one, want to be a part of it.  I love many of the sub-genres for thriller and suspense so I’m thinking it shouldn’t be too hard.  For the challenge rules, please check out THIS POST.  And check this out:

“Courtesy of publisher SIMON & SCHUSTER UK, all participants of this challenge will receive a free ARC of either RandomVenom by Joan Brady to start you off on your challenge! Once you have signed up for the challenge, email me with your full name, address, blog URL (if you have one) and your entry number from the participants list below (so I can verify) and I will pass on your details. This is INTERNATIONAL!” by Craig Robertson or

Tentative Reading List:

  1. The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
  2. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penney (to be released later this year)
  3. If Books Could Kill by Kate Carlisle (to be released February, 2010)
  4. Espresso Shot by Cleo Coyle
  5. Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart
  6. … and more.

I hope you’ll join me in these reading challenges.  If you do, please let me know by commenting here as I’d love to read your thoughts and reviews on the books you’ve read!

Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap-up

Well, I did it. I completed the Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 hosted by Kris at Not Enough Books. Thanks so much for hosting it, Kris! I didn’t think I’d have too much trouble completing the challenge, even though I started over half way into the challenge, because I enjoy reading cozies and also discovering new authors (to me), such as Sandra Balzo, Juliet Blackwell and Kate Carlisle. Here’s a list of the books I read for this challenge:

  1. No Rest for the Wiccan (Bewitching Mysteries) Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up by Madelyn Alt –
  2. Secondhand Spirits Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up by Juliet Blackwell –
  3. Uncommon Grounds Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up by Sandra Balzo –
  4. Ghastly Glass (Renaissance Faire Mystery) Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up by Joyce and Jim Lavene –
  5. Homicide in Hardcover: A Bibliophile Mystery Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up by Kate Carlisle –
  6. Grounds for Murder (Maggy Thorsen Mysteries) Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up by Sandra Balzo –

cover4large Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap upsecondhandspirits Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap upUncommonGrounds sm1 Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up

 Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up

homicide 2005 Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap upGroundsforMurderSIDE3 Cozy Mystery Challenge 2009 Wrap up

You’ll find reviews for three of these books on my Reviews page or you can click here: Uncommon Grounds, Ghastly Glass, or Homicide in Hardcover.

I’d like to thank Kris at Not Enough Books again for hosting this challenge. I definitely plan on participating next year. I hope you’ll join us!