The Four Month Challenge, Part III

I mentioned recently that I’ve decided to join the four-month challenge, part 3, which runs starting from March 1st. Here are the categories and what I’ve decided to read or am thinking about reading for each:

5 Point Challenges

Read a book by an author you’ve never read before
The Creation of Eve, by Lynn Cullen READ

Read a book with a one word title
Avalon, by Anya Seton

Read a book with an animal name in the title
The Royal Griffin, by Juliet Dymoke

Read a book with a proper name in the title:
Gildenford, by Valerie Anand

Read a fantasy

The White Mare, by Jules Watson

10 Point Challenges

Read an ‘Austenesque’ book

Read a book with a two word title
Fitzempress’ Law, by Diana Norman READ

Read a book that is part of a series
The Campaigners, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Read a book about a real person
Within the Fetterlock, by Brian Wainwright (novel about Constance of York)

Read a mystery
The Devil’s Door, by Sharan Newman

15 Point Challenges

Read a book written in the 60’s (any century)
Miss Marjoribanks, by Margaret Oliphant (1866) READ

Read a book with a number in the title
31 Bond Street, by Ellen Horan READ

Read a book by an author born in March, April, May or June.
Kristin Lavrandatter II: The Wife, by Sigrid Undset (May 20 1882)

Read a book with a three word title
The Far Cry, by Emma Smith

Read a book by an author with three names
The Young Pretenders, by Edith Henrietta Fowler

20 Point Challenges

Read a book with over 500 pages

Read a book with a four word title
To Defy a King, by Elizabeth Chadwick

Read a book by two authors

Read a book written in the 70s (any century)
Of the Ring of Earls, by Juliet Dymoke (1970) READ

Read a book that has been number one on the NYT Best-sellers list

Comments

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs

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