999 Challenge

999 Challenge

When: 2009
What: Read 9 books each in 9 categories. Up to 9 books can overlap. If you're really ambitious, finish by September 9, 2009.

Here's my list:

I. Fiction:

1. Chuck Palahniuk. Invisible Monsters -- finished 2/17/2009
   
2. Jim Crace. The Gift of Stones -- finished 3/19/2009
3. Lalita Tademy. Cane River
4. Michael Koepf. Fisherman's Son
5. Melissa Bank. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
6. Bea Gonzales. The Mapmaker's Opera
7. Roger Hubank. North
8. Ana Castillo. Peel My Love Like an Onion
9. Jincy Willett. Winner of the National Book Award

II. Fantasy:

1. Alexander Irvine. The Narrows -- finished 1/16/2009
2. Alice Hoffman. Practical Magic -- finished 3/1/2009
3. Robin McKinley. Spindle's End -- finished 4/11/2009
4. Kristen Britain. Green Rider -- finished 9/7/2009
5. Graham Joyce. Dreamside
6. Will Shetterly. Elsewhere
7. Esther Friesner. Here Be Demons
8. John M. Ford. The Last Hot Time
9. Robert C. Fleet. Last Mountain
   

III. Science Fiction:

1. Sheri Tepper. Six Moon Dance -- finished 3/23/2009
2. Robert A. Metzger. Picoverse -- finished 8/9/2009
3. Robert Heinlein. Have Space Suit - Will Travel -- finished 8/20/2009
4. Charles Stross. Accelerando
5. Jack McDevitt. Engines of God
6. Iain Banks. Excession
   
7. Kate Mosse. Labyrinth
8. Michael Kurland. Psi Hunt
9. Edmund Cooper. Seahorse in the Sky
   

IV. Mystery:

1. Jefferson Bass. Carved in Bone -- finished 4/2/2009
2. Keith Ablow. Denial -- finished 9/4/2009
3. Carol O'Connell. Find Me -- finished 11/4/2009
4. Javier Sierra. The Secret Supper
   
5. Robert Tine. Desperate Measures
6. Boris Akunin. The Winter Queen
7. Agatha Christie. Murder at Hazlemoor
8. Robert Goldsborough. Murder in E Minor
9. Trish Skillman. Someone to Watch Over

V. Thriller:

1. Charles Atkins. The Cadaver's Ball -- finished 2/10/2009
2. Mark Nykanen. Hush -- finished 2/20/2009
   
3. Chris Mooney. Deviant Ways -- finished 3/11/2009
4. Jennifer Lee Carrell. Interred With Their Bones -- finished 4/12/2009
   
5. Stan Pottinger. Final Procedure
6. Greg Iles. Footprints of God
7. Sophie Hannah. Hurting Distance
8. Ron Cutler. Ice Man
9. Mo Hayder. Pig Island

VI. Nonfiction

1. Diane Ackerman. A Natural History of the Senses -- finished 2/11/2009
2. Howard Norman. In Fond Remembrance of Me: A Memoir of Myth and Uncommon Friendship in the Arctic -- finished 2/14/2009
   
3. Ann Rule. The Stranger Beside Me -- finished 5/10/2009
4. Sir Francis Chichester. Gipsy Moth Circles the World -- finished 7/7/ 2009
5. Jack Olsen. The Climb Up to Hell -- finished 7/10/2009
6. Fred Rosen. Body Dump -- finished 9/19/2009
7. Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild -- finished 10/1/2009
8. Gary Kinder. Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
9. Glyn Williams. Voyages of Delusion

VII. Anthologies:

1. Civil War Fantastic
2. Stephen King. Everything's Eventual
3. James Alan Gardner. Gravity Wells -- finished 2/2/2009
4. Robert Heinlein. Green Hills of Earth
5. Holidays are Hell
6. Matilda at the Speed of Light
7. Museum of Horrors
8. No Rest for the Witches
9. H.P. Lovecraft. Road to Madness

VIII. First in a Series:

1. Jonathan Stroud. The Amulet of Samarkand -- finished 1/30/2009
   
2. Jefferson Bass. Carved in Bone -- finished 4/2/2009
   
3. Anne McCaffrey. Acorna: The Unicorn Girl -- finished 5/9/2009
   
4. Keith Ablow. Denial -- finished 9/4/2009
5. Glenn Cook. The Black Company
6. Matthew Cook. Blood Magic
7. J. Calvin Pierce. The Door to Ambermere
8. Robert Jordan. Eye of the World
9. C.J. Cherryh. Foreigner

IX. Not First in a Series:

1. Raymond Feist. The King's Buccaneer -- finished 1/20/2009
   
2. Eoin Colfer. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident -- finished 6/5/2009
3. Carol O'Connell. Find Me -- finished 11/4/2009
4. Mark Anthony. Blood of Mystery
5. C.J. Cherryh. Brothers of Earth
6. Simon R. Green. Deathstalker War
7. Sara Paretsky. Hard Time
8. Fredrik Pohl. Heechee Rendezvous
9. Pamela Dean. The Hidden Land

999 Challenge - IX. Not First in a Series

To see my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

IX. Not First in a Series:

1. Raymond Feist. King's Buccaneer -- finished 1/20/2009
2. Eoin Colfer. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident -- finished 6/5/2009
3. Carol O'Connell. Find Me -- finished 11/4/2009
4. Mark Anthony. Blood of Mystery
5. C.J. Cherryh. Brothers of Earth
6. Simon R. Green. Deathstalker War
7. Sara Paretsky. Hard Time
8. Fredrik Pohl. Heechee Rendezvous
9. Pamela Dean. The Hidden Land
   

999 Challenge - IV. Mystery

To see my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

1. Jefferson Bass. Carved in Bone -- finished 4/2/2009
   
2. Keith Ablow. Denial -- finished 9/4/2009
3. Carol O'Connell. Find Me -- finished 11/4/2009
4. Javier Sierra. The Secret Supper
   
5. Robert Tine. Desperate Measures
6. Agatha Christie. Murder at Hazlemoor
7. Robert Goldsborough. Murder in E Minor
8. Trish Skillman. Someone to Watch Over
9. Boris Akunin. The Winter Queen

Find Me by Carol O'Connell

First sentence:

"The haunt of Grand Central Station was a small girl with matted hair and dirty clothes."

Description:

"The arm of a dead body points down Chicago's Adams Street, also known as Route 66. Along this road of many names, a silent caravan of cars drives. They are parents of missing children, all brought together by word that children's grave sites are being discovered along the road. And they are being shepherded by Detective Kathy Mallory of the NYPD. But the child Mallory seeks is not like the others. It is herself -- the feral child adopted off the streets, her father a blank, her mother dead and full of mysteries.

During the next few extraordinary days, Mallory will find herself hunting down a killer like non she has ever known -- and will discover more about herself than ever before . . ." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

While O'Connell could have focused on either the hunt for a serial killer or Mallory's journeys following both Route 66 and her father's letters, she nicely balanced both stories. I liked Mallory's interactions with the people she meets along the way and I liked how Butler and Riker supported her in their own way.

Date read: 11/3/2009
Book #: 53
Series: Kathy Mallory, #9
Challenge: 999 Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0425217876
ISBN-13: 978-0425217870
Publisher: Berkley Books
Year: 2006
# of pages: 507
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

A Wolverine is Eating My Leg by Tim Cahill

First sentence:

"There is something a bit humid about the picture, something moist and mysterious, something vaguely erotic and tangled and malarial."

Description:

"Tim Cahill brings 'em back alive. Not only has he survived fantastic journeys through the Himalayan rapids, the Grand Terror of Montana, and Dian Fossey's forbidden zone, he writes about them, too. All with the same excitement and crazed humor his readers have relished for years in the pages of Outside and Rolling Stone. Fearless and hell-bent on destroying all obstacles in his path, Cahill takes us to places rarely seen and barely endured. All admonitions and warnings be damned: Tim Cahill dares us to follow him wherever danger and craziness lurk. And to laugh as he prevails." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This book was a fascinating compilation of Cahill's articles featuring adventures in places including deep caves, high mountains, jungles, and Death Valley. Besides learning about deep cave exploration and how Death Valley is like a convection oven, I also learned about the events leading up to the Jonestown massacre and the efforts to save the mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda.

Date read: 10/29/2009
Book #: 53
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Travel/Adventure

ISBN-10: 067972026X
ISBN-13: 9780679720263
Publisher: Vintage Departures
Year: 1989
# of Pages: 302
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page

Support Your Local Library Challenge

Support Your Local Library Challenge

When: 2009
What: Read either 12, 25 or 50 books from the library.

I will read 12 books from the library this year. I'll post the authors and titles after I read them.

1. Charles Stross. The Merchants' War -- finished 1/13/2009
2. Michael Dirda. Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life -- finished 1/29/2009

3. Bob Edgar. Middle Church -- finished 3/30/2009
4. Margalit Fox. Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind -- finished 5/28/2009

5. China Miéville. Un Lun Dun -- finished 9/13/2009
6. David Maine. Fallen -- finished 10/13/2009
7. Travis Holland. The Archivist's Story -- finished 10/26/2009

The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland

First sentence:

"It is a small matter that brings them together."

Description:

"Moscow, 1939. In the recesses of the infamous Lubyanka prison, a young archivist is sent to authenticate an unsigned story confiscated from one of the many political prisoners there. The writer is Isaac Babel. The great author of Red Calvary is sepnding his last days forbidden to write, his final manuscripts consigned to the archivist, Pavel Dubrov, who will ultimately be charged with destroying them. The emotional jolt of meeting Babel face-to-face leads to a reckless decision: he will save the last stories of the authorhe reveres, whatever the cost.

From the margin of history, Travis Holland has woven a tale of the greatest power. Pavel's private act of courage in the face of a vast bureaucracy of evil invigorates a life that had lost its meaning, even as it guarantees his almost certain undoing. A story of suspense, courage, and unexpected avenues of grace, The Archivist's Story is ultimately an enduring tribute to the written word." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

Though low-key in action, this was a powerful story about personal courage and how one person can quietly make a difference even when it means putting his own life in danger.

Date read: 10/26/2009
Book #: 52
Challenge: Support Your Local Library Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 038533995X
ISBN-13: 9780385339957
Publisher: Dial Press
Year: 2007
# of pages: 239
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page