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 -- finished 11/6/2009
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. Agatha Christie. Murder at Hazelmoor -- finished 11/11/2009
5. Javier Sierra. The Secret Supper
   
6. Robert Tine. Desperate Measures
7. Boris Akunin. The Winter Queen
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. James Alan Gardner. Gravity Wells -- finished 2/2/2009
2. The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft:The Road to Madness -- finished 12/19/2009
3. Stephen King. Everything's Eventual
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

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 - VII. Anthologies

To see my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

1. James Alan Gardner. Gravity Wells -- finished 2/2/2009
2. The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft:The Road to Madness -- finished 12/19/2009
3. Stephen King. Everything's Eventual
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

The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness

First sentence:

"The horrible conclusion which had been gradually obtruding itself upon my confused and reluctant mind was now an awful certainty."

Description:

One of the most influential practitioners of American horror, H.P. Lovecraft inspired the work of Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. As he perfected his mastery of the macabre, his works developed from seminal fragments into acknowledged masterpieces of terror. This volume traces his chilling career and includes:

IMPRISONED WITH THE PHARAOHS--Houdini seeks to reveal the demons that inhabit the Egyptian night.
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS--An unsuspecting expedition uncovers a city of untold terror, buried beneath an Antarctic wasteland.

Plus, for the first time in any Del Rey edition:

HERBERT WEST: REANIMATOR--Mad experiments yield hideous results in this, the inspiration for the cult film Re-Animator.
COOL AIR--An icy apartment hides secrets no man dares unlock.
THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN--The intruders seek a fortune but find only death!
AND TWENTY-FOUR MORE BLOOD-CHILLING TALES -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this collection of short stories and novellas by H.P. Lovecraft. My favorites included "Herbert West--Renanimator," "Imprisoned with the Pharoahs," and "At the Mountains of Madness." The first one I liked because of the way the narrator told the story - first a little bit, and then it repeats with more and more detail. I liked the second story because it was told from the point of view of Harry Houdini. And finally, I liked the third story because it was a good mix of discovery, adventure, and horror. Plus, it takes place in one of my favorite literary settings, Antarctica.

Date read: 12/19/2009
Book #: 61
Challenge: 999 Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Horror

ISBN-10: 0345384229
ISBN-13: 9780345384225
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 1996
# of pages: 379
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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. Agatha Christie. Murder at Hazelmoor -- finished 11/11/2009
5. Robert Goldsborough. Murder in E Minor
6. Trish Skillman. Someone to Watch Over
7. Javier Sierra. The Secret Supper
   
8. Robert Tine. Desperate Measures
9. Boris Akunin. The Winter Queen

The Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie

First sentence:

"Major Burnaby drew on his gum boots, buttoned his overcoat collar round his neck, took from a shelf near the door a hurricane lantern, and cautiously opened the front door of his little bungalow and peered out."

Description:

"T-R-E-V D-E-A-D M-U-R-D-E-R

It was only a parlor game intended to while away the hours on a bitter winter night. But when the psychic table turning pronounced Captain Trevelyan 'dead,' the guests at Sittaford House became nervous. And when, a few hours later, Major Burnaby discovers the body, the game becomes an eerie and baffling murder case. Inspector Narracott for the police and Miss Emily Trefusis, hoping to clear her fiancé, delve deep into the spirit world -- to find a very human murderer." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this wintertime mystery. I especially liked how Emily figured out the truth behind Trevelyan's murder.

Date read: 11/11/2009
Book #: 56
Challenges: 999 Challenge, Agatha Christie Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0425104060
ISBN-13: 9780425104064
Publisher: Berkley
Year: 1984 (original: 1931)
# of Pages: 228
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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999 Challenge - II. Fantasy

For my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

II. Fantasy

1. Alexander C. 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 -- finished 11/6/2009
6. Will Shetterly. Elsewhere
7. Esther Friesner. Here Be Demons
8. John M. Ford. The Last Hot Time
9. Robert C. Fleet. Last Mountain
   

Dreamside by Graham Joyce

First sentence:

"Lee was having trouble sleeping."

Description:

"It began as an experiment in college -- a seemingly harmless investigation in to 'lucid dreaming,' the ability to control one's dreams. Ella and Lee, Honora and Brad: four students linked by youthful longings, all four of them game for something new.

But the dreams turned more and more real -- and when the four of them learned how to meet one another on Dreamside, the experiment began to engulf their waking lives. Then, in a spasm of violence, they flew apart, fleeing from Dreamside and from each other.

Now, ten years later, the dreams have returned to upend their adult lives -- and, most frightening, to drag the four of them back into one another's company. Worse, they each need the others' help.

The dreams of youth fade, if you're lucky. If not, they can consume you -- and they will." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This book was an interesting look at lucid dreams and what happens when dreams invade reality. I like the interactions between the characters as they struggle to understand what happened years ago.

Date read: 11/6/2009
Book #: 55
Challenges: 999 Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 031286633X
ISBN-13: 9780312866334
Publisher: TOR Books
Year: 1991
# of Pages: 254
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

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
   

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
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Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh

First sentence:

"It was the deep dark, unexplored except for robotic visitors."

Description:

"It had been nearly five centuries since the starship Phoenix, lost in space and desperately searching for the nearest G5 star, had encountered the planet of the atevi. On this alien world, law was kept by the use of registed assassination, alliances were defined by individual loyalties not geographical borders, and war became inevitable once humans and one faction of atevi established a working relationship. It was a war that humans had no chance of winning on this planet so many light-years from home.

Now, nearly two hundred years after that conflict, humanity has traded its advanced technology for peace and an island refuge that no atevi will ever visit. Then the sole human the treaty allows into atevi society is marked for an assassin's bullet. The work of an isolated lunatic?. . .The interests of a particular faction?. . .Or the consequence of one human's fondness for a species which has fourteen words for betrayal and not a ingle word for love?

My thoughts:

This was a very good science fiction novel about different cultures interacting. I liked how Bren Cameron has to figure out what's going on without inadvertently offending his atevi hosts. I look forward to learning what happens next in the second book in the series, Invader.

Date read: 10/7/2009
Book #: 49
Challenges: Celebrate the Author Challenge 2009
Series: Foreigner, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0886776376
ISBN-13: 97806776374
Publisher: DAW Books
Year: 1994
# of Pages: 423
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

999 Challenge - VI. Nonfiction

To see my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

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

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

First sentence:

"Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn."

Description:

"'God, he was a smart kid...' So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't—cannot—answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: 'At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams.' Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless."

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book about not only Chris McCandless's tragic and unnecessary death, but about how someone's romantic view of nature can blind them to its harsh reality.

Date read: 10/1/2009
Challenge: 999 Challenge, Non-Fiction Five Challenge 2009
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0385486804
ISBN-13: 9780385486804
Publisher: Anchor Books
Year: 1996
# of Pages: 203
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Body Dump by Fred Rosen

First sentence:

"Eight women were missing."

Description:

"In October 1996, women began vanishing off the streets of Poughkeepsie, New York. All were young, pretty and petite. Most were hustlers and crackheads. By August 1998, as the toll reached eight, a victim's mother said bitterly, 'When they find one they will find them all.' She didn't know how horrifyingly right she was.

At the height of the manhunt, prostitute Christine Sala, hysterical, told police she had barely escaped being strangled by Kendall Francois, 27, a 6'4", 300-lb middle school hall monitor whose slovenly personal hygiene had earned him the nickname 'Stinky.' When caught, Francois said that he'd killed the women because they hadn't given him all the sex he claimed he'd paid for.

Investigators in white bio-hazard suits entered the house where Francois lived and found eight female corpses, almost all decomposed. Some were placed in plastic bags together in the attic. Others lay in shallow graves in the crawl space under the house. It was such a tangle of rotting flesh and bones, even the investigators couldn't tell how many bodies there were. Now, sentenced to life in prison without parole, the man whom others dismissed a smelly oaf had finally been unmasked as one of the most bizarre serial sex-killers of modern times." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book about the efforts of the local Poughkeepsie city and town police to catch the serial killer, Kendall Francois.

Date read: 9/19/2009
Book #: 47
Challenges: 999 Challenge, Non-Fiction Five Challenge 2009
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0786011335
ISBN-13: 9789786011339
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Year: 2002
# of Pages: 289
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Green Rider by Kristen Britain

First sentence:

"The granite was cold and rough against the gray-cloaked man's palms."

Description:

"On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the woods, the rider slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a "life and death" message for King Zachary. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission "for love of country." As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, he whispers on his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man..."

Karigan's promise changes her life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book. I liked how Karigan gradually learned about her role in the fight for the kingdom of Sacordia between Zachary and his brother Amilton. I also liked the interactions between the characters Karigan and the friends she makes. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, First Rider's Call.

Date read: 9/7/2009
Book #: 45
Series: Green Rider, #1
Challenge: 999 Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0886778581
ISBN-13: 9780886778583
Publisher: DAW
Year: 2000
# of Pages: 471
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

999 Challenge - VIII. First in a Series

To see my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

1. Jonathan Stroud. The Amulet of Samarkand -- finished 1/30/2009
   
2. Jefferson Bass. Carved in Bone -- finished 4/2/2009
3. Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball. 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

Denial by Keith Ablow

First sentence:

"I shot up, sweat dripping down my face."

Description:

"He's in deep.

A series of grisly murders has forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger on the case of a lifetime and the fight of his life against a brutal killer with a horrific trademark and his own howling demons of sexual compulsion, self-destruction, and. . . denial." -- from the back cover


My thoughts:

At first I wasn't sure if I would like the book as the main character, Frank Clevenger, was not the most likable person. But as the story progresses and Frank has to both solve the crimes and face the reason he tends to self-destruct, I got more interested in how the story would end. I look forward to reading more about Frank and his friends and enemies in the next book, Projection.

Date read: 9/4/2009
Book #: 44
Challenge: 999 Challenge
Series: Frank Clevenger, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0312965966
ISBN-13: 9780312965969
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Year: 1997
# of Pages: 358
LibraryThing page

999 Challenge - III. Science Fiction

For my complete 999 Challenge list, go here.

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
   

Have Space Suit - Will Travel by Robert Heinlein

First sentence:

"You see, I had this space suit."

Description:

"Kip is a volatile teenager whose desire to go to the moon launches him on a much, much longer journey. Struggles haunt his path, desperate seeking forces him on. Eventually he is set down on an ancient planet, finds within himself a primal strength and finally accepts the mantle of responsibility for the entire human race." -- from the backcover



My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book. I liked Kip and Pee Wee's friendship and their interactions with the "Mother Creature." I also liked how Kip's father challenged him to learn more than what the school was teaching him.

Date read: 8/20/2009
Book #: 42
Challenges: 999 Challenge, Final Frontier Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great

Publisher: New English Library
Year: 1975
# of Pages: 175
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Picoverse by Robert A. Metzger

First sentence:

"The Nunn Physics Building, a six-story sprawl of red brick and smoked glass, dominated the northern boundary of Georgia Tech's campus, throwing a long shadow down 14th Street, painting the dozens of ramshackle student bungalows that hugged its western edge in depressing shades of gray and brown."

Description:

"In the early twenty-first century, a team of scientists has done the impossible -- ripped apart the fabric of space-time and created a brand new universe. . .one million-millionth the size of our own. Now, they're going to see where it takes them." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was an interesting and challenging book to read. I liked the way the characters entered various alternate picoverses, sometimes for seconds at a time.

Date read: 8/9/2009
Book #: 40
Challenge: 999 Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 044101030X
ISBN-13: 978-0441010301
Publisher: Ace
Year: 2003
# of Pages: 389
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Climb Up to Hell by Jack Olsen

First sentence:

"Fritz von Almen, thirty-nine years old, serious of mien, conservative of dress, walked onto a tiny side porch of his family's hotel, 6,700 feet up in the Swiss Alps, and sat in front of a swivel-mounted pair of binoculars aimed at a towering mountain wall across the meadows."

Description:

"The north wall of the Eiger Mountain in the Bernese Alps has longed fascinated the world's best mountain climbers. Almost every attempt to conquer it has resulted in defeat or disaster.

Once again in print, this is the story of the tragic 1957 ordeal on the Eiger Mountain's north wall -- the classic account of one of the most awesome drams in mountaineering history." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a very interesting book about the 1957 rescue of Claudio Corti from the north wall of Mt. Eiger. The descriptions of the climb and the rescue were very good and I could imagine being there myself.

Date read: 7/10/2009
Book #: 38
Challenges: 999 Challenge, Non-Fiction Five Challenge 2009, Celebrate the Author Challenge 2009
Rating: 3*/5 = Good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0312194501
ISBN-13: 9780312194505
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Year: 1962
# of Pages: 212
Binding: Trade Paperback
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