Ltlmiss's 11 in 11 Challenge

My first challenge. In the time I spent creating the categories, I could have read at least one book. I may try the step challenge, but my first goal is to read one book in each category.

Categories (in order if I do the step challenge):
1. That’s Entertainment
2. Physician, Heal Thyself
3. Destined to Repeat Itself
4. Enough About Me. What Do You Think of Me?
5. Men in Black
6. We Have to Go Back!
7. New Year's Resolutions
8. Heathcliff’s Notes
9. Choose My Adventure
10. Another Man’s Trash
11. Vampire Sexy Time

1. That’s Entertainment
Books made into broadway musicals.

Possibles:
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court - Mark Twain
Anna and the King of Siam - Margaret Landon
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

1. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court - Mark Twain - August 24 - September 19

2. Physician, Heal Thyself

Books that feature a protagonist who works as a writer. (You thought I was going to say doctor, didn’t you?) I know fiction writers are told to write what they know, but no writer I know leads a life as exciting as the sassy columnists or hard-nosed reporters I’ve encountered in novels. (I think I’ve read all of Stephen King’s books that fit this category.)

Possibles:
Atonement - Ian McEwan (In my TBR pile.)
Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
The Lost Weekend - Charles R. Jackson
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx

1. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield February 23 - March 6
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrsson - April 21 - May 10

3. Destined to Repeat Itself

History and Historical Fiction.

The Other Queen or The Other Bolyn Girl - Philippa Gregory (both in my TBR pile)
Pillars of the Earth -Ken Follett
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown

1. Water for Elephants - April 28 - May 17

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Double Dipping

1. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court August 24 - September 19

4. Enough About Me. What Do You Think of Me?

Autobiographies, biographies and memoirs.

Possibles:
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand
Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers (in my TBR pile)
Just Kids - Patti Smith
Autobiography of Mark Twain

1. Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution - I tried reading this a few times, but it's written like a research paper.
2. Autobiography of Mark Twain - June 1 - June 15 (listened to first 9 discs)
3. Lauren Bacall: By Myself - August 1 - Sept. 5

5. Men in Black

Stories that feature anti-heroes as protagonists

Possibles:
Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey

1. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay - April 13 - 20.
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey - July 2 - July 17.

6. We Have to Go Back!

I can’t return to the island this winter, so I’ll read books from the LOST reading list.

Possibles:
Catch - 22 - Joseph Heller
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keys
Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens
The Chosen - Chaim Potok
Lancelot - Walker Percy

1. Flowers for Algernon March 29 - April 4
2. Lancelot - Walker Percy October 11 -

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Double Dipping
1. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - June 15 - June 19

7. New Year's Resolutions

Added this category when I realized how much self-help I'd be reading this year.

Possibles:
First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Wiesner
A New Earth by Ekchart Tolle
What Color is Your Parachute
Sink Reflections

1. Idiot's Guide to Taking the GRE April 15 -
2. 20 Years Younger by Bob Greene - May 8 - June 1
3. Llewellyn's 2012 Sun Sign - September 8 - September 8
4. Llewellyn's 2012 Moon Sign - September 20 - October 11

8. Heathcliff’s Notes

Books that everyone on the planet, or at least in an English program, has read, or I was supposed to read in high school. (Combined with "I Call Myself an English Major" to make room for New Year's Resolution's books.)

Possibles:
Slaughterhouse Five -Kurt Vonnegut
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen March 13 - 28
2. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - June 15 - June 19
3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - September 20 -

9. Choose My Adventure

I’ll take two recommended books from LT and let my FB or LT friends choose. I’m hoping to get some good non-fiction suggestions, as I tend to stay far away from this section. So, please recommend away. I may use the group reads as suggestions, too.

1. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson January 9 - January 23. January group read for 11 in 11.
2. From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman. January 23 - 30. My friend Rachel T. recommended.
3. Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton September 20 - October 6. Given to me by my mom to see if I would like Hamilton's writing style.

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Double Dipping
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrsson - April 21 - May 10. My dad and sister recommended.
2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. February 23 - March 6. February group read for 11 in 11.
3. Water for Elephants - April 28 - May 17. Recommeded by my friend Celia A.
4. Darkly Dreaming Dexter.
5. Pride & Prejudice
6. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - September 20 -
7. Lancelot - Walker Percy October 11 -

10. Another Man’s Trash

Books bought at thrift stores, yard sales, in bargain bins at used bookstores and library book sales. This accounts for most of my TBR pile. I had good intentions of reading them when I bought them, but now I could run my own used book store.

1. The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood January 2 - February 20.
2. An Inconvenient Woman by Dominick Dunne. June 2 - June - 10.
3. While I Was Gone by Sue Miller. July 18 - July 31

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1. Double Dipping
Lauren Bacall: By Myself

11. Vampire Sexy Time

This is what my 14 y.o. calls paranormal romance (plus all of the good puns are taken by titles of books in this category). I’m unable to resist the pull of these books any more than the heroines can resist broody stares, territory marking, or the possibility of redeeming a damned soul. I don’t really need a list possibles for this. I’ve already pre-odered the following:

Pale Demon - Kim Harrison
Lover Unleashed - J.R. Ward

1. No Rest for the Wicked - Kresley Cole January 1 - 2.
2. Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison. February 2 - 8.
3. Pale Demon - Kim Harrison March 6 - March 11. (I don't think this really fits in this category, as it is more of an urban fantasy, but it fits best in this category.)
4. Moon Fever ? - March 13
5. Lover Unleashed April 4 -12
6. Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter - May 21 - May 28
7. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris - June 10 - June 15
8. Bound by Darkness by Alexis Morgan - June 26 - June 30
9. Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon

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Double Dipping
1. Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton - September 19 - October 6

LOL @ "Vampire Sexy Time"! Enjoy your broody bloodsuckers. :)

Also, I love Walker Percy! Lancelot is really good, with a deliciously creepy narrator. And Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book, so I hope you enjoy it!

Ooooooh!!! Darkly Dreaming Dexter is delicious! Actually I did that one as an audiobook and it was one of those rare ones that the reader/performer really added to the experience--maybe better than print. His voice wasn't anything at all like Michael C. Hall's but creepy in a whole different way. Dearly Devoted Dexter was just as good too.

For "Choose My Adventure" here's a funny non-fiction book, in an oddball kind of way: Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce. Not belly-laugh funny, more like snort-snort funny. ;)

Welcome to the challenge! You have a good selection of books listed as possibilities. I saw you had The Thirteenth Tale listed as a possible book for your 'Physician, Heal Thyself' category. There is a group read planned for that book in February - just in case you didn't already know. The more, the merrier!

I'm going to have to check The Warmth of Other Suns out. It sounds like something I would enjoy.

Thanks to eveyone for your replies.
christina_reads - Thanks, I'll be sure to put those to Lancelot and Pride and Prejudice ath the tops of my lists.

anaxagoras - I've only watched a few of episodes of the series, so a differnt narrator on the audio book won't bother me. I have a 1/2 hour drive to work, so this is certainly a possibility. Thanks, I hadn't even thought of the audio version. Thanks for the non-fiction suggestion, too. Adding it to my list.

@ lkernagh - I did see that listed as a group read, but appreciate the personal invite. See you in the group discussions in February.

thornton37814 - If you pick it up, let me know what you think.

Good Categories!

I'm a big Dexter fan and I will be reading book Dearly Devoted Dexterfor my challenge. I'm also waiting patiently for the current season to go to DVD.

I also have Tess of the D'ubervilles and Lolita on tap as well.

Neat categories! Welcome to your first challenge!!

@jonesli - sounds like you and I will have a lot to talk about this year. :-)

auntmarge64 - thanks!

Welcome to the challenge! I did a "Books I didn't read when everybody else did" category for my challenge this year, and it helped me mend a few of my more flagrant gaps. Hope you have the same experience!

I like your anti-hero category especially, and the books you've chosen for it. It's been years since I read A clockwork orange, but it made a big impression on me. (Even though I didn't find the extensive wordlist at the end of the book until after I finished it, forcing me to become semi-fluent in nadsat to follow the story...) As good as the film, I think.

GingerbreadMan - Thanks for the encouragement. I haven't seen A Clockwork Orange, either. Gasp - I know. Maybe after I've read it, or do you think it would help me understand the book?

They have slightly different endings, but otherwise Kubrick's film follows the book closely. The book is written in an invented slang (combining english and russian) which takes a little while to get use to. There's usually a wordlist in the end of the book (which I missed) to help out.

I was able to pick up The Thirteenth Tale today in the bargain bin at Half Price books, so I'm definitely joining the read-a-long for this.

Catching up on reviews. (I wrote them, but forgot to post here.)

The Blind Assassin: A Novel by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood's ability to tell the stories about the lives of women always amazes me. Although the settings are different, even the genres are different, the same themes seem to resonante in all of her stories. The main characters are usually women oppresed by the constraints of society who lead a secret life to feel some semblance of control. Overall this story is tragic. The lives of the Chase girls are surrounded by trajedy, and indeed the world was full of trajedy at this time.

The Blind Assassin was so intricate with its story within a story (really there's a third story in there, too), that it made it difficult for me to get invested for great deal of the book. I actually put the book down quite a few times and read a different book, but I kept coming back. Once I connected the dots between Iris's account of her and her sister's lives with the novel within the story, it became more enjoyable.

I found some of the scenic descriptions too long and detailed at times. But, I didn't want to skip any passages because Atwood's observations on life through Iris were often too beautiful and poignant to be missed.

From the newspaper clippings introduced at the very beginning of the novel, I though it was going to be more of a "Who done it" mystery, but Atwood kept me gueesing until the end with other questions: "Who wrote it?" and "Which one is 'she'?" A small part of me wishes those questions would have been left unanswered.
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No Rest for the Wicked (Immortals After Dark, Book 2)… by Kresley Cole
I really enjoyed the story of Kaderin and Sebastian. I think the backdrop of the supernatural scavenger hunt, the Hie, provided an exciting plot. I'm enjoying getting to know the characters in the Immortals After Dark world that Cole has created. I enjoyed the first in the series, A Hunger Like No Other, but think in the characters had more depth in this story. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series when the male isn't the aggressor, at least it seems that way in the sneak peek.
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From Baghdad with Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava… by Jay Kopelman
Being a dog-lover, I loved this book. It's a fast read, and really humanizes the Marines. I learned a lot about what really went on in the Middle East during the first elections in Iraq. It was nice to get some political history surrounded by a heart-warming story.
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Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison
I enjoyed the storyline and the pacing. I really liked that although it was a paranormal romance, the male lead was human. That doesn't happen very often. Even though Adam is human, he is certainly all alpha-male. I would be interested in reading more stories if there was a series. I'm not sure how a series migh work out, because most of the secondary characters are killed off.

The only issue I had with the story was the names of two characters.*****Spoiler alert:

Don't name the traitor Benedict, too obvious.
Although blind oracles are common, don't name yours Abigail. I liked the character of Abigail, but there will never be a prophet named Abigail who can compare to Mother Abigail in Stephen King's The Stand.

Thank you for the review of The Blind Assassin, I have that one buried in mount TBR :P

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
I probably wouldn’t have picked up The Thirteenth Tale if I wasn’t participating in the 11 in 11 Challenge, but I’m glad I did. The protagonist’s (and author’s) love of books and, more specifically, love of fiction is evident when you first pick up the book. The quote from Vida Winter on the back cover is tongue-in-cheek, because Vida is the fictional writer in the story, but it sets up the tone of the book from the beginning. “What good is truth at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.” Most times I take a story at face value, but this quote made me question the validity of not only Vida’s tale, but whether I could trust Margaret’s story, too. This added to my enjoyment of reading this book. I liked not completely trusting the narrator at the same time she distrusted Vida. Even with my eyes opened to the possibilities that things may not be as they seemed, I was still surprised with the end of Vida’s tale. The author left plenty of clues, but surrounded them with enough distractions. This allowed me to enjoy the story while reading it, but think, “Of course that’s what happened,” after she revealed the final secret.

There are many great quotes about reading and books, but one of my favorite quotes is about human nature. Vida states this during her first meeting with Margaret: “Politeness. Now there’s a poor man’s virtue if ever there was one. What’s so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it’s easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what’s left when you’ve failed at everything else. People with ambition don’t give a damn what other people think about them.” I don’t know if this resonated with me because I was raised to always be polite, or because I’m reaching an age where I start questioning the beliefs I have about life.

I think readers who enjoy Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights will enjoy this story. If you want to read a gothic tale that isn’t mired in the heavy prose of those novels, than I feel The Thirteenth Tale is a modern story with the feel of these classics.

I am glad to see that you enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale as well! I find these challenge reads/group discussions are great for encouraging me to pick up a book that I might otherwise never get around to reading.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

My copy of Flowers for Algernon had only praise for the book on the back cover, so I had no idea what the story was going to be about when I started. You don’t have to read very many pages to find out that the story is about Charlie, a retarded man, who is going to have an experimental surgery to raise his intelligence. The story deals a lot with how mentally challenged people are treated. First published in 1966, I read the book looking for differences between 1966 society’s attitudes toward people considered outside of the realm of normal intelligence and today. I came away hoping society has evolved to see mentally challenged people as human beings first, and not just things to either laugh at or be ashamed of. Charlie feels if he is is smarter, then all of his problems will be solved. Don’t we all have something that makes us feel that way? If I were thinner, If I had more money, If I were younger….then my life would be perfect. As Charlie watches the test mouse, Algernon, develop above average intelligence and then deteriorate, the reader feels the heartbreak for Charlie knowing what could be in store for him.

The book is a quick read and told in epistolary style through Charlie’s progress reports. Keyes does a good job telling a rich story in relatively short narrative. (It would be interesting to read the original short story that Keyes wrote first.)

I have an SF Masterworks copy of Flowers for Algernon and it might make its way into my challenge for this year as well. Good to see a positive review posted for it. Thanks!

Lauren Bacall's By Myself

I've always like Lauren Bacall, and who wouldn't want to read about Bogie and Bacall? But, she desparately needed an editor with a heavy hand. She would start a story, go off on a tangent and never return to the original story. Also annoying was mentioning a person, not bringing them up for 100 or so pages, and then dropping them back in the story without any re-introduction, sometimes not even a last name, to help refresh the reader's memory.

She was very candid about her own faults - being naive and impatient when young, being involved with Humphrey Bogart while he was still married - which was refreshing. Witnessing Bogart's death through her eyes was heartbreaking. I found myself openly weeping in public while reading.

Well, I didn't complete the step challenge, but I read a lot more books and books in different categories this year because of it. I'm glad that I read at least one book in each category.