janbrunetti's challenge

OK - so I am really late starting this ... and judging from my normal reading rate per year this idea will be a significant challenge for me, but here we go with the nine categories.

1. Historical crime / thriller / mystery
2. Humour
Stark - Ben Elton
3. Later than year 2000
4. Lord Peter Wimsey
5. Crime writers I haven't read
Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin
6. Re-reads
7. Biography . Autobiography
8. 1001 Books you have to read before you die
9. Around the World - books with international settings

Good luck with your challenge. I have you starred.

I hope you enjoy the Lord Peter Wimsey category. I just read Conundrums for the Long Weekend which analyzes the series in relationship to what was going on in England at the time of the novels and what was going on in D. Sayers life at that time. It was fascinating and fun to revisit the novels--all of which I have read multiple times. Don't read Conundrums until you read the novels though--it's full of spoilers!

Have fun with your challenge.

Yes, I'm looking forward to the 'Lord Peter' category! I have read one or two of the novels, but thought I'd give myself a chance to 'indulge' this year. Thanks for the advice about Conundrums - perhaps I can award myself the prize of reading that if I manage to complete the category.

I should have added--be sure to read the novels in the order they were written. There is much character development and historical development throughout that will make the journey more interesting--IMO.

That's good advice, thank you. I'll make sure that I do that.

1001 Books to read before you die

1. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
2. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

5. Crime writers I haven't read
Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (would I read again? Yes)
Village Affairs - Cassandra Chan (would I read again? Maybe)

Off the starting blocks with category 1
Historical crime / thriller / mystery

1. The Guilt of Innocents - Candace Robb

Later than year 2000
1. Paradise Fields - Katie Fforde (2004) (rated 3 stars)
2. Engleby - Sebastian Faulks (2007) (rated 3 stars)
3. This book could save your life. (2006) (rated 4 stars)
4. Devil may care - Sebastian Faulks (2008) (rated 3 stars)

April already! Only 9 books read in total ... have begun a list with books overlapping categories.

How did you like Brideshead Revisited? I just started that one this week for the April Evelyn Waugh read.

The only other books by Waugh I've read are A Handful of Dust and The Loved One which were both very funny and satirical. This one seems like it will be a very different style, although I've just finished the prologue so I may be wrong-however it seems to be pretty serious in tone.

I did like it very much actually. I had seen the new film not so long ago and wondered if that would spoil the book for me - but it didn't. I thought that it might be very serious - and slow - but I found that the characterisation kept the whole thing moving, and there although the story spans many years it managed to balance the narrative through that.
How are you finding it?

2. Humour
Stark - Ben Elton
A Year in the Merde - Stephen Clarke

7. Biography / autobiography

Red carpets and other banana skins - Rupert Everett (autobiography)

9. Around the World - books with International settings

The Return - Victoria Hislop (Spain - novel about present day Granada and Spanish Civil War)

5. Crime writers I haven't read
Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (would I read again? Yes)
Village Affairs - Cassandra Chan (would I read again? Maybe)
The Safe House - Nicci French (would I read again? Yes)

9. Around the World - books with International settings

The Return - Victoria Hislop (Spain - novel about present day Granada and Spanish Civil War)

The Street Lawyer - John Grisham (USA - Washington DC (Law Clinics for the homeless)

Later than year 2000
1. Paradise Fields - Katie Fforde (2004) (rated 3 stars)
2. Engleby - Sebastian Faulks (2007) (rated 3 stars)
3. This book could save your life. (2006) (rated 4 stars)
4. Devil may care - Sebastian Faulks (2008) (rated 3 stars)
5. The Rise and Fall of a Domestic Diva - Sarah May (2008) (rated 2 stars)

5. Crime writers I haven't read
1. Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (would I read again? Yes)
2. Village Affairs - Cassandra Chan (would I read again? Maybe)
3. The Safe House - Nicci French (would I read again? Yes)
4. Death is now my Neighbour - Colin Dexter (would I read again? Yes)

6. Re-reads
A Room with a View - E.M.Forster

A Room with a View is one of my favorite books. I guess you like it too, since it is a reread. :-)

4. Lord Peter Wimsey

The Five Red Herrings

You are reading lot of my favorites--although of the Lord Peter series I think this is the weakest. She deliberately set out to write a "puzzle" mystery, in which she succeeded admirably, but I prefer the ones with more interesting and better developed characters.

I found the Five Red Herrings quite hard going for the first two thirds, and then woke up a little with it in the last third where Lord Peter re-enacted the murder.
Others certainly have better characters :)

Historical crime / thriller / mystery

1. The Guilt of Innocents - Candace Robb
2. A gentleman of fortune - Anna Dean (I'm the first person on the whole of Librarything to log this book!)

Okay--A Gentleman of Fortune--should we all be looking for it so we can read it , too? :-) You could start a trend!

5. Crime writers I haven't read
1. Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (would I read again? Yes)
2. Village Affairs - Cassandra Chan (would I read again? Maybe)
3. The Safe House - Nicci French (would I read again? Yes)
4. Death is now my Neighbour - Colin Dexter (would I read again? Yes)
5. Dead Simple - Peter James (would I read again? Yes)

Later than year 2000
1. Paradise Fields - Katie Fforde (2004) (rated 3 stars)
2. Engleby - Sebastian Faulks (2007) (rated 3 stars)
3. This book could save your life. (2006) (rated 4 stars)
4. Devil may care - Sebastian Faulks (2008) (rated 3 stars)
5. The Rise and Fall of a Domestic Diva - Sarah May (2008) (rated 2 stars)
6. The Biographer's Tale - AS Byatt (2001) (rated 3 stars)

Later than year 2000
1. Paradise Fields - Katie Fforde (2004) (rated 3 stars)
2. Engleby - Sebastian Faulks (2007) (rated 3 stars)
3. This book could save your life. (2006) (rated 4 stars)
4. Devil may care - Sebastian Faulks (2008) (rated 3 stars)
5. The Rise and Fall of a Domestic Diva - Sarah May (2008) (rated 2 stars)
6. The Biographer's Tale - AS Byatt (2001) (rated 3 stars)
7. Going Dutch - Katie Fforde (2008) (rated 2 stars)

5. Crime writers I haven't read
1. Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (would I read again? Yes)
2. Village Affairs - Cassandra Chan (would I read again? Maybe)
3. The Safe House - Nicci French (would I read again? Yes)
4. Death is now my Neighbour - Colin Dexter (would I read again? Yes)
5. Dead Simple - Peter James (would I read again? Yes)
6. Shadow or Death - Alison Joseph (would I read again? Yes)