What’s in a Name? 3 Challenge

I signed up for another challenge today. I’m trying not to sign up for too many as 2010 will be my first full year of challenges, but this one sounded fun!This challenge is hosted by Beth and is called What’s In A Name? 3. Here are the rules as posted on the challenge blog.

Between January 1 and December 31, 2010, read one book in each of the following categories:

  1. A book with a food in the title: Clockwork Orange, Grapes of Wrath, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
  2. A book with a body of water in the title: A River Runs through It, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, The Lake House
  3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title: The Murder of King Tut, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lady Susan
  4. A book with a plant in the title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Wind in the Willows, The Name of the Rose
  5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title: Out of Africa; London; Between, Georgia
  6. A book with a music term in the title: Song of Solomon, Ragtime, The Piano Teacher

The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category.

Other Things to Know

  • Books may be any form (audio, print, e-book).
  • Books may overlap other challenges.
  • Books may not overlap categories; you need a different book for each category.
  • Creativity for matching the categories is allowed.
  • You do not have to make a list of books before hand.
  • You do not have to read through the categories in any particular order.
  • There will be a single prize at the end of the challenge. Readers who complete the challenge and write up a wrap-up post (or wrap-up comment) are eligible. I’ll figure out a way to make it international.

Books read for this challenge (updated January 9 2010)

1. [Book with a Title in the title] The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
2.

Review: Molly’s Millions by Victoria Connelly

What would you do if you won £4.2m on the lottery? Would you tell your Scrooge-like family and risk them taking the money away from you…or would you try to keep it a secret and have some fun? That’s the decision faced by struggling florist Molly Bailey – and it doesn’t take her long to make up her mind!

Knowing she can’t hide her win from the Bailey family forever, Molly decides to dispose of it as quickly as possible. With only her dog for company, she sets off on a journey around Britain, distributing money to those in need.
Victoria Connelly writes with a lot of warmth and humour, making this a lovely, inspiring story with characters that the reader can really identify with and care about.

It would be impossible not to like Molly Bailey, as she’s such a generous, kind-hearted person. She truly doesn’t seem to realise how unusual it is for someone to behave so selflessly and can’t understand why her actions are making her a media phenomenon. I also liked Tom, despite the trouble he was causing for Molly, and I loved Flora, his daughter. I was torn between cheering Molly on, and wanting Tom to catch her!
This isn’t the kind of book I would usually choose to read but Molly’s Millions, with its pretty pink cover, caught my attention. It was a light, enjoyable, fun read and I’m glad I decided to give it a chance!

Journalist Tom Mackenzie is looking for a big story to save his career. Accompanied by his ten year-old daughter, Flora, Tom chases Molly up and down the country, determined to discover the identity of this modern-day Robin Hood. Molly must use her wits if she is to avoid being caught by Tom and the Bailey men and continue spreading goodwill to the nation.

Recommended

Genre: Chick Lit/Pages: 352/Publisher: Allison & Busby/Year: 2009/Source: Library book

New Book Arrivals – 28th November 2009

I won a £10 Amazon voucher with an online survey panel that I belong to, so of course I decided to spend it on some books. The books I chose were Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte and The Haunted Hotel and Other Stories by Wilkie Collins. I want to read the Jung Chang and Anne Bronte books for various challenges I’m participating in (in particular Women Unbound and All About The Brontes) and they’ve been on my wishlist for years anyway. I wanted The Haunted Hotel because I love Wilkie Collins and am trying to read as many of his books as possible.

The books are now on my TBR list for 2010.

Review: The Moonlit Cage by Linda Holeman


“I have always been told I was wicked…”

This is the first book I’ve read by Linda Holeman and it was good enough to make me want to read more of her work.
I love books that help me to learn about other times and other places: in The Moonlit Cage, Holeman introduces us to life in 19th century Afghanistan. Not being an expert in Afghan history or culture, I have no idea how accurate her descriptions are, but the book seems very well-researched to me. A glossary of unfamiliar Dari and Pashto words is included at the back of the book, but I didn’t feel the need to refer to this very often as most of the words were explained as we encountered them in the text.
 
 The story is narrated by Darya, a young Afghan girl. All her life Darya has refused to conform to others’ expectations and secretly dreams of one day finding freedom. When her father’s second wife, Sulima, puts a curse on her, Darya is forced to leave her village and is sold into marriage with the son of a nomadic chief. However, when her husband learns about the curse and threatens to kill her, she runs away again. As she escapes through the Hindu Kush mountains, she meets David Ingram and begins a journey which takes her first to India and then to London.
 

I really enjoyed this book and found it difficult to put down. The first two thirds, which took place in Afghanistan and India, were fascinating, though I didn’t like the way the storyline developed after Darya’s arrival in England. The only other problem I had with the book was that while Darya was an interesting, likeable character, I found David Ingram, as the hero of the story, quite boring and two-dimensional.I admired the way Darya’s strength and courage helped her to survive all kinds of pain and abuse.

After reading the first couple of chapters I decided that this book would count towards the Women Unbound reading challenge. Throughout the entire story, Darya constantly questions why she has to behave in a certain way just because she’s a woman and challenges the belief that daughters are worthless and only sons are of value.
 
I knew nothing about this book until I found it in the library (on the “H” shelf next to Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner which coincidentally is also set in Afghanistan) so I was surprised by how good it was. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys long historical fiction novels…but you can prepare to be saddened and shocked by Darya’s story.
 
Recommended
Genre: Historical Fiction/Pages: 544/Publisher: Headline Review/Year: 2006/Source: Library book

Teaser Tuesday: The Moonlit Cage

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The rules:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page (avoiding spoilers)

One day as I ground roots, putting all my anger into the satisfying crunch of the stone against stone, she put her hand on my arm, and I stopped.

“Sometimes, Darya, a curse may be a blessing,” she said.

p. 114 “The Moonlit Cage” by Linda Holeman

Musing Mondays: Reading at School


This week’s MUSING MONDAYS question:

What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particular liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favourites?

Here are a few of the books we read at school. I’m sure there must have been lots of others, but these are the only ones I can remember at the moment!


Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

Beowulf – I remember reading this at school when we were 11 or 12 – it would have been an abridged version, though, and definitely not in the original Old English!

The Pearl

The Pearl by John Steinbeck – I’ve had a copy of this on my shelf for years but have never read it since I was at school. Maybe I should try reading it again sometime.

Frankenstein's Aunt (New Windmills)

Frankenstein’s Aunt by Allan Rune Pettersson – I didn’t enjoy reading this at all. I suppose the teacher chose it thinking it would appeal to 12/13 year olds – but it didn’t appeal to me.

Across the Barricades

Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard – We read this in Year 10 (age 14/15). Considering this would have been in the 1990s when Northern Ireland was often in the news, it was quite an appropriate book to read – the story took place in Belfast and the two main characters were Kevin, a Catholic boy, and Sadie, his Protestant girlfriend. I can’t remember much about the story, though.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor – This was one of the best books we read at school. It reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird (another teacher had recommended TKAM to me the previous year and I loved it).

Shakespeare – Like most English classes, we also read some Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth.

I also read Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Animal Farm and Silas Marner, but these were books that my English teacher told me I should read, rather than books I had to read.

I won’t list everything I read outside of school, as there would be far too many books to mention here!