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These great challenges just keep popping up, and I am having a hard time resisting them (as you can probably tell by now).  This one is only 3 books, but I am still having a hard time picking. 

The rules are easy: 3 Southern Setting books by Southern Authors in 3 months beginning May 15 and ending August 15.  Not too hard, right?

I am still not POSITIVE what my 3 will be.  But, I am thinking they are:

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

and

The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue

Granted, this could change but I think I will stick with these three.  Interested in signing up?  Visit Maggie Reads for more details.

I am so fortunate to have so many friends (online anyway) that love to read as much, if not more, than I do.  That said, I get a lot of different posts thrown at me every day thanks to my handy blogreader Bloglines.  Today I ran across another challenge that I will sign up for, reading all 41 books that have won The Man Booker Prize for Fiction.  The list is:

2007 – The Gathering (Enright)
2006 – The Inheritance of Loss (Desai)
2005 – The Sea (Banville)
2004 – The Line of Beauty (Hollinghurst)
2003 – Vernon God Little (Pierre)
2002 – Life of Pi (Martel)
2001 – True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey)
2000 – The Blind Assassin (Atwood)
1999 – Disgrace (Coetzee)
1998 – Amsterdam: A Novel (McEwan)
1997 – The God of Small Things (Roy)
1996 – Last Orders (Swift)
1995 – The Ghost Road (Barker)
1994 – How Late It Was, How Late (Kelman)
1993 – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (Doyle)
1992 – The English Patient (Ondaatje)
1992 – Sacred Hunger (Unsworth)
1991 – The Famished Road (Okri)
1990 – Possession: A Romance (Byatt)
1989 – The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro)
1988 – Oscar and Lucinda (Carey)
1987 – Moon Tiger (Lively)
1986 – The Old Devils (Amis)
1985 – The Bone People (Hulme)
1984 – Hotel Du Lac (Brookner)
1983 – Life & Times of Michael K (Coetzee)
1982 – Schindler’s Ark (Keneally)
1981 – Midnight’s Children (Rushdie)
1980 – Rites of Passage (Golding)
1979 – Offshore (Fitzgerald)
1978 – The Sea, the Sea (Murdoch)
1977 – Staying on (Scott)
1976 – Saville (Storey)
1975 – Heat and Dust (Jhabvala)
1974 – The Conservationist (Gordimer)
1974 – Holiday (Middleton)
1973 – The Siege of Krishnapur (Farrell)
1972 – G. (Berger)
1971 – In a Free State (Naipaul)
1970 – The Elected Member (Rubens)
1969 – Something to Answer For (Newby)

I have read NONE of these, that’s right, none of them.  But, thankfully, there is no time limit which is great.  I can fit these in between some of the other books that I am reading and finish as I go.  I am thrilled to start this one as it seems like there are a LOT of good books here. 

To join, visit The Complete Booker for more info.

I am telling you – I am really enjoying signing up for these challenges.  It is helping me put a dent in books on my TBR list that have been on there for WAY too long.  This one is really great – here are the rules:

The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009.

You may change your list at any time and cross-posting to other challenges is permitted. The only requirement is that your ten book choices must be on the ‘1001 List‘. Another helpful tool is an Excel spreadsheet by Arukiyoma that is found here.

To sign up visit 1% Well-Read Rules and Signup.  Here are my 10:

1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison
4. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
5. The World According to Garp by John Irving
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe
8. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
9. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
10. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I have finally hit my stride, and this is the 4th challenge of the year.  This is another one that caught my eye, not only because of the name but because it is something I should easily be able to accomplish.  Here is the jist of it:

1. Make a list of ten books you love. That’s the only qualification; you had to love (or at least like it) the books on the list. Ten books, a list full of ♥

2. Share the list. 

3. Browse the lists created by our other members, collected here: reading lists! There will also be a master list of books available when people actually makes their lists.

4. Read at least three books recommended by others between May 1st – November 30th, 2008². Of course, more is fine! Encouraged, even!

5. Write reviews of the books you read! As long as folks are reading from our collection of lists, I’ll continue collecting those reviews in our account, until the very last second of November 30th. Three is just the minimum, in order not to scare off people who shall remain nameless that might be a member of 745,936,623 reading challenges. >.>

6. Share the links to your reviews for the challenge by using one of the steps listed in #2. All reviews will be collected in the reviews (link will exist soon) tag, and all participants will be listed in (who would’ve guessed), the participants tag.

The books I have chosen for this challenge are:

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

and

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

For more info click here.

My 10 books are:

I swear, Ex Libris must have been reading my mind.  I didn’t get the opportunity to sign up for too many challenges early on in the year – I just wasn’t organized enough with my books to be able to decide which challenges to join so I opted not to join any.  But, I have recently joined the I Heard It Through the Grapevine Challenge which I am very excited about, and also the 48 Hour Book Challenge.  Even though these are two great challenges, there is something this one does that the other two don’t – combine two of my loves, cooking and reading!  Now it is time for me to decide which six cookbooks I am going to use for this challenge – should be easy enough.  I hope some of you will consider doing this as I think it will be great fun…hearing about new cookbooks, and seeing new recipes and how the reader enjoyed them. 

Thanks again for all the support!

I found this challenge at Lynne’s Little Corner and it was just too hard to resist.  I receive so many books for review that often times my books sit on the shelf just begging to be read.  I am never sure how to prioritize my books, so joining these challenges seems like the perfect way for me to do this.  I have had many books recommended to me (which is the theme of this challenge) so it was hard to narrow it down to 3.  And, unfortunately, I don’t remember exactly who recommended them…sorry, but I read a lot of blogs and websites, I just know that they all sounded interesting to me.  So the three that I have chosen are:

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Things I Want My Daughter to Know by Elizabeth Noble

I do have a little time as this challenge doesn’t start until June 1.  I am so excited – my first true challenge of the year – Thanks Lynne!