Nonfiction Reading Challenge 2015

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at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One more 2015 challenge. You can find the information at The Introverted Reader.

Basically, you read any nonfiction books during 2015 to qualify. I am going for the Master level, between sixteen and twenty books, which is the highest level possible.

Unlike the Classics challenge and the European reading one, this one should not require me to go out of my way to find books. I am mostly a nonfiction reader, especially science and history. I may impose a personal challenge to try to read from diverse nonfiction topics so that I don't fill up my list with twenty very similar books.

I'll post links to reviews here as I complete the books. January 1st can't come soon enough; I already have a mental list of books that I want to start right away!

1. Orr: My Story - Bobby Orr
2. The Skeleton Crew - Deborah Halber
3. Ice Time: A Tale of Fathers, Sons and Hometown Heroes - Jay Atkinson

4. The Shelf - Phyllis Rose

5. The Last Empire - Serhii Plokhy

6. The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin

7. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo

8. Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London -    
        Mohsin Hamid

9. Men Explain Things to Me - Rebecca Solnit

10. Happier at Home - Gretchen Rubin

11. A Palette of Particles - Jeremy Bernstein

12. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

13. Neutrino Hunters - Ray Jayawardhana

14. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen - Mary Norris

15. Working Stiff - Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell

16. The Interstellar Age - Jim Bell

17. The Year of Reading Dangerously - Andy Miller

18. Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia - David Greene

19. Lost London - Richard Guard

20. Better Than Before - Gretchen Rubin
21. The Andy Cohen Diaries - Andy Cohen 
22. Most Talkative - Andy Cohen 
23. The Art of the English Murder - Lucy Worsley 
24. Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own - Kate Bolick 
25. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

European Reading Challenge 2015

                                           

Another challenge for 2015! You can find the information at Rose City Reader.

Essentially, you have to read a book from each of 50 European countries, either by an author from that country or set in that country. I am going for the five books level (Deluxe Entourage) and beyond because I have been trying to read more books in translation and from other countries. Because of this, I am going to try to find authors from each country rather than just books set there but we'll see how far I get!

Can't wait for January 2015 to start! In the meantime, my list of ideas is below. I will update as the challenge progresses.

My choices:

Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France -- The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary -- 
Iceland
Ireland -- Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
Italy
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands -- The Dinner by Herman Koch
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Macedonia
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain -- 
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Vatican City

Back to the Classics Challenge 2015

                                          

First post and first reading challenge! I am so excited to participate in this reading challenge from Karen's Books and Chocolate blog.

You can find more information about the challenge at her blog, but the general idea is to read a classic from twelve different categories in 2015. I have put my preliminary choices below, but, truthfully, will probably change my mind at least twelve times before next January! My competitive instincts have been aroused (I can't help it; we get them installed when we pass the bar) so I'm aiming to complete all twelve categories. This is also a great chance to make some progress through my Kindle (and real) to be read pile.

I can't wait to get started; I'm almost sad that I have to wait until January 1, 2015 to begin.

My (preliminary) picks:




1. A 19th Century Classic -- The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
2. A 20th Century Classic -- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - completed 4/12/15 (The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton)
3. A Classic by a Woman Author -- Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
4. A Classic in Translation -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
5. A Very Long Classic Novel -- Middlemarch by George Eliot
6. A Classic Novella -- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
7. A Classic with a Person's Name in the Title -- Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
8. A Humorous or Satirical Classic -- Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain
9. A Forgotten Classic -- The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
10. A Nonfiction Classic -- Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
11. A Classic Children's Book -- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
12. A Classic Play -- King Richard III by William Shakespeare