Pub 08 Challenge Completed

I simply had to post about this. The Pub '08 challenge is the one and the only of all the challenges I've attempted this year that I've actually completed. Actually, I completed it with flying colors reading some 17 books published in 2008 when the minimum required was 8 and reviewing all but one of them. I hear there's a Pub '09 challenge on tap for next year, so I guess I'll have to join that, too. Then maybe I'll be able to say that I succeeded at *two* challenges, but then I probably shouldn't start counting chickens before they're hatched...

Anyhow, here's the wrap-up...

Non-Fiction

Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum
The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari
The Cactus Eaters by Dan White
Black Wave by Jean and John Silverwood
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion
A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs
Home Girl by Judith Matloff
Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir


Fiction

Widows of Eden by George Shaffner
Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
Ellington Boulevard by Adam Langer
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale
Aberrations by Penelope Przekop


My favorites are tough to choose as there are a bunch of really good books here, but I'd have to go with Sweetsmoke for fiction and Tears of the Desert for non-fiction, but if I broke my categories down any more than that I would just continue picking favorites until I had a huge list. Keep your eye out for the Second Annual Leafy Awards if go in for huge lists.

My least favorites? Probably Black Wave for non-fiction and Aberrations for fiction. Both books had their good qualities but didn't work as a whole for me.

Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block by Judith Matloff

Greetings, everybody. Sorry (yes, I really am - I'd much rather be here doing this than, say, at my pooey job) it's yet again been a week since I've been able to entertain you with my thrilling anecdotes and thoughtful book reviews. I've been busy working at that aforementioned pooey job and, get this, reading books. I finished The Abstinence Teacher which is another one that needs to marinate a while before I decide if I did or did not like it or if I fall into neither camp. I'm about halfway through the first Farworld book, and it's a great page turner. Also, again with the help of the TBR randomizer which somehow "knew" that I was hoping to alternate fiction with non-fiction and chose me a non-fiction title, I've just started The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn - at least, I think that's what it's called. The title is so long that I wouldn't put it past me to screw it up. Anyhow, it's a memoir by a woman who got fired from her corporate management job which she didn't particularly like in the first place and then decides to follow her dream to learn to cook at famous French cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu. I've only read a few pages, but it already seems promising.

I'm afraid I've been putting off my review of Home Girl. Not because I didn't like it - I actually liked it quite a bit. I just don't feel like I have anything especially penetratingly insightful to say about it. That, and the working and the reading usually leave me with hardly enough time to even say penetratingly insightful things about books for which penetratingly insightful thoughts do readily come to mind. Anywho, I fully intend to make a solid attempt forthwith even if I have to do so without my usual penetrating insight. Hey...you! Yeah, you! Quit rolling your eyes!

*crickets*

Okay, I think I'm ready now.




After years of cultivating a successful career as a foreign correspondent that had her traveling to all manner of dangerous locations, Judith Matloff stumbled into her mid-life crisis seeking all the things that she had neglected all her life: commitment, safety, and family. When she loses a baby in dangerous and painful fashion in Russia after chasing a story in Chechnya, she vows to change the way she lives and seek out a real home in New York City, her hometown. Having accumulated a fair amount of funds, she sets out to find the right neighborhood for herself, her husband John, and their well-traveled canine companion, Khaya. Her scouting leads her to West Harlem (before it was cool or even safe to live in West Harlem) a place she deems to be a thriving neighborhood with lots of Latin American flavor that reminds her of her past travels. When the opportunity comes to buy a run-down, fixer-upper of a house at a rock-bottom price, she pays cash on the spot without a second thought as to why the asking price is so low, hoping for the best from the house and from her new neighborhood.

What she gets is far from the best. Judith soon realizes that the reason the house was shown so early in the morning was that by noon the street becomes a hotbed of cocaine-dealing activity complete with hoards of Dominican men eager to be rich back in their own country effortlessly coordinating massive drug transactions providing drugs to much of the east coast. The dealers think nothing of leaving trash everywhere, urinating on her front steps, and leaning somewhat menacingly on her gate. As if this wasn't bad enough, there's Salami, the unhinged crack addict next door, and he's angry about being displaced from "his" house. While Judith assembles a motley crew of workmen to begin the long task of restoring the house, Salami spends all his spare time, of which he has a lot, skulking about and singing "I'll be watching you" in an effort to get Judith to abandon the house he still thinks of as his.

What's surprising about this book is not that Harlem was a hub of criminal activity nor that frightening and disruptive people seemed to be lurking at all hours in this dangerous neighborhood, but how Judith and John embrace their melting-pot neighborhood. Judith strikes up a surprisingly respectful and businesslike friendship with the director of the local drug crew, Miguel, at the same time as she is collecting another group of acquaintances at community meetings where, it is thought, her white face will encourage a stronger response from police to the neighborhood's many problems. Clarence the super from across the street doesn't have the most attractive personality, but he does have a natural cure for whatever might be ailing you while Mackenzie a well-educated recovering addict squatting in the basement of Clarence's building is a frequent borrower of books from Matloff's collection. Other interesting neighbors include a Julliard-trained organist who grows a garden of fake flowers and a feisty elderly black woman still going strong in her 80s who is renowned throughout the neighborhood.

Matloff's connections with the many unique characters that make up her neighborhood even as it begins to transform from underprivileged drug Wall Steet to the dwelling of yuppies are what makes this book shine. It's as charming as it is ironic to find one of the first white couples to venture into West Harlem embracing their community and its members embracing them. Sure, there are many bumps, and occasional bottomless craters, in the road which Matloff renders honestly, but by the time the house is restored and police have finally begun to crack down on the most egregious drug activity, it's clear that her house in Harlem proved to be a great growing experience for Judith and that the she did, at last, find just the sort of home she was longing for albeit in the most unlikely of places.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

When I found out I would be receiving this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers, I kind of wondered what it was that made me request it in the first place. That's not to say that the premise didn't sound interesting to me or that I wasn't very eager to finally get a fiction book from them (has anybody else been noticing a trend toward memoirs here? Er...it's not over). I mean, it sounds fluffy, it sounds like a feel good book. I'm categorically against fluff and when asked to recommend a feel-good book, I usually find myself completely unable to (yes, this has actually happened) because, it happens, I just don't read them.

So I approached The Wednesday Sisters with interest and, admittedly, some trepidation. Here is the story of five friends meeting together in a local park where their kids play. It's the 1960s and while women have made some strides away from more traditional roles, they aren't quite "liberated" yet and they've still been trained to believe that they belong in the house with the kids and that their dreams should play second fiddle to their husbands' dreams. Clayton's writing proceeds with the breezy ease that comes with a book that would make for good company at the beach. The easy, simple writing style is deceptive, however, as there is just so much here. This is a tale of grown women coming of age. Despite their being out of school and having husbands and children, these women don't yet know themselves or where they belong in a time and place fraught with changes.

As the five decide to turn their Wednesday conversations at the park into a more serious time of writing and critiquing each other's work, Clayton brings their quest to know themselves and each other to life. Through their writing, the women slowly get to know the most intimate truths about each other and begin to realize some things about themselves in the process. As Frankie, Linda, Brett, Ally, and Kath take their dreams down off the shelf where they were relegated when marriage and children came along and simultaneously face the struggles and trials of everyday life, they are forced to find out just what they are made of and how far they will go to be there for each other.

Clayton offers an insightful depiction of an uneasy time in history when women were struggling both to maintain the sort of feminine expectations their mothers had modeled for them and to take hold of new opportunities to pursue their own dreams and break free of the stereotypes of what a woman should and should not be. Clayton's book asks the questions about womanhood that continue to be relevant today, questions about what really makes a woman. A child? A family? A career? A dream?

What emerges is a heartwarming tale of the friendship of five women who seem to be meeting and defining themselves for the first time in an era when having a child might still define a woman but so could being a surgeon or even an astronaut. This is an easy read, but don't let it fool you. There's a deeper story here than what meets the eye.

Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck

You know, I've been thinking. The book that's hardest to review is not the book that you loved nor is it the book that you hated, it's the book that you neither loved nor particularly disliked. So it is for me and Three Girls and Their Brother which goes some way in explaining why it's taken me so long to so much as attempt this review, that and at some point here it became summer and it turns out I actually go out of the house and do stuff during the summer now. Who knew? Jeez, I'll be away this very weekend on a pseudo-vacation to the north of the state to basically sit around, read, and hang out with my grandma. So another weekend will go by with blog neglect, but at least I'll be reading...right?

I have one bone to pick with this book right off the bat that has nothing to do with its substance whatsoever. I got this ARC from Library Thing Early Reviewers, and it's a pretty nice looking ARC, three models in little black dresses looking like they are about to have their photo taken. You know, a decent looking cover, relevant to story, something to be excited about picking up and reading, right? Well, having finished the book, I trekked onto the internet looking for a picture of the cover to put on this blog entry.



This is what I came up with. This is the cover art. Okay, we live in an age of folks who judge books by their covers. That being the case, I wish they would have chosen something else, the picture on the ARC, or well...something else. I found the book to be a pretty decent read, but if I saw this cover at the bookstore, I doubt that I'd so much as look twice. Sadly enough, cover art counts for a lot. Here's hoping for something a little different for the paperback. I mean, does anyone agree? Or am I just over-snarky tonight?

Now that I've finished criticizing the cover art, I'm going to get on with the substance of the review...starting with yet another violation of the cardinal rule of ARCs - I'm quoting it!

You take so long to figure things out and just when you get there, they tell you you're out of time. I don't know why that is, but it does seem that way. Like most of your life you sit around all tense, going, "I know life is supposed to feel better than this. How do I figure out how to feel better?" And everybody's got opinions about how to feel better - get drunk, go to the movies, read a comic book or a p-rno magazine, watch TV, whatever. And so you do all that, and it doesn't work, but you're trying, you know, everybody gets points for trying. And then something happens and it just clicks. One day you're lying under a tree or something and it suddenly feels like you almost know it, how to be yourself, and then you do know it, for a second, and then something else happens. They blow up the World Trade Center or something. Someone dies. You lose everything. And then you think, Why didn't I know how to feel happy and content and at home in my life when I had everything I ever needed? How come as soon as I knew it, it all went away?

The three red-haired Heller sisters have just had their big break. Riding on the coattails of their famous literary critic grandfather, Daria, Polly, and Amelia find themselves in a photo shoot for the New Yorker done by famous photographer Herb Lang. For Daria and Polly and their washed-up beauty queen mother, this open door to fame and fortune is all they could have hoped for, but fourteen-year-old Amelia had other things in mind for her future.

In what seems mere moments, the three sisters, regardless of their intentions, skyrocket to fame, with photo shoots in all the major magazines, a billboard in Times Square, and even a part in an off-Broadway play for Amelia, who has hardly acted a moment in her life. As the girls sign a deal with an agent, and their mother actively pushes them even further into the spotlight in a desperate effort to relive her glory days through them, the three are swept away by the tide of their own sudden fame. Their brother Philip's lone voice of reason is drowned out by the din of those who only claim to have the girls' best interests at heart. Soon, even he is shipped off to his absentee father rather than allowed to "interfere" with his sisters' rise to fame.

The narrative proceeds in four parts, each narrated by a sister, and one by narrated by Philip. Rebeck writes in a colloquial tone that gives the impression of each character telling the story from their own perspective just as they would speak, which works, but is at the same time irritating owing to the fact that teenagers don't make for the most eloquent narrators. It almost strikes you as a fictional attempt at an E True Hollywood story except for the fact that the characters' voices don't seem all that different from each other and Amelia, especially, has a penchant of excessively bad language.

Nonetheless, Three Girls and Their Brother is a page-turner and a scathing indictment of what havoc fame can wreak upon a formerly normal family. Rebeck does a fine job of portraying the effects of the sisters' fame on everyone surrounding them from their fame hungry mother who easily loses sight of her responsibility to stand up for the best interests and safety of her children to the protective voice of reason brother who is slowly coming unhinged as he is tossed aside like so much garbage so that he can't stand in the way of the sisters' good fortune to the hoards of people so eager to exploit the newest "it" girls to make a buck that they will eagerly pack youngsters off to "meetings" with middle-aged movie stars who have anything but the best of intentions. Despite my occasional issues with the narration, I found myself totally absorbed in the story, wondering when and if someone would draw the line that would stop all the fame madness and hoping that lovable loser Philip might find his way back into the family that basically kicked him out on a whim and waiting to see how much of being used and posturing for the media the girls would take before they could finally learn to stand up for themselves amid the chaos.

The Cactus Eaters by Dan White

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, hey, look, I'm reviewing another great book and, I think, even am doing so rather coherently. The bad news is that you have to worry about my coherence because now that it's not raining and crappy outside and I don't have to work until Tuesday, why of course, I'm dreadfully ill. I managed to hold out just long enough to slave away carrying junk around for my mother's yard sale (so now I'm sick and sore), but when the time came to simply enjoy the glories of a long weekend (something I've been forever prevented from doing by virtue of having those sorts of jobs where you're forced not only to work both days of the weekend but also the holiday itself) I found that my throat's all sore and my head feels like it's going to explode (and hey, I might even find the whole head exploding thing quite preferable to the current situation). But, to leave this all on an up note, I don't feel too bad to read, and A Great and Terrible Beauty is pretty great, so I've been busy devouring its awesomeness all day long. Now that I've finished updating you on my less than pleasant personal situation (Aren't you glad I decided to share? More importanly, aren't you thrilled that the coming review has not one single parenthese?), on with the book reviewing.



Sometimes ignorance is the catalyst you need to change your life.

The beginning of The Cactus Eaters finds Dan White wanting to grow up. To do so, he imagines that he will need to go through some hardship and emerge on the other side a real man. The hardship he voluntarily exposes himself to is the Pacific Crest Trail a grueling 2,650 mile hike from the Mexican border through California, Oregon, and Washington to Canada. The trail passes through waterless desert and over treacherous mountain passes, and a precious few actually complete its length each year. Despite its dangers, Dan and his girlfriend Allison quit their jobs, mail supplies to various towns along the trail, and begin their hike, after one false start, in Agua Dulce, California. What follows is a hilarious and informative memoir of Dan and Allison's epic hike.

Readers can't help but relate to Dan as he gapes at a well-meaning trail angel lightening his pack, struggles to keep up with fellow PCT hikers whose zeal to finish the trail makes them seem nearly insane, and passive-aggressively attempts to avoid hiking with a rather unpleasant "slow walker" without much success. White's tales of the unusual characters he and Allison meet on the trail flow seemlessly with descriptions of scenery, hardships of the trail, and informative digressions into the history of the area. White's reflections on what drove him to attempt the hike, how his experience on the trail changes him, and what it gave to him and took from him when all was said and done are compelling and never seem anything less than genuine.

Dan and Allison in all their normal personhood are great guides to the trail - not quite so insane-seeming as those who hike the trail repeatedly. Their random made-up rapping, ridiculous ghost stories, and occasional fighting not only pass the time on the trail for them but also spice up the reading for us. That, and the, at first, outsider view of the trail, its unusual hikers, and those trail angels who want to see the PCT hikers succeed help to give a glimpse of the trail that maybe you or I would see if we suddenly went off the deep end and decided it was high time to take a 2,650 mile hike.

White's memoir is at once laugh out loud funny and a little sad as he reflects on a time in his life that was not always great but did have a profound effect on him. White helps those who would never in a million years consider taking such a hike understand how, despite its many trials, one could become so attached to the experience of roughing it in the wilderness in what seems to be a different plane of existence that it would seem surprisingly hard to return to "real" life. All in all, a great and engaging travel memoir that flows so well that you won't want to put it down.

Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion

Hey, look, everybody. It's time for a book review! I do these, remember? I fear that my last two reads are slipping out of my memory, but hey, I just finished this one, so it's still fresh in my mind. I'll really going to get around to the other two. Really. So here we go with the first of the trio of travel writing.

Doreen Orion, a psychiatrist, was happy with her life in Boulder, CO. A self-proclaimed Long Island Princess, she was content with not only working from home but from the comfort of her own bed, collecting massive amounts of shoes and designer clothing, and bingeing on reality TV. Then her husband Tim (Not so secret identity: Project Nerd for his propensity to attempt everything from household repairs to vehicle maintenance on his own), also a psychiatrist, decided to follow his dream of touring the U.S. on a converted bus. Disarmed by her husband's cunning (she still doesn't quite know how she was persuaded to do something she wouldn't consider doing in a "million years") Orion agrees to the plan and finds herself attempting to cram all the trappings of her old life onto a bus for a year long jaunt about the country. Orion's tale of traversing the country in the bus with her husband, pets (two cats, one poodle), and one hundred pairs of shoes is laugh out loud funny, informative, and even a bit enlightening about what the true makings of the "good life" are.

Each chapter is headed up with a different martini recipe useful for laughs and self-medicating for any bus phobia that may arise. From Florida to Alaska, Orion chronicles their adventure including details of their many destinations from the tasty to the kitschy to the downright scenic. Hilarity ensues as the bus malfunctions, hikes complete with frightening birds and bugs are attempted, and appropriate nudist RV park behavior is contemplated. Orion brings her wit to the best and worst of situations.

Best of all, though, is the bigger journey Orion ends up taking as she shuffles off her old life of couch potato materialism in favor of getting out and living life instead of watching it on TV. Watching Orion progress from someone whose stuff seems to own her to someone who begins to see that there is much more to life than things as she embraces the experiences the trip has to offer her is a rewarding experience and worthwile lesson that we can all stand to learn and relearn again. For Doreen and Tim, the trip turns out to be life-changing as their priorities are rearranged to accomodate the friendships they'd been missing out on, the simple joy of getting up in the morning excited about what the day has to offer, and the quality time together that enriches their relationship.

The chapter about their trip to Tim's father's house in rural Arkansas is especially hilarious. Also very nifty... Orion includes a list (with comments!) of many of their destinations complete with website addresses and contact information to help in your own vacationing as well as a list of the books she enjoyed while on the trip and beyond. What book lover couldn't love that?

Overall - a great read that might well have you planning a road trip and maybe even considering re-arranging a few your own misguided priorities.

The book is out on June 3rd, but if you want to get an advance look check out her website where you can read an excerpt and even see some great pictures from the trip.

The Widows of Eden by George Shaffner

The citizens of Ebb, Nebraska are suffering through their worst drought in history. After more than one hundred days without rain, farmers who have lived in Ebb for their entire lives are packing up and disappearing in the middle of the night unable to make a go of it any longer. Not to worry, though, help is on the way. Word comes that a certain Vernon Moore, mysterious traveling salesman and occasional worker of miracles, is on his way for his first visit to Ebb in about five years. The quaint townspeople of Ebb believe that Mr. Moore is the answer to their prayers and their only chance for rain, but the ailing multi-millionaire Clem Tucker has other ideas. What happens when Clem proposes a deal that would have Mr. Moore choose to spare his life instead of asking for rain?

This is the premise of George Shaffner's The Widows of Eden. It defied my expectations in more ways than one. There were parts of this book that I enjoyed very much and others that nearly discouraged me from finishing it. The premise is very attractive, which is why I requested and received it from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. The follow-through is a bit less than optimal. At the helm of the book is first person narrator Wilma Porter who operates the bed and breakfast where Mr. Moore stays when he is in town and is also the fiance of the aforementioned Clem Tucker. As one might guess, Ms. Porter is very much at the center of the story given her relationships to those two pivotal characters, however, her first person narration continues even into places and situations where she is not present which is somewhat disorienting. It also often seems that Shaffner has taken every stereotype of small town fiction and played each up to a fever pitch that can, unfortunately, be a bit cringeworthy. Sometimes this can be overlooked - I'll admit to giggling at a few of Wilma's kooky comments such as, "An amendment to the state constitution was supposed to prevent the sale of family farms to big corporations, but it turned out to have more loopholes than a cheap shag rug." Other times, Shaffner overplays his quaint rural fiction hand with his constant use of the endearment "honey pot," the existence of an all-powerful Quilting Circle of gossipy ladies who don't seem to do any quilting at all, and Wilma's irritating way of never referring to her goddaughter by her name but as her "sweet/perfect/adorable little goddaughter."

That said, there were parts of this book that I found so absorbing that I could forgive this book some of its more irritating tendencies. Despite the occasional lapse into pure cheese, Shaffner writes snappy dialogue and creates a cast of very lively characters bent on saving their town and their way of life. The mystery of Vernon's possibly miraculous origins as well as the origins of three widow friends who accompany him on the occasion of this book is well thought out and even a bit suspenseful. My favorite part, however, was Vernon's conversations with Clem on the subject of the deist's paradox (which suggests that a benevolent God would intervene in the affairs of men and since He hasn't in quite some time He has abandoned us), the nature of God, and his attempts to persuade the unbelieving Clem that God cares for His creation and hasn't retreated to heaven leaving His people to their own devices. I'll be the first to admit that having guaged the tone of this novel, I didn't expect a philosophical discussion this well thought out and absorbing. I might not believe everything that was said, but I drank it up and these scenes kept the pages turning the quickest. By the end, I was thoroughly curious whether Vernon would be able to convince this selfish and heartless millionaire of God's existence and providence and what would happen if he couldn't.

All in all, this book seemed to be a paradox in and of itself, as if Shaffner intended to write a lighthearted novel for those in need of some small town centered brain candy but ended up with something a bit more serious than that, and the reader is stuck trying to figure out just how to take it. While it isn't one of my favorite reads and it definitely wasn't what I was expecting, it does have its redeeming qualities and as such could make for a fun summer read with a side of a little food for thought.

The publication date for this book is June 17, 2008.

That's another one down for Pub 2008 and the Spring Reading Thing, too!

The Translator by Daoud Hari

Say, am I the last book blogger on the earth to review this excellent book?



The Translator is Daoud Hari's memoir of growing up in Darfur, Sudan, leaving his homeland to see the world outside of Sudan's borders, and then returning to help draw the world's attention his war-torn homeland using his knowledge of English, Arabic, and Zaghawa. Hari tells of his six sojourns back into a Sudan fraught with danger to help journalists from all over the world tell the stories that would persuade the world to take action to save Darfur. Using his language skills, his many contacts from rebel leaders to NGO leaders, and quick thinking Hari safely escorted several reporters into Sudan at great risk to his own life. Despite the terrifying nature of his work and several situations that turned ugly, Hari's narrative is strikingly optimistic, never losing hope that something can be done to save his people, and at some times, is even humorous in the most dire of situations. Hari's ability to see the good in situations is astonishing. For example, he tells of being in prison in Egypt before his return to Sudan where he doesn't lament his time in prison so much as he says that it was a great opportunity to meet and talk to new people from many places. This optimism, hope, and good humor buoys him through many a seemingly unbearable situation.

Hari's casual use of "you" as he attempts to relate his experiences to the reader's own gives the impression that you are sitting with him and he is telling you his story face to face. It's this style that gives the book so much of its power. As Hari "talks" to us, his great love of his homeland and its traditions shines through as he tells of his favorite camel, his respect and love for the strong women in his community who can usually be found dressed in beautiful bright colors, and his memory of a bygone era when the Zaghawa people and Arabs could be found dining in each other's tents and conflicts were resolved with honor far from villages full of women and children.

His conviction that one person can use his or her talents to change the way things are is infectious, and he is proof that this is true. He, at once, tells us that one person can make a difference, shows us that it is true, and challenges us saying, in effect, "If it was your family, your home, your life, wouldn't you do the same? Wouldn't you risk life and limb and do anything it took to keep evil men from extinguishing your entire way of life?" I wish that I could say that I would be so brave in the face of such a far-reaching crisis! Regardless of whether we would have the strength do what Hari has doen, in this book Hari has offered us an opportunity and a reason to step up and do something for the land and people that he loves, and in so doing set the precedent that this type of senseless genocidal killing will not be tolerated in the world any longer.

This is a book that everyone should read. Despite knowing something of Darfur and its struggles, I admit that until I read Hari's book, I was a little in the dark about the whys and wherefores of the conflict and about Darfur itself. Hari brings his community and his entire homeland to life and also explains the conflict that is tearing Darfur apart it in a way we all can understand and in such a way that we really can see what the world is losing if we simply stand by and allow this continue.

The official release date for this book is March 18.
SaveDarfur.org

Read other reviews at Musings of a Bookish Kitty, SomeReads, and Nothing of Importance.

The Pub '08 Challenge

The Pub '08 Challenge

The rules are simple:

- Read a minimum of 8 books published in 2008. (Library books are acceptable!)
- No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
- At least 4 titles must be fiction.
- Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
- Titles may be changed at any time.


Having contemplated joining since it was announced, this is the post where I finally break down and join the Pub '08 Challenge hosted by 3M. I was kind of holding out to see how many new titles I would end up needing to buy or borrow from the library before I made a committment, and having been awarded (much to my surprise) yet another book from the Early Reviewer program on Library Thing and with a few more to come from Elle, I'm convinced that I'll have enough throughout the course of the year to do the challenge without needlessly adding significantly to my TBR pile.

Here's my list...

1. The Translater by Daoud Hari
2. Widows of Eden by George Shaffner
3. Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck
4. Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum
5. The Cactus Eaters by Dan White
6. Black Wave by Jean and John Silverwood
7. Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion
8. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
9. Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
10. A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs
11. Home Girl by Judith Matloff
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Now, we interrupt this post for a brief moment of narcissism. The March issue of Elle magazine finally arrived in my mailbox. Now if you'll recall (that is, if you were here in Nov/Dec last year), I got to jump on the bandwagon of its Readers' Jury program again, and they sent me 3 books to read and comment on for the March issue, all 3 of which I uh... didn't love. Nonetheless, I'm enjoying my 15 minutes (okay...15 seconds) of fame again this year because two of my little comments are in the magazine. Now, for a fashion magazine, I'm always rather impressed that they have a pretty decent book section (*flips through pages aimlessly* hmmm...this season's little black dresses, 5 easy tricks for eyebrow shaping, Hollywood's secrets to great hair, and...BOOKS!), so it's fun to be a tiny part of it. It's not like my reviews and ramblings aren't already wandering all over the internet being read by other humans, but gosh, it's kind of an extra-special thrill to see my name and what I wrote on the pages of the magazine (and I always manage to be shocked that they chose *my* comments to put in the mag!).

By the way, if you happen to be interested in trying it, you can e-mail eagerreader at elle dot com and well...ask nicely about joining up with the program, and there's always a chance they'll actually reply to you with more info and an application (as they did for me - but it did *take* a while). You get three ARCs to read and write mini-reviews of (which may or may not get published in the magazine) for the month of your jury and then the 5 other top books from the other months to read during the summer for their grand prize. The only downfall is that it's kind of a crapshoot as to what you're going to get. I've read some great books for it (a few of my favorites from last year that I probably still wouldn't even know about if it hadn't been for Elle), and some not great books for it (including a few of my anti-favorites from last year). All in all, it's a pretty neat experience.

That's all for now. I did, however, finish a great book last night, so hopefully I'll be back soon with its review!