Fall 09'/Winter 10' Reading Challenge

I will be participating in my very first Reading task challenge on goodreads and I am pretty excited to see how far I can get in tackling my TBR list! It's gonna be pretty tough since I will be starting student teaching soon, but I'm up for the challenge. I might even be able to integrate some of these books into my lesson plans...

Here are the rules:
1. This challenge will start September 7th 2009 (at midnight) and will end at midnight on February 22nd 2010.
2. You can only use books that you have started after you post a list on the official challenge thread. Books will not count unless they were started after September 7th. If you are less than 20 pages into a book, that will be fine.
3. Books can only be used for one category.
4. Re-reads are fine, except where stated otherwise.
5. All books should be over 150 pages unless otherwise stated.

Here are the tasks:

5 Points
1. September is Library Card Sign-Up Month: Go to the library and check two books out and read them.
2. Pick a person who was born in September-February and read a book about them, by them, or pertaining to their subject of expertise. For example, Marie Curie was born on November 7th. Read a book about her, written by her, or about Chemistry/Physics.
3. Read a book with a winter word: snow (snowball, snowflake are fine), ice, candy cane, cold, presents, gift, reindeer, Santa, sled, blizzard, frost, igloo, mittens, fireplace, chilly, angel, white, tree, Christmas, winter, wonderland, bells, elves/elf, miracle,
4. Read a book with a fall word- leaf/leaves, turkey, autumn, fall, pumpkin, acorn, thanksgiving, apple, hayride, harvest, pilgrims, Indians, feast, thanks,
5. Banned Books Week - September 26−October 3, 2009==Celebrate Your Freedom to Read --read a book on the banned or challenged book list. http://deletecensorship.org/downloads/booklist_hpb.pdf
6. September is Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Read a book about a person struggling with an addiction or with the name of a drug/alcoholic drink in the title.
7. Read a scary/spooky/horror novel in honor of Halloween OR a book with a vampire, witch, werewolf, or ghost as one of the main characters
8. Don't Ask Don't Tell became Public Law No: 103-160 on November 30, 1993. Read a book about LGBT issues, with an LGBT main character, or by an LGBT author.

10 Points
1. Legend Johnny Cash died on September 12th: Read a book about or by your favorite artist/musician/band/composer
2. Back To School: Read a book that was on a required reading list for high school that you never read OR read a book that a teacher recommended to you.
3. Read a book that was really hyped that you swore you would never read.
4. Veteren’s Day: Read a book set primarily during a war (the war cannot be a fictitious war)
5. Read 2 books that have 2 words that are synonyms: for example..reading Little Woman & The God of Small Things
6. For Valentines Day, read a romance or an erotica novel.
7. Read a book by an author who uses their initials as part of their name ( JD Salinger, JK Rowling etc)
8. Read a non-fiction book about a subject you find fascinating but truly don’t know much about. You must share with the group a few interesting things you learned before you can claim your points.

15 Points
1. Read a book primarily set during one of these holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza.
2. Around the World: Read 2 books set in 2 different countries that are different from where you live and that you have never traveled to before.
3. September 24, 1992: Sci Fi Channel (now called Syfy Channel) is launched. Read a book set in an alternate universe.
4. Read a book with an orange, red, yellow, gold, or brown cover,--the colors of leaves in fall.
5. October 2nd is Farm Animal Day: Read a book with a farm animal in the title--cow, pig, horse, sheep, goat, chicken, etc. or with a main character who lives on a farm.
6. West Side Story" premiers on Broadway, 1955 on September 26th-- read a play or a book that a Broadway play was based on or a book that was based on a Broadway play. The minimum page number can be negotiable on this one if you are reading a play. Please ask but try to stay above 60 pages.
7. Read both a historical fiction and non-fiction set in the same period
8. Use a random word generator http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWordPlus.aspx to pick a word. This word must be in the title of the book you read for this challenge. You can use the Pick a new word button only 4 times. I would suggest changing the parameters to very common word or common. The word should be a noun, adjective, or verb.

25 Points
1. Pick one of the following American literary movements from the PBS website and read 2 books from 2 different authors in this literary movement. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/index.html There will be a dropdown that says Literary Movements. There will be a blurb about each along with some important authors in each movement.
2. - Read a known classic and THEN read a book of Entertainment Weekly's List called "The New Classics:" The 100 Best Books of the Last 25 Years http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207349,00.html After reading both write a tiny review in our thread about whether or not you think the "new" classic has the ability to stand the test of time.
3. Read a "pair" of books: A classic and then a contemporary book that was inspired by it
4. Read a book that is mentioned in a song (or if a song mentions an author you can just pick a book by that author) and then also listen to that song.
5. Read 2 books from Time's Top 100 novels list http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
6. Expanding Your Horizons: Read 2 books either written by 2 authors of these cultures, about one of these cultures or with a main character from 2 of these cultures:
1. African/African-American.2. Asian/Asian-American (This is not just East Asian -- Chinese, Korean and Japanese -- but also Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and the Central Asian -Stans.)
3. Hispanic/Latin American
4. Indian/Indian-American (Again, books by Indian authors; not books by white authors set in India.)
5. Middle Eastern (Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Turkey...)
6. Native Peoples (Can include Native American, Inuit, Polynesian --Maori, Samoan, etc -- Siberian natives and Australian Aborigines.) So..you might read a book about a main character who is African American and a book written by a Middle Eastern author.
7. Read a book that has to do with your BEST and WORST subject in school. (I was horrible at Math so I might read a finance book..my best classes were my marketing classes so I might read a book about marketing).
8. In honor of 9/11-- read a fiction/nonfiction book about a disaster (or a character who is experiencing one) --can be natural (tornado, flood hurricane etc.) or manmade—(Titanic, fires, bombing, etc.)

Here is what I have so far:
5 points:
1. The Lovely Bones and Water for Elephants
2. Once Upon a Time The Story of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier and Their Family
3. Shiver
4. Things Fall Apart
5. The Catcher in the Rye
6. Go Ask Alice
7. The Graveyard Book
8. Middlesex

10 points:
1. Strange Fruit The Biography of a Song
2. Brave New World
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
4. The Book Thief
5. Little Women and Girl in Hyacinth Blue
6. Perfect Match (it was listed on b&n under "Contemporary Romance")
7. Franny and Zooey
8. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West

15 points:
1. The Gift
2. The Kite Runner & The Unbearable Lightness of Being
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
4. The Thirteenth Tale
5. Animal Farm
6. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
7. Those Who Save Us and The Kingdom of Auschwitz 1940-1945
8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Resolving, Registration, Holiday, Witch)

20 Points:
1. Good Omens The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
2. Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love

25 Points:
1. The Bell Jar and The Awakening
2. Sense and Sensibility and The Glass Castle A Memoir
3. Pride and Prejudice and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
4. Wuthering Heights
5. The Grapes of Wrath and Never Let Me Go
6. Season of Migration to the North and Reading Lolita in Tehran A Memoir in Books
7. How to Read Literature Like a Professor A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines and Confessions (English and History)
8.Life of Pi

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to share!

Holy Shiitake! (as Oskar Schell would say)

It's absolutely amazing how I can read an entire Jonathan Safran Foer novel in a matter of hours, but yet a simple 15 page theoretical article has taken me three days and counting!

What the?

A few weeks ago I ordered a comic book from PETA titled "An Elephant's Life" and it just arrived yesterday. I have to say, it just about broke my heart. I always knew that circuses were bad but I didn't really know the details about what went on. That kind of cruelty is unbelievable to me, well actually ANY kind of cruelty is unbelievable to me. I am an avid Animal Cops watcher and I hate that abuse to all animals is so common. I vow to never go to a circus or take my kids to circuses (when I have kids)! This has to stop and i hope and pray that it does soon. If you are interested in getting a copy of the comic book you can go to:

www.petaliterature.com/prodinfo.asp?number=STU138

These animals should be happy and live the way they were intended to: free and with compassion and mutual respect from us. With that said, I would like to end on a positive note with a picture of my pomeranian Todd.