Sunday, December 6, 2009

Sunday Salon - December 6

It's snowing here this evening with a big snowfall predicted for Tuesday. Looks like the kinds of days coming up that will mean curling up with books and hot tea. For tonight it meant going over my bookshelf inventory and seeing what's on the shelves that I can use for the challenges I've already committed to for the coming year. Thanks to my hubby for being such a pack rat--he minored in English so we have a lot of novels sitting on the shelves left from those classes that are going to be a big help!
For the Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge, I think I would be a very bad host if I didn't aim for the top level so 20 books it will be. Here's what I've settled on so far:

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Sonnets From The Portuguese by Elizabeth Barret Browning
Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
I'd like to pick up a couple of the non-fiction books to fill out the list.

For this challenge, I have to pick out titles with the following words in the title:
Food - Five Quarters of An Orange by Joanne Harris
Body of Water - Heather Graham
Title - Secret Lives of the First Ladies by Cormac O'Brien
Plant - In The Woods by Tana French
Place Name - Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Music Term - Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

For this one I needed to pick three to six books or movies written about, by or based on the Brontes. I'm hoping to watch a couple of movies which I've yet to decide on. My books, as of now, are:

Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Agnes Gray by Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
I'm going to re-read Chesapeake to start this challenge. After that, I'm not sure which one I'll read next--so many to choose from!

8 comments:

  1. Such great, great books! When I read your choices for the Bronte challenge, my heart beat just a little bit faster. I am so tempted to join, but since I failed terribly with the Everything Austen challenge, I am afraid that is not realistic.

    We are supposed to have a snowy day here tomorrow - although most of it will be north and west of where I live.

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  2. You have a very busy New Year ahead of you in the reading dept! Best of luck with making your goals for each challenge! (I know you can do it!)

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  3. Good luck with all of your challenges! The Rory level is very ambitious!

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  4. Wow! Lots of challenges! Love your picks for your Gilmore Girls Challenge!

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  5. I may just have to try my hand at one of these challenges. They are such a great way to liven up my reading list.

    I'm curious to hear what you think about The Crimson Petal and the White. I think it is so beautifully written.

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  6. You've got snow! It rained here all day yesterday and I was practically in heaven. If I could have been home reading, then it would have been perfect. :-)

    I've already broken out the hot chocolate and have been drinking it in the evenings. It's been quite cold here--at least in terms of what I'm used to--that's probably not very cold to you though!

    Your list of books for the Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge is impressive. I hope you enjoy your books. I've read quite a few of them. I am hoping to read A Christmas Carol soon.

    Good luck with all your challenges, Lisa! Even though I won't be joining in many (I'm continuing with two from this year), I'll definitely cheer you on. :-)

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  7. Good luck on your challenges! I'm finding the wide variety out there so exciting to choose from! I'm also doing the what's in a name challenge!

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  8. That's so many challenges! You're a brave woman! LOL

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