Around the World In Books

This week is Armchair Book Expo, and the discussion topic for today is on diversity in books. I thought this would be a perfect time to post about a personal challenge I've created for myself to read more diversely: Around the World in Books!

If you follow my Sunday Snapshots, you know that this year I spontaneously started keeping track of the nationality of the authors I read. Since I've been keeping it up, I decided: why not challenge myself to read at least one book written by someone from every country on earth? This is the masterpost for my Around the World in Books Challenge; feel free to join in if you like!

FAQs:

• How many countries are there? Seems like a straightforward question, but like most straightforward questions, the answer isn't as simple as you'd expect. The UN recognizes 193 countries. There are two countries not represented in the UN, namely Vatican City and Palestine. There are also countries not universally recognized as self-governing, for example Taiwan, which is considered part of China by the US. For this challenge, I am including Palestine and Taiwan as countries but not Vatican City, since no one is "from" Vatican City, if that makes sense. So the total number of countries in my challenge will be 195.
• Do people with multiple citizenships or books with multiple authors count for multiple countries? I want to finish this sometime before I die, so yes.
• What about someone from a place that's no longer a country or was a different country when they lived there? (E.g., countries formerly part of the Soviet Union) Hm, I'm not sure. This is getting into politically murky waters. I think for now I'll just approach that on a case-by-case basis.
• What if new countries are created or countries disappear? If that happens before I finish this challenge, I will update the list.
• What's the start date for the challenge? The start date is when I started tracking countries read: January 1st, 2017

And now for the list. 15 down, only 180 to go!

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Read Countries (by number of books read):

United States of America (27)
United Kingdom (11)
Japan (6)
New Zealand (3)
Israel (2)
Canada (1)
South Africa (1)
South Korea (1)
Australia (1)
Denmark (1)
India (1)
Malaysia (1)
Palestine (1)
Belgium (1)
Taiwan (1)

Unread Countries (alphabetically):
List of countries in the world provided by the US Department of State.

A

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan


B

Bahamas, The
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burma
Burundi


C

Cambodia
Cameroon
Cabo Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the
Costa Rica
Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Curacao
Cyprus
Czechia


D

Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic


E

East Timor (see Timor-Leste)
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia


F

Fiji
Finland
France


G

Gabon
Gambia, The
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana


H

Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary


I

Iceland
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Italy


J

Jamaica
Jordan


K

Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, North
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan


L

Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg


M

Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique


N

Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway


O

Oman


P

Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal


Q

Qatar


R

Romania
Russia
Rwanda


S

Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria

T

Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu


U

Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Uruguay
Uzbekistan


V

Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam


Y

Yemen


Z

Zambia
Zimbabwe




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Armchair BEA: Introductions

Design credit: Emily of Emily's Reading Room

It's that time of year again, time for Armchair BEA. While some go to Book Expo Amurika in NYC, others stay at home and join Armchair BEA! I've never been to the RL BEA, but I always have fun during Armchair BEA.

Since today is the first day, we're asked to introduce ourselves with a series of questions. Voila:

1. Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.
I live in Colorado. My hometown is called the Home of Heroes because more people have won the Congressional Medal of Honor per capita here than anywhere else in the US. Once, when I was high school, one Medal of Honor recipient spoke at each high school in town on Memorial Day. It was actually pretty awesome--it almost made up for the fact that we didn't have the day off. :p

2. Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?
I have! I was on the commenting committee last year and it was sooo much fun. I didn't join the commenting committee this year because I wasn't sure I would have time, but I still wanted to join in. I'm trying to answer different questions this year from last year.

3. Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?
Hm, I think my favorite post is on Snape and his relationship to Harry Potter, but I also really like the post I wrote on New Moon because I hear a lot of criticism about the Twilight series being anti-feminist, and I think that post does a good job of explaining why I don't agree.

3. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?
I would really love to have dinner with Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters because she is SUCH a big part of my childhood. One of my earliest memories is of studying her books on my mom's bookshelf and wondering what stories they contained (this was before I could read, obviously). I would ask her so many questions about her books and what it's like to be a writer and why she decided not to go into Egyptology after getting her PhD!

4. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community?
I think just the people and how I'm always surprised and inspired by them. I love discussing books and book bloggers certainly aren't afraid to express their opinion--which is a good thing.

5. Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?
In Armchair BEA or the world in general, or...? Having local or state blogging chapters during Armchair BEA might be interesting.

And that's it! Are you participating in Armchair BEA or going to BEA this year?


Discus this post with me on Twitter, FaceBook, Google+ or in the comments below.

The Demon Bookshelves of TBFB

For a while now, I feel like my shelves have been neglected. Not necessarily my TBR pile, but my bookshelves--where I keep all those books I was sure I wanted to reread at some point. As Tony from Tony's Reading List said, "If I'm only going to read new books... then what is the point of my buying any books at all?!" And in fact I haven't really been buying books--not because I'm poor (well, not just because of that) but because I haven't been rereading books. And really, what is the point of keeping books around if you're not going to reread them? Not that I need a point for keeping junk around, of course.

ANYway, this has led me to a new resolution! Namely, to intersperse my new reads with rereads. One new read, one reread--except for when I really really want to read a new book. And also excepting non-fiction books, because yeahs. I probably had no intention of reading them anyway.

Bookshelf tour time! Let's take a quick survey to see exactly how much of a challenge this is actually going to be.



Bookshelf One contains mainly romances and YA novels (feel free to click on any of these photos if you want to stalk ma shelves). Unfortunately, Bookshelf One has spread into Stacks On The Floor 1 and 2, and this random drafting table I couldn't fit into my apartment (I haven't read the ones on the floor or the drafting table yet, though). Anyone want a drafting table?



Bookshelf Two is mostly books I haven't read yet, plus old VHS tapes on the bottom because yeah, I'm that much of a packrat. This one has spread into Stacks 3, 4, and 5 (not pictured).



Finally we have Bookshelf Three, which is hidden behind a chair. This contains mostly sci-fi and fantasy novels, plus most of my mysteries and some YA and romance novels (apparently I read a lot of that). It has spread to Stacks 6 and 7.

Keep in mind that all of these bookshelves have two rows of books on every shelf, so they're really twice as big as they look. Oh! And did I mention I have books in storage? IN OTHER WORDS, this is going to take forever, which is why I'm not setting a time limit to it. I'm just going to keep it up until I get bored or I finish, whichever comes first.



To reread or not to reread, that is the question. Your opinion?

Ring In the New Year with Reading

What are you doing New Year's Eve?  If you said reading, then we are probably soul mates of some sort!  Kristen from Bookworming is hosting a New Year Read-a-thon.  Here are the details:

Starts: 5 pm on Thursday, December 31st
Ends: 10 pm on Sunday, January 3rd

You
can read as little or as much as you want! Also, I'm planning on having
a smaller event called Reading Into the New Year - where us bookworms
can read as it turns midnight! I will be posting the sign up for that
event next. Please partake in either or both!!!

So, to start
off. My goal is to read at least 24 hours. I'm going to see what books
I get through closer to the date and then post about the pile of books
I want to get through. As you're thinking about what books you want to
read, consider the following:

-Shorter books are easier to push through and you may want to include a few of those
-You don't have to read a crazy amount of hours - whatever you can fit in!
-This is a no stress readathon, so if you don't meet your goal - no big.
-Think about any new challenges your starting and what books are on those lists.

Since I'm starting a m/m challenge in January, I'm going to be working on those books.  Right after I finish Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James, that is, which is taking me a ridiculously long time to read (no fault of the book, I've just been very distracted playing with my new toy).  Realistically, I probably won't get much reading in because I'll be working, but I'm going to give it a go and see what happens.


Want to usher in the new year with reading?  There's still time to join!

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Art History Challenge

I knew I forgot something when I vlogged a few weeks ago, and I finally remembered what it was--my art history challenge! I have at last decided on a theme for my own reading (I know, it only took a few months).

Considering that studying art is my profession, a surprisingly small number of art pieces have genuinely moved me. The really sad thing is, I know very little about the aforementioned art works and the artists who created them, beyond the fact that they are the awesome. Hence, I'm going to dedicate the rest of my reading for this challenge to those pieces and artists.

Here's my list:

• The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
• Mary Magdalene by Donatello
• The Transfiguration by Raphael
  
• St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome

That's not very many, is it? I might throw in the Chapel of the Magi in the Palazzo Medici just because I actually have a book about that on hand that I've been meaning to read.

I'll post more about my experiences seeing the art works in person once I start reading the books.


Have you ever been deeply moved by a work of art?

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My Year in Reading

"Everything Men Know About Women" by dailyinvention

It's the end of the year, which means it's time to start reflecting on my year in reading.  I guess.  The only problem is, 2009 pretty much sucked on the reading front.

I read very few books, even fewer of which I liked.  I burned out on two of my favorite sub-genres, historical romance and urban fantasy.  But on the plus side, I started book blogging, made a lot of bookish friends, and discovered new books.

So, instead of doing a top-ten list of books, which would only serve to torture me as there were barely three books I loved that much in 2009, I decided to do a montage o' highlights.



Favorite new author:  Meredith Duran

Duran is definitely an author to watch.  I've really enjoyed all her books so far, and Bound By Your Touch is probably my favorite historical romance of 2009.



Favorite new genre:  Manga

OMG, so addictive!  Manga is my new crack.  Seriously, you can't stop reading the stuff; it should come with a warning label.

Favorite challenge:

This is a tie between Jenner's Take a Chance Challenge and Galleysmith's Harry Potter Reading Challenge.  The Take a Chance Challenge was really fun and creative, but I think reading-wise the Harry Potter Challenge has been the most rewarding.



Things I ignored:

Dystopian fiction, m/m romance, e-books, chick lit, and most of my challenges.

Things I didn't ignore (completely):

Angels, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, YA, erotica, Jane Austen adaptations



Jumped the shark:

Christina Dodd.  The books she published this year that I read (Danger in a Red Dress, Storm of Visions) were pretty all-around horrible.  It's like she's not even trying anymore.

Subcategory--Authors who are going to get one more shot:  Gaelen Foley.  My Wicked Marquis was simply a train wreck.

Chunksters:

Despite my loathing of overly long books, I managed to read Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Drood, and The Lost Symbol.

Things I wish I'd read more of:

I read hardly any sci-fi/fantasy this year, I don't know why.  Usually that's my second-favorite genre after romance.



Biggest surprise (in a good way):

Water for Elephants, which I read as part of A Buckeyegirl Reads' bookclub (when are we going to read another book for that, btw, Colette?).  I was pretty sure this book was either going to be horribly boring and/or depressing, but it was absolutely brilliant.  I also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for Colette's book club, and that was really good, too.



Hmm, now that I've broken it down, it doesn't seem like my reading year was that horrible after all.  What were the highlights of your year in books?

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The Mixology Challenge!

Haha, did I say I was going to stop joining challenges?

The Mixology Challenge seems really great, though, because it's basically about setting goals for yourself for 2010.  Here are the rules:

1. List how many books total you want to read in 2010.
2. List no less than 4 categories for these books and determine how many you'll read in each category. Examples of categories:  by class: fiction / non-fiction / contemporary / classic / newly published / award winning (Booker, Pulitzer); by genre: historical fiction, religious fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian literatur, memoir, biography, personal or professional growth; by class of author: female / male / Asian / Middle Eastern; other: TBR / review (ARC) books
3. These books can overlap with other challenges AND even fit more than one category within this challenge.
4. Audio books do count; re-reads do not.

Sorry, but re-reads are going to be part of my goals.

Here's my list:

1. 60 books total
2. 20 romances
3. 5 re-reads
4. 3 chunksters (over 600 pages)
5. 10 mysteries
6. 5 sci-fi/fantasy
7. 5 classics
8. 2 new manga series

These are pretty modest goals, but since I haven't been reading much more than a book a week lately, I better not set the bar too high.

What books do you want to read in 2010?

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TSS-Challenge Update

There have been several great posts related to my Art History Challenge this week, and I just had to share them with y'all! 

• Colette at A Buckeye Girl Reads read two books about women artists and watched a documentary about Georgia O'Keeffe!  Although she didn't like either of the books or the documentary very much, she did find two new artists she liked:  Lilian Martin Spencer and Rolanda Sharples.
• M from Alberti's Window read Vasari's Lives (officially titled Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), all about the wacky artists he knew while living in Renaissance Italy.  M wrote a great post about the women artists Vasari mentioned, and a review of the book itself.

I also decided to join yet another challenge, the Take Another Chance Challenge created & hosted by Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here.  Even though I didn't finish it, I enjoyed the Take a Chance Challenge so much I can't resist adding this one to my 2010 challenges.  I'm going to go for the Gambling it All Level and try to complete all 12 challenges--because that's how I roll.

I think I'm about tapped out in the challenge department at the moment, however, so I don't expect to be signing up for any more for a few months--no matter how tempting. ;)

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Harry Potter and the Review of Unnecessarily In-Depth Analysis

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling*

Source:  My little brother for the book; the library for the audiobook (I alternated between the two).

I've had issues with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ever since I first read it.  I know it is some people's (coughsandycough) favorite Harry Potter book, but I didn't like it.  Unfortunately, I wasn't blogging when I first read it, so for the life of me I can't remember why.  I mean, two of the smexiest men in the entire series, Sirius Black and Severus Snape, have major roles in this one; and then there's Lupin, who is just lovable like a little puppy.  The storytelling brilliant; and despite the fact that this isn't the middle book, it is book upon which the entire series seems to hinge.  So why didn't I like it?  And would a reread change my mind?

By the third Harry Potter book, the formula for the series has already been established:  Harry goes to Hogwarts and Voldemort finds some sneaky way to attack him; but in the end Harry escapes and Voldy is defeated.  Yet Prisoner doesn't follow this formula at all.  Of all the books, this is the only one where Voldemort isn't a direct threat.  Furthermore, Harry doesn't defeat or conquer anything in this book--we expect him to, and we certainly want him to, but in the end he only does what he can.  And that isn't enough to stop Voldy from gaining power and becoming a major pain in everyone's rear end.  In fact, one could argue it's because of Harry that Voldemort can return to his physical form (although we don't know that until the later books).

So that was one source of my discontent:  my expectations were unmet.  I never really felt Harry was in much danger from Sirius, and there wasn't a big smack-down scene at the end.  But I think my reaction to Prisoner went a little deeper than that due to the two themes running through the novel.

The first is that nothing is as it seems.  That's not unique to Prisoner, of course--how could you even have a wizarding world where things were just as they appeared, after all?--but I think it runs the strongest through Prisoner out of the seven books.  It all starts when Harry goes to Hogwarts, expecting a safe haven, but instead finds it riddled with Dementors.  Enemies turn out to be friends, friends to out to be enemies; the all-powerful Snape turns out to be nothing more than a bitter nerd; and Harry gets the first hint that his parents, his father in particular, might not have been what he imagines.  There were so many change-ups and fake-outs in this book that it made me wonder if anything can be trusted in these books.  The wizarding world is no longer a comforting--if occasionally hazardous, but always quaint--place to be anymore.

Then there's the issue of time.  I didn't even realize this could be considered a theme of the book until I reread it, because we don't know about Hermione's secret until the very end.  But it's definitely spread out through the entire novel--Lupin, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew, and Snape all have the past coming back to haunt them; the "threat" to Harry is one based entirely upon the past as opposed to anything that's happened in the present; and because of the Dementors, Harry relives something he experienced but can't even remember!  The frustrating thing is, even though Harry and Hermione can go back in time, they still can't seem to change the past, even if said past needs to be righted--they can't restore Sirius' good name or give him his life back.  I supposed even in the wizarding world there is an expiration date on do-overs.

I must take a moment to gush about how much I love Harry.  I've mentioned this before, but the majority of heroes are so white-bread--I know this is because they need to be an "every man" type, but as a result they have no personality.  Harry, on the other hand, does appeal to practically everyone, but has his own complete personality.  There are times that I really bleed for him (metaphorically speaking, of course) in these books, but most especially in this one.  Can you imagine listening to your parents be killed over and over?  And the scene where Harry chases the Dementors off of Sirius and himself and then realizes that he's his dad, makes me cry every time.  Like, I'm seriously getting teary-eyed right now thinking about it.  So obviously it's time to move on.

After rereading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I still can't say it's my favorite Harry Potter.  But neither can I remember exactly what I disliked about on the first reading, either.  This is the book where everything changes--when you suddenly realize this isn't just a series of children's books, and there's a whole mess of stuff going on in this world that you don't know about.  Yet.  In other words, this book is deep, man.


Random things I find suspicious:

Dumbledore:  A secret--I usually find Dumbledore suspicious.  Maybe it connects to my Santa aversion because of his long, white beard, but there's a moment in every single Harry Potter book where I become convinced he's colluding with Voldemort.  In this book, I have to wonder how exactly Dumbledore knew Harry and Hermione should turn back time to save Buckbeak and Sirius.  It's like he knew what was happening before it even happened--while it was happening!  HOW DID HE KNOW????  And why did he expressly tell Harry not to interfere with the whole losing-of-Peter-Pettigrew debacle, hmmmmmmmm?

Crookshanks:  The cat can freaking READ.  That is not right.  That cat has got to be more than cat, I'm telling you.



I read this book as part of The Harry Potter Reading Challenge hosted by GalleySmith, which is turning out to be the greatest challenge OF MY LIFE. 


I'm curious... how many people out there consider Prisoner of Azkaban their favorite Harry Potter?

*The bad news: this is an Amazon Associates link.  The good news: well, there is no good news.

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A Colorful Challenge

Rebecca from Lost In Books is hosting her second-annual Colorful Reading Challenge in 2010.  The challenge is to read nine books with nine different colors in the title.  I think this is such a great challenge because it lets you be creative with what books you pick and lets you read what you want.  I already have a few books on hand that will work for the challenge:

• Silver Falls by Anne Stuart
• The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
• Green Mansions by WH Hudson
• Metallic Love by Tanith Lee (metallic is a color, right?)
• Zadayi Red by Caleb Fox

I'll come up with other books later.

What books with colors in the title do you have on your bookshelf?

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More Angelic Links

Naturally, as soon as I posted my last angelic links post, I found more links!  So here are more links to tickle your angel fancy:

• Want another chance to win Fallen by Lauren Kate?  You can enter at Pure Imagination.  The giveaway ends November 25th.
• I can't review every angel-related book for my project, but here are two great reviews of books I wish I could/did read:  The Vinter's Luck by Elizabeth Knox at Stella Matutina, and A Madness of Angels (Or, the Resurrection of Matthew Swift) by Kate Griffin (Griffin! coincidence?) at Once Upon a Bookshelf
• Who else besides me is cashing in on the whole vampires-are-the-new-angels thing?  Self-described horror writer Lia Scott Price, who has a new series out called The Serial Killer and Vampire Guardian Angel (TM) Diaries.  My big question:  but is there a dog?
• Finally, do you have a burning itch to write your own angelic tale?  QueeredFiction has an open call for submissions for "An urban contemporary fantasy anthology featuring queer angels of all shades and hues."  GLBT angels?  Considering angels are asexual, I don't know about this... but hey, at least they won't all be white guys right?  One can only hope.

That's all your links for this week!  Hopefully I'll be back next week with more angel book reviews--especially since the month is almost over.

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The Fallen

The Fallen by Thomas E. Sniegoski*

Source: Once again, I borrowed it from my mom.

This is a short, entertaining YA full of action and battle scenes, with a little romance thrown in.  It's not the greatest book ever, but it is a satisfying read, and I definitely want to read the next book in the series.

When Aaron Corbet goes to sleep as a seventeen-year-old, his life is pretty decent:  despite being an orphan, he's been adopted by a family who loves him; he does well in school, has a car, and works in a veterinary clinic.  Even before he wakes up on his eighteenth birthday, however, things are starting to unravel--he has a terrible dream about an ancient village being attacked.  He gets a blistering headache, then suddenly he can understand Portuguese!  The hottest girl in school smiles at him (well, that's actually a good point).  What is going on???  Then a crazy old guy in the park tells Aaron that he's a nephilim, a child of a human and an angel.  Good points: wings and superpowers!  Bad point: nephilim are considered unnatural beings and angels are determined to kill him.

I can't really say anything more about the plot, since that's basically it.  Young boy is unexpectedly thrust into the Other World, danger ensues.  The first 100 or so pages are pretty rough, mainly because the writing has moments of pedantry and TMI that drove me crazy.  For example:

He signed in with a password that he had obtained from the library his first year of high school, and called up a search engine that he used often when researching information for school papaers.  The screen appeared and, choosing one of the varied spellings, he typed in the mystery word.  He hit the Enter key and held his breath.

Oookay, good to know.  Wouldn't want him just firing up a computer without a valid password!  There were also times when I found myself thinking, "Hm, someone's using a thesaurus."  So Sniegosky is no JK Rowling--but even though the writing style occasionally bothered me, I can see where might not bother younger readers (who are really the audience for this book), so I can't fault Sniegosky for it.

As I said, though, the first half of the book was a little rough, story-telling wise.  I felt completely lost as to where the author was going was the narrative.  But then... the angels arrived.  Which brings us to the big question:



Are angels the new vampires?

Still no... but they are pretty kick-ass.

The title of The Fallen refers to a group of angels called the Grigori who had their wings removed for fraternizing too closely with humans.  But by the end of the book, I couldn't help but wonder if the Grigori were the only angels who were fallen--as a rule, the angels in this book are not the kind, fluffy angels that you find on greeting cards.  They're warriors who kill both humans and each other indiscriminately with their flaming swords of fire.  They have doubts and wonder if they're truly following God's purpose; and they're no better at talking to Him than humans are. 

Make no mistake, though--they are definitely not human.  In fact, they show some marked similarities to vampires:

They were deathly pale, almost luminescent in their whiteness, and their features were perfectly symmetrical--too perfect.  Aaron felt as though he were looking at mannequins come to life.

They sound like the Cullens! 

In another parallel to vampires, they treat humans like animals, literally calling them monkeys, and capturing and keeping some for use as servants.  Even these humans are treated like dogs, or worse, and disposed of quickly when they outlive their usefulness.

In other words, the angels in this book, even the "good guy" angels, are hard-core gangsters.  Once they show up, things get pretty intense and the book becomes nearly unputdownable.

I also like the fact that Sniegoski ties the angels to a god, and a heaven, although it's not necessarily a Christian view of either--it's clear that angels in fact have only the vaguest idea of what human religion is and how it works.  But there is a God (I'm going to assume only one) and a heaven and hell, and the angels consider themselves to be in the service of Him.  I actually really appreciated the religious elements in this novel, because come on--they're angels.  You're going to have an entire book about angels and avoid talking about God?  Someone already tried that; it didn't work out well.

So, while I wouldn't call angels the new vampires at this point, I did absolutely love them in this book.  They were fascinating and mesmerizing and dangerous and exciting.  I definitely want to see what they get up to in the next book.

Score: vampires 1, angels 1

Strange similarities to Covet:

• In The Fallen, Aaron is very close to his dog, who is preternaturally smart.  And of course we had Dog from Covet.  So... why the dogs in all these angel books?  Are dogs angels?  Do all good dogs go to heaven?  Are they harbingers of angel-caused doom?  Do I need to keep an eye out?
  
• In both The Fallen and Covet, all the angels are male.  ALL OF THEM.  Now, if I remember my catechism studies correctly (and I believe I do), angels are actually asexual.  So I guess male is the default sex.  Because, yeah, who would want to be a woman anyway, right? *eyeroll*  I'm going to also go out on a limb and say they're all white.
  

Other opinions:
None that I could find.  Have you reviewed this book?  Let me know in the comments!

*This is an Amazon Associates link.  Do not click if you love freedom.

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Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

"Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" by Linda Nochlin, in Women, Art, And Power And Other Essays* (Westview Press, 1988), 147-158.

Linda Nochlin is considered one of the major feminist scholars in art history.  She's a great art historian (her article on Courbet's The Meeting blew my mind), but out of everything she's ever written, her essay asking why there have been no great women artists is the most well-known, and has had the biggest impact on the field.

I once read a review of this essay where the author said something along the lines of, "The question at the title of the article is facetious, of course."  I wonder if that person even read the essay.  Of course, one assumes the title question is facetious, particularly coming from a woman and a well-known feminist; and as feminists, I think our instinct is to brush off a question like this as ridiculous, or respond to it by pointing out female artists neglected in the study of art history.  Or looking at arts considered decorative, where women were the primary producers.  But Nochlin doesn't do this.  It was a serious question posed to her by a gallery owner, and she tries to answer it seriously--and I think that's the major strength of the article. 

Nochlin begins by looking at ways other people have attempted to respond to the question (mentioned previously) and says that, although each of these endeavors are valuable to the study of art history, they serve as mere excuses to hide the fact that there really hasn't been any great female artists.  There is no female equivalent of Michelangelo or Remembrandt, and no refocusing of scholarly study is going to change that fact.  In other words, the question of why there have been no great female artists is a valid one, and one that has implications far beyond feminism--after all, there haven't been any black or Chinese or Eskimo Michelangelos, either, at least not as far as the Western cannon is concerned.

So, why haven't there been any great women artists?  Nochlin's answer is two-fold:  first, the myth of artistic genius, which has been a part of art writing since Pliny, makes it seem that anyone with true artistic gifts would naturally make themselves known as a genius, preferably to some famous teacher, and then quickly surpass the teacher in skill.  The inherent genius inside these great artists always refuses to be kept hidden, despite their own lack of fortune or common sense.

This idea of artistic genius, says Nochlin, is a fantasy.  Art is rarely (and great art certainly never is) created solely by the artist for the purpose of personal expression.  Instead, if we look at art as the sum total of patronage and production and purpose, we see that there was a whole system in place that excluded women from creating the type of work that made artists like Michelangelo and Raphael famous.

Institutions--with which both art and art history have a long relationship--are built to include and exclude certain people, and that was certainly the case with the art academies of Europe for most of their history.  So even though Jacques-Louis David was a supporter of women artists, even he couldn't--and likely wouldn't--allow them into life drawing classes where they would sketch nudes--the basis upon which many artistic honors, like the Pris de Rome, where awarded.  So even though there was a plethora of female artists in Paris during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was a given that none of them would ever receive the insitutionalized awards and honors of their male counterparts.

One of my favorite parts of the article is where Nochlin points out that, instead of asking why there are no great women artists, we could just as well be asking why there are no great aristocratic artists.  Aristocrats have a long tradition of being involved in the arts and being trained in the arts, but there are no great artists who are born members of the artistocracy until Toulouse Lautrec--and he abandoned his ancestry to become a bohemian.  In other words, the question of women artists is not, in itself, a question of women artists at all, but one of art production.  To answer it, we have to look at a much wider scope than women, to the web of reality--not the linear legend--of how artists become artists.  I think an expanded version of that is true of many subjects in women's studies--the study of women, and the issue of women, isn't always just about women--it's about men, too, and institutions and families and societies, and all the other things that make life complicated.

In any case, it's a great essay, and one that has implications for other studies in the humanities, as well.  It reads just as relevant today as it was when it was first published twenty years ago--possibly because all of the problems Nochlin talks about are still problems!  You can read it for free online here.



I read this as part of the Women Unbound Challenge and Heidenkind's Art History Challenge.

*This is an Amazon Associates link.

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Covet

Covet by J. R. Ward

Source: My mom loaned it to me.

Can one find angels riding Harleys (apparently shirtless) or playing crickett and talking with English accents? Do demons truly prowl our waking life, waiting to get a hold of us and give us lots of shiny stuff and fabulous sex? These are the questions I found myself NOT asking after reading Covet. Questions I did ask: is Trez a supernatural creature, or just the nicest pimp ever? Shouldn't Vin have lost all his rich stuff? And, if Jim has to save seven souls, and this is presumably a seven-part series, doesn't that mean at least three of the books will be total fails? Cuz I'm not sure I want to read those three.

But I get ahead of myself, as usual. Covet is the first book in JR Ward's Fallen Angels series. Ward is more famous for her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which is about vampires, and which I haven't read--so I had no idea what to expect from Covet. Although, I have to admit I expected more than what I got.

The set-up is this: Good and Evil are getting tired of going back and forth in their struggle for dominance on Earth. So God decided that one person will have the chance to save or damn seven souls, each afflicted with one of the seven deadly sins. When it's over, the side with the most wins will have total control of Earth for eternity. I feel compelled to point out that this outcome makes noooooooooooo sense on either a theosophical or quantum level, but whatever.

The person chosen is Jim, a character whom I loved. Jim works construction, and at first he seems like your average joe, if a bit of a loner. As the story continues, however, it becomes clear that Jim has an extensive backstory as well as a dark side. Although Jim wants to save the world from evil, one can't help but wonder if his methods will prove more damning than his intentions.

In the first book, Jim has to save Vin diPietro, the owner of the site where Jim is working construction. Vin is super-duper rich and has a beautiful girlfriend to go with his perfect life. Unfortunately, as Jim belatedly realizes, Vin isn't supposed to be with Divina--he's supposed to be with Marie-Terese, a club hooker. Luckily for everyone, Vin realizes this all on his own. Hooray, the world is saved. OR IS IT?!

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about this book. The majority of it was humorous and fun, and aside from Jim, I loved the characters of Adrian, Eddie, Dog (although why Dog is even there is a mystery), and the other angels. I can definitely see how Ward's books can be addictive. But there were other elements of the writing that just bugged the heck out of me. For example, Ward has this habit of writing a question as a statement. I can see where this might emphasize a flatness of tone, but she uses it wayyyyyy beyond the point to where it has any useful intonation. And what was with calling Vin's girlfriend, "his woman," or "your woman"? WTF? Oh, sorry, let me rephrase that: WTF. How caveman can you get? I kept expecting them to follow it up with, "Woman pretty. Man make good hunting. I drive big noise machine home now. Argh! *chest beating*"

There are larger issues I had with Covet, too, mostly with the characters. At first Vin seems fairly interesting, but it turns out he has no personality at all. And Marie-Terese--uhg, can you say cookie cutter character? The hooker-with-the-heart-of-gold strikes again. I don't have a problem with prostitute heroines as a rule (although it's seriously icky for a romance novel), but I do want to understand and sympathize with her decision to get into that line of work. I did not get that with Marie-Terese. I might have respected her more if 1. she wasn't dragging a little kid around with her, or 2. she didn't hate what she did, or 3. she didn't turn into a mound of putty every time Vin showed up. And the explanation for why she got into hooking in the first place (which came way too late in the book) only made things worse. Major Issues train coming down the track! If I was Vin, I would start running.

Covet was okay, but has major problems with execution. It just didn't feel like the author entirely thought it out before writing it (and I don't mean that in an avant-garde, experimental way, either). There is a certain charm to the book--especially when it comes to Jim's character--that might have me coming back for more. It's definitely not a book to turn me into a JR Ward fan, though. As Colin the angel put it, "There is a point in every endeavor when one feels the burn of too many vertical steps." Unfortunately, I felt that way more than once while reading this novel.

And now for the big question, the entire reason I decided to read Covet in the first place...



Are angels the new vampires?

In a word: no.

While reading the summary, you might have noticed something. Or rather, the lack of something. That's right, angels! Although the series is titled The Fallen Angels, no angels, fallen or otherwise, make an appearance before page fifty. And even after that they don't play much of a role until the very end. So to call this series The Fallen Angels seems something of a marketing misnomer. It also makes it hard for me to judge if they're "the new vampires." But from what there was of them, I'd say no. Vampires are compelling, sexy, and dangerous--from what I've seen of Colin, Bertie, and the gang, they are none of those things.

As for the fallen angels, they have potential (although they are not dangerous), but I have many unanswered questions about them. Why are they fallen? What exactly is a fallen angel in this alternaverse, anyway? And while angels aren't exclusively Christian figures by any means, I find it to be simply wrong that these angels perform Pagan-ish rituals. WRONG. And kind of lame. You couldn't have come up with something better, Ward? So far I'm not impressed with the angels' powers--not by a long shot. Angels at the very least should have either awesome cosmic powers or kick-ass fighting skillz. And wings. These angels got nothing. They better pick up their game if they expect to even be equal to vampires on the literary circuit.

Score so far: vampires 1, angels 0 (vampires win by default whenever angels fail to impress me)

Next up in my über-scientific test: The Fallen, by Tom Sniegoski

Other opinions about Covet:
Smexy Books
Dear Author
The Good, the Bad, and the Unread
Darque Reviews
Love Vampires
Alpha Heroes
Did I miss yours? Please let me know in the comments!

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Angelic Links

That little guy just gets creepier and creepier every time I look at him.

I'm taking a quick break from all the feminist rhetoric today to devote some time to my Angel Month project (you're welcome, men-folk).  May I present:  links!

Want to read your own angel books?  The Story Siren is hosting a contest for two hot YA books about angels:  Fallen by Lauren Kate, and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.  The contest closes December 8th, so you have plenty of time to enter.

Bermudaonion has a great interview with Bruce Foster, who engineered the pop-up book, Angels.  There's also a contest to win the book!  It ends November 27th, so again, plenty of time to enter.

Finally, the oft-proclaimed doyenne of vampire fiction, Anne Rice, talks a bit about why she's now writing books about angels at The Wall Street Journal.  I also loved what she said about the appeal of Twilight.



Stay tuned for a review of my first Angel Month book, Covet!

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Women Unbound by Moonlight

I haz decided to join yet another reading challenge.  This one is for women's studies and is called Women Unbound.  Very catchy title.  There are three levels you can sign up for, and I'm going with Philogynist, which means I have to read at least two books, one non-fiction (I would have liked to sign up for more, but two books is all I think I can handle at the moment).  The good news is, I already have my one fiction book down!  But before I start with that--meme time!

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?

Yes, yes, and yes!  I think at its heart feminism is about women being seen as people and not just a gender.  For myself, I try to be a feminist by promoting women artists in my classes and doing research on women and women's issues in art.  For a long time, women have been invisible members of our society--we shouldn't be invisible anymore.

2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

I do consider myself a feminist, but not in the proactive way--I'm not going to try to go out and be the first women to do fill-in-the-blank just because it needs doing.  I do, however, want and expect to follow my dreams regardless of whatever gender expectations there are just because I'm a woman.

3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?

Well, I would have to say ourselves.  Not that women aren't oppressed by both societies and laws all around the world, but realistically speaking, we're at least fifty percent of the population.  If women banded together to accomplish something, I have no doubt it would get done.  The problem is recognizing what needs to be changed and passing ideas of independence and equality on to daughters/nieces/granddaughters, etc.

And now for the review portion of this post...




Bound in Moonlight by Louisa Burton

Source: la bibliothèque

This is the second book in The Hidden Grotto series by Louisa Burton.  I normally do not read erotic fiction, but a few months ago I decided to try Burton because she's one of my favorite authors (previously, she wrote mysteries under the name PB Ryan, and historical roms as Patricia Ryan).  It might seem strange that I'm reviewing an erotic novel for the Women Unbound challenge, but I believe it qualifies, as I will explain later.

The Hidden Grotto series centers around a chateau in France called La Grotte Cachée, named after a mysterious cave.  The chateau is perpetually inhabited by several follets--supernatural creatures who HAVE to have sex.  Elic, an elf, is in love with Lili, a succubus.  But they can't sleep together because follets can only to do the nasty with da humanz.  Ergo, the chateau has a continuous round of visitors looking for a good time. 

The House of Dark Delights,
Burton's first book, was okay, but didn't really win me over to the
erotic romances--too much of the ick factor.  That being said, after a
few months I found myself wondering was happened to Elic and Lili, so I decided to order the next book in the series, Bound In Moonlight.

Unfortunately, Bound In Moonlight was not what I was expecting.  First off, there was very little Elic and Lili in this book at all (kind of a bummer when that's the reason I wanted to read it in the first place).  At least half of it is a short story told in epistolary format (not a big fan of that) about a former Gilded Age heiress who writes an erotic novel after visiting La Grotte Cachée.  Because the narrative is told in letter format, the erotic scenes--of which there are many--feel extremely voyeuristic.  Also, since we only have one set of letters, it's kind of like listening to one end of a phone conversation--one of the awkward ones at the grocery store where the person shopping in the same aisle as you is giving out wayyyyyy too much information.

One of the things I noticed early on in the story, however, was that Burton seemed to be drawing a parallel between sexual freedom and women's liberation--which of course makes perfect sense.  The main character, Em, is independent and comes from a debutant background.  She's all set to marry some British lord, when she finds him in the middle of a three-way at La Grotte Cachée.  She threatens to call off the engagement, he begs her to reconsider because he needs her money, and he ends up leaving her there for a few days to mull it over. 

As a result of her experiences at the chateau, Em pens an erotic romance titled Emmaline's Emancipation (EMANCIPATION, note) all about a sheltered heiress who finds freedom and confidence by visiting an English house party/bacanal.  She also takes off to Paris (after breaking it off for good with the fiance), and lives what I can only describe as a lifestyle of free love.  Plus she flies airplanes, skiis--does just about anything she wants to, really.  So I think it's clear that Burton is drawing a connection between Em's sexual liberation at the chateau and the freedom she experiences throughout her life.

This something I can definitely agree with.  Not that I'm suggesting all women need to turn into nymphomaniacs like Em (good lord, does the woman do anything other than have sex or think about sex?), but patriarchal societies definitely have a pattern of trying to contain or even debase female sexuality.  And some of who we would consider to be the earliest feminists flew in the face of these sexual restrictions--women like George Sand, George Elliot, and Mary Wollstonecraft spring right to mind.

So I got the message:  reading erotic novels=good. :P

As for the story itself, I found it a bit depressing.  Yeah, Em may be having super-hot affairs with men several years younger than her, but they don't love her.  And she doesn't love them.  Without emotion, all the sex in this book was just a total did-not-need-to-know.  I would love to read Emmaline's Emancipation, however (I was seriously hoping it was an actual book--no such luck).  Why didn't Burton write that?

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Two Challenges

For GalleySmith's Harry Potter Reading Challenge, I re-"read" Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on audiobook. I've had very limited experience with audiobook before now, but I found this version to be very entertaining. Jim Dale (or, as I like to think of him, the Pushing Daisies guy) narrates, and for the most part he's pretty good. The man can work a Scottish accent, let me tell you, although I was occassionally annoyed by the way he voiced Hermione's character. And Harry's. What I love about Harry in the books is that, although he's definitely a prototypical hero, he doesn't feel bland or characterized at all. He has his own unique personality and feels like a real person, not just The Hero. But the audio version (kind of like the movie versions) seems to erase that and make him very typical. Other than that, though, the audiobook was good, and I'm definitely planning on listening to the other books to complete this challenge.



Since I've read HP&TCOS a few times before, I though it would be fun to do a Poetic Review of it as part of Jenner's Take a Chance Challenge. We're supposed to write a book review in three different forms of verse: haiku, limerick and free verse. So here we go!

Limerick:

Harry is well on his way
To defeating Voldemort some day
Though they are much the same
Harry seems to have more of a brain.

Haiku:

The ghosts take time to eat cake
Nearly Headless Nick
Sees a snake but saves a life

Free Verse:

There are many things to fear
Snakes, spiders, girls
Angry teachers, difficult exams
Not having friends
But above all, one should fear books.
Because you never know
What sort of mind you're agreeing to follow.


So, that's it! I can't wait to start "reading" Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (and I don't even like that book).

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TSS: The Reader Returneth

I'm back, baby!

If you've been keeping track, the last few months has been very frustrating for me, reading-wise.  I haven't read very many books (I only finished one during the entire month of August), and most of the ones I have read have been really not good.  But this week, I feel like I've turned a corner--I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for a book club, as well as The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, and I really got into both books (and both have super-long titles; coincidence?).  And right now I'm into The Lost Symbol and already have some ideas for posts based off that.  So I believe the book drought is over and I'm back to my typical reading ways. *crosses fingers* 

Oooh, and during this coming week is the Friends of the Library sale, so I'm super-excited about that!

Challenges



In other news, I've decided to join YET ANOTHER CHALLENGE.  I know, I know.  This one is the Words Behind the Pictures Challenge at A Few Minutes with Michael, which I discovered on Jemima's blog.  You basically read a screenplay (online and for free, even), and then watch the movie and compare the two.  Sounds fun, doesn't it?  I don't know if screenplays will turn out to be my thing, but I'm willing to give it a try.



As for the challenge I'm hosting, Heidenkind's Art History Challenge, there's still time to sign up!  There is a pretty good group of people participating so far (which I'm thrilled about, because I was envisioning one or two), and there have even been some reviews posted already.  Check them out:

• Jemima at The Reading Journey reviews Eye of the Beholder:  Masterpieces at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
• Lillithcat from Reading My Life Away reviews The Memory Palace of Isabella Stewart Gardner

Both sound like great books! Click on the challenge button to see the details of the challenge and who else is participating.



As for me, I've decided to give myself a personal reading project in addition to the Art History Challenge:  I want to build up my knowledge of art across all time periods and locations, starting with Prehistoric Art and eventually working my way to the 20th century.  I've already ordered Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind and The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East at the library, and will be ordering more books in the coming week.

I've also been thinking about doing a paper on Guillermo del Toro's films and how women are portrayed in them (I know, this doesn't have anything to do with books).  Del Toro is one of my favorite directors; I even presented a paper once about how Pan's Labyrinth was influenced by the art of Remedios Varo.  But this project might just remain in the embryonic stages; it depends on how much time I have.

I've noticed that several people have been quitting reading challenges lately because they have no chance of completing them--and here I am joing more challenges and giving myself challenges, even though I haven't made any noticeable progress on any challenges for quite some time.  I suppose I need something to keep me focused on my reading so that my "fun" reading is more enjoyable.  Or maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment.


Finally, I was interviewed this Saturday by another blogger--Booklogged from A Reader's Journal!  Check out her site to read my thoughts on my home state of Colorado.


How did your reading go this week?  Have you found any cool new challenges?

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Heidenkind's Art History Challenge

The other night on twitter, Rebecca from Lost in Books convinced me I should do an art history reading challenge. Yes, that's right--I'm so good at keeping track of challenges, I'm starting my own! This should be fun. :)

The Challenge in Ten Words or Less: Read six art history books in nine months.

When: September 1st, 2009-May 1st, 2010

The Details: Pick a subject related to art you want to read about. It can be as general or specific as you want. Then read 6 books about that subject from the categories listed below.

What do I mean by this? Well, say you're a fan of Lewis Carroll. Carroll was big into photography and there are several good books about his photographs. Then you could read one of Carroll's novels or a biography of him; or you could go in a different direction and read about other Victorian photographers, like Julia Cameron. This could lead to reading a book by Tennyson (who was Carmeron's next door neighbor and friend). Perhaps this example is a little more specific than most of you want to go, but trust me when I say that you can find art books related to practically any topic, place, or time period you can think of.

Or if you have a book related to art sitting around that you've been meaning to read, like The Da Vinci Code, you can start with that and build up the categories based on it--a catalog from the Louvre, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, etc.

One caveat: You can double-up on categories--e.g., read two fiction books instead of one--but the books you read have to be from at least 3 different categories to complete the challenge. Fortunately, a lot of books can also fit into more than one category, so you have a good deal of flexibility on what sort of books you can pick.

The Categories:

Theory/Criticism
Theory is a filter through which one can interpret art. Some very well-known theorists (or people whose writings are the basis for theory) are Foucault, Marx, Freud, Georges Didi-Huberman, and TJ Clark.
Specific Study
These are usually shorter books that deal with a very specific subject--for example, Victorian nudes, or the art in a specific cathedral.
General Study
This is basically your typical textbook--a general overview of a subject. I know reading a textbook sounds like sooooo much fun, but there are good ones out there that are really interesting. The ones published by Phaidon are generally pretty good.
Academic article
If you have access to an article database like JSTOR or Academic OneFile, you can try to get articles online. There are also some e-journals available for free online, like Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide.
Coffee table or picture books
Go for it.
Popular history
These are books about history whose intended purpose is focused more towards entertainment than education (or a combo there of--entercation?). Something like the Digging for the Truth book would be a good example.
Exhibition Catalogs
If you've ever visited a major museum exhibit, you might have noticed there are really thick, large, and expensive books for sale about the exhibition in the museum gift shop. These books usually contain a lot of super-useful essays and information about the works in the exhibit. Plus they have great pictures. Since these books are so expensive, you'll probably want to get them at the library; however, most libraries won't have them unless it's an academic library at a larger university. If you have access to ILL, that's probably your best bet.
Practicum
What were the techniques artists used to create art? That's the sort of thing practicum books look into and usually try to teach to other people. This would be a great category for anyone with artistic inclinations.
Biography
There are lots of great biographies of artists, scholarly and not, that are readily available. You can also read biographies of people who were the subjects of a work of art.
Works by an Artist
A lot of artists like to write, too. JMW Turner wrote poetry, as did Dante Gabriel Rossetti; and Giorgio de Chirico wrote several works of fiction, including the first Surrealist novel. There are also artist/movement manifestos, letter collections, and artist autobiographies. My personal favorite of the latter is Salvador Dalí's.
Works Peripheral to an Artist or Movement
Artists and writers have a long history of hanging out together and influencing one another--Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites, for example. Artists also take a lot of inspiration from literature and classics for their work, so if you find out Manet was strongly influence by Baudelaire, or that a particular painting is an illustration of the Iliad (just to use an example) and want to read it, that would fall under this category.
Fiction
There are some novels that take inspiration from the lives of artists, or from paintings. Susan Vreeland is probably the most well-known author of this type of novel. Or you could read a novel that uses art or a painting as a major feature in the work, even if that painting is completely imaginary, like in The Picture of Dorian Grey.
Film
Want to watch a movie about the life of an artist? Or a movie made by an artist, or one that inspired an artist? Go for it! This category is also great for people who want to focus on a film-related subject.

How: Use Mr. Linky to link back to your blog (or tell me you're participating in the comments if you don't have a blog). In your post saying you'll participate in the challenge, tell us what subject you're going to be focusing on or starting off with. I'll keep track of the blogs and do a monthly update with everyone's progress. Feel free to grab the buttons at the top of this post for your own blog.

Prizes: I am planning on having prizes. Exactly what these prizes will be is TBD.

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't be! The important thing to remember is this is just to have fun and learn more about art and art history in completely free-form, self-guided way. And if you get stuck and don't know what subject to pick or what book to read, remember I'm your resource--just ask, I'll be happy to help!



If you want to check out another, completely different (oh yes completely different totally) art history reading challenge, go to The Art History Reading Challenge page.

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TSS-The Sunday Sun

A song for you this Sunday:

This last week has been pretty stressful for me, what with starting a new job.  Because we're going through training, our hours have been very irregular--one day we'll working 4-11 PM, the next day we'll work 9-4 AM.  As a result, I've been very tired and haven't been able to blog or even read that much, which makes me sad.  It has become clear, though, that with my new job I'm going to have to prioritize more about when it comes to blogging.  I think reading obviously has to be my number one priority.  I'm still reading--and not even halfway through--the book I started the week before last, The Oracles of Delphi Keep, just because I leave it until late at night to read, and then I'm so tired I can only get through a page.  Same thing with writing, another activity I traditionally leave until after midnight--I'm just too tired after working to put together sentences, it seems like.  So I think I'm going to start flipping my activities so I can devote more free time to read and writing, and leave going through other people's blogs and commenting for my days off.

The good news is, after September, I think things at my job are going to slow down considerably.  I'll likely be able to read a lot at work then.  So that's something to look forward to... I guess.  Boring jobs, yay.



In other news, I've been nominated for five categories for Book Blogger Appreciation Week! *blush*  Thank you so much for nominating me, everyone--I really appreciate it.  I was nominated for best romance blog, most eclectic blog, best special topic blog, best commentator (that's nice!), and best series or feature on Mondays.  Hooray!  I'm honored that you guys thought of me when submitting your nominations.



I also joined yet another challenge.  I must needs stop myself, no?  But since I've been watching Merlin lately, I've really been wanting to read Arthurian-related books.  Irish on twitter let me know about Becky's Arthurian Challenge, so I signed up right away!  I've already decided I'm going to read The Once and Future King by TH White, Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliott, and re-read the Merlin books by Mary Stewart and The Broken Sword.  I might read something else if I come across anything interesting (I am open to suggestions). 

Lastly, Nymeth mentioned on Things Mean a Lot that she is also trying to reduce the size of her TBR pile, and gave herself some rules to follow for doing so.  I've decided to follow her lead and set up some personal guidelines, too.  So here we go:

• Once library books reach their renewal limit, I will not order them again until my TBR pile is down to one shelf.  If I'm not going to read them in a month, it's just not going to happen.  They need to go.
• I'm not going to join any more challenges (after the Arthurian Challenge, of course ^_^).
• No more buying books (not that I've been buying that many books lately anyway... except for that one book I just bought.  Ooops).
• I will not let myself be pressured into reading books other people loan me, no matter how much they pout and pester me about it (yes, I'm talking to you, Mom).

So there you go.  My three rules.  With these, I should have my TBR pile whittled down by, oh, never.  Haha.  Oh well--you really can't have too many books, right?

What are you reading this week?

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