Tamara's 2010 Challenge

I'm pretty sure next year will be too busy for me, but I'm going to give it a try anyway. ;)

I think I'll make a list of 10 books per category and I want to read at least 5 in every category. I'll just have to see how much I'll be able to read in the end. Really looking forward to it!

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General ones = To be read.
Italic ones = Currently reading.
Strikethrough ones = Finished reading.

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Category 01: 10x Stephen King

01. Duma
02. IT
03. Dreamcatcher
04. The Green Mile
05. Carrie
06. The Shining
07. Christine
08. Needful Things
09. Rose Madder
10. Tommyknockers

Category 02: 10x books from the 1001 Book You Must Read Before You Die list.

01. The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
02. 1984 by George Orwell
03. Memoirs Of Fanny Hill by John Cleland
04. Candide by Voltaire
05. Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 03: 10x books from my tbr pile at home.

01. I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Hannah Green.
02. The Devil's Cat by William W. Johnstone.
03. Tales Of Mystery And Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 04: 10x books by authors that are new to me.

01. Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald.
02. My Sister Dilly by Maureen Lang.
03. The Madman's Tale by John Katzenbach.
04. De Stalker by Helen Vreeswijk.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 05: 10x books that relate to TV shows.

01. Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 1 by Nicholas Knight
02. Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 2 by Nicholas Knight
03. Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3 by Nicholas Knight
04. Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3 by Nicholas Knight(if it comes out next year)
05. Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Supernatural)
06. Witch's Canyon by Jeff Mariotte (Supernatural)
07. Bone Key by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Supernatural)
08. Heart Of The Dragon by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Superntural) (26/02/2010)
09. The Unholy Cause by Joe Schreiber (Supernatural) (01/04/2010)
10. Buried Deep by Max Allan Collins (Bones)

Category 06: 10x books translated from Spanish.

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 07: 10x books recommended to me.

01. Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 08: 10x books about/by serial killers.

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 09: 10x random books I stumble across.

01. The People's Act Of Love by James Meek.
02. Echte Mannen Eten Geen Kaas by Maria Mosterd.
03. The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell.
04. Every Visible Thing by Lisa Carey.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

Category 10: 10x books from the BBC (The Big Read) Top 100.

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

First day of the new year and I've started with my first book - 1984 by George Orwell. :)

An excellent book to start 2010 with. Good luck in your challenge!

Thank you! I'm enjoying this book so far, seems really interesting.

Oh, that's a fine first choice indeed!

Category 02: Candide by Voltaire. || 3 out of 5 stars.

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distringuished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best.

Category 02: 1984 by George Orwell. || 4 out of 5 stars.

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

Category 03: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Hannah Green. 4/5 stars.

Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist.

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I think they don't use this kind of treatment (a lot) anymore, or if they ever did for that matter, but it was fascinating to read about this. I loved the descriptions of Yr.

Category 05: Buried Deep by Max Allan Collins. 3.5 stars.

Tempe's work at the Jeffersonian Institute is put on hold when Special Agent Seeley Booth, stalled on a case deposing a Chicago mob family, calls her in to assist with a bizarre discovery: a plastic bag of skeletal remains -- and a chilling note -- left on the steps of a federal building. Tempe determines the bones are from different corpses, suggesting a serial killer's handiwork. A suspect is quickly taken into custody, but Tempe senses the case is far from closed. And as Booth's Mafia case heats up with violent twists and bloody discoveries, including ties to one of Chicago's most gruesome and notorious killers, Tempe must unravel the story of the bones, where the truth lies buried -- in order to stay alive.

~ ~ ~

It was a nice read, but I prefer the TV show. Must try the books by Kathy Reichs sometime though!

Category 02: Memoirs Of Fanny Hill by John Cleland. 3.5 stars.

Forced by the death of her parents to seek her fortune in London, Fanny Hill is duped into prostitution by an old procuress. In Mrs Brown's bawdy-house the naive young woman begins her sexual initiation - progressing from innocence to curiosity and desire - and soon embarks on her own path in pursuit of pleasure, until she at last finds true love.

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Quite enjoyed it at first, but in the end it felt like I was reading the same things over and over. For me it got pretty boring in the end unfortunately.

Category 01: The Shining by Stephen King. 4 stars.

Danny is only five years old, but he is a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of an old hotel, his visions grow out of control. Cut off by blizzards, the hotel seems to develop an evil force, and who are the mysterious guests in the supposedly empty hotel?

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Quite a good book! Thought it would be much scarier though. Really must see this movie soon too.

I thought the film was much better than the book, although you might find it a bit dated now! I dunno the book was just a bit too long for me and I vageuly remember the maze scene not working for me.

Category 09: The People's Act Of Love by James Meek. 3 stars.

It is 1919 in Yazyk, Siberia, far from anywhere. The war is waning, but its ravages remain. There is an uneasy detente between a group of Czech soldiers, marooned on the losing side and longing to go home, and a fanatical Christian sect that practices castration as a means of purifying themselves. One of their number is their leader, Balashov, married to a beautiful and restive photographer, Anna Petrovna, who has come to the village of Yazyk to raise her son, after learning of her husband's castration. Her fury knows no bounds. She gives herself to anyone who is interested as a means of shaming Balashov, and satisfying her own appetites.

Into this motley collection of people comes a stranger, Samarin, who says he has escaped from The White Garden, Russia's northernmost prison camp, a place of unbelievable barbarism. Shortly after his arrival, the village shaman, possessed of a third eye and an albino sidekick, is found murdered. Suspicion falls immediately on Samarin. In successive chapters, Meek has each person or faction tell his or her story. Samarin, a revolutionary, charismatic visionary, every bit as zealous as the castrates, tells of his escape. Matula, the crazy, cocaine-snorting leader of the Czechs, doesn't really want to go home, so he prevents his soldiers from leaving. Mutz, a sensible sort, quite taken with Anna, dreams of home and keeps hope alive among his soldiers. Balashov tells of what led him to castrate himself.

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I'm still not entirely sure what to think of this one. It was a good read, but somehow I had to force myself to finish it. The characters were great though.

Category 03: The Devil's Cat by William W. Johnstone. 4 stars.

The town was alive with cats. Sam, Nydia, and Little Sam had never seen so many of them. The cats' eyes were glowing slits as they watched the newcomers. And their furry tails were slowly switching back and forth. . . The town was ripe with evil. Soon Sam, Nydia and Little Sam would battle the forces of darkness, standing alone against the ultimate predator--The Devil's Cat.

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I love these easy to read 'horror' books. They make me happy.

Category 04: Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald. 3.5 stars.

When Krissie joins her best friend, Sarah, on a walking holiday in the Scottish Highlands, it seems like the peaceful balm they both need. But peace turns to betrayal when Krissie seduces Sarah's husband, Kyle - and it isn't long before betrayal turns to murder...

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Interesting read. I might have to check out more of her books.

Category 09: Echte Mannen Eten Geen Kaas by Maria Mosterd. 4 stars.

Until her first day at high school, Mary is a very normal girl. She lives with her mother and her sister in a town in the Netherlands, and wants some more excitement in her life. Or to be cool, like this group of guys that hang around in the parking lot of her school. How would it be if one of those guys was her boyfriend? Maria's fantasy seems to get real: one of them, Manou, starts talking to her. What she does not know is that Manou is a loverboy.

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I decided to read some non-fiction and it turned out to be pretty disturbing. It's horrible that 'loverboys' make young girls fall in love with them just to use them as trash and sell them to everyone who wants sex. So awful.

Category 04: My Sister Dilly by Maureen Lang. 4 stars.

For six and a half years, a guilt-ridden Hannah Williams has focused all her efforts on returning to tiny Sugar Creek, Illinois, to help her sister Dilly readjust to life outside prison walls. Hannah sets aside her highly successful career as a respected investment counselor in California and her best friend, Mac, to do what she thinks is right. But she has never discussed her plans with Dilly and is shocked and hurt when her sister seems unappreciative. Hannah is also dismayed by her sister’s newfound faith, since years ago as children they agreed never to buy into their parents’ religious fervor.

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I don't even remember why I got this, but it turned out to be a pretty good book, quite interesting. In the end I got really bored with all the talking about God, since I don't believe. Other than that I enjoyed it.

Category 02: Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne. 3 stars.

Shocking his stodgy colleagues at the exclusive Reform Club, enigmatic Englishman Phileas Fogg wagers his fortune, undertaking an extraordinary and daring enterprise to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. With his French valet Passepartout in tow, Verne's hero traverses the far reaches of the earth, all the while tracked by the intrepid Detective Fix, a bounty hunter certain he is on the trail of a notorious bank robber.

~ ~ ~

Fun read, but didn't really love it in the end.

Tammiejx,

Took a quick peek at a few other 1010 challenges. I see you have Stephen King on there (I read all of his full-length novels from Carrie thru Rose Madder). I see you read The Shining. I, like you, didn't find it tremendously scary, but there were some freaky parts to it. If memory serves me right, weren't there living shrubs shaped like animals?

I saw your categories 8 and 9, and didn't know which one you'd put this under, but if you like books on serial murderers, I'd highly suggest Perfect Poison by M. William Phelps. It's actually a true story about a nurse at a Veteran's hospital in Massachusetts who killed patients in ways and for reasons that are beyond believable, but they really did happen.

Profile of the murderer can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Gilbert

#29: True, some part were scary indeed! And you're right about those animals, yes. They were quite creepy.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm definately going to look that one up. Sounds really interesting and I'm looking forward to reading it! :)

Category 05: Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido. 4 stars.

Sam and Dean have hit New York City to check out a local rocker's haunted house. But before they can figure out why a lovesick banshee in an '80s heavy-metal T-shirt is wailing in the bedroom, a far more macabre crime catches their attention. Not far from the house, two university students were beaten to death by a strange assailant. A murder that's bizarre even by New York City standards, it's the latest in a line of killings that the brothers soon suspect are based on the creepy stories of legendary writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Their investigation leads them to the center of one of Poe's horror classics, face-to-face with their most terrifying foe yet. And if Sam and Dean don't rewrite the ending of this chilling tale, a grisly serial killer will end their lives forevermore.

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It was bit weird to read about Sam & Dean instead of watching the show, but I really enjoyed it! And that there was something about Edgar Allan Poe in this one made it even more awesome. :)

Category 05: Witch's Canyon by Jeff Mariotte. 4 stars

Sam and Dean have set out on a road trip to the Grand Canyon, but this is no vacation for the brothers. On a stretch of deserted ranchland just beyond the canyon's stunning vistas, mysterious murder sprees have occurred every forty years. The area's inhabitants have been few and far between in years past, but a nearby mega-mall is about to celebrate its grand opening—and attract thousands of fresh victims.

The Winchester boys are determined to protect locals and shoppers alike, but they never anticipated they'd be fighting a group of killers this vicious, this vindictive, this . . . dead. A deadly horde of animal spirits and human ghosts has arisen to terrorize this tiny corner of the Arizona desert. If Sam and Dean can't figure out why, the wide-open spaces of the West will once again become a desolate frontier . . . and the witch's canyon will be the brothers' final resting place.

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The second book of the 'series'. I think I actually read this one first though, which didn't really matter. Different writer, but also a great read. Must say that I'll like about anything that's about Supernatural haha. ;)

Category 04: The Madman's Tale by John Katzenbach. 4.5 stars.

When the body of a young female trainee is found brutally murdered in the Nurses' Station of the Western State Mental Hospital, Massachusetts, there is apparently no shortage of suspects - a whole hospital of them. One inmate claims to have seen the killer, whom he will only describe as The Angel. Twenty years later, Francis Petrel, once a patient at the hospital, writes his account of the events of the murder and its investigation on the walls of his tiny apartment. As he writes he is visited by hallucinations, and by the increasing anxiety at his loosening grip on reality. As he goes deeper and deeper into his story about those events, his own madness returns. He remembers being co-opted into the investigation by Lucy Jones, a driven young profiler who has her own reasons for pursuing this particular killer. But she and Francis face the same conundrum: how does one find a cold-blooded killer masquerading as mad in a world populated by the deranged? In the end it will come down to Francis, for he is the only member of the investigating team capable of recognizing the essential lie that The Angel embodies: for though his acts are those of a mad man, he most emphatically is not...

~ ~ ~

I really, really enjoyed this. Some people might find it a bit boring in the end, the story dragged out too long. Which I can understand, but for me it was still a great story. Very interesting characters.

Category 09: The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell. 3.5 stars.

A lawyer, driving home through the fog, stops after he sees "a human-sized effigy" propped on a chair in the middle of a deserted highway. Gustaf Torstensson gets out of the car to investigate, is hit from behind and was "dead before his body hit the damp asphalt." The police accept the assailant's claim that it was an accident, but when Torstensson's son, Sten, is shot dead just two weeks later, the brooding Wallender, who's on sick leave and vowing to retire from the Ystad police force, decides to pursue the killer and resume his career. The chief suspect—a powerful, globe-trotting Swedish businessman who's the smiling man of the title—leads Wallender on an exquisitely plotted search for motive and evidence.

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I feel like I've read this kind of story many times before, but I still liked it. Must see if I can find the first 3 books of this series, since I apparently started with the fourth book haha.

Category 09: Every Visible Thing by Lisa Carey. 5 stars.

Five years after the disappearance of their oldest son, Hugh, the Furey family is functioning, yet shattered. Parents Henry and Elizabeth live in the same house, but not in the same world. When Lena, 15, finds a cache of Hugh's undeveloped film, she masquerades as a boy and begins to skip school and hang out with the dangerous older crowd she identifies from his photos, with the hope of discovering what happened to him. Meanwhile, Owen, 10, is dealing with severe bullying issues at school. He becomes fixated on guardian angels, a topic his theologian father researched before he lost his job. As Lena's and Owen's lives threaten to implode, the Fureys must finally deal with their grief and strained relationships in order to survive.

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This was such an incredible book. Beautiful, but sometimes heart-breaking.

Category 04: De Stalker by Helen Vreeswijk. 4 stars.

Fifteen year old Leonie is a happy teenager: she is madly in love with her boyfriend, has a great girlfriend at school and everything is fine. When she gets strange phone calls, fshe first thinks that someone is just playing a prank on her. But then the caller begins to insult her and even threaten her. The normally happy Leonie becomes a shy girl who feels like she's constantly being watched. Ultimately there is nothing she can do but alert the police. Her friend and the brother of her boyfriend support her unconditionally, even if they themselves are threatened. Because the threats continue to deteriorate, the police realize that this must be investigated right away. Inspector Van Buren leads the investigation. Will he be able to find the stalker?

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This was more of a young-adult book, but it was still a bit creepy. Probably because this actually happens to people. Quite a realistic book.

Category 02: The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. 4 stars.

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence.

Category 03: Tales Of Mystery And Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe. 4 stars.

This collection of Poe's best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterize his work. As well as the Gothic horror of "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Premature Burial" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", all of Poe's Auguste Dupin stories are included.