A Month of Letters

As an established letter-writer from way back, I am so excited to announce my participation in Mary Robinette Kowal's A Month of Letters project.

In the author's own words: “I have a simple challenge for you. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs.  Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch. Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items. All you are committing to is to mail 24 items.  Why 24? There are four Sundays and one US holiday. In fact, you might send more than 24 items. You might develop a correspondence that extends beyond the month. You might enjoy going to the mail box again.”

Now, as someone who belongs to PostCrossing.com, regularly participates in letter and package exchanges around the holidays and birthdays, and loves to design her own cards and stationary, a project like this is a dream come true.

If you would like to participate, here are some links to get you started:

• Sign up at the official website
• Read the post on the author's website announcing the project
• Like the official Facebook page
• Follow @LetterMonth on Twitter and tweet using the #lettermo hashtag

If you would like to receive a letter from me, send me an email at broche (dot) fabian (at) gmail (dot) com to exchange snail mail addresses. I guarantee you'll receive a pretty something in the mail soon enough.

Around the World Challenge: January & Global Domination Challenge: Africa

Giraffe Days is hosting the Around the World in 12 Books Challenge. 

The objective is to read a new book from a different country for each of the 12 months in a year.

Time for my January review:

Spud by John van de Ruit

John Milton has a lot on his plate, as any 13-year-old boy does. He is heading off to a private, all-boys boarding school, thanks to a new scholarship and his beautiful singing voice. While he's excited to be leaving behind his crazy and embarrassing parents and eccentric grandmother he calls The Wombat, he's terrified to discover what awaits him at school - things like being nicknamed Spud because his balls haven't dropped yet, having a crazy bunkmate who only talks to inanimate objects and pulls out his own hair, and getting caned after getting caught with the rest of the Crazy Eight (his first-year dorm mates) sneaking out to go midnight swimming. He also meets both The Mermaid and Amanda (2 girls! While attending a boy's school!), trounces and gets trounced on and off the cricket field, decides to become both an actor and an activist, and explores the complexities of forced friendship and loyalty. With no punches pulled, no description too graphic, from the heights of love to the depths of loss, Spud captures it all in his diary, fully chronicling his first year at boarding school.

All of this takes place during the 1990s, making the backdrop issues of apartheid, the release of Nelson Mandela, race relations, class relations, and other related social issues. It's a bit crazy to think the 1990s are now "historical fiction," but Spud does a great job of capturing a White teen perspective at the time - learning about issues that didn't seem important until they suddenly are, struggling to catch up and make meaning out of political history, living in an accepting mixed-race environment at school but dealing with blatant racism at home, etc.

AND

Spud: The Madness Continues by John van de Ruit

Surprise! I read two books for this challenge this month. I had forgotten that Spud, my original book choice, has 2 sequels! I was only able to get my hands on the second book, Spud: The Madness Continues, but I've requested my library purchase the third, so stay tuned to see if I ever get a chance to read it.

In Spud: The Madness Continues, the madness of the Crazy Seven (Seven due to a loss of one boy in Spud; then Eight, when a new boy comes; then Seven, when the new boy leaves; then Eight, when they induct Roger the Cat as an official member; then Six, when two of the boys get expelled; then Seven, when one of the boys gets back) really does continue. Spud is going to turn 15 during this year, is no longer in his first trembling year at the school, and has high hopes for both ball dropping and hair appearing in that same region. Despite his optimism (and the eventual voice-cracking, ball-dropping accomplishment), Spud soon finds that with both enemies and allies still at school, this year will not be any smoother. Still writing in his diary, the Spud of this year will chronicle his mother's plans to emigrate, The Wombat continuing to lose her mind, and his father's moonshine business; his first breakup, first ball hair, and first trip to England; the Crazy Eight's torture attempts at the Normal Seven (the new batch of first years); his actor career hitting a snag when he's cast as the Dove of Peace in a disastrous school play; and all the usual adventures of midnight swimming, cricket matches, brews, books, and broads, with just a hint more seriousness this year than last.

Let's see if I followed the guidelines:

1. Books must be set in the country. - Yes, all over South Africa, with a brief stint in England in book two.

2. Books should be by an author of that country, if you can find/get hold of one. - Yes, John van de Ruit is apparently quite a big deal over there.

3. Books must be fiction or memoir. Children’s books count too. - This is children's historical fiction, perfect for advanced tweens and early teen readers.

4. Books can count towards other challenges. - As I'm also participating in the Global Domination Challenge over at Insatiable Booksluts, I will count this for my Africa read.

Stay tuned for next month: FEBRUARY: Bangladesh - Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins

For my complete book list, click on my original post or the challenges tab.

Award-Winning Reading Challenge

I am so excited to announce that I will be participating in the

Award-Winning Reading Challenge hosted by Insatiable Booksluts.

I figured it's about time that I actually read some of the books off the award lists (okay, other than the Newbery and Caldecott, because I read books off those lists all the time). This challenge allows me to pick and choose from when off which list I read, just the way I like it.

For this challenge, I will be doing a Full Frontal, with a little Genre Buster and Extra Credit thrown in (because I'm a hopeless overachiever).

Full Frontal:
You are not fucking around here—you want to read the best and the brightest, and a lot of them, even if it kills you. Your challenge is to read:

• three (3) full-length books written by Nobel laureates 
• three (3) full-length novels that won the Pulitzer Prize
• three (3) books that won the Man Booker Prize
• one (1) book (or one book from one author) each from the following: 
• the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction
• the National Book Award for Fiction
• the Neustadt International Prize for Literature

Genre Buster:
Hey, there are other awards besides literary awards. Read one book from each of the following lists:

• Hugo Award (sci-fi/fantasy)
• Nebula Award for Novels (sci-fi/fantasy)
• World Fantasy Award 
• Bram Stoker Best Novel Award (horror)
• Aurealis award for best horror novel
• Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger (crime fiction)
• Mystery Writers of America 
• RITA awards (romance–fuck yeah, we’re going there)

Extra Credit:
Read one book from these random-ass awards that we found around the internet. This particular challenge may be subject to change as we find more oddball awards, but when/if I update, I’ll include the date so that you know if they were part of your original challenge or not:

• Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year 
• Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award
• Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award  (chosen because Theakston’s is a brewery with its own book award–badass)
• Gaylactic Spectrum Awards (because I love the word “Gaylactic” so much I want to marry it–but I’d have to move to New York for that, fucking anti-gay activist bastards)

I have not chosen a first book yet, because I need to spend a little time with these lists. Needless to say, I will be continuing to blog about my choices, and encourage you to sign up for this reading challenge, too.

Global Domination Challenge

I am so excited to announce that I will be participating in the

Global Domination Challenge hosted by Insatiable Booksluts.

 

No, this is not cheating, but I may be able to satisfy my Around the World Challenge with my Global Domination Challenge, and vice versa. So basically, it makes total sense to participate in both. Right?

I will be a Day Tripper:
New to foreign literature? Short on reading time and need to be economical? Start with this challenge. Read the following for a total of six books:

• 1 book from Latin or South America - Gabriela, Cloves and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado (Brazil)
• 1 non-English book from Europe
• 1 book from Africa
• 1 book from Asia
• 1 non-United States English book
• 1 book from the Middle East

I will be blogging about the books I read for this challenge throughout the year, and encourage you to sign up at Insatiable Booksluts so you can be a part of this, too.

The first book I have chosen to read is Gabriela, Cloves and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado. This was a book my father wanted to read during his trip to Brazil. I had never heard of it before, but the story actually sounds really engaging:

Ilhéus in 1925 is a booming town with a record cacao crop and aspirations for progress, but the traditional ways prevail. When Colonel Mendonça discovers his wife in bed with a lover, he shoots and kills them both. Political contests, too, can be settled by gunshot...

No one imagines that a bedraggled migrant worker who turns up in town–least of all Gabriela herself–will be the agent of change. Nacib Saad has just lost the cook at his popular café and in desperation hires Gabriela. To his surprise she turns out to be a great beauty as well as a wonderful cook and an enchanting boon to his business. But what would people say if Nacib were to marry her?

Lusty, satirical and full of intrigue, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon is a vastly entertaining panorama of small town Brazilian life.

Around the World Challenge

I am so excited to announce that I will be participating in the
2012 Around the World in 12 Books Challenge hosted by Giraffe Days. 

Sadly, this does not mean I will be physically traveling around the world in 2012. Maybe some other year that will happen. Instead, I will be literarially (yes, I made up that word) globe-trotting, by reading a book from a different country each month.

Here is the month/country breakdown:

JANUARY: South Africa - Spud by John van de Ruit  - review
FEBRUARY: Bangladesh - Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins
MARCH: Guatemala - Rites: A Guatemalan Boyhood by Victor Perera
APRIL: Tanzania - Great Sky Woman by Steven Barnes
MAY: Cuba - The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez
JUNE: Germany - The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
JULY: Iran - The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis and/or Maman's Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan
AUGUST: Mexico - Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
SEPTEMBER: Philippines - Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday by Robin Hemley 
OCTOBER: Denmark - hoping either Christian Moerk or Jussi Adler-Olsen releases a new book in English by October 2012.
NOVEMBER: Peru - Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams
DECEMBER: Iceland - The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J.R.R. Tolkien

Here are the guidelines:

1. Books must be set in the country. (For help, try this website.)
2. Books should be by an author of that country, if you can find/get hold of one.
3. Books must be fiction or memoir. Children’s books count too.
4. Books can count towards other challenges.

Questions to consider while reading/reviewing:

• What did you learn about the country’s culture, history etc. from reading this book? Any new insights, any shifts in your perception, or did it align with what you knew/understood already?
• How did land, geography, flora and fauna feature in the book? Did it have a distinct feel that helped you visualise and made you feel like you were there, or was the story more focused on plot?
• Did the story make you want to visit/revisit the country, or explore it in a new way if you live there already; did it make you want to read more stories set in the country?

I will be blogging about the books I read for this challenge throughout the year, and encourage you to sign up at Giraffe Days so you can be a part of this, too.

For January, I have chosen to read Spud by John van de Ruit. This is a teen novel that, despite having sold as a bookseller in the past, I've never actually read yet have always wanted to. Perfect opportunity! Here is the publisher description:

It's 1990. Apartheid is crumbling. Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison. And Spud Milton--thirteen-year-old, prepubescent choirboy extraordinaire--is about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school in South Africa. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a senile granny named Wombat, and a wild obsession for Julia Roberts, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home.

Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes readers of all ages on a rowdy boarding school romp full of illegal midnight swims, raging hormones, and catastrophic holidays that will leave the entire family in total hysterics and thirsty for more.