Friday, April 25, 2008

I'm Challenged!

_____I decided to take on a couple of challenges for the summer.

First, I joined Joy at Thoughts of Joy for her 2nd annual Nonfiction Five Challenge. I vow to read 5 nonfiction books between the months May - September. Not really a challenge (I love NF) but a chance for me to gain a sense of accomplishment. You know, build my self-esteem. :D


Secondly, I joined a new (to me) blogger, Jeff at BearCastle, for his Science Book Challenge. For this challenge one has all year to read three science books. Jeff has been very helpful and his Book Notes section is excellent.

I've not spoken of this, but I'm a committee member of the Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners for American Libraries Association. Within this committee I am on a smaller Science and Technology subcommittee which will pick 25 S&T books for the list. So far we have 5 books we are considering, and we pick in June. Please, if you have any suggestion, leave a comment.

Thirdly, (and I'm so sorry I forget) I joined Nyssaneala at Book Haven's Neustadt Prize Challenge. This will be a real challenge for me! I'll try to read Remembering Babylon by David Malouf 2000 winner, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 1972 winner, and I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch 1986 winner.

Lastly, I'll be crankin' up the 2nd Annual Southern Reading Challenge soon! Stay tuned for further announcements.

28 comments:

Iliana said...

Woo-hoo! I was hoping you were going to host another Southern reading challenge. I didn't do so well last year but there's always hope for this year :)
Have fun with your challenges!

Lisa said...

I missed last year's Southern reading challenge, so I'm excited about participating this year.

maggie moran said...

Great to have positive feed back, Iliana and Lisa! I'll be hosting a separate one for work, too. ;D

raidergirl3 said...

I'm doing the science and nonfiction one as well. I've only read one science so far: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space.

And yeah! the Southern Reading Challenge again!

maggie moran said...

Raidergirl, I'll run over and read your review on Q&QG! :D

Tiffany Norris said...

Can't wait! Can't wait!

Nyssaneala said...

Just a reminder that the Neustadt challenge is starting soon! I am giving away a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to one participant! To enter, all you have to do is post your challenge list by May 1, and leave a link to your list in the comment section of this post: http://nyssaneala.blogspot.com/2008/04/neustadt-challenge-starting-soon.html

Thanks for participating!

sage said...

oh boy, another Southern reading challenge--should I host another counter-cultural "DamnYankee Challenge?"

Too bad I just finished "Lay that Trumpet in my Hand," should have saved it for the challenge...

Diane said...

count me in for another southern reading challenge!

p.s. fingers crossed I win the pecans again, too!

maggie moran said...

Thank you, Nyssaneala! I forgot! My titles are in this post and this promises to be one heck of a challenge for me. :)

I'm sorry Sage, I think you were hoping for an International challenge, but I'm just not qualified for that arena, but you could host. I promise to participate! :D

Yay, Diane! I'll have a Mr. Linky up in a couple of days. :)

Nyssaneala said...

Hey Maggie, can I use that really awesome button you created for the Neustadt challenge? Every time I sat down to create one, Baby Maya seemed to wake up from a nap!

maggie moran said...

By all means, Nyssaneala. I figured you were busy. :)

Robin said...

Hooray! You're going to do another Southern Reading Challenge! I enjoyed it so much last year, so I'll be joining again!

maggie moran said...

Yay, Robin! Maybe we will get you to change your name to Mockingbird for the summer! :D

Anonymous said...

Maggie I have a book for you to read. It is "Growing Up Southern" by Fred Brown and Jeanne McDonald. It is subtitled "How the South shapes its writers". I think that you might like it Maggie. :-)

maggie moran said...

Thanks Paul! It does sound right up my alley! :)

April said...

Sounds as though you have some great reading ahead of you, Maggie! I am very anxious to hear about the Southern Reading Challenge! I was not doing much blogging last summer so missed out on it!

maggie moran said...

It coming soon, April! I'm thrilled you might participate. :)

Lana said...

Oh yea! I was looking forward to summer and wondering if you were doing another summer reading challenge!

maggie moran said...

Yea! TxMommy is back! Hope you have some reads in mind. :)

Joy said...

Welcome to the Non-Fiction Five Challenge, Maggie! :) I look forward to reading your reviews.

AND...woo hoo! I'm happy to see you are planning the Southern Reading Challenge. I signed up late last year and ended up really enjoying it.

Eva said...

I'm excited to have another Southern Reading Challenge!! I loved it last year, and I've been hoping it'd happen again (I just mooched The Mercy of Thin Air in preperation).

And as far as science books, I don't know if you're only looking for books published in 2008, but I'm reading a great book right now called Death by Black Hole (pub. 2007): it's a collection of essays about space by an astrophysicist. And I'm loving it!! Another 2007 book I read last year was The Body Has a Mind of Its Own-it's a really neat, and short, exploration of cutting-edge discoveries in neurology. A 2006 book about biology that I loved was Matt Ridley's Genome: each chapter focuses on a different human chromosome and something associated with it. And a 2004 book I read a couple months ago and really, really enjoyed was Snowball Earth by Gabrielle Walker: it has a geology focus, and looks at individual geologists as well as science.

Ok, I've gone on long enough. What a neat job-I'm jealous! :)

maggie moran said...

Thanks Joy and if you read Eva's comment, I think I have my five! ;D

Wow! Thank you so much Eva! My work is done, pshew! I haven't heard of these, except for Genome, and this is exactly why I like blogging. People always ask me where I get the idea to read a certain fabo book, and I have to say it is through reading book blogs.

Eva said...

Glad I could help! :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for bringing this to our campus! I am having great fun learning about the world of blogging! I love the fact we can choose which books to read - it will be fun to see what others are reading!

Melwyk said...

I'm so glad you've joined the Science Book Challenge! I've just finished one for it, but haven't reviewed it yet. Isn't Jeff's "Book Notes" section great? I'm jealous of you being on that ALA committee! Sounds great. Eva's suggestions are going on my list, too.

maggie moran said...

I'm thrilled Signy! Blogga-blogga! ;D

maggie moran said...

Melanie, i bet there are tons of committee that would love your participation. Just follow your passion!

This is a really cool challenge and look forward to reading, science, classics, and southern books.