What are people (hurriedly?) reading this month as we try to finish our challenges?

I'm working on finishing up Let the Great World Spin and Little, Big (both are excellent, by the way, though Little, Big definitely won't be for everyone)...Thinking maybe Watership Down next for "turned into a film."

Other than that, I've been filling in next year's challenge lists with the books I didn't get to this year. I'm beginning to wonder whether I like making lists as much as reading, lol. Had to downgrade myself to a "silver medal" in the HF challenge when reality hit & I saw that I wasn't going to be able to read about 20 books in the next 2 months.  Oh well, at least I read quite a bit this year-& enjoyed it!!!

Work by one of a country's greatest contemporary writers:  The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.  So far I liked The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo better.  The pace is picking up.

Classic challenge:  

OK.  I am cheating because I couldn't make myself read a translated work, I am reading two versions of the same book.  Readeeming Love by Francine Rivers was first written with some lusty action in it.  Then Rivers started writing for the Christian market and they sanitized her first book, Redeeming Love, and now sell it as a Christian novel with all the sex action and offensive language removed.  Some places they have not even attemped to make sense of the story, they just simply removed the sex or swearing and the paragraph makes no sense whatsoever.  Interesting example of ruining a good story and a well written book..

Pamela, very creative way to read a translation!

I'm half way through Blackout by Connie Willis, which I'm reading for the SciFi/Fantasy category.  I used to read a lot of SF many, many years ago, but for some reason just don't read any at all anymore.  I was going to skip this category but happened across Blackout at my resale shop, and decided to give it a try.  It's about time travel, and the thing that made me think I could read it is that it's time travel to England during WW II, which is one of my favorite historical periods to read about.

I LOVE this book so far.  I'm so glad I'm reading it--another book I wouldn't have tried without the challenge!

Diane

I'm reading The Zookeeper's Wife, which is startling and sad.

                                                                     Rose

OK.  I am cheating because I couldn't make myself read a translated work,

If you like mysteries, some of the best have been translated. The popular ones are Scandanavian. However, they are noir.

Mary

Diane said:  Pamela, very creative way to read a translation!

Thank you!   I am always a person who is looking for a way to fit in, but not too well.  If there is a loophole or clause that is not air tight,  look out.  I should have been a lawyer, but I would have been such a piece of s#*t if I was that no amount of praying would have gotten me out of going to HEdoubletoothpicks.  I am having the same problem with the Historical Fiction Challenge and am not even going to try next year's in that category.  I just can't make myself follow EVERY rule. 

OK.  And I have got to start reading Connie Willis books.  It is like Neil Gaiman.  Everyone who reads one, raves about it.

I finished Possession by A. S. Byatt, a book I started months ago and stopped reading in the middle.  This is the first Byatt book I've read, and I got bogged down a little in the middle because it's the kind of book that you really need to read slowly--the language is complex.  I don't exactly speed read, but my eyes do fly over a line quickly and with most books you can get the meaning by doing this.  Not Possession--you almost have to read each word aloud in your mind.

I have a couple of other books by her and am going to try another next year to see if it's the same.

I'm also cheating a little (well not really, but it feels like it!) by changing my deleted category.  I was going to delete the nonfiction category, but realize I've already read a nonfiction that doesn't count for any other challenge, so I'm counting it.  Instead I'm deleting "one of a country's greatest authors", which sounded simple at first but because I'm such a stickler about stuff like that, I found myself wondering if the authors I was considering really were their country's greatest authors or if I was categorizing them that way because I wanted them to fit the challenge!  So I've switched those two categories around.

I only have to finish Blackout (I'm about 3/4 done) and I'll be finished!

Diane

I finished Blackout, which was excellent.  I didn't realize it ended on a cliff-hanger and that there's a sequel until I was about half done with the book.  And I'm way down the line for the sequel on the wishlist, so I won't be reading it for a while unless I should be so fortunate to find it at the resale shop (which is where I found Blackout)!

I have finished the 2011 Contemporary Fiction challenge.  Still have 5 more challenge books to read this year though, before I can start the fun of choosing books for the 2012 challenges.

Diane

I had the same experience with Little, Big by Crowley. I started it in February & finished it last month -- just read it very sporadically because I had to be in the mood to read slowly enough to savor every word, literary device & other such nuance. It's a pretty amazing book -- incredible writing -- & also one of those books people (or at least I) probably need to read 2-3 times (like James Joyce's work) to fully appreciate.