Even with the deadline extension, I did not complete the challenge. I am not finished with my last selection. However, I wanted to post my selections and answer the survey questions. Maybe I will be forgiven for being late since I am helping out with the prize distribution :)
The bottom line: choose 9 different books, written by 9 different authors, from 9 different countries.
The books I read for the challenge are:
- What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin (Canada). Oh my goodness, I finished my eighth book. I may still finish this challenge! My review is here.
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (Iran) I finished this book on September 3rd. You can find my review here.
- I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody by Sinan Antoon (Iraq) I finished this book in only two days. You can find my review here.
- Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia) This is the fifth book for this challenge. You can read my review here.
- Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (Australia) I finally finished my first selection for this challenge. Hopefully, I can still catch up. My review is here.
- She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (United States) This novel was set in many parts of the United States, so I thought it would be a good selection for this challenge. My review is here.
- Maps by Nuruddin Farah (Somalia). My review is here.
- Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson (England) I finished this book on October 5th, but only posted my review recently. You can read it here.
- The Japanese Wife by Kunal Basu (India) I am still working on this book. Hooray, I finally finished the book. Here is the review.
The only book that I did not care for much was Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson. Otherwise, I thought that all of the selections were strong. I enjoyed globe trotting by reading authors from around the world. I am also pleased that I had a fair amount of geographic diversity.
1.) What did you like about the challenge?
My favorite thing about the challenge was the chance to expand my reading by looking for authors who were from a variety of countries.
I would like my schedule to change a bit so that I could have more time to read and not be trying to finish at the last minute. I also think that it might be fun to have the challenge go for an entire year-- March to March, instead of finishing in December. I was fine with the rules. Yes, I am going to join next year! I felt confused about whether the country of the book was based on the author's citizenship or ethnicity. More clarity about that at the start of the challenge would have been helpful. I think it would be fun to have options for getting involved throughout the challenge period. Depending on my schedule, I would enjoy being part of the group reading process. Yes, I would love to help next year. I could help with giving prizes or I could host a mini-challenge to help raise the buzz and keep up the enthusiasm.
2.) What would you like to see change for next year?
3.) About the rules, or the non-existent rules...did you like that?
4.) Are you going to join us next year?
5.) Pretty please give me any suggestions for changes, the betterment of the challenge, or just anything that you would like to see changed for next year.
6.) Would you like the challenge to be more involved? What if we read books together sometimes? Would that interest you?
7.) would you be interested in helping somehow next year? How would you like to help?