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The Orange Prize Project

I love prize winning fiction, so I’ve decided to sign up to another challenge! – The Orange Prize Project . I have read a few of the Orange prize winers already, but there are a lot more buried in my reading pile. Hopefully, by taking part in this challenge, I will be encouraged to move a few of them to the top of the pile!
The ones I have read so far are:

2008
The Outcast, by Sadie Jones

2006
The Accidental, by Ali Smith

2005
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka

2004
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2001
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

1996
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan

The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff, which was shortlisted for the prize this year, is top of my reading pile, so I should finish reading it soon.
I look forward reading lots more Orange prize winners over the coming months!

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Story Code – Website Recommendation

Storycode is an original way to find new books to read. Unlike the majority of other sites that get book recommendations for you, this site does not give you books based on other people’s preferences. Instead it has a more scientific way to find books you’d like. Each book is ‘coded’ based on a large number of characteristics, including number of characters, ease of reading and importance of plot. It then compares all books that have already been coded into the system and comes up with suggestions of similar books to read. I have had great success with it, and read many books that I may otherwise not have come across.

 

One of my favourite books is Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller. This book isn’t very well known, so wasn’t in the system. I ‘coded’ it myself, which took about 10 – 15 minutes, answering a large number of questions using a sliding scale. When finished it suggested that A Kestrel for a Knave  by Barry Hines was the best match. I have just finished reading it, and loved it. This is about the fifth book, that I have found, and loved using storycode. I cannot recommend this site highly enough!

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Weekly Geeks #26

I have been reading various people’s ‘weekly geeks’ sections for a few weeks, and have always found them interesting. I thought it was time I came out of the woodwork and joined in. This week’s task is to visit 5 other blogs and find something you have in common with each of them. This gives me a great excuse to have a look round more people’s blogs, and hopefully pick up a few hints on great books to read.

Weekly Geek 26

 I picked five sites:

 As I’m new here I had a look round Dewey’s site. We haven’t read many of the same books, but the few we have in common we seem to have the same opinion of. I discovered that we both love Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Wrong Decade is new to ‘weekly geeks’ too, so I thought I’d link to her site to encourage her to keep up the geeking!

Literary Escapism has set up a Facebook group for book related discussions. I’ve done this too, although mine is a reading group for people I know, and not as active as hers.


Book Worm Sarah likes taking photos of her reading piles just like me!

Melody loves reading challenges.On her blog, I found a link to a site listing all the challenges. I found this really useful – thank you!

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November’s reading plans

At the moment I’m reading ‘Bitter Fruit’ by Achmat Dangor. It has a very similar style to ‘Purple Hibiscus’. I’m about half way through it, and really enjoying it.

 

Then I plan to read ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ by Brian Selznick. I ordered it last week, and when it turned up I was very impressed. It has to be one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. It has gold page edges, and the illustrations are stunning. I can’t wait to read it!

 

I think I’ll then read ‘Amsterdam’ by Ian McEwan, as I have lots his of books in my too read pile, and so far I haven’t read any!

 

I’ll finish off the month with my book club read, which this month is ‘Whit’ by Iain Banks. This isn’t something I’d ever chose to read, and I have to admit that I’m not looking forward to it, but hopefully it will be much better than I’m expecting.

 

Happy reading everyone!

 

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Book Awards Reading Challenge

To try to find more great authors, I’ve decide to take part in the ‘Book awards reading challenge’

 

Rules:

Read 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.

You must have at least FIVE different awards in your ten titles.

 

The first 6 books I’m going to read are:

1.       The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood (Winner of Booker Prize, 2000) completed 29th October 2008

2.      Out Stealing Horses – Per Petterson (Winner of IMPAC Dublin Prize, 2007) completed 20th November 2008

 3.    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Micheal Chabon (Winner of Pulitzer Prize, 2001) completed 27th November 2008

4.      The Fingersmith – Sarah Waters (Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger for Historical Crime Fiction) completed 14th December 2008

5.      We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver  (Winner of Orange Prize, 2005) completed 14th January 2009

6.     Blindness – Jose Saramago (Nobel Prize, 1998) completed 5th March 2009

7.     Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Winner of Orange Prize, 2007)

8.     The Secret River – Kate Grenville (Winner of Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, 2006) 

9.     Theory of War – John Brady (Winner of Costa/Whitbread Award, 1993) 

10.   Peace Like a River – Leif Enger (Alex Award, 2002) 

I’ll do a bit more research into other prizes, and come up with the remaining book soon.
 
 
 

 

 

 

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October’s reading plans

My first task this month is to finish reading ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry. I am really enjoying reading it, but at over 600 pages of tiny text, it may take me a while.

I’d also like to read ‘Purple Hibiscus’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as I’ve heard so many good things about her books.

I’m then going to read ‘Flying to Nowhere’ by John Fuller. This was nominated for the Booker prize in 1983, so will put me another step closer to reading all the Booker nominees and winners. It is also a very short book, which is the main reason it has crept to the top of my reading pile this month!

My Amazon sellers book club suggestion for this month is ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison. I’m supposed to finish reading this by the end of October, but I have just ‘mooched’ it via www.bookmooch.com from someone in America, so it may be a while before it arrives!

In the meantime I’ll keep copying some reviews of my favourite 2008 reads onto this blog. Thanks for reading!

Jackie