Are you ready to get this party started? I was going to wait a few months to start this challenge, but it looks like the party is ready to go…
Welcome to the World Party Reading Challenge, where each month we will celebrate both a US holiday/observance AND a different country. Because what better way to party than with a book. The idea is to read more international literature, but I used US holidays and observances as the inspiration. Some connections might be obvious, others less so. I promise I’ll divulge the secret workings of my brain, but not until the beginning of each month (actually, it will most likely be the week before, and I’ll try to include some reading suggestions with each post), when I’ll post a little bit about my choice for the month. Don’t worry, I will give you the complete list ahead of time, it’s just that, for now, you might be left wondering why we’re reading about England in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Details:
12 months, 12 countries, 12 books. Each month we will read one (or more, if you’d like) book either set in, or written by an author from, the featured country (in a few cases I’ve been vague and you just have to stick to the criteria). If you’d like to read a non-fiction book about the country, that works, too. However, I do ask that you avoid books like Eat, Pray, Love and You Shall Know Our Velocity!, which feature multiple countries. The intent is to try to get a sense of place from your book or author. And yes, audio books are allowed. Also, my apologies to the under-represented South American and Pacific countries. Next year I’ll have to find a National Shoe Day and then we can read about the Philippines.
Do you have to participate all 12 months? That would be swell, and if you want to consider the challenge completed, then yes, all 12 months are required. However, if you have a burning desire to read a book about Rwanda and only want to participate for that month, I won’t turn you away. Party crashers are always welcome.
I will post a Mr Linky each month for the reviews about the featured country. Feel free to go back and enter reviews as the year goes on…I won’t hold you to India in October if it takes you until January to finish. The only advantage to posting your reviews timely is that I MIGHT do an occasional giveaway for participants. However, I make no promises.
The challenge runs April 2010 to March 2011. If we have fun, I’ll do it again next year with different holidays and different countries.
Here is the list of US holidays and observances that we will be celebrating with a book from another country:
- April – April Fool’s Day – France
- May – May Day – a communist country of your choice, past or present
- June – Juneteenth – Liberia
- July – July 4th – Rwanda
- August – Women’s Equality Day – New Zealand
- September – Native American Day – any sovereign Native American tribe
- October – Columbus Day – India
- November – Thanksgiving – Turkey
- December – Happy Holidays – choose your own country. It’s my little gift to you.
- January – Martin Luther King, Jr Day – Cambodia
- February – Valentine’s Day – England
- March – Saint Patrick’s Day – Ireland
Please sign Mr Linky if you plan on joining the party. You do not have to post a reading list, although if some of you would like to post a reading list (yes, I’m looking at you, Eva), feel free to leave the link below. Otherwise, you can just leave a link to your blog or your post stating your intent to join. And I’ll post about the April holiday and books about France later this month, so stay tuned.
This sounds fantastic! I am excited to join; I will create a post and link to it later, but wanted to RSVP for the paartay!
beastmomma´s last blog ..Measuring Time
Woo-hoo!
Just posted about the challenge. My link is in Mr. Linky.
beastmomma´s last blog ..Performance Anxiety and The Review Which Became a Love Letter
Very clever challenge. I will look forward to reading the posts!
rhapsodyinbooks´s last blog ..Variation on a Theme: “Why Did I Finish This” Friday: Review of “The Calcutta Chromosome” by Amitav Ghosh
But not joining?
Nothing like putting the pressure on me! :p
I want to see the reasoning behind some of those links…
Eva´s last blog ..In Which I Write Vagina, or a variant thereof, 16 Times
Well, there’s not a whole lot of REASON involved…
Well I’m definitely intrigued! My ‘no challenges this year’ stance is weakening, and I’d already planned a France theme for April….
JoAnn´s last blog ..Book Club Discussion: Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
Join! You know you want to…
I love this challenge idea! I haven’t signed up for a new challenge recently, so I think I’ll let myself go for this one! My post will come shortly.
A Bookshelf Monstrosity´s last blog ..For my sanity’s sake, please do this…
Yippee!
Cool challenge … and love that button. I’ll have to see what I have that might work.
Jenners´s last blog ..Giveaway: "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore
How can you resist a globe that likes to party?
A very interesting challenge I’d love to read more international lit. I’ll think about it, but I’m very tempted. Chances are I’ll probably sign up over the weekend. Ha. Ha.
MillyMarie´s last blog ..Film Friday. Fan Made Vids For YA Lit. & Remembering Corey Haim.
Please join!
I think I already have several books in my TBR that would work for this challenge. So, I’m VERY tempted even though I’m generally not a challenge joiner! If I can find a France book in my TBR then I’ll join. Deal
?
Valerie´s last blog ..The Classics Circuit: “My Lord John” by Georgette Heyer (DNF)
Okay, your blog hates me today. Sigh. Sorry if this turns out to be duplicate:
I love this idea and it looks like a lot of fun. I have to assess my commitments.
Beth F´s last blog ..Review: Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari
Just signed up! A great idea for a challenge.
Suzanne´s last blog ..Ulysses — come join me
I’m joining, even though I promised myself I wouldn’t join anymore reading challenges this year!! But I love to read about other countries, so this challenge was a perfect fit for me.
Kymmie´s last blog ..These reading challenges are going to get me!
I definitely enjoyed your current thread regarding this, and I have seen several more like it recently ? the best aspect about yours is, it is really informative and handy and packed with good info without having lots of usless rants and rubbish! I?ll make sure to give this Web address to some mates
I posted a page with ALL current reading challenges. Let me know if you want me to add any other information about yours. I hope it brings even more readers to the World Party Reading Callenge!
Reading Challenges.
Rachelle (Bibliobabe)
Sounds like fun……look forward to participating.
Thanks.
Cat´s last blog ..World Party Reading Challenge
I realised I hadn’t officially signed up, so did that now
Shannon´s last blog ..This year’s challenges
I FINALLY got a list pulled together, so I’ve added it to Mr. Linky!
Eva´s last blog ..Library Loot: April 21-27, 2010
I missed this when you first posted about it, but Eva’s reading list caught my attention and now I’m hooked. I wasn’t going to do a reading challenge this year (I know, one, I wasn’t going to do even one!) but this sounds like too much fun. And it’s predestined too, since I’m alreading reading Life a Users Manuel by Georges Perec this month, as well as Sodom and Gomorah by Marcel Proust so I’ve got my French author covered!
I, too, came here from Eva’s list. Sounds like a fun challenge. I always try to read internationally, but not often with a set goal.
When I saw it ran April-March, I was a little sad because I didn’t think I’d have time to pick up and read a book from April’s country. Happily, though, I read Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (French author!) just yesterday, so I’ll be counting that as April’s read. Woohoo!
I probably won’t make a list, but I will make a blog post about the challenge soon.
atla´s last blog ..Show Me 5 Saturday: The Tale of Despereaux
Alright, I’m late getting on here. I tried to see if I can do without one more challenge, but apparently my controls are very low where books are concerned.
I’ll start from next month!
Aths´s last blog ..Giveaway – Glorious (Bernice L. McFadden)
I think this is a wonderful idea for a challenge – but I would say that considering I have made it my mission in life to encourage people to read novels set in foreign countries! I applaud you fizzy thoughts for also furthering that mission. If you are struggling to find books to read set in particular countries – you will find we have categorized books into their locations at packabook, but I also have thousands more cataloged that are not yet on the site – often for some of the countries that are rarely written about. So please feel free to contact me if you are struggling to come up with book suggestions for a particular country, I may just have a few titles squirrelled away.
Good luck everyone!
Suzi
Packabook Travel Novels´s last blog ..Kids vs bookstravel – can you have it all