Juli's Choices for 2008

I found so many good books on my pile it was hard to narrow it down but these are the six I'm going to put down as my "starters"

1. The Burn Journals (Brent Runyon)
2. The $64 Tomato (William Alexander)
3. Lucky (Alice Seibold)
4. A Million Little Pieces (James Frey)
5. Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood. (Julie Gregory)
6. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah)

Of course after Christmas my list could change...

Jill's Selections

I finally decided what I want to read for this challenge. I am starting conservatively, but I hope to add more books later in 2008:

Main Selections

1) Three Weeks With My Brother - Nicholas Sparks
2) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
3) Cross Creek - Marjorie Rawlings
4) Marley and Me - John Grogan
5) Ecology of a Cracker Childhood - Janisse Ray

Alternates
1) A Mirror Garden - Monir Farmanfarmaian
2) The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art - Joyce Carol Oates

Only The Beginning

Here is a preliminary list of titles I have put on my top shelf to begin in 2008 for the "In their shoes" challenge:

A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson

An Unfinished Marriage by Joan Anderson

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer

Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach

Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman by Alice Steinbach

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath edited by Karen V. Kukil

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell

Illumination and Night Glare: The Unfinished Autobiography of Carson McDullers

Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move by Katherine Lanpher

A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

Without a Map: A Memoir by Meredih Hall

Sleeping Arrangements by Laura Shaine Cunningham

Memoirs of a Book Snake: Forty Years of Seeking and Saving Old Books by David Meyer

The King's English by Betsy Burton

Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris

Time was soft there by Jeremy Mercer

Okay so that is my list for now. A lot of these titles were on my list and by my bedside for a challenge I never started but wanted to, books about books. A lot of others have a similar theme of running away to discover oneself which I find quite tempting now that my youngest is 18 years old. Anyway, I'm sure my list may morph into more over time but for now, this seems like a good start.

Two More For The List

Groan. I could've avoided the biography section at the bookstore on Sunday...I think. Or is it possible? I'm weak. Call the 10-step people. I was actually in the bookstore looking for a novel for book group called Water For Elephants. Couldn't find it. Couldn't leave empty-handed.

Anyway, I've got 2 more to add to my list for this challenge:


Mockingbird (the biography about Harper Lee)
Eat, Pray, Love -Elizabeth Gilbert

OK. That's it! No more tweaking my final list! Of course, my birthday and Christmas ARE coming up...

My Sort of Final List

According to the rules, we can read any number of books. So here is my list of 10 memoirs & biographies, that I currently have on my TBR list. I dont know if I WILL read them all - some of these are quite large & quite long - but I sure WANT to read them all.

An Uncommon Woman by Hannah Pakula (Empress Frederick - mother of Kaiser Wilhelm)
On a Grander Scale by Lisa Jardine (Christopher Wren)
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind by Diana & Michael Preston (William Dampier)
Leonardo Da Vinci by Charles Nicholl
Elizabeth by Randy Taborelli (Elizabeth Taylor - not Queen Elizabeth 1 or 2)
History Play by Rodney Bolt (Kit Marlowe)
Christina Queen of Sweden by Veronica Buckley
Rene Angelil (The making of Celine Dion) by Jean Beaunoyer & Jean Beaulne
Out of the Flames by Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone (Michael Servetus)
Me & Shakespeare by Herman Gollob (a memoir)

Finally Getting My Shoes All In A Row!

It took a long time, but I have finalized my list at last. I think.

[in no particular order]

1. My Life In France - Julia Child
2. Lillian Hellman: A Life With Foxes And Scoundrels -Deborah Martinson
3. Brainiac - Ken Jennings
4. Poet Of The Appetites (biography of MFK Fisher) - Joan Reardon
5. Going Solo - Roald Dahl
6. Travels With Charley - John Steinbeck
7. Tete-A-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives & Loves Of Simone De Beauvoir And Jean-Paul Sartre - Hazel Rowley
8. My Detachment - Tracy Kidder
9. After All - Mary Tyler Moore
10. The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom
11. The Hungry Ocean - Linda Greenlaw
12. A Thousand Sorrows - Elizabeth Kim
13. Truth & Beauty - Ann Patchett

Becky's List

Here are the books I'll try to get to for this challenge. I'd be happy to finish 8 of these.

The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton Jackson
(My Bridges of Hope by Livia Bitton Jackson)
(Hello, America by Livia Bitton Jackson)
No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobel
Night by Elie Wiesel
Until We Meet Again by Michael Korenblit and Kathleen Janger
Alicia My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender
To Life by Ruth Minsky Sender
Isabella From Auschwitz to Freedom by Isabella Leitner
The Tale of The Ring: A Kaddish by Frank Stiffel
Dry Tears: The Story of A Lost Childhood by Nechama Tec
A Special Fate Chiune Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust by Alison Leslie Gold
In My Hands: Memories of A Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke
I Will Plant You A Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman

button

I'm going to post the button I sent to Piper, so everyone can add it to their blogs. Hope thats ok.

Button

Someone sent me the cutest button for this challenge months ago and since I'm without the internet right now, I have not been able to put the button on this page. Can you email it to me again? Thanks. piperoliveravram at yahoo dot com

Danielle's List of Possibilities

I love reading memoirs...they are my passion. Here are some that have been on my bookshelf and on my wish list for quite some time. I am looking forward to this challenge so I can finally work my way through these ever growing list of possibilities.

1. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
2. Bitter Ice: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Obesession by Barbara Kent Lawrence
3. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
4. Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of An Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet
5. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poiter
6. Fly Me To The Moon: Bipolar Journey Through Mania and Depression by H.E. Logue
   
7. The Ride of Our Lives by Mike Leonard
8. My Lobotomy by Howard Dully
   
9. Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn vincent
   
10. The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett
11. Sugar and Salt: My Life With Bipolar Disorder by Jane Thompson
12. Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic by Martha Beck
13. A Child Called 'It" by Dave Pelzer
14. Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck
15. Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
    

I am looking forward to reading everyone's reviews and adding new books to my to Be Read pile!

My Picks

There are so many great possibilities for this challenge! Because the rules allow me to choose the number of books I read, I've decided to list all the titles I'd like to read - and then we'll see how far I get!

Note: I will be cross-listing my "In Their Shoes" picks with the Triple 8 Challenge (in - surprise, surprise - my "In Their Shoes" category). Because I have to read eight books in each category to complete that challenge, I am committed to read at least eight of these titles in 2008.

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
  by Barbara Kingsolver (2007)


• Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet (2007)


• A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle (1972)


• Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
  by Anne Lamott (2007)


• I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy (1995)


• I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (2006)


• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
  by Maya Angelou (1970)


• Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007)


• iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It by Steve Wozniak (2006)


• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life Of Alice B. Sheldon
  by Julie Phillips (2006)


• John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth
  by Elizabeth Partridge (2005)


• Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid
  by Jerry Spinelli (1998)


• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
  by Ishmael Beah (2007)


• Looking Back: A Book of Memories by Lois Lowry (2000)


• Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox (2002)


• The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
  by Sidney Poitier (2000)


• Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far by Amy Grant (2007)


• Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding Myself by Frances Kuffel (1995)


• Personal History by Katharine Graham (1998)


• Seeking Enlightenment ... Hat by Hat: A Skeptic's Guide to Religion by Nevada Barr (2003)


• Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer (2008)


• The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
  by Karen Armstrong (2004)


• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman (1985)


• Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers by Erin Gruwell (2007)


• Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond
  by Tiki Barber (2007)


• Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei
  by David Mura (1991)


• The Way Home: Scenes from a Season, Lessons from a Lifetime by Henry Dunow (2001)

Athena's List

Hello, here's my preliminary list, and I'm still open to suggestions of course. I've been on keen on memoirs and biographies before, but it's been awhile since I've read a lot of them. I blog at aquatique,net. Good luck everyone!

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
William Shakespeare or Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
No Reservations: around the world on an empty stomach by Anthony Bourdain
Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 by Stella Tillyard
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Jumping The Gun

I posted a review of James Tiptree: The Double Life Of Alice B. Sheldon at my blog. If you haven't finalized your list yet, please consider adding this one. If you HAVE finalized your list, sneak it on. This is an excellent biography. No kidding.

This was on my list (coming soon!) for the Challenge, and I truly meant to hold back from reading it until 2008, or at least the waning hours of 2007, but I just couldn't.

Kristina's List of Possibilites

Ok so here is my list and I'm hoping to get thru at least 6.....hopefully 8. There are a lot on this list that I really really would love to read, just to have read them. I'm probably going to change this list as new books come out, or my interests change...which happens quite a lot lol.

1. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia - Elizabeth Gilbert
2. The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
3. Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife - Irene Spencer
4. It's All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life - Denise Jackson
5. You Can Run But You Can't Hide - Duane "Dog" Chapman
6. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Biography - Sidney Poiter
7. The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House - Nancy Gibbs
8. Marie Antoinette: The Journey - Antonia Fraser
9. The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the New Hardcore Movement of Faith - Stephen Baldwin
10. My Paper Life - Tatum O'Neal
11. Speedbumps: Flooring it Through Hollywood - Teri Garr
12. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination - Neal Gabler (2008)
13. Lucky Man - Michael J. Fox
14. Stealing Buddha's Dinner: A Memoir - Bich Minh Nguyen
15. The Brotherhoods: A True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia - Guy Lawson and William Oldham
16. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life - Steve Martin (Nov 2007)
17. His Bright Light - Danielle Steel
18. Mosaic - Amy Grant

Some Possibilities

Just out of coincidence, I've been reading a few books lately that fit this bill, so I thought I'd post links to my thoughts on them in case anyone is interested in listing them for this challenge.

His Excellency: George Washington - Joseph J. Ellis (biography)

Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi (memoir)

Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (memoir)

Best wishes and happy reading!

Possibilities

Hi guys! Since I have quite a few books that fall into this challenge on my TBR list, I thought I'd share the pool. I'm not going to decide until closer to when the challenge begins, but here're allll the ones I'm considering:

Che Guevara by Jon Lee Anderson (a very long, intensive look at one of the leading revolutionaries of the twentieth century; considered the definitive biography)
Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters by William and Richard Austen-Leigh (written by her two great-nephews)
Wild Swans by Jun Chang (both a biograpy and a memoir about thre generations of Chinese women, and the changing country they lived in)
Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall (a memoir by the famous scientist focusing on her spiritual journey)
Sketches from a Life by George Kennan (a memoir by the former diplomat who created America's Cold War 'containment' foreign policy)
The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard (a memoir-in essays-about a 1960s American childhood)
She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan (a memoir about a transgendered professor who undergoes a sex-change operation)
Emergency Sex by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postelwait, and Andrew Thomson (a memoir of two American UN workers and a New Zealand doctor who spend the 90s in the world's most troubled regions)
Seminary Boy by John Cornwell (a memoir about a rebellious British youngster and his journey to the Catholic priesthood)
The Only Girl in the Car Kathy Dobie (a memoir about a girl in the 1960s whose sexual adventures are cut short by a brutal experience and its aftermath)
Out of Isak Dinesen in Africa by Linda Donelson (a biography of the writer behind Out of Africa)
My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglas (an autobiography of the famous American former slave who became an abolitionist)
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. du Bois (a 'laregely autobiographical' look at the lives of African Americans post-slavery)
Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann (considered the definitive biography of the famous English playwright)
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (a memoir of a white Zimbabwean girl's childhood)
An Autobiography by Mahatma Gandhi (the autobiography of the man who led India to independence)
Behind Embassy Walls by Brandon Grove (autobiography of a career American diplomat, who eventually became an ambassador)
The Best of Friends by Sara James and Ginger Mauney (a memoir of the friendship between two modern American women)
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (a book based on ten years of following an extended family who lived in poverty in the Bronx)
Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (a biography of the famous American writer)
Moments of Reprieve by Primo Levi (a memoir of the Holocaust)
Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life by Beverly Lowry (the brand-new biography of this famous American abolitionist and former slave)
A Russian Diary by Anna Politkovskaya (journals of the Russian journalist killed this year for her fearless coverage of Chechnya)
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela(the autobiography of the former South African president and a fighter of apartheid)
TheColor of Water James McBride (a memoir of a black man about his white mother)
Dorothy Parker Marion Meade (a biography of the famous satirist)
Red Azalea by Anchee Min (a memoir from 1960s and 70s Communist China)
Blowing My Cover by Lindsey Moran (a memoir of the author's time in the CIA)
Mitfords by Charlotte Mossey, ed. (the letters of six well-connected British sisters that focus on the WWI-WWII period; coming out in the States this November)
Black Elk Speaks John Niehardt (a memoir of a nineteenth-century Native American)
Underwater to Get out of the Rain by Trevor Norton (an autobiography of a marine biologist)
Return with Honor by O'Grady, Scott (a memoir of the American pilot shot down in no-man's-land in the Balkans, and who escaped)
Joan of Arc: Her Story by Regine Pernoud(a biography)
Jane Goodall by Dale Peterson(a biography)
Poster Child by Emily Rapp(a memoir of a girl who was born with one shortened leg)
Making the Corps by Thomas Ricks (a memoir of the author's experience becoming a US Marine)
The Spy Who Wore Red by Aline Countess Romanones (memoirs of an undercover agent for the CIA prototype during WWII)
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet (a memoir of an autistic savaunt)
The Verneys by Adrian Tinniswood(focuses on an important British family during the 17th century and the times that they lived in)

I hope that this inspires anyone who isn't sure that memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies are their thing! These cover pretty much the whole spectrum of life. :)

This challenge is very inspiring to me..

Here are the books that are on my list. I am hoping to at least get to 12 of the 14 which would be one a month. I may not be able to wait to start a couple of these so the list may get edited a bit before January. I own all of these so the temptation to start them may get to be too great! :)


Expecting Adam












Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack












A Woman in Berlin













Waiting for Birdy












Where She Came From












In My Hands: memories of a holocaust rescuer












Mostly True: a memoir of family, food, and baseball












Song of Survival












Beyond the Narrow Gate












Without Reservations: the travels of an independent woman












Tisha












Bag Balm and Duct Tape













Falling Leaves












Notes From a Small Island

Jill is brainstorming

(Cross-posted from my blog)

I am still brainstorming ideas for this challenge but wanted to capture my thoughts here so I don't forget:

1) Three Weeks With My Brother - Nicholas Sparks
2) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
3) Cross Creek - Marjorie Rawlings
4) Marley and Me - John Grogan
5) A Mirror Garden - Monir Farmanfarmaian
6) The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art - Joyce Carol Oates

Subject to change - in fact, almost guaranteed to be altered! =)

Link to my list for this challenge

Link to Historia's post.

Just a quick link to my post about this challenge.
I've posted a list of books I plan on reading - also in my sidebar.
I also promised to make a button for this challenge, so I need to get on and do it.
Apologies for the delay.

H

Vasilly's list

I'm going to read a book a month at least. But since I'm reading so many memoirs right now, this list might change.

Easter Everywhere - Darcey Steinke
Educating Alice - Alice Steinbach
Circling my Mother - Mary Gordon
Like family: growing up in other people's house - Paula Mclain
The Last American Man - Elizabeth Gilbert
The Scent of God - Beryl Singleton Bissell
The Water will hold you - Lindsey Crittendon
Riding the bus with my sister - Rachel Simon
Patrimony - Philip Roth
Autobiography of a face - Lucy Grealy
George and Sam - Charlotte Moore
Truth and Beauty: a friendship - Ann Patchett

Alternates:
The diving bell and the butterfly: a memoir of life in death - Jean-Dominique Bauby
Istanbul - Orhan Pamuk
A life in smoke - Julia Hansen
Ambulance Girl - Jane Stern
The $64 tomato - William Alexander