Monday, October 30, 2006

November Reading Challenge

There’s only one day left in October and I’ve still got one scary book left to read to complete Carl V.’s R.I.P. Autumn Reading Challenge. What better time to make grand plans for next month…

Remembrance Day falls on November 11th in Canada and in honour of that Kailana has proposed a November Challenge: to read at least three books over the course of the month set during World War I or II. I’ve scanned my TBR shelves and found several books that fit the bill by virtue of their setting or subject:

Restless by William Boyd;
A Richer Dust: Family, Memory, and the Second World War
     by Robert Calder;
Love, Sex and War: 1939-1945 by John Costello;
I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Bernice Eisenstein;
Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes: Stories from Canada’s
     British War Brides
by Linda Granfield;
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson;
The Friends of Meager Fortune by David Adams Richards;
Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille
     by Rosemary Sullivan;
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters; and,
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume I: 1915-1919.

I’m not sure precisely which ones, but I’ll plan to read three from that list in November. Plus I’ll toss in a re-read of L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside which is an unparalleled fictional depiction of life on the home front during World War I.

Who else is planning to join in this challenge?

12 comments:

jenclair said...

I'm really booked up for several weeks, but I love novels about WWI and WWII. Reading two that actually might qualify right now - The Book Thief and The Light Years which begins in London in 1937.

The one you have about British War brides sound interesting.

litlove said...

Kate - I'm currently reading Restless and enjoying it very much indeed, so you can count me in!

Kailana said...

I am glad to see that someone else is joining in! After all the comments and posts I am seeing, I am thinking maybe I should reread Rilla of Ingleside...

Anonymous said...

Ohhh I'm highly tempted by the book about British War Brides. That's right up my alley.

I still can't find my copy of Rilla. HMPH!

Catherine said...

Haven't read Rilla in ages!

Atonement by Ian McEwan was a rather good WWII novel I thought - some of it is set in that time period anyway.

mary grimm said...

It sounds like fun. Have you read Pat Barker's WWI books--there's a trilogy, one of which is called Regeneration--they're amazing.

Kate S. said...

Litlove,
I'm glad to hear that Restless gets a good review from you so far. I loved Boyd's Any Human Heart and I've been looking forward to the new novel.

Gata,
I've yet to read anything by Ian McEwen. It sounds like Atonement would be a good place to start.

Lucette,
I have read Barker's Regeneration trilogy and I thought all three books were brilliant. I'd like to re-read them some time, but for this challenge I think I'll stick to new (to me) books, apart from the Rilla re-read that is.

I look forward to reading about everyone else's challenge reads!

Nancy said...

I'm so glad you mentioned Rilla of Ingleside. I feel the same way about it.

Sharon said...

I'm not sure I can squeeze in 3 in November, but would it count that I've read at least three in the past 6 months: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, Deafening by Frances Itani, and Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Plus, I am still dipping into Neil Hansen's non-fiction book, Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War. I do have several on my shelves I could read: Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, another non-fiction book The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I by Larry Zuckerman, and Birdsong by Sebasian Faulks are some of them. Maybe I will give this a try!

Anonymous said...

What a great list (I have added a few to my list now!). I wish I could join in with this challenge--I am really interested in this period of history and usually read something set in this time, but I don't think I have this year. I am determined to whittle my own pile down, so I better not start anything new. Looking forward to how you all get on though! :)

jess said...

Can I recommend Tim Binding's 'Island Madness' as an excellent WWII novel? It's all about the German occupation of Guernsey (about which I was completely ignorant until I read this).

I'll be reading Pat Barker's trilogy and 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.

Michelle Goldstein said...

J'ai le même âge que Bernice Eisentein et la même obession