Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge

This is a list of the books I read in 2013, including ratings, reviews and tags.  The reading Challenge is a way of keeping track of the number of books a Goodreads member has read over the course of a year.  I have participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, though this is the first time I have posted a link on my Blog about it.

Thanks for reading!

2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Michael's bookshelf: 2013-reading-challenge

Spirit Level

by Seamus Heaney

tagged: 2013-reading-challenge

Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden

tagged: 2013-reading-challenge

The Marriage Plot

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Without using the cliche terminology of knee jerk sensationalistic armchair psychiatry hobbyists who learned their trade watching daytime television, Eugenides invites the reader into a spin cycle of co-dependency and mental illness. Fi...

tagged: 2013-reading-challenge

Geek Love

by Katherine Dunn

tagged: 2013-reading-challenge

Out Stealing Horses

by Per Petterson

tagged: 2013-reading-challenge

Final Writing Challenge, Ergo, What's the point?

The story takes place ten years into the future.

You won't remember reading this.

6-2-11

The story ends on a lake. The story takes place a thousand years into the future. During the story, a well-established leader steps down. The story must involve a bowl in it. A character gets a new hairstyle, but it is done for different reasons than people would expect.


Diligently placing each piece of hair into the bowl, Hank continued to explain the concept of time travel, "...and hair club for men eventually became so powerful, and accumulated so many clients, that it began to think for itself. As world banks crumbled, a new economy based on hair emerged. People began to pay for things with the weight of their hair. As technologies advanced and people became more desperate for hair, scientists discovered the only way to get hair back was to go back in time and transplant what hair you had. Thus, time travel. But, as Hair Club for Men became more powerful, it began sending stylists back in time to steal people's hair and make wigs for their highest paying clients, The Glam Rockers."

"So you made this lake to make it safe for people to time travel into the future and donate their hair to the resistance?"

"Yup."

6-1-11

The story takes place ten years in the past. During the story, there is a visit by an unexpected visitor. A character writes a book, but the action goes terribly wrong. A character is pessimistic throughout most of the story. During the story, a character moves to a different dwelling.

Geez, am I glad to see you. I've been working on writing this book, and all I can come up with is that Bruce Springsteen line about, "...lying in bed with the sheets soaking wet with a freight train running through the middle of my head..." and the other one about "...sitting around here trying to write this book..."
I'd tell you to stop trying, but if you like Bruce Springsteen, maybe you should just buy a set of headphones and sell the typewriter...there's a growing consensus of people who spend time worrying and praying for you. Between them and what you just told me, maybe a new place to live would encourage your writing skills.

5-31-11

The story must have a possum in it. The story must involve a medallion in it. A character becomes generous during the story.

We were all eating pork medallions on the porch, and then this little possum just scurried past, and after having three or four beers, I felt so generous I thought I'd give the little fella a bite to eat.
He was waddling a long really slow like, so I squatted down in front of him and shoved some pork medallions in his face. I had no idea possums had teeth. Turns out, that old saying, "Playing Possum" means something is dangerous, but hasn't started showing its true nature.
I always though it had something to do with using a possum as a football. Like a redneck thing or something.

5-30-11

During the story, an organization begins recruiting.

The World Health Organization just called. They want their fresh air back.

5-28-11

Writing Challenge 5

The story must have a salamander at the end.

The damp leaves piled under the rotting log held beneath them damp soil, loamy detritus and an orange and black salmander.

5-26-11

A character will take a bath, but the intention behind the action is not what it seems. A character becomes energetic during the story. The story must involve a cloak at the end. The story is set on a wrecked ship. During the story, an old friend shows up.

After sitting in the invigorating cold water bath, and having swabbed the decks, Louis donned his cloak and walked to the stern to watch his old friend, the sunset.

5-26-11

The story must have a dragon in it. The story must involve a costume in it.

Thirty feet in a row. Fifteen pairs of shoes, walking in syncopation. A parade within a parade, confined to the dragon costume. Larger than any single performer, smaller than a mechanical float, more colorful and more delicate than a kite, floating a foot off the ground.

5-24-11

A character lends someone money. A character is sad throughout most of the story. The story must have a doctor in it. The story must involve a casual outfit in the beginning. During the story, an organization begins recruiting.

-I guess I'm just really bummed out about being asked to leave the VFW.

-Dude, Korea was a conflict, not a war. Veterans of Foreign WARS, not Conflicts.

-I wore my casual outfit and everything.

-Look, I'm a doctor, so I can afford this. Take this twenty bucks, get a hair cut and a beer, you'll feel better in the morning. I think AA is recruiting anyway, you'll fit right in.

5-23-11

The story ends during a concert. The story takes place at noon exactly. A character is depressed throughout most of the story. During the story, a character finds a long-lost relative.

There's gotta be something else. Something besides being known everywhere I go, and not knowing who, or why, these people know me. How can they see through me so easily? How can I be sitting at this piano, rattling off Rachmaninoff's third, and feel so fraudulent?

At the core of this piece, a skill- something learned and practiced. The performance nothing more than an instrument of the written music. Static and tactile on the page, contained within five lines and four spaces, the notes are the identity of something written long ago, a statement meant for appreciation and identification.

I could look into the audience and see their faces, so strained to show satisfaction and a lack of contempt, hiding so clearly the genuine sense of discontent with their own admission to the performance. Somewhere, out there, she is watching and listening, her watch slowly holding its hands overhead, true north, noon.

- with inspiration from Shine.

5-22-11

Writing Challenge 4

The story ends in the desert. The story takes place in the early evening. A character opens a chest. A character becomes attracted to someone during the story. During the story, a character gets dirty.

Dusk on the sandpiles that stretch into the horizon, only visible above the locket she wears around her neck, which holds a photo of herself as a child.

5-11-11

The story must have an armorer in it. The story must involve a dart in it. A character becomes disoriented during the story. During the story, a character has to pay a fine.

"5 bucks for a pretzel? I could wait a thousand years for this piece of dough and salt to petrify, shape it into a dart and throw it through your plated armor!"

"Sir, we were called by your neighbor, who heard you ranting at your television. You seem a bit disoriented. You will have to pay a fine and probably spend some time on a psychiatric ward."

5-12-11

A character lends someone money, but the action goes terribly wrong. A character becomes belligerant during the story. During the story, a character moves to a different dwelling.

Here's twenty bucks, now get out of my face.
What?
I hate you.
Why?
Because you moved out without cleaning up your shit.

5-16-11

During the story, someone's method of transportation breaks down. The story must involve a throwing knife in it. During the story, a character misunderstands someone.

I really misunderstood what you were trying to tell me, although throwing a machete at my segue made me think you were dangerous and out of control.
Don't you mean a segway?
Oh, yeah. right.

5-18-11

The story starts during a day off. During the story, there is a labor strike. A character steals something. A character is sick throughout most of the story. During the story, a character eats something they haven't had in a while.

Jacques, who hadn't worked in months, and hadn't eaten in days, wandered past the open air cafe. Brought out of his delirium by the smell of coffee and fresh baked bread, he allowed his eyes to wander over the clientele, spotting men and women of an upper class and character to which he had never belonged.

Louise sat down to her Chocolate Kolache and Espresso, half in thought and unaware of her proximity to the man standing in front of her, facing the open air cafe and idly gazing over her shoulder. A two inch headline on the newspaper screamed at her "Labor Strike!" "Union Revolts" "Joe Hill Lives!"

Jacques, aware of the slender woman seated in front of him, but more aware of his persistently empty stomach, coughed once, caught her eye, took her kolache and walked away. He hadn't enjoyed a kolache since he had gotten sick.

Louise, suddenly aware of a vague and repulsive odor along the sidewalk, was alerted to Jacque's presence. As he coughed, she raised her eyes, caught herself in mid panic and sat straight as he removed her chocolate kolache, and walked away. Well, she thought. A fine way to start my day off.

5-20-11

writing challenge 3

5-7-11

The story ends atop a tree. During the story, a way of life comes to an end.

He's been wearing red since the day he was born, trying to attract attention, singing the same song for everyone to hear, over and over, sometime repeating himself to warn his rivals. Now, from atop the highest tree he could find, he perches on the lead branch of a white pine, an imperial view of the neighboring oaks and ash trees swaying with the gusts of wind that threaten his view of the woods beneath him. the rustic colored female passes under his perch, pauses at a branch and flutters to a stop. He ruffles his feathers, "Finally, a little action."

5-8-11

The story starts during an eclipse. The story takes place in mid-spring. During the story, there is a sudden change in temperature. The story must involve a window in it.

The sun momentarily blocked from the sky by the eclipse they had been waiting for, jon and henry looked at one another and laughed. Not quite dusk and not nearly night, the brightness of mid-day had been altered only enough to provide the same shade as a tree or a manufactured awning. Jon closed the window, turned on the light and walked back to his spot on the sofa.

5-9-11

A character attacks someone. A character is joyous throughout most of the story. The story must have an alchemist in it. The story ends in a living room. The story takes place a century into the future.

"Are you serious? This is 2111! People don't act like that anymore! We don't just say things like that to each other! We're better than that, we don't let our emotions take over our practical dialogue! all of this evolution and the best you can do is to shout at me about how unfair it is? What a waste of a hundred years!" "I'm really sorry, if you're upset by how happy I am, I'm just so joyous at having finally turned lead into gold, and yet you fail to believe it's happened, and it upsets me." "I fail to see how this would achieve any level of sufficient anger from you, me not seeing you as a credible scientist- alchemy is a long dead and failed institution." "And that's why you're a dick." The living room silently absorbed their verbal abuse, hurtled between one another as large salmon in a fish market.

writing challenge 2

5-5-11

The story ends on an ice floe. The story takes place ten years in the past. During the story, there is a visit by an unexpected visitor. The story must involve a pendant at the end. A character gives birth, and they aren't happy with it.

walking amid the piles of ice, drifting somewhere north of the Arctic circle, Bob the transient penguin slowly waddled . Tipping back and forth, swinging one foot out and sideways in a parabola, following that teeter-tottering step with another, and another, and another, he had made his way hundreds of miles off course. A radio collar hung around his neck, beckoning him in infrared radio waves to return south, to rejoin his herd of fellow penguins. Bob the transient penguin carried on, parabola by parabola, trudging over the arctic ice floe, discoursing in an internal dialogue upon the event which had led him here.
The scientist who had shot him with a tranquilizer dart and removed him from his colony had sucked his teeth absent mindedly, as if distracted by his own distraction, presumably to study the effects of a disrupted migration pattern in a flightless avian. Back at the colony, his now single mate was left to raise their chick, and they weren't happy about it. Bob the transient penguin trudged on, radio collar beeping luminescently.

5-2-11

A character writes a book, but it is done for different reasons than people would expect.

Finished.

5-1-11

The story ends in the desert. During the story, there is a political crisis. A character will go clothes shopping. A character becomes joyous during the story. During the story, a character loses a job.

in order to redeem his valuable marlboro miles, john went to the marlboro store on the edge of the death valley desert, not bothering to check his gas gauge. Having driven halfway through, and thinking he would make it all the way across, john joyously smoked another pack of cigarettes with his new lighter, wearing his new leather jacket. The recent gas prices had caused john to try selling his marlboro miles to a fellow co-worker, which was illegal- he had lost his job and decided a trip across the desert, to celebrate his monumental purchase of Marlboro gear would solve his problems. He ran out of gas. His body was found, partially decayed and mummified, in a perfectly preserved, faux-leather Marlboro jacket.


4-30-11

The story ends in an alley. The story takes place ten years in the past. During the story, someone is caught in traffic. The story must have an air-spirit at the end.

Carrying the bag of trash into the alley, Henry wondered about Sal. Sal had meant to be at the party, had made it known he would be participating in the festivities, yet he hadn't shown up. He hadn't even called. "What the hell...Sal's always punctual and forthright in his planning. Where could he be?" Henry pushed open the door and threw the bag of trash into the sewage of the alley, alongside the other bags of trash, the puddles of effluence and urine and vomitus. As the bag landed, it burst slightly, releasing a long sigh of bloated stink into the night sky. The door closed as Henry went back into the crowded and friendly bar.


4-29-11

The story starts during a drought. During the story, a character has an accident at home.

Nineteen days without rain. Nineteen long days without rain. Soon to be an official drought, brought by God's anger at man for debating greenhouse gases or manifest destiny. A drought brought on by the wrath of God, apparent to even the most casual observer as deliverance from a bountiful lifestyle. Adam reaches into the kitchen and grabs an apple, left by Eve, fumbles the polished surface and drops it on the floor. It bounces once, bruising a third of one side, rolls and stops. Adam sighs and swears under his breath.

Random story challenge

Here's a writing challenge I found on the internet. Take a random idea and write a story about it. So, here are my first few tries.

4-28-11
The story starts during a class/training session. During the story, there is a terrible misunderstanding. During the story, a character becomes pregnant.

health class, 1990, sitting in a trailer outside of school grounds, because talking about sex within the walls of the school would be an infringement of the new PTA parameters of acceptable school room health topics. The class is discussing sexually transmitted diseases, as if slowly going higher and higher on a ladder of doom. Starting with Crabs, then the clap, then herpes, then...AIDS. Nobody really knows what it is, we are all kids anyway, but we're all horny as fuck. Everybody is getting their driver's licenses, we're all the small fish in the big pond of high school, and each and every one of us guys wants the same girl, even the girls want her. She wears a mini skirt with red hearts on it for valentines day.
It's impossible. The whole daily routine of avoiding eye contact with the tough kids, waiting for that glimpse of her, then watching my shoe laces for another three hours while stumbling through class after class. The health class is exciting though, because it is addressing a current topic, it's the equivalent of acknowledging each and every bundle of hormones sitting in their assigned seat is a loaded weapon, needing instruction in care and functioning.
The categorization of the diseases continues, progressing through what is known and what has been discovered about each one...some mysteries revealed and some broadened. A hand is raised, a question offered, "Can you give AIDS to yourself?" A small gasp escapes the classroom, half exasperation and half disbelief. A few people laugh. A long explanation. A formal apology from the student. There is a pregnancy, two years later. And somebody contracts something.

4-21-11

The story must involve a book in it.

I was reading a book, but stopped halfway through, because I felt ashamed for being interested in what the writer had to say.

4-19-11

A character will take a bath. During the story, a character is given a good talking-to. The story must have a bench appear in the middle.

I have nothing to offer you.

Undressed, standing in front of the mirror, I am less of a man. No labels adorn me, no markings of affluence or status. No brands except that which makes me human. I look for less than a minute, but the thought resides in me as I step into the luke warm bath water. Tepid. Silty from the sand and dirt left in the tub. I sit down and allow the bathwater to envelop what remains of my personage. My self-glorified, yet absent patience is still looking in the mirror, appraising and evaluating the musculature and lines of my naked face. My body is like an iceberg, drifting in its own small porcelain ice cube tray. The image plays itself out in my head, the ice cube trays are each bathtub in my apartment building, the ice cubes are the residents, we are drifting in the ocean, slowly melting and evaporating. Along the edge of the tub, sitting down as if on a bench, Lydia the tattooed lady looks down at me. "You're really not the type", she says.

4-20-11

The story takes place ten years in the past.

It's that song, on the radio, by that band from england. It's the happiest, most positive, most promising song he's ever heard on the radio. He is at a disparate and metaphorical crossroads. A daily routine had been ingrained, over countless exits to the East, he is for the first time traveling west, as if in open declaration of his freedom to choose his own course. He doesn't want to turn it up, he wants to record the moment, the song, the beautiful day, the constance of motion as he accelerates out of a turn and onto the highway. He is traveling west, for the first time in years, returning to school. The same exit he had taken East, he is now traveling in the opposite direction, the direction he has chosen as clearly delineated as a carpenters level. The moment is being stitched into his mind like a patch on an old pair of pants. It is ten years later. The only thing that remains is that moment, that song, the sensation of traveling forward, away from what he had known to what he could not expect.
It's the English Beat. Save it for Later. And he is ashamed at his lack of metal sensibility.

4-10-11

I realize you don't like the results of today. Once you get drunk though, you'll forget all about it, and that's what you'll keep doing until somebody convinces you their solution is the one you want. So deal with it.

I added that last part. It's not very random.