Reading Challenge Quickie Review: Postcards from a Dead Girl

Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber

Published:  2010 by Harper Perennial

Source:  Purchased

Reading Challenges:  2012 TBR Pile Challenge, A-Z Book Challenge

  Sid sells travel packages via telephone.  He is not much of a traveller.  But when he starts getting postcards from various international destinations without any signatures and with relatively old postmarks, he sets out on a mini-quest to track down the origin of the postcards, thinking it my be his ex-girlfriend, Zoe, who is sending them. 

  The story isn't as simple as that, of course.  His dead mother talks to him through a bottle of wine in the basement.  The smell of lilac overcomes him on occasion without warning.  He obviously has issues that he is not willing to face and he is letting everything else in his life slip by.

  I initially picked up this book because of the back cover's description of a "solo European jaunt" (ok, it doesn't take much for me to pick up a book) and though that was only a small part of this story, I still enjoyed the book anyway.  It's a bit hard to explain without spoiling anything, but there's a little bit of adventure, a little dark comedy, a little family drama, a little sadness and a little romance that all seems to come together and work for me.  Sid is a quirky guy who I both liked and disliked and I want to see him solve his postcard mystery.  Does it get solved?  Well, you will have to read the book.

 

 



Southern Literature Challenge

  Yup, another challenge, but unlike the others I will be participating in during 2012, this for me will be a true challenge.   Because I (ahem) am sadly lacking in Southern Literature.  Three of the best books I read this year -  Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore; and The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson - would be perfect for this challenge, and they are the extent of my Southern Literature exposure.

  Hosted by The Introverted Reader, this challenge requires reading fiction or non-fiction written by an author from the South (to clarify for my international readers, that is the Southern United States) that is set mostly in the South.  I am going to aim for the "Y'all come back now, y'hear" level and read four books for this challenge.

  I don't have a reading list for this challenge yet, but I am pretty sure that I will be reading some William Faulkner during the first part of 2012, as I will be attending Booktopia 2012 in Oxford, Mississippi, in June (SO EXCITED!), which happens to be where Faulkner lived.  I know that I will likely pick up a lot of recommendations for this challenge (and for Mount TBR in general) when I am there, but I hope to have at least one or two books completed before then. 

  I'm a clean slate people -- any recommendations for me?

A-Z Book Challenge

  Another challenge for 2012!  The A to Z Book Challenge is hosted at Babies,Books and Signs and I found out about it thanks to Judith at leeswammes who seems to always know where everything is in the book blogosphere

  The premise?  Very simple -- for each letter of the alphabet, read a book with a title beginning with that letter.  There are officially two options to join in on the challenge -- select your books ahead of time, or add books as you go through the year.  As I'm using reading challenges to whittle down the books on my to-read shelves, I'm doing a hybrid of the two.  Checking Mount TBR has already got me a decent head start:

A.  The Art of Losing by Rebecca Connell
B.  Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky
C.  The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
D.  Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andrei Makine
E.  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
F.  The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern
G.  The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris
H.  Heidegger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank
I.    Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
J.    Juliet by Anne Fortier
K   
L.   Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
M.  My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
N. 
O.  The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas
P.   Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber
Q. 
R.  Rondo by Kazimierz Brandys
S.  The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
T.  Triangle by Katharine Weber
U.  Unfinished Business by Lee Kravitz
V. 
W. 
X.  Annexed by Sharon Dogar  (X only has to be somewhere in the title)
Y. 
Z. 


Ok, a pretty good start.  I'm overlapping with a few other challenges, so I might actually get some completed in 2012!

Any suggestions for the missing letters in my list?

European Reading Challenge 2012

  I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be make it to Europe sometime in 2012, but until then I will always have books through which I can virtually travel.  This evening I came across this new challenge, The European Reading Challenge, hosted by Rose City Reader.

  I think I can easily achieve the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) status by reading five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.  Just going through my TBR shelves have provided my tentative selections for this challenge:

1. Prague by Arthur Phillips (Czech Republic and Hungary)
2. The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore (Soviet Russia)
3. The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante (Italy)
4. All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky (France)
5. The Twins by Tessa De Loo (Germany and The Netherlands)

  That is quite a nice little tour I've set for myself, don't you think?

Wishlist Challenge 2012

  As you all know, I have a lot (A LOT) of books sitting on my to-read shelf, waiting patiently for their chance to be selected.  However, there are almost as many books waiting just as patiently on my to-read list, hoping for that opportunity to regain that attention that put them on the list in the first place. 

  I'm sure anyone who is an avid reader has the same "problem", and Leeswammes' Blog is here to help!  Judith has created a Wishlist Challenge, which challenges you to read 12 books that you would like to read but don't already have on your shelves.  The rules:

1. The challenge runs from January 1st, 2012 to December 31st, 2012.
2. You are to read 12 books from your current wishlist. If you don’t have a list anywhere, write down books that you are eager to read, that you don’t own yet, and choose 12 books off that list.
3. If you can’t find a book that’s on your wishlist (your library doesn’t have it, or you don’t want/can’t buy it) then you can use another book. But: you are not allowed to include any NEWLY added books for this challenge. So, whatever your list is now, that’s it.
4. You can overlap with other challenges, as long as you read books that were on your wishlist before January 1st, 2012.

  My wish list is on Goodreads and here are the books I've tentatively selected for this challenge:

1. The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
2. The Art of Losing by Rebecca Connell
3. Galore by Michael Crummey
4. The Art of Eating In:  How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway
5. Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbes
6. Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor.
7. The Jewish Husband by Lia Levi
8. Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow
9. February by Lisa Moore
10. Cool Water by Dianne Warren
11. The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy
12. The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

  I'm holding out for the glory and honor that is promised to those of us who completes the challenge!
 

2012 TBR Pile Challenge

  Thank goodness for Adam at Roof Beam Reader.  Though I didn't complete his 2011 TBR Pile Challenge I did manage to blow the dust off of a few books; and was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed a lot of them.  So I'm checking in again for the 2012 Challenge and hope to get all of my selections completed.

  The rules are the same as last year:

1. Read twelve books that have been on your to-read pile for at least a year (you may include two alternate titles).
2. You must write a review/response for each one you read.
3. You must link your master list to the sign-up post .

  Here are my books for this challenge, a mix of fiction and non-fiction:

1. Annexed by Sharon Dogar
2. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
3. Mrs. Somebody Somebody by Tracy Winn
4. Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
5. The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris
6. Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber
7. Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
8. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton
9. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
10. The Dead Beat:  Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson
11. Ghost Soldiers:  The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides
12. Nine Lives:  In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple

  My alternate titles are:

1. Triangle by Katharine Weber
2. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton

  Any thoughts on these books?

2012 Back to the Classics Challenge

  I was not successful in completing the 2011 Back to the Classics Challenge, but I am ready to take on the 2012 Challenge, once again hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much.  I was new to the whole challenge thing this year, and I think I was too ambitious, but this year I am going to be SMARTER (ha). 

  Here is the list of categories and the books I tentatively plan to read:

 Any 19th Century Classic:   Moby Dick


Any 20th Century Classic:  1984

Reread a classic of your choice:  Pride and Prejudice

A Classic Play:  Macbeth

Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction:  Frankenstein

Classic Romance:  Persuasion

Read a Classic that has been translated from its original language to your language:  Doctor Zhivago

Classic Award Winner - To clarify, the book should be a classic which has won any established literary award:  The Diviners (it won Canada's Governor General's Award in 1974 -- does that make it a classic?)

Read a Classic set in a Country that you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime:  Heart of Darkness
 
 
Several of these books are on the schedule for my library's classics reading group in 2012, so that will make completing the challenge a little bit easier!