My Take A Chance Challenge 3 Books
by Jenners • 02/06/2011 • Reading Challenges • 69 Comments
One of my favorite parts of reading challenges is when you get to find the books you’re going to read. It is like going on a treasure hunt in some ways! This past weekend, I decided it was time to finish picking out the rest of my books for the Take A Chance Challenge 3. Here is what I ended up with … and some of how I got there.
1. Staff Member Choice: Since the button below fits me perfectly, I decided not to chance actually visiting a bookstore as Mr. Jenners has accused me of being “too spendy” lately. So I went onto Amazon (like that is safe!!!) and looked at the Amazon Editor’s choices for best books from 2010. I ended up picking The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I then downloaded it from Audible and started listening to it this week. So far, I’m entranced and intrigued.
Jill at Rhapsody In Books sent me this button one time and I wear it proudly on my purse. You can get one at Etsy for $1! Click on the photo to go to the Etsy store.
2. Loved One’s Choice: This was the challenge that scared me most of all as I chose Mr. Jenners to pick a book for me. As long-time readers know, Mr. Jenners is NOT a big reader so I was really really taking a chance with this. In fact, he tends to pick out books to read based on the recommendations of the Howard Stern Show. (I know!!!! What was I thinking!!!!???) So, I nervously asked him to pick a book for me, praying the whole time “Please not They Call Me Baba Booey. Please not They Call Me Baba Booey.” I will confess that I had a moment of pure panic when he started looking for his copy of Howard Stern’s autobiography Private Parts and was just about to withdraw my request when he decided on Steve Martin’s book Born Standing Up, which Mr. Jenners thought “was pretty good.” (High praise from him.) I decided I could live with that … plus we already have a copy here at the house.
3: Blogger’s Choice. There were so many ways I could have gone with this but I ultimately decided to go with Rhapsody In Book’s year-end list, which includes three books by the same author. This author? Jennifer Donnelly. When a blogger I respect picks three books by the same author to go on her 10 best books of the year list, I can’t ignore that. So my choice for this part of the challenge is Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly.
4: Critic’s Choice. After doing some Googling for book critics, I decided to go with Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air. I know NOTHING about Ms. Corrigan so I went into this fairly blindly. I looked at her choices for the best books in 2010 and ended up picking Lionel Shriver’s So Much For That. (Full disclosure: I loved Shriver’s books The Post-Birthday World and We Need To Talk About Kevin so I was a teeny tiny bit biased to pick this book but hey, you gotta take what you can get!)
5: Blurb Book: The day I decided to finish picking my books for this challenge, I finished reading Carolyn Parkhurst’s wonderful book The Nobodies Album (review forthcoming). Since I liked it so much and it was sitting on my desk, I looked to see if there was a blurb by an author on the back and there was: John Searles. I’ve never heard of Mr. Searles but for this part of the challenge, I’ll be reading his book Strange But True.
6: Book Seer: When I went to this book-picking site, I decided I would enter Tana French’s The Likeness, which I just adored (and, again, review is forthcoming … I’m a bit behind on my reviews). Being very unimaginative, Book Seer recommended Tana French’s A Faithful Place (as well as her book In The Woods). Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth (a phrase I don’t actually understand), I decided to take this advice as I’m dying to read A Faithful Place anyway.
7: What Should I Read Next?: Curious what this book picking site would pick, I also entered The Likeness by Tana French. This site gave me some more options than Book Seer, one of which was Nancy Pickard’s The Virgin of Small Plains. This title seemed familiar and, sure enough, when I checked my bookshelves I found that I already had a copy that I’d requested from Paperback Swap at one point. This seemed like a sign so The Virgin of Small Plains is my choice for this part of the challenge.
8: Which Book: Which Book is such a fun book picking site that I strongly encourage you to check out if you haven’t already. There are all kinds of ways to have it find a book for you. I chose to pick three characteristics: unpredictable, funny and disturbing. One of the choice was Brady Udall’s The Lonely Polygamist, which I’ve read some positive reviews for so it was a no-brainer to pick it. I’m so curious to find out if it meets that description!
9: LibraryThing Pick: When I reviewed the list of the most reviewed books on LibraryThing, there were only one or two I hadn’t read—The Help by Kathyrn Stockett was one of them. I’ve had this on my shelf FOREVER and keep promising to read it but then never doing it so I just up and read it and loved it. (Review forthcoming!)
10. Random Bestseller: Random.org gave me the year 1995. When looking at the bestsellers for the week that has my birthday, I was HORRIFIED! It was like a nightmare; the top-sellers were all books by authors like Danielle Steele and Sidney Sheldon. I chose the least horrible book that I could find so I’ll be reading Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner, which I vaguely remember hearing about but never read.
So there you have it … my rather strange and eclectic reading list courtesy of the Take A Chance Challenge 3. I’m fairly excited about some of them and a bit wary of others so we’ll see how it goes.
That is quite a list you have going there. I had to laugh that you were worried that Mr. Jenner might pick that Bababooey book. I saw him on The Daily show promoting his book and thought…..ewwwww, you couldn’t pay me to read his book.
I can’t wait to read your review on The Help. That book will probably rank as one of my most favorite books of all time. I can’t wait for her to write another one.
I had a really bad experience with Artie Lange’s book (which I read to be “closer” to Mr. Jenners) so you would have thought I would have learned from that. I can handle Steve Martin though.
Hey there, Another reader sent this blog entry onto me with your challenge listed. I am honored to be on the list, and hope you find it more of a pleasure than a challenge! xxoo John
http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Searles/123112436638
Zoinks! I hope I enjoy your book too … I’m sure the “mole” will report my thoughts to you! Thanks for stopping by.
I was interested to see mention of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories – an amusing little book, I’m about to read another in the series, Once Upon A More Enlightened Time, which is based on fairy tales.
I didn’t realize there was a series of these books. Good to know if I really like them.
I read Politically Correct Bedtime Stories a long time ago but I remember liking it a lot. Clever ideas get me right here. I’ve had several people suggest The Help and I have a copy. I will read that soon, too. I like this list.
Glad to hear it was good! And I finished The Help already and it was fantastic.
I listened to Born Standing Up while I drywalled my place. It was quite good – a really interesting portrait of the man.
Glad to hear it. I heard Martin is a pretty good writer.
I soo wish I had time to do this challenge. It once again looks like a ton of fun. Your picks look great!
I am excited for the books I got this year. How are you doing by the way?
I am good! Staying busy. Hardly anytime to read for fun anymore but I try. School is all-consuming right now. We need to catch up!
School does have a way of taking over life, doesn’t it?
This is such a cool idea!
If you feel like joining in, feel free!
That button is SO ME!
Isn’t it though? I just love it.
looks like some nice selections–i’m actually just finishing up the audio version of ‘we need to talk about kevin’, and WHOA! it’s really good. i gave the steve martin book as a gift to a friend and hope you enjoy it.
Wasn’t “We Need To Talk About Kevin” amazing … and totally depressing and surprising? I can’t wait to see what this book is like … all her books are so different. And I’m curious about the Steve Martin book; I’ve heard he is a pretty good writer.
You have an interesting set of read piled up with this challenge.
I like the diversity of it! I’m anxious to see how some of these end up being.
I’m glad you did this post and showed how you picked your books, I was wondering about a couple especially the blurb pick. I pick my books a month at a time because I’m a “mood reader”.
I always get impatient to pick my books and then wish later in the year I’d waited. And I hope the blurb challenge makes sense now.
Looks like a good list. I haven’t read many of your choices, but I know you won’t be disappointed with “Virgin of Small Plains”. Excellent story!
Good to hear!! I can’t remember why I requested it in in the first place but I’m anxious to find out.
The Help is brilliant! You must read it…
I*ve also downloaded the Henrietta Lacks book and will be reading it soon…
I started it and ended up reading it in like two days … it was so involving and engrossing. And I’m feeling the same way about Henrietta Lacks.
LOVE the button! I think you will enjoy the Henrietta Lacks audio – I lostened to it too last summer and really was fascinated by it.
Isn’t that button the best?
And I’m at chapter 6 of the Henrietta Lacks audio. I was skeptical that it would interest me … it sounds like such an odd subject … but it is so compelling and well done.
Ooh! You are going to LOVE The Lonely Polygamist. It made one of my top picks of the year. Actually, all these books sound really good, and I hope you enjoy them all!
I think it was your review that I remembered when I saw it and I was like “YES … that is the one I need to read.”
All of your research and reviews help me get a books to be read list going. Thanks Jenners! Good luck with these challenges. They all sound interesting.
Glad to be in inspiration! : )
I love reading how you came to pick the titles you did. Since The Tea Rose was one of my favorites last year I hope you love it
Glad to hear about The Tea Rose! It seems to be quite well-loved!
Rhapsody in Books got me onto Jennifer Donnelly’s The Tea Rose too. I read it and loved it! Listen to her recommendations – she knows a good book when she reads it. Have fun with your challenge.
Glad to hear Ms. Rhapsody is as good as I think she is! : )
I read Politically Correct Bedtime Stories for the Take Another Chance Challenge last year. It was pretty good. It’s really short–about 80 pages. My recommendation would be to put some space in between reading each story. The humor is similar in each one and I read too many in one sitting and it got old pretty quickly.
I picked The Help also from the Library Thing list. Too funny! I just found it at a charity shop this past week so I’m excited to start it soon.
I totally cheated with Book Seer too. I put in The Corrections and, big surprise, Freedom came up. Haha!
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed The Likeness. I picked it up at the charity shop because I remember you gushing about In the Woods and it was the same author. I thought it was a standalone, but I guess I’ll have to get my hands on In the Woods first. I didn’t know there was a third book. Now I have three good books to look forward to.
We really are in sync, aren’t we? Thanks for the tip on the bedtime stories book; I could see that it might be a “one note” type of read.
And I wasn’t too impressed with Book Seer … it was kind of unimaginative in its choices but good if you were trying to get it to give you a particular book! HAHA!
And the three Tana French books can stand alone but you definitely gain more by reading them in order.
I found you in Paperback swap. Your reviews are awesome! The.n found out you had a blog. I’m looking forward to following along and reading more reviews. Need to go find out more about the reading challenge.
Glad you found me! I got a little sloppy about posting my reviews on Paperback Swap actually so I’m surprised that is how you found me. : )
Hope you can join the challenge … it is fun!
I can’t remember which book I was considering but your review was awesome. I decided to see what other books you had reviewed and ended up picking Belong to me (just finished Love Walked in).
Weren’t those the best books? I love Marisa de los Santos … I’m hoping she has another one coming out soon!
I own Politically Correct Bedtime Stories! It was one of the first gifts my husband gave me back when we were best friends (and actually a week before we started dating). They were so funny at the time, but I’ll be curious to hear if they’re still funny since being PC has become part of the everyday culture now.
I love the phrase “back when we were best friends.” HAHA!
I am curious to see how the book comes across now!
Some interesting choices. I’ve already told you that I’m looking forward to your review of The Help. I loved it!! I’m thinking I read Politically Correct Bedtime Stories at some point. We may even have a copy of it around here somewhere. I bet it will be funny. I tend to be rather non-pc most of the time (within reason, of course….I’m not a mean person).
Well, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories was definitely the “lesser” of many evils. It seems like 1995 wasn’t a stellar year for books … or at least the week I was looking at!
Good luck on your list. Mine is set and ready when I finish reviewing the 12 books that I must review. I loved the button. Unfortunately Amazon is a worse place for me. I go to their site to order one or two books I had planned on ordering and end up ordering 5+ more books.
I was very very careful to not enable Amazon’s 1-click ordering … that is just too dangerous. The only thing that keeps me in control there is knowing that Mr. Jenners reviews the orders (and credit card statements.)
I love your willingness to be adventuresome and let others call the shots…
You might have ended up with the Three Stooges if my husband had gotten to choose….he’s that much of a jokester. I Loved the Help when I read it when it first came out. My book group is reading it
for Feb. It will be a good review for me. Dianne Rheym (of NPR fame and victim of my poor spelling) had a whole show dedicated to it over the Christmas break. Good luck with some thought provoking reads!
It was very nerve-wracking to have my husband pick me a book … I don’t trust his taste at ALL!!!
And I can see why The Help was such a hit. I’m curious to see it in movie form too.
You’ve inspired me to post my own choices as well, happy reading.
Oh Goody. I hope you do. I love hearing how people got their books. To me, that is the best part of the challenge.
All these sound like good choices! I have read the help. It was a really amazing book. Believe it or not, I have also read politically correct bedtime stories. That one is funny and one of my husbands favorite books! I am going to try some of these sites to look for books that I might love.
OOohh…I’m glad to hear about the Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. And those sites are such fun to play with … especially Which Book.
The origins of gift horse in the mouth: horses are partially judged by the quality of their teeth. The idea is that if someone gives you a horse for free, you shouldn’t be so crass as to actually open its mouth to check out the teeth.
Random trivia.
I’ve been coming at this backwards so far, and I really need to find my books for this challenge!
Why thank you so much, you Font of Random Yet Amazingly Helpful Trivia. Love knowing that now!
Yeah, I’m a fountain of useless information.
I don’t think there’s a stinker in the bunch! Enjoy!
Good to hear!!
Tow of my favorite books from last year were The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Help. Enjoy!
I’ve already read The Help and thought it was fantastic. And I’m really caught up in Henrietta Lacks already … just a few chapters in.
I wish there were more hours in the day. I’d love to participate in something like this. For now I’ll just keep reading the huge stack on my bedside table.
PS Love the button. I’m the same way and avoid bookstores 95% of the time. (Stupid debt diet.)
Isn’t that button cute? I just can’t leave a bookstore without buying something so it is best not to go there in the first place.
By the way, I keep not reading The Help too…need to get to it.
You need to read it … it is really good. It made me ignore the other book I was reading to read it.
You are not intimidated by that lengthy list of must reads? That would scare me!
Pish posh … I have a whole year to read them!