The Coffee, Tea and Thee Reading Challenge

[colls]

I thought we could try something different with regards to books this month. It's been a while since I participated in a reading challenge that wasn't just X number of books per year and thought something short and sweet might be fun!



There are three ways to play.

COFFEE: Read up to 3 coffee books
Interpret this however you'd like. It can be set if a coffee house, have coffee in the title, the cover can be vaguely coffee-colored, characters can drink coffee, someone told you about the book while you were drinking coffee, anything goes.

TEA: Read up to 3 international books
Something not from your own country. The author can be from somewhere else, or it can be set in another country (or outer space, etc.)

THEE: Read up to 3 books using letters in your name
You can use your initials, your real name, your online name, your last name, whatever. The letters can correspond to the title or author.

As an alternative, you can do one from each.

Leave a comment if you're participating (although there's no obligation). Feel free to list books you find, ones you plan to read, suggestions for anyone doing a certain set, etc. If you only get to one book, that's awesome! If you read more than three, you're amazing!

Comments

[colls]

I'm considering all three

Coffee: The Coffee Trader by David Liss

Tea: The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (set in Turkey)

Thee: I haven't poked around for this yet.

[dantesspirit]

LOL, I've read books so far this year that cover all three catagories-

Coffee- (all main chars at some point or another, drink coffee. Generally copius amounts)

No Dominion, Kickstarter Edtion - C.E. Murphy
The Dark Horse - Craig Johnson
Junkyard Dogs - Craig Johnson
Heat Wave - Richard Castle

Tea-

Again, No Dominion - C.E. Murphy (Ireland)
Blackveil - Kristain Britian
The Hundred Thousand KIngdoms - N.K. Jemison
The Broken KIngdoms - N.K. Jemison
Home From THe Sea - Mercedes Lackey (England, Egypt)

Thee-

All of them fit this but in particular- The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks ( Wolf SilverOak)

Next up on the list is-

Les Miserables
A Dance With Dragons
Naked Heat
The Handmaid's Tale (I read it once a year)
The Great Gatsby (I've never read it)
The Gods' Kingdoms
and more...

[colls]

I really liked C.E. Murphy's Walker Papers series and keep meaning to look up other things by that author. Thank you for the reminder. :)

The Handmaid's Tale is one of my all time favorite books.

What did you think of the Brent Weeks book?

[sallycandance]

I'll do THEE. My real life name starts with an L, and my username has an l in the middle.

"Monster" by A. Lee Martinez
"At the Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville

Moby Dick is a re-read; I'm writing a screenplay version of it and have to read it anyway ^.^

This is going to be fun - can't wait to see what you guys will be reading.

[colls]

LOVECRAFT!!! In case anyone else pops in, goodreads has a FREE eBook available: At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror
I nabbed it, but haven't read it yet.

Writing a screenplay version sounds exciting! Is this for a school project or for fun, for theatre, etc? Will people be acting out your screenplay on stage?

ETA: fixed html

[dantesspirit]

It's ok. It's not grabbing me like I thought it would, but since I'm 1/3 of the way through, I'll at least finish it.

It's not on my list of 'good books to recommend', I can say that.

However, N.K. Jemison's books? I couldn't stop reading the first one (her debut book, no less!) and it barely let up with the second. Really looking forward to the third.

[sallycandance]

The screenplay is just for fun. I'm writing for screen, not for theatre, but could, if the need arose at all, re-write it for the stage.

I love Lovecraft - his prose is so beautiful and lush and clever and melancholia-inducingly dismal! I could read him every day and never tire of it, I believe. Of course, I have several authors I adore to that extent, so my days could be crowded, if I ever took my own statement literally *lol*

[sallycandance]

The Dervish House sounds interesting. I like anything that's set in the old (or in this case modern) Arabic world. It's so entwined with ists past, and with myths and legends. I hope that book captures some of that feeling of the Old World still being prsent in the New World.

[sallycandance]

LOL, I've read books so far this year that cover all three catagories-
I think we all have, LOL

[dantesspirit]

More than likely! }:P

[snarkasaurus]

THis sounds interesting...hmmm... though i'm curious if as-yet-unpublished books count? I'm lucky enough to be a prereader for a friend, and i'm...all...EEEEEEEEE BOOK XD

[colls]

Sure, anything counts. Also -- YAY!

[colls]

I hope so, too. It's actually a book club selection next month, but I might get to it early.

[colls]

I've been looking for a fantasy read and was toying with the Weeks book. After what you say and browsing the book a bit on goodreads, I think I'll switch it to this trilogy.

Thanks!

[dantesspirit]

The Inheritance Trilogy (N.K. Jemison's books) have a female main char, that's what really sold me on them first.}:P But the fact that she is a strong, self-reliant female char is the best part.

The Weeks books are the standard male main char, females regulated to supporting roles or not even that- window dressing really- the standard the courtesan, unhappy/cruel mother, unachievable lost love, that sort of thing. So far, not a single, stand on her own without the aid/sufferance of the men female char in the book.

[skieswideopen]

The first N.K. Jemison book was great! Not completely what I was expecting, but very good. (Not that it sounds like you need convincing.)

[skieswideopen]

Hmmm....tea is easy. That's most of the books I read. I'll have to go hunting for the other two, though. *ponders*

[mierke]

*ponders* I'd like to do one of each...

Coffee
Suzanne Selfors' Coffeehouse Angel sounds like a fit!

Tea
This one's easy. I'm currently reading Kelley Armstrong's The Summoning and that's not set in Belgium.

Thee
My name and username start with an "M", so I figure the third part in the Hunger Games' trilogy, Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay is only appropriate.

[colls]

Felicia Day gave it high marks on goodreads, too.
/random

[colls]

Have you read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series? They seem to do nothing but drink coffee all the time and while the first book is long, it's pretty good once you muddle through the first hundred pages or so.

[colls]

A+

That coffeehouse book looks rather adorable.

The Hunger Games trilogy was one of the few YA series I've enjoyed, although I kind of felt the three could've been one book. I look forward to hearing what you think of the third one and series overall when you're done reading it.

[colls]

Interesting. I think I picked up the Weeks books because I've read so many with female protagonists lately that I was ready for a break (also had the ebooks *coughfreecough*). I like mixing it up.
Anyway, I found the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne instead, and it's a likable male protagonist with his faithful dog sidekick and pretty much brain candy. Some of the female characters aren't so bad, there are the typical love interests, the villians, the apprentice and the motherly old neighbor -- a couple aren't fleshed out very well, but a couple are. But, I'm really in it for the dog. He's the best character.

[dantesspirit]

The Iron Druid series is next on my list to get.}: They came highly recommended from an authore I really like.

[dantesspirit]

I picked up the first 2 from my library. Unfortunately, they don't have the third.
But reading the first one made me definitely want to own a copy of the trilogy of my own.}:P

[dantesspirit]

Felicia Day is awesome}:P

[natsudive]

Ooh, I'll be doing Tea! Since I live in America, so I'm looking at these three:

Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami Haruki (Japan)
Almost Transparent Blue by Murakami Ryu (Japan)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (set in Greece)

The first two are books I've been meaning to read for a couple of years now, so this will finally get me to stop putting them off, haha.

[colls]

YAY!!


Isn't Haruki the same author that wrote The Wind Up Bird Chronicle?
*googles*
Yup! I liked that book. I haven't read anything else by that author though.

The Song of Achilles sounds like a good one. People I know who've read it have really liked it.

[skieswideopen]

Yeah, I haven't been able to get the third one yet either. Same problem--the library didn't have it. Actually, I should see if they've gotten it in yet...

[skieswideopen]

I read the beginning of the first one, but I don't remember why I stopped reading. Maybe I should give another go!

[dantesspirit]

Hee.

It only came out in Oct of last year, so I'm not surprised mine doesn't have it yet.

[natsudive]

Yup, same author. That book is on my list as well, I'll get to it someday... xP

I love historical fiction, so I'm really looking forward to that one! A friend of mine said on twitter that it was really heartbreaking, which is like a double bonus for me. I like sad things for some reason.

[ofearthandstars]

Mmm, I want to read both of these! I like your taste in books!

[ironjeff]

Well, I'm well on the way to failing GLORIOUSLY! because I started The Count of Monte Christo a few weeks back and am only 3/4 of the way through it... So unless I can find some pamphlets at the local coffee shop, I'm doomed, DOOMED, DOOMED!!

[mierke]

The coffeehouse book was kind of disappointing, unfortunately :(

The Hunger Games... I've got lots of feels about them. I've review the three of them on my book blog, but in short my thoughts come down to this:

- The love triangle was unnecessary and took away from the story
- The first book would have been perfect as a stand-alone
- Katniss was a great heroine in the first book, but totally disappeared into nothingness in the latter two. She refused to make this war her own, she seemed uncaring and she totally led both Peeta and Gale on, hurting them both in the process

I think Collins' writing was best in the Hunger Games. Those were my favourite parts, both in the first and in the second book. The fearful atmosphere, the action, it was all written perfectly - and I'm not even much of an action reader.

Character-wise I had a tough time getting interested in any of the characters. I think after three books my favourites were Rue, Boggs and Finnick, who, of course all died (just to spite me, I swear xD).