The Local Lit Scene

celebrating South African Literature beyond our past

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GLBT Reading challenge

woolfbuttonAs most of you know, I joined in the GLBT reading challenge for this year. I am doing the Lamda level which is to read 4 books.  So far, I have read one. I know you would think I could of managed more than one, considering we are officially almost  a quarter way through this year already. Ah well, it will happen… but back to what I read.

Michael Tolliver Lives – Armistead Maupin

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I read ‘The Tales of the City’ books about 10 years ago and I loved them and this one, though not a continuation of it per se, Michael is one of the main characters from this series. He is no longer a young gay boy, but a man of 50 odd who has survived the AIDS pandemic.

It is a story told from this perspective.

I enjoyed it, though have to be honest and say that I did ‘skip’ the sex scenes. Not that I am a prude or anything, but I have still yet to find a book where I don’t cringe at the sex scenes. (Mind you, saying that, Anais Nin managed to write erotic fiction extremely well, hmm, maybe I should read her for this challenge..)

This book was an honest look and portrayal of someone who has survived AIDS while many haven’t. It was honest in its portrayal of someone finding love after all that has gone on before, and it was an honest portrayal of relationships.

I do recommend this book, it is an easy book to read, and Armistead Maupin delivers once again.

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The whole new world of reading challenges

OK, so since I started this book blog in September I have been scouting around searching the net for other book blogs. And me oh mi,but there are many! Sad to say, that most of them are not South African, from what I can gather, most of them seem to be American and English. Anyhoo, on my scouting around I have picked up that ‘challenges’ are quite the in thing. Not that I mind, in fact I have joined a few. I like the idea of challenging myself in the books that I read. I tend to get stuck in ‘one author’ ruts and once I have finished all possible related books, I bemoan the fact that I have nothing to read! So, I have four reading challenges I have joined.

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The first one, I joined last year,and it is finishing up on the 31 January.  My challenge was to read one  book of Japanese origin. Now, you wouldn’t think that would be at all difficult, would you? Alas, it is a short story book and I find it terribly difficult to read it all in one go (when I review it,more will be revealed as to why) and then once I have put it down, finding the right moment to pick it up again just never seems to come along. Hence this challenge: The Japanese Literature Challenge 3 as I had a Haruki Marukami  sitting in my bookshelf begging to be read. I still have 25 days to go.

451 Fridays

The second one I joined was the 451 Friday reading challenge, and you can read my post about it  here.

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The third one I have joined is the GLBT reading challenge. The basic idea of this challenge is to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.

ThemeQuest Reading Challenge logo smallAnd the fourth one I have joined is the Themed Quest reading challenge. With this one, you have to choose a word and find at least 4 books (1 non fiction) about your particular theme. My theme and word is Laughter.

So, that should keep me in books for  a while. I am looking forward to my next library visit which is coming up next week and I’ll let you know what books I have discovered for all the challenges.

(Today was the library visit and I found one book for the GLBT challenge: Armistead Maupins’ -‘Michael Tolliver Lives’. I read all the Tales of the City books and loved them and even though this one is not, strictly speaking, a continuation of those books, a reassuring number of familiar faces appear along the way.)

For the 451 challenge, while I was doing Christmas book shopping a couple of weeks ago, I managed to find ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ – Lionel Shriver.  I think this one will wait a little while as it seems rather heavy and I’m not in ‘heavy’ mode just yet.

How about you? Are any of you up for challenging yourself in your reading? If so, wander over and have a look at the ones I have chosen, maybe you will find something which tickles your fancy. And if you do end up joining anything, let me know!

Just an aside,please visit In the now, as his post today is all about books and which ones were life changing for you. I would love to know, so head on over or leave a comment here, Have fun!

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Books of 2010

I was aiming to read 50 books this year, which may or may not sound like a lot to you, but alas I didn’t make it. I did manage to read 45 (or to be completely honest, am 3/4  way through book no 45*) but will most likely be finished by tomorrow  so I’m counting it in.

I failed miserably at doing any of the challenges that I planned to, I only managed to read one book from the GLBT challenge and I still have other books on my list which are sitting in my bookshelf awaiting my eyes to peruse them.

What I did learn about myself, is that I am not a List reader. I need to go searching for something which tickles my fancy at a particular time and then read it, which doesn’t work so well for challenges, but I may aim to try it again sometime. Another thing which I have learnt over the last year reading wise, is that sometimes I am just not in the mood to read, whoever would of thought I would utter such words, but it’s true. Between work and toddler play, life gets busy and  at bedtime, I can barely keep my eyes open to read a page, never mind a chapter but my holiday has rectified that for  now at least.

So, without further ado, I give to you my list of books I read this year. Not all of them have reviews.

  1. We be reading  – Sue Gee
  2. Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman
  3. The Angels game – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  4. The Subtle Knife – Phillip Pullman
  5. Micheal Tolliver lives – Armistead Maupin
  6. The Marriage Bureau for rich people – Farahad Zama
  7. Where Rainbows end – Cecilia Ahern
  8. The Elegance of the hedgehog –  Muriel Burbery
  9. Rumour has it – Jill Mansell
  10. Indigo Children – Lee Carroll, Jan Tober
  11. The Mother Daughter Dance – Harriet Lerner Ph.D
  12. The Swan Thieves – Elizabeth Kostova
  13. Natural Flights of the Human Mind – Clare Morrall
  14. A Million Miles from Normal – Paige Nick
  15. The eye of the world – Robert Jordan
  16. The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan
  17. Sparkles – Louise Bagshaw
  18. Blankets – Craig Thompson
  19. The Forty Rules of Love – Elif Shafak
  20. Mushy peas on toast -Laurian Clemence
  21. Pippi long stocking – Astrid Lindgren
  22. One fifth Avenue – Candace Bushnell
  23. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society – Mary Ann Shaffer
  24. Our Tragic Universe – Scarlett Thomas
  25. The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs – Jack Gantos
  26. A pyschic in new york
  27. The Host – Stephanie Meyer
  28. Tom Bedlam – George Hagen
  29. Slam – Nick Hornby
  30. Tea Time for the traditionally built – Alexander McCall Smith
  31. I don’t like chocolate – Jesse Breytenbach
  32. The Childrens book – A.S Byatt
  33. Penny Vincenzi- the other woman
  34. Louise Bagshawe – Passion
  35. The pillars of the earth – Ken Follet
  36. The last Dragonslayer – Jasper Fforde
  37. The love verb – Jane Green
  38. How to raise happy healthy children – Sally Ann Creed and Andalene Salvesen
  39. Haroun and the sea of stories -Salmon Rushdie
  40. Room – Emma Donahue
  41. Ladies who lunch – Linda Francis Lee
  42. Toby Alone- Timothee de Fombelle
  43. A book of a  thousand days- Shannon Hale
  44. Aphrodite – Erica Jong
  45. Helen of Troy – Margaret George *

Hmm, looking at this lists, I realise, I will need to do more reviews on my reading!

Here’s to a great book year, leave a comment, and let me know where you book at, love checking out new book blogs:-)

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