In 2010 Anna and Serena hosted the War through the Generations reading challenge, with a focus on the Vietnam War.
I had joined at the “Dip” level (as in “taking a dip” not “Dawn, you’re a dip!”). This was a commitment to five books, as follows:
- any genre (children’s, fiction, non-fiction) and any format (print, audio, e-book) counts
- overlaps with other challenges are allowed
- book can take place before, during, or after the War, with the Vietnam War taking primary or secondary theme
- a movie or two can supplement books for the challenge
How’d I do? You can see by the title of this post that I didn’t complete the challenge (maybe I AM a dip?!?). I read two books:
- The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
- Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
I might claim partial credit for starting the amazing novel Matterhorn (Karl Marlantes) on audio. Bronson Pinchot is the reader; he is fantastic – any accent, age, gender … he can pull off the voice. I borrowed it on Playaway from our library, and just didn’t allow enough time to listen to it; after racking up almost $10 in late fees, I returned the audio, about one-third of the way into it. I do have the print edition which I bought via Powell’s Indiespensibles, so I WILL read it some day …).
So, I’ll take half-credit for Matterhorn, which brings my total to 2.5 books read for the challenge — I’m half a dip!
War through the Generations’ theme for 2011 is the US Civil War … will you dip, wade, or swim with this one?
At least you gave it a try. No movies made it on your list for the Vietnam Challenge…there are so many good ones.
The prize drawings for the Vietnam War challenge participants are up if you are interested.
I bombed on this one too. Hopefully I’ll do better this year.
I am a war junkie, and almost didn’t finish this challenge (completed my last book three weeks into December!). So don’t feel bad. I will say I got three of my “Bests” for the year from this challenge though!
I’m not a war novel enthusiast so this wasn’t (isn’t) a challenge for me. I do find the country of Vietnam and it’s history fascinating though so some of the books might work for me.
I’m not sure how many books you read for the challenge, but there are 3 giveaways up for participants of the Vietnam War Reading Challenge. I hope you’ll enter and spread the word.
I still have to read The Lotus Eaters — searching now for your review
And: good job!
And: you’re not a dip!
I entered very late into the year at the “Dip” challenge and anticipated not completing five titles. I listened to three: MATTERHORN (by Karl Marlantes; narrated by Bronson Pinchot;) THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (by Tim O’Brien; narrated by Tom Stetschulte) and THE LOTUS EATERS (by Tatjana Soli; narrated by Kirsten Potter.) I have on hand a couple of other titles in print but didn’t manage to get to them. I was briefly encouraged when I found out we could also do movies; but again, even though I got them from Netflix, I simply ran out of time. The challenge is over, but I still look for more Vietnam Challenge titles!
Matterhorn: If you get to page 135 (in the ARC; maybe slightly different in other versions), you will not be able to put it down. I gave up trying to “remember” (i.e. read: figure out) squadrons, brigades, units, and all that military stuff. Just concentrate on the characters. I found it helpful to make a note on my book mark as to who was Black and who was Caucasian. That turns out to be a huge part of the story.
Thanks for taking part in our challenge! Even though you didn’t complete the challenge, you read two really good books. I hope you finish Matterhorn. Completely blew me away.