2013 Online Reading Challenge Round-up, Part VI: Mixed bag of genres

This is the final genre post, a collection of all the genre challenges remaining on my list.

The Cruisin' thru the Cozies challenge is in its third year, and is being hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. There are three levels, ranging from 6 to 13+ books. It runs all year long and I did not see a sign-up deadline. Reviewing is not required but is encouraged, and if you don't have a blog you can post about the books you read in the comments to the appropriate post on the hosting blog. 63 participants so far - why not become the 64th?

Another re-run is the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, hosted by My Reader's Block. Any book read for this challenge must have been written pre-1960 and must of course be a mystery of some kind.

The sign-up deadline is November 30. You must choose 8 categories from a list of 37 and read one book in each category to be eligible for a prize drawing at the end of the year. 40 people have signed up so far. More rules can be found in the sign-up post.

The Fairy Tales Retold challenge/read-a-thon is hosted by Deb's Bookshelf. It runs all year long and there does not seem to be a sign-up deadline.

The aim is to read retellings of fairy tales or "original" fairy tales at the young adult and middle grade reading level. There are six imaginatively named levels and you can read anything from 1 to 16 plus books.

54 participants so far.

The Telling Tales challenge is hosted by An Armchair by the Sea and the aim is to read books of any genre that relate to fairy tales and/or mythology. It runs all year long and you can sign up at any time. Rereads are allowed, reviewing seems to be expected and there are 7 levels. The first six are about the number of books you read (from 2 to 30) and the seventh level is about reading any number of books and watching the film adaptations of the stories. More rules can be found on site. 26 participants so far.

The Historical Fiction challenge is exactly what it says on the label: a challenge to read historical fiction of all kinds. It is hosted by Historical Tapestry and runs all year long.

I could not find a sign-up deadline.

Reviewing is not necessary, but you need to keep some kind of track (online) of the books you read, even if only in comments on the hosting blog.

There are five levels, ranging from 2 to 25+ books.

This is a popular challenge, with 219 participants so far.

The Nerdy Non-Fiction challenge is hosted by Bookmark to Blog. This is a year-long challenge to read a wide range of non-fiction and has both levels and categories.

To meet the challenge, you must read at least 4-6 books in 2-3 of categories. The number of both increases through three more levels. No sign-up deadline is given, cross-overs are allowed and reviewing is encouraged. Information on the levels and categories at the sign-up post. 68 participants so far.

The year-long Genre Variety challenge is hosted by A Daydreamer's Thoughts. Sign up is open until December 1st. You have five levels to choose from, ranging from 6 books in 6 different genres to 30 books in 30 different genres. Genres/categories are suggested, but you are free to add any the host has forgotten to include. Sub-genres are allowed, as are novellas. Blog ownership is not required (you can post about the books you read in comments in monthly posts), and there will be a giveaway at the end of the year. 49 participants so far.

The Narrative Poem challenge is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. This is, as the title suggests, a challenge to get the participants to read poetry, but not just any poetry: it must be narrative, i.e. tell a story. You can make this challenge as easy or hard as you please, since a narrative poem can be as short as Poe's The Raven, or as long as Spencer's Faerie Queene or Homer's Ilyad. There are four levels, the challenge runs all year long and reviewing is expected. More rules in the sign-up post. 13 participants so far. As a matter of fact, I think I might just join this one.

I think that's enough challenges for now - the cross-genre theme challenges (classics, food and more) will have to go in the next post.

Book 7: Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (reading notes)

-This reads like fiction - prose more beautiful than one has come to expect from non-fiction and many of the chapters are structured like fiction stories. There is little continuity between most of the chapters, although some of the narratives or stories spread over more than one chapter. This is therefore more a collection of short narratives than a cohesive entirety. You could pick it up and read the chapters at random and still get a good sense of what is going on. -Here is an author who is not trying to find himself, recover from a broken heart, set a record, visit 30 countries in 3 weeks or build a perfectly enviable home in a perfectly enviable location, which is a rarity within travel literature, but of course Kapuściński was in Africa to work, and not to travel for spiritual, mental or entertainment purposes (he was the Polish Press Agency's Africa correspondent for nearly 30 years). -I have no way of knowing how well Kapuściński knew Africa - I have never been there...

Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

List love: 10 recommended stories with cross-dressing characters

This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha. In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man. However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwove...

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