Reading Challenges for Maw Books

January 1 – December 31, 2009

Anna from Diary of an Eccentric and Serena from Savvy Verse and Wit have started a dedicated blog for challenges related to war and its impact. They write:

We have always been interested in war and its impact, so naturally, our first hosted reading challenge would be about this theme. Rather than host a single challenge on the very broad topic of war, we decided to break it down into several challenges over the long term. We hope you’ll join us, whether it’s only for one challenge or more. (We’re pretty obsessive about our reading, so we’ve planned a few years in advance.) We plan on holding six-month to one-year challenges, so check back to find one that tickles your fancy.

Their first challenge beginning January 1, 2009 is World War II. Readers must commit to reading at least five books throughout the year. Anna and Serena write:

The books can be fiction or non-fiction, and they can be about any aspect of WWII. WWII should be the primary or secondary theme, and it doesn’t matter whether the book takes place during the war or after the war.

There is a link for suggested reading as well.  There will be a prize drawing for those participants who meet or exceed their reading goal!  Go to the post about the 2009 Challenge to read more and to sign up.

Hmm . . . I read more than twenty books about WWII in 2008, obviously a interest of mine. So I was really excited about this challenge.  Books I’ve had on my radar for a while (not including titles that I’m sure I’ll pick up!):

• Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff
  
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz by Lucette Matalon Lagnado & Sheila Cohn Dekel
• Dawn by Elie Wiesel
• Day by Elie Wiesel
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary An Shaffer & Annie Barrows
• Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
• If This is a Man by Primo Levi
• The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
• The Cage by Ruth Minksy Sender
• My Bridges of Hope: Searching for Life and Love After Auschwitz by Livia Bitton Jackson
• In My Hands:  Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Cut Opdyke
• A Place to Hide, True Stories of Holocaust Rescues by Jayne Pettit
• The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman
• Obasan by Joy Kogawa
• Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
• Heroes by Ken Mochizuki
• On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
• Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
• Passage to Freedom by Ken Mochizuki
• Someone Named Eva from Joan M. Wolf
• I Am a Star, Child of the Holocaust by Inge Auerbacher
• Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman