READING CHALLENGES for 2012

Last year, the only challenge I entered myself in was a goal of 50 books, tracked by Goodreads. I hit my goal, but this year I wanted to mix things up a little and give some props to other book bloggers.  I found a great list of options at Novel Challenges. It's searchable by keyword and by year. 

Clocks, Cogs and Mechanisms Reading Challenge 2012

Focusing on Steampunk titles, including classics like HG Wells as well as newer graphic novels.  Levels are cleverly named Brass Gears, Flight goggles, Button-up boots and Clockwork Corset.

Merely Mystery Reading Challenge 2012
This challenge breaks down mysteries into sub-genres and the readers are encouraged to choose titles from the various types.  Choose from The Whodunit, Locked Room Mystery, Cozy, Hard-Boiled/Noir, The Inverted Detective Story, The Historical Whodunnit, The Police Procedural, The Professional Thriller, The Spy Novel, Caper Stories, The Psychological Suspense, Spoofs and Parodies.  And this one has a prize!

Victorian Challenge 2012
So this might not be much of a challenge since I read a great deal of Victorian literature already, but it will help me focus on some authors and works I have yet to delve into.  This one works more like a book club, setting authors in advance. January: The Bronte Sisters, February: Charles Dickens, March: Robert Louis Stevenson, April: Emily Dickinson, May: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, June: George Eliot, July: Oscar Wilde, August: Anthony Trollope, September: Elizabeth Gaskell, October: Mark Twain, November: Lewis Carroll, December: Louisa May Alcott.

Tea & Books Reading Challenge
From the site: This challenge was inspired by C.S. Lewis' famous words, "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."  You better settle in with a large cup of tea, because in this challenge you will only get to read books with more than 700 pages.
I've only committed to two, making me a "Chamomile Lover."



What will you read this year?

Sarah Rose on NPR, FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA

Sarah Rose, the author of FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA was recently interviewed on NPR.  You can listen to the broadcast, and read more about Robert Fortune and the book here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125237353

REVIEW: FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA by Sarah Rose

As a self-proclaimed theic (one who is addicted to tea), I am thrilled someone, in modern times,  has tackled this vast, interwoven tale of a name that changed so much but it little remembered.  Tea is like wine.  Growing seasons, climates, picking times, drying, storing  and shipping all affect the taste.  And there are plenty who prefer a potent earl grey to a warm green tea.  And it was plant-hunter and spy Robert Fortune who discovered (for the Western world) that these two very different teas grew from the same plant.  Author Sarah Rose delves into the seductive past and retrieves the best, most aromatic leaves for our enjoyment.  

(http://www.filmakers.com/index.php?a=filmDetail&filmID=1238)

The fortuitously-named Robert Fortune took on a great adventure in the name of tea and Queen.  The East India Company was losing money, so they decided to steal the secrets of Chinese tea and transplant them to India, where they still had power.  They tapped Fortune to be their spy.  This debut book by Sarah Rose, follows Fortune on his journey.  With stories gleaned from Fortune's meticulous diaries and journals, Rose maintains an even keel between historical background and plant-hunting espionage.  Her descriptions of inland China, with terraced hillsides, fresh peaches, and blooming forsythia are intoxicating.  Wandering along the river, filling glass Wardian cases with exotic plants sounds divine.  This idyllic setting is counterbalanced by the danger of impersonating a Mandarin Chinese and avoiding suspicion.

Indeed, there are many intricate details of Chinese society that this tale of tea serves to enlighten.  While Fortune was a hero to the West, he was clearly an enemy to China and the East.  Through Rose's telling of Fortune's exploits, we see the emotional complications of respect for and exploitation of another culture.  It is clear that not only Fortune himself benefitting from this travels, but the economy of the strongest Empire in the world.

I spent a summer as a gardener at the Canterbury Shaker Village and one of my jobs was to harvest and dry the mint for their four mint tea.  It was a quiet, peaceful job, if not an easy one, but it is still the best job I've ever had.  Particularly in an age when we are once again learning to respect the value of a growing our own gardens, in some small way, I'd like to think I was following in Robert Fortune's steps.  The gardening part; not the traveling and spying part.

(For more, check out the author's article in Smithsonian Magazine here.  It's tags are "crime" and "botany" - you know you want to read it.)

Thank you to Meghan and Holly at Viking Press.

FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose 

Book: Hardcover | 5.51 x 8.26in | 272 pages | ISBN 9780670021529 | 18 Mar 2010 | Viking Adult | 18 - AND UP

CONTEST: Free Book

The good folks (Thanks, Meghan and Holly!) over at Viking were kind enough to send me a copy of FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA by Sarah Rose to giveaway on the site.

Book: Hardcover | 5.51 x 8.26in | 272 pages | ISBN 9780670021529 | 18 Mar 2010 | Viking Adult | 18 - AND UP

So, to win this book:

1. In the comment area below, tell me about your favorite flavor of tea, and why you like it.

2. Leave your email address in the following form: name (at) domain dot com -- so we can avoid spammers.

3. Watch for my review of this book coming soon.

4. Go make yourself a delicious cup of tea!