100+ Reading Challenge Completed

I'm posting this now so I can hopefully accept the fact that I have no time to read or review for the rest of 2008. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now, and not even necessarily with the usual Christmas stuff. I thought maybe I could finish Main Street, but I am enjoying it, and I don't want to remember it as "the book I crammed into December's hectic schedule." Most books deserve to be read unrushed, except for those that are meant to be fast-paced (and ones that are just plain crappy.) My daughter and I are almost done with The Penderwicks, but I'll wait and review that next year.

So here's the final tally for the 100+ Challenge: 126

It sounds like a lot, but this includes several shorter children's and YA books, as well as a few self-help books which usually just take me a few hours to read. And then there are those audio books--companions to laundry, dishes, toilet srubbing, car washing, chauffeuring and the occasional exercising.

I've reviewed all but The Giver, which was a reread (but now I'm wondering why the heck I didn't review it anyway?), and Confessions of a Shopaholic (so funny and entertaining!)

Here's the list with the ones that I enjoyed the most in bold:

1. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
3. The Talismans of Shannara by Terry Brooks
4. Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. Sky Burial by Xinran
6. The Thin Woman by Dorothy Cannell
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
8. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
9. Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
10. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
11. March by Geraldine Brooks
12. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
13. You: The Owner's Manual by Roizen and Oz
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry (a reread)
15. Messenger by Lois Lowry
16. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
17. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
18. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
19. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
20. The Good Mood Diet by Susan Kleiner
21. In Lucia's Eyes by Arthur Japin
22. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
23. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
24. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
25. Reporting Iraq, edited by Mike Hoyt and John Palattella
26. The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech
27. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
28. Cleaning: Plain and Simple by Donna Smallin
29. The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
30. Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
31. Gossamer by Lois Lowry
32. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
33. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
34. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
35. The Known World by Edward P. Jones
36. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
37. Uglies by Scott Westerfield
38. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
39. Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
40. West With the Night by Beryl Markham
41. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
42. The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E. L. Konigsberg
43. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 44. Austenland by Shannon Hale
45. Race: A History Beyond Black and White by Marc Aronson
46. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
47. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
48. Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
49. Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
50. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
51. The Complete Book of Running for Women by Claire Kowalchik
52. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
53. Shake Down the Stars by Frances Donnelly
54. Bridesmaids Revisited by Dorothy Cannell
55. Femmes Fatal by Dorothy Cannell
56. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
57. The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Ilse Witch by Terry Brooks
58. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
59. Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald
60. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
61. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
62. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
63. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
64. The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Antrax by Terry Brooks
65. The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Morgawr by Terry Brooks
66. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
67. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
68. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
69. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
70. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
71. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
72. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
73. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
74. When Organizing Isn't Enough by Julie Morgenstern
75. Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks
76. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
77. The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
78. Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
79. River Secrets by Shannon Hale
80. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
81. Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep
82. Knight of the Word by Terry Brooks
83. The President's Lady by Irving Stone
84. Atonement by Ian McEwan
85. The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
86. Angel Fire East by Terry Brooks
87. The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
88. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
89. The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket
90. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide
91. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
92. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
93. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone
94. Presidential Races by Arlene Morris-Lipsman
95. The Spiderwick Chronicles: Lucinda's Secret
96. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Ironwood Tree
97. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
98. Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchet
99. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Wrath of Mulgarath
100. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
101. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
102. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
103. Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
104. Blessings by Anna Quindlen
105. The Sister's Grimm: The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley
106. Queen of Scots by John Guy
107. The End of the Beginning by Avi
108. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
109. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
110. The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
111. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg
112. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
113. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz
114. A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
115. Creepers by Joanne Dahme
116. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
117. Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
118. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
119. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
120. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
121. Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
122. Zoo Station by David Downing
123. Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
124. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
125. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
126. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!