Spring Book Challenge and March Book Club Picks

 It's that time again! Hopefully you used The Winter Book Challenge to your advantage by getting some of those books off of your to-read shelves and now have space to add more! For those books that you have read and don't need to keep, utilize your favorite swap site or donate to your local library! 

The Spring Challenge, like the Winter Challenge, will be different from the others we have done. With the Spring Challenge I hope that by reading the books together we can have more of a "conversation" about them. 

How will The Spring Challenge work? Good question! Let me explain...

The Spring Challenge

* Levels: In the Spring Challenge you will pick your level and read along with that group. If you find that a group is going too fast or too slow with you, you have the option to change at any time.
    - Leisurely Level (this group will be reading one book per month)
    - Brisk Level (this book will be reading two books per month)

* Books: The books will be chosen for you. If you are in the Leisurely Level, you may chose which of the two books you would like to read. Each month there will be a Fiction and Non-Fiction book. These will also be the Book Club selections for each month. If you happen to have read one of the books chosen, you can count it as long as you remember enough to comment and let us know what you thought of it. If you haven't read it recently enough to remember it that clearly, you will need to re-read it along with the group.

* Reading Goals: I will post reading goals at the beginning of each month, so you can pace yourself throughout the month. I will make a post at each of these goal markers to see how everyone is doing and to remind you where you should be. It will be helpful for you to mark down these goals in your calendar. 

* Prize: Every goal needs a prize when accomplished, so there will be two winners at the end of this challenge; one from the Leisure Level and one from the Brisk Level. The people who are eligible to win will have had to read all of the books in their level and have commented along the way. All eligible readers will be put into a list on random.org, where the winner will be chosen. The grand prize is a gift certificate to your local bookstore!

Remember, the Book Challenge is meant to challenge you. Use this as motivation to get through books you might not normally choose for yourself and "discuss" them with other CL readers. I am challenging ALL of you who read this blog: Do the Spring Challenge! See what reading on a consistent basis does for you, and what challenging yourself to read books you may not normally read will mean for your life. Worst case: you end up not enjoying one of the books. At least you will have done something good for your brain! We all challenge ourselves physically when it comes to workouts and sports, why not challenge your brain? What better way to do that than here at CL where I will be choosing books, and setting reading goals for you along the way? I dare you to give your brain a good workout in these next three months. 

Will you join us? I hope so! If you will, comment below to pledge to finish your goal of sticking with the challenge for all three months (March, April, and May) and declare which group level you will be attempting; Leisure Level or Brisk Level. The Challenge begins March 1st and will end on May 31st. 

Good Luck!

For March

Fiction: 
 Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town's founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been--not just for themselves but for their children, and children's children. With expert, unabashed, big-canvas storytelling, Roses covers a hundred years, three generations of Texans and the explosive combination of passion for work and longing for love.

(This book is #13 on the New York Times bestseller list and has been on the list for 5 weeks. It was published only 7 weeks ago. It was sent to me by Hachette Book Group, which publishes some of the most recognizable books in the industry.)

Reading Schedule for Roses:
Page total: 609
Week 1 (March 1-7): Pages 1-153
Week 2 (March 8-14): Pages 154-306
Week 3 (March 15-21): Pages 307- 459
Week 4 (March 22-31): Pages 459- 609
* Notice that there are less pages and more days in the last week of reading, this is to catch up if you have fallen behind.  

Non-Fiction:
 Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. 

In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: They could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship.

Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. 

These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. 

(This book sold four million copies and has been on the paperback NYT bestseller list for 25 weeks and counting. I am not sure how long it was on the hardcover list before being published in paperback. Read the Freakonomics blog at NYT.com.)

Reading Schedule for Freakonomics:
Page Total: 191
Week 1 (March 1-7): 1-50
Week 2 (March 8-14): 51-100
Week 3 (March 15-21): 101-150
Week 4 (March 22-31): 151-191
* Notice that there are less pages and more days in the last week of reading, this is to catch up if you have fallen behind. 

xo,
The Coconut Librarian

(descriptions of the books taken from goodreads.com. Photo from Getty Images)

Comments

[jaydek]

Thanks for breaking down the challenge for us this month, I think that is a fun and different way to tackle the Spring Challenge.

I will pledge to be part of the Leisure group. I have already read Freakonomics (and highly recommend listening to it as an audiobook), so I will try and track down a copy of Roses. I've been hearing a lot about it recently and apparently so have my fellow library-goers...it's all checked out!

[NorCal Reader]

So excited for the spring book challenge! I bought Roses yesterday and can't put it down. I just got introduced to Percy. Can't wait to see what happens!