It's RIP Challenge Time!!!!

I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to Carl's RIP Challenge!! I'm so psyched about this one. "Halloween time" has always been my favorite time of the year and I have so many books that go along with it. Gothic/Horror/Dark Fantasy is one of my favorite genres as well. It's probably the genre that I've been reading the longest, starting with Clive Barker and Anne Rice, 2 authors that I will be revisiting with old reads in this challenge. I'm looking forward to everyone else's lists and to all of the great conversation that will be going on in blogland about all of these great books :D

I've set aside 20 books for this challenge....I know, yikes! I'm officially signing up for Peril the first, which is to read four books of any length, though I'm also reading two rather chunky books and as far as additional perils go, I have Dracula and Fragile Things on the list too. I seriously doubt that I'll get through 20 books in 2 months, but I'm officially committing to 6 and would REALLY like to read the other 14 during this time of the year. So I'm going to try my damndest. Here they are:

Official Reads
1. Dracula by Bram Stoker
2. Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
4. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
5. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
6. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Bonus Reads
7. Something Wicked This Was Comes by Ray Bradbury
8. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
9. The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
10. Whispers by Dean Koontz
11. I'll be Watching You by Charles de Lint
12. Blaze by Richard Bachman AKA Stephen King
13. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
14. Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
15. Currency of Souls by Kealan Patrick Burke
16. A Soul In A Bottle by Tim Powers
17. Thief of Always by Clive Barker
18. Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
19. Tamsin by Peter Beagle
20. Storm Front by Jim Butcher

So there it is. Can't wait til September 1st to get started on these! Until then, I'll try to get caught up on all of my other challenges!

The Pulitzer Project

CJ made me do it!!! So I said no more challenges this year except for Carl's RIP challenge which is coming up really soon and I'm SO excited about. But this one sounds so cool and it will give me a reason to read so many classics that I haven't had the chance to read yet. It's The Pulitzer Project sponsored by 3M. The challenge (or project if you'd like to call it that) is to read all 81 novels that have won the Pulitzer award. Sounds daunting right? Well here's what I like about it...there's no time limit! So if it takes me 3 years to do it with all of my other reading, that's fine! And I can work some of these into other challenges as well. So Nymeth, if you're still thinking of that Pulitzer challenge...I'm all in! ;)

Moonheart by Charles de Lint

One of the things that I've come to love about Charles de Lint is his ability to capture the essence and spirit of the fantastic and to portray that perfectly to the reader in a way that brings out a glow like a child discovering magic for the first time. With Moonheart, de Lint once again has captured my heart and brought me on a journey that I loved every second of.

Moonheart is a very complex story. There are many interweaving story lines which works very well with the theme of Native American souls, spirits, and connectedness. It begins as the story of Sara Kendell. Sara co-owns a wonderful little antiques and book shop in Ottawa called The Merry Dancers. One day, while unpacking one of the boxes from an old estate, Sara discovers a painting of two Native American men, and a medicine bag which contains a gold ring, a bone disc with a quarter moon on one side and a stag on the other, and a feather. The contents of this box are what goes on to form a truly amazing and epic story.

Sara lives with her uncle, Jamie Tams. Jamie is more of a friend to Sara and is the co-owner of the shop. Jamie is also the owner of Tamson house where they live. Tamson house is a wonderful thing. The house is a character in itself. It's a giant house encompassing an entire city block and has had numerous occupants coming and going throughout the years. It's an old house with all of the wonderful features of an old house. There is a courtyard in the middle of the house that is more like a park with beautiful gardens. Here's where the twist comes in. The house exists not only in Ottawa, but in the Otherworld as well.

While at a diner one day, Sara is approached by a stranger, a musician, named Kieran Foy. What eventually ensues brings her to this Otherworld. The otherworld is a beautiful, rich forest untouched by mankind. It is inhabited by Native Americans who practice ancient magics and follow ancient ways. The contents of the medicine bag tie Sara to this world now, and we soon learn that fate had it arranged that way. When all of the inhabitants of Tamson House are spirited away to the Otherworld, the battle against an ancient evil, an ancient feud begins. The ancient evil is a being named Ma'lek'a and it's allies are the Tragg'a and both are truly horrifying creatures.

This only begins to touch on the story. I could go on for pages and pages describing this wonderful book to you, but I recommend that you read it yourself. There are many wonderful characters in this book, and I came to love so many of them. Blue, Taliesin, Hengwr, Tucker, just to name a few.

I love the cover art for the book. It was done by David Bergen and sums up the feel of the book perfectly! Bergen also did the cover art for Greenmantle, I believe, another great book of de Lint's. There's also a highly desired version of this book with art by Charles Vess which was published by Subterranean Press. I'd love to get my hands on a copy of that.

It took me a long time to read this book. It's definitely not a sit down and read it quick book. It was much like reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to me. Very rewarding, but I couldn't plow through it. I loved it though, and it has definitely secured me as a de Lint fan. All of the de Lint themes are here...magic, Native American folklore, music, the power of bonds and ties in humanity. De Lint's writing is wonderful. I'll leave you with one of my favorite passages that I feel sums up the feel of the book:

Tonight he stood alone, his back to the Bearstone and his gaze searching the shadows that lay in amongst the pines, waiting for the one he knew would come. A trembling touched the air, soft as a breath across the strings of his harp. The scent of pine resin and sea were swallowed by the heady odor of apple blossoms, rich and pungent as they are in the spring. Sometimes his grandsire came in the shape of Taliesin's own craftfather - old Myrddin, black hair greying, but still tied back at the nape of his neck, golden eyes deep with dreaming. And sometimes he was the green man in a cloak of oak leaves and mistletoe, face like a fox, narrow and brown. Tonight he came as a stag, brow heavy with twelve-pointed antlers, his reddish-brown coat gleaming in the starlight, his eyes heavy with riddles.

"Are you content?" he asked the bard.

Taliesin inclined his head respectfully. "Content indeed."

Heh, Another Challenge

So this is one that I kind of missed out on the first time around when I believe Booklogged did it. It's the Classics Challenge and is being hosted this time by Crazy Cozy Murders. What a great blog name! I decided to do this one because I found 5 classics on my shelf that I can knock out of the TBR pile. The challenge runs from July 1st through November 30th. Oh, and Booklogged has made great little banners for this challenge and the Newbery Challenge. I've taken them both for my blog ;):

1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
2. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
3. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
4. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

I hope that these are considered classics!

The Newbery Challenge

OK, I'm joining yet another challenge. This one doesn't start until the end of May, and it goes on until the end of December. So this one shouldn't be too stressful. It's The Newbery Challenge, hosted by Natti Writes. The challenge is to read 6 books that have been awarded the Newbery Award. Here are my 6 books:

1. High Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo
3. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
4. The Giver by Lois Lowry
5. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
6. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

I'm excited about this one...I love YA books.