April challenge: choose a book from a genre you don't normally read

It's time to think about the April challenge. This might indeed prove to be a challenge for some of us: choose a book from a genre you don't normally read.

I'm planning to read The Death Committee by Noah Gordon, which is a medical drama. This one came as a surprise RABCK, which explains why it's not from a genre I normally read, but I am looking forward to trying a new author.

There are not many genres that I don't read. Romances (as in Harlequin) might be the only one. However, I don't read much literary short fiction so I have decided to read Red Wolf, Red Wolf by W. P. Kinsella. It's been on the pile since September of 2008 so you can see I have left it for a while.

I am having sooooo much fun with this challenge! I'm reading manga! Lots of manga!! I only ever read one book of manga before...and now I'm discovering all kinds of manga. Some I don't care for, some are plain weird, and some I like a lot. I just finished a chapter in Yotsuba&! Volume 2 and could not stop laughing!

I may not have read manga before, but I like some it enough to keep right on reading it in the future.

>3 gypsysmom: Good choice! I don't read enough literary short fiction either.

>4 SqueakyChu: I've only read one manga myself, and it was written by a non-Japanese author writing in the manga style. I should try more manga someday, especially since I do enjoy graphic novels.

>5 mathgirl40: I got several books of the Yotsuba&! series from my son. They are hilarious. Try them, starting with volume 1 and moving on through the series. This series follows the escapades of a five-year-old girl who lives with her single dad. It's a charming and fun series.

I did my TIOLI challenge here on LT for April by asking others to read a book of manga. I figured they'd answer me with eye rolls and groans. Happily, a few LTers took me up on this challenge and here are some of their comments.

>6 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the recommendation. I checked my library and they have a few volumes of Yotsuba&! but not volume 1. How annoying! However, I see that they have Yakitate!! Japan, a manga featuring bread-making (a pastime that I enjoy myself) so I might check that one out.

>7 mathgirl40: You really don't have to start with Volume 1 in the Yotsuba&!* series. Just know that Yootsuba is a five-year-old girl who loves with her single dad. Her dad has a very tall friend named Jumbo. Next door lives a woman with three daughters. The series is based on humor and the life of a child. Each chapter (about 8 per volume) is self-contained. It would be fine to read them either without volume 1 or even out of order. Go for it! I'm up to volume 3 and moving through them quickly. :)

Also, GoryDetails gave me many great recommendations on this BookCrossing thread.

Yakitate!! Japan looks like a series that I'd enjoy as well. I've had my run-ins with bread-making. Haha!

* I'd be willing to bet that you cannot read Volume 2 without laughing out loud!

>8 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the information. I've put in a request for volume 2 of Yotsuba&! at my library! Thanks too for the other recommendations. I definitely need to explore this genre.

>9 mathgirl40: Let me know what you think of it. It's not for everyone. :)

Haha! The joke's on me. I just realized that ALL of the books I read for the Bookcrossing challenge this month have to be disqualified from this challenge. Yes, I did choose manga, but none of the manga I read were Bookcrossing-registered books. They were either my son's books or library books! :O

I did read four BC-registered books of manga, but I read them last month - in March. Oh, well! :D

>11 SqueakyChu: No big deal. We're getting some good discussion and recommendations in this thread anyhow, which is another goal of the challenges (in addition to helping us get books off MTBR).

>12 mathgirl40: Plus I really am happy that I took advantage of this opportunity to look into manga because I previously completely ignored it.

I'll be reading Sex &Sensibility Mill and Boon Romance. This is not something that I would usually read at all!

>14 Nataliec7: Well, it's good to try something new! I'm glad everyone is finding something interesting for this challenge. :)

Finished my Mills and Boon Blaze romance and it was actually okay. So thanks challenge! I would read more as it's easy to read and quick!

I also finished my challenge book Red Wolf, Red Wolf which was absolutely wonderful. Thanks for the challenge which moved it up the list a bit.

>17 gypsysmom: Tell us more about that book.

>18 SqueakyChu: It is a collection of short stories that W. P. Kinsella (perhaps most famous for writing the book Shoeless Joe that The Field of Dreams was based upon) wrote in 1987. The title story is a tribute to Flannery O'Connor. In his foreword Kinsella calls O'Connor "probably the best short fiction writer the United States has ever produced." I have never read anything by O'Connor but after that praise I can tell I am going to have to do so. The title comes from the disease that O'Connor suffered from most of her life, lupus. Lupus is a disease with a myriad of symptoms but one of them is that people get red splotches on their skin hence the red in the title. Lupus means wolf in Latin;ergo the wolf.

Every story was a gem. Most of them have to do with encounters with a stranger but that's about the only connection. They are set anywhere and anywhen. One of the criticisms I have of most literary short fiction is that the story doesn't wrap up but these ones are complete and satisfying.

>16 Nataliec7: Glad that the book was better than you'd expected!

>19 gypsysmom: Nice review. I'd read Flannery O'Connor many, many years ago. It's probably time to revisit her work, and to try Kinsella as well.

I've only just started The Death Committee but hope to finish by the end of the month.

>19 gypsysmom: Sounds great!

I'm still working on The Death Committee, as I got distracted by some other books, but I'm going to try to finish it before too long. SqueakyChu, my reserved library copy of Yotsuba&!, Volume 2 has come in, so I'll try to fit that into my May reading as well.

>22 mathgirl40:

I *love* the Yotsuba&! series. I'm now on volume 7. I only have up to volume 8 because that's the last volume my older son has. I know there are up to 12 volumes in English. I'm going to try to see if I can get them from my public library - maybe via interlibrary loan, if need be.

I guess I can't call manga "a genre I don't usually read" any more. I have been devouring manga throughout April...and now into May! It is such fun and easy reading!

I finally finished The Death Committee. It's really not the kind of book I normally go for (hence, it fit the April theme well) but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would.

>23 SqueakyChu: I finished Yotsuba&!: Volume 2. Great fun, and I like the artwork! Thanks for recommending this series. As I'm not used to manga, it took some getting used to. It's not so much the reversed orientation of the pages but the different conventions. I probably also missed a few jokes that depend on a deeper understanding of the culture. Anyhow, I'll keep my eyes out for more from this series. My library has #5, but it would be nice to find #3 and #4 first.

>24 mathgirl40: So glad you liked volume 2. That's my favorite volume so far. I'm waiting for Yotsuba&!, volume 10 to arrive in my public library,

This is still a challenge for me. I'll need to see what I have that's a different genre (and has been BC'd), since I do read almost anything!

>26 nancynova: Glad to see you're still doing these earlier challenges!

Found one! And didn't even realize it until I was posting the j/e over on bookcrossing

Email to the Front by Alesia Holliday is Parenting & Family genre. I don't normally read these, as the child-rearing years are over, and the grandmother books usually aren't in this genre. For example, The Girls with the Grandmother Faces landed in humor (which is was).

The only other rare genre for me, that I really have a book for, is Sports.

>28 nancynova: Glad you found one. It's been a while since I've read a parenting book too.