I'm having a good ole time with The Hogwarts Challenge hosted by Bunnitaz over at Worth Reading It? I'll be sad to see it end in August. Before it finishes, though, our wonderful hostess is giving us all a chance to boost our points big time. The mini challenge is too complicated to explain here, but since it has to do with summer reading lists, I'm going to post the one I'll be using. I had a hard time finding any official summer reading lists (except for Oprah's, of course), but I liked the selections on this one from Parkway High School in Missouri. Students there are encouraged to read at least three of the titles before the school year begins. It's not exactly beach reading, either. The lists for all grades are below - I've crossed out the ones I've read previously. Which have you read? Which do you think I need to read?

School starts here in two weeks - think I'll be ready for high school by then? Hee hee ...

(9th Grade)

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless Me, Ultima.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. (my review)
Blackwood, Gary. The Year of the Hangman.
Covey, Sean. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
Cox, Lynne. Swimming to Antarctica.
Dessen, Sara. The Truth about Forever.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist.
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo.
Farmer, Nancy. The House of the Scorpion. (my review)
Grimes, Nikki. Dark Sons.
Halberstam, David. Firehouse.
Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. (my review)
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster.
Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. (my review - read July 2010)
Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Dairy Queen.
Murray, Jaye. Bottled Up.
Nolan, Han. Dancing on the Edge.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East.
Peck, Richard. The Teacher’s Funeral.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.
Schaap, Jeremy. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. (my review)
Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Behind You.

(10th Grade)

Alexie, Sherman. Flight.
Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies.
Anderson, M.T. Feed.
Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream.
Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. (my review)
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game.
Cary, Kate. Bloodline: A Novel.
Collins, Billy (Editor). Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry.
Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Boom-Time America.
Grogan, John. Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog. (my review)
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Halberstam, David. October 1964.
Jeter, Derek. The Life You Imagine: Life Lessons for Achieving Your Dreams.
Kooser, Ted. Delights and Shadows.
Larsen, Judy Merrill. All the Numbers.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight.
Naidoo, Beverley. Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope.
Poe, Edgar Allen. Selected Tales.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor's Tale I and II.
Thomas, Marlo. The Right Words at the Right Time.
Tsukiyama, Gail. Dreaming Water.
Volponi, Paul. Black and White.

(11th Grade)

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility.
Berthon, Simon. Warlords: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.
Blumenthal, Karen. Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, The Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. (my review)
Brooks, Martha. True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.
Callahan, David. The Cheating Culture.
Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Collins, Billy. Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems.
Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones: A Novel.
De Botton, Alain. The Art of Travel.
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: A Novel.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
Hersey, John. Hiroshima.
Hilton, James. Lost Horizon.
Hopkins, Ellen. Crank.
Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake.
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.
Matheson, Richard. I am Legend.
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper.
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar.
Preston, Richard. Hot Zone.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation.
See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
Walls, Jeanette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir.
Welty, Eudora. One Writer’s Beginnings.

(12th Grade)

Allende, Isabel. Zorro.
Ambrose, Stephen. Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale.
Bissinger, Buzz. Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager.
Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo.
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. Imperial Life in the Emerald City.
Fleming, Ian. Casino Royale: A James Bond Novel.
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain.
Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II.
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars.
Haruf, Kent. Plainsong.
Hosseini, Khaled. Kite Runner.
Hughes, Langston. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.
King, Stephen. The Shining.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel.
Larkin, Emma. Finding George Orwell in Burma.
Mortenson, Greg. Three Cups of Tea.
Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. (my review)
Seierstad, Asne. The Bookseller of Kabul. (my review)
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep: A Novel.
X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple.
Xiaolong, Qiu. Death of a Red Heroine.

It's the weekend again, which means it's time for another Book Blogger Hop. Yay! These are so much fun. It's a fabulous opportunity to find new book blogs and "meet" other bloggers. Join the fun by clicking over to Crazy For Books.

This week's question is: What are you reading now? You're never going to believe my answer - nothing. I finished Beauty by Robin McKinley this morning. I really enjoyed it. Next up is The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams. I've sneaked a peek or two, but haven't actually started reading it yet. I'm excited to see what it's all about.

Happy Hopping!