Because if I’ve joined one more challenge, I might as well join two, right? (BTW, sorry about three posts in one day!!) Alisia, one of my favourite bloggers who is always talking about some cool international book, is hosting the The Neustadt Challenge. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is awarded every other year (it began in 1970) to a poet, novelist, or dramatist for their body of work. Participants have two options, to be completed between May and August: to read three works by one of the award winners, or read one work each by three of the award winners. I’m going with the latter, and I’m listing more than three potentials, because I couldn’t narrow it down more! All of these are at my library, which is exciting…
Links by Nuruddin Farah: this is a novel set in Somalia that I’ve heard great things about. It’s also the book that led Alisia to discover the Neustadt award!
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf: this is a novel about a shipwrecked British boy who lives with Australian aborigines for years and then has to try to reassimilate into white culture. It reminds me of the white-girl-raised-by-Native-Americans class of books that I loved as a child.
Middle Passages by Kamau Braithwaite: a non-fiction work about slavery and its cultural effect on the New World by a Carribbean writer.
A Defense of Ardor by Adam Zagajewski: an essay collection by a Polish poet.
Another Beauty by Adam Zagajewski: a memoir, especially of 1970s and 1980s Poland, by the same poet.

So there you have it: my insanity has increased. But I take the attitude that it doesn’t really matter if I finish all of the books I sign up for, because the other aspects of challenge participation are also neat: I like making lists, discovering new books and authors, reading the reviews of other participants.