The List

Wow, picking 12 books with two alternates for the 2011 TBR Pile Challenge was trickier than I was expecting! I picked 12 easily and then kept coming across books on my shelves that I didn't have on the original TBR list, so kept changing my mind throughout the week.  But I am ready to commit and here is the final list in alphabetical order by author's last name. I do not, however, promise to read them in this order.

1. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
2. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
3. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
4. Justine (Part I of the Alexandria Quartet) by Lawrence Durrell
5. Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
6. In the Woods by Tana French
7. The Beautiful Thing that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
8. The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
9. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
10. A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
11. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
12. Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset

Alternates:

1. Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead
2. Possession by A.S. Byatt

So where did these come from? Kristin Lavransdatter is one that I started to read a few weeks ago and since it met the criteria, I added it to the list.  War and Peace is a crossover from another 2011 challenge and will be read throughout the year. Wallace Stegner is a favorite author of mine and I have two of his books in the TBR stack, so wanted to get through one for this challenge. I've wanted to read Paul Auster's work for quite a while and haven't gotten to it. I heard about the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell in a lecture presented by Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and I was intrigued. (The Quartet consists of four novels all about the same place, events and time, but each one is written from a different character's perspective.) The remaining books I've gotten recommendations for or have read good reviews about and then there they sit on the pile.

I'll be updating this page as I get through the challenge. I don't anticipate being able to complete more than one of these per month, since I have a book group with completely different titles I have to read for, and I teach a college class. I'm looking forward to completing this project and clearing through some of the book rubble that exists in my house!