Marie's Challenge Goals

I started reading Europa Editions books in 2009 with The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I picked up after looking it over many times at the bookstore, and I loved it. Then I started noticing the distinctive-looking books all over. The next one I read was Alina Bronsky's masterful Broken Glass Park, which offers as true a depiction of the effects of family violence on children as I've ever seen. After that I was hooked! To date I've reviewed 8 of their books on my blog but I've read four more that I haven't reviewed yet; once Liberty and I settled on starting this project I decided to save them up to post here.


I also did a Spotlight series on Europa earlier this year, including interviews with authors Alina Bronsky and James Scudamore, as well as with Europa's editor in chief, Michael Reynolds.

As far as the challenge, my goal is to read 14 more Europas this year (Amante level, and I'll probably sign on to the Perpetual Challenge too- who am I kidding, right?) and post reviews of the remaining books I haven't reviewed yet, as well. At the moment I'm working through Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's book of short stories, and after that I'm going to pick through my stash of 30-odd Europas to fulfill the challenge. In other words, I haven't decided what exactly I'll read yet!
Good bets for me are:

• Get Me Out of Here, by Henry Sutton, which EE sent me for review,
• The Companion, by Lorcan Roche (also qualifies for the 2011 Ireland Challenge),
• In A Strange Room, by Damon Galgut (also qualifies for the Complete Booker Challenge),
• The Art of Losing, by Rebecca Connell, and
• The Jasmine Isle, by Ioanna Karystiani.

I'm not going to count any of the books I've already read and not reviewed towards the challenge (but that's just me- that doesn't mean you can't!). Those are:

• Old Filth, by Jane Gardam,
• Tokyo Fiancée, by Amélie Nothomb,
• French Leave, by Anna Gavalda, and
• The Lost Daughter, by Elena Ferrante.

I'm so excited to be doing this blog challenge with all of you and I can't wait to read all your posts & reviews!