Reading Challenges - why do people do so many? I just encountered a blog where the owner is doing more than 30 challenges this year. I am doing two and only on one of them am I posting to the blog. I have enough people telling me what to read.

I have 12 books to read for my book group; 4 books to read for Readers' Advisory (I actually will probably do more); books to read for The Big Read; and my mom will instruct me to read at least something more over the course of the year.

I read a lot - my list at Good Reads has 86 titles that I read so far this year. But how would I keep up with more than 30 challenges. Even with the fact you can use a book for more than one challenge -more power to those of you who can keep up with all this reading.

I think I will go back to my romance of the week - Charming the Prince. It is fun, light and not for any challenge except to keep my stress level down.

Change is the topic of the month at the BAM challenge blog. I had lots of ideas about what I was going to read. Change is part of our life at PRL and so I figured I would read something about coping with change or managing change - you know, the books good managers read to help them and their staff cope.

However, I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston just the other day. And all I could think about after finishing the book was talk about change!

I had read this book about 25 years ago when I had just moved to Virginia. I found it to be powerful, moving and significant at that time. My library is about to do this book as our Big Read, so I decided to listen to it this time around. I had forgotten how powerful Hurston's writing is. She had an utterly amazing way with words.

Janey's life involved so much change. Janey thought she knew who she was, but other people had other ideas. Her grandmother, her husbands, her neighbors all thought they knew who Janey should be. It is not until the end of the book that the reader and Janey learn the truth about how a woman might be.

And then there is the change (and lack thereof) since Hurston wrote this book. It has been 71 years since Their Eyes was published. Hurston was given grief for not uplifting her race. What would happen if this book was published now?

African-Americans and women of all colors have made advances in our society. However, we still struggle with our place as it is assigned by this culture. You only have to look at our upcoming election to see that.

I had not expected much change by listening rather than reading. I was wrong. This was so much better for me as an audio book. The book is written in dialect which I can read, but I really did not hear until it was read to me. I am blown away. Janey's story is the story of one of the most wonderful women I have ever read about.

I read this book because it is our next Big Read adventure at PRL. I have changed my mind about doing TEWWG for The Big Read. This story is one that more people should encounter. I hope we can do that through this reading program.

Lastly there is the change in my life since I read this book 25 years ago. I am not a re-reader. There are so many books out there waiting for me. However, I have changed since I read this book for my book group. It was good to encounter Janey and Tea Cake once again. I see their lives in a whole new light since I am older.

Everyone should read this book.

The May Book a Month Challenge. This continues to be a lot of fun.

I may be stretching the point here, but I really want to review Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario while it is still fresh in my mind. This was the book under discussion at my book group last night and it was a great choice. We had much more discussion than I had thought possible and the conversation may have started with immigration and Enrique, but we were all over the map.

Nazario is a reporter for the LA Times and after a conversation with the woman who cleans her house, Nazario felt compelled to research one small aspect of immigration from Central America. She managed to do a story for her paper on the _____ thousand children who ride the trains through Mexico to get to the US.

By following Enrique on his quest to be reunited with his mother (See there is the connection to this month's topic), Sonia Nazario put herself and us in these children's shoes. It is an amazing story.

All of us in the group had our moments with this book where we were depressed or overwhelmed. I won't lie - there are alot of difficult events in this book. However, I highly recommend this tale for several reasons.

1. This is a side of immigration that most of us know nothing about.


2. You will be amazed by the journey Enrique makes by himself.


3. What Sonia Nazario does as a reporter will blow you away.

I give this book a 9 on 1-10 scale. I think that this ranks up there with other good social issue nonfiction (like Nickel and Dimed) and I plan to pay a bit more attention to immigration as we go through the upcoming election.