So I've run across several mentions of the Fifty Book Challenge. Christiana is taking part, along with several of her friends. The general idea, apparently, is to read fifty books this year and be able to list them at the end. Seems like an excellent idea. One guy posted his list of rules but it's really up to everyone to decide. Here's my rules:

1. I will read the entire book.
2. I won't read a book just because I need something on the list.
3. Wash your hands before you eat, not after.
4. I will put up the title and a paragraph or two when I'm done.

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Number one:
The Last Madam
By Christine Wiltz

You have to love New Orleans. I was only there once, on a school trip. In the short three hours Paul and I were actually trying to have fun, we managed to play pool in a French Quarter bar with a Marine from Texas, an accountant from Philly and a hippy chick from—you guessed it—Berkeley.

Well, that's just a shadow of what the French Quarter used to be. Norma Wallace was a Madame in New Orleans for nearly forty years, hosting mayors, senators and even John Wayne. She was involved with (or even married) one of Al Capone's men, with one of the most successful club owners in the city, with a high-ranking police official and, when she was in her sixties, she married a twenty-four year old whom she had deflowered when he was just fourteen. After she was finally busted in the early sixties, she was given just six weeks, probation and, a couple of years later, keys to the city.

So you gotta love New Orleans.

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