Take It or Leave It Challenge - August 2012- Page 1

>For those new to this challenge: More info and monthly index can be found in post #1 of this thread or this TIOLI FAQS wiki.

Simple directions for posting to the wiki can be found at the bottom of each month's wiki page.


...logo by cyderry

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Gang,

Here's your newest challenge for the month of August. It's to read a book by a new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map”.

Here are the rules:
1. 1. Plug in the name of a favorite author into the search box on Literature-Map.
2. Press “continue” to see a “shower” of possible author names.
3. Choose a new-to-you author from this generated list of names. It would be good to choose an author whose name hovers closest to your favorite author’s name, but that is not mandatory.
4. Read a book by that author.
5. If you are unhappy with the generated author list, you may plug in the name of a different favorite author and try again.
6. You may do this as many times as you like, but only choose one new-to-you author per favorite author.

When you choose a book, list it as follows, so that the name in parentheses is the favorite author whose name you used for the plug-in:

The Fortress of Solitude – Jonathan Lethem (Jonathan Carroll) – SqueakyChu

You may match a book at any time.

Have fun!

-----------------------

Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):

1. The August 2012 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it. (Updated 08/03/12)

Wiki index:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book by a new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map" - msg #1
2. Read a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist - msg #3
3. Read a book about an alternate Earth - msg #6
4. Read a book where the Title either begins with the same letter as the one above or ends with the same letter, alternating - msg #4
5. Read a book that was recommended to you by one of your parents, or is a favourite of one of your parents - msg #7
6. Read a book with a summer scene on the cover - msg #8

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month - msg #11
8. Read a book published as a Virago Modern Classic - msg #26
9. Read a book that is set in a city that has hosted the Summer Olympics in the 21st century (London, Beijing, Athens, Sydney) - msg #24
10. Read a book with a title that includes an object that changes colors naturally - msg # 31
11. Read a book about a warrior, or that includes one of these words in the title or author's name: warrior, waste, ravage, sack, or destroy - msg #32
12. Read a "Scandicrime", a mystery or thriller written by an author from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland or Iceland - msg #34

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word - msg #36 - thread
14. Read a book whose title includes one or more of the colors from your country's flag - msg #61
15. Read a book whose title includes the word "life" or the word "death" - msg #66
16. Read a book with a cover that is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, or mostly brown - msg #67 - thread
17. Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name - msg #70
18. Read a book which contains a monetary unit in the author's name or in the title or subtitle - msg #78

Challenges #19-24
19. Read a short work such as a short story or an essay with a title which follows an alphabetical sequence - msg #108 - thread
20. Read a work by Maeve Binchy - msg #151
21. Read a middle-length work (between 150-288 pages total) - msg #190

New challenges can only be added in September.

Challenge #2: Read a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist

This year's Booker Prize longlist was announced on Wednesday July 25, and it consists of these novels:

Nicola Barker, The Yips: currently available in the UK, no publication date in the US
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident: currently available in the UK, March 5 in the US
André Brink, Philida: August 2 in the UK, October 23 in the US
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists: currently available in the UK, September 4 in the US
Michael Frayn, Skios: currently available in the UK and US
Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: currently available in the UK and US
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home: Kindle version is currently available in the UK, although the paperback is temporarily out of stock on Amazon; no publication date in the US
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies: currently available in the UK and US
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse: it's apparently out of stock in both the UK and US, and it will be re-released in both countries on August 15
Will Self, Umbrella: August 30th in the UK, January 8 in the US
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis: currently available in the UK and US
Sam Thompson, Communion Town: currently available in the UK, no publication date in the US

I'm planning to read the four books I ordered from AbeBooks: The Garden of Evening Mists, Swimming Home, The Teleportation Accident and The Yips.

*************************************************************
Challenge #4
Read a book where the Title either begins with the same letter as the one above or ends with the same letter alternating.
****************************************************************
example Book1 and Book 2 start with the same Letter - book 2 and book 3 end with the same letter. So there should always be two letters at the beginning the same and two letters at the end the same.

Rules:
1. Shared Reads are allowed
2. A, An, and The can be ignored or not. On, In, Of etc. cannot be excluded.
3. You can follow yourself

example:

Queen's Vow.........................................................Starts with Q
The Quick and the Thread..............................Starts with Q, ends with D
Fatally Frosted...............................................ends with D, Starts with F
From the tow-path to the White House.........starts with F ends with e
Pies and Prejudice ........................................ends with e starts with P
A Peach of a Murder.......................................Starts with P ends with R
Beauty to Die for............................................ends with R starts with B

next book would start with B

> 4

You can follow yourself

LOL!! That just sounds funny.

Challenge #3: What on Earth? Read a book about an alternate Earth

It's our Earth but...

... it has dragons in it - Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik
... Alaska is a nation - The Royal Treatment by MaryJanice Davidson
... Franklin Roosevelt was assassinated - The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
... magic works - Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

etc.

Please stick with past, present or immediate future.

Put how it's not "our Earth" in parenthesis if you would.

Challenge #5 - Honour thy Parents - Read a book recommended by one of your parents, or a book that is/was a favourite of one of your parents

By 'parents' I will allow any 'type' of parent, so biological parents, foster parents, step-parents, adoptive parents, parents-in-law or any other parent you might have is ok. Also, as some of us might -sadly- no longer have parents, it's also possible to read a book that was a favourite of one of your parents...

As for myself, I'll be reading Inconceivable by Ben Elton, which my dad has been pushing me to read for the past months :)

***NB*** You can share reads even if they weren't recommended by your parents in turn; otherwise I fear there won't be any shared reads at all. Still, it might be nice to also just ask your parents for recommendations, you know, parent-child bonding and stuff :)

Wow! I never get on the first page.

#6 - Read a book with a summer scene on the cover

Self-explanatory, really.

cyderry, your challenge gives me a headache already :P

>9 Britt84: Yeah, I don't get it either.

Alright, I was trying to think of a clever challenge and just couldn't, so I'm keeping it simple (but, I think, still fairly narrow).

Challenge #7 - Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month

I'm going to be reading Homeland, a book recommended to me by a kid on my crew just over a week ago.

> 9, 10

ROFL!!

>12 SqueakyChu: Hey! I'm getting up there. I get confuzzled easily. *pouts*

I thought that the examples would help to explain it.

I've added a few books to my challenge. The next book needs to start with a B. Then once that book is added the next book has to END with the same letter. When it is added then the third book following would have to start with the same letter.

So we're waiting for a book that starts with B.

Someone adds Bond of Passion
then the next book would have to end with an N

Say Warden is then added then the following book would start with W

going back and forth from one end of the title to the other

I added a book that starts with B to Cheli's challenge. It ended in W, and I added another book that ends in W. That book starts with N, so now we need another book that starts with N.

Ooooh, yay for the Virago challenge!

Added one that starts with an N... I did get it, with the examples, but it just really needed some thinking. And it's the summer holidays, I try to avoid thinking during my holidays. Thinking is exhausting *nods* ;)

Can recommended in the last month include a high rating on the July TIOLI wiki?

Anybody willing to recommend a book to me before the month is over?

Okay, I think I 'get it':

Challenge 1. The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper (CJ Cherryh)

(19)Follow the River is excellent, Britt84.

21 Thanks fuzzi, it actually sounds really good :) Putting it on the list for challenge 7 :)

I would also be interested in any recommendations anyone wants to offer. I hardly ever get book recommendations in person.

In honor of the 2012 Olympics:

Challenge #9: Read a book that is set in a city that has hosted the Summer Olympics in the 21st century (London, Beijing, Athens, Sydney)

Lahochstetler, we read Half of a Yellow Sun with a group of people last month, and I really enjoyed that one, so that's definitely a book I recommend, if you haven't read it already...

ETA: And I see in your library that you do have an interest in history and colonialism, so, though this is fiction, I think you might find it an interesting book...

Looks like someone saw my challenge before I got around to putting it here. Yay for your yay, lahochstetler.

Challenge #8: Read a book that has been published as a Virago Modern Classic

The book you select doesn't have to be in the Virago edition, but one must have been published. A list of VMC's is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AkxkD80ZyZVRcGJCbThZaTd4bEYwaWk0T3JE...

My planned reads, probably too ambitious:
Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte Audiobook
Blow Your House Down - Pat Barker
Delta wedding - Eudora Welty Audiobook
The Judge - Rebecca West Nook
Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister - Aphra Benn Nook
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier Audiobook
The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West Nook
South Riding - Winifred Holtby
The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence
Union Street - Pat Barker
The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns (my only actual Virago edition)

> 26

Looks like someone saw my challenge before I got around to putting it here.

I always do the index from the wiki - which is where the challenges should be posted first (before you post an explanatory message on this thread). Just as you're doing. That keeps the wiki index of challenges matched to the correct challenge numbers. Since we have links to the explanatory messages with rules and such, where they land on the main thread doesn't really matter much at all.

#23: I can recommend Ben Aaronovitch 's Peter Grant series, book 1 is Rivers of London, I've just got my hands on the third book. Or if you want something more serious then Disobedience by Naomi Alderman was an interesting read.

For a book set in London, you might try The Baker Street Letters. It's the first book of two in a series (so far), and while I thought the second book was better, they both were good reads.

Or check out The Beekeeper's Apprentice, which partly takes place in London.

25: Some fantastic books there, Joyce. Which do you plan to begin with?

It's sort of self serving but I've created Challenge #10: Read a book with a title that includes an object that changes colors naturally.
I needed to put my group read book somewhere and I don't believe that Brooklyn has hosted the olympics lately.

Challenge #11: To mark the August appearance of the Perseid meteor shower, read a book about a warrior, or that includes one of these words in the title or author's name: "warrior", "waste", "ravage", "sack", or "destroy"

Because I love the Perseids, and this year am hoping for some clear skies in mid August.

Hmm, I'm #13...perhaps I'll let Suz explain hers first, so as not to confuse things... :)

***************************
CHALLENGE #12: Read a Scandicrime -- in other words, read a mystery or thriller set in Scandinavia and written by an author from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland or Iceland.
***************************

Pretty self-explanatory challenge, I think. Lots and lots of options here...
Incidentally, I would not include non-Scandinavian writers in this. So while Michael Ridpath is writing a series about a detective who goes back the Rekjavik to work for the Icelandic police, he's not a Scandinavian author, so....

>30 elkiedee: elkiedee, I plan on starting an audiobook of Rebecca tomorrow. My first on paper will be Union Street, and on Nook probably The Return of the Soldier. I've just discovered these editions and am pretty excited about them.

>32 jeanned: jeanned, thank you so much. I've been dawdling a bit. If I don't finish Ghost Warrior this month, we'll be joining your challenge.

I did wonder whether it was a leetle too soon after Katie's challenge from earlier in the year...but I have at least three books on the shortlist TBR that fit this, so what the heck?

Anagrams!

***********************************************
Challenge #13: Read a book where the first letter of each word in the title can be rearranged to make a single word.

***********************************************

The rules:

1. You must use the first letter of ALL words in the title, including "the", "an" and/or "a". If your book has a subtitle, you don't have to use the first letters of those words as well - but if you do, you must use all of them.
2. The letters should make a single word, but proper nouns are allowed, including names, and so are words that should have an apostrophe.
3. If the title contains a number or a symbol, use the first letter of the word for that number or symbol.
4. The word should be in English except in the case of non-English names / titles.

For example, I will be reading The Patient In Room 18 by Mignon Eberhart: T,P,I,R,E = TRIPE! :)

>37 lyzard: I've got one! To the End of the Land by David Grossman, which I was already planning to read this month.

tteotl = tottle: verb, to walk in a wavering, unsteady manner; to toddle; to topple (from The Free Online Dictionary).

>37 lyzard: I was going to put my August book club read in the recommended by someone challenge, but I already had one there and couldn't pass up the anagram: State of Wonder sow. This little piggy is going in lyzard's challenge

I'd happily read Half a Yellow sun for the recommended challenge, as I started but won't complete it for July.

>26 Citizenjoyce:- Hope I didn't see your thunder- I got excited :)

>37 lyzard: One more: In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish

itpoa = Tapio: an East Finnish forest spirit or god, who figured prominently in the Kalevala (from Wikipedia)

I love that we are getting weird words right off the bat!

@37 Oh dear... More challenges that require thinking :P

No, no, lahochstetler. I was just excited you were excited. But then, TIOLI just excites me way too much.

I've got one for Challenge 13 as well. A Rule Against Murder = A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater that is caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption, which is an explosion caused by groundwater coming into contact with hot lava or magma.

Ah... Phreatomagmatic eruption, of course *nods*

>45 Citizenjoyce: - Me too!

I think I understand Challenge #4 and I have added an entry, but Cheli, please let me know if this isn't correct.

Question for Challenge 13: do we want a thread where participants can battle it out for the strangest / most oscure word? (And so we don't hijack this thread?)

>37 lyzard: Three more!

As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury (swats)
Out of Place by Edward W. Said (poo oop)
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz (pod)

poo?

:)

I'm mentally debating that as we speak... :)

Said and poo. Two things I did not expect to see together.

"Out Of Place" is right!

Sorry! ;-)

ETA: Even though poo is a legitimate word (noun and verb, no definition needed), for the sake of decency I'll change it to oop, to bind with a thread or cord; to join; to unite (from The Free Online Dictionary).

Oh, Darryl, I probably would have allowed it - I'm not feeling at all hardline this month - but as a much more obscure word, I like "oop" better! :)

A heads-up for readers / lurkers at our new tutored read - The Warden is listed in Challenge #4, and shared reads are allowed!

if you have a book with letters, Lyzard, can you use the way they would be spelled out -- Four One Nine (fin) to make up a word??

Yes, that's perfectly fine!

By the way, I have set up a thread for those of you who have fairly obscure words for this challenge - please post your definitions here! (And copy over anything posted at this thread - thanks!)

Challenge #14: Read a book whose title includes one or more of the colors from your country's flag.

So, since I am from the USA, I can use red, white or blue.

Embedded words are fine, as are shared reads. Also, you may count foreign language versions of said colors if you wish.

This means that I can read Redshirts by John Scalzi, which I was planning on anyway, and do White Picket Prisons by Kelli Owen and Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore, both of which I had intended to do in July.

I'm looking for somewhere to place The Prisoner of Heaven and have come across a new word (for me) in the Urban Dictionary -
Poth - a creature characterized by its laziness and uncontrollable desire for carbs and high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Well, I'll wait to see what other challenges come along.

Yoyogod, I like that one, as I've got some red books left over from this month! And since my two countries have similar colors (US and Canada) the overlap doesn't become confusing.

Omigosh, I'm a poth. Life makes so much more sense now.

I think poth might describe several of us . . .

Challenge #15: Read a book whose title includes the word "life" or the word "death"

In this Life or Death Challenge, embedded words are okay, so a book called The Lifetime Achievement would be fine.

However, life means life, not lives or living or any other variation. The same is true with death. No dead or dying. However, deaths would be okay because "death" is embedded in the word.

Also, just to clarify, I use the word or. A book with life AND death in the title would be fine.

Challenge #16: Read a book with a cover that is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, or mostly brown

Note: For the first person to add a book, your actual cover needs to meet the requirements. People who add a shared read don't need to match the cover of the first person. I'm willing to define the first three adjectives rather loosely, but brown is brown. I could be persuaded to accept gray, though.

In July I read all brown books and thus didn't get to help make the rainbow. In August, I shall have my revenge.

(Never mind that I'm reading colorfully-covered books this month...)

For those of you participating in the Steinbeckathon or who just feel like reading some Steinbeck books, I've placed The Red Pony, August's read in challenge #14 and East of Eden (for those who like me started late, or not at all yet) under challenge #16 (my Penguin edition has a mostly brown—though not boring!—cover).

Heh. Challenge 16 made me laugh.

and my challenge for this month

Challenge #17: Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name

for example
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (author's name includes Amanada)
The Women's Decameron - Julia Voznesenskaya (title includes Cameron)

The name must be embedded and to make it more difficult I'm not allowing people to take a common abbreviation from the author's first name. That is if the author's name is Elizabeth (for example) you cannot use Liz, Liza, Beth, etc.

My first thought is to read A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood for Challenge #8. Has been in my TBRs for YEARS.

O god, I'm a Poth too!

Got two for 13 but mine are everyday words.
Organize your corpses (coy)
A Sea of Troubles (oats)

18-19 Sorry for the late reply, but yes, LT recommendations - either personal or a book you added to your TBR list in July based on another's comments - count as well as in-person (or, for fun, ask your librarian for recommendations! There's still two days left in July).

I go out for the evening, TIOLI check this morning - 72 posts - I mean - 72 POSTS! I will be reading posts instead of good books! Can't wait to read the 72 posts though!

> 67


In July I read all brown books and thus didn't get to help make the rainbow. In August, I shall have my revenge.

LOL!!

Shall we make this a contest? I'll be glad to offer a (small) prize when the voting is done! If so, just start a separate thread for it, and we'll call for votes after the end of August.

Great challenges this month! I had one simmering, but can't remember it now. Maybe for September.

And btw, I'm always so impressed by people who have planned out their reading, for this challenge or in any way. Except for my f2f book club reads, it's more or less what catches my eye for me.

>75 SqueakyChu: Works for me! Off to start the thread now!

ETA: A thread for boringness: http://www.librarything.com/topic/140323

Challenge 18: Read a book that contains a monetary unit in either the author's name or the title or subtitle.

I'll be reading:
A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey
and
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

As you can tell, I'll be glad to accept monetary units from any country or time period.

79!!! After haunting the board all day yesterday, this is where I end up?!

If I'd been early enough, I'd have argued against a separate thread for obscure words, because I'm enjoying seeing them here. How else would I have found out I'm a poth? I mean, I knew I was one, but I didn't know I was one. That is to say, didn't know that's what it's called. Now I have an excuse for being addicted to carbs.

Obviously, everyone's enjoying their summer holidays; this month's (that is to say, next month)(August, I mean) thread is wackier than usual. Although it's winter for me, and I should be hibernating.

Hmm. I started down the wiki for interesting books to maybe read. Spot a book by an author I haven't read in a decade or more, put it on hold at library. Return to wiki. Attempt to add. Notice book no longer there on wiki. Mmphs.

(Think of possibilities. New challenge? Read book by author haven't read in long time? Continues thinking)

> 80

Notice book no longer there on wiki.

Perhaps that book was moved to a different challenge?

It was moved. I suppose I can attempt to add it. Using phone to search and wander is difficult.

Eta: bah. Someday I will learn how to turn autocorrect off. The book I desire to read is by Poultry? Nooo, it's Poul Anderson, not Poultry Anderson. Mmphs.

Mike, LOL...

Yes, these chickens are prolific authors.. (new meaning to the phrase chick lit?)

new meaning to the phrase chick lit?

LOL! :-D

Huh, for Challenge #1, I'll be reading (am reading), The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. How they got him from Stephen King I'll never know, but I'll take it.

Challenge #1 is a fun one! I don't know that I'll actually get to them, but the lit map gave me:

Haruki Murakami for John Steinbeck, so I added Kafka on the Shore,

and

Ann Patchett for Barbara Kingsolver, so I added Bel Canto.

The former was recently loaned to me by my nephew's gf and comes highly recommended by LTers.
The latter, well, y'all know all the mixed opinions and good discussion generated by Bel Canto.

> 85

I'll be reading (am reading), The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. How they got him from Stephen King I'll never know, but I'll take it.

Yeah. I was going to start a separate thread to talk about how those authors on that website matched...until I realized that they didn't. Enjoy the random choice of authors, though! :)

Challenge #1 is fun. However, every time I put in an author's name, it gives me a whole bunch of authors' names but I've already read something by each of them.

> 88

...being the prolific reader that you are, Linda! :)

They say it's based on likelihood that a reader will like the author based on liking another one that is close by in the map. But I'm still not sure how they measured this (reader ratings?).

OK, I need to vent about challenge #4. I just spent 15 minutes trying to get the wiki to display my entry properly -- after finally figuring out -- I think -- how this works. Then I spotted something at the bottom saying "waiting for an entry ending in N". Now I THINK that this was fulfilled by the entry above mine (Broken) but if not, please, anyone feel free to delete my entry, and I think I'll just have to pass this challenge by. It has literally given me a migraine.

#89 which is a nice way of saying "someone who reads a lot of books by the same old authors."

I need to think of an author I've liked but who I've rarely read. Maybe that'll work.

#91: Suzanne, as far as I can see your entry works.

> 90

If you suggest a few authors to the computer, then it will allow you to list books that you especially like. The computer probably associates those books that you suggest to each other. I'm guessing that, with more input, the results overall will eventually improve. Remember, that website has computer-generated responses. I thought it was kind of un, though.

> 91

Suz, Your entry is correct.

Cheli, I think visual cues in parentheses for your challenge entries would work better than bolding or underlining. Your call, though.

I remain baffled by challenge #4. I mean, it makes perfect sense, but every time I look, the entries don't seem right to me somehow. I think I'll skip it, unless I can match a book that someone else is reading.

That literature map hadn't heard of my first favorite author. So I put in Dave Barry. Which gave me several I've read, plus Henry James. I was looking over James books when I recalled I'd read James before. So off to the next fav author.

Dave Barry. Henry James. Heh

My results from challenge 1 are either so obvious that I've read some or all of their books or really really obscure. It also has a lot of misspelt names in different places compared to the correctly spelled version, eg Walter Mosely and Zora Neal Hurston (both authors also appear on that screen correctly spelled. I will try and join a shared read.

Putting in Stephen King gave me Shakespeare which make me snicker.

I laughed out loud at that one, Morphi!

Karen O.

I put in Deborah Harkness and got Elizabeth Kostova, which is a good fit, I think!

Karen O.

The literature map is definitely a lot of fun to play with!

I also got a number of authors that I already was familiar with on the literature-map, but I'll give the one I have now a try, I got The Master and Margarita from George Eliot, and it gets a high rating here on LibraryThing, so I'll see about it.
I sometimes try the 'Will you like it' option here on Librarything, but they are convinced that I will like every book... Which I guess isn't that strange, since I do like pretty much all books I read, but it doesn't really help me if the app just says I'll like everything :P

Getting together the full planned reading list is still a work in progress... I'm again going to try to read a book for each of the challenges, didn't succeed in that in July, but I didn't read much in the first two weeks of July, so I might do better this time...

That Literature-map is kinda fun if not accurate!

I got Margaret Weis from Anne McCaffrey which seems to make sense

I've tried a couple; I may add something by John Burdett, as his was one of the few names that came up when I plugged in Colin Cotterill's name, whose books I hadn't already read.

I put in Larry McMurtry and got Emily Dickinson. I can see it, but it would never have entered my mind without the literature map.

My planned reads for the month:
Challenge #1: Read a book by a new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map"
RemovedPoems of Emily Dickinson, Series Three - Emily Dickinson
Challenge #2: Read a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
Challenge #7: Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - Bill Wasik/Monica Murphy
Challenge #8: Read a book that has been published as Virago Modern Classic
Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte Audiobook
Blow Your House Down - Pat Barker
AbandonedDiary of a Provincial Lady - E. M. Delafield
AbandonedDelta wedding - Eudora Welty Audiobook
The Judge - Rebecca West Nook
Loitering With Intent - Muriel Spark
RemovedLove Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister - Aphra Benn Nook
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier Audiobook
The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West Nook
Seventh Heaven - Alice Hoffman
Sights Unseen - Kaye Gibbons
Removed South Riding - Winifred Holtby
The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence
RemovedAn Unsocial Socialist - George Bernard Shaw Nook
Union Street - Pat Barker
The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns (my only actual Virago edition
A Virtuous Woman - Kaye Gibbons
Challenge #10. Read a book with a title that includes an object that changes colors naturally
Animal Farm - George Orwell - Audiobook
Challenge #11: To mark the August appearance of the Perseid meteor shower, read a book about a warrior, or that includes one of these words in the title or author's name: warrior, waste, ravage, sack, or destroy
Ghost Warrior - Lucia St. Clair Robson
Challenge #13: Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word
Heart of the Matter (moth) - Emily Giffin - Audiobook
Sea of Poppies (sop) - Amitav Ghosh - Audiobook
State of Wonder (sow)- Ann Patchett
Challenge #16: Read a book with a cover that is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, or mostly brown
Night Train - Martin Amis - Audiobook
Challenge #17: Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Challenge #19: Read a short work such as a short story or an essay with a title which follows an alphabetical sequence
All I Wanted To Do Was Dance - Sherman Alexie - from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
Curious, if True by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Doom of the Griffiths by Elizabeth Gaskell from The Doom of the Griffiths
The Enduring Chill by Flannery O'Connor from The Complete Stories
Everything That Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor from Everything That Rises Must Converge
AbandonedThe Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
In the Manner of Water or Light - Roxane Gay - from Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial
A View of the Woods - Flannery O'Connor from Everything That Rises Must Converge
A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor from The Complete Stories
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe
Jesus Christ's Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation - Sherman Alexie from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Judgment Day - Flannery O'Connor from Everything That Rises Must Converge
The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe from The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Your Borders, Your Rivers, Your Tiny Villages by Amy Bloom - from Where the God of Love Hangs Out
Challenge #20: Read a work by Maeve Binchy
Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy

Challenge 19 - read a short work such as a short story or an essay, but:

1: the title must fit into an alphabetical sequence

2: You may skip one letter at any time - so a C story can be followed by D or E

3. You can not have consecutive entries, so if you post F you need to wait for someone else to post a G (or an H)

4. The words "a" and "the" don't count

I'm sorry some are having a problem with Challenge#4.

Madeline kept saying don't make the challenges too easy, so I thought I'd add a twist this time. Guess my mind was too twisted!

#109 -- it's probably me. that said, the challenge is about as twisted as, hmm, a Mobius strip?

> 97

Dave Barry. Henry James. Heh

Maybe you need something a little more emphatic than a simple "Heh". :)

> 102

The literature map is definitely a lot of fun to play with!

Forget about matching the authors's writing styles. I like the way the authors' names dance about! :)

Stephen King also gives Jane Austen on the literature map!

OK, I cheated a bit on that one. I knew I had a mystery by Ngaio Marsh whom I've never read before..... so I entered her name, knowing that I've read quite a few mystery authors and that one of my favorites should show up. Bad streamsong. Bad.

In (a half-hearted) defense of the literature-map, it is those names that hover closest to the center name that have the most in common with that writer.

I have no idea whether Molly Keane has much in common with Anthony Trollope, but since I had one of her novels on my shortlist TBR, I was delighted to see her name pop up! :)

Ok, I finally managed to get The Family Fang onto challenge #4 and so have probably entered more books on the wiki than I'll be able to complete for the month but I've had fun finding places for them all. I'll give priority to any shared reads.

I've been having fun with the literature map. I put in Maya Angelou and got Jesus Christ, Howard Stern, and Carl Hiaasen. I'm mildly curious as to what Jesus is meant to have written.

And to add to the fun I just clicked on Jesus Christ and got Dante, Nicholas Sparks, Alice Walker, and Mark Twain.

I see myself wasting significant amounts of time on this tonight.

I can see the link between Jesus and Dante, but the others? It is an amusing little game though, I've bookmarked it for further use :) And for procrastination purposes... ;)
And I also love the little dance the names do...

Just adding: apparently Monty Python is also an author... Hmmmm...

My planned reads for August:

Challenge #1: Read a book by a new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map"
Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis (from Anne McCaffrey)

Challenge #4: Read a book where the Title either begins with the same letter as the one above or ends with the same letter, alternating.
Light in August by William Faulkner

Challenge #5: Read a book that was recommended to you by one of your parents, or is/was a favourite of one of your parents
Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman

Challenge #8: Read a book published as a Virago Modern Classic
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Challenge #10: Read a book with a title that includes an object that changes colors naturally
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Challenge #12: Read a "Scandicrime", a mystery or thriller written by an author from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland or Iceland
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (Norway)

Challenge #13: Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word
First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (firm)

Challenge #14: Read a book whose title includes one or more of the colors from your country's flag.
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

Challenge #16: Read a book with a cover that is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, or mostly brown
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Challenge #17: Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Carrol) by Lewis Carroll
Frankenstein (Ken) by Mary Shelley
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Ava or Brad)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (Ula - Fashion designer Ula Zukowska
www.ula2.com)

Challenge #19: Read a short work such as a short story or an essay with a title which follows an alphabetical sequence
Country of the Blind from Country of the Blind and Other Stories by H.G.Wells

I've decided to have a very Virago August - #Challenge 8.
Have signed up for:
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (shared read)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I just realized that a couple of books that I am reading this month fit Challenge #17: Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name"
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

And another one! For challenge #17
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Ken)

Sorry Cathy but Carroll is not embedded.

I like the Ken in Frankenstein though:) Well spotted!

And another! For # 17
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Ava or Brad)

For the 'money in the title' I can highly recommend the Small Change series of counterfactual country-house mysteries, Farthing, Ha'penny and Half A Crown.

Slightly off-topic... I too like the word 'poth'. But it doesn't quite beat my current favourite word:

cacoethes - pronunciation: /ˌkakəʊˈiːθiːz/, an urge to do something inadvisable.

Origin: mid 16th century: via Latin from Greek kakoēthes 'ill-disposed', from kakos 'bad' + ēthos 'disposition'

That IS a good one . . . Did you find a book to fit this into challenge 13?! : )

Right, that's quite a challenge, off to comb my shelves....

This may be a first.

I picked up a book that was sitting on MT TBR for several years--one that Mom had passed on to me. I placed it in challenge 5 (book recommended by a parent), started reading it and **oops** finished it in July. So I moved it over to one of last month's challenges. :-)

Luckily I have several more waiting to be read in that challenge. Mom's taste and mine don't always agree, but I think I have several quick reads living on the mountain. I also have unread books from my father and even my deceased mother-in-law.

#82 - Sorry to confuse you Mike, I was the one who moved The High Crusade. It was originally on Morphy's challenge, but when I saw JeanneD had it on her own challenge, I moved it there.

> 124
Darn!! I missed the word 'embedded' in Challenge number 17 so no Lewis Carroll ... oh. well, reading them anyway ...grin...

You'd wonder how I could miss it since it is even underlined!

#131 I'm planning for James Patterson and JD Robb for that one. I just need to see where I've left off with those authors.

After the passing of Maeve Binchy yesterday, something by her would fit in under that challenge as well (Eve). I need to check out what books of hers I own.

Maeve Binchy died? Oh. I just got a couple of her books. Maybe I can find a place for one of them. I loved the ones I read years ago.

I've updated message 108 to try and make the rules clearer - as with other previous alphabetical challenges, you can't list consecutive letters - sorry Suzanne, your G story will have to wait until the next run round.

#133, Yes, yesterday, after a short illness. I think she was 72. My mother's favorite author.

On the Lewis Caroll issue: Carol is embedded in Carroll, so I think that would still work?

Thanks, Luci -- that wasn't clear, and I think the other rolling challenge this month had permitted sequential entries, so....

It was stated but I have rewritten my whole explanation to spell out my rules.

136 I guess that wouldn't work because Carroll has two r's and Carol only has one...

On the same challenge though: are foreign names allowed? I have the name Mai embedded in one of my titles, which is quite a common Swedish name, but it doesn't really work in English...

cathy (ccookie) - I've been looking around and have found some people with the first name Carrol. I'll allow that as dropping that last L would make it acceptable.

If I hadn't done the embedded condition then books with people's names in the title would have been alright (and there have been challenges similar to that in the past) or it could be the reverse of last month's surname is also a first name challenge:)

Got to give things a twist and I had a few on my TBR that fit:)

> 136
His name is Carroll
A first name is either Carol or Carroll - the first is not there, the second is not embedded ...

#139 - Britt - if you know someone or I can google someone with that first name I'll accept it. I've already checked a couple:)

Here's a thread for discussion on the challenge - I'm looking forward to getting some recommendations, just in case I run out of short story collections and anthologies to read (like that's about to happen).

http://www.librarything.com/topic/140377

>140 calm:
So I can use it after all. Back to add it in again!! lol

#141 Cathy see 140:)

Edit to say - cross post - yes you can:)

142 - It's on wikipedia as a 'given name' in Swedish and apparently also as an Arabic and Vietnamese name...
And there's a famous (ok, not very famous, but still) Swedish actress called Mai Zetterling.

146 - That's fine then:)

I'm waiting for an O in the short story challenge!!

I just listed a story called Letter to Josephine so as soon as someone lists an M or N it's yours, if you get in quick enough! (you can skip one letter)

DUH. Never mind. I'm having a slow day. (slinking back to my corner)

I added a challenge 20, in memory of Maeve Binchy.

Challenge #20: Read a book by Maeve Binchy

I don't think I've ever read anything by her, but I've wanted to, for a long time. Here's my chance (and yours!) This challenge could serve as a sort of wake for the author, who just passed away.

Karen O.

p.s. I've listed Circle of Friends, a book that was highly recommended by my librarian friends.

ccookie--I just put up an 'M' short story. Go for it!

I like challenge 7 (read a book someone recommended to you in the last month). My Personal Friend, Nancy Pearl, recently recommended a number of books to me. Okay, she's not my Personal Friend, but I did attend a webinar featuring her and the Nancy Pearl-selected "Book Lust Rediscoveries" series. It was an excellent webinar, hosted by Booklist. A few of the authors of the books participated in the webinar, and it was a treat to get some behind-the-scenes insights into the writing and publishing process.

Here is the current list of "Book Lust Rediscoveries" (or go to Amazon and search for the series:

After Life by Rhian Ellis
Fool by Frederick G. Dillen
The Last Night at the Ritz by Elizabeth Savage
A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller
The Cowboy and the Cossack by Clair Huffaker

I believe there will be twelve books, all told, in the series.

I've put Fool, A Gay and Melancholy Sound, and The Cowboy and the Cossack in challenge 7. I put After Life in challenge 15 (the Life and Death challenge). I started running out of ILL requests, but Last Night at the Ritz is on my TBR!

I hope you'll join me in one or more of these reads. I've dipped into the books that I have, and they are wonderful! As Nancy was just saying to me!

Karen O.

I added Maeve Binchy's Heart and Soul to the Binchy challenge.

It's set at a heart clinic. I saw an interview with Binchy on Amazon where she said she set it there because she herself visits a heart clinic.

Thanks, Linda! I'm always nervous when I add a challenge--"What if I give a party and nobody shows up?"

Karen O.

There's a new Binchy scheduled for next Feb, A Week in Winter, and an untitled one for next June. The second one might be in doubt...

There are other Irish authors who write in the same vein, such as Cathy Kelly.

(Regarding: Challenge #11: To mark the August appearance of the Perseid meteor shower, read a book about a warrior, or that includes one of these words in the title or author's name: "warrior", "waste", "ravage", "sack", or "destroy")

Is this challenge limited to titles/author names containing 'only these words? It doesn't seem so, looking at the titles there. Would titles containing the word "soldier" be appropriate? I've got Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Good Soldier and I'm wondering where they might fit into August TIOLI.

I don't know, "soldier" doesn't seem to have the violent connotations of the other words. So, I will not be upset if you tell me "no"!

Karen O.

#155 no problem. I'd talked about putting her book in the embedded names challenge but this is a nice tribute for her.

Missed the "O" for # 19, now I'm waiting for "R"

I'm glad someone did a Maeve Binchy challenge. I've read all her books, so sad. But I'm pleased to see that she will have a new book out. She 'retired' but then Minding Frankie came out. At least there will be one more.

I'm excited about the Maeve Binchy challenge too. Now, to go dig out one of her books...

> 153

My Personal Friend, Nancy Pearl, recently recommended a number of books to me.

Karen, funny you should say this! At a past National Book Festival, I ran into Nancy Pearl (for real!) who'd been walking around after she gave her presentation. I did ask her for a personal recommendation - which she hesitated to give. I convinced her that it was just for fun, and, after telling her the kind of books I like, she recommended that I read The Mandarins. I haven't read it yet, nor am I convinced that it's the kind of book I like. It was really fun, though, to meet Nancy Pearl in person and get the chance to talk to her. :)

To those of you with separate threads this month, please include a link back to the main thread in your thread's first message. Thanks!

>157 klobrien2:

The challenge is limited to these specific words appearing in the book's title OR the author's name, embedded or otherwise,
OR
your categorization of the book as being about a warrior (so Cold War warrior could apply!).

calm, will you accept Ning as a first name (it's Chinese, usually used as a family name but also as a first name)? I think I saw someone asking about foreign names, but not sure anymore. I looked on Facebook and found a friend of one of my friends by that name. The book is Potsdam Station by David Downing, by the way.

Ilana - any first name from any language as long as it is embedded. The only exception is if it is a common abbreviation taken from an actual first name - for example no Will from William or Liz from Elizabeth.

OK, calm. I think I may have made a mistake. I've used reg our of Gregory. Reg is an abbreviation of Reginald so I guess that doesn't work for your challenge. Let me know and I'll remove it.

No Lynda that is fine - Reg isn't a common abbreviation for Gregory - if you had used Greg it would have been different:)

Oh! I get it now! *wipes sweat off brow* Thanks, for clearing that up for me, calm.

#156 Suz, I wonder if they've moved up Maeve Binchy's posthumous novel. Amazon shows it's due out in mid October now.

166: Oops, I guess I will remove Billy Bathgate from the embedded name challenge. I felt a little sneaky about that one!

Karen O.

164: So Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy because George Smiley is a Cold War warrior? That works for me!

Karen O.

Oh, good, I can squeeze in The English Achilles both because of Achilles in the title and the fact that the bio's subject was a famous warrior!!

I was going to read The Companions by Sheri S. Tepper (CJ Cherryh) as my Challenge 1 choice, but it wasn't available at the library. I chose Six Moon Dance instead.

HELP! I am new to this...do I just start a thread about my challenge (#1) or try to enter my book in the Wiki thing? I have read over the Wiki instructions, and admit that I am at a loss...I don't know how to do it!

I need a child to show me, I guess...

I'll give it a shot, fuzzi.

Yes, you just add your choice to the challenge on the wiki page in the right space--alphabetically by title for challenge 1.

You need to go to the work page for the book that you want to add and copy the entire url including the work number (I open a second window to do this.).

On the wiki page, click the edit button to the right of the challenge number.

Add your book in the right place by typing: # addressofyourbook Title of Your Book There is one space between the url addy and the title. You can follow the entry above you for spacing of dashes and author's name and all the rest.

It's not as hard as it seems--you post pictures all the time so this should be easy--just follow the one above you. I've been told that we can't mess up the wiki--there's a memory feature so if you do make something disappear, it's easily fixed if you just post the problem here.

Hope that's a clear enough explanation.......

Glad to see you here!

ETA--my square brackets aren't showing up in my example above. The first one goes right before the url addy and the second after the title of your book.

I just follow what everybody else does, that way I don't really need to know how to do stuff myself, I just copy from other entries... And you can also use the preview option, that way you can check before saving to see if you haven't done anything horribly wrong :)

Anyways, I have made up my reading list for this coming month... Since Carrol was accepted as a name I'm overdoing challenge 17 a bit, and I haven't found anything suitable for challenge 18 yet, so we'll have to see if I can find something to go there.

#1: The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
#2: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
#3: Ink - Sabrina Vourvoulias
#4: North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
The Warden - Anthony Trollope
#5: Inconceivable - Ben Elton
#6: Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie
#7: Follow the River - James Alexander Thom
#8: Agnes Grey - Anne Brontë
#9: Possession - AS Byatt
#10: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
#11: The High Crusade - Poul Anderson
#12: Red Wolf - Liza Marklund
#13: The World as Story - Anthony C Patton
#14: The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
#15: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
#16: East of Eden - John Steinbeck
#17: Maiden in Light - Kathryn L Ramage
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
The Island of Doctor Moreau - HG Wells
#18: ...
#19: Some Popular Fallacies about Vivisection - Lewis Carroll
#20: Circle of Friends - Maeve Binchy

Calm, could I use the name Al which is embedded in the title, Family Album for your challenge?

Dee - that's fine:)

Really didn't think I would have quite so many questions about what is acceptable.

Recap of rules

You may use any embedded first name in either title or author's name.

Only exception being a common abbreviation taken from an actual first name as it appears in the title or author's first name.

Hope this is clear:)

I did it! I found a place to put Dracula by Bram Stoker. There is a fashion designer here in Toronto named Ula - Ula Zukowska www.ula2.com.

Waste time on the internet much!?!?!

> 174

Hi, fuzzi, and welcome to the TIOLI challenges! Adding a book is easier than it seems, so give it a try.

Here are more directions for how to add a book to the wiki if you don't have success with streamsong's explanation. I tried to water that explanation down into the fewest words that I could and yet ensure success! :)

If it doesn't come out right, just let us know and we'll help you fix it. You cannot mess anything up that we cannot fix if we know about it right away...so you're safe! :)

Great to have you on board!

My new approach is to just let ccookie add all my books, and then copy paste. It's a very good approach, I think, and saves me a lot of work ;)

I've been using the LT search to look for first names.

For ccookie's Ula, search on Ula and then click on the left side for authors. Sure enough, there are several authors with the first name of Ula.

That's how how I confirmed "Rian" as a name embedded in "Brian" for the ER book I used-- again there are several authors with the first name of Rian. I have no clue if they are male--Rian pronounced like Ryan; or female--Rian pronounced like ReeAnn.

> 181

My new approach is to just let ccookie add all my books, and then copy paste. It's a very good approach, I think, and saves me a lot of work

I really work hard, though, to get challengers independent with using the wiki. Once you understand the process of entering books, it's a breeze. You can then make use of the wiki in other parts of LibraryThing as well.

Each LibraryThing user has his/her own wiki-page. (See left hand column of this page where it says "Your WikiThing Page). Your own wiki page makes a great area for working on and storing information related to books. You can also create other pages for multiple users to use. It's really brilliant!

It's ok, I know how the page works... I just read a lot of books in common with ccookie this month, and she already added all of them, so I was having an easy time adding my planned reads :)

I did not know that we all have our own wikipage though! I'm, well, a bit excited, and then again I wouldn't really know what to do with it... But I should fiddle around with that some time soon, I'd like to get better at working with wiki's... Thanks for the tip! :)

That was the idea of making everyone here learn the wiki. It's to get others familiar enough with the wiki to play with it elsewhere on LT. There are tons of features here on LT that no one knows about. The wiki (and my ability to use it to create the TIOLI challenges) was one of the "hooks" that has kept me here on LT for so long.

> 181 ROFL ...

> 183 ... I had no idea that I had my own wkithing! What do people put there?

>187 ccookie: I use mine as a commonplace book (although I tend to just write things in my physical commonplace book and never get around to typing them up) and a place to house my Favorite Fiction by Year lists. http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/User:Casvelyn

> 188
ok then
I'll have to think about this. More time to 'waste' on the internet!

There's a series I stumbled across through TOLI, well the author. So far most of the books in the series meet no current challenge, and all seem to be roughly 159 pages in length, so my challenge to read a book in the upper range of the short novel length book, and the lower range of the middle novel length book, which I've just called "middle length work" for the challenge.

====Challenge #21: Read a middle-length work (between 150-288 pages total) - started by MikeBriggs====

This month's planned reads:

Challenge #1 Literature Map Recommendation: The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Challenge #5 Recommended by a Parent: Open by Andre Agassi
Challenge #6 Summer Scene: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Challenge #7 Recommended in July: Homeland by R.A. Salvatore
Challenge #10 Item Changes Color: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Challenge #11 Warrior: Legend by Marie Lu (library description says it is about war - if I start reading it and it doesn't fit, I'll move it)

It will be interesting to see how well my actual reads at the end of the month match up to the plan - though I've already finished Open and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is for my book group, so I should be good. :)

I've added The Unknown Ajax to challenge 17. The Social Security Administration lists Jax as a popular name 2005, 2007-2011. Though it's highest rank was 319 in 2011. Lowest rank, while remaining on the list of 1000 most popular names, was 991 in 2005.

That inability to take nicknames from other names to which it is a nickname keeps me from using Frederica for that challenge 17 (Frederica being the title of the book). I know at least one woman in Heyer books named Frederica who goes by Fred, so I can't use Fred. No idea if Erica would be a nickname a person named Frederica would use. I could go with Red, but that's only Red Forman's nickname, not his actual first name (did not know his actual first name was Reginald until I looked it up on IMDB. hmm.).

#193 All the Frederica's I've known, well both of them anyway, have been informally called Freddy (or Freddi).

Ed is also embedded within that name.

As is Eric

That name sure does have a lot of names embedded in it. heh. Yes, I overlooked Ed. I've never known a Frederica. Though I did just remember another woman named Fred, a woman on that TV show Angel. Though she got Fred from her first name of Winifred.

> 193
Rica Erickson - naturalist, painter, author, historian and genealogist? If it would be allowed

Woo! I did it, thanks to all who helped!

I actually COPIED SqueakyChu's 'html', pasted it at the end, and then edited it to add my book information.

:)

Good work fuzzi! See, just do what everybody else does, and you'll be just fine :) And before you know it, you'll be doing all sorts of things on the wiki... ;)

Britt, I hope not! I spend too much time on 'the web' as it is...

Someone needs to put up a 'U' or 'V' in challenge #19 ... just sayin'

> 198

Woo! I did it

Hooray!!

>201 ccookie: Done! On to W or X

I don't have anything until 'A' ;(

I lied!

for challenge # 19
I'm having a lot of fun with this. I just looked at some of my anthologies and found this:

'A Weekend with the Angels' by E B. White who wrote Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little in An Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor edited by Bennet Cerf (1954) from my Dad's library (he died in 1968)(my Dad, that is, not Bennet Cerf. I don't know when he died!)

> challenge 19
next up - 'Y' or 'Z'

Frederica von Stade -- my fave opera singer ever -- is known as "Flicka".

"Eric" is also embedded in Frederica.

I just went to add another short story to number 19 'The Artist of the Beautiful' by Nathaniel Hawthorne - from Mosses from an Old Manse - ccookie and Britt had beaten me to it! LOL

next up 'B' or 'C'

Yeah, I figured I'd also do my part... I've also added The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, I think you might want to join me on that story as well :)

>209 Britt84:
done and done.
Cathy

My TIOLI list for the month. I get totally carried away by rolling challenges, I just can't stop adding things. Fortunately challenge 19 items are short.

#1: There but for the - Ali Smith
#2: Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil
#4: The Warden - Anthony Trollope
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively
Thirty-Three Teeth - Colin Cotterill
The Spoilt City - Olivia Manning
The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny
Broken Harbor - Tana French
Scandal - Shusaku Endo
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
#6: Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
#7: Go Tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin
#8: Brown Girl, Brownstones - Paule Marshall
#9: Possession - AS Byatt
The Secret River - Kate Grenville
#10: Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
#12: Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell
The Silence of the Grave - Arnaldur Indridason
#13: Palace of Desire - Naguib Mahfouz
The Shape of Water - Andrea Camillieri
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
#17: Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
#19: Everything that Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor
A View of the Woods - Flannery O'Connor
People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical - Lorrie Moore
Jesus is Waiting - Amy Hempel
Yesterday's Weather - Anne Enright

For me, this is very, very optimistic!

Challenge #7: Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month
Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny (recommended by souloftherose)

Challenge #10: Read a book with a title that includes an object that changes colors naturally
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith

Challenge #13: Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word
A Rule Against Murder (maar) - Louise Penny

Challenge #14: Read a book whose title includes one or more of the colors from your country's flag
The Red Pony - John Steinbeck

Challenge #15: Read a book whose title includes the word "life" or the word "death
Still Life - Louise Penny

Challenge #17: Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name
Inukshuk - Gregory Spatz completed

Challenge #18: Read a book which contains a monetary unit in the author's name or in the title or subtitle
The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny

Hey, I just added Still Life by Louise Penny to the money challenge... I'll move it over to make it a shared read with you Carmenere :)
I haven't read anything by Louise Penny, but she seems rather popular in this group, so I figured I'd give it a try :)

I'm also really enjoying the short story/work challenge. I'm hoping to read one a day and complete two books of short stories: Naguib Mahfouz's The Time and the Place and a western writer, Dorothy Johnson's book The Hanging Tree. I have a couple of anthologies on the mountain that I can use to fill as we need. So far I'm on track as it's August 3rd and I've read three short works.

You and me both, Anne... Given that I've got some stuff happening IRL, I'm being absurdly ambitious this month.

>183 SqueakyChu: : Ooh, I have my own wiki page! Just had a look at it, but it's blank. :( What to do, what to do ?...

I used to keep a list of possible TIOLI challenges on my LT wiki page ... until someone discovered them! Now I keep them only on my home PC. :D

Sneaky . . .

Heh!

I decided to give myself plenty of choices this month, so here are the books I've listed:

Challenge #1: new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map"
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (William Boyd)
Part of the Furniture by Mary Welsey (Muriel Spark)

Challenge #2: a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Challenge #3: Read a book about an alternate Earth
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

Challenge #4: Title either begins or end with the same letter as the one above
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
The Tenant and the Motive by Javier Cercas

Challenge #5: recommended to you by one of your parents
Teach Yourself to Dream by David Fontana (dad)

Challenge #8: book published as a Virago Modern Classic
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Challenge #14: title includes one or more of the colors from your country's flag
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

Challenge #16: a cover that is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, or mostly brown
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill

Challenge #17: embedded first name in either the title or author's name
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (John)
Potsdam Station by David Downing (Ning)

Challenge #21: Read a middle-length work; 150-288 pages total
Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac (275)

More options (not listed)

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (#2 a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist)
At Mrs Lippincote's by Elizabeth Taylor (#8 book published as a Virago Modern Classic)
The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor (#8)
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor (#8)
Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor (#8)
A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor (#8)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (#8)

I've added Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by Martin Gayford to challenge #7 as it was recommended to me by several people in my painting class just last week.

I just finished my first TIOLI book of the month, Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz, the second book in The Cairo Trilogy. It wasn't as superb as Palace Walk but it was still a very good read.

These are my planned TIOLI books for the month so far:

Challenge #1: : Read a book by a new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map"
The Comedians by Graham Greene

Challenge #2: : Read a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil - reading
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
The Yips by Nicola Barker

Challenge #4: Read a book where the Title either begins with the same letter as the one above or ends with the same letter, alternating
Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs by Adonis
Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Challenge #7: Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month
Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami

Challenge #13: Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word
As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury
Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney - completed
In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish
Out of Place by Edward W. Said - reading
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz - completed
To the End of the Land by David Grossman

Challenge #21: Read a middle-length work (between 150-288 pages total)
Silence by Shusaku Endo - reading

I have a couple of books that I hope to read in August that I have not yet been able to fit in the TIOLI, but here's what I've been able to include:

Challenge 1: New-to-you author . . . literature-map
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs

Challenge 4: Title begins or ends with same letter, alternating
False Premises by Leslie Caine

Challenge 5: Recommended or favourite of parents
The Bobbsey Twins by Laura Lee Hope - already completed

Challenge 15: "Life" or "Death"
Death at Dartmoor by Robin Paige
Death Tidies Up by Barbara Colley

Challenge 16: Boring, Uninteresting, Uninspiring, or Mostly Brown Cover
The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia - I'm about halfway through this one.

Challenge 17: Embedded first name in title or author's name
Apples Are from Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins - The touchstone doesn't work.
Wedding Rows by Kate Kingsbury

Challenge 18: Monetary unit in author's name, title, or subtitle
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey - I'm about halfway through this one too.

Challenge 20: Work by Maeve Binchy
The Copper Beach by Maeve Binchy

Challenge 21: Middle-length book
Murder Over Easy by Marshall Cook - already completed
Southern Discomfort by Margaret Maron

One of the ones, I'm trying to fit is Apples Are from Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins which I hope to read for my Europe Endless challenge. Another one on my list for the month is The Witch Doctor's Wife by Tamar Myers. I didn't like the second one all that well, but it may have been because I had not read the first one so I want to give that one a chance. If I don't get to it this month, it's okay. When I made the list, I had not expected to win the second one as an ER book earlier this year. I'm really not in that big of a rush to read it.

My TIOLI Listings:
* shared read

Challenge #1: Literature Map
*Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro - Reading
Challenge #2: Read a book from the 2012 Booker Prize longlist
*Bring up the bodies - Hilary Mantel
*Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil

Challenge #3: Read a book about an alternate Earth
Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch (magic/supernatural) - Reading

Challenge #4: Read a book where the Title either begins with the same letter as the one above or ends with the same letter, alternating
The Taniwha's Tear - David Hair - Reading
The Helmet of Horror - Victor Pelevin
The Diddakoi - Rumer Godden
*The Family Fang - Kevin Wilson - Reading
My name was Judas - CK Stead

Challenge #7: Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month
Tooth and claw - Jo Walton (recommended by ronincats)
The whispering muse - Sjón (recommended by psutto)

Challenge #11: To mark the August appearance of the Perseid meteor shower, read a book about a warrior
Bloodsong - Melvin Burgess

Challenge #13: Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word
*Owls do Cry - (cod) - Janet Frame
*This is shyness (sit) - Leanne Hall - Reading

Challenge #14: Read a book whose title includes one or more of the colors from your country's flag
Red Rocks - Rachael King
Yellow Blue Tibia - Adam Roberts

Challenge #16: Read a book with a cover that is boring, uninteresting, uninspiring, or mostly brown
The dragon man - Gary Disher
*Palace Walk - Naguib Mahfouz
The Prisoner of Heaven - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Challenge #17: Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name
Brilliance - Anthony McCarten (Lian)
Celandine - Steve Augarde (Elan) - Reading
A High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes (Hugh)
*I am Forbidden - Anouk Markovits (Mark)

Challenge #19: Read a short work such as a short story or an essay with a title which follows an alphabetical sequence
The Visit to the Museum - Vladimir Nabokov from Black Water: Anthology of Fantastic Literature

Challenge #21: Read a middle-length work (between 150-288 pages total)
The Dungeon (222) - Lynne Reid Banks

I've got quite a few shared reads and will try to get them all read. I've made a start on quite a few, and have been pleasantly surprised by how different This is Shyness is to what I expected.
I am Forbidden is due back at the library in a couple of days, so I might have to get it out again. Priority at present is probably Whispers underground as there is a queue for it at the library so I'd like to return it asap.
There's about 25 books on my list and it was fun to add them in dribs and drabs to the wiki. So far I've read Red Rocks a children's selkie story set in New Zealand, The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (ongoing series) and The Dungeon by Lynne Reid Banks, a historical children's fiction.

So far, these are the short stories I have added to challenge #19
1. Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells from The Country of the Blind and Other Stories
2. The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe from The Portable Edgar Allan Poe - ccookie
3. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment - Nathaniel Hawthorne - from Twice-Told Tales - ccookie
4. Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - from Mosses from an Old Manse - ccookie
5. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe - from The Portable Edgar Allan Poe- ccookie
6. A Weekend with the Angels- E. B. White - from - An Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor - ccookie COMPLETED
7. The Artist of the Beautiful by Nathaniel Hawthorne - from Mosses from an Old Manse - ccookie
8. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allen Poe - from The Portable Edgar Allan Poe - ccookie
9. The Rather Difficult Case of Mr. K*A*P*L*A*N- Leonard Q. Ross - from - An Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor - ccookie

Next letter up is "S" or "T"

I've now read and reviewed two of my five TOLI reads. I do not recommend The Black Stiletto by Raymond Benson, nor War Maid's Own by David Weber. I do not have any current plans to review the other three. Though I didn't plan to review these two either.

Palace Walk is currently listed in challenges 16 (2 readers) and 17 (1 reader).

I've added Lord John and the Hand of Devils to Challenge 9 - set in an Olympic city. It's a book of three short stories, two of which are set in and around London (the other being set in a town in Germany).
It could also fit into the 'mostly brown' challenge, since the cover is mostly brown - but certainly not boring.

ETA : Could be a quickie read for the end of the month.

#227 I've moved mine to challenge 16 to add to the shared read their - thanks Luci!

Whoops, I've just removed Tall Poppies from Challenge #1, I hadn't noticed the "new-to-me" author part before. Now I'm off to see if I can fit it into another challenge.

#230 The name, Al, is embedded in the title, Judy.

I finished and REVIEWED the second book in The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz's Palace of Desire. That was for Read a book where the first letter of the title words can be rearranged to make a single word Challenge.

Now I'm reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the challenge to read a book that has something that changes colors in the title.

Okay, now my turn in adding my TIOLI for this month

3. Read a book about an alternate Earth
The City & The City - China Mieville - completed

15. Read a book whose title includes the word "life" or the word "death"
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

17. Read a book with an embedded first name in either the title or author's name
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - (Carrol) by Lewis Carroll
Frankenstein (Ken) - by Mary Shelley
Dracula - Bram Stoker (Ula - Fashion designer Ula Zukowska www.ula2.com

7. Read a book someone recommended to you in the last month
Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay

1. Read a book by a new-to-you author chosen from a list of author names generated at “Literature-Map"
Mosses from an Old Manses (collected short stories) - Nathaniel Hawthorne (Frank Herbert)

Somebody has listed The Prisoner of Heaven in challenge #21, I have it listed in challenge #16 (Boring and/or brown cover) and have already posted the book's cover on the thread that was set up so prefer not to move my entry to the other challenge.

Drachenbraut, ccookie and I put a number of the stories from Poe and Hawthorne in the short story challenge (challenge #19), so you could also join us for those :)

#231 - Thanks, Linda, I completely missed that when I was looking for a challenge earlier.

> 233 drachenbraut23

Don't forget to add all the Coursera readings to the wiki page. We will have a lot of shared reads this month!!

Had big family reunion last weekend so was reallllllly busy! And I am away for 5 days this weekend. I am worried about getting Dracula finished in time. However, I am really enjoying it! As several people have mentioned, I find that it is nice to be reading something with a plot!

>234 avatiakh: I hadn't seen it in the other challenge, but I'll move it to get the points. Thanks for the head's up! :)

Speaking of books listed in separate challenges, The Brutal Telling is listed both in Challenge #16 (brown) and #18 (monetary unit).

I've added The Book of Dreams by Traci Harding to Challenge 3 - set on an alternate earth. Traci Harding is an Australian author; this book is a fantasy involving Aboriginal people who are guardians of the land being given powers to help protect the land.

Aha! My first three reads of the month just happened to have a resting place in challenges. Desolation Road for #3, The Custom of the Country for #17, and Silence of the Grave for #12 and a shared read. I'm feeling VERY accomplished, although I must confess I planned none of this.

Ooh, I read The Prisoner of Heaven this week. I've added it to #16.
What an interesting series. I guess there is 1 or even 2 more coming, too.

I've just finished my book for the first challenge... I got The Master and Margarita, based on the fact that I filled in the name George Eliot. I did really love it and enjoyed it very much, but I personally wouldn't recommend it to anyone if they said that they enjoyed George Eliot. It's just a completely different style of novel, and I'm sure that many people who do enjoy George Eliot would not enjoy The Master and Margarita at all. Still, it was a nice experiment using the literature-map thing :)

Have any of you found a place for the ER book The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber yet? I don't want to add it somewhere else if people have already added it to one of the challenges.

Lori,

How about Challenge #6 Read a book with a summer scene on the cover

Seems like summer with the flowers and the water in the background.

I was thinking of that spot too, Cheli. Someone else pointed out that there were a couple of short forms of names in it as well. I'll probably do the summer scene though since I don't have anything in that category. I didn't spot it anywhere else in the challenge.

calm, for your challenge #17 with embedded first name, can that embedded name straddle two words? as in: Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck. None of the entries so far show that, so thought it best to check.

We're now on page 2.

(mistaken entry)