Take It Or Leave It Challenge - November 2015 - 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

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For November, 2015, I challenge all TIOLI participants to...

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Read a book whose author's name contains a mark other than plain English letters
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Rules and ideas:
1. You can use hyphenated names, thereby using the hyphen as the "mark" (e.g. Arturo Pérez-Reverte).
2. You can use the apostophe of contracted names (e.g. Tim O'Brien).
3. You can use names with English letters that have foreign punctuation or marks (e.g. Harry Lindstrøm, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Federico García Lorca, Patrick Süskind).
4. The middle name can be abbreviated - if it's on LT that way (e.g. John R. Tunis)

You should find other interesting examples as well. Feel free to share those you find most noteworthy!

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

1. The November 2015 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 09/23/14)

Wiki Index of Challenges:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book whose author's name contains a mark other than plain English letters - msg #1
2. Read a book in which one of the characters is a military veteran or is currently serving - msg #3
3. Read a book that is the 11th (or later) book in a series - msg #4
4. Read a challenging book - msg #5
5. Read a Fantasy - msg #6
6. Read a book with a plural personal pronoun in the title - msg #7

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a work with some connection to the visual arts - msg #8
8. Read a book with red on the cover - msg #9
9. Read a book whose title completes the phrase "I am thankful for" - msg #13
10. Read a book by an author whose name contains no repeating vowels - msg #14
11. Read a play (in memory of Brian Friel) - msg #16
12. Read a book that has to do with wilderness or frontier pioneers - msg #17

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book co-written by a pair of spouses - msg #20
14. Read a book that was first published at the end of a war - msg #22
15. Read a memoir or autobiography by a creative woman - msg #30
16. Read a book with a subtitle at least twice as long as the title - msg #41
17. Read a book containing the phrase "Don't be afraid" or "Have no fear" - msg #51
18. Read a book with a word in the title that is not something to be thankful for - msg #57

Challenge #19-20
19. Read a book written by a Scottish-born author - msg #64
20. Read a book about a family with a name in the title - msg #68

Please save your challenge until the December TIOLI challenges go up. Thank you!

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Challenge # 2: Read a book in which one of the characters is a military veteran or is currently serving

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Veterans Day:

Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is an annual United States holiday honoring armed service veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)
Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said
"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

Although "Veterans Day" is an American observance, for this challenge, read a book where one of the characters is a veteran or is currently serving in the military of any country. This can be a war book, or post war, between wars, cold war, anything as long as the identity of the character fits the parameter of the challenge.

ETA:

Secret Service members during war times can also be counted for this challenge.

Challenge #3: Read a book that is the 11th (or later) book in a series

Pretty self-explanatory, I'd say.

It's the challenge challenge! :D

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Challenge #4: Read a challenging book

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For this challenge, "challenging" is in the eye of the beholder. Your book may be challenging because of its difficult subject matter; it may be by an author you were frightened off in high school; it may not be in your first language; it may be of a genre you normally never read; or it may simply be lo-oo-oo-ng...

In short, if you consider a book "challenging", it qualifies.

Please add a note to the wiki explaining your choice.

ETA: Matched reads are allowed; Person #2 doesn't have to find the book challenging.

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Challenge #5: Read A Fantasy

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Since November around my place can be a dreary, gray, and boring month, I am planning on adding some color and excitement by reading a few fantasies. Pretty staightforward - if it's tagged here at LT as a fantasy, then it fits.

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Challenge #6
Read a Book Whose Title Contains a Plural Personal Pronoun or Possessive
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We're a group, and I've been thinking about groups, and plurals, and came up with this challenge. Read a book whose title includes a plural personal pronoun, such as "We".

In this particular case, embedded words are NOT acceptable. Sorry, but that might make it waaaay too easy. And there are already a lot of books that qualify!

In a nutshell, the words that are acceptable are:

We
Us
You
Our
Your
They
Them
Their

If you think I've missed any, let me know.

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Challenge #7 : Read a work with some connection to the visual arts
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From Wikipedia:
The visual arts are art form such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, filmmaking and architechture….Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.

Read a work that is somehow connected to the visual arts. The main character could be an artist, the plot could include art theft or forgery, the title might include an artist’s name or the work could be a nonfiction about a type of artwork or a biography of an artist. And since I sincerely appreciated some of the broader Challenges in October (without them some of my books would have been homeless), I will also allow surname matches of author/visual artist. To keep it easy, any visual artist who has a Wikipedia entry is acceptable.

If it’s not obvious from the title, please note of it fits the Challenge or for artist author match, please add the artist’s full name.

BTW, for video / filmmaking, I’m looking for directors, editors, cinematographers and videographers, not actors.

Challenge #8 - Read a book with red on the cover

Your copy must have the red.

>9 lahochstetler: With all respect, that's pretty much identical to challenge #12 in September -- read a book with a cover that looks like autumn. Are there any twists you can add to it? (I remember having an unexpectedly hard time the first time around finding a book for this challenge; that's why I recall...)

I changed it. I've been in the middle of a move and haven't been paying as much attention to TIOLI as usual. Somehow I totally missed that September challenge. (I'm also blaming my current cold and cold meds).

LOL, no worries. I notice that the list of previous challenges isn't up to date, so those of us who don't participate regularly aren't able to rely on the generosity of Morphy any longer. The only reason I remember is the odd difficulty I had in finding a book that worked -- and the proliferation of challenges with fall-related themes in september!

I'm going to revive an old challenge because once a year it seems like a proper thing to do.
Challenge #9: Read a book whose title completes the phrase "I am thankful for -"
This my opportunity to read the new J. K. Rowling - Robert Galbraith, Career of Evil.

Challenge #10: Read a book by an author whose name includes no repeating vowels.

Use the author's name as it appears on the cover of the book--e.g. J.K. Rowling would count even though Joanne contains an O.

My planned reads for the month:
Challenge #1: Read a book whose author's name contains a mark other than plain English letters - started by SqueakyChu
✔The Absent One - Jussi Adler-Olsen E-Book (4.5)
Challenge #2: Read a book in which one of the characters is a military veteran or is currently serving - started by countrylife
✔The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - E-Audiobook (5)
*✔Restless - William Boyd - E-Audiobook (4)
✔Play Dead - David Rosenfelt - E-Audiobook, RL Book Club (3.25)
Challenge #3: Read a book that is the 11th (or later) book in a series - started by lindapanzo
*✔Speaking in Bones - Kathy Reichs - E-Audiobook (3.5)
Challenge #4: Read a challenging book - started by lyzard
✔Golden Age: A novel - Jane Smiley - Audiobook (3.5)
Challenge #5: Read a Fantasy - started by DeltaQueen
✔Golden Compass - Philip Pullman - E-Audiobook (5)
*✔Nimona - Noelle Stevenson Graphic (4.5
Challenge #6: Read a book with a plural personal pronoun in the title - started by Chatterbox
✔So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures - Maureen Corrigan - E-Audiobook (4)
*✔Without you, there is no us - Suki Kim (4)
Challenge #7: Read a work with some connection to the visual arts – Started by Dejah_Thoris
✔It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War - Lynsey Addario - E-Audiobook (5)
*✔Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa - RA Scotti - E-Audiobook (4)
Challenge #8: Read a book with red on the cover – Started by lahochstetler
✔The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory - E-Audiobook (3.5)
✔The Field Guide - Holly Black (3)
*✔Girl Waits With Gun - Amy Stewart - E-Book (4.5)
✔The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory - E-Audiobook (4)
✔The Taming of the Queen - Philippa Gregory - E-Audiobok (4.5)
Challenge #9: Read a book whose title completes the phrase "I am thankful for" - Started by Citizenjoyce
*✔Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith (4.5)
Challenge #10: Read a book by an author whose name contains no repeating vowels - Started by susanna.fraser
*✔Sabriel - Garth Nix - E-Audiobook (3.5)
Challenge #11: Read a play (in memory of Brian Friel) - Started by wandering_star
*✔ An Enemy of the People - Henrik Ibsen - E-Audiobook (4.5)
Challenge #12: Read a book that has to do with wilderness or frontier pioneers – Started by fuzzi
*The Big Sky - A. B. Guthrie, Jr - E-Audiobooko (4)
✔Valley of the Sun by Louis L'Amour E-Audiobook (3.5)
Challenge #13: Read a book co-written by a pair of spouses - started by yoyogod
*✔Waiting For Wednesday - Nicci French Audiobook (4)
Challenge #14: Read a book that was first published at the end of a war - started by dallenbaugh
Challenge #15: Read a memoir or autobiography by a creative woman - started by madhatter22
✔The Bedwetter 9 Sarah Silverman - E-Audiobook (3.5)
✔Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson - E-audiobook (2)
Challenge #17: 'Don't be afraid' to read 'Have no fear' in a book - started by paulstalder
✔Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured - Kathryn Harrison (4)
Challenge #18: Read a book with a word in the title that is not something to be thankful for - started by cyderry
Challenge #20: Read a book about a family with a name in the title - Started by elkiedee
✔The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin - RL Book club (3.5)

The playwright Brian Friel died on 2 October. His play Translations is one of the best I've ever seen, and I still have strong memories of it even though it was over 20 years ago!

As I'd already added a challenge for October I couldn't do a memorial challenge; so here it is now.

Challenge #11: Read a play

I thought about making this a more flexible challenge for people who don't normally read play scripts, but I decided not to - it is a 'take it or leave it' challenge after all, and most plays are pretty short. Screenplays, however, are included.

*****Challenge #12: Read a book that has to do with wilderness or frontier pioneers*****

November means the Pilgrims to me, but any pioneer story will do. I can recommend a recent read, The Trees by Conrad Richter (the man who gave us The Light in the Forest), or another wonderful read, Follow the River by Alexander Thom. Louis L'Amour has over a hundred books, with not a few about pioneer life such as Jubal Sackett, The Cherokee Trail, and my favorite, Conagher. I'm sure there are many more that can be suggested.

>17 fuzzi: Can we stretch the frontier and the pioneers into space?

>18 majkia: sure, but within reason, please.

Here's the definition of "pioneer" from Google:

noun: pioneer; plural noun: pioneers

1. a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.
synonyms: settler, colonist, colonizer, frontiersman, frontierswoman, explorer, trailblazer, bushwhacker, "the pioneers of the Wild West"

I can see something like The Right Stuff fitting this challenge, as it's about space pioneers, like the first explorers to reach the moon, but prefer we do not apply it to "pioneers" in other areas. For instance, I'd like to see people read books about a "day by day struggle" of a settler, not about a scientist in his lab working on a cure for illness. :)

After taking a few monts off of TIOLI, I back with a challenge:

Challenge #13: Read a book co-written by a pair of spouses.

>20 yoyogod: Welcome back!

Challenge #14: Read a book that was first published in the same year as the end of a war.

You can choose a war, either modern or ancient, as long as you can find out when it ended.

For example: WWII ended in 1945 and A Farewell to Arms was FIRST published in 1945

Tell us the war and what year it ended.

The book does not have to be about war.

>22 dallenbaugh: Hs it to be the year or the correct date?

>23 Ameise1: You have sharp eyes. I meant just the year. I changed the info in my challenge message.

>22 dallenbaugh: How would you define the end of a war? For instance, the US pulled out of Vietnam in 1973 (which was the end of the war for the US, as a participant) , but the fall of South Vietnam happened in 1975. Has the war in Afghanistan ended, or been ongoing constantly since the Russians invaded? Sorry to be nitpicky, but I'm curious. Technically, the Koreas are still at war, although a cease fire halted hostilities. Since the vast majority of books most of us might read were published in the 20th century (or 21st) and there are many such nebulous conflicts, I thought I'd toss that out... :-)

>20 yoyogod: ::waves::

>25 Chatterbox: I'll let you decide. Just mention your year & choice, for example (1973 U.S. out of Vietnam) or (Korean Armistice Agreement 1953) or (Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan 1989). I just thought it would be interesting, in honor of Veteran's Day, to combine the publishing of books with a bit of history as to when a war was ending or, as you point out, changing directions in a significant way. Maybe it is not so easily linked these days whereas in WWI & WWII it was a little more clear cut.

Found a handy-dandy list of war dates to skim to match against my wishlist catalog of CK Original Publication Date.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_wars_by_date

>28 countrylife: Nice list. For Challenge #14 you can use publishing year of 2015 for any wars listed as ongoing. So much for my idea of a straightforward challenge.

Challenge #15: Read a memoir or autobiography by a creative woman

"Creative" for this challenge means any kind of artist - actress, musician, dancer, writer, filmmaker, painter, photographer, fashion designer, architect, chef - as long as her art is what she's primarily known for. (So even if it happens that Ruth Bader Ginsberg is a very talented ceramicist, her memoir wouldn't count.)

>27 dallenbaugh: Thanks for the clarification!!

>3 countrylife: Is the British Secret Service during WWII considered part of the military? In other words can a spy of this era be considered a veteran?

Not sure I'll read these, but I've added them as possibles:
Challenge #1: Read a book whose author's name contains a mark other than plain English letters - started by SqueakyChu
A Conspiracy of Faith - Jussi Adler-Olsen - Lexxi
Outside In - Nanisi Barrett D'Arnuk - Lexxi

Challenge #2: Read a book in which one of the characters is a military veteran or is currently serving - started by countrylife
Love by Chance - T.L. Brentley - Lexxi

Challenge #3: Read a book that is the 11th (or later) book in a series - started by lindapanzo
Robert B. Parker's Kickback (43) - Ace Atkins - Lexxi (Note, I started to read this in May, then paused because it involved Spenser shocked at the concept that someone could be charged with a crime by 'merely' bullying someone online; not sure I'll actually get myself to read)

Challenge #4: Read a challenging book - started by lyzard
The Aeronaut's Windlass - Jim Butcher (can't stand Steampunk) - Lexxi

Challenge #5: Read a Fantasy - started by DeltaQueen
Hal - Kate Cudahy
Pines - Blake Crouch - Lexxi

Challenge #6: Read a book with a plural personal pronoun in the title - started by Chatterbox
see u soon - Bridget Balentine - Lexxi (u being text speak for you)

Challenge #7: Read a work with some connection to the visual arts – Started by Dejah_Thoris
As You Were - (photographer) Kelli Jae Baeli - Lexxi

Challenge #8: Read a book with red on the cover – Started by lahochstetler
The Ghost Writer - Selina Rosen - Lexxi

Challenge #9: Read a book whose title completes the phrase "I am thankful for" - Started by Citizenjoyce
Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith - Lexxi

Challenge #10: Read a book by an author whose name contains no repeating vowels - Started by susanna.fraser
Uncommon Women - Buck Matthews - Lexxi

Challenge #11: Read a play (in memory of Brian Friel) - Started by wandering_star

Challenge #12: Read a book that has to do with wilderness or frontier pioneers – Started by fuzzi

Challenge #13: Read a book co-written by a pair of spouses - started by yoyogod
Rest and Relaxation - Rhavensfyre - Lexxi

Challenge #14: Read a book that was first published at the end of a war - started by dallenbaugh
A Diet of Treacle (Permesta, Campaign at the China–Burma Border, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Bizerte crisis, Indian annexation of Goa, 1961) - Lawrence Block - Lexxi (wars from that "List of Wars" link above)

Challenge #15: Read a memoir or autobiography by a creative woman - started by madhatter22

>32 dallenbaugh: : Donna, I can't even pretend to know the correct answer to whether any secret service is part of any country's military. In the results page of a quick googling of "British Secret Service", I see many results with "military intelligence", so, yes, I will accept that for your query, and any other country's secret service members during war times.

>34 countrylife: Thanks Cindy. I looked up British Secret Service on Wiki and couldn't tell either. So I will be adding Restless by William Boyd which is partly about a Russian emigre recruited by the British Secret Service in 1939 to help bring the U.S. into the war.

Re: the secret service debate, there are a lot of private detectives in British fiction who are ex-secret service / military intelligence, so that opens up some interesting possibilities.

Whoops, my face is red from my mistake. I entered Mercedes Lackey and it should have been Robin McKinley as the author of The Blue Sword. Thanks to whoever (?) caught this error.

Good point! If you're into British detective fiction, Lord Peter Wimsey served on the battlefield in WWI, as did Tommy, of Tommy and Tuppence and Poirot's sidekick Hastings. I'm sure there's plenty more from the Golden Age too.

My aspirational reading list for November:

Challenge #1: Read a book whose author's name contains a mark other than plain English letters
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Challenge #2: Read a book in which one of the characters is a military veteran or is currently serving
The Separation, by Christopher Priest

Challenge #3: Read a book that is the 11th (or later) book in a series
The Big Bad City, by Ed McBain (#51 in the 87th Precinct series)

Challenge #5: Read a Fantasy
Kraken: An Anatomy, by China Miéville

Challenge #6: Read a book with a plural personal pronoun in the title
Calling Out for You, by Karin Fossum

Challenge #8: Read a book with red on the cover
The Reckoning, by Jane Casey

Challenge #9: Read a book whose title completes the phrase "I am thankful for"
Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan

Challenge #10: Read a book by an author whose name contains no repeating vowels
Dear Life, by Alice Munro

Hopefully I will read at least half of them. Otherwise I'm unlikely to reach my goal of 75 books this year.

>9 lahochstetler: I thought of adding The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1)by Holly Black to your red on cover challenge. The front cover has some brownish and maroon red, but the back cover has a big red leaf. Are back covers ok for the challenge?

Challenge #16: Read a book with a subtitle at least twice as long as the title

I find subtitles a tad annoying, who needs a novel subtitled ":a novel" in case we thought we'd inadvertently wandered into non-fiction. However in non-fiction, the subtitle often ends up being very much longer than the title and explains what should have been in the title, only clearly it was far too long to fit. So read a book where the subtitle is at least twice as long (in words) as the actual title. Can you put the word counts in the wiki -I won't make you type out the subtitles!

I'll be reading Sextant, which on my edition then has a subtitle of "A Voyage Guided by the stars and the Men Who Mapped the World's Oceans". that's a one word title and a 14 word subtitle. What's the most unbalanced combination we can find?

>41 Helenliz:: I hate subtitles which say "a novel" or "a mystery" etc too. Love the challenge, and it might push me to read one of those fascinating non fiction titles.

>41 Helenliz: Thanks for your challenge. I found a place for Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.

>40 Citizenjoyce: I'm looking for front covers, but any shade of red is fine, so the maroon red should work.

I can deal with "a novel" if the title might make you think otherwise--like, if it's purporting to be someone's memoir or diary or whatever, and you want to make sure people understand what they're buying/reading. But most of the time it's just pretentious, IMHO.

It's OK if someone puts in that it's a novel in such and such a series, to make clear that it's part of a particular series and not another or a standalone novel. But if the author has only ever written a specific series, it still feels gratuitous -- eg Louise Penny's books all spell out on the cover that they are Inspector Gamache mysteries, but she has never written any other kind, so??? It's still a reassurance to readers, I suppose, that the new book forms part of the continuum and can be "safely" purchased without even checking inside the front cover, but it does mildly irritate me nonetheless.

It seems to be more common the US, which makes me think that American publishers have a lower opinion of their readers.

I always thought it was to make the title unique. eg. if there is a book titled ABC, then ABC: A Novel makes it different.

>49 LoisB: I always find the :a novel or :a graphic memoir useful for touchstones here on LT

Challenge #17: 'Don't be afraid' to read 'Have no fear' in a book

Look out for these phrases: 'Don't be afraid', or 'Have no fear' in a book, it must said/written to somebody (or oneself), no affirmative sentences like 'I am not afraid' or question: 'You have no fear, have you?'
Indicate the phrase and the page it is mentioned.

Doppler : Roman (p. 61 'Hab keine Angst') - Erlend Loe
Edith's diary by Patricia Highsmith (in German the phrase comes on p. 179)

Have no fear, have fun.

PS: The Bible has the most 'No fear's written in a book :)

>51 paulstalder: I can give you the chapter, but not the page, since I'm reading on a Kindle, and can't physically get hold of the book (published in the UK, but not in the US as yet.) Hopefully that will be acceptable, since this is already a fairly difficult challenge... In this particular case, the publisher hasn't provided the pages, although some do.

>51 paulstalder: Actually, while the previous query is still valid, since there is no way I'm going to page through book after book looking for this phrase (vs searching on a Kindle), I just realized that the book I was going to add won't work, since it's "I am not afraid", albeit being said to someone.

Can the phrase be "have no fears"? As in "you need have no fears about xyz?" The meaning is the same, but in English there are times when this is the grammatically correct construction.

>51 paulstalder: >53 Chatterbox: You can do word or sentence searches on Amazon.com when they have a "Look inside" feature (and many books do). I've found this helpful for several challenges already.

>54 Smiler69: Sadly, not the ones I was thinking of, which are smaller presses in the UK. Not all publishers offer this yet.

>52 Chatterbox: Chapter is okay for e-readers.

>53 Chatterbox: As long as the meaning is the same (an order or invitation to have no fear), that will be acceptable (especially if there is a ! at the end, written or thinkable).

>54 Smiler69: Thanks for the hint. There is also google books which has a similar search

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Challenge #18: Read a book with a word in the title
that is not something to be thankful for
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We have so much for which to be thankful this month so let's identify items that wouldn't fit those criteria.

>57 cyderry: I like it!

> 41 Your title has the highest ratio so far at 1:14, but is exceeded in difference between word count by Flora Segunda with a subtitle of 27 words! Off to look up the book now!

>54 Smiler69: First book I checked had the phrase 'ave no fear.

>59 elkiedee: I put a title that is 1:16 ;)

>60 raidergirl3: Impressive!

I like the sound of Flora Segundo story/character, first one is available through Amazon marketplace in a UK edition with a slightly more restrained title. 2nd in series has a 30 word subtitle.

Lucy, I've read the first one, it was pretty good.

>51 paulstalder: how much of the Bible would qualify? If I read the book of Luke, where the angels tell the shepherds about the birth of Jesus (and say "fear not"), would that do? I think there are about 24 chapters in Luke...

Challenge #19 - Read a Book by a Scottish Born Author

Since it is St. Andrews day on 30 November, I thought this one was obvious.

Please indicate where the author was born if you know. Some examples:

Ali Smith (Inverness)
AL Kennedy (Dundee)
Muriel Spark (Edinburgh)
Alasdair Gray (Glasgow)
Josephine Tey (Inverness)
Denise Mina (Glasgow)
Andrew O'Hagan (Glasgow)
DE Stevenson (Edinburgh)
Ian Rankin (Fife)
RL Stevenson (Edinburgh)
Walter Scott (Edinburgh)
Stuart MacBride (Dumbarton)
Christopher Brookmyre (Glasgow)
William McIlvanney (Kilmarnock)
Philip Kerr (Edinburgh)
Val McDermid (Fife)
Peter May (Glasgow)

Some scottish writers Compton MacKenzie, George MacDonald Fraser and William Boyd were not born in Scotland and don't count towards the challenge.

>63 fuzzi: Any Biblical book would do. If it's part of a printed Bible it may count as 'Work', if it's a separate publication it does count as 'Book'. Instead of the page number give chapter and verse (Lk 1,13 or Lk 12,5).

Hej Paul, great to see you here again. And a nice challenge you bring with you, thank you for that.

>64 PaulCranswick: I highly recommend Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson for this challenge!

>65 paulstalder: thanks for the clarification. :)

Challenge 20: Read a book about a family with a name in the title

1. The name can be any name - the family, a family member, a house, a place name - there may be more than one

2. It must be in the main title, not a subtitle

>22 dallenbaugh: For Challenge 14, would any war listed in the link in >28 countrylife: be acceptable? I feel a bit of a fraud having browsed for a war that fits my book, especially as it was one I'd never heard of.

>69 Helenliz: Sure! I did the same thing for my book although I did read about the war so I had some idea what it was about. It is interesting/depressing/disturbing that there are so many wars in the world. Thank goodness there is an ending date on most of them.

It's disturbing that I needed a challenge to fit a book into, noticed that the book was published in 2014, found a war that ended that year, then noticed that the book was actually published in 2013 . . . and found a war that ended in 2013.

Disturbing.

I've learned that war never really ends. For humans. But then, I kinda already knew that.

The world is rarely at peace Lexxi that is for sure.

>4 lindapanzo: If a series contains mostly novels with a few novellas and/or short story collections, do the shorter works count toward the total number? (I've got two books I'm interested in re-reading, but both need those shorter works to be 11 or later in each series.)

That was interesting. I went to log one of the books I just completed. Looked through the challenges. Settled on 'red covered'. Went to add and . . . wait, did I add it already? And mark it complete? It's the second book, maybe I messed up inputting . . . ooh, that's not me.

So, I just read a book someone else read. That's rare for me, it is.
A Question of Inheritance by Elizabeth Edmondson

I started reading Nachsuche on November 10th - the same day someone gets murdered in that book. ... think about a challenge like: Start reading a book on the same day (day and month, not year) as somebody is murdered in that book ... pretty tricky.

>75 paulstalder: That sounds like one of those challenges that is guaranteed to have only a single book in it. There's a difference between having a challenge that is a challenge, and one that we know fits books that we want to read because we already know them -- books with pink covers that have an odd number of chapters and whose authors are women born in September named Elizabeth -- or where there seem to be so few books that qualify that we'd really have to go out of our way to read something for that challenge. Of course, it's TIOLI -- with the LEAVE IT part a key element -- but for my part I like the idea of creating a challenge that gives most people at least the chance to participate if they want. Vs. if I tell them "read a Jacobean revenge tragedy" rather than read a book where revenge is a major theme, the chance that they'll participate will go way, way down. A really creative challenge, to me, is one that is isn't too straightforward, but that when you think about it, opens up more options than you'd realize, like Madeline's this month.

>74 Lexxi: Good heavens! You and I matched a read! Did you like it? I'm enjoying that series; I've read the author's books for eons, though the ones I love are those she wrote under the moniker of Elizabeth Pewsey.

>75 paulstalder: Too funny, Paul. That is quite a coincidence. You gave me a grin.

>76 Chatterbox: Don't take me too serious on that idea :)
You are right, that would not be a good challenge. It just struck me yesterday when reading 10.11. in the book for the date of the murder that I started reading it on that day. You'd have to know the book pretty well to know the date of the murder and then plan to actually read it on that particular day, which might be fun if I have a whole bunch of mysteries I want to read and sort them according to the appearance of a killing date in the book - why not? - but surely not as a challenge here. Sorry, if my comment about the coincidence of the date has gone too seriously in the direction of a serious challenge - that was not my intention

>76 Chatterbox:

A really creative challenge, to me, is one that is isn't too straightforward, but that when you think about it, opens up more options than you'd realize, like Madeline's this month.

I always get somewhat disappointed if my challenge turns out to be too easy! :)

TIOLI Question of the Month:

Have you a read a book so far this month that had a silly scene in it? What was it? What made it so silly?

>76 Chatterbox: I'm not sure if I've read anything by her before. Until I looked on here and saw that someone had put "Elizabeth Aston" into the canonical name box, I had not even realized she had written anything under any other name.

As far as I know, I've only read the two novels in the "A Very English Mystery" series. I've rather liked them, so far. I had completed the first one shortly before the second one was released. I instantly attempted to read it only to find that the book had been pulled.

I think she had it pulled to reedit or something, judging from all the reviews I read indicating how poorly edited the book was. First moment I saw it was available again, I got it and read it. And enjoyed it. Didn't notice any editing issues, nor any of the issues others pointed out in reviews (apparently some prior version has a main character just suddenly appear in the fifth chapter; I don't recall anything like that occurring).

>80 SqueakyChu:
Not sure what you mean by silly.

*reminds self of definition of silly - having or showing a lack of common sense or judgment; absurd and foolish.*

The book I'm currently reading has a guy who I think of as being 'the worst FBI agent ever'. Like, he meets a confidential informant for the first time - someone else's CI. And he is very aggressively questioning the guy. Like 'what's your name', 'what's your last name', 'how did you get here'. I mean . . . seriously, dude, show a bit more common sense. You are acting quite silly here. Stupidly silly. There's no bloody reason for you to be acting this way and all you are doing is pissing off the FBI agent who is the handler for this CI, and pissing off the CI. For . . . no reason. None. He does that throughout the book. Well, I'm only up to 52%, but I assume he'll continue doing stupid things like this.

So, that's stupid silly. "The Blood Flag" by James W. Huston

--
In the 'you so silly' version of silly, as in, you so funny - I know this word has been used this way in English. I was vaguely confused when I saw nothing in the definition of 'Silly' to indicate this 'funny silly' exists. No matter, this is the first thing I thought of so I'll mention it.

Two women meet. One is a contractor, the other has a house that the contractor is going to rebuild. They are not dating yet, but are on the cusp of it, at least, when a particular scene occurs.

Sara, the one that owns the house, has a best friend. The best friend invites Sara and her contractor friend over to see a movie. Sammy, the contractor, agrees. Then says something like 'it's a date.' Then tries to pull back from that because they weren't actually dating yet.

Sammy -
Feeling her face turning blood red, she tried again. "Not a date. A friendly three-way. Uh, no. Shit. A...a..." Embarrassment finally completely cut off her words.

Funny silly. A silly, funny scene, because it showed the strong ex-marine acting silly because she was flustered by the whole situation. Wanted to look good, accidently used the 'date' word before she thought she should have, and then compounded her error by turning the friendly get together into something that sounded like a ménage à trois.

After the Dawn - Stephanie Motes.

Those examples sound silly enough to me, Lexxi.

I just started reading The Martian by Andy Weir. The book opens with a small group of space explorers "accidentally" leaving their colleague on Mars because they thought he had been killed. Uh, don't you think they should have verified that first before they left? Silly of them?! Maybe tragic for the guy who was left, although the demeanor of the book is light. In one scene back on earth, a video shows that perhaps their colleague is still alive and well on Mars. The woman who spots this evidence then sort of hems and haws about what she sees on the video. Kind of silly, in my opinion!

>81 Lexxi: Hmm, I listened to an audiobook version, so wouldn't have noticed those issues, necessarily. I don't remember a character suddenly popping up out of nowhere, either.

I think you might like the Elizabeth Pewsey "Mountjoy" books. They are short, the characters are eccentric and many of them almost renegades, in different ways. A different kind of morality runs through them -- the evil characters are those who think ill of others, who are narrow minded gossips or who are bullies or boring or otherwise harmful in ways like that. Her heroes and heroines find their own paths, and many of them are creative types, especially involved in music (which may be why I like it) -- one is a composer, another makes violins, one is a cellist.

84: I echo the recommendation of the Mountjoy series, but it might be reprinted under the name Elizabeth Aston.

>80 SqueakyChu:.
Yup.
I listened to I am half sick of shadows this month. It's a mystery narrated by Flavia deLuce, who is 11/12 years old and has a passion for science. In this books she gets interested in the death of a famous actress who is filming at her family's house and trying to perform an experiment to prove if Father Christmas exists. Without giving away too much, we all know Father Christmas enters the house down the chimney, so where else would you go to try and catch him? Yup. Only the trap doesn't catch who she expects, it manages to trap the murderer. On a snowy roof top. While clinging to a chimney. An 11 year old girl. Yes, it was a little silly, but in the best traditions of slapstick sort of silly.

I finished my first William Boyd today, Restless. I'm not a big fan of espionage, but this was not the car crash, breaking through skylights, James Bond kind of spy novel, so I liked it very much. The only reason I picked it was so that I could have a shared read with countrylife; so thank you for introducing me to a fine new author. Such a fine author that he has 5 books listed this month in 4 different challenges. I wonder if that's a record.

>87 Citizenjoyce: I think it's because of the British author challenge.

>88 elkiedee: Oh.

>87 Citizenjoyce: & >88 elkiedee: :D

>80 SqueakyChu: Perhaps a little beyond silly, Madeline, but the urination scenes in Story of the Eye are as repugnant as they are farcical. I have since adulthood enjoyed the company of ladies overly but I have never had the slightest urge to pee on one of them.

>90 PaulCranswick:

Thankfully!

>92 elkiedee: Ewwwww

>92 elkiedee: That is exactly what I was thinking too, Luci! Which half-wit thought that one of the 1001 Books you should read before you die was obviously I am not sure, but he was either mentally unstable or playing a practical joke of epic proportions.

>73 susanna.fraser: Wow, I have not been here in awhile. Sorry for the delay in responding.

If it's an entire collection of novellas and/or short stories, I would be fine with allowing it. But not just a single short story or two.

I was just adding some books to the TIOLI meter and thinking that I never use the works section, even though I read a lot of random short stories from lit journals or magazines or piecemeal from different anthologies. That's the sort of thing it's for, yes? I don't recall seeing stories listed in the Wiki unless the challenge was specifically for them. I looked at a few of the challenges that people had listed works in, but didn't see anything that looked like "(story title) from (magazine title)". (I'm not sure you could add something like that anyway unless it didn't matter if there was no link.)
What other kinds of things are people counting as works? It looked like a play was listed there and I'd think that counted as a book. Is it based on # of pages?

>95 madhatter22: I listed An Enemy of the People as a work because it had 82 pages. To me a work has around 100 pages or fewer. I think frequently short stories are listed in the challenges and then counted as works.

>95 madhatter22: I occasionally listed works in the wiki in that way: Johannesevangelium in: Die Bibel : Version 2000. A work is a piece of literature which appears as part of a book or a journal. If the Gospel of John is published on its own, it is a book (like Das Buch : der Bericht von Johannes).
So I have the special edition of Deborah Crombies mysteries Das Hotel im Moor. Alles wird gut : Zwei Romane and only read the first part I would list that as a 'work' (since Das Hotel im Moor is part of a single book). A book is a single physical entity, independent of size, a work is part of a book or a single issue of a journal.

>95 madhatter22: As a heavy user of the works section => I use the works section for short works beneath a certain number of pages. I forget now how short, but anything less than 100 pages would go there. I'm currently reading a 100 page novella. I'll probably put it in the works section as well.

I only add things that you can get separate, and now-a-days there's a ton of short stories available as ebooks from many places, including but not limited to Amazon.

I do not use work in the same way that paulstalder does, i.e., I do not list things on the challenge that are part of other things, unless they are available separately. As I do not wish to include things on Librarything which are not available separately. Except in rare cases wherein a challenge specifically called for a piece of a work. As in, a short story found in a short story collection. If that's the rule, I'll find a short story in a short story collection. And list it.

ETA: On the other hand, if I did use works the same way as paulstalder, I could be up to 22 books by now. *nods*

>95 madhatter22: For me it's a combination of length and intent. A short story or novella is a work as these are generally not presented as full fledged books (although we've all run across authors / publishers who've taken a novella, published it in hardcover, and charged a fortune for it). Plays (to me) count as 'books', unless they're one acts or unusually short. For me the page count is less important than the time it takes to read, in terms of work vs. book.

>95 madhatter22: We have two different ideas about works and books here. One is the definition LT gives (http://www.librarything.com/concepts.php#works What is a book then?The "This Book" data on the book information page is particular to YOUR copy—the distinct edition that's sitting on your bookshelf.), defining a single physical entity as a book. On the other hand we have the differentiation of a brochure from a book. Up to 100 pages is defined as a brochure in library terms. The counting of works and books here at the 75er is so personal that we will never reach a agreement what we put in one category or the other. I guess, feel free to have your own idea of work and book and use it consistently on your page.

>95 madhatter22:

I read a lot of random short stories from lit journals or magazines or piecemeal from different anthologies.

These seem appropriate to count as "works". If you want to track the number of these you read monthly, be sure to add them to the "works" section of the TIOLI meter.

>100 paulstalder:

I guess, feel free to have your own idea of work and book and use it consistently on your page.

I concur with this.

As an added note, I've been adding childrens' books as "books" and not as "works" since they seem like complete stories to me even they are about 30 pages (with large pictures on each!) in length.

As I recall, the "works" count on the TIOLI meter began when we started reading excerpts of books for someone's challenge. Was it poetry? I'm not sure. Who remembers?

As our TIOLI meter is not a contest, and is just a personal count for you to keep each month, you can decide for yourself what is a "book" and what is a "work".

Idea!

As an added note, it might be fun to list on the "works" section what you listed as such.

Examples:
poem
short story
children's picture book
novella
magazine article
novel less than 100 pages

If you want to do this, just add the info within your parentheses, like this:

SqueakyChu (1 poem , 2 magazine article, 13 essay)

Of course, this is optional. Do it only if you want!

TIOLI Stats for October, 2015:

For the month of October, we read a total of 555 books, of which 83 or 15% were shared reads. That gave us a total of 43 TIOLI points so that we reached 674 YTD TIOLI points. Those stats were not the worst we've done but were on the low side.

Here's an interesting stat. For October, there was a six-way tie for the most popular book. Those books were, with four readers each...
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
The Arrival - Shaun Tan
The Lie - Helen Dunmore
Dear Committee Members - Julie Schumacher
The Dark Horse - Craig Johnson

The most popular challenge was my (SqueakyChu's) challenge to read a book whose author's last name contains a three-letter combination which is an English word if spelled backward. There were 107 books read for this challenge. This challenge also had the highest number of TIOLI points of 11.

Hang in...for the October 2015 TIOI Awards...coming soon!

October, 2015 TIOLI Awards!

The Repetition is Boring Award goes to susanna.fraser for the challange to read a book whose title contains no repeated letters. I thought this challenge was lots of fun. It is more difficult to choose a correct book title for this challenge than it seems at first glance.

The Repetition is Fun Award (Ha!) goes to lindapanzo for reading Going, Going Ganache for her own (!) challenge to read a book where every title word, minimum 2, begins with the same letter. All of the book titles chosen by other challengers were only two-word titles.

The Eek! Award goes to paulstalder for reading Geisterspuk for fuzzi's challenge to read a book with a "scary word" in the title or author's name. I thought that "Geisterspuk" sounded very scary! Just saying it set my teeth chattering. :)

Feel free to add awards of your own.

Hearty congrats to our award winners!

The Four-Letter-Word-Award goes to Lexxi and DeltaQueen: The former for adding Dog with a Bone to the challenge Read a book where one (and only one) of the title words has 4 letters and the latter for letting it count. It is hard to read so many four-letter-words, so, Well Done. :)

>105 paulstalder: Whoops, I let that one slip right by me!

>105 paulstalder:

Haha! Perfect award! That one slipped by me as well.

Congrats, Lexxi and DeltaQueen! :)

Thank you for the award. I will cherish it forever.

:)

Off to delete my books. November = complete failure :0(

>110 Carmenere: There's always next month! 😄

>102 SqueakyChu: Excellent idea. Sometimes I'll look at those and wonder. I'll usually slot in anything there that is below 100/110 pages, although I don't usually count essays or magazine pieces for a challenge unless that's what the challenge specifies. But then there are those Kindle singles, or an ultra-short novella, or short stories...

>112 Chatterbox: I think if you start doing it, others might follow.

Well shoot, I had to remove 2 shared reads because I won't get to them this month: The Gap of Time and Voices From Chernobyl. Fortunately they fit well into next month's challenges because I really do want to read them.

>104 SqueakyChu: Oooh, an award! Thanks!

You're welcome! :)

Yay for me! My first ever TIOLI SWEEP! A book for every single challenge!

1: author's name contains a mark other than plain English letters
.…I Kiss Your Hands Many Times, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák
.…A Fountain Filled with Blood, Julia Spencer-Fleming
2: one of the characters is a military veteran or currently serving
.…Restless, William Boyd
.…Flora, Gail Godwin
.…Wings of Fire, Charles Todd
.…Persuasion, Jane Austen
3: the 11th (or later) book in a series
.…Hounded, David Rosenfelt, (#12)
4: a challenging book.
.…Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
5: a Fantasy
.…The Foreshadowing, Marcus Sedgwick
6: a plural personal pronoun in the title
.…Before We Were Free, Julia Alvarez
7: with some connection to the visual arts
.…Boy: Tales of Childhood, Roald Dahl
8: with red on the cover
.…Berried Secrets, Peg Cochran
9: title completes the phrase "I am thankful for"
.…Chocolate Fantasies. Ann Harvey, Oxmoor House
.…My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante
10: by an author whose name contains no repeating vowels
.…The Ghostway, Tony Hillerman
11: Read a play
.…A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller
12: about wilderness or frontier pioneers
.…A Man Called Trent, Louis L'Amour
13: co-written by spouses
.…The Tilted World, Tom Franklin
14: first published at the end of a war
.…The Incredible Journey , Sheila Every Burnford (1961-Campaign at the China–Burma Border)
15: a memoir or autobiography by a creative woman
.…The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book, Wendy Welch (folklorist)
17: 'Don't be afraid' or 'Have no fear' in the narrative
.…Spinsters in Jeopardy, Ngaio Marsh (have no fear, p117)
16: with a subtitle at least twice as long as the title
.…In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect, Ronald Kessler
18: a word in the title that is not something to be thankful for
.…Cold Comfort, Charles Todd (cold)
19: Scottish-born author
.…The 39 Steps, John Buchan
20: about a family with a name in the title
.…Florence Gordon, Brian Morton
.…Sisters of Shiloh, Kathy Hepinstall

>117 countrylife: Impressive job. Congratulations.

>117 countrylife: congratulations, something I've still to achieve.

Congratulations!

>117 countrylife: Wow, congratulations!

>117 countrylife: well done

>117 countrylife: Congratulations!

>117 countrylife: Wonderful!

>117 countrylife: Way to Go

>117 countrylife: Woohoo! Congratulations!

>117 countrylife: Excellent! Congrats!!

>117 countrylife: Congrats! It seem like it has been awhile since our last sweep.

>117 countrylife: Congratulations!

>117 countrylife: Nice job!

>117 countrylife: Well done!

>117 countrylife: Well done Cindy. I did it once a year or two back and didn't stop smiling for a week.

>117 countrylife: Congratulations! I hope to manage it too someday.

Housekeeping Day!

Thanks in advance for removing from the wiki any book that you will not have COMPLETED by 12 midnight tonight. :)

Catch you in the December TIOLI challenges!

>117 countrylife: Woo Hoo!

>117 countrylife: Amaaazing!

>117 countrylife:, I'm very impressed :-)