Take It or Leave It Challenge - October 2011 - Page 1

Continued from here.

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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I need to give you some personal history before I present October’s challenge to you. Our niece Stephanie started her freshman year at Princeton University (New Jersey, USA) in September. She is majoring in English – which I thought was super, but I told her to be sure she knows what she wants as a career before graduating with this degree! That aside, I asked her to share her list of required reading for her English course with me. After she responded, I thought it would be fun to challenge all of you to read a novel assigned in an English class!

Here are Stephanie’s assigned books. She is taking 19th century fiction.
1. Emma – Jane Austen
2. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
3. Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thackeray
4. Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
5. Middlemarch - George Eliot

For all of you, this is what you should do to take part in this challenge. Please read these “rules” CAREFULLY.

1. Find someone (son, niece, neighbor, friend, etc.) who is taking an English course *this* semester (not last semester; not next semester, either).
2. The English class can be in any grade from elementary school through post-doc!
3. Go to the separate thread and list the books offered for the course you are referencing. This is to help others who do not know anyone who is currently taking an English course. Others may choose a book from the list that you post.
4. If you teach English and you assign novels, you may post your own course list. Alternatively, if you know someone who teaches English, you may use a list from one of that person's courses.
5. Do not use novels assigned for courses other than English courses. You may use novels assigned in English if you live outside of an English-speaking nation and are studying English. For example, you attend a language school, and one of your assignments is to read a novel.
6. When you post your list on the separate thread, tell the course level, its name, the name of the school and where it’s located (city, state, or country only is okay). Do this only if it's not an invasion of privacy. If privacy is a concern, only post the course name and list of books.
7. For anyone who does not know anyone taking an English course, choose your book from those posted on the separate thread. As this challenge develops, the book choices should start to expand.

Have fun!

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

1. The October 2011 TIOLI Meter - Some challengers use this page to track which challenges they're doing.
2. I Know I'm a TIOLI Addict When... - Frog Logo is on this page!

Wiki Index:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a novel assigned in an English class - thread
2. Read a Characteristic Work of the 75 Book Challenge group - thread
3. Read a book by or about an artist for National Arts & Humanities Month - thread
4. Read a book by an author using anything other than the simplest version of their name - thread
5. Read a book with a spooky cover - thread
6. Read a book about infectious diseases

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book whose title points to a branch or office of government
8. Read a novel or non-fiction work that has some kind of civil war as a major theme/plot element
9. Read a book by an author whose first and/or last name begins and ends with a vowel
10. Read a book from Book Browse website, Find a Book, "Surprise Me!" tab - thread
11. Read a book by an author whose first and last names have the same number of letters
12. Read a book with a monster in the title - thread

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book with two cardinal points in the title
14. Read a book from the International Space Station's Legacy Library
15. Read a book whose author has an alliterative name
16. Read a book that you will be discussing in a face-to-face book group - thread
17. Read a book with the letter X in the title
18. Read a book that has been mentioned in 150 conversations or less on the book's main page

Challenges #19-24
19. Read a book that you've planned to read for 2 or more 2011 TIOLI challenges but still have not read
20. Read a book that gave you an 'Aha' moment
21. Read a book set between 1910 and 1950
22. Read a book where the leading character/subject is an inanimate object

No more challenges are being accepted presently for October. We'll begin again in November.

This month's challenge is being posted early due to Rosh Hashana coming in the middle of this week. Please bear with me if I am not able to update this challenge until the end of the week. My time will be tight. Thanks!

It's always fun when TIOLI comes early!

My challenge for the month is to Read a "Characteristic Work" of the 75 Book Challenge group. There's a list of just over 100 to choose from, and at some point I'll start a discussion thread where we can ponder what makes a characteristic book :)

Thanks for starting next month's TIOLI a bit early, Madeline!

My challenge for the month is to Read a book by or about an artist for National Arts & Humanities Month. The artist can be alive or dead, the subject and/or the author of the work, and in any genre you choose. I would highly encourage participants to read a book about or by an artist who you have seen in person, or one whose works you have seen in an exhibition or are familiar with (e.g., musicians), and tell us a bit about the artist you choose (I'll create a thread for this challenge shortly). For example, I saw an exhibition of the works of the surrealist artist Joan Miró at the Tate Modern in London earlier this month, and I will read the museum catalog from the exhibition, Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape. I have also attended several performances of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and I'll read his book Last Night on Earth.

Some recent notable books that would qualify for this challenge include:
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Life by Keith Richards
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin Kelley
Bossypants by Tina Fey

For October, I'm inviting everyone to join me in playing The Name Game - read a book where the author used a publishing name other than the simplest version of their name.

Now, I'm sure that's as clear as mud, so allow me to illustrate:

Julia Smith is an aspiring writer. She's also up for tenure and is worried her writing might damage her chances, so she publishes her short stories and novellas anonymously. Her success leads her to write a novel, but her publishers think that if it is known to be by a woman it won't sell, so Julia's high-tech spy thriller is released under the pseudonym, Johnson Manthrust. Julia changes publishers, but has the same problem: she compromises by using her initials: J. R. Smith. This novel is such a smashing success, she next uses her full name, Julia Rebecca Smith, before marrying her editor and adopting a hyphenated surname, Julia Smith-Jones.

All of these works would qualify for this challenge. However, anything published as simply "Julia Smith" would not. Nor would anything published as "Julia Jones".

I hope that makes sense. I'll be starting a thread so that bewildered people will have somewhere to turn.

Edited to add: If a work was ORIGINALLY published under a variant name, or anonymously, but later reprinted under the author's "simplest" name, it qualifies for this challenge. This would allow in (for example) the works of Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell (the Brontes), and Jane Austen's early works, which were published anonymously.

This is Challenge #4. The thread for working out what the heck qualifies is here. If your author is known by more than one name, please add the other name(s) to the wiki. You can also add a note to the wiki - e.g. (pseudonym) - if it isn't immediately obvious why your author qualifies.

Haha! Your explanation had me laughing, Liz!

ETA: You might want people to add the simple version of the name to the entry as well. That might help you determine if the entries are correct.

So much for the simple red, blue, and yellow challenges. Let's get complicated!! ;)

This is the kind of thing I think about while using public transport. :)

(Edited post above to add wiki suggestion, thanks!)

I was really able to sneak October's challenge in. An hour and a half have gone by, and only four people have discovered it so far! :)

Keep this timing in mind, Madeline. :)

This is one time when being half a world away paid off. I'm usually half a day and about eighteen challenges behind by the time I see the new one!

Go, Liz!!! :)

4> Over a 100 to choose from? I see only 10.

Still Life by Louise Penny (106)
Same series: A Fatal Grace (74), The Cruellest Month (63) (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache)

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson (59)
The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan (61)
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy (57)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (133)
The Siege by Helen Dunmore (63)
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (158)
Soulless by Gail Carriger (117)
Same series: Changeless (64), Blameless (59) (Parasol Protectorate)

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (58)
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (61)

oh wait, there's that little link there that says "see all 117 works". Right. So 117 Characteristic books.

oh wait (again) - tricky. The "same series" books are also characteristic books. So there's more than ten on that first page.

In honor of Halloween: Read a book with a spoooooky-looking cover. The content of the book itself need not be spooky, but the cover must fit with the Halloween mood. I'll be starting a thread to post them.

Here's my challenge: #7

Read a book whose title points to a branch or office of government

As a perfect follow up to a month of reading about prostitution, challenge #6 is to read a book about infectious diseases. Some of my plans for this month are:


Title

A Fierce Radiance Lauren Belfer
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 - Elizabeth A. Fenn
Flu : The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic Gina Kolata
Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe - William Rosen
Man and Microbes: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times -Arno Karlen
Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science - Richard Preston
The Plague Tales - Ann Benson
Wickett's Remedy: A Novel - Myla Goldberg

The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS - Elizabeth Pisani

Zoe, there are too many books I want to read for your challenge. I posted The Woman in White, because it seems appropriate for October, but Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, The Lace Reader, Changeless, Case Histories and Cutting for Stone are all calling to me. Let's see how loud they get.

My challenge (#8) is to read a book about a civil war. It can be a novel or a non-fiction account, but the civil conflict must be a major part of the plot if it's a novel, not just incidental.

To clarify, I'll be fine with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Korea as civil wars as they were primarily domestic conflicts in which other countries became involved. I'll also accept Ireland's "troubles" in either 1798 or from 1916 up until the final resolution of the Michael Collins/de Valera rift, and the massive war that followed Indian partition, as that happened while India was still essentially a single country.

There's a lot of fertile ground here, sadly enough. In the last century or so, there have been civil wars in the Balkans, in Pakistan (resulting in the creation of Bangladesh), in Sri Lanka, in Vietnam and the rest of Indochina, in Nigeria, in Congo, in Rwanda, in the Horn of Africa, in Nicaragua and El Salvador, in Spain, Ireland, etc. etc. Historically? Ireland again (1798), England in the 1140s, the 1450s, the 1640s, the American Civil War (which would include Tony Horwitz's new book about John Brown, as it deals with the causes of that civil war.)

Revolutions and revolts (eg the Mau Mau upheaval in Kenya, the Communist revolt in colonial Malaya) don't count. Domestic terrorism doesn't count. Books that deal with rebuilding society after a war don't count (eg books about all the folks who have done wonders for Rwanda in the last decade or two.) Little Women wouldn't count, as the war takes place in the background of the novel; it's never directly "onstage".

Any questions, just holler. I'll start a thread in the early part of the month.

Just for context, I've been curious about the phenom. of civil war since I was a grad student, and started looking at how they too often are fueled by international involvement. (eg, Cold War rivalries became issues in Latin America and elsewhere.) When is it that civilized discourse breaks down and people resort to violence?? The immediate prompt was an influx of books about the English Civil war in the 17th century.

Darryl, on your challenge, is the artist the performer (in the case of music) or can it be the composer?? And what if the subject is both (eg, Bach)?

Suzanne, does Half a Yellow Sun count? The tags say Africa, Biafra, Civil War.

Joyce, just scanning the reviews, I would say absolutely yes. the review I just read says the civil war is presented without kid gloves...

I think I have challenge #9, a pretty easy one:
Read a book by an author whose first and/or last name starts and ends with a vowel.

More to follow, including a definition of a vowel (e.g., when does "Y" count?), once I get myself organized.

Ooh, the October thread is here :-) Off to look at the TBR pile and then list far too many books to read in one month as usual...

AS luck would have it, my cats woke me up at 4am for breakfast and took a second to look at LT and I found October TIOLI to be up and running.

Here's my challenge for October. It is Challenge #10 Read a book from the Book Browse website Find a Book "Surprise Me" tab.

I'll set up a thread dedicated to it in the morning but for those who are awake at this ungodly hour here is the website and my instructions. http://www.bookbrowse.com/

From the homepage move your curser to the "Find a Book" tab. A drop down menu will appear, scroll down to the last tab "Surprise Me!". A book will pop up, hopefully you will use the first book presented but if you've already read it, try again.

Citizen Joyce, why do you tempt me so?! I've got The Woman in White on my 11 in 11 list. Am I ready for another chunkster? I'll sleep on it.

My challenge (challenge #11) is to read a book by an author whose first and last names have the same number of letters.

If a middle name is listed, it must also have the same number of letters.

>20 Chatterbox: Darryl, on your challenge, is the artist the performer (in the case of music) or can it be the composer?? And what if the subject is both (eg, Bach)?

Books by or about performers and/or composers count for my challenge.

Vampires and Werewolves and Ghosts, oh my.

In honor of Halloween, read a book with a monster in the title.

Link to thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/124224

19: I have to comment that your challenge does raise questions of perception - as many civil wars have been sparked by revolts - the Spanish Civil War, some civil wars have been considered as issues of domestic terrorism, and some may be seen by some involved as eg uprisings against an occupier. Do Chechnya and Bosnia count?

Here is the thread I've made dedicated to Challenge #10.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/124225#

OK, here's my Challenge #13 - Read a book with two cardinal points (north, south, east, west) in the title.

Note that embedded words count - So "northeast," "southwest," etc., plus words like fEAST, SOUTHward, etc., also count towards one of the words.

It's a remix of a previous challenge AND an excuse to read one of the books that I won't manage to finish this month. :)

> 25

LOL!! Lynda, is this a first - posting a TIOLI challenge at 4:38 am?!

> 32

Mary, I moved your challenge to page 3 of the wiki (just in case you think it disappeared!).

I have to keep the wiki pages from getting too long, or they will not load in some browsers.

>34 SqueakyChu: No worries, I lost track of numbers when I posted it on the page I did. :)

#32 I didn't think I would be able to but I found one for Mary's challenge, East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Peter Christen Asbjornsen, some Norwegian fairy tales.

> 36

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami also fits that same challenge. Murakami's a fun and easy author to read.

Gaskell's North and South would be another good one. Off to check if I have a copy...

I'm somewhat new to TIOLI (two months) and I've never posted a challenge. Please let me know if the following possible challenge is lame and/or inappropriate:

Read a book from the International Space Station's Legacy Library: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/IntlSpaceStation.

I suppose it looks interesting to me, because I haven't read much sci-fi lately. In general, the Legacy Libraries are fascinating and I've spent a bit of time exploring them.

Thanks,
Kerri

>39 DorsVenabili: Oh that sounds like a fun one. Not lame at all!

> 39

I think it's fabulous. For sure, post it, Kerri!

Great, thanks! I posted it.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a book from my long-ago childhood. I don't recall the content, but I remember the spine of the book on the shelf! Is yours a collection of Norwegian folk tales?

Kerri, what fun -- what would YOU take to space! I had to laugh at the Russian-English dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, I admit...

#44 - I know! It's kinda funny. It's mostly sci-fi novels, thrillers, and spy novels, but with these odd things thrown in. I like Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right. I guess you never know when that puppy will come in handy.

Another fascinating Legacy Library is Jackie Gleason's. Who knew he had such eccentric interests? (Well, maybe lots of folks knew, but I didn't).

#43 Yes it is, it says the author is Peter Christen Asbjørnsen although I think they're collected by him rather than written by him.

I've been waiting for October, and we're already at 46 posts and three wiki pages!

My birthday is the 8th of October, which we'd write as 8-10-2011; but in the Roman calendar (octo being 8), it would have been the eighth month, so it would have been 8-8. (Similarly for Sept(7)ember, Nov(9)ember and Dec(10)ember).

So my challenge for this month is to read a book that creates or clarifies a long-held misconception of yours, either in the title or in the body of the work.

Sufficiently confused? Same here! (Actually, it's all just an excuse to get loads of pressies this month ;) )

ETA please see post 87

Lynda, I am definitely not up for another chunkster with all the books I want to read this month. But, here I go anyway.

#47, I confess I'm a bit confused. I'm not sure I have misconceptions, or perhaps I have some but don't know that they are misconceptions?

Could you perhaps give us some examples of books that clarify misconceptions?? I'm utterly baffled at how to approach this one.

October TIOLI up so soon... what a treat! I did plan on spending less time on LT today, but with TIOLI challenges up and going, don't think that'll happen. This is the very first time I haven't planned more than just a couple of books for the month ahead, so will be able to play along more in the spirit of the thing as opposed to trying to fit in my pre-selected reads into the challenges. The only rule I have is that all books must come from my shelves as I'm trying to avoid the library this month to focus on my own wonderful collection.

Lots of fun challenges already, and will eagerly look at what people are posting as suggestions for Madeline's challenge. Must say I love Zoe's challenge as there are lots of books there on my TBR and in my ever-growing audiobook collection (always get through those faster). I'm sure I'll be able to find *at least* one or two for Darryl's challenge (understatement), had fun looking up suggestions from the BookBrowse site (looks like I'll be reading Sea of Poppies this month, had to laugh at Joyce following up her Prostitution challenge with Infectious Diseases (although neither are funny topics)—which might finally get me to read the Pulitzer Prize winning Polio: An American Story, and will generally try to list books in as many categories as I can. Whether I'll be able to complete them all is an entirely different story!

Challenge #15 Alliterative Author: Read a book whose author has an alliterative name

I couldn't find that this has been done before -- alliterative titles in 2 Walla Walla challenges, but not the authors. If I missed it, let me know!

51: So, ivyd, an alliterative author name example would be, say, Graham Greene?

Sounds fun!

Karen O.

I’ve been participating in TIOLI Challenges since they began in January of 2010 with a bright idea by Madeline. I think it’s time for me to propose my very first challenge:

Challenge #16: Read a book that you will be discussing in a face-to-face book group.
Of course, as always, you are invited to share a read here. I know we aren’t all involved in book groups where we actually look each other in the eye!

I think I’ll start a thread where we can share information about our various book groups. Things like: how long have you been meeting, favorite books, heated (or dull) discussions… anything at all about your group. It would also include any discussion about your current book for the group.

LOL, Brighton Rock fits both #15 and #16!!

ivyd,

I'd thought of that before -- it hasn't been done -- but there was always something more compelling. But I did go as far as to pull together a list of authors who might qualify, so here it is for anyone who is interested. I'm assuming that, as with titles, a first and middle name that are alliterative would count? i.e. Simon Sebag Montefiore or Santa Sebag Montefiore?

David Downing
Richard Russo
Arvind Aradiga
Daniel Defoe
Helen Hollick
Nigel Nicolson
John Julius Norwich
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Lisa Ling
Jennifer Johnston
Anne applebaum
Susan Sontag
Michael Moore
Edward Eager – Half Magic
Chris Cleave
Frederick Forsyth
Graham Greene
George Gissing
Catherine Cookson or Catherine Coulter
Margaret Mitchell
Linda Lael Miller
Lynda LaPlante
Phillip Pullman
William Wordsworth
Bill Bryson
Political bios by Elizabeth Edwards or Ronald Reagan
Helen Hooven Santymer
Terry Teachout
Joseph J. Ellis
Michelle Moran
Mark Mills
Lewis Lapham
James Joyce
James Jones – from here to eternity
Daniel Dennett
Alice Adams
Charles Cumming
Simon Schama
Laurie Lee – Cider with Rosie
Elizabeth Edmondson

Are we including assonance in the alliterative challenge? My high school English reminds me that when it's vowels it's actually assonance not alliteration (end dorkiness)

I read The Woman in White earlier this year and absolutely loved it. One of my favorite reads of the year.

> 53

I think it’s time for me to propose my very first challenge

Hooray for Donna!

>52 klobrien2: Yes, Graham Greene is alliterative.

>55 Chatterbox: Thanks for the great list, Suzanne! Yes, I think if 2 consecutive names are alliterative that it qualifies, even if there are additonal names before or after the alliterative ones.

A few more are

Rick Riordan
Margaret Maron
Dorothy Dunnett
Eleanor Estes
Kathleen Kent

>56 lahochstetler: Assonance is where the same vowel sound is repeated, but I think it only applies when it's internal in the words. Alliteration is where the beginning sounds of each word are the same, usually a consonant, but I don't think it has to be a consonant. (Any grammaticians want to comment?)

Also, it didn't really occur to me until I started thinking about your question, but I don't think it's alliterative if the sounds aren't the same, even if the beginning letter is the same. Such as Chelsea Cain, which was one of the authors I started this challenge to include! In which case, Phillip Pullman and Edward Eager in Suzanne's list wouldn't qualify either. But a name such as Kitty Carlisle would be alliterative (don't think she wrote a book, though).

In any case, I'm fine with the same beginning letter repeated in consecutive names, consonant or vowel, and even if they have different sounds. So maybe it should be "authors whose names have repeated beginning letters"?

... or just Walla Walla for authors? *grin*

One more -- Karleen Koen. I'm not going to finish Before Versailles this month, so can just punt it into this category...

#48 I'm with ya, CitizenJoyce. I think reading a chunkster is a little bit easier when your reading it with someone else. I know it motivates me so I've added my name to the challenge.

#33 > #25 LOL, Yes, it's a first Madeline. I record I hope not to break.

>58 SqueakyChu:: Thanks, Madeline. I posted a thread and failed miserably. ;-) The whole title didn't take so I tried again with no success. That's what happens when you try and do three things at once. I wish new thread titles could be edited! Anyway, the thread for Challenge #16 is over here.

> 62

I wish new thread titles could be edited!

New thread titles can be edited - but only for a few minutes, I believe.

Challenge #17 - X Marks the Spot - Read a Book with the letter X in the title

X represents 10 (and October is the tenth month) and I think it can also seem a little sinister (which seems fitting for the month celebrating Halloween), so Challenge #17 is to read a book with X in the title. I thought about doing books that START with X but felt that might be a tad limiting.

I thought about doing books that START with X but felt that might be a tad limiting.

Er, yeah! :)

I'm hoping this one's never been done before:

Challenge #18: Read a book that has been mentioned in 150 conversations or less on the book's main page

The number of conversations the books are mentioned in appear on the right of the top bar in the book's main page, right next to "Average rating". Indicate the number of conversations on the wiki as I've done. This number will increase as the title appears as a touchstone on the threads, but don't worry about it. Just indicate the number of conversations on the day you list the book on the wiki. Anything from 0-150 is eligible.

> 66

That challenge has not only never been done before, Ilana, but no one even ever thought of it! ;)

Not surprisingly, I found I had many options when looking at the Characteristic Works Challenge (no 2). I think I counted 17 out of the 100+ which I have not yet read and which I already have in my TBR pile, along with probably a similar number that I have already read.

I've restricted myself therefore just to those titles on my TBR pile which someone else has already added to the wiki.

This challenge should generate quite a few points, I think.

Here's an idea...
Please vote below.
ETA: Poll closed on 9/28/11 at 3:39pm with 6 for, 4 against, 1 undecided.

I've always wanted a way that I could record how far along I am in a book, but Tim and others have always shot down that idea. How about if we make this optional on our TIOLI wiki pages? For example, we could make an entry that looks somethng like this:

Emma - Jane Austen - SqueakyChu - Reading (36/396)

For a CD, we could do something like this:

Emma - Jane Austen - SqueakyChu - Listening (2/10)

I would like the page numbers to be deleted from the wiki pages when each book is COMPLETED, though.

Here's why I like this idea:
1. It lets others know how far along we are in a book. That gives a better clue as to whether or not we might finish our book befeore the month is over.
2. For those who count pages on the Frog Meter, the number will already be recorded on the wiki pages and can just be transferred to the Frog Meter when each book is done.
3. It is optional - so not everyone must do it.
4. We can update it however often we want - so it won't turn into a chore.P.S. I don't know why I come up with these ides in the midst of heavy cooking and cleaning. :)

*runs to check the chocolate chip honey cake in the oven*

Ilana, thank you, thank you.... I needed a place to put The Wife Trap and now I have it....1 conversation.

Madeline, where's the recipe for Chocolate Chip honey cake...you just can't run off to check it and leave us hanging!

#67 Oh good, I'm glad. I think it's neat when when we have challenges that encourage us to look up and use various LT features. Helps us all learn a bit more about the site, among other things.

#69 I don't know about this one Madeline. As much as I would like to support your idea, I already spend so much time here on LT keeping track of stuff and just can never keep up... haven't been keeping track of page count, so I'd vote no as well.

#70 My pleasure Chèli. Like most people here (I assume), I created that challenge out of a desire to fit in a bunch of books I had planned for September that weren't going to make it this month.

Some great challenges here this month, as always!

eta: would you say it might be worthwhile to start up a thread for my challenge?

Challenge 19: The Third Time's the Charm - Read a book that you've planned to read for 2 or more 2011 TIOLI challenges but still have not read

State the previous challenges and their months.

Note--I use "planned" loosely: you do not have to have formally listed your book in a previous month (since all incompleted books are deleted at the end of the month and there would be no way to check), you really just have to have "thought about" reading it.

So for example:

The Invisible Bridge - Julie Orringer (Book with a Jewish main character-September #2, On the Orange longlist-April #11, book with the same vowel repeating in every word of the title-May #13, Top-rated book of 2010-January #12)
River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh (Prime color blue-September #6, Book with a three-word title, with the middle word being "of"-August #4, Released in June or July 2011-July #15)

Madeline, I like your idea.

I would just qualify it for my Kindle reads, where I'd substitute the percentage I've read.

CHOCOLATE CHIP HONEY CAKE
Yield: 24 squares

This recipe has become a Guzman family tradition for Rosh Hashanah!

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar 1 1 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
½ cup cocoa
2 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 cup decaf coffee
½ cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together oil, sugar, brown sugar, honey, vanilla & eggs. In a large bowl, mix together cocoa, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients & the coffee into the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips. Stir well. Pour into a greased 9x12 pan & sprinkle the top with almonds. Bake for 50 min.

Note: This recipe is adapted from one I found in The Washington Post many years ago. Shana Tova! (Translation: A Good Year).

Important:
ETA: I edited this recipe to list the ingredients in the correct order. Transferring the information from a recipe card, I messed up the original order of ingredients. It should be okay now.

> 70

where's the recipe for Chocolate Chip honey cake

It's now posted! :D

> 71

would you say it might be worthwhile to start up a thread for my challenge?

IMHO, separate threads are always worthwhile.

> 73

I would just qualify it for my Kindle reads, where I'd substitute the percentage I've read.

That would work, but I need to see if we get more support for this before actually doing it.
I don't want to make the TIOLI wiki seem any more complicated than it is (or isn't!).

Remember, folks. Page counting on the wiki would be optional! I do it anyway on my private comments section. I just thought this might be fun information to share in some way.

> 72

Anne, I edited out the *month* of previous challenge. Let people just name the challenge. No one wants to go back and research the month. You'll get more takers for your challenge this (edited) way. I hope that's okay? If not, change it back to the way you originally had it.

> 78 Madeline, that's fine. I don't really care about the month, or the number either, so I'm fine with the edit, but since some of us (like me) will have to go back and look at the lists of previous challenges by month to remember what they were, I think they'd probably already be looking at the month. Maybe I'll go back in and make it optional.

Madeline, if people want to do it, it's a good idea. For those of us who have several books on the go and/or read more than 15 a month, it's probably not going to happen - and I'm not the only one who rarely bothers to put READING by my books.

Your recipe sounds great, Madeline. I've already made a copy of it and will give it a try during the upcoming holiday season.

> 80

I'm not the only one who rarely bothers to put READING by my books

LOL!!

Yeah, but for me, it would work. I read all of one TIOLI book this month (and not for want of trying, either). :)

I never finished several I started and gave up on others. You'd learn how far along I am in my second book (which I will not be able to finish, I'm sure)!

Quite a bit of what we do here is "LEAVE IT", anyway. I think that's what makes TIOLI work pretty well for many of us.

P.S. Everyone can go back and change their answer to the poll at any time. :D

> 81

Your recipe sounds great

This is a tried and true recipe. It's one of very few honey cakes that doesn't come out as "dry".

Perhaps a wiki of the challenges already done would be cool.

As it is, there is a list below on Google Docs through June 2011.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmSg5qorIw0jdDl6N0tnalhkMGpZdHJteHM...

Looking at the results of the above poll in message #69, I don't see an overwhelming majority of people liking the idea of posting pages on the wiki. I think that might be a result of challengers thinking that the wiki may get too full of irrelevant information or it might look to crowded with "stuff". I do want to keep the wikis fairly simple so I think I'll forego the idea I presented in message #69 above and perhaps revisit it at some time in the future.

As the poll stands now, it is 6 for, 4 against, and 1 undecided.

Thanks for voting!

> 84

Perhaps a wiki of the challenges already done would be cool.

More work! :S

Further to posts 47), 49) Challenge 20 : Read a book that created / clarified a misconception, or gave you an 'Aha' moment

What is an 'Aha' moment? When you think "Oh, I hadn't realised that before".

For instance, having read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time as a child, it wasn't until later that I recognised the allusions to Christianity.
Or if you read about the rape of the Sabine women, the verb comes from the Latin 'to seize' rather than the context we use it in today.
I recently read a murder mystery called Blood and Circuses, and I realised from quotes within the book that this was a twist on the Roman phrase "Give them bread and circuses".
Or there might be a pun in the title. I happened to see a book on my shelves called Sorcerer's Ward and realised that it sounded like 'sorcerous sword'.

74>>> Thanks for sharing, Madeline. It sounds scrumptious!

Madeline, I wonder if you could take just a few minutes to pop over and make me your Chocolate Chip Honey cake - then take it away when I've had only one piece.

I feel really stupid, I wanted to read Wife Trap, and I know that I saw it recently, but now I can't find so I'll have to move it out of my list and try something else for the FEW CONVERSATIONS - luckily I have plenty that fit that challenge!

> 89

Time's too short. You have to stop over tonight, Joyce!

Ilana, and Anne, THANK YOU. This will give me a way to forge ahead with unfinished flying objects -- aka books -- that I won't get wrapped up this month. The Sisters Brothers will go in as a Man Booker nominee AND a red book, for instance!

My challenge is:

Read a book set between 1910 and 1950.

It may be written in that period or since.

I think most if not all of the books I'm thinking of reading under this challenge could be accommodated by Ilana's challenge, but I wanted to put it down anyway. I have two books to read for review that I thought were in this category - looking again I'm not sure either fit so I will probably list them under Ilana's category, as they're quite new so may not have any conversation about them at the moment:

Sally Gardner's The Double Shadow is a YA book, I think a lot of it is set in an alternate history 1930s but I'm not quite sure if there's a present or more recent setting too.

Jo Baker, The Picture Book in fact is set during a longer historical period as it goes up to the present day, so will go under the less than 150 conversations (currently 0 conversations).

There are also a number of books that I've been wanting to read for a while, and I will put one of them down soon.

Re: the pages on the wiki - I sometimes forget to update my status to "Reading" so I'm sure I'd never update the page info.

I'm hoping that I have time to look through the challenges tomorrow night and sign up for a few (and maybe even add one if I can't fit some of my planned reads into the current ones).

Just chiming in: I also voted no on the pages idea. We're already listing the category, whether it was a shared read, the # of shared reads, the total page count, whether it's being read or has been completed. Basically, i just wouldn't do it, and I'm not sure that it gives anyone any more info than simply marking "reading". If anyone wants to know if someone else is planning to wrap up a book by month's end, they can always shoot them a PM. Just my 0.02 worth, of course...

>92 Chatterbox: happy to oblige, Suzanne. Of course I have my own reasons for posting that challenge...

for ivyd re challenge 9: am I allowed to count an alliterative author if the names don't start with the same letter but have the same sound (Richard Wright)?

for humouress re challenge 20: I am wondering how we can know if a book created an aha moment before we've read it. Are you thinking these books will primarily be rereads? Otherwise, I'm stumped as to how to think about this. It might be interesting to find out what books other people have read in the past that had this effect, and then choose from among that list (sort of like Madeline's English class challenge where people are posting book lists.)

I'm not sure how many Missouri Readers group members are also TIOLIers but the October read for MR fits into Ivy's alliterative authors challenge.

It's Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg.

>98 AnneDC: Richard Wright is alliterative, and I think it's fine.

I thought this was such a simple challenge that it wouldn't need any explanation or rules. It's amazing how many permutations have popped up!

> 100

It's amazing how many permutations have popped up!

I can guarantee that yet more will arrive.

>98 AnneDC: : Hmm - I do seem to be doing a lot of re-reading myself, so it would be a bit retrospective. Or maybe from the title or jacket you'd think "I didn't know that", and that would be the 'aha' moment.

Re putting page numbers onto the wiki, it wouldn't affect me. I'm only organised enough to put completed reads on; I don't usually put my 'readings' on, because I'd have to hunt through all the challenges to change their status.

Finally got home from our road trip, I quickly helped to unload the car and then rushed to turn on the computer and get going on my October TIOLI choices. Lots of great challenges.

>103 DeltaQueen50: LOL ---- It's exactly what I would have done. :-)

@pbadeer For challenge 17, would a book with an X in the title where it's used as a number count? I've just finished Nancy Mitford's The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles.

>>105 souloftherose: - absolutely, if it looks like an X, it's an X.

I am currently reading that fits into challenge #18. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls has only been mentioned in 133 conversations. Will be adding it to the wiki.

I also plan to read the The Willoughby's by Lois Lowry for challenge 10.

#106 Thanks!

I just realized that my current read, Touch by Alexi Zentner, will work for Ilana's challenge #18 (it has only 13 conversations associated with it). I moved it to that challenge since I already have a couple of books for my own challenge #9 (first and/or last name begin and end with vowel).

By the way, Touch is so far a delightful novel and it will definitely qualify for a quickie read at the end of the month. Maybe I can get someone to read it as a shared read? ;-)

I have a copy of Touch which I will try to get to this month!

Hmmm... I'm much overbooked as usual, so won't be joining you for Touch Ellen, but I'm glad my challenge can accommodate you to help vary the challenges you participate in.

Something tells me there won't be too many shared reads for my challenge, but that's just fine by me. What I found interesting when I thought of this challenge was that the number of conversations a book is mentioned in doesn't always correlate to the number of libraries it's been added to.

I keep wishing I'd turn into a speedy reader overnight, but doubt that'll ever happen, all the same, here are my planned reads for the month. Completely unrealistic, as usual...

Suggested reads for October

TIOLI #1: A novel assigned in an English class
✔ The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
♫ Summer by Edith Wharton

TIOLI #2: Read a Characteristic Work of the 75 Book Challenge group
✔ Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
✔ The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
♫ Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
♫ Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

TIOLI #3: About an artist for National Arts & Humanities Month
✔ Alexey Brodovitch by Kerry William Purcell
✔ Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 by Carol Squiers (TIOLI #3)

TIOLI #4: Author using anything other than the simplest version of their name
♫ A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

TIOLI #6: Read a book about infectious diseases
✔ Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky

TIOLI #9: Author whose first and/or last name begins and ends with a vowel
* ❉ Son Excellence Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola (11 in 11: Émile Zola),
❉ Chien de faïence (The Terracotta Dog) by Andrea Camilleri

TIOLI #10: Read a book from Book Browse website
✔ Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

TIOLI #11: An author whose first and last names have the same number of letters
✔ Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
♫ To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

TIOLI #17: Letter X in the title
♫ Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie

TIOLI #18: A book that has been mentioned in 150 conversations or less
❉ Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart - Reading
❉ Dust by Arthur Slade
✔ The Ghost Road by Pat Barker



and...

Nobel Prize month suggested reads

✔ The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (TIOLI Challenge #15: author has an alliterative name)
✔ Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (TIOLI #18)
✔ The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago (TIOLI #18)
✔ The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (TIOLI #18)
♫ The Bluest Eye by Tony Morrison (TIOLI #18)

* = must read
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library

If I can get to it, I'll join you in reading Cutting for Stone for challenge #2 this month, Ilana. It's been on my shelves for too long and I really want to read it. I have a conference to attend mid-month and the good thing about that for reading is time on a plane..... :-)

okay, Ilana, I have to ask... how did you get those special characters?

#113 Ellen, I have Cutting for Stone as an audiobook and have put it off too often now, so I'll make a point of listening to it this month. I'm just a bit put off because I think it's something like 27 hours long [just checked, 24 actually] but from what I've heard so far, it's well worth it.

#114 Chèli, I just use the "Character Viewer" which gives me a bunch of options for pictographs, arrows and bullets, special characters and such. I'm on a Mac platform, so I don't know what the PC equivalent is, but no doubt someone can tell us.

I finished my first TIOLI read for the month, for Ilana's 150 LT conversations or less challenge. Dark Souls by Paula Morris is a great YA ghost story set in York.
I've already added a lot of titles to the wiki, so I better get on and start reading.

I have Cutting for Stone as well. I'll bump it up the list.

Earlier this morning I finished my first TIOLI book of the month, The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai, for challenge #11. My review can be found here.

Challenge 22: Read a book where the main character/ subject is an inanimate object.

Examples:
Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx
Bridge Over the Drina by Ivo Andric

Prompted if truth be known by starting and getting hooked by the latter as part of the Noble prize month reading.

I finished my first book for the month, The Wisdom of Whores about AIDS for the infectious disease challenge. Now I'll start on Unwind for the scary cover challenge.

I finished my first TIOLI book for October, Obasan by Joy Kogawa for the Fewer than 150 Conversations on LT. Now I'm reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet for the Characteristic Challenge.

I just finished my first TIOLI book for October: Touch by Alexi Zentner for Ilana's challenge #18. Only 13 conversations about this novel and I hope that number goes up. I LOVED it. 4.5 enthusiastic stars!

I finished my first also, Death of an Addict, for the author not using their simplest name challenge. I'm mostly through The Aquariums of Pyongyang for the few conversations challenge, and have started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie for the characteristic challenge.

Finished compiling my first ever TIOLI attempt - as already on with the Nobel prize books for October I'll try to combine as many as possible here. Targets:
TIOLI # 1 - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck NOBEL 1 Challenge present school-set book.
TIOLI #2 - Room by Emma Donoghue Challenge representative book of group
TIOLI #3 - Lust for Life by Irving Stone Challenge book by or about an artist
TIOLI #4 - A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul NOBEL 2 Challenge book by author not using simplest form of name
TIOLI #5 - The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths Challenge book with a spooky cover
TIOLI #6 - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez NOBEL 3 Challenge book about disease (cheating slightly)
TIOLI #7 - The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander Challenge book with a branch of government in title
TIOLI #8 - For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemmingway NOBEL 4 Challenge book about civil war
TIOLI #9 - I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti Challenge book with writer whose name begins and ends with vowel
TIOLI #10 - Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky Challenge a book given on book browser
TIOLI #11 - Pincher Martin by William Golding NOBEL 5 Challenge a book whose writers first and last names of equal length
TIOLI #12 - Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks Challenge a book with a monster in the title
TIOLI #14 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne Challenge book in Intl Space Station Library
TIOLI #15 - Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse NOBEL 7 Challenge book whose writer has alliterative name
TIOLI #17 - Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle Challenge a book with X in the title
TIOLI #18 - The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri Challenge a book with less than 150 conversations (CR)
TIOLI #21 - Billiards at Half Past Nine by Heinrich Boll NOBEL 8 Challenge a book set between 1910 and 1950
TIOLI #22 - Bridge over the Drina by Ivo Andric NOBEL 9 Challenge a book with an inaminate object as main character (CR)

>124 PaulCranswick: I don't see how Steppenwolf qualifies. The novel was named after the "lonesome wolf of the steppes" - an animal.

125 Ok Morphy it's your challenge and your call. I was going on your leniency in allowing Frankenstein and skeleton but c'est la vie. Have amended above on the basis that you have already accepted "devil". Would admit to a little tweaking to fit my Nobel prize reading this month. sorry

No worries. :)

> 124

Holy smoke! What a list!! I'll be lucky if I finish four or five TIOLI books this month. :)

Welcome to the TIOLI challenges, Paul. Good to have you with us.

> 124Wow! What a tremendous undertaking! I salute you! :)

I don't konw about everyone else but I think it would be fun to post the spooky covers for Challenge #5.

> 129

I don't konw about everyone else but I think it would be fun to post the spooky covers for Challenge #5.

Agreed!

I'll try and join you on The Ministry of Special Cases Paul, it's been on my Kindle for months. With the emphasis on "try", as I'm already hopelessly overcommited.

Hm. It's on my shelf as well. I'll see what's coming up in my myriad f2f groups. If the books aren't too fat...

I'm planning to put a thread together for spooky covers- but have been under the weather with a cold and the brain is not working so well. I'll link up to it in the next couple of days.

Now, off to go rest my giant cotton-ball head.

Aw! I hope you feel better soon, Laurie. Rest well. We'll wait for your thread (...while our books gather cobwebs). ;)

#128 / 129 Madeline & Jacqueline thanks but so far it's just a well-constructed pipe-dream! Good ideas about the covers - on reflection I think mine is more atmospheric than spooky but I'll let you all decide!

#131 / 132 Judy & Suzanne all being well it will be late in the month before I get round to Mr. Englander. Hope you'll join me with it.

I finished Unwind a great YA book. Now on to the chunkster Woman in White. I hope it's good enough to keep me reading. What do you think so far, Lynda?

> 135

Try to get to The Ministry of Special Cases sooner rather than later. It's really a notable book - disturbing, but very worthwhile. I'm glad you're going to get the chance to read it.

124/131 - I went ahead and added The Ministry of Special Cases to Challenge #7 on the wiki since I think I'll try to join you all on that one as well.

Ministry of Special Cases was one of my favourite reads last year.

#124 Great list Paul, good luck with that!

I finished my first read of October and TIOLI, Maisie Dobbs. Liked it well enough. It delves on themes that I have great interest in, namely WWI and it's aftermath. I did the audiobook version and the narrator was good, but she made it all sound a bit too cutesy for my liking, so I'll seek out the next in series in print format instead. I'll be listing this one for challenge #21: Read a book set between 1910 and 1950.

Also started a book I'd been looking forward to for a long time: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, again, in audio format. I'm just a few chapters in, but properly hooked and I can tell this one will be one of those audiobooks that inspires me to do a whole bunch of housework to keep listening for hours without interruptions. Reading this one for challenge #2: Read a Characteristic Work of the 75 Book Challenge group.

Got my month of to a start at last The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri fits to TIOLI "read a book that has been mentioned in 150 conversations or less on the books main page. Yikes only 17 on my list to go!

Finished my first book for October TIOLI #3, Chinaberry Sidewalks by Rodney Crowell, an excellent memoir of his early years within a turbulent, dysfunctional family.

I am currently tackling for Challenge #2, The Woman In White which I have to admit I did struggle with at the beginning. And for Challenge #9, and Paul's Nobel November, I have started Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz - both horrifying and chilling yet very readable.

I just finished up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman for Challenge #5. Why did I let this little gem sit on the shelf for so long?

I've managed a few TIOLI reads so far...

#2 The beekeeper's apprentice by Laurie R King - this was great! I'm looking forward to the rest of the series - you almost feel sorry for Sherlock Holmes. I've no doubt Mary Russell will be more than his equal.
#9 Magic bites by Ilona Andrews - an interesting beginning to yet another Urban Fantasy series - fairly promising.
#11 The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom - an interesting wee book, if a bit of a weepy.

I finished my book for Challenge #8: Gone with the wind.

Missing member name:

August 2011, Challenge 16 - same number of syllables
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Please let me know by 10/6.

Judy, I've been sucked into The Woman in White from the very beginning and was amazed to find how much of Sarah Waters' Fingersmith relied on it.

>!47 - Now that I am well into it, it has grabbed me. And yes, I can see that Sarah Water's used a lot of it in her Fingersmith (which I loved).

Ah, Judy and C.jane how I envy both of you. I've been so involved with all my other TIOLI reads that I havent gotten very far with The Woman in White. It's only the 4th so I hope to jump into it soon.

>146 Morphidae: That would be me I guess Morphy.

I have to laugh. When I look at the list of books that I COULD read from my TBR tower this month, the number jumps above 100...

Well, that ain't happening...

>150 brenzi: Got it. Thanks!

>151 Chatterbox: Well, I suppose it does give you plenty of good options, right? On the other hand, I am afraid to see the total number of books on my TBR pile (actually owned and not) that would count towards all the challenges. I've just been adding books piecemeal, and was rather surprised to find that my latest audiobook, Al Capone Does My Shirts, qualifies for the challenge to read a book set from 1910-1950. (Odd, actually, that the two books I have in that challenge are both primarily set in 1935 - it was a complete accident...)

Missing member name:

August 2011, Challenge 18 - music reference
Still, Small Voice of Trumpets, The by Lloyd Biggle

Please let me know by 10/7.

I just added Maus II to Challenge #21, a book set between 1910-1950. The primary setting is 1944-1945, but there is also a 1970s-1980s portion of the book. Is this acceptable for Challenge #21?

And, by the way, the book is wonderful!

I certainly don't need to be adding any more books to those I'd planned for this month, but today's mail brought me two books I had pre-ordered, and they must have been released today. One was the new Rick Riordan for my grandson and the other is the new Helen DeWitt, Lightning Rods. It has no conversations listed on the main page, but since it's about sex - particularly sex in the work place- I'm thinking that number will increase pretty rapidly. I haven't read her first book The Last Samurai, which is sitting in my living room beckoning to me, but I have to take this one on now - or at least, kind of now. I'm still working diligently on The Woman in White.

Missing member names:

August 2011, Challenge 22 - unusual character name

Darkside by Belinda Bauer

Lady of the Rivers, The by Philippa Gregory

Please let me know by 10/8.

I finished my first book for the TIOLI challenge #18. I finished reading Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. My review is here

I am currently reading The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. I hope to finish that book tonight.

Met my own challenge TIOLI #22 and complete Bridge over the Drina. This was also my first Nobel read of the month. Review for those interested at my thread.

Oh good, I've just found that the book I've finished reading - The Return of the Soldier - turns out to be a 'characteristic work' of this group, so I've added it to Challenge 2 on the wiki.

Finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for challenge #1 yesterday. Also managed to squeeze in Dragonfly in Amber which stretched over from September into October into challenge #8.

My planned October reading list:
*Indicates shared reads

#1: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon*
#1: The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald*
#2: Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout*
#2: The Woman in White- Wilkie Collins*
#2: The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood*
#11: Saving Fish from Drowning - Amy Tan
#11: The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom*
#15: Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
#15: City of Bones - Cassandra Clare*
#18: The Rose Garden - Susanna Kearsley
#18: Eon - Allison Goodman
#18: Lamplighter - D.M. Cornish
#18: Radioactive - Lauren Redniss

Oooh, great list, Valerie! There are several on there I have been wanting to read so I look forward to your thoughts on them :)

Possible TIOLI reads for October: (** is a shared read)

#1 – Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison
#1 - The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton **
#2 – The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa DONE
#2 – The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins **
#3 – Life – Keith Richards (audio)
#4 – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte
#4 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J. K. Rowling (audio)
#5 – The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman **
#7 – Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903 - Lawrence Goldstone
#8 - Partitions - Amit Majmudar **
#8 – The March – E. L. Doctorow **
#9 – The Cookbook Collector - Allegra Goodman
#9 – Pereira Maintains - Antonio Tabucchi
#10 – Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco
#11 – The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein
#12 – The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan **
#13 - North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell **
#15 – Native Son - Richard Wright (audio)
#15 – City of Bones - Cassandra Clare **
#18 – Girls of Tender Age - Mary-Ann Tirone Smith DONE
#18 – Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life - Karen Armstrong
#18 – King Leopold’s Ghost - Adam Hochschild
#19 – Chasing Goldman Sachs - Suzanne McGee DONE
#19 - The School of Night - Louis Bayard
#19 - The War of the End of the World - Mario Varga Llosa
#21 – The Worst Hard Time - Timothy Egan

I'll be lucky if I read half of these, and there are far too many 19th century chunksters for one month, but making the list is half the fun.

>164 AnneDC: So very true! The other half of the fun is just staring at the shelves and shelves of books and thinking...ahhh....the possibilities. And of course actually reading the books is fun as well! :)

I finished my second book for this month. I am moving faster. I wonder if I can read more then 3 books for TIOLI. I finished The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. My review is here

I am currently reading The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff. I don't know if it will fit into any of the challenges just yet. I am also reading Defending Jacob by William Landay which will fit into challenge #18. I am still reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.

The Willoughbys I read for Challenge #10.

Happy Reading all!!!

I only have one book that fits a challenge this month: the ever-TBR Doctor Sax by Jack Kerouac for #19.

(This time it *will* get read, because it has a great Halloween/Dracula subplot.)

It was the reason I started the Doctor TIOLI challenge in February 2011, the reason I started the Beat author challenge in May 2011, and I entered it in last month's LT-work-that-ends-in-9, all to no avail.

I posted my second TIOLI book of the month last night after a rousing book discussion on Lonesome Dove for Challenge 16. The first book I read was for my English course (Challenge #1): The Custom of the Country.

I see lots of people signed up for The Age of Innocence. I started a general thread for the group read which officially begins next week. Anybody can join in at any time. More shared reads for TIOLI. ;-)

Missing member name:

August 2011, Challenge 22 - unusual character name

Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman

Please let me know by 10/9.

I've started A Lesson Before Dying for challenge #1. It is already packing a wallop. Wow. If it continues this way, it's heading for 4.5+ stars.

#167 It was the reason I started the Doctor TIOLI challenge in February 2011, the reason I started the Beat author challenge in May 2011, and I entered it in last month's LT-work-that-ends-in-9, all to no avail. fourth time lucky then?

167: Do all the other books you might think of reading have more than 150 conversations about them, though? Good luck with reading it.

I finished listening to the wonderful The Age of Innocence, pretty much the essence pf Edith Wharton. Now I start listening to The Good Earth, also for challenge #1.

I'm excited to have finished my first TIOLI book for challenge 10, The Blood of Flowers. I might look at the browser site again just out of curiosity.
You know, one thing that would help me a lot would be for everybody who starts a thread for an individual challenge to put a link back to this main thread. Sometimes I can find a challenge thread easier than this main one. Yep. I'd like that.

Most likely reads:

#1 (English class) Emma by Jane Austen
#2 (characteristic work) Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
#4 (non-simplest) A Light in the Window by Jan Karon
#5 (spooky cover) Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker
#9 (first/last vowel) Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz
#11 (first/last same number) The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
#12 (title monster) Undead and Undermined by MaryJanice Davidson
#15 (alliterative author) The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
#16 (book club) Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
#17 (x in title) Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich
#18 (less than 150 convos) Prospero in Hell by L. Jagi Lamplighter
#19 (previous TIOLI) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
#21 (1910-50) Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

I was able to sit down for a couple of hours this afternoon and I read The Uncommon Reader for Challenge #2. I really enjoyed this gentle, humorous read and highly recommend it.

Last night I finished my second TIOLI book of the month, Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone by Nadine Cohodas, for my National Arts and Humanities month challenge. Earlier this month I read The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai, for challenge #11. I've reviewed both books on my thread and on the book's home pages on LT.

I finished my third TIOLI read for October: A Lesson Before Dying for Madeline's Challenge #1. All I have to say is "wow." It's an amazing novel. Beautiful and brutal. I very highly recommend it.

#169 Morphi, that might be me.

eta: just checked and it's definitely me. Strange that I didn't list my name. I always try to be thorough, but I guess there's no helping glitches in my system.

I have plenty of books which would definitely fit into challenge #19 but I'm not able to participate because couldn't for the life of me remember what challenges I'd listed the books before. Or is that not an issue?

eta2: completed The Jungle Books for challenge #11 and Bridge of Birds for challenge #18.

>179 Smiler69: Got it!

About challenge #20: I agree it's probably not possible to plan a book which isn't a reread for this challenge .

But I finished a book last night and searched for a TIOLI challenge where it might fit in - and there it was, #20! It's Il Mio Dante by Roberto Benigni, and the whole thing was just one big "Aha" moment for me.

>179 Smiler69: Ilana, it really doesn't matter at all whether you've listed the book before (some people never list planned reads)--the idea was more that you've thought about reading it in several different months and not done so. So if it's a book you've been meaning to read for awhile, and you see that it fit into two or more previous challenges, go ahead and count it

I just finished Kraken and slipped it into challenge 18. I almost put it in 22, but there is one little tiny problem there, so I rethought.
Oooo. If we could have challenge 19 again next month, I might do some damage there!

Kraken is a monster. You could have put it in 12!

OH! You're absolutely right. Hmmm. If anybody else did, I'll change it.

My copy of Mapp and Lucia has been collected from the library - it arrived just in time for me to pick it up to take on holiday with me, so I hope to join others in reading it for Challenge 4.

>#186 Whoo!!

I finished The Woman in White another chunkster well worth reading. How did I wait 150 years to get to it? Well, I wasn't born for a small part of that time, but still. Now on to a book that I had no intention of reading, but it's October, so if I don't get to The Graveyard Book now, when will I?

>188 Citizenjoyce: - You are in for a treat with The Graveyard Book!

That's what I'm hoping, thanks Katie.

I'm in the middle of The Graveyard Book right now - very entertaining.

I finished Dust by Arthur Slade for challenge #18 and Cutting for Stone for challenge #2. Couldn't be more different, but enjoyed them both. Next, starting on The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison for and His Excellency by Zola both for #9.

The Graveyard Book was one of my favourite books this year. Enjoy!

I've just finished Sweetly for the scary cover challenge, while I know I'm not the target audience for the book, I did not enjoy this one, usually I enjoy fairytale retellings but not this time. I'll still read her Sisters Red at some point but will wait for the disappointment to fade somewhat.
I've been adding books all over the wiki, I will not be able to read them all though some have ended up as shared reads. Have finished The Rainbow Bridge, Madame Sousatzka, Imperial Woman, There is no dog, and Lunch in Paris - all for Ilana's 150 conversations or less challenge. I've started several others including shared reads, Kim and The Pendragon Legend.

Can anyone think of a challenge to fit my recently completed read of Slaughterhouse 5?

193: Slaughterhouse 5 is about the destruction of Dresden in WWII, so fits into the challenge of being set between 1910 and 1950 (1940s).

Thanks, I'll add it to that challenge.

I just added another book to Challenge #18: From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus. It's 108 pages that come highly recommended by Ilana and it only has 23 conversations associated with it to date.

I've finished Fire and The Five People You Meet in Heaven for Challenge #11, Eon: Dragoneye Reborn for Challenge #18, and Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout for Challenge #18.
Last night I started Lamplighter for Challenge #18. Looks like October is shaping up to be another great TIOLI month! :)

I just finished Olive Kitteridge for Challenge #2 (Characteristic Work) and it was wonderful! Review will be on my thread later today.

I seem to be following CitizenJoyce this month. First The Woman In White and now Unwind. I found Unwind to be a pretty good YA story about how the abortion question is answered in the future.

I am now moving along to Challenge #10 with Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross.

I finished The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff and I loved it!! I couldn't put it down. I will be working on my review and posting this weekend. I read The Diplomat's Wife for Challenge number 18.

I will be starting Defending Jacob by William Landay and reading for the same challenge.

So far this month I've finished three TIOLI challenge books:

House of Chains for Challenge 18
The Man with a Load of Mischief for Challenge 11
Ghosts of Manhattan for Challenge 12

Just began Reamde but it is a tome and hardbound and I'm not sure I'll be able to read it that much since it is not so easy to read as something that size in ebook format. (I got it free from Early Reviewers).

I just finished The Night Circus for challenge #18. It's a truly fantastic book! If you can get your hands on it (my library system has quite a few holds on it), please do (even if you can't get it in time for the points this month, read it anyways!).

I've bought The Night Circus after a few good reviews and it was available on Kindle at a reasonable price (since I bought it it's even cheaper). I'd like to get to it this month if I can.

15: Challenge 5: did you start a thread for spooky covers? It just occurred to me that a book I'd listed elsewhere fitted this one.

Again, I'm having a lovely TIOLI month..

#2 The tenderness of wolves by Stef Penney - this didn't really grab me. I thought it was well-written and very atmospheric, but, by the time the plot started to climax, I had lost interest.
#4 Magic burns by Ilona Andrews - this series is definitely improving and I'm keen to read the next book.
#8 March by Geraldine Brooks - an amazing, but heart-rending read. Geraldine Brooks has written a book that shadows the events in Little women, but presents a far bleaker and more multi-layered point of view. Highly recommended.
#18 The warmasters by David Weber et al. - some fine military SF short stories.

I don't know how much TIOLI reading I'm going to get done for the rest of the month, since I'm reading Middlemarch to deadline. It's l-o-o-o-n-n-g-g

Picked up Bossypants by Tina Fey from the express shelf at the library (one week loans for high-demand titles) yesterday and finished last night. I was happy to see it fit challenge #18 with just 90 conversations to date.

I have two choices about where to place my last two books. I think they should stay together and go in Challenge 22 about inanimate objects as being a leading character. In Parnassus on Wheels, the traveling book cart was front and center, and in The Haunted Bookshop, the quaint bookstore in early 20th Century Brooklyn was at the heart of the story. Both would be enjoyed by the biblioholics on TIOLI, but I was partial to Parnassus.

For anyone who is planning on reading The Night Circus, Mark (msf59) is hosting a group read next month. Should be a fun one!

I think I'm 12th on the list at the library for The Night Circus. Maybe it'll come in by next month so I can join in.

Ooh, another "book bullet" hit me! The Night Circus sounds great. Off to request it from my library.

Karen O.

I finished Room for Challenge #2. It's a 4-star read for me. In my opinion, it's not really about abuse and it dodges gruesome descriptions of the abuse and captivity that set the stage for the real story. In any case, I recommend it. My review is here

eta: Next up for me is From the Land of the Moon for Challenge #18.

I finished that little gem of a book, The Graveyard Book. I agree, it's a real winner. Now for another infectious disease book, Wickett's Remedy by the author of Bee Season, Myla Goldberg.

@172. I don't think any of my TBRs have more than 150 conversations. Makes that one too easy ...

>212 EBT1002: - Ellen, I very much agree with your take on Room which I read earlier this year. It really wasn't about the abuse and horrific situation, it was about this lovely mother-son relationship and Jack as a character. Part of the reason I didn't enjoy the second half as much was because I felt like the focus changed a little and was less effective.

I finished From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus for Challenge #18 (my second completion for this challenge!). A lovely short novel (Europa Edition) set in Italy during and after WWII, this is a worthwhile read and will definitely qualify for a quickie read when the time comes.

204: Madeleine has kindly set up a spooky covers thread: I will try to post my own spooky cover in the next couple of days.

Zoe/Madeleine: are we going to have a "characteristic work" thread?

Spooky Book Contest!

It will be held at the end of the month on the "spooky book cover" thread. We'll have a secret vote for the spookiest book cover.

To enter your book in this contest, all you need to do is post a cover of the book you're currently reading on the wiki; then post COMPLETED after your book information when you finish reading that book - but before the end of the month.

More later...

> 217

Luci, go ahead a set up a "characteristic work" thread if you'd like one. Zoe may be a bit busy with school these days. I'm sure she won't mind.

> 181 : Oh, thank you! I was going to petition to change my challenge (#20 - an 'aha' moment) to something else, because it didn't seem to suit anyone, so I'm glad it worked for you.

I suppose a planned read might be a historical (oh, so that's what happened) or scientific (oh, that's how it works)

Finally finished Villette by Charlotte Bronte for challenge #4.

I just finished Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross for Challenge #10. I think this was the most difficult review I have ever written. I ended up giving it a 3 1/2 star rating, but I have a feeling that down the road I may wish that I had given it a higher one. A difficult and uncomfortable read about the dark side of marriage, yet still engrossing. Very hard to describe.

Sort of late, but I did eventually start a thread for the Characteristic Work challenge: http://www.librarything.com/topic/125248

Today I finished Alexey Brodovitch for Darryl's challenge, and started on the audio version of Summer by Edith Wharton for Madeline's challenge. Not very keen on the narrator, but concentrating on Wharton's writing which is of course excellent.

Megan = 5 letters; Stack = 5 letters. Oh good, Megan Stack's spellbinding memoir on war in the Middle East qualifies for Challenge 11. As I said in my review... read Every Man In This Village is A Liar... and weep.

I started reading One Good Turn in preparation for next week's Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. I've put it into challenge #19 as must have listed this one a good half-dozen times. Wish could recall under what challenges, other than Madeline's 'Sentence starting with five words or less'.

>226 Smiler69: Perhaps August, a book where all the title words have the same number of syllables?

Finished Nevermore by Kelly Creagh which I enjoyed even more than I anticipated. Teen romance mixed with Edgar Allen Poe and some dark and spooky characters and events. Works really well as a Halloween read. I've stuck it in challenge #18.

#227 Anne, that sounds like a likely option, thanks!

Finished Summer by Edith Wharton. Can't say it was my favourite book of the year as I didn't like Charity at all. After all, who can like a librarian who doesn't care about books? Plus, the narrator of this audio seemed in a big hurry to get through the book.

Have started on Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

And I just finished Kim, my first five star read for the last quarter of the year. Read for Challenge #11: Read a book by an author whose first and last names have the same number of letters.

>230 Smiler69: A librarian who doesn't like books back in the days Edith Wharton wrote? WOW! I didn't know there was such a thing until this technology age.

#231 , glad that you enjoyed Kim as much as I did.

I've just finished Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark, I'll have to read some more of her work. I think I've got a Muriel Spark omnibus stashed away somewhere. Anyway I've added LwI to Lucy's challenge # 21: Read a book set between 1910 and 1950.

#232 Guess there has always been a faction of those who'll just never know how much they're missing out on.

#233 I was considering going with Spark's A Far Cry from Kensington after I'm finished with Kim, but I can just as easily switch to Loitering with Intent for this month instead for a matched read.

I was thinking of picking up Loitering with Intent too - I have another review book next but might still be able to manage it too.

By the way Ilana, I think you're missing a shared read - I finished Maisie Dobbs too this month (and actually so has Cushla though she hasn't come back to update the wiki)

Finished Absolute Monarchs by John Julius Norwich, which I was going to stick in the homonym authors category, but think I'll put it in the "aha" moment category instead, as it's jam-packed with those.

I want to publicly acknowledge and thank Liz (Lyzard) who is helping me dramatically on my own thread through my intended read this month. I chose to read Emma for my own challenge and found that I had been over-challenging myself! Through her excellent tutelage, she is helping me move through this book (which I'd probably have tossed aside after the first paragraph had I been reading it on my own). I'm just not a "19th century British lit person". Of course, I already knew that.

I'm almost at the halfway mark. If you're looking for TIOLI points, don't look to me to help you get them with my read of Emma (which I'll be reading for at least two more weeks). If you're interested in reading what's going on, start at message 60 of this thread to see what a "tutored read" looks like. I love the concept!

Missing member:

September 2011, Challenge 5

Dark Magic / Awakening / Spellbound by Cate Tiernan

Please let me know by 10/21.

Ooops! That would be me! Sorry about that Morphy.

#237 - I have been lurking on Madeline's thread and have been following the "tutored read' as well. I read Emma last year, and these discussions have helped me to understand a lot regarding both character motivation and the actual time period.

I've just added The Sense of an Ending to challenge #11: Read a book by an author whose first and last names have the same number of letters where it is now a shared read, but noticed that it is also a shared read over on Challenge #18: 150 LT conversations of less ....what to do?

#234/235: Loitering with Intent is well worth reading, I think she had a lot of fun writing it. There is an excellent Guardian article about Muriel Spark and the book which I came across after I finished.

>239 jolerie: Got it.

I finished and reviewed Lamplighter by D.M. Cornish and am now diving right into The Woman in White. I must say this is the best start for a classic that I've read thus far!

#243 - Hi Valerie, I hope you enjoy your read of The Woman in White, there is a group read of it at the 11 in 11 Challenge that you could check out. if you need a link just let me know.

I have finally started The Scorch Trials and you'll be happy to hear that it pulls you in immediately and sets you off on another adventure with these characters. I'm really enjoying it.

#235 Thanks Luci, it took me a moment to understand what you meant, but I believe you're referring to the TIOLI meter, correct? I'll go fix it soon, too knackered to do anything about it right now.

#237 I've been following some of that tutoring and am really impressed with the job Liz has been doing. Amazing. As I said on your thread Madeline, I'll be going back to the very beginning and following those notes on your thread when I start on Emma again. The first time, I didn't have the patience to make it past the first couple of chapters!

#241 ....what to do?

Put it in my challenge!!! Almost by definition, there are very few shared reads for it, so one more can't be a bad thing, can it? ;-)

>#245 I've started a thread where people can discuss the tutoring idea.

Starting midnight tonight...It's "Quickie Reads" day on October 21st. Suggest books already COMPLETED on the October wiki that you think are quick and interesting enough reads for some more possilbe shared reads (more points!) by month's end.

By the way, the September stats and awards will be coming soon. I've been rather busy with a monthful of Jewish holidays. It's been fun, but frantic, here at home.

My suggestion for a great "Quickie" read for Challenge #2 is The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Could be read in a day or less quite easily.

I'm suggesting Unwind for a quicky read. Very quick read because you won't want to stop with very interesting ideas.

I finally finished The Years of Rice and Salt and will soon post a review on my thread. Wow, that was long and somewhat tedious. It took me 20 days to read that book. I've been busy with work and school, but still...

I've been reading On Writing by Stephen King, and I think I'll try to add it to challenge 3, as it is mostly a memoir, as far as I can tell.

On challenge #1, I'd recommend Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. My edition has only 86 pages, so its really quick. Don't know why I never got around to it earlier in life!

Running from the thread police!

Follow me to here.