Take It or Leave It Challenge - October 2011 - Page 2

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 request new challenges again in November.

Now how did I get to be here first?

Mired in Middlemarch but enjoying it. The rest of the challenges will have to wait. There's always next month!

For a "quickie read" I would second The uncommon reader - a very fast read. I finished Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene this month and it would make a good quick read too - particularly if you're familiar with the original.

Ah. Satisfaction. I have completed Emma for challenge 1 and was happy while reading and now am happy finished.

quick reads: Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Also The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is quick for a halloween read.

I recommend Parnassus on Wheels for a quick, lighthearted book about books. My copy was only 160 pages -- and even had some illustrations.

Oh, yes, I second The Graveyard Book, a very quick read and quite entertaining.

I would highly recommend The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, this year's Booker Prize winner, which two people have already read for challenge #11. It's ~160 pages in length, and could easily be read in one sitting.

9: In fact at least 4 people have listed it this month in 2 challenges, perhaps those in challenge 11 and 18 need to decide which one...., I echo the recommendation though I read it in a previous month.

Donna, as I had mentioned on your thread, Parnassus on Wheels isn't available at the library, but I just found it on Audible, which happens to be having a 50% sale at the moment. Definitely adding it to my shopping cart at $6.28, though remains to be seen whether I'll be able to fit it in this month, as I want to match reads with Kerry (avatiakh) for both Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck and Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark, both for... well, my own challenge which isn't getting much matched reads otherwise.

Getting to the end of the month and I've managed some more great wee reads:

#17 Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene - I've been meaning to read this for ages, and this challenge was the perfect opportunity. I really enjoyed both the simplicity of the book and the Cervantes allusions.
#9 The secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander - a cracking read set against the background of the Chinese Imperial Court - great characters.
#18 Blood rites by Jim Butcher - another great Harry Dresden.

A little late, but here are the...

TIOLI statistics for September, 2011:

In September, a total of 581 books were read for 22 challenges. Of these, 145 or 25%, were shared reads, garnering a total of 77 TIOLI points and bring us to a new YTD record total of 781 TIOLI points.

The most popular book of the month was shared by two titles: A trick of the Light by Louise Penny and Ethan frome by Edith Wharton, with each book having been read by 8 challengers.

The most popular challenge for the month was that of DeltaQueen to read a book with a prime color (red, blue, or yellow) as the main color of its cover. There were 76 books read for that challenge.

The challenge with the hightest number of TIOLI points was mine (SqueakyChu) whose challenge was to read a book with an opening sentence of 5 words or less. That challenge accumulated 12 points.

Soon to come...the awards for September, 2011...

Whoo! The "name in the title" challenge was entirely self-interested, based on my TBR - the Ethan Frome read was just serendipity. :)

For anyone still reading 'Emma', have you had a look at the Austenathon threads? We read 'Emma' a couple of months ago, I think. There are both spoiler and non-spoiler threads.

I've just finished reading Binky the Space Cat, a YA graphic novel by Ashley Spires (for challenge #11). It was recommended by Kerry (avatiakh) and I heartily recommend it to cat lovers.

> 15

Thanks for the heads up on the Emma threads. I'll have a look at both of them, but not until after I finish reading the book myself.

Ok - I've added Binky to the wiki as well, so it's a shared read. I've just finished Ruti Modan's graphic novel, Jamilti and other stories which is a collection of her early work before Exit Wounds. The stories and art are on the quirky side. Added to Ilana's 150 LT conversations challenge.

I finished a book for Challenge #18. Defending Jacob by William Landay. I wasn't sure if I could do it. I will see if any of my current reads are able to fit into any of the challenges for this month.

I read Cutting for Stone for Challenge #2 (Characteristic Work), The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown for Challenge #15 (Alliterative Author), and The Key to Midnight for Challenge #18 (150 Convos or less).

I've hit 225 books (75 times 3)!

Congrats on the 3 x 75 Morphi! I hit that number this month too, though of course my numbers are inflated what with all the children's books I read in the summer.

Well done Morphy - you are truly a bookworm heroine!

I feel so inadequate..... I'll be lucky if i get 50 books read all year....

Oh my, I am sooooooo far behind in reading threads and reading books. Still working my way through Cutting for Stone. I recommend Touch by Alexi Zentner as a quickie read.

>24 EBT1002: What do you think of Cutting for Stone? I recently read and enjoyed it.

>25 Morphidae: I finished it last night. I'm giving it four stars for now; need to think about it a bit before I write my review and finalize my rating. I very much enjoyed it and think it's definitely a worthwhile read.

ETA: Today I'm starting Never Let Me Go for my own challenge #9. I'm hoping it's a bit of a quick read.

Have added Answering Back a poetry anthology to TIOLI #20. The Aha moment is realising that I was undernourishing my love of verse and I need to put that right somewhat. Full review on my thread for those interested.

Another suggestion for a quicky read, and appropriately creepy for the time of year--We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. A mere 146 pages, it can be (should be?) consumed in one sitting. I read this (actually I re-read it) for Challenge #4, books with spooky covers, but it also would have qualified as a book from my daughter's 12th grade English class.

>28 AnneDC: I saw a copy of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and almost purchased it based on the wonderful cover --- black and white drawing, wraparound images --- and, of course, the rave reviews about the actual novel (novella?). Now maybe I'll go back and break out the credit card this time.....

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is fabulous! I read it last month, and consumed it in one sitting. It's terribly creepy and fun.

Here they are, folks…

The Awards for the month of September, 2001

The What Comes Next Award goes to MickeyFine for reading Me, Myself, and Bob for the challenge to read a book with an opening sentence of five words or less. The opening sentence of that book was, “Technically, the cucumber came first.” Now, that is certainly an opening sentence that invites further reading!

The Crazy Mixed Up Colors Award goes to Smiler69 for reading a red book for the challenge to read a book with a primary color on the cover because the title of her book, The White Rhino Hotel, has yet a different color in its title!

The It’s a Wavy Day Award goes to Carmenere for the challenge to read a book with exactly nine letters in the title. That was a fun challenge in which to list a book because it was delightful to see how the titles all lined up in a wavy way on the wiki! (See the wiki wave)

I don’t usually do this, but I’m going to award the same person a second award. That award is the Mighty, Mighty Obscure Award which goes to Smiler69 for the odd challenge she gave us to read a book whose title has a word appearing on a wikipedia link under Mid-Autumn Festival or Equinox. For sure, in my lifetime, I would never have come up with that challenge on my own!

Last, but certainly not least, the Ain’t She Amazing Award goes to Chatterbox for completing a book in every single challenge for the month of September. What a feat!

Congrats to our September award winners!

Congratulations to all the award winners for September! And, thank you, Madeline for providing those smile-invoking categories. Now I'm going to have to check out the wiki wave!

Heh! I added a quick link to the wiki wave in message #31.

Yeowza! TWO awards?? That's the best part of my week, for sure!

Whether I win or not, your award titles and explanations always make me smile. I hadn't even noticed about the other colour in the title. And as for coming up with an 'obscure' challenge, it's amazing sometimes the lengths to which the human mind will go to come up with a challenge to fit in three or more books that have seemingly NOTHING in common. :-)

Congrats to Suzanne; who else but our book-a-day maverick could even aspire to that kind of feat?!

it's amazing sometimes the lengths to which the human mind will go to come up with a challenge to fit in three or more books that have seemingly NOTHING in common.

LOL!!

Woo Hoo! Congrats to Ilana for two well-deserved awards ----

And it may not happen until next summer, but I want to challenge myself to match Chatterbox sometime in 2012 to read at least one book for each challenge. I may have to expend all my annual leave time to accomplish this.....

Congrats to all award winners! And thanks Madeline for thinking up such fun award cqtegories. As for emulating Suzanne's feat, unless the number of challenges per month reduces by at least 50% ,I and probably most of us don't stand a chance, purely on volume, even before we try to find books to match each challenge!

Hahzaa! "It's a wavy day award" is my first award! It takes one imaginative wiki watcher to have found that one, Madeline. I am honored to accept this awesome award :)

Congrats on last month's winners. It gives a warm, fuzzy feeling, doesn't it?

I quit a couple chapters into A Confederacy of Dunces. Mean, ugly nonsense about unpleasant people is NOT funny. No, thanks.

Congratulations for all the September Award Winners. And congrats to Madeline for coming up with such smile-provoking awards!

#36 Thanks Ellen :-)

I can assure you that at the rate I read at, even if I spent 12 hours a day doing nothing but reading, I probably couldn't match Suzannes's feat either. Probably wouldn't want to because that would leave me not time for LT! ;-)

#39 Mean, ugly nonsense about unpleasant people is NOT funny.

Morphi, thanks you for that. I actually stuck to A Confederacy of Dunces, but the only reason I did was because I was trying really hard to see why they had awarded the Pultizer Prize for it. Got to the end and wished I'd quit after the first chapter or two like you did. It still leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth, three years and 'a few' books later.

eta: I went back to see what I'd rated it (1.5 stars) and to see what I had said in my review: "Didn’t like the main character. Didn’t think he, or any of the situations he got into were funny. Was grossed out for the better part of the book. Only finished it because it got a Pulitzer Prize and kept hoping it would get better, but no."

39 and 41, Morphy and Ilana I so agree with your assessment of Confederacy of Dunces. My RL book club read it last year so I finished the whole thing and grumbled loudly while doing so. It was recommended to the group by a libertarian man, who I think represents the group of people who find it hilarious social commentary. Hilarious - not at all, social commentary - not on any part of society I want to read about.

ETA, I just read my review of the book. It ends with this sentence: Lard coated dog do would leave a better taste in my mouth.

Madeline, excellent award categories, as ever! And congratulations to the September winners! TIOLI is one of my favorite things in the world right now! (I also really like exclamation points!!!)

Karen O.!

Even though I read it for Challenge #12 - A Book with a Monster in the Title, The Devil's Cub, by Georgette Heyer was a delightful read that put a smile on my face the whole time I was reading it.

> 43

I also really like exclamation points!!!

I do, too!!!!!!!!!! :)

The end of the month is fast approaching...

1. Spooky Book Cover Contest!

If you have COMPLETED your book for Challenge # 5 (to read a book with a spooky cover), it will be eligible for the contest to see whose book cover is the very spookiest.

Rules will be posted on this thread. I'll send out a reminder at the very end of the month when voting is to begin. All TIOLI challengers are eligible to vote.

2. Tutored Reads

Lyzard and drneutron are working together to bring a new feature, Tutored Reads, to the 75 books group. This is *not* a part of TIOLI, but I want to push it here because it should be lots of fun. I also want everyone to have a chance to input your ideas on this thread. I had the chance to try this out (and I'm still trying it out) on my own thread. What can I say? It's fabulous...and lyzard is an excellent tutor!

3. End of the Month

You know what that means! In only five days, it will be November. Be on the lookout for the main November TIOLI challenge to be posted. It can appear here at any time. Heh! Be ready by thinking up a clever TIOLI challenge you can post just as soon as you see the main challenge posted.

4. Complete Your Reads

Don't forget to begin to delete reads from October's wiki if you're not going to finish those books before the end of the month. Double check that all of the books you did finish have been marked COMPLETED.

Ever onward...

I won? Really? Wow. I want to thank my mom, my dad, and the public library who bought the book in the first place. ;)

Sadly, I have given up on 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea which was just too much of a slog for me. Now we'll see if I can finish Dracula before Halloween. :)

Very cool! I was challenging myself, and I won something, too!!! Nifty. Don't think I'll replicate the feat this month, but then it did take me 18 months or so to do it in the first place...

Anyone else sheepishly checking to see if the November thread is up yet? :-)

Many times so far.

:)

Oh no--it can't be that time already!

Oy. Is it that time already? Here I was thinking I had DAYS and DAYS ahead of me to get all those books read. Guess I'll be shooting down countless wiki entries again this month.

Suz, would you be willing to tutor me on how to read faster?

I finished Muriel Spark's Loitering with Intent today, which is a shared read with Kerry (avatiakh), though I can't remember where she stuck it right now. A recommended read, absolutely. Spark is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. Have started Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck and very much enjoying it so far. Again, a shared read with Kerry (if I finish it on time), and again, will have to dig around to find where it's placed on the wiki.

eta: lol! I just realized both books were for my own challenge!

I really enjoy Spark too. I think I'll move Loitering with Intent up the TBR.

#54 I read Spark's Memento Mori quite recently and though it quite brilliant as well. Here's my review of that book if you're curious.

Ilana - Loitering with Intent is in challenge #21, and Pearl Buck is in your 150 LT conversations one.

I just finished a short memoir of Paula Fox's year in Europe post WW2, The Coldest Winter: a stringer in liberated Europe. I felt it was a bit of a yawn read, but the blurbs are so positive on the back cover I wondered if I'd been reading the same book. It has made me curious to read her memoir of her childhood, and I found out on wikipedia that she is Courtney Love's grandmother! This was for challenge #21: Read a book set between 1910 and 1950. Recommended as a quick read for Paula Fox fans.

I've been peeking... I admit...

And I've just finished another audiobook, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, a Newbery Medal book, which just squeaks into Ilana's challenge at 145 LT conversations. It was quite good, I have his The King's Fifth to read as well which is about the conquistadors in Mexico.

I am hopful that I will actually finish all my planned reads for this month. I am currently reading the last two. But I still keep coming and peeking to see if next month's have been posted yet!

I finished the excellent Germany 1945 for the 1910-1950 Challenge - it's a shared read with Kiwiflowa. I'm having a slow TIOLI month even by my standards but it was worth it to get through this book!

Ilana and Cushla, I'm moving Maisie Dobbs to the characteristic work challenge if that's ok. I have read a huge number of books on that list and have some of the others but not sure where - I one of the other books on hand but can't finish it by Monday.

Ilana, I also finished Loitering with Intent yesterday, great fun to read, thank you.

#61 I don't mind that you've moved Maisie Dobbs, less points for your challenge, that's all! :-)

I'm glad you enjoyed Loitering with Intent Luci. I can see I'll be enjoying Muriel Spark for a good while still, especially as she's been kind enough to publish a few more books! There's a good chance I'll be listening to her A Far Cry From Kensington in November.

I just removed several books from the wiki. I don't feel guilty about it, though there are a few I DO wish I could have read this month, only because I really WANT to. But Polio, The Ghost Road, Leviathan and Jamrach's Menagerie will just have to wait a while longer... btw, does anyone know how to pronounce that name in the last title? I'm not absolutely certain I do.

I also removed a slew of books.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Half a Yellow Sun for the civil war challenge. It's been a very pleasant book so far, but the war just started, so I'm think pleasantries will be going away.

And now with the "Read Something another 75er enjoyed in Oct." challenge, I can add in Loitering with Intent for November.

I completed Never Let Me Go last night and will try to get one more completed read in under the Monday midnight wire.

What did you think of Never Let Me Go? Some people love it; others hate it. I kind of liked it myself.

Well I finished my last read for October TIOLI. I read Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls for Madeline's challenge. I believe I finished all my planned reads for this month. Going to update the wiki.

Here is my review of Never Let Me Go ---- I gave it 3.5 stars.

> 68

Yours, I think, is the most frequent reaction to this book. I liked it better than most readers because I came to this book knowing nothing about it. Hence I had no expectations one way or the other. I feel it would have been a better story, though, had the author not let on so early in the book that these kids were all "different" in some way.

Well, I've had a new experience: for the very first time, I've had to remove a book from the wiki. I feel so dirty... (*sniff*)

Oh, yes, yes - no guilt, and all that. :)

Actually, I don't feel so bad. I knew when I listed it that unless the stars aligned, there was only a very slender chance of me finishing that particular chunkster before the month ran out. And now I find it fits Madeline's animals challenge.

#70 There, there.

I guess I've removed so many that I've become immune to it. In fact, I'd better go check on it now...

yeah i've just removed the ones I didn't get to. I'm glad I managed to complete 5 of them! that's a good month for me.

The Cat's Table is listed as a completed read in challenges 9 and 18.

Hm - I might have time for one more October book. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of the Characteristic Books, and right here on my TBR. And - it's a good Halloween book, if the cover and the author are any indications. Whoopee.

I just moved my The Sense of an Ending from Challenge 18 to join the 3 others in Challenge 11. And then, I went ahead and moved goddesspt2's shared read also, rather than leave it all alone. I know this was raised much earlier on this thread, but nothing happened, so I thought I'd just go ahead and move mine.

> 74 I believe another LTer listed We Have Always Lived in the Castle under the challenge for Spooky Covers.

Just in case you don't have time to read a whole Shirley Jackson book, you can read the most famous story,The Lottery, here: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html

I just added The Grace of Silence by Michele Norris for Ilana's wonderful challenge #18. It's only got one conversation associated with it. So far, it's a quick and engaging read; I should have no trouble completing it by midnight on Halloween.

>76 jacqueline065: Thanks for the catch! I'll list the Jackson book there. It does have a very spooky cover, after all.

I managed to finish The cat's table early and have added it to Challenge #18. A great read.

I finally finished Werewolves for Challenge#12 Monster in the Title. It was very informative. The book traces the history/legend of the werewolf.

I am madly trying to finish my last two books for this month's challenge: The Moviegoer to join Judy in a shared read for Challenge 16 and The Graveyard Book to join a group of readers on the scary book cover challenge.

I have three books to finish for the month: The War of the End of the World, The Worst Hard Time, and The Graveyard Book (The Graveyard Book is a read-aloud, and there is no way we will be done, but I may just read ahead if I finish my other books.)

I just completed my final TIOLI read for October, Challenge #10 the Book Browse "surprise me" website. Night by Elie Wiesel it was like The Book Thief and Maus I & II only this one was spoken in first person which made it all the more powerful. Review to come.

I've finished A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson for the alliterative author challenge and should finish Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber for challenge#9. I have a few more to take off the wiki and move to November.

Woo hoo! I managed to read all my planned books for October. I'm now off to update the wiki on my 18th book.

For anyone who is reading or planning on reading a Neil Gaiman book, some of us were are having a "Neil In November" read. I will set up a thread and hope you can drop by.

Reading Dracula like crazy, both so that I can count it for TIOLI and because it is so appropriate to Halloween. I'm sure I'll be able to wrap it up by tomorrow.

Karen O.

And the "Neil in November" read sounds like a lot of fun. I'm in!

I finished my last read for the month Half a Yellow Sun for the civil war challenge. It explores relationships and war and is excellent. I'd planned that my last read would be Pulse, but I had to remove it even though it's a shared read. 240 pages is way more than I can do in one day. So, on to November.

Completed The Grace of Silence last night for Challenge #18. I've added yet another to this challenge: Stitches: A Memoir by David Small - a graphic novel with 137 conversations associated with it. I can complete it while giving out candy tonight. I've had it from the library for a few weeks now and I'm glad I could fit it into a challenge.

I just made the liberating discovery that The War of the End of the World conveniently has the word "Dog" on page 50, so I can shift it to November's challenge #1 and read the last 100 pages at a reasonable pace.

I will be finishing up The Graveyard Book sometime on Halloween night, after the trick-or-treaters have gone.

44) thanks. I've read all of the mysteries and either 1 or two romances, or historical, or 1 of each. A lot of books and it is hard to figure which to try first.

The first in that trilogy is available at my library, but not the rest. If I like it I'll look for the devil's club one for sale.

>90 AnneDC: Excellent news! That's one of the books I've been wanting to read and it's good to know I can fit it into a November challenge.

Hurrah; I can shift Evening in the palace of reason to Madeline's challenge for November (thanks to the word ape, unexpectedly appearing in a discussion about Bach...) and concentrate on finishing up a non-fiction narrative about the civil war(s) in Congo and Alina Bronsky's excellent Broken Glass Park.

>90 AnneDC:: I'm also finishing The Graveyard Book under the wire, Anne. My idea was to be reading it while I was passing out candy tonight; however, I went ahead and finished it this afternoon so I could get started on the book I need to read for Thursday night's book group. At first I thought The Handmaid's Tale wouldn't count for a November TIOLI challenge until I got to page 50 and discovered 3 embedded hens and an ass for Madeline's animal name challenge. Lol.

Closed with a decent last day and a half as I managed to finish For Whom the Bell Tolls and Devil May Care TIOLI 8 & 12 respectively. Not a bad first month on the challenge but can do better.

I finished Imperial Woman yesterday evening and have to say I really enjoyed it. I did the audiobook version and it was a good listen and a good story. Will definitely keep reading more from Pearl S. Buck.

I've started We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but there's no way I'm finishing it tonight, so will post it to Paul's 'books recommended in October' challenge.

#65: Sorry I didn't get to Never Let Me Go. I did get to a personal best of 3 shared reads this month, though. So many books I have to remove now. With a month bookended by Years of Rice and Salt and The Passage, there wasn't much shelf space in the middle.

Fell asleep and missed finishing Jean Ure's Plague, a YA novel in which a girl comes back from an adventure holiday to find her parents and almost everyone else have died of a horrible infectious disease, and sets out across London with two other surviving teenagers to find somewhere safer and better to be. It's a good read!

I finished Kangaroo Notebook by Kōbō Abe last night for challenge #18, and I've just completed The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht for challenge #2 (and Orange October), my 11th and 12th TIOLI books of the month. I've shifted The Half-Finished Heaven by Swedish poet and 2011 Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer to Suz's challenge for November (book originally written in a language that is not a lingua franca), and Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair to Madeline's animal challenge (pattern).

I completed Stitches: A Memoir while handing out candy to youngsters who are, in my opinion, just a tad too old to be trick-or-treating. But they were all very polite and cheerful, and I had a good book to read. I gave David Small's graphic memoir 4.5 stars. I loved it.

Now, on to November.

eta:I read Stitches: A Memoir for Ilana's challenge #18. We completed 134 books for this challenge (I, myself, completed three of them!) --- I don't know if that's a record for one challenge (it is for me), but it's impressive!

Finished my last October read with about five minutes to spare, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Wonderful, and very fitting for Halloween.

Finished Dracula earlier today for challenge #12. An excellent Halloween read.

I finished my last book for October, Binky to the Rescue which fits into challenge #11. It was cute, but not as good as Binky the Space Cat. Still I might pick up the third and last one as they're fun and very quick reads.

Well I had to remove three books:(

I did manage to read

Challenge #5: Read a book with a spooky cover
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Lantern - Deborah Lawrenson
*The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale

Challenge #9: Read a book by an author whose first and/or last name begins and ends with a vowel
*Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue

Challenge#10: Read a book from Book Browse website, Find a Book, "Surprise Me!" tab
Nefertiti : a novel - Michelle Moran

Challenge #11: Read a book by an author whose first and last names have the same number of letters
The Three Arthurs: History, Legend and Quest - Derek Bryce

Challenge#12: Read a book with a monster in the title
The Giant Book of Vampires - Stephen Jones

Challenge#13: Read a book with two cardinal points in the title
East, West - Salman Rushdie

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

Challenge #21: Read a book set between 1910 and 1950
*Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

On to November:)

I added a bunch of books to the wiki for October.

TIOLI #1 (English Class) - Emma by Jane Austen

TIOLI #4 (non-simplest) - A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

TIOLI #4 (non-simplest) - Darkling by Yasmine Galenorn

TIOLI #5 (spooky) - Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker

TIOLI #11 (first/last same letters) - Kitty's Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn

TIOLI #12 (monster) - Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

TIOLI #15 (alliterative author) - Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

TIOLI #18 (150 convos or less) - Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon

TIOLI #18 (150 convos or less) - Collegium: Changes by Mercedes Lackey

I've removed my last remaining unread book from the wiki. Managed about 7 this month I think...

I'm moving everyone to the November TIOLI thread...

For this month, I've completed :
#5 - Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
#9 - Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
#20 - Trumps of Doom - Roger Zelazny
#22 - Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen