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

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

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


...logo by cyderry

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May's challenge will be in loving memory of my mom just because she was born in such a beautiful month.


Alice Katz (1914 - 1970)

(Little did she ever know that she'd have a daughter who would be called "SqueakyChu" at age 64. Ha!)

When I was a child, she encouraged me to learn her language of Serbo-Croatian. I outright refused when I learned it had multiple grammatical cases (was it seven?). Later, as a teen and then young adult, I went on to learn German, Hebrew, and Spanish. Regretting my choice as a child to neglect learning Serbo-Croatian (and now no longer being able to hear the subtle differences of speech and language due to my hearing impairment), I challenge all of my TIOLI friends to...

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#1: Read a book originally written in a Slavic language.

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You may read these books in the original or in translation.

Here’s the Wikipedia reference to Slavic languages. No, you don’t have to read a book that was written in an extinct language! :)

I’m eagerly awaiting your list of picks for the month of May. Here are some books to get you started. List your choices as follows, including language and translator (unless read in the original language or the translator is unknown in your edition):

Götz and Meyer* (Serbian) – David Albahari (Ellen Elias Bursac) – SqueakyChu
The Master and the Margarita (Russian) - Mikhail Bulgakov (unknown) - pbadeer
Rat** (Polish) - Andrzej Zaniewski (Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough) - kittenfish
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czech) – Milan Kundera (Peter Kussi) – kidzdoc
Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light (Czech) – Ivan Klima (Paul Wilson) - elkiedee

Have fun!

*Highly recommended!
**Highly recommended only if you know and like rats. :)

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

1. The May 2012 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. I Know I'm a TIOLI Addict When... - Frog Logo is on this page!
3. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it. (Updated 04/07/12)

Wiki index:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book originally written in a Slavic language - msg 1
2. Read a book about the Tudors - msg 14
3. Read a book which has the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym letters - NMSP - within its title + author's name - msg 18
4. Read a book derived from a 75er's username - msg 25
5. Read a book with the word Black or White as part of the Title or the author's name. The books must be listed by alternating colors (except for joint reads) - msg 29
6. Read a fictional book based on a Bible story - msg 32

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book received or requested for review before 12/31/11 - msg 47
8. Read a play nominated for a Tony Award (Best Play or Revival) - msg 49 - thread
9. Read a nonfiction work set during the first 23 years of your life - msg 51
10. Read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death - msg 54
11. Read a book by or about a person affiliated with a school that you graduated from or attended - msg 58
12. Read a book whose ISBN has the same three numbers in a row - msg 59

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book with a word related to gardening in the title - msg 66
14. Read a book that fills the requirements of a previous TIOLI challenge that you tried, but failed, to complete - msg 68
15. Read a work of biographical fiction - msg 75
16. Read a book set in a vacation destination city - msg 76
17. Read a book ABOUT a movie, TV Show or the industries in general - msg 77
18. Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed - msg 87

Challenges #19-21
19. Read a book set in a library or about a librarian - msg 89
20. Read an omnibus edition - msg 92
21. Read a book set in, about, or with an author from the Far East - msg 94

New challenges may not be added until the June challenges are posted.

Did I successfully sneak this challenge past observers? :D

Whoopee!!!!!!!!

ETA: Well, I did so for one minute. :)

>3 SqueakyChu:: Not this keen observer! I'm mentally perusing my TBR stacks and not finding many books translated from any language. Your challenge is a lovely tribute to your mother, Madeline. May just may be my favorite month. ;-)

And I actually have a few books that would fit this challenge Madeline, so good job and lovely tribute to your Mom.

> 5

Not this keen observer!

Ha!

Donna, I usually can't think of a single challenge to present, but this month I thought of many. The tribute to my mom won out because she was born in May, so, if I didn't use her tribute challenge now, I'd have to wait for another entire year to plug it into the TIOLI challenges. That's too long.

April was such a S-L-O-W reading month for me. Not because I didn't like what I was reading but because the books were good and l-o-n-g, in addition to which there was so much more stuff on which I had to concentrate.

By the way, I did successfully pass my medical coding exam again (HSC-D). Phew! Now I don't have to retake the exam for another two years. That's the best part. Plus my work colleagues presented me with chocolate truffles for my success! It was win-win all the way. The stress is gone. The chocolate helped. :)

> 5

I actually have a few books that would fit this challenge

Great, Bonnie!

Russian books shouldn't be a problem. It was the other languages that I thought would be fun to seek.

I'm here! April was more of a leave it than take it month for me, so hoping to hop back in to the challenge this month.

I've just picked up a copy of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, a Russian distopian novel which would work well for Challenge 1. I only became aware of it because I have been reading another book by the same title, and could never find the touchstone for the latter because Zamyatin's book always comes out as the first suggestion.

I've been mired in a reading slump and so may "leave it" for May. Or maybe participate but more in an "as I go along" type pace.

I will be curious as to what challenges people create. Maybe a TIOLI will get my reading juices flowing again.

Really interesting challenge Madeline - I have a few Russian books in my TBR pile but I'm not sure I can manage War and Peace in a month so I might try and get something slightly shorter out of the library.

If people would like ideas about books to read then Reading Globally group has regional threads were members have reviewed books by authors from different countries. I'm going to browse those for some Slavic authors - I'd like to read a Serbian book as that's a country I've visited but I've not read any Serbian literature in translation before.

>6 SqueakyChu:: Congratulations on completing your medical coding exam, Madeline. Sounds tough. I hope you can find more time for reading in May.

*Bingo* on Challenge 1: The Unbearable Lightness of Being is translated from the Czech language. It seems like I've picked this one up - and put it back down - several times. Looks like it will finally be read and released!

Madeline, your link doesn't go to wikipedia.

> 10

I'm not sure I can manage War and Peace in a month so I might try and get something slightly shorter out of the library.

At first, I was trying to decide if I should try to dissuade people from choosing the more available Russian novels, but I think their size alone might sway people into choosing some of the lesser read languages. :)

My challenge:

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#2: To celebrate the publication of Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, read a book about the Tudors

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Books can be fiction or non-fiction.

I'm planning to reread Wolf Hall in preparation for Bring up the Bodies and also read some of C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series.

Here's a link to the wikipedia page about the Tudor dynasty.

#14 Wow. Great timing. I have Dissolution on hold at the library. Will pick it up in a couple of hours!

> 11

I hope you can find more time for reading in May.

I doubt it. My younger son is getting married this month!

> 12

your link doesn't go to wikipedia.

Fixed. Thanks, Linda.

Because readers - and especially LT readers - are "smarter than the average bear", I offer, on behalf of our collective smart offspring:

Challenge #3: The National Merit Challenge:

The National Merit Scholarship Program announces its scholarship winners in May. With its scholarship program, the NMSP opens the financial doors of college for academically promising students. Our oldest son is realizing his dream this month, graduating from medical school. But his journey started eight years ago this May, upon receipt of his award letter from the National Merit Program, with which he was granted a university experience to remember. Here's to you, kid, and to the NMSP, for making academic dreams come true!

For this challenge, read a book which has all the letters from the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym - NMSP - within its title + author's name. (They do not have to show up in order.)

Examples:
Miss Spitfire : Reaching Helen Keller - Sarah Elizabeth Miller
13 Rue Therese - Elena Mauli Shapiro

More information about the National Merit Scholarship Program: (If you have a smart high school freshman or sophomore, you should read this!):

Over 1.5 million high school juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMQT) last fall. There will be approximately 16,000 semifinalists - the highest scoring entrants from their individual states - who will be informed of their status next fall as they start their senior year. These nationwide semifinalists are in a competition for 8,200 National Merit Scholarships totaling $35 million. Finalists will be announced in the early spring of their senior year. National Merit Scholarship winners - the top one-half of one percent of students in the country - will be announced in four rounds of selections between April and July. As a Merit Scholarship winner, students earn the National Merit Scholar title, and individual scholarship. Recognition in any level of the National Merit Scholar program is among the most prestigious academic honors for a high school senior in the United States.

Semifinalists are designated on a state representational basis so that students from every part of the country are included. The cutoff scores vary from year to year, as well as from state to state.

The College Board says that data for the class of 2011 showed that students who took the PSAT scored 145 points higher on the SAT than those who did not take the PSAT before taking the SAT. Taking the test while a sophomore is excellent practice, too, although it is your scores as a junior which count for this competition. Online practice tests are also a great help. Their hard work pays off, for there are many colleges that compete for these scholars, offering full-ride or otherwise very generous scholarships for the privilege.

Learn more: http://www.nationalmerit.org

> 10

If people would like ideas about books to read then Reading Globally group has regional threads

That's a great suggestion and a wonderful resource!

I've added The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric for Madeline's challenge. It was originally written in Serbo-Croat and is also on the 1001 books list for those that follow that list.

> 18

Our oldest son is realizing his dream this month, graduating from medical school.

That's fabulous! Best wishes to your son and the whole family!! We are happy to celebrate with you. From which school is he graduating?

Here's to you, kid, and to the NMSP, for making academic dreams come true!

*raises a glass of champagne in toast to a future doctor*

Thanks for all of the terrific information about the NMSP, countrylife. A bit of a financial incentive (especially for those who merit it by academic achievement) goes a long way into inspiring worthwhile further education.

If you've noticed, I've capitulated and continue to post links to each message from the wiki index. Nevertheless, continue to bold or asterisk row your challenge names. That helps them stand out. Thanks!

Madeline, I want to take part in your tribute to your Mother, so is it ok to add a book of Russian Fairy Tales to the challenge? These are originally written in Russian but are presented in their English translation.

> 23

is it ok to add a book of Russian Fairy Tales to the challenge

Absolutely!

I've just posted challenge #4 to the wiki it is the Username challenge: Read a book derived from a 75er's username. This is how it works, take a username, one you already know or one new to you found in member introductions. By taking the whole name or an imbedded portion of it find a title which has that word in the title of a book. The word in the title must not be imbedded. For example: CarMENere - Of Mice and MEN is acceptable. The Glass MENagerie would not.

I just added a picture of my mom when she was young, but I don't know in what year that picture was taken. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, grew up in Osijek, Yugoslavia, and immigrated to the United States at the onset of World War II. She lived for a while in New York, New York, then moved to Baltimore, Maryland.

May...such a lovely month!

> 25

the Username challenge

That's a fun challenge!

Oooooh! Another fun challenge. See challenge #5. I like the alternating colors part. :)

Over the last few days, Carrie (cbl_tn) and I came up with the following:

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Challenge #5: Black & White: The ink is black, the page is white. Together we learn to read and write. - Three Dog Night

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Read a book with the word Black or White as either part of the Title or the Author’s name. List the books by alternating the color - if Black is the last color posted, you much use White and so on. NOTE: If a book is entered that uses both black and white, then the next person posting can pick up either color to continue on. Of course, joint reads do not have to alternate.

Well the book I wanted to read for Madeline's challenge How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone was written by a Bosnian (Yugoslavian) but he apparently wrote it in German. Grrrrr. Oh well, it will fit the NMSP challenge so maybe I'll put it there.

> 30

German was a common second language in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. My mother was fluent in German as well as Serbo-Croatian.

I actually have a challenge this time but I am not sure how to limit it if if should be limited.

It's basically History of your lifetime.

So, limited to your lifetime, & nonfiction.

Like I have a book called "Something Happened" by Edward Berkowitz - that covers the 1970s, and "Back to the Future" by David Sirota, which covers the 1980s.

And an autobiography of Jim Abbott, whose baseball career occurred while I was alive. And a biography on Romney, whose career began in the 70s, was one of those venture capitalists & leveraged buyout people of the 80s & 90s (he ran Bain Capital). Ran the 2002 Olympics, Gov of Mass in 2000s, current Presidential candidate.

bah. I like the idea of History of your lifetime, but cannot figure out how to limit it.

>31 SqueakyChu:. So you're saying that I can use that book for your challenge even though German is not a Balkan language? Great. Thanks Madeline.

> 33

I like the idea of History of your lifetime, but cannot figure out how to limit it.

Yikes!

I agree that you should probably limit it somehow...or else I'll have the freedom to choose from 64 years of nonfiction! That's quite a few books.

Challengers, help out Mike. Give him some ideas - either here or by private message.

> 34

depending on how old you are

Exactly!!

> 35

So you're saying that I can use that book for your challenge even though German is not a Balkan language

No! You cannot use it.

I was just saying that it was a second language in Yugoslavia, not that it was a Slavic language or qualified for my challenge!!

Mike, perhaps limit it to a specified portion of your lifetime? Adult years? School years?

As noted, for some of us, this could be a whole lot of nonfiction to choose from.

>37 SqueakyChu: OK then I'll just use it somewhere else and look at my other books for your challenge; not a problem.

Waiting for a 'white' book for challenge 5 to be posted, as I have a 'black' one ready to add.

You can stop waiting Genny:)

Oh good - off to add mine quickly...

Edited to add: lindapanzo beat me to it, but that's ok, because she added the same book I was about to add, so we now have another shared read already in that challenge.

I noticed earlier that Madeline was working on the May Challenge and I just had to wait and I could enter mine. I had been checking on and off for hours, days, and of course just as I know it's about to appear....I fell asleep, the late hours of checking finally got to me and now I'm way behind. Anyway,....

elikedee had a challenge last month to read a book that you acquired or borrowed between 1 January 2012 and 30 March 2012 and that you need to read in April to meet a deadline.
That was a little too short a time span for those of us that are woefully behind with books that were acquired in 2011 and still need to be reviewed so my challenge is:

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Challenge #7 Read a book received or requested for review
before 12/31/11
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If you see my list on the wiki, I have one from 2010!

So let's get all those ER, ARCs read and reviewed so that we can read books during the summer with no guilty feelings!

#43 Sorry. I lost track of whether you wanted black or white.

I've actually got a black and white book possibility up my sleeve, as well.

Souloftherose - I sure wish you had saved your for next month, There's a group read in June of Wolf Hall scheduled and I already committed to join in.

#45 No problem Linda, as I said it was the same book we both wanted to add anyway. I've had Raven Black for some months now and keep meaning to get round to reading it...

#46 Doh, sorry Cheli :-( But I know I'll want to read Bring up the Bodies this month.

Challenge #8: The Play’s the Thing – read a play nominated for a Tony Award (Best Play or Revival)

This year’s Tony Award nominees will be announced on May 1st, so I thought it might be fun to challenge everybody to read a Tony Award nominated play.

For the nominees broken down by year, most with links to more information:

Best Play

Revival

Or, click here for an alphabetical list of the nominees for both categories. Warning: if it starts with ‘the’ look under ‘the,’ not the second word in the title.

To promote shared reads, I will do my dead level best to read any play that anyone else posts – as long as I can get my hands on it!

Hopefully, there will be some interest in discussing the plays, so in what may be an overabundance of optimism, I’ve started a discussion thread here.

#48 I imagine that you're going to be a really popular 75er for challenge #4. of

#44 Cheli, I have a couple of those and it would take the pressure off to finally get them read/reviewed.

Ok, my challenge added. It no longer has the catchy 'history of your life angle' & I had to add it three times (difficult to do things on phone while others can come along and add stuff making your edits void), but is there.

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Challenge 9: Read a nonfiction work set during the first 23 years of your life.
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Was going to be first 18 years then noticed Abbott played until I was 23.

The main focus of the book must occur during your time period. The book may start and end outside your time period but the main to focus must be on your time period. One exception: you can read a book set in your birth decade even if the majority of the decade occurred before you were born (for example, a book about the 1970s despite not being born until 1976).

Linda, I have 8 and an ER book from last month so I swear I am going to get them done! I was so excited when the April challenges came out and I started to read elikedee's but then I saw the date restrictions. So I decided that for May I'd help all of us who are much more behind that she.

Forget SqeakyChu, Madeline, you are definitely a SneakyChu this month - posting in the afternoon!

I feel like I'm lowering the tone of this month, but---

---as part of May: Murder & Mayhem, my challenge is:

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Challenge #10: Read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death
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The word can be generic (murder, suicide, assassination) or specific (shot, stabbed, poisoned) or any variant thereof.

Please note that the book does not have to concern an actual violent death to qualify - it could refer to character assassination, political suicide, a poisoned pen...

> 44

So let's get all those ER, ARCs read and reviewed so that we can read books during the summer with no guilty feelings!

Good one, Cheli, but I can't promise I'll get to all mine! :)

> you are definitely a SneakyChu this month

LOL!!

> 54

...with a word in the title suggesting violent death

Ewww! Gruesome!! :)

May is the month that most students graduate from colleges in the U.S. Thus, my challenge is entitled:

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Challenge #11: Hail, Alma Mater: Read a book by or about a person affiliated with a school that you graduated from or attended.
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This can include:

* people who graduated from, attended (but did not graduate), or taught at the school (e.g., Junot Diaz graduated from Rutgers; John Irving attended Pitt but did not graduate; Christopher Hitchens taught at Pitt for several semesters; Salman Rushdie recently completed a five year term as the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Emory)

* people who received an honorary degree from the school (e.g. Toni Morrison received an honorary doctorate from Rutgers)

* books about a person affiliated with the school (e.g. biography of Paul Robeson (graduated from Rutgers); book about polio (Dr. Jonas Salk, who discovered the vaccine, was on the faculty of the School of Medicine at Pitt when he discovered the vaccine); book about the XIV Dalai Lama (Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory))

I graduated from Rutgers (B.A.), Pitt (the University of Pittsburgh, M.D.), and Emory (residency in pediatrics). I took an undergraduate course at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduate courses at NYU and City College of New York, so books by or about people who are affiliated with any of these schools would count for me.

I plan to read these books for my challenge:

The City in Which I Love You by Li-Young Lee (award winning poet, graduated from Pitt)
The Line by Olga Krushin (graduated from Emory)
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (honorary professor at Emory)
Source by Mark Doty (award winning poet, current professor at Rutgers)

So, how do you find out about these authors? Here are two ideas:

1. Locate the school's page on Wikipedia, and look for a link for distinguished faculty, alumni and former students. For example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers_university is the link for Rutgers University, and on that page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rutgers_University_people is the list of Rutgers University people. Several well known authors are listed, including Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, Janet Evanovich, Robert Pinsky and Joyce Kilmer, the author of the poem Trees.

2. (Suggested by Madeline): Use LT's own Common Knowledge page.

Just go to this page:
http://www.librarything.com/commonknowledge/

Find the search box at the top of the page and then select "education" in the drop-down box. Type in the name (one word only!) of your school, then hit "search".

This is the result when I type "Emory" in the search box:

http://www.librarything.com/commonknowledge/search.php?q=emory&f=9&uid=2...

The search is not a perfect one, so you'll have to confirm that the author is one that is affiliated with the school of interest. In the above example, authors affiliated with Emory and Henry College in Virginia, which has no affiliation with Emory University, are also included.

OK, a couple of possibilities overlap with my main choice, so here's my default challenge:

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Challenge 12: Score a Hat Trick!
Read a book whose ISBN has the same three numbers in a row (eg 333, 555, 666)
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Any edition qualifies, it doesn't have to be the one that you are reading. So if you find a book with 27 ISBNs and the Bulgarian edition has 3 7's, just post the link to the edition you're reading, and the ISBN of that Bulgarian edition!

Searching for this is possible, but a bit complicated. You can search under "your books", but then need to verify whether the reason a book was identified was because of its ISBN. Go to book details; that will usually tell you what the ISBN is.

Here are some possibilities from my own list of books:

Black Diamond by Martin Walker has 4 1's!

111 sequence
The broken lands by Robert Edric
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Rumors of Rain by Andre Brink

222 sequence
Balzac and the LIttle Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Death to the Landlords by Ellis Peters
Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy

333 sequence
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
(and most other Europa Editions)
Oil on Water by Helon Habila
The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth

444
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogrides

555 Sequence
The Other Walk by Sven Birkets
(most Melville House titles)
Sashenka by Simon Montefiore
Justinian's Flea by William Rosen

666 sequence
Sand Queen by Helen Benedict
Death in Holy Orders by PD James
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

777 sequence
A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer Dubois
Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter
Harriet and Isabella by Patricia O'Brien

888 sequence
Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx
The Reckoning by Sharon Penman
To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer Fleming

999
Daughters by Elizabeth Buchan

000
The Gentry by Adam Nicolson

Please note: the ISBN can't begin with 000.

The ISBN can be the 13-number or 10-number ISBN.

> 59

Ha! I had a very similar challenge on the back burner, Suz, but you beat me to it. I love that, with such challenges, one never knows which books will qualify ahead of time. I think that's half the fun.

This is one I've been tempted to drag out for nearly a year, Madeline, but others kept getting in the way. It started its life as just a "devil made me do it" challenge -- i.e, 666 -- but I realized that would be a bit too confining...

I just realized that the link in message #1 to Slavic languages was broken. That's now fixed.

#62 That's the one I mentioned in msg 12. Sorry, I never checked it again.

On the wiki Challenge #10 is not showing up as a separate challenge, but as part of challenge #9. I'm not smart enough to fix it, only smart enough to report it here.

Meanwhile I'm trying to think of a challenge on this beautiful Friday afternoon.

> 63

That's the one I mentioned in msg 12. Sorry, I never checked it again.

Well, the other link didn't work either!

Uh oh, I may be creating chaos. I tried to post a challenge #13, but I'm not completely sure what I'm doing....

So, the challenge I'm trying to post is:

Read a book with a word related to gardening in the title.

Imbedded words will be accepted.

I love the challenge in memory and honor of your mother, Madeline. Very sweet.

Here's mine- #14

Read a book that fills the requirements for a previous TIOLI challenge that you tried, but failed, to complete

Many of us make use of the 'Leave It' option in TIOLI- here's a chance to complete a challenge you meant to do earlier, but failed to complete. You don't have to read the same book that you were intending to read at the time. You don't have to have listed the book on the wiki during the month- all I'm asking is that you had a genuine intention of trying to complete the challenge, but then couldn't. Please note the challenge on the wiki!

Okay, this is embarrassing. I created a challenge and even I can't find any books I want to read that will fit it! Talk about caving in to peer pressure! I will add David Copperfield to it, even though my competitive self is determined to complete it this month........

I hope there are some folks out there wanting to read books with words like "flower" or "reap" or "trowel" or "slug" in the title!

> 69

Well, I don't know about "slug" - definitely not my favorite animal! :)

I'm sure I can find something!!!

Elizabeth and Her German Garden?
All the Flowers in Shanghai?

I'm sure I can come up with more- just need to think.

I added mine, Ellen.

Garden Spells
Field of Dreams
The Constant Gardener
Red Harvest
In the Garden of Beasts
The Forgotten Garden
The Secret Garden

There are lots of books that will fit that challenge!

I've added a challenge

****Challenge #15: Read a work of biographical fiction*****

'Biographical fiction uses as a foundation the imagined character of a real person'

A few examples:
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Hadley Richardson)
The Jump Artist by Austin Ratner (Philippe Halsman)
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (Mary Anning)
The Master by Colm Tóibín (Henry James)

I'm loving the challenges this month. And since we're headed into vacation time
Challenge 16: Read a book set in a vacation destination city
You know like Paris, Rome, London, Maui, New York City- no national parks, cities only. The book doesn't have to be about a vacation, just set in the city. I'm going to start with 3 about Las Vegas:
Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas by Matthew O'Brien
My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas by Matthew O'Brien
The Perpetual Engine of Hope: Short Stories Inspired by Iconic Las Vegas Photographs by Megan Edwards

Edited to specify set in the city

Challenge #17: Read a book ABOUT a movie, TV show or those industries in general

This is not designed to read a biography of a movie star or TV star (unless that biography is designed equally as a discussion of a specific movie/show that person was in). This is to find books with more of an “overview” or analysis of the show.

Examples of my reads for this month will be:

Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music (yes, it is a memoir by Charmian Carr (Liesl in the movie), but the book covers only her time in the movie and her relationship to the other actors and how she reacts to the attention the movie has received since that time)
The ‘Are You Being Served?’ Stories by Jeremy Lloyd
Understanding Movies: The Art and History of Film by Raphael Shargel

Another idea off my shelves is Cagney and Lacey and Me but I have too many books on my May reading list as it is to tackle this time around.

#77: I'm currently making my way through the early Dr Who episodes while reading Running through Corridors: Rob and Toby's Marathon Watch of Doctor Who, Volume 1: The 60s. Progress is slow and I doubt that I'll finish by the end of May, but I'm enjoying it very much and it adds quite a bit of interest to each instalment. My two youngest are watching with me, but I'm reading the book on my own.

>>79 avatiakh: - the Doctor Who read sounds like fun. I bet that would be a good shared read (I had never heard of it).

For those adding Gillespie and I to my Challenge #15: Read a book of biographical fiction - I'm not far enough into the book yet myself, but I don't consider it a work of biographical fiction as the main characters are all fictional.

Thanks for the support, y'all. The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre is definitely one I have been wanting to read. I also found some others that fit, and I've added them.

I've got to peruse the ISBN #s of my TBR-from-the-library pile!

58: If I have a book by two authors and only one of them is affiliated with my school, does that still count?

>83 yoyogod: Yes.

>81 avatiakh: Oops, sorry Kerry. I haven't read it yet, but it sounded like it would fit.

What a fantastic selection of challenges - and a perfect thing to find today, since I've been off LT for a while studying for an exam which happened on Thursday. Today has been designated an official lounge-around-reading day, so what better way to start than looking through my shelves to try and find some matches!

As for the NMSP challenge, the 'M' seems to be the hardest one to find. But I am pleased to say I have found a book where one word of the title contains the required letters (The Persimmon Tree), and it also fits the one book I was already planning to read this month, The Party: the secret world of China's Communist rulers.

Post-exam, I don't have the brainpower to come up with a challenge, so I'm just going to enjoy everyone else's this month!

I've just posted:

Challenge #18: Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed.

Embedded words are fine.

Examples could include:

Place of Reeds - Caitlin Davies (reed/deer)
Started Early, took my Dog - Kate Atkinson (dog/god)
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett (won/now)

Challenge #19: Read a book set in a library or about a librarian

I'm really surprised we haven't had this one! It can be a fiction set in a library or non-fiction about libraries.

challenge #19 - read last year ...a wonderful touching story about Dewey: the small-town cat who touched the world
I read it last year and it is so sweet, I saw it on sale the other day and am kicking myself for not buying it then. It needs to be on my 'favourite' shelf

I like the library challenge. I just wish I had more books set in libraries on my list of want to reads for May. I've already fit the one featuring a librarian into another category. I can't tell from the description how much of it is set in the library and how much is set in the town itself, so I guess I'll leave it where it is for now.

Challenge#20: Read an omnibus edition

Basically, you just have to read a book that contains two or more other books.

#85: I am also still looking for a challenge for Gillespie and I. It would certainly somehow fit into the username challenge #4, but isn't it all set in Edinburgh? I always wanted to travel there (and hopefully will make it one day), so it could also be added to the holiday city challenge #16.

***********
Challenge #21: Read a book set in, about, or with an author from the Far East

***********

Far East includes those countries in the Wikipedia definition:
People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Eastern Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_East

Newbie plunging in here without really knowing what she is doing.......

ETA because of question in 103: It's permissible for the book ito be partially set in one of these countries and partly somewhere else as long as a significant part occurs in the Far East.

Okay, I am loving the challenges for this month!

>93 Deern: I have been to Edinburgh, as part of a two-week vacation to Scotland. It's a lovely city, and I've certainly been known to say (more than once) "I really want to go back to Edinburgh," so it seems like it would count on that score. However, it isn't "about" the city; it's just set there. Not sure how our challenger will rule on this..... ??

Good point, Ellen. The book I chose takes place in Venice. I'm wondering if that fits the challenge as well.

> 94

Newbie plunging in here without really knowing what she is doing.......

Hooray!!!!!!

You're right on target so far! :)

Gillespie and I has the word "sell" in it if you reverse it. It will fit challenge #18.

Soupdragon...thanks for that challenge. I finally found a home for Burn/rub.

I'm going to put Gillespie and I in challenge #18, but I think there is still a question for Joyce regarding challenge #16. Here in the main thread, it says read a book "about" a destination city, but in the wiki, it says to read a book "set in" a destination city. I think we need a ruling on this. The latter is certainly easier than the former. Joyce? Your preference? :-)

ETA: I am so wrong. "lles" is not a word. Duh. And rats.

#96 Ellen: you're right, Joyce says in #76 it has to be about the city. Well, we'll find something. :)
Edit: in any case there are numerous member names containing 'and'

>94 streamsong: I have a book set partly in Thailand and partly in California? Is that acceptable, or does the entire book need to be set in the Far East?

>103 cbl_tn: cbl_tn Go for it! Since this is the first challenge I've ever suggested, I'm going to be **very** liberal.

Is Gillespie and I not set in Glasgow, not Edinburgh?

For 20, do you have to read the whole omnibus?

>104 streamsong: Great! Off to add it to the wiki....

Luci's right; Gillespie and I is set in 1888 Glasgow, and the narrator describes the events of that year in her home in London, in 1933.

>102 Deern: Good point! I fit Gillespie and I into challenge #4 using LanyCassandra, a relatively new member of the 75ers group.

Just listened to the first 5 mins of Gillespie - yes, it's Glasgow. Sorry! I'll somehow add it to #4 now.

Crossposting :)
I'll do the same, thanks Ellen!

100: I'm glad you found it useful, Cheli.

Your challenge might get me to finally read Donor, a book I was sent to review but didn't request. It's not my usual sort of thing (a medical thriller) but every time I see it on my shelf, I feel vaguely (but only vaguely, as I didn't request it) guilty!

> 112

I feel vaguely (but only vaguely, as I didn't request it) guilty!

I wish guilt would motivate me to read/finish my (very few, fortunately) as yet unreviewed ER books. It doesn't! :)

ETA: Unfortunately, neither do the TIOLI challenges. Better-to-read books await me on these TIOLI challenges. :D

elkiedee 106: Yes, you should read the whole omnibus.

Sometimes I don't know what I'm thinking. The Wiki is right, the book just needs to be set in a vacation destination city. So, people aren't saving all their pennies to vacation in Glasgow?

OK, I have a couple of questions about the destination city. I had posted a mystery set in Puerto Vallarta, but like most novels, it's not really "about" the city. Is that OK??? Also -- who defines what a destination city is? For instance, I was thinking of adding a non-fiction book set in Beijing/Peking, but then I stopped and pondered that places I might consider great destinations (Timbuktu?) might be places for others to avoid. Guidance, please???

Grrr and it seems Burma doesn't count as a Far Eastern city even though it's surrounded on 3 sides by the Far East (China, Thailand, etc.)

Set in the city is fine. As for what constitutes a destination city, I guess you'll have to use your own discretion. Beijing/Peking would certainly be a vacation destination city, I would think - if you ever wanted to go to China, being rather fond of breathing, I think I'd pass but many wouldn't.

Thanks!! (I think we cross-posted on the set in/about question...)

Hmm, I'll ponder adding "or about a librarian" to my challenge.

#88: Pope Joan seems to be debatable, but I'll allow that one. I'd never heard of 'Pope Joan' before, sounds interesting.

Pope Joan is a great book. I'm glad you found a challenge for it and hope you like it as much as I did.

#115, I have been on holiday to Glasgow and would definitely go again!

#117 Thanks for the clarfication, CJ.

Sorry to be pedantic, but for Challenge 1, I think Olga Grushin actually writes in English not Russian. But The Concert Ticket aka The Line has been listed by Darryl in another challenge, and it's set in a holiday destination too.

Does anyone exclude reads in their challenges from being matched? Los of people are connected to my former university but at the moment I can only think of two offhand. One of those seems to be wrong but I've found a few others - I'm considering books by Ellen Wilkinson, Gerard Woodward or Carola Dunn (if I can ever get into the shed again).

>126 elkiedee: Right, Luci. Olga Grushin, who is the first Russian citizen to complete a four-year degree at an American college, at Emory University, was fluent in English before she came to Emory, and wrote The Line in English, not Russian.

I'm glad you asked that question; I had meant to mention that matches are allowed in my Hail, Alma Mater challenge, along with any future challenges I post.

I just realized that for Challenge#4, the Username challenge: Read a book derived from a 75er's username - the username that I used is the actual author of the book I'm reading - she's an LT author! How cool is that!

> 128 That is very cool!!

#128 awesome, discovery!

126 - thanks! I actually knew that, I think, but got over-excited when selecting my May TBR pile. I'll find something else for Challenge 1.

> 126, 127

Olga Grushin, who is the first Russian citizen to complete a four-year degree at an American college, at Emory University, was fluent in English before she came to Emory, and wrote The Line in English, not Russian

Thanks, Luci and Darryl.

It was for situations such as this one that I was requesting that challengers actually list the translator (although I know that it's not always possible).

Another way to check if a book was originally written in another language is to check its copyright page. There, you can usually find confirmation that the book was translated from another language (along with the identitiy of the original language and the copyright date the original book in its original language).

Wow! I was just blown away by a book that I have had wavering between two months of TIOLI challenges. I finished it today so it goes back into April's challenges. However, do consider it for May's "gardening" challenge as its title contains the word "field". Check out Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski. You won't be sorry!

>133 SqueakyChu: I read Fieldwork a few years ago Madeline and loved it too. I think it won some kind of award but I'm not sure.

Fieldwork was a (well deserved) National Book Award finalist.

I'm afraid I need to be pedantic here, too. On my challenge (post #59), I noted that the ISBN can't begin with 000 (that was to make it harder, as that suddenly opens up a lot more books.) A couple of folks have missed that, I think, and have posted books that don't qualify.

One question re challenge #2 -- having read The Stolen Crown, it's about events involving Edward IV and the Woodville family and their circle, specifically Katherine Woodville and her first husband, Henry Stafford. True, the book's epilogue sums up Katherine's post-Bosworth marriage to Jasper Tudor and her sister's to Henry, but it's not about the Tudors, I wouldn't have thought, although it deals with the Tudor path to the throne. Just being pedantic again...

Hmm... Yes, I think I need to be a bit pedantic over Challenge #10, too. I'm prepared to accept "body" and "blood" - just - but "death" alone does not suggest violence.

We need to ramp up the bad taste here, people!

Sorry, Madeline. :)

>137 lyzard:: Yay for blood! I've been contemplating A Fountain Filled With Blood for your challenge, Liz. Blood didn't seem enough on its own - but a fountain full of it ramps it up, I'd say!

I also finally found a triple ISBN for Suzanne's Hat Trick (Ch. #12): Gourmet Rhapsody, a lovely little Europa Edition I've been looking forward to reading. As always, I'll wait until the first day of the month to list my proposed reads. I'm still reading for April.

> 137

Sorry, Madeline.

Hey! No need to apologize.

For those of you who find listed books on your challenge that don't qualify, please move them below your challenge (to the spot above the challenge following yours) on the wiki and title them "Does not qualify". Be sure to list why it doesn't qualify and add your name in parentheses.

When the "lister" comes along, that person will know to remove the disqualified listing. Additionally, I'll know not to use it at the end of the month. Do not delete any listing placed by another person at any time (unless that person specifically requests this).

>133 SqueakyChu:: I read Fieldwork last year. It was wonderful.

>54 lyzard: and >137 lyzard:: For challenge #10, would "mortal" qualify? I noticed cyderry listed All Mortal Flesh in that challenge and I was going to add that book, too, for a shared read. But since "death" doesn't qualify, I wanted to check on whether or not you'll accept "mortal." I kind of have a feeling you won't! :-( But that's okay -- it's your challenge, Liz! I, on the other hand, have never been brave (or creative) enough to submit a challenge!

> 141

Glad there's yet another person equally as impressed by Fieldwork as I was.

I am always amazed when a new author comes up with a novel that is so compelling. How does such an author improve on this is the future? I imagine it must be hard.

>>#142 No, I guess not - "death" and "mortal" on their own don't really suggest that something untoward has happened, and this challenge really isn't about going gently into that good night. :)

Sorry!

Lyzard's tough!! :D

Nancy, I'm moving All Mortal Flesh to Challenge #18 Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed - Flesh/self

I understand, Liz. Like I said -- it's your challenge! And Cheli, it just came to me a little while ago that All Mortal Flesh would also fit in Challenge #3 since the title plus the author's name contains the letters NMSP! Who knew we'd have all these choices?! Anyway, I'll go check the wiki and if you've already added All Mortal Flesh to #18, I'll join you there. Thanks!

Cheli, after reading Challenge #18 again and checking the wiki, I don't think All Mortal Flesh would fit there because "fles" isn't a word, is it? I think I'll just go ahead and list mine in #3 -- but let me know what you decide, okay? Thanks! Btw, is this starting to sound like "Much Ado about Nothing"?!

is this starting to sound like "Much Ado about Nothing"?!

It's a good thing we start a bit early. By May, this should sort itself out! :)

I added "or a librarian" to my challenge (#19). But I somehow posted about it on another thread in an entirely different group. No wonder SqueakyChu didn't change my challenge until I asked her.

Can someone help me with my brain? I just washed it and can't do a thing with it...

My planned TIOLI reads for May are:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (#1)
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (#2)
Painter of Silence by Georgia Harding (#4)
The City in Which I Love You by Li-Young Lee (#11)
The Line by Olga Grushin (#11)
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (#11)
Source by Mark Doty (#11)
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (#12)
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (#12)
The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (#14)
Lighthead by Terrance Hayes (#14)
Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey (#14)
State of Wonder by Anne Patchett (#14)
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (#16)

>138 Donna828: I considered A Fountain Filled with Blood, but I too didn't think blood was quite violent enough all alone because you can draw blood for medical purposes or shed a little blood when you have a scratch, etc. The fountain combined with it probably does imply death, especially when you consider it to be a reference to the hymn/Gospel song.

Nancy I moved mine to #3

>150 Morphidae: Morphy, you crack me up!!

I just put Fieldwork on hold at the library based on the raves here.

Off to prune the purely deathly and to seek out the bloody!! *grin*

> 155

I just put Fieldwork on hold

I hope you like it as much as I did.

I really want to put Anna Karenina on the wiki for your challenge, Madeline. I bought a copy on my recent excursion to Powell's and I've long wanted to read it. But I know I'll not get to it in May......

> 158

I really want to put Anna Karenina on the wiki for your challenge, Madeline. I bought a copy on my recent excursion to Powell's and I've long wanted to read it. But I know I'll not get to it in May......

Do what others here do. Create a challenge for it the following month! :)

>>#156 Excellent! (rubs hands ghoulishly)

I was so excited to think I could put a book I wanted to read into Liz's violent death challenge. However the book's title is not Savage the Bones as I had thought but Salvage the Bones. That's a whole nuther thing, but thanks to souloftherose, it fits into Donna's 75 names challenge.

My planned May reads:
#1 We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
#2 The Stolen Crown: The Secret Marriage that Forever Changed the Fate of England - Susan Higginbotham - Nook
#3 The Emerald Atlas - John Stephens - Audiobook
#4 O Pioneers! - Willa Cather - reread Nook or Audiobook
Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward
Voice of the Poet - Adrienne Rich author and narrator Audiobook
#7 Between Heaven and Earth - Sue Kerman
Crash Into Me: A Survivor's Search for Justice - Liz Seccuro
The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World - Carl Safina
#13 Elizabeth and her German Garden - Elizabeth von Arnim - Nook
#16 Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas - Matthew O'Brien - Nook
Fade, Sag, Crumble: Ten Las Vegas Writers Confront Decay - Deborah Coonts
Foreign Bodies - Cynthia Ozick - Audiobook
My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas - Matthew O'Brien - Nook
The Perpetual Engine of Hope: Short Stories Inspired by Iconic Las Vegas Photographs - Megan Edwards - Nook
#19 Library Mascot Cage Match - Gene Ambaum - Graphic

Anyone planning to read a book for challenge 4 with the word 'soul' in it? That way, we could use the one bit of souloftherose's name which has not yet been used by someone in this challenge - what a useful long username it is proving for this challenge!

#163: My name is fairly useless for this sort of challenge, though I can recommend Cushla and her Books for any parent/educator wanting to add a book to the challenge using @cushlareads !

My May TIOLI listings:

Challenge #1: Read a book originally written in a Slavic language
The Seven Churches - (Czech) - Miloš Urban
I wanted to add How the soldier repairs the gramophone by Saša Stanišic who is Bosnian but he wrote this in German.

Challenge #5: Black & White
White Cat (white) - Holly Black - need to start this series before she finishes it

Challenge #13: Read a book with a word related to gardening in the title
Under the Domim Tree (tree) - Gila Almagor (Israel)

Challenge #15: Read a book of biographical fiction
Brilliance - Anthony McCarten - (Thomas Edison) - inventor
The Jump Artist - Austin Ratner - (Philippe Halsman) - photographer
Konstantin - Tom Bullough - (Konstantin Tsiolkovsky) - Russian Space programme
Mansfield - C.K. Stead - (Katherine Mansfield) - writer
Rangatira - Paula Morris (Paratene Te Manu) - Maori Chief
also could add
Patrick Evans Gifted (Janet Frame & Frank Sargeson) - writer
James McNeish Lovelock (Jack Lovelock) - Berlin Olympics medal winner

Challenge #16: Read a book set in a vacation destination city
Perla (Buenos Aires) - Carolina De Robertis - my last 3 holidays have been in BA

Challenge #18: Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed
A man you can bank on (on/no) - Derek Hansen - NZer now living in Australia and I'm keen to read his work.
Tam Lin (Tam/mat) - Pamela Dean

Challenge #21: Read a book set in, about, or with an author from the Far East
Earth Dragon, Fire Hare (Malaysia) - Ken Catran - YA - about the communist insurgency in Malaya after WW 2

well, so much for limiting myself to 5 books at the start of the month.

I'm not even going to call these plans, but here are my TIOLI ideas for May:

1. Read a book originally written in a Slavic language
Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov
A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov

2. Read a book about the Tudors
Sovereign - CJ Sansom

3. Read a book which has the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym letters - NMSP - within its title + author's name
Complications - Atul Gawande
Broken April - Ismail Kadare

4. Read a book derived from a 75er's username
I Am A Cat - Natsume Soseki
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Island of Wings - Karin Altenberg
The Rest is Noise Alex Ross

5. Read a book with the word Black or White as part of the Title or the author's name.
The White Family - Maggie Gee
Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden
The Souls of Black Folk - W.E.B. Dubois

6. Read a fictional book based on a Bible story
The Last Temptation of Christ - Nikos Kazantzakis

10. Read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death
A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch

11. Read a book by or about a person affiliated with a school that you graduated from or attended
Democracy Matters - Cornel West (Princeton Univ.)


13. Read a book with a word related to gardening in the title
David Copperfield

14. Read a book that fills the requirements of a previous TIOLI challenge that you tried, but failed, to complete
Color Me English (April #10 )
How It All Began (April #20)
State of Wonder (April #14)
Brooklyn (April #19)

15. Read a work of biographical fiction
The Sealed Letter

16. Read a book set in a vacation destination city

18. Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed
Started Early, Took My Dog (dog/god)
There but for the (but/tub)
The Cruelest Month (on/no)

Challenges #19-22
19. Read a book set in a library or about a librarian
The Name of the Rose

20. Read an omnibus edition - msg 92
Muriel Spark, IQ84

21. Read a book set in, about, or with an author from the Far East
The Kangaroo Notebook
IQ84

I love that list, Anne!

Anne, I have put I Am A Cat on my list for about three months running. Maybe May will be the month I get to it -- with you!!

10. Read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death
A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch

Nice to see someone getting into the spirit of things! :)

I'm amused by the fact that the tiles that sound violent aren't necessarily about violence, and vice versa!!

Yes, I'm enjoying that perception gap, too!

Options for May TIOLI Challenges

1. Read a book originally written in a Slavic language
Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

4. Read a book derived from a 75er's username
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

6. Read a fictional book based on a Bible story
Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier

9. Read a nonfiction work set during the first 23 years of your life
Trudeau Albums

10. Read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death
Booked for Murder by Tim Myers

12. Read a book whose ISBN has the same three numbers in a row
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum(111)
Caper by Lawrence Sanders (222)
The Falls by Karen Harper (222)
The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat (333)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Jean le Carre (444)
The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker (555)
Andre Rieu: My Music My Life by Marjorie Rieu (666)
Burglar Who Studied Spinoza by Lawrence Block (888)
A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford (888)
The Case of Lucy Bending by Lawrence Sanders 9222 and 999 )

13. Read a book with a word related to gardening in the title
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

14. Read a book that fills the requirements of a previous TIOLI challenge that you tried, but failed, to complete
The Stone Angel by Margaret Lawrence
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

17. Read a book ABOUT a movie, TV Show or the industries in general
Cagney and Lacey and Me

19. Read a book set in a library or about a librarian
Dewey: The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched the World

There is no way I will get to all of these but I wanted to list all the possibilities off my shelves or on my Kobo.

This month I am planning to read:

1: Read a book originally written in a Slavic language
Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic. Just finished this. Could have listed this under #9 too. Chilling to read what was happening to girl just 3 years older than me in Sarajevo when I was eating cocopops and watching teenage mutant ninja turtles.

3: Read a book which has the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym letters - NMSP - within its title + author's name
The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March artwork by Art Spiegelman.
Hell's Angels by Hunter S Thompson. I have fallen in love with Sons of Anarchy TV show (not to mention Jax - yum!) so this book caught my attention.

4: Username challenge: Read a book derived from a 75er's username
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. The boyfriend is currently butchering a copy of this to make an e-reader case because I like the cover so I thought I better read a copy too.
Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James.

8: The Play's the Thing: Read a play nominated for a Tony Award (Best Play or Revival)
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange.

9: Read a nonfiction work set during the first 23 years of your life
Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 by Joe Sacco. Graphic novel journalism? Great!

11: Hail, Alma Mater: Read a book by or about a person affiliated with a school that you graduated from or attended
Rebel With a Cause by Ray Avery. New Zealander of the Year in 2010 I got to hear him give a key note speech at a conference. Amazing guy, he literally helps save millions of lives in third world countries by providing better health care resources.

16: Read a book set in a vacation destination city
Naked City by Weegee - 1940's New York in photo's. precursor of today's tabloids.

17: Read a book ABOUT a movie, TV Show or the industries in general
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind. Just picked this book up today and it's a solid brick - see how we go on that.

I feel guilty about challenge #2 because I have at least the first 3 Sansom books and Wolf Hall to read and I pre-ordered Bring up the Bodies but I'm not in the right mood at the moment for historical fiction. That might change in a week or two.

> 172
I too am loving Sons of Anarchy which I am blasting through with my son. We watch TV together every Monday on his 42 inch television and yesterday watched Episodes 10, 11, 12 and 13 of Season 3. It is one of the best things to come out of television. Especially Katey Sagal is brilliant in it. I am offended that the Emmy awards have basically ignored this show, although Katey did win the Golden Globe last year.

Love your eclectic reading list for May!

I finished my first book of the month, a little book of essays - mostly depressing - about Las Vegas, Fade, Sag, Crumble. Now I can sink my teeth into Salvage the Bones.

173>
all of season three was great but the last episode - amazing!!

Katey Sagal is brilliant. In season one there's a scene set to the music 'Son of a Preacher Man' that's Sagal singing it herself! My and my two best friends have a joke between us... at awkward moments we txt or say WWGD? What would Gemma Do? lol

171:ccookie: I would be glad to join you in a read of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for challenge 12. I've been wanting to read the book, having recently watched the old Alec Guiness TV series as well as the new feature film version. I'll get a copy from my library and look for it on the wiki.

Karen O.

For the first time, I think I have all of my current library books (everything except Bridge to Terabithia--any ideas?) listed on TIOLI (thank you to the creators of challenges 4 and 14!) It's such a fun game to see if I can make them fit; I really want to read these books, and I really like to add to the TIOLI lists.

Additionally, I joined in on a LOT of reads! Now I have to locate copies of those books. Here's what I'm planning:

1: Cancer Ward, Unbearable Lightness of Being, We

2: Dissolution

3: A Morbid Taste for Bones

4: Confessions of a Pagan Nun, Gillespie and I, The Law of Dreams, The O'Briens, The Grapes of Wrath, Book of Lost Books, Rinkitink in Oz, The Jungle Book

10: A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel

12: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

14: State of Wonder, Middlesex, Year of the Flood, Travels with My Aunt, Unholy Business

15: Pope Joan

18: Cry Wolf (I'm proud of this one--"wolf" backwards is "flow," eh?)

20: The First Discworld Novels

Now, that's 23 books, and I've been reading about 12-13 books per month. Several of these books are quick reads, but I'll have to see how I do. Another fun month of reading!

Karen O.

Karen - You could put Bridge to Terabithia in Challenge #4 (Read a book derived from a 75er's username) because it says that :

By taking the whole name or an imbedded portion of it find a title which has that word in the title of a book. The word in the title must not be imbedded. For example: CarMENere - Of Mice and MEN is acceptable.

There is a username in the 75 group that is bridgey.

Add me to the list of Sons Of Anarchy fans - I'm just about to start season 2...

I finished and REVIEWED Alina Bronsky's riveting debut novel, Broken Glass Park. That was for the ISBN Challenge.

Next up is Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier for the Biographical Fiction Challenge.

I really enjoy reading the lists of proposed TIOLI reads. I find it helpful for joining in on shared reads.
>172 kiwiflowa:: Lisa, I read Zlata's Diary years ago and remember it as a powerful book about trying to have a normal life in a war zone.

Here are the books I'll add to the wiki:

Ch. 1: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

#4: Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

#5: The White Mary

12: Gourmet Rhapsody

14: That Hideous Strength - finished today!

18: When I Was A Child I Read Books;
Till We Have Faces

I'm expecting a few library books to start rolling in which I'll add as I read them.
I hope everyone has a great month of reading in May!

After posting a long list of proposed books for this month's TIOLI my first finished read is, of course, none of those but is Mister Blue by Jaques Poulin. Thanks to 75er @bluesalamander I can add this one to challenge #4.

>175 kiwiflowa:
Katey Sagal also sang Bird on a Wire at the end of episode 4 of season three. Powerful. It is written by Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet and songwriter. Loved it!!

I like WWGD ;-)

>176 klobrien2: Karen.
I listed Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as a possible but I had decided not to do it this month because I have so many others on the go. However, your suggestion makes me think I need to move it to the top of the TBR pile or at least closer to the top!

I saw the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and really enjoyed it. As always, I assume the book will be even better. I have never read any Jean le Carre

>179 wandering_star: It gets better and better!

Here are the books that I am hoping to read in May:
Challenge #3 Read a book which has the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym letters - NMSP - within its title + author's name

All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spenser Fleming

Challenge #4 Read a book derived from a 75er's username

Pirate King user laurierking (the author)
The Uncommon Reader tututhefirst

Challenge #7 Read a book received or requested for review before 12/31/11 (MINE)

The Winter Palace
The Lola Quartet
The Third Coincidence
Collateral Damage
Lucifer Code
Temple Mount Code
The Solitary House
Gone to Ground

Challenge #12: Hat Trick: Read a book whose ISBN has the same three numbers in a row (eg 333/444); any edition's ISBN

To Darkness to Death

Challenge #14 Read a book that fills the requirements of a previous TIOLI challenge that you tried, but failed, to complete

The Postmistress

Challenge #18: Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed

Burn (rub)
Tongues of Serpents (ton)

Here are my proposed reads for May:

Challenge 1: Oblomov by Ivan Goncharof
2: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
3: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
7: A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates
12:Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky
15:Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
20:The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning

Something will probably not get read as the Manning book is around a thousand pages long but I'm really looking forward to it.

I am planning to read the following:

Challenge 3:
A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell (finished already)
Memoirs of my Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber (hatehatehate it, hope the TIOLI will get me through it. DON'T READ IT!)

Challenge 4:
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Challenge 12:
Notturno Indiano by Antonio Tabucchi
The Iliad by Homer

Challenge 18:
Patterns of Childhood by Christa Wolf
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Should I get through these in time, I might also add The Master and Margarita to challenge #1 and/or The Song of Achilles to wherever it is already listed.

Edited to add books to challenge 18.

I have a question!

I have listed State of Wonder on challenge 18 but three people have now listed it on challenge 14: read a book that fills the requirements of a previous TIOLI challenge that you tried, but failed, to complete.

The obvious thing to do would be to move my book to challenge 14 but the previous challenge referred to is one which I actually completed. Should I still add the book to challenge 14 as a matched read?

189: You could add Patterns of Childhood and Doctor Thorne to my challenge (18. Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed) as embedded words are allowed. Pat reversed= tap. Tor reversed= rot.

Here's my list of May TIOLI's.

The Gamma Girls of Chagrin Falls #1 Lillie and Rose TIOLI #4 COMPLETED
The Gamma Girls of Chagrin Falls #2 Lillie, Rose and Irisa TIOLI #4
The Man in the Picture TIOLI #3
Uniform Justice TIOLI #16
The Unbearable Lightness of Being TIOLI #1
The Inn at Lake Devine TIOLI #13
The Stewart/Colbert Effect TIOLI #7
Mommywood TIOLI #3
The Kalarhari Typing School for Men TIOLI#4
Doc TIOLI #4
The Tree of Life TIOLI #4
Evil Under the Sun TIOLI #18
Jane Eyre TIOLI #4

I'm glad, Donna, that you'll be joining me for The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Ellen for Doc!

#191: THANK YOU!
And I learned 2 new English words! :-)

>190 Soupdragon: As long as the challenger didn't explicitly say that matches aren't allowed, that's fine.

193: :-)

194: Thank you!

So far I have these listed for this month's TIOLi

Challenge #1: Read a book originally written in a Slavic language
It's Time (Russian) - Pavel Kostin (ER - must read)

Challenge #2: To celebrate the publication of Bring Up the Bodies, read a book about the Tudors
*Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Challenge #3: Read a book which has the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym letters - NMSP - within its title + author's name
The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter (currently reading)
The Making of the British Landscape : how we have transformed the land, from prehistory to today by Francis Pryor (currently reading)

Challenge #4: Username challenge: Read a book derived from a 75er's username
Eva - Peter Dickinson (Cerievans1)
*The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (seasonsoflove)
The Woman and the Ape - Peter Høeg (Ape)

Challenge #5: Black & White: Read a book with the word Black or White as part of the Title or the author's name
Master of Whitestorm - Janny Wurts

Challenge #10: Read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death
One Blood - Qwantu Amaru (ER - currently reading)

Challenge #12: Hat Trick: Read a book whose ISBN has the same three numbers in a row
The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths (library book - must read)

I also have a few other books requested at the library that will fit in TIOLI challenges so if they arrive in time I will be adding

Challenge #21: Read a book set in, about, or with an author from the Far East
The Coroner's Lunch (Laos) - Colin Cotterill (potential matched read)

Challenge #13: Read a book with a word related to gardening in the title
Fieldwork (field) - Mischa Berlinski (potential matched read)

Challenge #18: Read a book with a title word that forms another word when reversed
Now You See Me by S. J. Bolton (Now/Won)
Stonemouth by Iain Banks (Ton/not)

Challenge #4: Username challenge: Read a book derived from a 75er's username
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (streamsong)

Obviously overbooked for the month but that's part of the fun:)

> 190

You can move a book to any different challenge at any time as long as it's within the month that you actually COMPLETED the book. By all means, move it to a challenge where it "matches" another book!

I finished my first book for May last night: Deadlocked, the latest by Charlaine Harris. If anybody see a place where it fits into a TIOLI Challenge, I would appreciate a heads up....

I think you still have time to add a new challenge......

Dejah - This might be a bit of a stretch but I found this definition of a possible embedded word in the Online Slang Dictionary

loc
adjective

displeasing; UNCOOL. Allegedly an acronym of "lack of coolness."

noun

a gangster.

Reversed this makes a word I have actually heard of before

col
Noun:
The lowest point of a ridge or saddle between two peaks, typically affording a pass from one side of a mountain range to another.
A region of slightly elevated pressure between two anticyclones.

>192 Carmenere: Lynda, I hope I get Doc from the library this month. If so, I'll make it fit into my reading no matter what else is going on! :-)

178: crazymamie: Thank you! I'll put Bridge to Terebithia in challenge 4!

181:ccookie: I'm having trouble finding a copy of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy anyway--it's very popular right now because of the new movie. Maybe it will work out for us next month?

Karen O.

On the destination city challenge, I probably won't read it because I probably won't buy it, too many other books I want, but I came across a book title today: To Hull and Back, about holidays in unlikely places in the UK - presumably these included Hull, and Salford (next to Manchester - my sister got married at the Lowry Gallery there, and a lot of the BBC is now being relocated there). Anywhere can be a holiday destination for someone!

>192 Carmenere: Lynda, I hope I get Doc from the library this month. If so, I'll make it fit into my reading no matter what else is going on! :-)
>201 EBT1002: That's fine, Ellen. I'll read my smaller books first and Doc in a week or so. :0)

>200 calm:

Thank you, thank you, calm, for the suggestion - I'll take it! I had a feeling someone else would see something I didn't. I would have hated to start the month with a non TIOLI book!

Greetings, all!

In case anyone is interested, this year’s Tony Award nominees were announced Tuesday, which means several more plays qualify for Challenge #8.

Best Play:

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (Pulitzer winner 2011)
Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz (Pulitzer nominee 2012)
Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice (touchstone is to the book, not the play)
Venus in Fur by David Ives

Best Revival:
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (Pulitzer winner 1949)
The Best Man by Gore Vidal
Master Class by Terrence McNally
Wit by Margaret Edson (Pulitzer winner 1999)

And in case anyone is eager to read more Shakespeare after Morphy’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream group read (or if you missed it, as I did) several of Shakespeare’s plays have been nominated for Best Revival:

Hamlet (1995
Henry IV (2004)
King Lear (2004)
Macbeth (2008)
Merchant of Venice (2011)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1996)
Timon of Athens (1994)
Twelfth Night (1999)

A friend of mine was raving about Clybourne Park; I should make a point of going & then getting a copy. I found my copy of Arcadia and, nestling right beside it, my copy of Copenhagen, so I may end up reading both; the two plays are among some of the best I've ever seen.

Here is a list of the challenges that I am hoping to complete for May:

Challenge 1: Originally Written in a Slavic Language - Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksandr Afanasev
Challenge 2: Tudor Time Period - Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
Challenge 3: NMSP (National Merit Scholarship Program - Blue Skies & Gunfire by K.M. Peyton
Challenge 4: 75er Username (bbGirl55) - Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Challenge 4: 75er Username (SouloftheRose) - Rose In Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
Challenge 4: 75er Username (PamFamilyLibrary) - A Sickness in the Family by Denise Mina
Challenge 5: Black or White - Devil in the White City by Eric Larsen
Chellenge 5: Black or White - White Russian by Tom Bradby
Challenge 5: Black or White - Blackburn by Bradley Denton
Challenge 10: Violent Death Suggested: 50/50 Killer by Steve Mosby
Challenge 12: ISBN has Same Number 3 Times in a Row - Hombre by Elmore Leonard
Challenge 12: ISBN has Same Number 3 Times in a Row - Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
Challenge 18: Reversed Word in Title (steps/pets) - Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James
Challenge 18: Reversed Word in Title (war/raw) - Warrior Daughter by Janet Paisley
Challenge 18: Reversed Word in Title (no/on) - Lennox by Craig Russell

Judy, good luck with that. ;-)

#136 Well spotted re challenge #2. I haven't read the book but from what you've said it doesn't sound like it would qualify for the challenge. @Citizenjoyce - do you have any thoughts?

#163 :-)

#172 "I feel guilty about challenge #2 because I have at least the first 3 Sansom books and Wolf Hall to read and I pre-ordered Bring up the Bodies but I'm not in the right mood at the moment for historical fiction. That might change in a week or two" Challenge #2 is a no guilt challenge Lisa :-)

I finished and REVIEWED Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures for the Biographical Fiction Challenge.

Now I'm reading Salvage the Bones for the NMSB Challenge.

I'm trying to fit the book Monster Hunter International into a TIOLI Challenge. No 75ers match, nor does it fit into any challenge with the possible exception of #18 - a word that will reverse.

The best I've come up with is Hun / Nuh - Nuh being a town in India. Dee or anybody - will that work?

There's always on/no in International.

I've got an on/no book in that challenge with the group read of Religion Explained. :-)

I can't believe I missed that. Why am I making this difficult? Thank you very much!

>211 souloftherose: I seem to know as little about British royalty as anyone on earth, but a book that chronicles the beginning of the Tudor reign seems to me to be about the Tudors. I'll certainly withdraw it if you don't think so.

>212 brenzi: Bonnie, challenge #3 is NMSP not B. Come join me in challenge #4 instead.

Gah what was I thinking? Thanks Joyce.

#216 'tis not my challenge, so it would be up to souloftherose to weigh in, I think. But it's only the epilogue that deals with the Tudor reign. Don't want to be TIOLI police, but since I had read the book it kinda jumped out at me.

I just picked up The Red Book from the library. In what I can only think of as a piece of pure serendipity, I discovered that I can fit it into challenge #4, and that the real name of the username I'll use -- arubabookwoman -- is the same as the author's first name!!!

#216 & #219 Sorry, Joyce, although I can see your argument about the book being about the events leading up to the Tudor reign, I wouldn't say that was about the Tudors themselves so it wouldn't qualify for challenge #2.

Strange. I just realized that the book I'm now reading for my own challenge (read a book originally written in a Slavic language) had been purchased by a Bookcrosser in Auschwitz, Poland. That's precisely where my mom's parents died.

221: How strange that the very copy you are reading in memory of your family has such a personal connection despite being acquired in a random way! Life makes you wonder sometimes!

Since I've been a BookCrosser, I've found that books travel into very meaningful places quite serendipitously. That's why I remain a Bookcrosser and enjoy tracking the travels of each of my former books. A gently used book that gets passed from hand to hand (and is journaled on its travels) sometimes has quite a story to tell beside what's printed on its pages.

>223 SqueakyChu:: Madeline, that sounds like a wonderful premise for a good book. I'd read it!

There are some really good challenges this month. I'm going to have to put some thought into this and see if I can pick some books from the TBRs in my Kindle that will meet some of the challenges. Might be a bit of a challenge in itself because I'm going to be traveling for the next 3 weeks (really the rest of May), and don't want to carry dead-tree books with me to add to my luggage weight.

Challenge #16 : Read a book set in a vacation destination city

Would a book set in the Caribbean count for this challenge?

Also for Challenge #16 - would Newport, Rhode Island count? All those summer 'cottages'....

That's downright eerie, Madeline...

Did your mother survive that horror, or manage to escape? Reading something recently reminded me that in today's parlance "Auschwitz" is the epitome of Holocaust horror. Which is certainly true, but also overlooks the horror of Belzec, Chelmno, Treblinka, etc. Half a million died at Belzec; TWO survived. For many, Auschwitz was the same kind of automatic death sentence, but thank heavens, for some there was at least a tiny chance of survival. Which is, of course, why we know it today...

> 227

My mother's story is this. Her dad (Adolph Stein) came from Yugoslavia to the United States when he was 17 years old. He worked as a baker in St. Louis, Missouri. He went back to Yugoslavia to a matchmaker. The story goes that he was matched to Teresa Orenstein and brought her back to the United States where they fell in love. They had three children. My mom was the oldest; there was a younger sister and an even younger brother.

My grandmother never liked the United States and longed to go back to Yugoslavia. Despite my grandfather's dream to have his children grow up and be successful in the United States, he acquiesced and returned with his family to Yugoslavia.

My mom's sister went to Palestine in the 1930's (before wartime) as a Young Guard (pioneer). When things got difficult in Europe, my mom and her brother were able to escape to the United States because they were American citizens, having been born in the U.S. My mom worked and went to night school. My uncle joined the Army Air Force and was a tail gunner in the Berlin bombings. Both were trying to save enough money to bring their parents to the U.S. Sadly, time ran out, and my mom received a letter from her English teacher that her parents were taken away. They both died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

For a really interesting Holocaust story (and a different take on that theme), read Götz and Meyer by David Albahari. It will work for Challenge #1. :)

Oh, Madeline, that's heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing your family's story.

I don't mind sharing my family's story. I need for others, who have very little interaction with Jews, to know that this is very real and very personal. In the face of evil, each individual who stands up for what is right can make the world a better place (Hebrew: tikkun olam - repair of the world).

Thank you for sharing your family's story, Madeline. Literature is full of people who make big decisions then have to live with the consequences. That's one reason many of us have such a hard time deciding. Your poor grandmother. What must she thought of her decision to return to Yugoslavia?

>225 cameling: cameling, sorry, the Caribbean wouldn't count, it must be a city.
>226 Dejah_Thoris: Dejah_Thoris, Newport RI would with a population of 20,000+ would count. It small, but still a city.
>220 souloftherose: I'll move my book to a different challenge, probably the user name challenge. Let me think about it.

ETA, no I think The Stolen Crown will fit just fine in the biographical fiction challenge #15.

#231 : I had a feeling it wouldn't count, Citizenjoyce. Hmm.... the search resumes....

Thanks for sharing that, Madeline. Heartbreaking story, but you're right. I had just been reading Our Man in Tehran, and I couldn't help thinking about the Holocaust. Not that it compares in terms of the level of threat, but people didn't know that at the time. I remember having a drink with Ken Taylor a few years later and he told me he still occasionally had nightmares that the then-new Iranian regime found out what they were doing, and that he and all his staff (and his wife) were tortured and executed. Someone I knew slightly in Belgium, who had participated in a network that sheltered Jews and others, told me that that period was long stretches of tedium, broken up by short periods of utter terror.

CJ, perfect fit for The Stolen Crown! I'm finding it's a great home for all the HF I want/need to read, although I stalled on one about Marie Antoinette by Francine du Plessix Gray. It proves that just because you know the period cold, doesn't mean you can make the reader feel lit. Makes me value Hilary Mantel all the more.

> 231

Your poor grandmother. What must she thought of her decision to return to Yugoslavia?

She was from a small town in Yugoslavia and never liked the "big city life" in St. Louis. She loved her town of Osijek in Yugoslavia and was happy to return. It was the German occupation that she didn't like! I guess ultimately she must have regretted her decision to return to Europe.

I wonder if I could have been as brave as Ken Taylor was in his situation. I can only hope so. I guess one never knows until placed in such a situation.

The book I'm reading now, Hope is the Last to Die, is interesting (up to where I am, at least) because it's of the author as a child in Warsaw. Her mother had such inner resistance and strength. I'm not sure I could have been that way with my own children. It's very impressive. I don't know who of the author's family survives the war, but everyone, just everyone, has his or her own story.

When I grew up, my mom and dad *never* talked about the Holocaust. It wasn't really until after both my parents died (of illness), that the world seemed ready to recall those dark days. Since the Holocause deprived me of my maternal grandparents, I still feel the need to learn as much as I can about it. I do it in small doses, though. Otherwise, it loses its impact.

When you're down in DC in June, Suz, if you want to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum, that's well worth the trip.

Madeline, I was there shortly after it opened -- very moving. But you're right, like all atrocities, reading too much can cause it to "blur". Growing up in postwar Europe (60s and 70s) just as people were starting to talk about the Holocaust again, that question of what would I have done was inescapable. For most people at the time, it was a more spontaneous decision: an "of course this is the right thing" without pausing to weigh the risks. I suspect Ken made a more considered decision (he's that kind of person and was in a different situation) but it was still what struck him as the "right" thing, without question. I remember, however, that he was aware of what had happened to Wallenberg in Budapest.

Yes, we will never really know until we are tested. Also, there is an interesting dilemma about helping people you know or who are friends, vs. helping "the other" - someone who is a stranger. There was an anecdote in this book about Pat Taylor, Ken's wife, working in a blood bank (she's a scientist) in Tehran, and when some protestors rushed in, being pursued by the shah's police, she dressed them in white coats. A different kind of solidarity -- for the stranger.

there is an interesting dilemma about helping people you know or who are friends, vs. helping "the other" - someone who is a stranger.

My dad's life was saved by a "stranger". He was rescued from Nazi Germany by the jeweler S & N Katz in Baltimore, Maryland. That jeweler offered money to sponsor immigrants to the United States with the surname Katz (which, in Hebrew, means Cohen Tzadik or high priest). This is the priestly Cohen tribe of patrilineal descent since biblical days.

I would hope that I'd be such a person, as apt to save a stranger as well as a friend, if it were in my power.

I finished a slim little volume of poetry today read by the author, Adrienne Rich and just thought I'd share one about writing poetry:

North American Time
I
When my dreams showed signs
of becoming
politically correct
no unruly images
escaping beyond borders
when walking in the street I found my
themes cut out for me
knew what I would not report
for fear of enemies' usage
then I began to wonder

II

Everything we write
will be used against us
or against those we love
These are the terms
take them or leave them.
Poetry never stood a chance
of standing outside history.
One line typed twenty years ago
can be blazed on a wall in spraypaint
to glorify art as detachment
or torture of those we
did not love but also
did not want to kill

We move but our words stand
become responsible
for more than we intended

and this is verbal privilege

Here's a question for you Carmenere about Challenge #4. I just downloaded a book by an LT author Three (Flashpoint Press) by Annemarie Monahan. I found a 75er named thornton37814. Can I use that even though the 3 isn't spelled out?

Tonight I heard a very interesting interview on NPR. I don't know who it was, I got in somewhere in the middle, but the man said his father immigrated to the US from Poland before WWI for very frivolous reasons. He met a woman he was attracted to and just decided to follow her to a new country. His family was scandalized, he knew he was not thinking rationally, but he just felt like doing what he wanted to do. When he got here of course, that relationship fell through, but he met a woman who had been sent here from somewhere in Europe, maybe Poland, to care for a sick relative The idea was that at some point she would get a job and save enough money to bring her family over. They married, worked hard and one by one brought her whole family out of Europe then decided to start on his. However by that time it was too late and no one was able to get Jews out of Poland. This frivolous man who just acted on a whim was the only survivor of his family, the rest of whom were rational, hard working and clear thinking. His son said he suffered severe survivor's guilt. It just didn't seem right to him. Again decisions. Frightening things.

#239 So sorry Cj, I've thought about this for 24 hours and have come to the conclusion that 3 spelled out isn't acceptable for Challenge 4 (four) ;0).

> 240

Many survivors suffered deep and intense "survivors guilt". I have no idea about my parents as they never talked about the war years. I did hear about their years after they came to the U.S., though.

I finished and REVIEWED the National Book Award winner Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward for the Read a book derived from a 75er's username Challenge.

Now I'm reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman for the National Merit Scholarship Program acronym letters - NMSP - within its title + author's name.

I finished Gillespie and I, hope everyone will read it and also hope no one will say anything about what it's about. Best just to enjoy the book as it's written.

Now I'm about to do something I haven't done in quite some time, read a non TIOLI book, Three (Flashpoint Press) by Annemarie Monahan.

Just finished A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel: The Second Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon. It's the second in the mystery series set in medieval England, involving the surgeon and bailiff, Hugh de Singleton.

It was a good enough read (not stellar, but not bad) but my big treat was to see that Chatterbox is joining in the read, so we'll earn a TIOLI point (Challenge 10)! Yay!

Karen O.

So, am I the only one who had technical difficulty on LT Wednesday morning? I fear I have a virus in my laptop...... :-0

I just finished The Bone People for challenge #4. It was so completely fabulous that I'm going to bed now!

I think I've fixed the problem by downloading three new software updates. Whew.

Back to the books......

Alas, I think my computer has a very poor immune system. Viruses love it.

#245 -- yup, Karen -- I had already downloaded it onto my Kindle and it was staring at me reproachfully. I'm hoping to get to it this weekend!

Survivor's guilt. I can't even imagine it in the context of the Holocaust. I still struggle with it 10 plus years after 9/11. I mean, I should have been dead twice over. I should have been at a conference on windows on the world -- the one time in my life when not being a morning person was a downright advantage, I suppose -- and then when plane #2 hit, I saw people 20, 30 feet away from me die as a result of debris. Why not me? Then you realize that the people who did die left lives that you consider more valuable than your own, and it's a toxic spiral. No wonder the last decade has been a struggle.

I found an e-book loan from the library of another Bohumil Hrabal novella to add to challenge #1. Very cool title -- Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age.

Suzanne, Your 9/11 story is chilling. I certainly understand why you feel guilt, and I am sorry you are haunted by those memories.

{{{{{Suzanne}}}}}

Yep, I'm with the others:
{{{{{Suzanne}}}}}
I'm glad you are still here.

Yeah it's weird, kind of makes me feel like a drama queen to talk about it these days. On the other hand, can't forget it happened; can't block it out; can't stop it from affecting the way I think about life. So, c'est la vie. Tks for the cyber-hugs -- now, back to da books!

Awww, Suz, I had no idea. Definitely not a drama queen...that was a close call. Something never to be forgotten.

So many "what if" type stories. I know that a recent grad from my small liberal arts college was supposed to be there for a job interview. If she'd been on time, she probably would've survived but, alas, she was early. There are probably just as many other "I was running late that day" type stories, where people were saved.

There is before. There is after.

The most heartbreaking tale of survival that I heard personally was a woman from Cantor Fitzgerald. She had taken the day off to go shopping for her wedding dress -- she lived, her fiancee died, along with every other member of her group except for one, a friend of mine, who was off on a fishing trip with clients. His daughter wrote them a thank you letter for saving her father's life.

Suzanne, your story send chills down my back. So glad that you came through that day. The "what if" stories can be truly heartbreaking or truly wonderful depending on simple decisions that were made.

Morphidae - Regarding your Challenge #19 (Read a book set in a library or about a librarian): I'm reading a mystery called The Flatey Enigma and the story revolves around an old manuscript that is kept in a small village library. Some of the scenes take place there, but not an overwhelming majority of the scenes, as they take place all around a series of islands. Is that ok? Probably not, right? I won't be hurt if I can't use it.

I've had a really succesful TIOLI May so far. I've finished:

#5 White night by Jim Butcher - my favourite Dresden so far. Harry grew up while I wasn't looking and I love the more mature approach to mayhem
#13 Broken blade by Kelly McCullough - a fine wee fantasy of the 'broken man seeking redemption' type - looking forward to more in this series.
#19 Miss Zukas and the library murders by Jo Dereske - the librarian was a bit too stereotyped for me and there were too many co-incidences and stupid criminals. However, a perfect beach read - which is where I read it, actually. :0)

I finished and REVIEWED Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. That was for the National Merit Scholarship Challenge.

Now I'm going to read Bring Up the Bodies for the challenge of the same name. It is an ER book and it arrived yesterday and I can't put it off. I have to read it now.

I just finished Sovereign for Challenge #2 (getting in the right frame of mind for Bring Up the Bodies next month, and have completed Challenge 20 by reading the fourth and final work in a Muriel Spark collection (The Only Problem).

>258 DorsVenabili: I was going to say no because I checked the tags and neither library nor librarian show up. However, I went to Amazon to check reviews and there were THREE pictures of the library! So, it has to have some significance, right? I'll give it a by.

#264 - Great - thank you!

If anyone else happens to want to read Bitterblue, I've just posted it in "Hail, Alma Mater."

Challenge 21:
I am currently reading AR Nursalam's Dongeng Kampung Kecil, a collection of Indonesian short stories written by one of my colleagues.

Ooops! I forgot to use the continuation feature, but here is page 2 of this thread.