Take It or Leave It Challenge - June 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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I do need to apologize to all of you waiting along with Darryl for your train tickets! Just as I was about to set up June’s challenge, the electricity went out in my house due to a heavy rainstorm. Instead of creating a TIOLI challenge, I made good use of my time and completed a Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for my nursing license by candlelight!

I am not going to be able to update the wiki index very much tonight and I’ll be working all day tomorrow. However, do add your challenges, and I’ll update the wiki index tomorrow night after I return home from work.

So…here it is, folks…

For June, I present you with a light and easy challenge. Your challenge is to read a book whose third title word has exactly three letters. Don’t know which books fits that parameter? Well, run to your nearest bookshelves and see.

Here are some ideas (and how to list them with the qualifying word):

The Beginning and the End (and) – Naguib Mahfouz - pbadeet
Broken for You (you) – Stephanie Kallos - kittenfish
For Every Sin (sin) – Aron Appelfeld - SqueakyChu
The Deportees and other Stories (and) – Roddy Doyle - kidzdoc
West with the Night (the) – Beryl Markham - avatiakh
Where the God of Love Hangs Out (God) – Amy Bloom – Dejah_Thoris

Have some that you’d like to recommend? Tell us what they are.

Have fun!!

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

1. The June 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 whose third title word has exactly 3 letters - msg #1
2. Read a book with a goofy, whimsical title that makes you think to yourself "what on earth is THAT about?" - msg #3
3. Read a book written by an author who is the younger relative of another published author - msg #7
4. Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting - msg #9
5. Read a book with a title which contains a brand of automobile (make or model) - msg #11 - thread
6. Read a book dedicated to the author's father - msg #10

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book set in a country that begins with 'I' or a one word title that starts with 'I' - msg #13
8. Read a book with a title that has equal or more letters from the second half of the alphabet than from the first half, initial articles and subtitles excluded - msg #8
9. Read a book from a Legacy Library - msg #15
10. Read a biography of an ancient person, one born before the 6th century - msg #18
11. Read a book with "sand" or "beach" in the title - msg #19
12. Read a book with a food or beverage beginning with the letter "P" in the title or author's name (embedded words allowed) - msg #25

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a Book with an Amusing Tag on LT - msg #31
14. Read a One Word Titled Book by a Female Author - msg #33
15. Read a Book With One of the Words from the Bridal Rhyme in the Title: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, Sixpence, Shoe - msg #35
16. Read a Book Set in a Continent or by an Author from a Continent Based on a Die Roll - msg #36
17. Read a book with a prominent tag that appears in bold on another 75-er's tag mirror and doesn't appear at all on your (250-tag) tag mirror - msg # 38
18. Read a book by an author with a four letter first name that includes two letters that are the same - msg #51

Challenges #19-24
19. Read a book about zombies - msg #61
20. Read a book using the less common name for an animal in the title - msg #68
21. Read a book featuring a legal professional - msg #75
22. Read a book written by a woman with an introduction written by a man - msg #85
23. Read a book whose title contains the word "of"- msg #96
24. Read a book where one of the main characters has the same first name as the author - msg # 118

No more new challenges accepted until after the July challenges are up.

I'm next after Madeline!!

Since there is no wiki yet, I'll just say that Challenge #2 is to read a book with a goofy, whimsical title that makes you think to yourself "what on earth is THAT about?"

For instance:

The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal.
The Case of the General's Thumb or Death and the Penguin by Andrei Kurkov
The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri Murari

This isn't for long titles, or oblique but serious titles, but ones that make you wonder what on earth the novel could be about given the odd title.

I'm here, too!

Suz, your challenge was one that I was about to give for June. It got pre-empted by the one I posted, though. Good choice!

>3 Chatterbox: - Suz, this is really weird. I was just - literally two minutes ago - at my shelves looking for a thin volume to read when I pulled out Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age to give it a try! Guess I'll save it for June (it's so short, I would definitely finish it in May if I start it now)...

====Challenge #3: Read a book written by an author who is the younger relative of another published author====

According to Ovid, the name of the sixth month of the Gregorian year was derived from the Latin word iuniores, which means "younger ones". With that in mind, my challenge for June is to Read a book written by an author who is the younger relative of another published author. The relative can be an older sibling or cousin, parent, uncle, etc. Here are some examples:

Martin Amis (son of Kingsley Amis)
Bliss Broyard (daughter of Anatole Broyard)
Christopher Buckley (son of William F. Buckley)
Kristin Cast (daughter of P.C. Cast)
Iris Chang (daughter of Ying-Ying Chang)
Kiran Desai (daughter of Anita Desai)
Alexandre Dumas, fils (son of Alexandre Dumas, père)
Shiva Naipaul (younger brother of V.S. Naipaul, son of Seepersad Naipaul)
V.S. Naipaul (son of Seepersad Naipaul)
Rebecca Walker (daughter of Alice Walker)
Alec Waugh (son of Arthur Waugh)
Auberon Waugh (son of Alec Waugh)
Evelyn Waugh (younger brother of Alec Waugh, son of Alec Waugh)

Challenge #8 is to read a book with a title that has equal or more letters from the second half of the alphabet than from the first half, initial articles and subtitles excluded.

Some examples from my June planned reads:
Curtain by Agatha Christie (4/7)
Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie (8/15)
The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde (5/10)

ETA: This is Challenge 8. The wiki/my computer/my internet/something was being hateful and not saving my edits. Sorry for any confusion.

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Challenge #4 read a book visiting a state, country you've never been to before in a book - shared reads allowed
==========================================================

Books are set in some many different places and for many of us, it's the only way we get to visit exotic locales - like a vacation through a book!

Here's my challenge:

Challenge #6: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Read a book dedicated to an author's father.

It can also be dedicated to their mother or anyone else in addition to their father but the dedication must contain the word "father." I will be reading : The Missing by Tim Gautreaux. Some others I have that will fit are:

The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton
The Hills at Home by Nancy Clark
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Not Me by Michael Lavigne
After the War by Richard Marius

Challenge #5 - Read a book with a title which contains the name of an automobile or automobile manufacturer (embedded words are allowed

I am in the market for a new (or more than likely used) car, so let's find some books with cars in their name. Because this may be a little difficult, embedded words are fine - the full brand name must be in appearance, but it can be contained within a word within the title (like "Kia" in "The Ivankiad").

Some examples:

Fordlandia (Ford) by Greg Grandin
The Ivankiad (Kia) by Vladimir Vojnovitsj
The Last Apprentice: Night of the Soul Stealer - (Kia Soul) by Joseph Delaney

THREAD ADDED
Click here for Automobile/Book Title Link

> 8

casvelyn, put your challenge on the wiki first. It is from the wiki that your challenge gets its number and gets indexed.

==========Challenge #7: Read a book set in a country that begins with 'I' or a one word title that starts with 'I'======

The windscreen of my car was all icy this morning, and so I thought up this challenge thinking about the icy winter about to hit here and those in northern climes reaching for the ice to add to their drink. Well the 'I' s have it

The hounds of Morrigan - Pat o'Shea (Ireland)
Insurgent - Veronica Roth

Iceland / India / Indonesia / Iran / Iraq / Ireland / Israel / Italy / Ivory Coast

>#9
cyderry, do you mean a state or country that you've never visited? Or you've never read a book set in that state or country before?

ie, I've never been to Iceland, but I've read books set there before.

Challenge #9: Leaders Are Readers challenge.

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” - Harry S. Truman

For this challenge, read a book from a Legacy Library of a leader.

Harry Truman's library has been cataloged on LT, along with many other leaders and notable persons, in a project called Legacy Libraries, yet another great feature of LibraryThing. "Legacy Libraries are the libraries of historical people (as well as a few institutions), entered into LibraryThing by dedicated members working from a variety of sources". You can find out more about them, read about the project, and find a list of the Legacy Libraries currently cataloged here.

Though limited to persons (institutions not allowed), I shan't be an arbiter of what makes a leader. If someone shows up under Legacy, we'll just assume that the person is a leader in their field, and consequently works for this challenge. Note the name of the leader's library from which you chose a book.

Examples:
Beloved - Vina Delmar (Harry Truman)
Tales From Shakespeare - Charles & Mary Lamb (Katharine Hepburn)

>12 SqueakyChu: I thought I had, but apparently it didn't save the first time.

For challenge #3, one could read a book by Emily or Ann Bronte (Charlotte's younger sisters).
And Margaret Drabble is A.S. Byatt's younger sister. My understanding is that they don't get along.....

Challenge #4 - I meant where the book has been set. I personally have been to the state of Arizona, but I've never read a book set there. Hope that clarifies it.

Challenge #10: Read a biography of an ancient person, one born before the 6th century.

My planned reads:

Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire by Annelise Freisenbruch - Library
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff Book Club
Hypatia by Charles Kingsley - Nook

Challenge #11, in honor of summer, read a book with "sand" or "beach" in the title.

I've got a few summertime mysteries in mind for this one. The Crocodile on the Sandbank, the first Elizabeth Peters mystery, for instance.

Whoops, I misunderstood, then -- I understood it to be a country you have never visited, not a country where you've never read a book set there. I think that rules out all but two candidates.

#20 Same here, Suz. I have no idea where all of my books have been set. I put in the first Archer Mayor mystery, set in Vermont, because I'd never been there. I don't recall reading any books set in Vermont but I can't be positive.

>17 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. I knew that I was leaving out some obvious choices for my challenge that I couldn't come up with. :-)

Does anyone know if Hilary Mantel has any older relatives who are published authors? :-|

Challenge #12: Read a book with a food or beverage beginning with the letter "P" in the title or author's name

Embedded words are allowed...

Pear, peach, pike, pickle, pineapple, plum, porridge, passionfruit, Pepsi, pudding, pralines, pumpernickel, pad thai, ...., ....., .....

#25 There are quite a few cozy mysteries with P-food words. Livia J. Washburn's The Pumpkin Muffin Murder springs to mind. Joanne Fluke's Plum Pudding Murder.

No doubt that there are some Pie books out there, too. I think I'll try, once again, with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by alan Bradley.

Sheesh! Go tidy up the kitchen and miss 25 posts...no fair!!!

Madeline, thanks for adding the link to automobile brands. I was trying to find one that wasn't wikipedia.

That was the first one I saw.

That's a tough challenge, Patrick! I'm curious to see what others will find.

#24, EBT1002, Darryl has added Bring Up the Bodies to Madeline's 3rd word challenge, #1.

Challenge #13- Read a book that has an amusing tag.

When browsing the tags I've noticed all sorts of entertaining things. Here's a chance to read these books.

So, the topic has been up for 3 hours, and I'm already overextended. How'd that happen?
Planned June reads:

Challenge 2 -
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon- Audiobook
Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama - Alison Bechdel
Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories - Edith Pearlman
Drift - Rachel Maddow - Nook
She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror - Gerri Leen - Nook
Challenge 3-
Supreme Courtship – Christopher Buckley - Audiobook
Challenge 8 -
The Known World - Edward P Jones - Audiobook
Challenge 10 -
Cleopatra: A Life - Stacy Schiff - Book Club
Hypatia - Charles Kingsley - Nook
Challenge 14
Deadlocked - Charlaine Harris
Challenge 15
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
The Old Testament: Teaching Company Great Courses - Amy-Jill Levine/strike>

Being entirely self-serving, I have devised the following challenge from books I want to read in June:

Challenge 14: Read a One Word Titled Book that has been Written by a Female Author

>32 Citizenjoyce: I think I've picked too many books as well. However, every June I try to read as many books as humanly possible, just for fun. Last year I read 32 books in June (over half were Tintin comics), so I just might get all mine finished.

Challenge 1
Fair Stood the Wind for France - H. E. Bates
Challenge 2
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
Challenge 3
Black Hearts in Battersea - Joan Aiken
The China Governess - Margery Allingham
Challenge 8
The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde
Curtain - Agatha Christie
Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie
Challenge 9
Fer-de-Lance - Rex Stout
Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock
Challenge 12
Crochet Castle - Thomas Love Peacock
Challenge 13
I am Half-Sick of Shadows - Alan Bradley

Plus a couple books I haven't found a spot for yet...

It may have been done before but here's mine:

Challenge #15: Read a Book with one of the words from the Bridal Rhyme in the Title

Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue
And a sixpence in her shoe

Embedded is fine.

Challenge #16: Read a Book Based in a Continent or by an Author from a Continent Based on a Die Roll

Continental Challenge

Go to http://www.random.org/dice/?num=1 and click on Roll Again.

If you roll:

1 Read a book set in Australia or by an author from Australia
2 Read a book set in Asia or by an author from Asia
3 Read a book set in Europe or by an author from Europe
4 Read a book set in Africa or by an author from Africa
5 Read a book set in North America or by an author from North America
6 Read a book set in South America or by an author from South America

If you are not sure what continent a country is in, just ask or you can check at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent. Use the 7 continent (minus Antarctica) model.

How fun, Morphy! I rolled a three - so Europe for me!

My challenge is to Read a book with a prominent tag that appears in bold on another 75-er's tag mirror and doesn't appear at all on your (250-tag) tag mirror. I hope that's complicated enough for you! :D

The tag mirror shows how the books in another person's library are tagged by LT users as a whole.

1. By "prominent", I mean the tag has to occur in the basic tag cloud that shows by default on the work page--no clicking on the "show all" button!

You can look at any size of the other person's tag mirror, though. The bold tags represent subjects that they're specially interested in, more so than other people on the site. Everyone probably has a large "fiction" tag, meaning that they have a lot of fiction--but it almost certainly won't be bolded because there's nothing special about that.

When checking that the tag you chose doesn't occur at all in your own tag mirror, you only have to check the default 250-tag version (this makes it a bit easier).

There should be a link to the tag mirror from the "clouds" line of a person's profile. But sometimes there isn't. You can also get there by clicking on the "clouds" link in the bar near the top, or by going to the author cloud first.

Phew. I think that's everything.

Heh. I love it how there's a disclaimer at the top saying that you won't have time to update until tonight, and then my challenge has been added to the list before I've even finished writing the description!

I hope that's complicated enough for you!

It sure is, Zoe. LOL!!

I love it how there's a disclaimer at the top saying that you won't have time to update until tonight, and then my challenge has been added to the list before I've even finished writing the description!

Heh!

> 11

Patrick, just to clarify...

For your challenge are you accepting both the words of the make *or* model of cars?

I'm guessing this is correct since your example included "Soul".

I was happy to roll a 4 for Africa! Fun challenge.

Off topic and an important reminder...

There is an upcoming LT 75-ers meet-up in Washington, DC, the weekend of June 9-10, 2012. Read more about it on this thread.

Please come and join us for either one or both of the days. It will be fun to meet everyone! No charge to join us. :)

Questions? Just private message @norabelle414.

I wonder what the record is for the largest LT gathering. This will be a big one :D

For Challenge #1 I've decided to join Darryl in reading The Master and Margarita.

What a fab list of challenges we have this month! Unfortunately this month I have to skip some of the delight of choosing from my bookshelves, as I'm off to the UK on Saturday and (a) I need to pack, (b) I'll probably read books I borrow or buy there, but I was already planning to get Bring Up The Bodies so now I have an extra reason to...

Re the Amusing Tag challenge--I am cracking up just looking at the tags people have found. I can't decide which one is my favorite. I'm not sure whether I'll find a book to read for this challenge (my plate is getting full) but it has provided me with a coffee-spitting moment.

I'm glad that several folks will read books with me next month! Nathalie and Amanda, there is a group read of The Master and Margarita (challenge #1) taking place on Club Read here, which started last month. I'm only 50 pages into it, so I've just gotten started. Nathalie, wandering_star, et al.: the group read of Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (also for challenge #1) is scheduled to start on June 1 here in this group, although some have already started and/or finished it.

I have a lot of books that I've already planned to read this month, so I'll have to see which of these I can fit into TIOLI challenges. Here's what I have so far:

Challenge #1:
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Challenge #2:
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
Challenge #3:
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History by V.S. Naipaul
One Drop: My Father's Hidden Story by Bliss Broyard
(if I can find a copy and if I have time, I'll try to read The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul along with Kerri)
Challenge #5:
Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo
Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher
Challenge #8:
Pure by Timothy Mo
Subduction by Todd Shimoda
Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
Challenge #9:
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Challenge #13:
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
Challenge #16:
The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
Challenge #18:
The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe
Challenge #22:
The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin

>24 EBT1002:, 30 Ellen, I didn't notice that Hilary Mantel has any older relatives who are authors when I checked her Wikipedia page. However, as Citizenjoyce mentioned, if you're thinking of reading Bring Up the Bodies, I've posted it in challenge #1.

>32 Citizenjoyce: Citizenjoyce, I'm glad that you'll be joining me in reading One Drop. I was intrigued by the story when I first read about it, as almost no one knew that her father, Anatole Broyard, the long time NYT books editor, was actually a light skinned Creole but passed for white for most of his life. His daughter had no idea that she had African American blood until her mother told her and her brother once he had died, and she traveled to Louisiana to visit her father's relatives afterward. I've had this book on my TBR pile for several years, so I'm looking forward to finally reading it.

>36 Morphidae: I rolled a 3 (Europe), which permits me to add The Coward's Tale to your challenge.

>38 _Zoe_: Interesting challenge, Zoe. However, I'll need a bit more coffee to see if I can match one of my planned reads to it.

>45 amandameale: Hi, Amanda! I'm glad that you'll be joining me in reading The Master and Margarita.

>46 wandering_star: Have a nice time in the UK, wandering_star. Will you attend the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration this weekend? I'll probably travel to London at the end of June, and attend the first 6 days of the upcoming London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre in early July.

I'm glad that you'll be reading Bring Up the Bodies with us.

>>41 SqueakyChu: - yes, make and/or model is acceptable for the car challenge. I think it's too limited to find only manufacturers, and some of the model names (particularly for cars that no longer exist) were very interesting. It will be a good history lesson

Thanks for the link to the group read - a third reason to buy myself a copy! I will be spending the weekend with my mother, who is something of an anti-royalist, so I suspect we will be trying to avoid all mention of the jubilee celebrations... we'll see. How nice that you'll be visiting London again! There are some great looking events at the Literature Festival.

While I was looking for a place to fit two library books I borrowed I suddenly noticed something they had in common so here is my challenge for the month

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Challenge #18: Read a book by an author with a four letter first name that includes two letters
that are the same
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For example:
A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths (2 L's)
Stonemouth - Iain Banks (2 I's)

#48 - Yay! about possibly reading the Shiva Naipaul book. My library system has it, so I'll definitely request it.

>50 wandering_star: Have a nice visit with your mother, and good luck in avoiding the celebrations!

I had made plans to visit London in April, but I cancelled my trip (and plans to meet up with several LTers) at the last minute. I had planned to go in September, after the conclusion of the Paralympic Games, but now I'll probably go twice, as I had originally wanted to do. You're right, the line up of authors at the London Literature Festival is too good to pass up, as several of my favorite authors will be there.

ETA:

>52 DorsVenabili: I had looked for The Chip-Chip Gatherers and Fireflies when I went to NYC earlier this month, but I couldn't find either one. If I can't find it in SF I should be able to get it in London.

Wow! I think this may be the most interesting batch of Challenges yet!! Thanks everyone! But I'll never have enough time to read everything I want to. I know....familiar complaint! ;-)

Yeah, I've found a challenge for all the books I want/need to read this month!

FYI - for anyone reading Wolf Hall for the group read at the 12 in 12 Challenge, I put mine into Challenge #17.

Ellen - if you were looking for a place to put Wolf Hall, you could definitely list it under the amusing tag challenge. Here are some that I found: are you sure?, big book, confusing pronouns, mind-numbingly boring.

Oops cross posted with cyderry, who was already on it! But I think she means challenge #17.

Yes, typo #17.

There is also a group read of River of Smoke planned for June here on the 75 thread. I have added the book to Challenge #8.

I'm overjoyed! I just picked up Bring up the Bodies from the library and I'm so please to see that it's found a spot in challoenge #1.

I'm doubly overjoyed because the book I've choen to begin a group read on The Old Gringo by Carlos Foentes can be placed into challoenge #15. If anyone is up for a group read check out this thread. I'm a kitten among group read giants so it will probably be very quiet there.

Since there have been news reports that the zombie apocalypse mat actually be starting in Florida, I think it's time for all of us to prepare with my challenge this month:

Challenge #19: Read a zombie book.

For the record, I don't care if it's about flesh eaters or Voodoo zombies. I don't care if it's fiction or nonfiction or a play or even a poetry collection. So if you want to read World War Z or The Serpent and the Rainbow or Zombie Haiku, that's fine.

For a brief moment, I'd hoped I might actually be able to read a book per challenge this month -- but I'm zombie-phobic!! :-)

ETA: I am in stitches at all the titles piling up for my challenge.
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse just seems to prove that there is a book for absolutely everyone!!

I think I better stop while I have a chance of finishing these. Of course, I may add something later, and I may have to remove things at the end of the month.

Challenge 1
Death, Bones and Stately Homes by Valerie Malmont
Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow
Louisa and the Missing Heiress by Anna Maclean

Challenge 2
The Wooden Overcoat by Pamela Branch

Challenge 4
The Expats by Chris Pavone
Open Season by Archer Mayor
I'll also be adding books for Liechtenstein and the Aland Islands to this one, but I am waiting to add them. I do have an idea which books I'll be reading, but I just want to hold off adding exact titles yet.

Challenge 8
Twain's Feast by Andrew Beahrs
Termination Dust by Sue Henry

Challenge 11
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Challenge 13
Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters
Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum

I normally wouldn't read two by a single author in a month, but I had one left over from May and another coming up in a couple of months on my TBR list that fit one of the categories and was a match! I'll try to read one near the beginning of the month and one towards the end.

That's 13 books so far!

Darryl and Joyce, thanks for trying to help me out, but since I want to read Wolf Hall before I read Bring Up the Bodies, I'm going to have to keep working on fitting it in somewhere. Or not, and just read it. :-)

For challenge #5: Are we limited to a brand of automobile or a model?

So, I think of "Ford" as a brand or make, and "Escort" as a model. Will you accept either?

eta: I noticed that Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch has either CC or Accura imbedded within.

Back up to 64 --> I see that others had fit Wolf Hall into challenge #17 and I've followed suit.

I did a quick search on Google and saw that there was a Moon Motor Car company in the early 20th century. Does that mean I can use The Killing Moon that I'm reading for early reviewers for Challenge #5?

Well! Having literally slept through the posting, and then woken to discover to my horror that Darryl has come up with something too close to what I was planning to use, I've had to do this on the fly. Apologies for the outcome, but it's 6.00am here! :)

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Challenge #20: Read a book with a title that uses a less common term for a particular animal.

******************************
By this I mean, for example, the title may say "hound" instead of "dog". Any of the classification equivalents - feline, bovine, vulpine - are also permitted, and mythical animals are allowed. Any alternative term you can justify is permitted.

If this isn't clear I will elaborate tonight - right now I gotta go!

(Worst-timed challenge ever!)

ETA: Just to expand, I am prepared to accept into this challenge folklore-ish names (Reynard, Grimalkin), nicknames (Tom, kitty), even phrases like "man's best friend".

ETA2: Zodiac names also allowed - pisces, leo, scorpio, aries.

I should also emphasise that the word or phrase does not have to refer to an actual animal.

63>> yeah, Lori - one of the reasons I wanted to do this challenge is to get more ideas for my Endless Europe challenge and my 50 state challenge.

Already I've gotten ideas for Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Macedonia, Northern Mariana Islands/Saipan, Finland and Vermont. This is working out great!

My list is probably overambitious since I'll be away from home for a week in June. I won't be surprised if I end up "leaving" at least one or two of these:

Challenge 1
A Deadly Row by Casey Mayes
For Liberty and Glory by James R. Gaines

Challenge 4
The Expats by Chris Pavone
The Heart of Danger by Gerald Seymour
The Miss Stone Affair by Teresa Carpenter
Warriors in the Crossfire by Nancy Bo Flood

Challenge 6
The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

Challenge 9
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Challenge 12
A Peach of a Murder by L.J. Washburn

Challenge 13
Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum
Miss Julia Strikes Back by Ann B. Ross

Challenge 15
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

Cheli, I've already finished my 50 states challenge so I can't use any states for that one (except as a shared read). However, I can tell you that for Liechtenstein I will probably read either Ludmila by Paul Gallico which is a folk tale so I'm not sure if it will give the flavor I want or A Survey of Liechtenstein History by Otto Seger which should be easy to obtain via ILL here in the U.S. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'm certainly open to that. The Aland Islands are a bonus category for me in the Europe Endless challenge, but I discovered that by reading 3 books each month (and including all my bonus categories) that I would still finish this year so I'm including it. The most likely candidate for it is The Aland Islands by W. R. Mead, et al. There are enough libraries that have it that it shouldn't be difficult to obtain via ILL. I'll probably submit them when I leave to go to the conference so that they will hopefully arrive by the time I'm back or at least within a day or two.

#48 Darryl, thanks for the link.

>>65 EBT1002: - I don't mean to throw anyone off with terminology. Brand, make, model, marque, manufacturer, tradename, etc. are all allowed in this challenge. If it's the name of a car, let's find it in a book title.

and Acura has only one "c" so the "accurate" wouldn't count - but the "CC" is still in there.

And based on the variety I am seeing, I think I will do a separate thread with the cars shows, just for fun.

THREAD ADDED
Click here for Automobile/Book Title Link

And based on the variety I am seeing, I think I will do a separate thread with the cars shows, just for fun.

Nice!!

As everyone has their lists drawn up, I'll probably be on my own with this one, but my Legal Eagles challenge is to read a book about a legal professional - fiction or non-fiction. I hope to read

Helen Black, Damaged Goods - first in series about an English solicito
Margaret Maron, Shooting at Loons - from the Deborah Knott series feauring a judge in North Carolina

There are some hilarious tags - I don't plan to read the books but gems I've seen include "Better to rule in Hell than to live in New Jersey" (I have no opinion on New Jersey) and "There's a wolf in my time machine"!

I am probably being overly ambitious too but here goes ...

Challenge #1- Read a book whose third title word has exactly 3 letters

1. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (and) - Completed June 12

2. Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats by Bradley Trevor Greive (are) - Completed June 16

Challenge # 4 - Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting

3. Arthur High King of Britain by Michael Morpurgo (The Scilly Islands off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain) Completed June 4

4. The Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Holland)Completed June 24

5. The Pearl by John Steinbeck - (La Paz, Baja, California on the Gulf of Mexico.)Completed June 25

6. A God Against the Gods by Allen Drury - takes place in Egypt. I am reading this one for the Reading Through Time Challenge- Quarterly theme read: Ancient and Biblical times
abandoned

Challenge #5 - Read a book with a title which contains a brand of automobile (make or model)

7. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Completed July 31

Challenge #8 - Read a book with a title that has equal or more letters from the second half of the alphabet than from the first half, initial articles and subtitles excluded

8. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum (6/8) Completed June 14

9. Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier (5/8)
Completed July 30

10. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (7/13)Completed June 27

11. The Queen's Confession by Victoria Holt (8/11) Completed July 30

Challenge #9 - Read a book from a Legacy Library

12. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (William Butler Yates) Abandoned

Challenge #15 - Read a Book With One of the Words from the Bridal Rhyme in the Title: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, Sixpence, Shoe

13. Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes Completed July 30

Challenge #17- Read a book with a prominent tag that appears in bold on another 75-er's tag mirror and doesn't appear at all on your (250-tag) tag mirror

14. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel abandoned

Challenge #21 - Read a book featuring a legal professional

15. Trudeau Albums . Trudeau was a lawyer before (and after) he was Canada's Prime Minister Completed June 23

Challenge #23: Read a book whose title contains the word "of."

16. Robin of Sherwood by Michael Morpurgo Completed June 4

I just discovered that Walden by Thoreau is in William Butler Yates legacy library so will be adding that to my TIOLI challenge list. I am reading it for the 1001 group read.

Back to those Amusing Tags again: I am finding this is an excellent challenge to try to fit a book that you were planning to read anyway.

For example I have started a bedtime read-aloud of The Boxcar Children with my daughter, so it might as well count for June.
Only problem is, which tag to pick? All of these amuse me:

Forced to read it by teacher

if i am deserted on a tresure island i wouldn't want to live without a copy of

mold

Hi everyone. I was just adding a book to wiki for Challenge #15: Read a Book With One of the Words from the Bridal Rhyme in the Title: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, Sixpence, Shoe and I thing I might have accidentally erased the last entry on the list. If you added a book to this challenge could you please check and see if it is still there and add it back in if it is missing. Sorry about that ...

> 79.

Fixed. Thanks for letting us know right away!

> 80
I think I accidentally highlighted it and didn't realize that it was gone until after I saved it and I looked at it page to see that my new entry was there and thought to myself, huh, I think there was something after that entry? ? ? But by then it was too late to get it back...

I found it on the wiki history. It was a book, Out of the Blue, that Chatterbox had entered. It's truly no problem as long as you notice and report it right away (which you did). That makes it much easier to catch and fix.

I figured someone would be able to fix it!

FYI For those reading Wolf Hall Challenge #17 - Chatterbox is tutoring Smiler69 on the Tudors here - http://www.librarything.com/topic/137481

Challenge #22: Read a book written by a woman with an introduction written by a man

A bit late in the day, I know but I wanted somewhere to put The Sleeping Beauty for this month's Virago group Elizabeth Taylor read.

I was trying so hard not to overbook myself in June but I couldn't resist the opportunity to join in the 12 in 12 Group Read of Wolf Hall - so onto the reading list it goes!

It is too new to add as a challenge, but I've put on hold three books I found by looking at the ratings listed after completed on the wiki for April & May. All books, & authors, I hadn't heard of before. I haven't looked yet to see if any meet a June challenge.

Catherine Aird - A Most Contagious Game

Maggie Stiefvater - The Scorpio Races (though every other review at my library called it slow & boring)

Madeleine Miller - The Song of Achilles (though it seems to have better ratings in April compared with May)

There are some really great challenges this month and I think that I might be overbooked already as some of these are chunksters but this is what I am hoping to read this month. As always I'm sure the list at the end of the month won't be quite the same:)

1. Read a book whow third title word has exactly 3 letters
Now You See Me - S. J. Bolton (library book, currently reading)

2. Read a book with a goofy, whimsical title that makes you think to yourself "what on earth is THAT about?"
*Illywhacker - Peter Carey

7. Read a book set in a country that begins with 'I' or a one word title that starts with 'I'
Imajica - Clive Barker
Sacred Games - Vikram Chandra

8. Read a book with a title that has equal or more letters from the second half of the alphabet than from the first half, initial articles and subtitles excluded
The Garden of Martyrs - Michael C. White (library book)

12. Read a book with a food or beverage beginning with the letter "P" in the title or author's name
*An Instance at the Fingerpost - Ian Pears

13. Read a Book with an Amusing Tag on LT
*Religion Explained - Pascal Boyer (library book, currently reading)

14. Read a One Word Titled Book by a Female Author
Ash - Malinda Lo

15. Read a Book With One of the Words from the Bridal Rhyme in the Title: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, Sixpence, Shoe
blueeyedboy - Joanne Harris

18. Read a book by an author with a four letter first name that includes two letters that are the same
A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths (library book)
Stonemouth - Iain Banks (library book)

>>#87 Zodiac names! That's one I didn't think of! Thanks, Mike - as a reward, if you haven't found an alternative home you could add The Scorpio Races to #20.

I'm about half way through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and, once again, Chabon shows he can write about big topics in a seemingly innocuous and entertaining way. Kavalier is talking about newly passed laws in Germany, France and Czechoslovakia that prohibit Jews' eating garlic, onions, apples, cheese or carp. I thought immediately how stupid that was, which of course emphasized the idiocy of any laws aimed at regulating Jews. Very clever of him.

#85 - Thanks Soupdragon, that gives me somewhere to put the delightful Instead of a Book, a collection of letters which I'll finish in the next couple of days.

Some great challenges and so I've added 13 books to the wiki, too many but can't resist the shared reads!

Challenge #1:
The Loblolly boy and the sorcerer by James Norcliffe
Challenge# 2:
How the soldier repairs the gramophone by Saša Stanišic - started this back in January & shared read
Challenge #3:
The Whispering Land by Gerald Durrell - I want to read Lawrence Durrell, but Darryl's challenge is for the 'younger' relative
Challenge #7:
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea (Ireland)
Icefall by Matthew Kirby
Insurgent by Veronica Roth - shared read
Only Yesterday by S.G. Agnon - (Israel)
Suddenly a knock on the door by Etgar Keret (Israel) - already reading this
Challenge #8:
The Fault in our stars by John Green - just noticed this shared read
The French Tutor by Judith Armstrong
Challenge #13:
Life by Keith Richards - already listening to this & shared read
Challenge #14:
Reconnaisance by Kapka Kassabova
Reflections by Diana Wynne Jones

Dad gum! Yours' is tough, Zoe. I had a book to read for the 12 months challenge and couldn't find a TIOLI to fit. Finally, I plugged that title into the Search Members' Books box, checked the tag mirrors of those members, and found one that showed a tag from the book's tag page, which wasn't on my own tag mirror. *Phew!* is right! I don't know if that's how you intended the challenge - start with the book and match back, or if we were supposed to start with the tags and find a book from there. But I think mine fits the letter of the law, anyway, so hopefully it can stay.

PS: Enjoyed your "accidentally completed" example on the wiki!

I finished Curtain at 12:30 this morning. I started it yesterday morning while walking the treadmill, and it was really hard to put off finishing it until today. Excellent mystery, and although I had some idea about the ending from reading stuff about Agatha Christie, the ending was still somewhat shocking. Excellent book--5 stars.

> 92 Kerry,

Ummm ... Gerald Durrell .... didn't know that ... and I have Whispering Land too ...shared read ... maybe ... I'll have to see how it goes with my other 12 or 13 reads ... overextended much, Cathy ???

========================================
I added Challenge 23: Read a book whose title contains the word "of." As in--"pinch of salt," "dash of tabasco"--just "something OF something."
========================================

I have several library books that I really want to read but was having difficulty in fitting them in to this month's challenges. I looked for a point of similarity, and found this--they contain the word "of"!

Here are a list of my possibilities:

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly
A Trail of Ink by Mel Starr
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

This seems like a simple challenge to me. I hope that I've been clear and that I haven't duplicated a previous challenge (I did look through morphidae's list--very cool!)

Karen O.

>93 countrylife: Hehe, I hope you enjoyed the challenge! I think it's probably a lot easier to go in the opposite direction: find a tag on someone else's tag mirror, and then choose a book matching that tag. If you want to take the harder route, though, that's fine by me!

Unbelievable! This is just the challenge I need and have been considering adding. . . Thanks klobrien2!

>96 klobrien2: Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Ooh, I now see A Trail of Ink listed up in #13--I moved that baby up there.

Karen O.

p.s. I'm SO glad to get some positive feedback on my challenge 23. It seemed a little fluffy to me, compared to the great challenges we have again this month, but it worked really well for me, and I hope that it will help you.

#96: thanks for creating a challenge for the Kundera! I'll join you there.

Sigh, more books that I can list and feel guilty about not reading... ! :-)

#96 Thank you! I had one book I wanted to read this month that I couldn't fit into any other challenges (and believe me I tried) - it has 'of' in the title :-)

Here are my over-ambitious TIOLI plans for June:

Challenge 1- third word of three letters: Bring up the bodies - Mantel (group read) and Writing at the kitchen table - Cooper (book group)
Challenge 2- wacky, whimsical title: Orgy Planner Wanted (title is 'Working IX to V' in the US) - Leon
Challenge 3- author is younger relative of another author: We by John Dickinson (I stalled on this ages ago, must finish it as it's by a friend)
Challenge 4- about/set in a country you've not visited in a book before: In Patagonia - Chatwin
Challenge 5- make or model of car: Remarkable Creatures (Ford Ka) - Tracy Chevalier
Challenge 7- one word title beginning with I: Intervention - May
and/or book set in a country beginning with I: The Giant, O'Brien - Mantel
Challenge 8- title with equal or more letters from second half of alphabet: River of Smoke - Ghosh (group read, library book)
Challenge 9- In a Legacy Library: The Pickwick Papers - Dickens (I've been reading this for months, must finish)
Challenge 10- biography of an ancient person: Theodora, Empress, Actress, Whore - Stella Duffy (not sure if this counts as it is a biographical novel not a factual biography.
Challenge 11- title with 'sand' or 'beach': On Chesil Beach - McEwan and/or The Riddle of the Sands - Childers (both shared reads)
Challenge 12- title or author contains food/drink beginning with 'P': Stone's fall - Iain Pears and/or The two heroines of Plumplington - Trollope
Challenge 13- amusing tag: The woman in white (tag=not read often enough) - Collins (book group)
Challenge 14- one word title female author: Rebecca - Du Maurier (other options: Room; Herland)
Challenge 15- title with a word from the bridal rhyme: Oath of gold (old) - Moon
Challenge 16- continent by roll-of-dice: The white tiger (Asia) - Adiga
Challenge 18- four letter first name with repeated letter: The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths (library book; shared read)
Challenge 20- less common animal name: The Gabriel Hounds - Mary Stewart (shared read)
Challenge 21- legal eagles: Heartstone - C J Sansom (shared read)

Obviously I won't read all of the above, as my usual monthly total is between 10 and 13. The priority ones (group reads, library books etc) are in bold.

Nothing lined up (yet) for the following
Challenge 6- dedicated to author's father: I need to go and have a look at the bookshelf...
Challenge 17- the complicated one about tag mirrors - haven't been able to fit anything into this.
Challenge 19- about zombies - pass! (though annoyingly at the end of May I just finished a Pratchett which featured zombies)
Challenge 22- written by a woman, intro by a man - there must be a few among my VMC collection which fit this...

Joyce, re Challenge 10, would a biographical novel fit the bill? I'd like to read Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore but it is fiction rather than non-fiction, though based on what is known of her life. She just fits the time frame - her d.o.b. is given as approx 500 in some places and 497 in others... But I'll accept your decision if you meant pure biography.

>96 klobrien2:

Challenge 23: Read a book whose title contains the word "of."

Thanks I can add Robin of Sherwood by Michael Morpurgo which I just started yesterday and need to finish by the 6th to return to the library. This is the last of my planned reads for June so I am thrilled to fit it into a category!

>96 klobrien2: Thanks, Karen! That allows me to match all of my planned books for June.

Here's my updated list:

Challenge #1:
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (shared read) - Reading
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (shared read) - Reading
Challenge #2:
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (shared read)
Challenge #3:
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (shared read)
The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History by V.S. Naipaul
One Drop: My Father's Hidden Story by Bliss Broyard (shared read)
Challenge #5:
Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo
Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher
Challenge #8:
Pure by Timothy Mo (shared read)
Subduction by Todd Shimoda
Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
Challenge #9:
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Challenge #13:
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable - completed
Challenge #16:
The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
Challenge #18:
The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe
Challenge #22:
The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin - Reading
Challenge #23:
A Mind of Winter by Shira Nayman

Like most people, I'm almost certainly over-committed for the month.

Genny, I'm going to have to go and read some Pratchett to find zombies... which one were you thinking of?

#108 Witches Abroad has a zombie character. It's not the main focus of the plot, but does play a reasonably significant role.

If you want to do a Pratchett book with zombies, Reaper Man is a another one that would be a good choice for the challenge.

Thanks Karen, I was looking for a place to put a book that wouldn't fit anywhere else. This is perfect.

OK, am going to add Witches Abroad; may try Reaper Man later, but the latter seems to have too much existential stuff going on, and I'm looking for something a wee bit lighter right now! Off to add it to the wiki.

Extra thanks, Karen; just realized I can put the half-read Accidents of Providence into your challenge...

>105 gennyt: gennyt, I am notoriously easy in acceptance of books in my challenges. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore sounds fine to me.

#113 That's great, thanks!

I took some time this morning to review our challenges for this month and have realized something. There were some books that I am reading that I did not think fit any of the challenges but I have discovered that they ALL fit somewhere! So, here are my additions:

Challenge #21 - Read a book featuring a legal professional
Trudeau Albums . I started this last month for the TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a nonfiction work set during the first 23 years of your life and didn't finish it but Trudeau was a lawyer before (and after) he was a Prime Minister so it fits here for this month.

Challenge #4 - Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting
The Pearl by John Steinbeck - This takes place in La Paz, Baja, California on the Gulf of Mexico.

I am reading this for the 12 12 Group Challenge to read a book with the birthstone of the month in the title

Challenge #4 - Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting
Arthur High King of Britain by Michael Morpurgo - takes place in the Scilly Islands off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain

Challenge #4 - Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting
A God Against the Gods by Allen Drury - takes place in Egypt. I am reading this one for the Reading Through Time Challenge- Quarterly theme read: Ancient and Biblical times

That takes care of all my June books!

I have started all my reads and I must say, my favourite so far is The Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.

I finished a book this morning that fits into Challenge #4. I added it to the wiki. I read Rescue: A Novel by Anita Shreve. It takes place in Vermont.

I know I'm super-late adding a category, but there's one I've been wanting to do. So I added it as #24:

Namesake: Read a book where one of the main characters has the same first name as the author. (I've always wondered whether that is weird for the author to accomplish and if the writer somehow favors that character with the shared name).

89) Thanks. None have arrived yet for me to pick up so I've been holding off looking. 2 of the three have a lot of holds and so might not be read this month.

Overbooked, as usual, but here is my TIOLI list. (* is a shared read)

Challenge #1:
*Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
*There but for the - Ali Smith
How it All Began - Penelope Lively

Challenge #2:
Color Me English - Caryl Phillips
Kangaroo Notebook - Kobo Abe
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake - Anna Quindlen

Challenge #3:
*The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (shared read)
*Black Hearts in Battersea - Joan Aiken

Challenge #4:
Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys
*S.: A Novel About the Balkans -Slavenka Drakulic
The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill
*The Balkan Trilogy - Olivia Manning

Challenge #8:
*The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
*River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh
Complications - Atul Gawande

Challenge #12
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong - Terry Teachout

Challenge #13:
The Beginner's Goodbye - Anne Tyler
A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov

Challenge #16:
*The Woman in the Dunes - Kobo Abe

Challenge #23
Island of Wings - Karin Altenberg
The Ministry of Pain - Dubravka Ugresic

If anyone else wants to add another challenge before today is over, please private message me so I will not miss your request. I will not add another wiki page unless requested to do so.

Thanks!

So, can anyone figure out how I could manage to include Jeremy Seal's travel book, Meander: East to West, Indirectly, Along a Turkish River to TIOLI this month?? Or Murder on Fifth Avenue by Victoria Thompson??

Aside from lucky dice rolls, I'm not sure I can, but maybe it just requires a more creative mind than mine is at present....

>>122 Chatterbox: - you can add Murder on Fifth Avenue to the automobile challenge (#5) tying it to the Chrysler Fifth Avenue.

Murder on Fifth Avenue has 10 out of 19 letters in the second half of the alphabet! So Challenge 8 would work for that one. (This has turned out to be a very handy challenge! Thanks, casvelyn!)

Karen O.

Total aside- I learned how to drive on a Chrysler 5th Ave. It is one huge boat of a car.

I'm searching for a way to include Middlesex in this month's TIOLI. No luck so far. Any ideas?

Karen O.

Yahoo! Thanks to Challenge 5 posters and Lexus, I can use the Lexus ES as entry into TIOLI for Middlesex !

I'm really enjoying my read of the book, and now it's even more satisfying.

Not that I'm pushing my challenge (#5), but Middlesex also works there tied to the Lexus ES. You can also include Meander: East to West for the same ES.

Totally pimping my own challenge, but it does have the tag: "bad sex in fiction."

OOOOOOh, thank you all!! (Can you tell that I have never had a driver's license, much less gone car shopping?)

btw must give a shout-out to Genny for her deeply quirky title in my challenge #2 -- Orgy Planner Wanted. I do hope that none of her parishoners spot her reading it... :-)

I'm just about to add St. Peter's Finger to the quirky title list.

I think that Lexus ES is going to come in mighty handy! I was looking for a place for A Sickness in the Family by Denise Mina to fit, and I think Challenge 5 - Lexus ES is going to do the trick!

All hail to the Lexus ES! (reminds me of my challenge 23--title contains the word "of"--lots of possibilities!)

128: I would love to use the quirky tag challenge for Middlesex, but I can't get all of the tags to show. When I click on "All" (tags), my computer locks up. Is there another way to see all of the tags?

Karen O.

130: lahochstetler said, "I'm just about to add St. Peter's Finger to the quirky title list."

I'd definitely consider that a quirky title!

Karen O.

erm, yes. Is it a reliquary? A funky name for a cool dessert? Enquiring minds want to know...

Actually, I'm amazed at all the deeply bizarre titles out there...

Re Middlesex: I was able to get the tags to load (the problem is that there are a LOT of them for that book), and I found the tag, "Bad Sex in Fiction Award Shortlist." Now, I'd definitely consider that an amusing tag, so into challenge 13 it goes. Thanks!

Karen O.

I really like challenge 13. Pope Joan is on my table, ready to be read. Does it fit for "amusing tag"? Yup. "What a pirate likes to read." Avast! Who knew?

Karen O.

Heh heh heh. I came up with it on a whim in late May while browsing tags and finding a few gems. I had no idea that pirates were fans of Joan of Arc. Live and learn.

I have discovered that St. Peter's finger is slang for the lighted steeple of one St. Peter's church. Apparently it's a rather tall steeple.

#136: I picked up an old copy of Pope Joan the other day, I'll keep it in mind if I finish all my other shared reads in time.
There are some hilarious tags out there if you start looking.

*St. Peter's Finger* reminds me of St. Agatha's Breast. I've already read it, or I would definitely put it in the quirky title challenge. Once I thought of it, I had to put it somewhere just to get rid of it mentally.

Was it the middle finger, enquiring minds want to know?? Just askin'....

June is obviously humor month!

I am currently reading/listening to:

Challenge 5 (brand of automobile): How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez--listening

Challenge 13 (amusing tag): Religion Explained (shared read)

Challenge 16 (continent determined by die roll): Neverending Story (shared read).

Can anyone see a place for my ER book A God in the House: Poets Talk About Faith by Ilya Kaminsky?

Or how about for my other ER book 150 Pounds Gone Forever: How I Lost Half My Size and You Can Too by Diane Carbonelle?

I need a cleverness injection to fit those in!

150 pounds looks like it will fit in the letters in the second half of the alphabet: 11/17

I finished and REVIEWED Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy for Challenge 4, Read a book set in a country you've never read about before.

>140 Chatterbox: - It definitely looks like the middle finger :)

Thanks, raidergirl3! I always seem to have a couple that I can't fit in..... but now with your help I have one less!

And another thanks, raidergirl3 for listing The Known World in Challenge 8. I started listening to this audiobook a couple of years ago but stopped because I found the style too choppy. This time around I didn't have the same problems with following the stories, and I loved it. Jones got a very well deserved Pulitzer Prize. There's an interview with him at the end of the audiobook in which he tells why he wrote the story of black Americans who owned slaves in pre-Civil War days- believe it or not the idea came from a book he read in high school in which an unhappy Jewish man joined the American Nazi Party. What an interesting man he is, I'll have to read more of his stuff.

I just unexpectedly got a review copy of James Rollins' next book, 12047561::Bloodline. Since, it's one of my favorite series, I know I'll want to read it ASAP, but I can't find a challenge to place it in. Does anyone have any ideas?

I just started The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill and I'm loving it ----
Thank you, whomever gave it the tag "Dr. Siri - da bomb?"

He IS da bomb (although I didn't give it that tag)...

147>> Challenge#16 - you could roll the dice and maybe get lucky? or horses are sometimes called blooded maybe blood would count for Challenge #20?

I've finished The Loblolly boy and the sorcerer, a great children's fantasy and sequel to The loblolly boy for challenge #1 and also finished listening to Life by Keith Richards for challenge #13: an interesting tag.

Highly recommend Life, it is an amazing narration, kudos to Keith Richards for choosing Joe Hurley as the narrator for the 60s & 70s portion of the book. Johnny Depp is great too.

Zoe, your challenge is hard to work out, though I think I'm going to be able to add one or two books if I can find a 75er with a bold 'kindle' tag in their mirror. But one thing that has become apparent to me from my dithering around looking at tag mirrors is that several people have threads but aren't members of the group.

eta: reread the rules, darn it 'kindle' won't work

#148 I just found a copy of that in my local charity shop, and although I'm well over my self-imposed limit for book buying this year, I had to snap it up, it has been so highly recommended!

Completed Robin of Sherwood by Michael Morpurgo which I read for Challenge 23: Read a book whose title contains the word "of."

AND Arthur, High King of Britain by Michael Morpurgo which I read for Challenge #4 - Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting (takes place in the Scilly Islands off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain}

I enjoyed them them both
Reviews are here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/10943689/reviews - Robin of Sherwood
http://www.librarything.com/work/440061/reviews - Arthur, High King of Britain

>152 avatiakh: Which books are you trying to fit in? Maybe someone else can manage to find a tag that works.

Zoe, I managed to add in God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World using the tag 'Christian' but .the other book is Margo Lanagan's Sea Hearts and it doesn't have many tags. I could add it to the 'of' in the title challenge, as the book is most commonly known as The Brides of Rollrock Island.

I just finished Of Mice and Men which I was reading for Challenge #1: Read a book whose third title word has exactly three letters (and)
Loved it! Tragic. Beautiful.
Full review to follow.

I finished and REVIEWED Tim Gautreaux's excellent mystery The Missing. Think The Sisters Brothers without the bloody violence.

Now I'm trying to fit a book of my own into my challenge. Does anyone here read an unusual amount about soldiers, genetic engineering, or global warming?

Will subtitles work for challenge #5? If so, I cal put Bloodline there, since it has the subtitle "A Sigma Force Novel," and Sigma was apparently a model from Chrystler.

ETA: I see other people are using subtitles for the challenge, so I guess they do count, but since someone else has Blood listed as a car, I can use that instead.

I put my latest Challenge 5 completion, The Moon Maze Game, between Killing Moon & Moonstone. Then noticed that the list begins again at G, if I recall correctly. Slight shuffling needed. Not something I can do on my phone, unfortunately.

260) yes, the Blood Brothers Auto Company (or something like that). I believe they made cars in the early 1900s before switching to an auto parts company. Well, I think it was Blood Brothers that did that. I know one of these early car companies did that, while another turned their business to bicycle sales.

161 - fixed the order and added your new book to the "Moon" car post on the thread

163> thanks :)

I recently finished Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats by Bradley Trevor Greive for Challenge #1- Read a book whose third title word has exactly 3 letters (are)

Lovely photos. Humorous descriptions of the different qualities of cats and dogs. I had fun with this one; See review at:
http://www.librarything.com/work/9065336/reviews
(4 stars)

I finished listening to The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum which fit Challenge #8 - Read a book with a title that has equal or more letters from the second half of the alphabet than from the first half (6/8)

Did not exactly love it.
full review here;
http://www.librarything.com/work/4805/reviews

content removed by author - duplicate

content removed by author - duplicate

my review for Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
http://www.librarything.com/work/3657/reviews

It's Quickie Reads Day her on the TIOLI challenges. Suggest a quick and good read that has already been COMPLETED by someone here in hopes of boosting our TIOLI points before the month's end.

I recommend Of Mice and Men for Quickie Reads Day. It's not a long read, but a real classic and a book to make you think and feel.

Karen O.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a quickie read.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury is a quick, sweet, nostalgic read. Highly recommend it.

#173 Which challenge is it under? I'm overlooking it, somehow.

#5 apparently "lion" was a make/model of a car at the beginning of the 20th C

I've just finished The Whispering Land by Gerald Durrell for Darryl's younger relative challenge. I really loved this, he tells of his trip into remote Patagonia to observe and film fur seals, elephant seals and penguins, then goes north to Jujuy to collect animals for his zoo.
I'm not doing so well on my TIOLI reading, I've been busy working on a family history project that has a deadline, but I'm able to take a break for the weekend so hope to finish a couple more books.

For the quick reads I second Dandelion Wine and also recommend Silk by Alessandro Baricco which is in Challenge 13 - amusing tag.

#175 Thanks for the info, I'll add myself to the list for it. It's about Waukegan, IL, which is where Bradbury grew up and which is only a few minutes away from me. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I've never read this book.

I was so happy when they called Wednesday afternoon to tell me that The Expats was ready to be picked up. I had started out as #29 on the waiting list for the ebook with 3 copies available. They now have 5 available, but I was still #19 on the list. I think there had been one person ahead of me on the print copy wait list. I went and picked it up yesterday after getting my hair done and before going in to work. I managed to read a little over 1/3 of it yesterday and finished it today. It held my attention even though I'm not a huge fan of espionage. I now have one more book that I've committed to read for TIOLI this month to complete. I did pick up another book at the library that I'd hoped to get around to reading last month and even found a TIOLI category into which it will fit. I'm sure I'll be adding it after I finish The Crocodile on the Sandbank. I may even get more in before the end of the month.

>>178 lindapanzo: - You are not alone Linda! I've never read it either, and I grew up in the Chicago suburbs too

I've just picked up Clear by Nicola Barker, planning to add it to the 'one-word title written by a woman' challenge. Turns out it's dedicated to not one but three fathers - including the author's - so I think it'll have to go in that challenge instead!

I've finished How the soldier repairs the gramophone for challenge #2: book with an unusual quirky title. Especially pleased to have finished this as I started it in January for a Reading Globally themed read then got distracted. Hope to finish a couple more.

Just out...

TIOLI stats for May, 2012

For the month of May, there were at total of 493 books COMPLETED. This was a very low number. It hasn't been this low since February, 2011.

There were a total of 124 books shared (again for a very low number, not seen since February, 2012).

The good news is that 25% of all reads were shared reads which accumulated 415 YTD TIOLI points (a record high number for this early in the year. Good job in that respect!).

The most popular book of the month was The Forgotten Waltz, written by Anne Enright which was shared by 7 readers.

The challenge which was the most popular (largest number of readers: 101) and with the largest number of TIOLI points: 15) was Carmenere's challenge to read a book derived from a 75 user's name.

Coming soon...

Awards for May, 2012...

> 183. I wonder if June's numbers will be down as well. I have been so busy there have been several days where I got no reading done at all.

I have hardly read anything this month. The two books that I've have been working on the hardest were long (and I will definitely not finish Clermont for at least another month at least).

This will not be a problem as I've already read 75 books in one year, and I'll not be crazy enough to try that again. :) This year, I'm taking it slow and easy.

Glancing quickly at June's lists, I think they're longer than May's. We'll eventually see what happens. I think the stats are fun. It's interesting to see the trends. I especially love the group reads that shoot the TIOLI points way up! :)

I haven't been visiting the TIOLI pages for a while, and I've also got to return my library books; I've had them so long, they can't renew them anymore! So I've been steaming through them at a rate, but I can't remember whether I finished them in May or June.

I'll make an estimate, and start with Red Star Rising, also known as Dragonseye, by Anne McCaffrey, for Challenge 18; an author with a 4 letter first name, with 2 letters the same. (4)

For Challenge 11; "sand" or "beach" in the title, I'm entering Julie E. Czerneda's A Thousand Words for Stranger. (4.5)

For Challenge 5; a title with the make or model of a brand of automobile, Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher. (5)

For Challenge 2 (What is that about?), I picked up The Glass Dragon by Irene Radford years ago, because the title piqued my curiosity. (2.5)

I'm still looking for somewhere to put The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan (4), though.

humouress - The Magician's Guild has a tag "snorted softly" which, in my opinion, fits the "Read a Book with an Amusing Tag on LT" challenge.

Wonderful! That's more than merely amusing, closer to hilarious. Thank you.

How did you find that? I was assuming that there is a Tag feature I don't know about, or how to use - or did you trawl through every single tag? I shall certainly use it, thank you again.

So : for Challenge 13, amusing tag, The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan, with "snorted softly", thanks to calm.

No clever tricks:( I just scanned the tags - it kind of jumped out:)

I'm having a very hard time getting all the tags to load. My computers maybe are too old? Any tricks?

Citizenjoyce, did you click the "show all" button at the top right of the tag cloud? If the book is owned by a lot of folks, the number of tags can be immense. I had trouble looking at all the tags for Middlesex, but they eventually came through. And my computer isn't that old!

Karen O.

I LOVE that "snorted softly" tag--I may read the book just because of that!

Karen O.

I'm up for a reread of Dandelion Wine--thanks for the Quickie Reads recommendation! I loved Ray Bradbury when I was younger, and I'm sure that his writing will hold up for me.

I searched all though the house as I thought I had a copy of the book (I can even visualize the cover in my mind). No luck. Because of Bradbury's recent passing (I imagine), the local library copies are all in use. So my lovely husband just returned with a paperback copy of it, so I'll be in with the group read.

Karen O.

I just added 7 completed books to the wikis for those who might still be interested in shared reads.

They are:

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (TIOLI #1)
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch (TIOLI #2)
Restless by William Boyd (TIOLI #8)
The Suspect by Michael Robotham (TIOLI #8)
Lost by Michael Robotham (TIOLI #8)
The Observations by Jane Harris (TIOLI #8)
Katherine by Anya Seton (TIOLI #14)

Ooo, I'm excited to see that so many readers were able to fit a book into my May Challenge making it the most popular challenge that month. woo hoo! :0)

I decided I want to move The Observations over to challenge #13, but am having trouble deciding between two amusing tags:

"saucy wench" and "language is a hoot but story of ghosts falls a bit short"

Saucy wench appeals, I must say! :-)

I vote for "saucy wench."

ETA: And it makes me want to read the book!

I must go take another look at all the amusing tags on Challenge 13 again. "Saucy wench" is downright side-splitting!

#197 & 198 "Saucy wench" was the winner. I had a great time looking at the various entries on the wiki for challenge #13. There are plenty of good ones!

eta: here's my review for The Observations if anyone is interested: http://www.librarything.com/topic/137866#3458750

It's that time of month when I realize that I have overbooked myself. I've had to remove three from the Challenges, but I hope to still complete the two that I am currently reading before monthend.

Can't help feeling that "language is a hoot but story of ghosts falls a bit short" should have been posted as a review not just a tag!

I notice that Killed at the Whim of a Hat has been listed for Challenges 1 and 2 by Heather (souloftherose) and streamsong.

I wish I'd thought of reading The Observations but suspect it's a bit late to start now.

#202 I've moved my copy to challenge 2 - well spotted Luci!

I found The Observations to be a really quick read so I suspect you would have no problem finishing it by the end of the month... of course, that depends on how many other books you're trying to get finished this week.

I just added Calico Joe to challenge 17 if anyone else is planning to read it before the end of the month. I picked it up at the library on a whim the other day. It was the only challenge I could find where I could fit it in although it required a lot of steps to make sure it fit! I'm just glad that I knew Linda reads lots of baseball books!

Thanks for noticing that, elkiedee! I'll be done with listening to that one for sure this month.

I'm trying to get Wolf Hall done by Thursday for the RL bookclub. I also would like to get Religion Explained finished as that one has turned into a millstone around my neck--I'd love to start July without it.

I also have one quick juvenile book scheduled for challenge 20.

But DD is coming home from her year in Shanghai on Thursday so we shall see, we shall see.

I finished several books at the weekend so have only just started most of my current pile, except Ernest Hemingway's letters (which I've been reading since March!) so am only sure of finishing There but for the. I think I might have to focus on library books for a bit, especially those from the library in the building I work in - I will still keep and use my library card from there, though probably in another branch, but it probably isn't a good idea to have quite so many books out from them.

Here they are at long last, folks...

The Awards for May, 2012

The Lack of Color Award goes to Cbl_tn & DeltaQueen for their very fun challenge to read a book with the word Black or White as part of the Title or the author's name. I thought that was quite a clever (albeit colorless!) challenge idea.

The I Finally Did It Award goes to wandering_star for reading Mumu, a book she'd had for review since July, 2010. This was part of cyderry's challenge to read a book received or requested for review before 12/31/11. Please don't ask about any of *my* "waiting to be reviewed" books, but do notice that I completely feared entering that challenge myself! :)

The Let's Double It Award goes to ivyd and LizzieD for finding *two* sets of three-in-a-row numbers in the ISBN of the books they read when only one set was required. The challenge for which they did this was Chatterbox's challenge to read a book whose ISBN has the same three numbers in a row.

The Mighty Valiant and Brave Award goes to lyzard for not fearing to put up her challenge to read a book with a word in the title suggesting violent death. Eww! Creepy!!

The Glory of the Gore Award goes to AnneDC for reading A Severed Head, the book title in lyzard's challenge that, for sure, is the creepiest title of all. Blech! :D

Congrats to our May award winners!

It's fairly late in the month now so I hope all of you have some great ideas in mind for July's upcoming challenges!

Whee!! Thank you!! Although I'm surprised it isn't called something like The You're Sick! Award. :)

Hooray! and thanks. It was good to have the push from that challenge - otherwise, I would still be feeling back-of-my-mind guilty about Mumu.

Ohh, how nice a joint award to Carrie and I for posting a fun challenge. Thanks, Madeline. I recommend planning and posting joint challenges, it helps to make them unique when two minds are thinking up twists to add.

I have one more planned read to finish for this month, then I will start my stalking of the threads to look for July's TIOLI Challenges.

Yes, I have a great idea for July. So, any time you feel like posting yours, Madeline, I'm ready to follow suit...

Thanks for the award! It was a fun challenge to plan. I agree with Judy about the joint challenges. It adds a whole new dimension to the fun.

I managed to fit three of my June reads into challenges - one was even a match for one already there! I know I should list them ahead of time, but somehow I never get around to it. Maybe I'll reform in July.

The books were When the Devil Holds the Candle by Fossum, Voices by Indridason, and The Year of the Hare by Paasilinna. I just realized that all three take place in Scandinavia - Sweden, Iceland and Finland.

Challenge #13 has been an object lesson in how boring my own tagging is - and also that I share my library with a lot of other boring taggers. But my current read, At The Villa Rose, does offer the following amusing bit of randomness:

"he went for a ride in his motor-car in the afternoon"

????

>214 lyzard: My tagging is rather boring as well; it's entirely my own personal classification system, which sounds like it could be interesting, but mostly consists of stuff like "fiction," "non-fiction," "mystery," etc.

>>#215 Yes, mine tends to be along those purely practical lines, too.

>216 lyzard: On the other hand, I don't see how some of these humorous tags could actually be useful to anyone. In my mind, anyway, tags are supposed to simultaneously group and divide. Too much grouping, and you can't find anything because all your tags are assigned to hundreds of books. Too much dividing, and you have hundreds of tags, each with one or two books. In order for tags to be useful, they need to find balance.

Some of them are informative - like "giant squid" or "unapologetic smut". :)

Others are just...whuh?

I keep my own within bounds mostly because I have a profound objection to tags that constitute spoilers - like a certain murder mystery I encountered tagged with "secret passage". Thank you so much!

> 211

I have a great idea for July. So, any time you feel like posting yours, Madeline, I'm ready to follow suit...

I'll keep that in mind, Suz! :)

207>> wanderingstar - I'm, really glad that my challenge helped someone, I was hoping it would get me moving, but I only finished some of my books for review, but maybe they'll fit into something next month(?) :0)

>>#214

Curiouser and curiouser: I have now completed At The Villa Rose, and no-one goes for a ride in his motor-car in the afternoon...

...and it's a pity I probably don't have time to pick up a copy of this before the end of the month: a novel tagged "a novel".

At least my tags aren't that boring! :)

Sadly, Song of Achilles never did arrive at my library, so I'll have to remove.

So, for some strange and unknown reason, this song popped into my mind today:
go to 3:30 of this YouTube link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfU1t5YwoY
(it's also particularly lovely music, IMO)

>207 SqueakyChu: While gratefully accepting the Glory of the Gore Award I feel obliged to point out that no actual heads were severed during the course of my book. Metaphorical heads, maybe. Which can't be said for Bring Up the Bodies, come to think of it.

And...ummm...any word on that July thread *tries not to fidget*

I've just tried to add a last book to one of the challenges and have been stopped with the message:

The block was made by Ablachly. The reason given is Autoblocked because your IP address has been recently used by "Fulcars25". The reason given for Fulcars25's block is: "".

I have left a PM on Ablachy's profile but am very confused. Has LT been hacked? Or have I been hacked?

>225 Soupdragon: Just to see, I tried to edit something on the wiki and I got the exact same message. So it isn't you, Soupdragon, it must be something to do with the site.

Thanks, Anne! That is a relief but now I'm concerned for the site!

>225 Soupdragon:,226 Me too!

>225 Soupdragon:,226 Should be working now, my apologies. I was blocking a spammer and the wiki got overzealous!

#225,226,228: Me as well!

Yes, it works now. Thanks for protecting the site for us.

Thanks for sorting it and so quickly, Abby.

Madeline, not rushing you on July TIOLI (waiting most impatiently though). Had a thought about the wonderful awards you present for the previous month, and was wondering if maybe they could also be put on the Summary wiki page, there to be seen by all the future TIOLI lovers. What do you think?

Sincerely, (still waiting impatiently)
Cheli

Impatient here, too, Cheli.

I note that there about 56.5 hours left this month.

Time's a-wasting.

Just cruising through, seeing if the new thread is in the works. Not fair to make us sweat it out Madelaine, it's hot enough in most of the continent!

I have been checking in all day to see if the July TIOLI is posted. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one waiting on pins and needles.

Well, I have to go pick up Jasper at the vet's. Please don't do anything until I get home!!

OK, I'm back. You can proceed. (Jasper went on a hunger strike and a litterbox strike at the vet's...)

#238 - Well, if he didn't have such a horrible servant who left him at the vet's .....

I know, I know... But I keep telling him that until he develops opposable thumbs and can open his own dinner cans, and inject himself with insulin, he is forced to abide by my rules...

eeek I'm going away for the weekend tomorrow morning *anxiously checking for TIOLI every hour*

222: Mikebriggs, now I don't feel so bad about not finishing Song of Achilles! Maybe we can fit it into a challenge for July?

Karen O.

I know the feeling. I finally got Wolf Hall from the library today. Sigh.

I gave up and bought a copy of Wolf Hall, majkia! Let's try to read it in July, ok?

Karen O.

If you're thinking of reading Wolf Hall in July, I'll still be reading it throughout the month no doubt, as I'm only halfway through and am doing a tutorial with Suzanne (Chatterbox) which you're welcome to follow: http://www.librarything.com/topic/137481

> 233

was wondering if maybe they could also be put on the Summary wiki page

They can be put there if someone wants to volunteer to do that. (Not me!) :)

Thanks for the link Ilana! I'll lurk along.

246>> I was going to do it but can't find the summary page for 2012.

Is there one?

...and, no, I'm not going to "continue this topic in another topic" (as it so helpfully suggests below). You know why! :D

Beep beep! It's up.

:D

I finished and REVIEWED Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers for the legacy Library Challenge.

I'm hoping "calico" is considered the less common name of a cat for a challenge even if the book isn't really about an animal. I added Calico Joe to that challenge because I couldn't find another place for it to fit.

#253 - I'm reading Pickwick too, but am only about 2/3 finished, and with a busy weekend ahead I don't think it will get finished this month.

I had to remove a few planned reads for the month and added an unexpected one. I got Old Testament: The Teaching Company (Great Courses) and didn't plan to add it to this month because I thought it would take me forever to listen to all 30 lectures. Alas not. They were so interesting I just zipped through - which I'm sure is not what was intended. I should have taken the time to go over each lecture and the references therein, but, chalk it up to impatience and laziness. The author, Amy-Jill Levine does lament at the end of the series that there wasn't near enough time to cover everything she wanted. Agreed. But I feel I have a better handle on the stories and know a bit more about who was who and who did what and why. She hits hard the concept of what it means to be a "covenant people" and how covenants are different from laws. I kind of wish she'd do another series adding on to this one.
I also finished Hypatia and was mightily disappointed. Charles Kingsley does a good job showing the corruption of the catholic church in the 5th century but he completely gets Hypatia wrong. Being a christian he emphasizes belief, and I think the whole point is that Hypatia's life was devoted to mathematics and astronomy, to finding proofs for reality rather than justification for belief. He also flits over the destruction of the library at Alexandria. Pity.

>>#254 Yep, that's fine!

I've had to remove The decoy Princess from the wiki - I'll not manage to get to it this month. A pity, as I very much enjoyed finding automobiles among the titles on my TBR pile.

242) at this point I'm beginning to wonder if the library actually has a copy of Song of Achilles.

After the comment about Calico Joe and the less common form of an animal's name, I forgot that I'd already added it to the tag mirror challenge. I discovered it when I was looking for options for a quick read. I think this heat is affecting my memory!

Goodness; only one page this month!

I thought I'd already done this, but I can't find it: for Challenge 14, a one word title by a female author, Changes, the third in Mercedes Lackey's Collegium Chronicles.

I cut it very close this month with finshing my eighth June TIOLI book a short while ago. I was too optimistic about my books and had to remove one from the wiki. I'm sure no one else ever has to do that. ;-)

I finished two books today, Kangaroo Notebook by Kobo Abe and Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken. The latter is a read-aloud and technically we have two more chapters to go--but I couldn't stand the suspense and finished it after bedtime.

Another book I did not finish, but it has a bright red cover and I am optimistic that I can wedge it into July Challenge #1.

I finished my last book for the month this afternoon, Half-Blood Blues which was just wonderful. On to July.
I removed at least 5 books from the Wiki. I really got ahead of my abilities this month.

Make sure you do your "June housekeeping" on the wiki and then follow me to July's TIOLI challenges.

Catching up on reviews:
Trudeau Albums - completed June 23rd.

I started this book in May for the TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a nonfiction work set during the first 23 years of your life and didn't finish it. However, Trudeau was a lawyer before he was a Prime Minister so it fit June's Challenge #21 - Read a book featuring a legal professional

First line:
~ The story has almost assumed the quality of a hallowed myth ~

This is a coffee table picture book that I gave to my mother many years ago and inherited it back from her when she passed away. I finally got it read and really enjoyed looking through it and remembering when. More than pictures, it has essays written by prominent Canadian journalists and authors.

Full review is at: http://www.librarything.com/work/9161904/reviews

The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier - completed June 24th. Read for June's challenge # 4 - Read a book visiting a state or country you've never been to before in a book's setting (Holland)

Loved this book!
full review at: http://www.librarything.com/work/5128/reviews

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - completed June 27th - started in May for the Steinbeckathon group read and for the May TIOLI Challenge #4: Username challenge: Read a book derived from a 75er's username (seasonsoflove) and finished in June for the Challenge #8 - Read a book with a title that has equal or more letters from the second half of the alphabet than from the first half (7/13)

Steinbeck writes of sad things. Poverty, hunger, the downtrodden. Yet, his works are filled with universal truths.

Review here: http://www.librarything.com/work/8488/reviews

On June 30th I completed The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes for the for the Fun with Fuentes: Group Read of The Old Gringo AND for the TIOLI Challenge #15 - Read a Book With One of the Words from the Bridal Rhyme in the Title: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue, Sixpence, Shoe

First line:
~ Now she sits alone and remembers ~

This was an odd book.

I found the writing lyrical, poetic and, as a result of that, really enjoyed it. It read like a fairy tale a lot of the time. However it was an odd book.

I appreciated the depiction of the culture of the Mexican revolution and the cultural differences of the two Americans in the story. I was thoroughly caught up in the story of Ambrose Bierce and the fact that he was a real person who, virtually disappeared into Mexico and was never heard from again.

I did find some it confusing and so that is why I am not giving it a higher rating. Enjoyed it though! (4.0 stars)