Take It or Leave It Challenge - July 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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Here’s a challenge in response to chatterbox’s black and white challenge. This should make you CRAZY!! For July, my challenge to you is is to read a book with rainbow color covers. This is how it will work.

The colors will be as follows:
1. Red
2. Orange
3. Yellow
4. Green
5. Blue
6. Indigo (blue-violet)
7. Violet

These are the colors of the rainbow. This will be a rotating challenge so the first book will have a red cover, the second an orange cover, the third a yellow cover, and so forth. After violet, just go back to red and start over. We won’t get too precise about this. Just do your best at selecting a book that fits. You may not vary from this color progression.

If you’re not sure of the color of your book and want to put it to a vote, do that. I’ll be very lenient, though, and trust your judgement.

It might be fun to see the covers in order although I know that not everyone knows how to post them. Perhaps we can help each other do this in a separate thread.

I’ll start with a red-covered book listed as follows:

Trash (red) – Amy Yamada – SqueakyChu

You may now begin making our TIOLI world as colorful as you can.

Have fun!

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

1. The July 2012 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it. (Updated 07/03/12)

Wiki index:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a rainbow colored book - msg #1 - thread
2. Read a book with a full name for the title - msg #9
3. Read a book set in one of the countries or regions that comprise the traditional Middle East - msg #10
4. Read a book with a title that suggests sharing - msg #11
5. Read a book with a title or author name that includes the letter Q - msg #14
6. Read a book with the word “boy” or “man” (or a synonym) in the title or author's name - msg #17

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book with more than 300 pages with multiple word titles - msg #24
8. Read a book where the author's initials form a commonly used abbreviation or initialism - msg #29
9. Read a book where the pages are Deckle Edge - msg #28
10. Read a book by an author whose surname could also be a first name - msg #38
11. Read a book with a title that includes one or more colors of the olympic rings - msg #46
12. Read a Western - msg #57

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book with a planet's name in the title - msg #56
14. Read a book whose title begins with a 'B'- msg #58
15. Read a book with a picture of something that can be carried by the wind on its cover - msg #63 - contest thread
16. Read a book by an author who shares a name with you - msg #64
17. Read a book with "girl" or "woman" (or a synonym) in the title or the author's name - msg #65
18. Read a book where the author's Surname is also a Place name - msg #78

Challenge #19
19. Read a book by an author whose canon you are trying to complete - # 127

No more new challenges until August!

Actually finished one for my own challenge #7.

Gone to Ground - an ARC I've had for a while that I finally got to.
Wow, sent shivers up my spine.

Hi Chatterbox,

I found something for you - Challenge 8: Read a book where the author's initials form a commonly used abbreviation or initialism

Barbara Demick - BD - 1. Bachelor Degree - 2. Band - 3. Big Deal :)

You see you have quite some choice there :P

BD is not common for Bachelor's Degree. It is more common to use BS or BA for that. I've never seen BD for big deal; however, bd. is a quite common abbreviation for band. It's used quite a bit when cataloging German works!

I'm a nurse...so, of course I know BD syringes. BD is the abbreviation for the company name (which I had never known before today) of Becton, Dickinson and Company. BD was founded in 1897 by two salesmen who met in a railway station dining room in Texarkana, Texas, U.S. Most nurses and doctors, in the U.S. at least, are very familair with BD. :)

Squeaky Chu - yes of course :) I am such an idiot. I am a nurse as well and I "know" BD Syringes. What used to be your area of expertise ? Mine has been for the past 15 years - Level 3 NICU

I started out in 1968 as a med-surg staff nurse at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, working in medical (leukemia) and surgical oncology. In 1973, I began work as a vounteer nurse in Israel, part of the time as a staff nurse at the Soroko Hospital in Beer Sheva, and later as a visiting nurse in the city of Jerusalem.

In 1974, I started working for the Visiting Nurse Association (now known as Medstar VNA) in the Washington, DC, USA, area. I began as a clinical nurse doing home visits and later moved into telephone triage at night. Now I'm a certified medical coder (HCS-D) and do back-end clinical chart reviews prior to billing.

My title is "quality auditor". I find I'm really enjoying this kind of work. It's less stress and perfect for someone, such as myself, who is hard of hearing.

BD is also the postcode abbreviation for Bradford (a city near my hometown, Leeds), an abbreviation for boulevard, and the online abbreviations dictionary I've looked up also includes "budget deficit", the Big Dig and "bondage & discipline" - those are some of the more interesting ones. It's listed as a Bachelor of Divinity or of Drama.

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com

I'm still trying to find an orange book - perhaps I'll pick an old Penguin for my next read - I've been looking through my Kindle books online and can't find much.

The absolutely best orange-covered book to read is the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Grab it! I just finished it, and it was excellent.

At least, I think it's orange. Go take a look at the cover and tell me what you think! :)

ETA: Maybe it's orange with pink dots and yellow paisley! :D

That's a stain of HeLa cells although if that is a real stain and not false color, I don't know what it is. Anyone else know?

The cells are yellow. The pink dots are nucleii. Since this is a cancerous cell line, there are cells with several nucleii.

The background of the slide is orange. Definitely orange.

Can you tell I spend waaaaaaay too much time looking at HeLa cells? ;-)

> 12

Thanks, Janet, for the explanation about the cells on the book cover. I never even realized that. And, yes, I do see two nuclei in some cells. Fascinating!

That book was super interesting to me, not only because I work in the medical field, but also because I grew up in Baltimore and had a relative (at least, I think he was a relative) who was a paychiatrist at Crownsville State Hospital (Maryland, USA) back in the 1950's.

Here's a closer look at that book cover...



I passed my copy of this book along to colleagues in my nursing office.

I've read it (and my copy is blue, I think)

So would anybody buy that this chair could be carried by the wind?



A God in the House: Poets Talk About Faith edited by Ilya Kaminsky is a LTER book that didn't fit into any of the challenges last month, either. But unless I convince you that chairs can fly, (after all Dorothy's house did!) it shall remain TIOLI-less.

Ooh, that's a tough one...wait, is your name Ilya, by any chance? How many pages does it have? Surely there must be a Kaminsky in Iowa or Oregon or someplace...

Karen O.

Thanks for posting my book cover for Challenge 1. :-)

ETA : I've added Sharon Shinn's The Thirteenth House to Challenge 15 (things that can be carried on the wind). There is a scarf in the cover picture.

>15 streamsong: LOL, no. Chairs cannot be carried by the wind, sorry.

# 8 SqueackyChu - Very interesting career. :) After I finished my Pediatric Nursing I started out for a few years in HIV (acute and palliative care), spend some time in pediatric oncology/haematology and bone marrow transplantation - went to England in '96 and did initially a mix of general peds, orthopedics, general surgery, A&E. Found my feet than in NICU - we do surgical (diaphragm, gastroschisis, some neuro and lots more). Meddle in infection control (I am the big brother to our docs :)). Hope to find eventually a job as nursing lecturer in Germany - unfortunately nothing so far :(.

15# streamsong - I found for Ilya Kaminsky - IK - I Know - apparently common chat abbrevation :) abbreviations.com

I have got the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with that cover at home as well on my TBR pile and only thought *what an interesing cover* - now after you pointed the Hela cells out I can see it as well. Thank you. :)

Here another image, different colouring but you can see the resemblence :)



I also have removed Gordon from my challenges - I started it and found it lacking (Maybe I am not really in the mood for it right now) - I think this one has to wait for some more time.

Morphy-- :-( An' you a fan of fantasy an' all......

Thank you drachenbraut! I wouldn't have come up with that in a million years!

> 19

The following is OFF TOPIC...

spend some time in pediatric oncology/haematology and bone marrow transplantation

We have a very nice overlap there. Did you ever hear of the "Life Island"? I worked with patients in those back in the late 60's/early70's. They preceded the laminar air flow room.

Here's an interesting article. I worked on "13 East" off and on from 1968 through 1973. I don't remember Tad per se, but I do remember that we had one patient with aplastic anemia while all the rest of the patients in those sterile environments were usually leukemia patients.

So now, of course, I'll have to find the book called The Empty Room! :)

Hope to find eventually a job as nursing lecturer in Germany

Sounds excellent. I hope you find something good.

Infection control is a big deal in the United States. Medicare (the medical payor for those over 65 and disabled will no longer pay for a Vascular Catheter-Associated Infection or a
Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection someone acquires as a patient while in the hospital. They will not allow a patient to be billed for those costs either. A good step, in my opinion.

Challenge # 1 is ready for an "orange" entry!

*wink*

21 # OFF TOPIC - No, I have not heard of "life Island". I worked already with that what you call the "laminar air flow room". Very interesting article - Thank you. I think I will have a look for The Empty Room as well.
In England we do have the NHS so people don't pay for their hospital bills, but I think it is only right that people should not pay for hospital acquired infections - considering that the majority of these infections simply can be avoided by good hand hygiene. Infection control has been a big deal in England as well for the past 10 years - the cost to the NHS due to infections which could have been avoided was not to justify anymore. I have been doing infection control for almost 12 years now and I have to say - the hardest thing was to get people to change practice in regards to wearing gloves, aprons and how to perform adequate hand hygiene. So far our team was very successful and we do have extremely low HAI rates on the unit. And to be fair, even with very good infection control in place you can not avoid all infections.

*GRIN* - Orange is taken. I just moved Henrietta Lacks up my pile.

Yellow is next in line.

> 23

we do have extremely low HAI rates on the unit.

...probably not in small part due to your good work!

I just moved Henrietta Lacks up my pile.

Hooray! I guarantee you'll be fascinated by that book.

By the way, it's not too late for others to "match" Bianca's orange book. :)

Added Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness to Challenge #18 for Harkness, NY.

And I don't need no stinking orange. I need indigo for Outlander dangnabit!

25# Morphidae - Only 3 more colours in front of you. I read Outlander already a couple ot times and I really enjoyed it . Curious to hear what you think. I saw that you as well as myself are into paranormal Romances. You have read some of my favourites. :)

I just started an orange book, but the author has the same initials as a yellow book I'm reading and I can list it under the abbreviations challenge and the yellow book under this challenge.

I added a green!

And I added blue.

Though of course, now I'm doubting whether it's actually blue or indigo....

I've made a bit of a mistake in my reading plan... I'd said I'd read The Bone People, but I've just found out I've actually already read it (and quite recently, so I will not be re-reading it...), I have it in Dutch and the title is different so I thought it was a different book...
If anyone is considering reading it though, I really loved it, so I'd definitely recommend it. Not a happy book, but I found it very gripping and well-written.

Ha! Finally. Got Outlander in there.

Also, in response to LizzieD's question in the last thread: Yes, I do know there are group reads for Half of a Yellow Sun and Our Mutual Friend, that was one of the reasons I decided to read those, so I will be trying to join in on the threads for those... The only thing is that I ordered Our Mutual Friend from the library but received the wrong book, so I don't actually have that book yet, but I'll be trying to get it from the library *again*...

Thanks to all the nurses! Logavina Street will go in the abbreviation challenge... I think I had asked Calm earlier about embedded words (Demicks Lake vs Demick), but she wanted the name to be identical, so that wouldn't fly. This will make the library happy as it's more likely that the next member with a hold on this book will get it in a timely fashion... :-)

>23 drachenbraut23:, 24

I enthusiastically second Madeline's cheer for Henrietta Lacks. So interesting and so well written. I am also intrigued by the backstory on the author who apparently (if I remember correctly) learned about HeLa in a high school science class and went on to study the subject at university, then took on the task of teaching us all about the subject.

I think it's important to realize that there is another side to the story of Henrietta Lacks.

I thought the book was interesting, but it's important to remember that Skloot is a journalist and victimization makes a better story. I'd suggest checking out the one and two star reviews on Amazon if you're interested in the other side of the story.

> 36

Will do.

> 36

I'm back. I see the point of view of those who disliked the book. However, I still stand by my feeling that this book was excellent reading.

I saw the book as a portrait of medical care in 1950's Baltimore. It left me wondering about medical ethics, patient privacy, and informed consent. I usually value books that are resonant with me in a way that makes me think more deeply about a topic after finishing a book.

I also saw this as historical nonfiction. It was about the history of the HeLa cells. I found the story fascinating because I never even thought about the cells that are now being used worldwide in medical research. Learning about their origin was amazing!

I see where people might be offended that a liberal young white reporter is painting a portrait of a poor black family in a way that suggests they were not treated properly and should now be entitled to financial compensation as a result of the current use of HeLa cells. I never took the story in that context at all.

Any thought about this topic by others?

Thanks, streamsong, for pointing out this opposing viewpoint. It's also worth thinking about.

25: Morphy, I have Shadow of Night in challenge #1 (violet). Congrats on finding the place name for Harkness, though. I could join you in challenge 18 if you don't want to move.

Karen O.

p.s. I don't think we'll be nominating Shadow of Night for "quickie reads" day--it's a chunkster!

>39 klobrien2: I honestly didn't think of the cover as mainly one color though so maybe it might be better to have it in 18?

>36 streamsong:, 38
Well said Madeline . . .
There are always two sides to a story. But I stand by my recommendation of this book for anyone interested in science. Their family story was, for me, interesting, but not the reason the book is one of my favorites.

40> but if you take away the violet, will the rainbow disintegrate?

> 40, 42

The only way you can move a violet-covered book out of the rainbow challenge (if it is already followed by a red-covered book) is to place another book there in its place. Otherwise, it cannot be moved as the rainbow will, indeed, disintegrate.

In addition, one person cannot have the same book in more than one challenge.

Just to know for fun...I did see a rainbow yesterday for real!

We had a rainbow in East Tennessee yesterday too. Earlier in the week, there was a double rainbow.

I'm doing well with this month's TIOLI. I'm getting ready to start the last book I have at home for it. I'm hoping Wolf Hall will still be "in" when I get to the public library later this week. It says it is tonight! The only other book on it is my May ER book that still has not arrived. I may be removing it and reporting it as not having arrived before the end of the month unless the publisher sends it before then. I've got a couple of books that I checked out of the college library that will be fun non-mystery reads for me. I know that I'll be able to include both of these in the "complete the canon" although if one will fit in another category, I may put it there instead since I'm further behind on that author's canon.

For those interested in shared reads, I'm adding The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sís to challenge #8 (p.s.)

Just added another book to challenge 8

Shaun Tan - Tales from Outer Suburbia - ST apparently common for Stop or Street according to abbreviations.com.

Here a little update on my reading :)

Challenge 1# The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
Challenge 3# The Cry of the Dove - Fadia Faqir - Jordan
Challenge 5# The House of the Mosque - Kader Abdolah - The "q" in the mosque
Challenge 6# Man Eating Bugs - Peter Menzel
Challenge 7# Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs - 352 pages
Challenge 7# The Rock and the River - Kekla Magoon
Challenge 7# The Windup Girl - Paolo Baculgalupi
Challenge 8# Tales from Outer Suburbia - Shaun Tan ST/Stop or Street
Challenge 10# When She Woke - Hillary Jordan
Challenge 11# Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Group Read July
Challenge 15# The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Challenge 15# The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman

So, after waiting a month plus for Song of Achilles I finally got it. I didn't open it and start reading, which I guess I should have done as I had to return it after a week. I would have renewed it but there was a hold on it. I did not realize I only had a week with it.

Is it time for recommendations for good short reads? I'd recommend Catherine Aird's A Most Contagious Game. A stand alone non-series book. A mystery about a business man who has a heart attack and has to move to the quiet life in the British countryside (I would have said English, but, while I believe it occurs in England, all I know is that it occurred in the UK). That's where the book starts.

Quite interesting, to me at least. I had started it late in the evening just to see if it would be the next book I would read. Several hours and 159 pages later, the book was done.

Something similar happened to me. I tried to renew a library book, but someone else had reserved it. The librarian was very sweet about it, but regretted she couldn't do anything. Actually, I think she was more upset than I was, because a) it was actually a re-read of a book I read about two decades ago (one of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series); b) if I had reserved a book, I'd be on tenterhooks until I had it in my hands and c) I'm sure I'll come across it again, sometime. Oh, and d) I've maxed out 3 library cards at the moment, anyway, and I suspect that between the kids and myself, I have the lion's share of borrowings. And e) I hadn't started reading it, so there's no interruption to niggle over.

I hadn't thought about it before, but I currently have three library cards on me. All for public libraries. Though one is from a state I haven't lived in for two years.

I like how living in New York gives me access to so many different library systems. One near my work, NYPL (Bronx, Manhattan, & State Island), and one near home, Brooklyn Public Library. And do, actually, have different "things" the others don't (as in carrying a specific book or dvds).

I've never looked at the Queens library to see if it has any of the books the other two lack. And yes, some of the books I want to read do fall through the cracks. Like the latest Michael Lewin book (Family Way). Not in NYPL or Brooklyn system, and not at any of the nearest bookstores. (And I now see Family Way is not in the Queens system either).

I got off track, I just meant to note that I do have access to the Queens library system as well but never got a card as I'm never in Queens.

43: Unless I come up with a violet-colored bookcover (and they are kind of rare), I'll leave my read of Shadow of Night where it is, I think. It is a big book, and I want to savor the read, so I may not complete it this month, anyway.

By the way, the cover is just GORGeous, the violet is kind of a net fabric over the sky of blue/indigo. I find myself looking at the cover, finding new details all the time. Oh, and the *inside* covers are an unmistakeable, lusciious violet.



Karen O.

I finished and REVIEWED Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk for thew Middle Eastern Challenge. Now I'm reading When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant for the same challenge.

I've finished Ransomwood and book #3 of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series which was a shared read. Making good progress on Riddley Walker and have two more books listed to get to.

Finished Bitterblue - think it's my favorite Cashore! Will put it in Challenge #14 (title begins with B)

>50 humouress: humouress--that really made me laugh! Only on LT are people worrying about maxed out library cards instead of maxed out credit cards!

It's easy for me to max out my library card now. They dropped the max number of books from 100 to 30!

wait, you're saying the max number of books you can borrow is 30??? And it used to be 100????? Wow... I'm actually at university, and the university library is pretty good, it allows you to borrow 27 books at a time, but the 'general' library only allows 7! I envy your library....

7?!? I sometimes read that many in a week!

Yes, 7, I am very serious... So, yeah, just means you have to go there more often. I guess it might be a good thing that they make us bibliomaniacs go outside and walk around for a bit instead of sitting inside all day ;)

I've just moved Andrea Camilleri's The Age of Doubt from challenge #19 to challenge #8 as I noticed that raidergirl3 had it listed there.

>57 Morphidae:-60 : Well there you go, you see. The maximum we can take out is just 10 items on each card.

I had to look to see what the limit was at our public library.

It is:

Adult Cards: 20 books; 8 magazines; 8 Audio/CD books; 3 Movies or DVDs

Juvenile Cards: 10 books; 4 magazines; 4 Audio/CD books

I may have to start checking out more at a time, but I purposefully check out in smaller batches so that I get them back so other people can read them (theoretically). If I checked out the maximum, I'd be tempted to renew all of them multiple times so that I made it through the entire batch before returning them.

We don't have a limit on books for students or faculty at the college library although there are limits on media items for students

Ah, see, there's benefits to having both New York Public Library & Brooklyn Public library cards.

50 items can be checked out at a time through NYPL. Which includes max of 10 DVDs.
you can have only 15 items on hold.

Brooklyn: up to 99 items at a time. Up to ten DVDs, up to ten CDs. Max renewal of 99 times. I was curious about that. So, baring holds, complications, could have a book out 297 weeks. Which is 5.7 years. 5.7 years? There is a limit of ten holds. Which I had to dig to find.

I don't have a Queens card, and I see nothing about maxs on the Queens Public library website. Mmphs.

Right. So, I can have 149 library items out at a time, and 25 items on hold.

Maybe libraries should let you up your limit like credit card companies do. :-)

I can have uo to 30 holds. This is harder to deal with than the 30 max on check outs since I have about 20 holds on up-and-coming books by favorite authors. If I don't put an early hold on them, it could be six months or more before I get the book after it comes out as there will be 100s of people in line ahead of me.

Our local public library doesn't put the books in the catalog until they've been received as far as I can tell. I've never seen an "on order" status with an option to put a hold on it. Of course, their system leaves much to be desired so it could be the fault of the system rather than what they'd like to offer. I wish they'd upgrade to something that doesn't use pop-up windows. To see the book summary/contents and status, a pop-up window is activated. Aggravating to say the least!

Erm, Mike, must confess that some of my Brooklyn Library books have been out for more than a year, now. And yeah, I have 91 items out. Although two will go back tomorrow!! Thank goodness there are limits on holds, and I've been able to stay out of the NYPL branches. The problem with Manhattan is that I have to physically schlep the books to and fro. Oddly enough, that never seems to be a problem when I'm borrowing. Faced with having to return them, however, the problems arise... I never feel motivated to get on the subway. Whereas my branch in Brooklyn is literally across the street.

When we lived in Manhattan, I had one branch library in the next block, and the main branch at Bryant Park around the corner from my husband's office. There were so many books there that I'd not seen before, I don't think I had to look for any other branches; and it's easy to walk around Manhattan.

Happy memories :)

@68 I very much recognize the fact that getting books from the library is much easier than bringing them back :) A very odd phenomenon ;)
And I actually don't think there's a limit to the number of books you can put on hold at our library, but if there's a limit on the number of books you can borrow it really doesn't make sense to put too many on hold if you can't actually borrow all of them when they arrive...

We have a great public library. We can have:

50 books
10 DVDs
10 CDs

I usually have 15-20 books checked out at any given time.

I feel really badly for those using the university library that only allows 27 checkouts at once. That could easily be one research paper! Thankfully our university library has no limit for faculty. I've had 200+ checked out at once :D I envy my grad school library's faculty policy, in which there were also no due dates. They just had to return whatever got recalled.

Wow, you've had them out a year? The max we can have books out is 12 weeks. The borrowing time is 3 weeks and you can renew up to 3 times unless someone else requests the book.

*Grin* I am Impressed as well. We can take 8 books out - audiobooks are counted as well. The lending time is 4 weeks and you can renew once.

I've wondered about everyone who seemed to have unlimited renewals. Most around here only allow a couple of renewals. We technically have a renewal limit at our college library, but in reality, we usually override it unless there is a hold on an item.

Most of the time, the due dates for faculty books are just so that we can make sure the book isn't lost and so that faculty members don't forget that the book belongs to the library instead of their personal library. We had a real issue with that problem at one university where I worked. There was one faculty member whose grad assistant would always have to go through the piles in his office so that she could make sure all the books were actually there. Those of us who saw his office didn't envy her the task.

Wow, I'm jealous of all'you'all! Our checkout is two weeks, with a max of two renewals. I never max out my checkouts; since the reading time is so short, I check out fewer at a time. It's a hassle, though, since my library is 15 miles away.

My library allows a max of 50 books out at a time, and two renewals of three weeks each. Practically speaking, though, you can renew books as many times as you want as long as no one has placed a hold, since library staff will check a book in and then out again if you ask.

My library is 50 max at a time, but the large print books will go for 6 weeks while regular print is 3 weeks - 2 renewals only. I always try to get large print books because I can keep them longer.

e-books from the library are only 2 weeks with no renewals and only 4 at any one time. :-(

My library allows 50 items at a time, with no more than 15 DVDs at a time. The checkout period is three weeks, except for feature films in the first 90 days after release--those can be checked out for only one week with no renewals. An item can be renewed up to 15 times, provided no one places a hold on it. If there's a limit on the number of holds one can have at once, I've never been able to find it.

I think the thing I miss most about grad school is being able to check out books from the university library for four months, even novels that didn't have a thing to do with my research. They didn't have most of the latest fiction, but that library had an excellent selection of classics and mystery novels. (They were all older editions, so I guess the collection development staff of the 1960s must have really been into mysteries.)

15 at a time, for two weeks, only two renewals. Small town library, in small county.

30 books at a time, for four weeks with up to eight renewals, as long as there are no holds. Two week loan if there's a waiting list.

Read and reviewed The Perfect Princess by Irene Radford. Not sure if it'd be allowed for Challenge 17 (synonym for 'woman'), so I think I'll go with Challenge 8 (authors initials) : IR = Inland Revenue.

'Scuse the interruption.

Can I ask a practical question? I was just wondering about the rainbow challenge, because we've been making a rainbow, which is nice, but in the end books that haven't been read will be removed, right? But that will destroy the rainbow! So, does that mean that in the end our rainbow won't be a rainbow at all? That's pretty sad...

> 82

The unread books will be removed from the wiki after the ened of the month, but the rainbow will remain forever on the separate thread! :)

I finished and REVIEWED Linda Grant's 2000 Orange Prize winner When I Lived in Modern Times, a riveting look at the struggle for Israel to become a country in 1946. That was for the Middle East Challenge.

Now I'm reading Juliet in August for the Western Challenge.

It's Quickie Reads Day!

Suggest a book that has been COMPLETED by at least one person this month, is a good read, and can be completed quickly (i.e. before the month ends). Let's up out TIOLI points by July 31st!

TIOLI STATS FOR JUNE, 2012

For the month of June, a total of 24 challenges were presented. That's the highest number of challenges we've had in the same month since June, 2011.

There were a total of 519 books read with 111 of these being shared reads, giving us a rate of 21% shared reads (somewhat on the lower side, but doesn't seem dreadful yet). However, we only amassed 60 TIOLI points, the lowest amount accumulated in one month since June, 2010. :(

We've accumulated 475 YTD TIOLI points, more than in June of 2010, but less than in June of 2011.

Our most popular book of the month was Bringing up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel, a book which was shared by 9 challengers.

The most popular challenge (63 books read) and the challenge with most TIOLI points (14 points) was mine (that of SqueakyChu) - the challenge to read a book whose third title word has exactly three letters.

Coming soon...the awards for June, 2010.

TIOLI AWARDS for June, 2012

Here they are, folks...

The To the Nth Degree Award goes to yoyogod for reading the book All You Can Eat by Shane Mckenzie for the challenge to read a book whose third title word has exactly three letters. Not only does the third word of this title have three letters, but *all* the four words of this title have three letters. To be fair, Zoe also did try for this award, but she didn't quite make it because her book title only had three words in it. ;)

The Great Minds Think Alike Award goes to Chatterbox for the challenge to read a book with a wacky, whimsical, goofy title that makes you wonder what it's about. I had a challenge like that in mind, but she simply beat me to it. I need to move faster next time!

The Food Porn Award goes to mbellerose for reading the book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil simply because I though that was the funniest title of all those in Chatterbox's challenge noted above.

The He's My Car Man Award goes to pbadeer for the very fun thread with pictures associating a car make or model with the title of a book. That was way cool! In what other forum would I be able to post a picture of my old Dodge Dart without being *completely* laughed off the internet? The thread belongs to his challenge to read a book with a title which contains a brand of automobile .

The We Need a Shorter Alphabet Award goes to casvelyn for the challenge title of: "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". Huh? ;)

The Let's Eat Asian Award goes to christiguc for reading Photo Finish which included the word "pho" in the challenge to read a book with a food or beverage beginning with the letter "P" in the title or author's name. Christiguc decided to go for Asian while everyone else was eating peaches, pears, or pie!

The Laugh-a-Tag Award goes to lahochstetler for the hilarious results of her challenge to read a book with an Amusing Tag on LT. I honestly could not pick my favorite amusing tag, so I'll send you back to her June TIOLI challenge #13 to read all of the great tags associated with books read for that challenge.

The Love a Lawyer Award goes to elkiedee for her challenge to read a book featuring a legal professional simply because my daughter made it through her first year of law school that same month! :D

Congrats to all our June, 2012, award winners!

Thanks for the link back to the Amusing Tag challenge. It made me laugh.

> 88

They are truly hilarious. I feel as if I should go back and also give awards to those individuals who assigned the tags to those books! :)

Great list of awards once again.
Ok, one book I won't be suggesting as a quick read is the wonderful Riddley Walker which I managed to complete last night for challenge #2. Instead I'll suggest What we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank by Nathan Englander which I read for the Deckle edge challenge. I simply flew through this short story collection.

I love the awards. I was so close! :D

Yay! I got an award! That amusing tag challenge is one I might have to revisit in the future.

Added a bunch of books by David Eddings to #8 (DE/Delaware)

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness to #18 (Harkness, NY) for a shared read
Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn to #15 (carried by wind - dragons)
Lover Reborn by J. R. Ward to #19 (author canon)
A Prayer for Owen Mean by John Irving to #10 (Irving first name)
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore to #14 (starts with B) for a shared read

Well, *I* like the alphabet just the way it is, thank you very much!

(And thank you for the award!)

I've finished The Phoenix Unchained, the first of the 'The Enduring Flame' series. I will check for Deckle edges, for Challenge 9, or else it will go in Challenge 10 - author's surname could be a first name.

It's quite a light book, and easy enough to zip through, though it comes in at around 400 pages, if any fantasists (i.e. people who read fantasy books, before anyone gets any odd ideas) are looking for a quick read.

ETA : No Deckle edges; Challenge 10 it is.

I finished and REVIEWED Dianne Warren's novel Juliet in August which was an ER choice a couple of months ago. Terrific read! That was for the Read a Western Challenge.

Now I'm reading Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom by Blaine Harden for the Challenge to read a book with "man" in the title.

I just finished Our Mutual Friend for challenge 4, and Faithful Place for challenge 19. I'm now working on Palace Walk for the Middle East challenge and The Cat's Table for the deckle edge challenge. And looking for an audiobook that begins with B (I have three candidates).

I did love that amusing tags challenge! It's got me looking for amusing tags whenever I pull up a book's work page.

Trying to add to the wiki for Challenge 10 using my iPhone while my son has his swimming class. Too fiddly; will tidy it up once I get home / tonight.

(ETA : re-fiddled)

Chatterbox, I inserted The Phoenix Unchained between two of yours; you might want to check in case I've mucked it up.

Thank you for drachenbraut for putting The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on the rainbow challenge! I'd been hoping for orange to come back around so I could add it - I read it for a library book discussion tonight. It made for a really fabulous discussion!

# Hi bell7 - I hop to start it at the weekend, was working so much so my reading slowed down a bit, but great to hear that you thought it was great as well. *wink*

Here my updated list.

Challenge 1# The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
Challenge 3# The Cry of the Dove - Fadia Faqir - Jordan
Challenge 5# The House of the Mosque - Kader Abdolah - The "q" in the mosque
Challenge 6# Man Eating Bugs - Peter Menzel
Challenge 7# Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs - 352 pages
Challenge 7# The Rock and the River - Kekla Magoon
Challenge 7# The Windup Girl - Paolo Baculgalupi
Challenge 8# Tales from Outer Suburbia - Shaun Tan ST/Stop or Street
Challenge 10# When She Woke - Hillary Jordan
Challenge 11# Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Group Read July
Challenge 15# The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Challenge 15# The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman
Challenge 18# The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

Finally! My first TIOLI for the month of August is finished. Now to finish up number 2. Hopefully, I'll get that done before the September TIOLI's come out.

I don't get it. It's still July?

Ack! It is? Still July? Then I guess I'm doing alright.

Lol, I've had the same problem, thinking it was August already.

Lol! I was a bit concerned when reading your post, so I'm glad I was right in thinking it's July :)

I've added I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith to challenge #7.

Don't forget to add your book for Challenge #15 Carried by the Wind Cover Contest to http://www.librarything.com/topic/139092#.

GAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

I hate having to remove books from the Wiki---I know, I know - "leave it" - but I try to be realistic with my listings, so this hardly ever happens---and this one is doubly frustrating for being so inexplicable!

I listed Five Red Herrings for the Olympic colours challenge, and then spent a fortnight haunting my academic library where the three copies held were supposed to be "on shelf" but never were. So then I placed an interlibrary loan, and even though a library only a short distance from mine, which usually responds within two or three days, holds a copy, it hasn't turned up two weeks later. Who would have dreamed that a Dorothy L. Sayers novel would be so hard to get hold of!?

Panic #2 is over my book for Madeline's rainbow challenge: I listed the copy of About The Murder Of Geraldine Foster that was (allegedly) shipped to me about six weeks ago, and that hasn't turned up either! So I started searching my books for a substitute---and discovered that I own one work of fiction with a predominantly yellow cover. (And three lengthy reference tomes - no thanks!)

So I am now compulsorily reading a collection of short stories by Theodore Sturgeon, Visions And Venturers. :)

I'll be removing some as well, probably... The month is simply too short. I started off with an ambitious list, so I was pretty sure beforehand I wouldn't make it, but yeah, that's the 'leave it' part, right? Better luck next month!

Maybe we could try to rearrange the rainbow so as to replace unread books with books of the same colour that have been read? I don't know if this will work out at all, but we could give it a try...

I wonder if anyone has the same problem I have - by this time in the month I've read everything except the book that's been longest on the TBR pile - that always seems to be the one left unread!

After 110 messages, I just realized that this thread has the wrong page number. :(

*sigh*

...and as penance, you will set up next month's thread, under the RIGHT title.

Now.

While I'm sitting at my computer.

*pats Squeakychu on the back* That's all right, I'm sure you'll do better next time :)

and Athabasca, I think we all know what you mean, some books just never seem to leave the tbr-pile...

Posted on the wrong page. Life is so confusing.
I just finished the powerful Indian Killer which I thought was going to be my last Western for the month, but I was looking through a pile of books and found Ghost Warrior and thought I'd give it a try. It's a look at Apache life and one of the few books I have about Native American Women. At 496 pages I'm not sure I'll finish it this month, but I can't resist the call.

#112 -- ROTFL!

I always have to juggle between posting more books that I know I'll read, on the one hand -- or not posting something that someone else might want to read and thus maybe not having a shared read, or forgetting what I have available that I want to read that fits into the category! So I always compensate on the over-posting side. And of course, I always misplace some books during the month.

> 112, 113

I never did like this automatic continuation thingy anyway. I find it annoying. I'd like to go back to the thread police. :)

Madeline, the thread continuation thingy is there to make our lives SIMPLER, and I for one find it's a godsend and a blessing. It's really not at all complicated once you OPEN YOUR MIND to it. Honest! :-)

I did open my mind to it; I just didn't open my heart to it. :)

I guess it would be okay if I could have corrected the title of the page when I saw it was wrong. I dislike that the person who starts a thread cannot edit his or her own title (after a few minutes, that is). I find that annoying as well.

Oh, well. I'll live with it.

I have removed most of my planned reads from the wiki and have left only the ones that I actually might finish. Unfortunately many of the books I removed were ones that created a 'shared read' and we will lose the points from those reads. Sorry everyone, it has just been a very, very busy month with all that life brings and not as much time for reading.

It would be awfully nice if that August thread shows up before I leave for vacation tomorrow--otherwise I might just pack the wrong books!
Just saying...

Anne I was thinking that the end of the month is rapidly approaching and that I needed to figure out my books for August, but where is Madeline?

LOL, my second thought of the morning was that it's nearly August. (My first is classified.)

> 121

where is Madeline?

I can't find her anywhere, either!

>123 SqueakyChu: Well, if that's the case, we have a real problem!

I've just finished The Song of Achilles, another Orange July read, and part of the shared read on challenge #8. I have two more books listed but still unread which I'll probably remove as I now have a backlog of library books that need to be read and released back to the library.

With all the heat and humidity (hottest month in recorded Chicago history), July has seemed endless. I am ready to move on to August.

I guess it would be okay if I could have corrected the title of the page when I saw it was wrong.

AHA! Well that's a different problem altogether. The good news is it's easily corrected with repeated use!

I finished and REVIEWED Blaine Harden's searing biography Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West for the challenge to Read a Book with MAN in the title.

I saw it in the list already, and it sound like a really interesting book Brenzi, I'm gonna put it on my list to be read some time...

glitter-graphics.com

Anyone else just waiting around?

Do you think a shark got Madeline? Oh, oh, now I'm worried.

OK 'fess up - who fed Madeline to the shark?

*hums Jaws theme*

Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh DUH DUH

LOL at you guys...good thing I'm in the breakroom, drinking a lovely cup of coffee and eating a peanut butter crispy bar (and no guilt because I was working hard).

Didn't Madeline have trouble with her online situation early this year? I hope everything's copacetic!

Karen O.

She's just torturing us, that's all...

status quo normal!

I live close to Madeline, probably within 10 miles, there aren't any power problems that I've heard of. She's just trying to drive us crazy!

Enough, Madeline, I am sufficiently crazy!

I think Madeline is out actually having a life while I hover around my desk checking in every 10 minutes.

I'm going out for the evening! I know I am going to miss it!!

136: Cheli, why don't you pay Madeline a visit in person to see if she needs any help setting up the August TIOLI thread?

I'm kind of glad it hasn't been posted as it gave me a chance to finish reading Truman for Challenge No. 6 this afternoon. I've been working on those 992 pages all month! One more book to finish for July.

If there's still no sighting of Madeline by late tonight, I'll try to call and check on her tomorrow. But y'all know how she loves to make us wait. UGH!

Well, I AM guessing she might also have an actual life outside of librarything, so she might just be busy... Then again, I wouldn't want to exclude the possibility of sharks... or alligators...

> 134

Heh! Karen, I'm drinking a lovely cup of coffee, too, at this time!

I have no peanut butter crispy bars here, but I do have a blackberry cobbler in the oven now. I picked the blackberries out on a farm this afternoon while everyone else here was fishing! :)

I'm eating a Greek salad... I'm trying to loose some weight, so no peanut butter bars or blackberry cobbler's for me (sadly, peanut butter bars don't exist here :( ), but cucumber is supposed to not have too many calories...

A Madeline sighting, a Madeline sighting! Can that mean that maybe the August challenge is underway? Please, oh, please?

Or she might be too busy baking and eating ;)

...or drinking coffee!

I'm really hoping that the new thread doesn't appear overnight like the last two months. I need my sleep!

Why or why, Madeline, do you tantalize us with blackberry cobbler that I know you won't share? Ice cream on top?

I'll share it! But you have to get here before it's all gone. Only six more servings left!

I'll make the ice cream! Vanilla or peach?

Vanilla please, unless it's fresh peach. Hm, a couple of thousand miles and 6 servings left. It's possible I might not make it.

It is fresh peach.

I knew it. My family's favorite ice cream. You're such a temptress!

I'm hoping it will be up when I get to the library and can connect via wireless on my laptop later today. I may have to take dad to the doctor in a bit to have a fluid pocket drained from his elbow so I'm not sure when I'll get to the library. Dad's first cousin died yesterday, and the funeral will probably be tomorrow morning. That means I have a lot to get done today.

Sorry to hear about the loss in your family, thornton37814.

Ok, I've made up my final list for July:
#1: The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
#2: Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
#4: Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens
#5: De Parfumeur - Frédérique Hébrard
#6: Man Made God - Luc Ferry
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
#8: The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
Hallucinating Foucault - Patricia Duncker
#10: The Black Tower - PD James
#11: Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Adichie
#12: 1000 White Women - Jim Fergus
#14: Het Baby Brein (The Baby Brain) - Michiel v Elk & Sabine Hunnius
#16: Women of Early Christianity - Alfred Brittain - still reading, but will finish
#18: Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bardbury

I didn't succeed in reading a book for every challenge, but will try again for August.
I would hereby like to take the opportunity to thank Citizenjoyce for listing 1000 White Women by Jim Fergus; I had never heard of it before spotting it on TIOLI, and I really loved it, a very impressive novel, so I'm glad I found it :)

Due to some work constraints, I have been unable to finish all of my books for July. I am also going to give it a go again at the August TIOLI.

*AAArgh* I just noticed that two of my books I have not completed were shared reads *huff and puff*

Britt84, I'm glad you liked 1000 White Women. We read it for my RL book club this month. It didn't get a very good response from most of us due to the stereotypical characters, but I loved the descriptions of life with the Plains Indians. Now I'm reading Ghost Warrior which has much better characterization and more detailed views of the lives of Apaches.

I just finished my last July read, bringing my July total to 13 TIOLI reads. I'm looking forward to getting home from my Mom's tomorrow and finalizing my August TIOLI's.

@158 Well, yeah, some of the characters were quite stereotypical (like, really, why do catholic priests ALWAYS have to be child-molesters :/). But I did love the story in itself, the idea of the story, the way the women and Cheyennes do connect in the end, and the critical view on what happened to the Cheyennes, how they were treated by the American government... And it made me cry at the end...
I'll look into Ghost Warrior though, it might be interesting to read that too and see how it relates to 1000 White Women, thanks for the tip!

Since I have 240 more pages of Ghost Warrior to read, I'm removing it and putting it into the August challenges. Maybe you can join me there, Britt. I finished my last book of the month, The Wednesday Sisters. Again, characterization is not Clayton's strong suit, but I very much like the way she uses the lives of friends to explore historical US time frames. Her books are kind of like Feminism for Dummies, easy, entertaining and informative.

I didn't count how many I read, but it was far more than I expected to read. I only had to delete one book -- and that was only because it is an overdue ER book that still hasn't arrived. I will probably finish one more book tonight. If I can figure out a place it will fit the TIOLI, and I can get it added with my iPhone, I will include it in the TIOLI. If not, I'll just leave it off the TIOLI.

Housekeeping time! If you haven't done so yet, please remove from the wiki any book that will not be COMPLETED by 12 midnight tonight.

You may also remove books from the rainbow challenge (challenge #1) wiki at this time.

Then come join us on August's TIOLI challenge thread.

Eek! I'm away from home and finding it difficult to edit the wiki from my iPhone. I need to remove Broken Harbour from the B challenge, and Blood Safari from the first challenge.
I think i left Age of Doubt as reading, but i did finish it
Can someone remove them for me? Thanks

Willl do.

Don't worry if you *can't* remove them. I'll remove them later anyway. Only remove them if you can do so easily as it makes it easier for me to do the tallies later.

Ok. Thanks!

I'm glad to discover that I'm not the only one who finds editing the wiki via iPhone challenging. I added a few last night, but I will hold off on adding more until I get home Saturday.

Two of my rainbow picks were simply unreadable, sadly. A third is lost somewhere in my home. And I'm still reading the fourth...

But I did still manage the rare feat of reading a book for every challenge, in spite of the fact that I didn't think I would manage to read a Western!!

> 168

Not to feel bad, Suz, but two of my rainbow reads were also unreadable...and I gave each a good try. The third rainbow book I haven't yet finished...and it was my own challenge! Oh, well... :)

I had a rather slow reading month. Confession time: I was distracted by another gardening group here on LT where qebo and I were out identifying butterflies! :D

>168 Chatterbox: Good job Suz reading one of each! I tried, but could not get to a Western this month (I probably should have picked something a little less grim than Blood Meridian).

Completed Dandelion Wine yesterday but couldn't quite complete Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Oh well, maybe I can find a place to fit it into an August challenge.

Ellen - you can add it to that challenge about an embedded name in the title - Eve is embedded in Forevers

Thanks, Mamie!

Squeakychu -
I added to challenge 8 (author's initials) the book The Age of Doubt which I finished, but was unable to update. It added another shared read, which I updated at the bottom.
thanks! raidergirl3

Got it. Thanks!