Randomcat selection for June 2016--"I do, I do!"

June topic is titled "I do! I do!". Since June is a traditional month for weddings, readers this month can focus on any or all aspects of weddings or marriage. The chosen books can also have wedding words in the title. This topic is near and dear to my heart, since I just got remarried on May 6. Here comes the bride!

Suggested works:

The Stone Wife (Peter Diamond Book 14)--Peter Lovesey
The Wedding Dress--Rachel Hauck
Bride of Pendorric--Victoria Holt
Miss Julia Throws a Wedding--Ann B. Ross
Shopaholic Ties the Knot--Sophia Kinsella

hmmm. I'll have to study planet TBR to find something for this one. Although maybe I have something with 'Blue' 'Old' or 'New' in the title.

>1 LadyoftheLodge: - Congratulations on your recent wedding! Now, I'm off to look at my TBR pile to see what will work.

ETA: Okay, I'm back and think I've found something that will work - What Alice Forgot which is about a 29 year old woman who is newly married and loves her husband. She comes to on the gym floor and discovers that she is now 39 and in the middle of a divorce and with no memory of the last 10 years.

Thank you! I think there are lots of options with this one, anything related to weddings or marriage.

Those sound good too--lots of room to stretch the topic.

Congratulations, LadyoftheLodge :)

I've got a few choices, all totally different, so it may come down to what most catches my eye when June arrives. My options are: Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage by Robert Morgan, Scenes from a Marriage by Ingmar Bergman, The Careless Husband by Colley Cibber, and The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. One play, one film script, and two novels...

I took a look at books that would suit this challenge and found:

The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie, which centers around the engagement of two very different people. There's also a squirrel. I really enjoyed this book, and it's shortlisted for this year's Baileys prize.

Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest by Jen Doll, a humorous memoir of the many weddings she's attended.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith, a cozy mystery set in Botswana.

Wedding Night: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella and The Jane Austen marriage manual by Kim Izzo are chick-lit.

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories by Alice Munro; if you haven't read anything by Munro, this is a good place to start.

The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler, a novel set in Montreal's Jewish community after WWII.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood; my favorite Atwood.

The Marriage Plot: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

My book club is reading The California Wife next month so that should work.

I found The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella in my TBR so that's what I'll be reading.

I found a couple of possibilities in my TBRs: Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson and The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer.

>1 LadyoftheLodge: Congratulations! What a lovely theme.

I'll be reading McGarr and the Politician's Wife, by Bartholomew Gill. I also have The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife, by Erle Stanley Gardner, so I'll keep it out on the pile as well. :)

>1 LadyoftheLodge: Congratulations!

I think I will be reading The Captive Wife by Fiona Kidman and War Brides by Helen Bryan for this theme next month.

I will be reading The Bride Wore Black, and I actually remembered to add it to the wiki! I'll have to see what else I have or what I might be interested in reading.

Thanks for all the nice thoughts and congratulations. I was widowed last year, and my new sweetheart came to me at the darkest time of my life, totally unexpected. What a blessing!

A few more ideas:
Ready to Wed by Melody Carlson
To Love and Cherish by Leslie Gould
Killing Bridezilla by Laura Levine
Wedding Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
Fatally Flaky by Dianne Mott Davidson
The Marriage of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King
Farewell, Miss Zukas by Jo Dereske

Lots of excellent ideas! I like the Georgette Heyer selection and the Miss Buncle--time to re-read them.

I would like to add some book covers illustrations, but not sure how to do it. . .

I'm thinking of reading The Yellow Wallpaper which I found for free (!!) on http://www.gutenberg.org/ I've never used this site before and it looks like a great resource to read classic books.

I have several non-fiction titles that would fit. I'm assuming we can use those as well.

>1 LadyoftheLodge: Congratulations! :)

I'm thinking about reading Anne Tyler's Ladder of Years, Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret or Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride.

I looked up my options today and a couple that came up were:
Marriage: A History / Stephanie Coontz
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married / Marian Keyes

I am reading Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives for this CAT.

The Husband's Secret is what pops into my head straight away, it's on my wishlist. I will go and check out what is on my actual shelves first though.

>1 LadyoftheLodge:, Congratulations!!

ETA: I have in the Land of the Long White Cloud by Sarah Lark on my shelf, the story of two young women who travel to NZ for marriage. Another one on my wishlist that I am pretty keen to read is The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes.

Hm, I think I'll go with The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife as my selection instead. I need the extra push of the RandomCAT to get it read in a timely fashion.

Finished Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives a bit early but this book got a hold of me and would not let me put it down!

I was afraid that I wouldn't have anything for this challenge, but woohoo! -- the library came through with Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks. He is one of my favorite authors, so I'm looking forward to this.

I just picked up The Girl Who Married an Eagle from the library, maybe this one will be my choice. I also bought a copy of The Ship of Brides as I am really keen to read it this year.

I finished my Jun book yesterday - The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella. I never thought I'd finish it before Jun when I started, but it moved right along. It's the story of an Allied officer in WWII Italy who was responsible for approving weddings between Italian women and soldiers.

I finished the latest Mainely Needlepoint mystery from Lea Wait, Thread and Gone. In it, the sleuth's grandmother, who is a main recurring character, returns from her honeymoon with her new husband, the reverend. She's full of stories and photos of the places they've visited in Quebec.

I read What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty that not only deals with the main charater's marriage but with three other couples and was a good look at the challenges of making relationships work.

I have finished The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes. It was a very enjoyable read telling the story of 4 of the 655 war brides that journeyed to England on the aircraft carrier Victoria.

I thought I was going to have a hard time with this theme, but I've finished two books already this month which fit: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.

>31 staci426: Did you like The Marriage Plot? People seem to either love it or hate it. I love Jeffrey Eugenides.

Finished The Careless Husband by Colley Cibber today!

I just finished Reader I Married Him, which is a collection of short stories based on Jane Eyre's final line. It was excellent. It's unusual for a collection of short stories by different authors to be all of such a high level.

>34 RidgewayGirl: That caught my eye in the store. I may have to go back and pick it up.

I'm just starting The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor.

>32 Tara1Reads: This was my first by Eugenides. I almost gave up on it in the beginning. I found the characters a little annoying. But I stuck with it and am glad I did. I wouldn't say that I loved it, but it was good.

>37 staci426: Yeah, Mitchell was very irritating to me. I can see how depressive Leonard could be grating too. Well, all the characters could be grating sometimes!

I finished and reviewed my first book for this month's challenge: The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. It has nothing to do with weddings—it's actually a brilliant study of bullying, peer pressure, and prejudice—but if there is one thing that modern society thinks a wedding has to have, it's a dress.

I have finished War Brides by Helen Bryan and unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with this book.

Later tonight I'll finish The Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. It is about a woman leaving her husband and children without really knowing why. More than a year later, she returns for her daughter's marriage. A light, but good read.

Aaaaand: The July thread is up!

I'm counting Louisa: the Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louisa Thomas for this challenge since it deals so much with Louisa's marriage to John Quincy Adams. I read it for a public library committee I am on; we are trying to decide what nonfiction books to have reviewed during our Books Sandwiched in programs this year. It is a very interesting biography of a First Lady most people don't know much about.

I'm planning on The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury that is tagged "marriage". I may get to a second book The Marriage Casket, a mystery by Deborah Mitchell

ETA: I know others have praised The End of Vandalism but I had to pearl-rule it. On to my next choice...

I've started Wife on the Run.

The End of Vandalism was a washout for me although I know others liked it. I pearl-ruled it after a short time and moved on to my second choice.

The Marriage Casket by Deborah Morgan is an antique trade mystery set in Seattle. And the casket is what I might have called a hope chest.

>45 VivienneR:, I'm glad you clarified the casket bit, I would have thought of a coffin otherwise. Wouldn't that be a terrible title, The Marriage Coffin! :-)

Planning to read A Reliable Wife by Robert G00lrick

>46 Roro8: Definitely too creepy for me. My husband already calls me bloodthirsty because of all the mysteries I read :)

Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married / Marian Keyes
4 stars

Shortly after Lucy and her boyfriend have broken up, Lucy goes with some coworkers to a fortune teller. Lucy is told she will be getting married within the next year and a half. When the other girls' fortunes come true, Lucy begins to wonder if hers will, too. Then, she meets Gus, a really charming and fun guy. Will Gus be “the one”?

I really enjoyed this. The first half was good, but it got better in the second half, I thought, as more obstacles came up and Lucy had to deal with family issues, as well as boyfriend and friend issues. Overall, though (no surprise here), the book ended as it should have.

I finished The Captive Wife by Fiona Kidman this morning. I really found this book interesting.

I finished Wife on the Run last night. It was more of an "I don't" than an "I do", as it tells the story of a marriage on the rocks.

I just realized that my most recent book would qualify for this CAT -- The Decent Proposal by Kemper Donovan. It's not the type of book I would normally pick up (I was really just seduced by the title), but I did enjoy it.

Six of my reads this month have fit this theme.

The Improbability of Love, Hannah Rothschild
Peopled with caricatures, this was nonetheless a fun little story which involved a chef, an artist, and a lost masterpiece, which the author tied all together in a cute little improbable bow of a tale.

In Need of a Good Wife, Kelly O’Connor McNees
Enjoyed this one more than I expected. When a civil war widow in Manhattan overhears a letter from the mayor of a small town in Nebraska lamenting their dearth of wives, she organizes a group of single volunteers willing to marry and begins correspondence with the mayor and their potential husbands. What could go wrong?

A Pearl in the Sand, Tessa Afshar
The story of Rahab, imagined through the years to her marriage and her first child. Very nicely told.

The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty
Three husbands, three secrets, and their family’s lives intersect. Some tough issues covered, but I liked this one very much.

The Orenda, Joseph Boyden
Not specifically about marriage, but a large part within the main story is about one of the major characters, a captive Iroquois maiden, marrying a Huron. There is a lot of violence in this book; notwithstanding, the story is excellent.

The Pursuit of Lucy Banning, Olivia Newport
A romance set during the Chicago World’s Far. Betrothed to the wrong guy who’s rich, and falling for the right guy who’s not. Clichéd.

I finished Lumpenmüllers Lieschen, an extremely popular and trashy romance from the 1880s which ends in marriage, of course.

ETC

I might manage to squeeze in The Marriage of Elinor by Margaret Oliphant before the month is over...

I loved, LOVED Joy in the Morning!

A delightful story of young love, facing life's hardships. The author creates people as they are, dialog as it often is, and thoughts as they exist in our minds. This is real life, with that sweet aftertaste that we often experience. Highly recommended.

I finished a second one for this challenge: The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison.

I went on a last-minute Georgette Heyer-binge, which doubled my numbers for June's challenge. Here's my final count, including books mentioned earlier in the thread:

Cosmas, or the Love of God by Pierre de Calan ("love")
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes ("dress")
The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, & Edmund Wiener ("ring")
The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer

I also went with Georgette Heyer. The Convenient Marriage was a long-time TBR that I was able to move off my shelves to make room for new books.

I'm counting the first 3 volumes that I finished of Clarissa by Samuel Richardson for this challenge. Poor Clarissa--her family mandates that she marry the detestable Mr. Solmes and she's essentially kidnapped by the rake Lovelace, who says he wants to marry her (but we don't believe him for a second). So lots of "I don'ts" from poor Clarissa, and nobody's listening to her. My ebook edition is almost 2000 pages; the third volume ends at page 662, so that seemed enough of a book for this challenge :). I will persevere to the end--may take me another year, but I'll get there.

I finished The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor - my first by Taylor. Not a very happy story of a sheltered young woman escaping her cloistered home environment to work in an antiques shop in her town and meeting a man who lives with his mother, eventually marrying him.