JUNE ROOT - Progress Thread

FLOWER OF THE MONTH = ROSES







Password is ROOTS
The History of Roses
Roses have a long and colorful history. They have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics. The rose is, according to fossil evidence, 35 million years old. In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East. They were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a source of perfume. Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.

During the fifteenth century, the rose was used as a symbol for the factions fighting to control England. The white rose symbolized York, and the red rose symbolized Lancaster, as a result, the conflict became known as the "War of the Roses."

Roses were in such high demand during the seventeenth century that royalty considered roses or rose water as legal tender, and they were often used as barter and for payments. Napoleon's wife Josephine established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris in the 1800s. This garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator. In 1824, he completed his watercolor collection "Les Rose," which is still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration.

It wasn't until the late eighteenth century that cultivated roses were introduced into Europe from China. Most modern-day roses can be traced back to this ancestry. These introductions were repeat bloomers, making them unusual and of great interest to hybridizers, setting the stage for breeding work with native roses to select for hardiness and a long bloom season. Many of these early efforts by plant breeders are of great interest to today's gardeners. data from University of Illinois

Below is the current list of members that have identified a ROOT goal for 2020 and how many books they read by the end of May. The percentages are calculated and a star awarded for those on target to reach their goals. More stars for farther toward their goal. If anyone's number is incorrect, please let me know and I will make the necessary adjustments.

ahef1963 0 / 100 0.0%
alexa_d 87 / 100 ★★★★★ 87.0%
Ameise1★ 12 / 12 100.0%
arubabookwoman 0 / 36 0.0%
benitastrnad 54 / 60 ★★★★★ 90.0%
bg853 2 / 25 8.0%
bookworm148 1 / 20 5.0%
bragan 34 / 50 ★★★★ 68.0%
brakketh 10 / 30 33.3%
ca_dmv 8 / 12 ★★★★ 66.7%
clue 27 / 50 ★★ 54.0%
connie53 28 / 42 ★★★★ 66.7%
crazy4reading 6 / 38 15.8%
curioussquared 27 / 50 ★★ 54.0%
CurrerBell 20 / 40 ★★ 50.0%
cyderry 33 / 84 39.3%
deep220 13 / 50 26.0%
detailmuse 17 / 40 ★ 42.5%
DissamblyOfReason 10 / 100 10.0%
easy-reader 0 / 50 0.0%
enemyanniemae 35 / 50 ★★★★ 70.0%
Erratic_Charmer 23 / 40 ★★ 57.5%
Familyhistorian 42 / 65 ★★★ 64.6%
FAMeulstee 21 / 24 ★★★★★ 87.5%
floremolla 19 / 50 38.0%
fuzzi 39 / 100 39.0%
HelenBaker 23 / 48 ★ 47.9%
Henrik_Madsen 28 / 50 ★★ 56.0%
humouress 21 / 40 ★★ 52.5%
Jackie_K 34 / 60 ★★ 56.7%
Jacksonian 4 / 75 5.3%
jenknox 13 / 100 13.0%
kac522 29 / 45 ★★★ 64.4%
karenmarie 23 / 30 ★★★★★ 76.7%
klarusu 2 / 36 5.6%
Kristelh 28 / 45 ★★★ 62.2%
Kwharton 1 / 12 8.3%
LadyBookworth 15 / 30 ★★ 50.0%
lindapanzo 20 / 48 ★ 41.7%
lilisin 19 / 50 38.0%
LoraShouse 7 / 15 ★ 46.7%
leslie.98★ 78 / 75 104.0%
madhatter22 15 / 50 30.0%
majkia 54 / 60 ★★★★★ 90.0%
mandymarie20★ 32 / 25 128.0%
martencat 15 / 30 ★★ 50.0%
Mary_Mignano 1 / 50 2.0%
Miss_Moneypenny★ 56 / 50 112.0%
MissSos 5 / 25 20.0%
MissWatson 42 / 50 ★★★★★ 84.0%
nebula21 17 / 48 35.4%
Nickelini 12 / 15 ★★★★★ 80.0%
Quaisior 10 / 50 20.0%
rabbitprincess 45 / 60 ★★★★★ 75.0%
rainpebble 26 / 36 ★★★★ 72.2%
readergirliz 11 / 32 34.4%
readingtangent★ 25 / 24 104.2%
Rebeki 14 / 24 ★★★ 58.3%
ritacate 12 / 24 ★★ 50.0%
Robertgreaves 51 / 90 ★★ 56.7%
rocketjk 15 / 27 ★★ 55.6%
rosalita 19 / 36 ★★ 52.8%
Sace 15 / 18 ★★★★★ 83.3%
sallylou61 20 / 30 ★★★★ 66.7%
si 7 / 20 35.0%
sibylline 11 / 30 36.7%
This-n-That 4 / 20 20.0%
torontoc 17 / 30 ★★ 56.7%
tuna.moriarty 3 / 200 1.5%
Val_Reads 1 / 100 1.0%
vestafan 35 / 60 ★★★ 58.3%
wandaly 9 / 18 ★★ 50.0%


We had some avid readers that reached their goals -- Ameise1, mmandymarie20, Miss_Moneypenny joined this month by readingtangent and leslie.98!


Our ★★★★★ readers, those closest to reaching their goals, are:

benitastrnad 90.0%
majkia 90.0%
FAMeulstee 87.5%
alexa_d 87.0%
MissWatson 84.0%
Sace 83.3%
Nickelini 80.0%
karenmarie 76.7%
rabbitprincess 75.0%


So go out there and dig those ROOTs.

The goal for June is 1,705.

I noticed while I was running the numbers that there are several people with very large goals who have very few books read. Maybe this month we should all review our goal and our progress and see if we want to make a change.

I know that even though I've lost my star , I'm going to try to reach the goal I set at the beginning of the year, but others may want to make a change.

>2 cyderry: I clearly set my own goal far too low this year (after struggling to make my much higher one last year), but I think I'm going to leave it as is. We'll see how much I exceed it by!

Thank you for all your hard work, Chèli. I'm happy with my goal. I could probably increase it but I prefer to have a bit of leeway.

>3 bragan: Same here.

First ROOT of the month finished (or the last one of May, as I finished it just after midnight).

Thanks again Chèli.

I got 4 stars! Yeah.

Reporting ROOT # 29 for the year, # 1 for June

Oryx en Crake by Margaret Atwood

All tickers updated.

Thanks for the lovely roses, Chèli!

>7 MissWatson: I can almost almost smell them!

I finished my first ROOT last night. Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg is for the mystery group read "Lackberg/Leon." It is book 8 in the Erica Falck and Patrik Hedstrom series by Lackberg. I thought it was a good mystery. Lackberg isn't widely read here in the U.S. but is very popular in Sweden. I enjoy her novels but they can be hard to come by, as many public libraries don't have them. If you like murder mysteries Lackberg is a good author and this series is a good one.

Reporting ROOT # 30 for the year, # 2 for June

Het jaar van de vloed by Margaret Atwood

All tickers updated.

>2 cyderry: I lost my star, too, but I had a tough month. I just didn't read as many ROOTs as I'd planned.

I've been slowly reading The Oregon Trail and am enjoying it very much. As soon as I finish I'll be adding it to my ROOT total.

I've just added my first 2 ROOTs for June (#35-36 for the year to date) to all tickers, my own and the group ones.

Thanks for all your hard work!

I see now that I set my goal ridiculously low, but that is probably more a sign of the unusual times we are dealing with. Had this been a "normal" year, I would be nowhere near meeting my goal. I think I am going to leave it as is though. I would rather be safe than sorry. It will be interesting to see how far I can exceed this goal.

Another ROOT down. Finished Paris: A Love Story while eating my lunch today. It was 199 pages so it qualified for my short book read for the week.

ROOT #18 and #19 for the year and two books for June- reviews are on my thread and no tickers updated.

I've added my first ROOT of June to all tickers: The Coral Island, by R. M. Ballantyne, which I read as a public-domain ebook.

Went on an audio binge yesterday and have added two more ROOTs to all tickers: Tomb of the Cybermen, by Gerry Davis (read by Michael Kilgarriff and Nicholas Briggs); and Hunters of Earth, by Nigel Robinson (read by Carole Ann Ford and Tam Wiliams).

Reporting ROOT # 31 for the year, # 3 for June

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

All tickers updated.

Finished my first ROOT of June. It took me a while but it was a chunkster - Atlas Shrugged. My thread and all tickers updated.

That's #3 for June (#37 for the year) added to all tickers. My first 5* read of the year, a must-read - Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race.

#12 for the year- The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. I have been in a massive reading slump and needed something with low stakes. This was definitely it. Very gentle, lovely characters, a dash of magical realism. 4.5/5 stars.

Added ROOT 49 of 60 to all tickers: Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland. This is also a book I had read previously but not reviewed since joining LT, so I am pleased about that :)

Finishing Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed today but not sure what I'll pick up next.

I decided to pick up Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One but the writing and style of book is so completely different from the science fiction that I just read that I feel like I've just given myself reader's whiplash. I'm going to need at least 50 pages to get into this book I feel and it's only 150 pages long (with illustrations!).

>24 lilisin: I try to not read the same genre back-to-back, but do something different as you have here. It seems to help prevent reading slumps for me.

So far in June I have read The Oregon Trail and followed it up with a bio of Kelso, five time horse of the year in the 1960s. Now on to a mystery? Scifi? Decisions, decisions...

I finished reading Chaperone by Laura Moriarty. This one is for my real life book discussion group meeting this weekend. We are meeting via Zoom. I hate that, but there seems to be no safe alternative right now. I thought this book was going to be "chick lit" and while it wasn't the best written novel I have read, I enjoyed it.

>25 fuzzi:
Kelso - I remember watching him race. Exciting!

>27 benitastrnad: lucky you! The first race horse I recall watching on television was Riva Ridge.

After a run of library books, finally a root, The Last Time We Spoke by Fiona Sussman. This proved a gripping, thought provoking read.
I am at the half way mark and have almost finished another root.

Nothing like a bleak winters day to provide the opportunity for quiet reading. Another root completed, A Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne.

Finally, I finished one! Why did I start a doorstop when I've been in a reading funk?!?

Just finished Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession I got from NetGalley 3 years ago! It is done!

>31 cyderry: Reading funks are always when my brain insists on starting doorstoppers! It is very annoying. Congrats on finishing it!

Added another ROOT to all tickers: The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies.

Reporting ROOT # 32 for the year, # 4 for June

22-11-1963 by Stephen King

All tickers updated.

ROOT #20 for the year and the third book for June- reviews are on my thread and no tickers updated.

Halfway through the month I have 3 ROOTS complete and 2 underway.

I finished The Loved One which I wonder who would want (lot's of w's there) to read it these days. Not too sure I actually enjoyed the book. Kind of feels on par with The Great Gatsby.

This morning I stared War of the Worlds by HG Wells because I need fast paced adventure style reading and all my other books are very dark and intellectual. Or if they are adventure based they are super long.

>37 cyderry: Love that!

I've added another 2 ROOTs (#4&5 for June, #38&39 for the year) to all tickers. They included another 5* read, Afua Hirsch's Brit(ish: On Race, Identity and Belonging.

>37 cyderry:. Very clever and penned by one of my favourite children authors.

I finished another ROOT. This one was nonfiction and I have had it on my shelves since 2018 and on my TBR list since 2015. Time it was read and it turned out to be a worthwhile read.

Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam by Eliza Griswold. my review of it follows.

Basically this book is a travelogue, albeit, a travelogue with a social consciousness and a religious and educational agenda. Griswold is the product of a deeply religious upbringing and she brings this sensitivity to this work. The book sets out to explore the area of the world inside of the ten degrees north and south latitudes from the equator. This is the area of the world in which Christianity and Islam are in constant contact with the results of that contact oftentimes being violent. Griswold explores the reasons for these conflicts and comes to the conclusion that most of the conflict is historical use of religion to provide clear boundaries between the two religions. Added to this potent mix of historical resistance to proselytizing and expansion is mass migration caused by global warming in the case of Africa, and the population explosion and the resulting loss of resources in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Add to both of these the ready availability of arms and the willingness of both religions to see conversion to one or the other religion as an imperative and the result is violence and political domination of scare resources. Simply put, it is often a matter of survival to belong to one religion or the other. Faith has little to do with it.

This was a hard book to start but an easy book to finish. At first it seemed dull and academic - another one of those tomes that we all should read, but can't find the time to concentrate on it. Fortunately for the reader, the text has natural dividing lines that create shorter chunks of reading material, giving the reader time to ponder and process that material. As I read and accumulated some background knowledge I began to see how the problems faced in the various countries built on each other forming a division, oftentimes in the same country, that empathy and compassion can't seem to cross. Both of those emotions are, according to the tenants of both faiths, pillars of their Faiths. The book takes the time to reveal the part that economic development and oppertunity, or the lack thereof, plays in this constant conflict. This economic disparity is commonly caused by political maneuvering by the person, or persons in power, and in some cases, not caused by the lack of resources. It is simple corruption and the desire to remain in power.

>37 cyderry: Wonderful! Thanks for posting it :-)

>37 cyderry: So true!

Added another ROOT to all tickers: Murder Unprompted, by Simon Brett.

ROOT #6 added to all tickers (this is my #40 for the year, so I am 2/3 of the way to my goal).

Halfway through my ROOT goal for the year AND 10 days til the halfway point in the year. Maybe I can get a bit ahead during the next week and a half.

I finished another ROOT. Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by author and journalist Jessica Bruder. This was a good book to read but maybe not in these times as it reminded me of how many more Americans are going to fall into poverty in the upcoming months.

I finished the horrific (in subject matter) war memoir My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March. Was very good. And my fourth ROOT of the month, a ROOT I purchased two years ago in Hawaii at the Pearl Harbor Museum.

I have finished up a few ROOTs - my thread and all tickers are updated.

Reporting 2 more roots On Beauty by Zadie Smith and The Last Deception of Palliser Wentwood by Imogen De La Bere. I couldn't resist another library book so might not manage anymore roots this month, but I will try.

I have managed 3 more ROOTs this month bringing my total count to 29 on the year. No more ROOTs in June as we just broke ground on our property. **happy dance**

I have updated my ticker but did not touch the group one.

Keep up the great reading everyone. 😊

I finished another ROOT today. About Face by Donna Leon was a good mystery set in Venice. It is book 18 in this series.

I finished my 60th ROOT, so have met my ROOTing goal for 2020. Yay! All icing from now on.

>54 majkia: Woo hoo! Congrats!

Reporting ROOT # 33 for the year, # 5 for June

Het geheime bondgenootschap by Philip Pullman

All tickers updated.

ROOT #21 for the year and the fourth book for June- review is on my thread and no tickers updated.

Two more ROOTs so far in June, personal ticker updated.

>54 majkia: Yeah!

I've added my 7th ROOT for June (#41 for the year) to all tickers.

Added #3 for June. Personal ticker updated!

>54 majkia: Congrats!

I have added a couple more ROOTs - all tickers updated but reviews still pending...

ROOT #22 for the year and the fifth book for June- review is on my thread and no tickers updated

I've finally updated my ticker on the main ticker thread after spacing it off both last month and this month up to now. At least I was still reading ROOTs, even if I wasn't recording them.

I've posted 8 ROOTs so far in June which brings me to 50 which is somewhat of a milestone. I have a few ROOTs to add, though, to get me even closer to my goal of 65.

I read 5 manga and then I purchased and read this week the famous Night by Elie Wiesel. Objectively the other war memoir I read this month was better but I agree that this is a good book to teach at the middle school level for a WWII course as they can get the perspective of a 14 year old, which is close in age.

I've finished my last ROOT for June yesterday. I have 5 again this month for a total of 32 (goal of 50) for the year. When I started doing a recap for the month, I was surprised because it seems like months ago when I read the first one.

I've just added my 8th ROOT for June to my own ticker. I tried to update the group ticker, but the first one showed 5 fewer books than the second one, so I've just left that one alone for Cheli to sort out!

I finished another ROOT last night. Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain was the perfect way to end a lazy Sunday. I hope to have another ROOT finished tomorrow so will report in then.

Hi all, read 6 roots this month.

Only personal ticker updated.

Happy reading all!

I have read 8 ROOTs this month and have thus reached my goal. I never expected to do so well, must be all that escape reading. My own ticker is up-to-date, haven't touched anything else.

I will of course continue ROOTing. Happy reading!

Well done, Miss Watson.

Here is my report for June 2020:

UpROOTED books: 10
ROOTless books: 9
Added to the treebook TBR shelves: 2

The ROOTs were:

Battling the Gods by Tim Whitmarsh
Revolt in Paradise by K'tut Tantri
K'tut Tantri and the Romance of Indonesia by Timothy Lindsey
Infinite Home by Kathleen Alcott (DNF)
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff
Etty Steele Vampire Hunter by Grayson Grave
Some Lie and Some Die by Ruth Rendell

ROOTs in YTD: 61

Tickers have been updated but hopefully not harmed in the making of this report.

I'm not going to finish any more ROOTs by the end of today, so am closing the month with 8 ROOTs.

Reporting 3 ROOTs for June, making 24/24. I didn't expect to reach my goal halfway the year.
All tickers updated.

Just two ROOTs to report this month - must pick some smaller books next month.

Just three ROOTs this month.

I'm still trying to finish one more!

>76 FAMeulstee: Congrats, Anita! :D

****

Squeaked in one more yesterday: Lords of the Storm, by David A. McIntee. This brings me to 52/60 to date. I have updated all tickers.

I knocked off 11 ROOTS this month. No tickers updated.

Here is the list of books (ROOTS) for the month

Fiction - 8
Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg
Dead Before Dying by Deon Meyer
Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles You
About Face by Donna Leon
Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain

My ROOTed Nonfiction titles were

Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton
Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam by Eliza Griswold
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

There was some good reading in these three with only the one by Kati Marton being stinker.

It was another successful reading month. I am loving all the time I am spending with the books! I know it is going to come to an end when I go back to work full time. But with the way the numbers are going in Alabama we may be back in lockdown. Our local hospital's ICU is now full. In one day we had 500 new cases of Covid-19 reported. Not all of those are serious hospitalizations but they could be, and that is what counts. Literally.

I already have a couple of good books going for this next month. I am not cleaning the shelves yet but I am picking up the floor with my reading.

>79 cyderry: did you get it done?

>83 benitastrnad: Glad there is a bright side to the pandemic.

I wish I could say the same. Since my Mom's Assisted Living facility is still in lock down, I spend more time on the phone with her each day which is cutting down my reading time (not complaining as long as she stays safe). Hope I can at least get a "porch visit" this weekend (they put her on a porch above the parking lot and we can see each other and wave and talk but no touching, hugs, or kisses!)

Sorry for late reporting - two ROOTs pulled this month (in my defence, they were loooong books and deeeep rooted ;)
Total for 2020 is now 21/50 - a lot of catching up to do!

All tickers updated.

>85 cyderry: Aw, sorry to hear you have the stress of your mum in lockdown, Chèli, that's very difficult. I hope things ease soon.

>85 cyderry: that's not a good situation, but at least you can talk with her on the phone. Hope you get your porch visit soon.

>85 cyderry:
That has got to be painful.

Yes - the quantity of my reading in the last three months has been an unexpected bonus.

Finished 7 ROOTs for a year to date total of 42. Personal ticker updated.

Hope everyone is doing well. (or at least not terrible- these days, I take what I can get)

The July Thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/322044

I've added 5 roots for June and have updated my personal tickers.

Two for June for me, bringing me to 17 of my 27-book goal.

>90 cyderry: woo! Thanks...

Just finished Natsuo Kirino's Intrusion (French translation title as this has not been translated into English yet) which I thought was going to be a thriller so unfortunately it took a while for my brain to transition to the fact that it is not but ultimately I enjoyed this book which ended up being about the suppression of women by the male ego and what love means within that.