July AlphaKIT: S and O

Welcome to the July 2021 AlphaKIT, an unofficial challenge in the 2021 Category Challenge Group.

The rules are: 1. Use these letters any way you wish to select reading for the month. 2. Enjoy your reading.

and

The letter images are thanks to @helenliz ! Thanks so much, they're lovely.

Please remember to update the wiki:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_AlphaKIT#July:_-_Letters:_S_and_O

My book club's choice for next month is "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd.

I will also go for the double with "A Leg To Stand On" by Oliver Sacks.

I'm continuing to make progress with my series reading with the Alpha Kit this year. For July, I'll be reading Still Waters by Viveca Sten and A Drunkard's Path by Clare O'Donohue.

>2 Robertgreaves: ohh good call. I have an Oliver Sacks book on the shelf, unread.

I've got lots!

✔Big Lies in a Small Town
✔Book Supremacy
Death and Sensibility
✔Deadly Editions by Paige Shelton
✔Draw and Order
✔Dressed for Death in Burgundy by Susan Shea
✔Hidden Oracle
✔Murder at Page One
Murder Once Removed
✔Murder with Orange Pekoe Tea
✔Once Upon a Spine
✔Pumpkin Spice Killing
Ritchie Boy Secrets : How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II
✔Secret Staircase
Sense and Sensibility
✔Sign of Death
Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books

I'm definitely planning on The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary and The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher...but I'm sure I'll fit in a few more "S" books as well!

I’m going to read The Summer Wives which will also work for the RandomCAT.

I have three books planned for other CATS that will work here as well:

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

Scarlet Ribbons by Kate Quinn This book is a collaboration of 6 authors. Stephanie Dray and Sophie Perinot are two of the others.

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland

I have three books planned for other CATS that will work here as well:

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

Scarlet Ribbons by Kate Quinn This book is a collaboration of 6 authors. Stephanie Dray and Sophie Perinot are two of the others.

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland

I am going to be reading Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart for my "S" read which will also work for the July MysteryKit.

For my "O" read I am planning on Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter.

I'll be reading Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks as my 'S' book and Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor as my 'O' book.

I'm planning on Of Fire and Night and Seven Blades in Black

Ones that fit other challenges, so more likely ones:

Hana / Lauren Oliver
Angry Weather / Friederike Otto
Strange Bedpersons / Jennifer Crusie
The Sun Down Motel / Simone St. James (this will depend if it comes in at the library for me)

I just finished Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta for a double-S.

I read my first book of July for the alpha kit. Othello by William Shakespeare. O and S.

I'm reading Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I am reading Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer for a start on this challenge.

two books, both from the booker prize winner list that I hope to get to are;
Staying on by Paul Scott which gets S and O
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

I finished Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer.

Finished The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which can work for S.

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for an O, but I got another multiple-S with A Summer for Scandal by Lydia San Andres.

Got my O read. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Currently reading The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies in an omnibus volume. However, as they were originally published separately I'm going to count the third novel in the trilogy, which I'm just starting, for 'O': "The Lyre of Orpheus".

Reading
The Shining for S (Shining, S and Stephen
Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez
The Summer Book by Susan Branch (art/recipe journal).

Guess I need to work in some Os to balance it out.

I completed Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss for S.
I'm about to complete The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi for O.

Both are excellent!!

For S, I recently completed The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton, and I'm currently reading The Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe.

Just finished Out Past the Stars one of my favorite series. Sad to say goodbye to the gunrunner princess Empress.

A double hit S and O . Haunted Shawnee, Oklahoma by Tanya McCoy and Jeff Provine

I've just realised one of my current reads is in a series which fits: Man & Beast by Michael Jensen is the first in the Savage Land duology.

Hana / Lauren Oliver
3.5 stars

This is a short story in the Delirium series. Hana is coming up to the time she will be “cured” – that is, she will not be able to love. In the months leading up to that time, however, she has discovered an underground of young people who have not yet been cured. They party, dance, and love before they will no longer be able to.

This was good. Very short, but a quick capture of one of the characters in the series. I have read the first in the series and there are more short stories following different characters, as well as at least two more full-length books in the series.

Finished Castle Shade, the latest Russell/Holmes, by Laurie R. King. Good read.

Read The Bridge of Sighs by Olen Steinhauer for a double.

Finished Summer at Fairacre by Miss Read. Still one of my faves, no matter how many times I read it.

>33 LadyoftheLodge: I enjoyed it too!

Strange Bedpersons / Jennifer Crusie
3 stars

Tess and Nick broke up a while back. When Nick shows up at Tess’s door, he needs a favour. In order for a big promotion at his work (he’s a lawyer and his work (and money) has always been his priority), he needs someone to pose as his fiancee for a weekend event and he’s hoping Tess will help him out. They never had much in common beyond a wild attraction, and although Tess hesitates, she agrees. Not only that, she convinces her best friend to accompany Nick’s friend/fellow lawyer (Park) to the same weekend gathering, although she really can’t stand Park.

This was ok. Romance is not usually my “thing”, but sometimes the chick lit has enough other in it that it can be fun and light and enjoyable to me. There were attempts at humour that didn’t really make me laugh in this one, and I’m not sure I really liked any of the characters. There was a secondary plotline that was kind of interesting with a bit of a twist in it, which I liked. This was short and will be forgotten fairly soon, I’m sure.

I read, in one day, A Sky Full Of Stars by Dani Atkins. A real tear jerker!

Yet another S read, So Pretty a Problem by Francis Duncan.

Read The Shining by Stephen King for S.

August is up a bit early as we'll be traveling the next few days.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/333649

So far I've read a few S books.

The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan

Need to go find an O book or two to read.

I've read Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss for S.
Completed The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi for O.

The Sun Down Motel / Simone St. James
4 stars

In 1982, Viv arrives in Fell, New York, and starts working the night shift at the Sun Down Motel. It’s not long before she learns of the visitors (some alive, some not) to the motel. As she learns more about the murders (and deaths) that happened in the previous few years, she does some investigating and comes up with a theory about what happened. But, not long after, Viv herself disappears.

In 2017, Viv’s niece Carly arrives in Fell. Carly has a fascination with true crime, and with her mother (Viv’s sister) recently passed away, Carly feels like she can investigate what happened to Viv. Following in her aunt’s footsteps, Carly also starts working at the Sun Down Motel… only to discover some of those same visitors to the motel.

I listened to the audio. There were two different voices for each of the main characters. It didn’t hold my attention 100%, but I was interested enough that plenty of times, I “rewound” to hear what I’d missed. There was some good atmosphere, with some creepy happenings.

I finished James Herriot's Cat Stories by James Herriot for S.

I'm finally reading the book I originally planned to read for S -- The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. Really liking it so far!

I finished The Mousse Wonderful Time of the Year which is an Oxford Tearoom Mystery, for letter O.

I read The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, for letter O - a beautiful book; you'll need the tissues.

Starting "The Starless Sea" by Erin Morgenstern

I've just finished Still Waters by Viveca Sten.

I read Henry IV, Part II (by William Shakespeare) and am about to head into Henry V...

I read, for both letters, The Struggles Of Brown, Jones, and Robinson by Anthony Trollope.

I'm reading The Order by Daniel Silva that features both letters. It seems a bit like cheating to get both letters in the same book but I enjoy the challenge of finding them. It's my first Silva and well into his Gabriel Allon series although not regarded as one of his best.

>51 VivienneR:. I find it more of a challenge to get both letters with one book. So I don't think it is cheating at all.

I have finished A Drunkard's Path by Clare O'Donohue.

I have completed both my reads for July's AlphaKit with Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter and Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart.

Finished Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks for a double CAT.

Angry Weather / Friederike Otto
3.5 stars

Scientists are now able to study (some? most?) weather events and be able to determine how much more likely that event was made by climate change (or if climate change even made it more likely at all)! That is, they do it quickly, before the event fades from people’s memories and other events have happened in the meantime. This is unusual, since for scientists, peer review is important before publishing results of studies, but this can take months to do.

This book explains how they do that, primarily using models. There is a very small group of scientists worldwide who are currently doing this; the author is one of those scientists. She also looks at a few specific weather events and explains how they came up with their findings.

I thought this was good. There’s more to it than I’ve mentioned in my summary, and I can’t explain it well, but I did find it interesting. It may have been particularly interesting because about a month ago, there was an extreme heat wave where I am in Alberta, as well as in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. I had actually heard a couple of weeks ago that they had determined that this heat wave WAS more likely due to climate change and that it was 2C warmer than it would otherwise have been without climate change; when I heard that, I had no idea that a book I’d planned to pick up this month was going to look at that very thing! And, checking online, it was this group of scientists who came up with that.

COMPLETED A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order by Judith Flanders

>57 Robertgreaves: That looks like my kind of book!

Yet another S book for me, The Four Graces by D.E. Stevenson. A very pleasant, low-stakes read!

Two S books (well, one novellette & 1 book)
Yearning for the Sea by Esther Seligson
She come by it natural: Dolly Parton, the great unifier by Sarah Smarsh

>59 christina_reads: I read that one years ago, and I always enjoy Stevenson's works.

I finished my main selection for this alpha. Staying On by Paul Scott which is a Booker Man Prize Winner for that list and fulfills S and O. I also read Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez (S).

Another S . Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich

I gravitated to "S" books this month. Nothing for "O".

Straight Outta Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human Being, by Romesh Ranganathan
A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome, by Emma Southon
The Art of WolfWalkers, by Charles Solomon
The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story, by Kate Summerscale

>64 rabbitprincess: Straight Outta Crawley could be an O.

One last S book. Four To Score by Janet Evanovich

>65 lowelibrary: I count only books where the first word of the title (excluding articles) and/or the author's last name begins with the appropriate letter.

I read Sparks Like Stars and Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart for S. I did not get to an O book.

Finished one more S book. The Cat Who Smelled A Rat by Lilian Jackson Braun