July RandomKIT - The Muppets

The Muppets

Many of us probably have fond memories of watching The Muppets, so this month's RandomKIT will be to read a book related to one of the Muppet characters.

Some examples could be:
Miss Piggy - a book about a glamorous character
Kermit - book with a green cover
Swedish Chef - book set in Scandinavian country
Statler and Waldorf - book featuring senior citizens
Animal - book with an animal on the cover or in title
Dr Teeth - book about music
Fozzie - book that gives you the warm fuzzies

The possibilities are endless! I so look forward to seeing what you come up with.

P.S. If any of you have noticed this theme in my own challenges, it is because I create the challenges for a discord reading group (Off Your Shelf Reading Challenge)and I have been using them in my reading in this group as well. This was one of the group's favourites so far this year and I thought you all might like it too!

My favorite Muppet is The Count so I have decided to read The Radleys by Matt Haig. It's about vampires, but is also humorous which I think is fitting. :)

I actually have a Swedish book sitting around that might work for this Fortroende. It is non-fiction, but very Swedish in its world view and content. And reading in Swedish must be a great tribute to the Swedish chef:)

What an amazing theme! I'm just off on a long train journey, so I shall rifle through my kobo library on the train and see what I can find. The Muppets are so wonderful!

A fun idea!

Brilliant! I will wander along my shelves singing mah na mah na to myself.

I've always been partial to Kermit, so I think I'll read Longbourn by Jo Baker which has a lot of green on the cover.

I think I will go with the Swedish Chef and read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared which is tagged as Swedish Literature.

I have the perfect book for this challenge. I will be reading The Diva Code by Miss Piggy.

I don't have anything related to my granddaughter's favorite Abby Cadabby, so I think I will also go with the Swedish Chef. I'm eyeing Hidden in Snow.

>1 JayneCM: I love it! I'll have to think about what I want to do with it, but I love it!

Love all the choices so far!
>9 lowelibrary: And an actual book by Miss Piggy?! How perfect!

This is a great theme, thank you! I will probably go with the senior citizens idea. Or maybe Cookie Monster!

I smiled just seeing this title in the list of threads! What a neat idea! I might go for a book with a blue cover, because my favourite Muppets -- Grover and Cookie Monster -- are blue.

I could also interpret this as a sign to order The Joy of Cookies, by the Muppet himself.

Edit: I've settled on Volkswagen Blues, by Jacques Poulin (translated by Sheila Fischman). It has a blue car on the cover and features a cast of odd characters, according to the back cover, so I think this is a good choice ;)

I've decided I'm going to read a new purchase, Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, as my hommage to Pigs in Space.

I might use "green" in an environmental way for this:
The Hot Topic / Gabrielle Walker
Climate Changed / Philippe Squarzoni

Also "green" in the title:
Greenwood / Michael Christie
Greenmantle / Charles de Lint (this also came up in a tagmash with "music")

"Music" option:
Lady Sings the Blues / Billie Holiday
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers / Maria Augusta Trapp

Love this challenge! So many options.

More great ideas!

I had completely forgotten about Piiiigs in Spaaaaace (have to say it that way!)

There is also a Muppet Treasure Island, which fits right in with my pirate-themed reading lately. Check out the Muppet Fandom page for lots of ideas too!

I think I'll read The American Adventuress, a novel based on the life of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill's mother, by C.W Gortner for the glamorous character.

>18 JayneCM: Piiiigs in Spaaaaace (have to say it that way!)

LOL! And I said it "that way" in my head as I read this!

COMPLETED The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, which fits the senior citizens prompt.

Currently reading Translation: A Very Short Introduction by Matthew Reynolds, the cover of which is various shades of green:

>22 Robertgreaves: that is truly a worthy tribute to his kermitness

>22 Robertgreaves: >23 amberwitch: Agree! The perfect green cover!

I read The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood for Statler and Waldorf - a book featuring senior citizens.

Muppets, puppets...

ETA: Oh, shoot! Reread the description and it has to be related to a specific Muppet, not muppets in general. Ok, this wasn't what I'd originally planned, anyway, I just thought it would fit as I read it. Will continue on with the other...

I went with the Swedish chef and read books 6, 7 & 8 in the Martin Beck Swedish mystery series by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö: Murder at the Savoy, The Abominable Man and The Locked Room. These books ended up working for multiple different CATS & KITS this month.

I just read The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. One of the main characters is a budding naturalist who researches beetles and butterflies, which made me think of the Muppet scientists Bunsen and Beaker.

Primarily a green cover, and plenty of green in almost every illustration

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest / Charles de Lint
3.5 stars

Lillian is 12-years old and lives near a forest with her aunt. When she is in the forest looking for fairies, she is bitten by a snake, and in order to save her, some of the cats she has been feeding help by magically turning her into a cat. And now, Lillian can talk to the cats and the other animals in the forest. But her aunt doesn’t recognize her and she can’t explain what happened because her aunt only hears meowing. What to do!?

I enjoyed this! It is an expansion of de Lint’s “A Circle of Cats” (which I did read a long time ago, but don’t recall). There are some nice illustrations throughout.

I read Death of a Green-Eyed Monster by M.C. Beaton & R.W. Greene that has a green cover (as well as "green" in the title and author's name).

Following M.C. Beaton’s death, R.W. Greene took over her series. He provided a tender introduction here to describe their arrangement and his friendship with "Marion".

In this story Hamish is in love with the newly-posted PC Dorothy McIvor and he is delighted that she feels the same way. This is a believable mystery with the focus on Hamish. Green has seamlessly taken over Hamish Macbeth and the delightful characters of Lochdubh.

I just finished Mary Roach's Packing for Mars, which I picked up inspired by the glorious Muppet soap opera Pigs in Space, and she certainly delivered another entertaining, funny, and surprisingly informative book about the science behind space travel (past and future). Initially it was a bit slow-moving, but then I got to the chapter about puking in zero gravity and any worries that this wasn't going to be as fun as her other books were put to bed. I enjoyed this a lot.

The August thread has landed! Find it here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/352250

In honor of the Swedish chef I read The Winners by Fredrik Backman. It's the 3rd book in the Beartown trilogy and is set in Sweden.

I completed The 100 Year old Man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared written by a Swedish author and the tale begins and ends in Sweden. (The Swedish Chef)

>29 LibraryCin: I just picked up that book at a used book sale today!

>35 LadyoftheLodge: Oh, nice! You got a printed version. I'd have liked that, but my library only had an ebook.

Most of the time I read ebooks on my old Kobo Touch (second generation), but it's only black and white, so for this one, I downloaded it to my tablet so I could see the illustrations in colour. But it's still smaller and probably note as impactful as in print.

Not knowing a lot about the muppets, I ended up wanting to read something to honor Miss Piggy as the lone (I think) female character.
Found a book with a shocking pink cover at the library. It is a supposedly funny update to the Kama Sutra but unfortunately not as funny as the authors thought it was.

>37 amberwitch: "not as funny as the authors thought it was"

Well, that fits the muppets as well

>38 Robertgreaves: that, on the other hand, was funny

Although not a part of the Muppet tv show, The Count is a Muppet character so I hope my read of The Radleys counts for this challenge.

Miss Piggy is the only main female character, but Skeeter and Janice in the Electric Mayhem are both females.

In honor of Fozzie, I read The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

>41 soelo: thank you for sharing, I didn’t even knew these characters existed.
Never having watched a full episode, I have limited source material to draw on first hand.

>43 amberwitch: I watched Muppet Babies on Saturday mornings and that is my main source of Muppet knowledge =)

>40 DeltaQueen50: The Count! I have a small toy version of that Muppet. He sat on my desk when I was an elementary school principal. I am lucky he was not kidnapped! or countnapped!

>45 LadyoftheLodge: I have always had a soft spot for The Count - probably from my days of admiring Bella Lugosi as Dracula!

I finished Helgoland, which is written by a scientist, so I will read that in honour of Bunsen & Beaker.

In honor of Statler and Waldorf I've read The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett. Queen Elizabeth is the brains behind a murder investigation at the age of 91.

Kermit/green/environment/trees

The Wild Trees / Richard Preston
4 stars

The author starts by looking at the lives of three people in the 1980s. In 1987, Steve was a university student when he climbed his first really tall tree (can’t recall if it was a redwood in California or a Douglas fir in Oregon); also 1987, Michael was a rich kid in college, but not really interested in attending classes… he also discovered the really tall trees; and Marie (early 80s) in Ontario, who lost her mother at a young age and enjoyed rock climbing. Eventually, the three would cross paths as they (formally or informally) studied the tallest trees in the world, mostly those California redwoods and Oregon Douglas firs.

I really liked this. It’s a mix of biographies of each of the main people, as well as information about the trees and forests and – until the late 80s – no one had been up to the tallest reaches of these trees. There are ecosystems that live high up in the trees, and it’s tricky to know how to safely (as much as possible, anyway) climb the trees. It was interesting that the author himself did learn to do it and joined the scientists on their adventures in the trees. He even went climbing with his kids. I really liked this – all parts of the book: I like biographies, and I like (popular) science, so I enjoyed all of it.

>49 LibraryCin: This sounds good - I will have to see if my library has it.

I read a book for ScaredyKIT that also fits this category. My husband's copy of Lord of the Flies by William Golding has a green cover and includes a character named Piggy.

>50 JayneCM: Hope you like it! I noticed some of the other reviewers who didn't like it as much seemed to be put of by the biographical stuff, but I like biographies, too, so I was interested in that, too!

>49 LibraryCin: I like the sound of that too - another one for the wishlist!

My August challenge choice was available at the library, so I picked it up. Oops. Now I'm reading it so I'll have to apply it to the July challenge, ha!

The cover is Kermit green:


The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall

Miss Piggy - a book about a glamorous character
Civil Campaign - beautiful Vor Widow

Kermit - book with a green cover



Swedish Chef - book set in Scandinavian country

Statler and Waldorf - book featuring senior citizens
The Final Solution - elderly beekeeper

Animal - book with an animal on the cover or in title
The Final Solution Parrot on cover

Dr Teeth - book about music Duma Key - There's always music in books by Stephen King.

Fozzie - book that gives you the warm fuzzies

Read a few more books that fit for this month:

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym, Statler & Waldorf, features senior citizen
Cop Killer & The Terrorists by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö for the Swedish chef, set in Scandinavia-Sweden
The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn, another one for the Swedish chef, set in Norway

I just had to come back and update everyone that I finally wrote up a review of Gargantuana's Ghost. I'm wildly late with it, but I so fell in love with this little book, I kept putting it off.

If you want a gorgeous, haunting ghost story about a gorilla and the girl who loves her, please look this one up. It's a small book that packs an incredible punch.

>57 whitewavedarling: Sounds very intriguing.

I'm very late to add this, but I read A Convenient Fiction by Mimi Matthews way back in July, which definitely gave me the warm fuzzies (I had to look that up!) :-)