March ColourCAT: Pink

Flamingos, flowers, ballet shoes,
Ice cream, roses, ribbons too.
Sunsets, sweaters, celebrations,
Covers, stories, illustrations!
For this month’s challenge, what do you think?
It’s anything that might be “pink!”

Reading suggestions:

Nightmare in Pink
Pink and Say
Pinkalicious
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Check out LibraryThing Tags for many ideas.

Do not forget to update the wiki! https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/ColourCAT

I've been meaning to get around to Three Days in the Pink Tower by EV Knight, so that's what I've got earmarked for this month!

Now all I can think of is "Think Pink!" from Funny Face. I love that movie! :)

I've got more than I thought. For covers I'm looking at Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones or On The Enemy's Side by Hamour Baika or I may go with the author's name and read something by Steven Pinker

Iam thinking of reading The Original Miss Honeyford by M.C. Beaon in March.

I plan to read Pink Slime by Fernanda Trias for this month.

I’m trying to decide if the background of Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams, which I just got from the library, is pink or beige:



What do you all think?

I do have a surprising number of pink covers in my TBR, so plenty of other choices.

I can only find one cover with pink in my TBR, The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan.

>7 Charon07: Looks pink to me.

>9 clue: Agree, I think it is pink.

>9 clue: >10 LadyoftheLodge: Good enough for me then! That’s what I’ll be reading!

>7 Charon07: I am having a similar issue. I have The Pleasing Hour on my Kindle. I could not find a hard copy at my local library. I can't decide if it is coral or pink?


My back up and/or second read will be The Sweet Spot which is most definitely pink on one third of the cover.

>12 beebeereads: It looks pink to me but I don't know how precisely we are supposed to take the colour prompts

>12 beebeereads: Coral is in the pink family, as I sort my crayolas. But then again, I can’t tell pink from beige, so I’m not sure I can be trusted.

>13 Robertgreaves: >14 Charon07: Having working with color during a good chunk of my worklife, I can get too fussy. I agree coral can be in the pink family. I am likely going to read that one and hopefully the second as well.
>14 Charon07: so I’m not sure I can be trusted. :-))
I always love this color CAT

Will be reading Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

COMPLETED

I will be reading Murder of the Cat's Meow for my pink cover.

I will be reading Olive Pink: Artist, Activist & Gardener by Gillian Ward.

I just found The mountain in the sea which has a bright pink cover with an octopus.

>15 beebeereads: We are all agreeable and flexible here, so the color choices are too! Anything in the pink color family works.

>17 cyderry: This looks interesting! Hubby and I are wine lovers so this might be one for me.

>20 MissWatson: That was one of my potential choices from my TBR. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

>23 Charon07: I’ve never heard of the author before, so I am curious. Incidentally, I started Der wunderbare Massenselbstmord last night for the February CultureCAT, and it has a blue cover with a pink octopus in my edition. How’s that for serendipity?

>7 Charon07: I also think it s pink.

I don't have much pink in my TBR either. I found Lilith by George MacDonald, which at least has a pink sunset on the cover.

>26 SF_fan_mae: I don’t seem to have it catalogued here on LT, but I know I have unread copy of this somewhere. If you end up thinking highly of it, I’ll need to try to track it down.

I have several that will work. Close to Famous has pink cupcakes on the cover. Killing Me Souffle has a cover that is half pink.

I have The Colour by Rose Tremain on order. Rose being a shade of pink.

I'm currently planning to read Snapped and Just Say Yes.

Currently reading Mrs Spring Fragrance, which is a "hot" pink.

>23 Charon07: I read it last year - maybe as part of a Hugo catch-up? And I thought it was pretty good. Reminded me a bit of William Gibson, although with a more environmental slant.

I meet some literary people, chief among whom is the editor of the magazine who took my first Chinese stories. He and his wife give me a warm welcome to their ranch. They are broad-minded people, whose interest in me is sincere and intelligent, not affected and vulgar. I also meet some funny people who advise me to "trade" upon my nationality. They tell me that if I wish to succeed in literature in America I should dress in Chinese costume, carry a fan in my hand, wear a pair of scarlet beaded slippers, live in New York, and come of high birth. Instead of making myself familiar with the Chinese-Americans around me, I should discourse on my spirit acquaintance with Chinese ancestors...

Finished this amazingly pink book, part of a lovely set called "torchbearers". The reading experience was definitely better due to the introduction by C. Pam Zhang, explaining the significance of the author (the first Chinese-American writer). Facing discrimination and stereotyping, Sui Sin Far wrote idealised Chinese characters in response. Although written over a hundred years ago, the account of border officials removing children from their mothers hadn't dated as much as I wish it had.

I have finished:



A 3.5* book for me.

Finished Three Days in the Pink Tower last night, and it was a 5* read for me. I'll definitely be looking for more work from the author and publisher both. Full review written.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

This is a book that I would not have picked up if I had read more about it beforehand. I’ve never liked any book about illness. However, this is an interesting and tender story about a woman with an unidentified mental illness. I’ve since read descriptions that claim it’s humorous, but in my case, any humour must have gone right over my head.

COMPLETED Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Although the predominant colour in the cover is yellow, there are pink elements:

Read Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle for this (has a somewhat pinkish tint to the cover I think)

Not reading, but it is PINK. I saw Much Ado About Nothing in London today. It was a joyful production, excellently done. With a LOT of pink.

I finished Pink Slime by Fernanda Trias. An interesting apocalyptic book set in South America.

Thanks to the "pink" prompt I've finally read Elizabeth von Arnim's Father, which was rereleased by the British Library.

A beautiful cover, and a story that caught my attention and held it. The afterword from the British Library talks about how Arnim is responding to the common idea in the 1920s and 30s of "left over women" (ie more women than men in the population, so supposedly a worry as they couldn't marry.)

I read Lady with a Cool Eye by Gwen Moffat, in which the amateur detective is Miss Pink.

>41 charl08: a favorite of mine among von Arnim's lesser-known novels.

April's thread is up https://www.librarything.com/topic/369245

I finished Attrib. and Other Stories, with the pinkish beige or beige-ish pink cover in >7 Charon07: above. Eley Williams is a treasure and a delight, and she is shelved next to Ali Smith in my heart.

I just got a book by Daniel H. Pink from the library, When, about timing. Now I just need to clear the deck, and make time to read it;-)

I've finished reading Sister Golden Calf by Colleen Burner which has pink on the cover:

I have finished The Mountain in the Sea, whose background cover colour is a bright magenta.

Careless People: A story of where I used to work by Sarah Wynn-Williams has a pink cover. Well, pink, red or orange depending on what you'd like it to be.

Murder of the Cat's Meow by Denise Swanson ★★½

When ex-Vegas showgirl and local business owner Bunny Reid starts an online dating service called Cupid’s Cat’s Meow, out-of-town visitors flock to her bowling alley for the speed dating and cat show events that she hosts to bring in extra cash. Bunny’s scheme sounds harmless enough, but school psychologist Skye Denison knows all too well that an influx of strangers in Scumble River always spells trouble. Meanwhile, Skye is convinced that her house is haunted and is afraid her fiancé, police chief Wally Boyd, won’t move in until the ghost moves out. But ghost-hunting takes a back seat when Skye is called to the bowling alley, where a riled-up contestant is choking a cat show judge for insulting his feline. Skye breaks up the scuffle, but the next morning the judge’s dead body is found, strangled with a cat toy. Now Skye must solve this purrplexing mystery—and show a devious killer that her sleuthing skills are the cat’s meow. (description from the back of book)

I would suggest reading this series from the beginning since this one is very character driven, obviously continuing several storylines that leave a new reader lost. The book starts with a mystery and solves it but chooses a character that is not even introduced until the final chapters as the culprit.

Dead With the Wind by Miranda James has the title and the author's name in pink lettering:

Read When by Daniel H. Pink, which was a very easy read about how our circadian rhythm influences our abilities and decision making. Lots of interesting anecdotes and experiments, and also a good deal of actionable advise om how to manage.

I have finished Ungeduld des Herzens. The title is printed in pink in my edition.

Starting On the Enemy's Side by Hamour Baika. The landscape in the cover picture is sort of pink-ish.

COMPLETED On the Enemy's Side by Hamour Baika

The Shopping Bags / Anna Wallner, Kristina Matisic

Currently reading Baked to Death by Dean James, the cover of which has a salmon pink background.

I read The Lark which is an E Nesbit adult novel (but felt sufficiently similar in style to her children's books to be reassuringly familiar).

>27 Charon07:
I finished Lilith, it was heavy going. Interesting read but I'm sure I missed a lot of the allegory and meaning that a reader from the 1890s would have picked up on. I'd call it a dark fantasy. If you find your copy and have time to really concentrate on a read, give it a try.

The bright pink of this light fun book is what made me pick up the book in the first place (IRL the house is a happy rose colour). Since, I've travelled to Peru twice so it was lovely to recognise some of the places and customs.

>60 SF_fan_mae: I found it—turns out it was a Project Gutenberg ebook that I downloaded and in fact started reading about 10 years ago but never got very far into it. I’ll bump it up the queue.

I'm really enjoying Death on the Thames by Alan Johnson, the third in Louise Mangan series.

I've had flu for the last couple of weeks that put the brakes on my reading for a while so I won't finish it in March but in April. The author, who was once a government minister in the UK, is hugely talented. I hope he keeps up the series.

I finished The Colour by Rose Tremain.

Sneaking one in under the wire -- I read Freya Sampson's The Lost Ticket, which has a predominantly pink cover.

Thanks to all the participants in this ColourCAT!

Welcome to Night Vale



The genre of this book was much the same as that of the podcast with the same title — which is difficult for me to describe. It's a sort of existential horror world setting, with an everything-is-normal, absurdist humour tone. I recommend checking out the first episode, or the most recent, to see what I mean and if this is the kind of tone that would appeal to you. I very much enjoy the narrative style and elements of Welcome to Night Vale, but if you don't, you probably won't be able to get through this book.

The subject of the book, however, is very different from the podcast. There are a few recurring characters from the podcast that feature in the plot, but this is a story about Jackie, a 19-year-old who has been 19 years old, running the pawn shop, exactly the same routine each day, for decades, and Diane, the single mother of a 15-year-old shapeshifter who pretty much never takes the same form twice. On the same day that Diane's missing coworker suddenly reappears, and no one but Diane seems to know who he is or that he ever worked there, a man (who Jackie can't seem to remember after he leaves) hands Jackie a slip of paper which she literally cannot put down — every time she tries to put it down, throw it away, or destroy it, it reappears in her hand. Thus, both women independently begin seeking the answers to their individual mysteries. Of course, they begin to run into each other, and of course, their mysteries are connected, and of course, they both change as people over the course of this story.

I think this is a great read for teenagers, parents of teenagers, or people who work with teenagers, as well as anyone who likes the specific genre/tone blend of Night Vale. It's an engaging story, and if you can't spot the metaphor from my summary, it's also about feeling stuck in the age between a teenager and an adult, the complicated relationship between teens and their parent(s), and the ever-shifting identities of teenagers as they try to determine who they are and who they want to be. The metaphors aren't heavy-handed, and as absurdist as the genre itself is, the characters and their growth feel real. I highly recommend this read.