Jennifer’s Comments (group member since Dec 03, 2021)

Jennifer’s comments from the On The Same Page group.

I liked it too, and she has some related short stories, Lindsey!

I read this earlier this year -- it was free on audible plus and I wanted to be sure to read it before it was taken off the list-- and I agree with you. It was quirky and heartwarming and suspenseful and just plain compelling. 

Midyear update done and I have another one or two off this coming up this week, so I think this might be the list I finish first at this rate.

Alondra wrote: "Good luck and Happy reading, Jennifer.

3rd list is the charm, right?? I have a feeling that these might go quicker...."

Well, Alondra, I was completely willing to go with your prediction, but here I am doing my mid-year update and it turns out this is the list I've made the least progress on, although I'm partly through a third title and a fourth is coming up this week later.

Finished my mid-year update above --

@Ioana - The Good Nurse made me wonder about psych testing in that profession. We do it at my office, though, and I can think of a half dozen people who knew enough about it to give the right answers when they were absolutely unsuited for the work, as experience later bore out. So. I need to check out the movie.

@ Vikki -- I liked the Palace Papers quite a bit. I'm still on the fence about the Harry book, because while the Palace Papers made me curious to know more, the time since I listed it has bombarded me with more and more comments about how whiny and victim-ish Harry presents his side, and I have enough whining in my life thank you very much. So we'll see.

We'll see you in September, then, Desley!

I liked that book too, Joy, and it's way outside my usual reading lane so I wasn't sure I would.

Ok, I'm just catching up on this discussion and you guys have aroused my curiosity quite a bit! (moves book up on list...)

That Wild Irish Roots cover is gorgeous, Jackie.

Oh, great picks, Denise! (off to hunt some down myself)

Desley, I have finished all five of my picks and not a dud in the bunch! Thank you!

In for five, please!
PIFM

Hi, everyone!

For anyone unfamiliar, this is a monthly challenge where you post a link to a shelf you created. It can be named "PIFM" or "Pick It For Me" etc, if you want one dedicated only to this challenge, or you can use an existing shelf you already have, as long as it has 100 or fewer books on it. The link must be to the specific shelf, or you will not be partnered.. Indicate how many books you would like to have picked for you from that shelf for the month in question. There is no lower limit as to how many books you can have on your shelf, but, of course, they should be books you are interested in reading during the next month and have ready access to.

On or about the 25th of each month, I will post who picks for whom. In order to accommodate an uneven number of participants, pairs will not be reciprocal -- in other words, it won't be Joanne picking for Jennifer and Jennifer picking for Joanne. It may be Joanne picks for Jennifer, Jennifer picks for Herman, and Herman picks for Suzanne, and someone else entirely picks for Joanne.

IF anyone has not been "picked for" by the 30th, I will pick for them if the designated picker can't be contacted by PM.

When you are assigned someone to pick for, note the number of books in parentheses after that person's name in the pick list, go to the link for their shelf, and pick that number of books for them. Post the books in a new message here. That person has the entire following month to read his/her picks. Someone will be picking for you the same way. We all like to see what people think about their picks, so we hope you will keep us posted in this thread!

Example: "In for five, please!
PIFM"

The HTML template for linking your shelf can be found HERE and if you have trouble, PM me and I will help you.

Your designated shelf must be set so that others can see it. To set up a PIFM shelf for those who would like to, go to the "MY BOOKS" link in the GOODREADS toolbar, scroll down below your shelves on the left until you see the "add shelf" button, and click that. Name it PIFM or Pick It For Me. Add books to it, and post the link to it in this challenge as described above. Again, if you need help, please don't hesitate to PM me!

If you are in for August, post your shelf and the number of picks you'd like to have below. See you on picking day!

August Pairs:
Jennifer picks 4 for Lance
Joy picks 5 for Jennifer
Lance picks 2 for Denise
Jackie picks 3 for Joy
Denise picks 1 for Jackie

The colors for the August 2023 Color Challenge are silver or lavender -- looking forward to seeing your picks!

As always, I found your review illuminating, Joy -- thank you.

Guncle was great!

Lily and the Octopus -- if you love dogs, absolutely read this book. If you love dogs, absolutely do NOT read this book. Yep, both. It will break your heart but in a good way.

The Editor was also very good.

He has an audible original out called The Dogs of Venice that I haven't listened to yet, and I just got the Celebrants.

I just got it. I've read four of his other books and LOVED them, so I'm looking forward to it!!

Some of these are just plain odd choices, but ok.... :). I've read 37. There are a few more here I'm interested in but some I can't imagine picking up.

1. Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina --**Read**

2. Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird --**Read**

3. Shel Silverstein – Where the Sidewalk Ends

4. Jacqueline Susan – The Valley of the Dolls

5. Stephen King – The Shining

6. Antoine de Saint Exupery – The Little Prince --**Read**

7. JRR Tolkien – The Fellowship of the Ring

8. Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale

9. Madeleine l’Engle - A Wrinkle in Time --**Read**

10. Jane Austen – pride and Prejudice --**Read**

11. Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward – All the President’s Men --**Read**

12. Viktor E. Frankl – Man's Search for Meaning

13. Toni Morrison – Beloved --**Read**

14. Truman Capote – In Cold Blood --**Read**

15. Ishmael Beah – A Long Way Gone

16. Frank Herbert – Dune --**Read**

17. Charles Dickens – Great Expectations

18. Brene Brown – Daring Greatly

19. George Orwell – 1984 --**Read**

20. Frank McCourt – Angela's Ashes

21. Stephen Hawking – A Brief History of Time

22. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451

23. Dave Eggers – A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

24. JK Rowling – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone --**Read**

25. Alice Munro – Selected Stories (1968 – 1994)

26. John Green – The Fault in our Stars --**Read**

27. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass --**Read**

28. Ralph Ellison – Invisible Man

29. Judy Blume – Are you there God? It’s Me Margaret --**Read**

30. 30. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – 100 Years of Solitude --**Read**

31. Joseph Heller – Catch 22

32. Marjane Satrapi – Persepolis

33. EB White – Charlotte's Web --**Read**

34. Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse – Five --**Read**

35. Abraham Verghese – Cutting for Stone

36. Alex Haley – The Autobiography of Malcolm X

37. Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

38. Jumpa Lahiri – Interpreter of Maladies

39. Anne Frank – Diary of a Young Girl --**Read**

40. Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita

41. Louise Erdrich – Love Medicine

42. David Sedaris – Me Talk Pretty One Day

43. Jeffery Eugenides – Middlesex

44. Salman Rushdie – Midnight's Children

45. John Steinbeck – East of Eden

46. Michael Lewis – Moneyball --**Read**

47. W. Somerset Maugham – Of Human Bondage --**Read**

48. Jack Kerouac – On the Road --**Read**

49. Isak Dinesen – Out of Africa --**Read**

50. Agatha Christie – And then There were None --**Read**

51. Philip Roth – Portnoy's Complaint

52. Rachel Carson – Silent Spring

53. Doris Kearns Goodwin – Team of Rivals --**Read**

54. Yaa Gyasi – Homegoing

55. Edith Wharton – The Age of Innocence --**Read**

56. Michael Chabon – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

57. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

58. Rita Mae Brown – Rubyfruit Jungle

59. Junot Diaz – The Brief Wondrous of Life Oscar Wao

60. JD Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye --**Read**

61. James McBride – The Color of Water

62. Amy Tan – The Joy Luck Club --**Read**

63. Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections

64. Eric Larson – The Devil in the White City

65. Lois Lowry – The Giver

66. Louise Erdrich – The Night Watchman

67. Philip Pullman – The Golden Compass

68. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby --**Read**

69. Rebecca Skloot – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

70. Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go --**Read**

71. Mary Karr – The Liar’s Club

72. Raymond Chandler – The Long Goodbye

73. Lawrence Wright – The Looming Tower --**Read**

74. Oliver Sacks – The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat

75. Michael Pollan – The Omnivore’s Dilemna

76. Robert A. Caro – The Power Brokers

77. Tom Wolfe – The Right Stuff

78. James Baldwin – Go Tell it on the Mountain

79. Cormac McCarthy – The Road

80. Albert Camus – The Stranger

81. Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises

82. Ta-Nehisi Coates – Between the World and Me

83. Tim O’Brien - The Things they Carried

84. Haruki Murakami – The Wind – Up Bird Chronicle

85. John Irving – The World According to Garp --**Read**

86. Shakespeare – Hamlet

87. Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking --**Read**

88. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart

89. Laura Hillenbrand – Unbroken --**Read**

90. Louisa May Alcott – Little Woman --**Read**

91. Zadie Smith – White Teeth

92. Alice Walker – The Color Purple --**Read**

93. Ian McEwen – Atonement --**Read**

94. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights

95. CS Lewis – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

96. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Americanah

97. Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes were Watching God --**Read**

98. Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

99. Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner

100. Jennifer Egan – A Visit from the Goon Squad

I love the traveling bookstore idea too. Have you seen this book? I just saw it for the first time yesterday, sounds interesting. The Door-to-Door Bookstore