Cheryl’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

Cheryl’s comments from the Challenges from Exploding Steamboats group.

Ooh, I came on here to ask about the "didn't start any trilogies" issue. Maybe I will work on a trilogy where I have only read the first book.

I am thinking about Night by Elie Wiesel, which I think I have a copy of finally.

Completed this one with Imagined London by Anna Quindlen

So many travel narratives have a map, which is helpful, and the old mysteries. A good historical account may have one also.

I keep saying that I will read Anna Karenina one day. Maybe this year I'll do it.

If you have not read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, it is the gold standard. Reads more like fiction.

I am not sure if I have any for this prompt yet.

Ones I have read in the past, however, include The Man Who Loved Books Too Much and one of the several books about the heist at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum (but I cannot recall the name, sorry -- looked it up a different way -- The Gardner Heist).

I have not read Frank Abignale's Catch Me if You Can, but that would be fun, I think. And I am sure there are at least a couple books on Bernie Madoff, if people are looking for other ideas.

I found a couple of the books that I know are on Mt. TBR -- Founding Brothers and Open House. I will read one of those.

That is one of mine as well. :)

I am going to recreate the list here so I can keep track digitally as well as on my handwritten list

Penitent Prioritization

- A book longer than 700 pages -- DONE -- Brisingr
- A book set on every continent
- A true crime book -- DONE -- The Restless Sleep
- A book of nonviolent true crime
- The oldest ARC you own
- Longest-standing TBR book on Goodreads
- A book written as a journal
- A book published on your birthday (any year)
- An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America
- A book by a South East Asian
- A LitRPG book
- Finish a series you started at least a year ago -- DONE -- Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
- A family member's favorite book


Lost Linz Levels

Level 2
- The original "Beauty & the Beast" fairy tale
- Free Space! Pick any book.
Level 3
- A book published in 2000
- A book that is over 600 pages
- Free Space! Pick any book.
Level 4
- Read the second book of a trilogy you started in 2020
- Read the third book of that same trilogy
- Free Space! Pick any book.
Level 5
- Read a book by John Creasey
- Free Space! Pick any book.


The Usual Fails

- Creature with a beak on the cover -- DONE -- The Soul of an Octopus
- A book with a purple cover or title -- DONE -- Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree
- A book with "night" in the title -- DONE -- Night Over the Solomons
- A book that has a map -- DONE -- Imagined London
- A re-telling
- Choose a book with a summer cover, a sun on the cover, or "summer" or "sun" in the title -- DONE -- Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown
- A book of poetry-- DONE -- My Therapist Said
- A book with an animal on the cover that makes you think of summer
- A graphic novel
- A haunted house book
- A host recommendation for the #Summerween readathon on BookTube
- Read a romance
- Read one of the biggest books you have on your TBR -- DONE -- Salt
- Read a book set in winter --DONE -- Gingerdead Man
- Read a manga
- Read an epic fantasy -- DONE -- Stardust
- Book recommended by someone older than you
- A book written by an author of a different race from yourself -- DONE -- See No Stranger
- Read a contemporary
- Book over 450 pages -- DONE -- Brsinger
- A book that was published in 1995
- A book with an orange cover
- A book by an Indigenous author
- A food book about a cuisine you've never tried before -- DONE -- The Bizarre Truth
- A book about climate change
- A book by or about a refugee
- An edition of a literary magazine
- Goodreads winner in 2019 -- DONE -- The Five
- Published in the 1920s
- New York Times #1 Bestseller -- DONE -- The Body Keeps the Score
- From the 50 States reading list
- Borrowed from a friend
- A book set on the opposite side of the planet
- A book by a trans/intersex/nonbinary author
- A book with a fish in the title
- A book that could be described as silkpunk or by a silkpunk author
- A winner of the Stella Prize or the Women's Prize for Fiction
- A woman-authored book about food
- A book from the 2019 Reading Women Award shortlists and honorable mentions
- A book by Isabel Allende
- A book with the word "river" in the title

Unprompted Inspiration

- A book shorter than 100 pages -- DONE -- The Toad from Outer Space
- A book in which a character uses an alias -- DONE -- The Tell-Tale Start
- Something originally published in the 19th century

I am still working on the NYT bestseller, but the other lighter book I started, it turns out, Has a Map! Hurrah -- crossing off that one with Imagined London by Anna Quindlen. This means I may not be ending the year in a panic to finish like I did in 2020.

First one down -- Set in Winter -- Gingerdead Men

The mention of 50 states in the 2021 challenge put this back on my radar screen. Let's see where I am since 2018

Alaska -- If You Lived Here I Would Know Your Name
Arizona -- The Last Kind Words Saloon
California -- Of Mice and Men, Walk Across the Sea, I'll Be Gone in the Dark
Colorado -- Aunt Dimity Goes West
District of Columbia -- Washington Schlepped Here
Georgia -- A Remarkable Mother
Illinois -- Button Holed, Never a City So Real
Indiana -- She Got Up Off the Couch
Louisiana -- Black Like Me, Feet on the Street
Maryland --We All Scream for Ice Cream, Manhunt, Gingerdead Man
Massachusetts -- A Year by the Sea
New York -- The Archaeology of Home, The Bottom of the Harbor, Apple of My Eye, Death at the Old Hotel
Ohio -- Emma's Secret
Pennsylvania -- Hallowed Ground
Utah -- Desert Solitaire
Washington -- The Lone Range and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, A Ritual Death
Wisconsin -- Gingerbread Cookie Murder

Never a City so Real

Washington Schlepped Here

Gingerdead Man

I clapped my hands when I saw this post, because I have been managing to complete this challenge every year since 2017. It is the closest I come to any sort of consistent goal accomplishment.

I am pleased to report that the 2 books I started in the New Year will each fulfill a prompt -- #1 NYT bestseller and Set in winter. That bodes well for the coming year. I always set my goal as the same as the year, so this year I want to do at least 21 of these. With a yearly GR goal of 52, that will not be as easy, but I am hoping to finish grad school in June, so that might give me a little more time.

Yippee! #20 of my goal of 20 completed with a day to spare. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom.

I discovered that a longtime occupant of the TBR shelf was published in 1971. So I read Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards

I rolled a 10. I decided to observe the embedded word principle and selected A Walk with Jane AusTEN.

I am crossing this one off with Kate Collins book Florist Grump.