Allegra’s Comments (group member since Nov 03, 2017)

Allegra’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Moderators of NBRC wrote: "nox_reads wrote: "I have the same problem as Allegra"

Allegra wrote: "I thought I'd start with All About You: Part 1, but GoodReads won't let me in; says that group is secret. Any ideas what I'm d..."

Thanks. I signed up there

Here we go:

Month 1: Read Your Birthday Month - January
J- John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things
A- Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas: A Holiday Mystery
N- The Night Before Christmas
U- Urrutia from By Night In Chile
A- American Gods
R- Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
Y- Yasutaka Tsutsui's Standing Woman


Month 2: Read Your Birth Stone - Garnet
1. "The Garnet Bracelet" (read in From Karamzin to Bunin: An Anthology of Russian Short Stories)--and it's got a "garnet" cover!
2. Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers
3. Garnets by Amy Hayes
4. Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story by Ann Kidd Taylorand Sue Monk Kidd--for the color of the fruit


Month 3: Read Your Sign - Capricorn [Note: Because of time constraints, my love of short stories, and my desire to read more sci-fi ("star sign," get it), I will be using my own adaptations this month. Maybe I'd feel differently if I were a Libra. UPDATE: I made an exception for the pre-chosen "Capricorn Games" (for obvious reasons), but I'm also restricting myself to Female Authors to honor Women's History Month.]
C- "Capricorn Games" by Robert Silverberg
A- Atwood, Margaret's The Penelopiad
P- "Prott" by Margaret St. Clair
R- Randy in "The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things" by Karen Joy Fowler
I- "The IWM 1000" by Alicia Yánez Cossío
C- Carol Emshwiller's "Pelt"
O- Ocampo, Silvina 's "The Waves"
R- "Readers of the Lost Art" by Elisabeth Vonarburg
N- Ninotska in "Baby Doll" by Johanna Sinisalo


Month 4: Read Your Chinese Zodiac - Rabbit
R- Ready Player One
A- Alves in The Yellow Sofa
B- Bree, Bess, and Bill in Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse (Though the book, author, and several character names start with A, I felt like being contrarian.)
B- Bellis (Toy City police inspector) in The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse
I- I Was Amelia Earhart
T- Ted (aka E.L. Wallace) in The Hippopotamus
PLUS: "Rabbit" by Sarah Gerard
+

Month 5: Read books set in a country you'd like to visit - Japan I could have picked almost anywhere, but this worked with another reading group
1. 1Q84
2.Black Butler, Vol. 1 (It seemed wrong to only read the past and not touch on Manga.)
3. The Japan section of Other Voices, Other Vistas: Short Stories from Africa, China, India, Japan and Latin America: The Magic Chalk by Kōbō Abe; "The Tomoshibi" by Sawako Ariyoshi; "The Moon on the Water" by Kawabata Yasunari; "Act of Worship" by Mishima Yukio; "The Silent Traders" by Yūko Tsushima
4. The Boy in the Earth Started this as a mystery (it would fill a Y) but after reading, the mystery is why was it shelved as such. So I’m adding it up here
5. I Am a Cat: I


Month 6, 7, 8: I was going to mix the month's around but maybe I'll do the summer months as a group and enter them as they fall. I'm not sure I want a solid month of mysteries right now, what with other challenges, BOMs, beach books, etc.

Month 6: Read your favorite genre - Mysteries
M - Murder on the Links
Y - Prince Ali Yusuf in Cat Among the Pigeons
S - Sherlock Holmes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery
T - Tubby Dubonnet in Crooked Man
E - Ellie Alexander wrote Meet Your Baker
R - Rose Red in Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
I - In Cold Blood
E - Elle in Heat Lightning
S - Slow Burn


Month 7: Read with a friend
1. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
2. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
3. For Your Eyes Only
4. When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
5. Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President / A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo (Read books as a pair)


Month 8: Read books by some one of your favorite authors - Roald Dahl
1. The Enormous Crocodile
2. James and the Giant Peach
3. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
4. Vile Verses
5. The Roald Dahl Audio Collection
6. Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes
7. See below


Month 9: Set yourself a personal goal to exceed the amount of books you normally read in a month I will be using the month to clear up some straggling challenges and near-overdue library reads, whatever the number is.
1. Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World (Library-imposed deadline. Plus Feminist book for Summer Challenge on, as they say, another network)
2. Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (Book from a Charity Sale for Summer Challenge)
3. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems (Book on a Boat for Beach Blanket Bingo)
4. Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (Finish an adult read for August's favorite author Raoul Dahl. Also counts for book with same name as a song on Popsugar)
5. My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel (Choose-your-adventure for Summer Challenge)
6. The Real Nick and Nora: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics (Fighting against final renewal from library)
7. Montana 1948 (50 States; Western from Summer Challenge)
8. A Cold Day For Murder (50 States/Alaska; monthly read for another group)
9. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot: The Autobiography of a Dangerous Man
10. "Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius" (and "Baby HP") from The Big Book of Science Fiction (Latin America Reading Week)


Month 10: Read one of your favorite foods - Candy Corn I hate picking favorites, for anything, but because I'm gearing this month's reads toward Halloween, I will go with the one thing I still eat every October.
C - Constantia in The Daughters of the Late Colonel
A - Sir Andrew in In the Fog
N - Capt. Roland Nair in The Laughing Monsters: A Novel
D - Diesel in Wicked Appetite
Y - Yazmine in Beast
C - Paulo Coelho's The Devil and Miss Prym
O - Carol O'Toole in Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
R - Geoffrey Rowland in The Blood Red Cross
N - Nicholas Ransom in Hallowe'en Party


Month 11: Read 3 or 4 books by authors you've never read before, but have been meaning to
1. John Updike / The Witches of Eastwick
2. Robert Louis Stevenson / The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
3. Edith Wharton / Xingu
4. Kurt Vonnegut / 2 B R 0 2 B
5. Allegra Goodman / The Cookbook Collector


Month 12: Read your favorite Book Crush's name - Jamie Fraser from Outlander Another favorite? Ugh! Let's go with my most recent; he's not so bad.
J - Jamie Watson in A Study in Charlotte
A - Stale Aune in The Snowman
M - Min Jin Lee's Pachinko
I - Ishmael in Moby Dick
E -Eleanor in Mr. Dickens and His Carol

I thought I'd start with All About You: Part 1, but GoodReads won't let me in; says that group is secret. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Or maybe it's a sign that I'm overcommitting.

December 23
96 pages


December 24
71 pages

Current Total: 1,924,361 (We're getting close)

Um, no! But I will commit to reading one book from each year. Since I mostly read older works, it will be good to "stretch."

2009: Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story
Nuclear Jellyfish CD
2010: Bite Me
Black Butler, Vol. 1
Wicked Appetite
The Cookbook Collector
2011: Ready Player One
1Q84
Heat Lightning
The Snowman
2012: A Catered St. Patrick's Day
Fun House
Crooked Man
2013: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
Miss Garnet's Angel
Beast
The Property
Flip: The Inside Story of TV's First Black Superstar
2014: A Horse Walks Into a Bar
A Most Imperfect Union: A Contrarian History of the United States
Meet Your Baker
The Laughing Monsters: A Novel
My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
2015: Dark Chocolate Demise
Public Library and Other Stories
The Nakeds
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 4: Last Days
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
2016: A Study in Charlotte
2017: The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time
Turtles All the Way Down
Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Manhattan Beach
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Harriet Tubman: A Life From Beginning to End
Death and Night
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Pachinko
Mr. Dickens and His Carol
2018: Leah on the Offbeat
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World
My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar

And I've got one more qualifier going, which would bring me to a nice round 45, about 40 more than I would have guessed. Not too shabby.

I'll go for 20; most of my book clubs read new-to-me anyway.

1. Robert Bolaño 2. Nikolai Gogol 3. Lucy Knisley
4. Hayden Carruth 5. John Connolly 6. Brooke Gladstone
7. Kazuo Ishiguro 8. Yasutaka Tsutsui 9. Jenn McKinlay
10. Ursula Le Guin 11. Alexander Kuprin 12. Salley Vickers
13. John Green 14. Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
15. David Grossman 16. Elizabeth Peters
17. Margaret Atwood 18. Zeina Abirached 19. Winifred Watson
20. Isis Crawford

FINISHED! 20/20
That's through mid-March, so I guess I'll keep counting...


21. Ali Smith 22. Stephen King 23. Anya von Bremzen
24. Katherine Mansfield 25. Ernest Cline 26. Nancy Atherton
27. Stephen Fry 28. Eça de Queirós 29. Fran Ross
30. Robert Rankin 31. Jane Mendelsohn 32. Tim Dorsey
33. Anthony Bourdain 34. Christopher Moore

34/60?

Looks like I never mentioned that I'm working of the Scavenger Hunt for this one. I hope to find time soon to post my progress, but it may be after Boxing Day.
(Did the word list get longer than in the original post? I don't have a lot of these words. I guess I'll try skimming through the books I haven't returned yet.)

December 13
17 pages

Current Total: 1,878,916

The Star by Arthur C Clarke (sorry, title too generic to search this database)
December 9
4 pages


December 11
368 pages


Current total: 1,867,517

December 7th
320 pages

Group Total: 1,847,273

Is this one still open to start? I'd love to pay tribute to the movie by playing along. It will probably take me a while, though, as I'd like to try for the tasks (rather than Spell-ing).

December 4th
24 pages (I read it on my phone, so I picked an average p.# and a cover I liked)

CURRENT TOTAL: 1,832,806

I wish I felt up to Option 1, but maybe I should go for another scavenger hunt. But first maybe I better learn to use the "spoiler" option so my entries don't run for pages on end.

Hmm. What do I need on my tree? GOT 'EM. CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

L: L. Frank Baum's A Kidnapped Santa Claus
I: I Saw Three Ships by Arthur Quiller-Couch
G: Good Time Charlie from Damon Runyon's Dancing Dan's Christmas
H: Harris, Joanne's Chocolat
T: The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather
S: Star, The by Arthur C. Clarke

O: O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi
R: Roberto Bolaño's By Night in Chile
N: Night Before Christmas, The by Nikolai Gogol
A: Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas: A Holiday Mystery
M: Michael DeForge's Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero
E: Esme in J.D. Salinger's For Esme--With Love and Squalor
N: Neil Gaiman's American Gods
T: Trickster/The Crooked Man in The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
S: Standing Woman by Yasutaka Tsutsui

T: The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time by Brooke Gladstone
I: I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
N: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
S: Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey by Hayden Carruth
E: Evelyn Waugh's "Bella Fleece Gave a Party"
L: Lucy Knisley's Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

(What the heck. It's a goal. Just like my sanity surviving the season.)
As of 12/8/17: 6/21
As of 12/24/17: 9/21
As of 12/31/17: 10/21
As of 1/7/18: 13/21
As of 1/15/18: 15/21
As of 1/22/18: 18/21
As of 1/27: 19/21
As of 1/31: 21/21

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

256 pages


353 pages


213 pages

Balancing commitments, so all November 30.

Group Total: 1,825,798

I'm in. Let's say Freestyle for now.
But just so I know, is this Duration: 1 December - 31 January or Notes: There is no time limit or page requirement for this challenge?

I'll give Option 3 a go, starting with the one I recently finished. It'll probably be January before I can get back to these, but that's why I love the Set Your Own Pacers.

_1. And Then There Were None - 10/18/17
_2. Hercule Poirot's Christmas: A Holiday Mystery - 1/4/18
_3. Murder on the Links - 6/1/18
_4. Cat Among the Pigeons - 7/10/18
_5. Hallowe'en Party - 10/30/18
_6. The Girl in the Train: A Short Story - 3/18/19
_7. The Under Dog and Other Stories - 5/21/19
_8. Poirot Investigates: Eleven Complete Mysteries - 5/2/19
_9. Murder on the Orient Express - 10/14/19
10. The Murder at the Vicarage - 11/8/19
11. Evil Under the Sun - 9/3/20 (oh my, it's certainly been a while)

I have a question about this challenge. Is this the only list we can work off, or are other lists of banned books eligible? For instance, maybe I missed them, but there seem to be some books in the drawing that aren't on the list.
Thanks

I feel I need to be reading more of these (and it's open-ended), so I'm going for Rebel.
1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2. Fahrenheit 451
3. A Wrinkle in Time

A
Affluently
Ambassador: Chocolat (p. 106)
Antecedent
Archetype: If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating (p. 186); Chocolat (p. 76)
Augury: Chocolat (p. 54)
Auspice
Avant-garde

B
Begetter
Beginning: They Both Die at the End (p. 225)
Boding
Bona Fide: The Big Book of Science Fiction (p.270)
Breakthrough: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 228)
Bulge

C
Carrier
Catalyst
Center: The Penultimate Peril (p. 119)
Chaperone
Coinage: White Truffles in Winter (p. 49)
Colonizer
Commander
Commissionaire: Hercule Poirot's Christmas (p. 155)
Conductor:
Controller
Coxswain
Creation: The Penultimate Peril (p. 265)
Criterion
Cutting-edge

D
Delegate
Demiurgic
Derivation
Detachment
Developer
Dignitary
Director: White Truffles in Winter (p. 36)
Discoverer
Dispatcher
Divination: Chocolat (p. 52)
Docent

E
Embryonic
Eminence
Emissary
Encouragement
Endemic
Envoy
Escort: The Penultimate Peril (p. 115); By Night in Chile (p. 22)
Exemplar
Exhibitor
Explorer
Extraction

F
Façade: Chocolat (p.249); American Gods (p. 43)
Fatidic
Flag-bearer
Focus: The Penultimate Peril (p. 25)
Forefront
Foreground
Forepart
Forewarning
Formative
Founder
Fountainhead
Front Line
Frontage
Frontispiece: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 161)

G
Generator
Genie: Chocolat (p. 10)
Genius: Steampunk: Poe ("The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather," p. 219); Fairest: In All the Land (p. 111); The End (p. 19); The Star (p. 6)
Go-between
Gofer
Go-getter
Governor: Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero (p. 1)
Grandiose
Groundbreaker
Guiding Light
Guiding Spirit
Guru

H
Harbinger
Heavyweight: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 226)
Helms person
Herald: They Both Die at the End (p. 5)

I
Ideal: Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero (p. 7)
Immigrant: If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating (p. 130)
In the Beginning
Indigenous: Chocolat (p. 253)
Industrialist
Ingenious
Innovation
Invention: White Truffles in Winter (p. 72); They Both Die at the End (p. 299); The Penultimate Peril (p. 288)

J
Jejune
Journey: Drawing from Memory (p. 35); The Penultimate Peril (p. 337); A Kidnapped Santa Claus (p. 12); The End (p. 40)
Judicious

K
Key Player
Kindred
Kingpin

L
Leading Edge
Lightening Rod
Limelight
Lodestar
Lookout: The End (p. 34)
Lure: Chocolat (p. 56)

M
Magnate
Manager: The Penultimate Peril (p. 54)
Manifestation
Mantic (FreeDictionary WotD 12/1):
Maverick
Mediator
Mentor: If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating (p. 125)
Messenger: The Allegra Biscotti Collection (p. 87)

N
Navigator
New Wave: The Big Book of Science Fiction (p. 609)
Nonconformist
Notability
Novelty

O
Obverse: American Gods (p. 95)
Omen
One in a million
Optimum
Origin: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 234)
Originator
Outrider

P
Pacesetter
Paradigm: American Gods (p. 249)
Paramount
Pathfinder
Peerless
Pilot: The End (p. 73); By Night in Chile (p. 24)
Pioneer
Portent
Precocious
Precursor
Prequel
Presage
Primary: The End (p. 115)
Prime Example
Primogenitor
Principal: Steampunk: Poe ("The Spectacles," p. 190); Drawing from Memory (p. 14)
Prognostication
Prolific
Prophecy: The Star (p.2)
Prophet: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 223)
Proscenium
Protagonist
Prototype

Q
Quantum Leap
Quest: Fairest: In All the Land (p. 96); American Gods (p. 97)
Quixotic
Quondam

R
Rare Bird
Reconnoiterer
Recruiter
Rector
Right up Front
Ringleader
Rudder: Steampunk: Poe ("The Balloon-Hoax," p. 151)

S
Schlepper
Scout
Settler
Shepherd: Chocolat (p. 14)
Skipper: Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut (p. 50)
Sleuth: Fairest: In All the Land (p. 125)
Source: Chocolat (p. 77)
Spark: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 150); If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating (p. 131); Chocolat (p. 66)
Spark Plug
Spearhead
Spotter
Squatter
State of the art
Stimulating
Superintendent: Steampunk: Poe ("The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather," (p. 202)
Superior: "The Dog-Meat General" in A World of Great Stories (p. 787)
Suzerain
Symbol: American Gods (p. 138); The Star (p. 1)

T
Temptation: Chocolat (p. 78)
Theoretical
Title Role
Token: American Gods (p. 108)
Top Spot
Trailblazer
Trendsetter

U
Unconventional
Unique: Fairest: In All the Land (p. 10); They Both Die at the End (p. 292)
Upstart
Usher: Steampunk: Poe ("The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather," p. 203; "The Fall of the House of Usher" but of course, p. 36 )

V
Vanguard
Vanward
Vatic
Ventral
Veritable
Vestige
Vicissitudes
Visionary
Vital
Voyage: White Truffles in Winter (p. 100); American Gods (p. 288); By Night in Chile (p. 22)

W
Wellspring
Whilom
Whistle: Fahrenheit 451 (p. 111)
Wink: Chocolat (p. 157); A Child's Christmas in Wales (p. 21)

Z
Zealot
Zealous

Current Count: 78