Bucket’s Comments (group member since Feb 13, 2015)

Bucket’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.5 Fabulous Firsts

Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner

M-V

Task total = 15
Season total = 275

20.10 Multi-generational family saga

Early Warning by Jane Smiley

+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.1 - I read Some Luck in Dec 2020; 10.2 - Jane; 10.4 - pub'd 2015; 10.5)

Task total: 40
Season total: 260

I didn't participate in the challenge last season, but assuming it's okay to claim this for a book by an author I read a different book by in December, January or February? Or is this task off limits to me?

Thanks!

10.2 Name

Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee

+10 Task

Task total: 10
Season total: 220

20.6 Achilles

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
#140 on Best Gay Fiction list

+20 Task
+5 Oldies (pub'd 1995)
+15 Combo (10.3, 10.4, 10.9-Baileys BYS in Boys, AILE in Michael)

Task total: 40
Season total: 210

10.4 Spring

Saturday by Ian McEwan
Pub'd 2005

+10 Task
+10 1001 Books

Post Total: 20
Season Total: 170

15.4 Fantastic Firsts

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

J-U

+15 Task

Task total = 15
Season total = 150

Remaining letters
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15.3 Fantastic Firsts

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

I-T

+15 Task

Task total = 15
Season total = 135

Remaining letters
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15.2 Fantastic Firsts

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

L-S

+15 Task

Task total = 15
Season total = 120

Remaining letters
ABCD FGHIJK M
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Just claimed The Old Drift which should count for Zambia!

15.1 Fantastic Firsts

The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux

E-P

+15 Task

Task total = 15
Season total = 105

Remaining letters
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20.7 - Real Person

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
See posts 43-44 in discussion for this task

+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.9 MERLOT, MERL in author name, OT in title; 20.10 - 3 generations of each of 3 families)
+10 Non-Western (Namwali Serpell born in and citizen of Zambia)
+5 Jumbo (576 pages)

Task total = 45
Season total = 90

Yes, it's fantastic. Best book of 2021 for me so far!

10.9 - Pub Trivia

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
ABSINTHE - ABSI in ISABEL, N in SUNS, THE in THE

+10 Task
+5 Jumbo (622 pages)

Task total = 15
Season total = 45

10.9 - Pub Trivia

A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter
CABERNET - All letters in CELEBRATING

+10 Task
+5 Jumbo (608 pages)

Task total = 15
Season total = 30

10.3 - Naughty

Fatherland by Robert Harris
First published 1991

+10 Task
+5 Oldies (pub'd 1991)

Task total = 15
Season total = 15

(This is my first post -- hopefully I got it right!)

I just finished The Old Drift and I think it may fit this task. This book has 10 different characters whose perspective we spend time in (they are given roughly equal weight throughout). Most are fictional, but two are real:

Matha Mwamba (https://news.wosu.org/ideastream/2020...)

Percy M. Clark (https://www.npr.org/2019/03/30/708302...)

Both real names are used in the novel.

My plan:

15.1 E-P The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux
15.2 L-S The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
15.3 I-T The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
15.4 M-W Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
15.5 H-V The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
15.6 J-U Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
15.7 C-R Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
15.8 A-Y The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
15.9 F-N Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
15.10 B-Q The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth

Unused letters: DGK - OXZ

Alt: G-O Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez

Great, thank you!

Hi there, I'm a longtime lurker planning to join in the challenge for the first time in the Spring. I want to use The Hunchback of Notre-Dame for H-V for this sub-challenge and would like to clarify that I'm handling it correctly.

The MPE is called The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, but the original title (and the title on the Bloom Canon) is Notre-Dame of Paris. The Bloom Canon matters for this one because it does have a YA BPL shelving and I'm not finding it in Lexile (only seems to be abridged/illustrated/otherwise adapted editions there).

So my question is can this book be used for H-V, or is it really an N-V and therefore not a fit for the sub-challenge?