Deedee’s Comments (group member since Aug 04, 2010)

Deedee’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Task 10.5 Zane
List of Western Writers
Glendon Swarthout


The Old Colts (1985) by Glendon Swarthout (Paperback, 239 pages)

+10 Task
+05 Combo (#20.2 (5k or fewer ratings and published (1901-2000)))

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 115 + 15 = 130

Oops, misread the task concerning “no sub-titles”. I haven’t used List yet but am still considering options for it.

Anyways, here’s my next book claimed:


Task 15.2

{G-H} {141-180/541-580} {1963-1977}
The Firedrake (1966) by Cecelia Holland (Paperback, 176 pages)

+20 Task

Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 95 + 20 = 115

Task 10.8 Singles
Read a book with a one-word title (no subtitles) or a book whose author has just one name (for example Homer, Stendhal, Colette, Saki).

Renegades: Born in the USA (2021) by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen (Hardcover, 320 pages) [973.932]

+10 Task

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 95 + 10 = 105

Task 20.1 Maid in Waiting
Read a book that is part of a trilogy OR in which the series name contains the word "CHRONICLE/S".

#1 of a trilogy:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/2586...

Smoke Eaters (Smoke Eaters #1) (2018) by Sean Grigsby (Goodreads Author) [ANGRY ROBOT] (Paperback, 336 pages)

+20 Task

Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 75 + 20 = 95

I'm looking for combo points. Does this count as a trilogy?

https://www.goodreads.com/series/4297...

The author wrote books #1, #2, and #3 as a series. Later, she added books #0, #00, #1.2, and #3.5. (Labelling a book #00 confuses me, but, whatever.)

I'm considering Book #2, Tatiana and Alexander (The Bronze Horseman #2) (2003) by Paullina Simons (Hardcover, 559 pages), for RWS 10.7

Task 20.8 Dead Sea (Ed's Task)
Read a book in which the author's first and last initial can be found in "KHIRBAT QUMRAN". Letters may only be used as often as they appear in those two words.

KhirbAt qumran

Mind Over Murder (Raven's Nest #1) (2011) by Allison Kingsley

+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.4 set in bookstore)

Task Total: 20 + 05 = 25

Grand Total: 50 + 25 = 75

Task 10.4 Vocation
Read any book that takes place in a library or bookstore OR a biography/memoir of a bookstore owner or librarian.

This is set in a bookstore named "The Cookbook Nook"

Final Sentence (Cookbook Nook Mystery #1) (2013) by Daryl Wood Gerber

+10 Task
+05 Combo (#20.4 MPG “thriller”)

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 35 + 15 = 50

I'd like to lock in
the top genre:
Science Fiction
and
the bottom genre
Cultural > Canada

for
A Bridge of Years (1991) by Robert Charles Wilson

Task 15.01

{E-F} {381-420/781-820} {1918-1932}
Show Boat (1926) by Edna Ferber (Hardcover, 398 pages) MPE version

+15 Task

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 15 + 15 = 30

Task 10.10 Group Reads
Read one of these books recommended by a fellow RwS member:
Kathleen (itpdx)

Bewilderment (2021) by Richard Powers (Hardcover, First Edition, 278 pages)

+10 Task
+05 Combo (#10.6 TIME:bewIlderMEnT)

Task Total: 00 + 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 00 + 15 = 15

Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "I am looking forward to another book by Elmer Kelton. I read The Time It Never Rained. This is what I said then:
The best of any genre is usually very good. This is p..."

Yeah! Another Elmer Kelton fan! I like his books so much more than those of Louis L'Amour. Not that there's anything wrong with Louis L'Amour -- just that they have very different writing styles and very different kinds of heroes, and I prefer Elmer Kelton's ranchers to Louis L'Amour gunslingers.

The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout would also appeal to 'literary fiction' lovers. It's about a gunslinger who is dying of cancer. Glendon Swarthout was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize despite being a genre 'western' writer.

Spur Award Winners (see: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...) are generally really good.

Task 10.3 Back to School
Read a book written by an author who has a current or previous profession of educator.

Goodreads Bio states:
…a former academic, adjunct, cashier, blueberry-harvester, and kentuckian, Alix E. Harrow is now a full-time writer…

A Spindle Splintered (2021) by Alix E. Harrow (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 128 pages)

+10 Task

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 685 + 10 = 695

The Firedrake came in at the library, yeah! And, surprise -- it was published in 1966, not 1960. I checked online and most sites say 1966, plus Cecelia Holland was born in 1943. In 1960 she was 17; in 1966 she was 23, a more reasonable age for a first novel. So I've reshuffled my list a bit to accommodate the 1966 date.

My question: The Mystic Masseur is 215 pages. Enlarging the cover, it says that this book has two novels included,
'The Mystic Masseur' and 'Miguel Street'. The second most common edition is The Mystic Masseur, 208 pages, only 'The Mystic Masseur', no 'Miguel Street' included. I have the 208 page edition in my house (thanks to a pre-Covid Library sale). Can I use the solo 'The Mystic Masseur' for {N-O} {181-220/581-620} {1948-1962}?? Thanks.

Task 15.4 12 letters

Second Nature (1994) by Alice Hoffman (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 272 pages)

+15 Task
+100 point for finishing all 10

Task Total: 15 + 100 = 115

Grand Total: 570 + 115 = 685

Task 10.3 Back to School
Read a book written by an author who has a current or previous profession of educator.

Goodreads Bio states:
Presently, she teaches an array of literature and composition courses in the SUNY system as an associate professor.

An Unnatural Life (2020) by Erin K. Wagner

+10 Task

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 560 + 10 = 570

I too will post a list of possible/probable options

20.1 Trilogy/Chronicle
hundreds of possibilities but I am definitely planning to read:
Children of Dune (Dune #3) (1976) by Frank Herbert

20.2 fewer than 5K ratings and published 1901-2000
literally thousands of possibilities
Poul Anderson (only 2 books of his don't fit)
Fortress of Eagles (Fortress #2) (1998) by C.J. Cherryh (#2 of 5 book series)
The Day the Cowboys Quit (1971) by Elmer Kelton (Spur Award winner)
The Book of Skulls (1971) by Robert Silverberg (much-nominated science fiction novel)

20.3 Pirates
Pirate Latitudes (2009) by Michael Crichton
Beauvallet (1929) by Georgette Heyer
Steel (2011) by Carrie Vaughn

And the Piratica trilogy by the queen of creepy horror novels
Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas (Piratica #1) (2004) by Tanith Lee
Piratica II: Return to Parrot Island (Piratica #2) (2006) by Tanith Lee
The Family Sea (Piratica #3) (2007) by Tanith Lee

20.4 Thriller
Perfect Little Children (2020) by Sophie Hannah
Intimacies (2021) by Katie Kitamura
The Einstein Prophecy (2015) by Robert Masello
The Sanatorium (Detective Elin Warner #1) (2021) by Sarah Pearse
Amazonia (2002) by James Rollins
Dial A for Aunties (Aunties #1) (2021) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) by Stuart Turton

20.5 British Novel on TV
Emma (1815) by Jane Austen (the only one of Austen's six novels that I haven't read)
Arthur & George (2005) by Julian Barnes
Jamaica Inn (1936) by Daphne du Maurier
Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War (French Trilogy #2) (1993) by Sebastian Faulks
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) by Thomas Hardy
Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley (I read this one in the 1970s, due for a re-read)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell (I read this one in the 1970s, due for a re-read)
Guards! Guards! (Discworld #8) (1989) by Terry Pratchett
The Thirteenth Tale (2006) by Diane Setterfield

20.6 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
The House of the Spirits (1982) by Isabel Allende
The Jazz Palace (2015) by Mary Morris
John Henry Days (2001) by Colson Whitehead
maybe something by Samuel R. Delany

20.7 Timeframe: (1735-1826)
Emma (1815) by Jane Austen (the only one of Austen's six novels that I haven't read) (yes, on two lists!)
Remarkable Creatures (2009) by Tracy Chevalier
Napoleon's Pyramids (Ethan Gage #1) (2007) by William Dietrich
The Glass-Blowers (1963) by Daphne du Maurier
The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 (2021) by Joseph J. Ellis
The Gods Will Have Blood (1912) by Anatole France
The Gods Are Thirsty: A Novel of the French Revolution (1996) by Tanith Lee (by the queen of creepy horror novels)
A Place of Greater Safety (1992) by Hilary Mantel

And ... I have another plan! Amazing that I changed out one book and had to change out four books.

✅ 1873-1887
{S-T-U} {301-340/701-740} {1873-1887}
Cousin Henry (1879) by Anthony Trollope (Paperback, 336 pages)

1888-1902
{L-M} {221-260/621-660} {1888-1902}
Mrs Craddock (1902) by W. Somerset Maugham (Paperback, 256 pages) MPE version

1903-1917
{C-D} {421-460/821-860} {1903-1917}
Jennie Gerhardt (1911) by Theodore Dreiser (Paperback, 448 pages) MPE version

✅ 1918-1932
{E-F} {381-420/781-820} {1918-1932}
Show Boat (1926) by Edna Ferber (Hardcover, 398 pages)

1933-1947
{A-B} {261-300/661-700} {1933-1947}
The House in Paris (1935) by Elizabeth Bowen (Paperback, 269 pages)

✅1948-1962
{N-O} {181-220/581-620} {1948-1962}
The Suffrage of Elvira (1958) by V.S. Naipaul (Paperback, 206 pages)

✅ 1963-1977
{G-H} {141-180/541-580} {1963-1977}
The Firedrake (1966) by Cecelia Holland (Paperback, 176 pages)

✅ 1978-1992
{V-W-X-Y-Z} {341-380/741-780} {1978-1992}
Hearts (1980) by Hilma Wolitzer (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 368 pages)

1993-2007
{I-J-K} {101-140/501-540} {1993-2007}
Train Dreams (2002) by Denis Johnson (Hardcover, 116 pages)
OR
The Last Light of the Sun (2004) by Guy Gavriel Kay (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 501 pages)

2008-2022
{P-Q-R} {461-500/861-900} {2008-2022}
===> a list of 23 books <===

11/27/21 Updated to reflect publication date of The Firedrake as 1966 not 1960.

12/09/21 Updated to reflect changing out one book -- which results in changing out three books LOL

Task 10.9 Oxford (Rosemary's Task)

Oxford University colleges:
ALL Souls College

For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History (2009) by Sarah Rose [382.413]

+10 Task

Task Total: 10

Grand Total: 550 + 10 = 560

Do embedded genres qualify? Specifically,

thriller > mystery thriller

found in Dial A for Aunties

Thanks

Just FYI:
Books #2-8 of the DUNE series is part of the "Dune Chronicles" - though some editions of the books in the series don't have "Dune Chronicles" in grey scale and some editions of the books in the series do have "Dune Chronicles"

Here's a link to the Dune Chronicles series:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4593...