Connie ’s Comments (group member since Nov 11, 2013)

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I like to read a mix of older and younger authors, and my library book discussion groups lean toward recent books by younger authors. As Kathleen wrote, the younger writers often do not publish their date of birth. With so much identity theft, I think they are making a good choice. But it does make it difficult to claim the young style sometimes, even as you see a twenty-something author in the author photograph.

Thank you, Rosemary, for all you do for the group. I hope things go well for you during your busy time.

Round 2
15.2 Olympic Scavenger

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Badminton - Option B page 63
"Hi, Judy!" she called to the little girl who was playing in the yard with a midget badminton set.

+15 task
+ 5 before 1999 (published 1930)

Task total: 20
Season total: 755

Round 2
15.1 Olympic Scavenger

Dickens the Dramatist: Plays by Charles Dickens
by Charles Dickens

This is a collection of six plays originally published from 1836-1867.

Horse - Option B page 94
"By the bye, I have left the new horse at your garden gate this moment."

+15 task
+ 5 before 1999 (most recent play published in 1867)

Task total: 20
Season total: 735

Round 2
10.8 Pole Vault

The Sea by John Banville

Booker Prize 2005

Task total: 10
Finisher bonus: 100
Season total: 715

Working on a Plan

10.1 Exception to the Rule (75-150 pg)
✓ Felicity by Mary Oliver (81 pages)

✓ 10.2 Gothic Fiction
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart #80

10.3 Thankful for Family
✓ Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (53X)

10.4 Significant Year
✓ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James 1972

10.5 Lucky Sevens
✓ The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

✓ 10.6 Elementary My Dear Reader
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose Pg 38 gold
Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette

10.7 Helicopter Season
✓ You Are Here by David Nicholls
Close To Me by Amanda Reynolds

10.8 BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival
✓ A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey
Close To Me by Amanda Reynolds
The Coffin Tree by Gwendoline Butler

10.9 Keep it Short
✓ More of This World or Maybe Another by Barb Johnson (20.1)
The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
Tenth of December by George Saunders
Servants of the Map: Stories by Andrea Barrett

10.10 Group Reads
✓ The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

20.1 Back to School
✓ War Trash by Ha Jin (Boston Univ Professor)
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois (taught at Atlanta University)
Jeffrey Eugenides
Dan Brown
Joyce Carol Oates
Wallace Stegner
William Kent Krueger

20.2 Math
✓ Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy
A Time to Love and a Time to Die by Erich Maria Remarque
All That I Am by Anna Funder
I Am the Clay by Chaim Potok
A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher by Sue Halpern

20.3 Chemistry
✓ Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki (Young)
The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes 1913 Mystery
The House of the Whispering Pines by Anna Katharine Green 1910 Mystery
On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

20.4 Home Economics
✓ Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

20.5 Speech and Debate
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
✓ Slade House by David Mitchell born 1969

20.6 Literature
✓ Atonement by Ian McEwan

20.7 Art (trilogy)
✓ The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

20.8 Fall Authors (born in year ending in 9, 0, 1)
✓ The Chosen by Chaim Potok born 1929
Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson born 1970

20.9 haLLowEEn
✓ Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
✓ The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

20.10 Zaphabetical
✓ Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

COMPLETED

10.9 Javelin Throw

The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton

+10 task
+ 5 before 1999 (Published 1922)

Task total: 15
Season total: 605

I might have to switch some books around later, but this was a fun task to plan.

39 points total - Completed

FIX - 13 points
✓ F2 Ph in title
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn
✓ I7 I in name
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
✓ X1 Title word begins with "ex"
The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton

COZY - 18 points
✓ C2 MPG Classics
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
✓ O1 Page Count 100-199
Mr. Nightingale's Diary: A Farce In One Act by Charles Dickens (104 pages)
✓ Z1 Author's last name has a Z
The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
✓ Y1 Author's first name ends in Y
Miss Pinkerton by Mary Roberts Rinehart

KEG - 8 points
✓ K1 Title word ends in K
Take It Back by Kia Abdullah
✓ E2 Set in any European country (England, UK)
Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World by Simon Callow
✓ G2 Gothic
The Only One Left by Riley Sager (page 2 of list)

Round 2
10.5 400 metres

Table for Two by Amor Towles

464 pages

Task total: 10
Season total: 590

15.10 Olympic Scavenger

Never Change by Elizabeth Berg

Volleyball - Option B page 4
"I sold the tickets and I decorated the gym and I helped win the volleyball games . . ."

Task total: 15
Finisher bonus: 100
Season total: 580

Round 2
10.7 Discus Throw

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

+10 task (ring)

Task total: 10
Season total: 465

Round 2
10.2 Long Jump

A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano

Historical fiction

Task total: 10
Season total: 455

15.9 Olympic Scavenger

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Dive - Option B page 9
"When it leaps into the air in that wonderful arcing dive that foxes have perfected for plunging headfirst into deep snow or tall grass, this fox comes up with no wiggling mouse or vole."

Task total: 15
Season total: 445

Round 2
10.4 High Jump

James by Percival Everett

Rating 4.57

Task total: 10
Season total: 430

Round 2
10.1 100 metres

No Thoroughfare by Charles Dickens

+10 task (132 pages)
+ 5 before 1999 (published in 1867)

Task total: 15
Season total: 420

Round 2
10.6 Hurdles

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Contemporary Fiction

Task total: 10
Season total: 405

15.8 Olympic Scavenger

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

Canoe or Canoeing Option A - Two friends were canoeing the Danube River in a storm. "The willow branches tore our hands as we seized them to stop the canoe."

+15 task
+ 5 before 1999 (published 1907)

Task total: 20
Season total: 395

Round 2
10.10 1500 metres

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

+10 task (528 pages)
+ 5 big

Task total: 15
Season total: 375

Round 2
10.3 Shot Put

A Paris Affair by Tatiana de Rosnay

Rating: 2.81

Task total: 10
Season total: 360

10.9 Javelin Throw

Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano

Task total: 10
Finisher bonus: 100
Season total: 350