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

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I voted for Easter because it contains a T and many books contain the word THE. I was quickly able to find these books:
The Secret Agent
Returning to Earth
The Razor's Edge
I had to search more to find books to fit Songkran, but I found:
Angle of Repose
Angel of Greenwood YA
Never Say Never

20.2 The Keys to the Kingdom

Legacy by Jeanette Baker

+20 task
+10 combo 10.7 Genre-Rich (Historical Fiction, Cultural>Scotland); 10.8 Singles

Task total: 30
Season total: 570

10.5 Zane

The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf

+10 task
+ 5 combo 20.8 Dead Sea

Task total: 15
Season total: 540

10.1 List Lovers

Best Southern Books list
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

Task total: 10
Season total: 525

Since I haven't used a list yet, I'm changing mine to the "Best Southern Books" list. I haven't had time to read the books in Scotland that I was considering in message 5.

Possible books

10.1 Popular

10.2 Easter
✓ The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore

10.3 Shakespeare (Best Endings list)
Atonement by Ian McEwan

10.4 Name
✓ The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
✓ Eternal by Lisa Scottoline
✓ Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor

10.5 Database Anniversary
Click Here For Murder by Donna Andrews 2003 Mystery

10.6 Space Out
Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler
All Systems Red by Martha Wells

10.7 Three Favorite Women
Anne Tyler
Willa Cather
Ann Patchett

10.8 Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished (Set 50% or author born in Ukraine)
✓ A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert

10.9 Dual (timelines)
✓ The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican

10.10 Group Read
Where You Once Belonged by Kent Haruf
Beyond This Place by A.J. Cronin
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin

15.1 Northern Africa
The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (Algeria)
✓ Our Riches by Kaouther Adimi (Algeria)

15.2 Western Africa
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson (Nigeria)
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo (The Bambara are an ethnic group in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Senegal)

15.3 Central Africa
The Land at the End of the World by António Lobo Antunes (Angola)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Congo)
Tropic Moon by Georges Simenon (Gabon)

15.4 Eastern Africa
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron (Rwanda)
Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh (Kenya)

15.5 Southern Africa
Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch (Namibia)
Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott (Botswana)

15.6 Central Asia
✓ Apples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared by Christopher Robbins (Kazakhstan)

15.7 East Asia
✓ A Quiet Place by Seichō Matsumoto (Japan) 1975 Mystery
Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan's Mountains & Coasts in Search of My Family's Past by Jessica J. Lee (Taiwan)
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam (Hong Kong)

15.8 South Asia
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka)
✓ The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly (India) 2001 Mystery

15.9 Southeast Asia
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Vietnam)
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (Malaysia)
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli (Vietnam)
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

15.10 Western Asia
✓ Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris (Saudi Arabia) 2007 Mystery
Kingdom of Strangers by Zoë Ferraris (Saudi Arabia) 2012 Mystery
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak (Turkey)
Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

20.1 Pulitzer (pub 1847-1911)
✓ Bleak House by Charles Dickens

20.2 Prize (Pulitzer)
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

20.3 Our Town (small town)
✓ A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle by Liza Campbell
✓ When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
✓ Corrag by Susan Fletcher
✓ The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

20.4 The Reivers (thieves, robbers, outlaws)
The Grifters by Jim Thompson 1963 Mystery
The Untold by Courtney Collins

20.5 The Killer Angels (Civil Wars)
The March by E.L. Doctorow

20.6 The Color Purple (BBC most inspiring novel list)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

20.7 The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (author immigrated)
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

20.8 Texas Independence (Author who was born in, died in, or currently lives in Texas)
✓ These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner

20.9 Birthdays (cake)
✓ The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
✓ The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
✓ The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
✓September by Rosamunde Pilcher

20.10 Between the Wars (1919-1938)
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne 1922 Mystery

20.9 Madame Bovary

Growing Up Biden by Valerie Biden Owens

+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.9 Discovery (interest in politics and history)
+10 aged (born 11/5/45; age 76)

Task total: 35
Season total: 515

Lovely cookies! Happy Valentine's Day!

20.1 Maid in Waiting

The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr

This is book #1 of his "A Novel of the Civil War" trilogy.

+20 task
+15 combo 10.6 NYE Countdown (watch); 20.2 The Keys of the Kingdom (1997, 1641 ratings); 20.8 Dead Sea (HB)
+10 aged (born 1946, 76 years old)

Task total: 45
Season total: 480

10.4 Vocation

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

+10 task
+ 5 combo 20.8 Dead Sea (MB)

Task total: 15
Season total: 435

20.10 Pulp

The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen

+20 task
+15 combo 10.7 Genre-Rich (Mystery and Historical); 20.2 Keys to the Kingdom (2534 ratings, pub 1929); 20.4 Day of the Jackal (thriller)

Task total: 35
Season total: 415

LOL, Elizabeth! Thanks.

20.5 Wheels

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

+20 task
+10 combo 10.6 NYE Countdown (hour); 20.7 John Adams (set around 1825 per Wikipedia)
+ 5 jumbo (576 pages)

Task total: 35
Season total: 380

I would like to use this task as a combo for The Old Curiosity Shop. Per Wikipedia, the story is set around 1825. See the first paragraph under Plot--Background.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old...

10.6 NYE Countdown

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier
Word: time

Task total: 10
Season total: 345

10.2 Short

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Lexile 940

Task total: 10
Season total: 335

I'm leisurely working through the RwS Mystery Challenge, am half way through a Read Around the States Challenge, and am almost done with a UK Historic Counties Challenge. I'm continuing to read Dickens' novels and stories. I would like to read more recently published books to balance out the number of classics I read the last few years.

Sometimes I try to stick to my reading plans, but my plans have mostly been forgotten the last few months. I've enjoyed most of my choices, and that's what's important.

20.2 The Keys to the Kingdom

Maigret and the Toy Village by Georges Simenon

+20 task 710 ratings, published 1944
+25 combo 10.2 Short (139 pages); 10.6 NYE Countdown (time); 10.7 Genre-Rich (mystery, cultural>France); 20.4 Day of the Jackal (thriller); 20.9 Madame Bovary (Maigret)
+10 Lost in translation (from French)
+10 Aged (age 86, 1903-1989)

Task total: 65
Season total: 325

10.7 Genre-Rich

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

Main page genres: Historical fiction, Mystery, Cultural>Asia

Task total: 10
Season total: 260

20.8 Dead Sea

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

Task total: 20
Season total: 240