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

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Thank you, Joanna. Also Happy Canada Day to our northern neighbors who celebrated Canada Day on July 1st!

15.5 FA 24 Scrabble

10 points Q1 - Title word begins with Q

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

+15 task
+ 5 old ( pub 1978)

Task total: 20
Season total: 165

15.4 FA 24 Scrabble

1 point Tile I3 - Page Count 300-399 pages

More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova

Task total: 15
Season total: 145

15.15 FA 2015 Travel the United States

Read ten books set in ten different US states.

Lay Your Armor Down by Michael Farris Smith

Set in MS.

Task total: 15
Season total: 130

15.3 FA 24 Scrabble

The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

1 point Tile T1- Translated

The book is translated from Italian.

Task total: 15
Season total: 115

15.14 FA 2015 Travel the United States

Read ten books with each set in a different US state.

Closer Than You Know by Brad Parks

Set in VA.

Task total: 15
Season total: 100

15.13 FA 2015 Travel the United States

Read 10 books, each set in a different US State.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Set in ME.

Task total: 15
Season total: 85

15.12 FA 2015 Travel the United States

Read 10 books from 10 different states

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Set in WI.

Task total: 15
Season total: 70

15.2 FA24 Scrabble

Tile: 1 point E1 - Author's First Name Starts With E

Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell

+15 task
+ 5 Old (published in 1863)

Task total: 20
Season total: 55

15.11 FA 2015 Travel the United States

Read books set in 10 different states.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

Set in MD.

Task total: 15
Season total: 35

15.1 FA 24 Scrabble

Tile: 5 points K1 - Title Word Ends in K

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

+15 task
+ 5 old (published 1814)

Task total: 20
Season total: 20

20.8 Temple Bar Pub

Some People, Places, and Things That Will Not Appear in My Next Novel by John Cheever

For 20.8, in the story "The Lowboy": "Then Uncle Sidney noticed the fire and poured the contents of his whiskey glass onto the upholstery."

The stories in "Some People, Places, and Things That Will Not Appear in My Next Novel" were first published in "The New Yorker" or "Esquire" magazines.

"The Duchess," "The Golden Age," and "Boy in Rome" are set in Italy where the Cheever family lived for a year in 1956-7. "Brimmer" and "The Scarlet Moving Van" feature men who turn to the bottle, and the character Brimmer is known for his many sexual partners. "The Lowboy" tells about two brothers dealing with an inheritance. "The Wrysons" combines the fear of nuclear war with the comfort of baking. "A Miscellany of Characters That Will Not Appear" is an essay that suggests that Cheever would like to go in a new direction in his future work. "The Death of Justina," with its dark humor, is usually considered his best story in the collection. I enjoyed John Cheever's writing with his range of different stories.

+20 task
+10 review

Task total: 30
Season total: 865

20.3 Climate Policy

The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri

Politician/Political Event: Heinrich Himmler, Holocaust, Lebensborn homes for mothers giving birth to Aryan babies, helping Jewish children to escape to other countries.

It was 1939 in Nazi Germany, and Alliana had recently learned that she was a Mischling, a person with some Jewish ancestry. After losing her family, she was put to work caring for babies at a Lebensborn home. Heinrich Himmler wanted to increase the German population since so many men were lost in the last war. The homes were used for unwed pregnant mothers, and women who volunteered to bring Aryan babies into the world for adoption by Nazi families.

Alliana helped make improvements to the regimented way these babies were cared for. The lack of stimulation, good food, exercise, and playtime for the toddlers led to physical and emotional problems for some. She also met Karl, a SS officer who was doing humanitarian work in secret.

This novel was a combination of historical fiction and romance. Although I've read many other novels set in Nazi Germany, the Lebensborn home was a different and interesting setting. It was a suspenseful story as I wondered if Allina's Jewish heritage or Karl's secret activities would be discovered. "The Sunflower House" was a compelling story that kept my interest to the end.

+20 task
+10 review

Task total: 30
Season total: 835

20.8 Temple Bar Pub

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark

For 20.8 on page 77: "The usual," he said to the bartender, who nodded and put in his order with the cook before pouring him a tumbler of whiskey.

I spend hundreds of hours on observation and research. Profiling the different people in your life, finding the one I can befriend, the one who will lead me to you. When I'm done, I know everything I possibly can about you, and most of the people around you. By the time you're saying "nice to meet you," I've already known you for months.

Does this worry you? It should.

Meg is a con artist posing as a real estate agent. But her actions are based on obtaining justice from swindlers who harmed her or other people.

Kat is a journalist who blames Meg for a bad experience years ago. She's also interested in getting some good material to someday write a revealing crime work or a novel. She's assuming a different identity around Meg.

Kat and Meg play "cat and mouse," knowing that they are being observed by each other. However, an unlikely friendship also springs up. Can they trust each other or not?

After the reader gets to know about their lives and their motives, both Kat and Meg are very likable in their own ways. Is it a crime to seek revenge for past crimes against women--doing something criminal for a good reason? The book is an entertaining psychological thriller. It will make you think twice about what you decide to put on social media too.

+20 task
+10 review

Task total: 30
Season total: 805

15.10 CYOA

The Promise by Chaim Potok

Classics path task # 9: Read a book with a 9 in the year published (1969).

+15 task
+100 finisher bonus

Task total: 115
Season total: 775

There are so many good choices for summer! I'm going to pick Traveling in the United States for one subchallenge. Then I'll play Scrabble because I'm also reading some Classic and British books this summer, and there are lots of options.

Planning

FA 2015 Travel the United States - SECOND SUB-CHALLENGE COMPLETED

Travel the United States: Read 10 books, each set in a different US State or Washington, DC. The setting will be more than 50% in the designated state. Travelers may start their trip in any state. The state setting must be clear within the work to count, but locations within that state may be fictional. *A note to our international readers: As an alternative to book setting, author's state of birth may be considered on a case by case basis.

Land Cruisers will travel in such a way that each state visited is contiguous to the preceding state. Thus, you might start your trip in California, then travel to Nevada, Utah, Colorado, etc. (Ferry rides are available to/from Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine - see below.) This map may be helpful in planning your trip. This reader will receive a 10-point bonus for states 4-8 and a 15-point bonus for states 9-10. Land Cruisers will receive a 100-point completion bonus at the end of their trip. Itineraries do not need to be pre-approved, but there will be a thread where you can share.

Flight-seers need no itinerary and may travel to states in any order. This reader will receive a 10-point bonus for destinations 6-10. Flight-seers will receive a 50-point completion bonus at the end of their trip.

Tentative Books for a Flight-seer, traveling in any order:

✓ 15.11 MD - Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
✓ 15.17 CA - Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
✓ 15.12 WI - Bewilderment by Richard Powers
✓ 15.14 VA - Closer Than You Know by Brad Parks
✓ 15.13 ME - How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
✓ 15.15 MS - Lay Your Armor Down by Michael Farris Smith
✓ 15.16 WA - The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison
✓ 15.18 NY - The Brigadier and the Golf Widow by John Cheever
✓ 15.19 MN - Evergreen by Rebecca Rasmussen
✓ 15.20 IL - They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
______
OR - Tilt by Emma Pattee
OH - Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
TX - The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook
GA - Coming Up for Air by Patti Callahan Henry
MO - Tending Roses by Lisa Wingate
PA - The Haunted Lady by Mary Roberts Rinehart

________________________________________
FA 24 Scrabble, RwS Version - FIRST SUB-CHALLENGE COMPLETED

This Fall, we are going to play RwS Scrabble.

Find the available "tiles" here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

For tiles that link to a genre page or a listopia list (e.g., A1), you are limited to the first 200 books on the list (i.e., the first 4 pages on a genre page and the first 2 pages on a listopia list).

Each tile may only be used once. You may complete the challenge multiple times, but you may not reuse tiles.

TASKS:
Each task is a "tile" from the spreadsheet.
15.1 - A1 - Book 1
15.2 - N2 - Book 2
15.3 - D4 - Book 3
etc.
Each posted task scores 15 points.

QUIZ for 22 points:
✓ 15.5 10 points Q1 - Title Word Begins With Q
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
✓ 15.7 1 point U1 - Published in the 10s in any Century
Emma by Jane Austen
✓ 15.4 1 point I3 - Page Count 300-399
More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova
✓ 15.6 10 points Z1 - Author Last Name Has a Z
Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

IT for 2 points
✓ 15.10 1 point I4 - Illness
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
✓ 15.3 1 point T1 - Translated
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

CAKE for 10 points
✓ 15.9 3 points C2 - MPG Classic
Perestroika by Tony Kushner
✓ 15.8 1 point A6 - Author Last Name Has No A
Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner
✓ 15.1 - 5 points K1- Title Word Ends in K
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
✓ 15.2 1 point E1 - Author First Name Starts With E
Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
__________________________________________________
Third Sub-Challenge - SU 23 Favorites

Read 10 books that fit your favorite 20-point tasks from prior seasons. State the season and the task (number and brief description).

✓ 15.21 SP 2024 20.1 The National Gallery
Read a book about a piece of art, an art collection, or has a visual artist as a main character. (Painter)
Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams

✓ 15.24 FA 2022 20.9 ABCs
Read a book where the author's initials appear in alphabetical order.
We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

✓ 15.25 SP 2024 20.4 The Fighting Temeraire
Read a book on the list of books about boats.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

✓ 15.22 WI 2022-23 20.8 Short
Read a book of short stories
The World of Apples by John Cheever

✓ 15.23 WI 2021-22 20.9 Madame Bovary
Read a book with a surname in the title.
My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

✓ 15.27 WI 2021-22 20.5 Wheels
Read one of these British novels (on Wiki list) adapted into television shows.
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

✓ 15.26 WI 24-25 20.10 The____ of ____
Read a book with a title that takes the form of The Something of Something.
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

✓ 15.28 SP 24 20.3 The Madonna of the Cat
Read a book where a character has a pet cat. Tell us the name of the character (and if you like, the name of the cat).
Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

✓ 15.29 FA 2024 20.10 Zalphabetical
Read a book whose title contains at least three words that appear in reverse alphabetical order.
Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick

✓ 15.30 WI 21-22 20.8 Dead Sea
Read a book in which the author's first and last initial can be found in "KHIRBAT QUMRAN."
Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott

Thanks, Joanna!

15.9 CYOA

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

Classics path task #7: Read a play

Task total: 15
Season total: 660

20.3 Climate Policy

The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian

Political event: American Civil War

For 20.8, on page 228: "He leaned over for the jug of whiskey and topped off both of their glasses."

Union Captain Jonathan Weybridge was seriously injured during an 1864 Civil War battle. After surgery he was left in a vacant house in Confederate Virginia when the Union troops had to retreat quickly.

Libby Steadman was running the family farm with her young niece and two freed slaves, Sally and Joseph, while her husband languished in a Northern Union prison. Their gristmill provided food for the Southern Confederate soldiers. Jonathan was found in her neighbor's house, and he was taken to the Steadman homestead at great personal risk to Libby, Sally, and Joseph. Libby hoped that a Union woman would take in her Confederate soldier husband if the situation was reversed. She also hoped for a prisoner exchange when Jonathan was healed. The situation was dangerous since they could be tried for treason if Jonathan was found in the Steadman home.

This was an exciting book filled with tension as the Southern soldiers patrolled the area. The book showed people trying to do the right thing by seeing the humanity in the slaves and the soldiers of the opposing army, but their actions carried enormous personal risk. This would be a good book discussion read since the subject of a divided country is so topical. "The Jackal's Mistress" was a compelling story that kept me turning the pages.

+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.1 Member Lottery (soldiers were traveling by foot and by horseback)
+ 5 combo 20.8 Temple Bar Pub
+10 review

Task total: 40
Season total: 645