Connie ’s
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(group member since Nov 11, 2013)
Connie ’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
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This should be a great task for reading the early books for the Mystery Challenge!
Thanks, Kate!
Is it OK to use a Listopia list for this? I need to read some books on the Books Set in Scotland Listopia list (probably on the first 3 pages of the list).https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
I hope you're feeling better soon, Valerie!
I've been wanting to read some of A.B. Guthrie Jr.'s books such as The Way West and The Big Sky. Willa Cather, Ivan Doig, Kent Haruf, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, John Steinbeck, Larry Watson, and Wallace Stegner are all on my TBR list too. I could spend a month just reading off this list. There's lots more than cowboys on the list.
10.9 OxfordThe Hanging of Margaret Dickson by Alison J. Butler
"She was a free spirit and she did as she damned well pleased."
"She paid for it too."
"Aye, she did."
Author Alison J. Butler has brought the true 18th Century Scottish legend of Half Hangit Maggie to life. Maggie Dickson was a headstrong, independent fishwife living in Musselburgh. She was a beautiful, lusty young woman who attracted men. When her husband disappeared she headed to Newcastle to find him, but stopped at a tavern along the way to shelter from the inclement weather. She accepted a job at the tavern where she met the handsome son of the innkeeper. Soon her actions led to legal trouble, and she was thrown into the filthy Tolbooth (jail). The rest of Maggie's remarkable history is an amazing tale.
Maggie's story appeared to be well-researched, and kept my interest. Unfortunately, a proofreader does not seem to have looked at the last part of the book.
+10 task (Margaret)
+10 combo 10.2 Halloween (hanging is a death word), 20.3 Rating 4.00
+10 review
Task total: 30
RwS finish: 100
Mega finish: 200
Season total: 1515
10.10 Group ReadOld Filth by Jane Gardam
Pg 201 "And bottoms up, " said Muriel, with the champagne. "Here's to all of us."
"Old Filth" is a touching character study of a famous retired judge, Sir Edward Feathers. Filth is an acronym for "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong." The story is told mostly in flashbacks to his earlier life.
Eddie's mother died shortly after his birth in Malaya, and his father was a British government official who had been shell-shocked in World War I. He was cared for by a loving native girl until he was four years old. Then he joined the Raj orphans being sent back to Great Britain for foster care to learn English and receive schooling. The trauma of foster care, and never belonging in a family inflicted emotional wounds on young Eddie. The waning days of the British Empire are also revealed through his experiences and adventures. The book takes Eddie through his marriage, and his feeling of loss after the death of his wife, Betty. The story ends with him traveling back to his roots--traveling alone.
"Old Filth" is a part of a trilogy, and I would love to read the next book told from the point of view of Betty. I enjoyed Jane Gardam's writing with its dry British humor, her understanding of the human spirit, and the interesting 20th Century colonial backdrop.
Great choice for a group read, Elizabeth!
+10 task
+10 combo 20.4 Non-linear; 20.9 Anniversary
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 1185
That's an impressive author list, Elizabeth! You've been busy including 9000 authors.
Elizabeth, 20.5 Wheels is an enticing task with lots of possibilities. Thanks for alerting me that Poldark is on the list. It's been highly recommended by some of my GR friends.I own some long books, and my goal is to read at least a few of them during the winter challenge.
20.3 RatingsThe Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg
Speck is a terror--a half-blind stray dog that won't behave. But the starving dog arrived at the Bragg's Alabama farm just when he was needed. Rick was in remission from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after going through the hell of chemo, and isolating with his mother during the pandemic. Speck helped fill up the hours that would have been spent feeling depressed. Speck is part Australian shepherd who feels that he's needed to herd the kittens and the donkeys. The dog offered love, and laughter at his crazy antics. Speck and Rick needed each other's company to heal.
Rick Bragg shows shows a great love for his family, his adopted dog, and his Southern roots. He also writes about his close relationship with his older brother, Sam, who recently died. "The Speckled Beauty" is a warm story full of humor told by a man with a big heart.
+20 task 4.51 rating
+15 combo 10.3 Back to School (Prof of Writing at Univ of Alabama); 20.4 Non-Linear (childhood of Rick and Sam); 20.5 Boomer (Born 1959)
+10 review
+10 not a novel
Task total: 55
Season total: 1155
20.1 SeriallyLaura by Vera Caspary
Pg 98 "No, darling, no whiskey tonight. We're drinking champagne."
Laura Hunt was shot as she opened her apartment door in New York City, and detective Mark McPherson was sent to investigate. Laura was a beautiful, independent woman who fascinated the people who loved her. Using multiple narrators, author Vera Caspary gives us psychological profiles of the main characters and their relationships. This excellent crime story is a classic with interesting characters and a twist in the middle of the book.
+20 task
+15 combo 20.3 Ratings 4.00; 20.4 Non-Linear; 20.9 Anniversary
+10 review
Task total: 45
Season total: 1100
15.8 Counting on AuthorsThe Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
17 letters
+ 15 task
+100 finishing bonus
+ 50 all female authors
Task total: 165
Season total: 1055
15.4 Counting on AuthorsThe Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona MacLean
12 Letters
Task total: 15
Season total: 890
Possible choices:10.1 List Lovers
✓ Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
10.2 Short
✓ Animal Farm by George Orwell
✓ The Holly-Tree Inn by Charles Dickens
✓ The Chimes by Charles Dickens
10.3 Location (Australia or Ireland)
The Heather Blazing by Colm Tóibín
✓ Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
10.4 Vocation
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
✓ The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
10.6 NYE Countdown (time, clock, watch, hour, minute, second)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey 1951 mystery
✓ The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (time)
The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr (watch) combo
✓ Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (time)
10.5 Zane
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
The Way West by A.B. Guthrie Jr.
✓ The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 2005 mystery
Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard 1990 mystery
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
American Boy by Larry Watson
10.7 Genre Rich (Sci Fi, Historical, Mystery, Cultural)
✓ The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
✓ The Siege by Helen Dunmore
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Corrag by Susan Fletcher
10.8 Singles
Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell
September by Rosamunde Pilcher
✓ Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Corrag by Susan Fletcher
10.9 Discovery
✓ World War C: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic and How to Prepare for the Next One by Sanjay Gupta (interest: bioloby, healthcare)
Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (interest: George Orwell)
10.10 Group Reads
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
20.1 Maid in Waiting
✓ The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr (A Novel of the Civil War Trilogy #1)
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (Great Plains Trilogy #2) 970 Lexile
The Man in the Wooden Hat (Old Filth #2) by Jane Gardam
20.2 The Keys to the Kingdom
✓ Maigret and the Toy Village by Georges Simenon 710 ratings, 1944 mystery
Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham 2,787 ratings, 1927 mystery
✓ Legacy by Jeanette Baker
20.3 Frenchman's Creek
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas by Morgan Llywelyn
20.4 Day of the Jackal
✓ The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 2020 mystery
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison 2013 mystery
20.5 Wheels
✓ The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
September by Rosamunde Pilcher
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James 1972 mystery
Ross Poldark by Winston Graham
20.6 Hidden Figures
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride 1140 Lexile
The Jazz Palace by Mary Morris
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
20.7 John Adams (1735-1826)
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville set in 1788
Ross Poldark by Winston Graham set in 1783
20.8 Dead Sea KHIRBAT QUMRAN
✓ Saints at the River by Ron Rash
✓ The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
20.9 Madame Bovary
✓ Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King
✓ The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson
Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit
20.10 Pulp
✓ The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen 1929 mystery
Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie by Agatha Christie 1923 mystery
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett 1934 mystery
Lagullande wrote: "I have a plan, but I'm not sure I like it. I have two others where I'm struggling to find the last book. So does anyone have any suggestions for:1. 421-460/821-860, 1963-1977, I-J-K
2. 101-140/..."
Here's another suggestion:
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West 1918 112 pages
Good luck with your search!
20.3 RatingsThe Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
"Courage is fear you ignore."
Elsa Wolcott has been told by her mother that "no man of note wants an unattractive wife." At age 25, the tall slender woman longs for excitement, romance, and meaning in her life like she has found in the novels she enjoys reading. It's 1921 in Texas, and Elsa admires the style and independence of the Flappers. She goes out one night looking for fun, and meets handsome Rafe Martinelli. A few minutes of passion leads to an unplanned marriage, and life on Rafe's parents' farm. Elsa comes to enjoy her work on the farm, but their marriage is strained.
Fast forward to 1934 when their Texas farm is completely dry, and crops are dying. The Great Depression has brought poverty and unemployment to the country. Dust storms ripped up the topsoil, and filled the lungs of the farmers. When Elsa's son gets sick from breathing the dirt-filled air, she heads out to California with her two children looking for work. It was a shock to find few job openings, and tent cities full of impoverished migrants. Even young children were picking crops to help keep food on the table. The owners of the large farms kept reducing wages so survival was uncertain. Union organizers came in to fight for a living wage, but were met by violence from the farm owners.
The book does cover some of the same territory as "The Grapes of Wrath," but is told mostly from the views of a desperate mother and a teenage daughter finding her voice. "The Four Winds" shows the courage of Elsa as she becomes a strong, resilient woman facing incredible challenges and making many personal sacrifices.
+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.5 Boomer (born 9/25/60)
+10 review
Task total: 35
Season total: 860
To lock in page counts:1873-1887 The Law and the Lady 1875 Wilkie Collins 348 pg
1888-1902 The Island of Dr. Moreau 1896 H.G. Wells 153 pg, 990 Lexile
1903-1917 The Mystery of the Yellow Room 1907 Gaston Leroux 192 pg
1918-1932 Storm of Steel 1920 Ernst Jünger 289 pg
1933-1947 Homage to Catalonia 1938 George Orwell 232 pg
1948-1962 Seize the Day 1956 Saul Bellow 114 pg
1963-1977 Iza's Ballad 1963 Magda Szabó 336 pg
1978-1992 Smilla's Sense of Snow 1992 Peter Høeg 469 pg
1993-2007 Second Glance 2003 Jodi Picoult 448 pg
2008-2022 Sometimes I Lie Alice Feeney 387 pg
