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

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I have too many books I want to read! But the moderators have given us lots of choices to plan our reading.

Joanna wrote: "Connie -- I saw Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History on your potentials list, and I just wanted to point out that Galveston doesn't have a population o..."

Joanna, thanks for catching that. I took it off my list.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Connie wrote: "I'm planning on reading A Shine Of Rainbows which does not give a page count on some editions, and others range from 95-122. What page count should I use? I don't know..."

Thank you, Elizabeth.

I'm planning on reading A Shine Of Rainbows which does not give a page count on some editions, and others range from 95-122. What page count should I use? I don't know if it qualifies for 10.1 or 10.2. Thanks.

20.1 Prize

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

+20 task
+15 combo 10.2 Name; 10.9 Pub Trivia absinthe; 20.10 Family (3 generations)

Task total: 35
Season total: 830

Thanks, Elizabeth.

Within the 10.1 short fiction task, do we have to use 2 or 3 different authors or can we read several short stories by one author?

Just making a list of possible books to choose from:

Africa
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz Cairo, Egypt
The Missing American by Kwei Quartey Accra, Ghana
20.3 ✓ My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Lagos, Nigeria
20.6 ✓ The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith Gaborone, Botswana

Asia
The Bells of Old Tokyo: Meditations on Time and a City by Anna Sherman Tokyo, Japan
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata Tokyo, Japan
The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad Kabul, Afghanistan
Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March Mumbai, India
20.10 ✓ Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia


Europe
20.1 ✓ Up at the Villa by W. Somerset Maugham Florence, Italy
Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart Vienna, Austria
The Gathering by Anne Enright Dublin, Ireland
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger London, England
20.2 ✓ The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley London, England
20.5 ✓ Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell Stratford on Avon, England
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns London, England
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant Florence, Italy
20.7 ✓ Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Rome, Italy
Round 2 20.1 ✓ Love in Lowercase by Francesc Miralles

North America
A Promised Land by Barack Obama Washington DC
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride Brooklyn, New York
Beast In View by Margaret Millar Hollywood, California
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison Chicago, Illinois
20.4 ✓ The Life Lucy Knew by Karma Brown Toronto, Canada
20.8 ✓ The Silence by Don DeLillo New York City, USA

Oceania
20.9 ✓ Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood Melbourne, Australia

South America
The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton Havana, Cuba

I'll probably do this twice. I'm giving myself lots of choices since some books are interlibrary loans.

10.1 two or three short works adding up to 75-150 pages
✓ The Black Veil by Charles Dickens 28
✓ and A Lodging for the Night by Robert Louis Stevenson 29
✓ and The Silver Mine by Selma Lagerlöf 25

Round 2 ✓ The Wreck of the Golden Mary by Charles Dickens 48
Round 2 ✓ The Bloomsbury Christening by Charles Dickens 36

Round 3 ✓ Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti 70
Round 3 ✓ A Message from the Sea by Charles Dickens 52

10.2 100-149 p
Round 2 ✓ Sounder by William H. Armstrong 128
✓ A Shine Of Rainbows by Lillian Beckwith 111
The House in the Mist by Anna Katharine Green 116
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde 126

10.3 150-199p
✓ Zorrie by Laird Hunt 176
The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux 192
Round 2 ✓ The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff 160

10.4 200-249p
✓ Local Girls by Alice Hoffman 208
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston 204
The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton 232
Round 2 ✓ The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt 240

10.5 250-299p
Legacy by Jeanette Baker 250
✓ The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff 294
Round 2 ✓ The Paris Hours by Alex George 272
Orlando by Virginia Woolf 272
The Hanging of Margaret Dickson by Alison J. Butler 298

10.6 300-349p
✓ The Woman I Was Born to Be: My Story by Susan Boyle 336
Round 2 ✓ Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby 336
Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham 326
A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle by Liza Campbell 336
The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona MacLean 304
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell 310
The Life of Charles Dickens : Volume II by John Forster 301
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare 336

10.7 350-399p
✓ The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline 370
Round 2 ✓ The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles 351
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin 352
A Double Death on the Black Isle by A.D. Scott 359
Corrag by Susan Fletcher 368
The Exile of Sara Stevenson by Darci Hannah 386
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson 386
Round 3 ✓ Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads by David Morrell 378

10.8 400-449p
✓ The Betrayal of Maggie Blair by Elizabeth Laird 420
Round 2 ✓ When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson 400

10.9 450-499p
✓ She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb 465
Round 2 ✓ What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 476
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield 464
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood 468

10.10 500p or more
✓ Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 960
Round 2 ✓ Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly 528
September by Rosamunde Pilcher 613

10.5 Mother

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

+10 task
+10 combo 10.9 Pub Trivia kahlua; 20.10 Family ( Gibsons and Kilpatricks form a blended family, London Kilpatrick cousins, Gibson daughter marries into Hamley family)
+ 5 jumbo 679 pages
+15 oldie 1863

Task total: 40
RwS finish: 100
Season total: 795

20.10 Family

There There by Tommy Orange

+20 task (3 generations plus aunts and uncles)

Task total: 20
Season total: 655

20.4 Crime

Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

+20 task
+10 combo 10.9 Pub Trivia amaretto; 20.10 Family (3 generations)

Task total: 30
Season total: 635

I recently read three books from my bookcase that I will donate. But I also bought and read a couple of chunky books for my Dickens group that I want to keep. They take up more room so I can't win! I'm glad we will have the opportunity for a summer cleanout.

20.10 Family

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

+20 task (3 generations)
+10 combo 10.9 Pub Trivia lambic; 20.3 Opposites (Florence is a very important character)
+15 oldie 1848
+15 jumbo 880 pages

Task total: 60
Season total: 605

I hope things go well for you on your life's journey, Rebecca.

10.3 Naughty

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

+10 task (pub 1998)
+10 1001 list

Task total: 20
Season total: 545

20.2 Ann/e

Run by Ann Patchett

+20 task
+15 combo 10.6 Sentence; 20.3 Opposites (most of the main characters are men); 20.10 Family (lots of family--adoptive family, birth family, an uncle, flashback going back four generations)

Task total: 35
Season total: 525

20.7 Real Person

Winter by Christopher Nicholson

+20 task
+10 combo 10.10 Group Read; 20.3 Opposites (two of the three main characters are women)

Task total: 30
Season total: 490

20.6 Achilles

The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín

+20 task
+25 combo 10.2 Name (Colm); 10.3 Naughty (1999); 10.9 Pub Trivia (cabernet); 20.3 Opposites (Helen is the main character); 20.10 Family (4 generations)

Task total: 45
Season total: 460

10.8 Birds

Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce

Task total: 10
Season total: 415