Challenge #11 (Feb/Mar 2013): Tasks & Questions

[Jill]

Cassie: What other challenge/book club are you doing?

[CassieV]

haha, I have a few. I'll send you a message.

[Heather]

Anyone want to throw out some 500+ page HF they rated as 5 stars? Having trouble finding one that I am already interested in but haven't read yet.

In exchange for help, I am recommending The Pillars of the Earth, Gone with the Wind, The Book Thief and The Clan of the Cave Bear, as these are all 500+ books I have rated at 5 stars.

[Kristine]

Katherine
The Help
Sadly, I have read yours, lol.

[Cheryl A]

I just checked mine - boy, am I stingy with the 5's! The only one that came close for a big book with The Time in Between - maybe someone else rated it a 5.

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

@HeatherJ --- please use the recommendations thread when asking others for a recommendation --- we try to separate because some folks don't want to see any recommendations.

That said, I have several more obscure books that I rated 5 stars, 500+ pages including the works of Wilbur Smith, Leon Uris and one of my favs, The Map of Love. You can find them on my shelves -- look under HF and then sort by rating column.

[Heather]

Sorry! I thought there was a different thread for that....must have missed it. I swear, my brain slows down the colder it gets! I will check out your page ASAP.

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

Heather J wrote: "Sorry! I thought there was a different thread for that....must have missed it. I swear, my brain slows down the colder it gets! I will check out your page ASAP."

Actually Heather -- my bad, there is one for HFU, but I don't think we have one for the Feb/Mar challenge. I'm getting all my challenges mixed up :-D

[CassieV]

lol, I'm actually glad y'all are listing some of your 500+ books here, I was starting to feel like a stalker going through everyone's shelves!

I didn't know The Help was over 500, that's been on my list for a while!

[LemonLinda]

Fall of Giants - Ken Follett
Winter of the World - Ken Follett
Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
The Invisible Bridge - Julie Orringer
The Greatest Knight - Elizabeth Chadwick
The Scarlet Lion - Elizabeth Chadwick

[LemonLinda]

Oh and I forgot

The Winds of War and War and Remembrance both by Herman Wouk which I loved.

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

I will be out of town starting today thru sun so there might be a delay in getting questions answered.

[Kristine]

Is anyone else having this problem....when I go to recommendations there is no HF genre. I went to the update link and still no HF after selecting it. Ideas on what I am doing wrong?
Thanks

[CassieV]

I had the same problem. I'm not sure 100% how I fixed it, but I think after you update your preferences it takes a bit for them to get it switched. Now when I check that page it shows me a long list of my favorite genres instead of the 4-5 it had before.

I'm sorry to not be more helpful!

[Jackie]

From the Feedback group: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

It looks like others are experiencing problems with the recommendations section of the site.

[JC]

One day I didn't have any, then I went back and there were lots - maybe try again?

[Nell]

I'm not sure what's going on with recommendations. My experience is similar to JenC's. When this challenge was first posted, I checked HF recommendations and two books were listed. I just checked again and 50 books are listed not including the previous two?! I'm glad to have more to choose from since I want to read from my TBR - still it's strange.

[Marti]

Question: Can you do the same task more than once... IE read more than one book by an author that has the same name as your middle name ...and score points for each book.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

I think you can only do each task once.

[Kristine]

50.2 book 2. We find this by going to the main page of book 1, correct?

[Kristine]

JenC. wrote: "One day I didn't have any, then I went back and there were lots - maybe try again?"

Yep, it took a minute and they came up. Odd list of recommendations, going to look again to see if it has changed, lol.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

yes, look on the side wehre it says readers also liked and there is a list of like 3-5 books. You chose one of those that you haven't read.

[Kristine]

That is what I thought....

I just tried adding more of my books to a HF shelf to see if my recommendations would change, no changes yet, will check back.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

give it 24 hours

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

@Marti: You can only claim points for each task once so you can't read two books for a one book task and claim the points twice.

Sorry about the problems with the recommendations -- I also noticed there was a problem last week with the genres. Trying to show people new features of GR and they aren't working. Since this is a two month challenge, please try later in the week.

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

Announcement - for Task 20.2, you may also read the March Featured author group read: The Golden Lynx by C.P. Lesley.

[Cheryl A]

JoLene - I have a question about the Mardi Gras cover. Is it also the most popular version on GR? I just finished one, but when I checked GR, the paperback cover edition is listed first. Fat Cat

Thanks

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

Since I didn't state it upfront, you can use the cover that you read.

[Cheryl A]

JoLene wrote: "Since I didn't state it upfront, you can use the cover that you read."

Woo Hoo!! I had actually gone through the shelves in the library, looking for a purple book! Imagine my dismay when I looked it up on GR and found a different cover on a fairly recent book. Thanks!

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Dor 5.1 would count for a green cover?

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

Yes, that works

[Nell]

For the middle name challenge, can you use a variation of your middle name? That's the only way I can do this task.
btw - My mother's middle name is the same as mine.

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

How far off it is? Also, you can use your father's middle name.

[Nell]

JoLene wrote: "How far off it is? Also, you can use your father's middle name."

Nell or Nella instead of Nellsena

[Heather]

Would Life of Pi work for being set in a Commonwealth country? The first third of the book is in India....but it is known for being set on the Pacific Ocean.

[Nell]

Heather J wrote: "Would Life of Pi work for being set in a Commonwealth country? The first third of the book is in India....but it is known for being set on the Pacific Ocean."

It does work for a book made into a movie.

[Linda]

I am finishing . Does this qualify as a gold cover (sort of old gold?) for the challenge?

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

@Nell, I will allow you to use Nell.
@HeatherJ -- and least 50% must be set in a commonwealth county so I don't think Life of Pi works.
@Linda, I will accept it --- but that certainly isn't Mardi Gras gold :-D

[Linda]

No, it isn't which is why I asked. The paperback version is solid green. I can live without it.

[Kristine]

Would you count Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet as two characters from 2 countries? Japan and China. Trying to fit this in somewhere, lol.

[Sandra]

Will Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot work for a hot political topic?

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

@Kristine -- yes that will work
@Sandra - no, I am looking for more of a current event topic. Also --- is this for HFU, because I think you posted in the wrong thread.

[Rebecca]

"15.1 The sun never sets on the british empire In honor of Commonwealth Day (March 11): Read a book set in one of the commonwealth countries (see Commonwealth Countries for full listing)"

Will you except England as part of this, since it is part of Great Britain which is included in this list?

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

@rebecca, yes

[Macarena (followed that rabbit)]

Hello,

I'm new here and this will be my first challenge.

The challenge will be:

25.2 Big Books:
The Historian
5 star rating from another member of Historical Fictionistas: Nitsa rated it 5 stars (link)

6a) Book Length Bonus: 501 to 750 pages = 6 bonus points
Pages: 734 (though the Spanish version I'm reading is 699 pp.)

6b) Historical Fiction Bonus = 1 point

6c) Review Bonus = 5 points
Yes! I'll try to do a proper review.

Total: 37

Would the score be OK then?

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

@macarena, welcome to the challenge. Yes, that would be the correct score. We have a scoring thread that is used to report points.

[Marti]

JoLene, I was going to use (and have recently finished) The Twelve Tribes of Hattie for the book to honor Black History Month... Before I realized that you did not want us to list each book as we finished it - I had put it up as a marker toward completing that challenge 25.3. Another person felt that The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is not on the Black History Month listopia.. If I have made a mistake in using that book could you please let me know... perhaps you could let me know also if this is the correct list to use... I am using [http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/30...] page to locate a book for Black History month. I have another book for the woman's History month to read to complete the challenge

Thanks for your help!!!

[JoLene, Mistress of the Challenge]

You are supposed to use the list specified in the task definition. I think you have the correct one listed above, but I'm traveling right now and checking on cell phone so having some limitations with opening multiple screens.

[JC]

Jolene - I've checked the list specified in the task and Marti's book is on there.

[Marti]

Thank You Jen and Jolene.... I appreciate you checking on this for me, so I can stay organized.