The Gothic Novel Book Club <Hiatus> discussion
Challenges
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A-Z Challenge
Is the challenge retroactive to books we've read since the beginning of the year, or does it start with what we're reading right now?
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A - The Blade Itself Finished
B - The Rithmatist Finished
C - The Uninvited Started
D - The Boy Who Drew Monsters
E - Dark Heart of Magic Finished
F - Halfway to the Grave Finished
G - Tin Men Finished
H - A Discovery of Witches Finished
I - The Quiet Game
J - Dust & Decay Finished
K - The Iron King Finished
L - Prince of Thorns Finished
M - The Winter People FINISHED
N - Shadow Spell
O - 1984
P - Changeling Finished
Q - Second Sight
R - The Name of the Wind Finished
S - Alice in Zombieland Finished
T - Stone of Tears Finished
U - The Witches of Eastwick
V - Insurgent Finished
W - A Beautiful Black Finished
X - Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
Y - Changeling
Z - The Shadow of the Wind Finished
Thanks Trinity, 'X' is especially tough! I don't know if it's to your liking, but there's "Sky Burial" by Xinran. I think I'll do authors as well, but start now. My authors so far seem to be overly heavy in a few letters - I'll need to be more strategic in my choices!
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LOL.
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What is it about the M's?? I checked, and I've read SEVEN by M authors so far in 2015, and the two I'm currently reading are BOTH M's!!!! Too funny :)
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That's a good kick to have : ) I think I am going try this starting now with option 2 .A
B
C
D
E
F
GGathering Blue
HHalf-Blood
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
OK, I have a technical question...I think I am looking at this correctly. Trinity and Kme_17 have made posts that are a sort of "template" for their challenge. Then, Trinity, it looks like you were able to go in and edit your post to indicate you had started a book? Am I right, is that how you can do it, to have your list already there and update it each time instead of adding a new list 26 times? I hope someone can understand what I'm asking - I sound a little muddled even to myself....
Yes, you can edit your posts to reflect the changing status of a challenge so, unless you want to, there's no need to repost the same list multiple times.My list* (and I'm not truly aiming to complete it, just to see how many I manage to tick off just following my normal reading patterns):
Abercrombie, Joe - Best Served Cold
Backman, Fredrik - A Man Called Ove
Catton, Eleanor - The Luminaries
Du Maurier, Daphne - The Scapegoat
E
Forster, E.M. - A Passage to India
Gillen, Kieron - The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act
Hwang, Sun-mi - The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
I
Jakobsen, Mette - The Vanishing Act
Krall, Hanna - Chasing the King of Hearts
L
Mayor, Adrienne - The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World
Novik, Noami - Victory of Eagles
Okorafor, Nnedi - Lagoon
Pratchett, Terry - Night Watch
Q
Reiss, Tom - The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Szerb, Antal - Journey by Moonlight
T
U
V
Wright, John - The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names
X
Y
Z
*Starting from Jan 2015 by author surname and listing first book I read for each letter rather than the best. Mix of fiction, non-fiction, and comics (TPB editions).
List by Title:
A - The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World
B - The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
C - Classic Tales of the Macabre
D - Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life Of The Natural History Museum
E - Elizabeth Is Missing
F - Feet of Clay
G - Guards! Guards!
H - The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
I
J - Jingo
K
L - The Luminaries
M - A Man Called Ove
N - Night Watch
O - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
P - A Passage to India
Q
R
S - The Scapegoat
T - Thud!
U - Unseemly Science
V - Victory of Eagles
W - The Wake
X
Y
Z
Thanks Louise! And wow, you've got a really organized-looking list. A good example. :)
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I have. And there were bits of it I really liked (and actually I was pretty generous in my individual reviews and star ratings of each book) but overall I didn't like it very much. It felt like three increasingly long tiring books that should have been a single very good long book. So by the time I got to the end I didn't quite feel the final payoff justified the long and slightly repetitive journey to get there. Absolutely everyone else I know who's read them thinks they're great though!To be honest, I only read Best Seved Cold because my best friend lent me her copy as it's her favourite book. But I am glad that I did read it! I enjoyed it a lot lot more than the First Law trilogy. It's set in the same world (a little bit later) but it's a standalone book, which helped the pacing, and the main character is a woman which was refreshing after how poorly served/written I felt the FL women were. But it still had a lot of the things that irritated me about Abercrombies writing (repeated catchphrases, plot twists and subversions flagged up a bit too obviously, etc.). Though I don't think I would have noticed them so much or been so bothered by them if this was the first book of his I'd read.
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Yeah, I love fantasy but a lot of it does have a tendency towards bloatedness sometimes. As I said though, everyone else I know who's read it really really loved the First Law trilogy, so I hope you'll enjoy it too.But yeah, lots of different perspectives too, and not enough of them are Ferro.
A-Z challenge by author, starting 6/1/2015Alcott, Kate - The Daring Ladies of Lowell
Berenson, Alex - The Counterfeit Agent
Cullen, Lynn - Mrs. Poe
Deaver, Jeffery - The Bone Collector
Eskens, Allen - The Life We Bury
Follett, Ken - Fall of Giants
Greene, Thomas Christopher - Mirror Lake
Horan, Nancy - Loving Frank
Iden, Matthew - A Reason to Live
Jackson, Shirley - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Kingsolver, Barbara - The Bean Trees
Lynch, Sarah-Kate - Blessed Are the Cheesemakers
McMahon, Jennifer - The Winter People
Nesbo, Jo - The Bat
Oates, Joyce Carol - Jack of Spades
Perry, Thomas - Metzger's Dog
Quinn, Spencer - Dog on It
Rindell, Suzanne - The Other Typist
Setterfield, Diane - Bellman & Black
Tan, Amy - The Bonesetter's Daughter
Unger, Lisa - Heartbroken
VanderMeer, Jeff - Annihilation
Winter, Cat - The Uninvited
Xarissa, Diana - Aunt Bessie Believes
Yarbrough, Steve - The Oxygen Man
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz - The Shadow of the Wind
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Alcott, Kate - The Daring Ladies of Lowell
B
C
Deaver, Jeffery - The Bone Collector
E
Follett, Ken - [book:Fall of Giants|731..."
I have never read Ken Follett but his books sound SO good. Did you like Fall of Giants?
Actually, I just started a few days ago. It's going to take awhile - 920 pages!! But so far so good.
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My list* (and I'm not truly aiming to com..."
Nice! Going for a double whammy!
I don't really expect to complete either in just one year, and am not going to make a special effort to try, but I do find it interesting to see how I progress anyway.
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Nancy wrote: "have no idea how to transfer my list titled A to Z challenge to this box.. help["Nancy, I don't know if you figured it out, but I was searching the site, and maybe this could be a help. I found it on my laptop, I haven't been able to find it on a Kindle.
At the top right, where there is the thumbnail of your profile pic, there is a little gray down-arrow. Go to 'Help', then on Help Topics, there is a question "How do I import or export my books?" If that doesn't work, on the right is 'Still Have Questions? Contact'.
I'm not very tech savvy, the members in this thread explained how to edit and add to my challenge. Hope this helps you.
Trinity wrote: "Well let me know :D"Aaah...I'm in the home stretch with Fall of Giants. It's undoubtedly a great book, but it is taking me FOREVER to get through it!! I didn't get to read at all for a week on vacation, and I think I've fallen into a serious reading rut. Still plugging away on The Shadow of the Wind as well. Can't wait to move on to some new things.
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Creepy scary movie, but I think the book can be even scarier!
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Awesome! I'm going to have to pick it up!
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I hope to. I've been choosing books whose authors fit my list, so I've had to put off some of my 'to-reads' until I finish.
Good work Greg. :) Any suggestions for X? - not an easy last name to find.
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Yes, mine would be K,M, and S....before I started the challenge, I had read 3 M's in a row! (Actually, I've already read 'Sky Burial'.) I might try to ask for suggestions from Goodreads members at large.
Greg wrote: "14 down, adding "E", "Black Dahlia" by James Ellroy"Over half-way, nice! I have a copy of The Black Dahlia
ready for my "E", but I see you gave it 3 stars - was it just so-so?
The Gothic Novel Book Club <Hiatus>
Books mentioned in this topic
Aunt Bessie Believes (other topics)The Oxygen Man (other topics)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (other topics)
Riding the Iron Rooster (other topics)
Annihilation (other topics)
More...
Option 1
Choose books based on a primary character's name.
A - Alice, Alice in Wonderland
B - Bitterblue, Bittetblue
C - ...
Option 2
Choose books that begin with A,B,C...
A - Alice in Wonderland
B - Bitterblue
C - ...
Option 3
Choose a book that's author begins with that letter.
A - Dime Store Magic, Kelly Armstrong
B - The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
C - ...
Pick your poison and have fun.
Oh, and your picks do not have to be all Gothic novels. Mix it up. Enjoy.