The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
SUMMER CHALLENGE 2015
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25.4 - Beth Robinson's task: Science & Writing
More InfoYes, the scientist or engineer can be a doctor, forensics tech, computer programmer, college student, steampunk, science fiction, etc.
Historically, some scientists worked for the thrill of discovery and adding to the worlds' body of knowledge. Therefore this technical person does not necessarily need to be trying to make money with their activities.
Yes, the author or journalist can be an editor or part-time or some such. Typically, someone who uses their skill in words to make (or attempt to make) money. Yes, there are exceptions (Emily Dickinson, for example).
Does Not Work
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Darkest Frost, Vol 1 of a 2-part serial
Cloud Atlas
My Life as a White Trash Zombie
A Dark Lure
The Lathe of Heaven
ApprovedOption 1:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Die Again
Quantum Leap: The Novel
Illusionarium
The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 1: The Five Nightmares
Carved in Bone
Her Dark Curiosity
A Cold Legacy
Ship Fever: Stories
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Starvation Lake
Mistress of the Art of Death
Starfish
The Technologists
The Bone Yard
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer
Mr. Darwin's Shooter
One
The Martian
Cinder
The Book on the Bookshelf
House Broken
The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
Rocket Boys
Last Chance to See
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Déjà Dead
Coroner's Journal: Stalking Death in Louisiana
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Rosie Project
The Rosie Effect
Confessions of a GP
Alan Turing: The Enigma
The Ghost Fields
Opening Doors: Carole Noon and Her Dream to Save the Chimps
Corvus: A Life with Birds
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014
The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 3: Building
ApprovedOption 2:
The Writing Circle
Famous Last Words
Stan Lee Meets the Marvel Universe
The Bone Tree
The Thirteenth Tale
The Paris Wife
The Black Prince
N.P.
The Hours
Dime quién soy
Speaking of Murder
Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor
The Moonglow Cafe
Run
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
One Small Thing
Buried Leads
The Fifth Heart
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder
The Truth
The Imperfectionists
Blackberry Winter
A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army
Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure
Busman's Honeymoon
S.
Not Another Bad Date
Dear Lupin--: Letters to a Wayward Son. Roger Mortimer, Charlie Mortimer
Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own
Love Story
Feed
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2014
Die for You
An Expert in Murder
Here's a good one for writer (I think)
Can the scientist be a medical examiner? I'm thinking of Maura Isles in
okay for option 1 would a quantum physist count? Quantum Leap: The NovelFor option 2, would The Writing Circlework? It had writing in the genre on the main page.
I love a task that works for fiction and non-fiction! I just acquired a copy of The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers and didn't expect it to fit anywhere. Now I have the perfect place for it.Thanks. :)
The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 1: The Five Nightmares for book 1, since Tony Stark a science/engineering genius?For book 2, Stan Lee Meets the Marvel Universe? He's the writer and a self-inserted main character in the stories.
What about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and subsequent books for Option 1? The protagonist is described in GR as "an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison".Thanks.
Would Her Dark Curiosity or A Cold Legacy work?The main character Juliet is the daughter of Dr. Moreau. The first linked book combines that retelling with that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and she spends all of her free time trying to create a serum to keep herself alive and find a murderer who she believes is one of her father's creations.
A Cold Legacy is the third and combines with the story of Frankenstein while continuing all the other threads.
She's very scientifically minded (hence the title Her Dark Curiosity) but also struggles with the ethics side of things after all her father did in his cruel experiments.
Thanks!
Yes to almost everything above.Iron Man and The Flash were two of the reasons I included the graphic novel option :).
I'm sorry Teri, I'm conflicted about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, because it sounds like 11-year-old Flavia might be acting like a forensic scientist in the book, but in the end it stretches a bit too far for me.
Yay graphic novels :D I've got a whole stack that I'm trying to fit, so a surprise high-point task that allows them is the best!
Would Ship Fever: Stories work for option 1?It's a book of short stories. The different protagonists appear to be a doctor, Linnaeus, and marine biologists.
Some more for Option 1: Science + Non Fiction
And for Option 2, would the following book work?
The description is in Spanish, but it reads:
"A journalist receives a proposal to investigate the eventful life of her great-grandmother, a woman who fled Spain, abandoning her husband and her son shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. The journalist must reconstruct its history from the ground, fitting, one by one, all the pieces of the immense and extraordinary puzzle of existence"
Would this book work for Option 2?Speaking of Murder by Jonathan Black
The summary lists one of the two main characters as a retired newspaper writer turned freelance writer and writing teacher; the other main character is a would-be novelist in his writing class.
Yes to the new requests and I've added them to the approved list. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a great book by the way.
Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters
just wanting to lock in the genre.
Would something like The Jane Austen mysteries fit since Jane Austen was an author in real life as well as these fictional mysteries?
Thanks again!
Beth wrote: "Yes to the new requests and I've added them to the approved list. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a great book by the way."
w00t! updating my summer reading list now.
BTW, I won't be needing it since my first is approved, but as a backup I was looking at Starvation Lake which apparently stars the editor of a small-town newspaper. I put it out there for approval in case someone else is looking.
Please verify for Option 2 - NONfiction book with "writing" genre on main page The Professor and the Madman
For approval for Option 2
Run The summery mention Charlotte Marshall is researching for a book, and some of the reviews mention she has writers block.
And for option 1 The Darkest Frost, Vol 1 of a 2-part serial
Doctor Braeden Frost is a hematologist
or
Mistress of the Art of DeathAdelia is a medical examiner
I thought I had the perfect book for the nonfiction option for book #2 as I am 2nd on the wait list at my local library for The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper which they have just ordered. Right now though there aren't any genres showing. Hopefully "writing" will show up sometime during the summer challenge.
Most of the books in the posts 25 - 31 are approved.Except for The Darkest Frost. The protagonist is the psychic detective, not the hematologist. If you think I'm reading the description wrong, please convince me otherwise.
Sandi, you don't need to wait for the genre to show up on Unbreakable Miss Lovely. It is the story of a life an author. It fits the second half of the OR. If it's about Paulette or if it's about Tony tracking down the info, it still counts as the protagonist is a writer.
Would Starfish work for scientists/engineers? The main characters work on a geothermal energy plant underneath the ocean.And since you didn't specify the second option of both of be fiction: the main "character" of this autobiography is a writer, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Would that work, or does it have to be fiction? If not, I'm sure I can find something else :)
Would it be ok to read One Small Thing for Option 1 (one MC is a sci-fi author). There's childrens genre in the main page but the book is a M/M romance with a baby in the story.
Beth wrote: "Most of the books in the posts 25 - 31 are approved.Except for The Darkest Frost. The protagonist is the psychic detective, not the hematologist. If you think I'm reading the description wrong, p..."
Thank you Beth -- I did miss the last paragraph of your task description somehow and I appreciate you pointing out that it would still work. I'm sure I could have found another task to claim this book for but since the biography focus is/was a journalist, I really wanted to use it here.
Thinking of using The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the book #1 but will need to get physical book with 100+ pp since if I read the kindle edition I have, it would be too short (most popular mmpb is 98 pp).
Anyway, thanks again!
Would the following books work:Opt 1: The Bone Yard by Jefferson Bass
Opt 2: Buried Leads by LynDee Walker
Thanks
For Option 2: The Fifth Heart (2015) by Dan Simmons -- Henry James and Sherlock Holmes are buddies, travel together, talk together, solve mysteries together -- would that fit Option 2? Thanks!
From posts 33-38 - Yes except not exactly for One Small ThingElizabeth, you can read One Small Thing for Option 2, since there are two main characters and one is an author. But it is not qualified for Option 1 because none of science fiction/cosmetology/bartending qualifies for scientist/engineer.
Would The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer work for Option 1? Thanks!
Would Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith work for Option 2? It has Writing:Essays as a genre. I thought I would confirm that before it falls off. :)Great task!
How about Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington for Option 2?
Beth wrote: "Yes, the author or journalist can be an editor or part-time or some such. Typically, someone who uses their skill in words to make (or attempt to make) money. Yes, there are exceptions (Emily Dickinson, for example)."Could "uses their skill in words to make money" also be a Script Writer? I'm thinking of Love Her to Death, where the main character is described as a "soap writer" - she's one of the main writers on a daytime TV show.
Hi for option 1 I wanted to see if these workCloud Atlas - not sure if there is 1 main character, but a lot of the characters are doctors and scientists
My Life as a White Trash Zombie - the main character works in a morgue and while she hasn't had any schooling, she still has to do a lot of anatomy/science stuff
The Martian the main character is an astronaut, much science lol
Cinder the main character is a mechanic and spends a lot of time repairing robots and other machinery.
For option 2 I'd like to read Feed, the main character is a news blogger.
Amanda Pearl wrote: "Hi for option 1 I wanted to see if these work...The Martian the main character is an astronaut, much science lol..."
For what it's worth, the main character in The Martian is also a mechanical engineer. :) So while I'm not a mod, I think that book would work.
Can I get this book approved for both genres? Science and writing? I'm not sure which one I'll use it for!The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
I'm hoping that this book works for option2.
by Katharine Graham. The author was the publisher of the Washington Post, among other things and writing appears as a genre on the main page
Option 1: The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski Science > Engineering Option 2: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King Language > Writing
The Seasonal Reading Challenge
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When I started the Spring challenge I said I hadn't read this many books in such a short time since college. Now I'm not even sure that I did it then and I was doing a double major in Materials Engineering and in English and reading for pleasure too. In memory of my college years...
This is a TWO book task. Read one book from each option.
**Books with the genre Childrens or Kids as a main page genre may NOT be used for this task.** Graphic novels/manga/collected comic books ARE allowed if they meet the other requirements.
Option 1: Read a non-fiction book with the genre or sub-genre "engineering" or "science" OR read a book in which the main protagonist is a scientist or engineer of some variety.
Option 2: Read a non-fiction book with the genre or sub-genre "writing" OR read a book in which the main protagonist is an author or journalist as a career, not just as a hobby.
The protagonist can be either the main character in a fiction book or the subject of a biography or autobiography. Their profession should be clear from the description of the book on the Goodreads page.