SU 2014 AtA Questions & Answers

[Coralie]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Coralie wrote: "After Eyes on the Prize I am reading lighter this coming season. I'm going through the box of children's books from my children, checking to see which are worth keeping for my grand..."

Thank you.

[Liz M]

Jama

Your chain is approved. FYI one of your author names has a typo -- Tarjei Vesaas (not Tarjei Vessas).

[Katy]

Now that all the tasks are posted it's time for me to obsessively rework my ATA chain!

Since authors' pen names are treated as the same person, does that mean if Seanan McGuire comes up as a similar author, I could read something she wrote under the name Mira Grant?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Katy wrote: "Now that all the tasks are posted it's time for me to obsessively rework my ATA chain!

Since authors' pen names are treated as the same person, does that mean if Seanan McGuire co..."

No. What it means is that you shouldn't have both names in your chain as they are the same person. It also means that if you've read one before having the other makes your chain Familiar Faces.

[Katy]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Katy wrote: "Now that all the tasks are posted it's time for me to obsessively rework my ATA chain!

Since authors' pen names are treated as the same person, does that mean if [author:Seanan McGuir..."

Got it. Thanks, Elizabeth!

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

With all the tasks now posted, I've decided to start with my ATA chain in Message #14 featuring old friends. I already own most of the books I need for that and also for most of the RwS tasks. I probably won't get to the chain of new friends in Message #18, but we can keep that in reserve.

[Liz M]

Audrey wrote: "Author read in SPring: Virginia Woolf

I think that's enough...."

Ha! You have a fantastic, challenging chain. Personally I wouldn't recommend ending on Henry James (I am not a fan), but should continue on to Edith Wharton & Willa Cather!

[Jenifer]

Liz M wrote: "Jenifer, I had some trouble with both your author chains. :(

Lisa Gardner does not appear on the Nicci French's similar authors page. Luckily, Tess Gerritsen does. So if you don't mind some s..."

Thanks. Just saw this. I'll switch it up just in case I'm able to do a second chain. :)

[Liz M]

@#^%$^&%&^)*(*&()*!

In a moment of inattention, I accidentally clicked "yes" on the are you sure you want to delete this post dialog box and deleted, rather than editing, the first post of the Author Chain thread. So, if you had your post bookmarked in some way, it has a different post number now.

I'll repost my chain later today after I've had more coffee. :/

[Liz M]

Katy,

Unfortunately I cannot verify your author chain.

Jeffrey Ford is not on the similar authors page for Maureen F. McHugh
Also, M.R. Carey is not on the similar authors page for Jeff VanderMeer

After playing around for a couple of hours, I can only manage to create a chain with eight of your authors:

15.1 - Connie Willis
15.2 - Maureen F. McHugh
15.3 - Jeffrey Ford Kij Johnson or Ray Vukcevich or Karen Joy Fowler or Benjamin Rosenbaum
15.4 - Jeff VanderMeer
15.5 - M.R. Carey Jeffrey Ford or Jo Walton
15.6 - Graham Joyce
15.7 - Caitlín R. Kiernan
15.8 - Cherie Priest
15.9 - Seanan McGuire
15.10 - one of these authors


Or something like this:

15.1 - Connie Willis
15.2 - Kage Baker
15.3 - Jo Walton
15.4 - Graham Joyce
15.5 - Caitlín R. Kiernan
15.6 - Cherie Priest
15.7 - Jeff VanderMeer
15.8 - Jeffrey Ford
15.9 - Maureen F. McHugh
15.10 - one of these authors

[Katy]

Shoot, I'm so sorry you wasted your time Liz! I could have sworn I had it right...I wonder if those similar author pages ever change because I had been working off notes I took when I started, then waited a week or so before finishing the chain. I'm looking back at some of those authors and a week ago they were different. Let me look at this again...sorry again, Liz, I feel terrible!

[Liz M]

Katy wrote: "Shoot, I'm so sorry you wasted your time Liz! I could have sworn I had it right...I wonder if those similar author pages ever change because I had been working off notes I took when I started, the..."

I think some of those pages do fluctuate -- it's one of the reasons we are approving chains ahead of time.

[Katy]

Liz M wrote: "Katy wrote: "Shoot, I'm so sorry you wasted your time Liz! I could have sworn I had it right...I wonder if those similar author pages ever change because I had been working off notes I took when I..."

OK, I posted a new one...this time all planned within minutes of posting so it should stay put, I think! :) Thanks for all this double-checking you are ending up doing, Liz!

[Liz M]

Katy wrote: "Liz M wrote: "Katy wrote: "Shoot, I'm so sorry you wasted your time Liz! I could have sworn I had it right...I wonder if those similar author pages ever change because I had been working off notes..."

You're all set! I'll leave the old post up for a few days in case you want to reference any of the authors, but will zap it soonish to avoid score-keeper confusion.

[Amanda]

Liz M wrote: "Amanda, that is quite the author chain! It looks good, but just so you are aware, Vernon Lee is the same person as Violet Paget.

I also deleted your first two atte..."

No Liz, I didn't. NONE of the authors coming up were any I knew, or had, so the kindle got a work out the few days that I was trying to get the chain done ( planning on doing my reading in August for this, and finally got around to checking this thread ). Means I have a lot of new books and authors to get around to, which is what the challenge is all about, yes ? :D

Noticed that the other two were gone. Was only going to refer to them to add to my book list to add the kindle additions. I am TRYING to get a complete list of what's on the shelves and kindle so I don't double up. Book shopping becomes difficult when I can't be sure that I don't already have THAT particular book by THIS particular author *sigh* ;)

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

Does Bloom's Canon trump Lexile for AtA as it does for RwS? For Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities is on the Canon but has a Lexile under 800. Can I use that book or must I find another? Not a big deal, but I'd like to finish AtA then settle into some jumbos such as Dickens' Bleak House.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Does Bloom's Canon trump Lexile for AtA as it does for RwS? For Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities is on the Canon but has a Lexile under 800. Can I use that book or must I find another? Not a big de..."

Yes. The Lexile rule does not apply to titles on the Bloom's Western Canon list.

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

Thanks, Elizabeth!

Liz, You can delete my 2nd AtA chain in message #16. After I complete the AtA chain in message #12, I want to fill in what I need for RwS, then work on some of my TBR books of 1000+ pages.

[Liz M]

Cory,

I am sorry but when i got to you newest chain it had already destabilized :( And some of the author similar author pages were fluctuating as I played around. At the moment this is closest result(s) I get for your chain:

15.1 - Kat Richardson
15.2 - C.E. Murphy
15.3 - Kelly Meding Lilith Saintcrow or Caitlin Kittredge or Adrian Phoenix or D.D. Barant
15.4 - Jeanne C. Stein
15.5 - Jenna Black
15.6 - Allison Pang
15.7 - Diana Rowland
15.8 - Carolyn Crane
15.9 - Ann Aguirre
15.10 - Sara Creasy

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Sam, your post #43 is approved! (Liz is away from the computer, so wanted to be sure to look before they changed. She will note in the AtA thread in a week or so.)

[Sam]

Thanks! I just really didn't want to read another Flynn novel, haha.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Sam wrote: "Thanks! I just really didn't want to read another Flynn novel, haha."

Yours is a really interesting list - I have some of the same authors on mine, and have read some of the authors on yours. I'm glad there was a place to put the Flynn book - if you didn't like it so much, especially.

[Sam]

I noticed we have a few in common! I'm actually glad I decided to change it. The Flynn book wasn't terrible, it's just not a genre that I read often and I'm not in the mood to read another book in the same vein for a while. I also wasn't terribly interested in the Hilary Mantel books I've got at the moment, but she gave me the best link in my original chain, so I kept it. Now I don't have to worry about it, and I'll get some of the novels I've had on my shelves for wayyyy too long out of the way (hopefully!)

[Cory Day]

Liz M wrote: "Cory,

I am sorry but when i got to you newest chain it had already destabilized :( And some of the author similar author pages were fluctuating as I played around. At the moment this is closest ..."

Thanks Liz - I didn't notice your response here until this afternoon, after having noticed this morning that my chain wasn't working anymore.

Just for simplicity's sake, if you're good with my picking one of the options you came up with (even though things may have changed in the interim), I'll do that just to keep things simple. I'll repost that in the author chains list. Otherwise I feel like we'll just keep going back and forth :)

If you want me to redo based on whatever's showing up at the moment, I can do that too. Thanks for your work to fit in as many of my originals as you could!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Cory Day wrote: "Just for simplicity's sake, if you're good with my picking one of the options you came up with (even though things may have changed in the interim), I'll do that just to keep things simple. "

Your chain in Post #44 works. Just a note, that C.E. Murphy also writes as Cate Dermody.

Liz will update the first post in the Chain thread in a week or so.

[Cory Day]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Cory Day wrote: "Just for simplicity's sake, if you're good with my picking one of the options you came up with (even though things may have changed in the interim), I'll do that just to keep thing..."

Thanks Elizabeth!

[Heather]

ok, i'm wanting to read Constantine by John Shirley for my AtoA challenge. but i'm having a problem - the book is not showing up in the goodreads database AT ALL that I can find. it's a novelization of the movie Constantine and he wrote multiple of the Hellblazer (John Constantine) comics. here's the link for the book on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Constantine-Joh...

now, what do I need to do about this?

[Denise]

Is this it?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

It is tucked in with the novelization you mentioned. Seems to me it ought to be separated out.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Heather wrote: "ok, i'm wanting to read Constantine by John Shirley for my AtoA challenge. but i'm having a problem - the book is not showing up in the goodreads database AT ALL that I can find. it's a novelizatio..."

I separated the one edition that appeared to be different than The Hellblazer Collection movie adaptation editions.

Constantine

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories are listed on Bloom's Western Canon. Am I correct in understanding that means I can read A Christmas Carol foe AtA?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories are listed on Bloom's Western Canon. Am I correct in understanding that means I can read A Christmas Carol foe AtA?"

Yes! Christmas in July! ;-)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Eleanor, I'm sorry, but your chain falls apart at Sergei Lukyanenko (good to there but Andreas Eschbach isn't a similar author) and I don't see another author on his page who links to Rebecca Gablé.

I don't know how you want to fix this.

[Liz M]

Eleanor, this is what I see as your two best options, based on the chain you posted:

Option 1:
15.1 - Wulf Dorn
15.2 - Ursula Poznanski
15.3 - Sebastian Fitzek
15.4 - Cody McFadyen
15.5 - Simon Beckett
15.6 - Frank Schätzing
15.7 - Andreas Eschbach
15.8 - Rebecca Gablé
15.9 - Peter Prange
15.10 - An Author like Peter Prange

Option 2:
15.1 - Wulf Dorn
15.2 - Ursula Poznanski
15.3 - Sebastian Fitzek
15.4 - Cody McFadyen
15.5 - Simon Beckett
15.6 - Frank Schätzing
15.7 - Rebecca Gablé
15.8 - Andreas Eschbach
15.9 - Sergei Lukyanenko
15.10 - An Author like Sergei Lukyanenko

[Liz M]

Sara Grace your chain works! FYI, Ruth Rendell is the same person as Barbara Vine and Michael Innes is the same person as J.I.M. Stewart.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "Can I drop Robert Alter and replace with Joseph Telushkin?"

Yes, you're good to go with Telushkin.

[Liz M]

Ismaa, I can't quite get your chain to work. Elizabeth Bowen does not lead to Ivy Compton-Burnett. However, Elizabeth Taylor does.


Read Mary Wesleybut not for the Spring Challenge.
1. Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. Angela Huth
3. H E Bates
4. Nancy Mitford
5. L.P. Hartley
6. Authors like Rebecca West
7. Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Taylor
8. Ivy Compton-Burnett
9. William Trevor
10. Edna O'Brien

Let us know if you want to substitute Elizabeth Taylor or rework the end of your chain!

[Ismaa]

Liz M wrote: "Ismaa, I can't quite get your chain to work. Elizabeth Bowen does not lead to Ivy Compton-Burnett. However, Elizabeth Taylor does.


Read Mary Wesleybut not for the Spring Challenge.
1. Elizabe..."

Sorry my mistake Liz. I added Elizabeth Bowen by mistake instead of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Here is the correct one.

1. Elizabeth Jane Howard
2. Angela Huth
3. H E Bates
4. Nancy Mitford
5. L.P. Hartley
6. Rebecca West
7. Sylvia Townsend Warner
8. Ivy Compton-Burnett
9. William Trevor
10. Edna O'Brien

[Liz M]

Ismaa wrote: "Sorry my mistake Liz. I added Elizabeth Bowen by mistake instead of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Here is the correct one...."

Oh good, I'm glad it is an easy fix!

When you have a moment, please edit your post in the author chains thread or add a new one with the correct list for Kate to reference when scoring.

[Ismaa]

Liz M wrote: "Ismaa wrote: "Sorry my mistake Liz. I added Elizabeth Bowen by mistake instead of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Here is the correct one...."

Oh good, I'm glad it is an easy fix!

When you have a momen..."

Will do ASAP