Collegedale Public Library discussion
2017 Reading Challenge
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2017 Reading Challenge!
List A: Set in South-Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. An inside look at death row, racial & class injustices, corrupt law enforcement & court systems in the south, & juvenile & mentally ill court cases. Perspective is the attorney who founded Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL. This should be required reading. List B: Audiobook: Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction by Elizabeth Vargas. She narrates her own book, & it's a compelling story of alcoholism, anxiety disorder, treatment, and second chances working for ABC News.
Nikki wrote: "List A: Set in South-Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. An inside look at death row, racial & class injustices, corrupt law enforcement & court systems in the south, ..."Between breaths is on my TBR list. I will have to look into the other one. :)
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Movie theater at Northgate. Ugh.
I found two for March! No One Knows is set in Tennessee and then a book that has been mentioned in another book The Hound of the Baskervilles.
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Parameters of southern contemporary: published after a certain year or setting of book after a certain year. What year?
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Changing categories and putting "Hound of the Baskervilles" as book mentioned in another book for March, freeing the one year category from "Profiles in Courage" to a subsequent title.
Thanks for the input. I'm switching a choice from List A-Just Mercy to contemporary selection. And amazingly I have completed this month over the weekend. (It may never happen again). List A: Book set in South-Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. Takes place in the 80s in Atlanta. Storyline is a bigamist father (no spoiler-that's the first sentence) and the mother/daughter from each family unit. Chattanooga Big Reads this spring.
List B: Unreliable narrator: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This is THE Shirley Jackson of the short story "The Lottery" fame from high school lit class. Somehow this book crossed my radar off IG feed or a book blog. Listened on audiobook. Odd and spooky as only she can write. Good stuff.
Sara wrote: "Sara wrote: "A6 for March: secret of rebel cave. Haven't decided on the b yet."B1 - a scanner darkly."
Finished but a slog through both. Rebel Cave was supposed to be like a Bobsey Twins but too educational to keep attention and aimed too young for the educational part to be really informative. Scanner was just not my usual style: really dark and depressing so I could only take so much at a time.
Man, Chattanooga is getting to be Breaking Bad! But I still love it.Forgot to say for March, I read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me (narrator who is of a different ethnicity). It was bleak, depressing, and relentless but it is a good book to read.
I read a book by a Southern female author, the former Bachelorette Andi Dorfman, who is from Atlanta. That book stunk. It even failed as a guilty pleasure book, since it wasn't juicy enough.
Bookista wrote: "Man, Chattanooga is getting to be Breaking Bad! But I still love it.Forgot to say for March, I read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me (narrator who is of a different ethnicity). It was b..."
I didn't hear anything good about her personally either.
So apparently I'm taking too lang of late to finish books since Goodreads is sending me congratulations e-mails when I have moved my last three from reading to read.
Sara wrote: "January will be battle of lookout mountain by Gilbert Morris (a8) and 1,000 chestnut trees (b2)."just realized with the correction to the list (civil rights vice 2 civil wars), my a8 became a2.
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SOUTHERN FEMALE AUTHOR: Silver Sparrow (Originally read for the Chattanooga Big Read event I was too lazy to attend, but worth it. It's a good representation of the jealousies and insecurities of a girl caught in the crossfires of a bigamist father. Nice depressing but upbeat closing lines as well!
"People say, That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn't kill you doesn't kill you. That's all you get. Sometimes, you just have to hope that's enough.")
http://www.listchallenges.com/300-boo...Here is a link to see how many books that you should have read. I had 71/300 and have put several books on my To Read list for future reference.
KELLY wrote: "http://www.listchallenges.com/300-boo...Here is a link to see how many books that you should have read. I had 71/300 and have put several books on my To Read lis..."
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April books--A9--book set in Tennessee--"Long Man"--setting in 1936--TVA flooding farms for a new dam--3 days left before the flood and a 3 year old girl is missingB10--"Our Souls at Night"--hard to find books with older main characters
This month will be sevens: a7 - Cajun ghost stories (I hope, not certain if it will be though) and b7 - the laughing cavalier.
Sara wrote: "This month will be sevens: a7 - Cajun ghost stories (I hope, not certain if it will be though) and b7 - the laughing cavalier."A7 became a10 - tricky business by Dave Barry. Good story. Not sure that I would've called it a mystery, more suspense/action (cost to Jason Bourne than Nancy Drew) but that's how it had been categorized.
For anyone needing 2017 movie suggestions, Henrietta Lax came out on HBO this weekend. And Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon releases shortly (love an author with my same actual first name). Kelly & I saw the preview-looks decent.
Nikki wrote: "For anyone needing 2017 movie suggestions, Henrietta Lax came out on HBO this weekend. And Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon releases shortly (love an author with my same actual first name). Kel..."I'm planning on lost city of z.
For April, I read for the first time 'Jurassic Park' by Michael Crichton. I LOVED IT. That was for the 'second chance' category, since I have disliked at least 1 other book he wrote and regularly told people I thought he was awful. Going to try to squeeze in one in the Southern category too.
April picks were a Southern mystery Lowcountry Boil and a book with an unreliable narrator All the Missing Girls.
Sara wrote: "Sara wrote: "This month will be sevens: a7 - Cajun ghost stories (I hope, not certain if it will be though) and b7 - the laughing cavalier."A7 became a10 - tricky business by Dave Barry. Good sto..."
April done.
OK, what I have learned from this is that I do not read or barely know any Southern literature!!
I am coming up blank with almost every genre except mystery.
Bookista wrote: "I am coming up blank with almost every genre except mystery."Fortunately mystery can cover many categories: set in the south, southern male author, southern female author, southern Gothic, contemporary southern novel...
For May: A4--Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton and B1--book with unreliable narrator--Whispers and Lies by Joy Fielding--very unreliable narrator and surprise ending
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BOOK WITH A MAIN CHARACTER WHO IS THE SAME AGE AS YOU: (The Killer Inside Me I was going to make this my unreliable narrator choice, but discovered the psychotic, redneck sheriff was my exact age (29), though not for long. Of all the depraved psycho characters I've read, Sheriff Lou Ford is certainly the most polite.)
BOOK SET DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH (March: Book One (Excellent graphic novel biography of Civil Rights hero John Lewis. Although someone recently described him as a man of 'All talk, talk, talk — no action or results,' this book clearly undermines that mendacity.)
That's cool, Paul. Didn't know those types of books were made into graphic novels.
Nikki wrote: "That's cool, Paul. Didn't know those types of books were made into graphic novels."Everything's a graphic novel nowadays.
May completions: Southern mystery: No One Knows by J. T. Ellison. Setting is Nashville. Normally not a thriller fan but heard the author interviewed so gave it a go. Enjoyable. 4 stars.
Different race/ethnicity: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I think this book will be winning awards. Premise: Police shooting of unarmed black teen with main character as passenger. Black/white relations. Black Lives Matter. Life in inner city vs. suburbs. Multiple fascinating characters. 5 stars.
My May books are a juvenile book set in the South called Paper Towns and an YA Edgar Award winner of 2017 Girl in the Blue Coat.
My May books were the runaway jury for southern male writer and rekindled for protagonist same age as I; mission accomplished. Although I was a bit sad the same age one wasnt there last year instead since I read a book then with a protagonist the exact same age (last ride to Memphis). Rekindled I had to go for decade since they don't seem to like to write many books about people in their mid- to late thirties.
june: southern gothic - from dead to worse.still don't have my list b selection.
Sara wrote: "june: southern gothic - from dead to worse.still don't have my list b selection."
Book set in wartime: sundiver.
Book for May -- A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott, for the category of 'Book With a Main Character in the Same Decade As Me.' This was a hugely enjoyable bodice-ripping full-bodied melodrama. Book for June--The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott, for the category of 'Unreliable Narrator.' This book was a royal pain in the rear, and the narrator was so nauseatingly prissily moralistic she counts as unreliable. Ew
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BOOK SET IN THE SOUTH: The Whistler (Florida is questionable in its Southern credentials, but since a good portion takes place in the panhandle (aka the Redneck Riviera), it should count. Corrupt judges and Indians lead to predictable results.)
MAIN CHARACTER AS DIFFERENT RACE: Black Betty (Easy Rawlins continues navigating post war Los Angeles as a black detective. I like Rawlins because he's fairly amoral, but has little choice given his circumstances. It's sad we didn't get more movies with Denzel as Easy ["Devil with a Blue Dress" is on point.])
I was originally going to use "The Spy Who Loved Me" by Ian Fleming as UNRELIABLE NARRATOR, because noted feminist Ian Fleming writing from a woman's perspective should bring lulz, but it was unreadable. This category continues to elude me!
Books for June were Pretty Girls for the Contemporary Southern book and Alex and Eliza for the audio book selection.
Book set in TN: River of Time: My Descent into Depression & How I Emerged into Hope by Naomi Judd. Aftermath of her Oprah reality show of concert tour w Winona took her into extreme treatment resistant depression. Powerful read on her journey toward healing. Novel set in wartime: A Bridge Across the Ocean by Susan Meissner. The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff. Both 2017 releases. Very different plots; good reads. Now I need a break from WWII.
Having to change my book set during war time since the one I chose is the events leading to the war. Instead I'm doing an audio book: death at wentwater court. June is complete.
For June---A11--contemporary Southern book "Low Country Summer" and B12--First book in a s,eries--"The Camel Club"
Sara wrote: "KELLY wrote: "http://www.listchallenges.com/300-boo...Here is a link to see how many books that you should have read. I had 71/300 and have put several books on ..."
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I finished July early. I re-read A Wrinkle in Time, which is going to be a movie coming out within a year. Close enough! Ha. I liked it a good amount but did not love it. Don't feel strongly about it either way. More religious book than I remembered. Now I have the rest of the month to find a Southern book I want to read. Ha
For July I am reading if a duke demands by a southern female author and am planning on reading 3 men in a boat for a book mentioned in another book.
Juvenile book set in south: took this to mean YA or middle reader. If I Was Your Girl-Meredith Russo. Takes place mostly in TN with several references to the Chattanooga area. The author may actually live here. Topic is a transitioning transgender teenager & the struggles that arise.
Book mentioned in another book: did a little 'juking the stats' here, b/c I had no time for or interest in long, drawn-out British literature. Read The Brontë Plot by Katherine Reay and she references Beatrix Potter books. So I read: The Tale of Two Bad Mice/Timmy Tiptoes/Peter Rabbit. (I'm not counting these in my total for the year. But they were new to me).
**I need suggestions for southern classic (shortish) & civil war set in south. (More story than history).
We only have 10 more to go!! I'm finding List B more enjoyable. It seems to offer more freedom for each category.
She does live here! Did you like it? And sorry I've failed at civil war book suggestions. Maybe someone else has a good one :)
Collegedale Public Library
Books mentioned in this topic
Sing, Unburied, Sing (other topics)Wonder (other topics)
Life of Pi (other topics)
A Painted House (other topics)
The Hypnotist's Love Story (other topics)
More...
Anyway,
BOOK THAT'S BEEN ON YOUR TO READ LIST FOR OVER A YEAR: Profiles in Courage (Pulitzer Prize book "written" by John F. Kennedy offered instances of senatorial courage throughout American history. Although I disagree about the senator who voted not to impeach Andrew Johnson. Dude let the South get away with too many shenanigans.)
SOUTHERN MYSTERY: Rusty Puppy (Big improvement over the last entry in my favorite redneck duo series. The asinine cliffhanger at the end of the last book is thankfully resolved quickly, and introduces a smart ass "600 year old vampire midget" kid to the series.)