2017 Reading Challenge!

[Malissa]

Malissa wrote: "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 :)"

I do have The Widow of the South on my to read list, but it's still over 400 pages.

[Sara]

Ghost riders was pretty good for civil war. Some good history but definitely more story. It starts with some ghosts showing up in modern times at a camp site, then goes back in time time their story.

[Nikki]

Malissa wrote: "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 :)"

Yeah, it was a great book, as was her commentary on how/why she wrote it the way she did.

[Mary]

For July: A1--a book set in the South--"Beachhouse for Rent" and B5--a novel set in wartime--"The Lost Wife"

[Paul]

July

SOUTHERN GOTHIC: The Devil All the Time (A little disturbed that this was recommended to be, but it was a wise one.)

FIRST BOOK IN A SERIES: The Late Show (New cop series from Connelly featuring a laaaaady protagonist makes me think the Bosch series may be nearing its end.)

[Sara]

Sara wrote: "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."

Complete.

[Sara]

August: a11 - the undoing of Saint sylvanus. B11 - list city of z.

[Paul]

August:

1. JUVENILE BOOK SET IN THE SOUTH: The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (Collection of ghost series set in the South. Probably good for kids, but a little dull for desensitized horror fans.)

2. NOVEL SET DURING WARTIME: Johnny Got His Gun (I can see why this was such an effective anti-war book. It's told from the perspective of a mutilated World War I soldier as he reflects on his life in a hospital bed, intertwined with disturbing body horror elements.)

[Mary]

Dropping to one book a month. For August --b7--The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna

[Nikki]

List A: nonfiction by Southern author - Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance

List B: adapted into 2017 movie - Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

[Gina]

I forgot July so blame it on the craziness with Summer Reading Program. The two for July were a book by a male southern writer Thunder and Rain and a book adapted into a 2017 movie Red Sparrow although that one got postponed until 2018 but I am keeping it for my challenge. August I tried doing a "second chance" with Nicholas Spark's new Two By Two but gave up and found a book with a high rating on Goodreads Water from My Heart by Charles Martin.

[Sara]

changed my book becoming a movie this year to the glass castle since I own it and am trying to thin out my shelves. it started out not too bad since the author is able to remember things as the girl she was and that girl thought her way of life was (mostly) fun. as she got older and more aware, the story became darker and harder to read.
undoing of st. Sylvanus was good but I felt like it could have been a couple different books instead of squishing it all into one.

[Sara]

September: Christy by Catherine Marshall (either book set in the south or southern classic - we'll see) and Good or God for book with over 4.5 stars.

[Kelly]

To have a chance to win a Wired Coffee Bar gift card, please go to our Collegedale Public Library Facebook page and post your current ebook to our first post by midnight tonight (Monday, September 18). Use the hashtag #eBookLove. Good luck!

[Nikki]

I'd like to propose that if we continue the challenge next year, regular participants on here each submit genre/topic suggestions. Looks like about 7-8 of us on this thread, so we could each offer 3-5. Could put a box at the circulation desk for patrons to vote on our suggestions, and then do two lists again.

Civil war in the south was a terrible category for me. One, I'm over the south given our current political climate. Two, not a big history reader. Three, not a big war reader. Which left stupid civil war-themed love stories or children's books. So I juked the stats as best I could: Escape by Night: A Civil War Adventure by Laurie Myers (simple & quick).

First in series: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Never read these before, only some of her memoir/nonfiction stuff.

[Nikki]

Southern classic-Fried Green Tomatoes-Fannie Flagg, 2 stars
Edgar Award-Ordinary Grace- William Kent Krueger, 5 stars

[Sara]

posting late but this month I read an edgar award winning book (tinseltown) and a book set in the south (a potion to die for).

[Nikki]

Has everyone stopped participating? I haven't seen posts from folks in a while.
Mine for this month:
Southern Gothic-Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (Wow, this genre is dark).
Book on TBR list for over a year-The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking (Saw this book all over the internet when it came out last fall and it continues to be popular. Was on my mental list since then. Related to a lot of how Danes celebrate Hygge. Fun, quick read).

[Kelly]

I have all of mine on one list that I update in the beginning. Sara is still participating as well.

[Sara]

Nikki wrote: "Has everyone stopped participating? I haven't seen posts from folks in a while.
Mine for this month:
Southern Gothic-Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell (Wow, this genre is dark).
Book on TBR list ..."
I think the definition of gothic is dark, although I will admit southern gothic seems to add an element of the macabre as well. for myself for November, I read a book set during war time (catastrophe 1914) and a non-fiction southern book (far Appalachia).

[Sara]

last two:
pirate by clive cussler and robin burcell for second chance book. not for cussler but burcell. I tried one other in the fargo adventures series and it was so bad I didn't even make it a third of the way through.
mahalia Jackson for civil rights. although the description made it sound like it would work (the subtitle is gospel singer and civil rights hero), half of it took place after she moved out of the south and it barely mentioned her activisim. if I can find another one in the time left, i'll try to get something more applicable but i'm trying not to go for the obvious options (ie - the help, to kill a mockingbird)

[Nikki]

Completed challenge:
Book by southern male author: The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin
I did NOT see the ending coming at all. Maybe cause I read late into the night and my predictive powers were low. That's the best kind of ending....

Second chance author: Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl
I own Tender at the Bone, as I love a good traumatic early life memoir, but this book, despite the lovely title, had sat on my TBR shelf for years. It had some narrative drive, but wasn't nearly as impactful as her first memoir. She's a great writer, but I'm not interested in her subsequent book about wearing disguises as a restaurant critic. And even her latest foray into fiction-that description didn't catch my attention.

[Malissa]

I do love endings I can't predict!

[Sara]

mine were completed. don't know if I'll give the Fargo series a third chance; wasn't all that bad but not very good, even for what it aspired to be.