Connie's Summer Challenge (a middle-aged perspective)

[Connie]

This is agressive, and actually a bit of a pipe-dream framework because I'm doing research for my own writing and will also be reading other books that don't fit in the challenge topics, but here goes...my ideas for the beginner challenge are:

Beginner Level--Summer Related Tasks:

☑ 1) Into the Great Wide Open– Read a book that takes place out in the great wide open
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown
2) Get your Grill On - Read a book that features summer recipes or outdoor summer activities
- She Flew the Coop: A Novel Concerning Life, Death, Sex and Recipes in Limoges, Louisiana by Michael Lee West
3) The Colors of Summer – Read a book that features a yellow, green, or sandy cover
- Lamb by Christopher Moore OR When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Collins, Gail
4) Beach Bum - Read a book that could be considered a “beach read”
- Girls’ Poker Night by Jill A. Davis
5) Sand Between My Toes - Read a book that takes place in or around a beach/ocean
- On Folly Beach by Karen White
6) Ocean Blue – Read a book that takes place out on the water
- Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
7) Hook ‘Em – Read a book that features fishing or fishermen
- The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost
8) Sports-a-holic – Read a book that features a popular sport
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
☑ 9) Campfire Story – Read a book that scares the bejesus out of you
- A Modern Mephistopheles by Louisa May Alcott Breasts: The Owner's Manual: Every Woman's Guide to Reducing Cancer Risk, Making Treatment Choices, and Optimizing Outcomes
☑ 10) One and Done – Read a book that you can finish in one day
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Stretch Your Comfort Zone Tasks:

☑ 11) Let’s Get It On – read a book that features falling in or out of love
- The Hummingbird House by Donna Ball The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
12) Take Pride– Read a book written by an LGBTQIA author or features an LGBTQIA character
- Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
☑ 13) Read the World -Read a book that takes place in a country, or in a culture, other than your own
- The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
14) Diversify Yourself – Read a book by an author of color
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
15) You Have a Funny Accent – Read a book that was translated from another language
- Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Marquez Garcia or The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
16) Won’t Be Long – Read a collection of short stories or essays
- Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue by Kathryn J. Atwood
☑ 17) Poet at Heart – Read a book of poetry
- Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
18) My What Big Teeth You Have – Read a book that puts a spin on a well-known fairy tale
- My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: 40 New fairy Tales ed. by K. Bernheimer
19) High Noon – Read a classic or contemporary Western
- A Murder, A Mystery, and A Marriage by Mark Twain
20) TBRing It – Read a book from the bottom of your TBR pile
- Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
21) Unshelve it – Read a book that’s been sitting on your Goodreads Shelves for a while
- The Women Who Wrote the War by Nancy Caldwell Sorel
☑ 22) Childhood Reboot – Read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel
- Don’t Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
23) Listen to Me – Listen to an Audiobook
- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (maybe)

[Lori, Super Mod]

Good luck Connie!

[Karen]

I like the books you've selected, especially the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Every time I see the books someone had chosen, my list gets longer.

[Connie]

Lori wrote: "Good luck Connie!"

thank you

[Connie]

Karen wrote: "I like the books you've selected, especially the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Every time I see the books someone had chosen, my list gets longer."

I know what you mean. The saying "so many books, so little time" is an absolute truth.

[Nichole]

Best of luck, Connie!

[Connie]

Yeah, finished my first book for this challenge.

#11) Let's Get it On - The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter (1996)

Aunt Margaret falls out of love with her husband; Melanie falls in love with Finn.
My review:
The puppets cut the strings of the puppetmaster. The woman silenced by patriarchy finds her voice. The romantic day, or rather night, dreams of a teenaged girl turn into a grimy, grim reality.

This novel has all the earmarks of a feminist tale, tapping into the gothic feminist writings of Bronte, Alcott, Wharton, Shelley, Perkins Gilman, etc., but beyond Aunt Margaret finding her voice and the vanquishing of the creepy, grander, overt representation of patriarchy the story doesn't maintain it's feminist footing. Plus, I'm disturbed by the ambiguity of the fates of the characters...I don't need a big bow tying up the details nice and tidy, but this conclusion doesn't even bring the details into the same zipcode.

The power of this novel is the cache of the author, not the story.

[Connie]

#10) One and Done - We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015)

Her words reflect the thoughts of first wave feminists like Edith Wharton and Mary Ritter Beard. Until I learned the varying definitions of feminism, I avoided being called a feminist because I didn't want to be viewed as an angry man-hater. I think Adichie does a wonderful, eloquent job of explaining the positives of being a feminist.

[Connie]

#22) Childhood Reboot - Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (1970)

I remember several copies of this book were available in my junior high library and while a lot of kids were reading it, I would pick it up, scan the summary, but not check it out. As a young teen I was all about science and absolutes, I wouldn't have appreciated the spirituality or the moral lessons Bach shared. Truthfully, I will have to reread this book several times to fully extract and contemplate what I think it's all about.

[Nichole]

Being middle-aged myself, I appreciate your middle-aged perspective. I can relate to your changing feelings about Bach's book. My experience with Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was similar.

[Connie]

Nichole wrote: "Being middle-aged myself, I appreciate your middle-aged perspective. I can relate to your changing feelings about Bach's book. My experience with Their Eyes Were Watching God by [auth..."
Zora Neale Hurston's book is also on my planned reading list. I've had it for a while and have not read it, although I tried to get one of my freshman comp students to read it for her final paper. She didn't though, instead she tried ZNH's Mules and Men which I suspect was much more difficult to get through because of the language/dialect.

[Nichole]

Mules and Men is a more difficult book. I hope your student did well in your course!

[Connie]

#9) Campfire Story – Breasts: The Owner's Manual: Every Woman's Guide to Reducing Cancer Risk, Making Treatment Choices, and Optimizing Outcomes (2018)

This isn't quite the type of horror story suggested by the category, but breast cancer has certainly scared the bejesus out of me.

[Connie]

Maybe the "Summertime" challenge is actually over--since it's now September--but I'm of a mind to keep going a little longer.

#13) Read the World - The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (2016)

This book's premise intrigued me...A widower finds a charm bracelet amongst his late wife's things, then sets out to learn about the charms. It had the makings of a good, light-hearted mystery; but it wasn't. 'Arthur Pepper is a charming story', you'll see that said in nearly every review, and it's true. Arthur Pepper also lacks something, and I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's the pace of the story that bothers me. A lot of unnecessary, charming details, repetition, and adjectives slow the story and in the process the story reads like it's written by a novice or a student. Maybe it's the inevitable change of heart moments that start out believable, but become cliche. I just can't decide.
I really wanted to like this book a lot, but I couldn't. I think the author has a great deal of potential, she just needs an honest, possibly brutal editor to help her pull the great story from overwhelming detail.

[Connie]

In my simple world summer doesn't end until the Autumnal Equinox, so I'm still chipping away at my list.
I finished #1) Into the Great Wide Open - Gods of Howl Mountain (2018)
It's a good story that takes place on a North Carolina mountain in the 1950s.
and #17) Poet At Heart - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats drawings by Edward Gorey (1982)
"So this is this, and that is that: And there's how you AD-DRESS A CAT."/