FA 2014 BtW Questions & Answers

[Liz M]

Between the Wars (BtW): Read 10 books originally published from 1919-1940, with no author being read more than three times.

Click on the link above to read the challenge description. Post questions about the BtW challenge here.

[Liz M]

A useful feature is the "Most Popular Books Published In..." feature.


Books Published In 1919
Books Published In 1920
Books Published In 1921
Books Published In 1922
Books Published In 1923
Books Published In 1924
Books Published In 1925
Books Published In 1926
Books Published In 1927
Books Published In 1928
Books Published In 1929
Books Published In 1930
Books Published In 1931
Books Published In 1932
Books Published In 1933
Books Published In 1934
Books Published In 1935
Books Published In 1936
Books Published In 1937
Books Published In 1938
Books Published In 1939
Books Published In 1940

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Here is a link to the list of books our members have read. Included is a column with the Lexile rating, if any.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Liz found these Agatha Christie books, which may or may not be included in Post #3.

1936 A.B.C. Murders 740 BPL-ya
1939 And Then There Were None 570 BPL-ya
1938 Appointment with Death 680 BPL-ya
1936 Cards on the Table 630 BPL-ya
1937 Death on the Nile 660 BPL-ya
1930 Murder at the Vicarage 690 BPL-ya
1939 Murder is Easy 660 BPL-ya
1934 Murder on the Orient Express 640 BPL-ya
1940 One, Two, Buckle My Shoe 700 BPL-ya


AND, while I was looking for books in my list, I sadly found two Edith Wharton titles that won't work:

1922 - The Glimpses of the Moon, YA, no Lexile
1924 - Old New York: Four Novellas, YA, no Lexile

There are undoubtedly titles by other authors, so be vigilant!

[Rosemary]

I love this period! *happy dance*

I have so many books that fit. Unfortunately they mostly seem to be bunched into 1931-2 and 1937-40, but I will have fun filling the gaps!

I noticed The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett is also YA with no Lexile.

[Jama]

I love this period too!

I have a question- Parade's End was originally published as four interrelated novels between 1924 and 1928. Some Do Not... (1924)
No More Parades (1925)
A Man Could Stand Up (1926)
The Last Post (1928)

I just wanted to make sure they could be claimed seperately, but I assume since I could find links for each that they can?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Jama wrote: "I love this period too!

I have a question- Parade's End was originally published as four interrelated novels between 1924 and 1928. Some Do Not... (1924)
[book:No Mor..."

Yes, they can. Keep in mind the 3 per author limitation rule.

[Joanna]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Liz found these Agatha Christie books, which may or may not be included in Post #3.

1936 A.B.C. Murders 740 BPL-ya
1939 And Then There Were None 570 BPL-ya
1938 Appointment with Death 680 BPL-ya
1..."

None of those Agatha Christies will work because the lexiles are too low, right?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Joanna wrote: "None of those Agatha Christies will work because the lexiles are too low, right? "

Right.

[Liz M]

Jama

1919 by John Dos Passos appears to be YA, no Lexile score It's on the canon, so it works!

Bread and Wine, however is not on the canon, is an assignment book, and has no lexile score.

[Liz M]

Out of Africa is shelved as assignment fiction at BPL and does not have a Lexile score.

[Denise]

Will short story collections be acceptable for this task, since the original publication dates of stories in a collection often are not all in the same year?

Specifically I am looking at:

Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather

and

Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers.

I've listed them on my reading plan post for now, and will replace them if they aren't acceptable.


Concerning my choice for 1923, the MPE edition of Riceyman Steps (1923) also contains Elsie and the Child and Other Stories (1924). There are two groups of Riceyman Steps on Goodreads, Riceyman Steps and Riceyman Steps. Some contain the Elsie story, some don't, and they aren't all correctly assigned to the proper grouping. It would be quite a task for a Librarian to sort them out, especially without having physical copies. Anyway, I want to note that I plan to read an edition that contains only Riceyman Steps, since the year matters on this task.

[Liz M]

D wrote: "Will short story collections be acceptable for this task, since the original publication dates of stories in a collection often are not all in the same year?..."

It depends. There are many short story collections that are a specific set of stories and published in the authors lifetime as a collection (that particular title will always contain the same set of short stories) - Tales of the Jazz Age or Runaway, for example. These are fine -- they have known contents and publication dates.

The problem is with "Collected Works" "Complete Short Stories" type of collections where it is difficult to determine the contents and/or the appropriate publication date.

[Denise]

Liz M wrote: "It depends. There are m..."

Thank you for the explanation, Liz.

Hopefully the two titles I mentioned are okay? I looks to me like both meet the criteria of a specific set of stories and published in the authors lifetime as a collection (that particular title will always contain the same set of short stories)

from Wikipedia:

Youth and the Bright Medusa

Lord Peter Views the Body

I don't mean to be a pest, but if there is a problem I'd rather know ahead of time.

Thanks.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Yes, D, both of those titles will work.

[Denise]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Yes, D, both of those titles will work."

Thanks, Elizabeth. For several reasons, this sub-challenge is going to be tough for me. It's a relief to have my titles chosen (hopefully).

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Norma - you will want to choose a different title for the 1921-1922 time period - Wharton's The Glimpses of the Moon is a YA no Lexile and does not qualify for BtW.

[Denise]

Two Steinbeck titles that I really wanted to read but are YA:

BPL links:

The Long Valley (1938)

and

In Dubious Battle (1936)

I can't find Lexiles for either of them. I would have thought all of Steinbeck's books would have Lexiles by now, but maybe some of them just aren't read in schools very much.

[Amanda]

This works so well with my 20th Century challenge - 2 birds, 1 stone!

Now, off to check my allocations for that challenge to see what will work best for me. ( Think I can get this challenge done, unlike AtA :( )

[Sam]

It's on the spreadsheet, but I just want to make sure: The Haunted Bookshop will work for 1919? I know Goodreads has it as being originally published on Jan. 1, 1918 but Wikipedia and the spreadsheet both say 1919...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Sam wrote: "It's on the spreadsheet, but I just want to make sure: The Haunted Bookshop will work for 1919? I know Goodreads has it as being originally published on Jan. 1, 1918 but Wikipedia and..."

Yes, 1919 is correct. I have made the edit on the GR book page.

[Sam]

Thanks Elizabeth! :)

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

One of my goals for next season is to finish volumes 5-7 of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, assuming I finish volumes 3 and 4 this week.

I'm having trouble locating the editions to use for pages for volumes 5 and 6. Most come up in French or other languages, and the first English versions seem to be too long. Do you have the correct versions and page numbers saved in the database?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

The Captive for #5, and

The Sweet Cheat Gone for #6

What I do here at GR is to open the Other Editions, make sure they are sorted by "num ratings" and scroll to find the first English language edition. In this case, I had to first go to the Series page (usually in parenthesis to the right of the title and clickable). I could then click on the appropriate title.

[Theresa~OctoberLace]

Thanks, Elizabeth. What troubled me with The Captive was that the version you chose lists 289 pages in English, but the description is in French. The next English version lists 832 pages and does have an English description.

Otherwise, I had found the same selections as you, though the name of vol. 6 is different from the excellent audio version narrated by Neville Jason that I'm using for the series.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Descriptions can use a "default description" when one isn't entered. I suspect that's the problem with The Captive, and should be investigated. I didn't look, but that large page count could be either a Large Print Edition or, perhaps #5 & #6 combined - which I've seen frequently published together in English.

I'll try to remember to take a look at them tomorrow. I'm off to read for the evening now.

[Cory Day]

The Mark of Zorro was originally published as serial stories in 1919 but not as a book (novella) until 1924: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curs.... Goodreads lists 1919, but which date should I use for this?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

We will be using the 1919 date of original publication.

[Cory Day]

Thanks!

[Rachel]

I'm planning on starting that one today! :)

[Tony]

For books written in another language, does this mean the date of original publication, or the date of the first English language version?

[Liz M]

Tony wrote: "For books written in another language, does this mean the date of original publication, or the date of the first English language version?"

Date of original publication.

[Tony]

Liz M wrote: Date of original publication."

Thanks. In that case the spreadsheet linked at #3 above may need corrected for We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It lists it as 1924, but I believe the original was published in Russian in 1920.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Thanks, Tony. Wiki shows written 1920-21 and GR has orig pub as 1921. We'll fix our records to reflect 1921.

[Liz M]

Tony wrote: "Liz M wrote: Date of original publication."

Thanks. In that case the spreadsheet linked at #3 above may need corrected for We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It lists it as 1924, ..."

I don't read Russian, but from my understanding, We did not pass the Soviet censorship bureau and was not published in the Soviet Union until 1988. It looks like the first published edition was the English-language edition published in 1924.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Aargh. Liz, thanks. That must be why we have 1924. And I'll correct GR while I'm at it.

[Tony]

To complicate this still further, the French Wikipedia page says that there was a Russian-language version published in Paris in 1920.

[Liz M]

Tony wrote: "To complicate this still further, the French Wikipedia page says that there was a Russian-language version published in Paris in 1920."

"His works became increasingly satirical and critical toward the CPSU. This attitude made his position increasingly difficult as the 1920s wore on. In 1923, Zamyatin arranged for the manuscript of his novel We to be smuggled to E.P. Dutton and Company in New York City. After being translated into English by Gregory Zilboorg, the novel was published in 1924."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_%28no...

We will use the 1924 publication date.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Tony wrote: "To complicate this still further, the French Wikipedia page says that there was a Russian-language version published in Paris in 1920."

That may be a typo. Zamyatin didn't finish writing it until 1921. There was a French translation published in Paris in 1929. I find an article where it was published in Paris in Russian in 1927, which differs with other publication histories. But every article I can find says the first publication was by Dutton in the US in 1924.

[Tony]

Thanks for researching! The more I dig into it (particularly in languages other than English), the more confusing it gets, but a 1924 date suits me better if I choose it for this task :)

[Rebekah]

Would Swallows and Amazons work? I can't find a lexile score. I've been trying to read this book for years and I keep getting hung up on the YA/Lexile thing

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Rebekah wrote: "Would Swallows and Amazons work? I can't find a lexile score. I've been trying to read this book for years and I keep getting hung up on the YA/Lexile thing"

Sorry, Rebekah. As Juv/YA at BPL and no lexile, it doesn't qualify for BtW.

[Jama]

I thought I'd check to make sure I'm right. I just finished Invitation to a Beheading, and I wanted to make sure the publication date of 1936 is correct ( it was published serially in 1936, and as a novel in 1938).

Thanks,
Jama

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Yes, 1936 is correct as that is the true date when it was originally publication. I hope that's what you wanted.

[Jama]

Yes! Thank you:-)