Spring/Summer 2012: Questions, Task Help and General Discussion

[Tami]

All questions about specific tasks and also general discussion. We will be adding some lists for books that could fit some of the harder to find tasks and updating it when people make suggestions. Feel free to give suggestions on books you think would fit someone’s needs for a task.

[Sashana]

Do you want us to use a specific list for 25.4 ( 1001 Books to Read Before You Die), Tami? There are many different lists and I wanted to make sure.

[Tami]

I know it is updated every 2 years (I think) where they drop some off, and add others on. I would say that it doesn't have to be on the current one, as long as it was on the list sometime. Whatever list you can find would work. There are several on the internet.

[Sashana]

Tami wrote: "I know it is updated every 2 years (I think) where they drop some off, and add others on. I would say that it doesn't have to be on the current one, as long as it was on the list sometime. Whatever..."

Thanks, Tami, I think I'll use the most current one if I can find it.

[Megan]

For the Goodreads Choice Awards winner - Can we read one of the nominated books rather than an actual winner? There are not many actual winners to choose from.

[Melissa]

How do you locate the Goodreads Choice Awards list?

[Megan]

Melissa wrote: "How do you locate the Goodreads Choice Awards list?"

The link used to be on the goodreads homepage but it has disappeared. I just googled it and it was easy to find :)

[Beks]

For 10.8 May they take a vacation or must they be on Vacation the entire time?

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Anyone have ideas on which book to read for the shark week challenge? Most shark books are for kids and are less than 150 pages. Or I'd have to get a non-fiction text book kind of thing. A non-fiction book that discusses different kind of sharks and what they eat does not sound like a ton of fun. Haha.

[Megan]

I don't know if it counts but the old sea adventure books have quite a few sharks in them. Like Moby-Dick, Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea, In the South Seas and even Just So Stories includes two about writing the alphabet which uses a shark's tooth as the writing implement. There must be heaps more.

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Hmmm... Good idea! I had been searching forever, and could not get my brain thinking. If you search Goodreads and Amazon for sharks, it's kids books and non-fiction. (Oh, and Isn't Moby-Dick a whale?)

I did find Sharks and Boys by Kristen Tracy, which sounds like fun.

Thanks for your ideas. I like choices. :)

[Tami]

On the Winner Is, I would allow any that made nominations. That will give us a larger pool. I also will allow any winners from 2010. :)

On the vacation one, I am fine if they go on vacation but aren't on vacation for the entire book. As long as the vacation plays a part in the story.

Shark Week: I was thinking that may be a little difficult. I would be fine with including other sea life. So Moby Dick would work, a story where fishermen are the main characters and it takes place on the water I am fine with too.

Hopefully this answers everything. :)

[Sashana]

Melissa wrote: "How do you locate the Goodreads Choice Awards list?"


2011 Goodreads Choice Awards

2010 Goodreads Choice Awards

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Thanks, Tami. :) Opening it to other sea creatures helps. :)

[Kayla]

For the Earth Day task, does the the book have to be nonfiction? I was considering using The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, which is about a young girl who is a budding naturalist and she learns about evolution and the natural world from her grandfather. Could this count for the task?

[Beks]

Does Scotland count as a could climate? I'm more sensitive to cold than other people so I just have to check.

Also could I read Island of the Blue Dolphins for shark week?

[Julia]

Would Martyr work for Bard Bash?

[Tami]

Kayla, it doesn't need to be nonfiction, I would say that book would work.

Beks, I am right with you. Anything under 90 degrees is cold for me. So I say yes. :) Island of the Blue Dolphins would work too.

[Tami]

Which task is everyone having the most difficulty with? We were thinking about changing up our group reads to coincide with the challenge, so if there is one really giving people grief, we may make out April group read related to it.

[Tami]

Julia, I couldn't tell if it was influenced or about William Shakespeare from the blurb. Has anyone else read this? What do you think?

[Julia]

Well, as far as I know it is a detective story where the detective is actually Shakespeare's brother and it takes place while he still was a struggling playwright.

[Kayla]

Tami wrote: "Which task is everyone having the most difficulty with? We were thinking about changing up our group reads to coincide with the challenge, so if there is one really giving people grief, we may make..."

I would be open to doing a group read for the Shark Week, Summer Loving and Lost in Translation tasks. I'm not particularly excited about the books I chose and it'd be great to have other options.

The task I'm having the most difficulty with is the Ripped from the Headlines task, though I don't know how we can make that a group read since it's a two book task and the books have to be about the same subject.

There are plenty of historical fiction books that I'd like to read, but since I don't read much nonfiction I think it'll be hard finding one that I'm interested in enough to read for the task. I mostly read science/medical books the rare times that I actually do pick up a nonfiction book, and I have no idea what I could choose for a fiction book to go along with something like that.

[Kayla]

And the Cinco de Mayo task would make a good group read for May :)

[Sashana]

Tami wrote: "Which task is everyone having the most difficulty with? We were thinking about changing up our group reads to coincide with the challenge, so if there is one really giving people grief, we may make..."

Ripped from the Headlines

[Nicki]

I'm having trouble with Summer Lovin. Romance isn't my usual genre so I'm not sure what's good.

Tami: I was thinking of reading The Other Life for my Earth Day book but it's about the aftermath of environmental destruction so it's a stretch. Does it count?

[Megan]

Nicki wrote: "I'm having trouble with Summer Lovin. Romance isn't my usual genre so I'm not sure what's good.

I'm having trouble with that as well. Romance isn't something I normally read.

I was thinking about some sort of classic like To Kill a Mockingbird - where Scout and Dill's childhood love for each other is based on summer holiday visits. But it is hard to know what love interests take place during the summer if you haven't already read the book.

I was wondering if anyone else had any suggestions like that.

[Megan]

I just had a hunt and came up with A Farewell to Arms and Summer as a couple of classics (kind of) based on summer romance and then Prodigal Summer as well by Barbara Kingsolver who I keep meaning to read something by.

[Daisy]

Do you guys by any chance read YA? Cause there are a lot of summer romances there :) :

YA
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Past Perfect
Sometimes It Happens
Sixteenth Summer

Adult:
Juliet
Austenland
(I think they took place in the summer, I'm not entirely sure)

I remember having read more summer romances... I just can't think of the names right now.

[Nicki]

Here is a link to some ideas:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...

I'm gonna read The Truth About Forever.

[Christie]

Some shark books I've found are 1) Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, 2) Jaws, 3) The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks, and 4) The Old Man and the Sea if it's approved for length.

Some non-shark sea-life-centric books, besides the ones already mentioned, are The Whale Rider, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and a bunch of other ones on this list http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/30....

[Julia]

Since a reasonable amount of time is spent on The Wall and other cold locations, would A Dance With Dragons be acceptable as the Cold part of 25.2 - Hot and Cold?

[Tami]

Nicki
Tami: I was thinking of reading The Other Life for my Earth Day book but it's about the aftermath of environmental destruction so it's a stretch. Does it count?
I think that would work just fine.

Julia,
Since a reasonable amount of time is spent on The Wall and other cold locations, would A Dance With Dragons be acceptable as the Cold part of 25.2 - Hot and Cold?
this will work too.

[Ana]

For the "Poisson d'Avril" challenge, does it have to be about a real culture, or can it be a fictional one? Like, would The Hunger Games count?

[Tami]

Good Question: I will have to put this up for debate. What do you all think? Fictional cultures work?

[Daisy]

If fictional cultures count it will be a lot easier for me to pick a book to read for the challenge! But I'd say only if the culture is a large part of the book and significantly different from your own.

[Rachel]

The word epistolary for task 15.5 tends to work for books written in a letter format, but during my searching, most of the books within the lists are more diary-based instead of letter-based. So I'm wondering whether or not a diary-based book will count for it or not.

[Beks]

If fictional cultures work a great book is General Winston's Daughter it's loosely based on the Indian culture and how it was when they were occupied by the British.

[Tami]

Okay, so I guess fictional cultures will work as long as the culture is a major point in the book.

Rachel, I would say diary based books would work. I remember when I was little instea of writing a diary/journal, I would write letters to an imaginary person. :)

[Ali]

would "Great Stories by Chekhov" work for 15.1, lost in translation? it is a collection of 9 of his short stories, ~250 p.

[Sashana]

I need a second opinion. Can this cover be classified as red, white, and blue? Or is it more grey than blue?

[Sashana]

Nullifidian wrote: "For the "Now and Then" category, can we read a book that will be republished in 2012?"

I know Tami is supposed to answer but I think for the 'then' portion the book has to be published in 2012 (view spoiler)[ "Read a book published in the year (or decade) you were born and then another published in 2012" (hide spoiler)]

[Tami]

Alicyn, yes, that would work.

Sashana, if you can't find something else to fit, I think it looks blue enough.

Nullifidian, I am fine with that.

[Melissa]

Would Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer work for 5.6 Earth Day?

Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda's struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

[Tami]

Melissa, yes, I think it would.

[Sashana]

I'm reading a historical romance about a woman who migrates from England to Montana in 1868. Would that work for 15.7 (Homestead Act), Tami?

[Amber]

Melissa wrote: "Would Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer work for 5.6 Earth Day?

Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the ..."

That sounds awesome! I'm reading that as my "we're all in this together" book.

[Kayla]

For the Ripped from the Headlines task, I am thinking about reading The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story for my nonfiction book, which is about the outbreak of the ebolavirus in D.C. in the late 80s.

For the fiction book, would it be alright if the story was just about any kind of virus outbreak or would it have to be about an ebolavirus outbreak specifically?

[Tami]

Any virus would work.

[Sashana]

For the Bard Bash task would a modern retelling of one of Shakespeare's play work?

[Tami]

I would allow that Sashana.