Reading with Style discussion

A pre-approved plan is NOT required for this season. However, if you would like to share your plan, feel free to in this space.

Here's my plan. I stole some formatting from Amanda's post. (Thanks, Amanda) I found it harder to find male authors for the last half of the alphabet without duplicating a letter. As a result, I ended up with some authors I had never heard of before (Zweig and Tyree) as well as planning a book by a musician!

A-M / Female / No duplicate letter

1. The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts (B&L)
2. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (K&M)
3. Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches & the Mythic Present by Claire R. Farrer (C&F)
4. Haunted Ground by Erin Hart (E&H)
5. Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones (D&J)

Letters used: B, C, D, E, F, H, J, K, L, M

N-Z / Male / No duplicate letter
6. Old Man and Mr. Smith: A Fable by Peter Ustinov (P&U)
7. Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars by Neil Young (N&Y)
8. Erasmus of Rotterdam by Stefan Zweig (S&Z)
9. Leslie by Omar Tyree (O&T)
10. * by Randy Wayne White (R&W)

*I own several books by this author. I will choose my book later from my shelves.

Letters used: N, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y, Z

I can't tell you how long I spent when this challenge was being discussed to prove whether it could be done using all different letters. And then my husband pointed out I had 2 in the wrong order.

The good thing? When i finally figured it out I ended up with a few books i was not likely to read if it wasn't for the challenge, so yay for the challenge!

A-M / Male / No Duplicate

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (I & M)
The Railway Man by Eric Lomax (E & L)
Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureishi (H & K)
The Orange Tree by Carlos Fuentes (C & F)
My Brother Jack by George Johnston (G & J)

Letters used : C,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M

N-Z / Male / No Duplicate

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Y & Z)
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (R & W)
The Bridges by Tarjei Vesaas (T & V)
God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène (O & S)
The Boy in the Book by Nathan Penlington (N & P)

Letters used : N,O,P,R,S,T,V,W,Y,Z

The driving force here will be that 6 of the books are library books, and they always get read first because they have a time limit.

I did try women, and didn't get very far using just my own books, so I gave up. Depending on how the season goes I might re-visit and try that one as well.

I'm finding possible authors, and can make plans when I see what my other groups and book clubs are reading.

A-M female:
Annie Barrows
Doris Lessing
Emily Griffith
Eowyn Ivey
Claire Fuller
Frances Mayes
Helaine Mario
Elizabeth Gill
Andrea Barrett
A.S.A. Harrison
Janice Y. Lee
Kate Mosse
Alice Hoffman
Clare Mackintosh
Agatha Christie
Elizabeth Mc Neil
A.S. Byatt
Liane Moriarty
Candice Millard
Ann Cleeves
Clare Morrall
Anne Donovan
Liz Moore
Ann Hood
Kate Morton

A-M Male:
David McCullough
Cynan Jones
Graham Joyce
Ian McEwan
Anton Chekhov
Alan Furst
Frank McCourt
Bruce Chatwin
Ernest Hemingway
Eugene McCabe
Charles Dickens
Henry James
Howard Frank Mosher
Charles King
Bill Clegg
E.M. Forster
Arthur C. Doyle
Ben MacIntyre
Haruki Murakami
Horace McCoy
Brian Moore
Herman Koch




N-Z Female:
Robyn Scott
Rose Tremain
Winifred Watson
Thrity Umrigar
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Patti Smith
Ruta Sepetys
Natalie Serber
Rebecca West
Natasha Solomons
Sarah Ward
Susan Vreeland
Natasha Pailey

N-Z Male:
Tim Winton
Thornton Wilder
Tobias Wolff
Philip Roth
Nathanael West
Yevgeny Zamgatin
Stefan Zweig
Phillip Rock
Owen Sheers
Sunil Yapa
Paul Yoon
Stanley Weintraub
Paul Theroux
Ryan J. Stradal
Peter Rees
Nicholas Petrie
Nando Parrado
P.G. Wodehouse
Nathaniel Philbrick
Tarjei Vesaas
Orhan Pamuk
Simon Winchester
Richard Wagamese
Sandy Tolan
Richard Yates

Connie wrote: "I'm finding possible authors, and can make plans when I see what my other groups and book clubs are reading.

A-M female:
Jane Gardam"

Gardam won't work, J comes after G. Otherwise they all work.

There's always one, mine was Upton Sinclair.

Connie wrote: "I'm finding possible authors, and can make plans when I see what my other groups and book clubs are reading.:
"

Also, don't forget, if you want to do a mega finish then you need to do N-Z also.

You can choose to only do half the alphabet, but it won't qualify for the Mega finish as you are only completing half, just twice.

Amanda wrote: "Connie wrote: "I'm finding possible authors, and can make plans when I see what my other groups and book clubs are reading.

A-M female:
Jane Gardam"

Gardam won't work, J comes after G. Otherwise ..."

Thanks for catching Jane Gardam, Amanda.

Thanks, Amanda ;)

A-M / Male / No Duplicate

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett (C/L)
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (B/E)
The Omega Scroll by Adrian d'Hagé (A/D)
Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff (J/K)
D.E.D Dead (Alby Murdoch #1) by Geoffrey McGeachin (G/M)

Letters used : A, B, C, D, E, G, J, K, L, M

N-Z / Female / No Duplicate

Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge (Singaporean Mystery #3) by Ovidia Yu (O/Y)
The Next Always (Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy #1) by Nora Roberts (N/R)
Playing God by Sarah Zettel (S/Z)
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (V/W)
The Sun in Her Eyes by Paige Toon (P/T)

Letters used : N, O, P, R, S, T, V, W, Y, Z

A-M, female, no duplicates

Timed Out by Barbara Lorna Hudson
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things by J.T. LeRoy
The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

B, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, K, L

or the first three the same, then
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
The Young Pretenders by Edith Henrietta Fowler

A, B, C, D, E, F, H, J, K, L

N-Z, male, no duplicates

The Small Bachelor by P.G. Wodehouse
The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff
The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas
Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream by Neil Young
Half of Man Is Woman by Zhang Xianliang a.k.a. Xianliang Zhang, approved

N, P, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z

A-M, female, no duplicates

The Color Master: Stories by Aimee Bender
Petty Magic: Being the Memoirs and Confessions of Miss Evelyn Harbinger, Temptress and Troublemaker by Camille DeAngelis
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman
The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

A,B,C,D,E,F,G,K,L,M

N-Z, male, no duplicates
Mimosa by Zhang Xianliang
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't by Nate Silver
A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

N,O,P,R,S,T,W,X,Y,Z

Males A-M
Brad Meltzer
Andrew Sean Greer
Dennis Lehane
Jon Krakauer
Carlos Fuentes
A,B,C,D,F,G,J,K,L,M

Males N-Z
Zhang Xianliang (thx, Rosemary!)
Richard Yates
Paul Theroux
Neal Stephenson
Owen Wister
N,O,P,R,S,T,W,X,Y,Z

Females A-M
Eowyn Ivey
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Anne Hillerman
L M Montgomery
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
A,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,L,M

Females N-Z
Rebecca Wells
Sarah Vowell
Thrity Umrigar
Nancy Peacock
Yasmine Zahran

N,,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,Y,Z

Well, here is half a plan!
A-M, male, no duplicates
Alan Brennert
Eric Hansen
Gary Jennings
Dennis Lehane
Chuck Klosterman
Letters used A,B,C,D,E,G,H,J,K,L

Based on the books I own I may have to do the second half with duplicates!

Half a plan:

A-M, no duplicates, female:
1. Jane Meyer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
2. Carla Kelly, Summer Campaign
3. Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches
4. Ashley Gardner, The Hanover Square Affair
5. Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

Letters used: A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, M

A-M, Males, No Duplicates

Ira Levin
Blake Crouch
Anthony Horowitz
J.A. Konrath
Edward Miller

N-Z, Males
Robert W. Walker
William Young
Paul H. Yarbrough
Sherban Young
Sam Winston