Reading with Style discussion

10.7 Alphabet Soup

This task is about matching two different letters of the alphabet between title and author.
First, here's the list of letters that "match": A - N, B - O, C - P, D - Q, E - R, F - S, G - T, H - U, I - V, J - W, K - X, L - Y, M - Z.
If your book's title begins with A, then your author's first or last name (or if the author consistently uses a full third name (i.e., Gabriel Garcia Marquez)) must start with N (or vice versa). Authors's middle initials cannot be used for this task, articles should be included or ignored as benefits the reader.

Please post questions and recommendations about task 10.7 in this thread.

May we disregard "A, An & The" ?

If it works for you, yes.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "If it works for you, yes."

ah..... I need to read better...I see the answer in the original post now. Sorry.

It’s OK, Ed. Sometimes we just get too excited about the task to read all the way to the end. ;-)

Can the pairs be reversed...book starts with S so author name starts with F?

Bea wrote: "Can the pairs be reversed...book starts with S so author name starts with F?"

yes.

Can I count La Cucina as C (disregarding "La" as an article)? Or can we only disregard English articles?

Joanna wrote: "Can I count La Cucina as C (disregarding "La" as an article)? Or can we only disregard English articles?"

Especially as we didn’t specify *which* articles can be ignored, yes, you can use this for C-P.

Any suggestions from anyone?
All I can think of is Room by Emma Donoghue but have already read that.

Rebekah wrote: "Any suggestions from anyone?
All I can think of is Room by Emma Donoghue but have already read that."

I have pencilled in The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld, or The Pebbles on the Beach by Clarence Ellis (please don't tell me I've done it wrong now!).

Rebekah wrote: "Any suggestions from anyone?
All I can think of is Room by Emma Donoghue but have already read that."

I ordered my shelves by title and then eyeballed for authors. Quickly, I see

Adeline: A Novel of Virginia Woolf by Norah Vincent
Black Coffee by Charles Osborne (an Agatha Christie adaptation)
The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
A Fool's Alphabet by Sebastian Faulks
The Fountain of St. James Court; or, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman by Sena Jeter Naslund

and then I stopped looking.

This task really bent my mind...

I picked The Third Man by Graham Greene

Valerie wrote: "This task really bent my mind... "

This was the third most popular task from our very first season. Also included now are the other two popular tasks: single word title and Noel (No L in author's name).

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Here's two more suggestions:

E-R "The Roanoke Girls" by Amy Engel
M-Z "Zoli" by Colum McCann

So...would I be able to use Lost in the Beehive by Michele Young-Stone

(L - Y)

? Or does it not count with her hyphenated last name? Thanks!

Penny wrote: "So...would I be able to use Lost in the Beehive by Michele Young-Stone

(L - Y)

? Or does it not count with her hyphenated last name? Thanks!"

That will work.

Hurray thanks Elizabeth!

Also found:

The Naturalist by Alissa York (A-N)

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear (J-W).

Your helpful hint about sorting your books by author helped a lot. I'm still going to look for more now that I've got the hang of it. :-)

Would this work?
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Thanks for all the suggestions! If the above doesn’t work, I will take one of them posted here

Rebekah wrote: "Would this work?
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Thanks for all the suggestions! If the above doesn’t work, I will take one of them posted here"

No. H requires a U, and your author has CGP.

I’m losing it. I was thinking her first name was a C and her middle a P.
I think I’ll go with one of the suggestions. Obviously I can’t think for myself! Too much Pisca, I guess!

Rebekah wrote: "I’m losing it. I was thinking her first name was a C and her middle a P.
I think I’ll go with one of the suggestions. Obviously I can’t think for myself! Too much Pisca, I guess!"

The first letter of the title must match one of the first letters of the author name.

I know that middle initials don't work, but what about first initials?
Would P.D. James count for P?

Rosemary wrote: "I know that middle initials don't work, but what about first initials?
Would P.D. James count for P?"

Yes, you can use P, but not D in that example. This was more to restrict such authors as Dorothy B. Hughes.

Rebekah wrote: "I’m losing it. I was thinking her first name was a C and her middle a P.
I think I’ll go with one of the suggestions. Obviously I can’t think for myself! Too much Pisca, I guess!"

Another thing you could do is think of an author you want to read who has written a lot of books, then go for their titles that start with the right letters.

For example Agatha Christie has initials A and C.
Initial A needs a title starting with N, Nemesis or N or M?
Initial C needs a title starting with P, and there are a few of these, for example, Poirot Investigates, Peril at End House.

I used Fantastic Fiction to find the books, because I find its lists easier than looking at the author's books on GR. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/ag...
(Of course, watch out for low lexiles if choosing Agatha Christie... but the 700 rule this season may help)

* Or pick an author with first or last name starting with G, then you need titles beginning with T, which gives you all the "The" titles :)

I have found these books and authors that work so far:

The Cemetery in Barnes by Gabriel Josipovici G-T

The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell F-S

The Professor's House by Willa Cather C-P

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara L-Y

Names on a Map by Benjamin Alire Sáenz A-N

War Trash by Ha Jin J-W

I've just claimed this task with this book: A New Kind of Death by Alison Goodman (this links to edition I read)

And then, I realised that the MPE has got a different title, Killing the Rabbit...

Can I still claim for the N(ew) - A(lison) pairing?

Tien wrote: "I've just claimed this task with this book: A New Kind of Death by Alison Goodman (this links to edition I read)

And then, I realised that the MPE has got a differen..."

No, I'm sorry. We use the MPE for title tasks. This is a problem, for you as it won't work for your combo 10.2 either. But will it fit 20.3 She writes? And have you used your Oktoberfest country for CYOA.? Trying to salvage your read.

Awww... ok...

It's 4 POVs (1 woman only)

Veteran author? First novel pub 1998 & latest 2018 and presumably, she's still writing...?

And do I edit my post or post anew with reference to disqualified post?

Tien wrote: "Awww... ok...

It's 4 POVs (1 woman only)

Veteran author? First novel pub 1998 & latest 2018 and presumably, she's still writing...?

And do I edit my post or post anew with reference to disqualif..."

I looked around to see what I could see for you. Glad you could find a place for it. For this one, you can just edit your post, we haven't gotten to it yet for scorekeeping.

Thanks for the help, Elizabeth.

I'll edit my post now. Cheers!