You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

2021 Challenge Musing in Museums



Report each book as follows:

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 1 (2, 3, 4, etc.)
2. List Museum number & Category,
3. Link to book .
4. List the number of pages
5. A brief summary of the task.
6. How the book fits the criteria. Any requirements must be included in this section

Requesting a badge:

WoF - Janice

Badge One completed
1. Museum 1, Location, The African Queen
2. Museum 1, About, The Nanny
3, Museum 1, Collection, The Secret Garden
4….. continuing to 16.

Badge 1: Four museums
(view spoiler)[
First Museum: Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar, Senegal
1. Museum 1, Location, The House of Unexpected Sisters
2. Museum 1, About, The Toll
3, Museum 1, Collection, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
4, Museum 1, Interactive,

Second Museum: Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria
5. Museum 13, Location,
6. Museum 13, About, Night Film
7, Museum 13, Collection, On a Cold Dark Sea
8, Museum 13, Interactive,

Third Museum: Galleria del'Academia in Florence, Italy
9. Museum 30, Location,
10. Museum 30, About, The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True
11, Museum 30, Collection,
12, Museum 30 Interactive, Once Upon a River

Fourth Museum: National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
13. Museum 37, Location,
14. Museum 37, About, Dead Girls
15, Museum 37, Collection, Black Narcissus
16, Museum 37, Interactive, Keep Moving: And Other Truths About Living Well Longer

(hide spoiler)]

Badge 2: Six museums
(view spoiler)[
Museum 7: National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Location, How The Light Gets In
About, The Horse and His Boy
Collection,
Interactive, The Little House in the Big Woods

Museum 8: Tate Modern, London
Location, Moriarty
About, The Silver Chair
Collection, Project Hail Mary
Interactive, The Dry

Museum 22: State Hermitage Museum St Petersburg
Location, A Gentleman in Moscow
About, Saint Christopher and the Gravedigger
Collection, The Shadow of the Wind
Interactive, Blue Sun, Yellow Sky

Museum 23: Museo Nacional Del Prado in Madrid, Spain
Location, The Angel's Game
About, Blaue Nacht
Collection, The Wisdom of Father Brown
Interactive, Home Before Dark

Museum 15
Location, The Long Goodbye
About, The Ruby in the Smoke
Collection, Keep Moving: And Other Truths About Living Well Longer
Interactive, Lisey's Story

Museum 33: Getty Center
Location, Dark Echoes of the Past
About, Piranesi
Collection, A Gift of Time
Interactive, Later

(hide spoiler)]

Kay Sage, Midnight Street, 1944

https://www.sfmoma.org/essay/kay-sage...

Badge 3: Eight museums
(view spoiler)[
Museum 2: Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipán in Chiclayo, Peru
1. Location,
2. About,
3, Collection,
4, Interactive, Constance

Museum 17: Paris
Location, The Godmother
About, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Collection, The Mermaid of Black Conch
Interactive, The Glass House

Museum 24: Nat Gallery London
Location, The Young Team
About,
Collection, The Moor
Interactive, Holding

Museum 26: Vasa Museum, Stockholm
Location,
About,
Collection, Dictator
Interactive, The Shipping News

Museum 29: Vincent Van Gogh Museum
Location, Death at La Fenice
About,
Collection, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Interactive, Remarkable Creatures

Museum 31: WWII Museum New Orleans
Location, The Axeman's Jazz
About, Angels & Demons
Collection,
Interactive, The Word Is Murder

Museum 35: Institito Ricardo Brennand
Location, State of Wonder
About, Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson
Collection, The Second Sleep
Interactive, The Salt Path

Museum 36:
Location, Scenes from Village Life
About, Blanche on the Lam
Collection, But Beautiful: A Book about Jazz
Interactive, Summerland

(hide spoiler)]

Reserved

Reserved

Reserved

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 1
2. Museum 1: Location
3. The House of Unexpected Sisters

4. Read on ebook - hardcover has 227 pages
5. A book set in Africa
6. Set in Botswana

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 2
2. Museum 30: About
3. The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

4. Read on ebook. Pages on paperback 308 pages
5. Read a book where a significant character plays a musical instrument
6. The book is narrated by 'Heloise the Bard' who sings and plays the lute - she is also one of the adventurers in the story.

✔️

Woohoo! You're on the board. :)

* Happy dance !

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 3
2. Museum 37: Collection
3. Black Narcissus

4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback 224
5. Read a book where characters are nuns
6. The book is about an order of nuns in India

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 4
2. Museum 13: About
3. Night Film

4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback 640
5. Read a book with a geometric shape on the cover - circle, square, triangle, rectangle
6. The book has a series of rectangles on the cover

✔️

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 5
2. Museum 13: Collection
3. On a Cold Dark Sea

4. Read on ebook. Pages on paperback 279
5. Read a book witha main genre of Romance
6. Romance listed as a category on main GR page

✔️

Challenge Progress: Badge 1, book 6
2. Museum 30: interactive item
3. Once Upon a River
4. Hardback 464 pages.
5. Cover image is similar to the shape of the serpentine musical horn by Lorenzo Cerino.


Item can be seen and heard at https://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze....

✔️

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 1

2. Museum 23: Collection
3. Dark Echoes of the Past
4. Read on ebook. Pages on paperback: 270
5. Read a book with a man wearing a hat on the cover
6.

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 1

2. Museum 33: Location
3. Dark Echoes of the Past
4. Read on ebook. Pages on paperback: 270
5. Read a book translated from Spanish
6.

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 2

2. Museum 33: Collection
3. A Gift of Time
4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback: 352
5. Male human character older than 70
6. The book starts the day before the main character (Micajah Fenton) turns 80. He is male.

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 3

2. Museum 32: Location
3. Blaue Nacht
4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback: 235
5. Read a book set in Germany or by a German author
6. The book is set in Hamburg, Germany and its author is German

✔️

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 4

2. Museum 22: Collection
3. The Shadow of the Wind
4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback: 487
5. Read a book with filigree on the cover
6.

✔️

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 5

2. Museum 8: Interactive
3. The Dry
4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback: 328
5. Read a book featuring a drought
The novel is set in the Australian outback in a town in the grip of a drought so extreme that the river has dried up
6. The image from the Tate Modern shows a dried up creek bed in Victoria, Australia (view spoiler)[
image: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/...
(hide spoiler)]

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 6

2. Museum 22: Interactive
3. Blue Sun, Yellow Sky
4. Read on ebook. Pages on paperback: 316
5. Task: read a book featuring blindness.
The protagonist is a painter who is going blind and must find a way to stay an artist despite the loss of her sight.
6. Image from hermitage museum shows a blind fiddler

Part of the requirement for reporting an interactive item is to state what the task is, as well as explain why the task fits the item. You're giving me explanation, but no task. I feel like I'm playing Jeopardy. :) Please edit message 25 & 26.

So sorry Janice. It wasn't my intention to make it hard for you.. I was trying my best to be clear (obviously a fail there then).

I've edited my posts. Is that more like it?

✔️

No apologies needed. That's exactly what I need. Thanks for updating.

Janice wrote: "✔️

No apologies needed. That's exactly what I need. Thanks for updating."

No problem. And I'll know next time... : D

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 7

2. Museum 22: About
3. Saint Christopher and the Gravedigger
4. Read on audiobook. Pages on paperback: 221
5. Read a book with acharacter or author named 'Catherine'
6. The book was written by Catherine Cookson

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 8

2. Museum 7: Location
3. How The Light Gets In
4. Read on audiobook. Pages on hardback: 405
5. Read a book set in Canada
6. The book takes place in Quebec, Canada

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 9

2. Museum 7: Interactive
3. The Little House in the Big Woods
4. Read on paperback: 176 pages
5. Task: Read a book featuring trees
6. The book takes place in the 'big woods'(view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]
Task based on a photograph of Redwoods in Rain Forests, British Columbia by Rolof Beny (National Gallery of Canada)

✔️

I think your book 9 above must be an Interactive task, Annerlee.
I looked through the list of Collections and there is no task for "Read a book featuring trees." LOL!
The spoiler works - it shows a picture trees, but the text link does not.

On the other hand your Museum 22, About book has given me a <>great alternate book to my own Interactive task for Museum 7.

Cherie wrote: "I think your book 9 above must be an Interactive task, Annerlee."
You're absolutely right of course. My interactive reporting is completely off target at the moment. I'm glad you and Janice are paying attention to keep me right.
I'd never thought of using Saint Christopher and the Gravedigger for the other task! Also well spotted.

The book wasn't great literature, but I enjoyed the audiobook experience. The narrator was excellent!

You spend a lot of time just hanging out with 2 families in a little village - it's a bit like a warm woolly sock and cocoa experience. The wives were a bit subservient for my taste sometimes, but granny more than made up for them. She's hard headed that one!

I've never read any Catherine Cookson before, so can't compare it with anything else of hers. Apparently this one was found after her death and is a bit different to her other works.

I was crushed to find out that my library does not have the Gravedigger book in any format. They had a slew of Catherine Cookson’s other books though. I have never read her before.

I already have another book for the Catherine task so she will have to wait for me to read her yet.

You'll get around to her at some point I'm sure : )

I found a copy of the Gravedigger book! I bought it on my daughter’s Kindle account for $3.99. Barnes & Nobel only had it in stock as a paperback and wanted $14.99 for it. Happy Day!💃🕺

Cherie wrote: "I found a copy of the Gravedigger book! I bought it on my daughter’s Kindle account for $3.99. Barnes & Nobel only had it in stock as a paperback and wanted $14.99 for it. Happy Day!💃🕺"

Well done! Good find! : D

1. Challenge Progress: Badge 2, book 10

2. Museum 23: Interactive
3. Home Before Dark
4. Read on audiobook: hardback has 384 pages
5. Task: Read a book about a house
6. The book is about the strange happenings in a house that may (or may not) be haunted
Task based on an oil painting at the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
The Rustic House

I started the Gravedigger book yesterday. I read chapter two today. I really like the writing. I cannot tell if it is supposed to be sarcastic or what, but it is pretty interesting so far. I definitely need to check out another of her books. What did you think when you started listening to the story?

I think you're right. The writing is definitely humourous, it's as if the author has a twinkle in her eye as she's narrating it.

I soon settled into the narrative because the characters were so engaging and it fel so parochial and safe, which was refreshing. I recognised some of the traits and humour from my own family, which made me smile. The author must have been so observant - she picks up on typical turns of phrase and describes quirks that make the characters feel real. It's as if you're a fly on the wall, watching all the goings on.

I actually have it on e-book as well, so I was able to flick back and check the first couple of chapters - not sure how I managed to get it twice..

I agree. The characters are great. I’m almost not wanting to read it too fast because it is so short.

I am listening to a book by Toni Morrison that I do not like, character-wise. She is so almost over bearing on how she describes everything and states the situation. It is very difficult to understand their POV and they are always at each other’s throats. I may have just talked myself into a DNF. Think I can use it if I already read over 60%?

✔️

Cherie wrote: "I agree. The characters are great. I’m almost not wanting to read it too fast because it is so short.

I am listening to a book by Toni Morrison that I do not like, character-wise.... I may have just talked myself into a DNF. Think I can use it if I already read over 60%?"

Warning: possible heavy comment to follow ; )
I've been listening to a series on audible uk recently Bootcamp for the Brain which explores how we think and some of the traps we fall into. One of things he says is that we shouldn't concentrate on past investment when making a decision. We should concentrate on whether there are any benefits in further involvement: past investment is no longer available to us. In the world of economics he borrows this from, it's 'dead money'.

Sounds good in theory... harsh in reality sometimes... I thought I'd try to apply it to books as a start and see what happened.

I suppose finishing your book depends on the benefit. A benefit might be crossing off a task (lol) or getting to rant about the book in a one / two star review to let off steam - also beneficial sometimes - altho you don't have to finish to do that : )

I know what you mean though. I like to get so involved with characters that you almost forget they're fictional. The best books are when you're completely immersed in a world and don't realise you're actually reading. I don't like spending time with characters I don't gel with - unless I'm fascinated in some other way.

I DNF'd today. I could have used it to cross off a task, but I moved a few other books around and downloaded the same author's book Song of Solomon for a different task. Much better characters, so far, and a better story line. The only draw back is the author is narrating. Not great. Her normal talking voice is very soft and she seems to be slurring her words, or something. She did a whole Introduction to the writing of it before she got into the actual story. Some of her character voices are very loud and strong, but some of the them, I cannot tell the difference and do not know who is talking. I have an ebook copy to switch to - I am happy with that.

I agree with you about characters.

Is the statue in the foreground of your challenge picture at the top, The Thinker by Rodin? I just finished the third Clifton Chronicles book, and the statue and the base was a "feature" in the story.

Re: Saint Christopher and the Gravedigger. I really enjoyed the story! I would liked to have heard the audiobook, but just getting the book to read was good enough for me. I was unsure how the story was going to end, but I thought it was pretty good wrap. There were a few twists that I did not see coming. I liked the writing and want to read more of the author's work. If I did not already have a book for the task you used it for, I would try to find something else, but I am trying to use as many of the books that I already own for the tasks, when I can.

Cherie wrote: "Is the statue in the foreground of your challenge picture at the top, The Thinker by Rodin? I just finished the third Clifton Chronicles book, and the statue and the base was a "feature" in the story..."

Yes it is. It's actually part of the bigger work The Gates of Hell which puts lots of his sculptures in one setting.

In the link description, I like that it mentions the Backdoor to Hell, - the small maintainance door at the back - that's where I'd be heading, for a peak behind the scenes

My title image was just me being whimsical. I like the concept of my museum musing leading to high octane stress in December where I speed read obscure books, because I'm trying to do too many of the challenges as per usual and nothing fits (lol) - I do love it really !

: D