Play Book Tag discussion
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2021 Activities and Challenges
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Pursue It! Categories -- May
Hi all! So we are doing something a little different going forward. Each admin is going to handle questions related to a specific pursue item, which you see indicated above.You can still post any questions here, but each admin will respond to questions about the pursue item they are spearheading. If you have questions you would like to send behind-the-scenes, then please contact the corresponding admin.
If you have general questions about the game or the scoring, then those can still come to me!
Thanks!
A general question, Nicole ... For "letter" are you looking specifically for a piece of correspondence? Or would a quote like "...got his letter in basketball junior year" work?
I just think that is super fun, clever, and creative! Great job, mods!
Letter is the word in any format/use. I thought of it as a letter from one person to another, but we are not restricting its use in that way.
Many stories in the 19th and early 20th century are in the form of someone encountering someone else on a train, in a bar, etc. and the stranger playing the role of storyteller.
Nicole R wrote: "The Four categories for April are:pulp fiction (exact) -- Anna
urgent travel (exact or situation) -- Anita
storytelling Storytelling: a character/person in the book is telling a story to another..."
Wait, so the word storytelling has to be explicit OR the actual story telling is explicit in that the book contains the story itself? I ask because if so, I will pause and if necessary restart a book I am reading (It's good enough I could easily reread the first 97 pages and enjoy it) and wait, because this is about half of the book. I don't think the author says "storytelling" but she does talk about her grandmother telling stories and includes them.
Karin wrote: "Wait, so the word storytelling has to be explicit OR the actual story telling is explicit in that the book contains the story itself? ..."I would like it to be explicitly stated that that is what someone is doing, though not necessarily using that word.
A couple of examples of what I'm thinking:
"Ok, kids - get ready for bed, and I'll tell you a story [or read you a book] before it's lights out."
But, the parents don't have to actually tell (or read) the story so we, the readers, hear/read it, as well.
OR
"As kids, we were often told this story by our elders so we could learn [this]"
It's too difficult to determine exactly what is a "story" (someone telling someone else what?) unless they state that is what they are doing.
In your book, Karin, does it say specifically that Grandma is telling (or told) those stories?
I hope that clarifies.
Robin P wrote: "Many stories in the 19th and early 20th century are in the form of someone encountering someone else on a train, in a bar, etc. and the stranger playing the role of storyteller."It needs to be explicitly stated that they are telling a story or reading a book out load. If the person on the train starts by saying:
"let me tell you a story", that counts.
If they just jump into telling someone something (for example when does that something become a story?), it's not clear where to draw that line.
That's why I wanted it to be explicitly stated that that is what they are doing.
Does that make sense? (I hope!)
LibraryCin wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Many stories in the 19th and early 20th century are in the form of someone encountering someone else on a train, in a bar, etc. and the stranger playing the role of storyteller."I..."
Seems clear to me: it has to be clearly stated in the text that a story is or was being told, although not necessary for the actual story to then be repeated or be told.
Theresa wrote: "Seems clear to me: it has to be clearly stated in the text that a story is or was being told, although not necessary for the actual story to then be repeated or be told. ..."You got it!
LibraryCin wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Many stories in the 19th and early 20th century are in the form of someone encountering someone else on a train, in a bar, etc. and the stranger playing the role of storyteller."I..."
Yes, the ones I was thinking of are very explicit - "Let me tell you an odd story about . . "
Robin P wrote: "Yes, the ones I was thinking of are very explicit - "Let me tell you an odd story about . . " ..."Ah, yes. That would be fine!
LibraryCin wrote: "Karin wrote: "Wait, so the word storytelling has to be explicit OR the actual story telling is explicit in that the book contains the story itself? ..."I would like it to be explicitly stated tha..."
Great--I am pausing this book and did from the moment I asked the question. The example is a bit long, but the format of this novel is two timelines, and the earlier one is the grandmother's stories. Let me know if I should re-start it in May.
The novel is about a girl born during the Vietnam/Viet Nam (English style rules vary so I am just going to include both) era and her Grandmother who lived through many things, such as the Japanese occupation, etc, etc. The author is Vietnamese and wishes she had a grandmother to both know and to hear stories from :)
So, near the end of the first section/chapter is "As the war continued, it was Grandma's stories that kept me and my hopes alive..." (this is the last paragraph) and the very next section is her grandmother telling her the story of something she mentioned shortly before this paragraph. She even starts the story by addressing the granddaughter...
As I understand it, this counts, so happy day! Since no fines are accruing, I'll keep it out after the due date...
Karin wrote: " Let me know if I should re-start it in May. ..."Hi, Karin.
Yes, I think restarting the book is the way to go, especially since it's an official challenge. If one of the other admins want to pop in to say otherwise, that's fine, but I would be inclined to restart in May.
And yes, I would count that one.
Anita, For urgent travel, Does urgent necessarily mean emergency or unexpected?
Are you looking for something like a person who is traveling out of town for a funeral or because a family member was in trouble?
Would rushing to get to the airport in time for your flight count?
Does it have to be out of town travel, or could it be local car trips? Someone speeding in their car to get to on important interview, or rushing to the hospital emergency room or maternity ward.
Or are you looking for something more dramatic, like a car chase, or escape from a war torn country?
If the whole book was about a long road trip (or escape), would we need a sentence describing the urgency of it, or the urgency at one particularly part of the trip?
How about families leaving their country to try to get into the US?
LibraryCin wrote: "Karin wrote: " Let me know if I should re-start it in May. ..."Hi, Karin.
Yes, I think restarting the book is the way to go, especially since it's an official challenge. If one of the other adm..."
I will--it's beautifully written and also not a book I want to skip so many days on.
NancyJ wrote: "Anita, For urgent travel, Does urgent necessarily mean emergency or unexpected?
Are you looking for something like a person who is traveling out of town for a funeral or because a family member..."
All of the examples you provided would absolutely count as urgent.
Non-urgent travel would be like taking a subway to visit a friend or Ubering to a restaurant or commuting to work.
But I feel all of your examples fit the bill!
Basically any travel where there's pressure to get somewhere where the need to arrive quickly or for an important reason, and that urgency is somehow expressed in the text.
Item Collected: Storytelling Location in Book: Page 121
“Let me tell you a story,” Henson whispers to the D.A. as they curl up in her bed, the air heavy with …
Number Collected: 1/4
Her Body and Other Parties
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Item Collected: storytelling (exact or description)Location in Book: Chief Executed Officers, page 68, 40% into the book: "I headed straight for Renata’s and poured out the story, bursting into tears before I’d even dropped to the couch.”
Number Collected: 1/4
Book: Shadows of the Past by Sharon Shinn
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: urgent travel (exact or situation)
Location in Book: The Double-Edged Sword, page 134, 78% into the book: "I rode like a madwoman through the night to the nearest villages, and stretched my arms out so that twenty people at a time could crowd around me and scratch at my flesh and be healed just by touching me. So exhausted was I, after three days of riding, that I collapsed in the square of one of these villages, unconscious and unmoving.”
Number Collected: 2/4
Book: Shadows of the Past by Sharon Shinn
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: LetterLocation in Book: Page 107
Outcry: Only after the sixth small black girl goes missing does the police commissioner finally make a statement, interrupting the season finale of a popular soap opera. The enraged letters start coming soon after. “Are you going to tell me if Susan’s baby belongs to David or not, Mister Police Commissioner?????” says one. Another sends anthrax.
Number Collected: 2/4
Book: Her Body and Other Parties
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Item Collected: storytellingLocation in Book: "When we used to visit home during the summer, my grandmother always told me stories. She told me once about the Yamauba." (p. 140)
Number Collected: 1/4
Honey Girl - 5 stars
link to review
Item Collected: letterLocation in Book: "In pink letters on the top it says Happy Birthday, Peter." (p. 200)
Number Collected: 2/4
Edit: there's also a singular "letter" elsewhere: "'This is your plan' he said, 'which you will stick to, and I mean every goddamn letter of it'" (but I don't remember what page this is on)
Honey Girl - 5 stars
link to review
Item Collected: urgent travel (situation)Location in Book: There are two situations in this book that I think could meet the criteria. I'm including both because I think that the second is probably a clearer example, though it's impossible to describe without giving spoilers.
There's a rush to get ready for a flight ("God, we have to be at the airport in an hour. Have you guys packed?") [p.18] quite early in the book.
The second is a pretty substantial plot spoiler: (view spoiler) From the spoilery quotes included there there definitely is a feeling of urgency to this travel.
Number Collected: 3/4
Honey Girl - 5 stars
link to review
Item Collected:pulp fiction (exact) -- page 42 "I sometimes suspected he'd formed his attitudes from the reams of pulp fiction he'd read growing up."
1/4
letter (exact) -- page 38 ""Stuck to the back was another envelope, this one a letter that must have arrived in the same post."
2/4
O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
3 stars
This is a series I am not reading in order, although I have read all of the books after this (most of that in order); I haven't read too many before this yet.
In this book, Kinsey gets a call from a picker (now that there is a reality show about Pickers that my husband watches once in a while, I know what these are--they bid on the contents of storage units that have gone into default) who has a cardboard box full of things with her name on them. Although the name is different, it's clearly her first ex-husband. As the blurb says, the old undelivered letter gets her going after she begins to rethink some things.
As she tries to find her ex, she is soon embroiled in a more tangled web than she had anticipated (shocking, I know) that puts her in danger (another shock, I also know). I'd have liked more of Henry, who I grew fond of reading the last part of this series, but at least he does appear here.
Library of Legends by Janie Chang
3/4 items collected, urgent travel, storytelling, letter
1) urgent travel - Students are forced to March 1000 miles due to war, protecting rare library books along the way. But also they need to divert from their original urgent travel group, to urgently travel once again. One main character's mother is dying, another is about to be arrested and needs to find her own mother.
2) storytelling within a story - well the tales they are protecting are re-told, but one of the characters in the books, inhabits the trip and tells and re-tells her own story over and over again, while she is reliving the latest incarnation.
3) letter - there are many letters that happen in the book, but the most prominent are the letters exchanged between mother and daughter, to locate each other during the war, which lead to major plot movement.
There was something about this I really liked. It hit a lot of notes for me. Young Chinese students try to protect the Library of Legends, ancient Chinese folktales, while their country is at war. Unaware, that one of the folktales is a servant girl living amongst them. It was mystical at times, hard and painful at others. But a beautiful story nonetheless.
Book: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, Kindle editionItem I - Story Telling p. 234
She said, "Tell me the story." He said, "Many, many years ago, there was a man, a human king, named Sulayman... "
Item 2- Letter p. 392
'He might have recognized snatches here and there: portions of various prayers, names of G-d that had been woven together letter by letter.'
Item 3- Urgent Travel p. 586
'Parents traveled west with children who were gravely ill or in need of exorcisms; barren wives traveled west with their husbands and soon quickened with child.' (In this case, Abu Yusuf took his very ill daughter to see the wizard, Ibn Malik.)
**Total - 3/4 Items
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: pulp fiction (exact)Location in Book: Chapter 5, page 82, 27% into the book: "“Wow,” I whispered. The books were classic noir fiction. “Pulp fiction.” I counted twenty-two of them."
Number Collected: 3/4
Book: Peril in Paperback by Kate Carlisle
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: letter (exact)
Location in Book: Chapter 5, page 76, 25% into the book: "The first letter, F, indicated the month the book was printed and the second letter, B, indicated the year."
Number Collected: 4/4
Book: Peril in Paperback by Kate Carlisle
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: letterLocation in Book: Chapter 6, 10 minutes into chapter - "There were no messages but there was a letter waiting on the tray beside the door."
Number Collected: 1/4
Book: The Serpent's Shadow
Item Collected: Storytelling
Location in Book: Chapter 7, 35 minutes into chapter
Hero has informed heroine that he can instruct her in the magic powers they share, because she is only self-taught. She asks some questions and he says "Am I to be your storyteller then? If so, on your head be it because I am very bad at telling stories." The author continues, "Actually, she thought, as she listened, he was a very good storyteller." (He tells her about "elemental magic", connected to earth, air, fire and water.)
Number Collected: 2/4
Book: The Serpent's Shadow
Review: This book had a lot to recommend it - a historical setting, approx 1900 London, a woman doctor who is half-Indian, magic, women's suffrage, and a character that is a stand-in for Lord Peter Wimsey from the Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries. I found it ok but felt too much time was spent on describing rooms, weather, and medical procedures. Also there are scenes from the point of view of the villainous sorceress. I usually find POV chapters of criminals depressing, boring or both and that was the case here. The villain is over-the-top and has no real personality other than vengeance. It seems this is the first of a series, which may be one reason there is so much setup, but I don't feel compelled to read further - 3 stars.
Item Collected: letterLocation in Book: "By the way, I have a letter for you." p. 58
Number Collected: 1/4
Book: Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, #10) – Charlaine Harris (3 stars)
Item Collected: Storytelling
Location in Book: "Judith began her story by asking me a question." p.263
Number Collected: 2/4
Book: Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, #10) – Charlaine Harris (3 stars)
Review: While recuperating from her torture during the Faery War and after the portals to the Faery world have been sealed Sookie's faery cousin Claude, who decided to remain in the human world, comes to her asking for a place to stay. He is suffering from the loss of faery companionship. Sookie is also caught up in Were problems, Eric's problems with is boss, Victor, and his visit from his Maker and brother.
By the end of this there will be bodies everywhere but still a bunch of problems unresolved. I am getting more ambivalent about many of the characters and looking forward to the end of this series.
This is an arrangement I am not perusing all together, despite the fact that I have perused the entirety of the books after this (the greater part of that all together); I haven't read an excessive number of before this yet. In this book, Kinsey gets a call from a picker (presently that there is an unscripted TV drama about Pickers that my better half watches sometimes, I know what these are- - they bid on the substance of capacity units that have gone into default) who has a cardboard box loaded with things with her name on them. Albeit the name is extraordinary, it's obviously her first ex. As the snippet says, the old undelivered letter makes her follow she starts to reconsider a few things.
Item collected: letterLocation in book: Page 144 "Before Carlos she wrote the letter."
Number collected: 1/4
Devil's Peak-Deon Meyer 4 stars
Thobela Mpayipheli's world is shattered when his son is murdered in a gas station robbery. After the suspects escape he begins killing other people who have abused children and soon becomes known as the Artemis killer. Benny Griessel is a police inspector and a newly sober alcoholic who is put in charge of the Artemis case. Benny has just been kicked out by his wife and given 6 months to stay sober or else their relationship is over. Christine van Rooyen is a prostitute with a young daughter. The book alternates between the perspectives of these three characters and eventually it becomes clear how Christine is connected to the Artemis case. I read the fourth book in this series a few years ago and wanted to go back to the first book. This book is very engaging and kept me interested in the case throughout even with knowing who the main killer was. I also appreciate the insight the book gives to present day South Africa, a country I admit I don't know enough about.
Item collected: storytellingLocation in book: Page 34 "Tell your story, Christine," he said softly."
Number collected: 2/4
Devil's Peak-Deon Meyer 4 stars
See review in above post
Item Collected: urgent travelLocation in book - Chapter 20 of audiobook, beginning of chapter
The heroine is under attack from her magical enemy. Her parrot comes to the hero to alert him. He hails a cab and tells the driver it's an emergency, and they race across London so that he can save her.
Number Collected: 3/4
The Serpent's Shadow - 3 stars
See review in post 30
1/4: letterpage 6
"In Mrs. Hill's grade two class, she was forced to spell out words in a notebook, and was learning how to form each letter: upper case, lower, cursive."
Vanishing and Other Stories / Deborah Willis
2.75 stars
A book of short stories… I’ve said it before – I’m not usually a fan of short stories, and I wasn’t here, either. There was one that I liked; there were a few more that were ok – I wouldn’t say I liked them, but at least they held my attention; the others, I just wasn’t interested in and didn’t even manage to follow.
I hate writing a bad review about a book by a Canadian author, but I’ve actually also met this author a couple of times (and my book is a signed copy). I did like that some of the stories were set, not only in Canada, but in my city (Calgary – where the author lives, or did the last I knew), and in another city I’ve visited a couple of times (Victoria), so it’s always nice to recognize the places mentioned/described.
2/4: storytellingpage 193
"The dog jumps on to the bed and settles against the son, who retells stories he told on the way home -- about an eraser fight he started, about a pill bug his classmate brought to school."
Vanishing and Other Stories / Deborah Willis
2.75 stars
A book of short stories… I’ve said it before – I’m not usually a fan of short stories, and I wasn’t here, either. There was one that I liked; there were a few more that were ok – I wouldn’t say I liked them, but at least they held my attention; the others, I just wasn’t interested in and didn’t even manage to follow.
I hate writing a bad review about a book by a Canadian author, but I’ve actually also met this author a couple of times (and my book is a signed copy). I did like that some of the stories were set, not only in Canada, but in my city (Calgary – where the author lives, or did the last I knew), and in another city I’ve visited a couple of times (Victoria), so it’s always nice to recognize the places mentioned/described.
Item Collected: Storytelling (situation)Location in Book: Everywhere, but specific quote is from before Part 1 (3 minutes into audiobook)
Number Collected: 1/4
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
My Review Here
4 Stars
The entire book is a satirical- book-within-a-book concept, the "author" Buck- narrators to the audience why his book and story will help you, and how it can benefit you-as the reader.
"With my story, I will give you the tools to go out and create a life. To overcome ever- seemingly impossible obstacles. To fix the game. Which game you ask? We'll get there."
Item Collected: Letter (exact) Location in Book: Chapter 83, 95% in e-book
Number Collected: 2/4
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
My Review Here
5 Stars
"I open the door to find the mailman standing there. He hands me a letter, posted by registered mail".
Item Collected: Letter (exact) Location in Book: page 6, hardcover
A few weeks ago I received a letter from your cousin Catalina.
Number Collected: 1/4
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
4 Stars
My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: Urgent Travel (Situation)Location in Book: page 11, hardcover
"Well, I would be happy to make a visit in a few weeks ---"
"Monday, Noemi. That is why I cut your party short. We need to make the arrangements so you're on the first train to El Triunfo Monday morning."
Number Collected: 2/4
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
4 Stars
My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: Storytelling Location in Book: page 67, hardcover
"It's a famous story around these parts. I can tell it but it'll cost you a little." ... "All right, I'll pay for a story." ... "Where to begin? Ruth, yes. Ruth was Mr. Doyle's daughter."
Number Collected: 3/4
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
4 Stars
My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots -Morgan JenkinsItem 1/4 - Urgent Travel - This book has many examples of urgent travel as being displaced by the Trail of Tears, being enslaved and brought to America for expertise in growing rice in the case of the Gullah Geechee people.
Specifically, He was a good shooter, who could kill a fish in the water, but like Regina’s father, he had to flee a lynch mob. Regina’s grandfather gathered his wife and their eight children and moved to California. 68% p.219
Item 2/4 - Storytelling - Again this is a recurrent theme in the book and throughout people tell the author their stories, specifically, Did she reach out to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and no one picked up, or did someone pick up and give her the cold shoulder? I couldn’t be certain, but I was certain that her story aligned with those of Marilyn Vann and other black and native people in Oklahoma, who told me story upon story of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, among other agencies, which rebuffed their requests even with the proper documents in hand. 62% -p.195
Item 3/4 - Letter - I don’t know what prompted my mom to send me letters that Gwen had written by hand about our family history. In fact, the last conversation we had before I received these letters was about my medical insurance coverage. 61% p. 194
Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: LetterLocation in book: Page 28 (hardcover)
Two weeks ago, when she'd written the letter, she'd still been flush with her discovery.
Number Collected: 1/4
Book title:
Pulp
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: Pulp FictionLocation in book: Page 134 (hardcover)
Abby struggled to hide her annoyance. Of course this guy, who was far too cool to read pulp fiction himself, thought one of the most important lesbian writers in history was a man.
Number Collected: 2/4
Book title:
Pulp
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: Urgent TravelLocation in book: Page 90, 41% (Kindle Ed.)
I drive five hours from upstate New York to Portland. I don't listen to music. The windows stay closed...At the trauma center, I rush into the cool antiseptic air, down white hall after white hall, until I find Pat by a nurse's station, tall and spectral under the fluorescent lights.
Number Collected: 3/4
Book title:
I Hold a Wolf by the Ears
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: StorytellingLocation in book: Page 94, 43% (Kindle Ed.)
For the first part of the drive, the guide regaled us with a ghost story about a deacon and his horse.
Number Collected: 4/4
Book title:
I Hold a Wolf by the Ears
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Two items collected in this book.urgent travel (exact or situation)
there is more than one instance of this, but a major one starts on page 148 and ends on page 198. with an escape from one province all the way up to Hanoi.
first, page 147 line"They killed Công. You must leave now. They'll come for you."
page 148 "Darkness was our ally as we slithered across the back garden and through the fence. Darkness held us in its mouth as we ran through the rice fields, crossing several streams to get to the next hamlet."
pp 149-198 actual travel
3/4
storytelling Storytelling:
This is a two person POV book; all of the grandmother's chapters are her telling true stories of her life to her granddaughter. The escape bit I mentioned is just one of those stories. That actual story goes from pages 131 - 198. It starts with "Guava, one aftternoon in 1955, your grandfather came home, looking drunk." (Guava was her nickname for her granddaughter).
On page 199 it says, "Sitting next to Uncle ___ and listening to his story that night, I realized war was monstrous. If it didn't kill those it touched, it took away a piece of their souls, so they could never be whole again."
I can't type all of the right characters for the uncle's name, but also, that would be a bit of a spoiler as there are several uncles away with the war and it's unknown where they are or if they are all still alive
4/4
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
4 stars
There are a number of remarkable things about this historical fiction work, not the least of which is that this is the first time Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has written a novel in English. Her other novels have all been written in Vietnamese.
This is the story of a grandmother and granddaughter--both told in the past, but the grandmother's story is told as true stories she told her granddaughter. This way we learn of both of their lives growing up and living with war, and having various others in charge of their country. The goal of the author is to show the horrors of war and that people are people, even if they are on the enemy side--it's a plea for pacifism.
These are strong women, and that includes the missing woman in between grandmother and granddaughter, who is a doctor serving in the army. But this does not mean that they have come through their lives unscathed.
While there is beauty in the writing, this wasn't a full five star read for me, but I just hate to give anything away about this novel. Some things are better read with as little information as possible, IMO.
Modern Girls by Jennifer S. Brown, 3.5 stars
2/4 items collected. Unexpected travel, letters
1 - Unexpected travel - now who wants to give away the surprise ending, but believe me this was completely unexpected, yet fitting.
2- letters; figuring prominently as a theme in the background, as well as in the configuration of the ending, are letters to brother Yusef in Poland, for whom the imminently the darkening backdrop o Poland and its growing difficulty for the Jews, remains a very strong concern. Beyond their, current problems, there is a bigger one on the horizon. Yusef needs a visa, and so does his family.
3/4: Urgent Travelpage 311:
[Vicky was Victoria's oldest daughter and Willy was Vicky's oldest son.]
"On Vicky's last full day, the Berlin papers finally stopped printing that her condition was "quite satisfactory," admitting instead that the strength of the illustrious patient is fading fast." Willy had been notified of his mother's decline and was scurrying home in a dash to reach Friedrichshof before the end. He arrived only thirty-six hours before she died."
Victoria's Daughters / Jerrold M. Packard
3.75 stars
This is a nonfiction book about Queen Victoria and her daughters. Of course, there is info about her and her entire family, but the focus is on her five daughters: Vicky, Alice, Helena (known as Lenchen), Louise, and Beatrice. They all had very different personalities. Of course, Victoria wanted to keep one of her girls with her all her life – someone to be there and take care of her, particularly after she lost her husband, Albert, quite young.
3.5 stars for enjoyability – that is, it was good – but I gave it that little extra because of the sheer amount of information included. I do feel like this is a really good source to find information about Queen Victoria’s daughters. There were a few parts where I lost interest, mostly with German/Prussian politics, but I can see why it was included with Vicky married to a future Kaiser, so it absolutely affected her life.
Being Canadian myself, I was interested in Louise and Lorne’s years in Canada; also of interest were where a couple of the province and city names came from. I did find it started to get confusing when the focus started being on Victoria’s grandchildren. Partly because of the common, repeated names, but also just because there got to be so many! Luckily, the author did find ways to refresh my memory. I found it interesting at the end as the generations passed on to the next monarch(s) – something we usually don’t think about – those sisters became further and further away from the crown every time it passed on.
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Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
Foggy Mountain Breakdown (other topics)Foggy Mountain Breakdown (other topics)
The Refugees (other topics)
The Refugees (other topics)
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pulp fiction (exact) -- Anna
urgent travel (exact or situation) -- Anita
storytelling Storytelling: a character/person in the book is telling a story to another character/person (this has to be explicitly stated but can be past, present or future.) -- Cindy
letter (exact) -- Nicole
This will also be the reporting thread once May starts! When you report, please post:
Item Collected: name the item that you found
Location in Book: describe where you found the item. Either a page/location/etc number for exact words, or a really brief description if it is a situation.
Number Collected: E.g., 1/4, 2/4, etc. This just helps me as I score to be sure I didn't miss anything!
Book title and review (or link to review): the standard stuff
Wanna see the scoring for past months? The spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (the upper left excel cell tells you to what point the scoring is complete)