Chicks On Lit discussion

Challenge
June 21, 2012

10.4 Read a book whose title contains the title of another book.
A Night Like This by Julia Quinn

10.1 Read a book set in New York City.
20.1 Read a HF book published the year you joined Goodreads.
20.4 Read a HF book by a male author.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

15.1 Read a book by an author whose last name can be made from the letters in "Summer Challenge". Sarah Addison Allen, The Peach Keeper

50.1 Diane's Task: In honor of July 4th, read two books at least 300 pages each.
1) About the quest for personal freedom or fulfillment of a personal goal;
Summer in the South: A Novel by Cathy Holton
and 2) Covering a war or battle that the United States was engaged in.

Coming Up for Air by Patti Callahan Henry
Well written chick-lit. The author doesn't take the easy way out in this story of rediscovering the past and the impact of choices. Nine year old Ellie re-wrote Cinderella - tired of waiting for her prince to come, she saves herself. Years later she finds her mother saved the drawing in her journal & rediscovers the story. It leads to a re-examining of her own life choices. The author lets the story unfold without resorting to short-cuts or easy answers.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Journey to America from Ireland for Eilis. Story unfolds as she makes her way in a city of immigrants. Fascinating insight into immigrant communities within NYC. Eilis gains confidence as she makes her way, meets people from diverse backgrounds mostly at the department store where she works, successfully completes training as a bookkeeper and develops a romantic relationship. When she is returns to Ireland for a visit, she is seen differently by the villagers and treated with respect and interest by those who had ignored her.

CHALLENGE #7 TASK LIST

5.2 - It’s a scorcher out there! Summer in the South: A Novel by Cathy Holton
10.1 - Take an island vacation. Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn
10.2 - Let’s take a trip! The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
15.2 - Hot off the presses! The Diva Digs Up the Dirt by Krista Davis

Summer in the South: A Novel by Cathy Holton.
Ava (nee Summer) accepts the invitation of a friend from college to spend the summer with his family writing a novel. Intrigued by Will's family history, she probes family secrets and her novel becomes a thinly veiled story of a past scandal and murder. In a second storyline, Ava begins to uncover her own personal history after the sudden death of her mother. The Woodburn family story is largely resolved. The second thread, Ava's personal story, is never connected or resolved, just dropped. In that respect, the story feels incomplete.

The Peach Keeper: A Novel by Sarah Addison Allen
A satisfying read. This is a story about friendships, reclaiming one's life and uncovering the past. The main characters are 4 high school classmates reconnecting at 30 in the small town where they grew up. Misperceptions abound about who each of the four was in high school and who they are now. The story is built around a secret held by their grandmothers that is uncovered when a peach tree is removed from an ancestral property. There are light touches of magical realism and the hint of ghostly presence.

Women's (formerly Bailey's, nee Orange) Prize for Fiction
Winners* & Nominees

2019:
An American Marriage
My Sister, the Serial Killer
The Silence of the Girls
Remembered
The Pisces
Milkman
Freshwater
Ordinary People
Swan Song
Number One Chinese Restaurant
Bottled Goods
Lost Children Archive
Praise Song for the Butterflies
Circe
Ghost Wall
Normal People




2018:
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine




2017
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
* The Power
Stay with Me




2016:
Ruby
Pleasantville
The Secret Chord
My Name Is Lucy Barton



2015:
Station Eleven
A Spool of Blue Thread



2014:
The Signature of All Things
The Lowland
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
Americanah
Still Life with Bread Crumbs



2013:
Gone Girl
NW
Flight Behavior
Life After Life
The Light Between Oceans
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
The Round House



2012:
*The Song of Achilles
State of Wonder
The Night Circus
The Submission
Half Blood Blues



2011:
*The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
The Memory of Love
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
The Invisible Bridge
Swamplandia!



2010:
*The Lacuna
*The Boy Next Door
Black Water Rising
The Very Thought of You
The Long Song
The Help



2009:
*Home
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Intuition
A Mercy
Evening Is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan



2008:
The Blood of Flowers



2007:
**Half of a Yellow Sun
The Inheritance of Loss
Digging to America



2006:
*On Beauty
The History of Love
The Night Watch
Minaret
White Ghost Girls
Gilead
Frangipani



2005:
* 26a: A Novel
The Mammoth Cheese
Case Histories
Ursula, Under



2004:
**Small Island by Andrea Levy
Purple Hibiscus
The Great Fire
The Colour
Brick Lane
The Namesake
Love
The Time Traveler's Wife



2003:
*Property
Buddha Da
Unless
The Autograph Man
The Little Friend
Caramelo
What I Loved
The Solace of Leaving Early
When the Emperor Was Divine
The Lovely Bones



2002:
*Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Five Quarters of the Orange
Middle Age: A Romance



2001:
* The Idea of Perfection
The Blind Assassin
Hotel World
The Last Samurai
Fish, Blood and Bone
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
MotherKind
The Bonesetter's Daughter



2000:
* When I Lived in Modern Times
White Teeth
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
The Girl with the Pearl Earring
Fasting, Feasting
Charming Billy
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith



1999:
*A Crime in the Neighborhood
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Paradise
Comfort Woman



1998:
The Weight of Water
Bitter Grounds
The Agüero Sisters
Black and Blue



1997:
I Was Amelia Earhart
The Autobiography of My Mother
Fall on Your Knees



1996:
* A Spell of Winter
The Hundred Secret Senses

Indie Next Highlights
& Indie Choice Awards

2018 Indie Choice:
* The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
*Sing, Unburied, Sing
Exit West
The Leavers
Little Fires Everywhere
Dear Martin





2017 Indie Choice Awards:
*The Underground Railroad
*Homegoing
Britt-Marie Was Here
Commonwealth
Darktown
LaRose
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
Lab Girl
The Sun Is Also a Star



2016 Indie Choice:
Welcome to Braggsville
H is for Hawk
The Turner House



2015 Indie Choice:
*All the Light We Cannot See
Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?



2014 Indie Choice:
Life After Life
We Need New Names



2013 Choice:
*The Round House
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (& H/L)
Beautiful Ruins (& H/L)
The Orphan Master's Son



2012 H/L:
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
A Good American
The Light Between Oceans
Carry the One
Running the Rift
Flight Behavior
The Age of Miracles
The Yellow Birds




2012 Choice
Salvage the Bones
We the Animals
You Know When the Men Are Gone
The Art of Fielding (& H/L)



2011 H/L:
* The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Silver Sparrow
The Story of Beautiful Girl
The Night Circus
When She Woke




2011 Choice :
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (& H/L)
How to Read the Air
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Cleopatra: A Life
Beneath the Lion's Gaze




2010 H/L:
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
The Postmistress




2010 Choice:
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
* Cutting for Stone
* The Help
Still Alice
When Everything Changed
The Piano Teacher (& H/L)




2009 H/L:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
I See You Everywhere
Sing Them Home
Among the Mad



2008 H/L:
*The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
*The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Gardens of Water
Mudbound
The Lace Reader
Netherland
Unaccustomed Earth
The Plague of Doves
Home
So Brave, Young and Handsome
The Jewel Trader of Pegu




2007 H/L:
The Abstinence Teacher
Breakfast with Buddha
Mister Pip
Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician
The Pirate's Daughter
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Astrid and Veronika
The Blood of Flowers
Bridge of Sighs
The Maytrees
Run
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read
From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America
Mistress of the Art of Death
Skylight Confessions



2006 H/L:
The Thirteenth Tale
The Ghost at the Table
Arthur & George
The Madonnas of Leningrad
Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette
Between, Georgia
The Emperor's Children
Intuition
On Agate Hill
Saving the World
Suite Française
Thirteen Moons
The King of Lies
Messenger of Truth
One Good Turn
Labyrinth
The Space Between Us



2005 H/L:
The History of Love
Jesus Land
Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad
Anansi Boys
Any Bitter Thing
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Last Days of Dogtown
Never Let Me Go
The Practice of Deceit
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
A Thread of Grace
The Witch of Cologne
Freshwater Road
The Highest Tide
Pardonable Lies



2004 H/L:
*Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Birth of Venus
Case Histories
The Divine Husband
Holy Fools
How to Be Lost
The Love Wife
Queen of the South
Something Rising
The Summer Guest
Eventide
Heir to the Glimmering World
About Grace
Broken for You
Buddha Da
Ursula, Under
The Jane Austen Book Club
Skinny Dip
Cloud Atlas
The Preservationist
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Birds of a Feather
By a Spider's Thread

Pulitzer Prize winners:


Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom 2019
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America 2018
The Underground Railroad
The Sympathizer
The Age of Innocence
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Interpreter of Maladies
Angle of Repose
Gilead
Middlesex
The Hours
The Stone Diaries
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Thousand Acres
The Keepers of the House
A Death in the Family
All the King’s Men
House Made of Dawn
The Orphan Master's Son
Tinkers
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
All the Light We Cannot See
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City



Pulitzer Prize Finalists:
The Plague of Doves
The Bright Forever
American Woman
You Are Not a Stranger Here
The Corrections
John Henry Days

INL Summer Reading


A Place at the Table ♥♥♥♥
The Rosie Project ♥♥♥♥♥
The Precious One ♥♥♥♥






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2018:

INL Reading Grp


Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore ♥♥♥♥♥
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry ♥♥♥♥♥
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat ★★★★★



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'18-'19:

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is a wonderful story of new technology melded with old. It's not books versus digital media, neither can figure the puzzle out on its own. Ultimately it's personal connections, friends, and human ingenuity that solve the mystery, create and renew. I highly recommend this read.

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout was an OK. I give this one 3*.

Zach's action which was the catalyst for the Burgess boys return to Maine didn't fit with his reclusive, loner character. The narration jumps from one character to the next. While different points of view usually gives a fuller perspective, there were too many voices in this one and not enough depth. Then there's the portrayal of the Burgess boys that defines success solely on the basis of a paycheck with no regard for the social value or meaningfulness of the work one does. Plus Jack hates his job but Bob is the loser?!

(view spoiler)[
The reversal of fortunes for each of the main characters was implausible - in both directions. Jack and Helen's meltdown; Bob, Susan and Zach's lives are suddenly all good!? (hide spoiler)]

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - 5*

Loved this book. It was outstanding. Funny, touching, engaging. A perfect read that cheered me up.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - 5*

Adored this story of a cantankerous bookseller who opens his heart to an abandoned child. This is a book lovers book set in an island community. The challenges the characters face are mentioned but are mostly 'off screen' because the author skips ahead in the next chapter. The disconnected pieces and lives all connect in some way in later chapters. It's a satisfying read.