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

The August 2012 is *drum roll* - Black and White.

This challenge is to compliment the rainbow challenge in that it is about the two "non" colours. Chose a book that has a cover that is predominantly black, predominantly white, or is equally black and white. Also, to make it a little more interesting, the word BLACK or WHITE must be in the title. The black or white word in the title may not be a part of a compound word. It must be "black" or "white" - no derivitives.

The rules:

1. The book may be in any format - paperback, ebook, audiobook.
2. The book may be in any genre.
3. The book may not be combined with the August Group Reads.
5. The book must be read between August 1 - 31, 2012.
6. Sub-titles do not count. The word must be in the main title.

Point Qualifiers:

Genre:

10 points - Historical Fiction
4 points - Dystopia
3 points - Memoir
2 points - Magical Realism
1 point - True Crime

Theme: (Please explain how your book fits the theme.)

5 points - Racial Discrimination
4 points - Power of Women
3 points - War
2 points - Travel
1 point - Equality

Location:

5 points - South Africa
4 points - Australia
3 points - Ireland
2 points - New York State
1 point - California

Author:

5 points - Is a new-to-you author
4 points - has the last name "Black" or "White"
3 points - is Asian
2 points - is deceased
1 point - is male

Cover:

5 points - Has a geometric design.
4 points - The title is in red lettering
3 points - Has a crow or raven on it
2 points - Has a full face on it
1 point - Has the author's name across the top

Title (must contain black or white):

5 points - Has a proper name (eg - Meet Joe Black)
4 points - Is three words

Pages:

500+ - 5 points
400-499 - 4 points
300-399 - 3 points
200-299 - 2 points
less than 200 - deduct 3 points


Stars:

5 points - 5 stars
4 points - 4 stars
3 points - 3 stars
2 points - 2 stars
1 point - 1 star

Bonus Points: 10 points each:

1) International Clown Week (Aug 1 - 7). The story has a clown or circus in it.
2) Spiderman Day (Aug 1). The story has a heroic act that is seeminly supernatural.
3) Poet's Day (Aug 21). Contains poetry.

Have fun!

Oh what a great compliment to the rainbow challenge! I really SHOULD have gone and organised my shelves by colour after all!

Too funny!! I was just thinking last night about all the books that are black and white, so they don't work for the rainbow, and we needed to do something for them. Or maybe I was eavesdropping on your mind (you need to do a little organizing in there) ☺ This looks so fun. And I see a little demon helped you - a possibility of negative points ☠

Perhaps that little birdie you sent to influence me was more like a crow. You know how they like to steal things away. :)

If you can figure out what's going on in my brain, let me know please. I think it's left on holiday already.

As long as your mind left behind a packing list...

So I guess I should doublecheck - are there actually only two point qualifiers for 'Title'?

jaxnsmom wrote: "As long as your mind left behind a packing list...

So I guess I should doublecheck - are there actually only two point qualifiers for 'Title'?"

Yes. Because the title must contain either the word "Black or White", I was having trouble coming up with point qualifiers so I decided we'd do something a tad bit different this time around.

Yeah, that little restriction knocked out over 90% of my black/white books. But I still have 3 books from my tbr, and then I can always search my library catalog.

Can it have 'WHITE' in the title and have a black cover?

Yes - I was debating on myself. Added bonus is that the author's name is Black. But, I think I'll do since I already have the audiobook.

Well my choice for this one is relatively easy, it's either going to be or (evidently I'm going for the black option...). Not sure which of these two it will be yet though...

Sam wrote: "Well my choice for this one is relatively easy, it's either going to be [bookcover:Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty] or (evidently I'm going for the black option...). Not s..."

hmmmmm... do you think we should allow either one? Black isn't a stand alone word, but part of a different word in those titles.

And, we don't want things to be too easy, do we?

Sorry, Sam, but I'm going to add that as a rule. The black or white in the title may not be a part of a compound word. It the title was

Black Adder , that would be acceptible.

*ducking from books being hurled in my direction*

NOTE: I amended the rules in the original message to include the ruling above.

Janice wrote: "Sam wrote: "Well my choice for this one is relatively easy, it's either going to be [bookcover:Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty] or (evidently I'm going for the black option..."

You are a cruel cruel woman Janice, I'm going to have to go to the library now...and bad things happen when I go to the library...my shoulders aches, bags get broken and nobody else gets any books...ah well ;-)

Sam wrote: "You are a cruel cruel woman Janice, I'm going to have to go to the library now...and bad things happen when I go to the library...my shoulders aches, bags get broken and nobody else gets any books...ah well ;-) ..."

Hehehehe *dons witches hat*

Judy wrote: "Ah, this narrows it down a little, but still have these options from my TBR: .."

You're forgetting an essential part. The covers must be predominantly white or black, or an equal mix of white and black. I'm seeing orange, green, blue, yellow. works.

OH JANICE!! *goes off in a huff to look at her bookshelves again due to the added rule* ;-)

I think I have two choices left. and .

I'm thinking of reading The Woman in White . I was going to read it as part of the RAINBOW challenge since one of the editions is in indigo, but I guess that I have to make sacrifices. :)

Snoozie Suzie wrote: "OH JANICE!! *goes off in a huff to look at her bookshelves again due to the added rule* ;-)"

I'm sorry. Hehehehe!

jaxnsmom wrote: "I think I have two choices left.[bookcover:Little Black Dress: A Novel] and ."

You only need one. :)

Bite your tongue! There should be at least 4 choices, as all of the anal planners are aware. There must be the first choice - the book you really want to read, a second choice - more points and sounds ok, a third choice - I'm really not in the mood for the first two, and a fourth - none of the others are available so this will have to do.

It turns out my library doesn't have The Devil and Preston Black. So I did some searching of their catalog and added , (which I think someone might have on their rainbow), and .

For some reason, I haven't even looked at "white" books, maybe because I've read (didn't care for) and (great dystopian novel).

Blimey, it is almost August! *scuttles off to do some research...

Woohoooo! This challenge is causing quite a stir. People are shouting at me and telling me to bite my tongue.

Ah, how I love it! :) *thinking more evil things to do in future challenges*

White Cat by Holly Black is on my to-read list, but not on Mt TBR, so I'll have to hunt my physical shelves first....

Ah, Coal Black Horse will also be a good alternate as it looks interesting and is at the library. But I agree with Sam - I don't want to go to the library for this!

I wasn't sure if I had something to read for this, but I did find one on my TBR list. Perhaps I'll do that.

Somewhat unrelated question: Are we having an August Group Theme read?

I'm going to read A Monster Calls . It's a YA title which has won several UK prizes this year.

It sounds interesting! I'll wait till I hear what you have to say about it.

I'm going with ?

I thought about that book too, Kim. But I decided that with the number of books that I already own, I should be able to find one to fit. And I did.

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother is another possibility from the library. But I did find one from my physical Mt. TBR, so if this is ok I want to read:

Black Glass (my cover) or the first one on the book page.

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "[bookcover:The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother] The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother is another possibility from the library. But I did find one ..."

I'm just wondering if that's a sub-title in The Color of Water. Because, sub-titles don't count. What do you think?

I was going to go to the library today but found it CLOSED!!!! Apparantly one of it's window panes shattered and they don't know why so they aren't going to be open until Monday...how the hell am I going to make my choice now!!!

I think you're right that Color of Water doesn't count because of the subtitle rule - the two parts of the title are completely distinct on the cover of the book. Oh well, I think Fowler's book is fine.

Oh no, Sam! Call in sick Monday? August doesn't start until Wednesday, though.

So after doing some research and figuring out that my book that was on my TBR list will not work b/c it doesn't have the cover rule.. (grrr!!) I had to do more researching...so I spent some hours browsing on here..(I love Goodreads!) and I add those I thought I may like on my TBR list. I also discovered two other books I'd like to read, but can't b/c of the cover rule! haha...My options are:
,
(don't know if it technically fits the cover rule... :/ )
,
or . Of course I haven't checked with the library yet. Have to get my orange book too from them...

Thanks for the link Janice! Now I have another book decision to make. haha

This is an intersting challenge. I didn't think I'd have much in my tbr shelf, but I did find a couple. But then I started researching and found that the challenge is pretty narrow. I did find a few prospects, though. So now I'm going to choose from these:


(on my black and white shelf it shows the black cover)






and


Having "black" or "white" in the title made this more difficult than I thought it would be. I found some books that fit the cover requirementbut didn't have the right title requirement like


I'll have to read my orange book first though. My list of "must reads" is becoming longer and longer. I'm going to have to take a looooong vacation to put any kind of a dent in it.

Robin wrote: "So after doing some research and figuring out that my book that was on my TBR list[bookcover:One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd] will not work b/c it doesn't have the cover rule.. (..."

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd doesn't fit the cover criteria... But, check out the poll for September's group read. If diaries win, you could nominate this book.

Black Girl/White Girl looks brown to me.

Bummer about your library!

Roz wrote: "This is an intersting challenge. I didn't think I'd have much in my tbr shelf, but I did find a couple. But then I started researching and found that the challenge is pretty narrow. I did find a fe..."

Looks to me that you found several that fit. My "must" read list is getting long too.

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Oh no, Sam! Call in sick Monday? August doesn't start until Wednesday, though"

Now there's a thought... ;-D

Could the other mods monitor this for me until I get back? See you on August 8th.

Kim M. wrote: "I'm going with The Black Dahlia"

I might go with that one too, Kim!

I'm not 100% sure of the color of The Crimson Petal and the White as shown, but other editions look promising: . (please forgive my old eyes)

I see a fair bit of overlap/ common choices, not just The Black Dahlia but also such as The Woman in White and others. Is anybody thinking about a buddy read?

Oh, I like this one! Think that I'll go with one of these:


Black Boy

A Dry White Season

If anyone is in need of a title, there is also John Griffin's classic --

Black Like Me

I'm going to read "The Woman in White" as it is one of the group reads in August at the Five Alarm Book Club.

This is my list (so far) :

The Woman in White Wilkie Collins

White Fang Jack London

The Black Arrow Robert Louis Stevenson

Little Black Book of Stories A.S. Byatt

Black Beauty: Anna Sewell

Black Coffee Agatha Christie

The White Queen Philippa Gregory

The Bloody White Baron James Palmer

Quick question on the points, are they cumulative in a section? So if I were to read a book by Jack Whyte, who I've not read before; do I get 5 for being new to me, 4 for the colour surname (close enough is good enough) and 1 for being male, or just the highest score in that category?
And (being new to this) what happens to the points?

Um, but only one book counts, right? That is, we're free to read as many books as we want, but only the highest-scoring book we've read gets considered for the winner's badge?

I'm hoping to read 'Woman in White' too so will set up a folder in Buddy Reads so if anyone wants to chat about it they can

Black GlassKaren Joy Fowler

1 point - Has the author's name across the top

Pages: 200-299 - 2 points

Stars: 2 points - 2 stars

Bonus Points: 10 points each:

2) Spiderman Day (Aug 1). The story has a heroic act that is seeminly supernatural.

15 points
Whew.

Wow Cheryl, you're done? I've decided on a book, but haven't settled down to read it yet.