What’s in a Name Challenge 2022 Sign Up Post

The What’s in a Name 6-Category Reading Challenge is hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook. The image below will link to the Challenge Sign up Page.

In 2022, choose 6 books that have titles that contain a:
(Click on the links for more examples and info)

My choices from the first look at my physical and goodreads digital tbr.

• Compound word 
  • The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks
• Speed
  • The Slow March of Life by Heather B Moore
• Person and their description
  • American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
  •  
• Mythical being
  • The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
• Season
  • Wintering by Katharine May
• Color
  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
  • The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

More choices possible on my list in goodreads.

Copyright © 2007-2022. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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In Review October 2021

 Monthly Recap Time!

Total of 13…

Count from the library =  SIX, one book was for my monthly Audible credit and finished with Libby; five purchased, and another library for both eBook and Hardcover

My favorite read of the month is The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor. [Link to Review]

These books took me on visits to Colorado, NYC and outer space. I saw the US and some views into Canada. I was in UK-fantasy land. USA again and a half century away in rural England. OPKS was where I lived in the first book (and I’ve lived there in my history, so YAY KANSAS) and ended up in Sweden for the last book of the month.

Five nonfiction – if I count the poetry?) One of the books I read this month is “loosely-based memoir” fiction: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson. SO GLAD to have enjoyed this which had been on my tbr for a long time.

Two featured LGBTQ+, three by POC, one in translation, four classics. Seven female-identifying authors (I might be guessing/assuming) to six by male-presenting.

and…… The Tournament of Favorites was fabulous! The winner is Tsar of Love and Techno over Version Control in the finals. Great fun, much fun, warms the heart and stimulates the brain. I love the tournaments as much as I love pie. Bring on the Long List! Any day now… I haven’t read too many on on the possibly contenders list. Books pub’d this year include: Fugitive Telemetry SF, Meet Cute Diary TransRomance?, Yoga Pants Nation MomLit, (oh yea, I read all the Summer Camp books, too!)

Pie! NINE books out of 13 mention pie.

I made Cranberry Pear Pie, Pumpkin, and some Dutch Apple crumb pies.

• 

  Lattice

• 

  Oct 12 Pumpkin Pie Day

• 

  Dutch Apple

What was YOUR favorite book of October?

Copyright © 2007-2022. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

September 2021 in Review

 Monthly Recap Time!

Total of 7…

Finished __ 1__ audiobook (~32.5 hours) 

Hardcover = 2

eBook (Audible/Kindle or Libby) = 2

Tradeback = __1__

Count from the library =  _4_, JS&MN was both my montly Audible credit and finished with Libby; 2 purchased, 1 I’ve had for a decade plus. Clearning those shelves! Clearning is a new word that means both cleaning and clearing off.

My favorite read of the month is Postcard Poems!

I visited the world and many interesting places in Griggs’ poetry collection. I was in NYC and some Long Island time, I was in corporate workspaces for DEI., and I visited a few airports in Up in the Air. Fun Home was in PA. Ella Minnow Pea is set on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina USA and the Clarke book put me in magical spaces throughout England, the European Continent and Florence Italy.

Three nonfiction – if I count the poetry? One of the books I read this month had a connection to Jess Walter via Spokane but now I don’t recall which. Probably Up in the Air but I’m drawing a blank. No classics, no translated works. TOB adjacent but not directly attached or by/on purpose. But all unique! Two possible for Book-2-Movie: the Clarke and Up in the Air

I did finally watch Call Me By Your Name. Very good adaption, in my opinion. I posted my completion of the What’s in a Name Challenge with Up in the Air but still want to read a few more for the botanical category.

Once I cooked a Christmas feast in one, serving glazed ham and sweet potato pie to a dozen janitors and maids.

Pi’s just a number.

a few from Up in the air

Pie? Four books out of seven mention pie.

I didn’t make any pie this month but I enjoyed a Root Beer Float Pie created by my Mother-in-Law. AND I attended 2 pie workshops online presented by The Pie Academy.

What was YOUR favorite book of September?

Copyright © 2007-2022. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Poetry 2021 Edition 1

Poetry Goal 2021:  to read a poem* every day.

Collection # 1 A Village Life by Louise Glück; Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2009, 72 pages

Burning Leaves

. . .

How fast it all goes, how fast the smoke clears.

And where the pile of leaves was,

an emptiness that suddenly seems vast.

+ .  .  .

My thoughts: Something so evocative and fierce yet somber, almost resigned. Life expectations from youth on. Humans survive, but do they truly live?

Fives slices of pie. No pie mentioned.

Collection # 2 A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris B. Hill, Bloomsbury Publishing 2019, 172 pages

Study the Master (an echo poem for Ms. Clifton)

i do as you say,

study the masters.

i glean close.

your handiwork of words,

the discipline you command.

All that is huge and hinged with hope

are pressed into me.

.

+ .  .  .

 

*Or more. I’m not tracking, I’m just reading. I’m not limiting this experience to one poem a day – that is only the minimum.

Copyright © 2007-2021. Care’s Books and Pie aka Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

What’s in a Name Challenge 2021 Sign Up Post

The What’s in a Name 6-Category Reading Challenge is hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook. The image below will link to the Challenge Sign up Page.

UPDATED Jan 13, 2021 – see PURPLE FONT BELOW…

In 2021, choose 6 books that have titles that contain a:
(Click on the links for more examples and info)

• One/1  – Anna Quindlen’s One True Thing
• Doubled word – I have two options here:   Apologize, APOLOGIZE by Elizabeth Kelly or The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire Lazebnik
• Reference to outer space  – Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air 
• Possessive noun – I hope to read BOTH of these: The Children’s Book by A.S.Byatt and The Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet

                                             and 

• Botanical word – I own 2 books with “garden” in the title: The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock or Alan Drew’s Gardens of Water
• Article of clothing – I have NO IDEA! please help. I couldn’t even figure out how to search by gr tbr to give me suggestions.

I will be reading Pauli Murray’s Proud Shoes for the Article of Clothing category… 

This is one of my favorite challenges because it gets me to go through my own shelves and I am reminded of or re-find possibilities of some great reads!

More choices possible on my list in goodreads.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Poetry 2020 Edition 9

Poetry Goal 2020:  to read a poem* every day.

 

Collection # 17 Night by Etel Adnan, Nightboat Books 2016, 53 pages

. . .

My own disappearance

followed a cloud

that found me

sitting in a garden.

 

Tunnels reproduce the patterns of arteries.

There’s a worm in the heart

that’s feeding on its allowance.

+ .  .  .

 

 

Collection # 18 The Thin Wall by Martha Rhodes, University of Pittsburgh Press 2017, 56 pages

no title

My job is to extract your soul and usher it 
along to where today we find, north of north,
a strip of sand wide as wide, a branch of river,
leaf deep. Nothing surrounds or meets us here.
My pleasure—your contentment, your acceptance
of eternity, here—that I have chosen right by you.

 

 

 

*Or more. I’m not tracking, I’m just reading. I’m not limiting this experience to one poem a day – that is only the minimum.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Books and Pie aka Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

We Ride Upon Sticks

Thoughts by Quan Barry, Random House Audio 2020, 14 hours 44 minutes

Narrated by Isabel Keating

Challenge: Possible TOB Long List to Short (Gamble)

Genre: YA

Type/Source: Audiobook/Library

 Why I read this now:  Available at Library 

MOTIVATION for READING: Tournament of Books 2021 Hopeful

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  A Girls HS Field Hockey Team who make a pact with the darkside in order to win State. This takes place and draws heavily on the Salem Witch Trials history.

THOUGHTS: This was a fun listen. Humor was delightful and I was often chortling or laughing or exclaiming, “oh my!” Good stuff.

However, it was a bit too long. I was invested but ready for it to be done.

The poetry collection I opened when almost finished with this audiobook references the Salem Witch Trials. [The Thin Wall by Martha Rhodes]

RATING:  Four slices of pie.

Pie actually had a few mentions – a mother of a team member enters a pie in the county fair, is one.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Poetry 2020 Edition 8

Poetry Goal 2020:  to read a poem* every day.

 

Collection # 15 Dark Testament by Pauli Murray, LiveRight Publishing 2018 (orig 1970), 100 pages

Words

. . .

 

We are spendthrift with words,

we squander them,

toss them like pennies in the air — arrogant words,

angry words, cruel words, comradely words,

shy words tiptoeing from mouth to ear.

 

But the slowly wrought words

of love and the thunderous words

of heartbreak — these we hoard.”

 

 

 

Collection # 16 3 New York Poets: Charles North & Tony Towle & Paul Violi edited by Andrew McCarron, Station Hill 2015, 302 pages

. . .

You see,

most of us do not use our backs properly,

they float unused in the body’s sea,

retreat like flights of steps into the earth,

or mount like birds and hurtle through space

in a universe of

misuse —

 

+ .  .  .   (Tony Towle’s Autobiography)

OK, so this collection is…  interesting. And very WHITE. And white MALE. huh.  And it read like that. I really must admit, in some ways, most ways, I just didn’t get it.  Some of the poetry was cool; some fun word play, thought-provoking imagery, etc and blahblahblah? But the descriptions of the interviews attempting to connect the poet’s lives to their head games to the work to their art?  Fell flat to me. I suppose that is my disconnect with Andrew McCarron. Kudos to him and it’s not necessarily an uninteresting project but I must admit, I’m not the best audience for this.

I spent most of my time when reading the poems wishing for a cool postcard to write that snippet to send to a friend. Postcard Poetry!

This round goes to Murray. 

And me for really enjoying my poetry project!

 

 

*Or more. I’m not tracking, I’m just reading. I’m not limiting this experience to one poem a day – that is only the minimum.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Books and Pie aka Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

What’s in a Name Challenge 2020 – Progress Report, NO – actually a COMPLETION RPT

The What’s in a Name 6-Category Reading Challenge is hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook. The image below will link to the Challenge Sign up Page.

I’m currently _100_% complete with books filling the following 2020 categories :

• An ampersand – &    Delights & Shadows, by poet Ted Kooser

Very good, very easy, lovely home-spun nostalgic poems. These poems show a careful awareness of every tiny detail.

• An antonym  =  (Still yet possible: The Gateless Gate, perhaps Sweet Ruin)

Am offering up these lovelies as options – I defy you to correct me if you don’t think the titles suggest “opposite in meaning to another”:

(Bodies should stay buried!) * If I had to pick a favorite here, I would choose the Wilson.

• 4 letters or less = Vox  or  Oval:  I read both! Between the 2 of these, I would have to recommend Oval, I guess.

 

• A given/first name = for TOB: Mary Toft by Dexter Palmer

I also read Olive, Again which fits this category. As would, …  Loved Mary, adored Olive, quite satisfied with Duchess. Fleishman and Dorian, I pass.

 

• Reference to children = AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book or McEwan’s The Children Act. Both are still on my tbr, but how about this? Yes, I think GIRL in the title qualifies. UPDATED less than an hour later when I realized that I also attempted the Lost Children Archive!  yes, attempted. These 2 squared off against each other in the TOB and somehow I forgot about DEFINITELY qualifies!

 

• One of the 4 natural elements – water, air, fire, earth = Likely, a TOB book; The Water Dancer would work and so would, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I read both! I’d go with the Vuong.

 

Well, look at that. CHALLENGE COMPLETED. 

 

More choices possible on my list in goodreads.

 

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Poetry 2020 Edition 2

Edition 1 was only a few days ago. When I said the next collections were slim, I didn’t lie.

Poetry Goal 202o:  to read a poem* every day.

 

Collection #3 by Tracy K. Smith, Graywolf Press 2007, 89 pages

Smith was 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States.

Very impressive poems and quite varied. Between referencing an old John Ford movie (The Searchers) to an imagined party crashing by Frank Zappa, Smith takes us on a stimulating journey. Across politics and myths, kidnapping and murder, love and desire.

This is a poem about the itch
That stirs a nation at night

This is a poem about all we’ll do
Not to scratch —

+ .  .  .

I was impressed but I didn’t quite feel it in my heart. All very heady.

 

Collection #4 by David O’Connell, The Providence Athenaeum 2013

Now this was really good! I connected, this had life and grit. This also had mythology  selections (history) plus the terrors of now; some with a touch of wry humor.

Etymology

The bomb will wait forever for its purpose.
Outside my room, she screeches, It’s the bomb!

which means, it’s cool
that men urge calm while earning ribbons
riding bronco bomb.

+ .  .  .

 

 

*Or more. I’m not tracking, I’m just reading. I’m not limiting this experience to one poem a day – that is only the minimum.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Books and Pie aka Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.