Sally Lou's 2015 reading challenge

In case ticker not working, have read 54 out of 90 (6/30/15)

For the second time, I have changed my mind about the number of books which I will aim to read in 2015. Originally, I said 5 categories of at least 15 books each for a total of 75 books. Then I changed it to 6 categories of at least 15 books each for a total of 90 books since I am taking 2 OLLI lit courses this winter reading plays; I temporarily made plays another category. However, I'm already starting to feel stressed out (having pneumonia does not help), so that I have placed my goal back to 75 (which is more reasonable for me). I read many more than normal in 2014 when I read over 100.

I will list each title under only one category.

On Feb. 6th, changed books to titles since I am reading a lot of shorter works such as short stories and plays. Also, because of the short works, changed total back to 90 (15 times 6).

I also still want to make more of an effort to read books already on my shelves, but I will list them on the ROOT screen. They will also be listed under the appropriate category here.

Once again, I won't have clever titles for my categories.

BingoDog: messages 22 and 23 (for 1st card) and messages 51 and 52 (for 2nd card) -- working on simultaneously using different books.

Category 1. History including historical fiction. This will include books I read for the HistoryCAT challenge. Also, if I participate in any of the biography readings, I will probably post them here.

1. Five Great Greek Tragedies -- January HistoryCAT and ROOT -- finished January 15th
2. Whistle Stop -- LT Early reviewers -- NOT HistoryCAT -- finished Jan. 26th
3. Wisdom's Daughters by Elizabeth G. Watson -- February HistoryCAT and ROOT -- finished Feb. 2nd.
4. Quakers and the Arts by David Sox -- ROOT -- read March 4th.
5. Fatal Journey by Peter C. Mancall -- March HistoryCAT for theme and ROOT -- finished Mar. 25th.
6. Lift Up Thy Voice by Mark Perry -- finished May 18th.
7. Down with the Old Canoe: a Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster by Steven Biel -- finished May 27th.
8. Soliloquy: The Shakespeare Monologues: The Women by William Shakespeare; edited by Michael Earley and Philippa Keil -- finished June 13th -- counting as History since read for HistoryCAT for June -- finished June 13th.

Category 2. WomanCAT. This cat was on the ballot this year, but not one of the cats chosen. Instead of trying to establish a kit (there are several of them already), I plan to do my own reading. This will include reading Women's History (many of the books will come off the HistoryCAT list since I included so many possibilities in it). Also, WomanCAT will include literature written by women, particularly on the "woman question" prior to the early 20th century, and also in special formats -- poetry, short stories -- on any topic from any era.

1. Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra by Barbara Chase-Riboud -- read January 1st

2. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder -- finished January 6th.

3. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen for Frick's "Theatre and the Spirit of Reform" course. read Feb. 1st.

4. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston -- OLLI short novels class --finished Feb. 9th.

5. Course Correction by Ginny Gilder -- finished Apr. 12th

6. The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention by Judith Wellman -- finished May 9th

7. The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimke, edited by Gerda Lerner -- finished May 25th.

8. Women on the Row : Reflections from Both Sides of the Bars by Kathleen O'Shea -- read May 28th

9. Women and the Lakes by Frederick Stonehouse -- finished June 17th.

10. Elizabeth Fry by June Rose -- finished June 30th.

Category 3 Classics. I have two big projects planned for reading classics this year. I plan to read/reread the major novels of Jane Austen -- previously I had only read 2 of them. I'm considering all of her novels to be classics.

I won a gift card in our public library summer reading program. Since I wanted it to be used for a special book, I ordered prepub Pioneer Girl: the Annotated Autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I decided to reread all of her Little House books. I'm considering all of these Little House books to be classics in children's literature.

Also the book group sponsored by the nearest branch of our local library reads one or two classics each year.

(Originally, I had this category as classics and mysteries thinking that I would not be reading so many classics. Now mysteries will go into the other books category -- category 5.)

1. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck -- read for Northside Book Group -- finished reading January 18th in early morning (shortly after midnight)

2. The Awakening by Kate Chopin -- read for OLLI class -- finished Jan. 30th.

3. The Stranger by Albert Camus -- read for OLLI class

4. Faust by Goethe -- read for OLLI class.

Category 4. Book club books. I belong to 2 book clubs; the one sponsored by the closest branch of our public library reads 10 books a year, and the book club started by women in our Friends Meeting generally reads a book each month.

1. The Man Who Walked Away by Maud Casey -- Friends Book Group for February -- finished Jan. 25th

2. Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins -- Northside Book Group for Febrary -- finished Feb. 15th.

3. The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer -- Friends Book Group for March -- finished Feb. 19th.

4. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri -- Northside Library Book Club for March -- also Big Read -- finished reading Mar. 14th.

5. Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton -- Friends Book Group for April -- finished Apr. 2nd.

6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- Friends Book Group for May -- finished Apr. 28th.

7. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick -- Northside Library Book Club for May -- finished May 19th (list in History if get too many for book clubs and not enough for history)

8. Defending Jacob by William Landay -- Northside Library Book Club for June -- finished June 2nd.

9. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler -- Friends Book Group for June -- finished June 26th.

Category 5. Short works -- 100 pages or less:

1. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka -- read 2 versions (translations) for OLLI class -- Jan. 30th and Feb. 4th

2. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen -- read for OLLI class -- read Feb. 1st.

3. The Drunkard by William H. Smith -- read for OLLI class -- read Feb. 6th.

4. Uncle Tom's Cabin by George L. Aiken -- play based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's book --- read for OLLI class -- finished Feb. 13th

5. Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot -- read twice Feb. 13, 2nd time studying in more detail for class discussion -- read for OLLI class.

6. Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets -- read for OLLI class -- read Feb. 24th

7. Dutchman by Amiri Baraka --read for OLLI class -- read Mar. 12th.

8. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot -- read for OLLI class -- read Mar. 17th.

9. Master Harold ... and the Boys by Athol Fugard -- read for OLLI class -- read Mar. 21st.

10. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe -- read for OLLI class -- finished Apr. 10th.

11. Everything I Need to Know about Love I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow -- read Apr. 18th

Category 6. Other books -- this will be for books which do not fit any of the other categories. It will include books assigned for OLLI classes if not listed elsewhere.

1. Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy -- LT Early Review book -- finished January 10th

2. A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings by Mark Twain, Livy Clemens, and Susy Clemens -- Christmas present for husband -- finished Jan. 19th

3. When Doctors Don't Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests by Leana Wen and Joshua Kosowsky -- Va Book Festival 2014 -- ROOT -- finished Jan. 21st.

4. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller -- read for OLLI class

5. The 50 Most Dynamic Duos in Sports History by Robert W. Cohen -- LT Early Review book -- finally finished reading Feb. 28th (shortly after midnight Feb. 27th)

6. July's People by Nadine Gordimer -- read for OLLI class -- finished Mar. 6th.

7. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud -- read for OLLI class -- finished Mar. 9th.

8. The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy -- finished Apr. 10th

9. Lived through This by Anne K. Ream -- finished May 8th -- LT ER

10. Hidden in Plain Sight by Jane Allen Petrick -- ROOT

11. That's Not English by Erin Moore -- finished May 26th.

12. We Are Penn State: the Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions by Lou Prato -- read June 10th.

13. Missoula : Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer -- finished June 20th.

It's a good idea to make it easy to reach the goal and not have to stress. Pardon my ignorance but what is an OLLI class?

OLLI stands for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which is a program, sponsored by the Bernard Osher Foundation, of lifelong learning for older adults, i.e. most of the students are people of retirement age. Currently, there are programs at nearly 120 universities and colleges in the United States. I attend the one affiliated with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. However, the program has its own staff, and many students are probably unaware that it is affiliated with the University. Although there are a few paid office staff, most of the work is done by volunteers. Volunteer faculty, many of whom are retired faculty from various universities, do all the teaching. They are assisted by volunteers who make sure the classes run smoothly by taking attendance, handing out handouts, notifying class members of any changes in schedule, etc. Most of the classes meet anywhere from 3 to 6 sessions. Many have no homework; however, I enjoy taking literature classes, which, of course, do have reading. Our literature classes are usually seminars.

Glancing down the alphabetical list,
http://www.osherfoundation.org/index.php?olli_list
I see that many of the CSU and UC universities have this program.

Thanks for that information. I looked into two of the schools that are closest to me but, alas, the classes are held during the day so I will have to wait until I retire.

In Charlottesville, all of our classes are day classes; I think the rationale is that many seniors would not want to drive to night events. I don't know whether or not this is an OLLI policy.

Great idea to build around the CATs!

Nice way to set up your 2015 reading!

Today (Jan. 1st) I read Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra by Barbara Chase-Ribound. Ms. Chase-Ribound -- a sculptor, poet, and novelist -- was intrigued by Rembrandt drawing titled "Study of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra," and decided to use a similar title for her poetic account of the love of Antony and Cleopatra. The poem is divided into sections by year; at the beginning of each section is an excerpt from Plutarch describing what is going to happen in the poem. The Epilogue is also from Plutarch. I would have found the poem more meaningful if I had known more of the story of Antony and Cleopatra; since reading it, I have read more about their history on the web. Although the poem might be considered a long poem, the book itself is brief.

Although I'm listing this in the History challenge wiki, I'm putting in it in the WomanCAT section of my personal challenge.

1st title read -- WomanCAT category
3 stars (might go higher on another reading)

Happy New Year and good luck with your 2015 Challenge!

I'm just getting over a bad cold so that instead of reading the paperbacks I should be reading this month for bookclubs, classes beginning early next month, etc., I read the "hot off the press" Pioneer Girl: the Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is a beautiful book on good quality paper. The main editor, Pamela Smith Hill who had already written a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, did a tremendous amount of research for this book; her annotations probably make up more of the textual material than the text itself. Ms. Hill compares the autobiography to the fictional Little House books saying what is the same and how an event is treated differently, identifies all the people mentioned by Laura in her autobiography (or says that she is unable to identify them), compares Laura's account to actual historical events which occurred in the place being discussed and says when Laura gets the sequence incorrect, and even identifies the songs and birds, etc., mentioned by Laura. Unfortunately, Ms. Hill does not provide any family trees for the Ingalls or Wilder families, and once she has identified a person, does not identify him/her again even if just a minor character; the reader must go to the index to find where the note appeared.

I had been planning to reread the Little House books as I read this autobiography, but with so much annotation being given, decided to reread the books later.

4 stars
2nd title read (and 2nd book in the WomanCAT category

>3 sallylou61: I'm keeping an eye on this one, as I've just recently been aware of my lack of attention to women, diverse authors and characters.

>8 sallylou61: Interesting, it's a great way to keep learning ...

>16 sallylou61: Hope that you get better soon !

Getting over a cold is a perfectly legit reason to pick up a 'cause-I-want-to book!

I have once again changed my challenge for this year -- on the first message in the thread. I've gone back to aiming at 75 books instead of 90 (which already was stressing me out, especially since I expect to read some longer books this year). I also changed the description of my categories to even them out, having book club reads separate from OLLI reading (messages 5 and 6).

Less stress is always the better way to go. The important thing here is to have fun and enjoy our reading, so as long as that happens, the challenge is a success!

I just finished reading the uncorrected proof of the memoir The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy about his internship at the Columbia University Medical Center for the LT Early Reviewers program. I enjoyed the book, and plan to write the review later today.

4 stars

3rd title read -- Other category

I may try the Bingo dog, but only with books I'm reading for my personal challenge. If I try this, I will be trying to fill in lines, not the whole card.

Bingo results screen:
1. Book set in another country -- The Stranger by Albert Camus.

2. Genre bender -- Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot -- Lois Conrad said this is an example of a genre bender being both poetry and a play -- also both poetry and prose (speeches by the knights) 3/12/15

4. Book chosen by someone else -- The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer

6. Book with correspondence -- The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

7. Book owned more than 1 year: Wisdom's Daughters by Elizabeth G. Watson.

8: Book translated: Five Great Greek Tragedies (could also have been used for #7 owned more than a year or #1 set in a country other than your own, or #13 read a CAT). Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

9. Book centered around historical event: Whistle Stop by Philip White

10. Book published in 1915: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.

11. Prophecies: The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

12. Book with scientist: Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins

13. Read a CAT: A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings by Mark Twain, Livy Clemens and Susy Clemens (January Random CAT)

15. Natural disaster -- Women and the Lakes by Frederick Stonehouse -- tells of many wrecks caused by bad storms

17. LGBTQ main character -- Course Correction by Ginny Gilder (Early reviewer book)

19. Book about language -- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (contains a lot of dialect)

20. Book outside comfort zone: The Man Who Walked Away by Maud Casey

22. Book inspired by another piece of fiction -- Uncle Tom's Cabin -- a play by George L. Aiken inspired by Uncle Tom's Cabin, the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

26. Protagonist of opposite gender -- The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

Today I read the last of five plays in the collection Five Great Greek Tragedies; I read one play a day for five consecutive days. This book qualifies for the HistoryCAT, Bingo dog, and ROOT challenges.

The tragedies included: "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus, "Oedipus Rex" and "Electra" by Sophocles, and "Medea" and "Bacchae" by Euripides. I had read the first four plays years ago in college. Unfortunately, the collection did not contain any introductions to or many notes about the plays. The web provided good background information.

4th book read -- listed in HistoryCAT challenge

I have finished reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for a bookclub meeting next week. Am counting it in the classics category of my challenge. I enjoyed the book, especially the second half, although I found it a slow read. (I'm a slow reader anyway.)

5th title read

A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings by Mark Twain, Livy Clemens and Susy Clemens.
Although this book is in the Jumping Frogs series, it does not contain the story, The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

The featured story, "A Family Sketch," was written several years after daugher Susy Clemens died at the age of 24 in 1896. It was meant to be in memory of Susy, but became a story of the family, including their servants. Other works in the volume include these stories by Mark Twain: "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It" (the life story of his servant, Mary Ann Cord, who was born a slave, and had her whole family broken up and sold), "A Story of Small Foolishnesses of Susie and "Bay" Clemens (Infants),' and "At the Farm." Also included are "Quarry Farm Diary" by Livy Clemens (Mark's wife) and "Mark Twain" by daughter Susy Clemens.

The sections by Livy and Susy Clemens are not corrected for spelling or punctuation errors. Particularly the section by Susy contains a lot of repetition.

Many people are mentioned in this memoir; there is a helpful biographical directory at the end of the book, identifying the people and telling particularly their relationship to the Clemens family. The book also contains many interesting photographs of people and places; the captions for many of the photographs including where they were obtained are contained are also given in a section at the end of the book.

The book is edited by Benjamin Griffin of the Mark Twain Project, which is located at the University of California.

3.5 stars
6th title read -- Other category

When Doctors Don't Listen: How To Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests by Leana Wen and Joseph Kosowsky. I heard Dr. Wen discuss this book last March at the Virginia Festival of the Book and was very favorably impressed by her description of it. In this book Drs. Wen and Kosowsky emphasize the importance of doctors and patients working together to determine the diagnosis of what is wrong with a patient and the best course of treatment. The patient's story is of supreme importance in the correct diagnosis. However, in today's medical climate often doctors follow a "cookbook" medicine approach where they order a lot of tests to rule out certain conditions without listening to a patient's description of what he/she thinks is wrong. This approach leads to the administration of many unnecessary tests, wasted time, and often an incorrect diagnosis. This cookbook approach also leads to the inefficient way medicine is practiced today including the skyrocketing cost of medical treatment. Appendices include worksheets which potential patients should fill in before seeing a doctor.

7th title read
4.5 stars

>27 sallylou61: That one sounds really interesting. Added to the wishlist!

The Man Who Walked Away is a book which I would never have read if it was not chosen for one of my book club reads. It is about treatment for the mentally ill in 19th century France. The Doctor appeared to have as many mental problems as some of the patients, and the main character did not appear until the beginning of the fifth chapter. I enjoyed the book a bit more after the appearance of Albert, the man who had walked around Europe. However, somehow I expected him still to be walking during his treatment, which he was not although he did escape from the asylum and start walking again.

3 stars

8th title read -- 1st in book club category

Whistle Stop by Philip White is a book which I did not receive until January 20th although it was listed in the November list for Early Reviewers. Mr. White examines Truman's election campaign of 1948, which the polls and major newspapers predicted he would lose. I plan to write a review of the book this evening.

3 stars

9th title read -- listed in history category (which include books beside those read for HistoryCAT)

I have Pioneer Girl in my LHoTP category this year. So far I've only skimmed through the pages. I hope I like it as much as you did.
I'm also going to be re-reading Grapes of Wrath this year. I plan on reading it slowly. I think all Steinbeck should be read slowly and savored.

I have read The Awakening by Kate Chopin for an OLLI adult education class next week. (This is actually a reread since I read it for another OLLI class four years ago. At that time, I read a collection of her short stories The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction, but will probably not have time to read the rest this spring because I'll be taking 4 OLLI literature courses.) For my current class, we will be reading/discussing 6 short stories/novels, three by women and 3 by men, for the next 6 weeks. It will be a sort of world literature course since we are reading 3 American authors (Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Bernard Malamud), 1 writer in the German language (Franz Kafka), 1 French (Albert Camus), and 1 South African (Nadine Gordimer). I am really looking forward to this class.

10th title read

This evening I read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, translated by David Wyllie, for an OLLI adult education course which I am taking this semester. Our instructor did not specify a particular translator; I think that I will read the same story translated by another translator since Mr. Wyllie's translation is awkward in spots. The book is short enough that this should not be a problem; in fact I have already borrowed another version from our university library. Once I understood what the story was about, I found it interesting.

Also, it was first published in 1915 which qualifies for the bingo dog (which I am filling in when I find a book that fits).

11th title read

Your OLLI course sounds wonderful. And thanks for letting me know The Metamorphosis was published in 1915. I wouldn't mind rereading it.

I have read A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen for my OLLI "Theatre and the Spirit of Reform" course. This particular play is a reread for me. At our first class meeting on Tuesday we will learn what else we will be reading for the class.

12th title read

I have finished reading Wisdom's Daughters: Stories of Women around Jesus by Elizabeth G. Watson which fits both the theme and time period for the February HistoryCAT. Initially I found this book a bit disappointing, primarily because not that much can be known about the 14 women whose stories are told. Ms. Watson, a Biblical scholar who has taught workshops concerning the women around Jesus, has discussed questions of interpretation, etc., with her students. A separate chapter is devoted to each of the 14 women, using the following structure: the sources in the Bible for information about each woman, the women's story told in first person as if the woman herself is telling it, comments by Ms. Watson concerning how she determined what probably occurred in the woman's life, and reflections which are actually questions for discussion. In my opinion, the reflections sound more like questions to ask children such as in a Sunday school setting than questions for adults.

3.5 stars

13th title read

This morning (Feb. 4th) I read a different translation of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. This particular version is found in The Metamorphosis and Other Stories translated by Donna Freed, and with an introduction and notes by Jason Baker. This translation was much smoother and more understandable than that by David Wyllie (message 33), and the introduction and notes were helpful.

I am not counting this separately since it is the same title as in number 33 above.

For my OLLI Theatre and the Spirit of Reform class next week, I read the assigned play The Drunkard by William H. Smith. We will be reading a play each week on some topic of reform; obviously, The Drunkard, first performed in 1844, is a temperance play. Our instructor lectures for the first part of each class period and then we discuss the assigned play. All of the plays are short, but I wanted to keep track of my reading; that is one reason why I decided to count titles instead of books.

Read from the collection Early American Drama edited by Jeffrey H. Richards.

14th title read

I have finished reading Their Eyes Were Watching God for my OLLI class next week (and also for the RandomCAT challenge and the monthly group read). I enjoyed the book, and found the suggestion on the group read thread of reading the text aloud helpful for understanding the dialect.

4 stars

15th title read

For my Theatre and the Spirit of Reform class next week, I have read Uncle Tom's Cabin, a play by George L. Aiken, based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel. Although I have heard a lot about the novel, I've never read it; it is on my TBR list. I would like to read it sometime to see how the play, which is much, much shorter differs from it.

4.5 stars
16th title read

I have also read (and studied) the play Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot for my Saints and Sinners class next week. Our instructor, whom I have had for other classes, goes into much more detail concerning our reading than many other literature instructors do.

4 stars

17th title read

I have finished reading Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins for a book club meeting this week. Once again, it is not a book I would have read without its being a book club reading. Although I did not care for the discussion of seeing/not seeing things, once I really got into the story it was hard to put down the book. Although parts of the plot were very sad, it was captivating reading.

3.5 stars

18th title read

I have read another book for an OLLI course, The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward -- the first American translation of this work. This is the first time that I have read anything by Camus, and, although I found it rather tedious at first because of the character of Meursault, I found the novel much more interesting as the story developed.

4 stars

19th title read

I have finished reading The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer for my book club meeting in early March. It snowed here Monday night into Tuesday, and my Tuesday and Thursday OLLI classes did not meet. I decided to fo some extra reading ahead.

This was the first time I ever read any of Gordimer's books. I liked the book okay although it is definitely not one of my favorite books. I did not like the ending; I could think of at least two alternate endings which I would have liked better.

I'm looking forward to reading Gordimer's July's People which our OLLI class will discuss the day before my book club meets. It will be interesting to compare and contrast the books.

3 stars

20th title read

For next week's Theatre and the Spirit of Reform class, I read the very short play, Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets. I'm looking forward to our class discussion next week.

4.5 stars

21st title read

I finally finished reading The 50 Most Dynamic Duos in Sports History by Robert W. Cohen, a LT Early Reviewers program shortly after midnight on Friday. I'm planning to write the review sometime Saturday.

3 stars

22nd title read

Today I read Quakers and the Arts by David Sox. It is a history of Quakerism and the arts (including literature) in Britain and the United States, examining the Friends' beliefs (feelings) concerning the arts -- from the beginning of Quakerism when Friends were opposed to all forms of art til the modern day when Friends value the arts. (This book was published in 2000.) Especially for Quaker artists who painted, wrote, etc. when art was not accepted, Mr. Sox discusses their feelings toward the arts, especially in relationship to their artistic work. Some of the artists, poets, etc. discussed were practicing Quakers; others had some background in Quakerism even if it was just their ancestors who were Quakers.
Unfortunately, there were very few illustrations in the book; if one wanted to see the work being discussed, one needed to look on the web. I found the earlier chapters which discussed one artist or writer in detail much more valuable than the chapters toward the end which briefly discussed many artists, and contained many too many names without saying much about them.

3 stars

23rd title read.

I've finished reading July's People by Nadine Gordimer for my OLLI class next week. This is the second novel by Gordimer which I have read within a month; my book club discussed her The Pickup earlier this week. I found The Pickup easier to understand and enjoyed it more although I did not like the ending of either book. Our class discussion should be interesting; last week before class several people mentioned that they had started July's People, and did not like it.

3 stars

24th title read

I read Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller for my Theatre and the Spirit of Reform class on Tuesday. Although I had seen the play many, many years ago, I experienced reading it as if I had never seen it. Even though it was written approximately 65 years ago, it still has a lot of meaning today.

4.5 stars

25th title read

I finished reading The Assistant by Bernard Malamud for one of my OLLI classes. Although I enjoyed the book, I felt that it was too long.

4 stars

26th title read

I'm having so much fun with my bingo dog that I decided to do a second one, using books not in my first one. I am primarily using books read for other purposes than merely for bingo dog. Also, I'm interested in seeing how many lines I can fill; I'm not trying to fill the whole card.

Explanation of filled in squares:

1. Protagonist of opposite gender -- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

2. Chosen by someone else -- Missoula by Jon Krakauer

3. Owned more than 1 year -- Quakers and the Arts by David Sox

6. Translated from language you don't speak -- A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

9. with LGBTQ main character -- Women on the Row by Kathleen O'Shea -- wrote a lot about herself

10. Set in a different country -- July's People by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)

11. Book about language-- That's Not English by Erin Moore -- finished May 26th.

13. Read a CAT -- Kindred by Octavia E. Butler for SFFF cat -- finished June 26th.

18. With correspondence or letters -- The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimke, edited by Gerda Lerner -- most of the documents included are letters, either to individual persons or to newspapers.

22. Major historical event -- Fatal Journey by Peter C. Mancall

24. Genre bender -- Faust by Goethe (play in poetry)

25. Outside comfort zone -- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Earlier this evening I read the one act play Dutchman by Amiri Baraka (when he was still LeRoi Jones) for my Theatre and the Spirit of Reform class next week. I also read his article, "The Revolutionary Theatre" which appeared in Liberator in July 1965. Both of these works I printed out from the web. Our discussion of the Revolutionary theatre in class next week should be interesting.

27th title read (counting both together since they are very very short, a 10 page play and 3 page article)

I have finished reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri for the Northside Library Book Club which meets next week. It is also the Big Read book sponsored by the library this year. I enjoyed the book although I thought that it dragged at the end. I had previously read this book for an OLLI class in 2007; parts of it were very familiar, and parts seemed new. I like Lahiri's short stories better than her novels although this is the only novel by her which I have read.

4 stars

28th title read

I'm finally catching up here now that my Internet is working as it should. You've read a nice selection of plays for your course. I've never read Death of a Salesman, but I remember watching it on television years ago. My memory is that Dustin Hoffman was in it. I'm planning to listen to Murder in the Cathedral next month for the HistoryCAT.

My only experience of Lahiri is the audio of The Namesake, which I liked but didn't love. I thought the movie was better than the book. I will try a short story collection next since almost everyone seems to agree that her short stories are better than her novels. It's interesting that she built a novel on someone else's short story.

Dustin Hoffman played Willy Loman in the TV version of Death of a Salesman so your memory is correct; we saw excerpts from that production in our class last week. Our instructor told us that Lee J. Cobb who played Willy on Broadway was a very large man, and with Hoffman being so much smaller, their interpretations differed. With Cobb, Willy's disintegration was a more gradual thing whereas with Hoffman it had begun by the beginning of the play. Although we discuss the plays as literature and how they fit into the framework of a reform movement, our instructor was in theatre arts at UVA and always talks about how a play was or could be staged. He has himself staged many of the plays which we are reading for his class.

Our discussion of Murder in the Cathedral in our "Saints and Sinners" class was very different since our instructor has her doctorate in literature. We discussed the text in great detail and the symbolism in it, and said nothing about the staging.

All of the instructors for my OLLI literature courses this semester have doctorates and were active members of college or university faculties before retiring. Our OLLI semesters are divided into 2 sessions; I'm taking a Goethe course next session (April and May).

I'm glad your internet is finally fixed. You certainly had a struggle with it.

Today (Tuesday) I read The Lifted Veil by George Eliot which we will discuss in my Saints and Sinners course on Thursday. I enjoyed it more than I thought that I would; although George Eliot is considered a great writer, I think that some of her sentences get very complex. It is a short work, and I plan to read it again before class, especially to make more notations concerning answers for our previously assigned discussion questions.

4 stars

29th title read

Master Harold ... and the Boys by Athol Fugard is the last title I'm reading for my classes in the A session of OLLI. It is a 1982 South African play about a teenage white boy (Hally, or Master Harold) and two middle-aged black male servants who work in the family's tea room. Hally has a lot of conflicts -- in many aspects, he appears to be quite liberal about social conditions, but when he feels stressed, he is very mean to the blacks, saying cruel racist things to them, spitting in the face of one of them, and insisting that they call him "Master Harold." This play was written when apartheid was still the law in South Africa.

5 stars

30th title read

Fatal Journey: the Final Expedition of Henry Hudson -- a Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic by Peter C. Mancall is a ROOT which fits the exploration theme of this month's HistoryCAT. Although Henry Hudson is definitely the central theme of the book, Mancall discusses other voyages looking for the Northwest Passage, and explains the importance of such exploration to the English and other European nations during this time period (17th century). Mancall also speculates about what probably happened to Hudson after he was abandoned by his men.

4 stars

31st title read

Today before class I just reread Master Harold ... and the Boys and discovered that the version I read several days ago was a very sanitized version of it. Several class members did not have a copy of the play, and I found one on the web at https://mrscousaratss.wikispaces.com/file/view/master_harold_scriptedited.pdf

I made a printout of that version, which I read. For today's reading, I compared words in brackets in the web version with the printed text published by Samuel French, and discovered that the Samuel French version had swear words left out of the web version. Also, a small section of the play in which numerous swear words appeared was cut from the web version. The printed version gave the play added meaning and a different tone.

In my OLLI Theater and reform class (a different class), our instructor said that often directors will change a play when presenting it, and gave some examples. This reading experience reminded me of that discussion.

I just finished reading Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton for a book club meeting next week. Although it took me a while to get "into it", I ended up enjoying the book. I got a good feel for the characters.

4 stars

32nd title read

Since April is poetry month, I read The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy. This poetry anthology was disappointing since Ms. Kennedy did not identify any of the authors, provide any biographical information about them or the dates of the poems. Moreover, poems by many poets were included in different sections, and since there is no index, there is no easy way to find all the poems of a particular poet. Ms. Kennedy did write short introductions to each section, including information about her family and the value of poetry to them. Although I enjoyed some of the poems, as a whole I found Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's favorite poems not very inspiring.

3 stars

33rd title read

I have just finished reading The Sorrows of Young Werther for my Goethe class. During this second session of OLLI, Goethe is the only literature class I'm taking; not as many literature classes are being offered as in the first session.

For our class, we are reading a few of Goethe's poems, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Faust. Our classes are in English, and many of us are reading Goethe in translation although several students are fluent in German and reading in that language. We are using bilingual editions of the poems and Faust.

I found the novel more appealing that the poems which we have read so far. I'll be interested in discovering how easy/difficult it will be to read Faust.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, being an epistolary novel, primarily a series of letters, fits one of the bingo squares. (I'm using it there instead of a work in translation.) This gives me my second bingo on my first bingo card (message 22).

4 stars

34th title read.

Last week I received a LT Early Review book, Course Correction by Ginny Gilder, which I have just finished reading. It is about her passion for competitive rowing and of coming to terms with her homosexuality -- of living life on her own terms instead of other people's. I plan to write a review of it tomorrow.

probably 3.5 stars

35th title read.

This past weekend John and I took a three-day trip to Western Maryland and West Virginia for pleasure. We stayed overnight Friday night in Frostburg, MD and visited a small bookstore, Main Street Books, Saturday morning. We enjoy going to bookstores, and try to support small bookstores when possible. We ending up spending slightly over $100. at Main Street Books. One of the books which I bought on the spur of the moment was Everything I Need to Know about Love I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow. Last year I had enjoyed reading her Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book.
This book about love was a bit disappointing; it did not seem as clever as her earlier title -- plus I was not as familiar with the Golden Books featured in this book about love. As a young child, I was at the Golden Book age shortly after they started being published so am most familiar with the earliest ones.

I also bought Lefty Grove by Jim Kaplan; Lefty was from the Frostburg area, and the store clerk told us where his grave is located. We enjoyed going to his grave and seeing the very small, amateurish monument located near it.

3 stars for Everything I Need to Know ...

36th title read (one of the very shortest titles)

I have finished reading Faust by Goethe, translated by Walter Kaufmann for my Goethe adult education class. I'm looking forward to our class discussions, which will occur during two class periods.

4 stars

37 titles read

>67 sallylou61:
I don't remember much of reading Faust, but I do remember the class discussion was very enjoyable - hope yours is too!

I have just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury for our book club discussion next week. I found the first section interesting, reading about book burning which is abhorrent to me and about the monotony of the characters' lives, but then I became bored by the story. Science fiction just is not "my cup of tea."

3 stars

38th title read

After spending most of the month reading "assigned" books for class or book clubs, I decided to read a non-assigned book for pleasure (and a ROOT since I'm behind in reading my own TBR books). I really enjoyed reading Hidden in Plain Sight: the Other People in Norman Rockwell's America by Jane Allen Petrick. The author describes Rockwell's efforts to include non-whites in his paintings, the experiences and reactions of his non-white models, and of her own experiences in the research. Unfortunately, the book does not include illustrations of many of the paintings Petrick describes, and some of the illustrations in the book are poor reproductions. However, I was able to view most of the paintings on the web. (More info about the book appears in the April RandomCAT thread, https://www.librarything.com/topic/188967#5144209.)

4.5 stars

39th title read.

I've just finished reading Lived through This by Anne K. Ream, a powerful book telling the stories of rape and other sexual violence survivors which I received through the LT Early Reviewers program. I'm planning to write the review either tonight or tomorrow.

5 stars

40th title read

I just finished reading The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention by Judith Wellman, which fit both the Random CAT for this month and the alpha kit for the letter R in addition to being a ROOT. Although the subtitle refers to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the book is both a history of the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY, which started the 19th century/early 20th century woman's rights movement, and a history of the reform movements occurring in the burned-over district of New York State during the early/mid 19th century. These other movements including anti-slavery, various religious controversies and splits in religious bodies, and, to a lesser degree temperance led to fertile ground for the woman's rights convention. I enjoyed the book, but felt it needed some additional editing. Several important facts are unnecessarily repeated, and Ms. Wellman tended to refer to both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her husband Henry B. Stanton merely as Stanton; sometimes one needed to look carefully at the context to determine which person was being discussed.

4 stars

41st title read

Lift Up Thy Voice: the Grimke Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders by Mark Perry is both a biography of the reformers in the Grimke family and a history of the antislavery movement and the sisters' involvement in women's rights prior to the Civil War and the civil rights movement through the early decades of the 20th century. I'm planning to write a fuller review.

4 stars

42nd title read

I have finally gotten through Mayflower : a Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick for my book club discussion tomorrow evening. Although I normally enjoy reading about history, the particular book contained just too many battles (between Native Americans and the whites, called English, and among various tribes of Native Americans) for my taste. The title of the book is misleading since it is a history of 17th century New England rather than just being about the Pilgrims.

3 stars (because of non-enjoyment factor although the book is well-written for someone who is interested in the topic)

43rd title read

The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimke. edited by Gerda Lerner, is an extremely interesting collection of letters and a few manuscripts of pamphlets or essays written by Sarah Grimke (1792-1873) in the nineteenth century. Sarah Grimke's feminist writing predates some of the ideas found in early women's conventions including the 1848 Seneca Falls (N.Y.) Women's Rights Convention. Lerner states "I see Sarah Grimke not only as the first woman to write a coherent feminist argument in the United States, but also as a major feminist thinker" (p. 5). Lerner explains the significance of each document in the book. She also added 3 of her own essays -- one describing how she determined that an essay attributed to Angelina Grimke was almost certainly written by Sarah, and two discussing women's roles in the antislavery movement. I personally think that the antislavery movement articles do not belong in this book which is about Sarah's philosophy of feminism.

4 stars

44th title read

>74 sallylou61: I was thinking about that one for the July HistoryCat but maybe I'll read Making Haste from Babylon instead.

Re 74 and 76: When our book club discussed Mayflower last week, nobody was very enthusiastic about the book. Our club is sponsored by a branch of our local public library, and facilitated by a staff member. We start out by everyone's giving the book a thumbs up (positive) or thumbs down (negative) or neutral and why-- almost everyone was neutral. We thought that we should read a book like this to learn more about the early settlers/Native Americans history in New England, but it appeared that reading the book was more of a chore or duty than a pleasure.

This is an atypical reaction. Usually some people really like a book and others strongly dislike it. However, this is the first non-fiction book we have read since I joined last May.

A book which I read for pleasure (and which fits the language square for BingoDOG) is That's Not English by Erin Moore. I read this book by spurts, reading several chapters and then putting it aside. I enjoyed reading about the differences of meaning of certain words as used by British and Americans. Ms. Moore tells about the differences in the cultures when she discusses the words. However, there did not seem to be any meaningful way to determine the order in which the words were discussed. Also, the book lacks an index -- something which my husband, who read the book before I did, commented on. This is an advanced uncorrected proof, but I looked at a copy for sale, which also lacked an index.

3.5 stars

45th title read

Since I finished my OLLI classes last week, I have been trying to finish books which I had started reading earlier and ROOTs. I have just finished Down with the Old Canoe: a Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster by Steven Biel. The book is divided into two sections: "Meanings" and "Memories." In "Meanings" Biel places the Titanic in the history of its time -- 1912 -- and discusses it in relation to the social issues of the time including the suffrage and labor movements and the ideas of class and immigration. In this discussion the proper place of women in society (thought by many to be in the home) and the emphasis placed on the upper class passengers in accounts of the disaster are featured. Both suffragists and anti-suffragists used the Titanic to bolster their arguments for and against the vote for women.
In the "Memories" section, Biel discusses the importance of the Titanic in history from the 1950s through 1990s (when the book was published). He describes the impact of Walter Lord's A Night to Remember on the culture in the 1950s, and to a much lesser extent other writings about the Titanic; the Titanic Historical Society; and efforts to discover the Titanic including its discovery and salvage operations in the 1980s.

4.5 stars

46th title read

Last night to catch up on my ROOTS I read Women on the Row: Revelations from Both Sides of the Bars by Kathleen O'Shea. The title of the book and its introduction including brief biographies of the women on death row are misleading; most of the book is a memoir of the author's experiences, and she has never been an inmate. She interweaves her life-story with comments from the women concerning their lives behind bars -- which, in my opinion, is very disrespectful of the incarcerated women. O'Shea is on the outside; she chose to become a nun, and her experiences of isolation in that environment are unequal to those of the women behind bars. Moreover, O'Shea spends a large portion of the book describing her inappropriate sexual relationship with one of her female students. In this she was protected by her church, showing that priests were not the only individuals protected in sexual abuse scandals. I kept reading the book to see if she would be arrested; she was not. The topic of capital punishment is not addressed.

2 (or lower) stars

47th title read

I think if I want to read about a nun and inmates I'll stick with Dead Man Walking. This book sounds terrible on several levels.

I remember reading Dead Man Walking shortly after it was published, and found it to be excellent. I was disappointed in the Dead Man Walking movie since several important characters were cut out of it. Women on the Row is definitely not up to the caliber of Dead Man Walking!

Was she at least aware of the power imbalance and ethical wrongness of a sexual relationship with a student? I'll admit to finding it shocking that someone would write about something like that without having been to prison or been through the justice system.

Re 80 and 83: Initially at least she appeared to think that she had not done anything wrong. Then, although she was not arrested, she kept running away to a new place, because she felt hounded by the girl's mother. A shocking thing is that although she was let go by several schools, she would go to a different geographical location and get hired either as a teacher or camp counselor, apparently without any background checks. When the book was published (2000), she is in social work! The book, in which she writes freely about this experience, was published by Firebrand Books, which describes itself as a "feminist and lesbian publishing house" (last page before back cover). Also, the book has received more favorable than unfavorable reviews on Amazon.com, which I find surprising. It's true that the author has researched and corresponded with women on death row, but this book does not adequately reflect her work in that field.

It amazes me that background checks are still taken for granted or treated lacksadaisically. We just had an episode at my school where a girl's soccer coach (not a district employee) was allowed to coach without the checks being completed. Bad move! While he did not have any sexual abuse charges in his history he did have a battery charge which may have prevented him from being hired.

I finished reading Defending Jacob by William Landay for my book club. It was an unusual situation -- I finished it early this morning by flashlight since our electricity was off. I could not sleep, thinking it would come back on soon. When I left our house at about 2:30 this afternoon, our electricity had still not been restored; it has been off since 10:30 last night. This is especially unusual for us since our electrical wires are underground. I decided to come to our public library branch to read and use the internet.

I enjoyed Defending Jacob although I did not particularly care for any of the characters. The story kept surprising me. We ought to have an interesting discussion .

4 stars

48th book read

I hope your power is restored soon!

It was restored around 4:00 this afternoon -- while I was still at the public library. My husband was home at that time. As I mentioned, losing power for any significant amount of time is unusual for us.

Tonight I'm doing a load of laundry, which, fortunately, I had not started last night1

I was on vacation -- going to my 50th college reunion in Pennsylvania -- for 6 days, and did not get much reading done during that time.

The book which I finished reading yesterday - both for a LT ROOT and my local public library's summer reading program of reading a book started before but not finished - is We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions by Lou Prato. This was a quick and easy but very interesting read; I don't know why I had never read more than the first 20 or so pages earlier.

Lou Prato, who has written a number of books about Penn State football and is the former director of the Penn State All-Sports Museum, traces the story of Penn State football from the October 29, 2011 game (which was the last one Joe Paterno coached) through the 2012 football season including early 2013 when 2012 Penn State players were announced as winners of various football awards. Mr. Prato provides a very even-handed account and discusses the various controversies and reactions of different segments of the population -- players, the public, and the media. He is particularly critical of the Freeh report, the NCAA sanctioning of the Penn State program, and the unethical behavior of some coaches in their attempts to recruit Penn State players after the NCAA ruled that any of them could transfer without penalty (i.e. sitting out a year prior to playing). Mr. Prato also praises Bill O'Brien, who succeeded Joe Paterno as coach, and the 2012 team, especially the seniors who provided leadership and kept the team together during the difficult 2012 summer and football season. A very good book

4 stars
49th title read

(Incidentally, I am not a Joe Paterno fan. I feel that he had much too much power at Penn State, and should have been fired around 2004 when Penn State had had 4 or 5 poor seasons; he was asked to step down then but refused to do so.)

For both the HistoryCAT and my ROOTs challenge, I read Soliloquy: The Shakespeare Monologues: The Women edited by Michael Earley and Philippa Keil. This book is aimed both for the general reader and for working actors (or in this case actresses). Important soliloquies of females in most of Shakespeare's plays are included, arranged alphabetically by play. For each soliloquy, the name of the character, and the act and scene of the play with a brief introduction to the action in the speech precedes the speech. At the end, meanings of words which might not be familiar in the present day are given as well as a commentary about the importance of the soliloquy and often important characteristics of the character in the play.

I enjoyed most the soliloquies from the plays with which I am most familiar. The book was rather choppy with only a few soliloquies from each play. Of course, in Shakespeare's time, female roles were played by men -- and Shakespeare had relatively few female compared to male characters in his plays. Several of the soliloquies were given by female characters, masquerading as males.

4 stars

50th title read

For both the June RandomCAT and my ROOT challenge I read Women and the Lakes: Untold Great Lakes Maritime Tales by Frederick Stonehouse. Mr. Stonehouse calls his book an "anecdotal history." He showed how women were active in virtually all aspects of the maritime industry in the Great Lakes, primarily in the 19th century. He told many stories of women's courage. I found some parts of the book very interesting, especially those describing what women did. However, too many women were mentioned without their stories being told. Also, some parts of the book were technical in the mechanics of ships. The author provides a useful glossary.

3 stars

51st title read.

>91 sallylou61: Women and the Lakes sounds interesting. My g-g-grandmother was a survivor of the Lady Elgin disaster on Lake Michigan, so Great Lakes history always catches my attention. I'll try to see if I can find it.

Especially since there was a big controversy about rape at the University of Virginia last November and numerous universities and colleges are being investigated for their handling of sexual assaults by and against students, I read Missoula : Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. In this deeply troubling story of rape in the town where the University of Montana is located, Mr. Krakauer describes the rapes of several young women by members of the University of Montana football team, how it impacted their lives and those of their families and friends, and how the women fared in court (which was badly). Unfortunately, the stories of these women are probably typical in our society today, which tends to hold athletes not accountable for crimes they commit against women. Also, women on the defense teams of the perpetrators can be very cruel to the rape victims in court, attempting to cast the blame on them or saying that the rape did not occur.

5 stars

52nd title read

I recently read Missoula as well and found it to be both well-researched and shocking.

Re 94: Hi Kay, I had noticed that both you and Linda Panzo had read Missoula and given it positive comments in your threads although both of you found it disturbing. I think that I particularly picked up on the way defendants' female attorneys try to discredit the female victims because I went to a book festival program in 2011 featuring Liz Seccuro, author of Crash into Me. She was raped many years ago; approximately 5 years ago the perpetrator contacted her, supposedly to apologize. The contact was very upsetting to her, and she was told by the Charlottesville police chief that he could still be tried for the crime. The female lawyer for the perpetrator really tried to discredit Liz by trying to prove that she was at fault. This same lawyer was on the legal team for George Huguely, the UVA male lacrosse player who was found guilty for the 2010 murder of his off-and-on girl friend, Yeardley Love, a female UVA lacrosse player -- a fact which Liz mentioned in her talk.

I read Kindred by Octavia E. Butler for my book group. We had very low attendance last night with only three of us coming. None of us particularly liked the book, but none of us like science fiction. I think the book was much too long; the story could have ended Kevin's rescuing Dana the time they both went back in time. We felt that there were more interesting books which covered the lives of slaves in the South -- such as 12 Years a Slave and The Kitchen House which I have not read for several years.

I will be interested in seeing if our book club survives much longer since several have seemed to drop out, and others come infrequently.

3 stars

53rd title read

I read Elizabeth Fry by June Rose for pleasure and for our local library's summer reading program. Each month we receive a sheet of 25 activities; adults must do 4 before receiving a new sheet. The activities are related to reading or using the library; families may do them together and each be credited separately. Elizabeth Fry fulfills the square, "read a green book;" this is the first time in ages when I've read a book based on the color of its cover!

This is an interesting book about Elizabeth Fry, a 19th century English Quaker who became very involved in prison reform. Years ago I wrote a paper about her role in improving conditions for women prisoners in Newgate Prison in London. Ms. Rose's biography covers Elizabeth's whole life; I was very interested in learning about Mrs. Fry's continued impact on prisons in Britain and other countries in Northern Europe. She was an enigma: she devoted many hours to working to improve conditions for prisoners, especially the poor, which she did on a religious basis. However, she grew up in a very wealthy Quaker family, and expected to have fine things -- clothing made of good quality materials, fine food, etc. throughout her life (1780-1845). She liked to mingle with royalty, lecturing to them about prison reform. She depended upon her brothers and brothers-in-law for financing both for her prison work and her family; her husband went bankrupt. She felt that women should work outside the home only if they were poor or if they were doing volunteer work. She was a Quaker minister, but many Friends disapproved of her lifestyle, and she was unable to attend many of her children's weddings since they married "outside of Meeting." She felt the family was important, but neglected her own.

4.5 stars

54th title read

What a fun challenge! You're lucky to have such imaginative librarians.

Continued by Sally Lou's reading challenge, thread 2, http://www.librarything.com/topic/192823