Take It or Leave It Challenge - January 2021 - Page 1

For those new to this challenge: More info and monthly index can be found in post #1 of this thread or this TIOLI FAQS wiki.


...logo by cyderry

---------------------------------------------------------------

Your challenge for January 2021 is to...

**********************************
Read a memoir by an author whose last name has at least nine letters
***********************************

RULES:
1. NO two-word last names (either full names or de, von, ben, etc.)
2. NO hyphenated last names.

Here's a good link to check for possibilities...
http://www.librarything.com/tag/memoir

------------------------------------------------------------

Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):

1. The January 2021 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it.
3. FAMeulstee's 2021 TIOLI Sweeplette Meter

----------------------------------------------------------------

Supplementary thread --- In the past, this thread was used to talk about the pandemic which had been weighing heavily on each of us. Going forward, this thread is open to all supplementary talk. Should you think you are too far off topic for the main thread, well, just skip over there for a group conversation about almost anything!

Link to our SUPPLEMENTARY THREAD

ki Index of Challenges:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a memoir by an author whose last name has at least nine letters - msg #1
2. Read a book set in or about a year that is within 21 years of your birth year - msg #5
3. Read a book with a title or part of a title that will tell us what you will be looking for in the new year - msg #9
4. Read a book to help me celebrate my 50th birthday - msg #6
5. Read a book for the January Mystery Challenge Challenge - msg #10 - thread
6. Read a book by someone from or with ties to West Africa - msg #11

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book with a word meaning new in the title or about someone starting or starting over - msg #14
8. Read a book from a best of 2020 list, name the list - msg #15
9. Read a book someone else picked out for you - msg #16
10. Read a non-fiction book with a picture of a building or man-made structure on the cover - msg #17
11. Read a book which has a characteristic of a passage in the title - msg #19
12. Read a book by an author that you have read before - msg #23

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book that fulfills a New Year's reading resolution - msg #29
14. Read a book with a LT rating of 3.5 or more - msg #33
15. Read a book featuring juvenile detectives or adventurers - msg #38
16. Read a book connected to an author who died in 2020, but not written by them - msg #42
17. Read a book which starts with a conflagration - msg #53

Hold your challenge until the Febraury TIOLI challenges are posted. Thank you!

I didn't mean to reserve this space. Ha!

I didn't mean to reserve this space, either. I hope this is not a preview of the year to come! Haha! Just kidding! We WILL have a much better year going forward!

Challenge #2: Read a book set in or about a year that is within 21 years of your birth year

Please indicate the year(s) it is primarily about or set in.

This should be self explanatory. If you were born in 1960, for example, you can read a book set in or about a year ranging from 1939 to 1981.

The book needn't be set in, or about, only a single year within your range but your range should be the focus of the book for this challenge.

Challenge #4: Read a book to help me celebrate my 50th birthday

I turn 50 on 1/1/21, though I still feel too young to be this old. (Except for my neck, shoulders, and eyes. They remind me of my age almost every day.) Help me celebrate my birthday by reading a book that matches up to my life and interests. You have three options:

1. Read a book set in state I've lived in or a country I've visited:
- Alabama
- Pennsylvania
- Washington (State)
- the United Kingdom
- Canada
- Ireland
- France
- Spain
- Belgium

2. Read a book in a genre I write:
- Historical romance
- Fantasy

3. Read a book with one of my favorite animals on the cover or in the title:
- Horses
- Cats (any type of cat--tiger, lion, bobcat, domestic cat, etc.)
- Dinosaurs (keep in mind that birds are dinosaurs)

Please list the category your book meets.

>6 susanna.fraser: Happy upcoming birthday! Time to celebrate now as it's never too soon.

>3 SqueakyChu: Hi Susanna, I think my challenge crept in a little before yours so your challenge should be #4

Challenge #3 Read a book with a title or part of a title that will tell us what you will be looking for in the new year - started by dallenbaugh

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Challenge #5: Read a book for the January CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

***PLEASE READ.*** These challenges are a bit more... challenging. Therefore, there will be posts where examples will be given. Suggestions are also very welcome. I tried to match up easier second challenges to harder first challenges and vice versa. If I see that people are struggling with a certain set of challenges, I have a couple easy challenges to add to that set. Please remember you can have two open challenges. I have two, and only two, backups.

There will be *6* different book challenges (in sets of two). (The challenges change each month.) They will all have something to do with the theme of "firsts." You won't know what your particular challenges will be until you roll a random number.

You can use https://www.random.org/ (the widget at the top right), Google "random number 1 to 6," or, if you have one, roll a die.

NOTE: After a certain number of challenges have been given out, I will re-randomize the list. So you really will not know what you will get!

Post the number to this thread and I will give you your challenge. For any questions, please ask here or in a PM. Embedded words, as a rule, are allowed but partial words are not. For instance, in one case, a word like "walked" must include the entire word and not just the word "walk." Tags must be first level, i.e. do not click on "show all." No restrictions as to fiction or nonfiction unless otherwise stated in a challenge.

I'll allow *some* leeway in interpretation of the challenges, but try not to push it. When I say "significant" or "major" or "main" I will be strict. This is me, being strict:



Note: If I give a link to a list of books, it does not mean they *all* qualify for a challenge. The lists are simply starting points. If a book is on a referred list, it will not be accepted if it doesn't fit the challenge.

Shared reads ARE allowed. Shared challenges ARE NOT allowed. That is, if someone reads a book published in 2020. You can read the SAME book. You can't read a different book published in 2020 (unless you get that challenge yourself.)

Challenge #6 Read a book by an author from or with ties to West Africa

Following the UN definition of Western Africa there are 16 countries:

Cape Verde
Niger
Nigeria
Togo
Benin
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Senegal
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Gambia
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Burkina Faso
Mali
Mauritania

Some writers:
Achebe, Soyinka, Adebayo, Okri, Adichie, Obioma, Emecheta, Abani, Mariama Ba, William Boyd, Okorafor, Sembene, Tutuola, Selasi & Gyasi

>11 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! So nice to see you here. Hey! That didn't take long at all! :D

>12 SqueakyChu: Once I put my mind to something, Madeline..........
Plus it is a day off today.

Challenge #7: Read a book with a word meaning new in the title or about someone starting or starting over

The word 'novel' included on LT book pages does not count unless it is in the base title of the book.

My usual January challenge
Challenge #8: Read a book from a best of 2020 list, name the list
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2020/books/
The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/12/best-books-2020/617490/
Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/awards/best-books-of-the-year/_/N-29Z8q8Z...
BBC https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200327-the-best-books-of-2020-so-far
Esquire https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g30630848/best-books-of-2020/
The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/16/the-best-books-of-2020-to-support-...
Harper's Bazaar https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/g30719704/best-new-books-2...
Kirkus Reviews https://www.kirkusreviews.com/best-of/2020/fiction/books/
Literary Hub https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2020-list/
NPR https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2020
NYT Critics top books of 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/books/times-critics-top-books-of-2020.html
New York Public Library https://www.nypl.org/125/best-books-2020
New York Review of Books https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/12/26/the-best-of-2020/
NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/books/review/best-books.html
New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2020-in-review/the-best-books-we-read-in-2020
Powell's https://www.powells.com/post/lists/best-fiction-of-2020?gclid=Cj0KCQiA_qD_BRDiAR...
Strong Towns https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/12/11/the-best-books-i-read-in-2020?gcl...
Time https://time.com/5913197/best-fiction-books-2020/
Time 100 must read books of 2020 https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2020/
Vulture https://www.vulture.com/article/best-books-2020-so-far.html
Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/lifestyle/2020-best-books/
Washington Post best science fiction fantasy https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/best-science-fiction-fantasy-...
The Week. https://bypass.theweek.com/articles-amp/952732/7-new-books-that-helped-escape-ye...

I am going to assume that some of us were bought a few books for Christmas this year, seems a safe enough bet with this group. In which case

Challenge #9: Read a book someone else picked out for you (say who)

It can be a present you recieved at any time, it can be a book subscription you've fallen behind on (not looking at myself at all there). Or, if tyou're unlucky enough not to have had any books as present, or thrust upon you recently, you can ask on this thread and we'll pick something from your TBR list for you to read.

Challenge #10: Read a non-fiction book with a picture of a building or man-made structure on the cover

Hopefully straightforward!

>11 PaulCranswick: Another writer for Paul's West African ties challenge is Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone).

Challenge #11: Read a book which has a characteristic of a passage in the title

Whatever word seems like a characteristic of a passage to you is ok by me.

>18 elkiedee: Quite right, Luci. Actually I did mean to list her too.

>19 Carmenere: Do you mean as in a corridor, Lynda or a journey or a slippage in time?

>21 PaulCranswick: All of your examples work for me, Paul. It’s all about a means of going from one place to another.

Since I still feel like sticking with the familiar and safe:

Challenge #12: Read a book by an author that you have read before

>23 DeltaQueen50: This challenge resulted in a deep sigh of relief :)

>23 DeltaQueen50: >24 jeanned: That challenge is a lifesaver, Judy. I could probably put the bulk of my books into that one.

I was quite pleased to find, after thinking that my cozy mystery series with 50 books had ended, that it has resumed after a bit of a hiatus so I quickly put book #51 into your challenge.

>24 jeanned: & >25 lindapanzo: Glad to be of service, ladies!

Hmm, it's possible I'll be reading only books from my challenge this month: (or not)
Challenge #1: Read a memoir by an author whose last name has at least nine letters - started by SqueakyChu
*✔The Plague and I - Betty MacDonald (4.5)
Challenge #3: Read a book with a title or part of a title that will tell us what you will be looking for in the new year - started by dallenbaugh
✔The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World - Melinda Gates (4)
Challenge #5: Read a book for the January Mystery Challenge Challenge - started by Morphidae
✔Kingdomtide by Rye Curtis (3.5)
Challenge #8: Read a book from a best of 2020 list, name the list - started by Citizenjoyce
✔Breasts and Eggs byMieko Kawakami (4)
✔Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price (3.5)
A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet ABANDONED
✔The Comeback: A Novel - Ella Berman (4.5)
✔Death in Her Hands - Ottessa Moshfegh (2.5)
✔Deacon King Kong - James McBride (3.5)
✔Empire of Wild - Cherie Dimaline (4)
*✔The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel (4)
✔Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell (4)
✔Here For It - R. Eric Thomas (3.5)
✔How Much of These Hills is Gold? by C Pam Zhang (4)
✔Indelicacy -Amina Cain (3)
✔It Is Wood, It Is Stone: A Novel - Gabriella Burnham (3)
*✔Lakewood - Megan Giddings (4.5)
✔Little Gods - Meng Jin (3.5)
✔Luster by Raven Leilani (3)
✔Putin's People - Catherine Belton (5)
✔Real Life - Brandon Taylor (4)
✔The Resisters - Gish Jen (4)
✔The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread--And Why They Stop - Adam Kucharski (4)
The Shadow King - Maaza Mengiste ABANDONED
✔Sharks in the Time of Saviors - Kawai Strong Washburn (4)
✔Tender Is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica (4.5)
These Women -Ivy Pochoda
Uncanny Valley - Anna Wiener
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
Challenge #13: Read a book that fulfills a New Year's reading resolution - started by madhatter22
✔Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 49 • June 2014 (Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue) by Christie Yant (4)
Challenge #14: Read a book with a LT rating of 3.5 or more - started by FAMeulstee
✔Valentine - Elizabeth Wetmore (5)

>27 Citizenjoyce: Nah, mine will be pretty fun.

Challenge #13: Read a book that fulfills a New Year's reading resolution.

It might be a classic that's been on your shelf for years, or an author you keep saying you want to try. Maybe you keep buying books about certain nonfiction subjects you love, but keep passing them over for shiny new novels and the next book in your mystery series. Or there's a genre you rarely or never read in, but you've wanted to check out. Maybe you have books someone loaned you months (or years? Only me?) ago that you really did mean to return by now.

It can be any book about which you've thought, multiple times, "Ok, THIS is the year I'm finally going to read ..."

>17 wandering_star: Can I please highlight the 'non-fiction' element of my challenge? A couple of the books which have been posted look as if they are fiction works.

>10 Morphidae: I need help. I need to commit to posting the thread for the challenge(s) by the end of day today. Please nudge, poke, elbow, prod, noodge, pester, nag, badger, lash me a thousand times with a wet noodle or whack me upside the head with a pool noodle, but do not fold, spindle, or mutilate.

This set of challenges, more than most, is requiring a lot of research. A lot of research about books. And down the Internet rabbit hole I go. As is well shown in the paragraph above.* I'm embarrassed to say how long it took to peruse thesauruses and idiom websites to get all those examples.

So come 8pm-ish CST would someone(s) start nudging me? PM is fine. As a person with ADHD, I work better with deadlines and it *probably* won't be needed. But I need the impetus to stay focused.

* Did you know the original phrase was "rap upside the head?" Yeah, me either.

>15 Citizenjoyce: Joyce, just to be clear, would a bookstore's "best of 2020" list not shown on your list? A new Chicago Loop bookstore opened its doors a few days before the governor shut the state down in March and they've published their first ever best of the year list. I'd love to honor this plucky new bookstore, Madison Street Books, by picking a book from their list.

https://madstreetbooks.com/?q=p.reading_lists__

>31 Morphidae: Don't know if I'm going to get it posted. Not because I didn't work on it but because I underestimated how long it was going to take. Worked on it for about 5 hours today so far. Took a break and am going back to it. It's a bit more complicated than my previous ones but I'm getting there!

>34 Morphidae: omigosh, that's quite a bit of effort for a challenge.
>32 lindapanzo: I love that idea. I don't go into stores, but if I did, I'd love an independent book store.

>35 Citizenjoyce: Ha! That's just *today*!

>35 Citizenjoyce: Thanks, Joyce. I haven't been downtown since early March but, the next time I go, maybe later in 2021 for the opera, I would like to check this place out. People have really seemed to adopt it.

Challenge #15: Read a book featuring juvenile detectives or adventurers

This one is inspired by the fact that I have found a source for the original Nancy Drew books (that is, not the cleaned-up texts from 1959 onwards!).

I'm not going to be too fussy about your choices, though I have in mind a lighter form of fiction, rather than serious coming-of-age or rite-of-passage books.

By "juvenile", the main character(s) should be under eighteen, however I will accept slightly older characters if the book is part of a series that has them growing up.

>38 lyzard: Oh, I’ve got the perfect book for this one: The Secret of Terror Castle is the first book in the Three Investigators series that I loved in junior high school.

>39 rosalita:

Oh, so did I! I may join you if I can find a copy...though a second "new" series isn't exactly what I need right now! :D

Good call, either way, that's just the sort of thing I had in mind.

>10 Morphidae: We have a challenge thread!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/328031

Woooo wooo wooo!

Please be sure to read the first post. It's a little different this time.

Challenge #16: Read a book connected to an author who died in 2020, but not written by them.

2020 was a hard year - hard for individuals; hard on the literary world. Yet, the world goes on; writing goes on.

For this challenge, find a book to read which, in a broad sense, keeps the author alive in the spirit of their work, ongoing through others. Choose a book by a different author, one which is recommended, compared to, or related to one written by an author who died in 2020.

Methods:

(1) Recommendations on LT:
Input the name of an author who died in 2020 into the LT search box, click on one of their books.
Beneath the Tags section, find the sections: LibraryThing Recommendations, and Member Recommendations. Choose your book from either section.

(2) Any other source of recommendation or comparison:
Any book to book or body of work comparison of another author to one deceased in 2020.

Note on the wiki from whence the recommendation/comparison came.

Here’s one source of 2020’s literary deaths. I’m sure there are more lists out there.

Examples:
The Return, Håkan Nesser (LT rec/Maj Sjöwall)
The Winter Queen, Jane Stevenson (member rec/Per Olov Enquist)

>14 quondame:. Mayb I use the actual word "new" for your challenge if it's in the title?

>43 SqueakyChu: Yes, new is fine as a word in the title.

>44 quondame: Great! Thanks!

>38 lyzard: re: juvenile adventurers. Liz, I added my book before I fully read your description. While The Golden Compass certainly has children engaged in adventures, it is probably not the "lighter" fiction you had in mind. Is that acceptable? I can move it to another challenge but I see that Madeline has signed on to a shared read so it would be easier to leave it alone.

>46 AnneDC: I will also be reading it this month so I would like to jump on the shared read too, Liz!

>46 AnneDC: >47 PaulCranswick:

That's okay, Anne. Particularly with a shared read involved. :)

BTW great to see you here, Paul!

>48 lyzard: I don't need to read The Golden Compass. I just happened to have it here in my house as someone donated it to my Little Free Library recently. I probably won't get to it this month, but I added it to the list just in case.

>48 lyzard: I have always liked the TIOLI, Liz; just that I normally have so many challenges going on at once......

>59 lyzard:

Tell me about it! :D

>2 SqueakyChu: ... any time between now and midnight January, 2021. January is a dark month it seems, a long night ahead of us ....

Challenge #17: Read a book which starts with a conflagration

Read a book in which a conflagration is described within the first 21 pages. At least one building must be on fire, by lightning or arson or whatever. Please list the page and burning items (house, stable, city, mill, tower etc., but no bridges, wind generator, planes, ships (except a houseboat), monuments or such)

# Geheimnis um einen nächtlichen Brand (page 6, a garden shed) - Enid Blyton

>53 paulstalder:

It's a month too late for me, but if anyone has access to a copy of John Rhode's Mystery At Greycombe Farm - ahem: aka Fire At Greycombe Farm - it's perfect.

ETA: Fun fact: sitting in a pile on my random book shelves are Blaze by "Richard Bachman", Ash by James Herbert and Four Fires by Bryce Courtney...and none of them deal with an actual fire! :D

ETA2: People may find this helpful

>52 paulstalder: Hahaha! Fixed it. Would you be my forever editor?! ;)

>54 lyzard:
ETA2: People may find this helpful

Cool! Er, make that hot!! :D

>53 paulstalder: Welcome back, Paul. I missed your "challenging" challenges.

>54 lyzard: I actually own Miracle Creek so that's very helpful!

>6 susanna.fraser: Paranormal Romance? That's *technically* fantasy.

>57 wandering_star:

My local library has a copy too and I'd love to join in but it will depend how I go with this month's monstrous best-seller.

>15 Citizenjoyce: Would the Good Reads Choice Award nominees be considered the best for the purposes of your challenge? I know they are for the award - they pick the best books in each genre as nominees. For instance...

https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-fantasy-books-2020

Or would only the top book in each genre count?

>60 Morphidae: Yes, that's fine.

>61 Citizenjoyce: Yay!

*does happy Kermit arm wave*

>42 countrylife: So I'm thinking something like this would be acceptable?

https://www.literature-map.com/terry+goodkind

>63 Morphidae: I love that site! Do they explain why things move around anywhere?

>63 Morphidae: Oh, good idea.

>64 quondame: I think it's just a "feature."

>65 Citizenjoyce: Hope so. We'll see what >42 countrylife: has to say about it.

TIOLI Question of the Month!

What do you think of the cover art on your most current read for this month? Why do you feel that way about the artwork or the cover design?'

Show us a picture, if you can. :D

>67 SqueakyChu: I'm reading Brave New World. I hate the cover design. I have no idea what it even is, nor do I like the colors. I'm not quite sure if I like the story either yet, and I'm already halfway through this book! :/

There's lots in my book about reproductive alternatives and body alternatives, so it's mostly speculative fiction rather than science fiction, but the cover is very science fiction ray-gun oriented.

>69 Citizenjoyce: That's Science Fiction. What if is more central than space ships or laboratories to my mind.

I think this is a cover from 1982. I actually like the art of this cover. I think the artist, Darrell K. Sweet captured the description of the unicorn very well. I like the details in the framing and I like the reflection in the water.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.

I'm reading Passenger to Frankfurt with this cover:



I like that they've made the connection to flying with the tags, but it's still not a good cover. The font is horrible.

I like the image, which is either a block print or designed to look like one. The bits of red and blue stand out in what is typically a black and white medium. I think there is too much white space around the image and I think it ruins the effect.

ETA: The cover image looks better than the real thing.

Reading now: Treindromen, Dutch translation of Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
I like the cover, a lonely man between trees.

>29 madhatter22: Challenge 13: Can "a New Year's resolution" be from a previous New Year?

I made a resolution, I think at New Year 2020, to actually read a number of short story collections (single author) and anthologies (multiple authors) that have been on my current reading list since 2012. And I did read several of these books last year but have just finished one with another 5 to go. If not, I'm fairly sure it can go in Challenge 14.

I'm reading How Much Of These Hills Is Gold. This is my (UK) cover.



The gold flecks are a nice touch, and you can tell from the background of the photo that this might be a Western story (which it is, set in the later stages of the California Gold Rush) but not really sure about the fighting horses. There is a horse in the story, and strong emotions clashing, but I don't think it's a good representation of the book.

This made me have a look at alternative covers. This appears to be the US cover:



On first sight I thought this was a bit Orientalist but on thinking about it more, I like it. The tiger is a much more significant motif in the story than the horses, and I think this cover is intriguing without giving too much away. It's a hard book to sum up/categorise so that cover is quite fitting.

The Australian cover appears to be going for the worst of both worlds - taking the worst bit of the UK cover (the horse image) and losing the nice bit, using some quite heavy handed gold colouring rather than the subtle spotting against a black & white background:

I'm reading several things at once, but I'll select the one I began reading last night. It's an older book, so you can imagine there are many different covers over the years. I like this one better than some and less than others. I think I wish they'd made the school room features a little less transparent.

I just finished The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, which has exactly the cover you'd expect it to have:



It's a fine cover. I kind of wish it showed one of the new illustrations with one of the heavily feathered velociraptor-cousin dinosaurs, because they look SO COOL:



...but I have to admit it probably wouldn't sell the book as well to the casual bookstore browser.

(Dromaeosaurus art by Fred Wierum - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63257508)

>78 susanna.fraser: Ooh, I've been wanting to read that! How did you like it?

Nearly everything I've read lately has been a coverless free ebook but it happens that I'm now reading a paperback copy of Jonathan Carroll's The Land Of Laughs.

While selecting this image I noticed that pretty much every cover for this book over the years has featured a version of Nails the bull terrier. He's not really bull-terrier-ish enough here, however note the "spikes" on his collar:

>79 PawsforThought: It's a very good popular science book, with a nicely balanced mix of actual dinosaurs and the current-day process of finding and studying them.

>76 wandering_star: I'll be reading that book with the US cover this month. I have to admit, the cover kind of put me off. Though I know nothing about the book I like the UK cover better. Maybe that's because it looks like a western, and I love westerns.

>80 lyzard: I adored that book! I can't believe you're reading something I read!! Haha! Jonathan Carroll is one of my favorite authors. This author loves bull terriers and features them in his novels.

Halfway through the month and I've finally found the TIOLI thread. Just checking in, for now.

>67 SqueakyChu: My current e-book (unusually for books I've read up to now) doesn't seem to have a cover other than the title page. I wanted to post a cover image on Litsy and then discovered there wasn't one.

>84 humouress:. Wow! Glad you finally found us! Was it because it’s 2021 now?

I also read Train Dreams by Denis Johnson this month but my cover is very different from Anita's. I liked this both the starkness and the drama of this one.

>85 SqueakyChu: Yes :0)

No, not really; I'm reading and cataloguing more than posting. And TIOLI isn't on the Threadbook so it didn't pop up when I was looking for people's names. But I still have a few people to catch up with. Just taking it easy.

>75 elkiedee: Absolutely! :)

>67 SqueakyChu:
The cover of my current book (Collected Millar: The Master at her Zenith by Margaret Millar) is pretty basic,



but the spines are fantastic. (The volume I'm reading is the 3rd from the left, so the best bit of the image. :)



Millar was an early writer of domestic noir or domestic suspense, and I think the image across the spines perfectly exemplifies that genre. I always wish I could tell which books are in those cases. The set on the second shelf right behind mom and those at the top left look like old Classics Club editions. That detail makes me wonder if all the spines - which are really varied - were based on actual books.

I had been vaguely curious about Margaret Millar for almost 20 years after hearing her mentioned in a song I loved ("Cold Kisses" by Richard Thompson) but when these came out a few years ago I judged them by their spines and bought the whole set without ever having read any of her books.

You don't hear her name as much today, but in the '40s she was successful enough that her husband, Kenneth Millar, who was also an author, started using the pen name John Macdonald to avoid confusion. (And then changed it to Ross Macdonald to avoid confusion with John D. Macdonald. :D )

>83 SqueakyChu:

I'm sure we talked about that one once before (perhaps when I was trying to gauge your tastes before selecting a Gothic??). And I just saw you on the 'recently added' list, are you re-reading or just cataloguing? :)

>89 madhatter22:

I have Millar's Beast In View on the 'possible reads' list for this month, though it will depend whether my ILL turns up or not.

>90 lyzard: Just cataloguing from my notes on my pc.

>6 susanna.fraser: congratulations ... I still say the same about my age: I turn 50 on 1/1/21, though I still feel too young to be this old. yes, it's the eyes which tell me otherwise :) I will turn 65 on 6/6/21

>89 madhatter22: That's a terrific set!

>89 madhatter22: I have a weakness for coordinated sets - I bought a set of the 10 Martin Beck novels and read them all during my second maternity leave in 2009 - the spines in order spell out the detective's name across them.

I want to read some Margaret Millar, it's just there are so many authors/books I want to read - this intention comes from a crime fiction event I went to some years ago. An Oxford University College, St Hilda's, has a crime fiction conference each year. While many of the speakers are crime authors, rather than simply promoting their books and being on panels designed to do that (though this can be interesting too), they often prepare conference papers as for an academic conference but for a more general audience. One year this was on "Golden Age" authors - I can't even remember who spoke on Margaret Millar.

I also read one of her husband Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer books and would definitely like to read the others, although they mostly wrote very different sorts of crime novels from each other.

>89 madhatter22: Seeing that name Margaret Millar sparked a memory about a fascinating article I read recently about her rather fraught private life. I dug around and was able to unearth it here, in case you or anyone else is interested:

Linda, Interrupted: Linda Millar's brief life was full of tragedy. Her secrets found their way into novels thanks to her celebrated parents, Ross Macdonald and Margaret Millar. It's time to see who she really was.

>94 elkiedee: I would love to see a picture of the Martin Beck books!

>82 Citizenjoyce: Hope you enjoy it! It definitely has a Western setting so that's clearly what they were going for with the cover image.

>67 SqueakyChu:

it shows what the title says: an enchanted horse
Das Zauberpferd : Roman by Magdalen Nabb

Usually, I can fit every book every month into a TIOLI chalenge but not the one I'm starting. I'd be the first person to rate the book by iconic Chicago TV weatherman, Harry Volkman, called Whatever the Weather: My Life & Times as a TV Weatherman.

Still scratching my head over this one. No conflagrations. No ratings.

>99 lindapanzo: Try TIOLI challenge#3 and just mention "the weather" as something you are looking forward to in the new year.

>99 lindapanzo:, >100 dallenbaugh:

Or "life". :)

>99 lindapanzo: >100 dallenbaugh: >101 lyzard: Or "whatever."

>102 Morphidae: perfect choice

Hoping to get some feedback from the TIOLI participants:

The changes to the Groups pages will include a section on the right-hand side of each page where the group admin can post links. I’m planning to include links to the Threadbook and Group Wiki, but thought we could also post a link to TIOLI. What would be the most useful if I did this? Link to the monthly thread? Link to the wiki? Anything else?

>104 drneutron: Cool! Also other year long challenges.

>100 dallenbaugh: >101 lyzard: >102 Morphidae: Thanks for the ideas. I'm always talking about the weather and, frankly, have enjoyed the mild, relatively snow free first half of meteorological winter. I'm also always telling myself to read more books about weather/meteorology every year, so that one would work as well.

Volkman was a highly revered weatherman in Chicago. About ten years ago, I heard his book was coming out but the only way to get it was to email him and he'd send you the PO Box number and the cost. As much as I wanted to read it, it's a skimpy volume and the price was way, way too high, I thought, so I never picked up a copy. I tried my library this month and our library consortium's ILL but no luck from either place. So I tried WorldCat, which I think of as the worldwide ILL. Got an autographed copy from a library a few minutes from the office in just a few days.

>104 drneutron: The links to the monthly threads would be the most useful, but if you didn't want to update it every month, but just yearly, simply post this link:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/80417#1680410

>95 rosalita: Thanks, Rosalita! Will def. read this. :)

>96 raidergirl3: So would I!

Am finding it really difficult to find this thread or most over new ones at the moment, starred threads takes me back to 2019! Still need to work out where I'm putting my books.

>14 quondame: When I searched my catalogue for books that might meet this challenge, I came across a collection of short stories called Children of the New World. I bought it as an audiobook in 2018, and had completely forgotten about it. I've just listened to the first story and it's brilliant - even if every other story is terrible I will be glad that I picked this up. This is exactly why I love the TIOLI challenges!

>109 elkiedee: Yesterday, my new most recent threads started with the 2014 ones. I had to fiddle around with the most recent button.

>110 wandering_star: It's great to reconnect with an old favorite! I had an unfortunate reconnection myself, though so it can be a hazard.

TIOLI Stats for December 2020

For December, 2020, we read a total of 260 books, of which 29 or 11% of these were shared reads. We accumulated 16 TIOLI points for a YTD count of 260 TIOLI points, the lowest ever YTD count for a December.

The most popular book, read by 4 challengers, was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

The most popular challenge was the one by me (SqueakyChu) to read a book with one of its title words making up part of a five-word sentence. There were 36 books read for that challenge.

The challenges with the most TIOLI points (3 points each) were:
1. The one by lindapanzo to read a biography/autobiography of a woman
2. The one by SilverWolf28 to read a book or story about Christmas

The TIOLI Awards are soon to come...

>15 Citizenjoyce: Sorry if you've already answered this, but I'm jumping into TIOLI late this month: do you want our choices to be only from the Best Books lists that you've linked to, or is any best of 2020 list game?

> 114 Any best of 2020 list counts.

>115 Citizenjoyce: excellent, thanks!

The December 2020 TIOLI Awards!

The Superior Sweepletter Award goes to @citzenjoyce for completing the most sweeplettes in 2020. This challenger completed four sweeplettes! That's way better than me who cannot even seem to complete four books in a month.

Not to be outdone, however, The Grand Sweeper Award goes to quondame for completing one sweep in EVERY month of the year 2020. An amazing accomplishment!

The Best Choice of Obscurity Award goes to quondame for reading Cowboy and Octopus for the challenge by citizenjoyce to read a book that has won an obscure (to you) prize. Our winning challenger's book won a Weird-Ass Picture Book Award. What?! Yes! Hahaha!

The Most Tireless Challenger Award goes to Morphidae, not only for her challenge to read a book for the December CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge, but for the great effort this challenger has put into creating and maintaining these CFF Mystery Challenge Challenges. It makes me tired just to read all of their so well done intricacies. Kudos for a job well done and most appreciated.

The Cuppa Joe Award goes to madhatter22 for reading Before the Coffee for dallenbaugh's challenge to read a book with a title or part of a title that you can use after the word “with” which indicates how you might be observing the holidays this year. No holiday is complete without coffee, so you win! :D

The Most Consistent Award goes to avatiakh for reading Monster vol 2 The Perfect Edition for the challenge by quondame to read a book that is a follow up of a book you read earlier this year. Well, this challenger then went on to read vol 3, vol 4, vol 5, vol 6, vol 7. vol 8 and finally vol 9. That is certainly what I'd call following up!

The Skinny Minnie Award goes to DeltaQueen50 for reading Carmilla for this same challenger's challenge to read a book that has 250 pages or less. The book that was read had a total of 70 pages. Skinny, indeed!

The Amazing Jeweler Award goes to humouress not only for the challenge to read a book that is predominantly one birthstone colour, but also for all the related challenges (i.e. read a book that is predominantly one birthstone colour) that preceded this one. We had lots of fun matching (or at least trying to match) our book covers to birthstones,

Congratulations to our many award winners this month! Feel free at this time to add awards of your own.

>117 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the Skinny Minnie Award, Madeline - that's the first time I have ever won an award for being Skinny!!

>117 SqueakyChu: Thank you for the Tireless Challenger award!

Just in time for me to say I've been in the hospital for almost two weeks and will be for a few more so won't be able to put the same effort in. We'll see how it goes.

>118 DeltaQueen50: Don't feel bad. I never won a Skinny Award, either, LOL!

>119 Morphidae: Oh, no, Morphidy! I hope it's something you can recover from quickly. We'll be rooting for your speedy exit from the hospital and thinking of you until you're up and about again. Stop by to keep in touch with us. Do what you can here only if you want. No pressure. Take care.

> 117 Thanks, I didn't even know.
I thought quandame's Weird-Ass Picture Book Award was pretty impressive too.
> 119 Wow, not the way you wanted to start the new year. I hope you'll be better soon.

>119 Morphidae: Oh no!! Feel better soon, Morphy.

>119 Morphidae: Best wishes for speedy and complete healing!

>117 SqueakyChu: Squeee! Thank you, Thank you!

>119 Morphidae: Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear about your hospitalization. Best wishes for your recovery, release, and future health.

>122 Citizenjoyce: I admit to some level of faith that that was about as weird as I could find.

>119 Morphidae: Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Morphy!

>11 PaulCranswick: Paul, do you accept my reading to be listed in your challenge? I read a short history about the Basel Mission's trading company in the Gold Coast (Ghana). The author (Gustaf Adolf Wanner) was a Swiss journalist from Basel who studied the material from the Gold Coast in our archives here. Are these 'ties' strong enough?

>117 SqueakyChu: Thank you for the award. I read them quickly because my children were watching the anime of Monster (about 74 episodes) over the holidays and I was determined to finish the manga before they finished the anime.
I recommend this manga series, it's very good from start to finish.

>11 PaulCranswick: Paul - can I include the two Bruce Medway novels I've read. I believe Robert Wilson worked in Benin or had a trading business of some kind. His website has just gone offline and I can't find a decent bio of him at present.

>117 SqueakyChu: :D

>119 Morphidae: I hope you're feeling better soon!

>117 SqueakyChu: some great prizes this month! I particularly like the obscure prize and the importance of coffee.

Nipping in under the wire with a sweeplette (page 2)

>131 wandering_star: Ooh! Congratulations!

Housekeeping Day!

Remember to delete your books that you don’t finish tonight by midnight from the wiki. For rolling challenges, just mark them DNF. Thanks!!

>131 wandering_star: Congratulations!

I do not ever expect to sweep, but I fit all the books I read in January in somewhere....

>127 paulstalder: & >129 avatiakh:

Paul and Kerry. The challenge does say "or with links to". Robert Wilson is an easy one so Kerry that is a definite ok.

Paul's one is very borderline but it is too late in the month to say no! So both are ok.

>131 wandering_star: Congratulations
>135 Helenoel: ah, that's my favorite kind of "sweep"

I managed 17 reads this month and fitted all of them into a TIOLI challenge.

>136 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I switched it to another challenge, since I could finish Buchi's book, which is far more suitable for your challenge