Sam’s Comments (group member since Jul 23, 2010)

Sam’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Denae wrote: "You were posting as I was editing about the number of years. Regardless, I still don't understand the underlying logic to the categories since I assume they weren't picked with specific books alrea..."

Originally, the third wheel was genre...but after discussing it, publication year seemed to be the better option. When I was thinking about what the date ranges would be, I was thinking of what round number to use and how the years would be uneven since 2011 isn't a nice, round numbers itself to start with. Then, I remembered that the challenge mostly occurs during 2012, and I didn't want to discount books published in Jan. and Feb. After all that, knowing whatever range we picked was going to make for some odd options, I just went with 12 years since that at least makes 2001-2012 look nice and even.

And that's how we make the sausage. (Or doughnuts.)

Jane Austen would be a great idea...six novels, six tasks.

Krista wrote: "Hey Sam: Can we get a ruling as to whether subtitles can/should be counted as part of the 10 syllables?

It seems like those subtitles like ":A Novel", and "A Story" shouldn't count as they ha..."

The generic ones like A Novel and A Story won't count just like in previous challenges. Unique subtitles, however, do count.

No to Things/King.

Yes to Ian/McEwan and Esther/Friesner.

And subtitles are fine.

Karen GHHS wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "One of the things I noticed about Karen's task is that it makes Sam's task doubly difficult. For Sam's task, you must have a book that does not fit any other 10- or 20-po..."

The 10.1 issue hadn't occurred to me. I think going back and making sure a book doesn't fit all of last season's challenges is a bit much. I'm reading a Booker winner for 10.1, so I'd be meeting the criteria as long I didn't read anothing Booker winner for 20.10.

All of the 174 books on the Popular Penguin website are eligible for Coralie's task.

Joanna wrote: "Would you be willing to approve American Gods for horror?

It won the 2001 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, which is given by the Horror Writers Association for superior acheivement ..."

That's fine.

Rebekah wrote: "Would we get combo points for reading one of the poets on this list?"

Yes!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Sam wrote: "Only the books that are on the list are acceptable...however, if the list says stories (novels are okay) or poems, any collections will do."

I'm sorry. Do you mean by this that the e..."

That's fine.

Rebekah wrote: "Here's another question or two just to show how little I know. Does any of Fforde books count as Cyberpunk?

What is the difference between 15.8 Biography (and Autobiography) and 15.9 Memoirs?

..."

I'll second that an autobiography is a deliberate attempt by an author to write one's own biography or life story as opposed to memoirs, which are often more selective. Generally, I see most self-authored book as memoirs unless they specifically designate them as autobiographies (e.g., Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Malcolm X, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash).

The point of Spring Cleaning is to get book off TBR lists, so we'll probably be pretty liberal with categories. I can assure you, however, that Twilight is not horror (horrible...yes), but it does qualify as either supernatural or romance.

Rebekah wrote: "Fantastic. it was when we were living overseas but we always came "home" for the summer and we took a trip to New Orleans (mostly so I could see him. I'm a real author groupie). Anyway he thought I..."

Only the books on the cyberpunk list posted count for the cyberpunk task. However, I'm sure many people would claim the Eyre Affair series fits into the genre...it's definitely sci-fi.

Rebekah wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Can the Supernatural task include non-fiction? Such as John Edward's Crossing Over or [book:Do Dead People Watch You Shower?: And Other Questions You've Been All but D..."

The first seven tasks are all meant to be fiction.

Karen GHHS wrote: "I've been checking Amazon to double check the categories but I still have a question about one of my books. I want to use American Musicfor the romance category and the description s..."

Seems okay.

Melissa W wrote: "Can I read The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides for 15.7?"

I was actually looking at this on my shelf at home and thinking about whether or not it could count...I'll go ahead and say yes. For the record, that means the Oedipus Cycle by Sophocles (all three plays) would work as well.

Only the books that are on the list are acceptable...however, if the list says stories (novels are okay) or poems, any collections will do.

Potjy wrote: "Sam wrote: "Potjy wrote: "Great challenge. Thank you. But please define "Supernatural", as opposed to "Science Fiction" and "Fantasy"."

For our purposes here, "supernatural" means books that featu..."

There will be some overlap with several categories...use it as a chance to get stuff cleared off of the TBR.

Rebekah wrote: "Just out of curiosity. Why did Horror get put with Romance instead of with Supernatural? Itseems to go together like Mystery/Thriller or is someone just determined not to read another romance becau..."

Horror and romance seem to be the most polarizing genres, so I put them together. Spring Cleaning is about cleaning out the TBR rather than adding to it, so it made sense to me.

Krista wrote: "Do all the words (except the little connecting words) have to start iwth the same letter/sound?

Do we have to inlcude sub-titles when determining whether a book fits?

Would this work?
[boo..."

Alliteration can be separated by a word or two

Liz M wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "What category does Jasper Fforde's books fall under? Looking forward to the new Thursday Next novel to be releaased soon..."

According to Amazon:
Look for Similar Items by Category..."

Amazon's the boss on this one...in any case, I definitely think the series fits all three of those genres.

Note: This is not a comprehensive list of the authors and works mentioned in Showalter's A Jury of Her Peers. This list is based solely on authors and works she discusses in detail. (I've read something by just about all of them...you really can't go wrong with any of them.)

Anne Bradstreet – Poems
Mary Rowlandson – A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of…
Mercy Otis Warren – Poems and Plays
Phillis Wheatley – Poems
Judith Sargent Murray – Essay and Plays, The Story of Margaretta
Susanna Rowson – Charlotte Temple
Catharine Maria Sedgwick – A New-England Tale, Hope Leslie
Lydia Maria Child – Hobomok
Caroline Kirkland – A New Home, Who’ll Follow?
Margaret Fuller – Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Lydia Huntley Sigourney – Letters of Life, Letters to Young Ladies, Traits of the Aborigines of America
Anna Cora Mowatt – Fashion, Autobiography of an Actress
Julia Ward Howe – Passion-Flowers
Augusta Jane Evans – A Tale of the Alamo, Beulah, The Inner Life, Macaria, St. Elmo
Susan Warner – The Wide, Wide World
Fanny Fern – Ruth Hall
Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Dred, The Minister’s Wooing
Harriet Jacobs – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Wilson – Our Nig
Hannah Crafts – Black House
Rebecca Harding Davis – Waiting for the Verdict
Louisa May Alcott – Little Women
Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard – Poems
Emily Dickinson – Poems
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps – The Gates Ajar, The Gates Between, Beyond the Gates, The Story of Avis
Sherwood Bonner – Like unto Like
Emma Lazarus – Poems
Rose Terry Cooke – Stories
Sarah Orne Jewett – Stories, The Country of Pointed Firs
Mary Wilkins Freeman – Stories
Mary Noailles Murfree – Stories
Helen Hunt Jackson – Ramona
Constance Fenimore Woolson – For the Major, Stories
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Stories, Herland
Gertrude Atherton – Daughter of the Vine
Grace King – Stories
Kate Chopin – Stories, The Awakening
Alice Dunbar-Nelson – Stories
Mary Austin – Stories
Gertrude Stein – Stories
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) – Poems
Amy Lowell – Poems
Zitkala-Sa – Memoirs
Susan Glaspell – Novels, Plays
Edith Wharton – The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country, Summer, The Age of Innocence, Stories
Willa Cather – O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Antonia
Ellen Glasgow – Barren Ground
Edith Summers Kelly – Weeds
Sara Teasdale – Poems
Elinor Wylie – Poems
Edna St. Vincent Millay – Poems
Genevieve Taggard – Poems
Dorothy Parker – Poems
Dorothy Canfield Fisher – The Home-Maker
Anzia Yezierska – Stories
Nella Larsen – Passing
Meridel Le Sueur – The Girl
Tess Slesinger – The Unpossessed
Tillie Olsen – Stories
Katherine Anne Porter – Stories
Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God
Lillian Hellman – Plays
Carson McCullers – The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding
Jean Stafford – The Mountain Lion
Eudora Welty – Stories
Ann Petry – The Street
Dorothy West – The Living Was Easy
Flannery O’Connor – Stories
Shirley Jackson – Stories, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Grace Metalious – Peyton Place
Elizabeth Bishop – Poems
Syliva Plath – Poems, The Bell Jar
Adrienne Rich – Poems
Loraine Hansberry – Plays
Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
Joyce Carol Oates – A Garden of Earthly Delights, Expensive People, Them, Wonderland
Anne Sexton – Poems
Tony Morrison – The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved
Alice Walker – Stories, The Color Purple
James Tiptree – Stories
Marilyn Robinson – Housekeeping
Lorrie Moore – Self-Help
Bobbie Ann Mason – In Country
Gloria Naylor – Mama Day
Jane Smiley – A Thousand Acres
Annie Proulx - Stories