The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

25.1 - Mrs. Soule's task: Food Network Challenge
My family and I spent so much time watching the Food Network, I’m amazed I actually finished the summer reading challenge! For this challenge you will read two books. You may choose any two options, but you can't do the same option twice. In other words, any mix of task options will work, as long as you don't use the exact same option twice...so no using 4A twice, but 4A & 5A is fine.

1. Cupcake Wars (my five-year-old’s favorite – he likes to play with the cupcake pans & spatula while this show is on):
A. Read a book with a cupcake on the cover.
B. Read an anthology of short stories or novellas. These can be by multiple authors or a collection by the same author. Collections of both fiction and non-fiction pieces are fine.

2. Chopped (this show makes me so tense but once I start watching, I have to see how it ends!):
A. Read a book with a knife on the cover. (Any cutting blade, including swords will work!)
B. Read a book nominated for any season of the SRC group reads that did not win. The easiest way to find the old SRC group reads nominations is to go to Polls and scroll down to see which books were voted on in the past. Required: Please state which season and category your book is from when you post.

3. The Next Food Network Star (I’m a total Justin fan!):
A. Read a book with a star (5-point star OR celebrity, but not stars in the sky) on the cover. Required: If using the celebrity option, please identify the celebrity when you post.
B. Read the next big thing by choosing a book from the following list: Most Popular Books Published In 2012 Required: In your post include what number the book was on the list when you chose it.

4. Restaurant: Impossible (my husband’s favorite, any Wednesday night activities have to be scheduled around this show)
A. Read a book with an obviously-muscled man on the cover.
B. Read a self-help book. The genre Self Help must appear on the book's main Goodreads page.

5. Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives (I swear I gain weight just watching this show):
A. Read a book with bad cover art but with a rating of 3.5 or higher. A "bad cover" is pretty subjective. As long as your book cover isn't on any "prettiest book cover" lists and you could argue its case for ugliness, it should be fine.
B. Read a book about travel, a road trip, or where the main character goes on a long journey (does not have to be by car).

6. The Aarti Party (I know there are so many celebrity chef shows on Food Network, but Aarti’s my fave!)
A. Read a book with a person smiling on the cover.
B. Read a book set in Asia or by an author born in Asia. For the purposes of this task, we'll use the following list of countries: Asian countries Required: If the setting is not mentioned in the the book's GR summary, please explain how your book fits the task. If the author's birth place is not stated in their GRs bio, you must include a link to an outside website that provides that information.

Required: State which options you chose when you post. For all cover options, please include the cover in your post.

Some Notes:

For 1B, collections of both fiction and non-fiction pieces are fine.

The 5A "bad cover" option is pretty subjective. As long as your book cover isn't on any "prettiest book cover" lists and you could argue its case for ugliness, it should be fine.

Any mix of task options will work, as long as you don't use the exact same option twice...so no using 4A twice, but 4A & 5A is fine.

For 2B, as Connie pointed out, the easiest way to find the old SRC group reads nominations is to click the "Polls" option in the upper right of any of the SRC group pages, then scroll down to see which books were voted on in the past. Thanks Connie!

For 5B, there needs to be physical travel involved (train, foot, donkey cart, etc.) - so a journey of the mind won't work.

Approved books:

Option 2A - knife/cutting blade on cover:


Option 3A - star on cover:


Option 4A - muscled man:


Option 5B - travel book:
books by author Nicolas Bouvier

Option 6A - smile on cover:


Option 6B - Asian author:
The Good Psychologist: A Novel

This thread is now open!

Hi! This is a really cute task! I've just got one question about 5.A: is "bad cover" subjective? Like, as long as I can explain why I think it's bad, it'll work?

For 3.A- Would this count as a star on the cover---

There's a star with a 3 in it--- on the strip
that says: Heroes of Quantico
(This is 3rd in the series)-
I know the picture is really small.

you can see it better here--- at her website

http://irenehannon.com/books.html

Do we have to have an A and a B or can we have two As from different show options?

Ms Anderson wrote: "Hi! This is a really cute task! I've just got one question about 5.A: is "bad cover" subjective? Like, as long as I can explain why I think it's bad, it'll work?"

Ms Anderson, yes, I'm going to let this one be pretty subjective. As long as the book cover isn't on any "prettiest book cover" lists, it should be fine.

Kathy G. wrote: "For 3.A- Would this count as a star on the cover---

There's a star with a 3 in it--- on the strip
that says: Heroes of Quantico
(This is 3rd in the series)-
I know the picture is really small."

I see the star! You might want to point it out for the moderators when you post your finished task though! :-)

Karen GHHS wrote: "Do we have to have an A and a B or can we have two As from different show options?"

Any mix will work, as long as you don't use the exact same option twice...so no using 4A twice, but 4A & 5A is fine.

Thanks- fun task idea!

Thank you!!!!
:-)

Awesome task Mrs. Soule! I love Food Channel and The Next Food Network Star and Chopped are my favorites. Although it took some getting used to the new format for TNFNS. I was so used to the old one. And totally team Justin!! One of my brother's friends was on Chopped. He didn't win but he's a great chef.

I love Chopped and Cupcake Wars. We have our students watch these in our Foods class. We did our own version of cupcake wars and Chopped. It was really fun and they had fun making the cupcakes and the foods.

Awesome task - I love cupcake wars and diners drive thrus and dives

I've tried to find these and am probably staring the links "right in the face" but can someone direct me to past books that were nominated for group reads but not chosen? I can find the books that were chosen but not the nominated one.

Thanks,

Here is a list for the cupcake option:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/60...

Jenifer wrote: "I've tried to find these and am probably staring the links "right in the face" but can someone direct me to past books that were nominated for group reads but not chosen? I can find the books that..."

i'm also not sure how to find those that were nominated?

Jenifer wrote: "I've tried to find these and am probably staring the links "right in the face" but can someone direct me to past books that were nominated for group reads but not chosen? I can find the books that..."

You can click on "polls" on the right side of the page, then scroll down to see which books were voted on in the past. There are lots of great books on those lists.

Thanks!

Jenifer, did Connie's recommendation work for you?

And thanks for posting the cupcakes list! :-)

For 1B, what is your definition of 'anthology'? I'm not familiar enough with the word and I'm not sure I could trust Wikipedia on this one.

Will Someone Like You and Other Short Stories by Roald Dahl or Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques by Guy de Maupassant work, for example?

10.9 from this season also featured group reads that had been voted on and not won - http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

Mrs.soule wrote: "Jenifer, did Connie's recommendation work for you?

And thanks for posting the cupcakes list! :-)"

Yes, it did!

Sarah wrote: "For 1B, what is your definition of 'anthology'? I'm not familiar enough with the word and I'm not sure I could trust Wikipedia on this one.

Will Someone Like You and Other Short Stories by Roald D..."

For this task, an anthology is any compilation of distinctly separate stories. Both of your selections will fit the task!

Thank you!

For 2A, will you take a scythe?

Riona wrote: "For 2A, will you take a scythe? "

LOL, Riona, way to be creative! And yes, I'll take it - I did say any cutting blade. You might want to mention this approval when you post your finished task so the mods don't have to double check. :-)

Mrs.soule wrote: "Riona wrote: "For 2A, will you take a scythe? "

LOL, Riona, way to be creative! And yes, I'll take it - I did say any cutting blade. You might want to mention this approval when you post your fini..."

Excellent, thanks. I was scouring my TBR shelves, thinking I'd have tons of knives because I love murder mysteries and books about food, but there were almost none! I was surprised.

For option 1B, may I use a collection of non-fiction stories (journalism) such as Wallflower at the Orgy or The New Kings of Nonfiction, or are we restricted to fiction?

Jen wrote: "For option 1B, may I use a collection of non-fiction stories (journalism) such as Wallflower at the Orgy or The New Kings of Nonfiction, or are we restricted to fiction?"

Jen, a collection of short non-fiction pieces is fine.

Yay, the last two posts answered my question (if essays are allowed for option 1B). The following book is required reading for one of my daughter's college classes, and since it looks interesting and is about food, it's perfect for this task!

We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food, A Share Our Strength Book

For option 5B, I just found a book by a Swiss writer who used to write about his travels. I bought it in a bookstore and now I'm realising that it is not the most famous book of this author and, therefore, has not been reviewed enough on GoodReads (I'm already amazed I could find my edition).

Anyway, what I'm getting at is: the genre "travel" is not listed on its main page (as any other genre, BTW). But I know it's a "travel" book! I'm holding it in my hands and I have no proof of it on GR, and I think maybe I could not fit this one in this task.

But I want to try anyway.

Journal d'aran et autres lieux by Nicolas Bouvier (I can see two other books of his that have been translated in English and, therefore, have "travel" listed as genre on their main pages)

In case the demand wasn't clear: would you accept this book for this task?

Does work as "an obviously-muscled man"?

Sarah wrote: "In case the demand wasn't clear: would you accept this book for this task?"

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner!! Your book should be fine - I checked out the author's bio and he is described as a travel author. Please mention this approval when you post your task for the moderators!

BJ Rose wrote: "Does work as "an obviously-muscled man"?"

Oh yeah!!

Thank you!

Does this one work for 6A:

Hi - this link does NOT work for me:

Most Popular Books Published In 2012


I found that Listopia Lists don't work for me right now :( . I can sign out of goodreads, then do a search on the listopia list's name, and the list pops up and I can look at it then. I tried a search on
Most Popular Books Published In 2012
and it said no list found. Help!

Deedee, click once on the name of the list (Most Popular Books Published in 2012) and then right click. Then choose "copy shortcut" and paste it into your browser. Sometimes that will work for me.

Deedee wrote: "Hi - this link does NOT work for me:

Most Popular Books Published In 2012


I found that Listopia Lists don't work for me right now :( . I can sign out of goodreads, then do a search on the listo..."

Deedee, the "Most Popular Book" list isn't part of the Listopia section. Here's the long way around to it:
1. From any goodreads.com page, click the arrow next to "Explore" at the top of the page.

2. From the drop-down menu, select "Popular".

3. The page that pops up will be the popular books for this month. Wait for the page to load and click the "By Year" tab on the right. 2012 should be auto-selected, so click "View".

Of course, if you're having trouble with Goodreads lists in general, this way might not work for you either. Was there a particular book you were trying to fit to this task that might be on that list? I can see if it's there!

Deedee wrote: "Hi - this link does NOT work for me:

Most Popular Books Published In 2012."

It looks like the whole "Popular" part of the Explore page is down. I've tried multiple ways to get in, but none of the lists (by months or years) will come up for me either.

I just worked for me - maybe my drunken state induced it to be nice...

♥Robin ♥ wrote: "Does this one work for 6A:

"

I think my post got missed lol ☺ so I am asking again. She appears to be semi-smiling/smirking LOL but wanted to ask and make sure it was enough of a smile ☺

Mrs.soule wrote: "Deedee wrote: "Hi - this link does NOT work for me:

Most Popular Books Published In 2012


I found that Listopia Lists don't work for me right now :( . I can sign out of goodreads, then do a sear..."

Hey, thanks, that works ..... if and ONLY if I am not signed in to goodreads at the time I go to the explore tab. But the bottom line is: IT WORKS!!!

robin, so sorry. I thought i replied to your post, but it must not have posted. I have a toddler staying with me and he used my computer as a step-stool so i'm replying to evrything from my phone. So, yes, your book is approved as a smile!

deedee, yay!

Mrs.soule wrote: "robin, so sorry. I thought i replied to your post, but it must not have posted. I have a toddler staying with me and he used my computer as a step-stool so i'm replying to evrything from my phone. ..."

LOL it's alright, I understand that it's easy to miss us but I also know that GR has been acting a little goofy some days because not all of my posts have been going through properly either. Thanks Mrs. Soule ☺☺