You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Each badge must be complete before you start another badge. You may read each badge's tasks in any order, but you may not read a badge 2, 3, 4, or 5 book until badge 1 is complete. This ruling continues for each badge.

The Challenge
Badge 1 - read one task from each puzzle.
COMPLETED ~ 4.16.23

Badge 2 - read all the remaining tasks for 2 puzzles (18 books).
Badge 3 - read all the remaining tasks for 2 more puzzles (18 books).
Badge 4 - read all the remaining tasks for 2 more puzzles (18 books).
Badge 5 - read all the remaining tasks for 2 more puzzles (18 books).
Badge 6 - read all the remaining tasks for 2 more puzzles (18 books).
Badge 7 - read all the remaining tasks for the last 2 puzzles (18 books).

You might want to add Badge 7 to your list. I made a math error.

Oh yeah, I saw that, but I didn't want to make you feel bad. LOL

I need proof readers, so feel free to correct me on any other mistakes you see.

Only mistakes I see are that I don't have the right books checked out for January! LOL

LOL!

Here we go....gonna keep it short and sweet this year. I spent an exorbitant amount of time posting out last time

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #1

Puzzle #12
Task 2 ~ Read a book written by an author with the initials BP or PB.

Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck
Completed ~ 1.4.23
Kindle, 316 pages
Relevance ~ (P)earl s (B)uck
5☆

Review ~
It's hard to understand a culture that is not your own, especially when the story of that culture is set so far back in the past that it might have been on an alien planet. This book was first published in 1946. The setting is China. The time is before World War 1 so early 1900's. Marriages are arranged. Women have no real status, do their duty and are submissive to their husbands. There is no birth control but to have a child after your 40th birthday is culturally shameful. Madame Wu does not love her husband. She has never loved him, but she has made a good life with him and respects him. She has dutifully given him four sons and raised them to adulthood, but she is emotionally done with the act of procreation, so she arranges a concubine for him, feeling that by doing so, they will be able to go into their middle-age-years with him sexually satisfied and her with her dignity intact. Because her sons are grown to adulthood and ready to marry, she feels her obligations to her marriage and family are completed, so she begins making arrangements to marry off her sons, and then moves into private quarters to begin a life of "finding time for herself." These changes don't quite as she planned, but she grows and learns and develops as an individual, and learns about how to love along the way through the help of a foreign priest.

I really REALLY liked this book. Maybe because I can sympathize with this woman "of a certain age."

But Pat, I loved reading your wrap on the books you posted! 😊

Thanks for the author name. I hadn’t found a book for that one yet. 🎉

Cherie wrote: "But Pat, I loved reading your wrap on the books you posted! 😊

Thanks for the author name. I hadn’t found a book for that one yet. 🎉"

Well ok, then I guess I will keep posting them. LOL

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #2

Puzzle #3
Task 3 ~ Read a book with a main page genre of humour.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Completed ~ 1.5.23
Hardcover, 330 pages
Relevance ~ MPG Humor > 1,574 tags
3☆

Review ~
This book was a quick read since it's written in a epistolary style - faxes, handwritten notes, invoices, emails. While a style like this can make a book feel fragmented, it works here because Bernadette herself is fragmented, stagnating, and rapidly devolving. While we don't really get to hear things from her perspective (much like the Traveling Cat Chronicles book), we do see her frustration and mental fragility through the eyes of those who both love her and hate her. She's artistically driven, and eventually something just has to explode, so it does, leaving those around her to pick up the pieces.

🔅

I've also enjoyed your reviews, but I've often wondered about how time consuming that would be.

It’s not that bad. It actually kind of helps me with closure. You know, when you finish a book, it’s like losing a friend. So I like to collect my thoughts and feelings about it.

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #3

Puzzle #10
Task 6 ~ Read a book where a significant character is a bachelor or bachelorette. The character must remain unmarried through the entire book.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Completed ~ 1.7.23
Hardcover, 546 pages
Relevance ~ Damon goes from boy to young man, girlfriends and sexual exploits, but does not get married through the course of the story.
6☆ Yeah - I know. But it was.

Review ~
This book is the story of an orphaned boy, growing up in Appalachia, in poverty, and his tale of becoming a young man. It could have been (and in parts was) seriously depressing, but he has a way of telling the story that is both humorous and heartbreaking in the same sentence. It's a modern retelling of David Copperfield, but I didn't think it was as depressing as that book! When readers talk about Barbara Kingsolver, the book they mention is The Poisonwood Bible. I've read that book as well, and it's a fantastic piece of literature, but I think that this book may well take its place as her best novel to date. I literally cried at the end.

🔆

Wow! 6 stars!

I know. I'm not sure if it was the excitement of finally getting in in my hands after months of waiting, but it was a page burning piece of wonderfulness. I haven't picked up a book today at all -- because it just feels like I need some time to recover. This book was all absorbing - and it's taking me longer than usual to come back to the "real world" this time.

I have too many Kingsolver books on my TBR list, but I am happy for one more, Pat. I have your book penciled into my spreadsheet for the higher than average rating task. I might make it fit under some other tasks, but the bottom line is WHEN I can get it from my library?

Cherie wrote: "...but the bottom line is WHEN I can get it from my library?..."

That's going to be the BIG question.... which depends on three things.
1. How many copies does your system have?
2. How many weeks is your loan period?
3. How many people have already put it on hold?

Since I am lucky to work at a library, I did some research this morning, just for you! ;-)

1. We have 23 copies
2. We loan for 3 weeks
3. I put a copy on hold this morning just to see, and that hold is #61.

I was #224 when I put it on hold back in October, and it took about 12 weeks to get it in my hands. That means we are cycling about 18 copies a week. Based on that data, I would expect getting it sometime in the next 3-4 weeks.

But we are "fine free" so the factor that I can't know is how many people are willing to let it go overdue for whatever reason, but most of our patrons don't keep finished books the entire checkout period. Our stats show that most books are returned early instead of overdue or on due date.

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #4

Puzzle #4
Task 8 ~ Read a book where the first letter of the title (not including articles) starts with ABCDE.

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley
Completed ~ 1.9.23
Hardcover, 224 pages
Relevance ~ D ~ dangerous
3☆

Review ~
Really nothing special to say about this book. It was well written, but it wasn't a great mystery or a great historical fiction work or a great character study. It was a short book, by a good author, but nothing that is going to stick with me for any length of time. After Copperhead, however, nothing really had much of a chance to be spectacular, so my review might not be totally fair.

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #5

Puzzle #9
Task 7 ~ Read a book written by a British author.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Completed ~ 1.11.23
Hardcover, 304 pages
Relevance ~ Matt Haig was born in 1975 in Sheffield, and grew up in Newark, Nottinghamshire. He studied at Hull University and Leeds University and currently lives in York.
5☆

Review ~
I knew that I would love this book, one because I loved The Humans and two because everyone I know who has read it has loved it. My daughter loaned me her copy, asking me to read it because she couldn't decide if she wanted to or not and wanted to know what I thought. I finished it and told her, "You will love it. It reads very much like Neil Gaiman's early stuff, reminded me of Stardust, actually." I like that Haig writes a good story, but that he also has a very serious undercurrent philosophy that runs through the storyline. This book - I really wish I had read it sooner so I could have been recommending it longer. It was a really great read.

🔆

RE The Midnight Library - I have it under "Adult Books" on my spreadsheet. I have three of his books on my TBR list and own this one. The only time I have read him is on a book of fairy tales.

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #6

Puzzle #2
Task 4 ~ Read a book with a higher than 4.1 average rating on Goodreads.


The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker
Completed ~ 1.14.23
Hardcover, 352 pages
Relevance ~ GR Rating 4.15
4☆

Review ~
Last year I read a really delightful book titled One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, probably one of the best books I read in 2022. This book, by the same author, was also a really nice read. Small German town during WW2 - small enough to not be noticed by the Reich, but at the same time, a community caught up in horrors beyond their control. The main character is a friar who no longer has an order (disbanded by Hitler's regime) and whose school of disabled children was cleared out by the T4 extermination protocols. He is tormented by what he was unable to stop, and finds some measure of redemption by joining the local resistance in this small community. It was a well told story, and at the end I was thrilled to find that it was based on a real person. That was a great bonus!

🔆

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #7

Puzzle #7
Task 1 ~ Read a book set between 1901 and 1946.


Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
Completed ~ 1.18.23
ARC via NetGalley, 368 pages hardcover edition
Relevance ~ set during prohibition (1919 to 1933)
5☆

Review ~
I'm sure there are other prohibition era books out there, but I'm not sure that there are any quite like Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls. Set in the 1920's in east Appalachia Tennessee, Sallie Kincaid, the youngest daughter of "The Duke" ends up as the head of the Kincaid moonshine dynasty. Even though she's a female character taking her place in a male dominated world, I'm not sure that this novel can be characterized as true feminist fiction. Sallie exhibits all the characteristics that you expect to find in a strong southern woman lead character. She's bold, she's strong, she's capable, and she demands respect. That's a lot to ask of a woman of the early 1920's, but this was a pivotal time for women historically, and Walls has created a character that helps us understand how these women were able to change history.

I felt that the historical research was accurate, and the setting was beautifully drawn in a very atmospheric way. The characters, however, were the stars of this novel. They are simply captivating. My family heritage - my great grandparents - came from Kentucky's east Appalachia area, my great uncles were actual rumrunners during prohibition, so the characters in Walls' book could have been my family. I know they FELT felt like my family. In fact, when I got to the last page of the book, I turned the page, expecting - wanting - the story to continue because I wasn't ready to say good-bye to my relatives again.

🔆

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #8

Puzzle #8
Task 1 ~ Read a book with mpg of Western.


The Shaman Sings by James D. Doss
Completed ~ 1.22.23
Hardcover, 230
Relevance ~ Westerns as #3 MPG
3☆

Review ~
I read a book in this series last year, and enjoyed it enough that I wanted to go start it at the beginning. So this would be Doss's debut book, and it definitely wasn't as good as The Shaman's Bones, it shows that potential for setting up a good series. It's limited - only 17 books before Doss's death, so there's a limit to the number and that might give me the incentive to read the whole set. Charlie Moon doesn't feature heavily here - mostly just an introductory character - but Daisy Perika is front and center again, and I really adore her. I wonder why Doss didn't title the series the Daisy Perika series, because she's a charming character. This western mystery is similar to T. Hillerman in that both are about tribal police, shamans, and SW Indigenous Peoples culture.

🔆

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #9

Puzzle #5
Task 4 ~ Read a book that is main page genre of young adult.


The Mare by Mary Gaitskill
Completed ~ 1.28.23
Hardcover, 441
Relevance ~ Coming of Age as MPG
4☆

Review ~
I'm pretty much officially over reading any more "novice girl makes friends with dangerous horse that nobody else can handle..." books. Those stories work great for tween girls, but they aren't really the stuff of adult novels, which should be based in reality (even if it's magical reality).

However, the character studies in this book make me able to suspend disbelief for the time it took to read it. Velvet is a Dominican 11-year-old girl from inner city New York. Ginger is a childless caucasian woman of wealth in upstate New York. Through an outreach "summer camp" program, Velvet ends up spending two weeks (and then more) with Ginger and her husband Paul. Ginger lives across the street from a riding school, and arranges for Velvet to take lessons. The story is simple and predictable. The emotional attachments are extremely complicated. Told from multiple viewpoints, with very clear speech and language structures, it's a long book but an easy read, so although this book wasn't quite what I expected, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. I mean, I own three mares. What's not to love?

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #10

Puzzle #1
Task 7 ~ Read a book set in Italy.

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Read ~ 1.31.23
Hard Cover, 279
Relevance ~ Setting >Orvieto, Italy
4☆

Review ~
This was a GOOD book! Set in two time periods, with intervening news and podcast selections to break up the timelines, it was a quick and easy read, but had a wonderful story line. I don't want to go into too much detail, because it's a book that just needs to unfold itself as you read it. There are deceptions galore and it was really easy to get swept up in the lives of the characters involved. Highly recommend this one for just pure mystery - not much suspense or thrill, just a good solid murder mystery.

🔆

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #11

Puzzle #6
Task 9 ~ Read a book where the title is in a script font on the cover. - Cannot be fonts that are italics. It must look like handwriting


French Braid by Anne Tyler
Read ~ 2.5.23
Pages ~ 244 (hardback)
Relevance ~ Handwriting Font for cover title and author name
3☆

Review ~
February seems to be developing into a bit of a struggle for me to get books read. I feel like I'm just flailing around, trying to figure out what to pick up next, and then when I do, I can't seem to get focused enough to actually read it. This little 244 page book took me days to get through, and it wasn't a bad book or a slog to read. I just was seriously distracted. The family in this story -- let's just say they seem to be as disconnected from each other as I am from my books at the moment. Interesting story, but I'm not sure why the title is what it is. I've read a handful of Anne Tyler books and loved most of them. This one was ... ok.

🔆

WOF Pat

Badge 1, Book #12

Puzzle #11
Task #8 ~ Read a book with a puppy or a dog on the cover.


Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Read ~ 3.14.23
Pages ~ 320
Relevance ~ Two puppies on the cover
3☆

Review ~
I'm playing a little catch up. Got really sick the end of April (like Intensive-IV-antibiotics-2 weeks-off-work kind of sick) and it's just taken me forever to get back to my normal self again. This book was one of those sappy sweet kind of junior high kid coming of age rescuing seven puppies and helping two grownups fall in love Hallmark movie sort of book. Normally I hate those kinds of stories, but this one wasn't bad. It helped that I had read this author before and knew what I was getting into before I picked it up. So, yeah, it was a cute story, as any story about a kid and seven puppies in small town America would be.

🔆

I'm so glad to see you back. I was worried, and I see I was right to. Keep on healing.

Oh, and congrats on earning Badge 1!

Janice wrote: "🔆

I'm so glad to see you back. I was worried, and I see I was right to. Keep on healing."

Yes. I was pretty seriously sidelined there for a while.

I'm going to see what I can manage about the next badge level, but I'm not going to play as hard as I did last year to finish them all. I'll put them in as they fit and see how it goes.

Janice wrote: "🔆

I'm so glad to see you back. I was worried, and I see I was right to. Keep on healing."


Just letting you know I'm still alive. This year's YLTO challenge has been a tough one for me to fit books into, but I guess some years are just like that. I'm reading. I'm breathing. I miss not being in the loop quite as much as last year, but I'm trying to see if I can't get at least ONE more badge done by end of this year.

I feel like I'm moving through the badges slower this year too. I'll be happy if I finish Badge 3.