ŷ������

20.7 - Call and Response: Using a book you have claimed for another RwS task in the 2014 Spring or Summer Challenges, read a book by a different author which relates to the first book. The book could be a response to an older book (Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours, King Lear and A Thousand Acres) OR or the book could have the same subject matter: (John Brown in Good Lord Bird and Cloudsplitter; Killer Angels and Gettysburg's Forgotten History). What wouldn't work are two books which take place in Brooklyn, for instance. This task cannot be claimed as combo points

Use a book from any spring or summer challenges or just the most recent?

Rebekah wrote: "Use a book from any spring or summer challenges or just the most recent?"

Spring & Summer 2014. I will update the task.

Can we repeat this task?

Love the sound of this task! Does this combination work?:

Read in spring: Celtic Myths and Legends by Charles Squire and also The Cut-throat Celts by Terry Deary

Planned for summer: Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott - a historical novel about the Celtic Queen Boudica

Also how about this combination:

Read in spring: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz - the walk is from a labour camp in Siberia, across Mongolia and Tibet to India

Planned for summer: The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux, a train journey across Asia including the Trans-Siberian railway

Or would this one be a 'no' because it's more like sharing a setting?

Rosemary wrote: "Love the sound of this task! Does this combination work?..."

Elizabeth & Jama have had some further conversations/clarifications. I am hoping Jama will weigh in here soon :)

Rebekah wrote: "Can we repeat this task?"

Yes.

I see this task kind of like making a mix-tape: you want the books to have a logical connection, so that if you read them back to back they flow and work together. Each book should influence and inform your reading of the other.

Some other ideas for inter-related books:
Robinson Crusoe and Foe
Pride and Prejudice and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Odyssey and Omeros or The Penelopiad
Great Expectations and Jack Maggs
The Iliad and Ransom
Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

And some other examples for books with the same subject matter:
Vietnamese War: The Things They Carried and/ or The Quiet American and/ or Matterhorn
The War for Biafran Independence in Nigeria: There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra and Destination Biafra and/ or Half of a Yellow Sun
Trujillo's Dictatorship in the Dominican Republic: The Feast of the Goat and In the Time of the Butterflies and/ or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Because WWI and WWII are so spread out and such big topics, the books should be more closely linked by geographical location or subject matter, such as:
Concentration Camps: Survival in Auschwitz and In Paradise AND/ OR This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
OR Occupied Warsaw: The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman and The Pianist and/ or Mila 18

You could also read a fictionalized or biographical book about an author and one of his/ her books:
Ovid: Metamorphoses and An Imaginary Life
Henry James: The Master and one of his books

If I read this correctly, I can link these two novels which focus on the subject of Slavery in America:

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, read for RwS Spring 2014

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Rosemary wrote: "Love the sound of this task! Does this combination work?:

Read in spring: Celtic Myths and Legends by Charles Squire and also The Cut-throat Celts by Terry Deary

Plann..."

Yes, this works

Rosemary wrote: "Also how about this combination:

Read in spring: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz - the walk is from a labour camp in Siberia, across Mongolia and ..."

This works because it is not just the setting, but the long journey which links the two.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "If I read this correctly, I can link these two novels which focus on the subject of Slavery in America:

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, read for RwS Spring 2..."

Sounds good to me.

For approval
I read for Spring challenge: The Lucky Dog Matchmaking ServiceThe Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service. It is about a lady who runs a rescue shelter. So for this challenge I like to read: Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts. The main character also rescues dogs.

Jama wrote: "I see this task kind of like making a mix-tape: you want the books to have a logical connection, so that if you read them back to back they flow and work together. Each book should influence and i..."

Thanks Jama!

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "For approval
I read for Spring challenge: The Lucky Dog Matchmaking ServiceThe Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service. It is about a lady who runs a rescue shelter. So for th..."

Yes.

I was unable to complete the Spring Challenge so what shall I do? How do I make this work?

Ismaa wrote: "I was unable to complete the Spring Challenge so what shall I do? How do I make this work?"

Welcome back Ismaa! The task allows for books read for the 2014 Spring or Summer tasks. So, you could read Mrs. Dalloway for 10.2 - Highly rated (Krista gave it 5 stars) and then read The Hours for 20.7.

Can pair Inside: Life Behind Bars in America with Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing?

The first is written by an inmate and is my planned read for 20.2. The second is the story of a reporter who became a prison guard. They aren't set in the same prison (or even the same state), but they are both contemporary US men's prisons.

Thanks for the clarification Liz M. Good to be back :)

Joanna, that works!

Checking that book I'd read for Author to Author can be used too? Or does it have to be the 10/20 tasks?

About to pick up Sense and Sensibility for AtA -can I then re-read Austen's Sense & Sensibility for this task?

Tien wrote: "Checking that book I'd read for Author to Author can be used too? Or does it have to be the 10/20 tasks?"

Yes, AtA (or EotP) also. (I wasn't sure yesterday myself and verified with Liz.)

Thanks, Elizabeth :)

Tien wrote: "About to pick up Sense and Sensibility for AtA -can I then re-read Austen's Sense & Sensibility for this task? ..."

You cannot claim Sense & Sensibility for both AtA AND 20.7.

If you read S&S for AtA, you could, however, read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters for 20.7.

Nevermind, same title different authors.

Tien wrote: "About to pick up Sense and Sensibility for AtA -can I then re-read Austen's Sense & Sensibility for this task? "

Yes, the Joanna Trollope Sense & Sensibility and the Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility should work for this task.

sorry, should've included Trollope's name too to save confusion :)

Jama wrote: "...You could also read a fictionalized or biographical book about an author and one of his/ her books:..."

Does this mean that we could read a book by an author, and then a traditional biography about that author?

Specifically, I am considering Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake, and Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold - A Life by Malcolm Yorke.

Yes! That works.

Jama wrote: "Yes! That works."

Thanks! I'm looking forward to returning to Gormenghast.

Can I get approval on this pairing? Both authors use an eerie, possibly haunted, building in their novels.

This week I read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters for RwS Summer 2014, featuring eerie events at Hundreds Hall, a run-down Georgian Mansion.

I'm now planning to read Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, featuring that gloomy inn.

Right now I'm reading The Good Rain: Across Time & Terrain in the Pacific Northwest and the chapter I just read mentioned "monkey wrenching" and Edward Abbey. Is that enough connection to count The Monkey Wrench Gang for this task?

Theresa, I do not think two gloomy inns in different parts of the world is enough of a connection to work.

Karen, I do not think that is enough of a connection, either. If the book were about environmental terrorism in the Pacific Northwest, maybe, but The Monkey Wrench Gang takes place in Utah, and the setting is very essential to the book.

Jama wrote: "Theresa, I do not think two gloomy inns in different parts of the world is enough of a connection to work.

Karen, I do not think that is enough of a connection, either. If the book were about en..."

Ok, thanks, Jama. It just hit me because I already have Monkey Ranch Gang in my reading plan for a task. I love this task and I have some others planned that I will verify with you soon when I have my ideas finalized.

Jama,

Hundreds Hall and the Jamaica Inn are both in England, one in Warwickshire and the other in Cornwall, not in different parts of the world. In both, the eerie setting (the run-down mansion and the gloomy inn) is key to the tales of terror, madness, suicide, and murder.

I thought that would serve as a sufficient connection, but I will abide by your ruling that it is not.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Jama,

Hundreds Hall and the Jamaica Inn are both in England, one in Warwickshire and the other in Cornwall, not in different parts of the world. In both, the eerie setting (the run-down mansion ..."

So sorry, Theresa. When you said Georgian I was thinking state, not architectural style. Go for it.

Karen Michele wrote: "Jama wrote: "Theresa, I do not think two gloomy inns in different parts of the world is enough of a connection to work.

Karen, I do not think that is enough of a connection, either. If the book ..."

I'm glad you are still going to read it :-). It is a fun book!

Jama, sorry for the confusion and thanks for the approval!

How about
The Splendor of Silenceby Indu Sundaresan which I have read for 20.9 Fathers Day and
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

Both have British Occupation and the struggle for Independence as the background. The first one in India and the second in Egypt, different eras.

Ismaa, I think that is not enough to link them for this task. As I mentioned in the example, a broad subject like a world war or british colonialism, both of which span half the globe, needs to be further narrowed down.

Here are the pairings I want to check out with you:

Call: The Bridge on the Drina will read summer 2014
Response: The Three-Arched Bridge
The book jacket says Kadare wrote it as an homage/ response to the first book.

Call: The Island of Dr. Moreau will read summer 2014
Response: The Madman's Daughter
The Madman's daughter is based on the original island of Dr. Moreau story

Call: Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club read spring 2014
Response: The Madonnas of Echo Park
The Kentucky club book was a collection of short stories about life on the border and immigration in the US. The madonnas of echo park is about a group of immigrants making their way in California.
I might also follow that with Brando skyhorse's memoir:
Take This Man: A Memoir

Call: Crocodile on the Sandbank
Response: Remarkable Creatures
Both are about independent women participating in archeological digs in the early 1800s, one set in Egypt and one in England

What do you think?

I'm not near making a final decision but want to check out a few I have thoughts on.

Call: Wolf Hall
Response: Utopia by Thomas More
Thomas More was a major figure in the first book

Call: Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
Response: Reading Lolita in Tehran or Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
The effects of the Iranian Revolution on girl children

Call:Shakespeare: The World as Stage
Response: The Shakespeare Secret
A serial killer that ties in with a search for lost Shakespeare plays

Call: Tender Morsels
Response: Rose Daughter or Robin McKinley
Retellings of fairy tales in which the lead character is female

Call:Robinson Crusoe
Response: The Swiss Family Robinson or I Was Amelia Earhart
Castaways on deserted islands

Call:Shiloh
The Widow of the South
Both are about US Civil War Battles in the State of Tennessee in different years

Ismaa wrote: "How about
The Splendor of Silenceby Indu Sundaresan which I have read for 20.9 Fathers Day and
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

Both have..."

Okay Jama, thanks. And the search goes on ...

Everyone is finding such great combinations! I am trying to be consistent in determining which pairings work, and have created a rule to help me. There must be two elements which connect the books: setting, time period, character, etc. If it is only one it is too slim a connection.

Karen, those work!
Rebekah, I am not sure there is enough of a connection between Robinson Crusoe and the other books you list. Thumbs up to the rest!

Jama wrote: "Everyone is finding such great combinations! I am trying to be consistent in determining which pairings work, and have created a rule to help me. There must be two elements which connect the books..."

Yay! And thank you, the rule you are using makes good sense, too!

Really struggling with this one, but can how does Slaughterhouse-Five and The Bridge on the River Kwai work, as books both about prisoners of war ? ( Although, Slaughterhouse 5 could be linked to almost anything because I don't think one part of the story could be considered more prevalent than the others ).

I am just really no seeing anything from books I have listed in either Spring or Summer that would not involve a re-read.

Is linking another dystopian fiction to Fahrenheit 451 too broad a link ? I seem to have a bit of that going on in my reading at the moment.

Amanda wrote: "Really struggling with this one, but can how does Slaughterhouse-Five and The Bridge on the River Kwai work, as books both about prisoners of war ? ( Although, Slaughterh..."

Both are about prisoners of war during World War 2 ... a bit more of a connection

Thanks, Rosemary. This is certainly a tough one. I'm having trouble with this and 10.9 as, when I look at my shelves, there really isn't much there in the way of series books. Or, they're not recent, the series has ended, and I've read them all!

Amanda wrote: "I'm having trouble with this and 10.9 as, when I look at my shelves, "

But you do have several published in either 2013 or 2014.

Amanda wrote: "I am just really no seeing anything from books I have listed in either Spring or Summer that would not involve a re-read...."

A couple of ideas: there must be several novels that aren't kid stories, that feature Sinbad the Sailor.

Or maybe you could focus on Black women in the South -- Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings takes place in Arkansas from 1931-1944 and like the main character of The Color Purple, she was (view spoiler)[also raped (hide spoiler)].