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I'm filling in some empty prompts, which i missed the first go 'round.

First, 63- A book you knew nothing about beforehand. However something caught your attention. Cover, blurb, title. Tell us why. I read The Mexican Witch Lifestyle: Brujeria Spells, Tarot, and Crystal Magic--Valeria Ruelas earlier this year.

I was totally unfamiliar with the notion "witches" had national identity, so i was intrigued. The word "Brujeria" was unknown to me at the beginning of the year. Alias Reader then listed it among other spiritual books recommendations. Interesting choice.

First of all, while the title states Mexico as it's base, truly Brujeria is a term which has come to include a variety of Afro-indigenous practices embraced in Latin American communities around the world. So, yes, i've heard of witches, all i know about them is from the movies & tv, which is plot-driven, right?

To be honest, it was more a how-to book, although many of their traditions are also explained. As i mentioned when i used this to fill prompt #21- Book about Witchcraft, there were laundry lists of herbs, gems, and other natural used (& needed, if one is trying one of the rites) for various outcomes.

Additionally, there were quite a few ceremonial dialogues to complete the rites mentioned. In all, a person who wanted to pursue this life could use this book as a fine guide until they needed more &/or moved on. I appreciated that Ruelas honestly talked about the practitioner needing to keep her/his body healthy & in order, as well as how this is for good, not evil.

I learned plenty but it honestly wasn't my cuppa at all.

Tonight i've added the fulfillment of prompt #43 A National Book Award. Cormac McCarthy won the prize in 1992 for All the Pretty Horses. When i read his Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West 10 or so years ago, i was in awe of his command of the English language. So much so that i forgave him the incredible amount of violence he employed when describing said violence. Wow.

I also read The Road a few years after that and was again pleased. While the vocabulary wasn't as sterling, the story hooked me, which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows that i like post-apocalyptic fiction.

Which leads me to Horses. The book was a bestseller and won the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the National Book Award. Set in 1949 onward, beginning in west Texas, but changing settings as the main character roams to Mexico.

John Grady Cole is the last family cowboy, whose grandfather has just died. His mother, sole heir, decides to sell the land, rather than let Cole ranch on it. This leads him to take his horse and head south. His closest friend, Lacey Rawlins, joins him. Their journey is slow, they have a bit of money and a talent for hunting, so they won't get hungry.

The rich vocabulary is present, which i liked. However, he opted to not translate much of the dialogue between himself & Mexicans they meet. This slowed the reading down for me because my Spanish is somewhat limited. Unfortunately the publisher didn't share a translation for any of the words, either.

Descriptions of the landscape, the very varied dirts and hills are included, helping some readers imagine their passage. However, if i was not familiar with this part of the country, i'm not sure how much i could envision what they saw. Same with descriptions of wild horses, training them and on.

They characters were interesting, although i suspect the 16 year old Cole could be as expert as the author would have us believe, surpassing all other hands on the wealthy land owner's payroll in taming the wild horses. I liked reading about the friendship between the young men and all they endured.

Still, i didn't find the story as good as i'd hoped. As it's the beginning of a well-received trilogy, i guess i'm in the minority. That's okay with me. A woman of my years had to suspend her understanding of life a bit to believe the story but i'm ok with that, too. What i wouldn't do is tell anyone that if they want to learn about the West, to start here. Not even for contemporary west info.

madrano wrote: I learned plenty but it honestly wasn't my cuppa at all.
."

The plus is you learned some new things. Maybe they will come in handy during Jeopardy ! Honestly, this is a prompt I don't know if I will be able to complete.

madrano wrote: "
I also read The Road a few years after that and was again pleased. While the vocabulary wasn't as sterling, the story hooked me, which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows that i like post-apocalyptic fiction."

I do like apocalyptic fiction. However, I think The Stand by Stephen King and Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon spoiled me. I didn't care for The Road

Well done on knocking off more prompts !

Thank you, Alias. It sounds as though i need to resume watching Jeopardy! As we travel, it's hard to find it on the "dial", however, when we do, i'm torn between being impressed i know as much as i do and becoming alarmed with "obvious" answers are questioned wrong by young contestants. LOL

madrano wrote: "Thank you, Alias. It sounds as though i need to resume watching Jeopardy! As we travel, it's hard to find it on the "dial", however, when we do, i'm torn between being impressed i know as much as i..."

I find in rare instance I know the answer, I'm too slow to respond.

I completed two prompts by reading one book.
37- - The title has a word that begins with a B,N or C in it.
84-A book whose author's last name starts with B,N or C

Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier--Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

There is plenty of information about Daniel Boone throughout this book but it isn't a biography. Instead, the authors use Boone's life and intersperse "big-picture" perspectives to tell the story of the opening of the Colonies through the Cumberland Gap. Using a somewhat light-handed approach, comparisons and contrasts are occasionally used to suggest what happened then to events of today. BUT not too often.

The explanations of the complex chain of colonial & early US federal treaties, many tribes, wars, and land grabs help readers understand the vast exchanges which comprised the 1760s-1790s, which breaching the Gap was illegal. And in their own way the authors illustrate how it was daunting for settlers to figure out when going west was safe & when not.

One would think that after the first few years with reports of attacks between settlements and tribes, colonists would have decided to steer clear of going beyond the mountains. However, there was so much money/land to be gained by British politicians, colonists and entrepreneurs, not to mention a yearning for more space, away from local taxes by regular families, that everyone decided to forsake logic. The price was high, as many children and their parents died.

My favorite part of the book was in the beginning, learning how Daniel Boone learned from tribal members near his family's home, which was originally near what is today Reading, PA. He spent hours each day in the woods practicing and teaching himself how to be a hunter, employing techniques learned by neighbors and local tribes. (Example, he could make a pouch for his gun powder with the skin of a polecat, AKA skunk.) By the time he was 15 he was acknowledged as an expert hunter who could survive what was called "long hunts", meaning being away from home & civilization for weeks at a time.

The book charts the Boone family as they travel south, then east, then west in search of the land and peace they desired. While his birth family found that, Daniel found out about the Cumberland Gap from a fellow soldier, while in what we call the "French & Indian War". After serving, he sought out the fresh game area by passing through the gap, despite agreements between England and various tribes.

And it's here that one must consider Boone's guilt in breaking treaties made by the Colonies. Daniel not only decided his family should move there, he led others into that area, which we now consider West Virginia and Kentucky. At the time and well into the late 20th century he was considered an American Hero. Today, more questions are asked.

The authors clearly state the issues and many treaties he & others broke, explaining how & why the pacts were created. They also inform readers how it was that misunderstandings arose. It makes for sad reading, as we know the outcome. It might sicken some readers to learn what humans will do to others, forgiving themselves because their own loved ones have been killed. And this went both ways, as gruesome as sounds.

I won't go into details but will state that this book gave numerous accounts of the battles and incursions both tribes and colonists began. We learn Boone's part in that history and of his own losses. One can see why the man became respected. This is as much true for members of some tribes, as of the settlers. Boone witnessed the glee expressed when a member of some tribe defeated Boone in a feat of skill or, even when they thought they had killed him. Hard to imagine that.

As a fan of James Fenimore Cooper's Longstocking novels, my only gripe has been the loquacious nature of his hero, Natty Bumppo. Imagine my surprise to learn that not only is Boone considered Cooper's pattern, but also that Daniel was quite the talker. Indeed, many tribes referred to him as "Open Mouth", due to his non-stop talking. Apologies to Cooper!

Excellent review, Deb. Thank you.

Also congrats on the prompts.

Thanks, Alias. I'm tickled to have this one completed. I was in despair that i might have to stop reading, saving the rest for later. Honestly, this is a book i felt i needed the continued reading before i forgot which tribes and leaders did what.

madrano wrote: "I completed two prompts by reading one book.
37- - The title has a word that begins with a B,N or C in it.
84-A book whose author's last name starts with B,N or C

[book:Blood and Treasure: Daniel ..."

That sounds interesting. I do love a good non-fiction book!

Thanks, Julie.

I forgot to mention that Boone mentioned the "blood and treasure" of his years, meaning the loss of his children and other family members, as well as properties left behind.

madrano wrote: "I completed two prompts by reading one book.
37- - The title has a word that begins with a B,N or C in it.
84-A book whose author's last name starts with B,N or C

[book:Blood and Treasure: Daniel ..."

Congrats on the promts, and thanks for the detailed follow-up.

Thanks, John. I finally completed another book for the challenge but it took what seems like a long time. Now, to make my notes.

I finished reading Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City--Anthony Flint, to complete prompt 11-A book with a verb in the title. While this was on my TBR, i have no memory of how it came to be there, nor did i recognize the names Jane Jacobs or Robert Moses, the two main "characters" of this nonfiction book.

Basically, we learn the personal histories of both people, who ran in different circles and had vastly different backgrounds. Jacobs, from Scranton, PA, where she was raised in a working-class family, moved to NYC to pursue a career in journalism. Moses was born of well-to-do parents with privileges galore (including chauffeur driven cars as a child), as well as an Ivy League education, which included a degree from Cambridge.

Moses was dedicated to creating roadways and parks which would allow the newly developed suburban dwellers to continue to visit cities, primarily by making the commute fast and convenient, thus saving the cities. Over his career in public service, he managed to create many of the bridges and thoroughfares which enhanced his end. Working with NY governors, mayors and even Presidents, he helped make NYC what it became by the mid-1950s. His was not a genteel approach, however, despite it all being legal (he helped write some of the laws which legalized such moves). With each project numerous neighborhoods were razed and the occupants had to move. On paper his agencies were helping those people relocate but the reality fell short.

So, when he decided to re-imagine Washington Park Square, near the neighborhood in which magazine writer Jane Jacobs lived with her husband and children, she & other Greenwich Village dwellers fought back. Bt this time Jacobs was a writer on architecture and urban areas.

This and his attempt to create LOMEX, a lower Manhattan freeway, using 90% Federal funding, btw, were the beginning of the end for Mr. Moses's extraordinary success. The neighbors united to battle the plans made, up to & including using their children to gather signatures on petitions. Those kids were part of the point--their neighborhood playground would be demolished, replaced by something much less organic.

Author Anthony Flint portrays Jacobs as one of a group of writers who eventually changed the way citizens looked at their community governments. Her book, The Death and Life of Great American CitiesThe Death and Life of GreatAmerican Cities, an attack on the planning tactics embodied by Moses, coupled with Silent Spring--Rachel Carson and Unsafe at Any Speed--Ralph Nader, exposed the destructive outcomes of an established orthodoxy. Later in the book, Flint added The Feminine Mystique--Betty Friedan and The Other America: Poverty in the United States--Michael Harrington (inspired by the war on poverty), as books from this era which ended up empowering those in the US to battle big government and business.

It was a good look at the way cities tried to adapt to the migration into suburbs, trying to keep cities vibrant and economically healthy. This information helped me see where parts went wrong, primarily by excluding consideration for the very people in the city who were actively keeping the city healthy, such as small business owners. While there were shady-ish acts on the part of developers, it must be said that Moses apparently did not profit personally, other than his own fame and power. Indeed, when he died he had only $50,000 to his name, although i don't think that covers his two homes. If he was a crook, he was a poor one, it seems.

The only other thing i wanted to be sure to share is a fact of statistics, which even in Moses's building years, existed. If you build highways because other roads are crowded, the new ones will be crowded almost immediately. This is who we are. As Mayor Robert F. Wagner administration worker Henry Stern, the future parks commissioner, noted, “Traffic is usually self-generating,��

Deb, I think at some point we are going to have to reimagine not only cities but also suburbs. Many other countries are doing it. Alas not the U.S. First we need sidewalks and bike lanes. Then bus service. We have to curb our dependency on cars.

Good job on the prompt !

Alias, in the epilogue, Flint discusses how cities are changing post-Moses & Jacob. He was praising the fact that cities like Dallas are at last endorsing commuter rails and bike trails. And it's true, this has only occurred in this century.

One phenomena i've found interesting is how practically new cities are being created with an "old town" feeling, including architecure. Frisco, Texas, which was a small, hick town before the developers arrived. Now the old downtown is a one-street affair, slowly adding specialty shops and restaurants, while an entirely new "downtown" has been created, using a town square sort of effect. There are apartments over many of the small businesses (but not one-family dwellings, apartments with multi-floors). I feel this may be a big step in that re-thinking.

The problem, as always, is that there is very, very little low-income housing. Frisco spawned a huge growth in North Texas, leaving a number of those old small towns crowded with middle-upper wealth families and moving out the older, poorer residents.

As you noted, we will need to reorganize, but some parts of the country will get there by being dragged. Frisco, like other newish cities across the nation, believe they are very pro-environmental, yet their dependence on individual cars is tremendous. And we are NOT talking Prius, but SUVs & large pickup trucks. The rails don't reach them and i've yet to see plans to do so, as there is zero demand.

Deb, I saw online something that said, generally we resurface our roads once every 7 years or so. I forget what country is doing this, but what they do is when it's time to resurface they add sidewalks, bike lanes and line it with trees. They don't expand for cars.

Another thorough write-up! 👍

John, thank you for the encouraging words. Even after a double read-through, i feel i've missed salient points. I rationalize that if i covered everything i wanted to, i would have duplicated the book in short form.


Alias Reader wrote: "Deb, I saw online something that said, generally we resurface our roads once every 7 years or so. I forget what country is doing this, but what they do is when it's time to resurface they add sidew..."

Brilliant idea, Alias. I've seen some medium sized towns doing this, too. It almost appears to be preparation for what they expect within a few years. I hope so, as it would be an asset for communities & the prospective new citizens.

I had high hopes at the beginning of the year that i could read books i had selected for prompts. First of all, i was trying to use TBR titles, to whittle that down. Secondly, i wanted to read nonfiction about some topics, rather than fiction.

Now, in November, (title of one of a favorite of mine, Now in November-Josephine Winslow Johnson) i see not only will i not complete the list of prompts (always an iffy goal) but i will also need to compromise on books i use to fulfill the prompts. Bummer for me on a personal level, but still good reading! With that in mind, i share the following.

First, i am using one book, Daddy Was a Number Runner--Louise Meriwether, a book and author i didn't know existed until she died last month, for three prompts.
#26 - Book about motherhood (or parenthood) fiction or nonfiction

#28 - Book about inequality (financial, racial, gender or other)

#68- Wild Card ! Any book you feel like recommending to fellow readers.

Last first, i figure you cannot get wilder than a book you had no idea existed and that you ended up really liking. While it is a Bildungsroman, i learned more about Harlem in the 1930s than i ever knew, as well. So, it was an education on the best level.

As for it being a book about inequality, it covered the economics well, not only on a personal basis but also how it figured into their community and other apartment dwellers. A bit of politics was added in the form of one character asking why the US was sending money to Mussolini (this was before US entered war, obviously) to fight in Ethiopia. His thought? Racism.

Sex also factors in as possible beaus, but also as Francie & a friend walk down the "forbidden" street (by their parents) where prostitutes are at work. There are several white men (butcher, baker, strangers), who have a perverse attraction to these young black females, offering them money (a dime) if they will lift their shirts, for example. Disturbing, to say the least.

The book was a tremendous look at mothers. In the afterword Nellie McKay wrote, "...this book is largely a tribute to poor, uneducated, black women, who, through centuries of watching their men being ground down by poverty and racism continue to live each day with the assurance that conditions will improve. Expecting little for themselves, not from lack of self-worth, but because they understand the politics of race, gender, economics, and power, they scrub floors, wash windows, and absorb racist and sexist insults, so that their children can have better lives than their own.��

I barely understood what numbers runners were or did, other than that it is a form of gambling. In the book i learned how bettors were always on the look for a combination of three numbers which would become their pick for winning numbers in the next contest. At least one book was published helping readers figure out what numbers their dreams meant they should bet. We saw folks win big & small, but also, how quickly it vanished.

Readers glimpse the joy when Joe Louis won a major bout (forgotten who--Baer?) via the description of residents flowing out of their apartment buildings to revel in the streets in celebration. It was satisfying. When a neighborhood teen is arrested for murder, everyone seems to know at once & visits the family to commiserate. And on.

If Meriwether's intent in writing the book was to help readers better understand the complexities of the world for those living in Harlem in 1934, she succeeded. While this is only one year in her life, Francie's understanding of the problems of being female, black and poor are enhanced and we learn of her thoughts on these facts.

I recently read a book that explained how the numbers game works. It's a lot more complicated than you might imagine. I would need a refresher course to get it right, but I do remember that it can involve picking three triple-digit numbers and betting them like a trifecta somehow. I'm sure there are many ways to play, though.
Michele

Michele wrote: "I recently read a book that explained how the numbers game works. It's a lot more complicated than you might imagine. I would need a refresher course to get it right, but I do remember that it can ..."

Thanks for that info, Michele. I wasn't clear about the numbers--if they were played as one unit, a combo, or other options.

Originally, i intended to read Gravity: How the Weakest Force in the Universe Shaped Our Lives--Brian Clegg, a book of long-standing on my TBR, for prompt # 23 - Book about Nature/the environment. Time is not on my side here, so i'm going to instead use a book i read this summer, which i liked. If miracles occur, time stands still for everyone but me when i read, for example, and i actually manage to read Clegg's book, i'll swap the below with it.

I am installing Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World--Christian Cooper as my Prompt #23 book. The author turned his unfortunate Central Park "meeting" with the woman who called the police alleging harassment, into a good book about who he is.

His effervescent pleasure in birds and bird watching are well expressed, as are the travels he undertakes to visit other nations to see their wildlife. The writing about this and why certain birds are significant was informative and kept a great pace for his story.

Readers also learned how he became hooked on birds, his family's fascination with Star Trek, War and other science fiction, his love of men and his spiritual journey. He's an engaging writer and one hopes he continues to write about birds or other wildlife.

madrano wrote:If Meriwether's intent in writing the book was to help readers better understand the complexities of the world for those living in Harlem in 1934, she succeeded. While this is only one year in her life, Francie's understanding of the problems of being female, black and poor are enhanced and we learn of her thoughts on these facts.
."

This sounds like a wonderful read. When you can learn about something through the experience of another it adds so much to the topic.

madrano wrote:

I am installing Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World--Christian Cooper as my Prompt #23 book. The author turned his unfortunate Central Park "meeting" with the woman who called the police alleging harassment, into a good book about who he is.


I used that book to fit prompt #36. I enjoyed the book very much.
✔️36- A book about an animal(s) or nature fictional or nonfiction
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

madrano wrote: "I had high hopes at the beginning of the year that i could read books i had selected for prompts. First of all, i was trying to use TBR titles, to whittle that down. Secondly, i wanted to read nonf..."

I can't believe it's already November. Yikes ! Even though I won't be able to finish all the 100 prompts, I am very satisfied with the number I've managed to fill so far. The 100 challenge and my Determination List Challenge have certainly widened my reading horizons and it was fun too ! I really enjoyed looking for books to fit the prompts and also seeing how others fulfilled them.

I have to say, when I'm looking for my next book to read, I hesitate if I think it would fit a prompt for 2024 !

Alias Reader wrote: ". . . I have to say, when I'm looking for my next book to read, I hesitate if I think it would fit a prompt for 2024 ! ..."

Well, Alias, you've got a leg up on the rest of us as far as that is concerned, yes? 😉

Seriously though, I've really enjoyed fitting in what I've wanted to read with an eye on the prompts, and as it turns out I have read at least two books (maybe three) that I would normally not have -- so success, right? I've also really appreciated reading the reviews and conversation from this community that have led me to (or steered me away from) books, films, shows, and such that might not have been on my radar.

I also don't think that I'll fill in all the 100 Book Challenge prompts this year, but hey, there's two months left -- who knows?

I'm glad you are finding the challenge fun and useful, James.

As we said at the start. It's a non competitive fun challenge. The only goal is to expand ones reading of different genre. If it's done that, no matter how many prompts one completes, then it's a success.

Deb, this is the only thread I'm still having a minor issue with. Even after I read the posts it still shows them until I click on the Mark All read link.

Are you or anyone else having issues before I reply to Good Reads on that status of things here ?

Alias Reader wrote: "Deb, this is the only thread I'm still having a minor issue with. Even after I read the posts it still shows them until I click on the Mark All read link.

Are you or anyone else having issues bef..."

Just today i had an issue with the health thread, needing to go to the correct page to find the latest post. Other than that it's been fine, as long as i click "Mark All Read" before closing the Unread list.

Alias Reader wrote: "madrano wrote:
I used that book to fit prompt #36. I enjoyed the book very much.
✔️36- A book about an animal(s) or nature fictional or nonfiction
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World "..."

You doing that, Alias, had me considering adding it to that prompt. It made such sense.

Alias Reader wrote: "I have to say, when I'm looking for my next book to read, I hesitate if I think it would fit a prompt for 2024 ..."

James, you, too, have me thinking about this. I believe that this year i almost exclusively sought out books on my TBR to fit the prompts. However, it seems that i did so without thinking about whether or not i was still interested in that topic or book about the topic from that writer. I believe this is one source of my lack of enthusiasm now that we are at the end of the year--i am not really interested, so have saved the least interesting for the last.

I'm whining. Clearly, i've done well, as i only have around 20 left to complete.

Alias Reader wrote: "madrano wrote: "I had high hopes at the beginning of the year that i could read books i had selected for prompts. First of all, i was trying to use TBR titles, to whittle that down. Secondly, i wan..."

I second-guess myself over waiting until this year with a couple of books I read last year! There are a few books I slotted in for consideration for this year's categories that just won't happen.

Madrano's Harlem book seems awesome! Excellent recommendation!

Alias Reader wrote: "Deb, this is the only thread I'm still having a minor issue with. Even after I read the posts it still shows them until I click on the Mark All read link.

Are you or anyone else having issues bef..."

Still always seeing "2 new" in this thread, and "1 new" in the What books did you get from the library, bookstore, or online thread. Other than that, everything seems to be back to the way it was.

Thanks for the input on the thread problem issue. I have to fill out a report to them.

John wrote: "I second-guess myself over waiting until this year with a couple of books I read last year! There are a few books I slotted in for consideration for this year's categories that just won't happen.t ..."

I'm relieved to learn i'm not alone in working these out. It's fun, no doubt, and i suspect i have almost salivated in anticipation of reading some of the books i will not reach this year. Still, there is always next year.

James wrote: "Still always seeing "2 new" in this thread, and "1 new" in the What books did you get from the library, bookstore, or online thread. Other than that, everything seems to be back to the way it was...."

I see a couple of threads which do that. Sometimes, it's taken me so long to complete replies to the "unread" list, that the top refreshes, adding my own posts as unread. This never used to happen but it's less annoying that what we've experienced thus far.

I've sent GR these continuing issues. They are minor issues compared to the mess we had. Also since for me, only happens in one thread, Debs, I'm hoping when we start all new threads for 2024 this will no longer be a concern.

Fingers crossed ! Thanks for the feedback and help with this.

For prompt #76- Book on a banned book list, i selected Looking for Alaska--John Green. According to the American Library Association this book was the No. 1 most challenged book of 2015. It is a YA fiction, primarily set in a boarding school outside Birmingham, Alabama.

Junior Miles Halter's first year at the school is told in the book. Immediately nicknamed "Pudge" by his roommate, whose own nickname is "Colonel", he meets two other students who end up being his closest companions. Alaska is an attractive female whose mother is dead, while Takumi's family is intact, like our main character's. Together, they share some classes, dine together, find places to smoke their banned cigarettes and become close.

Pudge has a fascination with "famous last words", which are sprinkled throughout the text. At his age (& a bit today) i liked that, too, and collected a number of them, so could identify with this character. This pastime joins with one character's intrigue of the last reported last words from Simon Bolivar’s, “Damn it! How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?�� She wonders if he was trying to escape the world or the end of it, was the labyrinth living or dying?

I enjoyed the characters, their uneven natures, typical of humans but which teens might struggle to understand. The fact that some students are on scholarship, a few immigrants and their varied backgrounds adds some depth to their interactions, but not so much sd to clog things down. The adults were all well written and seemed real.

The reason for banning was one sexual incident but not one i've seen written about in YAs. However, as it happens, my sister, who drove a school bus for students, actually witnessed such a scene, so i know it wasn't just an adult imaging the teenager's curiosity. In publicity for the Hulu miniseries based on the book, Green said he would not allow them to remove the scene from the film, nor is he sorry he included it.

'Nuf said.

madrano wrote: "For prompt #76- Book on a banned book list, i selected Looking for Alaska--John Green. According to the American Library Association this book was the No. 1 most chall..."

I've read and enjoyed 3 of his books.

The Anthropocene Reviewed I gave one of my rare top ratings 5/5

The Fault in Our Stars
Rate 4/5

Turtles All the Way Down
4/5

Neat. Your top rating for his essays is particularly encouraging. In his Q & A for the 10th anniversary edition, i realized he's a very smart guy.

madrano wrote: "Neat. Your top rating for his essays is particularly encouraging. In his Q & A for the 10th anniversary edition, i realized he's a very smart guy."

He does a podcast with his brother, Hank. He also has a YouTube channel called Crash Course.

I remember someone here (possibly you?) telling us about the podcast. I like the idea of it.

madrano wrote: "I remember someone here (possibly you?) telling us about the podcast. I like the idea of it."

I probably mention it when I read The Anthropocene Reviewed

Alias Reader wrote: "madrano wrote: "I remember someone here (possibly you?) telling us about the podcast. I like the idea of it."

I probably mention it when I read The Anthropocene Reviewed"

Yes, that was it! Thanks for jogging my memory, Alias.

I updated my Challenge List to use books i read this year to fill in blank spots i have.

Circe--Madeline Miller. First i used it for #7. 7- Told from the antagonist's point-of-view. My intention was to follow it up with Miller's The Song of Achilles for fulfill #25 - Retelling of a Fairy Tale, fable, legend or ancient myth. Not gonna happen.

The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration--Isabel Wilkerson. Initially used for #Book about racism and now i will use it for 35- A prize winning book that has a different prize then those listed in the other prompts.

In 2011, the book & author was awarded the Mark Lynton History Prize, which is given by the Columbia Journalism School to a book-length work of history. About Lynton & the award--

Finally, Demon Copperhead--Barbara Kingsolver was my #59 - Book over 500 pages. Now it is also my #44- Pulitzer Prize winning book, even though it hadn't won the award when i read it. Stretch?

Sounds all good to me ! Well done, deb.

madrano wrote: "I updated my Challenge List to use books i read this year to fill in blank spots i have.

Circe--Madeline Miller. First i used it for #7. 7- Told from the antagonis..."

Well played! (and I really enjoyed both Circe and The Song of Achilles)

Thank you both. I hope to someday read Achilles, James, as it's the one (of those two) that was actually on my TBR.

madrano wrote: "I updated my Challenge List to use books i read this year to fill in blank spots i have.

Circe--Madeline Miller. First i used it for #7. 7- Told from the antagonis..."

Kingsolver book was a serendipitous event for you, not a stretch.

I've gone over my list, adding another category to a couple of books where I'd hoped to use a different one later, but by now those aren't going to happen.