Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I am planning on reading No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, which I just picked up at an author event.

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
I had never heard of this expression "no crystal stair" but it does present an image in my mind.

- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
The subtitle tells you what the story is about. I looked up the expression "crystal stair" and discovered this: The speaker in Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son� says that for her, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,�
So, I expect that Mr. Michaux, experienced some difficult times as a black bookseller in Harlem, NY.

Reading The Tao of Pooh.

As far as intriguing titles go this one really jumps out at me.

I shall pick from:

- Sounds Like Titanic (leaning toward this)
- Creatures of Will and Temper
- In Watermelon Sugar
- An Instance of the Fingerpost
- The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

Not yet sure what I'll pick for this category, but wanted to mention a couple of my all time favorite interesting titles, both delightful reads aimed at young readers:

The Celery Stalks at Midnight
The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon I Mean Noel

Adam wrote: "Reading The Tao of Pooh.

As far as intriguing titles go this one really jumps out at me."

I read THE TAO OF POOH a few years ago, and I loved it! And, yes, it was because of the intriguing title - and I wasn't doing any reading challenges back then!

I read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler for this prompt.

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?

It's so long and it's weird by today's standards in that it uses the character's husband's name instead of her actual given name.

Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?

Well I already finished it, but the title implied that it was going to be some sort of collection of Mrs. Frankweiler's papers. That was a fair assessment based on the plot.

Emily wrote: "I read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler for this prompt.

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?

It's so long and it's weird by today's standards in ..."

Ha, I remember avoiding this book as a kid because the name sounded so dull, but when I actually read it (still as a kid) it ended up as one of my favorites. I'd say the title does not do the plot justice!

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? The Corpse at the Crystal Palace by Carola Dunn - I can't really say, it just strikes me as both weird and intriguing
- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about? Some kind of death happening at a palace made of Crystal

I read Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human? for this topic. I love the quirkiness of the title. The collection lived up to expectations, particularly to its subtitle: Acute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society, and I was delighted by Sayers' treatment of the title's question. The collection deserves to be much more widely read - although the title essay was published in 1938, the discussion of the (mis)use of terms for social categories is currently highly relevant.

I might read MS. ICE SANDWICH by Mieko Kawakami. It is fairly short at 96 pages and translated from Japanese to English. It’s available on Book Depository. Here is the description:

A quixotic and funny tale about first love - from the Akutagawa Prize-winning author.

Ms Ice Sandwich seems to lack social graces, but our young narrator is totally smitten with her. He is in awe of her aloofness, her skill at slipping sandwiches into bags, and, most electric of all, her ice-blue eyelids. Every day he is drawn to the supermarket just to watch her in action. But life has a way of interfering - there is his mother, forever distracted, who can tell the fortunes of women; his grandmother, silently dying, who listens to his heart; and his classmate, Tutti, no stranger to pain, who shares her private thrilling world with him.

Tender, warm, yet unsentimental, Ms Ice Sandwich is a story about new starts, parents who have departed, and the importance of saying goodbye.

I ended up reading Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family and I loved it! I am partial to food memoirs, especially those with recipes.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
I thought a bear and a nightingale was an odd combination of things.
I pretty much thought it would be fantasy.

I read Pnin, which I think is quite a weird title at first cause it gives you nothing and it doesn't even seem like a word (which is because it is a name). Just from the title you get no idea whatsoever of what the book is about.
I really liked it!

Wendy wrote: "Emily wrote: "I read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler for this prompt.

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?

It's so long and it's weird by today's..."
I read it as a kid because the title was so weird! And totally fell in love- I'm a museum person today because of it!

I'm reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? What the heck do any of these words mean?
- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about? Based on the title I had no clue esp as I totally read it wrong and thought it was on not of. Weirdness!

Of Ash and Spirit by D.G. Swank

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
It sounds like a supernatural type book which I find intriguing.

- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
Ghosts, spirits, and other paranormal stuff

I am about to start the book Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop: And Other Practical Advice in Our Campaign Against the Fairy Kingdom (It’s my last one!)

What do I find unusual about the title? Well I don’t have any chickens or chicken coops so...

What do I expect the book to be about? I’m hoping a step by step guide to keeping goblins out of my nonexistent chicken coop. With maybe some info on goblin habits to make it all make sense.

I read Hundred Miles to Nowhere: An Unlikely Love Story for this prompt. I found the idea of love in the middle of nowhere intriguing and then I learned the "nowhere" is where I grew up. I expected the book to lambast my hometown area but it really didn't. I enjoyed the different viewpoint of where I grew up.

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?

I read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The fact that a boy is in striped pajamas - you expect him to be in jail or something so it makes you wonder what happened.

- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?

I guess jail or juvenile detention but it was actually a historical fiction on the holocaust

I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? I had no idea where Guernsey was or what a Potato Peel Pie was.
Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about? A book club, but besides that I was clueless.

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
Man Down: Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt That Women Are Better Cops, Drivers, Gamblers, Spies, World Leaders, Beer Tasters, Hedge Fund Managers, and Just About Everything Else
- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
How women are better at just about everything.

I read Faelorehn for this prompt.

1. The word itself is intriguing
2. I was expecting it to be about fairies and magic, and I was pretty close to what it was about.

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
I read And to my nephew Albert I leave the Island what I won off Fatty Hagan in a poker game ... by David Forrest

Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
I was expecting it to be amusing, which it was.

For this prompt, I read The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure by Shoba Narayan. From the title and cover, I thought that it would be a humorous account of a new settler as they adjusted to Indian culture. It turned out to be a touching glimpse into Indian repatriation through American eyes and bovine instruction by a dedicated animal lover.

For this prompt I started reading Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating. I wanted a lite, funny read in between a few heavy ones. I’m enjoying the quirky characters.

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
How Much for Just the Planet?

- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
Well, it's hard for me to say, because I read the blurb before I answered this question. Oops. But if I didn't know, I'd expect there to be some comedic back-and-forth negotiations over the fate of a a world.

I’m reading Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins



What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
The title is very intriguing, and I want to find out what the woodpecker in the title refers to.

Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
Honestly, based on the title, I have no idea.

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? I am reading Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows and I guess it is that I find it unexpected to find Erotic and Widows together and Punjabi adds just a little more to the strange effect.
- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
I have had this on my list for awhile and I am not sure what I expected based on the title but what ever it was I decided to find out more :)

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? Dinner at the Center of the Earth. I'm pretty sure I added it to my TBR from a list of weird titles (along with The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break)
- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about? I thought it was going to be more Douglas Adams. Turned out to be a weird Palestinian/Israeli allegory with a bit of espionage and fantasy thrown in. Weird but not In a way I liked.

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

A dog? Racing? In the Rain? Intriguing!!

- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
I had no idea. That's why I read the book. 😉

I knew when this topic was first selected that I would read The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters.

It is a very fun, old-fashioned kind of mystery. It is #6 or 7 in the series, and while you don't need to read all of them in order, I would suggest that you start with the first two to give some background for the characters.

Damaged Gods: Cults And Heroes Reappraised, by Julie Burchill

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? It's a play on the term "damaged goods" which turns it into a term that questions what we typically understand of a "god."
Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about? Basically, a take down of cultural figures.


Julie Burchill seems to have built her career around being problematic, often without cause. I first heard of her when I saw the tv adaptation of Sugar Rush and was aware of her as a name in the British journalism/opinion world. So when I came across her being interviewed I was...confused. She sounded like a bit of an idiot, impulsively throwing out shocking statements that didn't always even relate to what she was talking about and seemed to be just to make her seem like some enfant terrible. Maybe she was just bored with the interview...but she made me itchy. My mum had this book kicking about, so I gave it a shot. And to be honest, my thoughts on Burchill haven't improved after reading. All I got from this is that she hates everyone, every cultural sub-group, every race, every country. I get that she's smashing the myths around major historical figures and movements, and I did find that very interesting. But in the process she was just spraying out bile in every direction, and it got to be quite a slog to wade through it. That's not to say this book isn't good, in its way. It's very well researched and fascinating for a reader who doesn't know certain things about, say, teen culture through the ages or the figures of the black civil rights movements. But even making exceptions for how dated this book and its (now quite offensive) language are, it is an uncomfortable read. Even when she is apparently championing a cause, she will pull out the absolute most vile turn of phrase which shows that all her research can't quite shroud either her ignorance or her almost desperate desire to be seen as edgy.

What do you find weird or intriguing about the title? Just look at it! The book is just begging to be read. When I Am Playing with My Cat, How Do I Know That She Is Not Playing with Me?: Montaigne and Being in Touch with Life by Saul Frampton

Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about? A pouncing cat. Playing with a ball of yarn and me, perhaps. Each of us hiding and peeking out from behind a corner of a beam in my apartment. With thought bubbles rising above our respective heads, musing "Hmmm. I wonder what she's thinking. Does she think I am playing with her or is she playing with me?"

I read The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

- What do you find weird or intriguing about the title?
A man who is a day of the week? What's not weird about that?

- Based on the title, what are you expecting the book to be about?
Couldn't even imagine until I read the blurb.

I read A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan for this one. It was superb!

I read The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J. Harris.

I think the idea that a murder could have a colour is both weird and intriguing. Based purely on the title, I would have expected it to be about someone called Bee Larkham being murdered! It's a lot more than that though, it's about an autistic boy with synesthesia (he sees colours when he hears sounds) and face blindness.

That sounds quite interesting, Marie. I need to check it out.

It was one of the best books I've read this year, I'd definitely recommend it.

I wish i wouldn't have left this until the end...so many good choices...but not enough time. Will see what i have around home.