CHALLENGE: What's in a Name? Update

Another challenge finished! This was a really fun one to pick books for because Annie set up such great parameters. I actually hope to read two for each category, but I have completed the challenge. I liked all of these books, but I would put Black Swan Green and Eleanor Rigby as my favorites.

1. A book with a color in its title.
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell

2. A book with an animal in its title.
The Goose Girl - Shannon Hale
The Terra Cotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri

3. A book with a first name in its title.
Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

4. A book with a place in its title.
Yellowknife - Steve Zipp
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

5. A book with a weather event in its title.
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

6. A book with a plant in its title.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
The Grass Harp - Truman Capote

BOOK: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

What's in a Name Challenge: weather event; in their shoes challenge, Cardathon challenge; nonfiction five 2008

I haven't laughed out loud while reading a book in quite a while, but Bryson certainly tickled my funny bone with this book. It says memoir, but it is just as much a look at the good old days, the 1950s in America. Bryson makes the argument that the 1950s in Des Moines, Iowa were the best time ever! I loved how Bryson used the exaggerated memory of youth to describe events - there were 800 kids outside, everyday. Part of it is how we always exaggerate when remembering our youth - the scab he nurtured that was one and three quarters inches thick-, so maybe that's why the old days were the best times.

Bryson alternates between his childhood and family, amusingly exaggerated, with the detailed research I associate with Bryson to explain America during times - the economy, the world, Communism and the threat of atomic bombs, and the role of farming in Iowa. He sneaked facts and information into his narrative and left me with an understanding of how we came from the good old days, with the slower pace and easier life, to the fast paced hectic life now.

I grew up in the 1970s and life certainly had changed, but I can see the same relative amount of change today from my childhood. I felt many parallels to Bryson's life: I too led a very happy childhood, nothing traumatic ever happened, I spent the summer outdoors with 800 other neighbourhood children, and the Saturday afternoon matinee was still going on in the 1970s. This was a great read and lots of fun, but also an informative look at how America has changed since 1951.

BOOK: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith


chunkster challenge 483 p; what's in a name? plant in title category; decades challenge 1940s



This is a book I've been meaning to read for quite a while, so it ended up being on several challenge lists, most notably the chunkster challenge. At 483 pages, it took a while to read. Francie Nolan grows up from 10 til 17 years old, during the early part of the 20th century. Smith provides a view of life, based on her life, of poor working class Americans living in Brooklyn. It was a time of vast changes, but with so little historically happening, it's a time I haven't read much about. It's not prohibition, it's not the first World War, it's not nation building. I enjoyed it, but I think if I had read it as a much younger person, it might have had more impact on me. There were parts that touched me a lot, but in other places I found it a bit preachy. The funniest part was when Francie's brother tried to buy sauerkraut once the Americans had joined the war, and he forgot to order it as Liberty Cabbage. Freedom Fries anyone?

It was an epic novel, following one family's journey, during a much simpler time of life. A glimpse of life when the difference between rich and poor was very noticeable, when a family's pride was all they had as they struggled to better themselves. A real American dream novel.

BOOK:Yellowknife by Steve Zipp

Yellowknife by Steve Zipp

Canadian Book Challenge: Northwest Territories , What's in a Name? place book

Fiction or non-fiction? Genre?
fiction; Canadian?

What led you to pick up this book?
This is cool. I am in the Canadian book challenge, and Steve offered to send his book to anyone in the challenge who wanted it. I'm sure I would never have found this book otherwise. Additionally, it is a book for the place entry of the What's in a Name challenge

Summarize the plot, but don't give away the ending!
I'm not exactly sure! The book is more a collection of anecdotes following an eclectic group of people who live in Yellowknife. There is a cruise missile and diamond mining and fishing that seem to be unifying elements, but no linear plot I could explain.

What did you like most about the book?
- I really liked the characters, and the obtuse view of them and their peripheral connections to each other.
- I liked the writing as well, and found it easy to follow even when the traditional plot idea wasn't there. There were unifying elements and connections between characters to discover.
- I also liked the setting, and this book was mostly about the north, vast and strange.
- I liked the humorous situations and found myself smirking at numerous lines throughout the book

Have you read any other books by this author? What did you think of those books? nope, first time.

What did you think of the main character?
I think the main character was Yellowknife, but Danny and Freddy, and Nora and Hugo were my other favorite characters.

Any other particularly interesting characters?
Too many to mention. It felt like a book that could have been written as a collection of short stories, each more defined and traditional. But every character was a character. I think I'd be afraid to head to Yellowknife. Even if this was just an exaggerated sampling, the place and people sound a little different.

Share a quote from the book:
Nothing about the guy made any sense. In fact, now that Danny thought about it, the same could be said for just about everyone else he'd met since entering the Territory.

This from a guy that hitch hiked into the Territory with no plan or supplies and lives in a dump, and subsists on stolen dog food and then decides to be a detective? Ha

Share a favorite scene from the book.
I liked the scene with Danny house sitting, and investigating the Pitbull in the spare room, hoping it wasn't dead.

What about the ending?
I liked the ending with Pfang and the Y2K bit, connecting the beginning of Nunavut and the end of the 20th century.
The final scenes with the dogs and the animals of the north was a little weird. But I suppose the animals were there first, and will hopefully be there in the end.

Any final thoughts?
I really liked the first third, got a little lost in the middle third, and then it picked up again for the ending. There were so many characters it was hard to know what the main story was, or who the main characters were. Once I realized there weren't any, then I just let go and enjoyed whatever part of the story was being told and many of my questions were answered by the end, like how the cruise missile ended up in the north.

Thanks to Steve for sending me the book and showing me a part of Canada I have never seen.

other reviews of this book: guatami, geraniumcat

BOOK: The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri

The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri

translated by Stephen Sartarelli

in a series challenge; what's in a name: animal in title category

Inspector Salvo Montalbano's second mystery finds him discovering two bodies in a cave, set up as a tableau guarded by a terra cotta dog since the second world war. He wants to discover who the couple were and why they were killed. Along the way he will eat very well, be rude to his fellow policemen, be an ass to his girlfriend, eat some more, string along a couple other girls, give a terrible press conference, and be rude to a few more people. He's not a nice man, but he is smart, and will do anything to solve his crime.

Camilleri writes this series partly as a police procedural, and he doesn't let the reader in on everything as Salvo is figuring out. I like the setting, southern Italy in the little town of Viageta on Sicily, the descriptions of the food, and even cranky, rude Salvo. The language might be a little crude for some readers; it doesn't bother me but be forewarned.

Here's the series standing for me: (I read the 4th book first, yuck for reading out of order)

1. The Shape of Water 2002 (La forma dell’acqua - 1994)

2. Terra Cotta Dog 2002 (Il cane di terracotta - 1996) Mar 10/08

3. The Snack Thief 2003 (Il ladro di merendine - 1996)

4. The Voice of the Violin 2003 (La voce del violino - 1997)

5. Excursion to Tindari - 2005 (La gita a Tindari - 2000)

6. The Scent of the Night - 2005 (L’odore della notte - 2001)

7. Rounding the Mark - 2006 (Il giro di boa - 2003)

8. The Patience of the Spider - 2007 (La pazienza del ragno - 2004)

9. The Paper Moon - 2008 (La Luna di Carta - 2005)

10. La Vampa d'Agosto - 2006

11. Le Ali della Sfinge - 2006

12. La pista di Sabbia - 2007

BOOK: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

what's in a name challenge, colour category; notable books 2007

1982, Black Swan, England. This novel spends a year in Jason Taylor's life as he navigates the uneasy age of thirteen, and if you've forgotten how horrible thirteen year old are, this book will slam it back to you. Thirteen year old girls are awful, I know from living it, and this book exposed that boys are just as bad. Jason, our narrator has many sides, most notably a poet. Eliot Bolivar is his alias as it wouldn't do to have the other lads aware that Jason writes poetry, he'd be a poof. The language and slang of Worcestershire County in the early 1980s takes a bit to understand, but it works, and Mitchell has captured the voice of his narrator perfectly. It helps that I remember being 14 in 1982, and the Falklands War. I imagine all early teenagers get a world event that helps define their life, that time when you begin to see the whole world and your place in it, and how larger events than your house, your community are important.

And it was the poetry of the writing that I loved in this book. The images and phrases captured my attention. Jason has a way of describing things perfectly, by a simile or even their sound.

A classic LP was playing. Nothing like the rumpty-tump-tump stuff Mr Kempsey plays in Music. Jealous and sweet, this music was, sobbing and gorgeous, muddy and crystal. But if the right words existed the music wouldn't need to.

Themes of secrets run through this, but it isn't obvious how much until the end. The lesson by their teacher about secrets was my favorite passage in the book. Oh, to be able to teach a lesson so well! Secret clubs, phone calls, speech impediments, parents, all powerful secrets. And then there were the bullies. Trying to fit in and wanting the approval of the popular boys makes those kids the prey of bullies. So this is also about courage, and doing the right thing. A lot of stuff happens in this novel, too much to mention, but it will be swilling around in my head for a while.

The writing, and the characters, and the poetry make this an excellent book. A bildungromans. (I had to look that up one day) This made the long list for the Man Booker in 2006, but not the shortlist?

BOOK: Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland

Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland

What's in a Name? challenge: first name

Annie, hostess of the What's in a Name? challenge, was having a contest this month: describe a book you have read with your name as a character in a book. I mentioned Elizabeth, from Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of Green Gables, my middle name. Interestingly, the main character in this book, my book for the first name category, is Liz, also my first name. It seems appropriate that so many circles are happening with a Coupland book, because his books are beautifully synchronous like that.

Coupland writes books full of messages and symbols, and interesting and real characters. Liz Dunn is a lonely woman. She has always been lonely, more lonely than sad. Coupland describes lonely so well and Liz is very articulate. As Liz prepares to have her wisdom teeth out, (like I did three months ago!) the Hale-Bopp comet flies over Earth, and her life changes, when the hospital calls with a message - a mysterious young man has her name inscribed on his Medic Alert Bracelet: In Case of Emergency, call Liz Dunn.

I'm not sure how Coupland does it. This little book about a lonely woman and how her life was changed contains such fantastic elements that if I tried to explain all the events, would make the book sound unusual and strange. But he presents them in a way that seem ordinary. I cheered for Liz and enjoyed the week I spent reading about her life. (I was in the Frankfurt airport two years ago, where a pivotal event occurs.) The usual Coupland popular references are here, the wry comments, the commentary on ordinary life and the fantastic things that people can do in ordinary life are here. Coupland writes solid and never disappoints.

Ooh, I get the cover now!

CHALLENGE: What's in a Name?

Annie is hosting a challenge for next year, with some pretty neat parameters. I had fun picking out books to fit the categories, and since it is OK to overlap books with other challenges, and it lasts all year, I think I can do this.


"What's In A Name?" Reading Challenge
Dates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008
The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a color in its title.
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell

2. A book with an animal in its title.
The Goose Girl - Hale
The Terra Cotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri

3. A book with a first name in its title.
Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

4. A book with a place in its title.
Amsterdam - McEwan
Yellowknife - Steve Zipp

5. A book with a weather event in its title.
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bryson
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

6. A book with a plant in its title.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
The Grass Harp - Capote

I've listed a few books for each category and I hope to read at least one for each. Thanks Annie, what a great idea

Challenge write up posted here