Bout of Books 11 Create a Sentence Challenge

Today Book Reviews from Christian Gal 
is hosting the Create a Sentence Challenge, which is as follows

For this challenge, I want you to pick some awesome books out and make a sentence with the first two words from each of your books.  I have tried this myself and it can be a little tricky because the lack of verbs in the first two words of the book.  Therefore, you can add another word that is not from the first two words of the books if you wish.  The more ridiculous, the better.  


So here are my words:

The sofa
The Silk
Serene was
Ever since
Ida Minerva 
Feathers fell

From ... 

• What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World by Henry Clark
• Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World by Mark Norell, Denise Patry Leidy, and the American Museum of Natural History with Laura Ross.  
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep 
• Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business – And Won! by Emily Arnold McCully
• The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann

From which I get  (with added words in italics) ...

 
Ida was ever serene since Minerva fell on the silk feathers on the sofa. 


or how about ... 


 Ida said "Minerva was serene ever since the silk feathers fell on the sofa."


Hummm, Ida, I must confess, is giving me trouble.

or perhaps ?  ...

Serene was the silk and feathers sofa, ever since the Minerva fell for Ida.

Tuesday (and Monday) Update Bout of Books 11

Two for the price of one!  I spaced doing a real update yesterday so here is where I have gotten so far ...

Monday
Pages read today:163
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 1
Books Finished Today: The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg - Children's Fiction 1997 Newbery Medal

Mini review - I am honestly not sure what I thought about The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. I loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and wanted to read another of her books. Since this was a Newbery winner I thought it was a good place to start. On the surface the story of four people coming together to form a unit and to compete as a brain bowl team is cool (I did that too when I was in middle school) but what was going on in the background here really bothered me.

Only Mrs. Olinski was a teacher with compassion for her student and a real concern for education. Every other teacher and school official was portrayed as a shallow/incompetent/terrible person (with one possible, minor exception). This really, really bugged me! I hate the fact that teachers are being portrayed as public enemies these days. Yes, there are incompetent teachers out there, but the vast majority that I have met range from at minimum competent and invested, to fantastic and responding to a calling. It is a hard, and these days pretty thankless, job. But it is increasing common to hear parent say that 'their' child's teacher is good/great/wonderful but still accept this meme that all the other teachers out there are lousy/lazy. And that messed up perspective was laid out here in the story. I really disliked this aspect of the book.

Just because our team is in competition with students from other grades and schools doesn't mean that we have to demonize the other teams and their coaches. That bugged me too. Whatever happened to the concept of friendly competition ? 

When Mrs. Olinski pokes fun at her supervisor for his understanding of diversity, I was somewhat on-board, but started more actively wondering about what exactly the author was trying to say here. I agree that a shallow understanding of diversity, going through the motions, is trivial and pretty useless. BUT real diversity is important and striving to increase understanding and respect has enormous value. Based on the book it is really fuzzy about whether diversity was really being celebrated here. The actual characters involved were from a pretty dated version of diversity and I am less then happy about the mystical Indian trope that was pulled out for Julian Singh and especially for his father.  That make me question what was actually going on here. So - disturbed.

On the other hand, I did very much enjoy the interlocking stories and the perspectives of each of the main characters. The book was a nice light read and in that aspect I felt it succeeded very well. 


Tuesday
Pages read today: 295
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 2

Books Finished Today: The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Right - so I got a copy of this for a buck from the library book sale, basically to support the library. I had a headache and ended up picking this book up because it had large print and required a low investment in intelligence. So, my expectations were low going in but oh my god this book is stupid.

I can't even review it - the writing is, well I was about to say juvenile but the children's book I read yesterday was much more sophisticated, so how about inept. The POV wanders around at random from Kate - Barbie FBI action figure, to Nick - generic Raffles sexy amazing thief, to the bad guys. And I do mean wanders - the POV occasionally jumps mid-paragraph. I can only assume that Kate is Janet's Mary Sue and that Nick is Lee's Gary Sue because they are such outrageous caricatures it is absurd.

 The first half of the book is 'assembling the team' so each of the new team members gets a chapter (thank god the team was comparatively small) and after that all but two of them basically disappear. They are also paper thin caricatures. Willie says around to be the explicit 'sex' girl to counterbalance Kate, the 'good' girl.

Now don't get me wrong, I can totally enjoy a stupid book as long as it is fun, but this was too much like reading someone else's private wish-fulfillment diary. I was not having fun. I was mostly amazingly bored.  This was like nothing so much as one of the lamer episodes of a TV show like It Takes a Thief or Hardcastle and McCormick (anyone remember those ?) I won't be reading another. 

Book Spine Poetry Challenge for Bout of Books 11

Happy Second Day of Bout of Books!

My Little Pocketbooks is hosting a Book Spine Poetry Challenge.

Here is my book spine poem ...

Beneath the sands of Egypt

A Rumor of Bones 

The Laughter of Dead Kings

Remembered Death 

Quieter than Sleep

Last Chance to See 

The Walker in Shadows 

And Then ... There Were None

No idea what it means, but it sure is moody.  I guess that is what you get when you have way too many mysteries on your shelves.  I also know that free words were offered but I liked it better as it was.

Bout of Books Scavenger Hunt

The Book Monsters is hosting the Bout of Books Scavenger Hunt challenge

Book Scavenger Hunt:

1. A Book that begins with “B”  (for Bout of Books!)

2. A book that has been made into a movie/tv show

3. A series you love

4. An anthology of poems or short stories

5. A book on your TBR shelf, or your full TBR shelves

 

 

So here ya go ... 

 

1. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart 

2. The Great Gatsby by  F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett - part of the Discworld series

4. R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury - an anthology of seventeen short stories 

5. The first four books on my TBR "pile" that were withing reach - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (I am actually in the process of reading this but am taking a break), Dragonwings by Laurence Yep, A Vision in Velvet by Juliet Blackwell and The Silk Road: A New History by Valerie Hansen

 

 

Bout of Books 11 Signup and Goals post

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.  

- From the Bout of Books team

Oops - I totally forgot Bout of Books 11 starts tomorrow. All heck has been breaking loose this past week with broken bones (minor and not me), broken internet and general chaos - so this is gonna be my least organized goal list yet! Um go me ?  So this is my combo signup and goals posts.

Oh dog - I am 766 - my lamest number as well.  Well, at least it will be easy to remember. Update - Wow - somehow I am now 762. Weird, I don't remember that ever happening before.

 

My Goals

Anyhow - my major goal for this Bout of Books is simply going to be to read at least one book along with my son for discussion and critical analysis (i.e. he and I both separately read chapters and discuss, along with investigating some external references as well). We have a couple chosen that are possibilities - Bud, Not Buddy and Dragonwings - though others might pop up as well. The latter choice is my preference since we are also going to read about Ancient China and the Silk Road.

I will list whatever I do manage to read here and add links to reviews as I manage them.

I will also try to play along with at least a couple of the challenges.

Monday 8/18
Done ! Book Scavenger Hunt -- The Book Monsters

Tuesday 8/19
Done ! Book Spine Poetry -- My Little Pocketbooks

Wednesday 8/20
Done ! Create a Sentence -- Book Reviews from Christian Gal

Thursday 8/21
Like This, Try This -- Writing My Own Fairy Tale

Friday 8/22
Recreate a Book Cover -- Spines and Covers
Book Chain -- Christian Bookshelf Reviews

Saturday 8/23
Spell It Out -- Kimberly Faye Reads

Sunday 8/24
5 Books -- Falling Down the Book Hole

 

Updates

Monday
Pages read today:163
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've finished: 1
Books Finished Today: The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg - Children's Fiction 1997 Newbery Medal

Tuesday
Pages read today: 295
Total pages: 458 
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've finished: 2
Books Finished Today: The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (blergh!)

Wednesday 
Pages read today: 24 + 32 = 56 (I mostly read news articles instead)
Total pages: 614
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total number of books I've finished: 2
Books Finished Today: none :(

Bout of Books Weekend Update and Wrapup

Hurray for completing my second Bout of Books!

The weekend was very busy with family time, homework. etc. but I managed to do more reading than I usually would have, mostly by waking up early and staying up late.  I have to remember that I really need to focus on ebooks for these kinds of events since that is what I typically end up reading - like Sunday morning I had a child climb on top of my and fall asleep pretty much trapping me - I didn't have enough light to read a print book, so I wound up reading an ebook that wasn't even on my radar at the start of the week.

Saturday

Pages read: 328 pages today

  • 228 pages of Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells (fun!)  - finished it.

  • 100 pages of Lexicon by Max Barry  - sociopathic blood bath

  • 118 pages of The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (wow! was this intense!)

Running Total Pages:  1188 ; plus a 214 page graphic novel

Books Finished so far: 5

I didn't get to participate in the challenge today.

Sunday
Pages read: 328 pages today (wow, that's weird - same as Saturday)

  • 246 pages of Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster - finished it.

  • 82 pages of Lexicon by Max Barry

Running Total Pages: 1516 ; plus a 214 page graphic novel

Books Finished so far: 6
I didn't get to participate in the challenge today either. Heck - I didn't even get to touch a computer on Sunday! 

So, like I said, on Sunday morning I wound up with a child sleeping on top of me (she informed me that she had a bad dream and fell asleep on me after talking about it for a while) - I couldn't reach my book so I checked out the Amazon daily deals on my ereader - and read about Dear Mr. Knightley - which sounded rather too much like a rip of one of my favorite books from when I was a kid - Daddy-Long-Legs - and it turns out that you can download Jean Webster's books for free so I got Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy (which I have actually read 19 pages of but I have no intention of re-jiggering all my numbers at this point!).

Happily, unlike with Wrinkle in Time, I still really enjoyed Daddy-Long-Legs. It makes for a sweet, entertaining read, and as an adult it is obvious now what was happening, though it surprised me as a kid. The story is a little problematic in terms of modern social mores, but the squick factor isn't that bad.

 

Wrap up - 

So how did I do ?   Here is my original Bout of Books 10.0 Goals List 

Final Stats: 
Total pages read: 1,516; plus a 214 page graphic novel
Total books finished: 6

Books Finished:
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Owl's Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews

Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells  
The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke  

Books In Progress: 
 Lexicon by Max Barry

 On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace's Species Notebook of 1885-1859 annotated by James T. Costa.

Oh - and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster, which I forgot that I started reading a bit after finishing Daddy-Long -Legs. 

My Goals

• To read 6 books for pleasure (to heck with books for classes - I have all summer for that).  DONE! - Not generally the ones I planned to read, but still I did read 6 books.
• Complete at least a summary review for each book read Working on it. 
• I also want to participate in at least three challenges (I did all but one last time, but my time will be more thoroughly occupied with grading this time around).   DONE!

Hope your Bout of Books went well!

Bout of Books Friday Update

Friday was full time grading, with a little bits of reading here and there. Brain is fried today.

Friday
Pages read: 196 pages today

  • 88 pages out of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff - finishing it.

  • 108 pages of Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells (fun!)  

Running Total Pages:  860 ; plus 96 pages of a graphic novel

Books Finished so far: 3

 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

 Owl's Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews

 

Challenges:  Rainbow of Books Challenge for Bout of Books! This one was lots of fun - I created a pile at work all from nonfiction books.

I also finished the Cover Scavenger Hunt at Book Monsters that was fun too.

I liked The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street though not as much as 84, Charing Cross Road. Duchess is a series of journal entries describing the trip that Helene Hanff took to London after the publication of 84, Charing Cross Road - basically a book tour kind of thing. I have been to London a couple of times (short work trips) and mostly the book made me want to go back. I loved London and it was a ton of fun with the kids, since most of the museums are free (donations accepted) and there are lovely parks with slides and playgrounds all over the place. I want to go back. Now! 

Rainbow of Books Challenge for Bout of Books!

I am at work grading tests etc. but this one sounded like fun so I wanted to try it with the books that I had in the office (skipping out textbooks - with one exception - Indigo was really hard to find!).

This is what I came up with ...

I topped off the pile with Color by Victoria Finlay because it seemed appropriate but here are my rainbow books

Black - Spook by Mary Roach
Violet - A Walk Through Time by Sidney Liebes, Elisabet Sahtouris and Brian Swimme
Indigo - Practical Forensic Microscopy by Barbara Wheeler and Lori Wilson
Blue - Maps, Myths and Men by Kirsten Seaver
Green - sleeping naked is green by vanessa farquharson
Yellow - Crude: The Story of Oil by Sonia Shah
Orange - Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
Red - No Impact Man by Colin Beavan
White - Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin (it just looks odd because of the desk color)

Now I want to do this at home too for a fiction version - since everything in that list is nonfiction.

Bout of Books Thursday Update

Last final was yesterday - now to full time grading!  Yeah?

Thursday
Pages read:  94 pages today, plus 96 pages of a graphic novel;

• 51 pages out of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
• 96 pages out of Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

• 33 pages (11%) of Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells (fun!)
• 10 pages of On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace's Species Notebook of 1885-1859 annotated by James T. Costa. 

Pages - Running Total:  664

Books Finished so far: 2

Challenges: Bout of Books 10.0: Spell It Out Challenge  - I think I went a little overboard - I put my little phrase "Class Done Can Bloom" together using the pictures from books I had already reviewed because I did the challenge on my laptop while proctoring the last hour of a senior class capstone final. It wasn't the sort of final you can really cheat on, so I didn't have to spend the whole test period circling the room like a vulture but I still had to pay attention to them and answer questions, so I couldn't really sit there reading a book. The challenge was a nice compromise - trying to figure out what I could spell with the book cover I had copies of, rather than picking a word and finding books to spell it with.

I am reading Emilie and the Sky World to make up for my disappointment with A Wrinkle in Time. The first book Emilie & the Hollow World by Martha Wells was lots of fun - it is an adventure story that starts with Emilie runs away from home and, in a effort to stow away on a steamship, ends up  ...  going somewhere else entirely. The new book picks up pretty much right where the last book left off.

Plus - I have swag!  I picked up an autographed copy of On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace's Species Notebook of 1885-1859 annotated by James T. Costa.  It was signed by Costa, since I don't claim to have held a seance. Without Wallace, Darwin might never have pulled his act together and produced a paper. It was the threat of being scooped that got him moving.

Bout of Books 10.0: Spell It Out Challenge

The books covers below spell out: CLASS DONE CAN BLOOM 

All but one were taken from images that I had already uploaded for my blog, I have read all of them and reviewed most of them :-)

The down side of this is that while classes are almost done (last one right now!) I still have about a thousand hours of grading to do.
 

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy by Nancy A. Nichols 

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Some Like it Hawk by Donna Andrews

Digger by Ursula Vernon

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell

Nurk: The Strange, Surprising, Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew by Ursula Vernon

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, which I have read several times but all before I started this website. 

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Ottoline goes to School by Chris Riddell

Owl's Well That Ends Well (mini review) by Donna Andrews

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Bout of Books Wednesday (and Tuesday) Update

Yesterday was a blur and I totally forgot to do Tuesday update, so today - two for the price of one.

Tuesday:
Pages read: 118 pages today;

• 21 pages out of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
• 97 pages out of  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Challenges: the Bookish Battle Royal Challenge and Books You're Looking Forward To Challenge are both on my Bout of Books Tuesday Post

Wednesday:
Pages read:159 today; 570 so far
Books finished today: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Total Books finished: 2
Challenges: This' Made Me Think of 'That'

I am amazed by people who actually can keep track of the amount of time that they spend reading. I can't seem to do that. I am lucky when I can remember to keep a page count.

So - I finished A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle last night after the kids went to bed.  It was on my TBR pile for the May Midnight Garden's Classic YA Readalong. Now I am all verklempt. I remember loving the Wrinkle in Time books when I was a kid but I have not re-read them since and almost nothing I remember was in this book - I must be remembering a different one in the series. This book was plain odd for me and reading it now, I don't understand why I loved it so much. The style is disorganized, the plot jumpy and kinda incoherent, there is lots of telling and not showing. It doesn't really make much sense and the story ends very abruptly. Were we really so bereft of books with female characters that this was exciting at the time?  We must have been. I am still mulling this over. There are some great lines in the book, but there are many more incoherent clunkers.  Oh dear.  I am looking forward to sharing Anne of Green Gables with my daughter when she is a bit older, but now that I have re-read this one (and I do still plan to read the other ones that I had as a kid - just to see if what I remember is in there or if I am remembering another book entirely) -  I really doubt that I will offer this one to my daughter. Hurmph!

This' Made Me Think of 'That'

My Overstuffed Shelves is hosting the Book Pairings/This' Made Me Think of 'That' Challenge

 With what little that is left of my brain today ...

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan made me think about Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco to the point that I want to re-read it this summer. The whole idea of novices and secret societies, secrets hidden in books and the almost monastic vibe.


Goth Girl and the Ghost of A Mouse by Chris Riddell made me think of the theme song for Ruby Gloom, which has to be one of the catchiest theme songs I have ever heard for a kids cartoon. I mostly has to do with the color scheme and the cute goth vibe - lovable ghosts and the like.

And Ready Player One by Ernest Cline has pretty much kept Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party stuck in my head for weeks now, since he talks about the song in the first few pages of the book. 

Bout of Books Monday Update

Good grief I am a mess. I just realized that I didn't do an actual Monday update. This is going to be a bit of a mess but here you go ...

Monday:
Pages read: 293 pages
Books finished: Owl's Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews (plus a few kids books with my daughter - Button Soup and The Princess Who Never Laughed)

Challenges: Monday Bout of Books Challenge: If You Like X, Try Y

Owl's Well That Ends Well
by Donna Andrews

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Format: Hardcover 
Copyright:  First Edition edition (March 10, 2005)Pages: 304
Genre: Mystery
Source: personal copy

So Monday morning  I grabbed the wrong book but it turned out good. My daughter likes to re-arrange the books on the shelves, which makes finding a specific book an adventure sometimes - it also makes grabbing the top book off the stack without paying attention pretty much a guarantee of getting the wrong book. 

Owl's Well That Ends Well is a fun book that I read ages ago when it first came out but have not re-read since, which is actually kinda odd. Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow books have been an auto-buy since I read the first one Murder with Peacocks ages ago. I tend to revisit the books when I am feeling down, so I have read a few of them many times. This one got stuck in a corner somehow - so good on my daughter for pulling it out. 

The series as a whole is lots of fun - the mysteries are not usually terribly deep, but somewhat satisfying anyhow.  I enjoy the voice of the protagonist - Meg is competent but not perfect, or a special snowflake, and seems to be someone I would like to have as a friend. Unlike other female leads, Meg grows and changes through time - the series sees her finding a boyfriend, adapting to share her life with him, getting married and eventually giving birth to twins. This is a nice chance of pace from the timeless leads who are stuck in the same rut for every book and there is no Joe verses Ranger nonsense. I also love reading about her eccentric extended family. 

Owl's Well That Ends Well is the sixth book in the series, set at a monster yard sale being held at Meg and Micheal's new house, formerly the abode of a classic hoarder - so there are decades worth of hangers, magazines, tchotchkes, holiday decorations and stuffed moose heads. This is still early in the series, so Meg is in a fine, sarcastic mode - not having quite become domesticated yet - but you can also see signs now that she is starting to adjust her attitude. Yea for personal growth. 

It was fun and rather awkward reading the book while a class took their final Monday morning - usually I would grade papers for another class, but I had a headache so I read instead and sat there snickering, trying not to laugh out loud and making the students slightly nervous. Their occasional questioning looks made it even harder not to laugh.  I did get myself under control though and switched to grading for a while so I looked more professorial (it was an advanced class, juniors and seniors, so they should know by now that professors are human anyhow.)

Here is the start of the book (you have to read it if you want to know why Meg is doing this :-) ... 

When the doorbell rang, I stumbled to the still-dark window and poured a bucket of water where the front porch roof would have been if it hadn't blow away in a thunderstorm two weeks ago. 

"Aarrgggg!" screamed our visitor. A male voice for a change. 

Ignoring the curses from below, I poured another gallon jug of water into the bucket, added a scoop of ice cubes from the cooler, and stationed it by the window before crawling back into the sleeping bag. 

Or how about ...

Friends had warned me that it could be hard work, getting your significant other's male friends to accept you, but I hadn't expected the process to be quite so much like coaxing a small nocturnal animal out of its hole. 

Anyhow - fun stuff and it turned out to be the right thing to read, given how much my head hurt (I could focus close to read - but look at a computer screen or into the distance hurt like the dickens - weird, stupid headache.)   

Bout of Books Tuesday Challenges

I spent most of the day writing an exam so not much reading thus far.  But now the exam is copied, sorted and ready to go in the morning, so I can spend a few minutes doing something fun.

My Life in Books is hosting the Bookish Battle Royal Challenge --

... and I have no idea what to do with this since I tend to favor books where people actually cooperate and are not intent on beating the piss out of each other. Conflict amongst the lead characters simply for the sake of 'drama' is one of my least favorite tropes.  I have never forgiven anyone involved with Andromeda for what they did with Tyr Anasazi's character 'cause there can be only one. Yuck! Someone want to explain why we can't have both ???

Hum ... I will have to ponder this too see what kind of twisted odd interpretation I can put on it.

Ah ha!  There has been a murder and you need a fictional sleuth to sort it out - who will be able to solve this mystery?

Sherlock Holmes -

Strengths -
cunning, perceptive, intuitive

Weaknesses -
egotistical, easily bored, addict


Nero Wolfe -

Strenghts -
loyal, stubborn, fearless

Weaknesses -
home bound, rather nonathletic (to say the least), dogmatic

I refuse to acknowledge the
BBC show!

Dirk Gently 

Strengths -
the universe sorts things out just to spite him, amazing attention to detail, intrepid

Weaknesses -
likely to be distracted by the first shiny object, avaricious, lazy (and unkempt!)

  



And the winner !

I am highly tempted to say none of the above and hand the laurels to someone like Detective Elena Jarvis simply because she is more realistic ...

but I am going with Sherlock. The cosmos would ensure that Dirk wound up finding the solution to a completely different mystery and Nero would be slowed down by the fact that he needs Archie to do all his footwork. Archie would be distracted by the nearest 'dame.' 

---

Challenge two is Books You're Looking Forward To -- River City Reading, because of course I don't have a big enough TBR pile.

Well I am waiting on Thursdays with the Crown, the third Castle Glower book, by Jessica Day George, which is supposed to come out in November. 

I am looking forward to finally getting a chance to spread out and read S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorset since it has been sitting there on my shelf laughing at me since I bought it.

I have been interested in I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora, though I can't for the life of me remember anything about it right now. (When Lucy, Elena, and Michael receive their summer reading list, they are excited to see To Kill A Mockingbird included. But not everyone in their class shares the same enthusiasm. So they hatch a plot to get the entire town talking about the well-known Harper Lee classic.)

Oh - I want Waistcoats & We​aponry (Finishing School Book the Third) by Gail Carriger

And The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.)

I forgot - I am looking forward to the new Discworld book - Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett !  

Sorry - hot and brain-dead - I think I will stop there.