My IRL book club is reading this in November, and I'm looking forward to it!

Well said, and I am very glad that that you raised the question. I am also glad that JennW pointed out some of the pitfalls in determining who to include. In my previous post, I had said that I am looking for a strong sense of place written by someone who is not an outsider. And that I didn’t want to overthink the definition of outsider because I’d know it when I saw it. I’ll eat those words now, because I am thinking plenty about it, lol. Somewhere on Ann Morgan’s blog, I recall her also wresting with this question. I will see if I can find that blog post later. I was thinking about Frank McCourt, since I am doing a reread of Angela’s Ashes. He was born in NYC, but the bulk of his formative years (ages 5 to 19) was spent in Ireland. The vast majority of the book is about a childhood in Ireland amongst an Irish family. And yet, his own relatives never stop considering him a Yank from America. Would rejecting him as too-outsider further the no-matter-what- you’ll-never-be-one-of-us sentiment? That is a sentiment that I chafe against, too. For a very tiny percentage of authors, maybe there is an interview that would glean something about self-identification. I think I would let self-identification prevail in those cases. Regarding challenges: I like the challenge of figuring out how to slot something I already want to read into a slot. I have personal reading goals and when I can Venn Diagram a bunch of them together I get giddy :) Modern Mrs. Darcy’s quiz aptly pegged me as an explorer. The right book finds me, not the other way around. Oh, and I have decided to do both the 50 states and the world. I am going to backdate the 50 states a bit and start the world list in 2018.

WA, I was specifically thinking of my older’s recent grad school application. He had to submit a resume with the application, and I don’t recall him putting anything on there from the high school years. It was all about what he had done after he started college. ETA I think of it as similar to college apps finding middle school extracurriculars irrelevant.

Just one more strategic thought to pass on for anyone thinking about going this route. I am going to have my DS submit for the Silver Medal. That way, he can start over with four different voluntary service goals. His circumstances have changed (hello international move) and will radically change again once he graduates from high school. He needs to open at least two of those slots for the second 200 hours. He has two current volunteer gigs that should easily get him to the 300 range before graduation. And if he has the silver medal done, then the remaining 100 hours can go toward some as-yet-unknowable opportunity.

So nice to "see" you WA :) I could not have expressed the recording gets old sentiment any better than you did. Just know that I am in full solidarity on that one. My DS is about an inch away from the silver medal with the exception of the E/E. I don't think he will have time to do the E/E until spring. I was pushing for him to finish the gold medal requirements by January of senior year so he could have it before high school graduation. It is doable in theory, but I have come to terms with him "only" reaching silver medal in high school. Thinking about the resumes that my post-high-school-age-children have written, high school accomplishments are quickly washed away. It could be nice to show a Congressional Gold Medal achieved during the beginning of the college years. And I doubt that the difference between silver and gold is going to matter in a college admissions decision. The bigger risk is fizzling out. ETA: Sorry for the disillusionment on the E/E. I hope what she wants to do can just be tweaked.

I have swept my October reading plans aside. An opportunity has arisen to participate in a Danish book discussion. The book is short, and hailed for its deceptively simple language so I thought I could manage it. And I can :hurray: . In English, it is called The Stolen Spring. Published in 1940, it is both a murder mystery and a social commentary on the Danish school system of that bygone era. It is one of the books often assigned to high school students. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Spring And I simply MUST partipate somewhat in spooky October! I still have to figure that out.

We used Foerster for Algebra II and are now using DO for Precalc (half price option). My son does not like math and finds it difficult. He is liking DO better than having the textbook teach him, but we did not use Math Without Borders so you would be swapping one video based instruction for another, right? That's not exactly what we did so I am not sure how helpful my experience is. I do like the way DO videos distill down the textbook, but I think there was value in learning how to read a math textbook, too. And no matter what we use, it takes longer than it is supposed to. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet!

I just checked Novel Destinations to see if the northern woods of Michigan were in the Hemingway chapter. Nope. There is a whole chapter on Hemingway though. I just didn't list the other places (in Illinois, Idaho, Paris, and Cuba) because I have never been to them. Matter of fact, Michigan does not have a single listing. Novel Destinations is useful but certainly not comprehensive.

Ann Morgan bumped up against the same question, and ultimately allowed various non-novel genres to count. That being said, her list seems to be mostly novels. She noted on her blog that "while prose fiction may be fairly ubiquitous, it’s by no means native to every culture. In fact, in places where stories tend to be passed on verbally, narrative poems may be much truer reflections of literature there."

I flipped through Novel Destinations last night. It was haphazardly arranged and ultimately disappointing. There were too many hotels and reach items: Scott and Zelda stayed HERE and so can you... And some of the sites (like the cathedrals) are to me only peripherally bookish. In a box somewhere, I have The Atlas of Literature, which is a much better book in my opinion. For fun, here are the places in Novel Destinations that I have been, listed in no particular order: Globe Theater, London Stratford-Upon-Avon Jack London State Historic Park Anne Frank House Westminster Abbey Notre Dame Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, London St Patrick's Cathedral, NY Hemingway's Home, Key West Hannibal, MO ( the Twain stuff) Beauregard-Keyes House, New Orleans British Library Library of Congress National Book Festival Bath (the Jane Austen stuff) City Lights Bookstore and the Beat Museum, San Francisco Steinbeck House, CA Prague (some of the Kafka stuff) Kronburg Castle (Hamlet's castle in Denmark) To my utter shame, I have no clear memory of going to Poe's House or grave despite the fact that I have lived most of my life in MD and am a Poe fan. I feel like SURELY I have been there, but have I really?! I need to rectify that ASAP. And I thought of a few I've visited that are not in Novel Destinations: Karen Blixen / Isak Dinensen Home (Denmark) Gunter Grass House and Thomas Mann Museum, Germany Truman Library Charring Cross Road Fjærland (Norwegian book town) H.C. Andersen home and museum (Denmark) Some very memorable bookshops

Stacia, I recommend Laurus by Evgenij Vodolazkin. It is one of my favorite reads this year.

I've been dairy free for years, and I dislike meat. I eat vegan most of the time. But sometimes the only vegan option available is junk or just a simple-carbs-fest. We are on the go so much! I wish I were the type of person to always pre-plan my food, but I doubt I can pull that off. I've tried and failed many times. I recoil at the extra time in the kitchen.

I'd like to hear more about how that would be structured.

While we are on the topic of World Lit, I have a subscription to the print version of World Literature Today. It is really nicely produced, in addition to having good content. And have we mentioned this book before? Novel Destinations: A Travel Guide to Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West. I have this out from the library right now. Another list making opportunity lol. I want to see how many I have been to.

And while it is not a competition, maybe you will be happy to know that 56 puts you ahead of my 49. And indeed I feel pretty good about my 49. Notice that my project ramblings included no deadlines :)

A Year of Reading the World What Counts as a story? is the blog post by Ann Morgan that spells out her criteria. When is a country not a country? is her blog post delineating her choices for what countries counted. Some rambling thoughts on being inspired by the project: No deadlines for me! nope nope nope Since I am not on a deadline, I will be far more liberal choosing what warrants its own slot. Catalonia, Palestine, Kosovo, Greenland, Faroe Islands - all of them make my cut. In addition to the genres chose by Ann Morgan, I would include plays. Maybe even non-narrative poetry. I mainly want a strong sense of place written by someone who is not an outsider. I don't want to overthink how to define an outsider. I will know it when I see it :) There was another blogger that I read about doing something similar and he or she (can't remember who it was) made the rule that you had to cross a border like an overland journey, until you got stuck. So you could move directly from Poland to Slovakia but not from Poland to France, for example. I like that idea, but I am also an opportunist. Sometimes I have limited access to a book, or a book club read would fill Australia's slot and I would not enforce my border rule on myself. I don't think it is always easy to figure out where to put a book. Would Voices from Chernobyl be OK for Belarus even though Chernobyl is in Ukraine? For me, yes. I think so since the author is from Belarus, and much of the impact was in Belarus. I don't think I would count Cafe Europa at all; it just ranges over too much physical territory. And since I am neither blogging nor writing a book, I see no need for me to overthink these things too much. Where is my starting line? I am thinking backing up to January 2017 because that is when I became a real reader again :) And started diligently tracking my books. I have definitely read some this year that would work. One of my IRL friends and I have also talked about trying to do the 50 states (plus territories) as well. We got inspired at the National Festival of the Book to think on that one. Just a different flavor of the same idea... :lurk5: Would love to hear thoughts from others on this.

I don't know if you talked about it in previous years, since I only started here in 2017. But I have spent a lot of time on that site/list. I have thought about it as a long term idea (certainly more than a year!) and my rules for myself would be a bit different. Hmmm thanks to your reminder maybe I will try to synthesize my thoughts.-- ErinE: I finished Radiance. My brain melted! And then I gave it four stars :)

:lol: No beer and no dancing for me, but I did eat well. Potato pancakes with applesauce, German potato salad, and sauerkraut.

My nondriving son is volunteering at an Oktoberfest. A friend of mine was supposed to come to the Oktoberfest with me, but she is sick so I am here by myself for a few hours. Looking around, I am pretty darn sure I am the only person in the beer/music hall reading a book:) ETA: Changed Octoberfest to Oktoberfest. I really should have known that.

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ErinE, I do like Radiance, even though I might not have sounded like it in my post :) Here is an apt quote from a reviewer on Tor: "But hearts aren’t the only parts Radiance puts through the wringer. Brains, too, will be broken by this book, not least because its narrative is wilfully non-linear. " https://www.tor.com/2016/03/03/the-light-fantastic-radiance-by-catherynne-m-valente/ Glad to know I am not the only one who gets a broken brain while reading Radiance, lol. I am definitely planning to read Deathless at some point.

It is a good thing that I finished that Bingo card already, because I am finding time to read to be in short supply lately. Homeschooling is taking a lot more of my time than I anticipated this year. I thought I had pretty much outsourced myself out of a job - not at all, folks. Not at all lol. I got bogged down with Radiance. To call the novel non-linear is an understatement. I got to page 259/429 and was so darned confused, I was tempted to give up. But I like the world that Catherynne Valente has created, and I really didn't want to let the book defeat me. Anyway, DS23 and I are reading it together, and I certainly wasn't going to give up. DS and I had a long discussion about the book last night, and he gave me some insight. He is much smarter than I am :) And this morning I spent an hour re-reading selected parts. Well, hallelujah, I think I now know what the heck is going on and can move forward. Whew. I am also in the midst of: Angela's Ashes: This is a re-read of a favorite. I am reading along with DS16 as he reads it for AP Lang. Between the World and Me: I think that Ta-Nehisi Coates is brilliant. The book is short, but I am not rushing through this one. It is for savoring. Lies My Teacher Told Me: It is interesting and I am learning some new things, and that is good. I think he should have chosen a different title for the book. It is really about how the textbooks lie, not the teachers. But, geez, that title must antagonize teachers or push them away - and aren't teachers the target audience? Ronja Røverdatter: Danish version of Ronia the Robber's Daughter. This is taking me F-O-R-E-V-E-R :( The only thin defense I have is that I do not have access to an English version, nor have I ever read the English version. American Indian Myths and Legends (Part of the Pantheon Folklore and Fairy Tale Series): I just started this, and I am aiming for two stories per day. ETA: I have two additional books on my Goodreads Currently Reading List that I haven't touched for ages. That is starting to bug me.

Not sure why you think being vegan would bring on the hate...Your link is broken for me. I am vegan 90% of the time and have a bit of weight to lose so I would like to see what you are linking to! My husband is considering Nutrisystem so I am appreciating this thread.

Hugs. I am so sorry.

I am so sorry.