Take It or Leave It Challenge - October 2020 - Page 1

For those new to this challenge: More info and monthly index can be found in post #1 of this thread or this TIOLI FAQS wiki.


...logo by cyderry

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Your TIOLI Challenge for October 2020 is to

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Read a book whose first line includes an odd number.
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Rules:
1. The number may be an actual figure or typed out.
2. The number may be embedded in or across words.
3. The first line must be at least three words and may not only be a number.
4. Include in your listing a sample of the number. (example: I did not enjoy that...)
5. In case of time. just the last number may be odd (example: 2:45 pm)

Have fun!

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Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):

1. The October 2020 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it.
3. FAMeulstee's 2020 TIOLI Sweeplette Meter

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Temporary Thread --- to help us all through this pandemic and other charged situations around the world

TIOLI Challengers' Corona Virus and Other Issues

Wiki Index of Challenges:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book whose first line includes an odd number - msg #1
2. Read a book written by a female author who does not fit the binary gender/sexuality stereotype - msg #4
3. Read a book with a fiery or autumnal title - msg #8
4. Read a book with a three-word title in the format "The {Colour} {Noun}" - msg #9
5. Read a book by a controversial author - msg #11
6. Read a book for the October CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge - msg #12 - thread

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book by an author you've read since March 15, 2020 msg #13
8. Read a book whose title contains a Halloween Costume - msg #17
9. Read a book where the word "air" appears in the title - msg #18
10. Read a non-fiction book about the natural world or built environment - msg #20
11. Read a book in which a word in the title best describes 2020 for you - msg #25
12. Birthstone challenge for October - read a book with a predominantly multicoloured cover OR a predominantly gold cover - msg #27 - thread

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book that is part of a series - msg #29
14. Read a book that is at least your 10th by the same author - msg #31
15, Read a book by an author born after 1945 - msg #12
16. Read a book by Andre Norton - msg #34

Save your challenge until the November TIOLI challenges are posted. Thx!

(message deleted - duplicate post)

ohhh! I'm in early!

So: Disclaimer in first. I may not have my wording right and it is absolutely not my intention to offend, if I can reword this, please let me know.

Challenge #2: Read a book written by an author who does not fit the binary gender/sexuality stereotype

Basically this is a book not written by someone in a heterosexual relationship.

It can be a book written by someone in a same sex relationship, someone who has transitioned to or from female, someone who lives as a woman, someone intersex. Its anyone who doesn't fit the binary stereotype, for whatever reason.

I might not have expressed any of that very well, but I hope you've got what I'm aiming at.

>4 Helenliz: You were definitely QUICK!

>5 SqueakyChu: last look before bed! 5 minutes more and it would be tomorrow.

>6 Helenliz: Good impulse!

Challenge #3: Read a book with a fiery or autumnal title

A single word is all that's required: fall, leaf, burn, scorch

Challenge #4: Read a book with a three-word title in the format "The {Colour} {Noun}"

Your book may have a subtitle as long as the main title is three words only.

>1 SqueakyChu: I have put off reading A Man Called Ove. Curmudgeonly old men have no appeal to me, and this is how he is described. Then I read your listing that he 59 years old. 59! Sheesh, I really am old. Maybe I'll force myself to join you.

Challenge #5: read a book by a controversial author
I listed this because of all the wild controversy about J. K. Rowling right now. I'll be reading her new book Troubled Blood written under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
You can choose from this list https://www.ranker.com/list/most-controversial-writers/ranker-books if you want.

Challenge #6: Read a book for the October CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

(Going to have to skip the pretty, decorative badges for now. LT is adding huge amounts of white space to them again.)

There will be *6* different book challenges. (The challenges change each month.) They include everything from genres/subgenres to well known (inter)national challenges, from something about a cover to the book's setting, from LT tools to title quirks. You won't know what your particular challenge will be until you roll a random number.

You can use https://www.random.org/ (the widget at the top right), Google "random number 1 to 6," or simply roll a die.

NOTE: After a certain number of challenges have been given out, I will re-randomize the list. So you really will not know what you will get!

Post the number to this thread and I will give you your challenge. For any questions, please ask here or in a PM. Embedded words, as a rule, are allowed but partial words are not. For instance, in one case, a word like "walked" must include the entire word and not just the word "walk." Tags must be first level, i.e. do not click on "show all." No restrictions as to fiction or nonfiction unless otherwise stated in a challenge.

I'll allow *some* leeway in interpretation of the challenges, but try not to push it. When I say "significant" or "major" or "main" I will be strict. This is me, being strict:



Note: If I give a link to a list of books, it does not mean they *all* qualify for a challenge. The lists are simply starting points. If a book is on a referred list, it will not be accepted if it doesn't fit the challenge.

Shared reads ARE allowed. Shared challenges ARE NOT allowed. That is, if someone reads a book published in 2020. You can read the SAME book. You can't read a different book published in 2020 (unless you get that challenge yourself.)

Challenge #7: Read a book by an author you've read since March 15, 2020

I got to thinking how it's now been more than 6 months instead since our work at home order was issued. It started in mid-March. So please read a book by an author you've read since March 15th of this year, roughly when the pandemic shut things down.

It's OK if you'd read something by this author previously, as well as since March 15th. Also OK if your first book read by this author occurred since March 15th. It's even OK if you read a book by this author now and then count the second book read by that author.

Note that, if you can, please indicate which other book(s) you've read by that author and roughly when (month is fine).

Maybe I'll only read novels this month, nothing political. I think politics are driving me crazy.
So, my planned reads
Challenge #1: Read a book whose first line includes an odd number - started by SqueakyChu
*✔A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman (4)
Challenge #2: Read a book written by an author who does not fit the binary gender/sexuality stereotype - started by helenliz
✔The Pull of the Stars: A Novel - Emma Donoghue (5)
Challenge #3: Read a book with a fiery or autumnal title - started by quondame
✔A Vision of Fire - Gillian Anderson (3)
Challenge #4: Read a book with a three-word title in the format "The {Colour} {Noun}" - started by lyzard
Challenge #5: Read a book by a controversial author - started by Citizenjoyce
✔Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (4)
Challenge #6: Read a book for the October CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge - started by Morphidae
How to be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi ABANDONED
✔Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli (3.5)
Challenge #7: Read a book by an author you've read since March 15, 2020 - started by lindapanzo
✔The Wicked King - Holly Black (3.5)
Challenge #8: Read a book whose title contains a Halloween Costume - started by susanna.fraser
✔Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb (3.5)
✔The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (3.5)
Challenge #9: Read a book where the word "air" appears in the title - started by DeltaQueen
The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America - Steven Johnson
*✔Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay (4)
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis - Jared Diamond ABANDONED
Challenge #10: Read a non-fiction book about the natural world or built environment - started by wandering_star
✔The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us by Adam Rutherford (5)
✔Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present (Open Yale Courses) - Frank M. Snowden (5)
✔Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century - Jessica Bruder
Challenge #11: Read a book in which a word in the title best describes 2020 for you - started by Carmenere
The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West - Peter Cozzens
✔The Lying Life of Adults - Elena Ferrante (4)
✔Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary - Timothy Snyder (5)
✔Solutions and Other Problems - Allie Brosh (4)
Challenge #12: Birthstone challenge for October - read a book with a predominantly multicoloured cover OR a predominantly gold cover - started by humouress
✔The Hierarchies: A Novel - Ros Anderson (3.5)
Challenge #13: Read a book that is part of a series - started by avatiakh
✔Elantris - Brandon Sanderson (3.5)
Challenge #14: Read a book that is at least your 10th by the same author - started by madhatter22
✔Fortune's Daughter - Alice Hoffman (3)
Challenge #15: Read a book by an author born after 1945 - started by FAMeulstee
✔The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (4)
✔Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld (4)
✔Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid (4)
Challenge #16: Read a book by Andre Norton - started by SilverWolf28
✔The Time Traders - Andre Norton (3)

>10 Citizenjoyce: I'm really enjoying A Man Called Ove because it is funny, albeit I am reading it ever so slowly. That's because I can't concentrate and have developed sudden onset tinnitus which. in its loudest sounds, preclude me from doing most anything, I have good days and bad days. It helps to read something funny, although I am told that this book is a tear jerker. Oh, no! I also can't guarantee I'll finish this book this month. It's been that kind of year.

>15 SqueakyChu: I didn't think it was a tearjerker but it was bittersweet. I've read it twice now and watched the movie.

Challenge #8: Read a book whose title contains a Halloween Costume

Self-explanatory. I'm willing to be pretty flexible--it just has to be something you can reasonably imagine on a trick-or-treating kid or an adult at a Halloween party.

Challenge #9: Read a book where the word "air" appears in the title

October is my birthday month which makes me a Libra, an air sign. My challenge this month is to read a book where the word “Air” appears in the title. Please note that the word “air” can be embedded.

>1 SqueakyChu: Madeline, regarding your challenge, I have a book where the time 7:35 is in the opening sentence - since they are all odd numbers - will this fit?

Challenge #10: Read a non-fiction book about the natural world or built environment

This is basically a challenge to read something which looks closely at the world around us - whether that's natural or man-made such as a town or a particular kind of building.

This ties in a little with >13 lindapanzo: lindapanzo's challenge - during lockdown one friend of mine made a point of trying to notice things when he went on walks around his neighbourhood, such as one day looking out for everything red he could see, another day looking at all the house names, and so on. Maybe some of these books will also help us notice things about our everyday environment!

>19 DeltaQueen50: Absolutely, yes!

In the case of time, I will accept a time with just the last number being the odd number. I'll add that to the rules.

>21 SqueakyChu: Great! So far my planned reading is fitting into the challenges well. :)

>17 susanna.fraser: : Does your challenge allow embedded words for a halloween costume?

>23 countrylife: Sure, embedded words are fine.

Challenge #11: Read a book in which a word in the title best describes 2020 for you

Embedded words are acceptable.

>1 SqueakyChu: First line or first sentence?

Challenge 12: Birthstone challenge for October - read a book with a predominantly multicoloured cover OR a predominantly gold cover.

So here we are back in October, and what a strange year it has been. October's birthstone is opal which is iridescent and multicoloured, so make sure your covers are as colourful as possible! The Romans considered opal the most powerful and luckiest gem of all since it shows all the colours and Bedouins think that opals contain lightning. It is considered a symbol of hope, truth and purity and thought to preserve life and the colour of blond hair. It is a mineraloid rather than a mineral, and the 'play-of-colour- is caused by refraction rather than by pigments in the stone.



And since this month marks the end of the year in which I turned 50, I am gifting you with a second option; gold.

Gold is a precious metal which can be found native as gold nuggets and has appeared in early myths and legends such as those of King Midas, the Golden Fleece or Rumpelstiltskin. It is used for 50th anniversary gifts and in medals for first place and is desirable in modern, miniaturised electronics because of its properties of conducting electricity, malleability and because it doesn't corrode.

ETA I'm hoping for shiny, glitzy gold covers!



And I couldn't resist adding this:


Opalised fossilised plesiosaur

Please post your colourful or gold covers here.

>27 humouress: Imagine becoming an opal after you die.

Challenge #13: Read a book that is part of a series

Couldn't find a place for the book I just finished.

Every month since June there's been some new obstacle to keep me from reading, so I don't have high hopes for this month, but I just can't resist a shiny new page of challenges and the optimism they inspire. :D

Challenge #14: Read a book that is at least your 10th by the same author

This should be a book you've never read, by an author who has written at least 9 other books that you have read.

The books cannot all be part of the same series.

However, you can count up to three books from the same series in your total. E.g., for Stephen King you could count the Mr. Mercedes trilogy in your 10 books. Or for a writer who has multiple series, you could count up to 3 from 3 different series.

Challenge #15: Read a book by an author born after 1945

Put the year of birth in the wiki.

I love Morphy's random challenges. I just chose St. Peter's Finger, a Gladys Mitchell mystery to celebrate International Skeptics' Day. A 13 year-old student dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while taking a bath. The gas geyser is in perfect working order. Many people don't believe that this can be true.
Yay!

>32 FAMeulstee: Anita, I thought that, between googling and looking at the copyright page, I'd get this information but with a planned read Who Gets In and Why by Jeffrey Selingo, I'm not finding a year of birth. By googling, I did discover that he graduated from college in 1995, which would put his birth as about 1974. Between his bio indicating that he's been writing about higher education for two decades and his photo, which to me looks like a man in his 40's or 50's, I think that's about right.

So, in other words, do I need to find definitive proof as to the year the author was born? Or would a good estimate be OK?

>35 lindapanzo: A good estimate is enough in this case :-)

>36 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita.

The challenges for >12 Morphidae: 's CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge have all been revealed. When you roll, you will get one of the six selections below. (You can have two unread at a time.)

And his favorite shape will be a star: Read a book with a symbol on the cover.

Look eye, always look eye!: Read a book related to October but NOT Halloween

Oh, don't worry about Halloween. The pixies won't be out till after midnight: Read a book that starts with one of the letters in HALLOWEEN

He needs to go home; he's calling his people: Read a book that has a gerund or infinitive in the first sentence.

Honestly, don't you two read?: Read a book for this year's National Book Festival.

Scout's been readin,' since she was born: Read a book that won an award the year that you were born.

There is a tiny contest to guess the theme. TEENY TINY.

Is it possible to add a book to the wiki if it doesn't have a LT page? (I would like to add a book that's going to be released later this month.)

>39 SilverWolf28: Yes, go to the bottom of the Add Books page and select Add Manually. <-- Or click!

>40 quondame: Thanks!

>39 SilverWolf28: Even if it's not out til later, it may still have an LT page already. A large percentage of what I read are Net Galley books. I'm getting Net Galley books now that won't be published til January. The one I'm reading right now will publish on December 29th, for instance. Mine are mainly cozy mysteries and so, many times, someone else has already started reading it and has added it in.

I'm having trouble displaying the challenge wiki pages? Is anyone else?

I'm getting...

Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties.

>44 Morphidae: Same here.

>43 quondame: >45 lindapanzo: It got better.

May I just say that I am getting a lot of evil amusement out of the titles listed for #11? :D

>47 lyzard: It was inspired!

>47 lyzard: I am, too. In the end, if I get to it, I might end up reading Dan Rather's What Unites Us. A more positive look. 2020 has been an all-around horrible year but I've discovered kindred spirits from among old friends.

Today, though, I am feeling horrified. An old acquaintance and retired co-worker, married to another co-worker. was found stabbed and her head bludgeoned, thought to be a murder/suicide. I especially feel for their friend who went to check on them and found them despite the note not to go in.

>49 lindapanzo: Omigosh. I usually don't like mysteries because I don't think they have anything to do with "normal" people who are never connected with a violent crime or a murder. What a shock to you.

>49 lindapanzo: I think being horrified is entirely understandable. How awful for all concerned.

>49 lindapanzo: It's been a horrible year, Linda, but what you described was was so shocking. I'm sorry it happened at all, but especially to people you knew.

>50 Citizenjoyce: >51 Helenliz: >52 SqueakyChu: Thanks. I've heard a bit more from a good friend of theirs and it appears that both were in ill health that was worsening during the pandemic. That makes me feel a bit better. Not a lot, but a bit.

I know that I read about things like this in the paper pretty regularly. It's just a shock to the system when it's someone you knew.

Grieving is harder when done at a distance. Everyone's got a favorite story to tell and hearing them helps, even when done at a distance.

TIOLI Question of the Month

Is there any book you've started reading this month that you're sorry you began? Why? Are you going to finish reading it or not? Why?

>54 SqueakyChu: Yes, two that I finished There Will Come a Darkness and A Fountain Filled With Blood. The first started off pretty normally, but just past the middle I got really tired of the single note of each of the viewpoint characters. And by the time I was done with the second I just couldn't deal with more absurd behavior.

>54 SqueakyChu:

My best-seller for this month, Ship Of Fools, is 500 pages of hateful people being hateful.

So yeah, pretty much. :(

>54 SqueakyChu: I was looking forward to Piranesi by Susannah Clarke but only read about 50 pages before giving up, I just couldn't be bothered, it seemed somewhat pretentious.

>54 SqueakyChu:. Yes. I waded through Life as a Unicorn as it was my Shelterbox book club selection this month. There's a great story in there, but it was told really poorly.
I'm now on The Well of Loneliness because it's a 1001 list book that I've owned for ages and it just not grabbing me one iota. 125 pages down, 375 to go. Will I finish it? Yes, because I'm stupid that way.

>54 SqueakyChu: I was excited to read Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond because I have found the author's previous books to be both very informative and completely engaging. Upheaval is drier than the Sahara desert and as boring as mashed potatoes. I'm too old to waste my time on books I have no desire to work to understand.

>54 SqueakyChu: I just completed The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean and after about 100 pages I seriously thought about quitting but I continued. It wasn't horrible just rather flat and uninspired.

>54 SqueakyChu: I started the book Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. The writing is excellent but the dystopian subject matter of a world where there are so few animal species left was upsetting in this difficult year and I had to turn to comfort reading for awhile. I will definitely finish this book at some point.

Has anyone else trouble updating the wiki? The CAPTCHA doesn't work for me.

TIOLI Stats for September, 2020

The total number of books read for September, 2020, was 201, the least anount since May, 2010. It's a sad number, but I think everyone's heart is just not into reading much now as we have so many more complicated things to deal with on all levels. The low number will not impact the existence of the TIOLI challenges going forward as I still will continue them into 2021 and just see how things go within the next few months.

We had 26 shared reads which make up 13% of all our books read. We accumulated 14 TIOLI points to have a YTD total of 305 points, the lowest September YTD total ever. :(

The most popular book was The Ice Child by Camilla Läckberg which was read by three challangers.

The most popular challenges, each with 26 books read, were:
---Morphidae's challenge to read a book for The Numbers Game
---DeltaQueen's challenge to read a book by an author who is not only from a different country than you, but also from a different continent

The challenge with the most TIOLI points (4) was the one by Morphidae to read a book for The Numbers Game.

Looking to see what the future brings. I hope it's all good.

The September, 2020, TIOLI Awards!

The Most Beloved School Award goes to bell7 for reading Book Love for my (SqueakyChu's) challenge to read a book whose title is or contains the name of your school. For sure, I'd want to matriculate at a school named Book Love. How do I apply?!

The Largest Number Award goes to quondame for reading A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking for FAMeulstee's challenge to read a book where the number of pages added together is 11 or more. This book had 289 pages which added up to the grand total of 19, :D

The DC United Award goes to four people! The challenge was dallenbaugh's to read a book where the author’s name and the title on the spine are in two different colors. The winners' books had the colors black and red. Why? Well, those are the colors of my local professional soccer team so, of course, I'm partial to them! The winners of this award are:
--- dallenbaugh for Kingbird Highway (red/black)
--- avatiakh for Pike (black/red) - Anthony McGowan
--- wandering_star for Rules for Perfect Murders (black/red)
--- Citizenjoyce for A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts (black/red)

The Impossible to Answer Award goes to wandering_star for reading The Trouble With Reality for susanna.fraser's challenge to read a book whose title completes the sentence "Please tell me..." I can't even begin to imagine what someone would have to say about reality now. Reality these days seems to me like a parallel universe!

Congrats to our award winners! Feel free to add an award of your own at this time if you'd like.

>65 SqueakyChu: Thank you. Pure accident of course. And true that trying to describe this reality is a mind boggling task. I do hope this is as bad as it gets.

>65 SqueakyChu: Thank you - and very true! although I wish this particular situation wasn't the occasion for the award!

>65 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the award.

>65 SqueakyChu: Ha, thanks for the award! It was a fun book too :D

>65 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the award. As you say it has been a hard time to concentrate on reading. I seem to find it easier to do jigsaw puzzles these days.

>64 SqueakyChu: Exactly right!! Reading has been very hard all year. I've kept track of my reading since 1976. I've read 100+ books every single year starting in 1993. This year, I won't even be close to that, maybe 80, if I'm lucky. My heart is not in it.

Sometimes, in time of stress, books distract me. But this year, due to COVID, political events, my father's dementia, and other things, books offer me little comfort and distraction.

>65 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the award. Red and black were my high school colors too. Go Wildcats!

>73 lindapanzo: I'm sorry that you're finding reading so difficult.

I read a pathetically small number of books between early/mid March (a few days before lockdown) and September, I've finally picked up a little bit, but I probably won't match my reading in 2009, which at 49 books was a lot lower than the years between 2010-2019, but was a little more evenly spaced than this year - 36 so far - 23 by 13 March 2020 and 6 in October (so far, but I might not finish another this month).

>73 lindapanzo: I can somewhat understand how difficult things are for you. My beautiful Australian Shepherd Kyla has canine cognitive dysfunction, kind of doggie Alzheimer's. She can take up all the time I'm willing to give her. I changed the brand of CBD oil I'm giving her, and I think it's done some good because she's sleeping well now. Last month she just wandered all the time. She can't see well, she can't hear well and she's lost her decision-making capacity so she'll wander into the back yard and get stuck under the porch swing and not be able to figure how to get out. She'd wander away when she was eating forgetting that that's what she was doing. And if she got too confused she'd defecate or urinate wherever she was not remembering that she was supposed to go through the doggie door outside. The past couple of days she's remembered to go outside to do her business but that's because the weather is nice enough for me to leave the back door open all the time. She's 55 pounds so I'm able to pick her up and put her where I want. I keep wondering what I would do if she were a person. I don't think I'd be able to handle it. My heart goes out to you. I wish there were a container of strength somewhere you could dip into.

OK team, I may have finally found my first book that doesn't fit, even with some squeezing. In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim.
The number in the first line is even, she seems to have been a married several times, wasn't very controversial (that I can see) the title doesn't contain air, firey-ness or a colour, she is not Andre Norton and was most certainly born before 1945. Any bright ideas would be greatly appreciated. >;-)

>76 Citizenjoyce: " I wish there were a container of strength somewhere you could dip into."

Don't mind me as I too take a long soak in that container of strength.
This is my first month back in TIOLI since May.
My husband of 27 years passed away quite suddenly in May.
My mom passed away in June. Neither were covid related.
I did not receive the comfort from books that I've come to expect but I uncharacteristically yearned for the comfort of family and friends but of course was hard to achieve because ....2020.
Working in the yard and talking to neighbors 6 ft away was therapeutic but now it's autumn and we're all returning back indoors so I thought it was time to dive back into books.
It's still difficult to focus but I'm trying.

Good luck to all of you who are having difficulties. I know I must be strong and I hope all of you find the strength to get through your hard times too.

>78 Carmenere: Oh, Lynda, it breaks my heart to hear of your losses this year. I know all of us are virtual friends, but we’re real people so we always offer our friendship to you. Stop by here any time, and pour your heart out if you want to. We all need to support each other.

I did not even finish one book this month. That has never happened to me before. Anyway, I’ll take baby steps and continue to try to read and will stay here for those of you who want to take comfort in books and reading.

>77 Helenliz:

"Mountains" seems like a pretty good description of 2020 to me. :)

Otherwise, would its cover work for #12?

>78 Carmenere:

Lynda, I can only add my sincere sympathies to Madeline's. Take care of yourself and know that we are here if you need to talk.

>78 Carmenere: I'm so sorry about your husband and your mom. We need that container of strength more every day.

>79 SqueakyChu: >81 lyzard: >82 Citizenjoyce: Thank you, so much! LT friends are awesome and special!

>78 Carmenere: Lynda, I am so very sorry. That is more than anyone should have to bear in so short a time.

>78 Carmenere: Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband and mum. I can't even begin to imagine what you've gone through (and are still going through). I'll add my voice to everyone else saying feel free to unload on LT whenever you need to.

>78 Carmenere: So sorry to hear the news about your husband and your mother. I can't imagine going through this but I hope that the support of family and friends and, as much as possible, books is a great help to you.

>78 Carmenere: Lynda, I think of you and your son, Will, often and hope that you both find comfort and peace with each other and eventually with familiar things like reading and gardening.

>78 Carmenere: Lynda, I'm so very sorry to hear about your husband and your mother. That's so much to have to go through, especially this year. Wishing you strength, comfort and peace.

>84 susanna.fraser: >85 PawsforThought: >86 lindapanzo: >87 DeltaQueen50: >88 madhatter22: I am so grateful for your kind words. They strengthen me more than you can imagine.

Housekeeping Day is long past. but be sure you removed any books from October's wiki that you did not finish by midnight October 31st. Thank you!