You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Themes to complete for Badge 1:


📍B - Books about books - The Book That Wouldn’t Burn - 7th May
📍C - Childhood - Just for the Summer - 8th Apr
📍D - Dogs - The Guardian - 23rd April
📍F - Fantasy - Rise of Empire - Jan 9th
📍G - Ghosts - The Book That Broke the World - May 21st
📍H - History - The Frozen River - Mar 9th
📍L - Love -
📍M - Mythology - The Witch's Heart - Mar 29th
📍N - Nature
📍P - Pirates
📍R - Religion
📍S - Survival - The Great Alone - Jun 10th
📍T - True Crime
📍V - Villainy - Heir of Novron - Jan 16th
📍W - Women - The Women - Feb 8th

📍B - Books about books
The Thirteenth Tale
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The Book of Lost Things
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
The Booklover's Library
The Book of Doors
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

📍C - Childhood
Oliver Twist
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Impossible Creatures

📍D - Dogs
A Dog's Journey
A Dog's Purpose

📍F - Fantasy
Theft of Swords

📍G - Ghosts

Gophering

📍H - History
Catch-22
The Women
The Great Alone

📍L - Love
📍M - Mythology
The Song of Achilles
The Weaver and the Witch Queen

📍N - Nature
Magic Marks the Spot (available in library in German)

📍P - Pirates

Gophering

📍R - Religion
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
The Name of the Rose
Educated

📍S - Survival
Life of Pi
Les Miserables

📍T - True Crime
The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History (available in library)
Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia (have at home)
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
In Cold Blood
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery

📍V - Villainy
Fingersmith
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - reread
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

📍W - Women
The House of Eve

I've read my first books for this challenge.

First I planned to read Theft of Swords for the Fantasy read, but I got it for Christmas and couldn't wait for the New Year to start :)

Rise of Empire -> Fantasy
Heir of Novron -> Villainy (need to check it works for the Patriarch as the villain)
The Women -> Women

And now for the reporting, one per message :)

1. Badge 1, Book 1
2. List 1, Task F
3. Link - Rise of Empire
4. Number of pages: 756
5. Read a book with a theme of fantasy
6. One of the best fantasy series I have ever read - The Riyria Revelations. The genre of the book is fantasy and thus fits with the task Fantasy.

1. Badge 1, Book 2
2. List 1, Task V
3. Link - Heir of Novron
4. Number of pages: 895
5. Read a book with the theme of Villainy
6. The third book of the Riyria Revelations's plot is heavily directed by the Patriarch. It doesn't seem this way while reading the book until everything is revealed in the end. He is a classic villain - looking to conquer the world for his own gain without any consideration of others, he shows no feelings of love, compassion or anything else but ambition and evilness. This is why I believe this fits well with the theme of Villainy.

1. Badge 1, Book 3
2. List 1, Task W
3. Link - The Women
4. Number of pages: 464
5. Read a book with the theme of Women
6. The name of the book contains "Women". It also tells the story of women in Vietnam and specifically what they went through and how they were treated when they came back - their hopes and pains and struggles. A very powerful book focused on women.

Sorry Janice for the multiple updates today. January was busy and I had no chance to update the thread.

No problem Kirila. Nice to see you on the board. I hope you enjoyed the Riyria books. When I read the 1st book in the series Rise of Empire, I was so enthralled I ended up reading the remaining books back to back.

I ended up doing the same. And my will power to stop reading to go to sleep is very very weak, so I had a few weeks on little sleep. Now I need a break with books that don't keep me up at night...

I've had a string of sleep inducers. Hopefully that changes.

1. Badge 1, Book 4
2. List 1, Task H
3. Link - The Frozen River
4. Number of pages: 415
5. Read a book with the theme of History
6. The book is a historical fiction covering a period in the 18th century in a settlement in Maine, USA. It portrays a picture of how life was back then especially about women and it tells the story of a real historical figure - the main character Martha Ballard.

1. Badge 1, Book 5
2. List 1, Task M
3. Link - The Witch's Heart
4. Number of pages: 359
5. Read a book with the theme of Mythology
6. The book is a retelling of Angrboda's story, which is a big part of Norse Mythology. Her 3 children play a huge role in the end of the world, Ragnarok. I am not familiar with Norse mythology, but I liked the complexity in the retelling and that it took the point of view of the so-called monsters (when in reality those Norse gods are the real monsters)

1. Badge 1, Book 6
2. List 1, Task C
3. Link - Just for the Summer
4. Number of pages: 405
5. Read a book with the theme of Childhood
6. Even though this book is a romance, the main character Emma's life and all her decisions are influenced by her traumatic childhood. Her mom often abandoned her but she still always waited for her, always hoped for her love and attention. This shaped her as an adult - someone who cannot let anyone close, cannot love and have a healthy relationship. Her past influences how she cannot get attached, how she runs away just like her mother. Her traumatic childhood has shaped her and defined her current life. Throughout the book we learn a lot about her experiences as a child and even in the current timeline her decisions are controlled by what she experienced as a child. As there was a heavy focus on her background and her childhood, this matches the theme of Childhood.
(and if it doesn't, please let me know :) )

1. Badge 1, Book 7
2. List 1, Task D
3. Link - The Guardian
4. Number of pages: 489
5. Read a book with the theme of Dogs
6. The book is about a woman who loses her husband early, learns how to get through it, gets entagled with a psychopath and finds a new love and life. When her husband dies, he arranges that she gets a dog. This dog helps her navigate her grief, he protects her (hence the name of the book - the Guardian). He is always around and she talks to him as if he is human. He recognizes there is something wrong with the psychopath early on and shows her. He approves the person she ends up with and helps drive her to him. And he saves her in the end. Since the book is named after the dog and the dog plays such a huge role as a character in the book, I consider it meets the theme of the task

1. Badge 1, Book 8
2. List 1, Task B
3. Link - The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
4. Number of pages: 559
5. Read a book with the theme of Books about books
6. Starting with the title which contains the word "book" and having the whole world in this novel function about a library, which gives knowledge to people through books. And on top the two main characters are obsessed with the books and they connect to each other through a book, I think there is no doubt how this book fits the theme of "Books about books"

1. Badge 1, Book 9
2. List 1, Task G
3. Link - The Book That Broke the World
4. Number of pages: 384
5. Read a book with the theme of Ghosts
6. Maybe it was not the main theme, but there were a lot of ghosts in the second book of the trilogy and it's a key element of the world. If you go to a time in the past, you are a ghost. If you go to the future, this becomes your present and everything before is a past, where you would be a ghost. The main story of Celcha starts with two ghosts (and later we find out who they are). She herself becomes a ghost and as such finally learns the truth of what happened. While Livira and Evar are ghosts, she sees them and based on that she decides her own future fate. When you are a ghost, you are untouchable and you can witness the past, but you are also helpless and cannot change anything. So I would argue the theme of ghosts is quite present in this book.

1. Badge 1, Book 10
2. List 1, Task S
3. Link - The Great Alone
4. Number of pages: 435
5. Read a book with the theme of Survival
6. Survival can come in many forms and is present in a few ways in this book. There is the survival in the harsh Alaska landscape, especially in winters when you have no access to food, or in sprint when bears are waking up and looking for food. It is easy to slip and fall and often there are accidents that end in death. There are several key accidents in this book as well that determine the fate of some characters. And then there is a survival in an abusive relationship. How do you leave a person you love? How do you survive if you don't leave? What does it take to bring you over the ledge? All questions that are answered as part of The Great Alone.