The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

30.6 - Sandy's task: Dancing in the Streets
To me, summer is all about the music, and my favorite summer memories involve lots of dancing to 60s Motown music. For this task we'll revisit some of the songs and artists of 60s Motown Music.

Read two books, one from each of the following options. **The two books must have a combined total of at least 500 pages.**

NOTE: ebooks without print versions cannot be used for tasks requiring a specific number of pages. If you read an ebook or audiobook use the page count for the mass market paperback if one exists. If there is no mass market paperback edition, use the paperback edition and if no paperback is available use the hardcover edition.

No books with a main page genre of childrens or kids may be used for this task.

Book 1. In a 2013 Rolling Stone reader's poll, the following songs were voted the top 10 greatest Motown Songs:
10. Let's Get It On (Marvin Gaye)
9. Dancing in the Street (Martha & the Vandellas)
8. Ain't No Mountain High Enough (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
7. Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
6. Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Temptations)
5. Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
4. Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (Temptations)
3. I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
2. What's Going On (Marvin Gaye)
1. My Girl (Temptations)

Definitely some Marvin Gaye fans voting here!

Read a book, the title/subtitle of which contains a word of at least 4 letters from the title of one of these songs . Words must match exactly - no variations.

Book 2. Some of the great Motown groups/artists from the 60s were:

Four Tops Jimmy Ruffin
Marvin Gaye The Supremes
Gladys Knight The Temptations
Martha Reeves Mary Wells
Smokey Robinson Stevie Wonder

Read a book whose author has the same initials as one of these Motown artists. The author's middle initial may be disregarded.

This works:

JoAnn Russ

reserved

This thread is now open!

Possibly dumb question right off the bat here but I want to make sure I'm reading right lol For book 1, the matching word can be from any lyric in the song not just the title of the song, yes?

I love this task <3

Cait wrote: "Possibly dumb question right off the bat here but I want to make sure I'm reading right lol For book 1, the matching word can be from any lyric in the song not just the title of the song, yes?"

no - the title of the song. We'll edit the task to make that clear.

Okie dokie. Good thing I asked then, hey lol Thank you!

Victoria (RedsCat) wrote: "I love this task <3"

Thanks - I was having trouble coming up with a task, then realized that I was dancing around the house to one of my Motown CDs - bingo!

Cait wrote: "Okie dokie. Good thing I asked then, hey lol Thank you!"

Thanks for pointing out the ambiguity so we could fix it fast!

Question re option 2 - author initials
Must they be in the same order? So if I'm matching Gladys Knight the author initials must be G.K. (NOT K.G.)

Hope that made sense.

Book Concierge wrote: "Question re option 2 - author initials
Must they be in the same order? So if I'm matching Gladys Knight the author initials must be G.K. (NOT K.G.)

Hope that made sense."

It does, and yes - the initials must match, so G.K. for Gladys Knight, not K.G.

Just checking that Let's & Ain't count as 4-letter words for option 1. Thanks!

Melanie wrote: "Just checking that Let's & Ain't count as 4-letter words for option 1. Thanks!"

yes, they both have 4 letters in addition to the apostrophe.

Thanks for a fun task! If anyone is looking for an author for book 2, I recommend Marty Wingate for Mary Wells.

I've read a couple of Marty's books and they are nice quick read cozy mysteries. :)

Would JoAnn Ross work for Jimmy Ruffin?
I ask because she has another capital letter in her name.

Lauren wrote: "Would JoAnn Ross work for Jimmy Ruffin?
I ask because she has another capital letter in her name."

The extra capital letter isn't a problem - there's no space there, so JoAnn would be one word, no matter how many capitals she threw in!

Can Rolling be used for Rollin'? Or does the apostrophe cancel that out.

Trish wrote: "Can Rolling be used for Rollin'? Or does the apostrophe cancel that out."

Sorry, the words need to match exactly.

Smokey Robinson = Salman Rushdie & Samuel Richardson

This is going to be a bit of a scramble so if anyone else has author ideas I'd love to hear them :-)

More from the combined list.

Marvin Gaye = Maxin Gorky

Gladys Knight = Gottfried Keller & Gyorgy Konrad

Martha Reeves = Marilynne Robinson

Jimmy Ruffin = Jean Rhys, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Roth & Julian Rios

The Supremes = Tobias Smollett

Mary Wells = Marina Warner & Martin Walser

Stevie Wonder = Sarah Waters, Stanislaw Witkiewicz & Sylvia Warner

Well I guess I should be able to find a winner out of that lot!

A few more:

Malcolm Gladwell
Simon Wiesenthal
Sloan Wilson
Susan Wilson
Simon Winchester
Mary Doria Russell
Twan Eng Tan

Nicola wrote: "Smokey Robinson = Salman Rushdie & Samuel Richardson

This is going to be a bit of a scramble so if anyone else has author ideas I'd love to hear them :-)"

Option 2: Miss Read, J D Robb, Scott Westerfield, Simon Winchester, M K Wren, Martha Grimes

Teri-k wrote: "Nicola wrote: "Smokey Robinson = Salman Rushdie & Samuel Richardson

This is going to be a bit of a scramble so if anyone else has author ideas I'd love to hear them :-)"

Option 2: Miss Read, J D ..."

Thomas Tyron
Garrison Keiller
Marilynne Robinson

For option 2, I chose Stevie Wonder and paired him with Stephen White.

Do I understand correctly when I assume the supremes the innitials would be t.s and the temptations would be t.t ?

Bellagbear wrote: "Do I understand correctly when I assume the supremes the innitials would be t.s and the temptations would be t.t ?"

yep

Sandy wrote: "Bellagbear wrote: "Do I understand correctly when I assume the supremes the innitials would be t.s and the temptations would be t.t ?"

yep"

ok thanks :)

Book 1: Let's Get Lost by Sarra Manning

Book 2: The Venus Fix by M.J. Rose