What's in a Name 2018 Wrap-up

This is my 7th time participating in the What's in a Name Challenge which is currently hosted at The Worm Hole. I love this challenge because it stretches my reading more than most challenges do. Since the book selections aren't driven at all by topic, just by a word in the title I tend to read things outside my usual choices.
Here are the books I read for each category this year:

• The word ‘the’ used twice (The Flight of the Falcon)
• A fruit or vegetable (Lemon Meringue Pie Murder)
• A shape (Circle of Quilters)
• A title that begins with Z (Zin)
• A nationality (The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning)
• A season (If On a Winter's Night a Traveler)

Zin

Zin: The History And Mystery Of Zinfandel
by David Darlington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is interesting more as an historical oddity than anything else. It was written in 1991 (and was originally published under the title Angels' Visits) and published by Da Capo Press in 2001 when a new afterword was added.
David Darlington travels around California, mostly in the late 1980s, talking to various men who are making Zinfandel in commercial wineries (as opposed to home winemakers). They drink wine, they analyze what they are drinking, and they philosophize (sometimes at a length well beyond sober judgement) about why Zinfandel is the great American varietal. We do hear quite a bit about the home-wine making activities of the author and his friends. The histories of these people (some of whom run wineries that are now huge and successful, like Ravenswood) and how they came to be making wine is interesting. Because of the time it was written none of them know that Zinfandel is going to be successful, it is a fringe thing these few people are playing around with.
I am counting this book toward the What's in a Name Challenge as a title that begins with Z and am linking up with Weekend Cooking. It also counts toward my nonfiction reading challenge and I'm linking up with Nonfiction Friday.

Lemon Meringue Pie Murder

Lemon Meringue Pie Murder 
by Joanne Fluke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“On the one hand, it was nice to have someone who was concerned about you. But on the other hand, you couldn’t ever feel truly independent. Marriage was a trade-off. You gave up some things and you gained others.” ― Joanne Fluke, Lemon Meringue Pie Murder

This is #4 in the Hannah Swensen series. Like the earlier installments it was a charming story about a woman who owns a cookie shop in a small Minnesota town and gets herself mixed up in a murder investigation while juggling 2 romantic interests and a mom who never misses an opportunity to point out that she ought to get married before she gets any older. She also spends a lot of time feeding her cat and drinks more coffee than anyone I have ever seen. These are fun, fluffy, novels with recipes mixed in. The orange cookies sounded delicious. 
I am counting this book toward the What's in a Name Challenge as a book with a fruit in the title. 

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“I often ask myself, Will anyone I know be happier if I save this?” ― Margareta Magnusson, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

This was a charming book. It was lovely, and a little sad, to spend a few hours reading Margareta Magnusson's stories of her things and her death cleaning experiences. Full of good advice and just a little guilt (what my mother would call "sitting in the dark"). I did learn that in Stockholm on my Mom's birthday there is a big annual book sale.
This book counts toward the What's in a Name Challenge as it has a nationality in the title and the the 2018 Nonfiction Reading Challenge.

Circle of Quilters

Circle of Quilters
by Jennifer Chiaverini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this audiobook at the library because it had the word "circle" in the title and therefor completes the "shape" category in the 2018 What's in a Name Challenge. I have heard from various quilter friends that they really like Chiaverini's novels, but didn't really think they would appeal to me. I enjoyed this book very much. It was about the lives of a number of people who are applying for teaching positions at Elm Creek Quilt Camp. Their stories, and how they each come to apply for the job is told and then the reader is there for the interview of each. I enjoyed getting to know each person and was rooting for the various characters to do various things (I won't say what as I don't want to spoil the story).  There was some info about quilt making and a little bit of quilt history, but not as much as I expected. The structure of this particular novel may explain that. I am definitely going to read another of the Elm Creek Quilt novels.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"But how to establish the exact moment in which a story begins? Everything has already begun before, the first line of the first page of every novel refers to something that has already happened outside the book. Or else the real story is the one that begins ten or a hundred pages further on, and everything that precedes it is only prologue. The lives of individuals of the human race form a constant plot, in which every attempt to isolate one piece of living that has a meaning separate from the rest--for example the meeting of two people, which will become decisive for both--must bear in mind that each of the two brings with himself a texture of events, environments, other people, and that from the meeting, in turn, other stories will be derived which will break off from their common story." (p. 153)

This book was tremendously clever and was definitely the most meta book I have ever read. It is about a reader, you, who is reading a book that is being written by another character in the book, and possibly translated by yet another, but it keeps ending abruptly and when the reader finds another copy it is another book. There is another reader also reading the same book as you. In the capable hands of Calvino this isn't confusing.

Back in 2013 Avid Reader's Musings hosted a readalong of this novel, so check out those posts for more points of view about this book.

This book is from my classics club list, but was written in 1979 so isn't old enough to qualify for the back-to-the-classics challenge. It does count toward the What's in a Name challenge as the title contains a season.

The Flight of the Falcon

The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It wasn't as amazing as Rebecca, but this was an enjoyable novel set in Italy about a man returning to his past and realizing that it wasn't as he thought it had been.
There were quite a few twists and turns in the plot which kept things moving (not easy in a book that takes place entirely in one man's head).
This is my first book for the 2018 What's in a Name Challenge as it's title contains the word "the" twice.

2018 Reading Challenges

I have decided on 5 reading challenges for 2018 (in addition to the Canadian Book Challenge which ends on Canada Day):

#1 - Non-Fiction Reading Challenge hosted at Doing Dewey
I am challenging myself to read at least 12 non-fiction books this year.

#2 - What's in a Name 2018 hosted at The Worm Hole
This will require reading 6 books, one for each category:

• The word ‘the’ used twice (The Secret By The Lake; The End Of The Day, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time)
• A fruit or vegetable (The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society; The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake)
• A shape (The Ninth Circle, The Square Root Of Summer, Circle Of Friends)
• A title that begins with Z – can be after ‘The’ or ‘A’ (Zen In The Art Of Writing; The Zookeeper’s Wife, Zelda)
• A nationality (Anna And The French Kiss; How To Be A Kosovan Bride; Norwegian Wood)
• A season (White Truffles In Winter; The Spring Of Kasper Meier; The Summer Queen; Before I Fall; The Autumn Throne)

#3 - Back to the Classics 2018 hosted at Books and Chocolate
For this one I will need to read at least 6 and up to 12 books all at least 50 years old. No more than one for each of the categories:

• A 19th century classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.
• A 20th century classic - any book published between 1900 and 1968. 
• A classic by a woman author. 
• A classic in translation.  
• A children's classic. 
• A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction. 
• A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction. 
• A classic with a single-word title. 
• A classic with a color in the title. 
• A classic by an author that's new to you. 
• A classic that scares you. 
• Re-read a favorite classic. 

#4 - 2018 European Reading Challenge hosted at Rose City Reader
This will require reading 5 books by different European authors or set in different European countries (Deluxe Entourage level)

#5 - I am also participating in the GoodReads 2018 Reading Challenge with a goal of reading 100 books.