October RandomCAT: Playing Cards

Anyone up for a card game?

The goal this month is to read a book with either the name of a card game in the title or author name such as bridge, poker, (go) fish, solitaire, etc... You can also choose to find a book that has one of the suits of cards in the title or author name as well (diamond, heart, spade, club). Or if it suits your fancy to read about cards then by all means do so.

Here are some suggestions:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Heart of Darkness
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Diamond Solitaire
And Ladies of the Club
The Joy Luck Club
The Camel Club
The Queen of Spades
Bridge Over the River Kwai
Liar's Poker
Big Fish

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Oh this sounds like fun! Great idea, Stacy!

I like this idea! I'll have to search my TBR to see what might fit.

ETA: As it turns out, I have several possibilities!

Barry Hughart, Bridge of Birds
Alison Goodman, The Dark Days Club
Lissa Evans, Crooked Heart
Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions
Peter Lovesey, The Last Detective (main character is Peter Diamond)
Joyce Dennys, Henrietta's War

I'll be re-reading McNally's Chance, by Lawrence Sanders / Vincent Lardo. My copy has playing cards on the cover!

The challenge has also inspired me to add The King's Agent, by J. Kent Clark, to my on-deck pile.

>3 christina_reads: - The Peter Lovesey series is what inspired this challenge! I bought Diamond Solitaire earlier this year and was struck by the different ways the title reminded me of cards. I'll definitely be reading that one in October. I may even try to get one of each suit for fun. Based on what I currently have on my shelves to read I could do the following:

America is not the Heart
Diamond Solitaire
The Queen of Spades and Other Stories
Clouds in My Coffee (The Country Club Murders)

Plus, I may finally finish Bridge Over the River Kwai this month. Poor book, I started it months ago and then set it aside. Need to get back to it.

>5 LittleTaiko: Ha, I love that! I was actually leaning toward The Last Detective anyway, so now I'll definitely make that one a priority!

Thinking about The President's Club which has been on my Kindle for a while.

>3 christina_reads: >5 LittleTaiko: >6 christina_reads: If I can find my copy of The Last Detective, I'll join you. If I can't find my copy, if I can grab a library e-book or audiobook, I'll still join you.

If I can't find anything better, my reading group's choice for October is Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King and a King is a card.

This is a fun topic! I have over 20 on my TBR that could fit the theme. It's probably going to depend on how much time I have. Right now I'm thinking The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett but it's over 500 pages.

Oh, I like this! it just might take a bit of digging...

I also have quite a number of books that will fit this, but for now I am looking at Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson.

I feel like "heart" is the easiest, and I have one that also fits AlphaKIT, but I hope I can find another one that's a bit more of a challenge than "heart"!

Lies of the Heart / Michelle Boyajian

I think I will probably read The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: a True Story of Injustice in the American South by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington about two dishonest men who often served as "expert witnesses" for the prosecution in numerous trials in Mississippi, resulting in imprisonment for many innocent people.

Other possibilities are The Sound of Our Own Voices: Women's Study Clubs, 1860-1910 by Theodora Penny Martin or Diamonds: the Evolution of the Ballpark by Michael Gershman.

Great theme! And the picture is cute.

I think I'll try reading Wild for this one (as in 'deuces wild').

I love this theme!

I have a number of options, and may try to get to more than one of them, so we'll see. They include:

Diamond Age (which would also fit the Neal Stephenson groupread…
Broken Hearts Club (which has hearts and club in the title!) by Ethan Black
Camel Club by David Baldacci
Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman
and...
Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou

I have a few options, not sure what I'll read yet:

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
Timeless at Heart by C. S. Lewis
Martin Luther: Heart of the Reformation by Edwin Prince Booth
The Club of Queer Trades by G. K. Chesterton
The Floating Admiral by The Detection Club
The Skylarks' War by Hilary McKay

I have to admit that using one of the card suits may be taking the easy way out, but I've got a few I can use, so my choices are:

Stone Cold by David Baldacci (from the Camel Club series)
The Wildwater Walking Club by Clair Cook
Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon
A Song I Knew By Heart by Bret Lott
One Heart by Jane McCafferty

>16 scaifea: Very clever, Amber. :-)

>20 EBT1002: Ha! Thanks, Ellen! I'm glad you think it's clever rather than cheating...

>21 scaifea: - Definitely clever! It also brings to mind straight, flush, full house, etc...

>22 LittleTaiko: Ha! Thanks! And those are excellent ideas! If one added "stud" to the list, that may open up a complete different genre of possibilities...

>23 scaifea: *snort*

bluff, kitty, deal, draw, joker, ante (okay, the last one doesn't open up much)....

>23 scaifea: Ha! Love it!

Who knew that RandomCAT could be so much fun?

>23 scaifea: Shuffle might be more appropriate for some of us! LOL!

After checking the tbr shelves I've come up with a few to choose from:

That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
Priest by Ken Bruen - the next one for me in the Jack Taylor series
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett featuring Sam Spade
The Tooth Tattoo by Peter Lovesey featuring detective Peter Diamond
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming

>25 EBT1002: *grins*

>26 clue: *snork!*

Well duh - I just finished Black Diamond by Martin Walker (which I enjoyed very much)...

I found Wonderland on my shelf (which has dices on the cover rather than cards as I remembered) but fits as it was written by Ace Atkins.
Or for a bit of a stretch Diamantenstaub by Ahmed Mourad.
Even weirder - I've got a Spanish copy of Cartas sobre la mesa (Cards on the table) by Agatha Christie

I'm thinking I may have to go with hearts. I have a few, most likely one of these:

The Lonely Hearts Hotel
The Heart Between Us

I asked my daughter to list some card games, and one she said that I hadn't thought of was War, which would open up quite a few possibilities. One off my shelf that I might do instead of going with hearts would be The Genius Wars.

I plan on Carnegie's Maid representing the Old Maid card game of my youth. Hopefully the world has come up with a more current and appropriate name for this children's game.

I'm trying to think of a book I want to read that has "Moon" in the title, as in "shooting the moon." :-D
This is fun!

>30 virginiahomeschooler: Oh I remember that card game! Adding "War" to the list definitely opens up some possibilities! Tell your daughter we said thanks!

I'm planning to read The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher.

I was in the bookstore today and quite by chance found a story that is literally written on a deck of playing cards: The Family Arcana. It is a "gothic fable". You shuffle the cards to get a different story each time, or you can play cards with it. Of course I had to pick it up. A little gimmicky but fun. No touchstone, as it's not on LibraryThing, and I think I'd have to enter it manually.

I decided to go with The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman for this CAT -- clubs being one of the four suits in a standard deck -- because it also works for the SFFKIT.

I'm going to count my MysteryCAT selection here as well, Moonraker by Ian Fleming. The first several chapters of the book have Bond involved with a big stakes card game.

I'm using Die Vollendung des Königs Henri IV for this, because König is German for king.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
After losing her mother to cancer, a woman sabotages her marriage, nearly self-destructs via heroin (among other ways), then decides to self-medicate by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone with no actual training and never having gone backpacking before.
Yeah, I struggled with this one. It was definitely an exercise empathizing with someone very different from me, and I'm embarrassed with myself that I didn't do well at it; all the while I was thinking that her circumstances in life have been so different from mine, so of course it makes sense that her choices would be different and that's okay, that's allowed, and she still gets my sympathy and support (and she does, honest), but at the same time there was that niggling little voice in my head saying, "What the heck, lady?" and, "Really?! That's what seemed the best choice there?!" and, "Oh for cripes sake, tell me you didn't actually eat that?!" I'm not proud of that voice, and although I can't exactly say that I enjoyed the experience of reading this book, I'm grateful for it pointing out to me that, as accepting as I think I am, I have work to do still. (NB: I will not be hiking any 1000+ mile trails for such self-reflection, though.)

>39 scaifea: lol, best review of Wild that I've seen. That's exactly what my brain thought as I read it, right to the end that I will not be hiking 1000+ miles.
(I did read a book about hiking the Spanish Camino trail, and it seemed more doable and even interesting. What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim was much more like my life so I could imagine me there.)

>40 raidergirl3: Oh, whew! I thought I'd be in the minority with this one; I'm glad I'm not alone! And thanks for the recommendation - I'll add it to the list!

I finished Mary Lawson's The Other Side of the Bridge while on vacation. Lawson employs quiet, reflective prose to convey a powerful coming of age story mired in moral quandaries, sibling rivalry, the devastating impact the second World War had on small farming communities and the sheer daunting influence of Mother Nature and her ability to isolate communities.

Highly, highly recommended!

COMPLETED Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King

Starting Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida

>43 Robertgreaves: - Oooo - That gave me an idea for a different book. (King)

I finished Agatha Christie's Cards on the Table. There was a lot of analysis of bridge that went over my head, but I still enjoyed the story very much.

>45 mathgirl40: I've always loved that book! And I agree, the bridge analysis is confusing, but it makes me want to learn how to play!

COMPLETED Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida

The river is the final card in Texas Hold 'em, so I am counting A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul here.

Just finished The Tooth Tattoo by Peter Lovesey
An intriguing mystery featuring detective Peter Diamond, a classical music layman who must investigate a complex crime involving a chamber music quartet. Some interesting information on varied topics including netsuke, tooth tattoos, and patrons who allow musicians to play their valuable instruments. I always enjoy Lovesey and this one was no exeption. I especially liked how the music fitted so well with the story. Well done!

I really enjoyed reading Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: a Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII by Karen Lindsey. Although this does not have anything connected with card games in its title or author's name, it is about queens looking at them from a feminist view. Ms. Lindsey tells about these six queens' lives from their point of view, and examines how they why they did particular things, including why the later queens would marry Henry VIII when he had so violently gotten rid of earlier wives. In addition to discussing these six queens, Ms. Lindsey discusses other queens in Europe and women in court (as the queens' attendants, etc.), particularly as they relate to the wives of Henry VIII. One of the past-times of the queens and their ladies was playing cards.

Earlier this month I began The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington about two men, one as a medical examiner performing many too many autopsies to do them well and a dentist pretending to be a forensic specialist, who together were responsible for condemning numerous primarily poor black men to prison and/or death. However, this book kept diverting from its main thesis, and became tiresome to read. I also began Diamonds: the Evolution of the Ballpark: from Elysian Fields to Camden Yards by Michael Gersham, but this coffee table style book, printed on shiny paper, was rather difficult to follow with pages of pictures separating the text.

I completed my read of Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson. This was a very good fairytale adaptation as the author mixed a familiar French tale with an Indian setting and mythology to make the story fresh and original.

>45 mathgirl40: I also read Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie, and I also know zip about bridge, but still enjoyed the story. A similar (but not exactly the same) premise as And Then There Were None, in which people who've "gotten away with" murder are all invited to the same party, but this time detective types (including Poirot) are also invited.

Starting "Three Wrong Turns in the Desert" by Neil Plakcy

I am reading two books that should work. Hopefully I will get it done. The Iron Heel by Jack London (Jack) and King of the Vagabonds by Neal Stephenson.

Completed 10/26/18

I ended up finding more books than I was expecting for this month. Finished one more, God Save the Queen by Kate Locke which I enjoyed quite a bit.

I've been reading The Moor by Laurie R. King but am not liking it as much as her others, so far. They've just spent 30+ pages wandering around the moor and I can't see what difference it's going to make to the story. Still, I persevere.

I listened to (all 18 hours) of The Outsider by Stephen King. It was long, but classic King, so very good. A great character from the Finders Keepers series shows up, and that made a great addition.

Finished The Broken Hearts Club by Ethan Black--full review written!

COMPLETED Three Wrong Turns in the Desert by Neil Plakcy

CURRENTLY READING The Death's Head Chess Club by John Donoghue

I wanted to find something a little more challenging than using "heart", but it's what I ended up with, anyway!

Heart's Blood / Juliet Marillier
4 stars

18-year old Caitrin has recently lost her father and distant relatives have come to take over the house and to “take care” of Caitrin in her time of grief. Well, Cillian is abusive and Caitrin’s sister has left to marry a travelling musician, and Caitrin can’t take it anymore. She leaves and finds herself in Whistling Tor. The village seems fine, though they aren’t used to outsiders visiting, but she soon heads up the mountain (despite warnings of the odd goings-on there) to see if she can land herself a job as a scribe, which her father was, and which she, herself, trained as. Once there, she is a bit taken aback by the head of the house (and cheiftan of the area, though most don’t see him as a leader). As she gets to know the people there, she soon learns that things are odder, still.

I may have known this (I likely did!) when I added it to my tbr, but it’s been long enough that I didn’t remember (until looking at tags assigned and perusing a few other reviews after I finished reading it) that this was a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”. I didn’t catch it while reading, though I see traces of it, knowing after the fact.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I quite liked the characters. I did – sort of – figure out the twist earlier on. Well, it flitted through my head as a possibility, then disappeared again. But, that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it, at all.

I finally finished The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher