24 Festive Tasks: Door 9 - Thanksgiving - Tasks

Update - 04 Dec.: Task 1 and 2 completed.

 

Task 1:  List the 3 books you’ve read this year you’re most “thankful” for (your favs) or the one book you’ve ever read that changed your life for the better.

 

Jane Wagner's - The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

 

I have not written a review for this, yet, but I found this book (which was also a Broadway show starring Lily Tomlin) rather thought-provoking and moving, and there is one scene, where the "crazy" lady takes the aliens to the theatre that is just hard to forget. It is seriously beautiful, and, like much of the book, makes the reader question perspectives that we take for granted.

 

Marc-Uwe Kling's - Das Känguru-Manifest (and the rest of the trilogy)  

 

I believe non-German-speaking readers are missing out here. I loved everything about this book (and its sequels). So much so, that the audio-versions accompanied me and mum on our trip to Berlin (where the book is set). Seriously, I could not belive that I would grow so fond of a communist kangaroo and it's struggle against it's nemesis - the penguin from across the hall.

 

Ursula K. LeGuin's - No Time to Spare

 

It may be that reading this book shortly after LeGuin's passing added to the book's impact on me, but it brought home so many things about Le Guin, her attitude to life, to readers, authors, as well as my attitude towards her work and so much more. I really loved this one.  

 

Task 2:  Describe your perfect meal.  What would you cook for the perfect celebration, or, what would you have your imaginary personal chef cook for you?

 

I thought about this one long and hard, but I don't think I have a favourite meal, and to move along further in the task's description, I don't think there is anything I would ask a chef to cook for me. The reason for this is that my favourite meals have probably been the ones prepared by of for and shared with friends and/or family. 

 

I think I mentioned it in a comment somewhere, but my gran's potato salad was one of those meals. She didn't use a recipe, and it was simply the best. My mum and I have tried for decades to recreate it, but come only marginally close (tho my mum has created her own outstanding version in the process...). 

I am fairly convinced that no chef could ever even come close.

 

Task 3:  Name a book you’ve read this year that you thought was full of “stuffing”.

 

Again, I keep thinking about how The Hunchback of Notre Dame was full of weird descriptions of architecture, but this had a purpose and I really liked it, so I can't nominate that book for this task.

 

Steve Brusatte's Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs on the other hand, ... now there was a book the content of which could have been halved if the unnecessary detail had been removed. 

It would still have been a painful (read "cringe-inducing") read, but at least it would have made for a short book.

 

Task 4:  Show us your 2018 book “harvest” – the books you newly acquired this year, regardless whether bought, received as gift or in whichever other way.

 

Skipping this. There are too many books to face here, and I didn't exactly keep a record.

 

Book:  Autumnal covers, set in New England, or a turkey shows up in the story.

 

(searching for book)