Starting an UNOFFICIAL GastroCAT Challenge - 2nd Half

We're on to our second post, so tell us about your fruit and tea reads here.

For planning purposes for future months

July - Fruits or tea
August - Garden vegetables or water
September - School Lunch items or milk
October - Fall foods/apples/winter squash or cider
November - turkey/Thanksgiving or white wine
December - Christmas foods or hot drinks

ethnic foods are a wild card, right?

Right! and Thanks for posting the remaining schedule.

I'll be picking Oranges are not the only fruit up at the library this week. I watched the DVD recently, and am looking forward to comparing it with the book.

Then again, I just downloaded Tea and Teadrinking by from Gutenberg (very recent there) so I might read that.

Oh, yes, can we do different ethnic foods for more than one wild card? September and November look very difficult for me. (I could do Turkish food for November.)

Finished Tea and tea drinking and enjoyed it. Of course, having been written in 1884 it was mostly of historical interest.

GastroCAT Wiki http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2014_GastroCAT

>4 MarthaJeanne: yes, you can use ethnic foods as a wildcard.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit **

Not my cup of tea!

Finished my planned read for July's GastroKIT: Fruits or Tea

Britten and Brülightly by Hannah Berry (3.5 Stars)

This was a great fit, for it fit both Fruits-author's name AND Tea-story.

Notes:
Dark. From the story line to the drawings. Excellent graphic representation of the story. Britten, a private investigator, and Brülightly, his sidekick (a teabag), investigate a death to determine whether it was murder or suicide. Britten reeks of depression and Brülightly of dry wit. Not my usual cup of tea, (pun intended), but I liked it, all except for the very last page, although even that was in keeping with the story.

Just finished Five Quarters of the Orange for July and added it to the gastro wiki! Also, full review posted :)

>9 whitewavedarling: Interesting. The only book by Joanne Harris that I have read is Chocolat which I really enjoyed.

Can't seem to find something on my shelves that fits for July, but at least for August I'm all set with Water for Elephants.

>11 cyderry: :) I loved that book!

August starts tomorrow! Get ready for books dealing with garden vegetables and water.

My planned read for August is The green kitchen. We'll see if I stay with that. I'm covered, though, because of the Water for Elephants group read.

>14 MarthaJeanne: I loved Water For Elephants!If the Green Kitchen doesn't work out, you'll still have a great read.

It's out at the main library right now, but I might also go to another branch tomorrow, because I read two books in this series from there http://www.librarything.com/series/Shame+-+Forced+Marriage, then bought the third book. I asked if they'd like it, and got a 'yes' right back. (That particular branch has a special area of books about India.)

That branch's copy is in, so with two reasons to go, I'll probably do it if the rain isn't too bad.

Finished The green kitchen A rather weird whole food vegetarian cookbook. Read my review for more info on it. But there are certainly enough veggies for anyone in there.

I just finished Carry Me Across the Water by Ethan Canin...full review written, but not something I'd particularly recommend.

>17 MarthaJeanne: I read your review - I also dislike recipes that have ingredients from different seasons!

>18 whitewavedarling: I'm confused - you rated it 4.5 stars, but wouldn't generally recommend it?

>19 LoisB:, I think you were looking at the review below mine ;) I just rated it three stars--there just wasn't much of anything to make it an overly negative or positive experience for me! I did write a really short review, though, so I'm not surprised you noticed the lower stars!

>20 whitewavedarling: Ah - that explains it!

Just realized that along with Water for Elephants, I'm also going to be reading By Fire, By Water.

Great! I loved Water for Elephants!

Going Organic Can Kill You **.5

A cozy little mystery, but nothing special.

I just finished Water for elephants so I guess that makes two books this month. (I loved it, too.)

I have read The forms of water, a long-term TBR.

>25 MarthaJeanne: Two books - good job!

>26 soffitta1: Don't you feel a great sense of accomplishment when you finish something from the bottom of the TBR pile?

QUESTION - Does the food have to be the item to fit or can the place you get the food count - i.e. apples=orchard, oranges = grove?

Yes apples = orchard and oranges equal grove would count.

Re 27 - yes I do, it does feel satisfying - also it makes me feel better about buying three books from a used bookshop a couple of days ago! It's also good to know that the book was worth a read, it is annoying to finally get to a book and it is a dud.

My August reads for GastroCAT:

Water, Stone, Heart by Will North (water : title)
As the Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer (garden vegetables : story)

My September Read: Playing for Pizza by John Grisham, and it was so much fun! I posted to the wiki, and a full review is written. In my school, half of everyone ate pizza for lunch, and one of my clearest memories is watching students just mop grease off of the top with napkins. Not a pretty memory, if a humorous one, but this was the perfect book to fit, and great timing to get me in the mood for the new football season! Highly recommended.

Are potatoes a fall food? I just bought a new potato cookbook.

>33 MarthaJeanne: Apparently, they are. I just read a facebook post from someone in Michigan, talking about digging up her potatoes. So, go ahead and use it for the challenge!

I just read Prosi Exotic Kitchen : the perfect reason to cook which is an international cookbook brought out by the international supermarket I like to shop at. I get the feeling that no one involved in the project really understands what you need in a recipe to be able to cook a dish you have never seen before. Still it was fun to read.

(joker)

Back from vacation, and finished Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (think school lunch for the category). It was a nice little, relaxing cozy.

I picked up The Cider House Rules today, thinking it would be a long read and I might need the extra time even though it is my October read. It is long, and the print is small...but it's also simply wonderful. I'm sure it will still be finished in October and so technically be an October read, but I thought I'd note it here now in case anyone is still settling on a GastroCat read for next month :)

I'm planning on reading The Cider House Rules as well. But I'm so behind on my arc's and I'm in the middle of another long epic right now, that I may not get to it. It would be a re-read for me, but it is such a good story that I was looking forward to the re-read.

I only got halfway through the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. The only thing I got finished for this challenge was a children's book written and read by Neil Gaiman called Fortunately, the Milk. Cute, but forgettable.

>39 countrylife: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder falls into the same category.

I'm struggling with The Cider House Rules and have only gotten 28% thru it. I think it's time to develop plan B.

Plan B - Pearl Rule it!

I agree!

Back pedaling a little on Cider House Rules - I completely appreciated the book but can absolutely see how it might not be everyone's cup of tea (or hot cider if you prefer).

:) The funny thing is that this is a re-read for me, and I remember enjoying it the first time! It may be that it's not the type of book I want to read more than once or it may be just that I have not been feeling well and it requires more attention than I want to give it.

I'm about halfway through Cider House Rules and have really been enjoying it, though some parts have been so serious that I've needed a 'decompressing' read before bed. That said, the newer problem is that the print in my copy is very small, and I've been working so much that my eyes aren't handling the print so well :( I think I'll still finish it in October, but I don't think my plans to get to other reads are going to go quite so well as planned as a result...

>46 whitewavedarling: I had a hardcopy with the small print, too. I ended up getting a copy on my Kindle - much easier on the eyes.

I loved it, right time, right book. Don't you just love it when you click with a book?
Need to find my books for the next two months.

Lois are you going to do the Gastro KIT next year?

I wasn't planning on it due to the Cookbook Kit that will be happening.

I gave up on Cider House Rules but thoroughly enjoyed Death, Lies and Apple Pies!

I finished Cider House Rules Saturday, and finally got around to writing a very short review today. I enjoyed it :)

Can't figure out what I've done with that potato cookbook. Doesn't matter so much for here, as I have decided to read Cider House Rules (and it is waiting at a local branch library for me), but our neighbor just brought us our yearly bag of potatoes from a relative's garden. They are always such good potatoes that we tend to live off them until they are gone.

I'm a potato person - my #1 comfort food!

November starts tomorrow! Get ready to read those "turkey" books which will also work for TIOLI challenge #15.

Well, Cider House Rules is not going to be finished in October. But I'm about half way there. My November book is Ein Riesling zum Abschied. Grote is a German author who writes mysteries about wine. I'm not a thriller fan, but I'll make an exception now and again for his books.

>56 MarthaJeanne: Cider House Rules was going to be a re-read for me, but it ended up a DNF!

I just need another day or two - and a quieter one than the last few have been.

I'm planning on reading A great & godly adventure : the Pilgrims & the myth of the first Thanksgiving - I figure there has to be something about food in it, right?

>59 cyderry: I'm sure there is!

My OCTOBER GastroKIT reads were:
Bendigo Shafter by Louis L'Amour (deer/venison)
Cider Brook by Carla Neggers (cider & apples)

>61 countrylife: Congrats on a double!

Finished The cider house rules. I already have my November book, so I should do alright on that.

>63 MarthaJeanne: Good for you! I wish I could have stayed with it.

I finally found the potato book, too. Right where it should have been. Anyway, it has lots of good recipes.

Erdäpfel : Vielfalt, die glücklich macht

She has also put out cookbooks about tomatoes and herbs, so I may have to visit my favourite cookbook store soon. Oh, I see, the herb one is coming in the spring.

Have picked a kindle read for November, A Taste of Chardonnay, will be welcome fluff after this month's 1001 read, A Testament of Youth.

I hope you enjoy it! I will be reading The Trouble with Turkeys - another piece of Kindle fluff.

I'm planning on reading Thanksgiving Night by Richard Bausch--I've loved his short stories for year, but this will be my first try with his longer works, so I'm hoping for the best :)

Well, I finished The Trouble with Turkeys and rated it ***. It's a cute, little cozy mystery - a nice piece of fluff.

I finished Ein Riesling zum Abschied. His books are usually much better.

Finished Thanksgiving Night for November--I didn't think I was going to sneak it in by the end of the month, but I did! Full review written, and yes, I recommend it as a lovely quiet novel--a nice escape for free moments during the holiday season...

At the book fair last month I couldn't resist anders backen zu Weihnachten which has whole grain and/or low sugar recipes for Christmas baking, so I'll be reading that.

Sounds good. I will be reading A Catered Christmas which also has Christmas recipes.

My November gasto read was:

Like Sweet Potato Pie by Jennifer Rogers Spinola. Like many above, also fluff.

I finished A Catered Christmas - it was an OK cozy mystery with several Christmas-oriented recipes at the end.

>75 LoisB: That one isn't showing up in my LT, but I did read it before I was actively using LT. My recollection of the book is much the same as yours.

anders backen zu Weihnachten went further than I thought - and than I care to go.

This challenge completed.

Well, I've been reading Three Cups of Tea, and it's a really wonderful read, but I'm afraid I started it too late and I've been too busy to be able to plan on finishing it for December. That said, if you haven't already read it (and I know many of you probably have), I highly recommend it! I'll be finishing it in the new year instead of this December for the challenge, but through no fault of the book!

>78 whitewavedarling: I enjoyed Three Cups of Tea when I read it several years ago. However, there has been a lot of controversy about how the donations were spent. Three Cups of Deceit puts a bad spin on the story, and I have seen stories on the TV news magazines that make me cringe. Regardless, I think the young women benefiitted from his efforts and that's a good thing.

To all who participated in this challenge, I extend my thanks. I hope to see some of you on the CookingKIT thread. My best wishes to you for a Happy New Year!