A HUGE thank you to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting another fabulous game — I had a total blast!
Final Stats
Final status of my bank account: $181
37 books counting towards the game
* 35 books finished
* 2 DNFs
* 11,640 pages read
Somehow I managed to steer clear of jail and visit all except five squares of the board over the course of the game, a few of them even repeatedly. The only novelty card I never picked up was the cat — I suspect the BL-opoly gods decided there were enough cats in my game already and they needed to redress the balance by giving me three Scottie dogs instead!
A few more stats:
Books read towards my individual challenges:
Around the World in 80 Books: 26 books (incl. 2 DNF)
– of these, 2 books by Native American authors
– and 13 books (incl. 2 DNF) by authors from / set in countries other than the UK and U.S.
221b Baker Street and Beyond (aka Summer of Sherlock): 2 books
(+ 1 book read outside BL-opoly)
Summer of Spies (Redux): 2books
Mystery Classics: 7 books
The Gender Wars:
* Books by female authors: 19
* Books by male authors: 18
My marker was based (of course) on my little assistants and good luck charms, Sunny and Charlie, who were again helping me pick my books.
My Progress Spreadsheet
The Books and the Board
The Questions
Who?: Ellis Peters: Monk’s Hood – finished July 2, 2019.
Why?: Gertrude Bell: A Woman in Arabia – finished August 2, 2019.
How?: Julia Alvarez: How the García Girls Lost Their Accents – finished May 26.
Douglas Adams: The HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – finished June 27, 2019.
Wendy Moore: Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match – finished July 11, 2019.
When?: C.J. Sansom: Tombland – finished July 1, 2019.
The Railroads
The Silk Road: Banine: Days in the Caucasus – finished August 9, 2019.
The Patagonia Star: Laura Restrepo: Hot Sur – DNF @ p. 55 July 25, 2019.
The Cape-to-Cairo Railway: Kofi Annan: Interventions – finished May 30, 2019.
Aminatta Forna: The Memory of Love – finished June 16, 2019.
The Nordic Express: Cary Elwes: As You Wish – finished August 7, 2019.
School’s Out For Summer
#1: Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility – finished June 3, 2019.
#3: Frank Froest: The Grell Mystery – finished June 5, 2019.
#4: ./.
The Stay-Cation
#6: John Le Carré: A Small Town in Germany – finished July 29, 2019.
#7: Miles Burton: The Secret of High Eldersham – finished May 21, 2019.
J.K. Rowling: The Casual Vacancy – finished July 14, 2019.
#9: John Le Carré: A Murder of Quality – finished June 19, 2019.
Chingiz Aitmatov: Jamilia – finished July 3, 2019.
Ann Leckie: The Raven Tower – finished July 23, 2019.
Beach Week
#10: Renee Ahdieh: The Wrath and the Dawn – DNF @ p. 146 July 31, 2019.
#11: Julian Symons: The Belting Inheritance – finished June 6, 2019.
#12:
Mountain Cabin
#15: Louise Erdrich: The Plague of Doves – finished May 23, 2019.
Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman: Good Omens – finished July 16, 2019.
#16: Ellen Wilkinson: The Division Bell Mystery – finished May 28, 2019.
Georgette Heyer: A Blunt Instrument – finished June 8, 2019.
Ronald Knox: The Body in the Silo – finished June 21, 2019.
#18: James D. Doss: The Night Visitor – finished July 5, 2019.
The Lake House:
#19: Margaret Atwood: Hag-Seed – finished May 25, 2019.
#20: Winifred Holtby: South Riding – finished July 10, 2019.
M.M. Kaye: Death in Kashmir – finished July 19, 2019.
#22: Richard Hull: The Murder of My Aunt – finished June 24, 2019.
The Summer Blockbuster
#25: Witi Ihimaera: The Whale Rider – finished May 31, 2019.
#27: ./.
The Summer Romance
#28: ./.
#30: ./.
European Vacation
#33: Ronald Knox: The Three Taps – finished May 31, 2019.
#35: Israel Zangwill: The Perfect Crime, aka The Big Bow Mystery – finished June 16, 2019.
Andrea Camilleri: The Shape of Water – finished July 20, 2019.
#36: Candace Robb: The Apothecary Rose – finished July 26, 2019.
The Novelty Cards
The Race Car: Picked up on May 24; used on August 8.
The Robot: Picked up on July 2; used on July 31.
The Cat: ./.
The Dog: Picked up on July 2, July 19 and July 23; used on July 19, July 29 and August 6.
The Four Corners
GO: Collected $20 on May 20; and $5 each on:
May 24 – June 1 – June 9 – July 1 – July 2 – July 19 – July 27 – August 8.
Jail: ./.
Free Parking: July 23: dice roll: 8 => Scottie Dog.
Go to Jail: ./.
The BookLikes Squares:
Spin the Wheel Decide
#24: August 2: Read a book that has been on your TBR for over a year. (Sarah Bakewell: At the Existentialist Café – finished August 6, 2019.)
#31: May 24: Move to the space of your choice.
(→ Race car via GO)
June 9: Two extra rolls.
Lioness at Large 