Door 1- Dia De Los Muetos (Task 1): Compose a limerick or short poem in honor of a favorite book character.

Door 1- Dia De Los Muetos (Task 2): If you like Mexican food, treat yourself to a favorite dish – and / or make yourself a margarita – and share a photo

Door 1- Dia De Los Muetos (Task 3): Write an epitaph for the book you most disliked this year.

Door 1- Dia De Los Muertos (Task 4): Do you have any traditions or mementos of happy memories of a loved one that you feel like sharing?

 

Door 2- Japanese Culture Day (Task 1): Tell us about a cultural festival or event in the area where you live.

Door 2- Japanese Culture Day (Task 3): Try your hand at folding a paper crane. Instructions: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Paper-Crane-1/

 

Door 3 - Melbourne Cup Day (Task 1): Pick your Ponies (Il Paradiso placed 3rd) - one of the horses I picked. (+1 Bonus Point)

Door 3 - Melbourne Cup Day (Task 2): Roses are the official flower of Flemington Race Track; write your own “Roses are Red, Violets are Blue” poem for one of your favorite or most hated books of all time.

Door 3 - Melbourne Cup Day (Task 3): Aussies shorten everything, so Melbourne Cup Day is just called “Cup Day” – post a picture of your favorite cup or mug for your daily fix of coffee, tea or chocolate.

Door 3 - Melbourne Cup Day (Task 4): Prepare your favorite dessert – in a cup! Post a photo of it for us to enjoy vicariously.

 

Door 4 - Guy Fawkes Night (Task 1): Make a list of the top 3 treasonous crimes against books that an author can commit.

Door 4 - Guy Fawkes Night (Task 2): Start a revolution: What one thing would you change about the book reading world? (Be it publishing, distribution, editing, cover art, bookstores – anything having to do with books.)

Door 4 - Guy Fawkes Night (Task 4): How do you order the books on your shelves?

 

Door 5 - Bon Om Touk (Task 1): List / tell us about your favorite rainy day reads.

 

Door 6 - Veterans / Armistice Day (Task 1): Sunrise services are a staple of this day: Take a picture of the sunrise where you live and share it with us.

 

Door 8 - International Children’s Day (Book): Read a children’s or YA book or a book where children or teenagers play a significant role, or written by an author who was under the age of 18 at the time of publication.

 

Door 9 - World Philosophy Day (Task 1): Share your reading philosophy with us – do you DNF? If so, do you have a page minimum to read before you declare it a DNF?

Door 9 - World Philosophy Day (Task 2): Share your reviewing philosophy with us – how do you rate a book? Do you have a mental template for reviewing? Rules you try to follow, or rules you try to break?

Door 9 - World Philosophy Day (Task 3): How do you stay zen / sane over the holidays or in other stressful periods?

Door 9 - World Philosophy Day (Task 4): Did you love or hate the books you had to read for school? Looking back, which ones (good or bad) stand out to you the most?

 

Door 11 - Thanksgiving Day (Book): Read a book with an autumnal cover, set in New England, where a turkey shows up in the story, with a turkey or pumpkin on the cover, or with the theme of coming together to help a community or family in need.

 

Door 12 - St. Andrew's Day (Task 1): Tell us: Who is your favorite Scottish (or Scots-born / -descendant) writer?

 

Door 13 - Advent (Task 2): Tell us: What is your favorite holiday tradition?

 

Door 17 - Winter Solstice (Book): Read a book that takes place in December, with ice or snow on the cover, where all events take place in a single day or night, that revolves around the solstice, set in Persia / Iran, China or the American Southwest or prominently featuring Persian / Iranian, Chinese or Native American characters, or a collection of poetry.

 

 

Door 18 - Hanukkah (Book): Read a book about light, miracles, featuring Jewish characters, set in Israel, that is the second book in a series, with the word “two” in the title, or with a light on the cover.

 

 

Door 20 - Christmas (Book): Read a Christmas book.

 

Total Points: 27 Points

Book: Read a children’s or YA book or a book where children or teenagers play a significant role, or written by an author who was under the age of 18 at the time of publication.

 

Here is a book that is a Children's Book and has a child that plays a significant role.

 

Book: Read a book with an autumnal cover, set in New England, where a turkey shows up in the story, with a turkey or pumpkin (pie) on the cover, or with the theme of coming together to help a community or family in need.

 

So the Book for this, will be The Society of Extraordinary Raccoon Society on Boasting - I added the word pie in (). I hope that is okay given that it a pumpkin pie on the over and not just a pumpkin as you suggest. From the glimpse of going though the book it look like it talks about food and helping those in need in their community as well as learning a lesson in Boasting.

A Taste of Liberty (Task Force 125 - Boo... This was the first one of Ms Pietsch's Task Force 125 books that I read (free from Amazon UK). It clearly is a sequel but was easy enough to read as a stand-alone.

Task Force 125 is a Dark Ops team, based out of Las Vegas, operating in Europe. Sarah is the honey-pot that they use to obtain intel on/from various international lowlifes before the team eliminates them - permanently. Along with Sarah is a group of drop-dead gorgeous former military types (one is FBI, one a Recon Marine, one a SEAl etc).

What is refreshing about this series is that Sarah is a REALLY strong female character. In the first book she gunned down pirates (dressed in a bikini) whilst the rest of her team were pinned down without weapons, she also murdered two arms dealers in close physical quarters - one of whom she found very attractive and had been sleeping with for several weeks. She is a hard-drinking, smoking, swearing woman who speaks her mind and stands up for herself.

In this book Sarah is tasked with getting close to "Mr Big" in the arms dealing business and placing bugs to allow the team to identify his entire network before they wipe him out.

Freedom's Promise (Task Force 125 - Book... Another great addiiton to the series.

Vince has been captured by Nikolai and Task Force 125 need to rescue him.

What I like about this series, aside from Sarah's character which is so refreshingly different, is that Ms Pietsch seems to really know her stuff. She bandies around makes of helicopters and guns easily - I know nothing about either but since Ms Pietsch is a USAF veteran I imagine she knows her stuff. Ms Pietsch is also clearly well-travelled and her familiarity with Europe and the Middle East (as well as Australia) shines through her writing - unlike some authors who "set" their books but know nothing about the countries they write about.

To sum it up - this is a book about grown-ups written by a grown-up and I loved it. Yes, it is light-hearted but none the worse for that.