September RandomCAT: Happy Birthday

This RandomCAT challenge is to read something by an author who has the same Date of Birth (same date, month, year) or birthday (same date and month, different year) as you.

If that's too difficult, try the same birth month or same birth year.

I share a birthday with Cervantes, Mrs. Gaskell, and William Beckford.

I've found lists for September and 1957. No doubt the sites have lists for other months and years.

Some of the possibilities already on my TBR lists are:



Please add your completed books to the wiki and let us know the author's birthday connection with you.

I checked a famous person's birthday site for the date of my birth. No one shared the same year with me, but I came up with 3 options. The easiest to find will be Mo Willems (1950). Next easiest is Sarah Palin (1964). The other option is Jeb Bush (1953). I'll probably try to locate some Willems and Palin. I've read all the Mo Willems titles at my university library, but the public library has several I've not read. Our library has several of Palin's works in ebook and audiobook.

My possibilities for the same month as me:

David Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Richard Adams: Tales from Watership Down
Daphne du Maurier: Hungry Hill, The King's General
Herman Wouk: The Caine Mutiny

I'm travelling in September, so the Hume might end up being read anyway even if it isn't my official RandomCAT selection. (That might end up being the Adams.)

>2 thornton37814:, We have the same birthday!!! For our day, Jane Yolen is another choice. I'm not hugely fond of any of these other options, though, so I'm going to keep looking and find someone who just shares the same month or year :)

Edit: I just realized that Patricia A. McKillip shares my birthday month, February, so I'll be reading one of her fairy tale-ish novels, The Tower at Stony Wood.

Off the top of my head, I'm remembering a children's picture book author... Jan someone as having my birthday. I've read a couple that she's written (for a previous challenge a few years back, it was one where I was looking for an author with my exact birth date, as well) and they were very nice picture books. I was planning to read at least one more, but it will have a winter theme, so I'm going to look again to see if there is another author that shares my birthday! If not, I might go back to that 3rd book I wanted to read by her, anyway.

Just checked a bit. Looks like there is one option if I stick with my actual birth date: Jan Brett. So, I would be reading that last picture book by her that I was planning to read. Otherwise, I could choose a different December baby...

I'll have an easy time of it, since I share a birthday (not year, of course!) with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

>6 LibraryCin: December 1?

Dec 1 writers:
Rex Stout, mystery writer from Indiana, creator of Nero Wolfe (1886; d.1975)
Charles Finney, U.S. journalist and fantasy novelist (1905; d.1984)
Woody Allen, aka Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Brooklyn native, director and screenwriter (1935)

All the months are here:

http://librarybooklists.org/literarybirths/index.htm

>8 kac522: Oh, thank you! I did a search and there was only Jan Brett listed on a couple of them for the 1st. I didn't see any others!

I'll read something by Jonathan Kellerman. I haven't read anything by him before so I'll read a first book in one of his four series. We share August 9th for birthdays and were born just one year apart.

To my knowledge, the only authors who share my July 4th birthday are Nathaniel Hawthorne and Neil Simon. Simon is more appealing and there are several titles available at the public library.

I share a birthday (not year) with Maria Edgeworth, E.M. Forster, J.D. Salinger and Mariano Azuela. I'll probably settle for Forster...

ETA: touchstones are capricious again.

The closest author to my birthdate that I know of is Richard Russo. If nothing appeals to me then other possibilities that I am thinking about within the same month are:

Lisa Scottoline
James M. Cain
Alice Munro

>4 whitewavedarling: Yolen didn't come up at the site I checked, but it's good to know she's an option. I think I might like Sarah Palin's Christmas book. Willems has some "cat" books so I will probably try to read one or two of those.

Hmm, September 11th doesn't seem to offer many great options for me. I may go with just the month or year (1974).

I share a birthday (not year) with Raymond Chandler, so maybe I'll read The Big Sleep. It works with the noir/hardboiled MysteryCAT, too!

I share a birth month (but not year) with Barbara Kingsolver. In fact, her birthday was my due date. I already have one of her books lined up for September, so I'll use that for the Random CAT as well. >:-)

I'll be reading The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai shares my month, but not year or date. I'll search for a closer match as well.

As I don't think I want to read Jackie Collins or Anne Rice, who share my exact birthday date, I will read the following authors who share my birthday month of October:

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene - October 2, 1904
The Witch of Hebron by James Howard Kunstler - October 19, 1948
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George - October 11, 1976

>6 LibraryCin: You and I share the same birthday.

I share a birthday (not year) with Ray Bradbury and Dorothy Parker. I've been wanting to re-read Dandelion Wine, so I may do that for this CAT.

I share a birthday with Papa Hemingway and Francis Parkingson Keyes (different years) and birth year with Anna Quindlen. Lots of July author birthdays though! I am sure I will find something!

>20 sturlington: Huh! Cool! Will we remember this when it comes around...? :-)

I share the same month and day, but not year, with Maya Angelou so I'm going to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

I found this site. You can change the dates.

https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/date/1938

I share birthdays with Sherwood Anderson Winesburg, Alain Locke, Roald Dahl, Adrienne Kennedy

Nobody with my exact month/day/year. A few for the combination of month/day, including Daphne DuMaurier and Roger Zelazny. I have Rebecca, perhaps I'll give that a re-read.

>25 mnleona: Thanks for suggesting this site. I plan to read a collection of poetry by Sharon Olds. I prefer something literary over writings of the murderer Nathan Leopold of Leopold and Loeb fame (Life Plus 99 Years, published in 1958), Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella (It's Good to Be Alive, published in 1959 shortly after his car accident which left him paralized), or political scientist Jeane Kirkpatrick, all of whom I found at another site.

Astrid Lindgren shares my birthday, though not the year - not sure I want to read Pippi Longstocking...

Some November options:

1st November 1959 - Susanna Clarke's birthday
2nd November 1949 - Lois McMaster Bujold's birthday
3rd November 1942 - Martin Cruz Smith's birthday
7th November 1913 - Albert Camus
8th November 1847 - Bram Stoker's birthday, author of Dracula
8th November 1954 - Kazuo Ishiguro's birthday
11th November 1821 - Fyodor Dostoyevsky's birthday, author of Crime and Punishment
11th November 1922 - Kurt Vonnegut's birthday
10th November 1960 - Neil Gaiman's birthday
13th November 1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday, author of Treasure Island
18th November 1939 - Margaret Atwood's birthday
18th November 1953 - Alan Moore's birthday
24th November 1961 - Arundhati Roy's birthday
25th November 1951 - Charlaine Harris's birthday
29th November 1918 - Madeleine L'Engle's birthday
29th November 1898 - C. S. Lewis's birthday, creator of Narnia
30th November 1835 - Mark Twain's birthday, author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Anderson Cooper shares my birth month and year, he’s just about 2 weeks older than me. I hope to read The Rainbow Comes and Goes written with his mother. I really liked his Dispatches From the Edge

No one I want to read shares my birthday. But Jeanette Walls and Kristin Hannah were both born in the same year as me. I have The Glass Castle on my TBR shelves and I've been tempted by The Great Alone.

James Baldwin and A.S. Byatt were born in August, as was I. I've been wanting to reread The Fire Next Time. I want to read Possession for my personal Booker winner challenge.

Adding (for my own planning) that Colm Toibin was also born in August. I have a couple of his novels on my TBR shelves.

I guess I'll try to read Eric Flint's 1632 for this challenge.

Neil Simon, who shared my 4th July birthday, died today aged 91. He provided a lot of laughter in his lifetime, an achievement in itself.

>32 majkia: I'm quite a fan of 1632. I hope you enjoy it.

>33 VivienneR: I saw that Neil Simon had died today. As you note, he was a tremendous talent with gift for comedy. There are a few of his play I still haven't read, which I think I'll try to get to in September, although they won't count for this CAT.

I guess that I will read something by Ben Hecht, who shares a birthday with me. Maybe one of his plays that were turned into a movie such as The Front Page or Twentieth Century (co-written with Charles MacArthur).

>34 Dejah_Thoris: Oh, good to hear!

Georgette Heyer shares my birthday - so I'm going to give her a second chance. I know there's a lot of love for her books on Library Thing-I started one once and it didn't grab me enough to finish it. This time (I can't remember which one I started before) I'm going to read The Grand Sophy - as it's the most popular one according to Library Thing.

>37 HighViolet: Being one of those who love Georgette Heyer, I am jealous ;) My personal favorite (at the moment) is The Reluctant Widow which I just recently reread (for about the 10th time!).

>37 HighViolet: I've read a couple Georgette Heyer books, and enjoyed them. Her birthday is close enough to mine for this challenge, so I'm going to tackle a mystery of hers: Behold Here's Poison.

>37 HighViolet: >38 leslie.98: I'm another Heyer fan, and at the moment my favorite is probably Frederica - although at times past it's been Arabella, These Old Shades, The Nonesuch, or Black Sheep / Lady of Quality (which have rather similar plots). The Grand Sophy has never been one of my favorites, but it's been years since I read it, so I may need to give it another shot.

>40 Dejah_Thoris: Frederica was my favorite for a long time! Lately though I have liked the slight mystery/thriller aspects of The Reluctant Widow and The Talisman Ring in conjunction with the wit and romance. I also never counted The Grand Sophy as one of my favorites but I did like it better when I reread it a few years ago than I had as a teenager.

>39 fuzzi: I like her mysteries too but not as much as her historical fiction. It has been a long time since I read Behold Here's Poison so maybe it is time to reread it since it fits this month's AlphaKIT!

>41 leslie.98: Behold Here's Poison has been sitting on my shelves, unread, for too long, so I'm going to give it a try.

I've read three Heyer's and liked them all, but especially enjoyed Sylvester.

I discovered that a book which I just finished reading, The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed fits into this challenge since we share the same birthday, Nov. 19th.

>41 leslie.98: I discovered Heyer a year or so ago, after inheriting Mum's almost complete collection. I'm reading the romances in publication order. Beauvallet this month.
I've read a number of the mysteries, and some of them are very good.

>44 Helenliz: how lovely, having your mother's books. I only have a couple of my mom's favorites.

>45 fuzzi: I had to restrain myself not to end up with an entire house full of books! No question where I got that habit from... Quite a number of the Heyers are actually older than I am, which is off putting somehow!

I've completed The Witch of Hebron by James Howard Kunstler, an author who shares my Birthday month of October. Unfortunately the author's view of women put me off this dystopia.

The author and I share the same birth month/day. Not sure about year

The Mitten / Jan Brett
3.5 stars

This is a Ukrainian folk tale turned into a picture book. A boy asks his grandmother to knit white mittens for him and he promptly loses one of the mittens. In the time it takes him to find it again, various wildlife find their way into the mitten to get warm and cozy.

I’d rate the story 3 stars (ok), but the illustrations (as usual in her books) are gorgeous. There is a main picture on each page, with beautiful borders on either side. She does a very nice job of making it look Ukrainian (the first page describes some of the research she did for the book), and the borders add a bit of a preview as to what might be coming on the next page. So, 3 stars for the story and 4 stars for the illustrations gives it 3.5 stars from me, overall.

This is a fun theme. I couldn't find anyone with my exact birthday, but did find a few with my same month & day, all of whom have possible reads available at my library: A. E. Van Vogt, Marcus Aurelius, Bernard Malamud and Carol Burnett. I'm also considered Shakespeare, who share my birth month and Brandon Sanderson, who shares my birth year.

I started off the month with This Time Together by Carol Burnett, a fun quick memoir.

I finished reading a short book on Hemingway, since he shares my birthday but not year. Ernest Hemingway: A Life from Beginning to End. I also plan to read some selections from A Moveable Feast.

I've finished reading Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980-2002 by Sharon Olds who shares my November 19th birthday -- the book I initially planned to read. This is a collection of 116 poems which Ms. Olds selected from her first seven volumes of poetry. Many of the poems center around her family, including her father (who mistreated her) with particular emphasis on his death, her rather distant mother, her own sexual experiences, and childbirth and raising her children. Some of the poems are quite graphic in sexual content with various body parts named and sexual acts described. Several poems refer to specific events such as the disappearance of Etan Patz, to which readers of a certain age would relate. I personally found the poems from the earlier collections more enjoyable and understandable than the more recent poems.

Starting a re-reading of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell since we share a birthday.

Finished Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon who shared my July 4th birthday.
I enjoyed this play set in 1942 about two boys staying with their grouchy (to put it mildly) grandmother while their father tries to earn money to pay off debts. The ending was disappointing.

Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil
(Weil's birthday is in August, as is mine)
A boy and his family and friends, along with some visitors at his father's inn, set out to solve the mystery of a certain cove on the island of Capri, where they live.
A neat little story, even neater for being about an actual cove and it's beautiful blue cave.

COMPLETED Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Starting Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie (another September baby)

I'm reading September born authors, too.

The Efficiency Expert by Edgar Rice Burroughs 9/1
Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen 9/24

Started The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. She's an April shower. >;-)

COMPLETED Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

It turns out that The Tiger's Wife, my bookclub's choice for September, is by another September baby, Téa Obreht

Today is Sherwood Anderson birthday. (and mine) I haven't started his book yet, but I should do that today to celebrate our birthday. Winesburg

Happy Birthday, Kristelh. Hope you're having a great day.

>59 Kristelh: Many happy returns of the day. Enjoy your read.

The October thread is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/296242#

Louisa May Alcott was born November 29th, 1832, and thus has a November birthday. This means I can count Little Women in this challenge. The edition of a work can make a big difference; I started out reading a Penguin Classics paperback edition (491 pages of text) which I had had before joining LT in 2007, but it bothered my allergies. I purchased a hardback edition (629 p.) published in 2013 for Books a Million, and found it very enjoyable reading.

COMPLETED The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (September)

Thank heavens that Graham Greene and I share a Birthday month as this gave me the opportunity to listen to The End of the Affair as read by Colin Firth.

I found out by accident that I share a birthday with Rudolfs Blaumanis. I've never read anything from Latvia before, so I downloaded a novella and I am intrigued enough to go hunting for more.

I read The Florentine Dagger by Ben Hecht, who shares a birthday with me. The Kindle edition that I downloaded from the Internet Archives was poorly formatted which interfered with my enjoyment. The story is a cross between a Gothic thriller and a murder mystery. The solution was ingenious; though perhaps I should have seen it coming, I did not. 3*

For "Happy Birthday," I ended up rereading Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Bechdel is about 3 weeks younger than me. So: born in the same year. We have many other things in common (as well as many things not so much in common. She is more literary than I and she can draw.)

Starting Enigma by Robert Harris (same year)

Vicki Baum was born in the same month as me, January, and I have just finished Die goldenen Schuhe.

Finished The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, we're both April babies.

COMPLETED Enigma by Robert Harris, who was born in the same year as me.

Starting Roxana by Daniel Defoe, a September baby.

I have completed Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George who shares my Birthday month of October with me. This was a very good fairy tale adapatation.

COMPLETED Roxana by Daniel Defoe

I finished Ormond by Maria Edgeworth, who shares my birthday and month, not year. Set in easygoing 18th century Paris and Ireland.

I did end up reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, who shares my birthday of July 23. I enjoyed the many twists and turns of the plot, as well as the writing style.

I read The Risk Pool , by Richard Russo, whose July 15th birthday is one day before mine. It was a very good father and son story.

I forgot to post that I completed my re-read of Dandelion Wine. One of my favorite books.

Just finished my read of Sarah Palin's Good Tidings and Great Joy. I'm glad I didn't read it at Christmas. It might have zapped some joy out of the season.

I finished Cover Her Face by P. D. James, we both have August birthdays.

Thank you, everyone who participated. I hope you had fun with this theme.

I was able to squeeze in one more by someone who shares my 4/26 birthday, different year: Slan by A. E. VanVogt. This was a good, early sci fi story.

I'm a little late in checking in, but I finished Chaos by Patricia Cornwell, who has the same birthday (though not in the same year) as I do.

Before September ended, I managed to finish The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia A. McKillip, who was born in my birth month, February.