Reading with Style discussion

Congrats to those of you that have finished! ASWESOME!!!

10.6 The Ides of March

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

Much of this was better than my 3-star rating. It is said to be non-fiction that reads like fiction, but there was enough that read like non-fiction and I had to work harder at those parts. I think Erik Larson does a much better job in that regard.

At the core of this is the brutal murder of a young child. In that respect it is not for the faint of heart. In 1860 England professional detectives were a relatively new occupation. Mr. Whicher was called to the scene a full 2 weeks after the crime. Are we to wonder he might have had difficulty? The murder of young Saville Kent was the crime of the century. Crime (as well as sex) sells newspapers so this was well-covered. As today, readers devoured every word, and every reader had an opinion.

To me, however, the most interesting aspect of the book was the way Summerscale placed this as a basis for much contemporary literature. While it was not an influence, The Woman in White was in the later stages of its serialization. Sergeant Cuff of Collins' The Moonstone can be clearly seen from Mr. Whicher. Lady Audley's Secret relies on family secrets in the same way as did the Kent family of real life.

I learned more about daily rural life in England, both of the working class and the growing middle class. One always wonders how the life depicted in fiction compares with that of reality.

+10 Task (Rated Murder 15 times, non-fiction)
+10 Review

Task total = 20

Grand total = 400

20.5 Emma-Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Review-I love this series so much. I wish the author had her books out a little faster because a year seems so long. Okay so "Red Velvet Cupcake Murder" is the 16th installment in the series and is about a woman, Hannah Swensen who owns a bakery, "The Cookie Jar" in Lake Eden, Minnesota. It is a small town where everyone knows each other. She likes two guys who she can't decide between. In this installment, a previous character, Dr. Bev returns and Hannah is worried that she will take Norman away with her. Norman is one of the guys she likes. Dr. Bev likes to flash her money around and buys an expensive penthouse in a hotel just because she can. She is mean to Hannah. Then she winds up dead. Frankly, I am happy about. However, this puts Hannah as a main suspect because Hannah was the last to see Dr. Bev. If you want to know more, you have to read the book.

I always love reading these books because they always make me feel like I want to go live there. Hannah and I would be good friends I know.

Task+ 20
Review+ 10
task Total: 30
Grand Total: 105

10.9 Time for Dinner

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell

+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.5)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 600

20.6 Northanger Abbey

Big Trouble by Dave Barry

+20 Task (satirist)

Post Total: 20
Season Total: 620

15.6 20th Century

1993

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Post Total: 25
Season Total: 645

15.7 20th Century

1994

A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Post Total: 25
Season Total: 670

10.3 - The plus

The Dinner by Herman Koch

+5 Combo (10.6 - shelved 5 times as murder & fiction)

Task total = 15

Points total = 155

20.2 - Sense and Sensibility
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe


+20 task
+20 oldies (published 1719)
+5 Combo (20.9)

Task total: 45 points
Grand total: 85

15.8 20th Century Chronologician
The Beach by Alex Garland published 1996
My Review

Task: 15
Bonus: 10
Task total: 25

Grand Total: 320

20.7 - In honor of Persuasion

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy

I've always enjoyed Maeve Binchy and this last book was no exception. Unlike the other posthumously published books I have read for the challenge so far, this one was completed by the author before her death and it has that feel to it. A Week in Winter was really a sequence of linked stories. Everyone involved in the running of the bed and breakfast on the Irish coast and everyone who stays there in it's first week of operation gets a chapter. Most of the characterizations rang true as they were brought to life in these stories. Binchy's writing style is light but not without depth. I enjoyed meeting these characters and I loved the setting. I spent a few days in a bed and breakfast in Kinsale, Ireland and I was taken back to that wonderful trip and the friendly atmosphere of the small town. The book made me want to go back to Ireland and back to some of the Binchy books I have missed!

+20 Points: Published after Binchy's recent death
+ 5 Combo: 10.4 In celebration of Irish American Month: Binchy was born in Ireland
+10 Review

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 885

20.8 - Joanna’s task – Presidentially:

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, no style points

I'm so glad I finally read this. Awesome writing and I loved the other stories as well!

+20 Task: Truman

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 905

10.3 - The plus

The Absolutist by John Boyne

The Absolutist is a riveting, tragic and realistic picture of the horrors of WWI and of the beliefs during the time period in which it happened. The voice is brilliantly written by Boyne. Along with Tristan we question our beliefs about courage and honesty. The military was an especially difficult place to be if you questioned war and killing, and much worse for those with different sexualities than it is today. The sorrow of rejection from family and friends is palpable throughout this story. I celebrate that our world has improved, but suffer for the rifts still apparent in our society because of differing lives. Yet, in this book, the issues are far from black and white and the stellar writing and careful revealing of the story brought about the varied emotional responses that make it a 5 star book for me. Highly recommended!

+10 Task
+ 5 10.4 In celebration of Irish American Month: John Boyne born in Ireland
+10 Review

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 930

20.4 Mansfield Park

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

I remember seeing the 1996 movie Moll Flanders starring Robin Wright Penn, Morgan Freeman, and Stockard Channing. I was expecting, as one would, that the movie would at least attempt to follow basic plot points of the book. Wow. How wrong could I be?

The only similarities are that the main character is "Moll," her mother bore her in a prison, and she spends some part of the story as a prostitute and as a thief. It's not even recognizably the same story.

The book reads more like a soap opera: she's effectively an orphan (no father, mother has been sent to be a servant in the Americas rather than rot in a British prison) and the beautiful, charming girl (who is NOT named "Moll Flanders"...she doesn't come by that moniker until she's well into her 50's) is taken in by a well-to-do family. The eldest son takes a shine to our heroine, seduces her, and pays her for the pleasure. She becomes his live-in secret prostitue. Meanwhile, little brother has fallen hard for her. He announces his intentions to marry her.

That's just a brief taste of the shenanigans. It's got everything: lies, intrigue, incest, untimely death, courtroom drama, death sentences, and (perhaps most shocking for the age) a self-sufficient, enterprising, business-savvy woman who does anything it takes to get to the top.

It was fun. I think the most disappointing part was the end (as it ends with repentance and the obligatory shout-out to the Almighty. Throughout the book, she was not remotely concerned with God or religion or sin, but of course it wraps up that way. It just wasn't true to the rest of the novel).

+20 Task (#26 on Underclass list)
+10 Review
+20 Oldies (pub. 1722)
+10 Combo
-20.2--1975 BBC 2-part adaptation
-20.9--Defoe is on the list

Task Total = 60

Grand Total = 640

20th Century - Chronologician

15.7 Grand Days by Frank Moorhouse (pub. 1993)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total = 25 points
Grand Total = 245 points

20th Century - Chronologician

15.8 From 1997 / Lexile 980

Shade's Children by Garth Nix

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 955

20th Century - Chronologician

15.9 From 1998 / Lexile 980

Jazmin's Notebook by Nikki Grimes

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 980

20th Century
15.1 pub. 2000
The Highlander's Touch by Karen Marie Moning

Task Total= 15 pts

Grand Total= 80 pts

20th Century - Chronologician
15.2 pub. 1999

Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning

Task Total= 15 pts
Bonus= 10 pts
Grand Total= 105 pts

20th Century - Chronologician
15.3 pub.1998

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin

Task Total= 15 pts
Bonus= 10 pts
Grand Total= 130 pts

Task 10.5 Read a book by a winner of the Jerusalem Prize

Murakami won the Jerusalem Prize in 2009

A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) by Haruki Murakami (translated by Alfred Birnbaum)
Review: I’ve read other books by Murakami. I especially liked Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. This novel, however, was a yawner. Murakami introduces the main character at the beginning of the novel, and acquaints the reader with his situation in life. (Our hero is an advertising freelancer who likes to smoke tobacco cigarettes and drink alcohol, especially whiskey.) The rest of the novel reads like this typical paragraph:

p. 304: “Three uneventful days passed. Not one thing happened. The Sheep Man didn’t show. I fixed meals, ate them, read my book, and when the sun went down, I drank whiskey and went to sleep. The morning air of the pasture turned steadily cooler. Day by day, the bright golden leaves of the birches turned more spotted as the first winds of winter slipped between the withered branches and across the highlands toward the southeast.”

Pages and pages and pages of prose like the above. Our main character has conversations with other people. A lot of the conversations involve travel arrangements, and such arrangements are described in detail.

Oh, and there’s the sheep. There are info dumps on the care and feeding of sheep in Japan, both before and after World War II. And our hero is interested in sheep. His disappeared friend “Rat” is also interested in sheep. Everybody in the novel is interested in sheep. The reasons for the sheep interest is somewhat murky.

I would almost give up on the novel, and then I’d read a sentence like this: p. 308: “Something was about to happen.” I'd think: Yes! Something is going to happen! And I would persevere, hoping to find an explanation for the travel arrangements and scenery descriptions. Alas! (Mild) (view spoiler)[no explanations ever given (hide spoiler)],

Maybe I’m missing the symbolism, or, maybe the translation is wanting. I wouldn’t give up on Murakami, though, since his later books were entertaining, eventful and offbeat/surreal.

Recommended: for fans of “Waiting for Godot”; or, when you’re looking for a book to help you go to sleep!

+10 Task
+10 Style:2. Non-Western (10 points): (Murakami is from Japan)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
+05 Style:4. Oldies (5 to 25 points): -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1937-1987)

Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 +05 = 35

Grand Total: 360 + 35 = 395

From Post 97

Sam wrote: "20.6 - Northanger Abbey

Naked - David Sedaris

+20 task
+5 combo (10.2)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 40"

+5 Combo 20.3 more than 100,000 ratings with an average over 3.99.

Ashley wrote: "20.2 - Sense and Sensibility
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe


+20 task
+20 oldies (published 1719)

Task total: 40 points
Grand total: 80"

+5 Combo 20.9-Defoe made the list and all of his works qualify for 20.9.

10.3 - The plus

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Rarely in literature will you meet a narrator more unreliable than Paul! A lot of detail about the book would easily spoil it, but the murder itself is pretty straightforward. Paul, his brother and their two wives have come together for dinner to discuss what to do about this crime that involves their sons. The descriptions of the "hoity-toity" restaurant alone were worth the read for me. Unfortunately, the story is so very much darker than its humorous beginnings as the details reveal themselves as do the true personalities of the four parents. So much of the book was so cleverly written and unfolded, that when I reached a part that didn't quite ring true, I had to wonder if it was the fault of the translation missing some of the nuances of the language, not the writing itself. It's an interesting psychological study of two families in trouble.

+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.6 - For the Ides of March: 5 shelved murder/ not mystery at BPL
+10 Review

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1005

20.5-Emma-Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich

Review
This is the 19th installment in the Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter working for her cousin Vinnie. She took the job because she needs money, plain and simple. She isn't very good at it but she has help from her boyfriend, Joe Morelli who is a cop and her mentor, Ranger who is ex army. In this book, Stephanie has five skips to bring in. One of them is a missing person from a hospital, a homeless man and an ex prostitute. This book is pretty humorous. While trying to hunt down her skips, Stephanie witnesses a gang shooting, her car gets blown up twice, Morelli's car is blown up and she encounters a guy who looks like a Yeti. Fans of the series will be happy to know that Morelli and Ranger are both featured in this book. Now I have to wait for the next book.

Task +20
Review + 10
Book Total: 30
Grand Total: 135

15.8 -20th Century - Chronologicalin

Butterfly Weed by Donald Harington - pub 1996

+15 pts - task
+10 pts - bonus

Task total - 25 pts
Grand Total - 735 pts

10.9 - Time for Dinner

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

+10 Task (#2 on Non-Fiction list)

Task total=10
Grand total=475

20.6 - Northanger Abbey

I am America and So Can You by Stephen Colbert

I find that satire is best consumed in spurts, but the shout-y nature of Colbert's self-named character made this book more tiresome than most.

The good: Margin notes act like the "The Word" on his tv show, providing counterpoint and insight. The footnotes were often funny. Colbert is good at getting down to a sharp satirical point and I loved those moments.

The bad: I read a kindle edition from my library and the margin notes were interspersed throughout the main text, interrupting flow. While a lot of fun is made of advertising in American culture it is done through what looks like actual advertising. Why else would there be a random picture of Colbert in front of an Applebee's? Interesting and disturbing at the same time.

+20 task (satirist)
+10 review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 445

20.5 In Honor of Emma

A Brewski for the Old Man: A Sherri Travis Mystery by Phyllis Smallman

+20 task

Task total: 20
Grand total: 570

20.1 Jane Austen's Lifetime

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Review:
Well, Josephine Bailey (the narrator for the audiobook version of this I just listened to) is no Colin Firth (the actor who performed so beautifully in a movie version of this and also who read an audiobook I recently listened to). Ms. Bailey's reading is okay, though occasionally a bit overdone for the voices of Mrs. Bennett and Lydia.

I really enjoyed revisiting this book, which I read once more than fifteen years ago. I had forgotten how much of a page turner it is. Austen does a nice job of creating tension in the story even when the plot and outcome is wholly familiar to the reader. This reading also reminded me how exasperating I find even Austen's "good" characters--the Elizabeths and Janes of these books. Maybe I should go ahead and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to follow up on this one.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.2, 20.3)
+15 Oldies

Task total: 55
Grand total: 335

I would like to claim this post instead of #387 for:

Task 20.4: Underclass/Hardscrabble Life

I read Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

REVIEW:
I must admit here that I am not a person who enjoys social issues. I know about them in general but don't search out literature on these topics. I tend to stick to my local social issues, i.e. my own community problems. I live in a small, southern town, so poverty has always been around--I've always seen it, known about it, and even lived it for a short time as a teenager. Yet, I am naive. This book helped me to see that this issue is huge in our country--in all areas, with all types of people. Poverty is not only those individuals who rely solely on government assistance. Poverty is, in itself, a working class problem. Many people work more than one job and still can't afford housing, clothing, daycare, and basic necessities. It boggles the mind.

+20: task
+10: review

+30: TASK TOTAL
+580: RwS TOTAL

I wish to change POST #387 to be the second book read for this task. Please let me know if this is possible.

Thanks!

Camille wrote: "I wish to change POST #387 to be the second book read for this task. Please let me know if this is possible."

The order of completion for repeated RwS tasks doesn't affect your score.

10.4 Irish American Month

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

This is the story of Tamara Goodwin. She once had a charmed life--hanging with her friends on her private beach that is attached to her family's mansion, designer clothes and Louis Vuitton bags, a brilliant father and a mother who was a model.
Then one day, she walks into her fathers office and finds him dead on the floor with an empty pill bottle and bottle of whiskey next to him.
She and her mother are forced to move to the country to live with her aunt and uncle. They live in the gatehouse of the ruins of a castle with nothing around for miles.
Everything seems dismal and bleak--her mother is near-catatonic with "grief," her aunt is hovering and nosy and doesn't give Tamara a moment of privacy, her uncle is always working and even when he is around he isn't much for conversation--until the mobile library comes to town. Tamara is NOT a reader, but the librarian is a hottie so she ventures into the library bus to flirt with him and ends up picking up a book along the way. There is no title, no author, and a padlock on the front. When she finally gets it open, all the pages are blank. A diary. She's never kept a diary, but one day she feels desolate enough to start recording her thoughts. When she opens the book, she finds writing. Her writing. Dated the following day.

This was a fun modern-day fairy tale. A quick and easy read.

+10 Task (author was born and lives in Dublin--and is the daughter of Ireland's former prime minister!)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.5--by a woman and Tamara is the narrator/main character)

Task Total = 25

Grand Total = 665

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Camille wrote: "I wish to change POST #387 to be the second book read for this task. Please let me know if this is possible."

The order of completion for repeated RwS tasks doesn't affect your score."

So, I'm good?

15.6 20th Century--Chronologician

Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, pub. 1994

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total = 25

Grand Total = 690

Camille wrote: "So, I'm good? "

:-)

You can repeat the RwS tasks (10- and 20-pointers) as many times as you wish unless the tasks itself says differently.

20.4 - In honor of Mansfield Park

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Notes from Underground is an interesting journey into the psyche of a martyr personality who participates in self talk that reveals his contradictory character and belief system. Everything that happens to him is blamed on others and he is unable to see his actions through their points of view. He appears to have empathy, but in reality only cares about the way actions affect him. I've read a lot of the reviews and I think that reading this book is a personal experience. Reviewers have taken away many different aspects of the book as important. To me, the underground man felt he was more dead than alive and part 2 described the descent of his spirit into the underground as he described the burial of the bodies in the watery graves caused by the wet snow. I'm sure a reread in the future would help me take away more layers of meaning. The writing is superb. I took some time out from Crime and Punishment to read this shorter work and get more insight into Dostoyevsky and his writing.

+20 Task: Underclass # 47
+10 Review
+10 Non Western (Russia)
+15 Oldies (1861)

Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 1060

10.1 Square Peg

Rudin by Ivan Turgenev

But there was in him such a love of light, sunshine, and living human poetry, such an organic aversion for all that is ugly, or coarse and discordant, that he made himself almost exclusively the poet of the gentler side of human nature.

This is not Turgenev's description of the title character, but is, instead, the description of the author Turgenev as contained in the Introduction to this novel. I haven't seen a better way of saying why I enjoy this author.

That said, Rudin is just not as good as the others, and is undoubtedly why it doesn't make either Bloom's Western Canon or the 1001 List. It is one of his earliest works and perhaps he had not yet honed his craft. Rudin is written predominantly in dialogue and I missed the wonderful prose.

The characterization of Rudin himself is excellent. It is told in how others see him and his affect on them, as well as in Rudin talking about himself - which he does frequently. As with the other Turgenev novels I've read, the plot is small, nearly non-existent.

+10 Task
+10 Non-Western
+10 Review
+15 Oldies (pub 1856)

Task Total = 45

Grand Total = 445

10.8 Spell It Out

RC Robert Crais

The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais

+10 task

Task total: 10
Grand total: 580

20.7 - Persuasion

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy

I wasn't sure going in if I would like this book but the simple character studies won me over. The action revolves around Stone House, a residence turned hotel in western Ireland. Each character, from the staff to the guests, gets their own chapter that advances the story by a day or so. I liked that we learned only the bare essentials about each person but it didn't feel thin or rushed. The women characters are all strong in their own way, be it leaving home against their family's wishes or carving out a life that suits them instead of caving in to their peers. I'll keep Binchy in mind the next time I want a quaint, cozy read.

+20 task (published October 2012, after author's death in July 2012)
+10 review
+5 combo (10.4 - born in Ireland)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 480

20.7 Persuasion
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896 – 1957)

+ 20 Task – died 1957, published 1958
+5 Combo (10.3 The plus)
+ 5 Oldies (1958)

Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 495

10.1 Square Peg

Experiencing God Around the Kitchen Table by Marilynn Blackaby.

Task +10 points

GRAND TOTAL 80 points

20th Century - Chronologician

15.10 From 1999 / Lexile 1020

The Copper Elephant by Adam Rapp

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Completion Bonus: 150
Post Total: 175
Grand Total: 1235

20.5 In honor of Emma

Fiber and Brimstone by Laura Childs.

Task + 20 points

GRAND TOTAL 100 points

Yet another nice finish, Karen.

Thanks, Elizabeth!

20.5 - In honor of Emma

Son by Lois Lowry (low lexile)

+20 Task: female author, Lois Lowry, female main character, Claire.

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1255

Wow, Karen!! Congrats on your quick finish!

Yay, Karen!

Thanks! Now to finish the regular challenge;)

20.4 Mansfield Park
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

+ 20 Task – Number 42 on the Underclass list
+ 5 Combo (10.6 shelved as murder 8 times)
+ 10 Non-Western (India)

Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 530