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Spring 2013 Rws Completed Tasks - Spring 2013
20th Century - Chronologician15.8 Faceless Killers
published 1991
+15 Task
+ 10 Bonus
Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 715
20th Century - Chronologician15.5 The Country Housewife's Book by Lucy Helen Yates
published 1934
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task Total: 25 points
Grand Total: 395
20th Century Chronologician15.10 The Worm in the Wheat: Rosalie Evans and Agrarian Struggle in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Mexico, 1906-1927 by Timothy J. Henderson Published 1998
My Review
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total: 25
Completion Bonus: 150
Grand Total: 540
itpdx wrote: "Completion Bonus: 150"
Yippee! Well done!
10.9 Time for DinnerKitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Review:
This is my first introduction to Banana Yoshimoto, but I will definitely seek out more by this author. While I enjoyed the title story, "Kitchen," I adored the second, shorter story, "Moonlight Shadow." Both deal with the role of family, the place of grief, and the brilliance of short, ordinary moments. Like Murakami, Yoshimoto is not going to appeal to every reader. Both of these uber-famous Japanese writers manage to take ordinary bits of daily life and infuse them with longing and mystery that makes them feel powerful. Not much happens to these characters in these stories, yet I felt quite emotionally drawn in and I wanted to know more about their lives.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Non-Western (Japanese)
+5 Oldies (pub. 1988)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 395
itpdx wrote: "20th Century Chronologician15.10 The Worm in the Wheat: Rosalie Evans and Agrarian Struggle in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of Mexico, 1906-1927 by Timothy J. Henderson Published 1998
My Review
+15..."
Yay! Another good finish:)
10.10 Group ReadsFences by August Wilson
Review:
I really want to see this play performed. Reading the play was good, but I was having trouble picturing the staging and movements that would breathe life into the play. If I read more plays, this would probably come more naturally. In any case, the characters felt very real to me and the emotions in the play were very raw. I read "Death of a Salesman" last year and found the parallels between that play and this one quite interesting. Both addressed the effort by a breadwinner to meet his responsibilities to his family while also wanting personal freedom and happiness. In particular, the different reactions of each father to the football aspirations of their sons seemed quite compelling. Surely Wilson was consciously playing off of the themes in the famous Miller play.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (published 1987)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 420
20.8 PresidentiallyHarry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo
Review:
I enjoyed learning a bit more about Harry Truman. As a state employee in Missouri, I get a paid holiday for Truman's birthday every year and realized recently that I've not been to his presidential library in Independence nor do I know anything about him. This book is a nice chronical of his post-presidency with a few snippets of stories from his presidency. The author occasionally slipped in unfortunate memoir-like observations from his 2008 recreation of Truman's journey. While I understood the point of these (look how things have changed! and not changed!), I found them distracting from the story and basically uninsightful. For example, the author toured the UN headquarters in New York and commented quite extensively (and bizarrely) on the tour guide's hair scrunchie. That said, I did find it sort of endearing when the author would approach random new owners of locations or businesses to ask about whether anyone remembered Truman's visit.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.8 - M.A.)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 455
20.5 - In honor of EmmaPandemonium by Lauren Oliver, Low Lexile
+20 Task: female author, narrated by female main character
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 1860
20.3 Pride and PrejudiceEnder's Game by Orson Scott Card Lexile 780
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1320
20.4 Mansfield ParkOliver Twist by Charles Dickens
+20 Task
+15 Combo (20.1, 20.2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_T..., 20.6-satirist)
+15 Oldies (1837)
+5 Jumbo (554 pages)
Post Total: 55
Season Total: 1375
20.10 InitiallyShoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
+20 Task
+5 Oldies (1982)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1400
Task 10.6 Murder not mysteryThis book was shelved as "murder" 21 times (as of today), but is not located in the Mystery section at BPL
Sharp Objects (2006) by Gillian Flynn
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2007)
The Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (2007)
Barry Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2007)
Review: This novel is usually filed under mystery but I would file it under non-supernatural horror. The premise of the story: a 30ish woman, a reporter for a Chicago suburban newspaper, is assigned to cover the murders of 2 tween-aged girls in her small Missouri hometown (pop. 2120 – not sure if that total was before or after the murders.) You're not going to find anything pleasant in this story. Our first-person narrator heroine has some emotional issues, and has spent time in an asylum. Nobody in the novel likes each other (especially mothers who don’t like their tween-aged daughters), and, in a possibly related matter, nobody in the novel is happy with their lives. The first 2/3rds of the novel was creepy and well-written. The last 1/3rd was gruesome and the reason I would label it as non-supernatural horror (not mystery).
I can see why it won several awards for “Best novel”. It is written in a very engaging, easy to understand, style. That said -- it’s not really the kind of book I like to read, and I would not have started it if I knew what the last 1/3rd of the novel was like. Recommended for fans of emotionally gruesome novels, or fans of non-supernatural horror novels.
+ 10 points (20.3)
+05 Style:1. Combo (5 points) (20.5)
+10 Style:3. Review (10 points)
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 520 + 25 = 545
Deedee wrote: "Task 10.6 Murder not mysteryThis book was shelved as "murder" 21 times (as of today), but is not located in the Mystery section at BPL
Sharp Objects (2006) by Gillian Flynn
Edgar Award Nominee ..."
I'm sorry, Deedee, (much to my surprise) this is shelved at one BPL branch as YA fiction and it has no Lexile.
itpdx, congrats on your 20th century completion! woo hoo!
15.10 20th Century--ChronologicianThe Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint, pub. 1990
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
+ 150 Completion Bonus
Grand Total = 1190
Anika wrote: "15.10 20th Century--Chronologician...
+ 150 Completion Bonus
Grand Total = 1190"
Congrats Anika!
Anika wrote: "+ 150 Completion Bonus"
Excellent! Good job!
Anika wrote: "15.10 20th Century--ChronologicianThe Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint, pub. 1990
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
+ 150 Completion Bonus
Grand Total = 1190"
Nice job, Anika!
Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.8 Spell It OutMeditations by Marcus Aurelius published 174.
Review: This is the journals of a Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. The introduction was helpful in explaining how some key words li..."
Sorry, Don. Your post was accurate.
Corrected in Database
Kate S wrote: "Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.8 Spell It OutMeditations by Marcus Aurelius published 174.
Review: This is the journals of a Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. The introduction was helpful in expla..."
Oops! I made an error, Kate. Aurelius was Italian, so is Western.
20.1 Jane AustenThe Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade
I enjoyed most of this historical novel, written in 1961 and set in fifteenth century Europe (mostly Holland). The best part of the novel was the journeying of Gerard and Denys with their many adventures illustrating their different characters but their close friendship. Not being a historian, I don’t know how accurate the depictions of the changing customs as they passed through different countries. The worst part of the book was the pseudo medieval language spoken by the characters. This became quite tedious in the two long chapters of Gerard’s letter to Margaret. I also felt there were too many instances of untranslated Latin, French, German and even Greek (which I can’t even guess the meaning of). I was surprised how believable Reade managed to make the unlikely situation of a ‘married’ couple separated by circumstances seem.
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.8 initials CR)
+ 10 Review
+ 15 Oldies (published 1861)
+ 10 Jumbo (785 pages)
Task Total = 60
Grand Total = 775
Task 10.10: I read and listened to The Age of Innocence by Edith WhartonREVIEW:
I read the first half of this book, then switched to the audiobook. I actually enjoyed the audiobook more than I did the text--not typical for me. I was surprised that the affair never materialized into anything between Archer and Madame Olenska. It seems that the social values/pressures during that time have much more weight than those of today. Today, there would be no stopping the lovers--not marriages, not society, not family, not children, not money, not values, not virtues. Overall, the book was a little dull and dry--maybe I, too, have been tainted by the culture in which we live today.
+10: task
+10: review
+10: oldies (pub. 1920)
+30: TASK TOTAL
+705: RwS TOTAL
20.10 - Elizabeth (Alaska) task – Initially:The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose
Sometimes reading for me is just a guilty pleasure, and I am "guilty as charged" for how much I enjoyed this book. The writing isn't stellar, but I was drawn in by Paris, the mixing of fragrances, and the ancient history of the afterlife that wove through the story. I didn't care how believable it was, I just went along for the ride. I did enjoy the main character, Jac. She was strong and vulnerable at the same time, and I liked the combination of these traits. I loved learning the history of her family and how they built their perfume business and were still striving to keep the business thriving without selling family secrets to make it happen. This book won't go down in history as great literature, but I will probably try another book by M. J. Rose soon!
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.5 Emma: female author and main character/narrator
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 1895
InitiallyTono-Bungay by H.G. Wells
A book often starts a bit slowly for me, but after 30 or 40 pages, I'll gather more interest. I did not expect this to be any different. Early, is this: I thought of my uncle as Teddy directly I saw him; there was something in his personal appearance that in the light of that memory phrased itself at once as Teddiness -- a certain Teddidity. Tedditity. Certainly I could look forward to more such imaginative phrasing.
Unfortunately, I never noticed another. I wonder if Wells got tired writing this, because I kept falling asleep reading it. I expected more action, or more concentration on this flamboyant Teddidity character. Nope. Instead, the first person narrator wandered off into his rather boring life and told about it completely analytically, as if he had not lived it.
My only Wells, as science fiction doesn't interest me, so I'm unlikely to read anything else by him.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldie (pub 1909)
Task Total = 40
Grand Total = 630
20th Century - Chronologician15.6 - Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie - 1996
+15 task
+10 bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 550
**CORRECTED POST**Task 10.1: Square Peg
I read A Mississippi Moonlight by Vicky Renee Johnson
REVIEW:
I was actually excited to read this because I'm born and raised in Mississippi. I think I expected too much apparently. The beginning was a shock and I was anticipating a page turner, but the rest of it was too predictable. Good girl and kid get away from the bad guy, he finds them, they run some more and find true love with their protectors. Everyone falls in love and gets engaged on the same day and married on the same day in their pajamas. Yes, I said pajamas. The bad guy goes down thanks to the undercover FBI agent--who is also a family member and a preacher--surprise! There are two more in this series-- think I will be skipping those for now.
+10: task
+10: review
+20: TASK TOTAL
+725: RwS TOTAL
20.2 Sense and SensibilityTom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Lexile 860
+ 20 Task http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0193685/?...
+ 5 Oldies (published 1958)
Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 800
10.6 Ides of MarchThe Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story by Ann Rule
Review
I had been wanting to read this book for a long time but for some reason just skipped over it to other books until now. I remember well the trial of Ted Bundy and the devious ploys to get women so off their guard that he could kidnap and kill them without a sound. I was in high school and college myself during that time and it taught me to trust no one. Even when a medical student offered to walk me to my car one night when I got off the 3-11pm shift. People often wander how could you have a friend, neighbor, boyfriend, husband, father who is a monster but never would have thought it possible of such a kind and compassionate person. Even the current news in Cleveland, Ohio has people stumped that how this man could have remained a friend of the family of the girl he had been holding hostage for over a decade. Ann Rule puts out that these people are “broken”. As much as a blind person learns how to negotiate this world without vision, these psycho-sociopaths learn to compensate for their lack of a conscious. That they learn the rules of social behavior only by observing but not by internalizing for oneself empathy and compassion. It is only fear of punishment that keeps them in line than because of being empathetic or even sympathetic. It is only when their need for self-gratification for revenge, to punish and to prove their superior intelligence are they able to overcome the fear and to act out in a way that seems most natural to themselves. Pretty scary and very possible true. She does not believe they are insane because the lack of mental health was not an issue but rather a lack of a part of the brain that makes social interaction and communal living possible. She does not feel Bundy should have been spared punishment other than to be kept alive under the strictest of imprisonment so that we may learn more about how to cope with these kinds of deviants.
Her book also digs deeply into how she herself was stunned to learn that he was such a monster. He worked with her on a suicide crisis hotline two nights a week and is positive that his interactions possibly saved lives. She also mentions how he jumped into icy water to rescue a toddler but tries to justify this behavior as opposed to his heinous behavior to other innocents. Was it his need for recognition, his need to feel like he was “normal” and could participate in society? She herself struggles with her polarizing feelings for the man that she liked immensely, one she often said she considered a “kid brother” to her. The man she felt was sensitive and shy but bright with loads of potential to the one whose behavior she found sickenly repulsive. Even during his time in jail, she corresponded with him, sending him money for cigarettes and stamps, not condemning him and not condoning him. Trying to keep a relationship with him while assisting police in seeking justice for the victims and their families. She didn’t pull many punches with him as she became more and more convinced of his guilt and I was amazed at how long he allowed her into his world. Ann Rule is not a sensationalist true crime author here, she is a woman caught up in the events she could never have foretold, yet tells her story well.
+10 pts - Task
+ 10 pts - Combo (10.8 Spell it out, 20.5 told entirely in the voice of Ann Rule)
+10 pts - Review
+5 pts - Oldies (1980)
+5 pts - Jumbo (560 pgs)
Task Total - 40 pts
Grand Total - 835 pts
20th Century - Chronologician15.9 The Paradise Was (The Song of Albion #1) by Stephen R. Lawhead (pub. 1991)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25 points
Grand Total = 395 points
10.1 Square PegParadise Lost by John Milton
+10 task
+20 oldies (pub. 1667)
Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 130
20.1 Jane Austen's Lifetime (1775 - 1817)North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865)
Review
This is the first book I have read by Elizabeth Gaskell. I found it very Austenesque. The good, lovely, educated and intelligent, sweet and unselfish heroine who lives in modest circumstances but whose family status gives her the right to socialize in the circles of the gentry. There is the silly girl of the same age that only reflects the heroine’s sensibility, there is the sense of filial duty, at least two possible lovers, at least one of which is quite arrogant, the misunderstandings, some tragedy, proposals of marriage rejected and a final happy ending. Virtue wins all, the handsome, rich husband, the respect of all who know her and pure happiness from there on forever which is implied. Gaskell collaborated with Charles Dickens quite often in writing short stories or magazine serials. I was surprised because I read somewhere that Dickens scorned Austen’s works whereas Gaskell seems to have borrowed all of Austen’s plot devices. During this time, this was the popular theme in novels, but truly I’m not expert enough to be able to discern many differences in the writings of both ladies.
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Review
+10 pts - Combo(20.2- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?t... , & 20.4-#19 on underclass list )
+15 pts - Oldies (1855)
+ 5 pts - Jumbo (584 pgs)
Task Total - 60 PTAs
Grand Total - 895 pts
15.6 20th Century - ChronologicianTwo or Three Things I Know for Sure by Dorothy Allison
published 1995
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 480
Joanna wrote: "20th Century - ChronologicianTwo or Three Things I Know for Sure by Dorothy Allison
published 1995
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 480"
Which step/task is this for?
10.5 The PlusThe Fledgling by Jane Langton
Review:
A charming coming of age story with just a touch of magic. An awkward young girl forms a bond with an old goose who takes her out flying. Villains must be kept at bay and a quirky family relationship comes through. What child doesn't want to fly? How awesome would it be to have a majestic goose teach you how to drift down from the sky? The connection to Walden and Walden Pond is likely to be lost on most child-readers, but I enjoyed it. I hadn't realized the intended audience was quite as young as it is -- I'd recommend this to ages 8-10 or thereabouts.
+10 Task (Lexile: 800)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (published 1980)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 505
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Joanna wrote: "20th Century - ChronologicianTwo or Three Things I Know for Sure by Dorothy Allison
published 1995
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task total: 25
Grand total: 480"
Which step/task is this for?"
15.6 -- sorry about that.
20.5 - In honor of EmmaThis Full House by Virginia Euwer Wolff940 Lexile
This Full House has a great story line, but what I liked best was the science! The reader gets to experience some of the knowledge that the main character, LaVaughn, learns in “Summer Science” before her senior year in high school and then in the “Women in Science” program in which she excels. I understand more about DNA testing and how it works than I ever thought I could glean from a work of fiction written in blank verse. The writing was so good that it was woven right into the plot or, when separated as an actual science lesson, never dry but full of description and interesting anecdotes. This Full House is the 3rd book in the “Make Lemonade Trilogy”, but it could easily stand alone, too.
+20 Task: Main character LaVaughn, female author
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1925
20.3 Pride and PrejudiceClockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Low Lexile
+ 20 Task (147 865 ratings, average 4.27)
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 820
20.5 EmmaThe Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
Louise Brooks is an iconic star from the silent film era but in 1922 she was a pretty, precocious fifteen-year-old, a talented dancer who had been admitted to a prestigious dance academy in New York City. To leave Wichita for NYC, she must have a chaperone.
Enter Cora.
On the surface, Cora has the perfect life: a handsome, kind, wealthy husband; twin boys who are preparing to enter college; dear friends in her community...and plenty of leisure time. One day, she comes home to tell her husband that she'll be leaving for the summer to be Louise's chaperone.
And I don't want to give anything away so I'll stop with the synopsis already.
I don't even know where to begin with what I loved about this book...I love learning new things: in this one I encountered the orphan trains (I knew of these in England during WWII but had no idea that it ran in the U.S....from 1853-1929!?).
I loved the slow uncovering of secrets...as in real life, everyone has one (or more) and the way they are revealed is often a shock and always a delight (not so much at the secret as many of them are heart-wrenching, but delight at the artistry of the writing).
I loved the upheaval theme...rejecting corsets and the restricted lifestyle they represent; the institution of Prohibition and the pushback it created; the challenge to personal values and the basic understanding of "right" and "wrong" that our Cora faces.
I loved witnessing Cora's evolution, of watching her become entirely herself as the years progress.
Side note: the whole time I was reading, I thought the cover was just a stock photo, meant to look like someone from the '20s--and the whole time I was reading I imagined it "was" Cora. Wasn't til after I'd finished the book that I discovered that it was actually a photo of Louise Brooks!
+20 Task (written by a woman; Cora is the main character)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.3)
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 1225
20th Century - Chronologician15.10 I for Isobel by Amy Witting (pub. 1990)
+15 Task
+10 Bonus
Task Total = 25 points
Completion Bonus = 150 points
Grand Total = 570 points
Task 15.5 - 20th Century—Chronologician1974 The War Between the Tates (1974) by Alison Lurie
Task=15
Bonus=10
Task total=25
Grand Total: 545 + 25 = 570
Tien wrote: "20th Century - Chronologician...
Completion Bonus = 150 points"
Congrats on the finish, Tien!
Another finisher! Nice job, Tien!
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Reading with Style
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Karen GHHS wrote: "10.7 - Rebekah’s task – Nurse it:
The Birth House by Ami McKay
I am intrigued by the idea of a midwife and enjoy reading stories of this process. This is partly..."
Ok, thanks-sorry I'm making such a mess of my math this time!