Reading with Style discussion

10.3 - Edgar Allan Poe
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle 12/15/13

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is on the linked list of detective fiction authors.

Review:

I read The Sign of Four to fit a GR Challenge. Let’s say that it lacked Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, started with Sherlock Holmes shooting up, and had the same sort of dialog I’ve heard in every Sherlock Holmes movie my husband’s ever watched. This is the first book of the Sherlock Holmes series that I’ve ever read. I thought the books would be better, but sadly this was a 2 star read for me. Fortunately though, not everyone has the same taste in books. As noted here on Goodreads, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote nine novels in the Sherlock Holmes series, plus numerous short stories featuring that character. It is obvious that Sherlock Holmes has a great following, and I will not be missed from that crowd!

+10 task
+10 review
+10 oldies (pub. 1890)

Task total: 30 points
TtPR Total: 15
RwS Total: = 180
Grand Total: 195

10.5 Goodreads authorized

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon


Review:
In this instalment Claire returns to the past and to Jamie. Twenty years have passed since they last saw each other, but they don’t have any time to reacquaint each other. Trouble is right on their heels.
With the last book in the series I had a bit of a struggle to get through it. This time I was finished in no time. Considering that I don’t have much attention left in the evenings when I can read for recreational purposes I take ages to finish big books. This way I never really get into the story. So audiobooks are always a great alternative in those cases. I can listen to those during my commute and finish even big books in an acceptable time frame. This was finished within two weeks (audiobook length over 40 hours). Read by Davina Porter, of whom I had already heard great things but never listened to her narration before. She really gives the book that certain thing I was missing in the previous two books. I was eager to listen on and always regretted the time when I actually arrived at university and had to stop listening.


+ 10 Task
+ 10 Review
+ 15 Jumbo
+ 10 Combo (10.8: Diana Gabaldon, 20.9)

Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 130

Post 124 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "10.5 Goodread authorizedCloaked by Alex Flinn
Alex Flinn is a goodreads author

Task: 10
Style :+10 Review

Review

I really liked this book. This is the same author ..."

I'm sorry that I didn't look it up before, Jayme. This book is classified as YA at BPL and has a lexile of 540. Thank you for writing and posting your review, but unfortunately, we can't give you the 10 style points for it.

20.5 Disturbing
(shelved 5 times as disturbing)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad


Review:
In Heart of Darkness the story’s narrator has to travel up the Congo River to find the mysterious Mr. Kurz, who has gained dominance over a tribe of indigenous people but is terminally ill.
I both enjoyed the story and the narrator. However, considering that I listened to this yesterday when I didn’t feel too well and drifted off to sleep one or two times in-between, I’m certain I missed some of the numerous layers of this story. This is a pity considering how rich this story is in terms of narrative techniques and layers. Thus I will probably make this a re-read (and really read is that time) one of those days to capture all of the nuances of the story.
I can heartily recommend this story.


+ 20 Task
+ 10 Review
+ 5 Combo (20.6)
+ 10 Oldies

Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 175

Task 10.8 BINGO

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The author's initials are in the word BINGO.

Review:
This was my first Neil Gaiman novel. Friends of mine that like him, REALLY like him, so I wanted to give him a try. I chose to read The Ocean at the End of the Lane as my first Gaiman novel because the cover is so darkly beautiful.

The story is pieced together with decades old memories of the main character about a time in his life when some pretty amazing things happened to him. It is a strange story and I found myself spending much of time my time with this book wondering how on earth Gaiman comes up with his ideas. What goes through his mind to decide "Oh, I'm going to write about a giant stick figure (?) made out of fabric"? I didn't love this book but I also didn't hate it. Probably the main problem for me is that I went into not knowing what to expect. From the synopsis, I thought it was going to be a slightly dark mystery. I guess in some ways it was that, but it was also so fantastical that I often didn't know which end was up while reading. The strong element of fantasy definitely surprised me (remember this is my first foray into Gaiman).

While I was left feeling a little unsettled by the story, I will say that I believe Gaiman is a master of storytelling. When he described the main character being in the bucket of water, and his feeling of knowing yet not knowing, of all knowledge being just within his grasp, it was amazing. He (Gaiman) was able to put the feeling of dreams into words. Because of his control of words, I am planning on reading more work by Neil Gaiman, and this time I will be a little more prepared.

+10 task
+5 combo w/ 10.5 (Gaiman is a Goodreads Author)
+10 review

Task total = 25 pts
Grand Total = 35 pts

Jenifer, all of the letters in the word BINGO must be in either the title or the author's name, so Neil Gaiman does not qualify for 10.8. However, this book has been posted in the challenge before - see Post #138 for an example. How would you like this reposted?

20.5 Disturbing

The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart

Review:
An interesting premise, but a surprisingly boring read. Short summary: options will be assigned to a roll of dice, then carried out as determined by chance. (Starting with, if it's a 1, I'll go rape my best friend's wife/neighbor. Which it is, but she wanted it after all, so isn't that convenient. How divinely free. Or just boringly pointless.) For all the supposedly exciting and wild and free sex that was supposed to be happening by dice-driven randomness, I found myself trudging through. The satire of psychotherapy is amusing, but the narrator was so painfully annoying that I just couldn't bring myself to care. Oh, I'll do such-and-such because the dice told me to. Except that they only tell you to do the things that you've created as options. Read on the level of reminding us that much of life is unplannable and uncontrollable and we might be happier if we accepted chaos as natural rather than something to be struggled against, the book is an interesting philosophical commentary. Read for plot or as an instruction manual, it's just irksome.I'm not old enough to know whether I'd have liked it better in 1971. Maybe it was really revolutionary at the time.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.9 [541 pgs], 10.6 [first book])
+5 Jumbo (541 pgs)
+5 Oldies (pub. 1971)

Task total: 50
Grand total: 170

20.1 1964

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
(author born in 1964-low lexile)

+20 Task

Grand Total = 120 points

TtPR-Seafarer

15.2 Second stop Chile A,B,C
Tierra del Fuego by Francisco Coloane

+ 15 Task
Grand Total 75

From Post 130

Heather wrote: "20.9

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

557 pages, low lexile

+20 task
+5 jumbo

task total: 25
grand total: 175"

Sorry, low lexile means no style points, including Jumbo points.

Aviator
15.1 Canada
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
Author is born in Canada and it takes place in Canada.

Task +15
Grand Total: 25

10.2 Fantasy

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
lexile 810

Review: This is a reread for me. I am reading the series again so I can watch the movies! I really enjoyed this book the first time around and although I didn't cry this time I liked it again. It reads very quickly but has more substance than some other books in this style. I like development of characters, although Katniss can become a bit tiresome after a while. I think the plot is a lot stronger than the characterizations. The concept is great, I love anything to do with any kind of game.
4 stars for me.

+10 task shelved more than 1000 times
+5 combo 20.5 shelved as disturbing more than 5 times
+ 10 review

Task Toal: 25 points
Grand Total: 85 points

TtPR - Seafarer

15.2 (2nd Stop): Russia

The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

+15 task

Task total: 15 points
Grand Total: 320

TtPR - Seafarer

15.3 (3rd Stop): Japan

Dark Water by Koji Suzuki

+15 task

Task total: 15 points
Grand Total: 335

10.3 Edgar Allan Poe

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

Review:
A young man is recruited by the police to infiltrate a secret circle of anarchists in London in the early years of the 20th century. But the anarchists are not what they seem.
At first I thought this might be the prototype for many early British spy stories of the most unrealistic kind, such as Agatha Christie's The Big Four, and if a book can be blamed for its spin-offs it probably does have a lot to answer for in this respect, but it rapidly turns into farce and then some kind of religious allegory which went completely over my head. I found most of it just silly, but it is well-written idiocy.

+10 task
+ 5 combo (20.10 born 1874)
+10 review
+10 oldies (1908)

Task total: 35 points
Grand total: 370

10.7 Keep It Short

Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
Lexile 900

Review:
Strange and memorable stories set in different societies, often low on technology, with histories that are often only barely explained. Conflict is often out of sight, in the background, and the stories' endings can be very different to what you might expect. Some of the most memorable: 'Singing My Sister Down' was terrifying. 'My Lord's Man' was sweet and unexpected. 'Sweet Pippit' is told from an elephant's point of view. 'House of the Many' left a lot untold. I think I could enjoy many of these stories several times and I will look out for more of Margo Lanagan's short story collections.

+10 task (Aurealis award 2004)
+10 review
+10 not a novel (short stories)

Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 400

10.5 - Goodreads authorized

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman

Lexile 880

+10 Task (Neil Gaiman is a Goodreads author)
+10 Not-A-Novel (short stories)

Task total=20
Grand total=125

Task 10.5 - Goodreads authorized: Read a book written by a goodreads author.

With A Single Spell (Ethshar #2) (1987) by Lawrence Watt-Evans (Goodreads Author)
Review: This novel is listed as #2 of a series; however, it is a stand-alone novel. What makes it a “series” is that it is set in the same world as book #1 and, presumably, the later books as well. No characters were the same between book#1 and book#2. This novel was a lighthearted fantasy novel concerning a young man who only wants to settle down to an everyday life in a small town where everyone knows his name. Alas for our hero, life hands him an adventure instead. The rest of the novel reads like a game of Dungeons and Dragons, with noble quests, erstwhile companions, beautiful age-appropriate women, enchanted objects, and even mild (view spoiler)[a fire-breathing dragon (hide spoiler)]. Recommended for fantasy fans only, and then only if you’re looking for well-done predictability rather than originality. (Book #1 of the Ethshar series, The Misenchanted Sword, was a better novel.)

+10 Task
+10 Review
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1939-1989)

Task Total: 10 + 10 + 05 = 25

Grand Total: 125 + 25 = 150

15.3 - Mexico

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro

+15 task

task total: 15
grand total: 230

10.1 Reading Resolutions

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel

+10 Points: nominated for NBA

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 400

10.6 – Beginnings/Endings:

Saints by Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel

+10 Task: most recent book

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 410

10.5 - Goodreads authorized

The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks (Goodreads author)

+10 Task
+10 Not-A-Novel (Non-Fiction)

Task total=20
Grand total=145

10.7 Keep it Short
The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín

+10 task (shortlisted for 2011 Frank O’Connor award)
+10 Not a novel (short stories)

Task total: 20 points
Grand Total: 250

TtPR – Seafarer

15.6 (6th Stop): Indonesia
The Black Lake by Hella S. Haasse

+15 task A + C
+10 bonus

Task total: 25 points
Grand Total: 275

10.6 Beginnings and Endings

An Ethiopian Romance by Heliodorus

Review:
First I have to say, if you’re going to read this book (which is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list) I recommend finding a modern translation. The edition that I had was a print-on-demand reprint of an out-of-copyright translation that prided itself on being based on something from the 17th century, and it was not an easy read.
The story itself is a lively if confusing tale of the stunningly beautiful and perfectly chaste heroine Chariclea and the love of her life Theagenes. Chariclea is kidnapped because of her beauty and carried off around the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean. Any time she is about to be married to one of her capturers, she and Theagenes either escape or are rescued, only to be recaptured by someone else, sometimes within minutes. They pretend that Theagenes is her brother so that they can stay together. Pirates, thieves and kings all fall madly in love with Chariclea and Theagenes is a constant temptation to her chastity but virtue prevails and she also manages to find out her true parentage along the way.

Regarding qualification for 10.6, there were a lot of writers named Heliodorus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliodorus) and several of them are lumped together in Goodreads, but this Heliodorus, Heliodorus of Emesa, is only credited with one book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliodor...).

+10 task
+10 review
+25 oldies (3rd century AD)

Task total: 45 points
Grand total: 445

10.3 Edgar Allan Poe

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George

Review:
The first in Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series and also her first novel, this mystery introduces the aristocratic Inspector with a lot of back story and his Sergeant, Barbara Havers, with a huge chip on her shoulder. The mystery itself is set in Yorkshire and there’s abuse of many kinds.
Perhaps if Elizabeth George had realized how many Inspector Lynley books she was destined to write, she might not have tried to cram so much into the first one, but it makes for a story that works on all levels with a large cast of rounded characters, many of whom reappear in later books.

+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.6 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/e...)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1988)

Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 475

20.10 Between the Wars

Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Review:
This is one of the best known books by Nancy Mitford, the eldest of the aristocratic Mitford Sisters known for their beauty and extreme politics of all kinds between the two World Wars. Love in a Cold Climate, published in 1949, looks back to around 1930. The narrator, Fanny Logan, keeps her own story firmly in the background and focuses on Polly Hampton, the only child of a hugely wealthy Earl who fails to live up to parental expectations by falling in love with somebody considered completely unsuitable, not in terms of class but by age and relationship. We also meet the Canadian cousin Cedric who is heir to the Earldom and turns out to be a terribly camp gay stereotype – although in Mitford’s defence it’s possible that many gay men really did act a lot more camp in those days to make their orientation clear. Characters introduced in The Pursuit of Love make a reappearance, including the Radlett family who were famously based on the Mitfords themselves. I enjoyed this and it made me want to reread The Pursuit of Love.

+20 task (born 1904)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1949)

Task total: 35 points
Grand total: 510

TtPR - Seafarer

15.2 (2nd stop) US: A, B & C

The Circle by Dave Eggers

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 435

15.3 3rd Stop in my Aviator's Log is Nicaragua.

I read Cosmic Canticle by Ernesto Cardenal.

The book is set in the ethereal Cosmos, but the poet was born in Nicaragua and has been a Nicaraguan national all his life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_...

Grand Total: 45

15.4 The 4th stop in my Aviator's log takes me to Canada.

I read A Cold White Sun by Vicki Delany, Canadian born and Canadian national and writes her Constable Molly Shannon books set in British Columbia, Canada.

Grand Total: 60

20.4 Travel

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

This book is #6 on the "Favorite Travel Books" list.

Jack Kerouac based this book on a series of trips he took alone or with Neal Cassady across the United States and down to Mexico City. Full of youthful exhuberance, the fictional Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity want to experience life at top speed with binges of drinking, drugs, casual sex, and crazy driving. Running out of money constantly, they crash at their friends' homes, sleep in the car, and pick up hitchhikers for gas money. Avoiding tourist traps, they meet people who pick crops, work on the railroad, and frequent neighborhood jazz bars. The description of the jazz musicians are mind-blowing, and left me feeling like I sat through a few sets of great improvisation. I also especially enjoyed the descriptions of their trip through Mexico--the reader can feel the heat, hear the mambo music, see the mournful brown eyes of the Mexicans, and feel the onslaught of large insects in the night.

"On the Road" is probably the most important novel of the Beat literary movement of 1946-60. During that post-World War II era, many people were going after the material success of the American Dream. But the Beats were a bohemian bunch searching for freedom and experience, often in hedonistic excess.

+20 task
+10 review
+ 5 combo (20.6)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1957)

Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 205

TtPR – Seafarer

15.1 Canada

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

+15 Task

Grand Total = 135 points

15.1 Seafarer

First Stop: Canada

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

+15 Task (A&B)

Season Total: 15

15.2 Seafarer

Second Stop: Russia

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

+15 Task (A&B)
+10 Bonus

Post Total: 25
Season Total: 40

20.9 Daytona 500

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

+20 Task (829 pages)
+5 Combo (20.2)
+15 Oldies (1844)
+15 Jumbo (829 pages)

Post Total: 55
Season Total: 95

10.2 Reindeer

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.5-GR Author, 20.6-on list, 20.9-over 500 pages)
+5 Jumbo (656 pages)

Post Total: 30
Season Total: 125

20.4 Travel

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.6)
+10 Not-a-Novel (non-fiction)

Post Total: 35
Season Total: 160

10.7 – Keep it Short: Karen GHHS’s task

Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan

+10 Task: Read a short story collection by an author that was nominated for (or won) the Aurealis Award for young-adult short story

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 445

Task 15.2 - Travel the Pacific Rim - "Seafarer"
Second Stop

Malaysia
A/ Author born in Malaysia
C/ Novel set in Malaysia

Evening Is the Whole Day (2008) by Preeta Samarasan(Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 340 pages)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 15 + 10 = 25

Grand Total: 150 + 25 = 175

10.3 - In honor of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday

Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates

+10 Task

Task total=10
Grand total=155

TtPR
Aviator
15.2 US The Christmas Noteby Donna VanLiere

Task +15
Grand Total: 40

10.10

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

+10 task
+10 oldies

task total: 20
grand total: 250

10.4 Chinese New Year

The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History by Joseph M. Marshall III

Review:
At first, I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy listening to the author read this book. The author's voice is slow, but as I listened, it came to feel like the rhythm of an oral tradition storytelling. The author's personal connection to the story as a Lakota himself and his access to oral stories about Crazy Horse made this a very interesting description not only of Crazy Horse but also of the Lakota people of the late 1800s. I very much enjoyed hearing about the social traditions and the daily lives of these people who were so badly mistreated by the conquering whites.

+10 Task (Horse)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 200

10.10 Group Reads

Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz

Review:
These interconnected stories were relentlessly full of unhappiness and loneliness and lives off-track. So often while reading these, I wanted to just reach out and shake the characters and tell them to move on with their lives. The bound by duty, lonely, stuck in a small town feel permeated. And yet, they also focused on the interconnectedness of the characters, all inhabitants of a small village in Israel. I found most of the stories haunting, and many of the actions rather unexplained, but strangely compelling. My favorite of the stories captured the awkwardness of a childhood crush in such a straightforward yet vulnerable way. I would definitely be interested in reading more by this author.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (short stories)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 230

10.8 - BINGO!

Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

+10 task
+10 combo (10.6 - Goodreads author; 20.6 - #298)

Post total: 20
Grand total: 60

20.7 Group Reads Redux

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Review:
The story of literature student Madeleine Hanna, graduating from Brown in 1982, and the two young men in her life, Mitchell who loves her and Leonard whom she loves.
I expected to enjoy this a lot more than I did, since Jeffrey Eugenides and these characters are just my age. There was a certain amount of nostalgia value but the first three-quarters of the book were hard going for me because I found Madeleine such a tiresome, self-obsessed character. In the last 100 pages Mitchell goes to India, Leonard goes out of control and the focus is off Madeleine, so it definitely picked up for me towards the end.

+20 task
+10 review

Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 540

TtPR - Seafarer

15.4 (4th stop): China

Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo

+15 task (born and set in China)
+10 Seafarer bonus

Task total: 25 points

Also, I've just looked at the TtPR rules and I see I should have claimed 10 bonus points for 15.2 and 15.3, so can I claim those now?

+ 20 points

Grand Total: 585

Rosemary wrote: "Also, I've just looked at the TtPR rules and I see I should have claimed 10 bonus points for 15.2 and 15.3, so can I claim those now?
"

Kate will find them for you!

10.8 - BINGO

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright

This book covers three kinds of crazy -

1. The crazy that is L. Ron Hubbard, his life, and the whys and hows Scientology's start
2. The crazy that is the current leadership of the church and their awful, horrific practices
3. The crazy that is Scientology's harassment of people who leave the church or write anything remotely negative about it

I was worried the book would be a rehash of the New Yorker article but there is a lot more here, especially about LRH's life. Defining a religion is hard, as the IRS will tell you, but Wright lays out why Scientology is more cult-y than other new religions like Mormonism.

I'm really glad that the New Yorker had such a role in this book because it's famous fact checking team did an amazing job making it bulletproof. It leads to some repetitive footnotes ("The church categorically denies all charges of Miscavige's abuse", "Cruise, through his attorney, denies that he ever retreated from his commitment to Scientology", "The church denies that blow drills exist") and a raft-load of source notes but I hope they do their job of keeping Wright and his family safe from harassment.

+10 Task - Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
+5 Combo - 10.6 (most recent book by Wright)
+10 Not-a-novel
+10 Review

Task total: 35 points
Grand total: 100 points

10.8 BINGO

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
(no lexile available)

+10 Task (kONIGsBerg)

Grand Total = 145 points