Reading with Style discussion
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SP 2017 Completed Tasks
20.1 Lord of the RingsFar from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy never fails to deliver a good story with straightforward prose and believable dialogue. Here, Gabriel Oak, a shepherd in England is rebuffed when he proposes to Bathsheba. Bathsheba later inherits her uncle’s farm…and Gabriel later comes to work for her…without anyone mentioning their former relationship. Bathsheba becomes admired by two other men…and that’s where the story truly emerges with moments of treachery, tragedy and triumph. I knew nothing about the plot before reading the novel….(I have the movie on my DVR and will watch it soon.) A very good read…five stars.
Task =20
Review = 10
Canon= 10
Comb0= 20 (10.2; 10.3; 10.7; 20.10)
task total= 60
grand total = 85
10.3 English LanguagePerfect by Rachel Joyce
1972: when 11-year-old Byron hears from his friend James that two seconds are to be added to time, it sets off a chain of events that has the boys trying to rescue Byron's "perfect" mother from various crises, and only succeeding in making things worse.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Jim is in his 50s and has spent most of his adult life going in and out of the local psychiatric hospital. Now it's closed, and he's trying to hold down a job in a fast food cafe and deal with his OCD unsupported.
I enjoyed this, but I didn't feel deeply engaged with the characters.
+10 task
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 40
20.4 My Family and Other AnimalsThe King Must Die by Mary Renault
Prince Theseus grows up believing his unknown father was the god Poseidon - only to find out in his teens that the truth is rather different. He sets off on a quest to Athens, and is made king of a country where all the kings are killed after one year. But his destiny does not end there. He is fated to fight the fabled Minotaur, and he is taken as a captive to Crete, where he must outwit and outrun the bulls.
This is a really good retelling of an ancient Greek myth that had me gripped almost from the start. The mythical beasts and cataclysmic events are all explained in terms that we will accept as real, so we can believe in the story and, at the same time, see how the legend of the Minotaur as half man, half bull could have come into being.
+20 task (set 100% in Greece - Troezen, Eleusis, Athens, Crete, and Naxos) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Th...
+10 review
+10 combo (10.2, 10.3)
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 80
20.10 HesperusThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
review There is a reason that this has survived for centuries, but it's not anything that made me consistently enjoy these tales. To be sure, did like some of them, but honestly much of the humour was too bawdy for my tastes. There were some brilliant moments of farce, some funny witticims and references (in one of the last tales he had a funny anachronistic bit where quotes Plato referring to Jesus Christ, even though Plato lived several hundred years prior to Jesus, and if you've read enough Plato, you will appreciate the jest more.
There is comedy, tragedy, parable telling and much more. I have to agree with the person who wrote the blurb on the back cover of the copy I read, that this is "Drawn from all lovels of society and all walks of life...a picture of English life in teh fourteenth century..." However, it's also evident that many forms of humour prevail throughout the centuries, once you get past the poetry (not all in the couplets you see so much of, especially in the first part of this), then language (even in the English translation I read) and the overly-long (to contemporary readers) speeches, and that human nature remains much the same. To be sure, we are less likely to refer to Greek and Roman gods, not as many of us follow astrology, we are well past knowing anyone who seriously contemplates alchemy as a science. We are also far less likely to paint the portraits of very nearly perfect people to hold up as examples of excellent behaviour.
As you can see, overall I didn't like this.
+20 Task
+10 review
+10 Bloom's Western Canon
+5 Jumbo (504 pages)
+15 Combo (10.2 three word title, 10.3 author born in the UK--England, 10.7 Dead Poets Society monument, already listed in 10.7 thread)
Task Total= 60 points
Season Total=100 points
20.6 My Name Is RedEvery Last One by Anna Quindlen
Mary Beth Latham is the mother of a happy American family. She runs a garden landscaping business and has an ophthalmologist husband, three teenage children and a dog. The characters and the relationships between them are interesting but not unusual, and the first half of the book might seem slow because you'll think nothing is happening except the normal everyday crises of family life. However, something is developing behind the scenes. When we look back, like Mary Beth, we can see that a few little things that seemed not too significant at the time were in fact adding up to a disaster waiting to happen.
Having read one book by Anna Quindlen before, I knew this wasn't going to be the comfortable read it might seem at the beginning. The description makes it clear, too, so I don't think that's a spoiler. Recommended, and I'll read any more of hers that I come across.
+20 task (rating 3.83, 28514 ratings)
+10 review
+10 combo (10.2, 20.5 born 1952 in USA)
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 120
20.9 National Doctors' DayTwo Plays of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
I usually like to see a play and THEN listen to or read it (the opposite my movie habit: book first, then movie). While I can usually understand the gist of what is going on and the italicized stage direction is helpful when reading (Chekhov was notably precise in his directions, as pointed out in the preface by Sir John Gielgud), I need exposure to the actors' facial expressions and cues to get a more full understanding of the play.
This was my first exposure to Chekhov and I have to admit that I feel quite ignorant upon completion. I even watched the Judi Dench "Cherry Orchard" as soon as I finished reading it to try to understand it a bit better and I'm still at a total loss. (It doesn't help that so many of the names in the play were so similar or were referred to by several different names and I kept confusing who was whom.)
I wish I could find a live or taped performance of "Three Sisters"--even though I'm not quite sure I understood it completely, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than "Orchard."
I recognize it as artful...just fear I missed the message of that art.
+20 Task ("Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress.")
+5 Combo (10.2)
+5 Non-Western
+10 Canon
+10 Review
Post total: 50
Season total: 165
Task 10.3 English LanguageRead a book by an author born in one of these English Language Countries: UK, South Africa or New Zealand.
Tanith Lee was born in London, England
The Winter Players (1976) by Tanith Lee (Hardcover, 104 pages)
Review: This is one of the first fiction published by the late, great Tanith Lee. It’s at an awkward length, at 104 pages, too long to be included in an anthology, too short to be part of a reprint series. That’s a shame, because it is a story that is just the right length to tell the tale the author wishes to tell. It’s a high fantasy tale, starring a young, moral, determined priestess and ….. hmmm, spoiler-free version ….. those protagonists that wish bad things for our heroine priestess and those she protects. I greatly enjoyed this story. It’s a good mixture of fantasy tropes and sheer originality.
Tanith Lee’s stories get darker as she got older. I, therefore, prefer the earlier stories, like this one, that flirts with darkness but never commits to being a “dark fantasy”. Recommended for those who enjoy “high” fantasy stories that are told without the “padding” present in so many fantasy stories.
+10 Task
+05 Comb (#10.2)
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 30 + 25 = 55
10.7 Dead Poet's SocietyThe Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.3)
Task total=15
Grand total=85
10.2 3, 4, or 5Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
+10 Task
Points this post: 10
RwS total: 40
AotD total: -
Season Total: 40
15.2 AotDGolden Boys by Sonya Hartnett
+15 Task (Australian Independent Booksellers Indie Book Award 2015)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 45
Post 34 Andrea wrote: "10.4 International Question DayThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/..."
Andrea, we need you to post your review here in the completed tasks thread. Thank you!
20.5 Foundation
by Steve Erickson+20 Task (Erickson born April, 1950)
+10 Review
Points this post: 30
Season total: 30
----
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a challenging, but very rewarding book (for some, for others it will be nothing but frustration and confusion). I hesitate to give too many plot points, not for spoilers' sake, but because they are bizarre and not the true focal point. This isn't to say that the goings-on or characters are not important, they certainly are...however, if I listed what was happening a reader who might otherwise enjoy the book might get lost in the bizarre-ness and not get to the beauty. A word of warning, however: beware of the reviews you read. I read one, in particular, that was dead wrong about the book (not in its opinion of it, but in its descriptions of the book itself--it is clear the reviewer read a portion, but not the majority of the book and attempted to extrapolate the rest. This is not a book that approach will work for. Sorry.). Just take reviews with a grain of salt---that's all I'm suggesting.
Shadowbahn is a meditation -- slightly prescient regarding this particular moment in American history, although that is probably my own sense of negativity regarding it clouding my vision. The book takes place in a slight future reality, fractures in the union have formed, and alternate histories that inform that reality abound. Perhaps a central plot theme is the following quotation: "..."shift Churchill or Lincoln off their place on the timeline by a hundred kilometers here or a hundred miles there, or a decade here or there, then everything turns out differently." But this isnt to say that Erickson merely changes a few data points and predicts the outcome...no no no.
Rather, the different outcome ends up a reflection of a world that could be...and yet a meditation on the world that is. Seemingly the soul of America is music and the history and pop-culture that surround the late 20th-Century are the canvas on which the tale is painted. Bring with you, potential reader, all the history and knowledge of this music as you can. It will better inform and delight you. I am certain that I barely scratched the surface (but did not have more time to devote to the research--I believe folks ahve created playlists to accompany the book). There are layers and layers of reference...all adding context to the upside-down image being presented. Not everything is an inverse, converse, or negative image--but it isn't all right either.
I don't see this book as moralistic...in that there is no "warning" from the author. Just as the events and characters the book is as much as it is not. It is art in its ability to provoke thoughts. It is artistry in its skillful and careful construction. If you are a reader who is game for some mental gymnastics, doesn't mind being lead blindly into something else, and is willing to think and reflect a bit in the process---this book will be for you.
10.10 Group ReadsClouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
Despite being a big fan of this style of English mysteries, this is only the second Sayers I’ve read. I liked the first one I read, but not enough to jump in and read the whole series in one gulp (as I tend to do). However, this book (the second in the series) may have changed that.
We dive right into the lives of the British upper class – with extended vacations and no commitments, hunting, large house parties, valets (the famous Bunter), etc. The crime also happens early on, and the Duke (Lord Peter Wimsey’s brother) is charged with murder.
I found it quite amusing to read about Lord Peter (amateur detective) and Parker (professional detective) gather evidence and cast around making great leaps of logic to try to determine ‘who done it’. There is a lot of action in this novel, with Lord Peter (and sometimes Bunter) and Parker going all over to track down evidence. I found the plot to be a little convoluted, but it really used the upper class concerns (eg. is it suitable for a Peer’s sister to marry a socialist??!!) of the time (after WW1) well.
Overall, I enjoyed it and will make more of an effort to seek out Sayer’s mysteries.
10 task
10 review
15 combo 10.2, 10.3, 10.7
____
35
Running total: 95
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 34 Andrea wrote: "10.4 International Question DayThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Review: https://ww..."
This is a repost of my earlier post, with the text of my review included in the post itself. Thanks, Elizabeth. I will be sure to include the text of reviews in my post from here on out.
10.4 International Question Day
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.2)
+ 10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo (528 pages)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 30
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion is vast and intense. While it certainly is accessible – Haidt is an engaging, organized, and clear writer, I would not classify it as a light read. Haidt, a moral psychologist (or, a psychologist who studies the psychology of morals), has a central argument to make which is interesting enough on its face: He sets forth the neuropsychological sources of our morality, explains what morality is, using an analogy to our sense of taste, and then shows how morality both “binds and blinds” us. In each part of his book, however, he takes us on an incredible whirlwind tour of evolution, history, psychological research of all kinds, genetics, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy to exhaustively set forth the reasons for his argument. Indeed, he notes in his conclusion, “I fear that I crammed too many sights into the tour.” I suspect the subtitle of the book hooked me (good marketing! – aren’t we all looking for ways to get across the deep political divide?), while not understanding that this would be a dive into the philosophical, psychological, and biological bases of a moral mind.
Haidt explains that our morality mostly comes from intuition; we determine whether something is moral or immoral within 200ths of a second, and then our reason finishes the job. Our reason doesn’t finish the determination itself however; it helps us explain to ourselves and others why we responded the way we did, acting as our own public relations department after the fact. Haidt provides a great image for this neurocognitive reality – a rider on top of an elephant. The elephant represents our intuition and the rider our reason. But, here’s the thing: the rider serves the elephant. The elephant heads where it wants to go, and the rider does what it needs to do to support the elephant. You will have to read the book if you want to understand the research behind this finding. It’s fascinating and convincing.
Haidt likens morality to our taste buds, an analogy that has been used by others in history (Hume and Mencias). His Moral Foundations Theory sets forth six different foundations on which people base their morality: Care/Harm; Fairness/Cheating; Loyalty/Betrayal; Authority/Subversion; Sanctity/Degradation; and Liberty/Oppression. This is where things start to get interesting – and challenging to one’s own beliefs. Haidt makes the case that the morals of those on the political left are mostly based on only two of the foundations: Care/Harm and Liberty/Oppression. And the morals of those on the political right are based on all six of the foundations. Again here, his review of the research and the findings is broad, touching on all of the fields I mention above. Later, he uses his theory and research conclusions to briefly talk about how he believes the left and the right each have something to offer based on these moral foundations. But first, he tells us how we get “locked in” to our perspective – which binds us with our group – and blinds us to other perspectives.
There has been a long-running argument about whether evolution is seen only in individuals – or whether groups themselves (a group of people, a certain culture) can also evolve. There are proponents of each position, of course. Haidt comes down on the side of groups being able to evolve, and that we have evolved as cooperative tribes – learning ways to work together to better insure the survival of the tribe. He describes humans as Homo Duplex – in that we are 90% driven by self-interest (the same as chimpanzees who do not truly cooperate to achieve common goals) and 10% driven by working cooperatively to serve the group (like worker bees who create the hive and fill it with honey). We are individuals and we are “groupish.” And in our groupishness, we can achieve things that we cannot achieve on our own.
He says that we work cooperatively when the “hive switch” gets turned on, and he talks about some of the things that turn our hive switches on. Here’s the thing, though. Even when our hive switches gets turned on, we only cooperate with our tribe, the people who are like us in some way that designates our tribe. We do things for our team. We all might have multiple teams that we play on, but we are not driven to cooperate with people who aren’t on our team. We are bound together by our groups, allowing us to do things that we couldn’t do on our own, but we are evolutionally not driven to act in the interest of those outside of our groups.
Haidt says that Liberals focus on individuals and whether individual people are cared for or harmed, whether individual people are free or oppressed. Conservatives, he says, are interested in those things too, but also in preserving the things that strengthen our groups and the bonding within the groups. One of the things that does that most effectively, says Haidt, is religion, telling us that successful religions “work on both levels of our nature to suppress selfishness, or at least to channel it in ways that often pay dividends for the group.”
Finally, he states what he believes are the capital and blind spots of Liberals, Libertarians, and Conservatives, asking each of us to try and use the Moral Foundations model to understand where our fellow human beings are coming from or how their “moral matrix” is developed. We might learn something.
What I’ve described above is a huge simplification of Haidt’s tome and his theories, but it might serve as a helpful guide to whether one might be interested in reading it. The research is fascinating, and as complex as the book gets, I never found myself bored. It is a lot to cover, but it’s also like a quick survey of some of the most intriguing philosophical, psychological, and biological thinking of the last few hundred years, and I think that’s what I liked about it the most.
10.6 Spring EquinoxThe Orphan Sky by Ella Leya
4 letters in author's first and last names
Review
A gem of a find when searching for a book to fit a reading challenge! Who would have thought that I’d find a book set almost completely in Azerbaijan?! The author herself was born there and emigrated to the US in late 80s. This book, therefore, seems to be set at the time when she would herself been a teen in Azerbaijan. The main protagonist, Leila, is a piano prodigy and it seems the author herself was a talented musician in her own right. It’s very interesting to know that the way of life reflected in this book most probably reflects the author’s own.
This novel opens with Leila in her 30s seeking closure of some sort. The story follows as she traced the events in her youth which brought her to her current dilemma. It is a coming of age story as well as a love story from which a parallel to a mythical tale of the Maiden Tower (an actual mysterious monument in Azerbaijan). In her mid-teens, Leila was a good girl; focused on her future as a pianist and firm in her belief of Communism. She was instructed to ‘spy’ upon a shop owner suspected as an American mole. What she found, however, was a talented boy with an arty soul that complemented her own. The way of true love, however, is never straight…
Despite my frustration of Leila’s naivety (how could she again trust that snake who she knew manipulated her earlier downfall?!), I felt that is a true reflection of her rearing; she’s had everything handed to her previously so it feels like she hasn’t any resources of her own! The Orphan Sky is a blend of legendary love in the modern world; a story full of treachery and heartbreak yet there is always hope.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.2)
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 75
20.1 Lord of the RingsKim by Rudyard Kipling
I really enjoyed this book, although the first part perhaps more than the last, when Kim was a bundle of energy and survival struck by a concern for another versus when he was the trained spy who, while fulfilling a promise and desire before he was supposed to start his real work, still had multiple goals in mind.
The bustle and variety of colonial India was astonishingly pictured. It was a man's India, but it was seen through Kim's eyes, although not told in his voice, so I feel it still fits. The text holds up well. I'd run into a turn of phrase here or there that a current writer might not use. The style is that of a storyteller and reminds me, in some ways, of Kipling's Just So Stories made more complex, which is less used in today's works.
I didn't really expect the ending, but it seems fitting, for it makes clear the story is almost as much the lama's as it is Kim's.
+20 Task
+10 review
+10 canon
+10 combo (10.6, 10.7)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 195
10.3 English LanguageOn The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
Twin boys, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, were born in 1900 on a farm on the border of Radnorshire, Wales and Herefordshire, England. The identical Welsh twins spent more than eighty years together with the stronger Lewis doing the heavier work on the farm, while Benjamin handled the finances and birthing the lambs. Their one push into the modern world was buying a tractor. They had a telepathic relationship, knowing the other's thoughts and feeling the other's pain.
The book is composed of experiences of the twins, their parents, and their neighbors in a small village. It does not have much of a plot, but has a marvelous sense of place, occasional humor, and lovely writing. It immerses the reader in the rural life of a Welsh village where the residents live close to the land in what is often a bleak existence. Lewis died first, but Benjamin cannot be separated from his twin. He spends time every day sitting on the tomb, "a block of shiny black granite one half with an inscription, the other left blank."
+10 task
+ 5 combo 10.2
+10 review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 75
From Post 30itpdx wrote: "10.4 Question Day
Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics by Rick Shenkman
Review: This explains a lot! Rick Shenkman takes us ..."
+5 Combo 20.5
From post 32Cory Day wrote: "15.1 AotD
Adios to My Old Life by Barbara Caridad Ferrer
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 15"
Which award are you claiming here?
From Post 58Anika wrote: "20.9 National Doctors' Day
Two Plays of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
I usually like to see a play and THEN listen to or read it (the opposite my movie habit: bo..."
+5 Combo 20.10
20.3 EvictedTribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
+20 Task (9 times as Current Events)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 50
Task 15.1 Spur Award for Best Nonfiction (1972)
(note: I'm going to be doing all Spur Award, sequentially, starting with this one in 1972)
The Time of the Buffalo (1972) by Tom McHugh (Paperback, 383 pages) [599.735]
+15 Task
+5 Not-a-Novel
+5 Oldies (published before 1992)
Task Total: 15 + 05 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 55 + 25 = 80
20.2 RebeccaThe High Window by Raymond Chandler (#246 on list)
+20 task
+5 combo (10.2)
Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 25
10.3 English LanguageOwls Do Cry by Janet Frame
(born in NZ)
+10 task
+10 combo (10.2, 10.6)
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 45
15.2 AotDAll Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1983-1992
Time Traveler reading from oldest to newest
Why Men Are Afraid of Women by François Camoin
+15 Task (1984 winner)
+ 5 Not-a-Novel
+ 5 Oldies (pub. 1984)
Task total=25
Grand total=110
20.1 Lord of the RingsThe Third Man by Graham Greene
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.6, 20.10)
Points this post: 40
RwS total: 80
AotD total: -
Season Total: 80
20.1 Lord of the RingsWinter Words in Various Moods and Metres by Thomas Hardy
Part of the reason I loved this poetry collection by Thomas Hardy was the excellence of the narrators on the audio version from my library. The poems were arranged by theme and preceded by short introductions that helped guide and enhance the reading. Some of the narrative sections were Hardy’s own commentary on his work. Thomas Hardy is one of my favorite classic novelists and I was duly impressed by his poetry. I recognized some of the nature poetry, such as “The Darkling Thrush”, from other collections I have read, but primarily the poems were wonderful new discoveries. A moving section was the poetry dedicated to his deceased first wife. I recommend this collection, particularly the audio version.
+20 Task
+15 Combo: 10.3 English Language /10.7 Dead Poet's Society / 20.10 Hesperus
+10 Review
+10 Canon
Task Total: 55
Season Total: 100
20.9 National Doctor's DayRain and Other South Sea Stories by W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham is one of the classic authors I enjoyed in college and am happy to be revisiting now. I didn’t read anything other than Of Human Bondage, but it stuck with me as a favorite. I enjoyed reading a collection of his short stories. The South Sea Islands setting under imperialistic occupation added variety and interest(since I am fascinated with imperialism and the beliefs of the nations who thought they had the right to rule in this way) to these stories which focused on relationships both romantic and sexual and the powerful and powerless. The title story, “Rain”, was excellent, but I liked many of the other stories as well. I look forward to delving into some more of Maugham’s novels.
+20 Task
+15 Combo: 10.3 English Language / 10.7 Dead Poet's Society / 20.1 Lord of the Rings
+10 Review
+10 Canon
Task Total: 55
Season Total: 155
Please note: this is a backup book for our team. Someone else is reading for this task.
20.6 My Name is Red You by Caroline Kepnes
You is a book of the month for another group I am in and it is a popular psychological thriller both in that group and on Goodreads, so I chose to read it for this category. I loved the psychological thriller aspects of this book and it kept my interest from beginning to end. I listened to the book and I thought the narrator was top notch. He really captured the voice of the troubled man justifying every action he took in a convoluted and roundabout way. The fact that he worked in a bookstore made it especially unsettling because I usually think of all bookstores as safe havens. I would have liked a bit less emphasis on the sexual situations. I just felt there was more of this content than necessary to keep the tension of the thriller going, but overall I liked it and I will pick up book 2 soon.
+20 Task: 37,773 ratings, 3.83
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 185
Please note: this is a backup book for our team. Someone else is reading for this task.
20.9 National Dr's DayRocket to Limbo by Alan E. Nourse
I had never heard of this writer until I saw his name on the Dr. authors list. From what I gather on Amazon, he is a bit of a forgotten entity. For some reason, when I saw the title and read the description, I thought – that is going to be a fun book! I was right!
As you would expect it is very much in the style of science fiction of the 1950s. I have to say, I enjoyed everything about this book. It has an interesting premise – humans have completely overpopulated the planet and have a very active program to colonize other suitable planets. There is a likeable young ‘hero’. The writing is taut and clean, yet descriptive. There are people acting badly, there is action– this is very much an adventure story. Then things get really interesting when they get to “Wolf IV”, ‘the planet from which no ship ever returned” (the book’s tag line). I won’t say anymore and ruin it for you!
This book is a short, fast read. If you like classic science fiction I would recommend this book.
20 task
10 review
5 combo 10.2
______
35
Running total: 130
10.1 Square PegSt. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Written when she was 25, this is Karen Russell's (of Swamplandia! fame) first published collection of short stories. The blurbs on the back tout it as "ten glittering stories," "one of the strangest, creepiest, most surreal collections," and call Russell "a mythologist of the darkest and most disturbing sort."
They call it "a dazzling debut of a blazingly original voice."
Okay. Fine. It was that. Quite original and strange and dark and unexpected...but it was also slow (most notably in "Ava Wrestles an Alligator," the story that was the seed for Swamplandia!) and I HATED her endings. Yes: they're short stories and aren't supposed to have a sense of completion at the end, keep the reader thinking long afterwards, blah blah blah. I read another collection of short stories alongside this one (Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories) and I loved that one--it was equally strange and weird, but each story felt polished and as complete as it should be...Russell's stories often felt like they needed another paragraph/page to give it the impact it had building towards.
I finished this book a few days ago and as time has mellowed my initial harsh outlook, I find myself thinking back to a couple of the stories. They've stuck in my brain and made me think beyond the page, so I've given it 4 stars rather than the 3 I originally slapped on it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post total: 20
Season total: 190
10.10 Group Read The Lover by Marguerite Duras
"Straightway after the meal she'd [the woman throwing the dinner party] apologize for having to leave so soon, but she had things to do, she said. She never said what. When there were enough of us we'd stay on for an hour or two after she left. She used to say, Stay as long as you like. No one spoke about her when she wasn't there. I don't think anyone could have, because no one knew her. You always went home with the feeling of having experienced a sort of empty nightmare, of having spent a few hours as the guest of strangers with other guests who were strangers too, of having lived through a space of time without any consequences and without any cause, human or other. It was like having crossed a third frontier, having been on a train, having waited in doctors' waiting rooms, hotels, airports."
This sense of being abandoned by your host and having to sit around awkwardly staring at strangers, of empty time and strangeness described by Duras perfectly describes the feeling I had reading this book. I kept hoping to understand what was going on, what was the point...and I'm just left disappointed (because I *wanted* to understand why the NYT would have called it "powerful, authentic, completely successful...perfect," why it won so many awards, why so many people appear to love this book) and frustrated (because it just fell flat for me and I couldn't see anything of value there). There really is nothing about it that I can think to talk about as far as a review goes: it was short. That is the only thing I liked about it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post total: 20
Season total: 210
20.5 FoundationThe Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich.
+20 Task (Louise Erdrich, born in Little Falls, Minnesota, 1954)
+5 Combo (10.2 (3-word title))
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
RwS Total: 65
Season Total: 65
Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I love how Louise Erdrich writes. I always feel at home in her stories, in that I am "at home" listening to her tell a story. There's something about her style, the words she chooses and how she orders them, that is intimate and compassionate, clear-eyed and real, that makes her work some of my favorite. In that way, The Painted Drum does not disappoint.
I did appreciate this novel, but I had a hard time following the arc of the story. There are a lot of characters and almost all of them have some kind of major tragedy with which they are coping or involved in. Different sections and chapters are told from differing view points, and while it's clear that the drum is the commonality throughout, it's difficult to assess the various tragedies in the shifting contexts. Clearly they are horrific events, but what have they meant in the course of the characters' lives? Erdrich tells us, but it's hard to weigh each, as they come one after another fairly quickly. It's as if there isn't enough time and space to experience them fully. I would have liked this book to be much longer, lingering and coloring in the contexts of what these events meant. And in that way, I feel I could have more deeply understood the drum's healing power.
20.6 My Name Is RedThe Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
This is the fourth book I've read by Alice Hoffman and she never fails to amaze me. Her skills as a story teller and ability to so fully imagine the possible lives of her characters is infinitely gratifying! I especially appreciate her historical fiction (this and The Dovekeepers are the two of hers I've read so far)--the research she does about the historical/political events of the day and the individuals' histories is clearly evident.
This novel is about the impressionist Camille Pissarro's family--his mother, in particular (he doesn't even enter the story until about halfway through the book). I love how she weaves together facts, some barely believable (like--Rachel Pomie Petit Pizzarro was married twice, the second time to her deceased husband's nephew, and was shunned by her community for it) with her stunning imagination (stolen children, abandoned babies, witchy ladies, and a kindly shaman thrown in for good measure) and then gives historical background to flesh the whole thing out (the Jewish settlement in St. Thomas; the end of slavery on that island; the beginning of the Civil War in the U.S.; post-Napoleonic Paris).
It was not a life-altering book by any means, but it sure was one enjoyable ride.
+20 Task (30,467 ratings; 3.85 star average)
+10 Review
+10 Combo
-10.2
-20.5 (New York, New York; 1952)
Post total: 40
Season total: 250
20.3 EvictedA Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
A twelve-year-old boy, Ishmael, the author, dreaming of becoming a rapper gets randomly caught in the middle of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Traveling with his younger brother and a few friends, the group witnesses awful attacks by rebels against villagers. Eventually they are captured, and Ishmael narrowly escapes death. He eventually is forced to join the government army and is required to participate in many atrocities. At age 15, Ishmael and some other boys are intercepted by a UN unit and placed in a rehabilitation program. Chaos reigns at first…but Ishmael eventually meets an uncle he has never met before…and there is no word about the rest of his family. He is chosen to be a spokesperson about the experience of boy soldiers at a UN conference in New York. I listened to the author read this memoir..and it is one of those books I think I will never be able to forget…and makes me feel so fortunate for being able to NOT have any experiences which remotely resemble those explained here. How brave the author is to present this nightmare of a childhood which I’m sure still haunts him.
task =20
review=10
combo= 5 (10.2)
non-western= 10
task total= 45
grand total= 130
Already abandoning my Time Traveler status. Just no way to get to these books in order:15.1 AotD
Different Prizes
Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling
+15 Task Spur Award for Best Novel of the West 2003
Post total: 15
Season total: 30
completed:
2008 The White Tiger Man Booker Prize
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003 Perma Red Spur Award Best Novel of the West
2002
2001
2000
1999
10.4 International Question DayThe Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker
You may not be surprised to realize that I picked this up for Karen Michele's task last time and never got to it...but I am so glad I did, because I would never have read this without the task, and it was terrific! I appreciated that the prose was clean, concise, and entertaining, but I REALLY loved all the fascinating bird info! It's organized into sections for body, mind, and spirit, and each section features short chapters about a particular bird's talent or behavior that illuminates something about the topic. One of my favorite chapters was about the pecking order in chickens, and I also loved the chapter about bowerbirds. Apparently they craft these amazing, elaborate huts that are basically art projects used to lure female mates. The subtitle of the book hints at the author's larger project of connecting all this bird knowledge to humans, and he does do this in the chapters, but honestly I found that less compelling than just reading about the birds.
+10 task
+5 combo (10.2)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 25
15.3 AotDAll Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1983-1992
Time Traveler reading from oldest to newest
Living with Snakes by Daniel Curley
+15 Task (1985 winner)
+ 5 Not-a-Novel
+ 5 Oldies (pub. 1985)
Task total=25
Grand total=135
10.1 Square PegNemesis by Philip Roth
It's strange that I have never read Philip Roth before. We are both from New Jersey...and Newark, a city I went to College in, is often the setting, as it is here, for his novels. Based on Roth's reputation for writing frankly about sex, I expected this novel to follow along that line.... but I was wrong. This work is about a young man, Bucky Cantor, who is an athletic director in Newark while a polio epidemic breaks out and several of his "boys" are struck with the disease. The circumstances cause Cantor to question the existence of a just God.
I listened to this in my car...and enjoyed it enough to put some of those other Roth books on my TBR list. 4 stars.
task = 10
review = 10
total= 20
grand total= 150
20.6 My Name is RedOrlando by Virginia Woolf
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3-UK; 20.10)
+10 Canon
Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 55
20.1 Lord of the RingsThe Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
With Hardy, one should remember Murphy's Law: What can go wrong, will go wrong. The story opens with a man getting drunk and auctioning off his wife and infant daughter to the highest bidder. What a compelling opening! What further could go wrong?
Many books start at the end, then go back and tell you how they got there. This is not one of them. Instead, Hardy begins with this horrible event and then skips nearly two decades, plunking us down into the future of that man, wife, and daughter.
Hardy's characterizations of the two main male characters is good, that of the women not so much, although certainly not as stick-figure horrible as Dickens. Perhaps the best characterization is that of Casterbridge itself and the surrounding farm country. He does this not just with some physical description, but with caricatures - those many supporting people that provide a sense of place. The prose is not what one thinks of as 19th Century challenging, but he does throw in an occasional convoluted sentence.
I hope to read more of Hardy, though will probably not be a completist. I think I still prefer Tess of the Durbervilles, but this runs a very close second, and is a good, solid 5-star read.
+20 Task
+25 Combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.7, 20.6, 20.10)
+10 Canon
+10 Review
Task Total = 65
Grand total = 135
10.7 Dead Poet's SocietyThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Two deaths occur within a few days at the beginning of the cozy mystery, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". Mrs Ferrars--who was suspected of murdering her rich, abusive husband--overdosed on a sleep remedy, Veronal. Then wealthy Roger Ackroyd, who was courting Mrs Ferrars, was killed. Dr Sheppard, one of the people who had been dining with Roger Ackroyd on his last night, narrates the story. There were many possible suspects who were in debt, and could benefit from a bequest in Roger Ackroyd's will.
Roger's niece hires the famed investigator, Hercule Poirot, to find the killer. Poirot was living in retirement in the village, but feeling bored with spending his time gardening. Poirot is delighted to use his gray cells again, and puzzle out the mystery. As in other Agatha Christie mysteries, the suspects are polite and civilized. The doctor's sister, Caroline, adds lightness to the story with her village gossip and woman's intuition. The author keeps the reader guessing about the identity of the murderer, and finishes off the entertaining book with a twist at the end.
+10 task
+10 combo 10.2, 10.3
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 105
20.7 #AWW2017Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty is born and living in Australia.
Review: As this is a mystery with some very clever plot twists, I will do my best not to spoil it.
The book takes place in a well-to-do suburb to Sydney and revolves around Pirriwee Public School, where the children become the fronts for the bickering and sniping between the parents.
On Orientation Day the sweet, little Amabelle is choked by one of the other children, and when she points to Ziggy, son of single mother Jane, as the guilty one, the parents are immediately divided into two parties, but did he do it?
The narrative focal points in this story are the three friends: Celeste, Madeleine and Jane, who all have children in the same kindergarten class. Despite their very different personalities and background they form a tight friendship that rings entirely true and which eases the reading of the book through some of the tougher parts.
Some parts of this book were horribly hard to read. Not because the prose is bad, but because it is so believable it's almost painful.
The book deals with violence in general (and domestic violence in particular), bullying and the relationships between parents and children. It is heartbreaking in some places, terribly funny in others, and most definitely worth reading.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.10)
+10 Review
Task total: 40 pts
Grand total: 90 pts
10.7 Dead Poet's Society (Ed's Task)Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie
Review
A somewhat different sort of work from Agatha Christie. Not her usual whodunit mystery but tending towards espionage instead. A scientist has disappeared without a trace and the British Intelligence did not believe his wife having had no knowledge of his plan. Unfortunately, she died on her trip to Casablanca. Fortunately, a woman of similar appearance with nothing to live for was nearby and willing to take on the risky adventure of assuming the scientist’s wife’s identity. What follows on was an exciting hunt to uncover the reason behind numerous disappearances of the world’s most brilliant scientists.
I really liked this stand-alone work of Christie’s and rather disappointed that I won’t see these characters again. It wasn’t as unpredicatable as her mysteries but then again it’s not really a whodunit. As usual, a very easy single-sitting and enjoyable read.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 - UK born)
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 100
20.7 #AWW2017 (Tien's Task)The Immortal Bind by Traci Harding
Review
I have been following Traci Harding for nigh on 20 years; I can’t believe it! I still felt like I’ve only just read her first book, The Ancient Future just the other week. I have always felt drawn to her books because the inner-romantic me loved that idea of love across time; of soulmates finding each other again and again over their karmic cycles. 20 years on, I’m still enamoured by this idea and still loved the stories weaved around this theme by Traci Harding.
Unlike her previous works, this book is stand-alone and was apparently a revised work of her earlier movie transcript. Her usual theme of karma and love across times, however, did not change. In The Immortal Bind, Sara and Jon currently living on opposite sides of the world from each other, found themselves enchanted by a pair of antique bejewelled chairs. Through these mediums, they relived their past lives and the curse that followed them through time. To break the curse and be free to be with each other this lifetime, amends must be made.
As Jon & Sara relive their past lives; for the readers, it’s like reading tragic love stories over and over again. On the one hand, it’s lovely to read of young love a number of times but on the other hand, a little frustrating. However, as their lives crossed many times periods in a variety of settings, The Immortal Bind definitely kept the readers interested as we come across different cultures. The only downside is that we do not really get in-depth pictures of each culture/time setting.
This book actually reminds me a little of Barbara Erskine’s epic books. I mean that literally her books are twice the size of The Immortal Bind. If this is your first read of Traci Harding’s, aside from her other books, I’d also recommend Erskine’s. If you are a fan of Barbara Erskine, please do give Harding a chance! The Immortal Bind is a story of love reaching across time but more than that, it is a story of self and lesson in selflessness… for how can you love when you are selfish?
Thank you Harper Collins Publishers Australia for providing paperback copy in exchange of honest review
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.2 - 3 words title)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 135
10.8 Anthology (Beth's Task)Tempest: All-New Tales of Valdemar edited by Mercedes Lackey (not authored by, so 20.5 does not apply)
Task total: 10
Grand total: 205
10.2 3, 4, or 5The Future is Japanese: Science Fiction Futures and Brand New Fantasies from and about Japan. edited by Nick Mamatas
+10 task
+5 combo (10.8)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 220
15.1 AotD 1991-1982 Time TravelerDifferent Prizes
Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon- 1991 Pulitzer Prize
task=15
not a novel=5
oldie=5
task total =25
grand total= 175
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Letters to the End of Love (other topics)Made in the U.S.A. (other topics)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (other topics)
The Goldfinch (other topics)
The Boy on the Bridge (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Yvette Walker (other topics)Billie Letts (other topics)
Arthur Conan Doyle (other topics)
Donna Tartt (other topics)
M.R. Carey (other topics)
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A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
+10 Task (low lexile)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 30