Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
SP 2017 Completed Tasks
20.7 #AWW2017 (Tien's Task)The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 3, 4, or 5
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 310
20.3 Evicted Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
+20 Task: Current Events 21 shelvings
+ 5 Combo: 20.5 Foundation: Born: 1955, New York City, NY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Mayer
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 335
20.2 Rebecca Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
+20 Task
+15 Combo: 10.2 3, 4, or 5 / 10.3 English Language / 10.7 Dead Poet's Society
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 370
10.3 English LanguageThe Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
+10 Task (Northern Ireland)
Grand Total: 380
10.2 3, 4, or 5The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
+10 Task
+10 Non Western
+10 Canon
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 410
10.2 3, 4, or 5Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.6 Spring Equinox
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 425
20.9 National Doctor's DayThe Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
+20 task
+15 combo (10.2 ignoring subtitle; 10.4 using subtitle; 20.6)
Task total=35
Grand total=355
10.10 Group ReadsClouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
This is an early Lord Peter Wimsey—not the first, so readers have had time to get attached to him, but the perfect point in the series to expand his back story in a big way by setting a murder within his own family. His sister’s fiancé has been found dead at a shooting lodge, and Wimsey’s older brother, the Duke of Denver, has been arrested for the murder.
It’s not the first time I've read this, but it must have been a while because I couldn’t remember the ending at all. I much enjoyed reading it again, particularly for the development in Wimsey’s own character. He starts the series as quite a stupid-seeming aristocrat with an annoying way of speaking, but by the later books with Harriet Vane he has become much deeper emotionally. This book marks a stage where he is just beginning to be somebody who might discover his deeper side.
It's also interesting to me in the way it kicks at various trends. Dorothy Sayers was herself an unusual woman, a university-educated woman who had a child outside of marriage. This bohemian side of her life is illustrated more forcefully in Strong Poison, but here we already see an adulterous relationship treated sympathetically (nobody is punished for it), and an engagement undertaken for practical reasons with apparently the expectation of an open marriage. It might not be apparent to readers these days, but I think she was quite revolutionary in her themes for her time.
+10 task
+15 combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.7)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 365
Kate, could I please move Big Little Lies, claimed in post 117, from 10.10 to 20.7?This gives me an extra 10 points, bringing my total to 375.
20.9 - National Doctor's DayWhistleblower by Tess Gerritsen
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.5)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 220
15.6 AotDAll Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1983-1992
Time Traveler reading from oldest to newest
The Purchase of Order by Gail Galloway Adams
+15 Task (1988 winner)
+ 5 Not-a-Novel
+ 5 Oldies (pub. 1988)
Task total=25
Grand total=380
10.2 - 3,4,5City of Masks by Mary Hoffman
Lexile 920
Fifteen-year-old Lucien has cancer. When he’s too tired even to talk after his latest round of chemotherapy, his father gives him a notebook to write messages in. But it transports him to the city of Bellezza, a 16th-century version of Venice in a parallel universe, where the young women wear masks. There he meets Arianna, a girl who wants to break into the male-dominated world of mandoliering (like gondoliers). Soon he is travelling back and forth between the two time periods and places every day. But all is not well in Bellezza, and Lucien and Arianna become pawns in a power game.
I thought this was a very well imagined time travel YA story. It’s perhaps a little predictable from the half way point, but full of interesting details.
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.3)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 400
10.4 International Question DayThe Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
+10 Task (who)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 360
20.2 RebeccaIn Cold Blood by Truman Capote
+20 Task (no. 5 on list)
+10 Combo (10.2, 10.6)
+10 Canon
Points this post: 40
RwS total: 170
AotD total: -
Season Total: 170
15.6 AotD 1991-1982 Time TravelerDifferent Prizes
The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo
task = 15
oldie=5
task total=20
grand total= 490
15.7 AotDDifferent Prizes
The Missing by Sarah Langan
+15 Task -- Bram Stoker Award Best Novel
Post total: 15
Season total: 110
completed:
2008 The White Tiger Man Booker Prize
2007 The Missing Bram Stoker Best Novel
2006
2005 Camouflage Nebula Award
2004 Out There National Outdoor Book Award
2003 Perma Red Spur Award Best Novel of the West
2002
2001
2000 The Mighty Walzer Bollinger Wodehouse Comedy Award
1999 A Small Death in Lisbon CWA Golden Dagger Award
10.6 Spring EquinoxTuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
low lexile = no styles
10 task
___
10
Running total: 360
10.3 English LanguageTuesday's Gone by Nicci French
This is book #2 in the Frieda Klein series, which I picked up for last season, since all the titles have days of the week in them. Super engaging premise and all in all a great ride. In this installment, therapist Frieda Klein, still dealing with the fallout from the case she helped solve in book 1, now faces the mystery of a dead body being tended to by a mentally ill woman. The book is full of surprise twists, and although I did make a few correct predictions, I was definitely surprised, which is nice. I also like the way the characters are drawn. A number of them are quite odd, and even sometimes unlikable, but always interesting and always realistic.
+10 task (2 authors - both born in UK)
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 205
10.6 Spring EquinoxHarp In The South, The by Ruth Park
+10 task
+15 combo ( 10.2, 10.3, 20.7)
Task Total = 25
Grand total = 105
10.10 Group ReadsClouds Of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
+10 task
+15 combo (10.2, 10.3, 10.7)
Task Total = 25
Grand Total = 130
20.7 #AWW2017Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood
+20 task
+5 combo (10.2)
Task Total = 25
Grand total = 155
15.7 AotDFludd by Hilary Mantel
+15 Task (Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize 1989)
+5 Oldies
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 380
15.7 AotDAll Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1983-1992
Time Traveler reading from oldest to newest
The Expendables: Stories by Antonya Nelson
+15 Task (1989 winner)
+ 5 Not-a-Novel
+ 5 Oldies (pub. 1989)
Task total=25
Grand total=405
10.2 3,4, or 5The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
Have you ever felt like getting away from the stress of modern life for a few days? Christopher Knight took that idea to the extreme, walking into the woods of Maine and living in isolation for 27 years. He was an introverted, intelligent twenty-year-old with a dry sense of humor. He had been brought up in a family that prided themselves on their practical skills and self-reliance, and set up a camp hidden by large boulders. But Knight had to steal food, batteries, books, and other supplies from a nearby children's camp and from vacation cabins in central Maine. He waited until the vacation homes were vacant before breaking in, but the homeowners felt frightened and tense as over 1000 burglaries occurred in the area. When he was finally caught stealing by a game warden, Knight felt deep remorse. Knight had survived brutally cold winters, and terrible mosquitoes. He never got sick because he had almost no exposure to the bacteria and viruses that humans pass to each other.
Knight was evaluated by psychologists, but he did not really fit a particular diagnosis, although he exhibited some traits of autism and schizoid personality disorder. Why would someone want to be socially isolated? "One's desire to be alone, biologists have found, is partially genetic and to some degree measurable. If you have low levels of the pituitary peptide oxytocin--sometimes called the master chemical of sociability--and high quantities of the hormone vasopressin, which may suppress your need for affection, you tend to require fewer interpersonal relationships." (69)
The author, Michael Finkel, includes information from his correspondence and conversations with Knight in jail. The author and Knight shared a love of camping and reading that created enough of a bond that Knight talked to Finkel. Background information about other famous hermits in history was also interesting. But those historical figures usually had help from the church or friends who provided their food. This was an engaging story told with compassion. I found the story of Christopher Knight so fascinating that I had my head buried in the book all day.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 250
10.1 Square PegBarkskins by Annie Proulx
+10 Task
+10 Jumbo (MPE=717 pages)
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 190
AotD total: -
Season Total: 190
Post 307 Karen Michele wrote: "20.2 Rebecca Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
+20 Task
+15 Combo: 10.2 3, 4, or 5 / 10.3 English Language / 10.7 Dead Poet's Society
Task Total: 35
Grand T..."
I'm sorry, Karen. This is a YA Assignment at BPL and the Lexile is 680. Task, but no styles.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 307 Karen Michele wrote: "20.2 Rebecca Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
+20 Task
+15 Combo: 10.2 3, 4, or 5 / 10.3 English Language / 10.7 Dead Poet's ..."
Oops - I forgot about checking Christie;) I have some others planned, so I'll check on them.
20.9 - National Doctor's DayLife Support by Tess Gerritsen
+20 task
+5 Combo (20.5)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 270
15.3 Awards of the Decade Time travelerThe God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
2008 ALA Alex award
15 task
___
15
Running total: 375
Task 10.2 3, 4, or 5Good Morning, Midnight (2016) by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Review: Lily Brooks-Dalton’s debut novel Good Morning, Midnight is a character study of how isolation on Earth and in space affects people. It was obviously inspired by the excellent award-winning book Station Eleven. The difference is that Stations Eleven has a plot and has believable characters. Good Morning, Midnight leisurely sets up the situation, dividing the focus between a research station in the Arctic Circle and a research space shuttle returning from Jupiter. After the setup, the focus is on how each and every character is reacting to the situation, and then on the background of each and every character. The characters are divided between the ones that are stereotypes found in science fiction novels from the 1950s to today, and the ones that reflect what is trendy today. Overall, an unobjectionable, very slow-paced, derivative science fiction-y novel. (Also the ending was unsatisfactory.)
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 190 + 20 = 210
Rosemary wrote: "Kate, could I please move Big Little Lies, claimed in post 117, from 10.10 to 20.7?This gives me an extra 10 points, bringing my total to 375."
Got it.
Ed wrote: "15.6 AotD 1991-1982 Time TravelerDifferent Prizes
The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo
task = 15
oldie=5
task total=20
grand total= 490"
Is this for the 1986 Nestle Smarties Award?
Kate S wrote: "Ed wrote: "15.6 AotD 1991-1982 Time TravelerDifferent Prizes
The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo
task = 15
oldie=5
task total=20
grand total= 490"
Is this for the 1986 N..."
oops...yes. sorry about that.
From Post 301Bea wrote: "10.7 Ed's Task: Dead Poet's Society
Common Sense: The Call to Independence by Thomas Paine
Review:
Sometimes the introductions to books can be dry and boring to me, ..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 308Karen Michele wrote: "10.3 English Language
The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
+10 Task (Northern Ireland)
Grand Total: 380"
+5 Combo 10.2
15.2 AotDLive by Night by Dennis Lehane
2012 Florida Award for General Fiction-Gold
+15 Task
Season total: 160
20.6 - My Name is RedEverneath by Brodi Ashton
Complicated feelings about this one. The good:
- A mythology-based story that I don't want to throw against the wall! This is super rare.
- The plot was pretty interesting, and the world has been thought out. Things stay pretty consistent... but are not sufficient. More on that below.
- I like love triangles in general (don't hate!) and this one is particularly well balanced. The good guy/bad guy roles are stereotypical (high school football star vs rock musician dressed in black) but the affection each has for Nikki shines through.
The not-so-good:
- While the world is thought out I had a bunch of niggles and questions that aren't addressed. It seems like everyone Feeds at the same time so all kinds of Everlivings on the Surface, as well as the people they Feed on, disappear from Earth at once. Wouldn't that sudden spate of missing persons cases get noticed? And what is the point of letting Forfeits return for an arbitrary six months? And so on. On a similar note, the characters' motivations are muddled or unclear.
- The book could have done with a better edit. It felt like people jumped around in their actions - like someone sitting is somehow lying in bed half a page later. I didn't spend time dissecting but it was still there.
- The writing didn't get in the way but it didn't add anything to the story, either. The prose is simple, even for YA.
- I don't remember a single person of color or minority character of any sort. It's set in Utah so my hopes weren't high, but still.
I don't see myself continuing the series as the jacket copy for the next two books tells me pretty much everything I want to know plot-wise. I would like to read Ashton in another context, and am excited to see she's one of the authors of My Lady Jane. It's currently on hold at my library, so hopefully it'll arrive before too long....
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 175 points
10.4 - International Question DayWhen the Marquess Falls by Lorraine Heath
The perfect cap to a wonderful historical romance series. The previous three books follow the "Mad" Marquess of Marsden's four charges as they find love, with flashbacks to their... unusual upbringing. We know that Marsden spends his life pining for his wife, Linnie, who died in childbirth. Here we finally get to see what their relationship was like and just what they meant to each other.
This is a novella instead of a full-length installment, which is the perfect length for the story Heath has to cover. It starts off fun and light, and when the tragedy you know is going to come finally arrives it's deftly handled. There's a one page death scene and a one page epilogue and each is everything it should be and nothing more.
Do not read this book out of order, though - reading the series as published will let you bring the threads together, and it's a great set of books, to boot.
+10 task
+10 combo (10.2, 10.3)
+10 review
Task total: 30 points
Grand total: 205 points
10.2 - 3, 4, or 5Filthy Beautiful Lies by Kendall Ryan
Erotic romance review under spoiler.
(view spoiler)
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20 points
Grand total: 225 points
10.2 - 3, 4, or 5Filthy Beautiful Love by Kendall Ryan
Erotic romance review under spoiler.
(view spoiler)
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20 points
Grand total: 245 points
Task 10.8 AnthologyThe Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985) edited by Gardner R. Dozois (Kindle Edition, 577 pages)
Review: Beginning in 1984 and continuing to today, Gardner Dozois edits a book of the previous year’s “best” science fiction (short stories, novelettes, and novellas). He includes a rather lengthy essay at the beginning about the “state of science fiction” during the previous year. This anthology was the second of the series. It was published in1985 and contained 26 stories first published in 1984. I found the story quality rather high. The stories aren’t “dated” either, as can happen in older science fiction stories. Yes, there were a couple about PTSD soldiers in a jungle war (inspired by Vietnam), but the majority of stories could be published new today and be accepted as brand-new 21st century stories. There are stories by Jack McDevitt, Connie Willis, Frederik Pohl, Nancy Kress, Tanith Lee, and Kim Stanley Robinson. I didn’t care for the couple of “cyberpunk” stories included in the anthology, but then, I generally don’t care for “cyberpunk”.
I was happy to be able to find a copy of this collection. For some unknown to me reason, the print copy of the Second Annual Collection is now very rare and very (hundreds of dollars) expensive. Hurray for modern technology, today this book is available for under $10 on Kindle. I’d recommend the Kindle version to fans of science fiction.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+05 Jumbo 500-699 Pages: 5 Points
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 210 + 25 = 235
15.8 AotDFlannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1983-1992
Time Traveler reading from oldest to newest
The People I Know by Nancy Zafris
+15 Task (1990 winner)
+ 5 Not-a-Novel
+ 5 Oldies (pub. 1990)
Task total=25
Grand total=430
10.2 3, 4, or 5An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman
Review
Firstly, I'd have to admit of never having heard of Vasily Grossman. As per the usual, in my search to fit in a task for a reading challenge (this time set in or about Armenia), I found only this book as accessible to me. Whilst author himself is Russian, this book is a memoir of his having spent 2 months in Armenia. Despondent in failing to have his novel, Life and Fate, published and was in fact, confiscated by the government (all his notes & carbon copies), circumstance found him travelling to Armenia to meet an Armenian author whose book Grossman is translating into Russian. In this travel memoir, he reflected upon the dignity of a traveller (and actually rather poked fun at himself -well, I rather thought him funny to have placed such high value on 'dignity' in travelling) and life in a small Armenian village. There was not much about the city except in his passing by but many wonderful contemplation on the Armenian nature, people, and food. This memoir was published posthumously as well due to some censor issues and I'm going to find his earlier confiscated novel to read too as I find his writing rather inviting.
+10 Task
+10 Non-Western (author born in Berdychiv, former Russian Empire, Ukraine)
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 370
20.8 Yours, Mine, and Ours (Amanda)The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud
Review
I feel bad for not particularly enjoying this book. I'm afraid I'm rather plot-driven and this book drove me mad for nothing really happened or that's how it felt to me. Harun, the brother of "the Arab" killed by Meursault from Camus' The Stranger, is an old man now and he's telling his life story to a student at a bar. His life centred on his brother and his death. He & his mother were dependent on his brother's living and when he died infamously, they could not even prove it was him. So, they left for life in a village and waited. Of course, when it finally arrived, he did not quite realise it until a long while later...
This novel was told exclusively in Harun's perspective. It was told in a conversational tone; it is Harun speaking to the student and mostly of events in the past though there were brief mentions to their surroundings. There's a specific man who I was interested in as it sounds a little ominous but it fell flat in the ending. Again, this was unfortunately my plot-driven expectations. This is actually a book which must be read with a philosophical approach and most probably a brilliant book when you draw the parallel or find the metaphors of Algiers and her past in this story.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - 3 words; 10.6 - 5 letters each)
+10 Non-Western (author born in Mostaganem, Algeria)
+10 Review
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 420
20.5 FoundationThe Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn #1) by Tad Williams
author born in San Jose, California, USA on March 14, 1957
Review
A slow start which was quickly rectified after 100 pages or so as the action escalated fairly quickly and nearly at a snowballing rate. As with all multi-perspective novels, there were annoying parts where you wanted to continue with a particular character but the next chapter was someone else's and so on and so forth. However, this novel was told mainly in Simon's perspective so all others were more of 'background' materials which is to be expected from an epic fantasy novel. Simon is mostly likeable (the only frustrating thing being he's somewhat slow intake but certainly it's usually easier for the readers to pick things up, isn't it?) and with his young age, 15, it is also a coming-of-age tale as he discovers himself amidst the nightmare his land is becoming to be. He's gone through quite a lot in this first installment of the series and I'm looking forward to his further adventures & growth.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - 3 words; 20.6 - 46,248 ratings & 3.94 avg)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (672 pages)
Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 465
20.7 Most Strategic Reader Task - Australian female authorThe Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan
+20 task
+5 combo (10.2)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 515
15.9 AotDFlannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, 1983-1992
Time Traveler reading from oldest to newest
Low Flying Aircraft by T.M. McNally
+15 Task (1991 winner)
+ 5 Not-a-Novel
+ 5 Oldies (pub. 1991)
Task total=25
Grand total=455
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
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)
More...
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)
More...
Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham
Liza of Lambeth is W Somerset Maugham's first book and it is set in the slums of early London. Despite a bit of a "soap opera" feel at times, I found this short novel intriguing and quite sad and found the characters realistic and caught up in believable circumstances. Liza is a tragic character with little hope of improving her life. Maugham's experiences as a doctor in London informed this book and made it feel more sophisticated than I might otherwise have expected from a first novel written when he was only 23. I'm in the process of reading through Maugham's novels and stories and I am looking forward to delving even further into this body of work.
+20 Task
+20 Combo: 10.2 3, 4, or 5 / 10.3 English Language / 10.7 Dead Poet's Society / 20.1 Lord of the Rings
+10 Review
Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 285