Reading with Style discussion
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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
20.1 Gothic AuthorsMemoirs by Tennessee Williams
At one point in these memoirs, Tennessee Williams refers to them as “fragmentary” and near the end the author indicates that the non-chronological style was intentional and inspired by Garson’s Kanin’s biography of Somerset Maugham. I’ll accept that because the work is so honest but it reads as if Williams had dictated various incidents to someone else who patched them together. I’m not sure how the constant time traveling helped the work. It’s difficult to imagine that a writer who could produce such a tight play as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof would also produce such an erratic set of memoirs.
Nevertheless, this is a good insight into an eccentric life. We learn about his early life with a sister (and later a mother) who deals with mental illnesses. We see Williams sexual awakening in high school. Of course, this book, written in 1975, was quite outrageous for its time since Williams is so open about being gay. There are several occasions when he describes his cruising experiences…sometimes with harmful consequences. He also had several long-term relationships…also mostly with tragic outcomes.
Most of the work is however about his writing and dealing with the actors and directors associated with his plays and the movie versions of his plays. Imagine Williams and Truman Capote playing pranks on a cruise ship with the shoes that passengers left outside their doors. Also, during a cruise to Bangkok where he intends to have surgery for breast cancer, the ship stops in Japan where he meets Yukio Mishima shortly before Mishima commits suicide. Also, Williams was close friends with Carson McCullers….and intervened when McCullers' husband was about to commit suicide. So much drama packaged in the life of a prolific author. I’ll be putting a lot of Williams’ works on my TBR list.
By the way, this book was recommended by John Waters in his book Role Models. I noted several books he raved about and previously read the biography of Little Richard which I enjoyed even more than this one. So, I look forward to reading those other John Water recommendations too. Four stars.
Task=20
Review=10
Not-a-Novel=10
combo=10 (10.8, 20.7)
Oldie=5
task total=55
Grand Total=1470
20.7 Single Word (Lagullande's task)Transit by Rachel Cusk
+ 20 Task
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 85
RG total: -
Season Total: 85
10.8 Double Letter NamesShakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare
+10 Task
+10 Not a Novel
+25 Oldies (1609)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 290
20.9 SatireThe Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett
The title of this short novel gives a good hint as to the premise. The Ransome’s have been burgled – every single last item in their flat is taken. That is the start of the story, and it goes from there. They have lived a very small, correct and conservative middle class life for all of their married life. This event opens up new possibilities, which range from bean bag chairs, to shopping at an ethnically diverse grocery store, to potentially getting a hug from your husband.
This is a comic novel, more than a satire. There is no meanness in it. The humour is in the situation(s) that the main characters (mostly Mrs. Ransome) comes up against after being bumped out of her comfortable rut. It turns out that Mrs Ransome is quite open to new experiences and it is fun, and funny, to read about that. 3.5*
20 task
10 review
5 combo 10.8
____
35
Running total: 720
20.8 Mother DaughterA Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert
+20 pts - Task
+ 5 pts- Combo (10.8)
Task Total - 25
Season Total - 1000 pts
Anika wrote: "10.10 Group readsBeyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope by Jimmy Carter
Wow. Just: wow. This man is absolutely remarkable. I didn't kn..."
me too, Anika!
15.8 Reading GloballySetting: Ireland
Faithful Place by Tana French
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1040
20.1 Gothic AuthorsThe View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.7 - approved in task help thread)
+10 not-a-novel
+ 5 jumbo (MPE 522 pages)
Task total=40
Grand total=270
20.7 Single WordTricked by Kevin Hearne
+20 Task
+5 Combo 20.6 (approved in task thread)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 580
Task 10.1 Square PegThe Lawgiver (2012) by Herman Wouk
Review: I started reading The Lawgiver in the library. Twenty pages in I checked out the book and brought it home to finish reading in between my other books. The story is told 100% through personal letters, memos, e-mails, new articles, recorded calls, Skype transcripts and text messages. Easily 95% of the text is believable, as in, yeah, that letter, memo, etc., really could have happened that way. (For 5% of the text -- some of the emails were overly long.) The central action of the novel is the production of a movie about the biblical Moses. The movie is called “The Lawgiver” hence the title of this novel. Events include screenwriting, locking down funding, casting, and legal contracts. In between all the events are real people having emotional reactions to everything. The various romantic entanglements are fun to read about. Herman Wouk casts himself as one of the individuals in the novel -- is that "breaking the fourth wall"??
Overall, this novel was a great fun to read, and I would recommend it.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 445 + 20 = 465
Post 508 June wrote: "20.6 - ClergyMiddlemarch by George Eliot
+20 task (approved)
+ 15 combo ( tasks 10.5/10.8/20.7)
+10 review
+10 Oldies (first published in 1871-2)
+20 Jumbo (using MPE- 9..."
I'm sorry, June. This doesn't qualify for the 10.8 combo as there is no double letter.
Post 521 Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.3 DecadeGood-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton, pub. 1934
Good Bye Mr. Chips by James Hilton is a short happy look at a teacher in an English boarding school. It most..."
I'm sorry, Don. This is a YA Assignment at BPL and has no Lexile. Task, but no styles.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 508 June wrote: "20.6 - ClergyMiddlemarch by George Eliot
+20 task (approved)
+ 15 combo ( tasks 10.5/10.8/20.7)
+10 review
+10 Oldies (first published in 1871-2)
+..."
Hi Elizabeth, there is the double letter D in middlemarch.
June wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 508 June wrote: "20.6 - ClergyMiddlemarch by George Eliot
+20 task (approved)
+ 15 combo ( tasks 10.5/10.8/20.7)
+10 review
+10 Oldies (f..."
Yes, but the task is for double letters in the author's name.
Task 20.5- OldThe Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Story set in 1873-1902 and book published in 2011
+20 task
+5 combo 10.4 (#293 on list)
Task total: 25
20.1 Gothic AuthorsThe Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood
I've just finished The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories and I feel dumbstruck. This truly was a wonderful collection of short stories. I had never read anything by Algernon Blackwood before, but I decided to pick up something by him because in another group people spoke very highly of this author. Well, they were totally right!
This is a collection of ghost stories, except the last one which is a bit lame and not about ghosts at all. However, the other nine ones were amazing.
I can't really say what my favorite was, because I loved them all equally, but perhaps "Keeping His Promise" might win my personal "best story award". A medical student lives in a decrepit little room, and one evening he's visited by an old school friend. This friend is so thin that the student immediately realizes he's starving, so he offers him the little food he has, and the friend starts gorging without ever saying a word, then goes to sleep in the student's bed. The student keeps hearing his friend's heavy breathing all night long, only to realize the next morning that there's no one in the room! The ending is quite a creepy one...
That's what it is: all these stories are incredibly creepy, and, unlike M.R. James ghost stories', which I read last month, they are creepy right from the very beginning - a sense of foreboding immediately starts to tell the reader something is very wrong indeed.
This is probably the best "horror/gothic" author I've read so far, and I most definitely want to read something else by him.
Definitely a great Halloween read.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.8, 20.3)
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1906)
Task Total: 60
Season Total: 350
15.5 Reading GloballyApples Are from Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared by Christopher Robbins
+15 task
+15 first visitor to Kazakhstan
Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 345
Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "I checked it before posting and it shows a lexile of 930. Please recheck. It it is listed as Goodbye no hyphen on lexile site. "Thanks, Don. I usually check the author when nothing comes up, but apparently did not do so this time. Kate will see this and allow styles.
10.3 Decade (1931-1940)It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
Wow. 5*. Too bad I can’t stop there!
This novel has had a resurgence due to the political situation in the US. I had to wait 6 months (!) to borrow the audio book. I would definitely recommend an audio version of this novel (not my favourite format, but worth it here).
The novel is, of course, about the rise of and entrenchment of fascism in America. Through the whole course of the novel I was continually astonished how prescient Lewis was. The book was published in 1935, so Lewis was obviously a very keen and intelligent observer of world politics.
I noticed that others had remarked about having difficulty with some specific 1930s references (probably especially certain people), and I would agree that some of the ‘name dropping’ makes it drag a little. However, don’t let that deter you. I found quite a bit of the first portion of the novel quite funny – he has obviously observed small town citizens closely. As well, the way the fascists rose to power through the use of a folksy radio show has direct parallels to the impact of social media on our current elections. Given what happened in Germany (WW2), so much of what he writes in the latter portion of the story is completely frightening, stomach-churning, and realistic. There was a part of the story, when things are going from bad to worse, and they make an escape attempt to Canada, that had me holding my breath and crying.
This powerful novel is why I keep reading fiction.
10 task
10 review
10 oldie
____
30
Running total: 750
10.4 Thankful Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
Finally finished this book. What a writer--unfortunately, this book was her last. I believe her plan was to write a 5-section "suite" on the occupation of France by the Germans. This book has two sections: Storm in June, and a shorter section: Dolce. Storm in June was hard for me to get through--many characters in separate stories, but all fleeing the German invasion. Dolce was more interesting to me and had a love story and tension. Very ironic to me that the author painted at least one of the invading Germans as someone to sympathize with (or something like that) when she herself was about to face death in 1942 in Auschwitz. This would be a provocative book for a discussion group (book or movie), I think: the conquerors and the conquered--in Dolce the lines became blurred. P.S. This edition also contained two Appendices that I did not read closely: the author's notes and correspondence 1936-1945.
10.4 (Thankful: #93 on the list): 10
Review: 10
Running total: 20 (just joined the group today)
15.9 Reading GloballySetting: Colombia, South America
Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez
This is the early part of his autobiography and is set 100% in Colombia. He leaves for his first overseas trip on the last page.
+40 task (reading Z-A)
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 685
15.9 Reading GloballySetting: Jamaica / North America
Augustown by Kei Miller
+40 Task
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 1080 (1100?)
I just re-read the RG post and saw that I was supposed to be claiming 25 points for 6,7,& 8. I think you added one +10 for me already which would mean I need +20 more and would have 1100 points ----- just let me know;) Sorry!
10.9 - Origins of Modern GenresNorthanger Abbey - Jane Austen
I haven't been the biggest fan of the Austen I've read so far, but I did enjoy this one more than I was expecting going in! It's a little on the nose, but for the most part it's a fun, smart satire.
Austen isn't afraid to openly mock aspects of society that, at the time, I'm sure she was advised to stay away from. Courtship rules, a woman's place in society and how she should behave, the literature of the day...all are fair game in this novel as Catherine Morland enters society at Bath for the first time. I especially liked how the novels of the time, which Catherine reads voraciously, are essentially the villain of the novel as they "trick" Catherine into social faux-pas and cause her imagination to get the better of her.
There were definitely more than a few eyeroll-worthy moments, and some aspects of the novel were predictable, but overall this is definitely the most fun I've had reading Austen.
+10 task
+10 review
+15 oldie
+20 combo (10.4; 20.1; 20.2; 20.6)
Post total: 55
Grand total: 55
15.1 - Reading Globally - A-ZMy Last Continent - Midge Raymond
Set in Antarctica
+15 task
Post total: 15
Grand total: 70
15.2 - Reading Globally - A-ZThe Shadow Land - Elizabeth Kostova
Set in Bulgaria
+15 task
Post total: 15
Grand total: 85
15.3 - Reading Globally - A-ZThe Sunrise - Victoria Hislop
Set in Cyprus
+ 15 task
Post total: 15
Grand total: 100
15.4 - Reading Globally - A-ZMistress Of Nothing - Kate Pullinger
Set in Egypt
+15 task
Post total: 15
Grand total: 115
20.3 - Ghost StoryThe Supernatural Enhancements - Edgar Cantero
This book is ridiculously, ridiculously fun. I devoured it, I couldn't put it down because I needed to know what twist was next!
I'm a sucker for unconventional narratives; I love epistolary novels, mixed media novels, anything a little different from your typical straight narrative. This book has that in spades, and does it so, so well! There are letters, transcripts of recordings, stage directionesque sections describing security camera footage, notes, ciphers...And somehow, it all fits and makes for this unique, mysterious, wonderful novel.
I went in expecting much more horror, and while there are some horror elements, and (of course) supernatural beings, at its core, this is really more of an adventure mystery. It's sort of The Goonies meets the illuminati, if the Goonies were a pretentious British 23-year-old and a mute orphaned teenager who spends the novel gradually shaving off more and more of her hair.
Really my only complaint with the novel is the ending. It just wrapped up a little too fast for my liking, but I think most of that was just because I wanted MORE! I would have gladly read another 300 pages about A., Niaym and the society.
This novel could have been very gimmicky, but instead, it's smart, charming, a little bit scary, a lot mysterious, and just so, damn, good.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo (20.2)
Post total: 35
Grand total: 150
20.7 - Single WordAblutions: Notes for a Novel - Patrick deWitt
I don't know who the target audience for this book is supposed to be, but I'm definitely not part of it. I went in expecting something along the lines of American Whiskey Bar. Instead, I got the second-person (first strike) ramblings of an unlikable, and worse, uninteresting (second strike) bartender in Hollywood as he details his misadventures, most of which just involve him drinking and taking pills in different venues until he throws up and starts over (third strike). Absolutely nothing happens in this book, apart from bad decisions. Mostly though, it's just this unnamed bartender outlining his customers, coworkers and sexual conquests and why he's so much better than them and why he hates them, even though he also, at some points, acknowledges that he's just as bad.
There's one point in the novel where it seems things are taking a turn and the bartender will stop drinking and get his life on track. That would have maybe actually been interesting. But no, that lasted all of about 3 pages before he was back to the drugs and alcohol. Best three pages in the book, and that truly isn't saying much.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.7; 10.8)
Post total: 40
Grand total: 190
20.8 - Mother-DaughterChocolat - Joanne Harris
I really wanted to like this book. It was whimsical and just a bit magical, with small-town charm and drama. But what ruined it for me was Vianne herself.
I couldn't help feeling that she was incredibly selfish throughout the novel. Any advice she gives to other characters is the advice that most benefits her. She loves her daughter and knows that she needs stability, but because Vianne is afraid of that, they can't have it. Her romance with Roux (if you can even call it that) is even more frustrating because she had no interest at all until he showed interest in someone else.
I did enjoy the other characters though, especially Armande. The writing was also good, again conveying that whimsy and magic, but none of it made up for the fact that the central character was just plain unlikable.
+20 task
+10 review
+15 combo (10.8; 10.10; 20.7)
Post total: 45
Grand total: 235
20.10 - Uncommon LetterPhantoms - Dean Koontz
This was my first experience with Koontz, and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised. He gets touted as being a bit (well, a lot) of a hack, but this book was really fun (if not exactly high literature). It's scary, the characters are, for the most part, interesting, and it definitely kept me reading.
I think this book's biggest downfall is that there's a lot going on that doesn't really need to be there. Like the UFO guys, they serve literally no purpose at all. I can kind of understand why Copperfield's group in general needed to be there, but the UFO guys are pretty much just there to say "this might be UFOs," a theory that doesn't go any further, and then that's it for them. I also didn't care for the Kale/Gene Terr storyline. Again, it didn't really add anything and it didn't really go anywhere.
I picked this up because I was looking for something a bit like adult R.L. Stine, and I think this fit the bill well! It's scary, but without being excessively gory, and the writing is pretty decent. All in all, I'm definitely not opposed to exploring more of Koontz' novels after this one.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldie
+10 combo (10.8; 20.7)
Post total: 45
Grand total: 280
20.1 Gothic AuthorsWild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway by Joyce Carol Oates
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.5)
+10 not-a-novel
Task total=35
Grand total=305
20.7 Single Word (Lagullande's task)Back by Henry Green
(Set entirely in the UK)
So...it always boggles my mind how I, a relatively well-read person, fails to notice a prominent writer. A few years ago, I finally read something by Edith Wharton. I was blown away. Although I had heard of Wharton before, Henry Green had never crossed by mind until I saw that he had six novels on Boxall's 1001 List. So, I chose this one because it satisfied this task and I'm glad I read it.
The main character, Charley, is "back" from a German Prisoner-of-War camp during World War II. He discovers that the woman he was in love with (Rose) had gotten married, had a child and died while he was away. The child may or may not be his. Charley, who also lost a leg in the war, is still dealing with his PTSD and has difficulties with his new job and his relationships with other people. At times, these troubles seem to have been depicted in an unlikely fashion...but what do I know about that? In a roundabout way, Charley discovers that Rose had a half-sister who could be her twin...and this is where the story really focuses.
Good solid writing without pretense. Believable dialogue. So different than some of the clunkers I've read recently. Four stars...and onward to Green's other novels.
task=20
review=10
combo=5 (10.8)
oldie=5 (1946)
task total= 40
Grand Total= 1510
20.10 - Uncommon LetterThe Secret Bluestocking by Alicia Quigley
+20 task
+5 combo (20.5 book set in Regency era and published in 2014)
Task total: 25
From Post 486Tien wrote: "10.4 Thankful
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
#199 on list
Review
Horror has never been one I'm comfortable with. I do not watch horror movies and ..."
+5 Combo 20.1
10.3 DecadeThe Crime at the 'Noah's Ark' by Molly Thynne
An enjoyable traditional mystery. Over a stormy, snowbound Christmas, a rural inn known as the Noah's Ark hosts a group of stranded strangers. Some of these strangers are not quite strangers, however, and before a couple days pass, a murder is committed, prize jewels are stolen, and nobody at the inn gets much sleep as they try to disentangle the facts and deceptions and heists.
I found this book a pleasant surprise, full of interesting and dynamic characters, and it includes some pretty delightful moments of humor. Thynne has a knack for group dynamics and for sticky character descriptions, and I especially enjoyed watching these characters try to figure out what happened. And that's actually the bulk of the story; most of the time is spent with the characters discussing what they know and how they know it, and then carefully working their suspicions from there. It's methodical and thoughtful, and I wouldn't recommend it for readers wanting something fast-paced, but I really enjoyed it.
+10 Task (published 1931)
+5 Combo (10.8 Double Letter Names)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 340
20.7 Single Word (Lagullande's task)Elmet by Fiona Mozley
+ 20 Task
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 105
RG total: -
Season Total: 105
15.4 - Reading Globally #2Setting: Haiti (about 60%)
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
Post total = 15
Season total = 1295
15.5 - Reading Globally #2Setting: India (about 95%)
The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly
Post total = 15
Season total = 1310
15.10 Reading GloballySetting: Kenya
Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
+ 40 Task
+100 Alphabetical Completion
+ 75 5 Continents: Africa, South America, North America, Europe, Asia
+200 Mega Finish
Post Total: 415
Season Total: 1515
Karen Michele wrote: "+200 Mega Finish"
Congratulations! Well done!
Karen Michele wrote: "15.10 Reading GloballySetting: Kenya
Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
+ 40 Task
+100 Alphabetical Completion
+ 75 5 Continents: Africa, South America, North Ame..."
Holy cow! That was so fast! Congrats on your speedy MegaFinish, Karen Michele.
20.4 NighttimeThe Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (1000 Lexile)
Even though this book doesn't feel like it happened in 24-hours (because they sped through a few time zones in their overnight flight, giving them more "daylight" than you'd think possible in a regular 24-hour period), it's quite precisely that amount of time that elapses in this book.
Hadley has missed her flight to London and while she suffers a bit of anxiety about it--she is supposed to be a bridesmaid in a wedding there the next day--she's not too heartbroken, as said wedding is her father's to a women Hadley has never met. While at the airport waiting for the next flight across the pond, she meets Oliver. He's sweet and British and nice to talk to and they end up realizing they will be sitting in the same row on the flight to London.
I knew I'd be a sucker for this one: the first half is in an airport/on an airplane (I read the whole book while working...on an airplane. The little things that would pop up: things the captain would say, things the flight attendants would do...well, they were happening as I was reading and I'm always a sucker for a book that manifests itself in real time...something about serendipity or whatever); it's two strangers meeting randomly and then re-meeting in a real way (very "Before Sunrise" and I loved that movie); and it was very sweet, even in its predictability (which, of course, it was. Very predictable. But aren't most YA?).
It was a delightful, easy read.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1015
15.10 Reading Globally Country: Zimbabwe
The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu
+40 task (set 100% in the country)
+100 ABC order completion
+100 6 continents (all but Antarctica!)
Post Total: 240
Season Total: 595
20.5 OldAn Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
+20 Task: set in 1895
+10 Combo: 10.2 Spy / 10.8 Double Letter
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1545
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Borne (other topics)The Woman in White (other topics)
A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories (other topics)
Slave: My True Story (other topics)
Dead Woman Walking (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jeff VanderMeer (other topics)Wilkie Collins (other topics)
Elizabeth Harrower (other topics)
Mende Nazer (other topics)
Sharon J. Bolton (other topics)
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Read a book with an author with a double letter in their name. The double letter can be in either the first or last name.
How to Wash a Cat (2008) by Rebecca M. Hale
Review: This is the first book of a series of cozy mysteries. The series is set in modern-day San Francisco, and stars a female accountant who has inherited an antiques shop. She lives in the apartment above the shop. Her two cats are an ever-present presence. I’d say the novel was an OK cozy mystery – there are better ones out there, there are worse ones out there. The heroine (who is never given a name, even though everyone else is given a name, even characters who are present in the novel for only a page or two) gets to be more and more annoying as the novel progresses. The mystery doesn’t play fair with the readers – facts not mentioned at all during the novel are necessary to determine the solution. What saves the novel is the character of “Monty”, the across-the-street neighbor of the heroine. The novel brightens and sings whenever he is present, and sinks into mumbo jumbo whenever he is absent. I’m undecided over whether to pick up the second book in the series.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 425 + 20 = 445