Reading with Style discussion
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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
20.1 Gothic AuthorsBlockade Billy by Stephen King
NOTE: I have attached the edition of the book I read, I don't think all the copies of Blockade Billy have the bonus story but mine did/
I have been stuck on The Stand for a few months, so much so that I should probably just start again but I really enjoy short Stephen King. I really appreciated how much detail was put into creating the right atmosphere for this baseball story. Short, quick and to the point without any long digressions or needless detail. The second story I was not as big a fan. I think I got the point/moral but was not completely satisfied with how the story progessed to get there. Maybe I need things spelled out a little clearer but Nora's descent read too unrealistic for me.
+ 20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 30 pts
Grand Total: 160 pts
10.7 Big WordsAudition by Ryū Murakami
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo 20.7 One Word
Task Total: 15 pts
Grand Total: 175 pts
10.4 Thankful The Giver by Lois Lowry
ok…I was expecting this dystopian fantasy to be different than all the others I have read (which isn’t that many) and been disappointed with (which is almost all.) The book has won so many awards and sold over 10 million copies! No such luck. I recognize that the target audience is young adults but the story is just not plausible.
I will admit that the style is not the problem. The story is told in a pleasant, understandable and lineal fashion. However, I constantly found myself pointing out inconsistencies…such as the discovery of the existence of animals after the reader knows that the characters have eaten meat. And exactly how do those memories revert back to the people after the Giver (or Receiver) lose them? That seems like a crucial point that is just glossed over. And how does the memory of being warm equate to the experience of actually being warm? And, I’m sorry, when presented with a story such as this, I don’t have the desire to try to decipher the parable I suspect is being offered. Two stars.
Task=10
Review=10
Task Total=20
Grand Total=1530
10.7 Big WordsConversations with Spirits by E.O. Higgins
A fun story set during the First World War but nowhere near the battlefields. Trelawney Hart, once the owner of a very sharp mind but with no social skills, has fallen into heavy drinking after the death of his wife. He's dragged out of the London club where he leads his drunken existence by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wants him to investigate a man who claims to be a medium. Off he goes to the seaside town of Broadstairs, where he makes an unlikely friend, drinks a great deal, and does a little investigating.
I read one review that described Trelawney Hart as "deeply unlikeable", but I thought he was lovely. It probably depends whether you mind reading about someone who drinks, falls over, drinks, passes out, drinks, attends a seance, drinks ... etc.
Published 2014 and set 1917, doesn't qualify for 20.5.
+10 task
+10 review
+ 5 combo (10.8)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 710
Post 542 Sam wrote: "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..."
Note to all: This subtitle should not be part of the GR book record as it does not appear on the cover. Thus, it actually *does* qualify for the one word task.
Post 565Rachelccameron wrote: "20.1 Gothic AuthorsBlockade Billy by Stephen King
NOTE: I have attached the edition of the book I read, I don't think all the copies of Blockade Billy have the bonus..."
When the title includes a novel or a novella, it doesn't qualify for not a novel points.
Post 567 Ed wrote: "10.4 Thankful The Giver by Lois Lowry
ok…I was expecting this dystopian fantasy to be different than all the others I have read (which isn’t that many) and been disappo..."
I'm sorry, Ed. This is shelved as Juv Fic at BPL and has a Lexile of 760. Task, but no styles.
15.1 Reading Globally 2nd Time!Country: Azerbaijan
The Colonel's Mistake by Dan Mayland
+15 task (set about 55-60% in country)
+15 first visitor
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 625
20.5 OldA Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
In 1908, Harry Cane was an independently comfortable, if not wealthy, English gentleman. In 1918, he's a patient in a Canadian mental asylum. This is where the book opens, and we go back to find how he got there, a trail that follows unwise investments, illicit love, and a failed marriage, which is not, however, as unhappy as one might expect.
I loved this book, which manages to be as generous and as gentle as Harry is, despite describing some terrible events. The descriptions of the Canadian prairie are seductive, although I think life there for the homesteaders must have been harsher than Patrick Gale describes.
It was published in 2015, and more than half is set before the start of the First World War.
+20 task
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 740
20.6 ClergyThe Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh
First off: I am so grateful for this group! Without it, I would miss out on so many fantastic books that I would otherwise overlook (like Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope) or that would keep moving further and further down my TBR list (like this one--I first heard about it in a yoga class I took at the University of Utah...nearly 20 years ago).
While lying in savasana (or "corpse pose") at the end of our yoga practice, our instructor would often walk us through a guided meditation or read us an inspirational passage to help us focus, truly be "in the moment"--which is the whole point of "corpse pose" and is also the part of it that makes it truly the most difficult pose in yoga. One day, she related a passage from this book--about doing dishes--that resonated with me. Hanh's friend came over and at the end of the evening offered to do the dishes, but Hanh said he could only if he Did the Dishes. He couldn't think about the tea they would sit down to afterwards; he couldn't have a conversation or listen to music or otherwise distract himself. He had to feel the water, feel the dish between his hand, the process of taking something soiled and being the agent of making it clean again, to truly connect with himself in the moment. He had to find the moment for meditation in the mundane.
I love that. Ever since, dishes have been a little easier for me to do (but only a little).
Some of the opportunities or forms of meditation that he recommends border on impossible for me, like: think of the person who has hurt you most in your life and think of every aspect of their face, their body; think of their likes and dislikes, their desires and motivations, their fears and sorrows, for a half hour just give your mind over to this person. Or: for the next thirty minutes, meditate on your deceased self. Imagine your body decomposing down to the bones and know that you, just like everything else in this world, will one day be there.
While it really would teach one to learn forgiveness in a real way (in Christianity, we are told to "love they neighbor as thyself" and to "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you"...but with only vague tools to accomplish this. Hanh's meditation is a very real way to learn to love your enemy) and to learn to face your own mortality, I don't know as I'm quite able to pull those off yet.
I do love his suggestion to "half-smile" (like the images you see of Buddha), first thing in the morning and to notice your breath to connect you to the moment you are in and (though I know it'll be hard), to pull that "half-smile" again any time you feel angry and take measured breaths until you can find your calm center again.
After reading this slim volume, I look forward to reading more from this man who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)
+5 Oldies (first pub. 1975)
Task total: 40
Season total: 1065
15.6 Reading GloballySetting: Lao People's Democratic Republic
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
+25 Task
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 365
10.8 Double Letter NamesGuards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
+10 Task
+5 Oldies (1989)
Task total = 15
Points total = 90
20.8 Mother-DaughterNot Dressed Like That, You Don't!: The Diaries Of A Teenager And Her Mother by Yvonne Coppard
No need to summarise this book because it’s all in the title/subtitle. Published in 1991, before mobile phones and social media, it seems very dated now. The teenager in the book could have teenagers of her own. I'm surprised at it still appearing on lists, unless the idea is to get today's kids to understand that their parents were not that different from them, despite not having modern technology.
I quite enjoyed it for the nostalgia, and it’s amusing to see how the mother and daughter relate and view each other, and the different way that they record the same events in their diaires... but it wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny.
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.8)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1991)
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 780
15.3 Reading GloballyPetersburg Tales by Nikolai Gogol
Setting: Russia, Europe
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 365
20.3 Ghost storyThe Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill
Horror and ghost stories are not genres that I seek out. Either they are too horrific for me (I have a suggestible imagination) or just silly. That said, I enjoyed this short novel. It falls in the 'modern gothic' class as well, and I do often enjoy those novels.
The narrative is BIG on atmosphere, which is the novel's best asset. It does have some minor ghost like presences in it, and the narrator certainly experiences dread. However, overall I think it fell short on both scores. That worked for me, but if you are a horror/ghost story aficionado I don't think you would enjoy this as much. I liked the gothic tone. The story was compelling, and I was interested in 'what happened next' even though there is little action. 3.5*
20 task
5 oldie
10 combo 20.1, 10.8
10 review
_____
45
Running total: 795
Kate S wrote: "From Post 486Tien wrote: "10.4 Thankful
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
#199 on list...
+5 Combo 20.1 "
Thanks for the extra Combo points, Kate. I noticed you had me at 680 points on the Readerboard but I think you meant 650 :)
20.3 Ghost StoryBellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
Shelved as ghost-stories 16 times
Review
I absolutely adored the author's debut, The Thirteenth Tale, but I cannot seem to fully get into this one. It started off well with the boy William Bellman killed a rook; the freaky undertone was set for the novel. The boy, however, seemed to have led a charmed life up until the time nearly all his loved ones died. Then he appears to bury himself in work and was successful in any business ventures he went on. Something happened and then the book ended. I didn't read of any ghosts? Was there a ghost? Is the 'ghost' a differently perceived sort of specter? I did like the writing itself and the bits about rooks but really I felt it to be boring as nothing seems to happen very much...
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.8 - seTTerfield; 20.5- Victorian)
+10 Review
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 720
20.1 Gothic AuthorsMartin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Review
The last Dickens I read was David Copperfield which I Loved completely & totally! This book was a little bit different in the many perspectives that kind of confused me; to also have a number of characters addressed as Mr Chuzzlewits and 2 of them with the exact same name (Martin Chuzzlewit) confused the issue even further so it took some time for me to appreciate who's who. I still enjoyed his beautiful descriptive prose and whilst I do like that all his characters got their just deserts at the end, none of these characters appeal to me. Sometimes I do find it annoying how he praised some character's good trait and crushed another's not-so-good trait; it felt too much like a parental lecture. I still wished that I liked these characters better but all in all, it was a pretty good read especially after I grasped the threads & characters.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.5 - Charles; 20.5- Victorian)
+10 Review
+15 Oldies (pub. 1844)
+15 Jumbo (830 pages)
Post Total: 65
Season Total: 785
Tien wrote: "Thanks for the extra Combo points, Kate. I noticed you had me at 680 points on the Readerboard but I think you meant 650 :) "Nevermind... I just realised I didn't score my RG properly so you are totally right! Thanks, Kate :)
20.8 Mother-DaughterThe Mother's Promise by Sally Hepworth
I had finally decided what book to read for my Mother-Daughter selection, but it was checked out. So I put it on hold and a new feature at my library is that once you've checked something out it gives you recommendations based on the book you've just held but recommends books that are currently available for checkout. That's how I found this one. I NEVER would have chosen it based on the title (soooo bland) or the cover (again, soooo bland), but the story (while somewhat predictable) was engaging and I really came to care for and about the characters.
Alice is a single mom who has just received grim news: a diagnosis of stage 3 ovarian cancer, the same thing that took her own mom.
Zoe is her 15-year-old daughter who struggles with a crippling social anxiety.
Kate is Alice's oncology nurse who just suffered another miscarriage but is learning that there are many ways to be a "mother".
Sonja is the social worker assigned to Alice's case whose secrets could destroy all of their lives.
The secret of Zoe's parentage is pretty predictable, the final outcome was pretty predictable, most everything was predictable...but there were a few times that I gasped out loud because I was so surprised.
I wasn't expecting a lot from this book, but it was quite enjoyable and I'm glad I found it.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1100
Task 10.5 - GrandparentsThe Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
I’ve enjoyed - to varying levels - the others in this series, but this one let me down badly. First off, it wasn’t narrated by Bob, which is a massive fail, but followed Alex, a newbie to The Laundry (the UKs secret squirrel department dealing with demons and occult risks).
Initially the story is about Alex finding his feet in the new public sector world he’s living in, negotiating how to live now he’s a vampire, but it moves into an invasion story, with Alex the point man in the defense.
I did like the building of the invasion society - elves; the war scenes were suitably exciting and I enjoyed the supporting characters. I just didn’t love Alex in the least, and missed the snark and satirisation of public sector bureaucracy. Overall, this was a transition novel, to out The Laundry and bring in some new blood into the series. I’ve got the next one to read (Bob! yay!), so I’m not giving it up just yet, but I am worried that the series is running out of steam...
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8, 20.6 - there is a vicar - Pete - as a second tier main character, essential to the plot)
Post total = 30
Season total = 1340
Task 20.6 - ClergyHammered by Kevin Hearne
Atticus, our Druid hero, has to fulfil a couple of promises made in an earlier book, and kill Thor, god of thunder.
This installation in the series, wrapping up the opening arc, is pretty good, with loads of action and humour. Possibly a little light on Oberon, but we can’t have everything.
So, to our tale: We open with Atticus carries out a recce and meeting promise one, exploring some Norse mythology as we go. This is something that I enjoy about this series - that Hearne incorporates all of the belief systems from around the world: witches, vampires, werewolves, pantheons of Native Americans, Norse, Celts, not to mention Christianity (Jesus makes an appearance!) and other folkloric traditions. And it works - they all rub along pretty well, and all hate Thor, so when it comes to putting a gang together to set out & kill Thor, there’s plenty to pitch in (though, very annoyingly, all male. Grrr. that’s the weakest bit of the series - female representation ain’t great).
Anyway, our gang set off to kill Thor and… well, I won’t spoil it, though obviously Atticus survives (there’s at least four more in the series, so that’s hardly a major shock!) The fight scenes are impressive and sad, and the ending did leave me wanting to read the next one...
+20 Task (agreed in helpthread that the druid was Ok for clergy)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (20.7)
Post total: 35
Season total = 1375
15.9 Reading GloballySetting: Jordan
Honor Lost: Love And Death In Modern Day Jordan by Norma Khouri
+40 Task
+15 first visitor to Jordan
Post Total: 55
Season Total: 840
20.6 ClergyThe Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
I listened to the LibraVox version of this English countryside novel…and the readers were uniformly good…something that can not be relied upon when listening to LibraVox recordings.
The word that most comes to mind while contemplating this book is “gentle”. There aren’t many scenes of dramatic action…and even those that do verge on drama…are delivered gently. The Vicar is a gentle soul…. who has some of the worst luck…and yet some good luck sneaks in too. The novel’s chief defect, in my opinion, is it’s philosophy…. with a foundation in Christian beliefs. In fact one of the Vicar’s later talks argues that religion is better than philosophy because religion offers the hope of eternal happiness. The Vicar is also unapologetically a monarchist. When presented with dilemmas where others would seek revenge, the Vicar quickly resolves to offer forgiveness. The ending is a little too syrupy for my taste as well. Enjoyable…but not enough to give 4 stars.
task=20
review=10
Oldie=20
task total=50
Grand Total=1570
20.8 Mother-DaughterFamily by Susan Hill
+20 task (approved in task help thread)
+15 combo (10.8; 20.1; 20.7)
+10 not-a-novel
+ 5 oldies
Task total=50
Grand total=355
20.1 Gothic AuthorsThe Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
I loved this creepy, atmospheric Sherlock Holmes novel. Holmes is asked to investigate the strange death of Sir Charles Baskerville. The safety of his heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, is a concern. The Baskerville family has been cursed for generations since their ancestor sold his soul to the devil and was killed by a huge diabolical hound.
Baskerville Hall is located in Devonshire on the edge of the Grimpen Mire which sucks animals--and people--into its swampy depths. A serial murderer has escaped from prison and might be hiding in the area. Prehistoric huts and graves litter the hillsides. Howls from the hound fill the air at night....and young Sir Henry is moving into Baskerville Hall. It's a great combination of Holmes' logic and Gothic creepiness!
+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.4 (Sherlock Holmes)
+10 oldie (pub 1902)
+10 review
Task total: 45
Season total: 365
10.8 Double Letter NamesViolets Are Blue by James Patterson
Patterson
Review
In this installment, Alex Cross is hunting down vampires. Are they real vampires or just roleplayers? These vampires have committed crimes nationwide for ten years. Every city they went to, a trail of dead bodies was found. The bodies were found with bite marks and their blood was drained. Alex Cross is on the case with Kyle Craig who is FBI. They have worked some cases together. Will Alex find out who the killer is before he kills again and possibly someone Alex Cross cares about?
I liked this book because it had a twist and turn. You won't believe who the killer really is. I couldn't. I never suspected it was this person. I also like the new woman in Cross's life. I hope she sticks around. Alex needs to find a little romance in his life. This story kept me interested from beginning to end.
Task +10
Style+ 10
Book Total: 20
Grand Total: 205
15.10 Reading GloballySetting: Norfolk Island
The Fatal Flaw by Roger Maynard
+40 Task
+15 first visitor to Norfolk Island
+100 Alphabetical Completion (A-Z)
+100 6 Continents*
Post Total: 255
Season Total: 1,095
*Continents:
1. Antarctica: 15.1 (Antarctica)
2. North America: 15.2 (Bahamas)
3. Asia: 15.3 (Cyprus); 15.7 (Hong Kong); 15.9 (Jordan)
4. Europe: 15.4 (Estonia); 15.6 (Greece); 15.8 (Italy)
5. South America: 15.5 (Falkland Islands)
6. Oceania: 15.10 (Norfolk Island)
10.3 DecadeTo Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
I had recently read a short story by Hemingway that I surprisingly enjoyed. Everything else that I had read by him I found to be somewhere between unsatisfactory to awful. This one is down in the awful range. My primary problem with Hemingway is that his dialogue is totally unbelievable. Nobody ever talked like that! My secondary problem is all the macho B.S. Always laid on too thick, no subtlety and replete with unnecessary misogyny and use of the "N" word. The story is the best part... a boatowner in Key West during the Depression gets hooked into the smuggling rackets between Florida and Cuba in order to make a living for him and his family. I see that it was made into a film with Humphrey Bogart in the lead.... I bet it made a better movie than a book. One star.
Oh....it's on Boxall's 1001 list and I still have three other Hemingway books on the list to read...ugh!
P.S.- after I wrote this review...I learned that Hemingway also thought that this was his worse work! Amen.
task=10
review=10
Oldie=10 (1937)
task total=30
grand total= 1600
10.7 Big WordsOperation Prince Charming by Phyllis Bourne
A fun and thoughtfully developed contemporary romance featuring an etiquette expert and a detective whose newly-a-socialite girlfriend has signed him up for a manners makeover. I wouldn't trust the specifics of this premise--the hero is still in a relationship with another woman, and they're both at least attempting to save the relationship--to just any author, but Phyllis Bourne has quickly become one of my favorite romance novelists. She took a lot of care to not have cheating occur (especially given that the heroine is recently divorced from the husband who cheated on her--with her best friend!) on the hero's part, and to not make the original girlfriend a one-dimensional demon. Bourne also utilized very well POVs from said girlfriend and from the man whom she starts dating during the course of the story.
But mostly it's a story about Ali and Hunter, two people who connect on the basis of character, and it was fun to see them realize their feelings for each other, and to realize that the respect and trust and joy they were developing could be theirs forever. Just what I want out of a romance. (Also: good food descriptions as always, thank you for that, Phyllis Bourne).
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 Double Letter Names)
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 390
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 565Rachelccameron wrote: "20.1 Gothic AuthorsBlockade Billy by Stephen King
NOTE: I have attached the edition of the book I read, I don't think all the copies o..."
Sorry, not sure what you mean here. The book I read contains 2 works, does not that qualify for not-a-novel?
Rachelccameron wrote: "Sorry, not sure what you mean here. The book I read contains 2 works, does not that qualify for not-a-novel? "The not-a-novel style is:
Explore new forms by reading short story collections, non-fiction, plays, and poetry collections.
Novels and novellas do not qualify for not-a-novel.
10.8 - Double Letter NamesRed Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total 325
20.10 - Uncommon LetterZero Day by David Baldacci
+20 task
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 370
20.10 - Uncommon LetterThe Postman Always Dies Twice by Zara Keane
+20 task
Task total: 20
Grand total: 410
20.5 OldThe Quincunx by Charles Palliser
This was not exactly what I expected. Somehow I had come to believe that both the story and the prose were 19th Century. Certainly the story is set in pre-Victorian England. I was confused by this for about 200 pages, even though there were two references to His Majesty, which meant that Victoria had not yet ascended the throne. The prose however, did not seem to me to be 19th Century. The author tried to make us believe it was so by spelling trousers as trowsers or sofa as sopha. I did not see why he thought this necessary. I have certainly seen trowsers in Trollope's novels, so it isn't as if I haven't ignored such spelling previously. I just felt it was cheap to do so in a novel first published in 1989. There are plenty of novels set in the 19th Century that don't resort to such pretense.
We know from the beginning that there are nefarious plots afoot. But I got tired of them. How many times can a young man jump out of the frying pan into the fire, only to find himself back in the frying pan, yet not have the reader engage in serious eye-rolling? We continously find John in the clutches of someone who wants him dead. Hey, Charles Palliser, this is written in the first person past tense, obviously years after the events - do you think your readers are too stupid to know he survives?
It is all plot, no characterization, although the characterization of the times was interesting. And very gentlemanly indeed he now appeared in a white beaver hat and a magnificent great-coat beneath which he was wearing a bottle-green frock-coat of excellent cut and adorned with silver buttons. Despite this, I kept reading. Goodness knows I have had the wherewithal to abandon a book. There is no way I'd do it after 500 pages of an 800 page book. (Actually the edition I read is 781 pages). So I kept reading. The prose is very good and helped to keep my interest.
I'm not sorry to have picked this up, despite my complaints. Still, it's worth only 3-stars, though perhaps it should go to the top of that group.
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.5, 10.8, 20.10)
+10 Review
+10 Jumbo (781 pgs)
+ 5 Oldies (1989)
Task Total = 60
Season Total = 535
10.5 GrandparentsSPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
"SPQR" tells the history of the first millennium of ancient Rome--from the mythical Romulus and Remus in the 8th Century BCE to 212 CE when Roman citizenship was given to every free inhabitant of the empire by Caracalla. SPQR stands for the phrase "Senatus Populusque Romanus", meaning "The Senate and People of Rome". Quite a bit of information is included about the lives of the lower classes, slaves, women, and people in the far-flung provinces of the Roman empire in addition to the history of the famous Romans. Although most of the book is chronological, the author sometimes tells events out of order so some background in the subject can be helpful.
Mary Beard is an engaging author who is sometimes humorous or satirical. She's a well-respected historian who writes in a conversational tone. The story of Rome is quite amazing, and Mary Beard brings it to life in "SPQR".
+10 task
+ 5 combo 20.5
+10 not a novel
+10 review
+ 5 jumbo
Task total: 40
Season total: 405
20.5 OldEdward II by Bertolt Brecht
I remember in my youth, perhaps in high school, having read an account of Edward II. Could it have been Marlowe? Maybe…but I was also a fan of Thomas Costain…and I remember enjoying his Plantagenets series. Perhaps I was drawn to the story because Edward (my namesake) found himself in peril because of his love of another man. Gaveston.
Wikipedia’s article on the play contains this passage-"Looking back at the play- near the end of his life, Brecht offered the following assessment of their intentions: "We wanted to make possible a production which would break with the Shakespearean tradition common to German theatres: that lumpy monumental style beloved of middle-class philistines.” I suppose that is true but I didn’t find the play to read as that much of a literary revolutionary shift. The story is presented fairly straight-forward and lineal. Edward II, upon gaining the throne after the death of his father, recalls his lover, Gaveston, from exile in Ireland. The nobles and peers want none of that and it isn’t long before Gaveston is killed. Edward grieves for many years while also waging battles to prevent a similar fate against Mortimer and his co-hort (Edward’s wife), Queen Anne. When Edward is captured, he is held under house arrest by Berkeley. The Bishop attempts to persuade Edward to abdicate to his son Edward III…who is a minor. An abdication would permit Mortimer and Anne to act as regents. Edward refuses and eventually escapes…only to be caught again. Brecht’s version does not go into the gruesome death that Edward is rumored to have suffered. Instead, the play ends with Edward still alive, and Edward III and others presuming he is dead, and having Mortimer and his mother arrested.
Three stars.
As a bit of trivia…I recently watched an episode of Who Do You Think You Are. The show was about the lineage of actress Courtney Cox who was surprised to learn that she was related to William the Conqueror….and the “Berkeley” family mentioned in this play. If I remember correctly, there was even a visit to the castle where Edward was kept prisoner by Berkeley.
Task= 20
Review= 10
Combo=5 (20.6- The Bishop is a major character in the play.)
Could this also count for 20.7 Single Word title? Does the "II" count as a word?
Not-a-novel=10 (play)
Oldie=10 (1924)
task total= 55
grand total= 1655
20.4 NighttimeAfter Dark by Haruki Murakami
Even though I enjoyed this novel, and on the surface it is engaging and not particularly hard to read, I feel like I'm not qualified to review it. It probably would be helpful if I were an academic studying Murakami. On the other hand, maybe there is no deep meaning here, and that IS the point.
The story takes place between 11:59 pm and 6:50 am one evening. The characters are connected with a young woman who is sleeping her life away, either intimately or very loosely. The connection is not always very obvious.
I did enjoy the way it was written, it seemed cinematic. There are parts of the novel where you are (conventionally) reading about the characters as they go about their business; and others where Murakami very pointedly takes us outside the story. This made the structure of the novel seem experimental. It is very well written and tightly edited. 4*
20 task
10 review
____
30
Running total: 825
Post 582Tien wrote: "20.1 Gothic AuthorsMartin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Review
The last Dickens I read was David Copperfield which I Loved completely & totally! This book..."
I'm sorry, Tien. This doesn't qualify for 20.5 Old, because that task requires the setting to be 100 years *before* publication and this is set contemporaneously.
Post 595 Ed wrote: "10.3 DecadeTo Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
I had recently read a short story by Hemingway that I surprisingly enjoyed. Everything else that I had read by him I..."
I'm sorry, Ed - and this was a surprise to me, too - this is a YA Assignment at BPL, and there is no lexile. Task, but no styles.
Post 606 Ed wrote: "20.5 OldEdward II by Bertolt Brecht
I remember in my youth, perhaps in high school, having read an account of Edward II. Could it have been Marlowe? Maybe…but I was ..."
Sorry, no on the one-word title question.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 595 Ed wrote: "10.3 DecadeTo Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
I had recently read a short story by Hemingway that I surprisingly enjoyed. Everything else that..."
Wow...I'm really sorry for any student that gets assigned to read that... unless it is a lesson in how NOT to write.
Task 10.10 - Group ReadsThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
low lex
Season total = 1385
15.1 - Reading globally (alphabetically)The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam
+15 Task (set in Bangladesh)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
15.2 - Reading globally (alphabetically)Last Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich
+15 Task (set in Belarus)
+15 First in Belarus!
Task total: 30
Grand total: 45
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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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The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
Salten House is a central place for all 4 girls. All the significant events in the book take place here and there are many descriptions of the house. It is very important to the story throughout the flashbacks, present and conclusion.
+20 Task
Task Total: 20 pts
Grand Total: 130 pts