Reading with Style discussion
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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
10.2 SpyThe Honorable Schoolboy (The Karla Trilogy #2) by John le Carré
Shelved 155 times as spy
Review
I only vaguely remember the first book in this trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and I thought it confusing. I also found this sequel confusing and that last bit about Jerry Westerby annoyed the heck out of me so I can't say that I enjoyed this one at all. The Hong Kong setting fascinated me but that's about it. I still do not understand The Circus and whatever/however the hierarchy is set up. I don’t know if I’d read the final book in the trilogy even though the ending of this book sort of made me curious about what’s George Smiley will get into next.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 - caRRé)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1977)
+5 Jumbo (589 pages)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1,130
10.3 DecadeNo Wind of Blame by Georgette Heyer
+10 task
+10 oldies
+5 combo (10.8)
Task Total = 35
Grand Total = 375
15.6 - Reading Globally #2In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
Korea, DPR is just about 51%
+25 Task
Season total = 1410
10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell
I read this book in one sitting….very easy and amusing. The author includes anecdotes sent in from the public. The author, a bookseller, had started tweeting about some of her experiences…. causing people to reply with their stories. It’s amazing how some folks don’t seem to understand the function of a bookstore…or even books in some cases. Some of my favorites: A customer indicates to a bookseller that his wife wants some cookbook about dinosaurs. The response (after some thought)- “Do you mean Dinah Shore’s Cookbook?” and a customer who so enjoyed The Diary of Anne Frank who sadly asked if there was a sequel. Another fun one was the story of the customer who was purchasing Fifty Shades of Grey…and then asked at the end of the sale if the bookstore also sold batteries. I don’t think these three examples are really spoilers…there are scores more just like them. 4 stars
task=10
Review=10
Not-a-novel=10
task total=30
Grand Total= 1665
20.9 SatireConference At Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
+20 Task
+5 Combo 10.8
+5 Oldies (published 1949)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 635
15.9 Reading GloballySetting: Italy
The Graveyard of the Hesperides
+40 Task
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 700
10.1 Square PegTalking To My Country by Stan Grant
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 720
15.7 - Reading Globally #2Setting: New Zealand
Just This Once by Rosalind James
Post = 25
Season total = 1435
20.1 Gothic AuthorsFragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.7)
+10 not-a-novel
Task total=35
Grand total=390
Post 614 Kaja wrote: "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"
Kaja, for the sub-challenge, you are reading alphabetically, but each country must begin with a different letter. Belarus won't qualify because you already posted Bangladesh in Post 613.
This post 614 gets more points than 613. Think about whether you might want to change 613 to 10.1 Square Peg. That will make 613 5 fewer points, but you get to keep the 30 points for 614.
Let us know.
Task 10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)An Appetite for Murder (Key West Food Critic Mystery #1) (2012) by Lucy Burdette
Review: This novel is a cozy mystery set in Key West, Florida. It is the first one of a series. Our heroine Hayley is 25 years old. She had been living in her mother’s basement (parents are divorced) in New Jersey. She took a chance on love, moving from New Jersey to Key West, Florida. Alas, the man she followed had other lovers, and now Hayley is unemployed and homeless. Fortunately her college roommate lives nearby and gives Hayley a temporary place to live. Hayley is a suspect when her ex’s latest lover is found murdered. Hayley divides her time in the novel between searching for the murderer and searching for steady employment. (Mild (view spoiler).) What I liked about the novel: descriptions of Key West; descriptions of food (recipes included in the appendix); actual character growth of Hayley (more mature by the end). What I didn’t like: the author doesn’t “play fair” with the mystery, as important relevant information is revealed only at the end; and, one of the characters is a very very cliché “gay best friend”. Really, guys, does EVERY single woman in a cozy mystery HAVE to have a “gay best friend”? Recommended for fans of cozy mysteries. I’ll probably pick up the sequel as Hayley’s ditzy mom in New Jersey is visiting Hayley while she begins her new job.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 465 + 20 = 485
From post 574Anika wrote: "20.6 Clergy
The 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..."
+10 Not-a-Novel
15.1 Reading GloballySetting: Denmark
The Copenhagen Affair by Amulya Malladi
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Total Points: 15
15.3 Reading GloballySetting: United Kingdom
The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Total Points: 45
15.4 Reading GloballySetting: United States
The Curse of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Total Points: 60
15.5 Reading GloballySetting: Canada
Glass Houses by Louise Penny
+15 task
Post Total: 15
Total Points: 75
20.9 Satire (a novel by an author on one of those lists linked)Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Review
What does one write about a 300 year old novel that hasn't already been said? Most people already know it's about a man who spends years shipwrecked on an island and that after writing this and his other novels, Daniel Defoe is called the father of the English novel. However, while I enjoyed reading this in print when I was a teen or perhaps a bit younger, I had to listen to it on audio to get through it as an adult. I still think it merits 4 stars and has many good things, but it is rather flawed (long and tedious descriptions at times that were no doubt much more useful in the days before cameras, TV and what not).
It is, and many people might not be aware of this, very much a Christian novel, which I'd forgotten all about after reading it when I was younger. But the protagonist is ever flawed with prejudice. Also, although he mentions him from time to time, the last chapter, the kind that rather sums up years after the main story, never once mentions his man Friday.
Despite all of this, I do think this is a classic novel that is worth reading.
+20 Task
+20 Oldie (1719)
+10 Review
+5 Combo 20.1
Task Total - 55
Season Total = 170
10.2 I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
333 times spy
Review
This is the first book in the series. Cameron Morgan is a spy. She goes to spy school. She can probably disengaged a bomb but nothing in her training has taught her how to talk to a fifteen year old boy. When on a mission, she meets said fifteen year old boy. She makes up a story but she doesn't plan on falling for him. She thinks she could hide her other life but that doesn't work either. She has to make the choice of telling her crush the truth and maybe lose him forever or stick to her cover story. This is a cute book and I enjoyed reading it. I like to continue the series. The end of the book left me hanging.
Task +10
Review +10
Book Total: 20
Grand Total: 255
10.4 ThankfulStop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes by Jim Holt
I’m not convinced that this book is the definitive history of jokes but it is interesting. The book grew out of an assignment from The New Yorker. The recorded history of the joke is questionably attributed to Palamedes, an ancient Greek also credited with several other inventions.An anthology, known as the Philogelos, from fourth or fifth century Rome survives. It contains 264 jokes. With the Renaissance and printing, jokes and folktales attained a resurgence. There is considerable discussion of G. Legman (whose compilations I had previously read) and his collection of mostly dirty jokes. Holt also discusses how almost all jokes follow the basic themes of the ancient ones found in the Philogelos. In the philosophy section of the book, we learn that Freud was an avid collector of jokes…and his taste in jokes seem to reveal something about him. Three theories are put forward as to how humor works. I think the first one, the “superiority theory” is the best…that all humor is at root a mockery or derision.
My favorite joke from this book:
"A lady flies to Boston eager to enjoy a plate of fish that the city is famous for. "Where can I get scrod?" she demands of the cab driver. "Gee", he replies, "I've never heard it put in the pluperfect subjective before!"
task=10
review=10
not a novel=10
task total=30
grand total=1715
Task 20.4 NighttimeThe darkness of night is often an element of Gothic fiction. Read any book which takes place in a single night (a single day, 24 hours).
After Alice (2015) by Gregory Maguire (Hardcover, 273 pages)
Review: Gregory Maguire takes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as the starting point for this novel, After Alice. There is one mention in Lewis Carroll’s book of a girl named Ada: ’I’m sure I’m not Ada,’ she said, ‘for her hair goes in such long ringlets…..’. In After Alice, Ada is the friend and neighbor of Alice. The novel alternates between two stories: (1) Ada, who accidentally falls down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland; and, (2) Lydia, the older sister of Alice. The Ada part of the story is told in a dreamlike manner, a surrealistic style that is hard to follow if you know the underlying Alice story, and possibly impossible to follow if you don’t. The Lydia part of the story is told in a straightforward manner, following teenaged Lydia as she deals with the death of her mother and as she chafes at Victorian social restrictions concerning what is acceptable for gentile teenager females. The tone of a lot of the novel is snide – (derogatory or mocking in an indirect way) -- which can be fun if you agree with the author about what deserves to be mocked. Additionally, Maguire seeks to stretch your vocabulary, including rarely used English words. (Here are some examples (not a complete list): “brazen glints”, “eternal bucholia”, “opodeldoc”, “the grommets”, “glaucous eye”, “exegetic murmuring”, “crepuscular tunnel”, “farrago of a comedy”, “capacious”, “pietistic”, “lyceum tea”, “quotidian”, “charteuse”, “dropsical”, “boskiness”, “stertorous commotion”, “nostrum”, “imbricated”, “viburnum”) I found the overuse of unusual words made it difficult to get into the flow of the story. Overall, a quirky and surreal story. Recommended only for fans of Alice in Wonderland.
+20 Task (#20.4)
+05 Combo (#20.5)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 485 + 35 = 520
20.4 NighttimeDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
(as stated here)
+20 Task
+5 Oldies (1968)
Task total = 25
Points total = 115
20.5 OldAs Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
Jacob Cullen is a big, strong, handsome fellow working as a servant with his three brothers in England during the civil war of the 1640s. He’s also violent and jealous. We follow him as he escapes a job he hates, destroys his family, joins Cromwell’s New Model Army, and finds himself in a confusing and passionate friendship that will turn his life upside down. And that's just the beginning.
I was looking forward to this book, but despite (or perhaps because of) the brilliant writing, I found it tough going - a brutal emotional roller coaster of a read. The historical detail is amazing, and the author makes the dialogue sound true to the period without being difficult. It drew me right into the mud, disease, conflict and idealism of the 1640s. And we get so deep into Jacob’s head that I was invested in him as a character, even though he’s a vicious man who attacks every problem with his fists. By the end of the first part he’s committed every violent crime in the book and done some terrible things to people he loves.
Jacob’s not a psychopath—he suffers terribly when he sees what he’s done—but that only made it more painful to read, as I suffered with him. So although I gave this book 5 stars, I don't think I'd want to read it again.
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.8)
+10 review
+ 5 jumbo
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 820
10.8 Double LetterBooks for Living by Will Schwalbe
+10 Task
+10 Not A Novel
Task Total: 20 pts
Grand Total: 195 pts
20.9 SatireBrave New World by Aldous Huxley
+20 Task
+5 Combo 10.3 Decade - published 1932
+5 Combo 10.4 Thankful
+5 Oldies
Task Total: 35 pts
Grand Total: 230 pts
20.7 Single wordNeuromancer by William Gibson
Wow! I loved this wild ride of a novel.
It’s got action, adventure, cyberspace, anti-hero heroes, and it’s all very dark. This is not a slightly altered world (even by today’s standards). It is a deep, dark, probably post-apocalyptic world (although that is never said). The characters we encounter (all human) are either damaged, surgically altered (and I don’t mean cosmetically), trying to get through the day to day via heavy duty drugs, or they are completely reconstructed into something resembling a human. Also, certain humans can ‘jack in’ – use their nervous system/brain to navigate the inner workings of the computers (the matrix that runs the world).
This is the book that made Gibson’s name; and is extremely influential, legitimizing ‘cyber-punk’ sci-fi. This is also one of those novels where you don’t really know what is going on from time to time, which is okay because the story keeps pulling you along.
I’m glad I didn’t read this novel until now, and read ‘Burning Chrome” first. I am/was more of a ‘classic’ sci-fi fan, and I know I wasn’t ready for this book in 1984. Now I can’t wait to read more of his work! 4*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
5 combo 10.8
____
40
Running total: 865
15.2 Reading Globally, 2nd Round Bhutan
Radio Shangri-la: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli
+15 task
+15 first to Bhutan
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 655
10.2 Spy Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
What a fantastic spy novel! Reading this made me want to immediately go out and read everything else by Ken Follett. If you like historical fiction, World War II, or spies, check this one out. It centers on the art of finding and eliminating German spies and double agents, and in particular, "the Needle", the top German spy in England who is in danger of discovering, then revealing the elaborate misdirection the Allies put in place to disguise their D-Day plans. Follett weaves together multiple settings and storylines to build a compelling story, and all his characters are multifaceted and interesting enough to want to come back to throughout the book.
+10 task (shelved 108x as spy)
+5 combo (10.8)
+5 oldies (pub 1978)
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 685
Task 10.7 Big Words (Tien's task)Read a book with a word in the title ending in -sion, -tion, or -cion.
The Dimension Next Door (2008) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie L. Hughes (Paperback, 291 pages)
Review: The late Martin H. Greenberg, over the course of several years, edited theme collections of science fiction/fantasy stories. He will establish a theme, and publicize the theme amongst science fiction short story writers. He then picks out the stories and creates the anthology. Other anthologies include the 21 “Fantastic” anthologies (example: Assassin Fantastic, Horse Fantastic), anthologies like The Further Adventures of Batman and several on Sherlock Holmes, and freestanding anthologies like If I Were An Evil Overlord. The quality varies from anthology to anthology. The authors are usually not the better-known ones; nevertheless, the stories are often excellent.
This collection contains thirteen never-before-published stories by different authors that (from introduction) “breach the barriers that separate our everyday world” from other realities. Some of the stories include one or more of the following concepts: cursed books; ghosts; alternate universes; time travel; modern day Neanderthals; ancient Mayans; necromancers. This is one of the higher quality Greenberg anthologies. Recommended for fans of science fiction short stories.
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel: short story collections
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 520 + 30 = 550
10.7 Big WordsThis Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett
+ 10 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.8 - double letters)
+ 10 Not a Novel (memoir)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 35
10.8 Double Letter NamesThe Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene
+ 10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 45
15.1 Reading GloballyCountry: France
Continent: Europe
Stealing Mona Lisa by Carson Morton
+ 15 Task
Grand Total: 60
15.2 Reading GloballyCountry: South Africa
Continent: Africa
The October Killings by Wessel Ebersohn
+ 15 Task
Grand Total: 75
20.1 Gothic AuthorsAirs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.5 - Grandparents)
+ 5 Oldie (1965)
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 105
20.5 OldA New York Christmas by Anne Perry
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.8 - double letters)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 130
20.6 ClergyThe Leper of St. Giles by Ellis Peters
+ 20 Task
+ 10 Combo (10.8 - double letters, 20.5 - old)
+ 5 Oldie (1981)
Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 165
20.8 Mother - DaughterA Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Oldie (1982)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 190
20.10 Uncommon LetterThe Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
+ 20 Task (Q)
+ 5 Combo (10.8 - double letter)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 215
10.8 Double Letter NamesSurvival Instincts by Marissa Piesman
+ 10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 235
10.8 Double Letter NamesThe Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway
+ 10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 245
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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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Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
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. "
oops, sorry, copy & paste and then not reviewing it right...