Reading with Style discussion
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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
10.5 Grandparents The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint
+10 Task
+ 5 Jumbo
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1740
20.2 The HouseThis House is Haunted by John Boyne
+20 Task
+10 Combo: 20.3 Ghost Story / 20.5 Old (1867)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1770
20.3 Ghost StoryHell House by Richard Matheson
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.2 The House
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 1795
20.5 OldA Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
+20 Task (1865)
+ 5 Combo: 10.5 Grandparents Day
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 1820
20.5 OldA Broken Vessel by Kate Ross
This is the second in the Julian Kestrel mysteries written by Kate Ross. It was published in 1994, and is set in Regency era London (~1811 – 1820). Unfortunately, Ross only wrote two more in this series before her untimely death from cancer.
This is one of those series that I’ve liked so much, right from the beginning of the first book. The main character is Julian Kestrel (which is a great name), he has an unconventional manservant, Dipper; and in this instalment we meet Dipper’s sister, Sally.
Kestrel is a dandy and man about town, and on the surface typical of that time period (at least as imagined by novelists). However, you get the sense there is more to Kestrel than meets the eye – Dipper’s former career is pickpocket and knows all about the unsavoury elements of London (and Kestrel is well aware of this). Sally is a prostitute and due to her habit of stealing handkerchiefs from her clients the mystery unfolds. One of the handkerchiefs was wrapped around a letter from a woman in distress. Sally runs into Dipper, tells him about the letter and so it begins…. (the mystery).
There is a lot of slang in this book, which I can only assume is accurate. It adds a great deal of atmosphere to the story, but once or twice I was a little unsure of the meaning of a turn of phrase. The slang comes in to the story because of Sally. The three of them work on the mystery, and justice is served in the end.
I enjoyed this book a lot and am looking forward to the next Julian Kestrel mystery! 4*
20 task
5 oldie
5 combo 10.8
10 review
______
40
Running total: 940
15.9 - Reading Globally #2Setting: Qatar
From Dunes to Dior by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
31k words
+40 Task
+15 first visitor
Post total = 55
Season total = 1730
15.10 - Reading Globally #2Setting: Western Sahara
The Story of Captain Riley, and His Adventures in Africa by Samuel Griswold Goodrich
+40 Task
+15 First Visitor
+100 Alphabetical completion
+100 Six continents (Brunei - Asia / Denmark - Europe / Guatemala - N America / New Zealand - Oceania / Peru - S America / Western Sahara - Africa)
Post total = 255
Season total = 1985
20.9 Satire (Kate S's Task)Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
This memoir begins with Orwell as a young man who has had all his money stolen while in a poor neighborhood in Paris. (I was surprised to learn afterwards that this book, Orwell’s first to be published, takes place after the events presented in his semi-autobiographical style novel “Burmese Days”.) He is 24 years old here… and has to rely on a few friends, also destitute, and on pawnshops…and the sale of a few articles to survive. (He was a putative journalist at the time.) His friend eventually helps him gets the lowest of jobs in a Parisian hotel…the do whatever needs to be done guy in the hotel restaurant….working 18 hour days…sometimes with no place to go afterwards. I trust that Parisian hotels and restaurants have improved over the years because what Orwell describes is disgusting to say the least.
Eventually, another friend in London finds a job for Orwell in that city taking care of an invalid child. However, when he arrives in London, his services are not needed yet…and, being penniless, he falls in with a band of “tramps” and learns how to survive on the streets and “spikes”- places that offer a night's shelter…(usually filthy) and a meal that will leave one undernourished. Even for that, the “tramps” must pay a penny or two. Orwell presents the circumstances in a clear and sympathetic style…however there were a few times that I was troubled by what he had to say, such as when he indicates that he saw the force in the proverb-“Trust a snake before a Jew and a Jew before a Greek, but don’t trust an Armenian."
Four stars.
task=20
combo=15 (10.3-1933; 10.5-George; 10.8-Orwell)
Not-a-Novel=10
review=10
oldie=10 (1933)
task total= 65
grand total= 2030
20.3 Ghost StoryThe Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
shelved 95 times as ghost stories
+20 Task
+10 Combo (20.1 ; 20.2 - the graveyard)
Task total = 30
Points total = 145
15.10 Reading GloballySetting: Australia, Oceania
Walkabout by James Vance Marshall
+40 task
+100 finishing bonus (reading Z-A)
+100 for 6 continents (all except Antarctica)
Task Total: 240
Season Total: 1175
20.7 One WordJoyland by Stephen King
+20 Task
+5 Combo 20.1
+5 Combo 202.
Task Total 30 pts
Grand Total: 335 pts
20.10 - Uncommon LetterQueen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood
+20 task
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 475
20.10 - Uncommon LetterAunt Bessie Observes by Diana Xarissa
+20 task
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 25
Grand total:520
20.7 Single Word Title Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Review:
What a surprise to read a Shakespeare play--a dark romance, to boot--I've never heard of before for a reading challenge and find that I quite liked it even though it isn't a comedy. Fact: I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, other than some of his comedies and perhaps Romeo and Juliette. It's too bad that is this is so little known and studied. True, it's not as melodramatic as Hamlet, but I'm not a fan of that play--even if you are, that doesn't mean this isn't a play for you. But reading it might not be the best way to appreciate this, although having the script in front of you while listening might help you keep track of who is who. Imogene--love her!
I listened to much of this in a dramatic recording, but in my hurry to finish it and see what happened, I read the last third of it.
+20 Task
+25 Oldie
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Review
+5 Combo 10.8
Task Total -70
Season Total = 245
10.7 Big Words (Tien's task)The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
perfectTION
Review
From the premise, I expected the enjoy the book a lot more. And I think I might have except for 3 glaring annoyances:
1. Dialogues without quotation marks
2. The third POV who is rather like a Stepford wife with all the perfection she struggles to maintain especially with appearances. Her musings on wrinkles & how to prevent them were amusing to start with but worn my patience rather thin at the end. I took me a while after reading to understand the reason for this third POV who did barely had any interaction with the other 2 main POVs.
3. Again with this third POV is her awkwardness or is fascination with a certain Chinese butcher who sounds just like any other Aussie bloke. She’s not racist, oh no… but she does not know how to interact with him as he’s different and he’s in love with her. Is he really though?!
What I did like was the Aussie hot dusty little town atmosphere with its, of course, underlying secrets. At first it reminded me of The Dressmaker but it’s seriously not in the same league.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1,200
20.9 Satire (Kate S's Task)A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
Review
Ah! The second book in a row I've read with dialogues without quotation marks though this one understandably is more epistolary in style. Still... it was a tad hard to read. The short chapters made it easy reading but the rather ridiculous character was kind of frustrating; I don't know whether I wanted to laugh or to shake him. And then that ending! I thought there was something wrong with my ebook! I had to look it up and well, I guess it was kinda funny... It still is not a book I'd recommend as I didn't particularly enjoy it.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Oldies (pub. 1768)
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 1,245
Task 10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)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.
The Family Trade (The Merchant Princes #1) (2004) by Charles Stross (Goodreads Author) (Paperback, 308 pages)
Review: This is book #1 of a six-book fantasy series. The author, on his blog http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-...
informs his readers that "The Family Trade", was split into two books ("The Family Trade" and "The Hidden Family").. This is good to know because at the end of The Family Trade the story just --- ends. Nothing is resolved. Knowing that books #1 & #2 were written as one complete novel, and that it was a publisher decision to split the novel in half, makes me forgive the author for the nothing-muffin ending to this book.
The premise of this novel: a Clan or family of related individuals have the ability to walk between worlds. One of the two worlds is our familiar Earth. The other one is a world stuck in medieval life. Over time, the Clan has leveraged their world walking ability into major riches on our Earth, and major aristocratic power in the medieval world. Where there is power, there is violence and political intrigue. Our heroine, born in medieval world, was adopted as a baby in our Earth. She’s 30 years old, and a very practical, competent individual. She discovers by chance that she can world walk. The story proceeds from there. The first third of the novel is slow-moving, with a lot of info-dumping. If considered as part of a 600+page novel, the info-dumping is not excessive, but as part of a 300-page novel it gets wearisome after awhile. Once the info-dumping is complete, and the action gets started, the novel becomes a lot more interesting. I’m planning to read #2 sooner rather than later, if only to see some of these storylines resolved! Recommended for readers of science ficton/fantasy.
+10 Task
+05 Combo (#10.5”Charles”)
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 = 25
Grand Total: 575 + 25 = 600
20.7 Single WordFangirlby Rainbow Rowell
Review
I really enjoyed this book. It is about sisters, twins, who like the book Carry On so much that they write fanfiction about the characters. Cather continues to write fanfiction about them even after her twin moves on. They go off to college and Cather takes a creative writing class and meets a nice guy. This book is also about becoming an adult and the changes you go through when you go away to college. Both girls go through changes but handle them differently. The girls' mom comes back into their lives after she leaves them and the sisters handle the situation differently. Their college experiences are different. I think I would be friends with Cather. Also, the book "Carry On exists. Rainbow Rowell wrote it.
Task +20
Style +15 (Combo 10.8 Double Letter -Rowell, Review
Book Total: 35
Grand Total: 335
20.8 Mother-Daughter (Amanda's Task)My Mother and I by Elizabeth Gertrude Stern
This memoir starts in the late 19th century. It has a forward by Theodore Roosevelt who celebrates the book’s ideal of Americanism. Stern emigrated to America as a child with her family from Russia. After arriving in New York, the family moved to some other unnamed city in the Mid-west…into a “ghetto”…so probably Chicago. Her father is a rabbi…but has to find some manual labor work for which he is unsuited and gets paid little. Her mother takes care of the tiny one-room apartment that they call the “Kitchen”. The mother had a baby almost every year…but only four survived. Although the father does not want his daughter to go to high school, the mother, out of character, asserts herself and prevails on behalf of Elizabeth. That conflict is again resolved in Stern’s favor when it is time to go to college. The father plays a minor role in the work. However, Stern does explain how both parents found it hard to assimilate…in fact they really didn’t try… and that caused there to be some conflicts between the daughter and mother. The parents only spoke Yiddish. Elizabeth, by going to school and college had new friends, new experiences and advice that would go unheeded. Later, Stern brings home her fiancee to the “ghetto” apartment…and the mother is overjoyed… a scene repeated when the mother comes to Elizabeth’s new home in New York City to see her grandson.
This is not a remarkable story beyond the many remarkable stories of the difficult lives led by immigrants to America, but it is a sweet one and told directly. Beyond the poverty, Stern takes advantage of the few opportunities given to her…with the love and help of her mother. Three stars.
task=20
review=10
not-a-novel=10
combo= 5 (10.5
Oldie=10 (1917)
task total= 55
grand total= 2085
10.2 SpyQuantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories by Ian Fleming
This collection of James Bond short stories was issued to coincide with the release of the film ‘Quantum of Solace” (2008).
There are nine stories included in the collection (his total output), many which either were jumping off points for film scripts or at minimum, lent their title to a Bond film. Out of nine stories, there were only two that I would rate as middling. The others are all good short stories – well constructed and written. In three of the stories, Bond has only a minimal role.
You get to see Bond as a man doing his job. Of course, his job (as least to the majority of people) is exotic – a highly trained spy sent on missions for his country during the Cold War. You get a sense of some of the drudgery in the work, even exotic locales can become boring. As well, he is portrayed, probably more realistically (than the playboy image that surrounds Fleming’s character), as a very fit, highly trained, and extremely dangerous man.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection quite a bit and would recommend it to a Fleming fan. I do think it would be useful to read at least the first Bond book, Casino Royale, to have some background for these stories. 4*
10 task
10 not a novel
5 combo 20.10
10 review
5 oldie
_____
40
Running total: 980
Note: I am confused as to whether I can claim oldie points or not. This collection was published in 2008, but all of the stories were written between 1959 + 1965.
Valerie wrote: "Note: I am confused as to whether I can claim oldie points or not. This collection was published in 2008, but all of the stories were written between 1959 + 1965. "Yes, you do! I have fixed the GR record to show 1965.
10.10 Group Reads Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi
I didn't like this quite as well as I liked After the Crash by the same author, but I did enjoy it enough to not want to stop reading. It was a slower start for me -- I had to work my way into it -- but worth it once it got going. The book centers around a small village that has had a murder, and three women/girls in that town who all seem connected. As seems to be Bussi's style, the mystery is the catalyst but the story progresses from there in different directions, centering on family dramas and depth of character. No spoilers, but I was quite shocked by the ending when it was revealed how everything fit together - and that shock alone was worth the read for me!
+10 task
+5 combo (10.8)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 765
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Note: I am confused as to whether I can claim oldie points or not. This collection was published in 2008, but all of the stories were written between 1959 + 1965. "Yes, you do! I ..."
Thank you, Elizabeth. I've amended post 790 to include the oldie points.
20.5 OldThe Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe
I quite enjoyed the first 100 or so pages, and the last 50 pages. The ending was quite poignant. I struggled with the middle portion, however. All along I said to myself that this is probably much better than my experience of it, that it is happening in my life at the wrong time. For that reason, I am giving it the 4-stars I think it deserves, rather than the lower-3 stars that was my reading of it.
There is a lot more very good characterization than one might expect of a western and a lot less plot. Is there such a thing as a psychological western? If so, I think this falls into that category. Most is told in the first person by rotating characters. There are also sections of a third person narrator, and these are mostly to give us to understand the only real person, Jerry Potts. I don't know for certain, but I suspect Vanderhaeghe did not tell Potts' story in the first person precisely because he was a real person. Three other characters get the most prominence: Charles Gaunt, Custis Straw, Lucy Stoveall. The interplay of these characters especially drives the novel.
This is one of a trilogy. I already have The Englishman's Boy, which I will read eventually. If my suspicions that these are better than my experience with this one, I will probably read the third as well. All remains to be seen.
+20 Task (1870s Canada)
+10 Review
Task Total = 30
Season Total = 610
10.7 Big Words (Tien's task)Salvation Army by Abdellah Taïa
set mostly (>50%) in Morocco
My copy of this book came with an introduction from Edmund White who invites us to drink deeply from its clear stream. I did enjoy the book, a story (almost assuredly autobiographical) of a young Moroccan man and his relationship with his family who eventually finds a European boyfriend. For me, the “stream” becomes somewhat unclear when the Moroccan, Abdellah, arrives in Geneva and Jean, the boyfriend, is not there to pick him up. Abdellah has no funds…so, he is forced to seek shelter and a meal at the Salvation Army. The lack of clarity is explained at the very end but there was too long of a period in which I was confused because the story then was told in flashbacks…which I wasn’t sure were flashbacks. Despite this, the writing is crisp, realistic and honest. A very good journal of the changes in this young man’s life without it reading like a history book. I look forward to reading other books by Taia. I’m giving this book 4 stars despite my quibble with the flashback mystery.
task=10
review=10
combo= 5 (10.8)
task total=25
grand total=2110
10.9 Origins of Modern GenresFirst Love by Ivan Turgenev
This is an enjoyable novella, which might make a nice introduction to ‘the Russians”, of that time period, if you haven’t read any. Surprisingly, this is the first Turgenev I’ve read.
The novella is very readable and the story of this young man’s (Vladimir) first love carries you along. It also intensely covers many emotions. The protagonist is young, 16 years old, so his emotions swing wildly and are deeply felt. Turgenev really is expert in having the reader feel all of this along with Vladimir. In some ways the story is somewhat predictable to a present day reader, but that doesn’t take away from the story at all. 4* A good intro to Turgenev.
10 task
10 review
15 oldie
_____
35
Running total: 1015
20.9 SatireA Clergyman's Daughter by George Orwell
+20 task
+20 combo (10.3, 10.5, 10.8, 20.6 )
+10 oldies
Task total=50
Grand total=510
10.10 Group ReadA Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Ove is an ageing widower who sticks to the rules and insists on everybody else sticking to them, too--to the extent that he yells at his new neighbours for reversing a trailer into the "no vehicles" area so they can move in, and locks people's bicycles into the bicycle shed for them. Since Swedish people seem to live with more community-run things than we do in the UK--like a communal heating system for a row of houses--he has plenty of scope to interfere in everybody's lives, but also to help. And it's the helping that is his undoing, getting him deeper and deeper involved in a world he had determined to leave.
Ove is perhaps a bit too extreme as the bad-tempered old man with a deeply-buried heart of gold, but it’s entertaining and funny, and I couldn't help loving Ove.
+10 task
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 1195
Task 10.9 - The Origins of Modern GenreJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
507 pages
pub 1847
MPG of romance spotted & verified!
Like so many of us, I first read this at school, lo those many moons ago, and have since reread it at least once and seen a few adaptations of it - film & TV. So this read wasn't going to be a white-knuckle ride of wonder, but a revisit to see what increased maturity (well, one can hope) made of the story.
And what did I make of it?? Well, I'd forgotten quite how young Jane was when she first meets Rochester - 18 to his 40. And I was reading it whilst the Weinstein sexual harrassment stories were circulating, which put a different complexion on the tale. Happily, Rochester isn't a sex pest, and Jane isn't - despite her tender years - about to let her firm morals & sense of self be compromised, even for the love of her life. It was, at the end, refreshing to read.
However, I had forgotten about some of the over-wrought melodrama (three days with no food and she's about to die? not exactly likely...) and the deeply obnoxious bullying of St John Rivers. I don't care that he's doing it out of a sense of religious purpose, frankly that makes it worse. But Jane is awesome at saying no.
5* still.
+10 Task
+20 Combos (10.4; 10.8; 20.1; 20.6 - approved in help thread)
+15 Oldie
+5 Jumbo
+10 Review
Post total = 60
Season total = 2045
20.1 Gothic AuthorsThe Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone by Tennessee Williams
I had not been aware that Tennessee Williams had also written a novel or two…and it was a pleasant surprise. Having recently read his Memoirs, I can’t resist thinking that Mrs. Stone is Williams’ alter ego. Williams, like Mrs. Stone, settled in Italy after obtaining fame and enjoyed the company of much younger men. Here, Mrs. Stone, a widowed and former prominent stage actress has reached middle age and enjoys the company of Paolo. She also has another mysterious young man following her. At one point Mrs. Stone realizes that she has pursued her career with obsessiveness…perhaps to the detriment of her character. The narrator informs us that she “failed to make any intellectual provisions for the time of her life that now confronted her.” Williams also lived a life that just rambled wherever it led him. As the novel ends, Mrs. Stone may or may not have already crossed that “rambling” line. Nevertheless, this is a very well written and tight novel. So far, everything I have read by Williams has been wonderful with the exception of his Memoirs which were fascinating but jumped around too much for my taste. 4 stars.
task =20
review=10
combo= 5 (10.8)
Oldie=5 (1950)
task total=40
grand total= 2150
Task 10.1 - Square PegChildren of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
600 pages
I'd heard very good things about this, have enjoyed others by this author and am generally a fan of sci-fi, so I expected to enjoy the book.
Actually I loved it.
It is an eons long space opera, and (after the prologue setting it up) follows two strands: the development of life on a planet, with intelligence kickstarted by a nano-virus introduced by advanced human, and a band of humans, fleeing post-apocalyptic Earth in a space ship cobbled together, searching for a new planet.
We drop into both situations at different time points - many many years between each visit, but keep a continuity of characters by virtue of sleep stasis on the space ship and, on the planet, that the spiders (for that's the society that we are following) have hereditary characteristics, driven by the nano-virus. (It's odd to describe, but makes sense and works so well in the book).
I loved the compare and contrast of the two societies, with the spider society being matriarchal and (within a community) cooperative. The humans were, y'know, humans. I really really loved the parallels that Tchaikovsky put the spiders through - from feuding villages to the rise of religion to science and space exploration, all whilst maintaining a believably arachnid society - different art, communication and technology.
Utterly brilliant and should be pressed upon everyone to read
+10 Task
+5 Jumbo
+10 Review
Post total = 25
Season total = 2070
Pos 788 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.7 Single WordFangirlby Rainbow Rowell
Review
I really enjoyed this book. It is about sisters, twins, who like the book Carry On so much that they write fanfict..."
I'm sorry, Jayme. This is shelved as YA Fic at BPL and has a Lexile of 540. Task, but no styles.
20.5 OldThe Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters
+20 Task (set in 1913)
+10 Combo 10.5, 20.10
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 990
10.8 Double Letter NamesWhen Angels Speak of Love by bell hooks
This is a short book of short poems about love. This is the only bell hooks book that I have read. She is a writer and an academic, so not surprisingly these poems are well written and tightly edited.
I think this book is best served by ‘dipping into it’. I read it in one sitting (which is very doable), but toward the end I was wishing for another subject. Of course, love has been a mainstay subject of poetry probably since the first poem but variety is nice. Overall I have mixed feelings about this book – some of the poems made me stop and read them again and savour them; others felt unfinished. I will keep this book in my little collection of poetry books, but I may not dip in too often. 3*
10 task
10 not a novel
10 review
____
30
Running total: 1045
10.3 DecadeKeep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
Published 1936
Review
An idealistic man or an un-realistic man? Most possibly both. A realistic ending though which made it rather more depressing in a way. Without too much spoiler, let’s just say that you cannot live in this world without compromise. There are lots of gray areas and we’ll need to live with it best we can without hurting people we should be caring for. In a way, I guess right at the end there was hope and there’s not better hope than the start of a new life. Still… it kinda depresses me that one’s idealistic dream (even fictional) can go down the drain in pieces.
+10 Task
+20 Combo (10.4 - #262 of list; 10.5 - George; 10.8 - orweLL; 20.9)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (pub. 1936)
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 1,295
10.2 - SpyThe Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
pub 1939
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.3)
+10 Oldie
Post total = 25
Season total = 2095
20.2 - The HouseNorthanger Abbey by Jane Austen
pub 1817
Deliberately very silly, Northanger Abbey is a fun romp through the tropes of gothic novels - Radcliffe in particular - joyfully inverting and mocking the expectations. Our heroine fails entirely to faint at any given moment; the evil plots to kidnap and murder fail to come about; the path to true love is remarkably easy.
Knowing that this is Austen's satire on the overwrought gothic novels being churned out, I can skim lightly over the flaws - Catherine is frankly TSTL, and is unbelievably naive, blind, and accepting. If I were reading this as a more serious-minded novel, I'd be entirely out of temper with her. But I do like Henry Tilney, the love interest, who is a well-balanced, sensible young man, with a delightful line in teasing his love and praise-worthy in his resolution to marry Catherine despite his father's disapproval.
A piece of frothy fun.
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.4, 10.9, 20.1, 20.6)
+15 Oldie
+10 Review
Post total = 65
Season total = 2160
10.9 Origins of Modern GenresUncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Approved here for this task
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.1)
+15 Oldies (1864)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 425
10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
+ 10 Task
Points this post: 10
RwS total: 170
RG total: -
Season Total: 170
20.10 Uncommon LetterThe Red Box by Rex Stout
Another fun Nero Wolfe. I thought it not quite as good as The Rubber Band. There was still the wonderful repartee between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, but it was less frequent and less pointed. The characterizations of the non-Wolfe employees was better in this one.
Murders in real life tend to be by persons known to the victim rather than by some random person. We are introduced fairly early to all of the possible perpetrators, only to have further murders. Thus, if I had had no suspicions, I could eliminate some about whom I might have conjectured. That said, I was fairly certain of some of the facts that Stout did not reveal until the last 10 pages. There was a surprise or two that I could not have seen. Good, solid fun, but no pretense of being more than 3-stars.
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.3, pub 1936)
+10 Oldie
+10 Review
Task Total = 45
Season total = 655
10.7 Big WordsThe Recognition of Śakuntalā by Kālidāsa
+10 Task
+10 Not- a -Novel
+25 Oldies (400)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 1875
20.2 The HouseThe Pursuit of the House-Boat: Being Some Further Account of the Divers Doings of the Associated Shades, Under the Leadership of Sherlock Holmes, Esq. by John Kendrick Bangs
Here is another one of those books I only discovered because I was looking for an "oldie" for this task. What a nice surprise. I also would not have picked up this book if I had known that it was the second book of a series...but I learned that later.
Anyway, this was an enjoyable read...and very clever. The characters include Queen Elizabeth I, Socrates, Christopher Wren, Hamlet; Noah & his wife, Ben Johnson, Friday (from Robinson Crusoe), Sir Walter Raleigh, Shylock (from the Merchant of Venice); Cleopatra; Helen of Troy, Xanthippe; Portia. They are all dead..or ghosts to be more precise. (The first book was entitled "A House-boat on the Styx".) But they are now all together...well, at least until Capt. Kidd hijacks the house-boat with all the ladies on board and abandons the men to an island. Kidd spats between Wellington and Napoleon; and Columbus and Leif Erikson discuss commerce, modern women, judicial procedure while one of the men amongst them, Sherlock Holmes, tries to develop a plan to find the women. The women, themselves, also devise a plan to overthrown Kidd and meet up with the men. Should be 3 1/2 stars...but this is closer to 4 than 3 so, four stars.
Task=20
Review=10
Oldie = 10 (1897)
task total=40
grand total= 2190
20.10 Uncommon Letter (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
+ 20 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.4 number 2 on the list)
Points this post: 25
RwS total: 195
RG total: -
Season Total: 195
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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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Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.8 Double Letter
+10 Not-a-Novel
+25 Oldies (1613)
Task Total: 50
Season Total: 1725