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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
Post 846 Cat wrote: "+100 RwS finisher
+200 Mega finisher"
Congratulations! Well done!
20.1 Gothic AuthorsThe Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel (Short Stories)
+5 Oldies (1952)
Points this post: 35
RwS total: 315
RG total: 30
Season Total: 345
Task 10.10 Group Reads Anika: The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise (2010) by Julia Stuart
Review: The primary characters in this novel all live and work at the Tower of London. Our main protagonist is a Beefeater guard / tour guide who lives with his wife at the site. The novel mixes sadness, slapstick humor, and numerous interesting historical tidbits about the Tower of London. An amusing side-plot involves a location outside the Tower, namely, the London Underground’s Department of Lost Things. (Our protagonist’s wife works there.) The reader learns on page 10 that the only child of our main protagonist has died; that is the source of the sadness in the novel. In keeping with being a mellow, mildly amusing novel, the ending is uplifting and hopeful. Recommended.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 650 + 20 = 670
20.3 Ghost StoryThe Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Review:
I don't tend to read a lot of general fiction, but I am very glad I picked up this audiobook from the library. The exploration of the pervasive effect one major event can have on many lives was extremely well done. Susie Salmon's murder and the ensuing results touches many people to varying degrees through the years like a stone dropped into the ocean. Although there is some question to see if the killer will be caught the book is not a mystery. There were a couple of things that happened near the end (don't want to spoil anything!!) that I felt did not fit in with the rest of the narrative even given that it is narrated by a dead girl in heaven. Overall, it was good, I'm glad I read/listened to it but it is not excellent. 3.5 stars
+20 Task
+5 Combo 20. 8 - Mother/Daughter relationship central
+10 Review
Task Total: 35 pts
Grand Total: 370 pts
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.
Wyrd Sisters (Discworld #6, Discworld - Witches Series #2 ) (1988) by Terry Pratchett
Lexile 700L
+10 Task
Task Total : 10
Grand Total: 670 + 10 = 680
20.7 Single WordSourland by Joyce Carol Oates
+20 task
+10 combo (10.5; 20.1)
+10 not-a-novel
Task total=40
Grand total=580
10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas by Augusten Burroughs
This is a set of seven autobiographical stories connected to each other only because they each have (to different degrees) something to do with Christmas. My favorite story, "The Best and Only Everything” has the author meeting his boyfriend-to-be, George, while George was dealing with his current boyfriend who was dying from AIDS. Months later, George is also diagnosed with HIV. Despite those facts, the story is not grim. It is about finding one’s destiny and embracing it.
Earlier stories deal with Burroughs' childhood. When he was young, the author was somehow under the misapprehension that Santa and Jesus were the same entity. When the grandmother visiting for the holidays discovers this, hilarity follows.
The last story happens on Christmas Eve and involves the flooding of his new home. Neighbors and Burroughs' brother help with the severe emergency before the professionals arrive.
Another story, from Burroughs alcoholic days reveal him getting sage advice from a homeless woman. (He was on a three-day debauch boozing it up with other homeless people outside his Manhattan home.)
Although I suspect the stories are a bit embellished for the sake of amusement… I was amused. Three stars.
Task=10
Review=10
Not-a-novel=10
task total=30
grand total= 2370
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 836 Owlette wrote: " I saw some websites that said Hamlet was set 1300-1499. If so, 20.5 Old would apply."Yes - good for seeing that and combo for 20.5 Old."
Thanks for extra 5 pts! Hamlet's total is now 85 and my running total is 215, not 210, I think.
20.6 ClergyThe Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
The first sentence of this novella grabs our attention: "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." Brother Juniper was a witness to the terrible event and wondered why these five people were the victims. Was it fate or divine intervention?
For six years Brother Juniper studied the lives of these five people looking for patterns in their lives, or reasons that their deaths might be part of God's plan. The narrator claims to know even more about the five victims and the people important to them. The common theme running through their lives, and extending into the future, is love in many forms. "There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning." Readers who like literary fiction should enjoy this Pulitzer Prize winner.
+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.5 (pub 1927, set in 1714))
+10 review
+10 oldie (pub 1927)
Task total: 45
Season total: 540
20.6 ClergyA Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters
Oh no! This group is bad for my reading addiction… I don’t recall who suggested Brother Cadfael as being suitable for this task, but now I have another series I want to read! (Thanks A LOT! Ha, ha).
I had always resisted this series, as I thought it would be too religious for my tastes. Instead, the characters (while being devout believers) are all too human. Deception, vanity, ambition – and that’s just the Prior!
Peters writes as you would expect for a book set in this time (1137), but she propels the story along due to Cadfael’s worldly and wry voice. He has ‘been around the block’ and the monastery is his ‘retirement’. I also enjoyed the strong and memorable female characters in this novel. The mystery was interesting and it wasn’t obvious who was the murderer. The take away from this novel is don’t mess with the Welsh! 4*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
10 combo 20.5, 10.8
_____
45
Running total: 1125
20.8 Mother-DaughterThe Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos (Lexile 900)
Imogene and her dad have always been a strong team of two. Her mother disappeared from the family when she was still a baby and, while she has recently acquired a step-mother, she and her dad have always been there for each other. Her father is a writer of medical mysteries--mysteries so grisly and graphic that he has banned Imogene from ever reading them. Of course, Im is a rabid reader of mysteries and has found ways around his ban to read his books several times.
When her father suddenly and inexplicably disappears, he has left her an item that she takes as a sign that he has gone in search of her long lost mother. She decides that she will use the sleuthing skills she has learned from her father's books to find her mother (and, in turn, her father, so she surmises). She enlists her best friend, Jessa, to execute this search. Along the way, she finds out more about her mother than she has ever known in her life. Secrets that have long been kept and buried are unearthed. Spoiler: Im finally finds her mother, who tells a truth far different than the one her father has always told her.
I loved Jessa and Im and, even though she wasn't a huge presence in the story, I adored the step-mother and her love and devotion that she has for Im. I loved the sleuthing and fearlessness shown by a normally-reticent Im.
In the end, though, it was a story about family: "Family isn't blood, necessarily; it's a thousand little choices we make every day. We choose to trust each other and forgive each other and go to the pasta place for dinner even though some of us would rather eat sushi."
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 35
Season total: 1845
20.1 Gothic AuthorsThe Chimes by Charles Dickens
One of Dickens' Christmas stories and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story line is similar to that of his famous Christmas Carol. The main character (Toby Vick) receives a moral lesson from spirits (goblins in the chimes) who show him the future and it isn't good!
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? This story differs from the Scrooge one because Toby is a likeable character, and well-liked by the other characters; a run-of-the-mill impoverished Englishman, widower, and father (Meg) surviving day-by-day as a porter. One of the highlights of his day is hearing the town chimes ringing; he develops sort of a relationship with them and one night, before Meg's New Year's Eve wedding, the chimes beckon him into the tower. He goes, at night, of course, and the chimes chastise him in a big way! That was a little disappointing; I wanted them to be friendly, but similar to Ghost of the Future with Scrooge, the chimes come down hard on poor Toby, in the name of improving his outlook, and it worked.
Recommended.
Side note: The edition I read was 175 pages of text including interesting, old-timey illustrations. The file was described as a "media link" in the library's catalog entry. I clicked on the icon and was surprised to see the book's full text, scanned into a .pdf; sixth edition, I believe. I dug into why the library had included it with the catalog entry, and apparently, they have a historical collection of various scanned items pertaining to the city, and works by Dickens, Mark Twain, etc. Very nice to see the old edition preserved and be able to read it. Thank you, library system.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo(10.5-"Charles")
+15 Oldie (1845)
Task total: 50
Season total: 265
20.1 Gothic AuthorsBig Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.5)
Task total=25
Grand total=605
10.1 - Square PegThe Only Child - Andrew Pyper
This was a decent enough horror novel. Nothing game-changing, but solid and engaging. Lily's mother is killed when she's 6 years old, and she spends her childhood bouncing around foster homes. Now an adult and a successful psychiatrist, she doesn't want to believe that her newest "client" is a 200 year old immortal being who happens to also be her father, but he's determined to prove himself.
Interesting premise, even if there are a few missteps along the way. I liked the idea of Michael being the creature behind so many of gothic horror's big baddies, but the entire plotline with the hidden operatives felt like such a throwaway. They never fully get explained, they really only serve as the catalyst for the climax of the story then they disappear. That felt a bit cheap to me. I was also expecting something a bit scarier than what I got, but this was really more on the suspense side than full-on horror.
The ending was also fairly predictable. Parts of it caught me off guard, but the end game was exactly what I thought it would be. I could have also done without the weird unresolved sexual tension between Lily and Michael...
Overall though, not a bad read and it definitely kept me entertained all the way through.
+10 task
+10 review
Post total: 20
Grand total: 300
10.8 - Double Lettered NameThe Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
I'm a sucker for books about books, or bookstores, or bookstore owners, so I was looking forward to this one; unfortunately it let me down a bit. It wasn't bad by any means, in fact it was a very cute little book, but there's nothing memorable about it. Fikry doesn't become interesting until about halfway through the book, which doesn't leave much time for the reader to really connect given how short the novel is.
One of my biggest issues with this book though is Lambiase's behaviour near the end. It didn't fit and it bothered me. In a novel where most of the characters don't seem to have much in the way of morals, I liked the balance that Lambiase provides, and that gets ruined.
The novel has a kind of bedtime story quality to it in the way it's broken up, which I really enjoyed, and I did appreciate A.J.'s character growth in the novel, but overall I wish there had just been a bit more meat and consistency to this novel.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.4; 20.10)
Post total: 30
Grand total: 330
10.8 - Double Lettered NameFound Audio - N.J. Campbell
I had really high hopes for this book, but it fell very, very short for me. The idea was interesting, and I spent the first half of the book eagerly waiting for a twist or some action that was clearly just around the corner in this dreamscape of a novel. But once it became clear that there was nothing coming, that it really was essentially someone talking about his maybe/maybe not dreams (which, let's admit it, no one ever cares to hear about other people's dreams, much less read an entire book about them), it lost me.
The writing was definitely good, and again, the idea was very interesting. But it really lacked any kind of oomph. That lack of oomph made it very hard for me to believe in the suspense that the foreword and opening letter tried to build. The idea that anyone would go missing because of these tapes was completely unbelievable because they were just...dull.
I wish I had loved this novel, but in the end it was way too metaphysical and unresolved for my tastes.
+10 task
+10 review
Post total: 20
Grand total: 350
15.6 - Reading Globally - IcelandWhy Did You Lie? - Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
+25 task
Post total: 25
Grand total: 390
15.7 - Reading Globally - KenyaRevenge of the Mantis - Vered Ehsani
+25 task
Post total: 25
Grand total: 415
20.4 - NighttimeVox - Nicholson Baker
This was definitely much more interesting and engaging than I was expecting. Erotica isn't a genre I ever find myself seeking out, but I bought this book as an edgy teenager and decided it had finally sat on my shelves long enough. And...it was actually kind of sexy, in a really unconventional way.
The entire novel is dialogue between two people who connect over a phone sex line (back in the good ol' days before internet "dating"). So obviously there's some explicit sex talk, but there's a lot more there as well. The two characters discuss a slew of different things, and somehow even the least sexy topics of discussion are somehow erotic here. It's an extremely smart little novel, given its premise.
I don't know that I'll be seeking out more erotica in the future, but this did open my eyes to the idea that not all erotica has to be supernatural smut; smart can be sexy too.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldie
+10 combo (20.7; 20.10)
Post total: 45
Grand total: 460
20.5 - OldA Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab
I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the characters are great. I liked Kell a lot, but I LOVED Lila. She's spunky, brave, and just a little bit vulnerable. I found the plot to be pretty engaging once it got going, and I definitely need to know what happens in the next book.
But on the other hand...I hate books where the protagonist wins basically through sheer luck just because they're the protagonist. Kell was outsmarted, outweighed, outmagicked at every turn, and yet it works out. There's also a lot of plot fodder, where the only thing keeping the plot moving forward are the bad decisions made by the characters (especially everything revolving around Holland). I found that aspect of the book to be extremely frustrating, and if it hadn't have been for the fact that the idea is engaging and the characters are fantastic, it would have probably been enough for me to stop reading after this first book.
As it stands though, I can't wait to read more about Kell and Lila's adventures, even if I do have to put up with an inordinate amount of character armor.
+20 task
+10 review
Post total: 30
Grand total: 490
20.6 - ClergyThe Enchanted - Rene Denfeld
Another one where I'm in the minority of not loving this book. I honestly found this to be incredibly disappointing. There are so many fantastic reviews about how raw and dark and magical this book is, and I felt none of that.
The writing isn't bad, but it's overly flowery in a way that detracts from the plot. I didn't care at all for the "magical realism" aspect of the novel. I may be biased since it isn't a genre that I enjoy to begin with, so having it leak into other genres doesn't do much for me, but in this case I especially felt it added nothing except more excess to the writing.
I'm not sure if it's really intended to be a twist, but I figured out who the narrator was early on and wasn't at all surprised when it was revealed. I was more surprised by how horrified everyone seemed to be by him despite the story giving no indication that what he did was any worse than the other inmates (apart from the fact it involved a child). I suppose it could be caused by an unreliable narrator, but in that case the novel fails to give that impression.
Really the only reason I'm giving this two stars is because I enjoyed reading about the lady and the priest, and their lives. I really wasn't a fan of any of the novel set in the prison itself, which unfortunately is the majority of the novel.
+20 task
+10 review
Post total: 30
Grand total: 520
From Post 136Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "20.1 Gothic Authors
Jane Eyreby Charlotte Brontë
Review
I read this book years ago and had enjoyed it. The second time around wasn't as enjoyable. I had forgotten the..."
+10 Combo 10.09, 20.06
From Post 770Karen Michele wrote: "20.3 Ghost Story
Hell House by Richard Matheson
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.2 The House
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 1795"
+5 Oldies
From Post 776Marie wrote: "20.3 Ghost Story
The 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 to..."
+5 Combo 10.4
From Post 783Tien wrote: "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 mig..."
+5 Combo 10.8
From Post 797Valerie wrote: "10.9 Origins of Modern Genres
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
This is an enjoyable novella, which might make a nice introduction to ‘the Russians”, of that time period, if..."
+5 Combo 20.1
From Post 812Karen Michele wrote: "10.2 Spy
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
+10 Task
Season Total: 1830"
+5 Oldies
Post 873 Deedee wrote: "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.
Wyrd Sisters (Disc..."
We aren't carrying this as a YA (grandfathered in?), so if there is a review or other styles you want to claim, feel free.
10.8 Double Letter NameThe World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe by Ann Morgan
+10 task
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 420
10.8 Double Letter NameThe Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More by Annie Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb
+10 task
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 440
10.5 GrandparentsMy Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
+ 10 task
Task Total = 10
Grand Total = 450
10.5 GrandparentsAnything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
+10 task
+10 Not a Novel
Task Total = 20
Grand Total = 470
20.5 OldValour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal
+20 Task (set in 1817)
+10 Combo 10.5, 10.8
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1085
20.5 OldThe Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
A 21st-century company has found a way to travel back in time to 16th-century Cumbria in a a parallel dimension, and plans to exploit its mineral resources and anything else they can find. But Andrea, the young woman who is sent to liaise with the barbarians, falls in love with the chieftain’s son, and the Sterkarm clan proves difficult to subdue.
This is a refreshing kind of time travel Scottish/English borders romance. The 16th-century clan are predictably violent, but they are also very emotional, and the romance side upsets several stereotypes – e.g. Andrea is older than the young man, who is described as girlish in his looks, while being as strong and violent as the rest of them.
From the blurb, I expected a kids’ version of Outlander, but there’s nothing childish about this. The main characters all seem to be adults—Per might still be in his late teens perhaps, but Andrea has finished university. There are some very gruesome deaths. Yet it was marketed as YA, and even won a children’s fiction prize.
+20 task (set approx two-thirds in the 16th century)
+10 review
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 1250
10.1 Square PegSo Many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor
David Carter loved museums from childhood, and when he left school he was lucky enough to be able to work in one. He also met the love of his life and was lucky enough to marry her. But fifteen or twenty years on, he seems stuck in a rut, until he sets out to find the truth of his own origins.
This was an interesting story of families and disappointments, and how "ordinary" lives are never totally ordinary, after all. I found the early parts a little slow and skipped ahead, but then I got hooked and went back and read every word. I like the way that artefacts introduce each chapter. You have to keep track of the dates and handle quite a lot of jumping around in time. So it does require a certain amount of concentration, but for me it definitely paid off.
+10 task
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 1270
10.6 Governor General's AwardThe Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général for Fiction (1993)
Review
Truthfully, I cannot like this novel that much. However, as I get closer & closer to the big four-oh, I can understand a little of the main character. Whilst this story is told from the protagonist’s birth to death, I felt that there wasn’t much on what she felt throughout her life or am I just confused? I think rather that she herself was confused for much of her life though she seems to just set that aside and went with the flow…. Not ecstatically happy but content or that’s what it seems to me and I get that. I just wish it could be somewhat clearer on when she was happy -surely, she had some happiness.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.10)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1,325
Task 10.8 - Double Letter NamesThe Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
+10 Task
Season total = 2660
20.10 Uncommon LetterTheir Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Wow. I don’t even know where to begin, other than my standard – why haven’t I read this before. This is definitely an American classic, and we are so lucky it has been championed and revived.
I have to admit that at times I was stymied by the patios/dialect of the main characters. However, that was not enough to stop anyone of gathering the meaning. If it gives you pause, please continue along with the story – it is well worth it. This is a story of a life lived (LIVED!!), and a true romance is contained within as well. I’ve just finished this book (literally) and am blown away, so the review is lacking – I know! Just read it. 5*
20 task
10 review
10 oldie
5 combo 10.3
______
45
Running total: 1175
15.3 RG2setting: Hungary (Europe)
The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson
+15 Task
+15 first visitor to Hungary
Task total: 30
Season total: 1875
10.5 Grandparents The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
I didn't know anything about the plot of this book when I started it. For the first third of the book, I suspected it was a farce and expected the funny twists to present themselves on any upcoming page. Then I realized that wasn't going to happen. The book (I learned afterwards) is based on a real event in which a terrorist, apparently intending to bomb the Greenwich Observatory in London, dies in a premature explosion. In the novel, the person who dies is NOT a terrorist was put in that position by someone else (the secret agent). The death may not have been intended by the secret agent.
The novel spends a lot of time describing the "secret agent's" family life and his relationship with other anarchists. When it becomes clear that the police have been watching these anarchists for years and don't believe they are a real threat, I thought that maybe it was going to be a Keystone Cops or Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight plot. But no, things turn very tragic with the explosion in Observatory Park and its aftermath.
I read the Wikipedia article after having read the book and was surprised to see that the book is considered one of Conrad's best and that it has taken on such importance with people studying or interested in the mindset of terrorists. I'm sorry, but that all went over my head...or did it? I really don't see how this novel (which was not popular when written) carries any significance...especially today.
Now I know why it has been nearly three decades since I read anything else by Conrad. Two stars.
task= 10
combo= 5 (10.2)
review= 10
oldie= 10 (1907)
task total= 35
RwS finish = 100
Mega-finish= 200
Grand Total=2695
From Post 772Valerie wrote: "20.5 Old
A 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 Lo..."
Sorry, Valerie, this is not oldies (published 1994, not quite 25 years ago).
From Post 854Rosemary wrote: "10.2 Spy
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
In 1963, after several failed attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle, the chiefs of a politica..."
+5 Combo 10.4
From post 860Karin wrote: "20.7 Single Word Title
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Review:
The basic plot of Frankenstein is too well known for me to write one here--Frankenstein ma..."
+5 Combo 10.5
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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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Yes - good for seeing that and combo for 20.5 Old.