Reading with Style discussion
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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
15.4 Reading GloballySetting: Nepal
Mad Country by Samrat Upadhyay
+15 Task (set about 80% in Nepal)
+15 first visitor to Nepal
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 140
10.6 Governor General's AwardCarried Away on the Crest of a Wave by David Yee
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.8 Double Letter
+10 Not a Novel
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 225
15.6 Reading Globally setting: Micronesia, Federated States of (Oceania)
Micronesian Blues by Bryan Vila
+25 Task
+15 first to visit Micronesia
Task total: 40
Season total: 235
10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)Six Months that Changed the World: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
+ 10 Task
+ 10 Not a Novel (Non-fiction)
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 40
RG total: -
Season Total: 40
15.2 Reading Globally (2nd Round)Setting: Cuba
Singing from the Well by Reinaldo Arenas
Task=15
Task total=15
Season total: 580
15.3 Reading GloballyMalaysia, Asia
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
+15 Task
+15 First to visit Malaysia
Task Total = 30
Grand Total = 75
Task 20.3 Ghost StoryRead a book shelved at least 6 times as Ghost Stories.
The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906) by Algernon Blackwood
Review: This is a collection of ten ghost stories, all written by Algernon Blackwood, with original publication dates of 1899-1906. Eight of the stories appeared in this collection for the first time; two were published in magazines prior to 1906. All the stories stars a man, aged 20-40, who encounters paranormal activity AKA a ghost. The effect is that of a brief thrill for the reader, rather than full-out horror. Two of the stories use negative stereotypes of Jewish men to advance the story (those were also the two weakest stories in the collection). Much of Blackwood’s storytelling style is similar to this sample from one of the ten stories:
From “A Case of Eavesdropping”: His nerves were steady enough, and he felt no diminution of physical courage, but he was conscious of a curious sense of malaise and trepidation, such as even the most vigorous men have been known to experience when in the first grip of some horrible and deadly disease.
Overall, recommended for those looking for mild-mannered Edwardian ghost stories – other writers do it better, but this collection is still a good read.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (#10.8 double letter, #20.1 gothic)
+10 Not-a-Novel (short story collections)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1866-1941)
Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 60
Grand Total: 85 + 60 = 145
10.7 Big wordsThe Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.8 - Aa)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 140
15.5 Reading GloballySetting: Norway, Europe
The Wife by Sigrid Undset
+15 task (reading Z-A)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 195
10.1 Square peg4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
For the last few months I’ve been having a problem with my e-reader and Adobe Digital Editions not talking to each other, which meant reading off of the laptop (inconvenient and not enjoyable). I was trying to show my husband the problem so we could try once again to fix it. I randomly picked this book from the Overdrive selection – and, of course….. the darn technology worked like a dream. So, here I am posting my ‘square peg’ first, and disrupting a reasonably well planned season!
I am quite sure I have read all of Christie’s books, being a big fan. However, somehow I don’t own this one and don’t really recall reading it previously. Miss Marple features in this story. Interestingly, Christie portrays her as being quite physically frail (even though Miss Marple features in five future novels). Because of her physical limitations she engages “an assistant” to be on the scene (where the body is found). As usual, Miss Marple works closely with an Inspector from Scotland Yard.
I quite enjoyed this novel. There are a lot of tropes I expect and enjoy in her books – a (very) large manor house, greedy people, disagreeable people, gossipy people, and of course a mysterious dead woman. I also enjoyed the addition of an old letch, young boys excited to be looking for clues, and a very capable young woman (Miss Marple’s assistant). I had no idea until the denouement who the murderer was, which made it quite a satisfactory read for me. 4*
10 task
10 review
5 oldie (1957)
____
25
Running total: 255
15.10 - Reading GloballySetting: Virgin Islands, British
Swimming with the Dead by Kathy Brandt
+40 task
+15 first visitor
+100 A-Z completion
+100 7 continents
Post total = 255
Season total = 515
1984George OrwellIs this really a required read for high school kids? Yuck. I had to skim over the book within the book. All that talk of the various kinds of governments was way over my head.
20 pts. Task 20.9 satire
5. Oldies published 1949
5. Combo. Grandparents. 10.5
5. Combo. Double letter. 10.8
35
Plus other tasks = 140 season total
10.2 SpyLiar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
Review: After I got over Abbott extrapolating thoughts and feelings of the women of the title ("The beat thrummed in the air, keeping time with the tap of her heart against her ribs".), I very much enjoyed this book. Besides the very interesting stories of these women (two Confederates and two Unionists), we learn a lot about the Civil War and its era--the status of women, the privileges of the middle and upper classes, the porosity of the military lines. The book also brought into sharp focus, through these personal stories, the bitter divide and hatred of the times, the impacts of the blockade on the south and how geographically close Washington, DC and the Confederate capital, Richmond, VA are. For me the most fascinating story was not one of the four women, but the black servant in the Confederate Presidential Residence. She was placed there by and reported to one of the women. It didn't seem to occur to Jefferson Davis that a black woman could read let alone recognize the importance of what she saw and memorize the information to be passed on to the Union.
It was also notable that two of the women seemed lost after the war when there were no more adventures open to them or a cause on which to focus.
+10 task
+10 combo (10.8, 20.5 the book is about the US Civil War 1861-1865, published 2014)
+10 review
+10 nonfiction
Task total: 40
Season total: 85
10.9 Origins of Modern GenresMarriage by Susan Ferrier
Susan Ferrier's Marriage came to my attention in an interview with author Zen Cho, where it was cited as one of her influences. I can see how some of the DNA of the current subgenre can be traced back to Ferrier, especially along the Georgette Heyer line. (Though I don't think the phoneticized Scottish dialect in romances can be blamed on Ferrier, because Ferrier limits her use of dialect to her minor characters, not the protagonists. But still, someone somewhere in the romance family tree needs to be held accountable for it and its bewildering continuation.)
The first part of the book focuses on the insipid Lady Juliana, who at last minute forsakes her unappealing but rich duke fiance in order to elope with the young, handsome, and none-too-bright Henry Douglas. Lady Juliana has no good qualities, aside from her devotion to her dogs--something which I admit, during the course of the story, is more of a vice than a virtue. Calling her feather-brained would be too kind, and she whines her way through her elopement and the early years of her marriage, stuck in nowhere Scotland at her husband's family's home, the two of them unable to support themselves in any way after having burned so many bridges during the fiasco of their elopement. Henry's family takes great pains to try to welcome, support, and love Juliana, but that's a lost cause. She's determined to hate her situation, to blame it on everyone but herself, and to make her way back into London high society. She gives birth to twin girls, one whom she takes with her back to London when it appears that Henry's fortunes change, and a sicklier one whom she leaves behind in Scotland, to be raised by her childless but virtuous sister-in-law.
Ferrier's real story here is the story of Mary, the daughter left behind, and what happens when she rejoins her mother and sister when she comes of age. Mary has been raised to be a good, virtuous, practical Christian--nothing like Lady Juliana, and nothing like how Juliana raised the other twin daughter, Adelaide--and with her good heart and good mind, Mary is launched into frivolous society life rather unhappily. She makes the best of the situation, developing friendships with her lively but good-hearted cousin Lady Emily and with a blind, dying widow who attempts to matchmake Mary with her only surviving son. (Mary is innocent to this for a while--"she was a stranger to match-making in all its bearings, had scarcely ever read a novel in her life, and was consequently not at all aware of the necessity there was for her falling in love with all convenient speed"--but when she cottons on, it's actually rather heartbreaking to witness her feelings of humiliation.)
Ferrier is interested in the forces of love and duty in making healthy, happy marriages, and I found the content of the book mostly enjoyable. Ferrier displays a fantastic handle on what I think of as sitcom characterization: she's very good at distinct characters and milking all the humor out of them and out of interactions between them, but there's not exactly a lot of nuance and well-roundedness to them. It was still a lot of fun, though (lovers of ridiculous and overbearing aunts, hark! there's a trio of them in here), and Ferrier has the kind of wit and humor that draws readers to the modern subgenre still. In particular, secondary character Lady Emily has the vivacious spark that one usually finds in a protagonist in modern day historical romances, and in a story full of dullards and society machinations, it was a relief and also definite fun to watch her unleash her observations and her unbridled mischievousness. Also, she has perennially relevant dating advice: "Civility is too much for a man one means to refuse. You'll never get rid of a stupid man by civility. Whenever I had reason to apprehend a lover, I thought it my duty to turn short upon him and give him a snarl at the outset, which rid me of him at once."
Protagonist Mary, on the other hand, is not insufferably goody-goody, but she's very, very close to it, and I struggled sometimes with the heavy-handed exposition (and rhapsodies from Lady Emily) about just how good-but-not-lording-it-over-everyone Mary was. Ferrier's plot was also haphazardly paced, but I did find her digressions and unnecessary character portraits & scenes to be at least interesting academically, if not as actual aspects of the story.
+10 Task (approved in post)
+10 Combo (10.8 Double Letter Names, 20.7 Single Word)
+10 Review
+15 Oldies (published 1818)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 135
15.1 Reading GloballySetting: Korea-Democratic People's Republic (North)
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim
Task total: 15
Season total: 110
15.3 Reading Globally (2nd Round)Setting: Dominica
The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
Task=15
First to Dominica=15
Task total=30
Season total: 610
Post 174 Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.1 Square PegThe Legacy of the Civil War by Robert Penn Warren, pub. 1961
The Legacy of the Civil War by Robert Penn Warren is a short, 109 pages, book presenting h..."
Don, this fits 10.8 Double Letter. You'll still have your Square Peg free.
10.8 - Double Letter NamesDevil's Food Cake Murder byJoanne Fluke
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 20
10.8 - Double Letter NamesUnintended Consequences by Stuart Woods
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 65
10.4 ThankfulPeople of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
I wasn't planning on writing any reviews this season, but...
I loved this book! This is a fictionalized account of the journey of an extraordinary book, the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated Jewish manuscript that has narrowly escaped destruction, from the Inquisition to the Nazi invasion to the upheaval in Sarajevo (and that's the true history part, not the fictionalized!).
Hannah is a conservator from Sydney. Though there are more experienced and well-known scholars to be had, she is chosen to restore the Haggadah on behalf of the U.N. for the simple reason that she is Australian and it would cause less political strife to have her do it than someone from, say, Germany or the U.S.
In the course of her work, she finds clues as to where the book has traveled in its 500-year existence--a butterfly wing, salt crystals, a wine or blood stain. Each of those items takes us back in time to a part of the book's history.
I love how many lives the book (and, in turn, this story) weaves together. I didn't love the strife between Hannah and her mother (it seemed unnecessary and distracting from the story...and her mother was just a nasty piece of work), but for a tale of this scope I guess that's a pretty small complaint.
This book's structure reminded me of a movie I love, The Red Violin, so I'm not too surprised that this book appealed to me greatly. Plus, I love Geraldine Brooks's writing. (The only thing I was bummed about was I was hoping that at least 51% was going to take place in Bosnia--this was the book I had originally slotted for that RG country. Ah well, I loved the book I switched to also so it was a win-win).
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 Brooks)
+10 Review
Task total: 25
Season total: 260
15.5 RG. a-zKiribati- Oceania
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
+15 - task
+15 - first visitor
Task total-30 pts
season Total -240 pts
15.6 RG a-zMoldova - Europe
The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov
+25 - task
+15 - first visitor
Task Total - 40 pts
Season Total -280 pts
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..."
+5 Combo 10.4 (#74 on the list)
From Post 160Lagullande wrote: "10.8 Double Letter Names (Cat's task)
Six Months that Changed the World: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
+ 10 Task
+ 10 Not a Novel (Non-fic..."
+5 Jumbo (570 pages in MPE)
15.3 Reading GloballySetting: Panama
The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré
+15 Task
+15 first to visit
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 170
20.6 ClergySetting: 100% Spain
Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene
+20 task
+10 combo (10.8 double letters; 20.10 uncommon letter)
+ 5 oldies (1982)
Task total=35
Season total=80
10.8 Double LetterShadow of the Lions: A Novel by Christopher Swann
This has the feel of a classic literary mystery, which I love. It tells the story of a floundering author who returns to his private high school to teach, and ends up revisiting the mystery of what happened to his best friend, who had disappeared in their senior year. It's well-written and though the time switches from past to present frequently, it's never confusing where and when the action is taking place. Matthias is a well-drawn character, and even though he's sometimes irritating (as in, why did he do this? And then why did he do THAT?) you end up sympathetic to his overall predicament.
+10 task
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 130
Kate S wrote: "From Post 160+5 Jumbo (570 pages in MPE)
..."
Thanks, Kate, but actually I deliberately left the Jumbo points off this one. I listened to an audiobook version which, although it is labelled as Unabridged on both GR and my library website, was definitely not long enough for a 500 page paper equivalent (only 8 hours). So it didn't seem right to take the extra points - I probably should have explained on my original post.
15.4 Reading Globally (2nd Round)Setting: Egypt
Fountain and Tomb by Naguib Mahfouz
Task=15
Task total=15
Season total: 625
Lagullande wrote: "Thanks, Kate, but actually I deliberately left the Jumbo points off this one. "Even if you read an abridged edition, you will get the points. Everyone gets the same points for claiming the same book in a season, except for the individual styles of Review and Multiple.
15.5 Reading GloballySetting: Romania
The Fox was Ever the Hunter by Herta Müller
+15 Task
+15 first visitor to Romania
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 190 (Edited to fix adding error earlier!!)
20.3 Ghost StoryThe Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Unintentionally hilarious gothic novel from 1764. There's a wicked lord, a sobbing mother, a lost heir, a crusading knight, a pair of virtuous maidens, an underground passage, a ghost that makes announcements and drips blood, and of course plenty of deaths - in fact, the deaths begin on page 2. And the castle! - home of the ghost, and handily provided with a secret passage for maidens and others to flee through.
The story rushes from one melodramatic device to the next at such a pace that the whole thing is concluded in only just over 100 pages - not for any lack of plot, but because the poor characters can barely exchange a sentence before another disaster befalls them. The language is archaic and the paragraphs are long, but I found it delicious.
+20 task
+15 combo (20.1, 20.2 approved, 20.5 approved)
+10 review
+20 oldies (1764)
Task Total: 65
Season Total: 260
10.4 ThankfulThirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
#149 on the list
Review
This book is about a girl who commits suicide because she thought nobody cared about her. She was having problems in life that she felt she couldn't deal with anymore. She decides to make tapes and send them to people she felt made her life miserable. Even though the topic isn't a comfortable topic, I felt it was important to write about. In her own way, Hannah tried to seek help. I felt when she went to the guidance counselor, he could have tried harder to help her. He could have referred her to outside help. Hannah could have tried harder to talk to the people around her. She blamed her problems on other people and saying that is why she was miserable. Yes, the other kids did contribute to her problems but they weren't the sole cause. I would have been Hannah's friend. Her life didn't have to end.
Task +10
Review +10
Book Total: 20
Grand Total:
20.7 Single Word TaskPersuasion by Jane Austen
Review
This is now my second favourite Jane Austen novel. Certainly it's not Pride and Prejudice, but really it is well done. I am not going to give a summary as there are many out there, but I will say that I enjoyed it, and the writing is very strong. The title has to do (and this is no spoiler, we know this from the beginning) with how Anne was persuaded to break off an engagement when she was 19. Now she is still single and twenty-seven when her former fiance arrives in the area.
My favourite quote (there are others I like, and some I may have missed, but this one stood out):
Prettier musings of high-wrought love and eternal constancy could never have passed along the streets of Bath than Anne was sporting with from Camden Place to Westgate Buildings. It was almost enough to spread purification and perfume all the way.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Oldie
+15 Combo - 10.7 Big Words, 20.1 Gothic Author, 10.9 Genres (confirmed)
Task Total= 60
Season Total = 60
10.3 DecadeCandida by George Bernard Shaw
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 20.6 Clergy
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Oldies (1934)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 305
10.4 Thankful The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.8 Double Letter
+10 Not-a-Novel
+25 Oldies (1597)
Task Total: 50
Season Total: 355
10.9 Origins of Modern Genres The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.8 Double Letter
+15 Oldies (1857)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 385
15.3 Reading GloballySetting: Denmark
The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 400
20.1 Gothic AuthorsFirst Love by Ivan Turgenev
+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 Origins of Modern Genres
+15 Oldies (1856)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 440
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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)
More...
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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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
This is one that will stay on my mind. I expected it to be a comfortable portrait of small town life, and it's not comfortable at all. It's prickly.
Olive is a complex and difficult character, and we see her from multiple points of view at different times in her life from I guess about age 40 onwards. Sometimes it's her own point of view, but more often she crops up in a story that's mainly about someone else’s crisis. There aren’t many happy endings in these stories, but they felt true to human nature.
I lost track of a few people and would happily have gone back and read it again to see where those people had appeared before, if I didn’t have so much else to read. I can imagine rereading it someday.
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.4)
+10 review
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 180