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FA 2017 Completed Tasks
20.4 NighttimeThey Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
(no Lexile score)
+20 task (takes place within about 22 hours)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 315
20.3 Ghost StoryThe Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Hill House is an eighty-year-old mansion with a maze of strange rooms and a tragic history. Surrounded by hills, it's in an isolated location and is reported to be haunted. Dr Montague wants to study the house, record any supernatural activity, and write a book about the experience. He enlists the help of telepathic Theodora, Eleanor who has experience with a poltergeist, and the owner's nephew Luke.
The story centers on Eleanor, a lonely unloved woman who has spent her life caring for her invalid mother who is recently deceased. The disturbed, vulnerable Eleanor fantasizes about the life she wishes she had. Strange things happen in the mansion, and one wonders if they are figments of her imagination, whether Hill House wants to claim her, if she is contributing to the haunting, or if she is going mad. The book is not very scary, but it is a tragic psychological story. Since it has some ambiguous elements it would be fun to discuss in a group, especially around Halloween.
+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.2
+ 5 oldie (pub 1959)
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 220
10.5 GrandparentsLove by Elizabeth von Arnim
+10 Task
+10 Combo -> 20.7 Clergy (Catherine's son-in-law, who is one of the main characters, is a clergyman), 20.7 Single Word
+10 Oldies (published in 1925)
Task Total: 30
Season total: 110
10.8 Double Letter NamesThe Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Wow, wow, wow! What an emotional roller-coaster. This novel has so much to offer. We learn about life in Afghanistan before the Taliban and before the Americans come. We learn about the difficulties of smuggling one's self and family out of Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban. We get a glimpse of Afghan immigrants in America. We learn more than we want to know about the cruelties under the Taliban. I listened to the audiobook version of this book, excellently read by the author. I listened to the ending on the same morning that I had gotten some other bad news about a friend. The confluence of the two events caused me to start crying when another friend asked me how I was doing. Something out of character for me...and totally unexpected....but I think it speaks about the raw nerves that this novel hits. Bravery, cowardice and bravery again are examined. I am so glad I found this book and author and , for sure, I will be reading some of his other works. For once, I liked a book on the best-seller list. Five stars.
task=10
review=10
task total= 20
grand total= 1175
20.10 Uncommon LetterFoxglove Copse by Alex Beecroft
A young guy has taken to the road after suffering anxiety attacks in his job. He parks the van that’s now home next to a field in Cornwall, only to find a sheep has been killed there in a weird way and he’s top of the suspect list. But he’s attracted to the owner’s nephew, so he sticks around and helps to figure out what’s going on.
I enjoyed this gay romance, part of a series by different authors set in a Cornish town. Some authors do better than others at evoking the atmosphere of this beautiful but wild and sometimes scarily insular area. I think this one did it well.
+20 task (Alex)
+ 5 combo (10.8)
+10 review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 490
From Post 330Ed wrote: "10.7 Big Words (Tien's task)
Generations in Black and White: Photographs from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection by Carl Van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten was a ..."
I show an original publication date of 1993 for this, so it does not qualify for oldies points.
Kate S wrote: "From Post 330Ed wrote: "10.7 Big Words (Tien's task)
Generations in Black and White: Photographs from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection by [author:Carl Van Vechten|77261..."
oops..I don't know how I made that error.
20.10 Uncommon LetterA Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 395
20.2 The houseThe Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Thanks to Rosemary I picked this book for the task. I don’t know that I would have found it otherwise.
I don’t know that gothic would be my first choice of genres, but I really enjoyed this short novel. I would call this book ‘high gothic’. It is VERY melodramatic, which I found amusing and easy to read quickly. Without even saying it (by Walpole) you know the castle is dark and damp (and atmospheric!). You have to be in the frame of mind to accept very credible attitudes from the protagonists and almost complete subjugation of the women to enjoy the book completely. Because of my high amusement = 4*
20 task
20 oldie
10 review
15 combo (20.1, 20.3, 20.5)
_______
65
Running total: 480
10.8 Double LetterColumbine by Dave Cullen
For last month's Counting Game I read A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy, written by Dylan Klebold's mother. It was so interesting to hear the story from the point of view of a researcher rather than a parent. I felt that, in the memoir, Sue Klebold didn't exactly make excuses for her son but definitely blamed Eric Harris for planning and executing the massacre. In Columbine, Cullen has done a fantastic job of researching, analyzing, and writing about this tragedy. It was far more objective (as would be expected), showing Dylan's dark side that Sue either chose to ignore or was oblivious to rather than pinning all of the blame on Eric.
I never would have picked either of these books on my own--I chose the first because it was a nine-word title and I couldn't find another to fit that task and we read this one for one of my book clubs here at home--but this one was a worthwhile and informative read.
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.7)
Task total: 35
Season total: 375
15.8 Reading GloballySetting: Italy
The Spy of Venice (William Shakespeare Thriller #1) by Benet Brandreth
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 495
10.2 SpyCasino Royale by Ian Fleming
This is the first James Bond book I've read in addition to it being the first one written by Fleming. It was not at all what I was expecting.
I've always enjoyed the films--007 was suave, debonair, smooth, a charmer, and infinitely capable. In the books, he's nothing short of despicable. He is utterly contemptuous of...well...pretty much anyone who isn't a white British male. Especially women.
His attitude towards rape (which was only incidentally mentioned) was especially disturbing.
I hated that he was assigned to work with a woman (Vesper Lynd) and from the second he meets her he is disparaging her in his mind and to others and then with absolutely no warning, he's suddenly in love with her and must possess her as his wife was just...too much.
I hated this book.
I never thought I'd say this about any book-to-movie interpretation, but THANK HEAVEN the movie is nothing like the book because this book was awful (and the movie was one of my favorite in the franchise).
+10 Task (shelved 301 times as "spy")
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1953)
Task total: 25
Season total: 400
15.9 Reading Globallysetting: Saint Martin (North America)
Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain
+40 Task
+15 first to Saint Martin
Task total: 55
Season total: 455
10.7 - Big WordsThe Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
I love the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series - it has the perfect mix of science and magic, sarcasm and wit for me, and this novella is a good addition to the world.
In it we spend time with some of the so-far peripheral characters - Jaget Kumar and the brilliant Abigail. Abigail rapidly became a star for me, with her stroppy attitude but fierce drive to get what she wants. The plot was inevitably much less tangled than a full novel, but that’s not a bad thing, and Aaronovitch still manages to pack in a load of interesting texture to the story.
I listened to the audio, and cannot commend Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration highly enough - I almost restarted listening immediately. 5*
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo 10.8
Post total: 25
Season total: 660
20.10 - Uncommon LetterBoats and Bad Guys by Diana Xarissa
I picked this up because it was set on the Isle of Man, a place for which I have a great fondness - it’s this haven from a different time, but with a couple of brilliant factoids I love: the longest continuous form of democratic parliament in the Tynwald (with associated brilliant bits of tradition mentioned in this book) (also: in your face, Westminster, so called “mother of parliaments”); the earliest adopters of female suffrage (limited suffrage granted even earlier than New Zealand, though I’ll grant the Kiwis went further).
Anyway, I enjoyed this light-weight piece of nonsense for the gems of Manx-ness scattered in there, and was relieved to find that I didn’t completely hate all the main characters. I mean, one’s a ghost and another’s a cat, so SOME suspension of rational thought is required. But entertaining enough.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo 10.8
Post total: 35
Season total: 695
20.5 - OldEverything and the Moon by Julia Quinn
I’ve enjoyed other books by Quinn, but this one irked me something chronic. The characters, the anachronisms, just… no.
I guess some more context would help! So, this is deliberately set-up as instalove lost and refound, and the travails of getting to the happy ending. Oddly, I didn’t mind the instalove that much - I mean, I’m reading a romance novel, it’s NOT real life, that’s why I picked it up! I did mind that neither character acted consistently during their troubles. If there’s this meeting of minds, why did they both immediately assume the worst? If there’s this meeting of souls, why didn’t they listen and understand the needs of each other? Honestly, the idea that kidnapping your beloved is a good plan? To save herself? Nope.
And the anachronisms - this is set in the Regency period. References to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is just going to jar me even further out of the moment than having to deal with ridiculous not-listening protagonists! Ditto references to a colour dye that wasn’t widely available at that point in time (mauve - I grant that the colour existed, just that it was hideously expensive before the commercial dye was produced in the Victorian age).
So, not Quinn’s best, by a long stretch.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo 10.8; 20.10
Post total: 40
Season total: 735
20.10 Uncommon Letter This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz
+20 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel (short stories)
Task total = 30
Points total = 75
10.2 - SpyAn Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
Based on a true story, this is a compelling presentation of a dramatic miscarriage of justice. Harris is a reliable author, especially of psychological explorations, and this didn’t let me down.
I went into it knowing nothing of the Dreyfus Affair (which prompted Emile Zola’s famous J'Accuse! article), but the twists and turns were dramatised brilliantly, and I was hooked. It’s presented in the first person narrative of the French officer who worked to expose the true spy (though who was never convicted of the crime, and who escaped to middle-class England) and exonerate the innocent man (who nethertheless spent several years on Devil’s Island - of Papillon fame, iyi).
The characters all come to life, warts and all - a huge part of the willingness to convict and unwillingness to review the conviction was the systemic, endemic antisemitism of the French Army at the time. Even our hero is personally antagonistic to the Jew, Dreyfus, but his sense of honour to do what is right is greater than his anti-semitic opinions. Honestly, the repeated anti-semitic comments did get wearing, but I understand that it was necessary to do something to make clear to modern sensibilities (ignoring all the prejudiced ignoramuses that sadly still exist) why this travesty was allowed to happen.
Recommended.
spy: 28 shelvings
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo 10.8; 20.5 (set in 1890s)
Post total = 30
Season total = 765
20.6 ClergyJohn Crow's Devil by Marlon James
+ 20 Task
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 65
RG total: -
Season Total: 65
20.7 - Single WordInferno by Dan Brown
It’s a Dan Brown. Not much more to say, really: workmanlike, some twists, some art history & symbology, an attractive woman in her twenties falling for perma-bachelor wonderman Langdon, and so forth.
There’s some variations here: the bad guy’s already dead, and it’s a race to stop the release of something sinister into the world. It’s never made clear why the bad guy decided to put his sinister plan at risk by creating the clues Langdon is unravelling, but hey - why am I bringing logic into this ride?!
As always, if you don’t mind some light patronisiation from the author and Langdon, and can go with the everyman wonderman which the good professor is set up to be, there’s entertainment to be had here. I’m not going to be buying #5 in the series when it’s released, but if it wanders past me in the library, my experience here hasn’t put me off reading more of Langdon’s adventures.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Post total = 30
Season total = 795
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.
Somewhere in France (The Great War #1) (2013) by Jennifer Robson
Review: This novel was not what I expected. I was expecting a somewhat serious historical novel set during World War I. Instead, this is a standard non-serious romance novel, with World War I as background. The action occurs either in elegant hotels or in medical tents. Our hero is a medical doctor from a poor family. Our heroine is a daughter of the aristocracy. Love breaking class boundaries! Except – from the first chapter, our heroine rejects all the advantages of her “station” and with no difficulty whatsoever embraces a middle class lifestyle. (The cover mentions “Downtown Abbey” , a TV show that I’ve heard of but never watched, which is supposedly all about the English class system during World War I.) The characters are described as being deeply moved by the horrors of war. The horrors of war are not described. The first kiss, however, gets several paragraphs. Overall, the novel is good for what it set out to do – a PG-rated romance novel set in the past. Recommended for those who are looking for a PG-rated romance novel.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 275 + 20 = 295
And …. Novel is set 99 years before publication, so no #20.5 combo. (Yes, really, 99 years!)
10.1 Square PegTrauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman
+10 Task
+10 Not a Novel
+5 Oldies (1992)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 135
20.3 Ghost StoryComplete Ghost Stories by M.R. James
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.1)
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Oldies (see Elizabeth's post #389)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 180
15.6 Reading GloballySetting: Ghana
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 850
10.5 Grandparents Ordinary Life: Stories by Elizabeth Berg
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 890
15.6 Reading GloballySetting: Vatican City State
Conclave by Robert Harris
+25 Task
+15 first to visit
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 445
20.10 Uncommon LetterExercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
First of all, this was not an easy book to obtain. My library did not have it. The inter-library loan program DID have it…but only in the original French. I had to break down and buy the English version on Kindle for $10….something I rarely do.
Having said that, this book is unique. Not a novel…and really not short storieS. It is the same story over and over again… but in different styles. There are about 100 versions of the story…about a minor incident on a crowded bus in Paris in which a long-necked fop wearing a strange hat complains that another passenger keeps stepping on his toes. The strange guy quickly takes a seat that becomes empty. The viewer later sees the fop talking to another dandy 2 hours later…who is telling the fop to get a button on his jacket raised. Not a compelling story. But it is told in the past and present, as a blurb, as an official report, as a letter, as a sonnet and haiku. Sometimes the items or facts are tweaked to embrace a botanical or zoological scenario. Sometimes different dialects or slang are used. There were a few “styles” I found confusing using anagrams, codes or versions of pig-Latin, etc. I really liked the idea….and I think another writer might be able to repeat the “Exercise” in a way more adapted to modern English speakers. At the end, a few different writers take a turn with their versions of the sketch. 4 stars.
task=20
review=10
combo= 5 (20.4)
not a novel=10
oldie =5 (1947)
task total= 50
grand total= 1220
Post 382 Marina wrote: "20.3 Ghost StoryComplete Ghost Stories by M.R. James
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.1)
+10 Not a Novel
+5 Oldies (1988)
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 175"
Give yourself another 5 Oldies points - these stories were first published before James death in 1936.
15.8 Reading GloballyCongo, Democratic Republic of, Africa
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
+25 Task
+15 First to Congo (can't pin down the exact percentage, but better than 51%)
Task Total = 40
Season Total = 195
20.5 OldThe Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
18-year-old Nella Oortman has traveled alone to Amsterdam to the home of her husband--the husband she barely met and was married to with no ceremony to speak of and not a kiss or held hand or anything to make it feel anything other than a business transaction. Upon her arrival, she meets the household: Maren, her cold new sister-in-law; Otto, a family servant (or, rather, slave as she finds out later), from Suriname; and Cornelia, the loyal family servant who is the self-proclaimed "queen of the keyhole", spying on all of the household's activities. She is greeted with thinly-veiled hostility by the ladies in the household, the only kindness shown to her is by Otto...her husband is not even home to greet her.
When he eventually shows up, he has brought a wedding gift for her: a replica of their home, a giant dollhouse, for her to decorate and fill her leisure time. She finds a miniaturist listed in the local guild listings and commissions them to create a few pieces to begin filling the house. What she receives in stunning in its detail--and surprising, as she received three additional pieces that she hadn't asked for and that disturb her both in their accuracy and their implications.
I enjoyed the book so much--the unfolding of the personalities in the household and the way they evolve, the snapshot of Amsterdam in the late 17th-century, the strange mystery of the miniaturist--but it was definitely a tear-jerker...I was sobbing for the last hour (I listened to this one on audiobook).
+20 Task (written in 2014, set in the 1680s)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.5 and 10.8 Jessie)
Task total: 40
Season total: 495
20.5 OldPagan's Vows by Catherine Jinks
Low Lexile
+20 Task (set 1188-1189)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 465
Task 10.6 Governor General's AwardGovernor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général for Fiction (1968)
Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories (1968) by Alice Munro (Paperback, 224 pages)
Review: This is a collection of fifteen short stories, all written by Alice Munro. It was her debut story collection, first published in 1968. The back cover of my book says they are all set in “western Ontario”; however, the stories could be set in any small town/rural town in English-speaking Canada or in the American Midwest / New England area. The timeframe is 1920-1950. All the stories star a late teens/early twentys aged woman. Twelve of the fifteen stories are told in first person. (Personally, I enjoy stories written in first person, but I know that not everyone does.) The stories are “slice of life” stories, concerning ordinary women in everyday situations. Munro is very focused in each story – no extraneous details included. Recommended for the short fiction reader.
+10 Task
+05 Combo
+10 Not-a-Novel (short story collections)
+10 Review
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1942-1992)
Task Total: 10 + 05 + 10 + 10 + 05 = 40
Grand Total: 295 + 40 = 335
20.4 NighttimeThe New House by Lettice Cooper
Widowed Natalie Powell and her 32-year-old unmarried daughter Rhoda are having to leave the big old house where the family has lived for many years, to move somewhere smaller and cheaper. All the action of this book takes place in one day in their northern English town, as they oversee the removal men and unpack in the new house, helped at different times by Rhoda's brother Maurice and his wife, sister Delia and her fiancé, and Aunt Ellen.
I loved this and thought it was wonderfully well written. All the strains and jealousies in the different relationships are brought out in a masterful way. The big question of the book is whether Rhoda will have the desire and courage to leave her domineering mother and go for the job in London which Delia is leaving to get married - as women had to do when they married in those days!
+20 task (all takes place in a single day)
+10 combo (10.8, 20.8 approved)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1946)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 535
Thanks, Elizabeth. I'll update my post.
10.2 SpyRestless by William Boyd
+10 pts - Task
+15 Combo (10.8,20.7,20.8 - please see my post in the discussion thread)
Task total - 25 pts
Season Total - 900 pts
20.10 - Uncommon LetterAunt Bessie Needs by Diana Xarissa
+20 task
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 235
10.9 Origins of GenreThe Turn of the Screw by Henry James
+10 Task (pub. 1891, tagged "Mystery" on main page)
+10 Combo (20.1, 20.3 shelved as "ghost-stories" 95 times)
+10 Oldies
Task total: 30
Season total: 525
15.10 RGsetting: Yemen (Asia)
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
+40 Task
+15 first to visit Yemen
+100 RG Completed in alphabetical order
+100 6 continents
(I so much wanted to get RG done in one month...life has so gotten in the way! Ah, well, it got done finally and I was able to accomplish my goal of completing all first-visit countries!)
Task total: 255
Season total: 780
From Post 359Connie wrote: "20.3 Ghost Story
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Hill House is an eighty-year-old mansion with a maze of strange rooms and a tragic history. Surrounded b..."
+5 Combo 20.3
I also show an addition error here. Your last post (338) had a total of 220, so this post should put you at 265.
From Post 361Ed wrote: "10.8 Double Letter Names
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Wow, wow, wow! What an emotional roller-coaster. This novel has so much to offer. We learn about life in Afgh..."
+5 Combo 10.4
From Post 382Marina wrote: "20.3 Ghost Story
Complete Ghost Stories by M.R. James
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.1)
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Oldies (see Elizabeth's post #389)
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 180"
+5 Combo 10.3
10.8 Double LettersA Dark Night's Work by Elizabeth Gaskell
+10 pts-Task
+10 pts- Combo (10.5, 20.1)
+15 pts - Oldies (1863)
Task Total - 35 pts
Season Total - 935 pts
20.1 GothicA Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
I can't believe it has taken me this long to get around to reading this one! I loved it...the stifled intensity--so many dynamic personalities clashing in such a small space (the entirety of the play occurs in a two-bedroom apartment, sometimes extending onto the fire escape), it's a perfect recipe for an explosion. As with any good play, it sets the stage in the first half and flips it entirely on its head in the second half.
For all the moaning "Stella"s I've heard in my day, I never imagined that she would basically be an invisible character. Her only importance is being the connection between broken Blanche and angry Stanley.
Or angry Blanche and broken Stanley. Both would work.
By the end of the play I detested Stanley more than I thought possible, felt awful for Blanche in her self-destructive spiral, and was still waiting for Stella to wake up and grow a spine.
The atmosphere and writing was fantastic...that's always been my favorite part of every Williams play I've ever read.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel
+5 Oldies (first published 1947)
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 50
Season total: 830
Kate, thanks for post 402, pointing out my addition error. My records show 260 points now.I had used 20.3 as the task in post 359, so you can't give me an extra 5 points for 20.3 as a combo. You're too generous :-)
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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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United States
UNSUB by Meg Gardiner
+25 task
Season Total: 295