Reading with Style discussion

Post 448 June wrote: "20.9- Jumbo
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Task +20
Combo +10 (20.1- twin sisters, 20.4)
Jumbo +10

Task total: 40
Season total: 340"

I'm very sorry, June, but the MPE for this title is 499 pages. I would scream at the publisher if I were you! However, it is shelved as mystery/contemporary enough times, so 5 combo points for 10.9.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 422 Karen Michele wrote: "20.8 Silent Spring (Ed's Task)

The Best Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

+20 Task
+15 Combo: 20.4 Night Watch / 20.6 Dead Souls / 2..."

Oh, oops - sorry!

10..3 - Series
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

Task :10
Combo: 5(20.6)
Oldies: 10 points- published in 1928

Points: 25
Points for the season : 325

Reposting for message in 448

20.4 - Night Watch
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Russian edition: Хитрости Локка Ламоры

Task: 20
Combo: 5 (20.1)

Points this post : 25
Season points: 350

20.9 Jumbo

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

I had left this work for far too long. I sniffed the pages of an old edition. Surely, I don't have a cucumber sized nose and certainly not snotty nosed like Saleem Sinai's. The smell of old paper is divine...just like the world that Rushdie creates in this wonderful tale.

I swear I had the same diamonds in my eyes when I suffered Sinai's agony of a world taken away from him as he was carried away to Pakistan, away from the world he had grown up in - the inimitable charms of Bombay - a world of high perched Methwold, lapis lazuli studded spittoons, of the innocence of childhood, of knobbly knees and horn shaped temples, of Irani cafes, of trickery infested picnics, of forbidden loves and midnight's secrets, of land reclaimed from seas, of pomfrets and oh-so-divine green chutneys. Again I swear I had diamonds, when torn between love for two nations, Sinai loses everything - his father who came to love his mother too late, his mother who gave up her first love for his father, his brass-monkey sister for whom he developed a not-so pure feelings all in a matter of a few bomb shells.

In an epic tale of a family of three generations, Rushdie weaves magic in the backdrop of the changing political climate of India - from her re-birth at the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947, all the way through the times of India's emergency, between wars against China and Pakistan. In many ways, this book is like watching a film in Bombay's peepshow....."come, let me unfold the beauty and madness of India...." The love of Sinai for the country is as spotted as the love his grandfather had for his grandmother through a perforated sheet - one part at a time.

The book is a homage to a country as old as mankind and the love is all flesh and blood - India and Sinai, twins born at the stroke of midnight, inseparable, two-headed and bewitching.


Task: +20
Combo: +15 (20.4, 10.9, 10.4)
Oldies: +5
Jumbo: +5
Review: +10

Task Total = 55
Season Total = 55+420 = 475

20.3 Sanctuary

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

I had raised my concerns about this book in the RwS Socializing thread because I had just started listening to John Water's Carsick in which he, Waters, is about to start a journey across America by hitchhiking. Waters makes a reference to Steinbeck's book having been proven to be embellished to the point that it is fiction. A Wikipedia article verifies that the veracity of Steinbeck's account is questionable.
Well, that may all be true... but I could not detect it. Travels with Charley reads as totally authentic (with perhaps a heroic embellishment at the beginning when Steinbeck helps to save his boat during a hurricane.) I truly enjoyed reading this story of Steinbeck outfitting his own camper and traveling from New York with his dog, Charley. He makes a point to not reveal his identity. (This was written toward the end of his career and he was already quite well known.) I loved the chapter in which Steinbeck visits a little village in the northwest (Minnesota, I think), and rents a very rustic cabin from a gruff old guy. The gruff guy's 20 year old son, brings Steinbeck some hot water...and having seen the New York license plates, asks Steinbeck about New York. The kid wants to escape and see Broadway and the theatre! Later while eating, the gruff old guy demonstrates the unhappiness he has with his son...who after high school paid for an additional class..... hairdressing! Steinbeck brilliantly settles the tensions between father and son by assuring the father that hairdressers in New York ARE powerful men.... they know everyone's secrets.
Another important passage is when Steinbeck visits Louisiana and witnesses the women known as "Cheerleaders".....women who are celebrated for jeering at the young African-American children as they are escorted to their grammar schools by Federal marshals. He has a few other encounters in the South which bring home the disgusting era...which we still haven't graduated very far from.
Another interesting part is how Steinbeck, who has designed his own camper (which I saw at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, or was it a replica?), is surprised at how trailer homes are becoming ubiquitous.
I do have qualms with the way Steinbeck ends the story. By the time he arrives in Virginia (and still dealing with the memories of the problems in the South), he no longer has the urge to write about his trip. All inspiration has left him...and we just get a quick explanation on how he drove home. I was disappointed because I was awaiting his stop in New Jersey...my home state, but all he relates is how he was stopped from using the Holland Tunnel because he had butane tanks in his truck. He was forced to take a ferry to New York.
Overall, a very good read 4 1/2 stars.

task=20
Combo=5 (20.8
Review=10
NaN=10
Oldie=5 (1962)

task total= 50
grand total= 1215 (I see the readerboard has me at 1230...but I don't how it got there.)

20.4 Night Watch

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe has become a kind of myth and I found that the actual book differs quite a lot from what I had come to expect. I was especially disappointed to find that the footstep he found on the beach was not Friday’s, but belonged to one of many natives of the mainland who came in groups to the island from time to time. Friday takes several more years to appear, and I was getting rather impatient by the time he showed up.

Racism and white supremacy is taken for granted. Defoe’s (or anyway Crusoe’s) view seems to be that God must have wanted Europeans to invade and subjugate the natives of North and South America so that they could be introduced to Christianity, otherwise He wouldn’t have let it happen. He (Defoe/Crusoe) does object to the wholesale slaughter of tribes, but he sees it as entirely natural that Friday should offer to be his servant for life after Crusoe rescues him from his cannibalistic enemies, while the same is not true of some Spanish men that Crusoe also rescues from the cannibals. But I suppose most of this was so deep-rooted in his time that it’s hardly surprising. Crusoe spends some time in slavery himself in the early chapters, until he escapes from the North African who has captured him.

The description of Crusoe’s many years on the island shows an amazing imagination, and although the first part is slow, I can see why it was so popular and enduring.

+20 task https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
+ 5 combo (10.8 Europe/South America)
+10 review
+20 oldies (1719)

Post Total: 55
Season Total: 1000

15.7 - Reading the Decades

Burglars Can't Be Choosers by Lawrence Block

+25 task (1977)

Task total: 25
Season total: 280

I thought I'd posted this over a week agai, but I don't see it, so I'm posting again.

20.8 Silent Spring

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Review: Continuing my alphabetical read of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor follows Sir John Falstaff, familiar from the Henry IV plays. It’s a bawdy, ridiculous comedy and the first Shakespeare play where the language gave me trouble. There are so many puns and intentionally misspelled words that I had a hard time following in parts. The story itself basically boils down to this: Falstaff is broke, so he decides to seduce two wealthy married women. They figure out what he’s up to and find ways to put him in ridiculous positions as revenge. I didn’t find it particularly interesting, although there were times when I did laugh at the language. There is so much sexual innuendo in this that at times it’s not even innuendo – it’s just right there on the page.

+20 Task
+20 Combo (20.6)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+25 Oldies

Task Total: 70
Grand Total: 670

Like my last post, I really thought I posted this - I guess I needed to refresh my Goodreads page? Anyway, here it is.

10.3 Series (3, 4, or 5)

Out of Frame by Megan Erickson

Review: It’s been years since I read books one and two in this series, but luckily this one stands alone just fine. A relatively short novel, my biggest complaint is the length, which really doesn’t allow for a deep enough examination of the issues and relationships in the book. The main characters are on a spring break cruise where a reality show is being filmed. One is on the show - and playing a role that includes his pretending to be straight – and the other is just looking to let loose. Had the author not also added controlling parents, a sick brother, and other thrown in sources of angst, it might have been a more solid book. The whole “playing it straight” thing provided more than enough drama on its own.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 690

15.6 - Reading the Decades
Marathon Man by William Goldman

+15 Task (published 74)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 375

10.5 Green Stone

The Terror of Living by Urban Waite

Shortly before the Orcas Island Lit Festival came to my attention, I came upon the memorable name Urban Waite in an article about up and coming authors, so I was excited to see his name on the list of authors coming to the festival. I had a few opportunities to hear him speak and meet him briefly and it was uplifting to find a new, young thriller writer of books set in Washington State. I just finished The Terror of Living and it met my expectations and kept me turning the pages from the beginning becoming absolutely relentless in its drive toward the finish. It is not for the faint-hearted as it has a literal “butcher” as the criminal pursuer tied to the drug trade gone wrong in the plot. One of the interesting features of the book is that there are three characters to root for, one an officer with the police and the others the husband and wife on the run. It is a strong debut and I’m eager to read more from Urban Waite!

+10 Task (799)
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Season Total: 780

15.3 Reading the Decades

Nightwork by Christine Schutt

+15 Task (published 1996)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 795

Task 10.5 Green Stone
In honor of The Green Stone and The Green Stone read a book with 1000 ratings or fewer.

In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History (2018) by Mitch Landrieu (Hardcover, 227 pages) [305.8]
Review: This is a political memoir written by the Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. The first couple of chapters covers his childhood and college days. The next sections describe his life in public office – 12 years as a State Representative to the Louisiana State House (1992-2004); 8 years as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana (2004-2010); and 8 years as Mayor of New Orleans (2010-today 2018). The main discussion in the memoir of his State Representative years centered on David Duke, KKK wizard, and efforts to minimize Duke’s influence in elective office. The main discussion of his Lieutenant Governor years centered on Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) and its aftermath. The main discussion of his Mayoral years divided in two: rebuilding the city, and removing 4 Confederate Statues from Public Places (including ones of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P. T. Beauregard). I liked that Landrieu described what he was thinking when he made consequential decisions. I suspect he will run for elective office again. Recommended for those interested in modern American politics.

+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel: non-fiction
+10 Review

Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 = 30

Grand Total: 345 + 30 = 375

Thanks! I missed that one apparently! I had it written on my notes sheet, but it didn't translate!

Kate S wrote: "From Post 309

Gabriel wrote: "20.6 Dead Souls

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

+20 Task
+ 5 (combo 20.8 - not a novel AND before 1962)
+5 (combo 20.4 - Russian ..."

20.8 Silent Spring (Ed's Task)

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Reading this book was like a direct experience of the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. I was born in 1953, so i came of age during the Civil Rights Movement and as a white teenager and young adult, naively thought that things were greatly improved and that all I had to do was be a “good white person” for everything to be alright. Reading these essays and thinking of them in a modern context was another reminder of how wrong I was and how much change is still needed. Not only is the writing powerful, but the collection was varied and even in quality. I have been reading and will continue to read literature that helps me understand everyone’s American experience and I’m working on reading all of James Baldwin’s works.

+20 Task
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1955)

Task Total: 45
Season Total: 840

20.6 Dead Souls

The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

+20 Task
+ 5 Combo- 20.2 (per message 12 in discussion thread)
+5 Combo --20.4 (Russian version available)
+5 Combo ---10.8 (about 50/50 split between US and UK)
+10 Review (see below)

____
Task Total: 45
Season total: 190

----review----
Generally speaking, I enjoyed this book, and it is unfortunately on the losing end of a 3.5 star rating. There is a bit to unpack here as I feel compelled to comment on this work both on its own and in reference to the play which it undertakes to retell.

So, accent the positive...what worked? First, the interpretation of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale was pretty decent. There were a lot of elements putting the drama (ahem, melodrama) into modern context that might make this more understandable if someone were unable to see a production of the play. (*My review of reading the play was greatly changed after seeing a performance of the same!) To that end, Winterson was true to many important facets...I hated everyone during the first half, and came to like/tolerate the characters better in the second. I also appreciated some of the choices made for the modernization...rather than making this at all geo-political, Sicilia became a corporate abstraction (although Leontes, no less a man with absolute power over it) and New Bohemia a place in the US. Taking out potential realities of actual geopolitics in the modern era was a wise choice, as I am not sure the tale would translate as well into that context.

So what didn't work? The biggest flaw, for me, was that some characters were distractingly flat, or relied on stereotypes to a disgusting degree. Winterson hammered home that she made Paulina (Pauline in this tale) Jewish...and made sure that every time she spoke some Yiddishism or Yenta-ish behavior was present. Perhaps it was close to home, but I found this to be galling and a stereotyping caricature. Oh, but lest you think it is just because it is too close to home...other minor characters are transsexuals who are flamboyant seemingly for the same of a cheap laugh (and this isn't to say that such individuals don't exist...but in this instance it really seemed unnecessary and certainly didn't advance anything (plot, message) it was just there...distracting me. I'm not squeamish about sexuality/gender issues, I am actually more curious about the lives and thoughts to understand those communities in modern life...so getting only a caricature of that as well was disappointing.

For me, there was a magic in the end of the play that this book didn't quite capture. It wrapped up in the 'correct' way...it felt good and right...it just wasn't magical. Overall it was still a worthwhile read and a good companion to the play. It was not my favorite of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, but didn't sour me either.

10.5 Green Stone

After the Wedding by Courtney Milan

So, Milan is very good at highlighting the rails that romance tropes run on. She pulls at them, exposes their underbelly which is often covered in the weedy dregs of the cultural misogyny we're swimming in (I'm mixing a lot of metaphors here, excuse me), and she builds her stories from the ugly stuff as well as the good stuff. There's an analyticalness to her writing and her stories that I find rewarding and singular, even when I don't fall completely in love with her books.

In the case of the wonderful After the Wedding, we have protagonists who are caught (set up, in fact) in a compromising position and then forced to marry at gunpoint!. Not exactly unfamiliar territory in historical romance. But the story that Milan writes around this is a lot deeper, and more nuanced, and certainly more thoughtful about particular issues, than other iterations of those tropes. The story is very much about consent and force, as well as truth and hope and what it is to be living small for so long and believing other people when they tell you that's just how things are, that's what you deserve, that's more than what you deserve. (So, yes, a heads-up for content involving emotional abuse and manipulation.) The thematic treatment is complicated, and even the triumphs at the end of the book feel delicately calibrated. Camilla and Adrian are both immensely likable, and Milan excels as always at bringing her fictional world to life with secondary characters.

I haven't always meshed well with Milan's writing style or the balances she strikes, but I found After the Wedding a good read, and one that's easy to recommend. There were parts where I rolled my eyes at utterly convenient coincidences and bantering that went on too long, but I enjoying reading this book, spending time with the characters, and rooting for them both to level up.

And also may be of interest to other readers, who might be wondering whether they can start the series with this book: I tried reading the first book in this series when that was released a couple dozen apocalypses ago, but the mix of banter and angst in those opening chapters didn't appeal to me. (In fact, I strongly recoiled.) That slight foreknowledge of the Worth family wasn't necessary in order to enjoy and fully understand this book, and I'm really glad I gave the series another chance.

And this is the second time Courtney Milan wrote a dedication that made me tear up.

FTC Disclosure thing that I probably have forgotten how to do properly that I mostly avoid ARCs (but I couldn't resist this one): I received an advance copy of this book for free to review.

+10 Task -- 72 ratings
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Season Total: 675

15.7 - Reading the Decades
Foxybaby by Elizabeth Jolley

+15 Task (published 85)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 390

20.3Sanctuary

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Lexile 870

+20 Task
+5 Combo 20.4
+10 Oldies (published 1930)

Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1095

15.8 - Reading the Decades
Night Letters:A Novel by Robert Dessaix

+15 Task (published 96)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 405

10.5 Green Stone

Overtime for Love by Synithia Williams

A warm, slow burn of a romance. Dedicated and problem-solving Angela is working two jobs--social worker during the day, bartender at a strip club at night--as well as embarking on being a guardian for her teenage nephew. Despite the chemistry she has with the somewhat shy but overly responsible pro-basketball player Isaiah, she has a million reasons not to get involved with him. But they keep getting thrown together, and they keep proving to themselves that they're good for each other.

I enjoyed how Williams allowed Angela and Isaiah to take the time to process their feelings, and I especially loved how the two of them both consulted their friends. (Isaiah and one of his friends role-playing his and Angela's conflict, and that leading to a lightbulb moment for Isaiah, was particularly fun, funny, and just plain smart.)

+10 Task -- 47 ratings
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Season Total: 695

20.4 Night Watch

Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Christie was 80 when this was published, and her style was becoming a little rambling and repetitive - but not nearly as much as in the last of her books, Postern of Fate, which is truly painful to read. She also shows her age by letting Miss Marple voice some confused and reactionary opinions about the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the student protests of 1968. My grandfather would have agreed with her (and he was 20 years her junior), but by 1971 most people probably wouldn't have, and very few of her readers now.

Still, this book has a good, solid and intriguing plot, with Miss Marple obeying a dying wish of the Mr Rafiel she met in A Caribbean Mystery to dispense justice in the case of a murder ten years before, involving his son Michael. So she goes off on a coach tour of English houses and gardens, stopping in the village where the murdered girl had lived and where another murderous attack now takes place.

+20 task https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
+ 5 combo (10.9 mystery / historical fiction 13 + historical 9)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1971)

Post Total: 40
Season Total: 1040

Task 15.4 Reading the Decades

Year: 1983

Midas World (1983) by Frederik Pohl (Hardcover, SFBC, 276 pages)

+15 Task

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 375 + 15 = 390

Task 20.7 The Red Queen
Read a book which is a fictional account of historical royalty, or in which there is a fictional royal character.

Our main Point of View character is the Queen of the land. Other characters include the King of the land, a Princess and a Prince.

Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Villains #1) (2009) by Serena Valentino

Shelved YA at BPL. I checked Lexile and there is not a Lexile score for this novel. Other novels in this Disney published series received Lexile scores of 730-870. So, points but no styles.

Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 390 + 20 = 410

10.7 - Terry, in nicknames list

A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction by Terry Pratchett

+10 task
+5 combo (20.6)
+10 not a novel

Task total: 25
Grand total: 565

15.7 Reading the Decades

Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen

+25 Task (68)

Season Total = 525

10.5 Green Stone

Girl in the River by Patricia Kullberg

The story of Mae Rose begins in an Oregon lumber town during the Depression. She is the daughter of a single mother who runs a boarding house. The mother dies from a botched abortion. This sets the frame for Mae’s next 20 years as she ends up homeless in Portland, is forced into prostitution and then works for an abortionist as Portland changes.
I am a native Portlander, so this has the added pleasure of familiar places.
At the beginning I think the author was trying to write in the style of a 40’s crime novel with lots of slangy descriptors. The tendency faded as the story progressed or I fell into mood of the book.

+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20

Season total: 355

20.1 The Double

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

+20 Task(Olanna and Kainene are twins)
+10 Combo 10.9, 20.4

Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1125

10.2 Ravioli

Then and Now by W. Somerset Maugham

Maugham never ceases to amaze me. With most authors one can notice a theme in all their books. In fact some of the best writers have rarely written beyond a handful of books and then there's Maugham, who was a prolific writer. Not only are two of his books dissimilar in style, but also in genre.

In Then and Now, Maugham tests waters with historical fiction. In having the clever and scheming politician Machiavelli as his protagonist, Maugham introduces us to a time in which Italy was not united. Machiavelli is a shrewd diplomat with a feverish patriotism for his land Florence. He is sent to negotiate with the powerful and able Duke Cesaer Borgia. Over the course of four months, Machiavelli and his sidekick befriend a few people and Machiavelli also falls is love with a docile woman. What ensues is a story filled with excitement, comedy, wit and suspense. If these don't excite a reader, there are some valuable historical lessons to be learnt, and not didactic ones. They are woven into the impeccable and sharp narrative.

In Maugham's mind's eye, the above story forms the basis for Machiavelli's real play. As usual, Maugham's writing always bowls me over. There is evidence of ample research before writing the book and its a nice little package of great entertainment. A well deserved 4.5 stars from my favourite author.

+10 Task
+20 Combo (10.5, 20.6, 20.4, 20.7)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies

Task Total = 45
Season Total = 475+45 = 520

20.6 Dead Souls:

Windhaven by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle

I really enjoyed this early novel co-authored by George R.R. Martin of the much later Game of Thrones fame and Lisa Tuttle. It is a book of insightful, character driven fantasy and an example of great world building. The plot takes place on Windhaven, a planet that mostly consist of a vast, stormy ocean, inhabited by dangerous sea creatures that can easily down a ship. A group of space travelling people have crash landed there centuries ago, managing to seek refuge on the many small islands that dot the sea. Their descendants have managed to salvage some of the solar sails and build sets of huge wings from them that can carry a person from island to island, gliding and using the winds to propel them. Flyers, people brave and skilful enough to use these wings, have for a long time been seen as messengers, and they are very important in the society, as they are the only ones who can get from island to island quickly and reliably. The story focuses on Maris, a woman who wants nothing more than to be a flyer. Unfortunately, she isn't a first born of a flyer herself, and thus is destined to become land-bound - an ordinary person forced to inhabit the island she was born on, or to risk her life in a dangerous sea crossing. Maris is desperate enough to question the tradition of inheriting wings and she changes the course of history. She is a reluctant hero, only really wanting to fly, but she becomes a legend. But not all changes are positive, and she finds herself questioning her past actions. The characters are all interesting, believable human beings with their faults and weaknesses. The different islands, the history and traditions of the world are rich in detail and fascinating. The story is emotional and and unexpected. I couldn't put this book down.

+20 task
+5 combo (20.4 Night Watch)
+10 review
+5 oldies (first published 1975)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 90

20.4 Night watch

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

+20 Task
+10 Not a Novel

Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1155

15.7 Reading the Decades

The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart

year: 72

+25 task

Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1065

10.5 Green Stone

Baby Love by Emmanuelle de Maupassant

This book is almost too silly to review, but I can’t resist the extra points, and I admire the author for having the hubris to pick that pen name, if nothing else.

Delphine is expecting a baby when her husband leaves her for a neighbour. She spends most of the short book being miserable about this, though it’s played for laughs as far as possible. Then she goes to a spa with her sisters, where she has her pick of the male staff despite now being 8 months pregnant. You’d think gorgeous men working at a spa would have better prospects than a ready-to-pop mother-to-be, wouldn’t you? If I were her, I’d be suspicious. But it makes her happy.

+10 task
+10 review

Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1085

10.8 Double Continent (Coralie's Task)

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

I’ve read three of Daniel Defoe’s books now, and it has been a positive reading experience in conjunction with a Roundtable group project concentrating on The Novel: A Biography. Moll Flanders continues the technique Defoe employs of a fictional journal disguised as a real life being unfolded. This novel read like a linked stories collection in that I was drawn more deeply into some parts than others. One I especially enjoyed was (view spoiler)[the marriage where both parties believed the other had a fortune (hide spoiler)]. The narration of the audio book was a high point as well. Moll was a strong character and I enjoyed following her many exploits. Her life would have been a struggle, but reading about her was a lot of fun!

+10 Task: North America (20% in Virginia, USA )/ Europe (London, England
+ 5 Combo: Combo: 10.6 Justine
+10 Combo 20.2, 20.4 per Kate (edited for change of task claim)
+10 Review
+20 Oldies (1722)

Task Total: 55
Season Total: 910

20.3 Sanctuary

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout

Tyler Caskey is the preacher of a small Maine town in the late 1950s, widowed with two small daughters. He struggles to keep his head above water emotionally and financially, while his five-year-old is having behavioural issues at school and the town begins to gossip about Tyler and his housekeeper.

I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the other Strouts I’ve read. It’s rather slow and although I could sympathise with Tyler, I didn’t really connect with him. But I’m glad I read it, and Elizabeth Strout’s prose always pulls me along like a river. I gave it 4 stars.

+20 task
+10 review
+ 5 combo (20.6)

Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1120

Post 463 June wrote: "10..3 - Series
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

Task :10
Combo: 5(20.6)
Oldies: 10 points- published in 1928

Points: 25
Points for the seas..."

You'll be happy to know there is a Russian edition at BPL, which I'll try to remember to get added to GR after a bit, so combo with 20.4. It is also shelved Mystery and Historical enough times for 10.9.

Post 469 Cory Day wrote: "I thought I'd posted this over a week agai, but I don't see it, so I'm posting again.

20.8 Silent Spring

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Review: Cont..."

This has been published in Russian also. The GR importer marked them as English, but I fixed that.

15.8 - Reading the Decades

Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke

+25 (1988)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 305

10.8 Double continent

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

+10 Task (Africa and North America)
+5 Combo 10.9 (cultural and historical)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1170

20.1 The Double

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

One of the main characters, Gestalt, is a four-bodies person, 2 of them being twins (a described here).

+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9 - 56 contemporary ; 626 mystery)

Task total = 25

Points total = 190

10.9 Double Trouble

Private Eye by S.E. Culpepper

Review: I read this a little over a week ago, and I remember very little of it already. Not a great sign. It’s a genre I like, and a trope I’ve learned to live with. The two main characters are a police officer and a private investigator and ostensibly there’s a mystery at the center, but as many of the reviews I read state, the mystery isn’t all that central or intriguing. I guessed most of it early on, and got frustrated with the characters’ inability to ask the right questions. But it’s a romance, so the relationship is really the most important part. Had the characters been a little more flushed out, I’d have been fine with the gay for you (kind of – it’s possible the guy actually was just repressed) story, but the characterizations were clunky and unsatisfying. When it all comes together, it feels more like instalove than it should have. I’m on the fence on picking up another one by the author.

+10 Task (mystery/contemporary)
+10 Combo (10.7, 20.6)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 725

15.1 – Reading the Decades

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

+15 Task (pub. 27)

Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 740

10.6 Justine

Prudence by Gail Carriger

Review: The book I’d originally chosen for this task turned out to be a nickname rather than a name, so I decided to shift over and get back into Gail Carriger’s soulless world. This is technically a spin-off, but it feels a lot like a continuation. It follows Alexia’s daughter Prudence, and a lot of people seem to be disappointed with the series. It’s definitely silly, and the plot isn’t completely well thought out. But in the end, I read Carriger for the little things – one liners, silly characters, fun interactions and the like. The series provides all of that with room to spare, so I’m happy. I’ll still always love Biffy and Lyall the best, but it’s always nice to see them at a distance.

+10 Task
+20 Combo (10.8 – 22% Europe and 78% Asia, 10.9 – mystery/historical, 20.1 – Rue’s best friends Prim and Percy are twins, 20.6)
+10 Review

Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 780

20.3 Sanctuary

Rabbit Redux by John Updike

Well, that was painful. This was my third try with John Updike. I read Rabbit, Run and The Witches of Eastwick previously – they were okay, but not more than that. I decided to give John another chance for my A-Z classic author challenge (2018). I see I gave Rabbit, Run a 4* review – that may have been rounded up (because I don’t remember it fondly).

I suppose on the one hand this novel is a real slice of 1960s America from the point of view of a completely useless main character (Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom), sleepwalking through life. Some of the book is just plain hard to read because it is so full of loathing (this is coming from Updike). Actually, all of the characters are useless; and many are appalling. I don’t think this novel has aged well. There is the odd interesting idea but they are never explored in any depth because none of the characters show any kind of insight.

I am quite sure there are novels that can connect the contemporary reader with the social issues, and broader world issues (Vietnam War) from the perspective of a middle class, rust belt living character within that time period. However, this is not one of them. The book is a bit of a ‘master class’ though, of how a writer’s feelings can overwhelm his novel. 2* I would not recommend this book to anyone; John and I are breaking up for good…..

20 task
10 review
5 oldie
5 combo 20.4
____
40

Running total: 605

20.2 The Blazing World
Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly

This book contains a lot of fascinating information about the Black women who started to work for the predecessor of NASA during WWII. These were women who had gotten a college education at a time when few women did. The only job open to them at the time that used their education was teaching at Black schools. But the government’s dire need for people to do the math to support aviation research opened the jobs up even to Black women. There were still segregated work areas, bathrooms and cafeteria tables but it was an opening for these women to challenging and interesting jobs and they quietly and persistently improved working conditions and helped other women into NASA and up the career ladder.

Shetterly confesses that there are many more stories to be told and it often feels like she tried to cram in more than she had pages for. And that she kept favorite incidents or connections even when they did not really add to the main story.

+20 task
+10 NAN
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 395

20.4 Night watch

Black Snow by Mikhail Bulgakov

+20 Task
+5 Oldies published 1965

Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1195

10.1 Square Peg

The Dawn of Eurasia: On the Trail of the New World Order by Bruno Macaes

Nothing against the book but the subject is a dry one. I was lent this book by a colleague at work. It was only polite to read the book.

The author talks about the weakening of the economic superiority of the western world with a rising face of new policies in the east. Consequently he espouses the need to have the idea of "eurasia" which shall blend the strengths of both regions. He then proceeds to understand economic growth in China, the position of Russia - is it western or Asian and Turkey's role as the western most frontier of Asia. The author seems to have done a lot of research in this field and has travelled quite extensively to glean his data. I liked the fact that the book included pictures of remote places and villages which are of geographic importance but just not yet.

On the whole, I like that I have read a book that I would not pick up but this only reinforced my belief why I pick only certain genres.

Task: +10
Review: +10
Combo: +10 (10.5,10.8)
Not a novel : +10

Task Total = 40
Season Total = 520+40 = 560

10.2 Ravioli

If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi

Mendel is a Russian Jew whose wife was killed and his community devastated when the Germans invaded Russia. Having joined the Soviet army and become detached from it behind the German lines, he is wandering through the countryside, fighting his own war to survive. He meets up with other partisans, stragglers, and members of various resistance groups. Slowly this changing band makes its way west, coming up against other groups friendly or not, losing some lives and saving others, undermining the German army where possible, and staying out of its way.

I knew this was a Holocaust story but it wasn’t what I expected. It didn’t focus on the concentration camps or ghettos, nor on Primo Levi’s native Italy, but on the devastated landscape of Eastern Europe in the confused final years of the war. An awe-inspiring story.

+10 task (author born in Italy)
+10 review
+ 5 oldies (1982)

Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1145

From Post 207

Karin wrote: "20.4 Night Watch
In Russian: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

Review
Moll Flanders is not only a classic, but is is the tale ..."

+5 Combo 10.8