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SP 18 Completed Tasks
20.9 Jumbo (Kate S's Task)Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2) by Brandon Sanderson
+20 Task
+10 Combo (20.6 - SanderSon; 20.4 - Слова сияния)
+25 Jumbo (1,087 pages)
Post Total: 55
Season Total: 780
15.9 Reading the DecadesThe Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
+40 Task (published 1930)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 1430
10.8 Double Continent (Coralie's Task)Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
+10 Task: North America (New York) / Europe (France and Germany)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 1440
20.8 Silent Spring (Ed's Task)Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
+20 Task
+20 Combo: 10.2 Ravioli / 20.4 Night Watch / 20.6 Dead Souls / 20.7 The Red Queen
+10 Not a Novel
+25 Oldies (1599)
Task Total: 75
Season Total: 1535
20.6 Dead SoulsThe Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
I loved this book for its bold imagination and deep emotions; for its protagonists who are dedicated, fearful, loyal, active, passive, and smart-ass in turns but whose existence--and whose happiness--is always a form of resistance; and for the multitudinous voice of the whole project: choppy, demanding, eloquent, full of echoes. I admired its use of physicality and embodiment--and, well, in a book in which characters are bodily possessed by a goddess, that's a smart choice to make. I believed fully in its very-much-not-insipid commitment to the ideas of hope and future and love, to seeing beyond ourselves and to also holding great value in ourselves.
The Salt Roads is hard to summarize: the story ostensibly starts with a trio of enslaved women burying a stillborn infant on an 18th century sugar plantation in Haiti. But the story also starts in 19th century France, with Jeanne Duval, the mixed-race mistress of Charles Baudelaire, scrying the future in a chamber pot full of urine and menstrual blood. And partway through the book, the story starts yet again with an enslaved Nubian prostitute in Ancient Egypt goofing off with her friends in a bathhouse. But no matter the start, the stories are shaped and animated by the multi-faceted Ezili. And in that vein, The Salt Roads reckons with many faces of womanhood, of enslavement, of freedom, of spirituality, of resisting dehumanization. I found it an immense and absorbing read, and my favorite novel I've read so far this year.
This can be read as magical realism or as fantasy (or both!), but readers expecting consistency with the supernatural fantastic might be frustrated by its elastic use throughout the book. Given the subject matter, there's a lot of violence and brutality, a lot of it graphic.
+20 Task -- N
+5 Combo: 10.8 -- set at least 20% each in North America (Haiti), Europe (France), and Africa (Egypt)
+10 Review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 1160
10.2 RavioliThe Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
+10 Task (author born in Italy)
+10 Combo (10.9, 20.4)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 560
10.3 SeriesThe High Window by Raymond Chandler
+10 Task
+10 Oldies
+5 Combo (20.4)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 585
10.8 Double ContinentThe Leavers by Lisa Ko
+10 Task (Asia & N America)
+5 Combo (10.9)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 610
20.6 Dead SoulsRainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
goeNawaN
review
Judging by the book's blurb alone, it is doubtful that I'd have picked it up. Judging by the cover, I would have definitely added it to my TBR but who knows when I'd have read it. However, a quick look at the author's Indonesian surname clinched it. If you don't already know, I was born & grew up in Indonesia. On the other hand, this may be a bad thing cuz you know you expect a lot from your own countrymen or women (or maybe that's just me...).
I thought it was a little bit iffy that the book is fully Japanese (set in Japan with Japanese MC, etc). Then again, as we grew up (in Indonesia) obsessed with everything Japan (their mangas, dramas, etc), it's really not a strange choice at all. I am a big fan of Japanese lit myself... I've read my share of mangas, watched J-dramas, & read a number of novels too. From all this, I'd say that Clarissa Goenawan has made a fair representation of Japanese style of living. I wonder though what Japanese people actually think...?
In essence, I do feel that this book is quite Japanese. The strange dreams (Haruki Murakami, anyone?) and relationships (brother-sister, teacher-student, etc). I loved Murakami's books so I didn't mind the dreams and in a way, maybe this author seeks to emulate him? And those relationships... well... I've seen them in mangas (especially ones for mature audiences) but I'm so glad that there were lines that were not crossed in this book.
The story is being told from the sole perspective of Ren Ishida who came to the town of Akakawa because his sister has been murdered. At the beginning, he just appears to be lost and aimless... in his grief, he drifted and some things just kind of fell on his lap. I don't feel like he actively tried to investigate his sister's murder so I don't see this novel as the usual who-dun-it. He was driven more by his dreams to find something of which he wasn't quite sure what. Will the truth destroy him or set him free?
“Sadness alone can’t harm anyone. It’s what you do when you’re sad that can hurt you and those around you."
The reading was easy and quite enjoyable. There were some parts which I thought were kinda stilted but not many. I loved the little town with its gothic-esque feel. The MC, Ren, was easy on the eye & developed to grow easy on the heart too. If you like everything Japanese, you may enjoy this easy fare (in comparison to Japanese works that is).
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9 - mystery (93x); contemporary (45x); cultural > Japan (34x))
+10 Review
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 815
20. 7 Red QueenJulius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Review
Forty years ago, I read this as a sophomore in high school for English class and this year my twins who are sophomores read it. So much as changed in school from the time I was there until now, that I was kind of surprised this was still taught to the 10th grade. Guess what? The play hasn’t changed either! I guess as a classic, it makes sense that it will endure. When my children were talking about the ghost in the play, I had forgotten about that so it urged me to refresh my memory of the play. As an adult with 40 more years of life experience, I still found it sad but was able to appreciate the melody of the language more and the crafting of profound statements into one line or two within a certain meter. Again I was reminded how human errors can lead to disaster as when Cassius had his bondsman kill him because of a mistaken battle outcome. Then when his second finds him dead, he kills himself, then Cato wants to be killed, then Brutus finally talks one of his men to kill him, like Romeo and Juliet, people die from mistakes and it becomes a domino effect. Must have been a popular ploy among Elizabethan audiences. Again Shakespeare makes an apt profound statement through Marc Anthony, “How everything is chanced!”.
Now my question is , did Pindarus really see Titinius taken by the enemy or did he lie knowing Cassius would kill himself, setting Pindarus free and as he says “So, I am free, yet would not so have been, Durst I have done my will. O Cassius! Far from this country Pindarus shall run, Where never Roman shall take note of him.” ?
+20 -task
+10 - not a novel
+10 - review
+ 20 - Combo (10.2, 20.4, 20.6, 20.8)
+ 25 - Oldies (1599)
Task total - 85 pts
Season total - 795 pts
20.4 Night WatchMaisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
This has been on my TBR for what seems like forever -- many people have recommended it to me since I like mystery novels and historical mysteries. I definitely enjoyed it and would read further in the series, though it wasn't quite what I expected. Maisie grew up in poverty but lands as a housemaid (giving up her dreams of going to school) with a lady of the house who has an interest in philanthropy. Luckily for Maisie, she ends up benefitting from this, works her way to Cambridge, but then WWI interrupts those plans. The book starts post-war, as Maisie has set up a private detective agency, but significant chunks are her young adulthood pre-war and during the war, where she works as a nurse. I did enjoy the historical aspect (though didn't need the love interest particularly) but at first it felt like it interrupted the case. She began investigating a case, then we had the historical interlude, then the case returned. Initially the case was pretty bland -- though it heated up!! -- but it was somewhat disconcerting having it come and go. Not bad, and not a dealbreaker for reading more by any means, but at first, disconcerting. I do imagine I'll read further in the series.
+20 task - Мейси Доббс. Одного поля ягоды
+10 combo (10.6; 10.9 - historical 1257x, mystery 2676x)
+10 review
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 430
10.1 Square PegVoices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-novel (Nonfiction)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 20
10.3 SeriesFear Death by Water by Kinley Roby
#4 in Harry Brock Mysteries series
+10 Task
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 30
10.5 Green StoneFatal Remains by Eleanor Taylor Bland
+10 Task (51 ratings)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 40
Task 20.6 Dead SoulsRead a book by any author whose surname consists of non-consecutive repeating consonants (i.e. any letter other than A, E, I, O, or U).
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories (2016) by Penelope Lively
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.5)
+10 Not-a-Novel (short story collections)
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 640 + 35 = 675
10.7 Anika's Task: Neutral NameWalking the Trail by Jerry Ellis
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-novel (Non-fiction)
+ 5 Oldie (1991)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 80
Post 781 Bea wrote: "10.1 Square PegVoices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-novel (Nonfiction)
Post Total: 20
Season To..."
Sorry, Bea. No Square Peg for this one. It fits both 20.4, and 10.9.
10.8 Coralie's Task: Double ContinentThe Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark
+10 Task (Europe and Asia)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 90
10.8 Coralie's Task: Double ContinentA Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
+10 Task (North America & Asia)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 100
Karen Michele's Task: Double TroubleThe Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
+10 Task (Historical & Mystery)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 110
15.1 Reading the DecadesI had made a plan to read from 2010s backwards to the 1940s. However, as I only got one book read and, thus, will not qualify for any bonus points, I am posting it now.
Blood Music by Jessie Prichard Hunter
This was the third book in my plan - 1992.
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 125
20.5 The Queen's NecklaceThe Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
+20 Task (painting)
+5 Combo (20.4)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 150
20.6 Dead SoulsThe Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
+20 Task (Ss & Ns)
+25 Jumbo (1007 pages)
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 195
20.9 JumboWords of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.6 Ss & Ns)
+25 Jumbo
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 245
This is my last book for this season. I am glad that I got more than 200 points, but I am disappointed that I did not read as much as I planned. 20.4 Night Watch
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
+20 Task (Оливия Киттеридж)
+10 Combo (20.3 and 20.6 - Ts)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 275
20.4 Night watchThe Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
20 task
5 combo 10.9
____
25
Running total: 935
I'm quite sure this is my last book for this season!
15.10 Reading the DecadesJourney's End by R.C. Sherriff
+40 Task (published 1929)
Task Total: 40
+50 Completion
+50 Different decades and years
+50 Decades read in order (ascending or descending)
+50 Years read in order (ascending or descending)
Post Total: 240
Season Total: 1775
20.7 The Red QueenOmbria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip
+20 Task The Prince of Ombria is a central character
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1950
15.5 – Reading the DecadesThe Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart
+15 Task (pub. 61)
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 950
15.6 – Reading the DecadesThe Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
1030 Lexile
+25 Task (pub. 72)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 975
15.7 – Reading the DecadesDance of Dreams by Nora Roberts
+25 Task (pub. 83)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1000
15.8 – Reading the DecadesB-Boy Blues: A Seriously Sexy, Fiercely Funny, Black-on-Black Love Story by James Earl Hardy
+25 Task (pub. 94)
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1025
20.5 The Queen's NecklaceMusic of the Mill by Luis J. Rodríguez
Review: I’ve read a lot of books centered around the steel industry, being from Pittsburgh. This one was different yet the same. The differences were geographical and racial, since the vast majority of the other books focused on white people (albeit ethnic minorities at the time) primarily in Pittsburgh, and this one is set in Los Angeles and centers around a Mexican-American family. When it comes down to it, however, it’s a book about a mill. The mill is at the center, acting both as setting and as character. It gives and takes – literally and figuratively consuming lives and communities.
The narrative shifts from grandfather to father to daughter, and throughout it all, the mill is there as the thing around which their lives rotate. By the time the daughter takes over the narrative – a shift to first perspective as well – the mill has closed down and been dismantled, but it’s still present. It’s there in its absence – as though the novel is now a ghost story. To me, that part of the book was the weakest, possibly because I didn’t completely buy Rodríguez’s female voice, but maybe the problem was instead that the book had shifted out of the world of the mill.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.5, 20.6)
+10 Review
Task Total: 40
RwS Completion Bonus: 100
Grand Total: 1165
20.3 SanctuaryThe Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Pulitzer prize for fiction winner of 2017
+ 20 Task
+ 10 Combo (10.9 - 595 historical, 91 contemporary, 33 cultural ; 20.6)
Task total = 30
Points total = 340
20.6 Dead SoulsCarwash by Lesley Howarth
The horrors of growing up in an English village! Thrown together with a tiny group of kids you have nothing in common with, and trying to make the best of it. This is a painfully realistic story, with random sibling-bullying, nasty practical jokes, a girl who falls for the wrong boy, and no neat ending.
I can see why readers might hate this book. It’s not like most YA fiction these days. Where’s the role-model hero, where’s the devoted best friend? Where's the character you wish you could be? You don’t get any of that here. Nobody's adorable, and nothing will give you "feels".
+20 task (H)
+10 combo (10.5, 10.7)
+10 review
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 2270
I'd like to move a book to a different task:Original Claim Post 495
Please move to:
10.6 Justine
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Review - original post
+10 Task: North America (20% in Virginia, USA )/ Europe (London, England
+ 5 Combo: Combo: 10.8 Double Continent
+10 Combo 20.2, 20.4 per Kate (edited for change of task claim)
+10 Review
+20 Oldies (1722)
Task Total: 55
Season Total: no change
Task 10.5 - a book with 1000 ratings or fewerMinding Benji
10 Task
+ 5 Combo with 10.3 - 5th in series
=15
Total 25
Task 10.5 Green StoneIn honor of The Green Stone and The Green Stone read a book with 1000 ratings or fewer.
It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Progressives Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics (2018) by David Faris (Hardcover, 178 pages) [324.2736]
+10 Task
+10 Not-a-Novel (non-fiction)
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 675 + 20 = 695
reading the decadesTHE LAST TYCOON: Including Fitzgerald's Notes for The Last Tycoon - The Original 1941 EditionF. Scott Fitzgerald
post 15
season total 15
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The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate, #1) by J.Y. Yang
book centred on twins, Mokoya & Akeha
review
Sometimes, there is just a book that when you finished reading, you completely have no idea where you are... This world was so immersive that I came up disoriented and rather sad that I have to leave it behind.
To begin with though, some mind-bending was required. In this world, you are born without a gender; you will remain as 'undeclared gender' until such time that you yourself wish to be confirmed to be one or another and then the process to change your body accordingly will take place. In an 'undeclared gender', 'they' is the pronoun used to refer to this person. I've only found out, thanks Google, that 'they' can also be used as a gender neutral third person singular pronoun. My brain is so not used to this so I'm feeling a little ignorant and slow to catch up... When I did though, I wish for this so much for our world! In a way, it will ease many heartaches... Not that this spare any of the people in this world!
This novel is divided into 4 parts and years span between each part. It begins with Mokoya's & Akeha's births, parts of their childhood, their teens, and ended in their thirties. This first book in the series appears to deal more with Akeha's search for his purpose as we follow his indecision (gender), as he ran away from his heartbreak, and a discovery of new things, hopeful things.
Love, and nothing else. It was enough. As long as there was love, there would be hope. It was enough.
The Black Tides of Heaven is a magical novel with an array of complex world building. That magic (loved how it's called 'Slackcraft'!) and modern technology being complementary was interestingly harmonious. The characters were alive and with all their flaws invited you to welcome them into your heart. The story took me on a flight of love, explosions of heartbreaks, and only to end with a broken but living hope.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.7)
+10 Not-a-Novel (short stories)
+10 Review
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 725