Reading with Style discussion
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SP 18 Completed Tasks
15.6 Reading the DecadesA Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick
+25 Task (published 70)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 260
15.4 Reading the DecadesAunt Sophie's Diamonds by Joan Smith
+15 Task -- published in '77
Total: 15
Season Total: 105
10.5 Green StoneA Scandal in Battersea by Mercedes Lackey
+10 Task (620 ratings)
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 270
10.4- Ravioli DayPompeii by Robert Harris
Review:
Robert Harris is best known for his debut novel, the alternative history novel, Fatherland. But he is also known to write historical thrillers. Pompeii has a rocky start, unless you are enthralled with water, aqueducts and droughts. Fortunately things pick up when the protagonist, a replacement for a missing aquarius (water engineer), is brought to prove the innocence of a slave condemned to a gruesome death. This event along with the news of lack of water south of Pompeii triggers a trip to the fated city and other revelations. Using simple writing and with our knowledge of the natural disaster about to occur heightens the drama. The fact that characters are well fleshed out and the author captures well life at that time makes this an intriguing read. It may not be a favourite novel but it is a good introduction to this author and life for Romans in the first century.
+10 task
+10 combo-10.9, 20.4
+10 review
Post total : 30
Season total: 75
10.1 Square PegFacing West by Lucy Lennox
Review: This is the first book I’ve ready by Lucy Lennox, and so far I’m a fan. Nico has been away from his hometown for a decade when he has to come back for his sister’s funeral. As he settles her affairs and figures out what to do with his baby niece, he falls into a relationship of sorts with the town doctor, West. West has an awesome family, some of whom will feature in future books. Given how serious some of the subject matter is, the book stays light – perhaps verging on shallow – but I was so cozily ensconced in the world that I didn’t care.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 95
10.9 Double Trouble (Karen Michele's Task)Murder on a Midsummer Night (Phryne Fisher #17) by Kerry Greenwood
Mystery (229 users)
Historical (48 users)
Review
I usually like Dot but I think her naivety has gone totally overboard on this one because I actually found it really annoying. Or maybe... I'm just over this series. Well, I've been opting for the audiobooks instead of reading paperbacks for the past 6 books or so, I think that's a very good indication that my patience is nearing the end.
I'm also having difficulty imagining Inspector Jack Robinson as he supposed to be in the book (as opposed to that fascinating Jack from the tv series).
Phryne gets up to her usually shenanigans. other people are rather short-sighted while she's always broad-minded. etc etc etc. oh dear... now that I'm trying to write a review I find that I'm really over this series despite finding the mystery as intriguing as ever. There are only 3 books left to go in the series and seems like Kerry Greenwood hasn't published anything in the last 4 years; *sighs* I may just finish it, one day...
My apologies, I've just had an annoying phone call with a telco company and it seems all I can do now is whinge...
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 210
20.4 Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Finders Keepers took a lot longer for me to get into than the first in the series. King has definitely gotten into the detective noir groove with this one, which I’m not terribly fond of but he does it well. No major plot twists but I do like that it’s essentially two stories that bleed together to form the main plot. I was unsure how this tied to the first book until about a quarter of the way in and then it actually makes sense. The first book, Mr. Mercedes, is very much a detective noir crime novel but toward the end, Finders Keepers definitely starts to veer back into old King territory, complete with the curve into weird territory. I’ll certainly be reading the third, just to see where he goes with it.
+20 task
+10 review
+10 combo (10.9, 20.5 - the notebooks)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 245
10.5 Green StoneYesterday by Felicia Yap
Review:
A really interesting concept with a parallel to Brave New World. The world is made up of 75% Mono's who only have 48 hours worth of short term memory and the rest are Duo's who have an extra day. It isn't like a 50 First Dates situation; everyone is able to remember "hard facts". They all keep diaries, now conveniently digitized by Apple. But the Class differences are important and prevalent.
Presented from 4 different perspectives, the reader is taken through the planning and execution of a crime. There are lots of enjoyable twists and turns. Yap explores how we can skew our own memories and so-called facts to our advantage and how love, loyalty and hate are affected by our perceptions and experiences over the years and day to day.
+10 Task - currently 838 ratings
+ 10 Review
Task Total: 20 pts
Grand Total: 85 pts
10.7 NeutralThe Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates
+10 Task
+5 Combo 10.5 - 817 ratings
+ 10 Not a Novel
Task Total: 25 pts
Grand Total: 110pts
20.9 JumboCecilia by Fanny Burney
Cecilia Beverley is an orphaned heiress. For the few months until she reaches the age of 21, she has three guardians, none of whom is ideal. One starts to eat into her fortune right away, and other forces are acting against her, while a whole host of suitors try to win her (and/or the money).
First published in 1782, this is a very long novel. Mostly that’s fine, but occasionally I found it tiresome, especially when we have page after page of characters who do nothing except provide comic relief which hasn’t travelled well through time. But it’s surprising in many ways, and definitely worth reading for fans of historical romance, who will find much that is familiar and some that is not.
I’d never heard that Jane Austen took the title of 'Pride and Prejudice' from this book, but she surely must have, since the phrase appears several times in capital letters near the end.
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.6)
+10 review
+15 oldies (1782)
+25 jumbo (1056 pages)
Now I wish I'd signed up for the team game! I didn't know I would finish this book at this time!
Post Total: 75
Season Total: 150
10.7 Neutral Name (Anika's Task)All the Living by C.E. Morgan
I admit I came into this book with expectations, given that Morgan's second novel, The Sport of Kings, looms large in my recent reading history and is one of the best things I've ever read. (My copy of it lives nearly permanently on my desk, so that I can page through it and read pieces of it when I need something good.) Morgan's scope and prose in this debut are pared back a little in comparison, and the prose didn't work quite so well for me; for example, as I read this book over the course of a few hours (and with great attentiveness!), I was able to easily notice the overuse of particular words.
But this is still a beautiful book, about grief and love and easy things and hard things, about the motion of life and death, and about the wildness of the earth we live on, about the deep wildness (maybe it's a soul, idk) that lives inside of us. God, grace, and living with mystery & unknowability. (Unsurprisingly, the sermons were some of the most interesting thematic aspects to this book.) It's about a summer season of drought. It's about Aloma, a long-orphaned young pianist who moves in with her grieving, recently-orphaned boyfriend on the suffering farm he's inherited. It's about the distance between them. It's an intimate novel centered around Aloma understanding her feelings. My own emotions about and understanding of Aloma flashed back and forth violently while reading, and I wouldn't recommend it to readers who don't want to read a novel about a young woman coming of age and wrestling with losing her immaturity and ignorance, but I really liked this.
+10 Task -- C.E.
+10 Review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 125
10.7 Neutral NameEve of Passion by A.C. Arthur
Review: It’s only days since I read Eve of Passion, but I’m having a hard time remembering much of anything about it. That’s not great – I read a lot of romance, but it shouldn’t feel completely neutral only days after reading. The basic premise was that a woman is asked to go out with a guy and ask him to support her dad’s political campaign. In the midst of an event she’s the planner for, they meet without knowing anything about each other. After tentatively beginning a relationship, they end up getting married within weeks. It was deeply unsatisfying for a book written so recently, but I’m hoping I can try the author again with better results.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.6)*
+10 Review*
*I read this before the team style challenge started
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 120
15.1 Reading the DecadesAn American Marriage by Tayari Jones
+15 Task (published 2018)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 135
From post 109Heather wrote: "20.4
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Finders Keepers took a lot longer for me to get into than the first in the series. King has definitely gotten into the detectiv..."
+5 Combo 10.9
10.1 Square PegWe Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
I've been trying to chip away at the Goodreads nominees and winners of the Best Books of 2017 and this was nominated for "Humor." It definitely had its moments of funny/witty, but there were enough moments of depth (from the mangled errand of scattering her estranged father's ashes to having to put down her "horrible" cat, Helen Keller, with plenty more "adulting" issues in between) to save it from being entirely fluff. That being said, Irby is a blogger and this did feel like a collection of blog entries thrown together, with plenty of overlap of material and snarky buzzword throwing-around to appeal to the blogosphere. I listened to this one and it was read by the author--I didn't love the narration, but understand her choice as it was very much HER story, her baby, and it would be hard to trust someone else with it. I'd give it 3.25 stars.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
Task total: 30
Season total: 70
20.1- The DoubleCutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
+20 task
+20 Combo ( 10.8- Africa and America, 10.9- Historical and Cultural, 20.4, 20.9)
+5 Jumbo (560 pages)
Post total: 45
Season total: 120
20.1 The DoubleHome Fire by Kamila Shamsie
+20 Task (the GR description doesn't mention the fact that the siblings are twins, but most of the book is about their stories)
+10 Combo (10.8, 20.6 split between US, UK, Syria and Pakistan)
Points this post: 30
RwS total: 80
RtD total: -
Season Total: 80
20.1 The DoubleThe Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
This one started out well enough...perfect couple have perfect daughters (identical twins, blonde, blue-eyed, beautiful], perfect dog, perfect life. One of the twins dies, having fallen from a balcony, and everything turns to s*#!. Dad turns to alcohol, eventually losing his job. Mom starts to lose touch with reality. Remaining twin...well, she can’t decide which one she is. This has the feel of a psychological thriller, family drama, and ghost story all wrapped into one. It alternates between the mother and father’s points of view, which makes for interesting pacing of the revelation of pertinent information. I really hated the mother, the father felt like a flat and somewhat unbelievable character, and I don’t even know where to start with the daughter. I gave it 3 stars based on the taut psychological intrigue in the beginning but the ridiculous actions of the mother towards the end of the book killed it for me—if I find myself rolling my eyes and scoffing at a character’s choices out loud in public, that does not bode well...
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)
Task total: 35
Season total: 105
20.6 Dead Souls One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Low lexile
+20 task (M)
Task Total:20
Season Total: 55
20.6 Dead Souls A Novel Approach: Whole-Class Novels, Student-Centered Teaching, and Choice by Kate Roberts
This is an odd review because unless you're a teacher immersed in a a particular world of literacy teaching, you'll probably have no interest in this book! However, if you are, like I am, you were also possibly waiting by the mailbox for this book to come out. I'll say up front that Kate, the author, was my mentor in my current job, and so I'm a bit biased. That said, it's a funny, readable professional text that lays out concrete strategies for teachers to balance two competing desires - first, to make sure that kids are developing a strong reading life and growing as the kinds of readers who can independently take on challenging books, and second, to teach content around particular books. If you are in the world of literacy instruction, it's a definite should-read.
+20 task (R)
+5 combo (10.5 - 9 ratings)
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+10 review
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 100
10.9 Double TroubleThe Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
My review:
If I had to sum up this book in one word I would say it’s disturbing. The narrator and main character is a teenager who has murdered three people and who talks in a very matter of fact way about how he committed the murders, and about his habit of torturing and killing animals. I typically avoid books like this but Iain Banks is one of my favourite authors and I’d been meaning to read this, his debut novel, for a long time.
The writing is brilliant, in fact that’s really the only reason I continued reading as I could easily have abandoned the book after a particularly horrible event only a few pages in. Somehow Banks manages to make readers care what happens to this character who seems irredeemably awful.
I’m glad I read this as it is very well written and unlike anything else I’ve read, but I’m not sure I would recommend it to others as I still find it quite upsetting to think of certain parts of the book even a few days after finishing it (for anyone who has read it, I’m mainly talking about what happened to Eric).
+10 task
+5 combo (20.4 - Russian edition is Осиная фабрика)
+10 review
+5 oldies (published 1984)
Post total: 30
Season total: 145
15.2 Reading the DecadesThe Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
+15 Task (published 2007)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 150
10.9- Double TroubleThe House at Riverton by Kate Morton
+10 task
+10 combo - 20.4, 20.9
Post total: 20
Season total: 140
20.8 Silent Spring (Ed's Task)The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton
I was very disappointed with this early 17th-century play. Over time, I have realized that "revenge" themes usual please me.....I consider The Count of Monte Cristo as one of my favorite books for example. But this play is Sooooooooo over the top. There is not one redeeming person. Vindici, the main character seeks revenge against the Duke. (All the action occurs within a ducal court in an unnamed Italian city.) Vindici is almost always in disguise...and it's always amazing in these old plays how Nobody ever sees through the disguise. Anyway...I really didn't care about the plot as it unfolded... just know that it is filled with lust, blood, envy, subterfuge, murder, treason, infidelity, etc, etc etc.... just about any evil you can think of without any gleam of humor or mere kindness. There's a reason why this play is no longer performed. 2 stars
Task=20
Combo= 10 (10.2-set in Italy; 20.7)
NaN= 10
Review=10
Oldie=25 (1606)
task total= 75
Grand total= 75
Please bear with me if I am making any mistakes!20.4 Night Watch
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
What a lovely book. There are times when a classic comes your way and you can't help falling in love with the writing style, the way the book transports you to a different world and fills you with bittersweet emotions.
The Remains of the Day is one such book. The world you enter is not a world that you often encounter - the world of butlers and manservants. Story is fairly simple - A butler of a distinguished household having served for years embarks on a road trip to meet a former colleague. In his sunset years, on his journey he looks back at his life - his exemplary service, his master and perhaps a missed opportunity of having true love.
A touching tale with a strong spirit. It is indeed no wonder that Ishiguro won the Nobel prize for this book. I rate it a well deserbed 5 stars.
Task = 20
Review = 10
Combo = 10 (Historical and Contemporary)
Total = 40
Spring season total = 40
10.1 Square PegThe World's Worst Children by David Walliams
Low Lexile no NaN Styles
+10 Task
Grand Total: 120 pts
10.6 JustineZenka by Alison Brodie
A funny black comedy. Zenka is a Hungarian in London who has sworn to protect the gangster-with-a-heart-of-gold, Jack Murray, who saved her from slavery and prostitution. Meanwhile, Jack has been told he has a grownup son. Delighted, he plans to introduce him to the family business.
But Nicholas is a soft-hearted young man who works in a care home for the elderly--not the gangster type at all. Treachery is brewing in the ranks of Jack’s gang. And none of them quite know the whole truth of their situation.
I enjoyed this. Zenka's letters home are a treat - especially the last one!
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.5)
+10 review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 175
10.10 Group ReadsIn the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Review: In the Distance is not really my kind of book. It’s not happy, it’s not fun (although at times it is amusing), and it’s viscerally brutal. The writing verges on pretentious, and it’s so bleak that even when things started looking up, I knew I’d just be punched in the face again. However, I was sucked in from the very beginning and for the most part I didn’t really want to put it down. I’m a happy ending person – in spite of my own life’s not going the direction I’d hoped, I still don’t believe most people have so little hope and happiness in their lives, no matter what horrible events are happening. Still, Diaz managed to pull me in, so I might even recommend this book to the right person in the future.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.5)*
+10 Review*
*I read this before the team style challenge started
Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 145
20.7 The Red QueenFelix and the Prince by Lucy Lennox
Review: It didn’t take long for me to pick up the second volume in Lucy Lennox’s Forever Wilde series, and this one delighted me even more than Forever West. Like the first book, this one has a little bit of an instalove thing going on – Felix and Lio don’t know each other for more than a few weeks before they’re telling each other “I love you” and committing to each other – but the story was well done enough that I really believed it. I really just want to hang out with the whole Wilde clan, and I want more of her books about them. Next I might try out one of her other series, but I’m a little worried I won’t enjoy them as much!
+20 Task
+10 Review*
*I read this before the team style challenge started
Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 175
20.9 JumboAmericana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism by Bhu Srinivasan
Review: I am intrigued by the idea of teaching history using silos or areas of interest, such as science/medicine, culture, or sports as examples. This would be a main text for the business/economics silo. Bhu Srinivasan follows American business starting with how the original colonies were structured and financed. I found out about this book from an episode of the podcast Backstory on the Civil War. Some of the interesting things I found out from this book:
How important the California and Alaska gold rushes were to the finances of the US Government
How several of the Confederate states came to the valuation of slaves cited in their Articles of Secession.
How venture capital got started and what role it played getting high tech companies off the ground.
The different business models used by inventors such as Samuel Morse and Thomas Edison.
The history of leveraged buyouts.
I recommend this book to readers interested in American history, the history of corporations and/or the forces that have shaped American capitalism.
+20 task
+10 NAN
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+ 10 combo 20.6, 10.5
Task total: 55
Season total: 115
15.2- Reading the DecadesDawn by Octavia E. Butler
First published in 1987
+15 task
Task total: 15
Season total: 155
Task 15.2 Reading the DecadesYear: 2005
The Undertaker's Wife (2005) by Loren D. Estleman
Spur Award for Best Western Novel (2006)
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 85 + 15 = 100
10.9 Double TroubleWhere Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris
+10 Task (historical, mystery)
+10 Combo 10.4, 10.7
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 290
15.7 Reading the DecadesHomeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver
+25 Task (published 89)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 315
20.8 Silent Spring (Ed's Task)The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
So, this is another Revenge play. (See my review of The Revenger's Tragedy in post #129). I much preferred this play despite the similarities. Here, another set of awful events unfold in the Spanish and Portuguese courts. Horatio, son of Knight at court, Hieronimo, is murdered by a Prince in a love dispute. Hieronimo is then motivated to seek revenge...and does so with a vengeance. But, unlike The Revenger's Tragedy...there are some interesting plot developments. For one thing, like Hamlet, a ghost is part of the story...even serves as a narrator. Secondly, also, like Hamlet, Hieronimo, use the device of a play within the play to confront his suspects. After reading the play I did some Googling to see if Shakespeare had borrowed those devices from Kyd. What I discovered is that there is a large body of scholarly opinion that Shakespeare was actually the author of THIS play as well. Nevertheless, although I found this play to be less objectionable than The Revenger's Tragedy...it's no Hamlet either. BTW, both plays are in verse....but the poetry here is much better. Just 3 stars.
task=20
combo=5 (20.7)
NaN=10
Review=10
Oldie=25 (1592)
task total= 70
Grand total= 145
20.5 The Queen's NecklaceSlade House by David Mitchell
A story told in five episodes, each nine years apart. A mysterious house appears through an Alice-in-Wonderland type little door in a wall in a London alley. One or more people go through each time . . . they meet a pair of spooky twins, male and female, and something happens that I won't reveal. Something nasty.
I couldn't put this down for most of the book. Then the ending seemed to tail off. I was a little disappointed with the episode involving Freya, because it was such a cliché to have a character explaining all the "world-building" to a journalist and therefore to us. Then the last chapter referred to The Bone Clocks and I was lost, not having read that. It kind of made sense without, and I still enjoyed it, but I definitely preferred the first three episodes.
+20 task (approved - we follow the house over 36 years, and there's also a silver fox-headed pin that reappears through time)
+10 combo (10.9 mystery/contemporary, 20.1 approved)
+10 review
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 215
20.6 Dead SoulsSeduced by the Tycoon at Christmas by Pamela Yaye
Zoe Smith is a Trinidadian-American woman living in Milan and forging herself an amazing career in fashion house PR. (Also, she's awesome and a joy to read in general: smart, creative, funny, enthusiastic, and kind.) Her path crosses (literally, in the form of a car-meets-bike accident) with playboy Italian millionaire Romeo Morretti, and romance and love ensue. :)
This was immensely enjoyable and comfortably stand-alone; I've only read one other earlier book in this continuity, and I didn't feel lost even in scenes with other family members who had their own earlier books and romances. I loved the characters, I enjoyed the details of their world--food and music and fashion, not to mention just the fashion house work environment which seemed anxiously toxic at some moments and comfortably supportive at others. Yaye was great at depicting Zoe's and Romeo's connection, their hesitation (okay, Zoe's hesitation), and their chemistry.
The book could have used another pass by a copyeditor, and I thought the final black moment was too cliched and conventional--I didn't buy that Romeo would so solidly believe the worst of Zoe--and that part felt half-hearted and obligatory, but overall, I really liked this.
+20 Task -- Y
+10 Combo (10.2 -- set in Italy; 10.5 -- 22 ratings)
+10 Review
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 165
20.8 Silent Spring (Ed's Task)Pericles by William Shakespeare
I chose to read Pericles because I had never read it before and because I had a full cast audio from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival available. I just ordered tickets for this summer and am finally going to see some Shakespeare in Ashland and I’m quite excited. The audio production of this play was outstanding, especially the music written specifically for the play and the singers who performed in the recording. I think that made up for some over-the-top melodramatic scenes and plotting. I’ve just gone back to read over other reviews and they are widely varied, but seem to generally run higher from those who listened to the play. Since the play might have had some authorship other than Shakespeare, it may be different writers that make it uneven in quality. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I don’t rank it among Shakespeare’s best.
+20 Task
+15 Combo: 20.4 Night Watch / 20.6 Dead Souls / The Red Queen
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
+25 Oldies (1606)
Task Total: 80
Season Total: 230
10.1 Square PegCold Case by Stephen White
Review:
This is one of series of mysteries featuring Dr. Alan Gregory, a clinical psychologist. At the time of this book, he is married to an Assistant DA. They live in Colorado. They are called in to assist in the investigation of a cold case. Two teen aged girls were murdered about ten years ago and the case has never been solved. As the investigation proceeds, there are lots of interesting clues that show up and many entanglements.
I don’t like plot points where someone is holding the investigator at gun point but is going to confess because they are going to kill them anyway. This happens not once but three times in this book. Really! I don’t think this happens very often in real life.
This is a quick, fun read but I prefer a main character who solves the case without such confessions.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 135
10.1 Square PegMiss Julia Strikes Back by Ann B. Ross
This eighth in the series is the one I’ve enjoyed the most so far. Sam is away when Julia is burgled, and so are Hazel Marie and Mr. Pickens. Miss Julia hares off to Florida after the thieves, with Lloyd and Etta Mae Wiggins, picking up Frank Tuttle, a drunken detective friend of Mr. Pickens, on the way.
Then Julia takes the law into her own hands and tries to recover her stolen jewellery from under the noses of the thieves and the FBI . . . and, of course, cure Mr. Tuttle of his drinking problem at the same time.
+10 task
+10 review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 235
10.3 SeriesMasquerade (Micah Grey #3) by Laura Lam
Not found on BPL
Review
It's been 4+ years since I read book 2 so I was a little vague on what these characters were up to though parts of of it came back as I read this book. I was still a bit confused with magical or rather magical artefacts and/or creatures part of the book. I only remembered the chimera.
The conflict was building to a pitch and all came crashing down in this finale. In Masquerade, Micah was inevitably drawn into political war. And in the bigger scheme of things, he was just a mere pawn created for battle. There's still a bigger twist to come though as nothing is ever as it appears to be in this world.
My first interest in this trilogy was because the first book, Pantomime was set in a circus. The follow up, Shadowplay, revolved around magic show & magicians. They were both worlds full of glamours on the surface but dark and sinister underneath. And so, the show continues with Masquerade as Micah & Drystan continued to disguise themselves as magician apprentices but surely, their masks must come off some time...
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 230
10.8 Double Continent The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
The author travels the globe and spends at least 20% in South America, Europe and North America.
Review: My boyfriend, the environmental scientist bought me this book because he thinks I need to learn more about climate change and the damage humans have done to the world. She posits that we are in the middle of the sixth big extinction event to happen on the lifetime of our planet. While most extinction events happen over the course of hundreds or thousands of years we are seeing drastic changes occurring within decades. Kolbert structures the book to include prehistoric contextualization and modern effects. From Pacific Islands to South American rainforests, each chapter explores changes to one species' development. The result is an easily accessible book detailing mountains of research.
+10 Task
+10 Not a Novel
+10 Review
Task Total: 30 pts
Grand Total: 150 pts
Post 122 Anika wrote: "20.1 The DoubleThe Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
This one started out well enough...perfect couple have perfect daughters (identical twins, blonde, blue-eyed, beaut..."
Combo for 20.4 Night Watch. Goodreads doesn't seem to have the Russian edition, but BPL does.
Post 123 Katy wrote: "20.6 Dead Souls One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Low lexile
+20 task (M)
Task Total:20
Season Total: 55"
We logged this in our database before BPL designated it YA, so it escapes the Lexile rule. I've added it for 10.9. If you know of another task, or want to add a review, feel free. (You might want to make a new post, to make sure we get any added input from you.)
Post 127 Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "20.4 Night WatchTriplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith published 1934
Russian edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
+20 Task
+10 oldies
Task Total: 30
G..."
I'm sorry, Don. That is a Bulgarian edition, not a Russian edition. I do not find a Russian edition, although I looked.
20.9 JumboThe Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Yet another bestseller that my ‘bad attitude’ (about bestsellers) kept me from reading until now! Goodness I enjoyed this book – immensely. This is one of those books that is hard to put down…., unfortunately I had other commitments and couldn’t sit around reading all day.
The story follows Theo Decker from pre-teen to late twenties. A catastrophic event takes place and every event after is coloured by it, and it effects Theo immensely and his life. I liked everything about the novel – the characters (even though some of them were dreadful people), the setting(s), the current time period, the art!
It isn’t a secret, or a spoiler, that much of this book is an imagining of the ‘life + times’ of “The Goldfinch’ by Carel Fabritius. It is safely housed in the Mauritshuis in the Netherlands (if you are interested there is a very interesting art history lesson of this painting on their website).
I noticed some reviewers thought the novel was too long. I thought it was a fine length. Perhaps the last 5 pages or so were extraneous, but that is extremely minor in the grand scheme of 770 pgs. 5*
20 task
10 review
10 jumbo
25 combo 10.9, 20.3, 20.4, 20.5, 20.6
_____
65
Running total: 205
Team B styles
20.6 Dead soulsAlexander Pope Eman Poet Lib #05 by Alexander Pope
+20 Task PP)
+5 Combo 10.5
+10 Not a Novel (poetry)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 350
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Final Girls (other topics)The Picture of Dorian Gray (other topics)
Потрет Дориана Грея (other topics)
An American Marriage (other topics)
Generation Loss (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Riley Sager (other topics)Oscar Wilde (other topics)
Tayari Jones (other topics)
Elizabeth Hand (other topics)
Connie Willis (other topics)
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Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
YA Assignment, no lexile.
+20 task Степной волк
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 75