Reading with Style discussion
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SP 19 Completed Tasks
20.6 Ellen FosterHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.8)
+10 Lost in Translation (read in french)
+5 Jumbo (652 pages)
Task total = 40
Points total = 130
10.8 MegafinishSummer Moonshine by P.G. Wodehouse
+10 Task
+10 Lost in Translation (read in french)
+10 Oldies (1937)
Task total = 30
Points total = 160
From Post 642Rosemary wrote: "20.6 Ellen Foster
Evelina by Fanny Burney
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.8, 20.1 approved, 20.3 entirely letters)
+15 Oldies (1778)
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 620"
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 649Bea wrote: "10.10 Group Reads
The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder
+10 Task
Point Total: 10
Season Total: 20"
+10 Lost in Translation
From Post 652Bea wrote: "20.5 Myra Breckinridge
Read a book in which the protagonist is LGBTQ.
A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King
I do not usually seek out LGBTQ books. And, I generally do not ..."
+5 Oldies
From Post 656Heather wrote: "20.1
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block (yes, that's actually the main character's name)
YA, lexile 960
+20 task
+5 combo (10.2 - 1989)
+5 oldies (1989)
Task total: 30..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 658Bea wrote: "20.9 True Crime (Kate S's Task)
Read a book shelved by at least 50 readers as true-crime.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
+20 Task (MPG Crime..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 663Ed wrote: "10.5 Civil War
An Unobstructed View: A Personal Journey from Illinois to Arizona by Mark Johnson
I gave this autobiography only two stars which may be a bit hars..."
+5 Combo 10.3
Kate S wrote: "From Post 658Bea wrote: "20.9 True Crime (Kate S's Task)
Read a book shelved by at least 50 readers as true-crime.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by [author:David Simon|..."
Kate, the 7 letter word (killing) is in the subtitle. The task states title. Don't think I earned the extra points on this one.
Bea wrote: "Kate S wrote: "From Post 658Bea wrote: "20.9 True Crime (Kate S's Task)
Read a book shelved by at least 50 readers as true-crime.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by [auth..."
Bea, see the task thread and this post and answer.
Post 724 June wrote: "15.5-AbCUS- Arthur Clarke Award
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Task: 15
Total: 250"
Just a note: This didn't win the Arthur C. Clarke award, which is a British award, but it did win a Locus Award for US. Same country, so you should be OK.
10.7 Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.8)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 315
20.8Love Is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski
+20 task
+5 oldies (1977)
+5 combo (10.4 - dog)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 345
Heather wrote: "10.7 Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.8)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 315"
I hope you liked this one! I adored the author's voice, the historical perspective, and the science in it (even if it was science lite)...
20.7 Anna KareninaAnna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
All I knew of this book before delving into it:
--woman has an affair
--woman throws herself in front of a train
--it's really long.
Yup. That was it. I'd never seen a movie treatment of it, never heard friends review it (though I've seen friends carrying this book around in the past, so they've ostensibly read it), was never assigned it in school so never quite got around to reading it...until now.
I'm glad I waited. Had I read this in high school, I probably would have quit in the second (of eight) part(s), where we wade through Levin expostulating for soooo many pages about the best farming practices in Russia and how those practices differ from the best practices for Europe. Oy vey.
But, as an adult, I found this discourse not necessarily interesting but his thought process behind it was fascinating: his absolute belief in the rightness of his thinking and how it becomes bent and changed and improves as he matures.
I felt this book was far more about Levin (and Kitty) than it was Anna/Vronsky/Karenin--but one illuminated the other and both were needed to make this the classic that it is. It is about more than the characters as well: it's about love (how it changes, how its allegiances are fickle, the love--or lack thereof--of parent for child, etc.), about religion and God, about politics and wealth and poverty, about what it is to be good and kind and also what one can become when they abandon all morals...and, of course, about farming practices in Russia.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies
+20 Jumbo
+10 LiT
+25 Combo (10.8--"Anna"; 10.9--Dolly and Kitty are sisters and their relationship and that of their families are a large portion of this story; 20.1; 20.6; 20.10)
Task total: 95
RwS finish: 100
MegaFinish: 200
Season total: 1690
Post 733 Anika wrote: "RwS finish: 100
MegaFinish: 200"
Congratulations! Well done!
20.7 Anna KareninaEnder's Game by Orson Scott Card
Goodness. I just finished this and can say unequivocally – what a great book. Last year my A-Z Classic Author challenge was sci-fi biased, yet this novel wasn’t on the list. I think I was spoiled for choice! It is easy to see why this is considered a sci-fi classic. Although, I think an argument could be made for dropping the qualifier ‘sci-fi’.
Card tells the story in a straight forward manner, but it is intense and claustrophobic. It is obvious that the story is told from the perspective of a dystopic future, but this isn’t the focus of the novel. Instead it is a very personal story of a genius child who is chosen (bred) to take a very difficult journey to save human kind. That is the strength of this book. We, as the readers, are kept on the edge of our seats as the story progresses because of the dichotomy between Ender’s age and the very (in our world) adult situations and psychology he must pass through.
I read that Card said he was influenced by Isaac Asminov’s Foundation series. I also thought he may have also been influenced by Joe Haldeman’s Forever War. 5*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
5 combo 10.8
______
40
Running total: 1040
10.8 Megafinish (Lagullande's Task via Tien)Spring by Ali Smith
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 1105
10.8 Megafinish (Lagullande's Task via Tien)Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau
+10 Task
+10 LiT
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 1125
20.6 Ellen FosterThe Professor by Charlotte Brontë
+20 Task
+15 Oldies (1853) -151 to 250 years old: 15 points (1769-1868)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 1160
15.9 AbCThe Hours by Michael Cunningham
Italy--Premio Grinzane Cavour for Narrativa Straniera 2000
Task total: 30
Season total: 675
Post 735 Valerie wrote: "20.7 Anna KareninaEnder's Game by Orson Scott Card
Goodness. I just finished this and can say unequivocally – what a great book. Last year my A-Z Classic Author challe..."
I'm so sorry, Valerie. This is YA Fiction at BPL and has a Lexile of 780. Task, but no styles.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 735 Valerie wrote: "20.7 Anna KareninaEnder's Game by Orson Scott Card
Goodness. I just finished this and can say unequivocally – what a great book. Last year my ..."
Oh! Well obviously I didn't check! Will change my spreadsheet then.
20.9 True CrimeGreen River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer - America's Deadliest Serial Murderer by Ann Rule
I've been trying to get some (late-)spring cleaning done around the house and yard and my go-to listens for this are podcasts of the true crime or ghost story variety: I think the creepy/antsy/anxious feeling they inspire make me work faster. Since we have the "True Crime" task in play this season, I figured I'd try to find an audiobook to listen to for this purpose. I've read Ann Rule in the past and find she's a fantastic researcher, easy to read, and presents the story in such a way that is respectful to the victims and helps you understand in a real way the limits placed on law enforcement.
I was not familiar with this case and found it not just devastating but supremely disturbing. (view spoiler) Lets just say: I got my weeding done at an unprecedented rate. This made my skin crawl.
+20 Task (shelved as "true crime" 875 times)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+10 Combo (10.3: "running"=7 letters; 10.8: "Green")
Task total: 45
Season total: 1735
10.10 Group ReadsThe Library Book by Susan Orlean
Fascinating! Susan Orlean tells the story of the catastrophic fire at the Los Angeles Central Library in 1986, the subsequent investigation and recovery of the library. On this backbone she fills in the history of the library, libraries, books, librarians, arson investigations, book burning and the current path of libraries worldwide. I found every tidbit of information that she offered interesting. The book is well written and clear. And it leaves the reader with great hope for the future of libraries and the world.
I listened to the audio book read by the author. She does a good job, although apparently challenged by the pronunciation of some names and some non-English words.
I will recommending and gifting this book to friends.
+10 task
+10 combo 10.3, 20.9
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 415
10.6 Public Domain Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
I think I had only read two other Sayers books before this, one of them being the completely delightful Gaudy Night which I've read more than once. This is the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery and at first, I found his character incredibly grating and annoying. It didn't help that I was listening to it as an audiobook! (Though the narrator was good, he was good in that he accurately rendered the way the character spoke!) However, as the story went on I was more engrossed in the details of the mystery and even gained a bit more sympathy for Lord Peter himself. By the end, I was eager to keep listening.
+10 task
+5 combo (10.7)
+10 review
+10 oldies
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 215
20.10 AsiaThe Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran
What a fascinating choice for group reads! Thanks, Tien! I really enjoyed reading this, though perhaps enjoyed is the wrong word since the stories were so heart wrenching. Xinran, a radio host of a women's radio program (one of the first of its kind in China), begins investigating the stories and lives of her fellow Chinese women and broadcasts many of these stories. This book is her compilation of many of these stories, with themes emerging about limitations that are placed on women not only because of laws and traditions, but by choices women are forced to make to maintain a reputation or avoid trouble. It was interesting to read stories of women from different class backgrounds, as some experiences were shared and others quite different. I'd be curious to see whether women's experiences today, if she rewrote the book, would be substantially different.
+20 task (set in China)
+10 combo (10.8, 10.10)
+10 review
+10 Lost in Translation
Task Total: 50
Season Total: 265
10.7 Olive Kitteridge A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Wow! I cannot believe I slept on this book! I think I had assumed that it was just a story about a grumpy old man, but it was so much more than that. I loved every minute of it! It was hilarious, funny, cleverly written, and I fell in love with the characters. (Ove reminded me of my grandfather, and his relationship with his wife was just like his with my grandmother). The book tells the life story of Ove, who is in fact a grumpy old man, and his neighbors. The story goes back and forth between the present and moments from his past, which is a structure I don't always love, but I thought it was well done. The only quibble I had was the author's tendency to use a LOT of similes and other comparisons -- all funny but at times it verged on mixed metaphors!
+10 task
+5 combo (10.8)
+10 review
+10 Lost in Translation
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 300
10.3 ScrabbleEarthly Remains by Donna Leon
I read the first in the series, Death at La Fenice, nearly 4 years ago. I just looked at my 3-star review and see that I thought Brunetti is almost a real person. Ha! Recently, I've thought I wanted to spend more time with Guido Brunetti. Apparently Donna Leon has fleshed him out and I quite liked the time I spent with him in this novel. One of the things I remembered from that earlier read is how comfortable Brunetti and his wife are with one another. It seems authors are sometimes reluctant to have a good marriage hit the page. Without Paola, his life was not only bedraggled, but dull, humourless, cool, joyless.
Maybe that's not the stuff of a good mystery novel. I admit there was a lot more of Brunetti characterization than there was solving a mystery. It isn't that the mystery was easily solved here, but that I didn't really care about its solution. This was a different sort of book. I'm hard-pressed to explain that. I guess I was just as happy to be in and around Venice and to have Brunetti have his vacation from work. Of course, his vacation was cut short, but then there wouldn't be a novel with that, would there?
I feel bad giving this just 3-stars because I probably enjoyed it a bit more than that. But I've put restraints on myself for the genre, where 4-stars is the my top rating. And this just simply doesn't quite leap over the bar into that territory. Still, I'm glad I have a couple more of the series immediately available to me should the mood strike again.
+10 Task (I should get double that as both words qualify!)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.8)
Task total = 25
Season total = 920
20.2 RebeccaLoitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
I loved this book. It is the book I wish I could write. It oozes with passive aggressiveness....my favorite type of aggressiveness. The novel apparently is semi-autobiographical about Spark's life as she was trying to become a published author. What a cast of characters she depicts. You have to love Edwina..the aged mother of the literary villain...who will wet herself ...perhaps because she can't help herself...or maybe because she hates the person assigned to care for her. Spark's alter-ego in the novel (Fleur Talbot) is the only one who appreciates Edwina (well, Fleur's friend's too.) Watch for the dueling of stolen manuscripts. It's all so much that it is funny...and sad if it really happened. The novel gave me the same thrills of people getting their comeuppance as I enjoyed in The Count of Monte Cristo. 5 BIG stars.
Task=20
Review=10
Oldie=5 (1981)
Task total= 35
grand total= 1100
10.1 Square Peg1806: Settling the Cherokee Nation by D. Bruce Howell
+10 pts - Task
+100 pts - RwS completion bonus
Task Total -110
Season Total - 740 pts
15.5 AbC Romania - Ovid Prize https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid_...
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
+20 pts - Task
Season Total - 760 pts
10.8 MegafinishGoldfinger by Ian Fleming
I am still amazed at how much I like these books. Fleming actually made a game of golf tense and exciting by itself and as part of the build up of the larger story. Golf. In detail. In a spy novel. Overall the book showed an excellent ramp up of tension with an ending believable and a slim chance at the same time. Bond learned new things and it was amusing to see him somewhat stymied by running into new technology.
Sadly he also expressed some homophobic views (against the order of things, no fear or hate) and removed one way or another, the two lesbians from the story. Although, Pussy Galore's name makes so much more sense as an assumed political statement instead of just horrid cheese...
+10 task
+10 review
+5 oldies
Task total: 25
Grand total: 1620
15.8 AbCRoom by Emma Donoghue
Ireland Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award
Task total. 30 pts
Season total 1125pts
20.1 Moll FlandersNancy Wake by Peter FitzSimons
Review
Wow, she was definitely one courageous woman but that comment in the end about Vietnamese refugees and Japanese investors really threw me off... then she said she's not racist? I understand her antagonism towards the Japanese (due to her friends' mistreatment by the Japanese) especially since my father-in-law also carries the same torch (he was a refugee and had gone through, though never spoken, some awful things himself). I cannot reconciliate her comments about Vietnamese refugees when she could sympathise with the Jews... prosecution against any race is not acceptable! I do wonder if she only said this to provoke a fight as she seems to be missing that thrill later on in life. Still... this was the one thing I found absolutely galling.
4 stars strictly for FitzSimons.
Note: I do not myself have anything against the Japanese. I love manga, sushi, J-drama, & all things Japanese
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 - N for Nancy)
+10 Review
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 795
20.3 Ella Minnow PeaMy Father's War by Sophie Masson
+20 Task (written in diary form)
+10 Combo 10., 10.8
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1050
10.3 ScrabbleMartian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
+10 Task
+5 Oldies (published 1964)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1065
10.9 Sisters My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.8)
+10 Lost in Translation (read in french)
Task total = 25
Points total = 185
10.3 ScrabbleGuide du Routard Châteaux de la Loire 2018:
(it's a travel book so not taking style points)
+10 Task
Task total = 10
Points total = 195
20.8 PoetryThe Ash and the Thorn - God on Trial? a Poetic Quest by Leonard H. Roller
+20 task
+5 combo 10.8
Task total: 20
Grand total: 1645
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The Enormous Room (other topics)The Address (other topics)
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (other topics)
Sense and Sensibility (other topics)
My Brilliant Friend (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
E.E. Cummings (other topics)Fiona Davis (other topics)
Theodora Goss (other topics)
Jane Austen (other topics)
Elena Ferrante (other topics)
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Spain - Premio San Clemente
Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi (and Ugh!)
+ 40 Task
+150 Completion bonus - 10 countries
Task total = 190
Season total = 895