Reading with Style discussion
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SP 19 Completed Tasks
Post 296 April wrote: "20.2 RebeccaForbidden Places by Penny Vincenzi
Task = 20
Combo = 5 (Jumbo - 511 pages)
Task Total = 25"
Give yourself another 5 Jumbo points - the MPE (English-language default) has 756 pages.
10.4 Animal. Equus by Peter Shaffer
Play comments on the role of religion and belief in modern life. Wonderfully drawn interaction between a psychologist and his patient, a mentally ill young man who has blinded six hourses. The exploration of why he did this is both a commentary on belief/religion as well as a fascinating portrayal of the role of psychology in modern life.
The staging directions are very explicit and read along with the text give you a very clear picture of how the play would be presented on stage. I would highly recommend reading the playscript and will be looking for an opportunity to see the play in a theatre
10 pts. Animal equus=horse, see discussion thread
5 pts. 10.8 Megafinish
5pts Oldie
10 pts Review
Task total 30 pts
Season total 480 pts
20.9 True CrimeThe Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
True crime is one of my least favorite genres, so when I started looking down the list of titles tagged and found SCIENCE I was happy. And the book delivered. The structure, spanning the professional lifetime of one man who had a significant contribution to the development of the techniques, knowledge base, and judicial acceptance of examining cadavers to track down criminals, held the book together nicely. I liked how within that structure the stories were grouped by type of poison. And I learned new things. I had no idea of the number of deaths during Prohibition that occurred due to drinking poison as alcohol and that at one point the government even tried making industrial alcohol more poisonous thinking it would deter lawbreakers.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 495
15.7-South Africa-CNA Literary AwardWaiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
Task Total = 20
Grand Total= 360
Task 10.3 ScrabbleRead a book with a 7-letter word in the title.
ELD ERL Y
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good (2018) by Helene Tursten; translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy
+10 Task
+10 Lost in Translation
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 140 + 20 = 160
10.3 Scrabble—seven lettersTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin has an amazing ability to take historical documents, letters, journals, news accounts and weave a compelling narrative. In this book she tells the story of Lincoln and his cabinet. Some of the Secretaries had vied with Lincoln for the Republican nomination and together they represented the full range of political opinions within the party. Lincoln had to work hard to get some of them to agree to serve on his cabinet but he had decided that they were the best men for what needed to be done. Over time he won the admiration and loyalty of them. He listened and discussed issues with them. Sometimes they changed his mind. They did what he asked them to do.
The power of Goodwin’s writing was demonstrated by the tears I shed with these men when Lincoln died. I can’t think of another history book that had that effect.
+10 task
+10 review
+20 jumbo
Task total: 40
Season total: 170
15.5 Awards by CountryAustralia - Stella Prize
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 280
Mary wrote: "10.3. ScrabbleMother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht
Set in Germany during the 30 years war (1600s) this play captures the futility of war. The characters ..."
I didnt claim review points for this . . . Can you update to 45 points for the task
Thanks
15.4 AbCAustralia - Ned Kelly Award
Diamond Dove (Emily Tempest #1) by Adrian Hyland
+15 Task
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 310
15.4Israel - Geffen Award for Best Translated Science Fiction (2009)
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
Task total: 15
Grand total: 510
20.2 RebeccaIn a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor
The blurb calls this a book with a "moving and powerful ending," but I actually liked everything about it except the ending. I found the relationship between Kate and her considerably younger husband Dermot - a mixture of love, passion, and resentment because she has the money and he's a sponger - totally convincing.
Kate has a grownup son, Tom, and I appreciated the acutely observed sense of social change coming suddenly at the very end of the 1950s with the beat generation, and the gap that opened up between people of Tom's age and their parents. The girl he falls in love with, Minty, reminded me of Jean Shrimpton and all the changes she brought to modelling.
The ending by contrast seemed rushed and psychologically unconvincing, but it didn't spoil the book for me. This is one I can imagine reading and enjoying again.
+20 Task (born 1912 in the UK)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.8 I)
+ 5 Oldies (1961)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 400
10.1 Square PegThe Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
Ruth Ware has written another suspenseful, contemporary mystery in The Death of Mrs. Westaway. Harriet Westaway was working on the Brighton Pier as a tarot card reader. She didn't have the money to pay the rent, and loan sharks were threatening her. She was surprised to receive a letter saying that her grandmother had died, leaving her an inheritance. Harriet thought the letter was probably sent to the wrong person, but she was in desperate circumstances so she headed to the funeral in Cornwall. She was hoping the skills she used in "cold-reading" her clients as a tarot card reader would help her with the scam.
She found the dysfunctional Westaways were hiding dark family secrets. The atmosphere in their crumbling family mansion was dangerous and gothic. Black magpies and a scary housekeeper added to the atmosphere. The deceased Mrs Westaway was a mean woman trying to stir up trouble from her grave with her bequests. Harriet wondered who she could trust as she unraveled the family's history. The book has a spunky, likable protagonist, and the tarot card readings added interest to the story. I would recommend it to fans of Daphne Du Maurier's psychological suspense novels.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 285
10.4 AnimalCleo: How an Uppity CAT Helped Heal a Family by Helen Brown
Review
Like the author's, my husband & I have pretty much grown up being a dog's lover family. So, can't say that I'm a cat person though I don't particularly mind them, I haven't really connected to any. I guess this book is sort of similar to any other 'pets' books in which the featured pet has had a hand in helping the person/family through difficult times etc. What really touched me though was that the grief this family experience was through a loss of a 9 year old boy; my oldest is now 9 so I feel for this family because I just cannot imagine what I'd do in the author's shoes.
Whilst I didn't find this story to be particularly amazing, I did enjoy the listening and knowing that whatever life dishes out, people (especially children) are resilient. And pets are, more often than not, a fantastic addition to the family in all sorts of situation.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 330
15.5 AbCSpain - Premio Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja
The Traitor's Emblem by Juan Gomez-Jurado
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 350
20.6 Ellen FosterNorth and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
This mid Victorian novel uses a love story to highlight the social and economic challenges arising from the industrialization of the North of England.
Margaret Hale has been raised in the south of England largely in a rural country village and after her father gives up his living as a village vicar moves with her parents to a industrial town in the north of England. There due to reduced financial circumstances she befriends a working class family and begins to see the challenges faced by the residents of a mill town. At the same time, she also gains some knowledge altho incomplete of the issues faced by the mill owners. These perspectives begin to help form her opinions about the effects of industrialization on society.
The characters are well written. One of the best is Mr Higgins, the man who must work to meet his obligations and balance that imperative against his political views.
The book does begin to drag towards the end when Margaret leaves Milton, but as in most novels of the period, the conclusion is not wholly unexpected
20 pts 20.6 Ellen Foster
5 pts 10.8 Megafinish
10 pts Review
15 pts Oldies
5 pts Jumbo
Task total 55 pts
Season total. 545pts
10.2 DecadeSexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
pub. 1989
I am not adverse to novels using magic realism. I'm also open to many forms of fantasy (although it's not my favorite genre.) But here, I had no idea what was happening for at least the first 50 pages. At that point, I read the dust jacket...and earned a little enlightenment about what I was plodding through. I'm still not sure. Actually I have lots of doubts about my suppositions as to whether the characters in the modern era are time-travellers from the past or just parallel personages. As for the parables....I have to assume they were parables... I must be too dense to understand them since this book has many admirers and is on Boxall's 1000 list.
A weak 2 stars for me... only because it sparked my interest in learning more about England's Cromwell era.
Task=10
Review=10
Combo= 5 (10.8)
Oldie=5 (1989)
Task Total = 30
Grand Total= 390
20.7 Anna KareninaThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
+20 Task
+10 Lost in Translation
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 605
15.3 AbCAustralia Miles Franklin award
Black Rock White City by A.S. Patric
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 620
10.10 Group ReadsThe Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
While Captain Chris Baldry is away fighting in France in 1916, his wife Kitty shares their beautiful house with his female cousin, the narrator of this novella. One day a woman they don't know comes to tell them he has been injured--or not exactly injured--his memories of the past 15 years are gone. He has forgotten Kitty and all of their life together, and remembers only this other woman, whom he loved when he was young.
I was glad of the preface that pointed out that although amnesia stories are a cliché these days, it was a real part of the shell-shock that many men suffered in World War I. Rebecca West uses it profoundly to explore dreams versus reality, how our past shapes us, and whether it is better or necessary to know the truth.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.3 soldier)
+10 Oldies (1918)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 435
10.7- Olive kitteridgeA God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Task: 10
Combo: 5 (10.8)
Total: 15
Season total: 115
Task 20.3 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in LettersRead a book of letters or an epistolary novel. ETA: We will accept both real and fictional journals or diaries for this task.
The Journal of Countess Francoise Krasinska (1825) by Klementyna Tanska Hoffmanowa
Review: I had this book picked out for “Poland” in the Backpacking Across Europe Sub-challenge in Winter. The author is Polish, the book was written in Polish, and it is set in Poland. Countess Francoise Krasinska was a real person. This journal, however, is fictional, first published in 1825. The translation is clear, concise and easy to understand. (I’m not sure if that reflects how the writer wrote the ‘journal’ or how the translator translated the ‘journal’.) The first half of the journal is set in rural Poland. Francoise is 15 years old. She is of a noble or aristocratic family. She describes the wedding of her slightly older sister in great detail. Francoise describes the closeness of her relationship with her sister in this section. Next, her parents arrange for Francoise to be sent to a ‘finishing school’ in Warsaw for a year (this section is very sparse). After a year, she ‘comes out’ and is introduced to society. The focus is now on Francoise’s romantic life, complete with the moralizing common in early 1800s fiction.
Overall, a quick, breezy read, with added interest as it describes upper class Polish customs and describes events that actually happened.
+20 Task
+10 Combo (#10.3(Jou rna l), #10.9(sisters))
+10 Review
+10 Lost in Translation
+15 Oldies -151 to 250 years old: (1769-1868)
Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 65
Grand Total: 160 + 65 = 225
And it is a fictional autobiography – not sure if it counts for 20.4 but if it does that is another +05 combo.
10.10 Group readsOnce Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
I think this book took me through every emotion I possess!
+10 pts - Task
Season Total- 285 pts
20.7 Anna KareninaThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
+20 pts -Task
+10 pts - Combo (10.5, 10.8)
+10 pts - oldies (1925)
Task Total - 40 pts
Season Total - 325 pts
10.3 ScrabbleRing of Secretsby Roseanna M. White
Secrets is a 7 letter word.
Review
This is the first book in a series. The main character Winter Reeves comes from a well known family. The time period takes place around the Revolutionary War. She is a spy for the colonists. She doesn't seem to fit into the high class society she was born into. Some of the members of her family mistreat her as she has mentioned in the book. One suitor is concerned enough about her to inquire about her well being. She is sent away by her grandfather because she doesn't act like typical girls for the time period. Winter is a woman ahead of her time in how she thinks and acts. I had high hopes for this book. It didn't keep my interest enough to read the next book in the series.
Task +10
Review +10
Points Total:45
20.2 RebeccaMrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Mrs Palfrey moved into the Claremont Hotel in London after her husband died. A small group of older residents were living there--Mr Osmond who writes letters to newspaper editors, Mrs Burton who has a few too many drinks, Mrs Post who never misses the happenings in the lobby, and Mrs Arbuthnot with her strong views on society and literature. Time moved so slowly for them that the most exciting thing of the day was seeing the menu for dinner posted. Mrs Palfrey tried not to feel lonely, but her daughter was in Scotland and her grandson was too busy to visit her.
Mrs Palfrey enjoyed an occasional short walk, but she tripped and fell one day. She was rescued by a poor, young writer who bandages her knee and helped her back to the hotel. To express her gratitude, she invites him to dinner. To save face in front of the other residents that she has a neglectful grandson, Mrs Palfrey asks the young man to pretend to be her grandson. Although the young writer is not totally sure he wants Mrs Palfrey's attention, he is kind and likes to observe people as possible characters for a future novel. The story touches many emotions. It's darkly humorous, heartwarming, sad, and very realistic.
+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.3 Scrabble
+ 5 oldie published 1971
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 325
10.7 Olive KitteridgeEva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen
+10 pts -task
+10 pts - Combo (10.8,20.1)
+ 5 Pts - oldies (1968)
Task Total - 25 pts
Season Total - 350
Don (The Book Guy) wrote: "10.6 Public DomainThe Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, published 1923.
“Murder on the Links” is Agatha Christie's second Hercule Poirot story. Hercule and hi..."
Don - this book gets 10 oldie points.
Kate - I forgot the combo for 10.9 in my post 85 for this book. Could I have that added in please! This will bring my total up to 520.
10.1 Square Peg:The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
I read this book for my real life book group. It was chosen mainly because the novel had been at the top of best seller lists in many countries for a while.
Novels and non-fiction books about the Holocaust are always very popular and there are so many of them around. This one was based on a true story of a man who survived the Holocaust, and his wife who was in the same camp at Birkenau. They both ended up living in Australia, and after his wife died, he wanted to tell someone his story. The author was chosen as that someone, so met with him for many times and made it her mission to write about his experiences. Unfortunately, I think the main problem was that the author was an inexperienced author who'd mainly written screen plays before this one. It did feel more like reading a screen play, with the text focusing on dialogue and action, not what the characters felt inside, or what the surroundings were like. I think the story might have been told much better by a writer who was simply better.
If I didn't know it was based on a true story, at times I would have not believed the amount of sheer luck and lucky coincidences that the main character had. But that's the problem, life is sometimes stranger than fiction.
It was certainly a moving story, as all Holocaust novels are, full of terrible things done by terrible people, and heroic actions by the prisoners, trying to stay alive and save others as much as possible. I just would have enjoyed it more if it was written better.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 70
10.7 Olive Kitteridge Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington published 192110 task
10 review
10 Oldie
10 Combo 10.8 Megafinish, 20.1 Moll Flanders
+40 task
495 Season Total
One dictionary definition of a tragedy states that the main character, usually a person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he or she cannot deal. In that sense the book Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington is an American tragedy. Pride, an inability to be content with the good things in one's own life, avarice, and social striving all contrive to cause strife and humiliation in one middle class American family. The seeds of doom are obvious from the start, yet in spite of the circumstances there is a thread of hope throughout. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is very thought provoking. It is a book that compelled me to pick it up to see how things would turn out in the end. Warning for those sensitive to insensitive language, this book written in the 1920s uses derogatory depictions of African Americans. These depictions are not meant to shock, but simply to further the picture of the caste system of the American 1920s. As I was reading I realized I was hearing Katherine Hepburn's voice and seeing images of her in black and white. A google search confirmed that yes there had been a movie "Alice Adams" made and I can only assume I must have seen it many years ago.
10.8- MEGAFINISHGather Together in My Name
Task: 10
First published in 1974- 5 points
Post total: 15
Season total: 130
20.5 Myra BreckinridgeHighway Bodies by Alison Evans
Not on BPL and/or Lexile
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3 - HIGHWAY; 10.8 - H for Highway)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 385
20.2 RebeccaThe Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
b 1940 In Eastbourne, UK
I feel so ripped off with the ending!
+20 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo(10.3,10.8)
+ 5 pts - Oldies (1967)
Task Total - 35 pts
Season Total - 385 pts
20.2 Rebecca Heat Wave by Maureen Jennings
+20 Task
+5 - Combo 10.8 Megafinish
Task Total = 25
Season Total = 110
20.4 NefertitiThe News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
Know anything about the history of Paraguay? Me either...until I read this book. We learn about how the future dictator of Paraguay (Francisco Lopez) meets an Irish woman, Ella Lynch, in Paris...and how she moves back to Paraguay with him and has a long, loving relationship and several children without marriage. Lopez gradually morphs from quasi-charming to diabolical. He stupidly provokes a war in which his forces are up against the allied forces of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. This all takes place in the 1860s.
The author does a good job of evoking life in Paraguay...including the fauna and flora.
I appreciated the epilogue in which the author explains how she was taught that Nouns trump Adjectives...thus for the genre Historical Fiction.... the emphasis is on the fiction....often because, as here, little is actually known about the individuals and their statements and conduct. But, the author insists that she adhered to the "historical" portion when it came to important information.
Worth the read. Three stars.
Task=20
Review=10
Combo= 5 (10.8)
Task Total = 35
Grand Total= 425
20.6 Ellen Foster similar authorsCorrag by Susan Fletcher
This is set in a time (1692) when a woman who was independent, looked different, expressed ideas out of the main stream was labeled “witch”. It is also a time of political and religious instability. A young woman, Corrag, whose mother is hanged as a witch and who has been called the same makes her way to Glencoe in Scotland, where she finds some acceptance mostly because of her knowledge and use of healing herbs. The other character in the book is an historical figure, Charles Leslie, who publicized the MacDonald massacre and the book is Rev. Leslie’s interviews of Corrag and his letters home to his wife after the massacre.
Fletcher does a masterful job of giving the reader a sense of place. She has also had me doing a little research on the background to the book.
For Americans, it is interesting to note that 1692 was also the year of the Salem witch trials.
+20 task
+5 combo 20.1
+10 review
Task total: 35
Season total: 205
20.9 True CrimeI'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
I am not always a huge fan of true crime, but I had this book already and decided to give it a try. The book tells the story of the Golden State Killer, who was active for years all over CA. The story is of him, but also of the author's efforts to track him down as laypeople. The backstory here is that Michelle McNamara, the author, died while completing the manuscript, and it was finished by her husband and her assistant. Although the writing style did change in those sections, they were labeled as such, and it didn't interfere with the book. It was also fascinating to learn that recently, the killer at the heart of the book was actually apprehended, so that was another angle that made this book especially intriguing. As the book went on, I found myself seeking out more background information like this because the whole thing was just so fascinating.
+ 20 task (shelved more than 2000 times as true crime)
+ 5 combo (10.8)
+ 10 review
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 35
20.2 Rebecca The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
This book tells the story of a young lawyer who goes up to the house of a recently deceased woman, to examine her papers. He has warnings, both explicit and subtle, from many townspeople but (of course!) ignores them and presses onward with his work...until the woman in black turns up. I kept checking to see that it was in fact written in the 1980s because it read like a much older book. Having read and enjoyed Wilkie Collins and similar writers, it was amazing how much Hill's style felt like it came from another era. Aside from that, it was also a terrific ghost story -- well-paced, atmospheric, and creepy enough that I didn't want to read it alone at night!
+20 task (born UK 1942)
+10 combo (10.2, 10.5)
+5 oldies (1983)
+10 review
Task Total: 45
Season Total: 80
20.3 Ella Minnow Pea Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
This is definitely one of those books that I have theoretically meant to read for ages and never gotten to. It sounded vaguely interesting but never enough to bump it to the top of the list, so I'm grateful for this task that did bump it up! It was a strange book for sure, but I enjoyed it a lot. The premise is that as letters fall off a sculpture, on the small island community of Nollop, the island's leaders forbid any speech or writing with that letter, with extreme punishments for those who violate the rule. The earliest letters, conveniently, aren't too hard to avoid, but as you can imagine, things get tricky fast. I wondered if it would become hard to read the book once the selected letters were gone and the answer is yes, somewhat, but not to a point where it's *too* hard, and those parts go quickly. I expected a somewhat cute, maybe silly book that relied on the gimmick of losing letters - but what I didn't expect was the embedded parts that were quite thought-provoking about the whims of dictators and how people could or should respond to them. I found those parts even more interesting than the linguistic tricks the author had to employ to get around the missing letters!
+20 task
+10 combo (20.1, 10.8)
+10 review
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 120
20.8 Poetry (Beth's Task)Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
author born in 1992 - wikipedia
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 - H for Honey)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 410
20.3 - written as a journalGhost Run by J.L. Bourne
+20 task
+5 combo (10.8 - G)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 190
10.3. ScrabbleKingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
“[The books] are a common yearning for community. For belonging. They’re about kindness, acceptance. Gratitude. They’re not so much about death, as life. And the consequences of the choices we make.”
It is not often that the most important quote in a book is in the author’s acknowledgments not the book itself. The real appeal of the Inspector Gamache mysteries is the relationships he has with his friends and family. The mysteries are well plotted and engaging but the characters are what make you want to read the next book. If you have not read this series, I recommend it!
10 pts. Scrabble
10 pts Review
Total task: 20 pts
Total season: 565 pts
Mary wrote: "10.3. Scrabble“[The books] are a common yearning for community. For belonging. They’re about kindness, acceptance. Gratitude. They’re not so much about death, as life. And the consequences of th..."
Don't forget to tell us which book/author you read!
15.4 AbCAustria--Austrian State Prize for European Literature
The Only Story by Julian Barnes
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Season total: 340
20.8 PoetryThe Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems by Faiz Ahmad Faiz
I was at the library, looking for a specific volume of poetry that I wanted for this task (a collection of Neruda's) but it wasn't on the shelves. Instead, I went home with three volumes of poetry by authors I'd never heard of. This is one of them.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born in a part of British India which later became Pakistan. He was politically active, jailed and given a death sentence before finally being released four years later. This selection of poems clearly reflects his spirit of revolution.
He establishes a sense of place with his repeated images of the (stereotype of the) East: temples in ruin, goddesses in tinkling anklets, jasmine and cypress, ancient winds, calligraphed banners. The reader is immersed in sensual sumptuousness, almost lulled into a meditative state. Then comes the blood and ash and dust, the resistance and captivity. There is a constant sense of being on the verge of horror, and one poem in particular distills this feeling to its essence:
"When someone quickens his step, you think
at any moment he'll be ordered to halt.
When someone raises his arm, you wait
to hear the sudden chains of a handcuff...
Each young man walks like a criminal,
as if the scaffold's shadow were on his neck.
Every beautiful woman's bracelets mark her a slave."
(from The City from Here)
There's not a lot of hope in this volume--a lot of blood spilled, ash and dust blowing throughout--but there is power. The desire for revolution is the constant pulse that bleeds through these poems.
+20 Task (b. 1911)
+10 LiT (translated from Urdu)
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (pub. 1991)
Task total: 45
Season total: 385
10.4 AnimalMonologue of a Dog by Wisława Szymborska
This is another of the books I discovered when I could not find Neruda. In reading all of the forwards (which I felt necessary for these, as I was wholly unfamiliar with the poets), I was struck by how each was effected by war, revolt, and struggle. It has been interesting to see how this theme plays out so differently in each volume/voice.
Wislawa Szymborska won the Nobel Prize in Literature...at the age of seventy-three. Go, Wislawa! It's even more notable since, at the time of her winning of the award, her poetry was extremely difficult to find outside her native Poland. I'm so glad she came to be noticed on the global stage, that her poems were eventually translated and distributed abroad, and that they ended up on the shelves of my library where I could stumble upon them. I don't quite know how to put my finger on what it is that I like so much about the images she creates with the words she chooses, but I love it. I wanted to include my favorite, but it's on the long side so I'll just include a link to it: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets...
+10 Task (dog)
+10 LiT (translated from Polish)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8--"Monologue"; 20.8--b. 1923)
Task total: 40
Season total: 425
20.2 RebeccaRebecca by Daphne du Maurier
How have I gone this long without reading this one?! I blame my mother. She loved the book and tried to get me to read it when I was a teenager...an obstinate, pigheaded lout who wanted to find her own favorites and didn't want anything at all in common with Mom.
Well, once again, Mom was right.
This book was fantastic! At times it reminded me of Jane Eyre (view spoiler), other times--especially the mood, the feeling of making one's way through a fog-filled moor--it was reminiscent of The Woman in White or The Moonstone. I love that, in 1938, du Maurier wrote a book that is right at home next to those classics.
Now excuse me while I go apologize to my mom. :-/
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies
+15 Combo (10.3; 20.1; 20.7)
Task total: 55
Season total: 480
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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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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Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
+10 task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 165