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SP 19 Completed Tasks
20.1 Moll FlandersLuciana by Erin Teagan
low lexile
Very nice middle-grade book. Unlike some books aimed at girls, I thought this was a real book and I enjoyed reading it aloud with my children ages 7 and 10.
Task total: 20
Grand total: 310
20.7 Anna KareninaThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Lexile: 1000
I'm truly amazed that this book made a variety of bestseller lists and best of lists.
I found the book superficial and implausible and borderline offensive (though I'm having trouble pinning down why -- maybe just that it felt like the superficial and naive look at the Holocaust was almost meant to be endearing or cute).
The book is told from the perspective of Bruno, the son of a Nazi commander who becomes the commander of Auschwitz (non-charmingly mispronounced by the protagonist throughout the story). Bruno is supposed to be nine, but he comes across as younger than that. The reader is meant to accept that he has no idea what a Jew is, that he has no idea what the camp is (not only does he not know it's a death camp, which might be believable, but he doesn't even know that it's a prison camp, which is basically not believable).
The author refused to have even the adults directly say anything to Bruno about the camp or the Jewish people housed there, other than one brief exchange where someone off-handedly says they aren't really people. But I think this was a ducking of what should have been faced head on--surely Bruno's family would have been indoctrinating the children with talk about the evils of Jewish people and the Nazi plan for purification.
The story drives forward to what felt like an almost inevitable ending to me, though perhaps it was meant to be a surprise.
The narrator did the best he could with the story, though the nearly random insertion of music at certain chapter breaks interrupted the story rather than helping it.
At least the book is short.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.3)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 345
10.5 Civil War The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg
+10 pts -Task
+10 pts - Combo (10.3, 10.8)
Task total -20 pts
Season Total- 405 pts
15.9 AbCSwitzerland - Schiller Prize
The Judge and His Hangman by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
+30 Task
Season total = 295
20.10 AsiaAge of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
Osnos developed an interesting way to share his insights into China. This book is divided into three sections of the subtitle--fortune, truth and faith. He explores each area as he mostly moves forward in time. He relates the stories of Chinese citizens, famous and unknown, he has interviewed while living in China. This is first clear picture of China as the Party allowed more entrepreneurial businesses to arise that I have seen.
I have one disagreement with what he says here. In the book, Osnos claims that even the fiercest nationalists do not advocate for imperial conquest or ethnic cleansing. Yet treatment of China's Uighur minority and the building of military bases on disputed islands in the south China Sea seems to dispute that.
This book was published in 2014 and I am looking forward to finding more recent writings by Osnos on China.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 combo 10.3
Task total: 35
Season total: 240
20.8 PoetryMilk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
How did this become an international bestseller?
The topics are emotional, the feelings are strong, but I just kept turning pages waiting for the moment when I'd see why anyone was impressed. Perhaps I need to listen to the author read this--from what I've seen, she's a spoken word poet first. Maybe in her own voice, the emotion that's so clearly there comes across in a way that isn't happening on the printed page.
The refusal to use capital letters felt twee rather than profound. The illustrations were mostly filler rather than feeling like they enhanced the words.
I wanted to like this so much more than I did.
+20 Task (author b. 1992)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 380
10.2 DecadeStones for Ibarra. By Harriet Doerr
(Pub 1984)
+10 - Task
+10 - Task (10.8, 10.7)
+ 5 - Oldies
Task Total - 25 pts
Season Total - 430 pts
10.4 AnimalThe Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
The back cover describes it as ‘part ghost story, part romance’, which does sum it up. I bought this at one of the library booksales, mostly based on the title. Yes, I chose the book because it had ‘horse’ in the title!
I quite enjoyed this book. I finished Pale Fire just before this book, so I think my enjoyment was colored by that. (I did enjoy Pale Fire, but as you would expect with Nabokov it was complex and you are slightly off kilter throughout.) This novel is a straightforward story; and there is a lot to be said for being straightforward.
I hadn’t read this author before, I’m sorry to say, even though she is Canadian and has written quite a few novels. I gather this is her typical offering. This novel is for people like me who don’t read full on paranormal stories but are not opposed to the odd ghost or vampire. As well, I really liked how she handled the romance (it is between live people, not a ghost and a live person). It was played out over the course of the novel, with the characters getting to know each other and being increasingly attracted.
The main character, is a female archeologist – so, she is educated, independent, and able to stand on her own two feet. This is another big plus for me. She is hired to help at a dig (in Scotland), and the story unfolds from there. 3.5*
10 task
10 review
5 combo 10.3
____
25
Running total: 565
20.2 RebeccaThe Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
Quite an impressive writer, that Muriel Spark. This novel of Slender Means, read by the lovely narrator in just under three hours, allows the reader to believe that one is reading a slightly frivolous book about young women immediately after the end of WWII. Jostling along with flirtatious interests, ration books, and dress-sharing, I wasn't prepared for the novel's darker turn. Muriel Spark is an impressive observer of daily interactions and manages to capture the minor jealousies and moments of competitive behavior that seem to be so much a part of young women's interactions with one another.
These women felt very real despite having very sparse prose in which to develop.
This is only my second Spark book, the other being The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I've quite enjoyed both books and should really read more of her work.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8, 10.3)
+5 Oldies (1963)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 425
10.3 - ScrabbleSleeping Partner by James Humphreys
+10 task
+5 Combo (10.8)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 175
20.10 AsiaOur Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
+20 Task set in Pakistan
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 715
10.8 MegafinishThe American Agent byJacqueline Winspear
Detective story set in London during the blitz and before the US entry into World War II. The story is surrounded by the war but the war is not the cause of the mystery to be solved. Interesting take on the characters— although the two world wars started only 25 years apart very few novels have characters that clearly were involved in both wars. While this is not a history by any means, the effect of the first war is seen in the characters’ lives. The author has let her characters grow through the century. A quick but enjoyable read.
10 pts. Megafinish
10 pts review
Task total: 20 pts
Season total 585 pts
10.1 Square PegThe Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
I'm a Dickens fan...and I'm planning to read all his works in chronological order (including re-reads, which I rarely do, of those novels I read long ago.) This novel was not as satisfying as others. A bit too syrupy. I also felt a gnawing vacuum throughout the entire work of not having a clear idea for the villain's motivation. Yes, I understand he is chasing the two main characters (his debtors) because he believes they have a hidden stash somewhere. But that belief is not sufficiently spelled out...and it seemed to me that the energy spent in search of the debtors was not logical in light of the evidence. The ending was a bit of surprise because it is so different than most of Dickens' other novels.
Nevertheless, a pleasant enough read for those who like Dickens. So 3 stars from me.
Task=10
Review=10
Oldie=15 (1840)
Jumbo=5
task=40
Grand Total= 545
20.6 Ellen FosterJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
"Reader, I married him."
Ah, it gets me every time! This is one of my favorite books ever and have been meaning to revisit it for a while. This challenge was the perfect impetus. Besides, having just noticed the other times I've read it were also in April, it appears this is my "Jane" month.
This is the high bar set for love stories and I can't think of one that passes it...Pride and Prejudice comes close--but they don't have to overcome near what Jane and Rochester do...and they're pretty people on top of it--that makes it far too easy. Jane is plain--it's pointed out over and over again--and Rochester is called "ugly" several times...it's not the stuff of fairy tales, that's for certain. They're the most believably *human* fictional characters I can think of. And their love! It sees through the plainness, through the challenges, it calls through the night and is answered, and, reader, it is enduring: "...our honeymoon will shine our life long: its beams will only fade over your grave or mine."
On re-reading, I'm reminded again how very much I dislike St. John--how someone who is supposed to be a beacon of Christ's love yet is utterly devoid of any interpersonal warmth or kindness is beyond me.
+20 Task
+15 Oldies (1847)
+5 Jumbo (MPE 507 pgs)
+10 Combo (20.1, 20.7)
+10 Review
Task total: 60
Season total: 620
10.2 DecadeThe August Sleepwalker by Bei Dao
This is the third and last book of poetry that I stumbled upon when the one I was searching for was not to be found.
The first (written by a Polish woman) was like a babushka bearing a heavy load noticing the antics of a dog, equating them to the foolishness of men, chuckling to herself, then moving on.
The second (written by a Pakistani man) was a man held in a cell, yearning for his love and his revolution, a fire burning in his heart and eyes.
This (written by a Chinese man) was a ghost crying out from the dust, a desire for a better world--but a hope darkened by the fear of history's shadow.
It is haunted with the imagery of shadows, ghosts, coffins, skeletons, and birds in cages. It is at times claustrophobic, but it is fierce.
Bei Dao was born months before Mao rose to power. He was a revolutionary student during the Cultural Revolution in the late '60s, but lost faith in the revolution. At that time, he began writing poetry --a poetry seen as so threatening (his poems were read and chanted at the student uprising at Tienanmen Square) that it got him expelled from the country he loved and from which he has been exiled since 1989.
One of the most powerful in the collection is "Declaration"--one of the poems that appeared on student banners at Tienanmen Square:
Perhaps the final hour is come
I have left no testament
Only a pen, for my mother
I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man
The still horizon
Divides the ranks of the living and the dead
I can only choose the sky
I will not kneel on the ground
Allowing the executioners to look tall
The better to obstruct the wind of freedom
From star-like bullet holes shall flow
A blood-red dawn
* * * * *
This collection was beautifully translated and it was strong--but it was definitely heavy. I started it nearly a month ago, but could only read a few pages at a time.
+10 Task (pub. 1988)
+10 LiT (translated from Chinese)
+5 Oldies
+10 Combo (10.8, 20.8--b. 1949)
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Season total: 665
REVISED - Trying again on this post10.7 Olive Kitterage
Fences by August Wilson
Set in the 1950s, this play echos the frustration of an African American man who has not had the successes in life that he might have hoped for due to racial inequities, poor decisions resulting from the need to support his family and and the economic realities that result from both of these factors. Troy Maxson is strong, but unable to get ahead and takes the resulting frustration out on his family. He values family, but makes decisions that ultimately harm his closest relationships.
An excellent play. This is a modern classic well worth reading
10 pts. 10.7 Olive Kitterage
5 pts 10.2 Decades
5 pts Megafinish
10 pts Review
5 pts Oldies
Task total. 35 pts
Season total. 620 pts
10.2 DecadeThe Great World by David Malouf
+10 published 1989
+5 combo 10.8
+5 Oldies
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 735
10.3 ScrabbleMiracle Fair: Selected Poems by Wisława Szymborska
It's so hard to "review" poetry...I can only share my impression.
This collection felt like a wise old woman who has silently observed the birth of the world and all of history up until today sharing her impressions--tinged with the humor that is earned in the learning. She speaks to us of the earth, water, the clouds, the stars. She tells of us insects and animals and creatures of the imaginations. She recites love and hate, war and art, history and immediacy. She puts us in our proper place in the Universe--a place both infinitely small and immense in scope. The title makes one question: is it a fair (i.e.: an exhibition or exposition, like a state fair or science fair) of miracles, with each poem highlighting a different wonder? or is it fair in the sense of beautiful? or true? or so-so? So many meanings of one word and each of them finds a place in the interpretation of these poems.
I'd like to share the one poem that I think perfectly encompasses the everything-ness that the poet is tackling, "A Speech at the Lost and Found":
I lost a few goddesses on my way from the south to north,
as well as many gods on my way from east to west.
Some stars went out on me for good: part for me, O sky.
Island after island collapsed into the sea on me.
I'm not sure exactly where I left my claws,
who wears my fur, who dwells in my shell.
My siblings died out when I crawled onto land
and only a tiny bone in me marks the anniversary.
I leapt out of my skin, squandered vertebrae and legs,
and left my senses many many times.
Long ago I closed my third eye to it all,
waved it off with my fins, shrugged my branches.
Scattered by the four winds to a place that time forgot,
how little there remains of me surprises me a lot,
a singular being of human kind for now,
who lost her umbrella in a tram somehow.
+10 Task ("Miracle"=7 letters)
+10 LiT (translated from Polish)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8, 20.8)
Task total: 40
Season total: 705
10.8 MegafinishHow Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
+10 Task
Post Total: 10
Season Total: 745
10.2 DecadeThe House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Lexile 870
I am not quite sure how this one passed the Lexile, because it was easy to read and digest as a collection of small vignettes showing the girlhood/adolescense of Esperanza. There were sweet moments and painful moments, where things were described but named. There is a lot of that - simple experiences described for what happened and perhaps emotions during but the implications of how it all fits together are left unsaid. I can see why it is a good assignment book, there is a lot you could talk about. But I mostly enjoyed the window into another world. I especially liked the introduction to this edition, where the author talks a little about how she came to write this book and to be an author at all.
+10 task
+10 review
+ 5 combo (10.8)
+5 oldies
Task total: 30
Grand total: 685
20.8 PoetryA Penny Saved is Impossible (1981) by Ogden Nash (born 1902)
It seems difficult to write a review of poetry without trying my own hand at it, heaven help me. I found this book in the library and have thought Mr. Nash delightful, but this book was full, too full of delight.
A Pretentious Review of a Little Book Full of Silly Rhymes
A topical poem in its time bites and buzzes and pokes at the conscience
But after its time falls on its own shoelaces or galoshes.
This book was full, so full of 62 poems by droll little, dolorous, cantankerous Nash.
His wit and wisdom and words, long words in lines that break rhythm and drone on awash
in urbanity?
62 poems, it took me a month, to wade through the tome. One poem a month would be enough.
Or one every other month, or perhaps one a year would certainly suffice,
In a magazine or paper, or letter. But 62 all at once? My heads rings with the sing song artifice.
by Helen Lynn Dougherty (4/19/2019)
20 task
10 review
10 Combos (10.2 , 10.8)
5 Oldie
task 45
season total 590
20.6 Ellen Foster A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843) 104 pages.20 task
10 review
10 Combos 10.8, 20.7
15 Oldie
55 task
645 season total
I have just finished listening to an award winning audiobook version of A Christmas Carol. It has been on my TBR list for so very long. Each year I think that I will read it during Christmas, but then Christmas is so busy that I do not do it. I have read a play version which I taught in 7th Grade ELA class A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley It is about time that I actually read the original after seeing so many play productions and movie adaptations. The story is wonderful, and truly deserves its status as a classic. I was in tears more than one morning as I drove in to school. The version I listened to was read by the incomparable Simon Prebble. Today is Good Friday. I am out of season for the book, yet it still seems to fit that I completed the book today.
20.5 Myra BreckinridgeFunny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
This is a well written story of a boy’s coming of age during the time of ethnic tensions, and eventual race riots in Sri Lanka. The family depicted in the novel are well to do Tamils. We meet the narrator when he is about seven and playing ‘bride-bride’ with his sister and girl cousins. Not surprisingly, this isn’t acceptable once he gets older (particularly since he was the bride). When he is about 14 his father decides to send him to a very strict boy’s school ‘to make him a man’. Ironically, he meets his first love there. Alongside the personal family story there are the political and racial tensions in the background. These come to a head during the 1983 race riots. The family loses their home (and wealth) and are forced to emigrate to Canada.
Aside from being a well told story, I found it very interesting to read about Sri Lanka during that time. The author writes in a very balanced manner about the major ethnic factions. 4*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
5 combo 20.10
______
40
Running total: 605
Deleted -- see corrected post 431
15.10 AbCUS - Pulitzer Prize
March by Geraldine Brooks
+ 40 Task
+150 Completion bonus - 10 countries
Season Total = 485
10.8 MegafinishThe Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
Quebec is divided into the French and the English by language, religion, and wealth. Fifteen-year-old Maggie Hughes chooses to be English like her father, although she has a French mother, and hopes to take over her father's seed business someday. But she falls for a poor French Canadian, Gabriel, and soon finds she is pregnant. It is 1950 so her family sends her away, and forces her to give up her baby girl, Elodie, who is raised by nuns in an orphanage.
During the administration of Premier Maurice Duplessis, a law was passed that gave much larger subsidies to mental institutions than to orphanages. Orphanages were changed into mental institutions by the Church, and orphans were labeled by doctors as "mentally retarded". The mentally ill were mixed with the orphans who were used as cheap labor putting in long hours housecleaning, sewing, and caring for the mentally ill residents. The Church used the homes as money-making institutions run by overworked, judgemental nuns. The orphans were physically and emotionally abused by many of the staff members. Elodie's education stopped when she was seven-years-old except for a kind nun who taught her to read from her Bible.
The narrative alternates between Elodie, and Maggie who has gone on to marry a wealthy banker, but is still haunted by memories of her baby. The book follows Elodie as she is put out on her own in Montreal at age seventeen with few life skills. Maggie continues to try to find her daughter, but is stopped by the lies of administrators.
The book has a theme of new life and nurturing starting in Maggie's father's seed store, and going on to several pregnancies in the family, parenting styles, and the nurturing (or lack of nurturing) of the young. It is a heartbreaking look into the treatment of children born out of wedlock, and the living conditions of the mentally ill. The story also has thought provoking elements about the role of women in the 1950s. "The Home for Unwanted Girls" was an interesting look at a sad part of Quebec's history.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 405
15.1 AbC 2nd roundAustria - Austrian State Prize for European Literature
Pulse by Julian Barnes
+15 Task
Season total = 500
10.9 SistersFall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
+10 Task (the main characters are four sisters)
+ 5 Combo (10.8)
+ 5 Jumbo (672 pages)
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 475
10.8 MegafinishThe Glass is Always Greener by Tamar Myers
This is the second book I’ve read in this series. Unfortunately, I’ve read them completely out of order. I picked up both books at the library book sales, so of course serendipity is at work. While it potentially would have enhanced my enjoyment to read in order I don’t think it is critical.
I enjoy this series – the author has a sense of humor, the main character is a feisty, self-deprecating independent woman, and there are a bunch of interesting secondary characters. The interplay of the characters (major and minor) is the strong point here and – even though the mystery is fun – more interesting than the murder. For light reading enjoyment I would recommend this. 3.5*
As a slight aside – an extremely minor character comes from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, which amused me since my Mom is from a nearby town.
10 task
10 review
5 combo 10.3
_____
25
Running total: 630
20.3 Ella Minnow PeaFlowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966) Lexile level 910, 311 pages.
I loved this book. A few years ago I read the short story version which is equally good. This gripping story literally left me unable to put it down. Thank goodness today was a Saturday and I did not need to go to work. I started at 10:30 AM and finished at 3:30 PM. I felt I really came to know Charlie deeply as a person. There is such compassion in this novel. It discusses society, interpersonal relationships, and even humanity's place in the Universe. I would highly recommend it to any adult. I think it is sometimes assigned in High School curriculums in hopes of teaching compassion. If that is the goal, assign the short story, not the novel. The novel has a very honest look at human sexual relationships, in the context of the overall scope of human connections with each other.
20 task
10 review
15 Combos 10.3, 10.8, 20.7
5 Oldie
50 task
695 season total
From Post 376April wrote: "20.4 Nefertiti
Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles by Margaret George
Task - 20 points
Combo - 10 points (20.2 Rebecca, 10.8 Megafinish)
Jumbo - 15 points (881 pages)..."
+5 Oldies
From Post 357Anika wrote: "20.8 Poetry
The 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 co..."
+5 Combo 20.10
From Post 385Joanna wrote: "20.9 True Crime
People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo--and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up by [author:Richard Lloyd Parry|1..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 396Lynn wrote: "10.2 Decade (1390) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translator Simon Armitage
10 task
10 review
25 Oldie
10 Combos 10.3, 10.8
Task 50
Season Total 545
I like reading Arthurian lege..."
I don't see a 7-letter word in this title. Did you mean to claim points for a different combo?
Kate S wrote: "From Post 396Lynn wrote: "10.2 Decade (1390) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translator Simon Armitage
10 task
10 review
25 Oldie
10 Combos 10.3, 10.8
Task 50
Season Total 545
I..."
Duh sorry. I only meant to claim 10.8 Megafinish. But that would still add up to 50 pts on the task, so the numbers don't change. I messed up in taking it from the spreadsheet.
10 task
10 review
25 Oldie
5 Combos 10.8
Task 50
Season Total 545
Task 10.6 Public DomainRead a book entering the public domain this year by reading a book first published in 1923.
Leave It to Psmith (Psmith #4) (Blandings Castle #2) (1923) by P.G. Wodehouse (Paperback, 293 pages)
+10 Task
+10 Oldies -76 to 150 years old: (1869-1943)
Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20
Grand Total: 245 + 20 = 265
15.8 AbCPhilippines- Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan- Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award
Task=30
Grand Total= 575
20.2 Rebecca:The Children of Men by P.D. James (P.D. James was born in Oxford, UK, in 1920)
I have seen the movie that was based on the book a few times and really enjoyed it, so I decided to read the novel too. It took me by surprise just how different the novel is. The two stories only share the basic underlying principle, that for an unknown reason all humans have suddenly become infertile, so the human race is about to become extinct, as there is no next generation. Some of the characters also share names with the characters in the movie, but other than that, they're pretty much two completely different stories. While the world the novel inhabits is a dystopian one, it doesn't really read as science fiction in many ways, but more like a philosophical novel about the meaning of not having a future, about faith or the lack of it, about the meaning of democracy/tyranny, the interests of one person vs the group/culture. I did enjoy the novel too, but it wasn't what I imagined it would be like.
+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies (first published 1992)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 105
From Post 397Karen Michele wrote: "10.6 Public Domain
The Spider's Web by Joseph Roth
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.8 Megafinish
+10 LiT
+10 Oldies-76 to 150 years old: 10 points (1869-1943)
Task Total: 35
S..."
+5 Combo 10.3
From Post 403Lalitha wrote: "20.3 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh by Vincent van Gogh
Review:
In a letter to his mother, van Gogh writes "For me, life may well ..."
+10 Oldies
From Post 410April wrote: "10.6 Public Domain
The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+10 Task"
+10 Oldies
20.10 Asia (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
I frankly expected a lot more from this book after reading the rave reviews that the book has garnered over a year.
The book starts out great, to be fair. The story of a place and time that is completely foreign to me, enchanted me for the first couple of hundred pages. The saga of a Korean family and their going to Japan and continuing to live as foreigners there, is a fascinating premise. The ambitious story follows the lives of Sunja, an innocent village girl who is impregnated by a rich Korean but is 'saved' by a kind Isak, who takes her to Japan to begin life there. The story then follows Sunja as she is displaced from the only life and land she has known. I love reading works that involve the test of humanity and humankind. However, as I continued flipping the pages, the story felt more and more like studying a family tree rather than understanding emotions of a woman (if she were the protagonist that was intended by the author) and her thoughts under conflicting situations. Soon, we bifurcate into unnecessary stories (and sex) through a myriad of characters as Sunja is pushed further and further into the background.
I wanted to read a story of fighters, instead I got a story of people who lived, because they had to. The writing at the start was gripping and began fading towards the end. I was least involved in the characters of the great grandson or his fling with a Japanese woman, for example. Neither was the story relevant to the main storyline, nor was it in anyway exceptional. All in all, I couldn't connect with any one character all that strongly. A 3 stars from me.
Task +20
Review +10
Jumbo +5
Task Total = 35
Season Total = 205 (after correction)+35 = 240
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Reading with Style
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The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+10 Task