Reading with Style discussion

20.3 - Prolific

Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren

+20 task
+5 Combo (20.5 - He ordered some expensive wine and then seemed insulted when I didn't want any.)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 1125

10.4 - Pilgrim

Last Breath by Karin Slaughter

+10 task
+5 Combo - 20.3

Task total: 15
Grand total: 1140

10.3 - Single

Tight by Alessandra Torre

+10 task
+15 Combo (10.2 - TAT - tat, 20.3, 20.5 - I glanced at the wine freshly opened...)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 1165

15.6 Power of Nine
Round 2
His Right Hand (Linda Wallheim Mystery #2) by Mette Ivie Harrison

+15 Task (345 pages)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,715

Post 638 Valerie wrote: "20.1 Award

The Red Power Murders by Thomas King

Well, at this rate I’m never going to finish Dickens.

This is the second in the DreadfulWater series, and it was ava..."

You claim 10.4 twice for your combos - I'm thinking you meant 10.9 for the 2nd one. Let us know if there is another I'm not seeing.

10.5 Monster redux

The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston

Indigo/Chapters was having a promotion in the summer of ebooks for the Kobo, which included this book. It sounded like something I would enjoy, so I bought it and a few others. Then coincidentally, there was a task that was the perfect fit this season!

I haven’t read any of the author’s other books, so I’m not sure if the pacing at the beginning is typical. It seemed a bit slow to me, and I did spend maybe the first quarter worrying I’d made a bad buy. However, it picked up and I became more invested in the characters. Overall, I enjoyed this book. There are strong female lead(s), a good dog, magic/fantasy elements – including a mythological creature, romance, and interesting secondary characters. The main character, Tilda, is an artist and I thought the author worked her artistic practice into the story very well. The setting also plays a large role, it seems to be a remote and wild part of Wales. A few things were unexplained, but they mostly were minor details. I also would have liked to have the retired history Professor play a larger role (although this isn’t necessary to the story). 3.5*

10 task
10 review
5 combo 20.5 (pg 52 in ebook) 'Fetch wine for Seren Arianaidd.'
_____
25

Running total: 1455

Task 10.9 Autumn Leaves (Mary's Task)
Read a book which includes an autumn leaf color (orange, red, brown or yellow) in the title or author's name. Any alternative for these four color names also qualifies.

Word: Redhead: approved in help thread

Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) by Anne Tyler (Hardcover, 178 pages)
Review:The hero of this slice-of-life novel is Micah Mortimer. Micah lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He stays just enough employed to meet his bills. Anne Tyler shows the reader his typical work day, and also his interactions with the various women in his life. The writing is clear and straightforward, with enough attention to detail to convey Micah’s world. It’s very much a character driven book; plot-wise, not much happens (no sex, no violence, no cussing – instead, events like the hero getting caught in a traffic jam). Redhead by the Side of the Road was on the Booker Prize Longlist for 2020.

Recommended for a quiet, mellow reading experience.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (#10.2 tiles: RBTSOTRAT, word: BOAST; #10.4(PILGRIM); #20.3(prolific); #20.10(author born October 25, 1941)

Task Total: 10 + 10 + 20 = 40

Grand Total: 490 + 40 = 530

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 638 Valerie wrote: "20.1 Award

The Red Power Murders by Thomas King

Well, at this rate I’m never going to finish Dickens.

This is the second in the DreadfulWat..."

Ha, ha.... yes, I meant 10.9

10.8 Jetsetters
With Malice Toward Some by Margaret Halsey
A couple from NY travel to Devonshire in England for the husband’s year long exchange program as a professor at his University. While there they travel to Surrey, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford, Canterbury, Durham, Salisbury, Kent and Cornwall. Outside of England they travel to Sweden, Norway and France.

+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - combo (20.2- see author page, 20.5 - p189 “Everybody waited for me to finish my wine, ...”
+10 pts - not a novel ( diary entries of a true experience)
+10 pts - Oldies (1938)

Task total - 40 pts
Season Total - 690 pts

30.1 Go for the Green

Dark Currents by Daniel Putkowski

While it says it's "inspired by actual events" (so I'm anticipating a thinly-veiled imagining of what happened to Natalee Holloway), there is only the tenuous connection of an American woman disappearing in Aruba used as "inspiration."
Kathy and Glenn haven't been dating long but decide the time is right to take a Caribbean holiday. They each have an ulterior motive but are so focused on their own motives that they don't even consider that the other person might have something up their sleeve.
I didn't love the characters. I didn't love the way the author jumped from viewpoint to viewpoint with no warning--I had to re-read several paragraphs/pages to figure out who was speaking (such ineffectual writing!) and that normally only happens when I'm tired...
I did like the way it ended--I wasn't expecting it which shocked me since so much of the rest of the book was milquetoast--and the fact that it turned several assumptions about partner-abuse/murder cases on their heads...for that reason alone I'd give it 3 stars (rather than the 2 stars that I would have given it had it been a DNF).

+30 Task, 98% in Aruba
+20 "Blue" country
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8: Aruba, U.S., Bahamas; 20.5: "He and Kathy shared a bottle of wine, then a second.")

Task total: 70
Season total: 1585

30.1 Go for the Green

Death by Betrayal by Jaden Skye

I know…you’ve been waiting with baited breath for the next ‘death by’ instalment from me. I have to admit, I was ready with the sarcastic point of view, ready to poke fun….

But somehow, Skye came through. I’m not sure if it’s because ‘Leaving the Atocha Station’ was such a pretentious shit-show, but I enjoyed this. The story and writing is straight-forward. The editor seems to have been more or less in place (although there is one funny mistake, and some very interesting word choices). Interestingly, the editing and word choice broke down in the chapter that the wine quote is from…. maybe Skye imbibed too much. It was fine before and after.

This instalment takes place in Bermuda. It doesn’t describe it in depth (although it is more descriptive than the last few of these I’ve read), but enough that it aligns with other descriptions I’ve read.

I liked the interactions between Cindy and Mattheus better here. Hopefully, they live happily ever after, because I’ll never know unless they go somewhere RwS needs on the map. 3*

30 task
20 one book country (Bermuda)
10 review
10 combo 20.5*, 20.7
___
70

Running total: 1525

*Ch 11 'chose a glass of Merlot." A lot of wine was drank in this chapter!

20.2 Journalist

Miss Jane by Brad Watson

Wine: pg 245 "I've got half a mind to see if your father left any of his apple brandy down at his shed."

"She would always be the odd one, the one with the secret. Who hurried from company without a word, returned a while later, as if nothing were unusual about it."

Brad Watson was inspired by the life of his great-aunt to write the story of Jane Chisolm. The girl was born on a Mississippi farm with a birth defect. Medicine had not advanced enough in the early twentieth century to surgically repair it. It took a special kind of courage to find what the world offered her, instead of only dwelling on the things she was missing. "Miss Jane" shows her relationships with her parents, her sister, a compassionate doctor, and the young man on the next farm. Her mother consulted a fortune teller about her concerns for Jane's future and was told, "She is strong. Even stronger than you. . . . She may even be relatively happy in life. Unlike you."

The book is written beautifully, especially showing how nature can be exquisitely lovely or terribly cruel. I found myself rereading passages of gorgeous lyrical prose describing Jane's enjoyment of nature:

"She loved most being in the woods, with the diffused light and quiet there. Such a stillness, with just the pecking of ground birds and forest animals, the flutter of wings, the occasional skittering of squirrels playing up and down a tree. The silent, imperceptible unfurling of spring buds into blossom. She felt comfortable there. As if nothing could be unnatural in that place, within but apart from the world."

+20 task
+15 combo 10.4 Pilgrim, 10.8 Jetsetters (Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, Louisiana)
+10 review

Task total: 45
Season total: 1025

15.7 Power of Nine
Round 2
The Hanging Tree (Starvation Lake Mystery #2) by Bryan Gruley

+15 Task (336 pages)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,730

30.1 Go for the Green

New Caledonia: Essays in Nationalism and Dependency by Michael Spencer

I knew so little about the history of New Caledonia that I anticipated a satisfying read when I chose this set of essays. And I did learn a bit....BUT. The essayists in almost every case assume the reader knows much more than I do. Written in 1988, the collection also reflects the times in that some of the analysis is filtered through Marxist/Leninist lenses...and uses sociological jargon I think (and hope) is outdated. I recently read similar works about Guniea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe. The major difference here is that the colonizing force was the French.... and missionaries. The key take-aways are that the French did what colonizers do...they exploit the indigenous people, impose their culture and practice racism. An interesting tidbit was that during WWII, American servicemen came to New Caledonia... and the native New Caledonians (known as Kanaks) saw how Black American service members were treated equally with their white counterparts. In addition, when hired by the Americans, the Kanaks were paid the same wages as French Caledonians. These circumstances added to the desire to seek independence for the islanders...but unlike Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome, that has not happened yet....mostly because immigrants have outnumbered the Kanaks...and all referenda have failed. 2 stars.

Task=30
Project Bonus=30
Review=10
NaN=10
Oldie=5 (1988)
10.7=5

Task Total= 90
Grand Total=375

10.2 Scrabble!

Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

KOTLCSM => Colt

+10 Task

Task total = 10

Points total = 455

Task 10.4 Pilgrim
Read a book with a title starting with one of the letters in PILGRIM (leading articles may be ignored for this task).

The Girl Who Reads on the Métro (2017) by Christine Féret-Fleury; translated from the French by Ros Schwartz

+10 Task
+05 Combo (#10.2 tiles: TGWROTMCF; word: FROG)

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 530 + 15 = 545

15.8 Power of 9 (2nd round)

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou

127 pages

Task total = 15
Season total = 1700

15.7 Power of 9

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
Author born 1963

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 985

20.2 Journalist

How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery

In the run-up to the U.S. election, I need some feel good things to think about. I pulled this audiobook from the library's virtual shelves knowing nothing about the book or the author because it looked like it would be heartwarming and not about politics. It fit the bill perfectly.

This is a collection of essays about different animals that the author has studied or kept as pets--dogs she's had, her famous pig, but also a group of emus, an octopus, large spiders, and others populate these stories. The author talks reverently about the animals and their "superpowers" that she observes. While the essays were a bit repetitive, I loved hearing the stories and the whole audiobook is less than four hours, so there isn't too much time for repetition.

+20 Task (approved in help)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel
+10 Combo (10.2 - HTBAGCSM - STAG; 10.8 - Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea)

Task total: 50
Grand total: 1035

Post 663 Rebekah wrote: "10.8 Jetsetters
With Malice Toward Some by Margaret Halsey
A couple from NY travel to Devonshire in England for the husband’s year long exchange program as a professo..."

I tried to find where this author was a journalist, but could find no attribution. 20.5 Wine works only for novels.

20.1 Award

An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

Also as part of my effort to read things that make me feel good while feeling anxious about the upcoming election, I pulled this book of poetry. I basically know very little about poetry and read less of it than I always mean to. Whenever I read good poetry, I feel all warm inside. But then I forget about poems for months and months before remembering to pick something at the library. I picked this because the author was the 2019 Poet Laureate of the U.S., which seemed like a good recommendation for her work. These poems tell the stories of her Native American ancestors, the Trail of Tears, and more modern moments. There are snippets of history interspersed with the poems. I'm very glad to have found this book.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+15 Combo (10.2 - AASJH - ASH; 10.7 - Nonfiction; 10.8 - OK, AL, LA)

Task total: 55
Grand total: 1090

Post 666 Connie wrote: "20.2 Journalist

Miss Jane by Brad Watson

Wine: pg 245 "I've got half a mind to see if your father left any of his apple brandy down at his shed."

"She would alway..."

I'm hoping you have another reference for the wine task, because apple brandy is hard liquor, not wine.

10.2 Scrabble

How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps by Josephine Myles

I wanted to like this British straight guy falls for gay man romance. The characters had funny moments. But there was so much misogyny here that I couldn't quite hold together the romance-dream-world necessary to enjoy the book. And while there was an effort to make the sex playful, it came across as overly clinical instead of erotic. I think the target audience for most of these books is actually women, not gay men. But I couldn't really imagine this book appealing to either women or gay men. But I seem to be in the minority, since the book has glowing reviews from lots and lots of women. I'd read something else by this author--there's a glimmer here of an author that might be able to write a good book, even if this one didn't quite excite me like I wanted it to.

+10 Task (HTTYDIFESJM - FETISH)
+10 Review

Task total: 20
Grand total: 1110

Post 673 Joanna wrote: "20.2 Journalist

How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery

In the run-up to the U.S. election, I need some feel good things to think a..."

I'm adding this to 10.7. I know it says "memoir" in the title, but (trying to be consistent) this seems more like essays and less memoir and it should qualify.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 666 Connie wrote: "20.2 Journalist

Miss Jane by Brad Watson

Wine: pg 245 "I've got half a mind to see if your father left any of his apple brandy down at his ..."

I don't have any other wine references, Elizabeth. I had thought that apple brandy was wine, and applejack was hard liquor, but it probably depends on who is making it. I'll subtract it in my notes.

15.9 Power of 9 (2nd round)
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
209 pages

Task total = 15
Season total = 1715

15.8 Power of Nine
Round 2
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

+15 Task (327 pages)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,745

20.2 Journalist

The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell

Most of this book (6th in series of 12) takes place in the uneasy 11 months between the Munich Agreement and the outbreak of the Second World War, although it opens with a long chapter describing an episode in Nick Jenkins's childhood tangentially involving Dr Trelawney, the leader of a band of spiritual acolytes, and a cook called Albert Creech.

Dr Trelawney and Albert Creech both pop up again later in the book, with Nick now married and jostling for a good spot in the coming war. There's a death, but not much else happens. In fact, two days after finishing it, I'm struggling to remember anything that could be called plot. But it seemed entertaining at the time, and an easier read than some of the others.

The “kindly ones” of the title, by the way, are the Furies – not kind at all, but people hoped to appease them with flattery.

* 10.2: letters TKOAP, word TOP
* 20.5: "He said in an aside to the butler, 'I think we shall need some more of that claret.'"

+20 task (on list)
+15 Combo (10.2, 20.3 https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/an... , 20.5)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1962)

Task total: 50
Season Total: 720

Tien wrote: "15.8 Power of Nine
Round 2
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

+15 Task (327 pages)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,745"

I appreciate your trying to help by linking directly to the other editions page, but linking to the book page itself is easiest.

15.9 Power of Nine
Round 2
Disorganized Crime: A Kat Makris Novel by Alex A. King

+15 Task (318 pages)

Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,760

10.7 Non-Fiction

The Addams Family: An Evilution by Charles Addams

+10 Task
(Not counting style points as it has a lot of drawings)

Task total = 10

Points total = 465

15.3 Power of Nine
Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery (pub 1927)

Task total - 15 pts
Season Total -

20.3 Prolific

Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell

Tiles: MBODRR  Word: ROB

Wine quote: "Alexandra was chewing voraciously at her teething ring while her mother fetched smoked salmon and a bottle of Asti spumante out of her husband's fancy dining refrigerator, setting it all on a tray."

+20 task
+20 combo (10.2, 10.4, 20.2, 20.5)
+  5 oldies (1972)

Task total=45
Season total=910

24/122 Mysteries Challenge
 

Task 20.5 Wine

p. 11 The characters meet for lunch, While there, they open and drink” a bottle of red wine”.

The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club #1) (2020) by Richard Osman

+20 Task
+05 Combo (#10.2 tiles: TTMCRO, word: TROT)

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 545 + 15 = 560

15.4 Power of Nine
publication years, numerical order

Below the Clock by J.V. Turner

+15 Task (pub 1936)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 735

15.10 Power of 9 (2nd round)

Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

218 pages

+15 task
+50 single criteria (pages)
+100 completion

Task total = 165
Season total = 1880

10.8 Jetsetters

Exile by Shannon Messenger

Takes place in California, France (memories of previous events) and Himalayas

+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.2, ESM => EMS - river in Germany and ok for ; 10.3)
+5 Jumbo (576 pages)

Task total = 25

Points total = 490

10.4 Pilgrim

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Scrabble! (MDAS DAM)

Task Total: 15
Season Total: 685

10.5 Monster Redux

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

+10 Task

Task Total: 10
Season Total: 695

10.7 Non-Fiction (Ed's Task)

We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love

+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Scrabble! (WWTDMTSATATPOEFBLL WASTE)
+10 Not a Novel

Task Total: 25
Season Total: 720

10.2 Scrabble!

How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

+10 Task HWFFOLSJ HOW
+10 Not a Novel (Memoir)

Task Total: 20
Season Total: 740

20.6 Civil War

The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright

+20 Task
+20 Combo: 10.2 Scrabble! (TAPSW WASP) / 10.8 Jetsetters (NY, Georgia, N Carolina and more) / 20.5 Wine (p282 He raised the first of what would be numerous glasses of French wine.) / 20.10 Another Birthday?(1946)

Task Total: 40
Season Total: 780

30.1 Go for the Green

The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga

+30 Task (Zimbabwe - pre-approved)
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Scrabble! (TBONTD TON)

Task Total: 35
Season Total: 815

15.8 Power of 9

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

+15 Task (author born 1972)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 1130

10.7 Non-Fiction (Ed's Task)
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
930L

Review
A story has two sides. While that does not excuse the horrible action, I am glad that the author provides both side of the story. I'm just glad that it ends with hope for both Sasha and Richard; and hope that the world is slowly changing in accepting those who are different. As a parent of young boys, my heart goes to both mothers and both being portrayed as good parentals, I’m even gladder for their children. I just hope that I’ll be like them if ever I was in either of their positions. The 57 Bus provides insights into backgrounds of both victim and perpetrator but also of LGBTQIA and legal system for juveniles; a very educational listening for me.

+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.2)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel

Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1,660

20.2 Journalist

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

It took me 16 days to read this book: not because it was boring, but because I would get to the point that I was SO ANGRY that I had to put it down and was reluctant to pick it back up again because I knew it was just going to be more injustice, more violation, and more trauma. But it was *important* reading, and I knew I had to finish it. Krakauer's research is on point and his narrative ability to turn you into a fly on the wall is uncanny. Choosing to focus on Missoula was brilliant: small college town, super-popular football program (filled with altar boys, according to their many boosters), and a straight-up EVIL attorney who by turns refused to prosecute rape cases out of hand or went to absurd lengths to demonize the victims and exonerate the perpetrator. I have never so much in my life been tempted to write a hate letter to someone, but Kirsten Pabst is deserving of one and I hope that there is a particularly noxious corner in Hell with her name on it.

+20 Task (on pre-approved list)
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.2 MRATJSIACTJK: TRICKS; 10.4; 10.7; 10.8: Montana, Washington, Oregon)

Task total: 60
Season total: 1645

20.3 Prolific

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

This has to be in my top five of Shakespeare's plays. Every time I read it, listen to, or watch it, I am impressed by something different (and I'm always shocked that I am forever misquoting the Yorick line...you'd think I'd get it right by now!): this time it was the fact that Hamlet negotiated with PIRATES to escape the England-bound ship and return to Denmark--how have I missed that in all of my readings!? I think, however, the obvious answer is because it directly precedes my favorite part in the play: the gravediggers' joust of words with Hamlet and Horatio and the subsequent burial of Ophelia where Hamlet proclaims the depth of his love for her. Ah! It's so good and so heartbreaking--so heartbreaking *because* it's so good? I just love Act V...

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+25 Oldies (1603)
+15 Combo (10.3; 10.6: currently #52 on the list; 10.7)

Task total: 80
Season total: 1725

10.10 Group Reads
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

Riveting. Fascinating. Terrifying. Adam Higginbotham does an outstanding job of bringing the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to readers. He centers the book on the individuals involved in the Chernobyl power plant and the atomic city of Pripyat where they lived, as well as the various Soviet agencies involved in nuclear research and design. And the intertwining of the Communist party in all of it. He gave me enough clear information to understand nuclear reactors—the basics and designs.
The book also gives a glimpse into the lives of citizens of the USSR as the empire began to crumble.
Well written. Recommended.
Thank you, Heather.
Scrabble mictusotwgndah — Mach, shot, dash

+10 task
+25 combo 10.7, 10.4, 20.2, 10.2, 10.8, Ukraine, Russia, Sweden, Japan, USA
+10 NAN
+10 review
+5 jumbo
Task total: 60
Season total: 470

20.2 Journalist

True Grit by Charles Portis

20 pts 20.2 Journalist
5 10.8 Jetsetters Arkansas Oklahoma Tennessee
10 pts Review
5pts Oldies

It surprised me that the central character was a 14 year old girl out to avenge her father’s death! I didn’t expect such a strong female character whose determination drove the narrative and compelled the other characters to help her on a man hunt

Written as a first person narrative in the voice of Mattie, the young girl, The book has all the elements of a western and is written in claar prose that engages the reader and vividly describes the characters and their adventure. As expected there are several gunfights, some hard drinking, bad guys at every stop, and a very satisfying conclusion. I recommend it!

Task total: 40 pts
Season total: 1110 pts

... 10.2 ... 10.4 ... 10.6 10.7 10.8 ... ...
... 20.2 20.3 ...20.5 20.6 ... ... 20.9 ...
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 ... ... ..
30.1

20.1 Award
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Review
Elwood Curtis is a good boy. One mischance and the following injustice found him incarcerated in a reform school in Florida. He continued to do what's expected of him to do, be good, until such time that he had to rise against the cruelty he sees all around him. The result, of course, was as expected... more cruelty and further injustice.

While the story and characters are fictional, this novel is based on a real reform school in Florida. It just breaks my heart. And maybe I wasn't paying enough attention but that end twist really got me. I'm not really a fan of literary awards. Mostly because I don't usually enjoy those reads but I actually enjoyed this one; well plotted though the structure stumped me a bit. And author got his points across succintly.

+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.4)
+10 Review

Post Total: 35
Season Total: 1,695