Reading with Style discussion
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FA 20 Completed Tasks
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "15.10 Power of 9pub years, numerical order
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
+15 Task (pub'd 1990)
+100 Completion Bonus
+ 50 All one criterion
+ 50 Numeric..."
Well done!
20.3 ProlificEmbassytown by China Miéville
This book is a mental workout. This is science fiction that I like. It asks questions like: what is language? How can sentient beings communicate? Do we need language to think? Mieville asks these questions by placing humans on an alien planet and tells a story of a time when the humans think they have established communication, trade and support with the inhabitants and a slight change almost brings the destruction of the world.
Mieville puts us directly into the story and the reader has to work out the vocabulary and society by putting things together as the story goes forward. The protagonist, Avice, is interesting and well developed.
+20 task
+5 combo 10.3
+10 review
Task total 35
Season total: 570
10.4 PilgrimMy Soul to Take (Þóra Guðmundsdóttir #2) by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Review
I do like this protagonist, Thora Gudmundsdottir, very much. A very no-nonsense lawyer single-mother lady. Somehow I'm finding the mystery to be quite convoluted and just confounded me. I couldn't really understand exactly what's going on and how it all came out to untangled. Possibly because I got totally confused about the people and how they're connected to each other and therefore, who the baddie is. I sort of made sense of it at the end but it didn't make a very smooth reading for me. I'm still keen on continuing the series because as I said above, I do like this protagonist.
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.5 - "Thora sipped the white wine Jonas had ordered for her, and contempalted their surroundings." -p92)
+10 Review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1,760
10.5 Monster ReduxWitch Winnie: The Story of a "King's Daughter" by Elizabeth W. Champney
10 pts 10.5 Monster Redux
5 pts 10.2 Scrabble WWTSOAKD EWC soak
5 pts Jetsetters. NY MA CO
5 pts 20.3 Prolific
10 Review
10 pts Oldies
This is a girls novel from the late 19th century that is an odd combinationof « friends » story, slight mystery, religious tract, and moral lesson with a little social commentary thrown in. The author describes NY tenements and the deprivation of their inhabitands as well as proposing a charitable endeavor that could address the problem. There is the typical for the period underlying racist attitudes toward immigrants and Native Americans although the author seemsto find redeeming qualities in individuals once they become better known.
All in all astrange book. I would just about be ready to throw it across the room when the story would shift gears and make me wonder what would happen next. I don’t think I can recommend it.
Task total: 45 pts
Season total: 1295 pts
... 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 ...
... 20.2 20.3 ...20.5 20.6 ... 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 ... ... ..
30.1
20.3 ProlificIsland of Dragons by Lisa McMann
Lexile: 850
Praise be, we're finally done with this series. I read all seven books of this series aloud to my eight- and eleven-year-old kids. They enjoyed it far more than I did and I'd recommend it to middle grade readers to read independently, but there's very little of interest to adults in this series. The magical world is inconsistent and kind of a mess throughout these books, the characters don't really develop or have strong independent personalities, and overall I found the adventures repetitive and boring. The original idea--what if you were punished for being creative--is sort of interesting, but wasn't enough to carry the series through seven books.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2 - IODLM=MILD; 10.4)
+5 Jumbo (544pp)
Task total: 45
Grand total: 1305
20.8 BedtimeMothering Sunday by Graham Swift
I loved this short book. The story is the remembrance of a day in 1924 by a woman looking back on her twenty-two-year-old self from the perspective of her eighty-something-year-old self. This is definitely literary fiction--some musings on writing, some musings on memory, and the way that life has specific moments that are turning points. Then, on top of the literary meta-fiction is the historical piece. The protagonist is "in service" as a maid, giving a glimpse into the fading British aristocracy. Learning her life story as it slowly unfolds through the book, we get a window into the lives of the time.
Graham Swift is a great writer--I'd like to read more of his books.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4, 20.1)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 1345
20.3 ProlificGet Shorty by Elmore Leonard
Even though it’s been about 25 years I remember the movie version of this book quite well. As a consequence, the whole time I was reading this I pictured Chili Palmer looking like John Travolta (playing Chili Palmer….). This added quite a bit to my enjoyment of this book. In fact, I found some of the novel kind of flat – not as good as I remember the movie being. There was no sense of attraction between Karen and Chili, yet they end up in bed. Leonard doesn’t really have many women in this novel and they are quite one-dimensional. There was definitely opportunity to flesh out their stories. I was surprised that there wasn’t a real ‘show-down’ between Chili and Bones, Leonard kept foreshadowing the possibility but it fizzled out.
It was obvious Leonard was skewering Hollywood types based on his experiences. That was amusing. Other than that, it was good, but not as good as it could have been. 3*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
15 combo 10.2 gsel = legs, 10.4, 20.5*
_____
50
Running total: 1730
*Ch 21 '…, Catlett still sipping his ice cold Pouilly-Fuisse.'
20.3 ProlificDeath of A Beauty Queen by E.R. Punshon
I think if this had been written by Rex Stout it would have been called Too Many Suspects. The police identified at least a half dozen as having both motive and opportunity. I had my own list of suspects, though not as many as Mitchell et al. Certainly I'd be right about one of them!
I observed in the last installment that I thought Mitchell should get a billing in the series. He was certainly front and center in this one. I say that while also observing that no information is available to the reader that Bobby Owen doesn't discover or is privy to. Yes, others are also arms of the investigation. Sometimes we even know where they are going, but until Bobby learns what they have learned, we are in the dark. One of the good things about Bobby is that he is able to sift through the information he gets and know what is of supreme importance. We can see that Mitchell will continue to encourage him and give him assignments that will aid in any investigation.
I'm hard put to say just exactly why I have been so taken with this series. Of the three elements of writing style, characterization and plot I can't say that any one of them is better than any other Golden Age mystery writer. I'm just glad I was introduced to it here on Goodreads. I have the next half dozen already on hand and will happily make my way through them. Still, this isn't more than a solid 3-stars.
+20 Task (35 books in this series!)
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.2 DOABQERP - probed)
+10 Oldies (1935)
Task total = 45
Season total = 865
20.4 SimilarSeverance by Ling Ma
Review
This book was published in 2018. I borrowed it from the library at the beginning of this year; the year being 2020. I have not been back to that library so I still have this book at near the end of the year (2020). As I picked this up, I wondered whether it will be too close to home with the current pandemic. Even as events were laughably close to home, there were enough differences that I was mostly fine with the reading and even managed to enjoy parts of it. However, as it is primarily set in New York, it may cut too close for New Yorkers so you may not want to read this one anytime soon.
A fungal infection was going around. It began in China and there is no cure. Symptoms are flu-like and those who caught this infection became practically a zombie even though this particular word is not used in the novel. There are, however, a small number of people who appear to be immune and Candace Chen is one of them. This is her story. There are alternate chapters between her past right up to the time she joined this group (after the End) and her present, as she travels with this group.
Severance is not a fast-paced action driven dystopian novel that I usually read. In fact, it was rather slow but surprisingly quite captivating. It describes a city / world as it was ending, specifically NYC, and the resilience of people. I can definitely empathise with protagonist's feeling of displacement which began with her immigrating from China to USA, her continued feeling of always being outside of others' expectations of her, her relationship with her mother, and in the end, her strength of will.
"To live in a city is to live the life that it was built for, to adapt to its schedule and rhythms, to move within the transit layout made for you during the morning and evening rush, winding through crowds of fellow commuters."
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3; 10.8 - they drove from New York through Indiana to Illinois)
+10 Review
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 1,800
20.1 AwardJazz by Toni Morrison
It's 1926 in Harlem, and Joe Trace, a mild-mannered middle-aged salesman, has shot and killed his teenage girlfriend. Then his wife attacked the corpse at the funeral. Slowly the background to all of this is unpicked, from the time the husband and wife met in Virginia and the lives of the previous generation, and how all of that haunts their lives in New York City.
There were a few things I didn't like - the way that everybody blamed the victim, for example - but I loved the slow, rhythmic prose of this, and the winding way that the story unfolds. And for an added bonus, there was no magical realism.
+20 task
+10 Combo (10.3, 10.8 NY, Virginia, Maryland)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1992)
Task total: 45
Season Total: 1045
20.3 ProlificEleven by Patricia Highsmith
This is a wonderful collection of eleven stories, hence the title. It is difficult to categorize Highsmith, but I'll borrow a phrase from her Wikipedia biography that she "questioned notions of identity and popular morality." There were a couple of stories that I found just plain odd, but I definitely had favorites which were right in line with that wiki quote.
"Mrs. Afton, among they Green Braes" featured a woman who consulted a psychiatrist. She didn't have a problem herself, but her husband had recently taken to intense exercise and what should she do about it. Dr. Feliz Bauer tried to convince her that he couldn't treat her husband unless her husband came to Dr. Bauer himself. The ending was not foreseeable.
"The Heroine" featured a young woman who applied for a job as governess and was hired on the spot without references. It soon became apparent that something was not quite right. This was not the darkest story of the bunch, but came close.
"The Empty Birdhouse" began with a woman seeing a furry creature with large eyes in a birdhouse which had been used by bluetits during their breeding season. It looked larger than a squirrel. Seeing it a second time, she told her husband who thought she must just be making it up. Then he saw it too. By the end - and I think this isn't a spoiler - I wasn't certain whether they actually saw the creature or whether they were both crazy.
And that is just the sort of thing Highsmith does for you. How much realism and how much otherness is there in her stories? Is it all unreliable narrators or do these sorts of quirky things happen? Which characters are a few degrees off center and which live in a world that is just plain peculiar? For this collection, there are two or three stories I'd throw out to make it 5 stars. But then those might be the ones others like best.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2 - EPH - hep; 10.3; 10.7)
+10 Not a Novel
+5 Oldies (1970)
Task total = 60
Season total = 925
20.5 WineThe Bartered Bridesby Mercedes Lackey
"Eating our food, drinking our wine" p 43
Task +20
Combo +5 20.3 prolifc
Grand total: 295
20.3 ProlificThe Mystery of Charles Dickens by A.N. Wilson
Scrabble: TMOCDANW Word: COD
"If Dickens remains immortal, it is, among other reasons, for his profound understanding of the inner child who remains with all of us until we die."
A.N. Wilson touches on key events in Charles Dickens' life by showing how Dickens incorporated his life experiences into his writing. "The Mystery of Charles Dickens" is not a birth to death biography. Instead, the chapters of the non-linear book are based on themes such as his death, his childhood, his marriage, charity, public readings, etc. Traumatic events from Dickens' childhood worked their way into many of his novels. Dickens was a strong advocate for the poor and the imprisoned, but he was far from charitable during his divorce from his wife. Wilson uses Dickens' letters and novels to show instances when he had a conflicted nature. In the last chapter, Wilson reflects on his own childhood in a boarding school with an abusive headmaster, and how Dickens' works helped him survive his own childhood traumas. Dickens wrote with a great combination of comedy and tragedy to emotionally engage his readers.
Since there are many references to Dickens' novels, a reader will appreciate Wilson's book more if they are familiar with a few of his works. I'm excited about reading more of Dickens' novels after reading "The Mystery of Charles Dickens." Wilson's writing would be very accessible to most readers. I enjoyed this portrait of an impressive writer and beloved entertainer.
+20 task (confirmed in help thread)
+15 combo 10.2 Scrabble; 10.8 Jetsetters (England, USA, Italy); 20.2 Journalist
+10 not a novel
+10 review
Task total: 55
Season total: 1275
20.2 JournalistRoughing It by Mark Twain
+20 pts - Task
+20 pts - combo (10.2 -TRIM, 10.4, 10.8 - Missouri, Nevada, California, Hawaii, Utah, Kansas, 20.3)
+10 pts - oldies ( 1872)
+10 pts - Not a Novel
+05 pts - Jumbo (560)
Task Total - 65 pts
Season Total - 855
20.3 ProlificRobots, Androids and Mechanical Oddities: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick
Tiles: RAAMOTSFOPKD Word: POSTMARK
+20 task
+20 combo (10.2, 10.4, 10.7, 10.8 - New York, California, Idaho, Illinois)
+10 not-a-novel
+ 5 oldies (1984)
Task total=55
Season total=965
15.7 Power of Ninepublication years, numerical order
A God and His Gifts by Ivy Compton-Burnett
+15 Task (pub 1963)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1060
10.4 PilgrimLittle Cat by Tamara Faith Berger
I'm not sure what made me think that I should listen to books this graphic and disturbing as audiobooks. This was the opposite of comforting listening to accompany walks or household tasks. I should have saved these books to read to fuel feminist rage through written word. These two books, packaged together here, have something political to say about female sex, pornography, desire, prostitution, and the male gaze. But I couldn't quite get to the politics because I kept being distracted by the language and use of words being read aloud that I rarely hear spoken.
In short, don't listen to the audiobook of these. Read these books in print. As long as you want to read angry, pornographic, disturbing scenes.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.5)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 1370
15.5 Power of 9 round 3In order by published date
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
1945
Task total = 15
Season total = 1955
20.3 ProlificI Am No One You Know by Joyce Carol Oates
Tiles: IANOYKJCO Word: JOIN
+20 task
+20 combo (10.2, 10.4, 10.7, 10.8 - Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey)
+10 not-a-novel
Task total=50
Season total=1015
10.10 Group ReadsMr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
Review
I had thought that since I love fantasy, I could probably deal with magical-realism. I have read more than a handful so I think it's time to accept that I never could understand whatever message/s author/s are trying to get across and give up reading this particular writing. I really liked the title & the cover of this book which is why I gave it a try but I should've known from the description that it's not the book for me.
I try to avoid books with hints of affairs and/or love triangles and Mr. Fox is somewhere along that line even if the third person is not really a person. Mr. Fox is a writer so he writes many stories. And in a lot of those stories, there is a particular character, Mary Foxe, of whom he appears to interact with in life -confusing his wife (and this reader!). While we follow Mr. & Mrs. Fox, there in between are stories, presumably written by Mr. Fox or Mary Foxe. I'm not quite sure of the point of each stories and in the end, how they come together.
I think I made my thoughts about this book clear enough...
+10 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - Ohm; 10.4 - M for Mr; 20.5 - "She invited him to her flat, where she cooked him dinner and they drank wine by candlelight." @p.66)
+10 Review
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 1,830
10.8 - JetsetterLady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner
+10 Task (10.8 - takes place in (among others) UK, USA and St Vincent and the Grenadines)
+ 5 Combo (10.4 and 10.2 (WIG))
+10 Not-a-novel (Autobiography)
=25 points
Season total: 215 points
20.2 - JournalistInvisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
+20 Task (20.2 - Approved in post #47)
+ 5 Combo (10.7)
+10 Not-a-novel (Non-fiction)
=35 points
Season total: 250 points
20.2 - JournalistTalking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
+20 Task (20.2 - Approved in post #
+10 Combo (10.7, 10.8 (US, Italy, US))
+10 Not-a-novel (Non-fiction)
=40 points
Season total: 290 points
10.7 - Non-fictionThe Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres
+10 Task (10.7 - Non-fiction)
+10 Not-a-novel (Non-fiction)
= 20 points
Season total: 310 points
20.9 InitiatedThe Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
An unusual epistolatory fiction in which senior demon Screwtape writes to his earthbound nephew Wormwood, advising him on how to capture the soul of his assigned human, whom they call "the patient". God is "the Enemy" to be circumvented so that they can feast on this captured soul after the "patient's" death.
It's set (and was published) during the Second World War, and Wormwood has to be reminded that his patient's death right now while the man is young, brave and idealistic would not be something for the demons to celebrate - better to try to keep him safe until middle/old age has made him more susceptible to bitterness and despair.
C S Lewis seems to me to make some good theological and ethical points, often very amusingly. But when the demons are so obviously fictions, I think the reader may come away with the impression that God is a fiction too - although Lewis tries to avoid this by never referring to God except as the demons' "Enemy." Another minus point is that the gender stereotypes are very strong. Still, I am giving it 4 stars.
+20 task
+ 5 Combo (20.3)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1942)
Task total: 45
Season Total: 1105
15.8 Power of Ninepublication years, numerical order
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
+15 Task (pub 1972)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 1120
My workplace has closed for the whole of November, so I'm racing through the last tasks!
15.6 Power of 9 round 3In order of published date
The Bad Seed by William March
1954
Task total = 15
Season total = 1970
15.7 Power of 9 round 3In order of published date
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
1963
Task total = 15
Season total = 1985
10.9 Autumn LeavesRed Star Rogue: The Untold Story of a Soviet Submarine's Nuclear Strike Attempt on the U.S. by Kenneth Sewell
Sewell explores what happened to a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine that went missing in the Pacific in 1968 during the Cold War. He puts together pieces from the US and from Russia. He makes a good case for what he thinks happened. His speculation over how the US, specifically Kissinger and Nixon, used what the US found out and why subsequent administrations have fought to keep that information hidden is pretty much just that, speculation, but interesting speculation. Clearly written. Maps and diagrams are invaluable to understanding the book.
Rsrtusoassnsaotuks. Assort
+10 task
+20 combo 10.2, 10.4, 10.7, 10.8 US, Russia, China
+ 10 NAN
+10 review
Total: 50
Season total: 620
Task 10.8 Jetsetters (Anika's Task)Read a book that takes place in at least either three countries or three U.S. states. There is no set percentage, it could be as little as a paragraph, as long as it is clear that action has taken place in three distinct locales. Please include the countries/states visited when claiming this task.
Los Angeles, California – where the majority of the novel is set
Washington, D. C. – beginning & ending scenes
p. 174: “a nameless Mississippi town that was nothing more than a dusty intersection of searing heat, crows, cotton fields…..” – our lead character, on a road trip, spends an afternoon in Mississippi
The Sellout (2015) by Paul Beatty (Paperback, 289 pages)
Booker Prize (2016)
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 615 + 10 = 625
Post 803 Katy wrote: "10.8 JetsettersGrown by Tiffany D. Jackson
No lexile score
+10 task (action in GA, NY, NJ among other states!)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 880"
This is not yet shelved as YA at BPL - too new - and the Lexile rule will not apply. I have added 10.3, 10.4 as combos. If you there are other styles/combos, let us know.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 803 Katy wrote: "10.8 JetsettersGrown by Tiffany D. Jackson
No lexile score
+10 task (action in GA, NY, NJ among other states!)
Task Total: 10
Season Tot..."
Ooh, thanks Elizabeth!
20.9 InitiatedHer Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
#301 on list
I’ll start by saying, I really enjoyed this book. At no time did I feel like giving up on it. I rarely discuss or recommend books in real life, and don’t usually give much weight to GR or Amazon reviews; but I was interested in trying determine why it would be on the ‘initiated’ list and have a bunch of not so good reviews. The only thing I can guess is that folks wanted another ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. Well, this isn’t it – that book was a tour de force, this one is a well written, interesting and very imaginative. I thought the way Niffenegger handled the premise of American twins coming of age in London as the result of an inheritance unique, and sometimes fun (such as when they are exploring London). Ultimately the novel is about what a person will do for love. There is a different answer for everyone (and every character), and some of the answers were very uncomfortable. I did find one or two jarring notes, that I would have liked more background to. It is a ghost story (not a scary one…. well, until you start thinking about what happened more..!); so if you like contemporary ghost stories I would give this one a try. 4*
20 task
10 review
10 combo 10.2 hfsan = fan, 10.8 Chicago, London, Amsterdam
_____
40
Running total: 1770
20.3 -ProlificA Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci
+20 task
+15 Combo (10.2, AMTMDB - tomb, mad, mat, 10.4, 20.5 They drank wine on one of the outdoor terraces)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 1410
20.3 - ProlificNo Other Way by Willow Rose
+20 task
+5 Combo (10.2 - NOWWR - now, worn, wow)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 1460
15.8 Power of 9 round 3In order of published date
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
1972
Task total = 15
Season total = 2000
10.4 PilgrimLouis Undercover by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault
+10 Task
(No style, graphic novel)
Task total = 10
Points total = 620
20.2 JournalistA Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence
Having almost nothing to do with this book, one of my earliest thoughts was what a powerhouse are the Canadian women authors. I feel very lucky to have accidentally discovered Margaret Laurence early, to be followed shortly by Alice Munro. So many are avid fans of Margaret Atwood (although I am not), and then there is Carol Shields and Gabrielle Roy. There are others on my list yet to try. Just simply fabulous women all of them! O Canada!
This title includes eight inter-connected stories. The copyright page indicated six of them had been previously published as stand alones. I'm glad I read them this way, but yes, all of them are self contained stories and any information needed from the earlier ones is mentioned so no continuity is lost. In fact, I think they are not in quite chronological order. The first person narrator is Vanessa MacLeod, who is 10 in the opening story. She does get older in subsequent stories, but there are two where Nessa's age spans several years and so revert to a younger self at their beginning.
Nessa's family is relatively small. Her father is one of the town doctors and we learn that her mother was his nurse at one time. We first meet the family on their way to Sunday dinner at the Brick House, where Nessa's Grandfather Connor lives. Grandfather Connor is an opinionated, irrascible old cuss with whom everyone tries to get along. It is also painfully obvious that getting along with him would try the patience of a saint - and only his wife actually manages it. I loved all of these characterizations, even when I did not like all of the characters. Even the minor supporting characters are well done.
The writing is just superb. In describing the Brick House on page one, Laurence writes By the mid-thirties, the spruces were taller than the house, and two generations of children had clutched at boughs which were as rough and hornily knuckled as the hands of old farmers, and had swung themselves up to secret sanctuaries. I became too interested in what she had to say for the most part to much more underlining.
I have not read *about* this book much, but it must be at least somewhat autobiographical. Vanessa MacLeod writes stories. She briefly tells us about them and sometimes about her inspiration. Many of these stories are abandoned. I sort of think that's probably how a 10-year old or a 12-year old would begin before learning enough to hone her craft. Writers are readers too, and I did like this: I was lying on the roof of the tool-shed, reading. An enormous spruce tree grew beside the shed, and the branches feathered out across the roof, concealing anyone who was perched there. I was fifteen, and getting too old to be climbing on roofs, my mother said.
Rarely am I sorry to come to the end of a book. Eight stories was not enough. Will I think of this as one of my top ten favorites? Maybe not. Maybe only top 25 - but that's pretty good, isn't it?
+20 Task (posted in the thread - and reminder to self, remove from Prolific list)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.2 ABITHML = balm; 10.7)
+10 Not a novel
+ 5 Oldies
Task total = 55
Season total = 980
10.6 BannedA Separate Peace by John Knowles
Lexile 1030
A painful novel about the destruction of innocence, set in an American boys' boarding school during the Second World War. The boys grow up knowing they are destined for the war, and perhaps it's this that causes the cruelty? Or is that just how teenagers can be?
This book is not so well known in the UK so I’m only discovering now that it’s seen as an allegory, with Finny representing the innocence of America that was destroyed in that war. Perhaps it didn’t capture the imagination in the same way here because Britons were already cruel and cynical after World War One… But I thought it was a great book, if not always easy to take.
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.2: letters ASPKJ, word ASP)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1959)
Task total: 30
Season Total: 1150
10.7 Non-FictionThe Way of St Benedict by Rowan Williams
This book was not what I was expecting. Perhaps it’s my fault for not reading the description thoroughly enough, but I had hoped for something about monastic life and how the Rule of St Benedict might inform a secular or even agnostic individual life. This book has none of this, and in a sense looks at the Rule from the opposite point of view, considering its macro rather than micro applications - how it might inform the established Church and world politics. Given Rowan Williams' position as a former Archbishop of Canterbury perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was disappointed, and I found the style dense and dull.
+10 task
+10 Combo (10.2 letters TWOSBRW, word WORST; 20.3)
+10 Review
+10 Not a novel
Task total: 40
Season Total: 1190
30.1 Go for the GreenRough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer
I'm not a horse lover. It's not that I dislike them, it's just that in my limited association with them I've been thrown twice and we have respectfully decided to go our separate ways. I don't go out of my way to pay attention to any of the Triple Crown events--I only know the term "Triple Crown" thanks to a trivia game we had when I was younger. I was never one of those little girls who would ask Santa for a pony.
All of that to say: you don't have to love horses to love this book about the world's longest horse race. The author, Lara Prior-Palmer, was the youngest person (aged 19) and first female to win this race (I'm not giving anything away--that tidbit is dropped within the first seven pages), which ostensibly follows the mail route established by Genghis Khan, 1000 km and an average of ten days in length.
I loved the philosophical ramblings that overtake her mind as she's traversing the vast, solitary steppe: from The Tempest to Winnie the Pooh, Mongolian history to the uncomfortable legacy of Empire, family history to single-minded desire to take down the competition all the while brimming with youth and vitality...this was a grand journey to be on.
For fans of the tv series Alone or The Amazing Race and books about solitary journeys (Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, A Walk in the Woods, etc.).
+30 Task (set 91% in Mongolia)
+20 "Blue" country
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+15 Combo (10.2 RMRTHWLHLPP: PHT--thank you to scrabblewordfinder.org for that one!; 10.4; 10.8: Mongolia, UK, Austria)
Task total: 85
Season total: 1810
20.3 ProlificNight-Side: 18 Tales by Joyce Carol Oates
Tiles: NSTJCO Word: JOT
+20 task
+15 combo (10.2, 10.7, 10.8 - Wisconsin, New York, New Hampshire)
+10 not-a-novel
+ 5 oldies (1977]
Task total=50
Season total=1065
20.6 Civil WarAlice's Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll
Published 1864
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 : AAUGLC => GALA ; 20.3
+15 Oldies (1864)
Task total = 45
Points total = 665
10.8 Jetsetters Weapons of Mass Diplomacy by Abel Lanzac and Christophe Blain
Takes place in France, USA, Russia,...
+10 Task
No style points as graphic novel
Task total = 10
Points total = 675
30.1 Go for the GreenSouth Georgia Island
The Island of South Georgia by Robert K. Headland
This book tells the reader probably MORE than he or she wants to know about the Antarctic island of South Georgia. It is almost a reference book in narrative form. The history of the island is related in painstakingly minute details. We learn of the particulars of every ship's visit or near-visit in the early days. We learn about the minutia of whale hunting, seal hunting, elephant seal hunting...and all the various species. Sounds interesting, right? But, really, I am not exaggerating that the information is just too much. It is interesting to learn about the introduced species to the island, reindeer, rats and mice and how they survive as well as others that did not work out...dogs, cattle and rabbits. The information about the flora is also interesting up to a point. The most interesting part of the book is the last chapter in which the author was one of the people involved in 1982 when the Argentines invaded the island (and the Falklands) for 22 days. Again, more detail than I need to know, but interesting nonetheless. 2 stars.
Task=30
Project Bonus=30
Review=10
NaN=10
Oldie=5 (1984)
Combos= 15 (10.2=5 (Gist); 10.4; 10.7)
Task Total= 100
Grand Total=480
30.1 Go for the GreenI didn't think it would come in time (from the library), but it did.... so, we've now turned New Caledonia green!
Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
Well, I can officially say after this book – I am a Rachel Joyce fan. I thought from the first time I heard of the book, that it would be up my alley. An obscure beetle, a hard to get to island, female naturalists – what more could you want! Of course, it’s not a straight-forward narrative or else it wouldn’t be so interesting. Miss Benson is a very unlikely, and untested, person to be going off to find this beetle; and her assistant is equally unlikely (although perhaps tested in other ways). In many ways it is a madcap adventure, but as the characters develop and unfold you see it is also very human and real. Joyce unfolds the story very skillfully, and you end up rooting for both women. There is a villain of sorts who is very sadly deranged (PTSD, beriberi and some other underlying issue) who adds a lot to the whole narrative. I liked everything about this novel, and barely could put it down. 5*
30 task
30 no book country
10 review
15 combo 10.4, 10.8 (UK, Australia, New Caledonia 60.4%), 20.5*
____
85
Running total: 1855
* Muncie stole and drank a bottle of wine from the British Consul
20.2 JournalistLittle Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Wine: Pg 173 "Flora had just said 'Mr Clennam, will you give me a glass of port for Mr F's Aunt?' "
"Little Dorrit" is a novel which was originally published in serial form in nineteen installments between 1855 and 1857. Charles Dickens was traumatized when he was sent out to work as a child during the time his father was in debtors' prison. Dickens incorporated the Marshalsea prison into this novel which has a strong theme of imprisonment. Mr Dorrit was a gentleman who had fallen on hard times. This resulted in a long stay in the prison where he was referred to as "The Father of the Marshalsea." Little Dorrit (Amy) had the distinction of being born in the Marshalsea, and was known for her warm, nurturing manner. There are many reversals of fortune during the events in the novel.
Other characters are emotionally imprisoned because they are bitter, or trying to meet the expectations of society. Some characters live for wealth and social position, but it does not make them happier. Deception is practiced to gain wealth or social status.
Another main character is Arthur Clennam who described himself as "the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything." His mother was a cold-hearted woman who lived in a Calvinistic manner. Arthur was still emotionally living under the shadow of his upbringing.
There is lots of humor in this novel, including the character names of the upper class Barnacles and Stiltstockings. They run the Circumlocution Office where there are mountains of red tape, citizens fill out multiple forms which only get filed away, and nothing gets done. Dickens does some wonderful satirical writing in the chapters about government bureaucracy.
"Little Dorrit" has many characters and multiple subplots. Although Dickens was writing the book in serial form, he managed to tie up most of the loose ends by the conclusion. He exposed some serious social problems while writing an entertaining story.
+20 task
+20 combo 10.4 Pilgrim, 10.8 Jetsetters (England, Switzerland, Italy), 20.3 Prolific, 20.5 Wine
+10 review
+15 oldie (1855)
+25 jumbo (1021 pages)
Task total: 90
Season total: 1365
15.9 Power of 9 Round 3In order of publication date
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
1981
Lexile 1110
Task total = 15
Season total = 2015
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Bedelia by Vera Caspary (1945)
+15 pts - Task
Season Total - 790