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10.3 SingleMalorie by Josh Malerman
Review: Is this book interesting? Yes. Is this book amazing? Not really. Did I still read it in a day and half ? Also yes.
It's a good read, nice continuation of the story but with a different enough story line and plot furthering for it not to feel redundant. I admit I suffered a little from memory gap. It's been at least a year if not more since I read the first or watched the movie. I typically like to go through a series once it is complete; one right after the other to avoid this.
It's been 17 years since Bird Box and although not much has changed for Malorie, her world is about to get a whole lot bigger.
Reminiscent of The Walking Dead in that readers start to see how other people have survived this thing in addition to the main character's narrative and perspective.
The characters of the children are well developed although it would have been nice to have more. I'm a big fan of flashbacks and it would have been great to see a few more little snippets of the years between Bird Box and Malorie.
+10 Task
+5 Combo 10.4 PILGRIM
+10 Review
Task Total: 25
Grad Total: 25
10.3 SingleHimself by Jess Kidd
Thank you, Saoirse Ronan for clarifying how to pronounce “Tadgh” on Colbert (Tige, like Tiger).
Whenever I do a reading challenge, at some point I get really cranky. This is because I keep reading books that would have been DNF’ed if not for said challenge. Some of those books are just not my thing, some are boring, and some earn a place on my “worst” self.
I started this book in a foul mood, ready to force my way through a speed read of something dreadful. My last book was a “worst” and I was feeling like I’d never enjoy the written word again.
Himself was balm to a weary reader’s soul. Oh, this book! It ended, and I teared up. I read this slowly, for me. I kept re-reading passages and getting up to digest them. But because this was unputdownable, I still finished in a day.
The book starts with a brutal murder that is beautifully written. There is horror and hilarity on the same page, often in the same paragraph. The characters are so vibrant that you end up loving nearly all of them. It’s a really magical book. Murder mystery, ghost story, love story, comedy, tragedy... it’s a lot of things. Recommended.
+ 10 Task
+ 10 Review
+ 5 combo (20.5 - mostly pints and whiskey, but there was some sherry imbibed)
Task total = 25
Season total = 440 (includes the correction noted in post 98)
15.2 Power of 9pub years, numerical order
The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon
+15 Task (2018)
Season total = 70
10.2 Scrabble!How to Save a Life (Dreamcatcher #1) by Emma Scott
first letters: H T S A L E S
word: SALES
Review
Jo Clark is moving, yet again. Her legal guardian/uncle is a trucker and he moves a lot. This time, they are heading to Iowa and in 6 weeks, she will be 18 and can do whatever she likes. School is just like what she expected with the usual social stratum but Evan Salinger is one she never expected to meet. Anywhere. Anytime.
Evan is the 'freak' of the school. He's jock-gorgeous on the outside but as rumours say, he's crazy and had even spent time at an institution. There are some things that Evan just seem to know and he says, it comes to him in a dream. He's prepared to just go under the radar and leave as soon as he's graduated. Jo, however, presents a problem... or is it a possibility of happiness?
I wasn't keen on the beginning, tbh, and wasn't keen on the middle either! Jo is full of trouble and not so much of her own making. She's sad, angry, and just broken. I was interested in the dream thing but it wasn't really explored; just vague references to some Indian American mythology. Most of the story was told from Jo's perspective with bits of Evan's but I think there should be more of Evan's too! Overall, it was a dark sort of romance read but thank goodness for HEA.
+10 Task
+5 (10.8 - Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona)
+10 Review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 205
20.3 ProlificThe Gift (The Amish of Hart County #3) by Shelley Shepard Gray
Review
The Gift opens one early November evening and Susanna Schwartz was driving home when her horse was frightened by gunshots which resulted in an accident. The Schwartz have just moved into their new home in Hart County but the Amish community has not been as welcoming as they expected. It seems the family, the Vances, who sold them their house was not happy with the sale.
Neil Vance found it hard to accept the changes in his life and yet, he should not have taken it out on Susanna. As Neil and Susanna tentatively found their way to being friends, other mysterious sinister incidents haunt the Schawartz. Who is trying to get the Schwartz to leave their new home?
A single sitting reading for me as I just can't get enough of Amish romance suspense, it seems. Even as I enjoyed reading this sort of community and the romance, I did feel that this book to be unfinished. I was surprised to find the book finished when I expected at least another chapter or two to tie up loose ends. While the romance was resolved fine, the mystery was sort of left out to air. A comfort read but... could be wrapped up better.
+20 Task
+5 (10.4 - G for Gift)
+10 Review
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 240
15.2 Power of 9 Human Acts by Han Kang
218 pages
reading 09 to 90
page # locked in message 14
(questions thread)
15 task
____
15
Running total: 290
20.6 Civil WarThe Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
Explicitly takes place in the London area in 1861. Time travel occurs with a few flashbacks/forwards but can't be more than 10-15% of the story.
I really enjoyed this mystery novel with an unexpected protagonist -Sir Richard Burton. In many ways he is very familiar - a big strong deductively smart white Englishman, rough in some ways with occasionally caring motives and emotions (gruff ones, of course), but he is written very well and I enjoyed going through the story mostly from his point of view.
The description of Albertian England, poisoned with ideas from the future to create a steampunk style reality, was excellent and evocative... And dirty! Grimy and foggy and poor in so many ways. The technology was both the result and the driver of the plot, which had, at its heart, very human motivations.
I am interested in the others in the series, but have not yet decided if I will try to read them or not.
+20 task
+5 length (511 pages)
+10 review
+5 combo 10.2 - t,s,a,o,s,h,j,m,h -HOST
Task total: 40
Grand total: 135
20.9 Initiated (Kate S's Task)Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Review
Fat Charlie's father died. Then he found out that he actually has a brother. And that both his brother and father are more than what they seem. When he met his brother though, his life went to the dogs and when he tried to get his life back, things didn't go as planned. Along this journey, he found the truth about himself.
I do love Gaiman's writing and the writing was just as excellent in this book but I just couldn't get into it because... there's that bit that I usually avoid and I'd have dropped it except that I needed to finish this one. So I made myself read it quickly. Unfortunately, this is totally my fault that I cannot enjoy the book more than I could've. Loved the characters and the language, Gaiman truly has lively writing.
+20 Task
+20 (10.2 - BANG; 20.2; 20.3; 20.5 - "Fat Charlie took another sip of his wine." p91)
+10 Review
Post Total: 50
Season Total: 290
20.3 ProlificPursuit by Joyce Carol Oates
JCO's fiction is often dark, I expect that, but this short novel was not fun to read. I really can't think of anything else she has written that is so relentlessly dark. It tells the story of a young woman who is haunted by nightmares of bones next to a creek. Early in the story she marries a young man who had a very strict religious upbringing. We then get the backstory of her childhood, and it gets really ugly. Every character in this story is badly messed up. Even the settings are dreary and depressing--abandoned crumbling farms, pastures left to grow wild, towns decaying from economic collapse and drug addiction, families living in run-down houses.
There is a flicker of light at the end, but it was no fun getting there. The writing is excellent, but since I rate books on how much I enjoyed reading them, I'm giving this only 3 stars.
Wine quote, at 17%: "After a struggle Willem managed to open the champagne bottle...Excited, elated, in a state of near euphoria underlaid with dread, Willem touched his glass against Abby's, and drank. In imitation of him, Abby took an experimental sip." (I didn't know that champagne is wine, but Google says "all champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is champagne")
+20 task (JCO bibliography)
+20 combo (10.2 tiles: PJCO word: COP; 10.3; 10.4; 20.5)
+10 review
Task total=50
Season total=225
Just in case I need to repost as 15.1 rather than 15.2:15.1 Power of Nine
The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers, 1st pub'd 2018
Points This Post: 15
Total Points So Far: 15
Power of Nine Chart:
09
18 The Monk of Mokha 1st pub'd 2018
27
36
45
54
63
72
81
90
From Post 3Penny wrote: " 10.1 Short Works
Good Citizens Need Not Fear: Stories by Maria Reva
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 10"
+10 Not-a-Novel
From Post 42Tien wrote: "10.2 Scrabble!
The Dark is Rising (The Dark Is Rising #2) by Susan Cooper
920L
first letters: T D I R S C
word: DIRT
Review
I made myself re-read Over Sea, Under Stone ..."
+5 Oldies
20.3 ProlificRedhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
"He slowed to a walk on the last stretch approaching York Road. He momentarily mistook the hydrant for a redhead and gave his usual shake of the shoulders at how repetitious this thought was, how repetitious all his thoughts were, how they ran in a deep rut and how his entire life ran in a rut, really."
Micah Mortimer does not see clearly without glasses. He also is unable to see clearly when emotional relationships are involved. Micah is exceptionally organized and sticks to the same daily routine. The forty-three year old man runs a computer help service called Tech Hermit, and does odd jobs around his apartment building in return for free rent. Micah, with his OCD tendencies, can't understand how his disorganized older sisters and their loving, boisterous families can live in such chaos. He has a woman friend, Cass, who is a warmhearted teacher. But Micah is forced to reevaluate how he emotionally responds to people when Cass ends the relationship. His routine is also disrupted when he gets a visit from the teenage son of an old college girlfriend.
Anne Tyler's novels always bring a smile to my face because they are heartwarming and humorous. The reader can recognize the strengths and weaknesses humans possess in her quirky characters. Micah may sometimes be emotionally clueless, but Anne Tyler has us pulling for him and hoping for a happy ending.
Scrabble: RBTSOTRAT Word BOAT
Wine: p.72 "Behind him came Ada, big-boned and brightly lipsticked beneath a frizz of dyed red hair, bearing a magnum of chardonnay."
+20 task (23 novels)
+25 combos 10.2 Scrabble; 10.4 PILGRIM; 10.9 Autumn Leaves approved; 20.1 Another Birthday? Born 1941; 20.5 Wine
+10 review
Task total: 55
Season total: 165
From Post 72Tien wrote: "10.8 Jetsetters (Anika's Task)
Music City by Leona Bryant
North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, and I think a couple more that I missed
Review
Music City is a ..."
+5 Combo 10.4
From Post 67Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "10.4 Pilgrim
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Some reviewers call this a space opera. And that fits well. We have a washed-up detective and a good-looking, right..."
+5 Combo 10.2
From Post 63Valerie wrote: "20.3 Prolific
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
Starting with mediocre, moving to very good and finally the big jump to Nabokov; that nicely describes my last three reads!
This..."
With an original published date of 1957, this only qualifies for 5 Oldies points.
From Post 51Heather wrote: "10.1 - compilation
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
+10 task
+10 not-a-novel
+5 combo (10.2-FURS)
Task total: 25
Season total: 35"
+5 Oldies
Kate S wrote: "From Post 67Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "10.4 Pilgrim
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Some reviewers call this a space opera. And that fits well. We have a washed..."
Hmm. I don’t know where I got the impression that we couldn’t use middle initials? Went back and read the task and it is not there. So,
l,w,j,s,a,c SAW
Season total: 85
Thank you, Kate
Geez, I've gotten to comfortable in not looking for combos lolThanks for the extra points, Kate x
Kate S wrote: "From Post 63Valerie wrote: "20.3 Prolific
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
Starting with mediocre, moving to very good and finally the big jump to Nabokov; that nicely descri..."
Thanks! That's what happens when I try to remember the ranges rather than looking them up!
We have all gotten pretty comfortable with no combos, and I appreciate the support over the summer for allowing us to forgo. However, it is a nice feature here at RwS and I am glad to have them back, even if we may need some time to adjust. :)
10.2 Scrabble!Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano
+10 Task: FOTTOMTEP FOOT
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 25
10.2 Scrabble!Dominicana by Angie Cruz
+10 Task: DAC CAD
+ 5 Combo: 10.3 Single
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 40
20.5 WineA Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
+20 Task: Page 158 you gave a skin full of undiluted wine to a giant who usually drinks sheep milk
+ 5 Combo: 10.2 Scrabble! (ATSNH HAT)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 100 (Adjusted)
15.1 Power of nine sub-challenge (Publication years in order- 09)
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman by Lisa Scottoline (pub 2009)
+15 pts - task
Season Total - 95 pts
10.4 PilgrimThe Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein
860L
Review
The Pearl Thief is a wonderful coming-of-age novel where a 16 years old girl who grew up with many privileges learns that so many things she has taken for granted aren't, in fact, ones she earned. Those she met in this novel ranged from a deaf librarian, feisty Travelling girl, a prejudiced Water warden, etc. I love the characters, the setting, and most of the story. A fascinating historical fiction into a slice of summer in Scotland in late 1930s.
+10 Task
+5 (10.2 - WET)
+10 Review
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 315
20.3 ProlificThe Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Chasing after an errant corgi one day, the Queen stumbles upon a mobile library visiting an internal yard of the palace. Inside she meets the librarian and a young man from the palace kitchens who is busy reading. She considers it only polite to borrow a book, and from there she slowly becomes obsessed with reading, to the despair of the people whose job it is to organise her life.
I read this novella in my lunch breaks at work, and it was the perfect book for that - gently amusing, easy to pick up and put down, and great for de-stressing on a busy day.
* For 10.2 Scrabble: Tiles TURAB, Word BRAT
* For 20.5 Wine: "as he sipped his champagne, he was the most miserable of creatures."
+20 Task (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/al... )
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.5)
+10 Review
Task total: 40
Season Total: 225
15.3 Power of NineThe Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
+15 Task (527 pages)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 135
15.5 Power of NineLa Place de l’Étoile by Patrick Modiano
+15 Task (born 1945)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 165
20.5 WineShowbiz by Ruby Preston
"Having finished his second glass of wine, he decided to be bold." -@8%
Review
Scarlett Savoy has always been enamoured by the glitter that is Broadway but not on stage. Her dream is to be a producer of Broadway showz. And so she found herself assisting one of the biggest names in Broadway even if he's hell to work for. Even so, she has no idea what is buried underneath all his success but it's all about to crash down on her.
Showbiz is a good-paced light read. Chapters are short. Characters are likeable and the bad guys really are unlikeable. I didn't really have much expectations on this one since I really only just picked it up for a challenge but am pleasantly surprised by how fast time flew whilst reading this.
+20 Task
+5 (10.3)
+10 Review
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 350
20.3 ProlificChildren of Time (Children of Time #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Review
The first thing I have to warn you about this book is... SPIDERS! If you have arachnophobia, this may not be the book for you. Unless, of course, you like your horror genre lol
I read this one via audiobook so this may contribute to my struggle to follow the story, at least for the first half anyway. To begin with, there are 3 different POVs / settings which I'm not going to try to explain because I don't even know how to begin! Suffice to say that they all had different goals to start with or maybe they're not so different after all... We all just want to survive.
To start with, I struggled with the different settings and then I had to grasp the jumps in time (I think the novel actually spans many human generations!). Even as I try very hard not to think of spiders, I appreciated the ending; humans have a lot to learn.
+20 Task
+5 (10.2 - COAT)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (600p)
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 390
10.2 Scrabble All Together Deadby Charlaine Harris
CHAT
Review
Sookie is more involved with the vampire community even though she isn't dating her vampire boyfriend anymore. The sheriff of Area five has found out about her special ability and has use for her. She is a telepath. She is dating a new man who is a two natured. He is a were tiger. These groups don 't like each other much. To make matters worse, someone burned her house down. She never found out who was responsible. I read this series before but it is fun to go back again and reread them.
Task +10
Review +10
Grand Total: 30
post 127 Karen Michele wrote: "10.3 SingleHamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 50"
Combo with 10.2. ohm - some electrical gizmo definition I don't remember what exactly
30.1 Go for the GreenSan Marino
San Marino, the history in miniature: The very small history by Pierluigi Taddei
Some of you may have seen my comments in the Socializing thread:
"...a book I got off Kindle free......although not racist like Ann's book..... my book seems like a 4th grade history report written in Italian....and then put through a 3rd rate online language translator....to emerge as a completely unedited mess of nearly indecipherable word vomit."
I was speaking about this book. But for this category and my goal to read a book from or about each country...and the dearth of books about San Marino, I forced myself to finish reading this gobbledygook. The author apparently captured some information from old church and court records to depict the mostly farm life and problems of San Marino residents. The book focuses on the 19th and 20th century. The interesting part...(that might be an overstatement) was the discussion of how San Marino was an asylum for an assortment of villains...political and otherwise...and how Napoleon honored San Marino's independence despite the fact that he honored nearly no other nation.
Task=30
Project Bonus=30
Review=10
NaN=10
10.2=5 (tiles= SMTHIMPT) Word= MIST
10.7=5
Task Total= 90
Grand Total=90
15.2 - Power of NineWinter's Mourn by Mary Stone
+15 task (318 pgs)
-5 error on post 8
Task total: 10
Grand total: 100
10.8 - JetsetterUnforeseen by Nick Pirog
+10 task (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont)
+10 Combo (10.2 - U N P - pun, 10.3)
Task total: 20
Grand total: 120
20.2 JournalistThe Portrait by Iain Pears
This is written as a first person dialogue directed at one person. This might be off-putting to some. At first I wasn't comfortable reading it. I wanted some straight narrative or to read a response from the other person. I'm not positive I actually squirmed, but I'm sure I felt like it. Still, I never had any intention of setting it aside. I have read other novels where the beginning - and even mid section - were slow. In those as in this, I came to recognize the very good foundation laid in those early pages.
The two men are Henry Morris MacAlpine, a painter, and William Nasmyth, an art critic. Henry is on a small French island off the Breton coast having left the London art scene several years earlier when he was friends with William. William has joined him there to have his portrait painted. The time of their meeting is 1913, but the story really takes place in the years leading up to this meeting.
Iain Pears is an art historian. Jonathan Argyll of the series is an art dealer turned detective. It appears his standalone novels, like this one, are good historical mysteries all involving art in some way or another. But they are not mysteries in the traditional sense. In this, I could only listen to Henry tell his story and wonder: why did he leave London?; why did William come to such a remote place to have his portrait painted? The story builds while I wondered. The writing is above average. The characterizations are quite good - and don't expect just the two male characters!
This is short at just over 200 pages. I think I would not have been able to tolerate being uncomfortable listening to Henry ramble on for more than that. It was exactly what Pears needed to get his story told - and told brilliantly. I'm rambling myself here, trying to decide whether this is worth 5-stars. I so want it to be, but I'm afraid it just doesn't quite make the leap over that line.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.2 - tpip = pit, 10.4, 20.5 "I got no work done whatsoever after you left, and had recourse in the early evening to that wine which you find so revolting."
Task total = 45
Season total = 115
15.3 Power of 9 I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
reading 09 to 90
page # locked in message 14
(questions thread)
327 pgs
15 task
_____
15
Running total: 300
20.2 JournalistThe Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
+20 Task
+20 Combo 10.2 TCITYDAP=>CITY, 10.9 yellow, 20.3, 20.5 (After a few sips of wine and a diplomatic clearing of the throat…)
Task total = 40
Season Total: 205
10.4 PilgrimLet's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
Hilarious. If you have read any of The Bloggess, you already know this. I was already familiar with Beyoncé (the first time I read it, I cried with laughter... and I very nearly bought my own rusty metal chicken when I saw one in HomeGoods...) but most of the stories were new to me.
The Wine Country vacation was my favorite. Or maybe the Halloween Party. I also have a little problem with being powerless to stop panicked crazy story telling. My stories are probably not as insane as Jenny’s, but dear god, I still wake up in embarrassment terror remembering some things.
These are all little episodes, and they are best experienced in bits. I tried to listed to a long stretch of this and it does not work as well back-to-back. But as little breaks between other reading, it is perfection.
+10 task
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel
+10 combo (
Task total =
Season total =
10.10 Group ReadMr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
I wanted to like this one, very much, but I think you have to be in a very scholarly mood for it. Or, stop trying to figure out WTF and look at it as a few short stories.
I adored White is for Witching but I hated Boy, Snow, Bird, and unfortunately this has more in common with the latter.
Oyeyemi is an interesting writer. She writes beautifully, very visually, but without clear plots. I get very sleepy when I read her, because the text is like a dream. It kind of makes sense, but only in a dream-logic way.
Also? I feel dumb. This book is a literary game, and you need to be really engaged with the text. I was not in the right headspace for this - I wanted a book that did not ask as much from me. Of course it did not help that my brain kept expecting Fantastic Mr. Fox, and that’s not the right track AT ALL. Brain, no. Stop expecting whimsy. Brain, NO!
I would love this in an academic setting, I would have found it rich. But for pleasure? It was a bit too exhausting.
+10 Task
+10 review
+ 20 combo (10.2 MFHO - ohm, 10.4, 10.8 US, England, France, 20.5)
Task total = 40
Season total =
20.2 JournalistOnce Upon a Time I Lived on Mars: Space, Exploration, and Life on Earth by Kate Greene
Kate Greene, a science journalist and physicist, and five other people spent four months living in a geodesic dome on the red, rocky slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. They were chosen to participate in a NASA-funded 2013 research project which simulated some of the challenges faced by astronauts in a Martian environment. The participants had to wear space suits if they ventured outside the dome. There was limited electricity and water in their tight quarters.
They were surveyed each day about the different types of astronaut food they ate, crew bonding, and their reactions to boredom, isolation, and delayed communication. Each crew member had special jobs to perform, and they all spent time doing chores in the dome. They also tested various types of clothing. Everyone had to exercise daily, although they found it led to increased carbon dioxide in the air.
The author wrote a series of essays with the research project as a jumping off point to information about the space program, and musings about her personal life. Although this book was written before the pandemic, the essays on boredom and isolation certainly had a ring of truth about them. Her disabled brother was confined to a hospital bed for a year which gave another view of the psychological effects of isolation.
Greene also writes about the amount of food needed on a long mission. The largest men need twice as many calories as the smallest women. Perhaps more small women and small men could be chosen for the long Mars mission someday. The human urge for exploration through the ages, private versus public-funded exploration, and space tourism were also interesting topics. She also tells about the emotional reactions of astronauts as they viewed Earth from space, and some dangerous situations they experienced on space walks.
The essays are based on themes, rather than chronological order. It sometimes seemed like the author jumped from one idea to another. However, her reflections fit the themes and provided lots of food for thought about space exploration and everyday life on planet Earth.
Scrabble: OUATILOMKG Word: LOT
+20 task approved
+10 combo 10.2 Scrabble; 10.8 Jet Setter (Hawaii, New York, Kansas, California, etc)
+10 not a novel (non-fiction, essays)
+10 review
Task total: 50
Season total: 215
10.7 Non-Fiction (Ed's Task)The Three R's by Ruth Beechick
My review
This book is for a quite specific audience (parents who homeschool their children) so I’m not sure how useful my review will be to most people. At least this probably won’t prompt you to add yet another book to your growing TBR though!
Ruth Beechick was a teacher and a developer of homeschool curricula. She’s known for the natural learning approach, which I would say can be summed up as “stop making things more difficult than they need to be.” She encourages parents to think about how much children have learned since they were babies (learning to talk, for example) without formal instruction and then think about how this approach can be applied to learning to read or write or do arithmetic.
When you choose to homeschool it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the different curricula and educational approaches you find out about. You can quite quickly feel you’re never doing “enough” with your children. This book is a perfect antidote to that, reminding parents that we know our children best and we don’t have to follow someone else’s idea of what a child “should” be learning at their age.
I found the first section of the book, which is about teaching reading, the most helpful. It shows that learning to read doesn’t need to be over complicated - for instance, most children learning to read don’t need to be taught that ‘ou’ can be pronounced seven different ways (try it! House, touch, famous, group, shoulder, cough, tour). There are also many helpful suggestions for educational games to play and reminders of all the opportunities there are to support and encourage learning during day to day life.
I recommend this book to any homeschool parent, especially people who are feeling discouraged and worrying they’re not doing “enough” schoolwork. I’ll finish with one of my favourite quotes from the book, this description of a family’s curriculum plan:
“For reading, we read. For writing, we write.”
I want to think back to that every time I start to question our approach to learning or make things more difficult than they need to be.
+10 task
+10 not a novel
+10 review
Post total: 30
Season total: 30
20.10 Another Birthday? (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
My review
I really wanted to like this series so I decided to try the second book even though I’d been a little disappointed with the first. Unfortunately, if anything I actually liked this even less.
For a series about a private detective, the cases she is hired to investigate play a smaller role in the books than I normally expect from this genre. There is more focus on the character’s daily lives and their personal histories. The mystery elements of the book take second place so they’re never fully developed and are just not particularly intriguing or original. Certain aspects of the plot seem so implausible that they undermine the characterisation because they leave the reader questioning why a character they think they know would behave in this way.
Hopefully I’ll continue to enjoy other books by Alexander McCall Smith but I think this will probably be the last of this particular series for me.
+20 task (author born in 1948)
+10 review
+15 combo [10.2 (toga) 20.3, 20.7]
Post total: 45
Season total: 75
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (other topics)Animal Dreams (other topics)
The Willows (other topics)
This Mournable Body (other topics)
This Mournable Body (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
John Berendt (other topics)Barbara Kingsolver (other topics)
Algernon Blackwood (other topics)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (other topics)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (other topics)
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Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey by Kathleen Rooney
CAMWKR (War or Rack or Raw or Mack or Mark or Warm)
+10 task
+5 combo 10.8 (France, England, USA)
Task Total = 15
Season Total = 35