Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
FA 21 Completed Tasks
15.5 Counting on AuthorsThe Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
+15 Task (13 letters)
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 775
15.7 Counting on AuthorsGreat Circle by Maggie Shipstead
+15 Task (15 letters)
+ 5 Over 500 pages
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 795
15.1 Counting on AuthorsUnpolished Gem by Alice Pung
+15 Task (9 letters)
+5 Not-a-Novel
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1,565
15.8 Counting on AuthorsAmong the Ruins (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #3) by Ausma Zehanat Khan
+15 Task (16 letters)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1,580
10.2 HalloweenThe Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time And Fighting Wars by Patrick Hennessey
+10 pts - Task
+15 pts - Combo (10.7 - British Grenadiers Regiment in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, 20.4, 20.9-“page 83 “We posed for photos after a champagne breakfast among the ruins of the training village…” page 288 “…what should have been a celebration was forced jollity and strained stoicism which ebbed as the bitter, champagne-filled horns came out, and we raised endless toasts to Harold Macmillan,who in the First World War was famous across the Grenadiers for his singular bravery and, though thrice wounded, never received a single honor, and we got more and more drunk and more and more angry.”)
+10 pts - Not a Novel
Task Total - 35 pts
15.2 Counting on Authors Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee
+15 task (10 letters)
+ 5 not a novel (short stories)
Task total: 20
Season total: 675
10.7 ServiceThe Crowded Grave by Martin Walker
This was another excellent instalment in the ‘Bruno, Chief of Police’ series. Once again, the plot was complicated and the mystery suitably mysterious. I did have my suspicions about one of the characters but didn’t foresee the ending at all. I think what I like most about this series is that we are privy to Bruno’s life in St. Denis and how his life is integral to his policing of the village. I have been enjoying series where the main character is a (sometimes ‘very’) complex person. Bruno is complex man with a lot of depth, which will continue to stand this series in good stead. 4*
10 task (see post 4, help thread)
10 review
25 combo 10.2, 10.8, 20.3, 20.5, 20.9 (pg. 118: '…the baron gave him a glass of champagne…')
______
45
Running total: 670
10.6The Shining by Stephen King
Sep 21, 1947
I first read this book when I was 12, and I loved it because it was SCARY (and the playground and staircase scenes were still freaky). Reading it an adult with alcoholic family members was a very different experience.
I checked the pub date of this against King’s recovery timeline and I was shocked this came so early. I fully expected this to be after Cujo, after intervention… because this seemed like an apology. King knows the trauma of being an angry drunk, and the trauma of being a child and partner of an angry drunk… but this was written while we was still trapped in his own Overlook.
Maybe this was less an apology and more a warning…. Painful insight there.
Unlike the film version, here Jack is a man who wants to do better. The movie Jack was at best a dry drunk; angry and resentful, a monster that was briefly dormant. Book Jack hit his rock bottom and is in recovery. It is hard, but he is trying. He’s a man who loves his family, wants to protect them, but is vulnerable to being undermined. And since there is no support system; just Jack and his demons, he is doomed.
Yes, this is a book about supernatural evil and a psychic kid, but the reason it is a classic is because those things are stand-ins for exploring alcoholism (from the harrowing viewpoint of someone who lives it) and how traumatized children learn to sense things and manage the adults around them.
+10 task
+45 combo (10.3, 10.5, 10.7 - Halloran, 20.2,20.3,20.4,20.5, 20.8, 20.9 “There was a mixture of scotch and champagne on his breath”)
+10 review
+10 1001 books
+5 jumbo
Task total = 80
Season total = 560
15.8 - 17 lettersPeople Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo--and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry
+15 task
+5 not a novel
Task total: 20
Season total: 415
10.1;..;10.3;10.4(x2);..;..;10.7;..;..;..
..;15.2;..;..;15.5;15.6;15.7;15.8;15.9;15.10
..;..;..;20.4;20.5;20.6;..;..;20.9;20.10
20.3 RatingsThe Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
+20 Pts - Task
+15 pts - Combo(10.3- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta-Nehi..., 10.6- Sept 30, 20.6)
Task total - 35 pts
15.2 Counting on AuthorsRed Bones by Ann Cleeves
+15 Task (10 letters)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 920
20.5 BoomerThe Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd
I picked this up at the library book sale 8 or 9 years ago. It is on the 1001 list and I wanted to take advantage of its availability (at 50 cents!). Obviously, it has languished on my shelf, patiently waiting my attention. I ignored it because I thought it was a biographical novel of people about whom I knew or cared little. I was wrong, wrong, wrong! In place of a dedication, Ackroyd writes this:
This is not a biography but a work of fiction, I have invented characters and changed the life of the Lamb family for the sake of the larger narrative.The Lambs, particularly Mary Lamb, are major characters. I was surprised, given the title, that they are not the central characters. That is William Ireland.
The first encounter we see between William Ireland and Charles Lamb is when Charles enters the Ireland book shop and is presented with a small book which has been inscribed by William Shakespeare. Charles and Mary are Shakespeare scholars and Charles is very happy to purchase the inscribed book. Not many pages later, Ireland gives his father the testament of Shakespeare. Had I read the book flap, I might have been fully aware of where this was going, but I did not. Some may think what is there is a spoiler, while others will know the story anyway. I remarked in my last review that coincidences are allowed to happen in fiction and, while fiction this is, Ackroyd is relating some semblance of history. I'm a natural skeptic.
Having almost nothing to do with this novel, I was amused that, within the past 6-7 weeks, I have read two books where the central character is the son of a man who runs a book store. Occasionally, coincidences happen in real life, too. Anyway, I liked them both, but this one shines brightly. I liked the writing style and the characterizations are wonderful. The story is good. Overall it is 5-stars good.
+20 Task (1949)
+10 Review
+10 1001
+ 5 Combo (10.6 - October)
Task total = 45
Season total = 290
10.5 - 29k entries for ClassicsOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Well, hello you incredibly depressing piece of American literary history! Glad to see you too. I didn’t need to be positive at all this *month*. Yes, it’s an excellent piece of writing and yes, it’s a valuable look into Depression-era American lives, even fictional ones, but *GEEZ*. This is almost as much of a downer as The Road! No, thanks! There’s a reason I’ve avoided reading the Grapes of Wrath. I already noped out of the Kite Runner this Fall Challenge. I should have done the same with Of Mice and Men. Seriously. If seeing people suffer doesn’t bother you, go for it but man, this was like watching someone kick a puppy.
+10 task
Task total: 10
Season total: 425
10.1;..;10.3;10.4(x2);10.5;..;10.7;..;..;..
..;15.2;..;..;15.5;15.6;15.7;15.8;15.9;15.10
..;..;..;20.4;20.5;20.6;..;..;20.9;20.10
Post 593 Valerie wrote: "20.8 GothicThe Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
This novel has SO much atmosphere that I can see why it is considered a ‘gothic’ work. The atmosphere really is an..."
Sorry, Valerie. This won't get a combo for 10.5 as it has only 62 adds for Classics.
Post 615 Heather wrote: "10.5 - 29k entries for ClassicsOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Well, hello you incredibly depressing piece of American literary history! Glad to see you too. I didn’t n..."
I'm so sorry, Heather, especially since you didn't like it, but this is a YA Assignment at BPL
http://catalog.brooklynpubliclibrary....
and has a Lexile of just 630. Task, but no styles.
20.2 Anti-heroThe Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (#90 on Best Anti-heroes in Books list)
It took me a while to get into this one, and I'm not one who needs a bracing plot. The structure is interesting, and ultimately works in the end, but I found it a little clumsy at the start. The newspaper articles either told me too much or not enough in advance of reaching those points in Iris's narrative.
But I enjoyed both Iris and Laura - they are broken people and not fun or charming, but interesting. Social constrictions placed on women are at the root of their problems, but their family makes things worse and they don't do much to help themselves, either.
The story within the story (The Blind Assassin) is almost flawless, and after 150 pages or so the weave of the narratives starts to work well. It gives a foreboding sense of the novel's ending; the tension is massive. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that the true ending is one of the possibilities I guessed, but there were several other equally viable possibilities, and I didn't know which was true until the end.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 1001 Books
+5 Jumbo (637 pages)
+25 Combo: 10.2 (assassin); 10.5 (362 shelvings); 20.4 (back and forth between the 30s/40s and the 90s); 20.6 (Booker Prize, Hammett Prize, and more); 20.9 (“Richard had arranged for a bottle of champagne to be sent up, at what he’d anticipated would be the proper moment.”)
Post total: 70
Season total: 600
Claimed to date:
10.1 - 10.3 10.4 - 10.6 10.7 - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 - - 15.6 - - - -
- 20.2 20.3(x2) 20.4 - 20.6 - - 20.9 -
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 492 Norma wrote: "Counting on Authors - 15.5Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Renee Jones
+15 task - 13 letters
Task total: 15
Grand total: 595"
Norma, Kate sees th..."
Sorry for the mix up, I think chemo has fried my brain. I posted the wrong book and author, it should have been
Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Marie Rice
which does works for 15.5.
10.3 - Back to SchoolSummer People by Aaron Stander
+10 task - Aaron Stander spent most of his adult years in the Detroit area, where he taught English and trained writing teachers.
+5 Combo (20.9 - the waiter appeared with a bottle of champagne...opened the bottle and poured a partial glass for his approval. The waiter then filled both their glasses.)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 715
15.8 - Counting on AuthorsThe Poet: Recusant by Stephanie Jo Harris
+15 - 16 - 17 letters
Task total: 15
Grand total: 730
15.10 - Counting on AuthorsEasy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellmann
+15 task - 20+ letters
Task total: 15
Grand total: 745
15.9 - Counting on AuthorsDeadly Notions by Elizabeth Lynn Casey
+15 task - 18-19 letters
+50 all female bonus
+100 finishing bonus
Task total: 165
Grand total: 910
20.5 - BoomerAll the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
+20 task - 1958
+5 Combo 20.3 - 4.46
Task total: 25
Grand total: 935
20.3 -RatingsMortal Remains by Sally Rigby
+20 task - 4.56
+5 Combo - 10.2
Task total: 25
Grand total: 960
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 593 Valerie wrote: "20.8 GothicThe Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
This novel has SO much atmosphere that I can see why it is considered a ‘gothic’ work. Th..."
Sorry, that was a typo on my part! I meant 10.3.
20.3 RatingsIn the Morning I'll Be Gone (Detective Sean Duffy #3) by Adrian McKinty
4.21 avg
+20 Task
+5 (10.3 - as per author's GR bio)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1,605
Norma wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 492 Norma wrote: "Counting on Authors - 15.5Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Renee Jones
+15 task - 13 letters
Task total: 15
Grand total..."
No problem, Norma. We'll record it this different author. Glad we had this chat. ;-) (And so glad you feel like reading!)
10.1 TBRThe Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
+10 Task added Feb 1, 2019
+5 Combo 10.5 shelved 282 times
+10 Not-a-Novel non-fiction
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 945
10.8 Mediterranean (Coralie's Task)The Spanish Promise by Karen Swan
Review
I did feel like I need a romance read this week but I think I may have picked a wrong one. I needed something lighter and fluffy and this one definitely wasn't. While I found the story (at least of the past noting this is a time slip novel) intriguing, it was also very much heartbreaking. And then, to have something that I usually avoid in novels happen right in the middle of the novel, well, that just takes the cake. I needed to know what happened in the past though much as I did not care for the present. Unfortunately, I also did not like this protagonist and I find the romance to be utterly unconvincing; because she had a past with her romantic interest, there were many flashbacks which I found painful and just dragged. There were more of the present story than the past and I wished that the past was fleshed out more. I read a review that noted the past story dragged which is sort of the opposite of my thoughts so I guess you'll just have to read it to form your own opinion.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 1,625
10.8 Mediterranean Divine Expectations: An American Woman In Nineteenth-Century Palestine by Barbara Kreiger
+10 Pts - Task
+15 pts - Combo ( 10.3- https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.e..., 20.3- 4 stars as of today, 20.5- https://prabook.com/web/barbara_sue.k...)
+10 pts - Not a Novel
Task Total - 35 pts
RWS Completion Bonus 100 pts
Total for this post - 135 pts
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 615 Heather wrote: "10.5 - 29k entries for ClassicsOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Well, hello you incredibly depressing piece of American literary history! Glad t..."
Not saying I didn't like it - it was just depressing. No problem, though - I looked it up on the BPL and I didn't see any YA listings. Doesn't mean I didn't miss something.
20.4 Non-linearThe Shore by Sara Taylor
+20 Task
Points this post: 20
RwS total: 185
CoA total: -
Season Total: 185
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 10.9 ....
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
.... .... 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 .... .... .... ....
10.8 MediterraneanRiviera Gold by Laurie R. King
I'm nearly caught up with the Mary Russell series - I think this was number 16 and there's one more out - and King is prolific, so there's likely more to look forward to! If you haven't read this series, but enjoy Sherlock Holmes-inspired stories, you'll enjoy it - it's adventures featuring Mary Russell, the protege-turned-wife of Holmes, and while I enjoy a good original Sherlock Holmes, I've been especially captivated over the years by the many ways that Holmes has inspired other writers to innovate on his character. This is one of the best, I think - and it also stands alone in its own right as a series. In this particular installment, Russell & Holmes are tracking down smuggling in the Jazz Age French Riviera while also trying to help their erstwhile housekeeper Mrs. Hudson as she runs from her past. Thoroughly enjoyable!
+10 task
+20 combo (20.3, 20.4 - flips back & forth in time and POV, 20.5 - born 1952, 20.9 - "Clara Hudson smiled at the tiny bubbles of champagne rising up in the glass, then lifted it")
+10 review
Task Total: 40
Season Total: 225
10.2 Halloween This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
no Lexile
+10 task (poison refers to the main character's ability to kill people with plant poisons)
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 235
10.8The Venetian Years by Giacomo Casanova
MPE from the General Q thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
Nope, nope, a whole lotta NOPE.
I thought that this would be romantic and a little spicy. Casanova is synonymous with seduction, right? Yeaaaah, he’s a rapist. Good times.
At first, his exploits are simple threesomes with hot sisters. But when he does not get what he wants, he’s nasty and violent. Yet he thinks all of his victims were happy to please him. Coercion is not consent. AAAAGGGHHHHHH.
There’s just so much wrong in this, SO MUCH. But what is truly appalling is how our culture turned this STI-addled narcissist into a romantic hero. The audiobook is gorgeous and sensual…. Cumberbatch has a voice, but eeeewwww, nooooooooooo. Use your powers for good, Benny. Ew.
The audiobook is also very abridged; unfortunately they don’t cut out the worst violence. But they did chop out a whole exorcism! (Text available on Project Gutenberg and appears to be the same translation used in the audiobook).
+10 task
+10 review
+5 combo 20.9 He gave us white truffles, several sorts of shell-fish, the best fish of the Adriatic, dry champagne, peralta, sherry and pedroximenes wines.
+10 not-a-novel
+10 jumbo (740 pages)
Task total = 45
Season total = 605
10.3 - Back to SchoolMisery by Stephen King
👻 From GRs author bio: "In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy" 👻
+10 task
+25 combo:
10.5 - 165 people
10.6 - September 21, 1947 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen...)
20.2 - #72 on Best Anti-heroes in Books
20.3 - 4.18
20.5 - 1947 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen...)
Task total: 35
Season total: 550
20.3 RatingsWorth Dying For (Jack Reacher #15) by Lee Child
4.21 avg
+20 Task
+20 Combo (10.2 - "dying"; 10.6 - October; 10.7; 20.5 - 1954)
+5 Jumbo (513p)
Post Total: 45
Season Total: 1,670
15.4 Counting on Authors.12 letters
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Previous Points: 480
Task Points: 15
Season Total: 495
15.6 Counting on Authors.16 letters
The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Previous Points: 495
Task Points: 15
Season Total: 510
Post 642 Nick wrote: "15.6 Counting on Authors.16 letters
The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Previous Points: 495
Task Points: 15
Season Total: 510"
Nick, let's hope you just made a typo. 15.6 is for authors with 14 letters. This should be for 15.8 with 16-17 letters.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 642 Nick wrote: "15.6 Counting on Authors.16 letters
The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Previous Points: 495
Task Points: 15
Season Total: 510"
Nick, let's hop..."
Yeah, it's a typo. 15.8 it should be.
20.3 RatingsThe Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
This is the sixth and last of the Chronicles of Barsetshire series and I am sorry that it ends here....but happy to begin Trollope's other Palliser series. These are not quick reads...and that's ok. Trollope should be savored. I feel that this is one of the few authors I am truly in sync with. I like how the author is mostly understated. He depicts his characters ....especially their motivations without having to hit you over the head with his descriptions. The reader can usually figure out for him or herself what drives the actors. Here, the primary quandary is how did a seemingly pious vicar happen to cash a small check that did not belong to him...or did it belong to him? That simple issue involves many people as it turns out....and in complicated ways. The Bishop is very concerned...as is his odious wife, the congregants are perplexed. The man who wishes to marry the vicar's daughter is frustrated in his efforts by the scandal. We also catch up with many of the characters from the previous 5 volumes, including Mr. Harding, the Warden from Volume I and his daughters, grandchildren, and son-in-laws. And of course, there is the sad story of John Eames, who may be the alter ego of the author. Will his love ever be requited? 5 stars!
Task=20
Combo= 25 -(10.3-According to Wikipedia, Trollope was once a assistant master at a school in Brussels; 10.5; 10.7...one of the MC is Major Grantly; 20.1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Las... ; 20.9- p.278-“There’s no doubt about the claret, but the champagne was execrable.")
1001=10
Review=10
Jumbo-15 (890p)
Task Total=80
Grand Total= 265
20.5 BoomerA Study in Sableby Mercedes Lackey
Born in 1954
Task +20
Combo +5 20.9 "who was sipping champagne"
Grand Total: 205
15.1 Less than 10 lettersThe Promised Land by Mary Antin
15 pts 15.1 CoA less than 10 letters
5 pts Not a novel
Female author
Published pre 1996
Total task: 20 pts
Total Season: 630 pts.
10.1 10.2 10.3 ... ... ... 10.7 ... ... ...
20.1 ... 20.3 ... 20.5 ... 20.7 ... 20.9 20.10
15.1 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 15.10
10.7 ServiceUnder the Dome by Stephen King
A mysterious dome descends on a small Maine town one October, locking it away from the rest of the world. I expected the story to be of how the people under the dome came together and/or went into “survival of the fitest mode”. It has some of that; but King has put into the dome a two-bit used car salesman, drug king, autocratic selectman. I had difficulty following the selectman’s motivations as they shifted from hiding his drug kingdom to just wanting to be the big guy in a small pond by pinning the blame for everything on his rival for leader. But it is a rip-roaring story that kept me coming back to find out what happens next.
+10 A main character, Dale Barabara, is an army veteran from the Iraq War who gets called back to service during the crisis.
+15 combos 10.6, 20.5, 10.3
+10 review
+25 jumbo
Task total: 60
Season total: 405
10.1 TBRLeave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
What a strange book! I wouldn't say it's a page turner by any means. The writing is lovely and kept me returning to it, but it was not a book I (at first, especially) was dying to come back to each day. It rewarded going a bit slower, I think. The plot is simple -- a family has rented a vacation home in a remote corner of Long Island, and something happens, causing the home's owners to come seeking shelter. The implication is that something terrible has happened in the more populated world - maybe a blackout, maybe a bomb? I think what this book does best is create an incredible sense of unease - the way Alam builds a mood is terrific. I never had a good idea of what exactly the terrible thing was, but was anxious about it nonetheless!
+10 task (on TBR since 10/4/20)
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 255
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
Beyond This Point Are Monsters (other topics)Justified Secrets (other topics)
Merciful Secrets (other topics)
Silent Secrets (other topics)
Veiled Secrets (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Margaret Millar (other topics)Shawn McGuire (other topics)
Shawn McGuire (other topics)
Shawn McGuire (other topics)
Shawn McGuire (other topics)
More...
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 760