Reading with Style discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives
>
FA 21 Completed Tasks
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "This is the same book as in Post 92. Did you mean to link a different book?"Thanks, fixed it!
Got confused - series bingeing ;)
ETA, I fixed #92 as that was supposed to be for book 3...
20.3 RatingsMurder in the Belltower (Miss Underhay #5) by Helena Dixon
avg. 4.32
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.2 - murder)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 330
20.3 RatingsMurder at Elm House (Miss Underhay #6) by Helena Dixon
avg. 4.37
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.2 - murder; 10.9 - house)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 360
10.3Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
Linked in the 10.3 thread
I did not really get this. It was interesting and Okorafor’s writing is excellent as always, but it was not the easy novella I expected.
The cover blurb made me assume that Death as a God/Goddess/Entity would play a part in the story, and nope. I assume that I’m missing huge parts of the story because I have no familiarity with Ghanaian death traditions. Or any traditions, really. The concept witchcraft/magic/whatever was going on as “remote control” never made sense to me in the context of the story.
The ending hinted at something that would bring it all together, but it did not. It’s (at least to me) a very open-ended story. What happened to Fatima? What happened at the end?
I think I know, and the more distance I have from the story the more it does seem to make sense… but this is a thinker of a novella.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total = 20
Season total = 100
10.5 Classics. “Classics” as GR genre – at least 100 listings. The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.
Task Points = 10
Combo 10.2 “Murder” is death word, 20.3 Rating 4.02 = 10
Previous Pts = 85
Season Total = 105
Post 88 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "15.1 COAFortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Sevenby Janet Evanovich
Task +15 (15 letters)
Grand Total: 35"
Jayme, this should be for 15.6 as she is only 14 letters. Remember you can use an author and count only once for Counting on Authors.
15.4 12 lettersThe Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
+15 task
+5 not a novel
Task total: 20
Grand total: 165
15.6 Counting on AuthorsDeath in the Stocks (Inspectors Hannasyde & Hemingway #1) by Georgette Heyer
+15 Task (14 letters)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 375
20.7 ExophonicEastern Star: Poems by David Dephy
( on the 2nd link, Georgian-American poet etc)
+20 task
+10 not a novel
+5 combo (20.3)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 200
10.5 ClassicThe Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Written in epistolary form, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is a semi-autobiographical novel about unrequited love. Werther moved to the fictional German village of Wahlheim to enjoy painting and reading. He meets Lotte at a local dance, and is swept off his feet with love. However, Lotte is engaged to Albert, an older, dependable man who is devoted to her.
Werther is artistic, emotional, and lacks purpose and responsibility in his life. His feelings reach the height of happiness when he is with Lotte, then plummet in despair. His love for Lotte becomes an obsession, even after Lotte and Albert are married. Werther felt that he no longer wanted to live.
This novel prompted 18th Century young males to dress in blue jackets and yellow waistcoats like Werther, and write passionate letters to the women they loved. Unfortunately, it also prompted some of these emotional young men to end their lives in suicide. "The Sorrow of Young Werther" was part of the "Sturm und Drang" (storm and stress) literary movement which was a reaction against rationalism. It's an interesting classic story to read in the context of its era.
+10 task (listed 3,052 times as a classic)
+10 review
+10 1001 list book
Task total: 30
Season total: 225
10.3 Back to SchoolDark, Witch & Creamy (Bewitched by Chocolate #1) by H.Y. Hanna
as per author's GR bio, 'teaching English'
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.3 - avg. 4.10)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 390
20.3 RatingsWitch Chocolate Fudge (Bewitched by Chocolate #2) by H.Y. Hanna
avg. 4.27
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 - teaching English)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 415
10.7 ServiceSaga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
Graphic novel, no styles
I wanted to follow others in the reading of this series for TDoS last season, but the first one didn't come in at the library in time. Luckily they fit plenty of tasks this season!
As the description says, both of the main characters, Alana and Marko, are former military.
+10 Task
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 65
Post 106 Nick wrote: "10.5 Classics. “Classics” as GR genre – at least 100 listings. The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie.
Task Points = 10
Combo 10.2 “Murder” is death word, 20.3 Rati..."
I'm sorry to disappoint, Nick. This is a YA Assignment at BPL with a Lexile of 740. Task, but no styles.
http://catalog.brooklynpubliclibrary....-
20.4 Non-linearStar of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor
This started slowly, with the ship Star of the Sea setting out on its 26-day voyage from Ireland to New York in 1847, while we start to get the back stories of some of the characters. Most of the people on board are half-starved Irish people desperate to escape the potato famine. Some of them die of starvation or disease every day. There are also a few first class passengers, including the bankrupt Irish aristocrat Lord David Merridith and his wife and children. And then there's an assassin...
I found the plot a little weak, but the descriptions of the famine and conditions in Ireland (and on the emigration ships) carry a huge emotional impact.
Non-linear: one line of narrative follows the 26-day journey of the ship, while others go back and forth in the characters' earlier lives.
Educator: "In 2009 he was the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, the City University of New York." (GR author page)
Champagne: "The steward brought the champagne, opened it, and poured two glasses."
+20 Task
+25 Combo (10.3, 10.6, 20.5, 20.6, 20.9)
+10 Review
Task Total: 55
Season Total: 120
10.2 HalloweenThe Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Review: If this is what housewives in the southern states were ACTUALLY like in the 90's, thank god I didn't live there. These characters have a high cringe factor but ultimately they are more than the boxes of their lives would have them be. Truly some of white suburban America at its worst: homophobic, ultra religious, small minded, hypocritical (the men more than the women). These are the customers I would dread serving at Starbucks. End rant.
I did in fact, really enjoy reading this book! The "is he, isn't he" plot surrounding James Harris was a fresh new take on the vampire mythos. Hendrix has written some horrifying scenes, couched between a mostly lighter tone. Shock factor, well executed here.
The perfect read to take you from beach reading into the fall season.
+10 Task - Death Word = Slaying
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 pts
Grand Total: 60 pts
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 88 Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "15.1 COAFortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Sevenby Janet Evanovich
Task +15 (15 letters)
Grand Total: 35"
Jayme, this shou..."
okay, thanks, I will fix it.
20.3 RatingsLove & Sleep by John Crowley
+20 Task rating 4.06
+5 Combo 10.3 teaches at Yale University
+5 Jumbo 502 pages
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 250
20.2 - Anti-heroJohn Dies at the End by David Wong
#130 on 2nd The Best Anti-heroes list
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.2)
Task total: 25
Season total: 40
10.2 HalloweenThe Basel killings by Hansjörg Schneider
+10 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.3 Back to School
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 155
20.6 AwardedThe 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
+20 Task: Stonewall Book Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature (2018), California Book Award for Young Adult (Gold) (2017)
+ 5 Combo: 20.3 Ratings
+10 Not a Novel (non fiction)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 190
20.5 BoomerCaste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
10.3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_...
20.9 “This was supposed to be a party, after all, champagne pouring all around us, a celebration to ring in 2016.”
In the epilogue, Isabel Wilkerson describes the purpose of this book is to “cast a light” on the history, consequences and presence of the American caste system and to “express hopes for its resolution.” In the book she traces three caste systems India, Nazi Germany and the US. All are different but the methods of enforcing the caste system and the consequences have some commonality.
The book is very much worth reading.
+20 task
+15 combo 20.3, 10.3, 20.9
+10 NAN
+10 review
Task total 55
Season total: 165
10.8 MediterraneanThe Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
It took me a while to get into this book. I found the episodic nature of the story telling jarring and slightly confusing. However, I stuck with it and was rewarded in the end. I liked the mystery, and the convolutions of Sicilian society were interesting; but the best part was the characters. This is another European mystery series with a lot of characters, who in their own way add a lot to the atmosphere and story. I am definitely interested in continuing with this series. 3.5*
10 task
10 review
____
20
Running total: 155
Task 10.3 Back to SchoolRead a book written by an author who has a current or previous profession of educator.
Goodreads biography notes that Willa Cather worked as a school teacher for approximately 13 years.
For combo #20.9:
p. 126: “When the roseate tinge of his champagne was added – that cold, precious, bubbling stuff that creamed and foamed in his glass – Paul wondered that there were honest men in the world at all.”
For combo #20.3:
I noted in the help thread that the day I started reading this collection its rating was 4.00. Not sure if it's still 4.00 especially as I rated it 3 stars.
Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) by Willa Cather
Review: This is a collection of eight stories (two novelettes and six short stories) all written by Willa Cather. The two novelettes and two of the short stories were new to this volume; the other four short stories were published elsewhere first, and were “modified” for this collection. I think of Willa Cather as a writer focused on the American Midwest; however, this collection is focused on New York City. The two short stories not set there are centered on New Yorkers temporarily in the Midwest. Both the novelettes and several of the short stories star a woman (different woman in each story) who is beautiful and also a very talented Opera singer. The second novelette, “The Diamond Mine”, refers to the Opera singer’s moneymaking capability as a “diamond mine” for everyone associated for her; this sentiment is present in most of the stories. Overall, the collection is a collection of clearly written and interesting stories reflecting life in New York City during the early 1900s.
+10 Task
+10 Combo (#20.3 Ratings – when I started reading this, rating was 4.00; #20.9 Champagne)
+10 Review
Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 140 + 30 = 170
20.3 RatingsWitch Summer Night's Cream (Bewitched by Chocolate #3) by H.Y. Hanna
avg. 4.30
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 - teaching English)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 440
10.2 HalloweenReaper Man by Terry Pratchett
(Reaper alludes to Death in this case)
+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.3 ; 20.3 - 4.24 ; 20.5 - born 1948)
Task total = 25
Season total = 85
… ; 10.2 ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; 10.8 ; 10.9 ; …
… ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
… ; … ; 20.3 (x2) ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
10.3 Back to SchoolD'or et d'oreillers by Flore Vesco
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.3 - 4.31)
Task total = 15
Season total = 100
… ; 10.2 ; 10.3 ; … ; … ; … ; … ; 10.8 ; 10.9 ; …
… ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
… ; … ; 20.3 (x2) ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; … ; …
20.9 Anniversary (Kate S's Task)Blood, Sweets and Tears (Bewitched by Chocolate #4) by H.Y. Hanna
"She raised her champagne glass and sipped the sparkling, golden liquid as she surveyed the other guests." @60%
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.3 - teaching English; 20.3 - avg. 4.36)
Post Total: 30
Season Total: 470
20.3 RatingsBonbons and Broomsticks (Bewitched by Chocolate #5) by H.Y. Hanna
avg. 4.41
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 - teaching English)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 495
20.3 RatingsThe Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
I have to limit myself when I go to our Friends of the Library book sales or I'd run out of places to put things. The holdings are pot luck, of course, since they are all donated books, but I allowed myself in July to hope for this very book. I plucked it off the shelf and could have gone home in 30 seconds, a happy woman. (Instead I found 2 more and then vamoosed!)
There is a prologue to The Big Burn which gives a glimpse of the fire in 1910. ... at its peak, the storm would consume three imllion acres in barely two days. There follows a few chapters setting us up for the true description of this devastating fire. Teddy Roosevelt met John Muir in a trip out west when his dream of conservation in the west became the reason for his presidency. We are introduced to Gifford Pinchot, the first Supervisor of the new Forest Service. We meet several of the early Forest Rangers and some of those who just come to work in the forests.
And we learn of this very wild west where some of the small towns seem to have no existence apart from saloons and whorehouses. The eastern born and raised forest rangers have never seen such people who inhabit this beautiful place. One telegraph exchange from a ranger to headquarters goes like this.
"Two undesirable prostitues establshed on government land," he wired. "What should I do?"Most of this introduction is a bit dull, but it was necessary for the next 200 or so pages. Egan describes this in very active terms: "flames lunging", "mountains bellow", "continuous staccato". As this area was dotted with small towns, there were civilians in addition to those associated with the forest service. (Who would support those saloons and whorehouses?) ... the streets were packed with people, some fleeing for the river, intending to wait out the fire in the shallows, others riding horses and carriages straight out of town, unsure of whether they were heading into the fire or not. This long middle of the book was as much a thriller as any you'll read for that purpose. Who would live? Who would escape? Who would be found dead, or who not found at all?
"Another ranger wired back: "Get two desirable ones."
This is creative nonfiction at its finest. But it *is* nonfiction. Egan ends his book telling us that the Forest Service changed its purpose after the fire, and then changed it again. I wasn't as enamored of this last mopping up of his story as I was the first part, but it wasn't enough to make me change my mind about giving it 5-stars.
+20 Task (4.1)
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.5 - November, 1954)
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel
Task total = 50
Season total = 70
15.1 CoA, 9 or fewer lettersAin't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks (9 letters)
+15 Task
+5 Not-a-novel
Post total: 20
Season total: 100
Claimed to date:
- - - - - - - - - -
15.1 - - - - - - - - -
- - - 20.4 - - - - 20.9 -
15.6 CoA, 14 lettersShiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason (14 letters)
+15 Task
+5 Not-a-novel
Post total: 20
Season total: 120
Claimed to date:
- - - - - - - - - -
15.1 - - - - 15.6 - - - -
- - - 20.4 - - - - 20.9 -
10.8 Mediterranean (Coralie's Task)Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley
🍁 set 100% in Paris 🍁
+10 task
+15 combo (10.3 - bio: "taught at Iowa State"; 20.3 - 4.04; 20.5 - 1949 (per Wikipedia)
Task total: 25
Season total: 65
20.1Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
Verified in the 20.1 thread.
This book started as some creepypasta on Reddit’s No Sleep forum, and was turned into a self published novel thanks to kickstarter. YOU CAN TELL. There isn’t even the ghost of an editorial presence in this book. And it really needed one. What works as a few shorts on a site you read late at night does not translate well into long-form without professional help. (This is not a knock against self-pub, only against self-editing.)
This has all the ingredients of a super-scary book for me - a mysterious badness, kids in peril, things that go bump in the night… and the first chapter was spooky. But, that first chapter took a while because the writing is excruciating .
You know how your dreams are only interesting to you? And hearing the convoluted details of someone else’s dreams is deadly dull? That’s this book.
In an effort to create atmosphere, the author describes everything in slow, tedious detail. Except the things that matter - everything important is couched in florid, deliberately vague prose to preserve a “mystery” that is obvious.
Not recommended.
+20 task
+ 5 combo (20.4)
+10 review
Task total = 35
Season total = 135
15.10 Counting on Authors (20 or more letters)One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
+15 task (24 letters in author's name)
Task total: 15
Season total: 240
20.3 RatingsDouble, Double, Toil and Truffle (Bewitched by Chocolate #6) by H.Y. Hanna
avg. 4.39
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 - teaching English)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 520
15.7 Counting on AuthorsThe Good Turn (Cormac Reilly #3) by Dervla McTiernan
+15 Task (15 letters)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 535
15.9 Counting on AuthorsThe Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lilian Jackson Braun
15 task
_____
15
Running total: 170
20.3 RatingsSalted Caramel Sorcery (Bewitched by Chocolate #7) by H.Y. Hanna
avg. 4.52
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.3 - teaching English)
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 560
20.9 - "A glass of poisoned champagne was about the only thing that would keep Rosemary quiet." (there are more but i'm trying not to spoil the plot, which *revolves* around a poisoned glass of champagne)Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie is a different sort of mystery, in my opinion. It’s not so much a whodunnit as it is a Clue-style or closed room mystery. You have a small number of possible suspects who were present at the death, all who had motive AND ability, and you’re backtracking to try to figure out *which one* it is. And in the style of any good murder mystery the *obvious* murderer is, of course, not the actual one. I was quite amused with the story itself – the only thing that threw me off at first is that the majority of the book is written as flashbacks. Took a bit to shift into but once I did, it worked for the story.
+20 task
+10 combo (10.5 - classics 175 times, 20.4 - told mostly in flashbacks)
+10 review
Task total: 40
Season total: 55
20.4 - The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John MandelYou know, I’m really not sure *what* I thought of The Glass Hotel. It wasn’t a particularly enthralling book, to me but I *really* had to finish it. You *thought* the main character was going to be Paul but it meandered out of Paul’s life and through Vincent’s and then back to Paul’s, through the middle of nowhere British Columbia and Vancouver, down through the Kingdom of Money and New York City, and into shipping routes by way of Ponzi schemes, fake marriages, mysterious drownings, drug addiction, and running away from problems. Yes, I know this review is confusing. So is the book. Oh, and the whole thing is told in flashbacks.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 85
..;..;..;..;..;..;..;..;..;..
..;15.2;..;..;..;..;..;..;..;..
..;..;..;20.4;..;..;..;..;20.9;..
15.2 10 lettersNine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George
+15 task
+5 not a novel
Task total: 20
Grand total: 220
20.6 AwardedNetwork Effect by Martha Wells
For 20.4 part of the story is told through memory files, which for a bot would be flashbacks.
This is the fifth in the Murderbot series. The previous four have been novella length. This is longer and fuller and in many ways more satisfying. Through the first four novellas, Wells has introduced us to Murderbot and its unique situation as a Security Unit construct that has disengaged its governor. (And in this book we witness what the governor can do to a secunit.) In the previous books, we have gotten to know some of the other characters who appear here.
Murderbot ends up in a very complex, dangerous situation with lots of unknowns and it works to save humans, bots and constructs while putting itself in the way of serious harm.
+20 task
+15 combo 20.3, 20.4, 20.5)
+10 review
Task total: 45
Season total: 210
20.3 RatingsAn Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
History as we know it, as taught to us in schools and history books, is certainly dictated by the victors. Thank heaven for people like Dunbar-Ortiz who can tell the other side of the story with such passion, clarity, and common sense to make one step back and see things from a perspective that is 180 degrees separated from the one that we were taught to be "true". I knew going into this that it was going to make me sad and angry and frustrated, and it did. But it was important and I'm so glad to have read it.
+20 Task, 4.37 avg. rating
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-Novel
+10 Combo: 10.3, 10.4
Task total: 50
Season total: 240
10.3 - Remote Control by Nnedi OkoraforRemote Control by Nnedi Okorafor. Well, that was *something*. I really enjoyed the story and once I figured out where she was going with it, it made sense. The one problem I had with it was the abrupt and *very* unclear ending. I understand, I think, where her powers came from. I understand, I think, what the next logical part of the story is. I understand the mistreatment the character received throughout the story and her reticence at owning her abilities. I just didn’t get where it was supposed to go after that. It’s really well written for all that, though.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 105
..;..;10.3;..;..;..;..;..;..;..
..;15.2;..;..;..;..;..;..;..;..
..;..;..;20.4;..;..;..;..;20.9;..
15.2 Counting on AuthorsSecond Place by Rachel Cusk
+15 Task (10 letters)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 205
20.3 RatingsThe Innovator's Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity by George Couros
+20 Task (4.21)
+ 5 Combo:10.3 Back to School (teacher and now administrator)
+10 Not a Novel (non fiction)
Post Total: 35
Season Total: 240
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...
Read a book in which the characters drink a glass of champagne. Please post a quote in the completed task thread when claiming this task.
p. 113: “She found the directors chinking champagne glasses as though the report’s revenues were already banked and bonuses already disbursed.”
For 20.5 Boomer combo:
https://g.co/kgs/pDkQqP
Anne Charnock was born on June 8, 1954
A Calculated Life (2013) by Anne Charnock
Philip K. Dick Award Nominee (2014)
The Kitschies Nominee for Golden Tentacle (Debut) (2013)
Review: This award-winning debut science fiction novel is set in England, several decades in the future. Society is more controlled than is the case today, with a resultant loss of individual freedom. Our heroine, Jayna, is described as a “brilliant analyst”; however, her social skills are minimal. She decides to “study” social skills, with the goal of becoming brilliant at social situations the way she is brilliant at analytics. This is a great set-up for a science fiction novel. However, as is often the case in science fiction, after establishing the set-up, the novelist has difficulty in producing an engaging plot. The characters are interesting, the worldbuilding is interesting, if only the characters did something more interesting than they wound up doing! Overall, recommended for fans of science fiction.
+20 Task
+05 Combo (#20.5 Boomer)
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 05 + 10 = 35
Grand Total: 105 + 35 = 140