Reading with Style discussion
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Fences by August Wilson
"Fences" is the August Wilson play set in the 1950s in his ten-part "Century Cycle" about the experiences of African-Americans. ..."
Connie, task 20.8 requires a female author. This book would fit 10.3 Vowels, or you may see another task that it fits.
For now, we have scored it for 10.3. This gives -10 pts for the task but +5 for Multiple, for a total of 475. If you prefer to move it to another task, please let us know.

Fences by August Wilson
"Fences" is the August Wilson play set in the 1950s in his ten-part "Century Cycle" about the experience..."
Thank you, Rosemary. 10.3 sounds good to me.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Young
15 task
______
15
Running total: 930

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Style: 1001 bookshelf
Task : 15
Post: 15
Season total: 285

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
+15 Task (Canon - one of the Palliser novels)
Season total = 845

Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea builds a powerful story around two young women who join the American Red Cross to serve on a Club Mobile during WWII. Club Mobiles were trucks with a kitchen built on the chassis to serve coffee, donuts and support to GIs and airmen during the war oftentimes following them to the front lines.
Urrea’s pen paints images of Europe both pretty and horrific.
At first I was inclined to pick at his story for improbable plot points but after listening to his author’s notes that revealed that his mother had been an ARC Clubber and that he had unearthed some memoirs and been able to interview some of the women who served, I forgive him for cramming in as much of their stories as he could and rounding out a story.
His descriptions bring the story to life and bruise the reader’s heart.
+20 task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Season total: 310

p. 254-255: A Handwritten letter, dated September 29, 1870 from William Crandall to his sister-in-law Suzanne, informing her that her sister Mary’s ship is lost at sea and her sister is presumed deceased.
The Girl On Legare Street (Tradd Street #2) (2009) by Karen White
+20 Task
+05 Repeat a task
Task Total: 20 + 05 = 25
Grand Total: 265 + 25 = 290

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten
Well, now I have life goals! Maybe not to be exactly like Maud (‘cause she is something else!), but certainly to have my wits and physical abilities still about me at 88. Maud doesn’t take any guff from anyone, tries to right wrongs, and if that requires a little murder and dissembling along the way….. well, why not. This is all under the effective guise as an innocuous elderly lady. This book is composed of short stories about Maud’s incidents (I can’t really call them adventures), with Tursten’s series detective’s appearing in two of them. They are good fun and not exactly what I expected. 4*
20 taks
10 review
_____
30
Running total: 960

Goody Two-Shoes by Oliver Goldsmith
I recenly read a magazine article about this book and decided it would be an interesting read. Well, it was interesting to see what was considered to be children’s literature in the eighteenth century, but this was pretty tedious.
Goody Two-Shoes is an orphaned giry (Margery) which who has . . . Only one shoe. (Her brother has two shoes). Through the kindness of others she is given two-shoes which results in her nickname.
Much of the story is about her resourcefulness in teaching herself to read and then setting up a school to teach the local children. Along the way, there are many moralistic tales imparting lessons for good and righteous behavior.
For this to be really enjoyable for a young child, there has to be nothing else available to read.
20 pts 20.10 Letters « It was not long before the pigeon returned with a letter in his bill, which informed them that he was considered out of danger. » Unnamed person writing about Sally Jones’ Father
10 pts Review
5 pts Multiple
20 pts Oldies
Task Total: 55 pts
Season Total: 515 pts
561
10.1… … … … 10.7 … … …
…20.2 20.3 … … …20.7 20.8 … 20.10
15.1 … … … … … … … … …

The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure
by Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan and his demi gods (of any deity group) are my comfort reads. They have some basis in the mythologies, so I usually learn something, they are easy to read, and are full of wise cracking adventures. Very much like the tv I grew up with, so it takes me to a place of warmth and good vibes.
I am not so big on Nico di Angelo, he has always been a bit of an outsider, and so his relationship with Will Solace, Mr Sunshine, son of Apollo, is kind of weird, and it is a lit bit too oh so cute, but the messages of self acceptance and tolerance are strong in this one, with both leads learning to accept their own darkness, and realising that darkness doesn't mean evil, and that love and friendship are the strongest powers on, and below, the earth.
A fun and easy read, if you are looking for something lighter to finish the season with
+10 task
+10 review
Post Total = 20
Season Total = 1125
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); ...; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); ...; 10.9; 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
+10 task
+5 jumbo (518)
+15 prizeworthy ( Prix Julia Verlanger (2017); Premio Ignotus for Mejor Novela Extranjera (2019); Premio Amaltea for Los otros autores (2019))
Post Total = 30
Season Total = 1155
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); ...; 10.9; 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

Sleep Like a Baby by Charlaine Harris
+10 task
+5 mutlitple
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1170
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); ...; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo
Non Western
+15 task
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1185
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); ...; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Style: 1001 bookshelf
Task : 15
Post: 15
Season total: 285"
Tawallah, we have your total as 300: 285 already in post 507, +15 for this post.

The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific by Brandon Presser
Brandon Presser is a Travel Journalist for The NYT. He was offered a trip to Pitcairn Island, where the Bounty landed over 200 years ago. The trip entailed his staying on "paradise" for 3 months, as only 1 cargo ships visits there with supplies just 4 times a year, and that was how he would come and go to the island. What Presser uncovered while there researching the ugly truth about some things came out.
Personally, I was amazed the descendants of the mutineers still called this home. Basically it is just a rock on the edge of the Pacific. Many modern conveniences just not available, a little world all of its own.
The story fluctuates back and forth between Brandon's time there and the actually events of the mutiny. Writing the book this way gives one a better insight into the frame of mind of those current living on the Island. I would love to tell you more, but I never spoil books for anyone. Just know that anything you know about the Bounty may be true, but there is so much that has been uncovered that I promise will have you shaking your head and perhaps being a bit shocked.
Presser spent 3 years researching and writing. The effort shows and I would recommend this to all history fans or Bounty fanatics. An great read!
+20 Task
+10 review
+5 Multiple
Task Totak 35
Season Total 505

Highfire by Eoin Colfer
From the author of Artemis Fowl, a hysterical account of a centuries old dragon living in the bayou just outside of New Orleans. Vern, previously known as Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie, a vodka swilling, foul mouthed wyvern, lives a very low profile life avoiding the torch bearing angry crowds that would try to snuff him out should his existence become known. This is all about to change when 15 year old Everett “Squib” Moreau causes a bit of a ruckus one evening and needs rescuing from his sworn enemy Regence Hooke, a dirty cop.
I loved this book-it was gritty and realistic of a lot of the people who live life in the swamps outside of New Orleans. Having visited the area once I could imagine it all, and the laughs came every other page. Fair warning the obscenities' that come out of the characters are on nearly every page. You need to be able to take it with a grain of salt and just pass over them if is a sore spot with you.
I was pleased with the ending, a second book would end up on my TBR.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Multiple
Task Totak 25
Season Total 530

The Avenging Saint by Leslie Charteris
Aged
15 task
____
15
Running total: 975

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By by Georges Simenon
+15 task (LiT)
Season total = 730

Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker
The unnamed narrator is a Cambridge graduate student researching the work of a (fictional) French author, Paul Michel, who published a small number of prize-winning novels before succumbing to mental illness that has caused him to be 'imprisoned' in a mental hospital. With the support of his girlfriend and her father, the MC goes to France to interview the writer and perhaps bring about his release.
This is a novel of overarching obsessive love, which seems to the lover to be its own justification, but is used by others (including the object of that love) for their own purposes. You don’t need to know anything about the work of Michel Foucault to read this book (I didn't), but I imagine it might add an extra layer.
+20 Task (the MC accesses an archive of handwritten letters from Paul Michel to Michel Foucault)
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple
+ 5 Prize Worthy
+ 5 Oldies (1996)
Post Total = 45
Season Total = 890

Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg
I must be too much of a linear thinker. This book seems very scatter shot. I guess I get the author’s point that people are different. That the way our world operates does not let some use their talents to best effect. And that we should be aware of that and make adjustments and also advocate for what each individual and ourselves need.
Nerenberg throws autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, synthesia, sensitivity, dyslexia, depression, anxiety and I don’t remember what else into one big group of conditions that can be helped by awareness and advocacy. Probably true but I need something more concrete.
+20 task
+10 review
Task goal: 30
Season total: 340

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
36 points in Scrabble scoring
"Not that long ago and not so far away, in a land that is right here," Hazel whispered into the dark, "there was a place where anything could happen, where we might become anything we wish, where a river of stars runs through its woodlands. Keep your eyes open for hidden doorways! They're everywhere, but visible only to those who are worthy. And we are worthy."
Fourteen-year-old Hazel created Whisperwood, a fairy tale world, to amuse and comfort her five-year-old sister, Flora. The two sisters were sent away to the countryside around Oxford in 1939 to keep them safe during the bombing of London. This was part of Operation Pied Piper, and the girls were lucky to stay with Bridie Aberdeen and her son in a beautiful pastoral location. Then Flora disappeared by a river, but she was never found.
Hazel had been living with grief and guilt, and had tried to find Flora for twenty years. A package came into the bookstore where Hazel worked that contained a fairy tale book composed of variations on the Whisperwood stories that Hazel created. This led to connections to important people in Hazel's childhood, and clues about Flora's disappearance.
"The Secret Book of Flora Lea" is a charming combination of fairy tales, mystery, romance, and historical fiction. Whisperwood is a magical place which reflects the author's interest in fairy tales. (She also wrote about C.S. Lewis.) The book does swing into the sweet zone sometimes, a quality that seems to fit with its themes of fairy tales, the magic of love, and the bond between sisters.
+10 task
+10 review
Task total: 20
Season total: 495

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
This book was a Christmas gift from a dear friend. Of course, with my degree in biology (in general) and specifically zoology this book is right up my alley. The information itself is very interesting. Some of it is a little mind-bending as well. Of course, our scientific knowledge changes over time so there were things that I learned (a long time ago!) that are not correct. For the information alone this book is worth a read and a reread.
What I really think is important to mention is Yong’s writing. I expected a Pulitzer prize winner to be a top notch writer. I was not disappointed. He explains the concepts clearly and with wonder. Yong is like your super smart friend putting hard to understand ideas into accessible language. He’s done all the leg work for us, and he isn’t jaded by machinations of the scientific community. 5*
20 task
10 review
5 prize
______
35
Running total: 1010

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
Aged, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was 87 when he passed
+15 task
Season Total = 1200
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); ...; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4(x2); 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

Read any book by a woman who is also a person of color.
The photo accompanying the goodreads biography of Evelyn Skye shows her to be an Asian woman.
The Hundred Loves of Juliet (2023) by Evelyn Skye (Goodreads Author) (Hardback 336 pages)
+20 Task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 290 + 20 = 310

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
+10 task
+5 prizeworthy (Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award)
+50 halfway finish
Post Total = 65
Season Total = 1265
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); 10.8; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4(x2); 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This is a heartwarming story of a cafe where people can sit in a certain seat to go back into the past to fix something. However, they cannot change how events turn out in the present. So for example, a man can hand his wife a letter before he gets dementia, but he can’t stop the dementia. Another person can’t prevent her sister getting into a fatal car accident - she can only do something to make her sister happy before that happens.
This book was strongly recommended to me by a bookish friend who has enjoyed the whole series. It was just what I needed between heavier reads.
Task: Letter from Kusagi to his wife Kohtake. "It was written in basic script, all squiggly, like crawling worms. It was definitely Kusagi's handwriting."
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple
Post Total = 35
Season Total = 925

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Very good mystery. Antony Gillingham undertakes various professions as a hobby and when he stumbles on a murder he decides to become a detective enlisting his friend to be his Watson. The mystery story lays out the deductions as they are made with few if any red herrings, but the mystery is maintained until the end of the story. Both the police and the other guests in the country house are dismissed and disappeared from the plot very early on. Relatively little character development and a somewhat weak motive for murder, but everything is wrapped up by the end. I would recommend it!
20 pts 20.10 Letters Cayley wrotes to Mrs Norland in the library
10 pts Review
5 pts Multiple
10 pts Oldies
Task Total: 45 pts
Season Total: 560 pts
580
10.1… … … … 10.7 … … …
…20.2 20.3 … … …20.7 20.8 … 20.10
15.1 … … … … … … … … …

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
I found the first third of the novel a bit of chore, the writing was fine – it is Maugham after all – it was just everything seemed a bit stiff. I happened to look up the book on Wikipedia which told me that a critic had noted: ‘The Moon and Sixpence is at once a satire of Edwardian mores and a Gauguin biography." Then it made more sense to me, and I was able to enjoy the story. Of course, this is a work of pure fiction and I found that quite enjoyable. Maugham used Gauguin’s story as a jumping off point for his imagination. Other than extremely broad strokes, this is not a biography although it is the story of an extraordinary life. 4*
10 task
10 review
10 oldie
_______
30
Running total: 1055

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
+10 Task
Task total = 10
Points total = 175
... ; ... ; 10.3 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 10.8 ; ... ; ...."
+5 Prizeworthy

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
+20 Task: Rating: 4.47 (I read about 1/3 of this book last..."
+5 Prizeworthy

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward depicts the horror of slavery in a world haunted with spirits using imaginative lyrical prose. The title comes from Dante's Inferno - "Let us descend and enter this blind world" - and the story tells about a hell on earth.
Teenager Annis is the daughter of a North Carolina plantation owner father and a slave mother. Her grandmother was a warrior in Africa, and her mother passed down her knowledge of fighting and resilience to Annis. Their enslaver sells her mother first, and Annis later, to be marched on a long journey to the slave markets of New Orleans. The grief of separation, and the physical pain of the journey with the slaves roped together are overwhelming. Annis turns to the spirits of her ancestors and the spirits in nature. It is a way of coping to create another reality. Annis uses her own strength and the help of the spirits in her struggles.
The first person narration by Annis adds to the intensity of the story. The descriptions involve all the senses so the reader gets a vivid picture. The connection with the spirit world worked well in this story, but I would have preferred less magical realism. The spirits gave Annis encouragement when it seemed like she had no one in the real world. The spirits in nature - the earth, the rain, the wind, and the water - lead Annis to a more hopeful place. This is an emotionally difficult book to read because of its subject, but Ward's writing is beautiful.
+20 task
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 525

The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay
+15 Task (Aged)
+100 Celebration of Styles finish
+50 Bonus for using all 7 styles
Post total = 165
Season total = 1090

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
For the task:
This book is a series of vignettes, each one focusing on a different girl, woman, or non-binary person. Their stories cover over 100 years from about 1900 to the present.
+20 Task
+15 Prize Worthy (Booker, Reading Women Award for Fiction, Blogistanian Globalia)
Post Total = 35
Season Total = 1125

Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell
Born in 1944 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Task Total 15
Season Total 545

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
+20 Task: Rating: 4.47 (I r..."
Thanks for catching all of those extra points! I'll try to be more careful.

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
This book was not as good as some of this author's other books. I liked the characters and the setting well enough, but it never had the charm that made her other books such nice feel-good reads. There is magic in this book, but it didn't have the cleverness that made the magic cool in the other novels. I never quite believed the Alligator Man theme here and so found it distracting from getting to know the other characters instead of helping the book feel haunting or magic.
The narrator for the audiobook was also pretty flat. She did voices for the characters, but not all of them worked. She also had the disadvantage that the previous book I listened to was Tom Lake narrated by the amazing Meryl Streep. So, maybe the narrator for this one was normal and I was just missing Meryl.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 505

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
+10 Task ( 29 scrabble score)
+. 5 Multiple
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1160

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
+10 Task ( 43 scrabble score)
+. 5 Multiple
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1175

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
+15 Task (Not a Novel)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1190

The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
+20 Task ( 1797-1851)
+15 Oldies (1826)
+ 5 Multiple
Post Total: 40
Season Total: 1230

This Other Eden by Paul Harding
+20 Task (1792 - 1890s)
+ 5 Multiple
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1255

The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies
+20 Task (many are written in this one)
+ 5 Multiple
Post Total: 25
Season Total: 1280

The scrabble total for this title is:
25
Fat Free and Fatal (A Savannah Reid Mystery #12) (2007) by G.A. McKevett
+10 Task
+05 Repeat a task
Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15
Grand Total: 310 + 15 = 325

Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
Score: 47
I guess it is safe to say, after reading seven of his novels, that I am a fan of Moore’s. This is one of his early novels. I didn’t find the initial set up, where we meet Tuck, that humorous. At this point, Tuck is kind of an idiot and it’s hard to empathize with him. However, things begin to happen in true Moore absurdist fashion when Tuck gets to Micronesia. We meet a variety of characters, in all senses of the word(!), and the adventure begins. The narrator for the audio book performed different voices for different characters quite well. I particularly liked his voice for ‘Kimee’ – it was spot on. Of course, the premise is absurd but there were a lot of truths in the story too (eg. role of missionaries, unscrupulous first worlders taking advantage of third world Indigenous peoples, etc). 3.5*
10 task
10 review
5 multi
_____
25
Running total: 1080

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
Lost in Translation
+15 task
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1280
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); 10.8; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4(x2); 15.5 (x5); 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

The Premonition byBanana Yoshimoto
Non-Western
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1295
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5); 10.8; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4(x2); 15.5 (x5); 15.6 (x2); 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)

The Scent of Almonds and Other Stories by Camilla Läckberg
Lost in Translation
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1310
10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x3); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x5);10.8; 10.9(x2); 10.10
15.1 (x2); 15.2 (x2); 15.3(x2); 15.4(x2); 15.5 (x5); 15.6 (x2); 15.7 (x2); 15.8; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 (x4); ... ; ...; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
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Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich
15 pts 15.1 Aged
Task Total: 15 pts
Correction post 534: 5 pts
Season Total: 460 pts
551
10.1… … … … 10.7 … … …
…20.2 20.3 … … …20.7 20.8 … 20.10
15.1 … … … … … … … … …