Reading with Style discussion
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10.7 ScrabbleBirdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore
The Birdcage Walk itself is a suspension bridge across the River Avon at Clifton. The wikipedia entry says there has been a bridge at this location for several centuries. This novel has less to do with that bridge than it provides easy access to the beautiful houses that John Diner Tredevant is building across the river from Bristol. They would have a marvelous view of the gorge. But this is at the time of the French Revolution and Diner, as he is called, is financing his project entirely on borrowed sums. He needs to sell these houses even as they are not quite finished in order to meet his obligations. He knows that a war between France and England would be his ruin. The epigraph for the novel reads:
Towards the end of the eighteenth century there was a frenetic building boom in Bristol. Builders and developers competed against one another, borrowing heavily to buy up land. Between 1789 and 1792 work began on several terraces which were to be sited spectacularly on the steep slopes of Clifton, two hundred feet above the River Avon. Among these were Royal York Crescent, said to be the longest terrace in Europe, Cornwallis Crescent and Windsor Terrace. But in 1793 war was declared between Britain and France. Bristol’s housing boom collapsed, and more than fifty builders and developers went bankrupt within a few months. Hundreds of houses were left unfinished for years, in a roofless spectacle of ruin.This is told in the first person by Lizzie Tredevant, Diner's 2nd wife. Everything we know about Diner is told through her voice. Everything we know about Lizzie's mother, Julia Fawkes, is told through Lizzie's voice. Julia and her husband are Radicals - yes, with a capital R - a political group of the time. They are "of the people" and did not approve of Lizzie's marriage to Diner and his work.
I wasn't sure at the beginning that I would like this, but it grew on me. There are several layers in Lizzie's life and all are interwoven. I liked that complexity.
I have read others by Helen Dunmore, but maybe not enough. This is her last novel. In her Afterword she comments that as she was completing the novel she didn't know she was so very ill. In any case, I think this is not quite 5-stars, but I believe there are others by her that are. I hope to get to them in good time.
+10 Task (25 points)
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple (first post this task at #137)
Task total = 25
Season total = 985
10.9 GeorgiaBetween, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
I've read a few books by Jackson and know what to expect: a dysfunctional Southern family in a small town, the threat of a horrible thing (that never quite happens), and a happy ending. The writing isn't half bad, either. It's the book version of a fruit tart--light, as healthy as a dessert can be (fruit!--that would be Jackson's writing...suprisingly good for Chick Lit), but still a dessert (nothing "meaty" about it).
Nonny was born to a fifteen-year-old mother who wants nothing to do with her and is immediately adopted by a deaf (and soon to be blind) woman. Here's the rub: the fifteen-year-old's family and the deaf woman's family are Between's version of the Hatfields and McCoys.
The book has lots of secrets that are all uncovered by the end of the book and everything is tied up in a neat bow--but it never feels saccharine. Like a fruit tart, it's delicious and two bites later it's gone and the memory of it fades pretty quickly.
It was a nice fluffy read to give my brain a rest after the heavier book I recently finished.
+10 Task, set in Between, Georgia
+10 Review
Task total: 20
+50 Halfway Finish, 10-point tasks
Season total: 640
20.3 DickensThe Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
+20 task
+10 oldies
Post Total = 30
Season Total = 1360
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); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
10.2 Moon and Sun The Glimpses of the Moon by Edmund Crispin
+10 Task
+ 5 Oldies (1977)
+50 Halfway finish for 10-point tasks
Post Total = 65
Season Total = 1340
15.8 Celebration of Styles x 2A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Young, 38 years old
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1375
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 (x2); 15.9; 15.10
20.1 (x4); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
20.1 Author! Author!The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert
When I first started listening to this, I thought it might be a little too twee. However, I began to enjoy it and found it less quaint. This is the second instalment in this series about Beatrix Potter at the time in her life when she bought her farm in the Lakes District. I think what I enjoy most about novels like this are the village inhabitants. This is always an opportunity for the author to develop some interesting characters, and Albert does so here. There are also quite a few strong female characters which made the book even more enjoyable. There is a mystery, actually a couple of mysteries, and I would say they were resolved fairly easily but the reader feels included in the thought process(es) of Beatrix and company. 3.5*
20 task
10 review
_____
30
50 1/2 way bonus
____
80
Running total: 1195
10.7 -ScrabbleFrozen Stiff by Patrick Logan
+10 task - score 29
+5 multiple
Task total: 15
Grand total: 295
Task 20.4 Golden AgeRead any book of science fiction originally published in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s.
Wasp (1957) by Eric Frank Russell
Review: Wasp was published by SF Masterworks. Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Mast... ) says: SF Masterworks series began publication in 1999. Developed to feature important and out of print science fiction novels, the selections were described by science fiction author Iain M. Banks as "amazing" and "genuinely the best novels from sixty years of SF. Goodreads helpfully has a listopia of the books published by SF Masterworks: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... .
Now for the review of the novel. This short novel focuses on the human resistance movement against the conquering alien Sirian Empire. Our hero Mowry is recruited to be a “wasp” – a small but effective agent within a Sirian city, busily disrupting Sirian war plans, encouraging Sirian public to not support Sirian war aims, etc., etc. The idea is that a wasp, buzzing around a driver of an automobile, can distract the driver so much that the automobile crashes. Mowry is to be a “wasp”. The author Eric Frank Russell may have had direct personal experience during World War II of “wasp”-like operations against the Germans. The Wikipedia biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Fr... , states: Russell was too old for active service, and instead worked for Military Intelligence in London, where he "spent the war dreaming up nasty tricks to play against the Germans and Japanese", (although Wikipedia warns that confirmation of this part of Russell’s biography is shaky) After reading Wasp, I think it is likely to be true, as our rugged action hero is very inventive with his actions to muck up the Sirian war machine. The Sirians are very human-like. I suspect Russell made them purple-skinned and “alien” to remove 1950s politics from the story (no Germans or Russians!!) It should be noted that, as often happens in 1950s science fiction, there are zero female characters in the novel. Recommended to readers of 1950s science fiction. Additionally, I think readers who like to read about unconventional military tactics would also enjoy this novel.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total: 20 + 10 = 30
Grand Total: 355 + 30 = 385
10.7 ScrabbleThe Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The author never fails to please. I know exactly when I need to reach for one her books and like magic she has the ability to change my mood.
This is probably my favorite by her. I loved all the characters and the story line took me back to my own youth and wonderful memories.
This book is very character driven-2 women, 2 men who went to high school together. Each of them at that moment in "adulting" when you are trying so hard to find your path in life. You had thought you had found it, but now you seem to be questioning if your prior choice was missing something.
There is always a bit of magical realism with Addison, it seemed a bit lighter then usually here, for her. The ending wrapped everything up neatly and as I said it was the type of whimsy I needed right now. I have only her newest book left to read now. I will put that on hold for a while. I will need to find another author I can reach for when I am needing to feel comfort and coziness.
28 Points
Points this task 10
Review 10
Repeat 5
Total Task 25
Season Total 675
20.10 Letters All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen
+20 task (one character, Kevin, handwriting a letter to his sister Dawn is a major plot point in the second half of the book)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 225
15.5 Celebration of StylesLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott
+15 Task (1001)
Season total: 350 + 15 = 365
15.6 Celebration of StylesEver by Gail Carson Levine
+15 Task (Old - Gail Carson Levine was born in 1947)
Season total: 365 + 15 = 380
15.9 Celebration of Styles x 2The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Aged, Ray Bradbury was 91 when he passed
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 1390
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 (x2); 15.9 (x2); 15.10
20.1 (x4); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3
20.8 MorrisonHappiness by Aminatta Forna
The Goodreads description tells too much, I think. But maybe it was what made me pick up this book.
Dr. Attila Asare is a world renown psychiatrist who has published several papers. PTSD in the Non-combat Population is one title I remember. I suppose I remember it because we always think of PTSD as relating to soldiers returning from war. Attila is, of course fictional. Every word I read of him in this made me believe that he exists even if by another name. It wasn't just that he is from Accra, Ghana nor that he is at least 6 foot 6 inches tall. Somehow I could hear his voice when he spoke and a laugh from deep in his chest.
Jean Turane is a wildife biologist from the US with a specialty in urban wildlife. She has a contract in the UK to study urban foxes. She, too, is fictional but also so well drawn that such a person surely exists in real life. Having gotten permission from her landlord she has accessed the roof in her building, set up raised beds for vegetables and also created a small "meadow" with flowers. There is a bench and a table where she feeds wild birds. She found that her pay for her study doesn't quite meet her costs in London. So, with her gardening knowledge she has a small business called Wild Spaces to create similar spaces on roofs or terraces.
These two bumped into each other, quite literally. Then met again, again by happenstance. Through a series of vignettes we get to know them as individuals. The novel is not linear. There are long passages that describe scenes from their lives before the 2014 week of the present.
In addition to the excellent characterizations I very much liked Forna's writing style. I like being challenged to having to look up the occasional vocabulary word. There might have been a 1/2 dozen in this. One I remember because I think, living in timber country, I should have known. pol·lard ˈpä-lərd
: a tree cut back to the trunk to promote the growth of a dense head of foliage
I have marked her The Memory of Love as wish list while marking this title as 5-stars. It is the best thing I've read recently.
+20 Task (Forna is of mixed race: father Sierra Leone, mother Scots)
+10 Review
Task total = 30
Season total = 1015
Task 10.4 Debut (Tien's Task) Read a debut novel by a female author published in the last 10 years (2013-2023 inclusive)
The author’s goodreads bio states that Diamond Head was Cecily Wong’s debut novel.
Diamond Head (2015) by Cecily Wong
+15 Task
Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 385 + 15 = 400
15.10 Celebration of StylesRefuge by Dot Jackson
Aged - age 84 (1932-2016 see message 35 on Q&A thread)
Task total: 15
Finisher bonus: 100
Season total: 670
20.3 Dickens The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
Beautiful young Lizzie Greystock managed to get rich old Sir Florian Eustace to marry her shortly before he died. Now she has a Scottish estate and a hugely valuable necklace of diamonds in her possession. She says the necklace was a gift from her husband; his lawyers say it's an heirloom that belongs to the Eustace family. We, the readers, know that Lizzie's a scheming liar, but some crucial characters are taken in.
This is the third in Trollope's Palliser or Parliamentary series, and there's not much politics in this one, although some of the characters are MPs. I thought it was the most enjoyable of the series so far, though I'm certainly enjoying them all.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1873)
+10 Jumbo (794)
Post Total = 50
Season Total = 1390
20.4 Golden Age War with the Newts by Karel Čapek
When a sea captain discovers an intelligent species of marine salamander in the Pacific islands, he is quick to give them knives so that they can eat oysters and he can collect the pearls. After the secret gets out, every government with a sea coast wants salamanders bred rapidly for defence. But the salamanders have their own ideas for their future.
I especially enjoyed the beginning of this, which is absurd and had me laughing out loud. Later it becomes more serious when there is the question of whether intelligent animals owned by humans would be livestock (legal) or slaves (illegal). So I found it both enjoyable and thought-provoking.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1936)
Post Total = 40
Season Total = 1430
20.10 LettersThe Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
+20 Task (lots of letters; one example is the Seventh Narrative which is a letter from Mr. Candy to Mr. Franklin Blake.)
+5 Multiple
+15 Combo 20.3, 10.2 (moonstone), 20.7 (1799-1850)
+15 Oldies
+5 Jumbo
Task Total: 60
Season Total: 180
Post 670Owlette wrote: "20.10 LettersThe Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
+20 Task (lots of letters; one example is the Seventh Narrative which is a letter from Mr. Candy to Mr. Franklin Blake.)
+5..."
Sorry, Owlette, There is no Combo style this season.
Oops, sorry about that. Too long between postings. Now I remember - database issues.Task total: 45
Season total: 165
20.1 Author, AuthorThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
"Tristram Shandy" is one of the most unusual books I've ever read. Author Laurence Sterne was writing in the 18th Century, but he was using the technique of stream of consciousness that we usually associate with the modernists and postmodernists. The book has lots of bawdy humor so it's difficult to imagine that Sterne was an Anglican clergyman. Sterne was well-educated, and there are many references to the great minds of the time and to other literary works. The novel contains unusual visual techniques such as marbled and blank pages. Sterne loves to play with time, and the novel is full of digressions. The author's humor was influenced by Cervantes, Swift, Rabelias, and other earlier writers.
The characters in the book have obsessions (called "hobby-horses"). Tristram's father loves to quote philosophers, but often exhibits little common sense. His Uncle Toby is a military veteran who reenacts battles on his lawn with the help of his servant. Tristram is trying to outrun Death in the later chapters, battling the same tubercular disease as Sterne. He's using humor and fun so he can avoid thinking about his declining health. Tristram is an author who is writing the story of his life, including his European travels.
This is not a book for everyone because it's filled with double entendres and digressions -- and digressions from the digressions! I feel that it would be most appreciated in an academic class, or in a group led by someone knowledgeable about Sterne's writing. I've finished the book, but feel lucky to have been part of an ongoing discussion group that made reading "Tristram Shandy" an enjoyable reading experience.
+20 task (Tristram is an author)
+10 review
+ 5 multiple
+20 oldie (1767)
+10 jumbo (735 pages)
Task total: 65
Season total: 735
20.2 War Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
+20 Task
+5 Prize-Worthy (Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction (2018))
Task total = 25
Points total = 615
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; 10.10
15.1 (2) ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; 15.8 ; 15.9; 15.10
20.1 ; 20.2 ; ... ; ... ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 (x2) ; 20.8 ; 20.9 (x2) ; 20.10
Post 651 Joanne wrote: " 20.2 War The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
A family saga featuring Victor "Pug" Henry and his U.S. Navy family, beginning at the onset of WWII in 1939. The characters g..."
+5 Oldies
Post 657 Valerie wrote: "20.1 Author! Author!The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert
When I first started listening to this, I thought it might be a little too twee. However, I began to..."
Valerie, we have your total at 1180:
1100 in post 639
+80 here
Post 659 Deedee wrote: "Task 20.4 Golden AgeRead any book of science fiction originally published in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s.
Wasp (1957) by Eric Frank Russell
Review: Wasp was publishe..."
+5 Oldies
Post 666 Deedee wrote: "Task 10.4 Debut (Tien's Task) Read a debut novel by a female author published in the last 10 years (2013-2023 inclusive)
The author’s goodreads bio states that Diamond Head was Cecily Wong’s debu..."
15 points is correct, just noting it is made up of
10 for the task + 5 Multiple
Thank you for pointing that out Rosemary. I thought I had posted this:15.6 Celebration of Styles 2.0
Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish by James Prosek
NaN
15 task
_____
15
So, now I am back at 1195 Running Total!
20.3 DickensThe Cabinet of Antiquities by Honoré de Balzac
The description for this edition is off by about 98%. This is *not* ... a collection of these well-crafted tales about life in provincial France. This is a short novel that mostly takes place in privincial France. The time period for most of the novel is in 1822/23. In the first part Balzac tells us how the noblity lost their land under Napoleon, how much of the nobility actually emigrated to avoid the guillotine.
The family that is at the center of this novel is that of d'Esgrignon. In 1822, the family consists of the Marquis, his sister Mlle. Armande, and the Marquis son, Victorinen. The Marquis wife and Victorinen's mother died in childbirth. Victorinen has been raised by his aunt. The Marquis d'Esgrignon still believes in the superiority of the nobility and for some reason no one tells him differently. The Marquis and others of the town nobility are called by the towns people "The Cabinet of Antiquities." Further, there is one family that was spurned in the past and has vowed revenge for more than 20 years. de Croisier plots his opportunity.
The d'Esgrignons are no longer a wealthy family, though no one would say they had fallen into poverty. Victorinen must marry and preferably someone who will have a substantial dowry. He sets off to Paris. But the young man has been given to believe in that same superiority as his father believes and, further, has no idea that he isn't a wealthy young man.
I did not read this edition, but instead the one included in Works of Honore de Balzac. I don't know who was the translator, but I think it was a good one. Still, this is not a title to be read unless one plans to read all, or nearly all, of Balzac's Comédie Humaine and even for me this doesn't quite make 4-stars.
+20 Task (Balzac, 1799-1850)
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple (first post at #120)
+15 Oldies (1839)
Task total = 50
Season total = 1065
10.10 Group ReadsThe Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
There were moments where I found this book funny or moving. And there were some interesting tidbits about life in a small Indian village. But a lot of the book was so far-fetched that I couldn't quite get into it. And overall, the premise that these women are banding together to murder their annoying husbands felt too heavy for how lightly this was treated. I'm not sorry that I read this, but I'm not going to be pressing it into anyone else's hands. It seems like a book a book club might like--light enough for easy readers, enough substance to foster good discussion.
The narrator for the audiobook was excellent and kept the book moving for me during parts of the story that seemed to drag.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 525
15.9 CoSThe Devil's Pool by George Sand
+15 Task - Canon (listed as The Haunted Pool on the Canon list)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 555
15.10 Celebration of Styles x 2Greek Lessons by Han Kang
Non-Western, Han Kang is South Korean
+15 Task
+100 finishers bonus
Post Total = 115
Season Total = 1505
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 (x2); 15.9 (x2); 15.10 (x2)
20.1 (x4); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3
20.6 Wilder A Million Things by Emily Spurr
Post Total = 20
Season Total = 1525
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 (x2); 15.9 (x2); 15.10 (x2)
20.1 (x4); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4 (x2); 20.5; 20.6; ....; 20.8 (x2); 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
15.7 Celebration of Styles 2.0The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
LiT
15 task
_____
15
Running total: 1210
10.6 SeptemberNetwork Effect by Martha Wells
November 2023 reread. The newest in the Murderbot series System Collapse has just arrived and several readers have said that it takes up where this one leaves off. So I have reread Network Effect to refresh my memory. I am glad I did because the last part of the book takes concentration to follow. And this may be the first time in the series where someone besides Murderbot narrates part of the action. Wells takes us further into the complexities of this universe and its conflicts.
+10 task
+15 awards
+5 repeat previous post 343
Task total: 30
Season total: 405
10.3 VowelsDragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
I was hesitant about this book early on as I assumed (correctly) this would be heavy in the Sc-Fi genre. However, I pushed on and am so glad I did.
The story of the very beginning of Pern, the colonists who come from another planet to settle there. Some of the questions I have had previously are answered, the why and how and what happened.
There were a lot of terms (scientific and others) that I had to spend time on Googling their meaning, but that does not bother me, Reading is learning, learning is reading.
A great introduction to McCaffrey's world of Pern. I am glad though that I am reading these books in a certain order though, as I may not have moved on had I read this one first. http://pern.srellim.org/readorder.htm
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Multiple
+ 5 Prize worthy - SFBC Award (1989)
Total Task 30
Season Total 710
10.7 Scrabble (Anika's Task) I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
+10 Task (37 scrabble points)
+ 5 Multiple
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 1310
Post 688 Joanne wrote: "10.3 VowelsDragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
I was hesitant about this book early on as I assumed (correctly) this would be heavy in the Sc-Fi genre. However, I pushed on a..."
+5 Oldies (1988)
Thanks Elizabeth-I keep missing these!
20.5 Scandinavian Noir The Kingdom by Jo Nesbø
Roy Osgard lives alone near a small town in Norway on land inherited by him and his brother from their parents - their kingdom. To make a living, he runs a service station down in the town. Then his brother comes home from America, married, with plans to build a hotel on their land. The subsequent events unleash violence stemming from dark events in their past.
I thought this was a great psychological thriller. I found it very atmospheric with a strong sense of the power of a Norwegian winter. I have read one of Nesbo's Harry Hole novels before and found it too violent, but while there are a lot of killings in this, the telling of them is not gruesome. The complexity of the relationship between the two brothers is brought out vividly, with all the love and guilt that comes from growing up in a severely dysfunctional family.
Trigger warning for child sexual abuse in the past.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo (560 pages)
+50 Halfway finish, 20 point tasks
+200 Mega finish
Post Total = 285
Season Total = 1715
15.8 Celebration of StylesTyll by Daniel Kehlmann
+15 Task (LiT: German->English)
Points this post: 15
RwS total: 10
CoS total: 120
Season Total: 130
.... .... .... .... 10.5 .... .... .... .... ....
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 .... ....
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
20.2 WarThe Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes
"Maybe you scoff at the notion that there should be so much brouhaha over books. There were plenty of people who felt that way in May, 1933, as well. And I promise you, if I've learned anything from my time in Berlin, it's this: an attack on books, on rationality, on knowledge isn't a tempest in a teacup but rather a canary dead in a coal mine."
"Books were sacred, even the ones she didn't agree with or enjoy."
Althea is a young writer in 1933, invited to Berlin on a cultural exchange by Goebbels. She's from a small town in Maine, has no head for politics, and is grateful to the political machine that brought her to a thriving European metropolis.
There she meets Hannah, a sophisticated Berliner whose love of the cabarets and nightlife is rivaled only by her dedication to the resistance. One May night walking through the streets, they hear a raucous crowd and see a light. The light is a bonfire. The fuel is a growing tower of books. "Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too," Althea quotes, and finally sees the true colors of the Hitler regime.
Fast forward eleven years and we meet Viv whose personal crusade is to get books into the hands of American soldiers overseas, despite the political efforts to the contrary.
-------
I appreciated the way that Althea started out sympathetic towards the Nazi regime--she didn't have much information about them and they were her gracious hosts who were footing the bill for this extravagant vacation, she only heard their propaganda about a return to stability, their anti-Communist sentiment, their candy covered lies. Of course she would believe them--she had no one to contradict their lies. I liked that as she gained more information, she was able to see through them. It felt far more believable than if she instantly hated them (in 1933, most people in the U.S. were unaware of what the Nazi party was really about--based of the non-fiction I've read of this time period).
I also appreciated that Hannah quoted from Mein Kampf. There is no better way to know--and defeat--your enemy than to read their own words. She found the book and its ideas repugnant, but in knowing what was there she could fight against it.
So many of the themes felt uncomfortably contemporary...
--an unbalanced leader that the party thinks they can control--and it ends up blowing up in their faces.
--an increase in book bans which limits learning and allows for only one point of view to prevail.
--"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
I enjoyed this book--I liked the ideas it brought up, the structure (it bounced between three timelines--it never got confusing and was an effective device in unfolding the story), the characters (were well-rounded and imperfect which increases their believability), and the writing.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
+50 Half-way Bonus, 20-point tasks
Season total: 750
10.3 VowelsIt Might Lead Anywhere by E.R. Punshon
After a couple of installments that I thought just so-so, Punshon comes up with another really good mystery. In this, it was confusing enough that I didn't even begin to have an opinion about the perpetrator. In a couple of places, Bobby seems to not have any good ideas either, but wife Olive is a good listener while he thinks things through.
The possibilities seemed vague, doubtful, uncertain in the extreme, but then this was a case in which it might be said of anything that it might lead anywhere.Initially, Bobby is called when a riot is reported to be happening in the small village of Chipping Up. Of course it was nothing even resembling a riot, but a crowd had gathered and some ugly words were being bandied about. A man, Alfred Brown, had been accidentally hit. He was knocked out and landed in the river, but fortunately rescued almost instantly. Early the next morning Brown was found to have been murdered during the night.
As Bobby himself sometimes remarked, when sending one of his men on some errand only too likely to turn out a wild goose chase: ‘It might lead anywhere.’
It appeared there was a sort of circular relationship between some of the characters. Murder isn't usually the result of a conspiracy. Surely it was one of these characters, but which? Bobby solves it and when he was telling Olive about it, it appeared he really had known for some time. Very satisfying reading and I'm glad there are a baker's dozen left for me in the series. 4-stars for this.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple (first post for this task at Post #67)
+10 Oldies (1946)
Task total = 35
Season total =
See next post for correction of total points.
And that's all for me this season!
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Reading with Style
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The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
A family saga featuring Victor "Pug" Henry and his U.S. Navy family, beginning at the onset of WWII in 1939. The characters grow, the history is true to life and Wouk's storytelling will all draw you in.
Be not afraid of the size of this novel-It was my second time around with it (something I rarely do) and I still found myself reaching for it and reading a few chapters every night.
The world and the characters, and there are many, are portrayed realistically for the time period and this is something that adds to the novel.
Aster took in the girl with a keen, rather greedy glance
Captain," said Lady Aster, as Caruso refilled the glasses, do you think that picture in Byron's room does Natalie justice?"
"Not in the least, said the captain, looking at her with liquid, man-loving eyes."
...and these were Byron Henry's friends leering at his girl ! LoL, but as I said Wouk keeps you in the time period and men could be leeches back then, would be what we would call rude and creepy these days.
Wouk writes a tender and moving love story (a few in fact) and they took me back to my first time reading it. How all the older women in my life were swooning over those excerpts, and remembering what it was like to be a military family and a war bride.
This is my second Wouk in 2 years and 2024 calls for a third, the follow-up to this book War and Rembrance. Already on my blanket chest for movement in January to the nightstand.
+20 Task
+10 Reveiw
+5 Multiple
+ 15 Jumbo
Task Total 50
Season Total 650