Reading with Style discussion
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Completed Tasks FA 23
15.2 Celebration of StylesMurder by the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles by Martin Edwards
+15 Task (Not a Novel)
Season total = 460
NOTE: This anthology was worth 5-stars from me. My review.
Post 300 Valerie wrote: "10.6 SeptemberPartners in Crime by Agatha Christie
I found this collection of Tommy and Tuppence short stories on the ‘free to a good home’ cart at the library. It i..."
Multiple is only 5 points
Post 286 Karen Michele wrote: "20.7 Christie The Rifles: Volume Six of Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes by William T. Vollmann
+20 Task: mid 1800s to 1990
Task Total: 20
Season T..."
+5 Oldies
Post 295 Valerie wrote: "20.8 MorrisonBrown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
I’m a little disappointed in myself for not discovering Nalo Hopkinson earlier. What a great book! I couldn’t de..."
+5 Oldies
Rebekah wrote: "10.3 VowelsNo One Goes Alone by Erik Larson
+10 pts - Task
Task Total - 10 pts"
+5 Multiple
15.7 Celebration of StylesClimat, crises: Le plan de transformation de l'économie française by The Shift Project
Not-a-novel (non-fiction book about a plan to change the french economy towards a net zero carbon emissions goal)
+15 Task
Task total = 15
Points total = 280
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 10.8 ; ... ; ...
15.1 ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; ... ; ... ; ...
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; 20.9 ; 20.10
15.9 Celebration of StylesAll the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Aged, McCarthy was 89 when he passed
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 525
...; ...; 10.3 (x2); ...; ...; 10.6; 10.7 (x3); ...; ...; ...
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;
20.1 (x3); ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8; ....; 20.10 (x2)
15.2 Celebration of Styles How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
Young - less than 50 years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_S... - born August 25, 1988 - age 35
Task: 15
Post: 15
Season total: 180
Rosemary wrote: "Tien, we still have your total 5 points higher than you do. Maybe you didn't add the 5 points that Elizabeth gave in message 147?"oops, sorry, I haven't been checking... ;p
15.9 Celebration of StylesDragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
+15 Task (Aged)
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 420
15.4 Celebration of StylesA Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
+15 not a novel
Season total: 200
15.3 Celebration of StylesKitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Lost in Translation
Task: 15
Post: 15
Season total: 195
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "10.3 VowelsNo One Goes Alone by Erik Larson
+10 pts - Task
Task Total - 10 pts"
+5 Multiple"
I appreciate you looking out for me, but this is the first time I claimed this task. I went back and went through all my posts. The only other book I posted with an author with a vowel starting the name was Elizabeth Peters and I used her book for the Author! Author! Task
20.8 MorrisonThe Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin
Probably my least favorite Jemisin book. Still good, but not up to her usual standards of inventiveness and consistency. It's been a little while since I read the other books in this trilogy, so at first I thought I was just having trouble getting re-immersed into the gods, godlings, and demons that populate this trilogy. But, no, I think it was that the book had inconsistent pacing and not quite satisfying differentiation between gods and humans.
Sien, the trickster god of childhood, has always been a great character, and it was almost enough to carry the book just to spend more time with him.
If you've read the other books in the trilogy, there's a nice sense of completion to be had by reading this one. If you haven't read the others, read those instead. Or, better yet, if you haven't read The Fifth Season (the Broken Earth Trilogy), go read that instead. All three books of that trilogy are five-star reads.
The narrator for the audiobook manages this book as well as possible given the slightly jumbled text.
+20 Task
+5 Jumbo (613 pp)
+10 Review
Task total: 35
Grand total: 325
Rebekah wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "10.3 VowelsNo One Goes Alone by Erik Larson
+10 pts - Task
Task Total - 10 pts"
+5 Multiple"
I appreciate you looking ou..."
Thanks, Rebekah. I see we have an error in your Post 274, which should have been for 10.2. We'll fix both these posts.
20.10 Letters Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley
This English novel takes the life of main character Anthony Beavis from childhood (born c.1891) to the mid-1930s in a series of threads so that the narrative appears to jump about in time, but I think each thread is followed chronologically within its own boundaries. It's not a war novel despite the time frame, because Huxley has Anthony wounded and invalided out of the army during training. It's more a record of how badly people can treat each other, especially in the context of love affairs.
In summary, to me this was a book about a lot of cynical and unlikeable characters with an unconvincing redemption at the end. I found it compelling, but in a car-crash kind of way.
Letter: "Brian looked up with startled eyes and, as though guiltily, folded away the letter he had been reading into his pocket, but not before Anthony had recognized from across the room the unmistakable characteristics of Joan's rather heavy and elaborately looped writing."
+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Multiple
+10 Oldies (1936)
+ 5 Jumbo (523 pages)
Post Total = 50
Season Total = 570
20.4 Golden AgeSlan by A.E. van Vogt
Well, that was a turn up for the books! I did not expect that ending at all, which I particularly liked because everything is NOT tied up nicely in a bow!
This is a really good example of ‘Golden Age’ science fiction, which generally I enjoy. This starts as a simple aliens vs humans sci-fi novel, and then it develops into a much more complex story. We follow Jommy Cross as he grows up, from ages 9 to 23, on a far distant future earth.
Van Vogt serialized this novel in 1940, and published it (as a novel) in 1946. I am quite sure there are/were historical contexts he is alluding to, but really it is just a fun story with a lot of adventure and a dollop of romance. 4*
20 task
10 review
5 oldie
5 prize
_______
40
Running total: 535
20.2 WarThe Ghosts Of Paris (Billie Walker Mystery #2) by Tara Moss
+20 Task
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 440
10.3 VowelsThe Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
+10 task
+5 multiple
+5 oldies (1972)
+5 prizeworthy (Hugo Award for Best Novella (1973)
Post Total = 25
Season Total = 550
...; ...; 10.3 (x3); ...; ...; 10.6; 10.7 (x3); ...; ...; ...
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;
20.1 (x3); ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8; ....; 20.10 (x2)
20.8 MorrisonThe Vegetarian by Han Kang
This was not the first time I had picked up this book, and it was quite a challenge. The first time I didn't get very far through, although it is quite short, but it really was such a hard read that I had to wait a bit to give it another go.
If you can get passed the first part, narrated by Yeong-hye's husband, then it becomes a different novel, and is not as difficult, but this part is not fun. Yeong-hye's husband is quite a piece of work before she decides not to eat meat. In fact, she becomes vegan, as she gets rid of all animal based products from her life. I found it strange that this was such a critical thing for him and her family, I have spent time not eating meat, my daughter has been vegetarian for many years, and my mum was vegetarian for around 20 years, so in our lives this is not a big thing. I wonder if it is / was a cultural Korean things, as I am guessing the attitudes to women expressed were. For me, this was probably the most horrible part (although Yeong-hye's dreams are pretty graphic and horrific).
If you can get passed this point, there is beauty in the novel, even if it is not conventional, and there is certainly a lot of madness and mental ill health going on. The art work by Yeong-hye's brother-in -law sounds beautiful, but I wonder, like Jake the other artist does, if it really needed to be sexualized. However, I am somewhat sympathetic to the brother-in-law, who seems like he is also an outsider that no one seems to understand, including other artists, and don't find him as reprehensible as his wife comes to see him.
This is certainly not for everyone, the portrayal of Yeong-hye's decline into her mental illness is quite graphic and sad, so be very careful if choosing to read this.
I am definitely going to give Han Kang another try at some point down the track.
+20 task
+10 prizeworthy (International Booker Prize 2016; San Clemente Rosalía-Abanca Prize for Foreign Language 2018)
+5 multiple
+10 review
Post Total = 45
Season Total = 595
...; ...; 10.3 (x3); ...; ...; 10.6; 10.7 (x3); ...; ...; ...
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;
20.1 (x3); ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); ....; 20.10 (x2)
15.4 Celebration of StylesHeat Of The Moment by Sabrina Cohen-Hatton
+15 Task (Young - Author born 1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabrina...)
Points this post: 15
RwS total: -
CoS total: 60
Season Total: 60
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 .... .... .... .... .... ....
.... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
15.10 Celebration of StylesThe Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
+15 Task (Lost in Translation)
+100 Finisher
+50 Finisher Bonus
Post Total: 165
Season Total: 605
10.7 ScrabbleEye of the Needle by Ken Follett
Some GR members have this shelved as thriller and others as mystery. My shelf combines the two - mystery-thriller, but this is definitely a WWII thriller. This is also an inverted mystery. We are with Henry Faber right from the beginning when he uses his stiletto to kill his landlady, who, filled with gin, decides it is time for her celibacy to end. Unfortunately for her, she barges into the room of this German spy when he is using his suitcase radio to transmit secrets to Abwehr, Hitler's spy agency.
I'm pretty sure I saw this movie years ago. Either the movie wandered freely from the book or I remembered little of it. It would be unfair of me to say the book is better than the movie. However, I have decided not to watch movies, preferring to read instead. Why watch someone else'e interpretation of an author's words when I can interpret them for myself? And be able to spend more pleasure time doing it, too.
I have read Ken Follett before and will likely read him again. While his writing style is not complex, neither is it over-simplified to the point of demeaning my intelligence. His characters are believable. (Although in this he stretches credulity of the actions of Lucy Rose almost to the breaking point.) I was happy to read this for plot and was amply rewarded. It is worth all of my four stars with nothing to be ashamed about.
+10 Task (24 scrabble points)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldies (1978)
+ 5 Prizeworthy (Edgar)
+ 5 Multiple
Task total = 35
Season total = 495
15.6 Celebration of StylesMiss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
+15 Task (LiT, from Icelandic)
Season total = 585
20.4 Golden AgeThe Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
First published in 1953
Two books about first contact that occurs beneath the water seems like it would be something quite statistically unlikely, but it has happened!
In some ways this is a little like The War of the Worlds, perhaps because it is in the UK, and the narration is like a reportage / story told after the climax of the even, although in this case there is no resolution, and the reportage is happening all along as our lead characters, Mike and Phyl Watson work in radio broadcasting, and get the chance to tag along on lots of interesting events in the uncovering of what the situation occuring is as the story develops.
The scenes of alien attacks are unlike any that I have seen considered before, even in all the sci-fi television I have watched over the years I don't think I have seen an alien that quite matches the ones in here in their appearance or ability. It is very strange, and I can imagine would have been a bit more frightening back in 1953.
Interestingly, although the cause of environmental change in the later part of the novel is extraterrestrial in its source, it did make me think about climate change and rising sea levels. There are many places in the world, including London, that will be impacted as sea levels rise, and I think there is a sense of hope at the end, despite the devastation behind them, that the human race will find a way to regroup and survive.
+20 task
+5 oldies
+10 review
Post Total = 35
Season Total = 630
...; ...; 10.3 (x3); ...; ...; 10.6; 10.7 (x3); ...; ...; ...
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;
20.1 (x3); ... ; ...; 20.4; 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); ....; 20.10 (x2)
10.7 Scrabble (Anika's Task)Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Scrabble score 49
+10 task
+5 multiple
Post Total = 15
Season Total = 645
...; ...; 10.3 (x3); ...; ...; 10.6; 10.7 (x4); ...; ...; ...
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9;
20.1 (x3); ... ; ...; 20.4; 20.5; ....; ....; 20.8 (x2); ....; 20.10 (x2)
15.4 Celebration of StylesNot-a-Novel
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
+15 task (play)
Task total: 15
Season total: 345
10.3 VowelsFinlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano
Another fun, light read. Finlay is a suburban single mom, dealing with kids, her ex, romantic possibilities, her job as a writer, and the Russian mob. Finlay and Vero, her nanny and conspirator in the suburban hit-woman game, are now dealing with the results of their escapades in the last book where they were misidentified as hitwomen. I appreciated that the author actually dealt with the consequences of the previous book! There were loose ends and those were all picked back up (not fully resolved, but there's always book 3) and things were actually complicated, as life really is (and, I imagine, as life in this particular scenario REALLY is).
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Season total = 20
10.3 VowelsFinlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano
While this was definitely another fun & easy read, I thought this might have been the best of the series so far. In this installment, Finlay and Vero get signed up (somewhat accidentally) for a citizen police academy where regular people are trained in police procedure as a PR sort of move. (That part sounded pretty fun, actually!). Of course, the Russian mobsters Finlay has continually been involved with are still in play, and the way the plot plays out is complex but very engaging. I also liked the character development in this one - there was some nuance coming up that had been less developed so far.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Multiple (last post #330)
Task total: 25
Season total: 45
10.9 Georgia Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
Blindsighted introduces Sara Linton and Lena Adams, along with a cast of colorful characters in a small Georgia town. It also introduces a fairly sadistic serial killer terrorizing said town. There is more than enough action, twistiness, and adventure in this book, and of course there are plenty of surprise connections between different parts of the plot. (There were a few times that it felt almost TOO connected - why is everything connected to everything else in this town?!?) I enjoyed this book although there were definitely some places that felt very 1990s - it was published in 2001 so that makes sense. Not bad, just felt dated in places. However, worth reading and I would pick up more in the series!
+10 task
+10 review
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 65
20.1 Author! Author!Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Fascinating look at the world of publishing. This is my first book by Kuang and although I believe her other books are quite different, I would certainly pick up more. In this book, June, a young author, happens to be present when another young author, sort of a friend but perhaps more of a friendly acquaintance, dies in a freak choking accident. This now-dead author is also wildly successful, making lots of money, instant bestseller, the works. June, who has been less successful and quite jealous, steals her friend's unpublished, unshared manuscript, finishes and edits it, and publishes it to huge acclaim. Watching the consequences from this decision play out, from inside June's perspective, is equally cringe-worthy and compelling. I wanted to scream at her most of the time, but I also did not want to put the book down.
+20 task (MC June is an author)
+10 review
Task Total:30
Season Total: 95
10.8 Friends (Mary's Task) The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
+10 Task:
+ 5 Prize-Worthy (National Book Award for Fiction (2018))
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 515
10.9 Georgia (Apple's Task)Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
+10 Task: Suley, Georgia
Task Total: 10
Season Total: 525
20.4 Golden Age On the Beach by Nevil Shute
+20 Task: 1957
+ 5 Oldies (1957)
Task Total: 25
Season Total: 550
20.5 Scandinavian Noir The Girl in the Woods by Camilla Läckberg
+20 Task:
+10 Jumbo (785)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 580
Post 318 Valerie wrote: "20.4 Golden AgeSlan by A.E. van Vogt
Well, that was a turn up for the books! I did not expect that ending at all, which I particularly liked because everything is ..."
+5 more Oldies (pub'd 1940)
20.5 - Scandinavian NoirSmoke Screen by Thomas Enger
+20 task
+5 multiple
Task total: 25
Grand total: 110
20.6 Wilder Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
+20 Task: The school they attend is for children, but I searched a bit to verify an under 13 age for the main protagonists. This quote is from one of the main voices in this book:
"I'm eleven. ... Okay? I'm eleven." p137
I have read other books in the series and the narrators and central characters are usually young children:
"Jack Wolcott was only twelve years old when she and her twin sister Jill, descended the impossible staircase and found herself in the Moors, a world of drowned gods and repugnant royals."
I have another book I can read for this challenge if the age isn't certain enough.
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 600
10.6 SeptemberThe Golden Egg by Donna Leon
Commissario Brunetti investigates the death of a man who is deaf and supposedly mentally challenged even though his death is considered accidental. Brunetti feels that something is not quite right. The dead man does not have any official record of birth, schooling, or medical care. His mother lies and does not seem to have means of living. Brunetti unravels the mystery. Although no one is held to account by the law, the evil person gets her punishment. But it is through very unusual circumstances.
One star deduction from my usual 4 star rating for this series for the implausible plot point.
Task: 10
Review: 10
Task total: 20
Season total : 220
10.7 ScrabbleLa couleur des choses by Martin Panchaud
Not sure whch title i needed to use for this, but for the french one above it is 26 poins, and the original title in german (Die Farbe der Dinge) is 25.
+10 Task
+15 Awards (from the french wikipedia page - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_...
2021 - Swiss prize for youth ; 2022 : Great prize of the ACBD Critic ; 2023 : Fauve d'or for best comic in d'Angoulême festival)
Task total = 25
Points total = 305
10.1 ; ... ; 10.3 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 10.7 ; 10.8 ; ... ; ...
15.1 ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; 15.7 ; ... ; ... ; ...
20.1 ; ... ; ... ; ... ; ... ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; 20.9 ; 20.10
Post 337 Karen Michele wrote: "20.5 Scandinavian Noir The Girl in the Woods by Camilla Läckberg
+20 Task:
+10 Jumbo (785)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 580"
Only 5 Jumbo points: most popular printed edition in English for this book is The Girl in the Woods with 580 pages.
However, we still have your total at 580 at this point, probably due to the 5 points added in post 304.
20.6 WilderMy Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
For the first fifty pages or so, I wasn’t sure if this was the book for this moment. I could tell it would be heartwarming, but I think I wasn’t into the main character’s voice. The main character is Elsa, who is ‘almost eight’. A very precocious seven, but still….. seven. However, I slept on it and let it sit for a day and then jumped back in – and then couldn’t put it down.
Elsa is very close to her Grandmother, and we spend a little time at the beginning of the book with the both of them. Then Grandmother dies (not a spoiler – it’s on the cover of the book). The rest of the book follows Elsa on the ‘treasure hunt’ her Grandmother devised. This is when I really started to enjoy the book. Of course, as with any book with such a young protagonist you do have to suspend disbelief a little.
This is the first book by Backman I have read, so it may be his superpower (Elsa is always trying to identify people’s superpower) to create very realistic characters. All of the characters are people you could plausibly meet in ‘real life’. Anyhow, of course I cried at the end. 4*
20 task
10 review
______
30
Running total: 570
Rosemary wrote: "Post 337 Karen Michele wrote: "20.5 Scandinavian Noir The Girl in the Woods by Camilla Läckberg
+20 Task:
+10 Jumbo (785)
Task Total: 30
Season Total: 580"
Only..."
Thanks - I was wondering about this one when it came up that way. I should have asked first whether to post the Kindle number or the print. I have a few glitches in my memory!
10.6 September-Author born in SeptemberCall the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth MPG History- born September, 1935
I loved this PBS series and I have wanted to read the book for a while now.
Taking place in the 1950's in the East End of London, it is the memoir of a young nurse, who has decided that being a midwife is her calling, She is trained in a convent by the Sisters of Nonnatus House. the Catholic religion being a new experience for her. Through out the author explores Catholicism, much more than the TV series did.
Jennifer Worth also includes much more medical background/history of birth, than the series included, which was interesting. There are lovely stories and there are horror stories of the pregnancies in the the slums of London.
The TV series was very true to the book. A quick read that I enjoyed.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Total Task Points 20
Season Total 305
15.6 Celebration of StylesEarthlings by Sayaka Murata
+15 Task - Non-Western
Task total: 15
Grand total: 340
15.5 Celebration of Styles-Not A NovelCall the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s
+15 Task
Season Total 320
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Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
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Behold the Dreamers (other topics)
End of Watch (other topics)
Quite Frankly: Dilf Mania (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
McKenzie Funk (other topics)Seneca (other topics)
Imbolo Mbue (other topics)
Stephen King (other topics)
Mayra Statham (other topics)
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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
A very loose retelling of David Copperfield, set in impoverished rural Appalachia in the western part of the state of Virginia. "Demon", real name Damon and nicknamed Copperhead because of his red hair, is the son of a single mother who is trying to get clean of drugs and alcohol. Soon he is in the foster care system and grows up in a county where almost everyone of his age seems to take drugs - and many older people too, because this is the time of mass OxyContin prescription.
I listened to this on audio without knowing much about it beforehand. It's a while since I read David Copperfield but I recognised some characters and could sometimes foresee plot events. You wouldn't need to know anything about Dickens's book to appreciate this one, however.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Prize Worthy
+ 5 Jumbo
Post Total = 35
Season Total = 520