Reading with Style discussion

Post 551 Tien wrote: "20.4 The Fighting Temeraire
Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck

🎧 Audiobook Review 🎧

Well! I like pirate stories but this was... frustrating? Strange? Probably a combination ..."

Sorry, Tien, this book is YA at Brooklyn with no Lexile score.
Task, but no styles.

Post 559 Heather wrote: "After our discussion in the thread for 10.5, can I move this one to 10.5? I know it will drop my score by 5 points because I can't use the 10.1 for a combo but I *can* use the book I intended for 1..."

No problem, that's been done.

Post 579 Valerie wrote: "20.3 The Madonna of the Cat

Mr. Flood's Last Resort by Jess Kidd

The GR description doesn’t begin to describe this book – which, of course, is good. You might no..."

+5 Combo 10.9

Rosemary wrote: "Post 253 Karen Michele wrote: "20.2 The Virgin of the Rocks

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.9 Anniversaries (261)

Task total = 25
Se..."

Thanks for the last few point additions!

10.4 Baby Boom

Found Wanting by Robert Goddard

Richard Eusden and Marty Hewitson were lifelong friends from childhood, though they had not spent much time together recently. They were such good friends that Gemma was the ex-wife of both of them. OK, so that's not exactly germane to the events, but I thought it an interesting piece to flesh out the story. Anyway, it was Monica who convinced Richard to deliver the briefcase to Marty. The briefcase had belonged to Marty's grandfather and probably contained secrets that very rich people might be willing to spend a LOT of cash to know its contents. Besides, Marty was dying of a brain tumor. Monica didn't want to see him and so the task of delivering the briefcase fell to Richard, whether he wanted the job or not.

This is a thriller. One can expect this delivery to not go according to plan. And it didn't. It was oh so far from what Richard thought was the plan. It was hard to know which were the bad guys. We could be certain Richard and Marty were the good guys, but how many gangs were tipped as to this delivery and how many thought stealing it would be in their interest?

Again, this is a thriller. When I finished the last page I thought it would make a good movie. Lots and lots of action. Bad things happen to Richard along the way, even as soon as he arrives in Brussels and for the next 250 pages as well.

I will make no apology for liking Robert Goddard and I intend to keep reading him. I think his writing style is above average for the genre. These are thrillers (did I say that?) so one should not expect fully fleshed characterizations but neither are they entirely flat. His plots are good. I'm not sure this is actually 4-stars worth, but that's what you get.

+10 Task (b. 1954)
+10 Review
+15 Combo (10.9 - 352 pgs., 20.9 - at least 2!, 20.10 - Brussels, Denmark, Finland make up just over 75%)

Task total = 35

Season total = 1130

20.4 The Fighting Temeraire

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
#6 on list

+20 task
+5 combo (10.3)
+50 halfway bonus

Post Total = 75
Season Total = 1220

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x3); ...; 10.8; 10.9 (x3); 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15,2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6;
20.1; 20.2; 20.3 (x4); 20.4; 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10 (x2)
30.1 (x2)

15.7 HDYGG?

In My Past Life I Was Cleopatra: A sceptical believer's journey through the New Age by Amal Awad

Herbs
296 pages
6, CHIVES

IN My past life i was CLEOpatra a sceptical Believer's joUrney through the new age COLUMBINE+
in my Past life i was cleoPatra a scePtical believer's jOurneY through the new age POPPY

Plants used this post =3
Total plants used = 35

+15 points
+5 flower bonus

Post Total = 20
Season Total = 1240

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x3); ...; 10.8; 10.9 (x3); 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15,2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7;
20.1; 20.2; 20.3 (x4); 20.4; 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10 (x2)
30.1 (x2)

10.3 St. Patrick's Day

Salvador by Joan Didion

+10 task

Post Total = 10
Season Total = 1250

10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x2); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x3); ...; 10.8; 10.9 (x3); 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15,2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7;
20.1; 20.2; 20.3 (x4); 20.4; 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10 (x2)
30.1 (x2)

20.10 World of Crime (Rosemary's task)

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

+20 task
+10 LIT
+5 jumbo (519pgs)
+5 combo (20.7 - to resolve the story all the main characters must make a trip to Germany )

Post Total = 40
Season Total = 1290

10.1; 10.2; 10.3 (x2); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x3); ...; 10.8; 10.9 (x3); 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15,2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7;
20.1; 20.2; 20.3 (x4); 20.4; 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
30.1 (x2)

10.1 Rewind to Winter

Passage of Arms by Eric Ambler

+10 task
+10 combo (20.7 - the story takes place on a cruise, with the main part being in Singapore and Malayasia; 20.9 - the whole story is a conspiracy re gun smuggling, of which the main characters are unwitting participants in)

Post Total = 20
Season Total = 1310

10.1 (x2); 10.2; 10.3 (x2); 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 (x3); ...; 10.8; 10.9 (x3); 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15,2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7;
20.1; 20.2; 20.3 (x4); 20.4; 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10 (x3)
30.1 (x2)

10.1 Rewind to Winter (ok in thread)

If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin

If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe is the fourth book in the John Dies at the End series and it is a beautiful train wreck, just like the rest. I read the entire thing in the span of less than 24 hours. It’s an easy read, like the rest of the series, but I can only describe it as what happens when you take the Scooby Doo gang, give them a whole lot of illicit substances, remove any and all filters to their behavior save for ‘am I some semblance of a moral human being, for various values of moral?’, add in some interdimentional beings to go along with the ghosts, and include a WHOLE lot of gratuitous *weirdness* that may or may not be violent and you’ve got this book. The entire series, even. I can’t tell you a whole lot more than that without spoiling it but *this* one even involves time travel and possessed Hatchimals (not the brand but you know what I mean). There IS a conspiracy involved but it's a spoiler.

+10 task
+20 combo (10.9 - 432 pages, 20.5 - comma, 20.6 - Amy, John, and David, 20.9 - spoiler but it's part of the main plot about the Hatchimal thing)
+10 review

Task total: 40
Season total: 340

15.4 HDYGG? Round 2

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg

MPE 288
8 = ROSEMARY

palacesforthepeoplehowsocialinfrastructurecanhelpfightinequalitypolarIZAtIoNaNdthedeclineofciviclife = ZINNIA
palacesforthepeoplehoWsOcialinfraStructUREcaNheLpFightinequalitypolarizationandthedeclineofciviclife = SUNFLOWER
PAlAceSfORthepeoplehowsocialinfrastructurecanhelpfiGhtiNequalitypolarizationanDthedecliNeofciviclife = SNAPDRAGON
palacesforthePeOPlehowsocialinfrastructurecanhelpfightinequalitYPolarizationandthedeclineofciviclife = POPPY
palacesforthepeoplehowSocialinfrastructurecanhelpfightineqUalitypOlaRizationandthedeclineofCiviClife = CROCUS
palacesforthepeoplehowsocialiNfrastrUcturecanhelPfightinequalitypolarizationandthedeclineofcivicLIfE = LUPINE
paLaCesforthepeoplehowsocialinfRastructurecanhelpfightinequalitypolarizationandthedeclinEOfciViclife = CLOVER

+15, 8 Plants
+10 Flower Bonus

Task total: 25, 27 Plants
Season total: 1405

20.8 Fancy Meeting You Here (Anika's task)

James by Percival Everett

+20 task (characters from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn appear, including Huck Finn, Jim, Judge Thatcher, and others)
+ 5 combo (10.4 born 1956)

Task total=25
Season total=90

15.7 HDYGG

Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future by Oliver Franklin-Wallis

Flowers
theSEcretWORldoFwasteandtheUrgeNtsearchforacLeanerfuture - sunflower+
theseCRetworldOfwasteandtheurgentSearChforacleanerfutUre - crocus
Herb
Peppermint 400 pgs.

2 flowers/1 herb

Season plants: 19 flowers/5 vegetables/9 herbs = 33 plants
+15 task
+5 flower bonus
Task total: 20
Season total: 205

20.1 The National Gallery

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

Olivia Laguni is a photographer


Task : 20
Combo : 5 : 20.7 - Olivia, Kwan and Simon take a trip to China from USA

Post total : 25
Season total : 275

15.9 HDYGG

These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett

Flowers:
these precIous DAYS essays - DAISY
Vegetables:
Nashville - NAPA CABBAGE
Herbs: 320 pages
2 - LEMON VERBENA
0 - PEPPERMINT
Plants this post: 4
Total plants: 30

Task total points: 15
Season total: 520

15.10 HDYGG

Women Workers And Technological Change In Europe In The Nineteenth And twentieth century by Gertjan de Groot

SNAPDRAGON womeN workeRS AND technolOGicAl change in euroPe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

NASTURTIUM woMen workers and TechNological chAnge in eUrope in the nineteenth and twentieth centURIeS

LILAC women workers and technoLogicaL change In europe in the nineteenth And twentieth Centuries

15 pts 15.10
10 pts Flower Bonus

Plants
This Post: 3
Total Plants: 48


Task Total: 25 pts
HDYGG Finisher Bonus. 150 pts
Season total =1185pts

Post 617

10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 … 10.8 … 10.10
20.1 20.2 20.3 … 20.5 20.6 20.7 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10

10.7 Strange New Worlds

System Collapse by Martha Wells

As many other reviewers have noted, this wasn't my favorite Murderbot story, but I still quite enjoyed it. There is no reason to start this series here--the book picks up immediately after a previous book with no explanation really for what is happening. Just go back and start with All Systems Red. The first several books in the series are novella-length and give a good flavor for the series. I've recommended this series even to readers who say they don't like or read science fiction and most of them have still been drawn in by what a wonderful character Murderbot is.

I do appreciate that in this book we're privy to Murderbot wrestling more with its human components. But I hope that doesn't mean that we're going to lose the specialness of Murderbot, which is largely based on not being human and having a different way of thinking about and approaching the world.

For some reason, this book didn't translate as well to audio as the previous books have. The action scenes felt slightly harder to follow than usual, and the use of the term "redacted" came through a bit strange in the audio narration. I'm not sure how that was printed or whether it worked better somehow in print.

In any event, I'll still read more Murderbot stories if the series continues.

+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.3, 10.7, 20.9)
+10 Review

Task total: 35
Grand total: 695

20.7 International Travel

All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard

A late final addition to the author's Cazalet series - the first four books were published from 1990-95,and this last one almost 20 years later, when the author was 90. It's an amazing achievement for someone of that age, and I mostly enjoyed seeing what was happening to the characters, but a lot of it was rather depressing. There are deaths, disappointments in love, lives that seem to be going nowhere. (view spoiler)[There’s even a case of grooming for incest which the parents treat horribly casually. (hide spoiler)] I'll give it 3 stars for the writing, although really I think the series would have been better left at four books.

+20 Task (Edward, Diana, Louise and family go on holiday from the UK to the South of France)
+25 Combo (10.3 2013, 10.5 "all", 10.9 572 pages, 20.3 Laura has a cat called Riley, 20.6 multiple POVs)
+10 Review
+ 5 Jumbo

Post total = 60
Season Total = 1285

15.5 HDYGG? Round 2

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte

MPE 201
0 = PEPPERMINT

AhoBbITawardrobEandagreatwarhowjrrtoLkienandcSlewisrediscoveredfaithfriendshipandheroisminthecataclysmof = ASTILBE
ahObBitAwaRdrobeandaGrEatwarhowjrrtolkienandcslewisrediscoveredfaithfriendshipandheroisminthecataclysmof = BORAGE
ahobbitawArdrobeandagreaTwarhowjrrtolkienandCslewisrediscoveredfaithfriendshipandheroisMINThecataclysmof = CATMINT
ahobbitawardrobeAndagreatwarhowjrrTolkIenandcsLEwisrediSCoveredfaithfriendshipandheroisminthecataclysMof = CLEMATIS*
ahobbitawarDrObeanDagreAtwarhowjrrtolkienandcslewisredIscoveredFaithFriendshipandheroisminthecatacLysmof = DAFFODIL*
ahobbitawardrobeandagreatwArhowjrrtolkienandcslewIsreDiscoveredfaithfriendshipandheroiSminthecataclYsmof = DAISY
ahobbitawardrobeandagreatwarhowjrrtolkienandcslewisrediscoveredfaithfriendshIpandheRoIsminthecataclySmof = IRIS
ahobbitaWardrobeandagreatwarhowjrrtolkienandcslewisrediscoverEdfaithfriEndShiPAndheroisminthEcaTaclysmof = SWEET PEA*

+15 Task, 9 Plants
+15 Flower Bonus

Task total: 30
Season total: 1435

15.4 HDYGG?

End of Story by A.J. Finn

Flowers:
ROSE - End Of StoRy

Vegetables:
San Francisco -- SPINACH

2 Plants this post
14 Total plants in the garden

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Season total = 730

15.5 HDYGG?

The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City by Nicholas Dawidoff

Flowers:
the other side of prospect: A story of VioLENcE, injustice, anD the ameRican city -- LAVENDER, +5
the other sIDe of prospecT: a story of violence, injUStice, ANd tHe AmericaN city -- DIANTHUS, +5
THe otHer side of prospect: a storY of violence, iNjustice, and the americAn CIty -- HYACINTH, + 5
the Other Side of prOspect: a Story of violence, injustice, and the aMeriCan city -- COSMOS

Vegetables:
New Haven--NAPA CABBAGE

Herbs: page count = 464
4--DILL
6--CHIVES

7 Plants this post
21 Total plants in the garden

+15 Task
+15 Flower Bonus

Task total: 30
Season total: 760

15.6 HDYGG?

Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi
1030 Lexile

Flowers:
amerIcANIZed: rebel without a greeN card -- ZINNIA
americanized: reBel withOut a GREen cArd -- BORAGE

2 Plants this post
23 Total plants in the garden

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Season total: 775

20.1 The National Gallery

Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey

+20 Task: art theft
+20 Combo: 10.9 Anniversaries (272) / 20.5 Surprised! /20.7 International Travel (trip to Japan for an art show) / 20.9 Beware the Ides of March (conspiracy among art thieves)

Task total = 40
Season Total = 1080

15.7 HDYGG?

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
720 Lexile

Flowers:
wArrIor girL uneArtHeD -- DAHLIA

Herbs: page count = 396 pages
3--RUE
9--CHAMOMILE

3 Plants this post
26 Total plants in the garden

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Season total: 790

20.6 Fruit Dish, Bottle and Violin

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

+20 Task: Told by Krishna, Marlee, Shweta and more

Task total = 20
Season Total = 1100

20.6 Fruit Dish, Bottle and Violin

Day by Michael Cunningham

+20 Task: Told by Isabel, Robbie, Dan and more in prose and letters
+10 Combo: 10.3 St. Patrick's Day (2023) / 10.4 Baby Boom

Task total = 30
Season Total = 1130

30.1 Go for the Green Redux

A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao

100% set in Fiji

I think I found out about this book from one of those promotional side-bars on GR home page. I’m glad that I did notice it, because it was good and it helps us with Fiji.

The story takes place in 1914, when Britian was still a powerful colonial force. Sgt. Akal Singh has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a professional mistake he made while with the Hong Kong police. An indentured worker (an Indian woman) is missing and the case becomes a political hot potato. Singh’s boss assigns him the case, and makes it clear he wants it to go away. Singh has to go to the sugar cane plantation the woman worked on to investigate.

Stating it like that makes it seem like a straight-forward mystery. However, it definitely is not. Rao uses the framework of the mystery to describe how life would have been for these workers. She also crafts a very interesting character in Singh, because he is a different caste from the ‘coolies’ and so, at first, is not really empathetic to their plight. (Although he faces the same prejudice they do.) He has a finely developed sense of right and wrong, and this comes into play as he investigates. If Rao decides to turn this into a series, I would be interested in reading the next one. 4*

30 task
10 review
5 combo 10.3
______
45

Running total: 1220

Task 15.07 HDYGG?

A Catered St. Patrick's Day (A Mystery with Recipes #8) (2012) by Isis Crawford (Hardcover 323 pages)


Flowers:
a cATERed St. patrick’s day = ASTER
a catered st. patrIck’S DAY = DAISY

Vegetables:
Leek = Longley, New York


3 Plants this post
28 Total plants in the garden


+15 task

Task Total: 15

Grand Total: 475 + 15 = 490

Post 591 Joanne wrote: "10.9 Anniversaries

MPE page 372

Sharpe's Fortress by Bernard Cornwell

I just finished a non-fiction that ties to the setting of this book, and so I thought it a good..."

+10 Combo 10.3, 20.5

10.5 Golden Broadway

Don't Try This at Home by Angela Readman

And this, right here, is why I subscribe to andotherstories.org. I love crazy weird stories. These stories are as fantastical and wonderful as those of Kelly Link and Aimee Bender but by an author I'd never heard of and likely would never have otherwise found.

The stories have some great premises--the girl who keeps chopping her boyfriend in half (both halves of which become full people); the girl given to a witch; the dog-faced girl with a circus; and onwards. As with any short story collection, some of these stories are better than others. But overall, the whole collection was entertaining and weird and cool.

I read these over two months--dipping into a story here and a story there. I had the ebook on my phone, so these were a perfect distraction while waiting for a prescription to be filled or for court to start. It was nice to put some separation between the stories so that they didn't run together too much.

+10 Task ("Don't Call Back")
+10 Review
+5 Combo - 20.5

Task total: 25
Grand total: 720

10.5 Golden Broadway Shows

The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

This is a spy thriller that slides off to a sci-fi apocalypse before course correcting at the end. It is full of action, spy craft and horrific scenes of violence and murder. There is much foreshadowing to keep the reader hooked. The hero goes out of bounds when he decides to help save women and children and therefore gets on the wrong side of the agency from time to time but ultimately saves the day. This is not a spoiler because he is telling the story.
I can't remember what got me to check it out and read it but I probably won't read another Terry Hayes door-stopper.

+10 task ("Same Time Next Year")
+10 combos 10.3 (pub. 2023), 10.4 (born 1951)
+10 review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 235

10.9 - Anniversaries

The Girls Across The Bay by Emerald O'Brien

+10 task - 382 pgs

Task total: 10
Grand total: 520

10.3 - St Patrick's Day

Not This Way by Blake Pierce

+10 task - 2023
+5 Combo - 10.9 - 185pgs

Task total: 15
Grand total: 535

10.3 - St Patrick's Day

Silent Girl by Blake Pierce

+10 task - 2023

Task total: 10
Grand total: 545

10.4 - Baby Boom

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

+10 task - 1953
+5 Combo - 10.3 - 2023

Task total: 15
Grand total: 560

10.9 - Anniversaries

A Billion Desires by Jessa York

+10 task 210 pgs

Task total: 10
Grand total: 570

Round 1
15.10 HDYGG

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James

Flowers:
thE haUntING of Maddy clARe - GERANIUM, +5
Vegetables:
Waringstoke -WATERCRESS
England - ENDIVE
Herbs - 318 pages
8 - ROSEMARY
1 - HORSERADISH
Plants this post: 5
Total plants: 35
+15 points
+ 5 flower bonus

Task total: 20
Finisher bonus for 35 plants: 100
Season total: 640

Round 2

15.1 HDYGG

The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins

No Flowers
Vegetables:
Canada - CUCUMBER
Herbs - 106 pages
1 - HORSERADISH
2 - PEPPERMINT
Plants this post: 3

Task total: 15
Season total: 655

10.6 Modernism

Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki

This book is so very Eastern to this Westerner. It's also very male for this female. In other words, everything about this book felt slightly off kilter and unfamiliar to me. These men are having a lot of internal thoughts and feelings, but they aren't talking about them. They also don't really seem to do anything--they are "scholars" in the sense of comfortably wealthy men who don't really have jobs and just mill about thinking hard about things (but not talking about their feelings).

The first part of the book is told from the perspective of a younger man who meets and becomes friends with "Sensei" (teacher). The young man wants to glean the wisdom that Sensei has learned through long life and begs Sensei to tell Sensei's life story. Sensei demurs until the end of his own life when he decides to write a long letter to his friend explaining all the details of his own story.

The final part of the book is the letter Sensei writes.

Overall, I enjoyed this book despite finding it sort of mystifying. The choices Sensei made in his own life seemed completely irrational and stubborn to me, but I think I'm missing a fundamental understanding of Sensei's concept of stoicism, loyalty, and duty.

+10 Task (pub. 1914)
+10 Review
+10 LiT
+10 1001

Task total: 40

+50 Halfway finish

Points this post: 90
Grand total: 810

10.8 Elemental

An Air That Kills by Margaret Millar

Honestly, I don't know why Margaret Millar isn't read more frequently. To my thinking, she is better than Ruth Rendell's stand alone novels. There is always something slightly off kilter about some of her characters. Maybe others are more discerning, but I never seem to be able to zero in on what or who is the deception.

In this, mega wealthy Ron Galloway disappears. OK, so that isn't the real deception. Through forecasting, we know Esther, his wife, will never see him again and so we can expect a dead body eventually. Thelma Bream, wife of Harry Bream, is in love with Ron. Thelma is a little scatter-brained while Esther is the consummate shrew. So it comes as no surprise that Thelma and Ron have been having an affair. No deception here, right?

I loved the pitch perfect ending. Maybe others were able to see it coming, but I did not. Note to self: read more Margaret Millar and be sure to color in the 4th star for this one.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (10.5 - The Night That Made America Famous)

Task total = 25

Season total = 1155

10.8 Elemental

Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates

Kelly Kelleher is starting out on a career as a political journalist and aide when she meets an unnamed senator at a New England island party and decides to leave with him. On the way to the ferry his car leaves the dirt road at a bridge and falls into deep water. (No spoiler - this happens on the first page.) If this sounds familiar, it's like Chappaquiddick with different names and set about 20 years later.

We stay in the young woman's head through the book, which is not a comfortable place to be when she's trapped in a car that is mostly submerged in water. Short chapters pick up moments from the party, moments in the car, moments in her earlier life. Themes include power in sexual relationships between men and women as they were around 1990, which is having repercussions in the courts today. It's powerfully written, and I gave it 4 stars.

+10 Task
+ 5 Combo (10.9 160 pages)
+10 Review
+10 1001 list

+50 Halfway finish, 10 pt tasks

Post total = 85
Season Total = 1370

10.2 - The Dispossessed

The Stepmother by Sally Rigby

+10 - task
+5 Combo - 10.3 - 2023

Task total: 15
Grand total: 585

10.4 Baby Boom

The Rebel Nun by Marj Charlier

Charlier was born in 1953
https://www.amestrib.com/story/news/2... - see second paragraph

Review
A good book. Not fabulous, but a solid read, based on a real woman.

I decided to read this book after hearing the author speaking about it on NPR a long while ago. Then I forgot about it until just recently. Marj Charlier dove into the the medieval word of Clotild, a cloistered nun, when she heard a Purdue Professor speak at a Great Courses lecture.

The story revolves around Clotild, an illegitimate child of royalty. She was taken to the Cloister before she was 13, in order to avoid being imprisoned or murdered by her legitimate siblings. The other woman in the cloister all had similar stories, Royal and running from the danger of relatives who wanted them dead. Hard to believe, but it happened all the time during that period.

While in the Cloister, Clotild became close with the Abbess, and when that Abbess died, life at the Cloister was disturbed to the point that the regular nuns were over-worked and starved, while the new Abbess flourished in her new position. Clotild headed a revolt and shocked the male clergy.

As this all happened in a time period that has been pretty much lost to history, Charlier is very clear that this is a fiction book. However, she shares her points and extreme research and the names of the many who helped her try to piece together what could have happened.

An intriguing book, that I admit rambled a bit in places. However, the story was good enough to keep me reading. 2 stars for the book, 2 stars for the excellent research.


+10 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo (pages 315)
Task Total 25
Season Total 805

20.4 The Fighting Temeraire

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I read Huckleberry Finn in school and honestly did not remember much of it when I picked it up to refresh my memory before reading James by Percival Everett. Surprisingly, I found it to be somewhat uneven. The beginning (Huck and Jim starting their trip down the river) and the end (Tom and Huck trying to set Jim free according to the right rules) were very well done. Unfortunately several of the Adventures on the river especially those with the Duke and Dauphin, seemed much more like filler

Many readers quickly will become uncomfortable with the extensive use of a racial slur that is not acceptable today. However, in the context of the pre Civil War South that Mark Twain describes, as well as the post Civil War era he wrote in, this usage would have been accepted. Not a book for today’s children without extensive guidance on context.

20 pts 20.4 The Fighting Temeraire
5 pts 20.9 Ides of March. Hick Finn conspires with the Duke and Dauphin to hoodwink townspeople along the Mississippi
10 pts Review
10 pts 1001


Task Total: 45 pts
Halfway Finisher 20 pt tasks: 50 pts
Season total =1280 pts

Post 645

10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 … 10.8 … 10.10
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 20.8 20.9 20.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10

15.6 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven

aster, hibiscus+, lavender+: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook
horseradish (176)

+15 Task
+10 Flower bonus

Task total = 25

Points total = 645

10.1 (x3) ; 10.2; 10.3 ; 10.4 ; 10.5 ; 10.6 ; … ; 10.8 ; 10.9 ; 10.10
15.1 ; 15.2 ; 15.3 ; 15.4 ; 15.5 ; 15.6 ; … ; … ; … ; … (19 plants)
20.1 ; 20.2 ; 20.3 ; 20.4 ; 20.5 ; 20.6 ; 20.7 ; 20.8 ; 20.9 ; 20.10

15.10 HDYGG?

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore

Flowers:

WhO wiLl RUN thE Frog hoSpital = SUNFLOWER +5

Vegetables:

new york = NAPA CABBAGE

Herbs: page count = 147

7 = PARSLEY

3 Plants this post
39 Total plants in the garden

+15 Task
+ 5 Flower Bonus

Task total = 20
HDYGG? Finish = 100 / 39 plants
Mega Finish = 200
Post Total = 320
Season Total = 1450

20.5 Surprised!

The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

+20 Task
+ 5 Combo: 10.3 St Patrick's Day (2023)

Task total = 25
Season Total = 1475

Post 615 Tawallah wrote: "20.1 The National Gallery

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

Olivia Laguni is a photographer

Task : 20
Combo : 5 : 20.7 - Olivia, Kwan and Simon take a trip to C..."

+5 Combo 10.4, born 1952

10.7 Strange New World

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Before the pandemic, a man at my face to face book club raved about this. He made it sound so good I put it on my over-burdened wish list. When a science fiction task came up this season I knew I finally had to try it. I say "try it" because I am not normally a science fiction reader.

The Three-Body is presented in two ways. First, it is a video game. I don't play that sort of computer game and the idea of having to don a haptic suit (I had to look up haptic) seems ridiculous to me. Anyway, the "three body" is a planet that has 3 suns, that they function randomly, so that the climate of the planet is sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold, rarely just right. Second, the three body is presented as a real planet called Trisolaris. An inter space communication is received.

Just above the Goodreads review box is "What did you think?" I know I am an outlier as, as of today, this has an average rating of 4.09 with over 351,000 ratings. I think I should have skipped it, but I was too stubborn to set it aside. I know I've read a translation, but I think it is not well-written. I think fiction should not need footnotes. I think there is too much science. I think the premise of some of the characters that humanity is a failed species and should be eliminated is so awful that I began to read only 10-15 pages at a time because that was all I could tolerate at one sitting.

Sometimes I write in my review that the stars I have awarded might be an exaggeration. I feel as if 1-star for this is an exaggeration.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.3, 10.9 - 472 pgs, 20.5, 20.6 - Ye Wenjie, Shi Qiang, Wang Miao)
+10 LiT

Task total = 50

Season total = 1205