Reading with Style discussion
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15.2 SSBSquare B5 - 1 and 6 in publication year
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
+15 Task (1961)
+5 Old (1961)
Post total: 20
Season total: 105
B1 I1 N1 G1 O1
B2 I2 N2 G2 O2
B3 I3 N3 G3 O3
B4 I4 N4 G4 O4
B5 I5 N5 G5 O5
15.3 SSBSquare I1 - no “the” in title/subtitle
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
+15 Task
Post total: 15
Season total: 120
B1 I1 N1 G1 O1
B2 I2 N2 G2 O2
B3 I3 N3 G3 O3
B4 I4 N4 G4 O4
B5 I5 N5 G5 O5
15.1 Sweet Sixteen BingoThe Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
02 - 17 letters
+15 Task
Task total = 15
Points total = 90
20.6 Fall Equinox (Fall 2018)Fall Equinox contains all 5 vowels. Read any book whose title contains all of the letters A-E-I-O-U. The book may have a subtitle, but all of the letters should be in the title.
The Lady and the Unicorn
Tracy Chevalier
20 points
+ 10 points female = 30 points
Total points: 175 points
15.2 SSSquare N4 - A book with both a 1 and 6 in the number of pages in the MPE
A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
+15 Task
Post total: 15
Season total: 120
10.8 Are you a bookshop or library person?The Sandy Page Bookshop by Hannah McKinnon
As I said I would in the planning thread, I picked this solely by chance – because ‘bookshop’ was in the title. I found it on the new book shelf when I was at work, and thought ‘that will fit the bill’!
Luckily, it turned out to be a particularly enjoyable read. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of four characters. The story is mainly Leah’s story and her choices drive the action forward (especially opening the bookstore). When I state it like that it seems like the narrative would be confusing, but it wasn’t and it flowed very well.
It’s MPG is romance, which I suppose it is. I would say it is a more ‘real-life’ romance – ie. there are no instant ‘love at first sight’ moments. I like that: characters get to know each other, take baby steps to potential romance, or are oblivious that someone ‘likes’ them. The novel is also positioned as beach read which it would be perfect for. If anyone here is concerned about this – it is a clean book. (Not something I ever consider for my reading choices, but working at a library you have to know this type of thing!). 4*
10 task
10 review
10 female author
________
30
Running total: 130
10.8 Are You a Bookshop or Library Person? (Valerie's task)Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
+10 Task
+15 Combo: 10.2 (226 people), 20.10 (100% South Korea), 10.9 "Yeongju's eyes went round as she tore off the plastic cover of her cheese pudding." (p. 275)
+10 Female
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 35+35=70
15.2 SSBSquare N3 - Free choice
The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
+15 Task
+ 5 Old (1916)
Task total = 20
Season Total = 65
Bingo: N2, N3
Post 5:Claire wrote: "20.4 Uncommon Letter (Fall 2017)
The Briar Club
Kate Quinn
15 points
+ 10 points female author
+5 points combo task 10.9 ( pecorino in Bea’s ragu)/
= 30 points
..."
+5 -- this is a 20 pt task, not 15
15.2 Sweet Sixteen BingoB1 - author's names are of equal length
Maigret's Holiday by Georges Simenon
+15 Task
+ 5 Old (1947)
Task total = 20
Season total = 100
Post 11:Norma wrote: "20.4 - Uncommon Letter
Such Quiet Girls by Noelle W. Ihli
+20 task
+5 Female
Task total: 25
Grand total: 25"
+5 -- Female style is worth 10 points, not 5
Post 17:Norma wrote: "20.1 - Happy Birthday Elizabeth
She Knew Too Much by Jemma Stark
+20 task - 4.31/42
+5 Female
Task total: 25
Grand total: 50"
+5 extra female points
Post 23:Norma wrote: "10.4 - Elmore Leonard
Someone Else's Daughter by Linsey Lanier
+10 task - LL
+5 Female
Task total: 15
Grand total: 65"
+5 extra female points
Post 26:Norma wrote: "20.1 - Happy Birthday Elizabeth
Faith by S.E. Green
+20 task - 3.81/53
+5 Female
Task total: 25
Grand total: 90"
+5 extra female points
Post 38:Norma wrote: "20.4 - Uncommon Letter
Quiet by Clarissa Bright
+20 task
+5 Combo 20.1 - 3.94/213
+5 Female
Task total: 30
Grand total: 120"
+5 extra female points
30.1 Go for GreenBiggles' Second Case by W.E. Johns
30 pts 30.1 Go for Green FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES (Kerguelan).
10 pts Review
Set after World War II, Biggles and his team are sent to Kerguelan to track down recalcitrant Nazis who are plotting to take control of a fortune in gold. As might be expected, difficulties ensue and our British aviators meet with unforeseen obstacles before the (not much of a spoiler) suceed.
This is from an adventures series of novels that were designed as exciting reads for boys. And the book definitely delivers. Generally well written, it keeps the readers attention throughout. Just a few noticeable glitches (polar bears in the Antarctic). Oddly enough, for a genre that is often formulaic, the adventures keeps coming and, while the end result is known you still want to find out how the good guys win
Task Total: 40 pts
Season total: 40 pts
Post 66
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… … … … … … … … … …
… … … … … … … … … …
B. I N G. O
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2
3
4
5
15.4 Sweet Sixteen BingoG4 diagonal: 16 is the perfect square of 4 - A book with a four-word title
The Couturier of Milan by Ian Hamilton
15 task
_____
15
Running total: 145
20.1 Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene
I have to be honest and say I quickly looked to poetry when I was trying to fit the criteria for this task and RwS rules. Luckily, this book was in the (very) small poetry collection at our local library. Happily, Keene is an excellent writer.
As always with poetry collections I read it a few pages at a time. I enjoy poetry, but not in large quantities all at once. I need to think about it. This collection is divided into sections. Keene is gay, and the first section of poems is focused on being a black, gay man. Since I am not really the target audience, I probably didn’t appreciate this group of poems as much as they deserved. As I mentioned though, he is an excellent writer and I enjoyed many of the poems in others sections very much. He writes contemporary poetry addressing the issues of our times. I’m glad this task expanded my horizon to include John Keene. 3*
20 task (4.24 with 460 ratings)
10 review
15 prize
_______
45
Running total: 190
Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!!
10.4 - Fall BirthdaysOne Kill Away by Alex MacLean
+10 task - AM
+25 error on messages 11, 17, 23, 26, 38
Task total: 35
Grand total: 155
20.1 - Happy Birthday ElizabethEden by S.E. Green
+20 task - 4.05/39
+10 Female
Task total: 30
Grand total: 185
20.1 - Happy Birthday Elizabeth/b>Lily by S.E. Green
+20 task - 3.90/63
+10 Female
Task total: 30
Grand total: 215
10.6 Ninetieth (Rosemary's task)On Drinking by Charles Bukowski
+10 task
+5 combo (10.9 - "I walked over and started grabbing at cheese, pickled-pigs' feet and chicken..." at 19%, "The Great Zen Wedding")
Task total=15
Season total=90
In post #42 I claimed"20.6 Fall Equinox (Fall 2018)
A Thousand Recipes for Revenge (Chefs of the Five Gods #1) by Beth Cato
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.5 - MPG Food, 10.9 - @69% "She nibbled more cheese.")
+10 Female
Post total: 40
Season total: 90"
Could I please change/move to:
10.5 Leo Tolstoy
A Thousand Recipes for Revenge (Chefs of the Five Gods #1) by Beth Cato
+10 Task
+10 Combo (20.6 Fall Equinox (Fall 2018), 10.9 - @69% "She nibbled more cheese.")
+10 Female
Post total: 30
Season total: 110*
*adjusting season total following last post on #56
Hope this is okay - sorry for messing this up :)
10.9 Cheese!The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick
After her move to a new upper middle-class housing development in Virginia, Margaret Ryan decides to ask several neighbors to form a small book club. Her new artistic neighbor, Charlotte, suggests Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique for their first discussion. It's 1963, and the book resonates with the housewives who feel like something is missing in their lives. Margaret and Charlotte are joined by Vivian, a former Army nurse with six children, and Bitsy, a horse lover who wanted to be an equine veterinarian but instead married one.
The book group called themselves "The Bettys" and read more feminist literature after finishing The Feminine Mystique. Each of them made changes in their lives since they found they needed an interest beyond marriage, children, and housework.
Some real-life women appear in the book including Katharine Graham, the owner of the "Washington Post." She shows the importance of making connections with other women, and "paying forward" by making recommendations of talented women for jobs and educational opportunities.
As might be expected in the early 1960s, some of the husbands are more supportive than others about their feminist ideas. One of the husbands is working a job that he dislikes, but feels the obligation of supporting his wife and children. The best marriages in the group were the ones where they had good communication and worked as a team so they both felt fulfilled. While solutions to their problems seemed to work out easier than expected in real life, there was a lot of food for thought in this novel.
While I was still a child back in 1963 when the book was set, I did feel like The Book Club for Troublesome Women did reflect the position of women back in that decade. The constant smoking and drinking seemed a bit excessive for a bunch of neighborhood housewives. The background--from historical events to the food--had a '60s vibe. Even the cover had the popular colors at the time--gold and olive green! The topics of 1960s feminism, friendship, and the challenges faced by the four women would probably spark interesting discussions for book clubs.
For Cheese on page 46: "Margaret made four different appetizers for the book club. . . and smoky salmon cream cheese spread--a bright pink concoction with the consistency of library paste. . ."
+10 task
+10 female
+10 review
Task total: 30
Season total: 140
20.6 Fall EquinoxThe Housemaid by Freida McFadden
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9, roughly translated "I managed to swallow half of my ham – cheese sandwich when my phone rings")
+10 Female
+5 Prize-Worthy (ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original Novel 2023)
Task total = 40
Points total = 130
Post 20 Valerie wrote: "10.9 Cheese!Lost and Fondue by Avery Aames
This was a very enjoyable cozy mystery. The main characters were fairly well established in the first book of the serie..."
+10 Female
15.4 SSBSquare O2 - 6 letters in author last name
The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg
+15 Task
+5 Old (1949)
Post total: 20
Season total: 140
B1 I1 N1 G1 O1
B2 I2 N2 G2 O2
B3 I3 N3 G3 O3
B4 I4 N4 G4 O4
B5 I5 N5 G5 O5
30.1 Go for the Green!The Rock by Robert Daws
Sometimes when I’ve read books for the group project they haven’t been that good. I just read them for the setting. Happily, this was very good, and I really would like to read the next 2 in the series.
This takes place 100% on Gibraltar. DS Sullivan has been seconded there due to her faulty choice while with the British police. They don’t exactly want to fire her, but this is seen as a demotion. I personally can’t see how it would be awful to work in a Mediterranean locale, but maybe that is just me!
I enjoyed everything about this book (although I figured out who was the ‘bad guy’ pretty easily). This is a police procedural with interesting characters, and of course, a very interesting setting which plays into the story. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author, who is an actor so he did a good job. 4*
30 task
10 review
10 combo 10.4, 20.3
_____
50
Running total: 250
20.10 Fall Vacation (Joanna's task)The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa
author born in Japan
+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.6 Fall Equinox (Fall 2018))
+10 Female
Post total: 35
Season total: 145
20.1 - Happy Birthday ElizabethMurder with Malice by Deirdre Oliver
+ 20 task - 4.25/63
+10 Female
Task total: 30
Grand total: 245
10.9 Cheese!The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen
This is book 2 in a series about a group of retired spies living in a small town in Maine. In some ways it fits the currently-popular trend of books about retired or elderly crime solvers (and crime committers!) but as someone who is quite partial to that trend, it's a good entry in the canon. Gerritsen does a good job of developing plots that work and still contain some surprises, while staying largely in the confines of the thriller/mystery genre. I enjoy the stories and characters. The books aren't anything earth-shattering, but they are fun page-turners in a well-described, interesting setting, and I'll certainly pick up book 3!
+10 task (p. 144 - "Jo bit into a slice of Parmesan.")
+10 Review
+10 Female
Task total: 30
Season Total: 30
20.6 Fall EquinoxNot Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
This book has a really interesting premise - a woman is hit over the head and lives, but due to a real-but-hard-to-imagine series of medical misfortunes, she is going to die in a week or so. So she's a murder victim, but temporarily still alive, and she wants to solve her murder. From there, it's a pretty standard twisty murder mystery, but it was super interesting to see how the fact that the main character had no consequences left played into things. Sometimes a character does something desperate and part of me is thinking, "That's all well and good but won't you just die or go to prison for that before you can save the day?" Here, those issues are (mostly) off the table. I enjoyed, but didn't love, the book. I would say it required a little bit of suspension of disbelief - although the author clearly did her research about how this medical situation could come to pass, it was still hard to believe!
+20 task (nOt qUItE deAd)
+10 combo (10.9 - Ch 5 - "She took a bite. 'It's the good cheese,' Dad said"; 20.4 - quite)
+10 Review
+10 Female
Task total: 50
Season Total: 80
(Points adjusted to remark 60) Sweet sixteen bingo
G3 A book set in the future (at the time it was written)
Book: Woman in the Moon
Author: Thea von Harbou
Book is publ first 1930, so set in future.
📚📚📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️📚✔️
📚✔️📚✔️📚
📚📚📚📚📚
📚📚📚📚📚
points:15 points + old 5 points
Total: 200 points
15.1 SSBSquare B4 - title starts and ends with the same letter
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Lexile: 790
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
Sweet sixteen bingoG2 A book first published in the five years 2021-2025
Zonder jou
Anna Thomas
First published 2021
15 points + first line 2 = 50 points
Total: 265 points
📚📚📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
📚✔️📚✔️📚
📚📚📚📚📚
📚📚📚📚📚
Sweet sixteen bingo B3 An author’s first of last book
Book: The Lotus Shoes
Author: Jane Yang
15 points
Total: 280 points
📚📚📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
✔️✔️📚✔️📚
📚📚📚📚📚
📚📚📚📚📚
15.3 Sweet Sixteen BingoI1 - No "the" in title
Pass Guard at Ypres by Ronald Gurner
+15 Task
+ 5 Old (1930)
Task total = 20
Season total = 120
15.1 Sweet Sixteen BingoB3: An author's last or latest book
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
+15 task
+5 Big (560 pages)
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 20
...; ...; B3;
15.2 Sweet Sixteen BingoN3: Free Square
Storyland by Catherine McKinnon
(R/L Book Club Read)
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 35
...; ...; B3;
...; ...; ...
...; ...; N3
15.3 Sweet Sixteen BingoI5: A book without chapter numbers
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
+15 task
Task Total: 15
Season Total: 50
...; ...; B3;
...; ...; ...;...; I5
...; ...; N3
15.4 Sweet Sixteen BingoG2: A book first published in the five years 2021-2025
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland
First published 2022
+15 task
+5 Big
Task Total: 20
Season Total: 70
...; ...; B3;
...; ...; ...;...; I5
...; ...; N3
...; G2
20.10 Fall Vacation (Joanna's task)The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa
+20 task
+10 female
+5 combo (20.6)
Task Total: 35
Season Total: 105
...; ...; ...; ...; ...; ...; ...; ...; ...; 20.10
...; ...; B3;
...; ...; ...;...; I5
...; ...; N3
...; G2
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The Passengers on the Hankyu Line (other topics)The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding (other topics)
Automatic Noodle (other topics)
Storyland (other topics)
Katabasis (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Hiro Arikawa (other topics)Holly Ringland (other topics)
Annalee Newitz (other topics)
Catherine McKinnon (other topics)
R.F. Kuang (other topics)
More...
Square B4 - title starts and ends with same letter
Amelia by Henry Fielding
+15 Task
+5 Old (1751)
+5 Big (618)
Post total: 25
Season total: 85
B1 I1 N1 G1 O1
B2 I2 N2 G2 O2
B3 I3 N3 G3 O3
B4 I4 N4 G4 O4
B5 I5 N5 G5 O5