Reading with Style discussion

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by Mary Roach
+10 task

Great House
by Nicole Krauss
+10 task

Grand Total: 320 points

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo 3 stars

This is at the top of my 3 stars reads. Parts of it was 4 stars, including much of the last 100 pages.

Russo always has a man as his central character, but the motives and emotions in the other novels I've read seemed universal to me. This is more a man's story than a woman's story. One of the relationships explored is that of friendship between two men. I learned some of the stuff men talk about - stuff, frankly, that I knew in the periphery of my brain but that I really don't want to know. At the same time, it was reinforced in me there are some things men don't talk about - at least not with other men - most particularly their deepest emotions and the memories associated with them.

+10 Task
+ 5 Review

Grand Total = 230

Last post of the season!

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Brennert tells the story of the Moloka'i's Leper Colony through one woman's life. Rachel is exiled to the Kalaupapa peninsula in 1893 as a 7 year old. This is after Father Damien and others have stabilized and improved the conditions there. But as with other programs, funding and oversight waxes and wanes during her lifetime. It is a story of a life and family and community. The book also brushes against the some of the history of Hawaii from Kingdom to statehood. It also touches on the blending of ethnicities and religions that I find fascinating about Hawaii. Catholic, Buddhist, and Mormon cemeteries as well as burials in the Hawaiian way are mentioned.

This would be a good book for anyone visiting Hawaii.

Previous total: 180
Task plus review: +15
New total: 195

Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
+10 Task
+5 Oldies (1809-1849)

Loyal in Love by Jean Plaidy
+10 Task

Lost by Gregory Maguire
+10 Task

Post Total: 35
Summer Grand Total: 995

This will be my last post for the summer!! Looking forward to a challenging and interesting fall. . .

Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz

While I have been enjoying this series immensely, I’d have to honestly say that this one was a bit less than I expected. Koontz had the reader going in a couple of different directions with storylines that diverged and for most of it I was wondering where they were going. In they end, he tied them up nicely with a few surprises that I really wasn’t expecting. I thought parts of the ending were very anti-climactic. I guess I was expecting more, something different, I’m not sure. All in all, a very entertaining series. Too bad it’s done….or is it?

+10 Task
+5 Review

Task Total=15
Grand Total=280

Unless I can finish my current book today, this is my last post for this challenge! Loved it!

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

Summer by Edith Wharton (pub 1917)

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (551 pgs)

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton (pub 1910)

The Song of Roland by Anonymous(pub 1090)


Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith


+50 pts - books
+15 Oldies
+5 Jumbo

530 pts - Grand Total

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
+10 pts - Book
540 pts - Grand total

That's All, Folks! for me, that is!

Thank you everyone for a relaxing Summer Challenge!