Reading with Style discussion

20.8 Fictional Fiction

by Zev Chafets

The bookmakers being either the writer or the bookie in the story was an interesting concept. Other than that the book was not super profound and at times a little disbelieving, in my opinion. A criminal having compassion and an officer overlooking criminal activity was a little contrived to me. On the whole, I think that the story was interesting and was a pretty quick read and for that reason, I would recommend this book. The Bookmakers reminded me of a quirky Elmore Leonard novel. In fact, Leonard was mentioned.

+20pts-(20.8 Fictional Fiction-The Oriole Kid)
+5-(10.6 Uncommon Letter-Zev Chavets)
+5-(10.5 Underrated)
+10 (Review)
+5-(10.3 Home for the Holidays-NY)

45 Total points

230 Grand Total

Note to score-keeper, corrected post #623:

Christin wrote: "10.8 Chinese New Year
The Annotated Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.8 Fictional Fiction)
+5 Oldie (published 1937)

Task Total = 20

Grand Total = 35"

Double-check posts 626, 627, 628, as well.

15.9 CiV: I-J-K | 261-300 | 1917-1928


Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, 289 pgs, pub 1920

+75 points
Grand Total: 700 points

10.5 Under-rated

Keesha's House by Helen Frost
Lexile: non-prose so no rating, no style points (it's YA poetry)

+10 Task

Task total = 10

20.4 In Honor of A Christmas Carol

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Lexile: 810

Review:
The story of Francie Nolan growing up poor in Brooklyn before the First World War, with her brother, hard-working mother and charming but shiftless singing-waiter father. Not very much happens in terms of plot but the characters are very well drawn and there is an amazing amount of detail in every little event, from witnessing childbirth to a bowl of flowers in the library. I started slowly but once I got into it, I just wanted to keep reading to the end. It's a charming book that reminded me a little of 'Angela's Ashes' but brought tears to my eyes a lot more often.

+20 Task (pub.1943, set 1912-18)
+10 Review
+ 5 Oldie 1937-87

Task total = 35

Grand total = 1505

Task 20.8 - Books with Fictional Titles


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling


REVIEW:


Harry Potter’s second year at Hogwarts has already started with mysterious happenings. A house-elf’s actions get Harry a warning from the Ministry, the barrier at King Cross Station does not let him get through to platform four and three-quarters and a grand entry at Hogwarts in a flying car almost earns him and Ron an expulsion from school.

As the school year progresses, a threat comes forth... a legendary Chamber of Secrets hidden in Hogwarts has been opened and an unknown monster is out seeking muggle-born students. Before long students are getting petrified, and Harry is suspected of being behind the attacks. Unless Harry can find out the perpetrator soon, Hogwarts stands at the risk of being shut down forever.

Master storyteller Rowling has written a good book. She develops her characters a little more in this instalment, the adventure is exciting and the magical world of Harry is still magical.

Great series for children and young-adults alike, even adults might have a good time reading them.

+20 task
+10 review

Task Total = 30

GRAND TOTAL = 365

10.4 Love is in the Air
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
#3 on Great Love Stories List

+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.3-#14 on Root Canal List)
+25 Oldies (pub 1597)

10.10 Group Reads
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.4-#37 on Illicit Love List; 20.4-historical; 20.10-first published 1952)
+5 Oldies (1952)
+5 Jumbo (601 pages)

20.3 In Honor of Great Expectations
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.8-China; 20.4-historical)

20.8 Fictional Fiction
Straight Man by Richard Russo

+20 Task
+5 Combo (20.3-Exceeded Expectations)

20.10 Play the Numbers
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

+20 Task (pub 1932)
+5 Combo (20.8)
+10 Oldies (1932)

Post Total: 165
Season Total: 1570

I think this is right, I have been on vacation for the last ten days and might still be a bit on island brain!!

20.6 Bleak House

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris



This is the story of Tim. He is a partner at a prestigious law firm in Manhattan. He has a perfect marriage, perfect wife, and a not-so-perfect teenager. He also has an illness that no doctor can diagnose or treat: he walks. He can't choose where he walks, how far, or when he starts and it's destroying his life and his marriage. He walks out on jury prep with a client. He ends up walking for miles and miles in snow and rain and gets frostbite, losing several toes. (This isn't really a spoiler...all of this happens in the beginning.) He collapses from exhaustion behind convenience stores, in forests, in different states. I wanted to love this book (when it first came out, I heard the author read excerpts from it in Manhattan...I loved what I'd heard and the book has been on my to-read list for ages). I loved his language. I loved the themes that it dealt with (what is love? family? loyalty? belief?). But the book on the whole: I liked it. -ish. I would have said that I didn't like it at all, other than the fact that it really stuck with me for days afterward and my feelings changed to like-ish.

+20 Task (main character is a lawyer)
+10 Review
+10 Combo
-10.3 Home for the Holidays (NYC)
-20.10 Play by the Numbers (pub. 2010)

Task Total = 40

Grand Total = 760

10.3 Home for the Holidays

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan



I love love loved this book! I'm inordinately enamored of any book that visits my old neighborhoods, that has a fun "game" atmosphere to it, and that makes fun of hipsters. (There is one particular exchange that still cracks me up: "Hi," I said, "I was wondering if Mark was around?" "Mark?" a bored male voice asked. "Yeah. Works at the information desk." "There are about twenty of us named Mark. Can you be more specific?" "Dark hair. Glasses. Ironic detachment. Scruff." "That doesn't narrow it down.") I adored the characters and wish I had a red Moleskine of my own hidden in The Strand that was found by my very own Dash. It was over far too soon. I want to go back and read it again. Like, now.

+10 Task (NYC)
+10 Review
+5 Combo
-20.10 Play by the Numbers (pub. 2010)

Task Total = 25

Grand Total = 785

RwS Tasks:

20.2 – In honor of A Tale of Two Cities:

Prague, Czech Republic, Morocco and others
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor 850 Lexile

Laini Taylor is a master of her craft! About 7 years ago, when she was about to publish her first book, she presented so humbly at a local librarian’s conference that she stole my heart as a person and young author. Then she captured me as a reader with her first book, Blackbringer. When I read Lips Touch Three Times I became a die-hard fan. I was so excited when the first book of a new series was published. I was not disappointed, in fact, my expectations were exceeded! Daughter of Smoke and Bone depicts an alternate world with a war between the angels and the chimaera exploding around Karou. She is an art student in Prague, but travels through portals to other lands, including Morocco, where she meets the glorious angel Akiva. Karou has always wondered who she really is, but if she finds out, how will that knowledge change her life? Beautiful, lyrical language abounds as readers get drawn into this magical world. Laini Taylor excels at creating fascinating worlds with fascinating characters and Daughter of Smoke and Bone is no exception. There’s romance, danger and an exciting plot. I’ll be waiting impatiently for book two.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+ 5 Combo: 20.10 Play the Numbers (2011)

Task Total: 35

20.4 – In honor of A Christmas Carol:

Post WWI

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

If you've seen the movie Midnight in Paris and enjoyed it, you might want to pick up this story of Hadley and Ernest Hemingway, their romance and marriage and days in Paris, Madrid and other European cities. Of course any fan of Hemingway or Paris would enjoy The Paris Wife as well. I loved the features of Hemingway's writing process that were woven into the story. The bullfighting scenes were exciting and added insight into the relationship between Hadley and Ernest. I thought Hadley was an interesting woman and I enjoyed reading the story told through her eyes. I'm curious to go back and read more of Hemingway's work that I've missed, particularly The Sun Also Rises the writing of which features in The Paris Wife.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 20.2 Tale of Two Cities (France, Spain, US, Canada) / 20.10 Play the Numbers (2011)

Task Total: 40

20.8 – Liz M’s Task – Fictional fiction

Lots of focus on the made up book: An Imperial Affliction

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 850 Lexile

Wow! How can a book for which you have high expectations possibly exceed them? It can be written by the incomparable John Green! The Fault in Our Stars tells the wonderful, heartbreaking and memorable love story of Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace. Both are cancer victims, book lovers, and sincere, good people. Hazel’s diagnosis is terminal, but she’s embracing life the best she can as her lungs refuse to cooperate. Augustus Waters has had surgery to remove a leg, but otherwise he’s a healthy survivor. Their connection grows stronger as they help Augustus’ best friend who brings them together in the support group deal with impending blindness. Along with dealing with multiple illnesses, Hazel has a favorite book, An Imperial Affliction (which is not a real book, – I’ve searched for it) that ends suddenly when the main character dies from cancer or becomes too weak to write (hence Hazel’s deep connection to the story). Hazel shares the book with Augustus and they begin a correspondence with the author who lives in Amsterdam. All in all this is a book about how to live. In a lesser author’s hands, it could have been trite and predicable, but with John Green’s fantastic writing, The Fault in Our Stars made me laugh out loud and became the first book to bring me to tears in a long time. I recommend it so highly!

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo: 20.2 A Tale of Two Cities (US and the Netherlands) / 20.10 Play the Numbers (2012)

Task Total: 40

Points this Post: 115
Grand Total: 1790

CiV 15.6

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather 434 pages, pub. 1915

C-D; 421-460/821-860; 1905-1916

Task Total = 45

Grand Total = 830

20.5 David Copperfield
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Review:
Dazzlingly poetic, unrelentingly honest, and with bleak wit, Plath describes how her alter-ego Ester Greenwood, a successful student, gets drawn into a maelstrom of despair and depression: After a month of guest editing a fashion magazine in New York, seeing a life of unrestrained and unreflected freedom and sexuality (which struck me as a female counterpart to Catcher in the Rye, but oh so much better written), and a rejection for a high class writing summer course, Esther returns home to the suburbs of Boston and her mother, and finds she can't decide what to do with her life any more. She's unable to sleep, eat, read and maybe worst of all, write.
As a coming-of-age novel, this one is certainly different, and not at all easy to digest - but Esther's presence, her way of describing her world to us, is so rewarding that I was constantly on the verge of putting the book down just to catch a break, and finding myself not being able to do so.

Task: 20
Review: 10
Oldies: 5 (pub 1963)

Total: 35
Grand Total: 435

20.4 The Christmas Carol

The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters

Book takes place in late 1800s/early 1900s

+20 Task

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 375

Camille wrote: "Task 10.7: What's Your Type? [I, S, T, J]

I read Ka-Ka-Ska-Ska by Jim Lewis..."

Unfortunately, this book does not work for 10.7. The paired letters must be in the title OR in the authors initials, not a combination of both.

I assume you'll want to switch it to 10.5 Underrated?

Liz M wrote: "Camille wrote: "Task 10.7: What's Your Type? [I, S, T, J]

I read Ka-Ka-Ska-Ska by Jim Lewis..."

Unfortunately, this book does not work for 10.7. The paired letters must be in the title OR in the..."

No, thank you. I don't want to move it to 10.5. I'll delete the original post and the points.

Camille, you can do any of the 10- and 20-point tasks multiple times, so you wouldn't be losing anything, except the combo points, by moving this title.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Camille, you can do any of the 10- and 20-point tasks multiple times, so you wouldn't be losing anything, except the combo points, by moving this title."

My personal goal is to complete each task once and get the bonus pts. I'm doing good to just do that much! :)

:-) It will more than I'll do!

And I could finish if I would stop repeating tasks :0) I'm repeating a task in this post, as follows:


Task 20.10 - Sam’s Task - Play the numbers “1” and ”2” : 1962

All the Traps of Earth and other stories (1962) by Clifford D. Simak (Hardcover, 287 pages)
Review: This is a collection of 9 stories, all by Clifford D. Simak, all previously published in science fiction magazines 1951-1960. I’ve claimed combo points for 20.4 "the future", since 8 of the 9 occur in a future wherein humans are colonizing the galaxy; and the 1 of the 9 that doesn’t occur in the future occurs instead in 150,000 B. C. (time travel). Several of the stories (especially “The Sitters”) have a Ray Bradbury small town feel about them. At least one (the time travel “Project Mastodon”) was expanded into a novel at a later time.

Clifford D. Simak is an uneven writer. The best of his stories belong in any collection of “the best of science fiction”, while the majority are read once and forget, and he has a few clunkers as well. The best story of this collection is the title story “All the Traps of Earth”, a story that includes robots, space travel, and self-determination. “Drop Dead” and “Crying Jag” are good stories also. “Installment Plan” is tedious and very dated. Recommended for those who like science fiction short stories …. Especially if you are willing to skip a story once you realize it is one of the clunkers.

+ 20 Task
+ 10 Style: 1. Combo (5 points) (also fits: 10.5 underrated, 20.4 in the future)
+ 10 Style: 2. Review (10 points):
+ 05 Style: 4. Oldies (5 to 25 points): -25 to 75 years old: 5 points (1936-1986)

Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 + 05 = 45


Grand Total: 1005 + 45 = 1050

20.9 Take The High Road

The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

I'd never read this book before, nor had I seen the movie. It was very sweet and touching. I could definitely empathize with Eddie. I still feel very bad for him and I wish he had had a better life. It is always interesting to read or think about what kind of effect we have on other people's lives and how other people can change and affect ours. This book completely embodies that. It also embodies the idea of forgiveness and acceptance of self. Overall, an interesting perspective to read about and it had some ideas that will resonate for a while. Thought-provoking but more entertaining than inspiring to me.

+20 Task (Heaven)
+5 Combo 20.3 (#103 on Exceeded Expectations list)
+10 Review

Task Total: 35 points

10.8 Chinese New Year

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Oh Harry Potter, where can I start? I reread these book probably once a year, and love them everytime. I am part of the generation that waited in anticipation for the next book to come out. Books are way better than the movies to me! I wish Richard Harris had never died because he was the perfect Dumbledore. Going back to the first book is funny, because there is a continual darker shift in the series and the first one just feels so light. I find it slightly harder to get into the story now. I don't know whether its because I am now older and Harry, Ron, Hermione etc are only 11 or because I have had read it so many times (my guess is approximately 15 times) that I know the words too well to let the story take me.
I am currently reading John Granger's book Harry Potter's bookshelf and its interesting to have her influences pointed out and read the book and see them right there on the page, at the same time.

+10 Task (Norbert the Norweigian Ridgeback)
+5 Combo 20.3 (#5 on Exceeded Expectations list)
+5 Combo 20.8 (Multiple Spellbooks, particularly Quidditch Through the Ages)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30 points

Post Total: 65 points
Grand Total: 760 points

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Kazza wrote: "+100 RwS FINISH"
Excellent! Good job! Congratulations!"

Liz M wrote: "Kazza wrote: "+100 RwS FINISH...."
YAY!!!! Congrats!!!!!!"

Thanks, Liz & Elizabeth :)

Now, just to finish off CiV - got 2 books to go, well, I read one the other day but it appears I was 2 pages off the supposed range :p but I think I've got a replacement. Still... it was pretty annoying! LOL

Task 10.9 11 in '11 - Bad Luck And Trouble by Lee Child (this is the 11th book in the Jack Reacher series)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned after reading 11 Jack Reacher novels is that you don’t want to get on the wrong side of Reacher. Don’t mess with the special investigation unit. I found this not to be my favorite Reacher novel so far. I think it takes on a different tone because Reacher is working with former colleagues of his in the Army and I just found it to be not the same. It was still Reacher doing what he does best, being larger than life but there was something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on that made me not love it. It’s me, not him, we need a break from each other. It’s not the 7 year itch, ith’s the 11. Perhaps he’s not attracted to me anymore as I am to him, I just don’t know. I’ll need to take some time…

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total=20
Grand Total=350

completed 10.6-unusual letters

Read "You're Next" by Greg Hurwitz (the z in his name)

Task points 10
total points 30

Task 20.1 200th Anniversary A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

+20 Task
+15 Combo (20.2 2 countries, 20.3 Great expectations #176, 20.4 Xmas carol - set 75 years prior to publication)
+15 Oldie (1859)

Task total 50

Total points 845

Task 20.2 A Tale of Two Cities The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Countries include Sweden, Switzerland, England, Australia)

+20 Task
+15 Combo (20.3 Exceeded expectations #9, 20.7 Swedish author, 20.8 "The Mafia Boss" written by protagonist)
+10 LiT (translated from Swedish)

Task total 45

Total points 890

Task 10.1 The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

+10 Task
+10 Oldie (Pub 1928)

Task total 20

Total points 910


CiV
Task 15.9 Frenzied Fiction by Stephen Leacock 136 pgs, pub 1918

L-M, 100-140, 1917-1928

+75 task

Total points 985

10.9 11 in 11
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb first in a series with more than 11 books

+10 pts - task
+5 pts - Combo (20.4 pg 17 states that Dallas' lover/suspect was born in 2023. pg 73 this character states he has been collecting guns for 15 years, his first when he was 19 yrs old. That makes him 34 yrs old now and the year 2057, if my math is right)
+10 pts - Review

Very Suspenseful, Very Sexy, Very Sensational! One can understand why this series is so popular. The protagonist is a police lieutenant named Eve Dallas. She’s gutsy, smart and tough along the lines of Kinsey Malone. Not a lot of fluff on this lady. Placed in the near future, where tobacco is illegal, real coffee is a hard to get luxury item and resorts are built in space but and more importantly for this book, guns are banned except to specially permitted collectors and sex workers are licensed and legal. Then there is the super sexy, super rich and super handsome love interest/suspect. This plotline is old and a little predictable but classic and when played up well, still exciting and romantic. Don’t want to give more details and spoil it, even if I’m the last person on Goodreads to read this book with over 17,000 ratings but a highly recommended book by me and others and can’t wait to read more of the series.

25 pts - task total
1095 pts - Grand total

Task 20.3 Great Expectations

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Task + 20
Combo + 5 10.4 Love is in the Air/Great Love Stories
Oldies +15 (1811)
= 40 task points

Grand Total = 710 (I think!)

Task 20.10 Play the Numbers

I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism Who Cannot Speak but Finds Her Voice by Elizabeth M. Bonker

task + 20 points
combo +5 (underrated, only 24 ratings)
= 25 total task points

GRAND TOTAL 735 (I think!)

RwS Tasks

20.10 – Sam’s Task – Play the numbers

Crossed by Ally Condie, 2011, Low Lexile

Crossed is the sequel to Matched and continues the story in fine fashion. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the writing style and uniqueness of the first book. It’s difficult to write a review without spoilers for Matched included. The main characters have been separated and all continue to figure into the plot of Crossed. More is revealed about the truth of the controlled society in which teens were Matched with their best partner for life. There is also a rebellion going on and the characters have to deal with the consequences of “the rising” and make decisions about joining in with their efforts. The plot is engaging and the characters are developed more fully and some of their secrets are revealed as the story unfolds. Both books are recommended.

Task Total: 20

20.10 – Sam’s Task – Play the numbers

You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz, 2010, Low Lexile

Task Total: 20

Points this Post: 40
Grand Total: 1830

10.7 What's your type? ENFP
The Nubian Prince by Juan Bonilla

+10 pts - Task
+10 pts - Combo(10.10 group read, 10.5 underrated)
+10 pts - LiT(Spanish)
+10 pts - Review

Interesting book. I think it is well-written and the topic is one that is in the media a lot but from a completely different angle. This is in reality about human trafficking and prostitution only our protagonist, calls it “saving lives”, because as a scout he searches for the beautiful with perfect bodies and takes them out of their trash heaps, ship wrecks, famine and war-infested lands and gives them a chance to be wealthy and free. “The Club” is the agency to which he takes his finds where they are turned into “perfect machines”. After their training, the machines can be bought for thousands by wealthy clients to fulfill their sexual fantasies by the hour. They are also allowed to leave The Club when their three year contract is finished and with enough money to never worry again. This is what Moises the talent scout tells us. He can’t say he truly knows this as once the “pieces” are turned in; he no longer has any contact with them. Although it is a consensual agreement with full disclosure for the adults, (children are bought from parents), Moises becomes conscience –pricked. Why do so many commit suicide? On the search for “the Nubian Prince” seen in a newspaper article by a client who must have him, great changes occur in his ideology about who he is. This book makes me uncomfortable, not because the “rescued” are becoming wealthy by selling their bodies, for many would have ended up selling theirs cheaply or dying, or even the whole idea of prostitution, but how they are de-humanized. The term used for them is “pieces” and when he scouts he also must keep certain statistics in mind, if the office demands more of a gender, race or age. Of course selling the children who do not have a choice is an abhorrent thought. Once the Pieces have been groomed and trained, they are then referred to as “machines”. Overall the book is a good read even if the topic and the scenes behind it are distasteful. Not a fun read but one that makes you think seriously about world hunger, illegal immigration and prostitution overall. I give it 5 stars because it kept me thinking long past the final chapter.

40 pts - Task Total
1135 pts - Grand Total

20.1 200th Anniversary

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

+20 Task (pub 1864)
+5 Combo (20.2-Germany and Iceland)
+10 Lost in Translation (from French)
+10 Oldies (1864)

20.3 In Honor of Great Expectations
Beloved or Despised
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

+20 Task (7th on Exceeded Expectations List)
+5 Combo (10.2-#14 on GREAT Love Storie List)

20.4 In Honor of A Christmas Carol
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill

+20 Task (History)
+10 Combo (10.8-Laos; 10.9-1st in a series by an author with 11 published works)

20.5 In Honor of David Copperfield
Villette by Charlotte Brontë

+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.4-#7 on Unrequited love list; 20.1-pub 1853)
+15 Oldies (pub 1853)

Post Total: 145
Season Total: 1715

20.10 A Monster Calls


This book speaks directly to the heart.

Conor is a young boy dealing with his single mother's cancer diagnosis. With the help of a monster, Conor finds a way to cope with his mother's illness, his too-perfect grandmother, and his absent father. The characters are relatable and believable.

Giving a quick synopsis simply does not do this book justice. It found a way to deal with a serious subject manner in an eloquent, beautiful way. A must-read!

+20 task
+10 review

task total = 30 points
grand total = 295 points

Task 10.7 - What's Your Personality Type?: ISTJ

Then She Found Me (1990) by Elinor Lipman (Paperback, 307 pages)
Review: This was Elinor Lipman’s first published novel (but second published book – she had a collection of short stories, Into Love and Out Again, published in 1988). The backstory: a Jewish man and a Jewish woman survive the Holocaust. They meet, as refugees, in America, and marry. After years of infertility, they adopt a baby girl; years later, they give birth to a miracle baby boy. Life happens; and the couple passes away from natural causes. Our heroine-adoptee is now 36 years old, a well-adjusted unmarried High School Latin teacher. And …. “then she found me”. “She” is the birthmother. This novel focuses on the relationship of our heroine and her birthmother. Issues arise and are resolved in a mild, let’s get along way; and the ending is very upbeat and optimistic. I was impressed at how effectively written the dialog was in this novel. I found out after I read this novel that it was turned into a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455805/ , starring Helen Hunt and Bette Midler.
Recommended for when you want an upbeat novel about family relationships.

+10 Task
+ 10 Style: 2. Review (10 points):

Task total: 10 + 10 = 20

Grand Total: 1050 + 20 = 1070

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Kazza wrote: "+100 RwS FINISH"
Excellent! Good job! Congratulations!"

Liz M wrote: "Kazza wrote: "+100 RwS FINISH...."
YAY!!!! Congrats!!!!!!"

Thanks, Liz & Elizabeth :)

Now, just to finish off CiV - got 2 books to go, well, I read one the other day but it appears I was 2 pages off the supposed range :p but I think I've got a replacement. Still... it was pretty annoying! LOL


Congratulations!

I could finish RwS and CiV .... but only if I focus on books that fit my unclaimed tasks instead of repeating claimed tasks.

Task 20.3 - exceeds expectations

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

REVIEW:


***SPOILER ALERT ***

The 74th Hunger Games have ended and Katniss and Peeta have emerged as victors. As the two of them begin to settle back in their homes at District 12 into a life of normalcy, things begin to get ugly in other districts. Riots break out and people begin to question the authority of the Capital. Inadvertently, Katniss is the initiator and her mockingjay pin has become the symbol of the rebels.

President Snow attempts to thwart the rebellions by threatening Katniss, but she has plans of her own. As the 75th Games dawn nearer, there are many more surprises that Katniss has to deal with and none of them are pleasant. In fact, they all mark her doom.


For the first half of the book I expected it to turn out to be one of those stories where after all the adventure and drama of the first instalment, the plot boils down to a teen girl being confused about her feelings for two teen boys. But I'm glad I stuck with the book, because once the 75th Hunger Games begin, the action and suspense becomes intense. After that I had to keep reading until the wee hours of morning, for I just couldn't stop myself from knowing the end.

Suzanne Collins has done some wonderful work in this book. If there is any list of recommended YA books out there, this trilogy should definitely feature in it.


+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.6 - author name contains 'z')
+10 Review

Task Total = 35

GRAND TOTAL = 400

Task 20.9: Take the High Road

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker

I had high expectations for this book. The concept is undoubtedly fascinating and a lot of the material is quite interesting. Unfortunately for me, this read like a gigantic research paper. I could mentally picture the narrative as an outline with Roman numerals, such as one uses in an English composition class, and while this made the book organized, it made for very long, boring stretches.
I listened to this as an audiobook and found my concentration drifting off anywhere and everywhere else. The first few chapters capture the reader's attention simply because the material being discussed is incredibly graphic. The middle chapters are exactly the opposite. Maybe it reads differently on paper, but having graphs and charts and statistics narrated to me made it a struggle to keep reading.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Combo (20.7- Canadian author; 20.10 publ. 2011, 10.5- 309 ratings)
+15 Jumbo (848 pages)

Task Total = 60

Grand Total = 160

10.2 NYE Countdown
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

+10 pts - Task
+20 pts - Combo(10.4 - #42 on Great Loves List,10.6 - Q & Z,20.3 - #62 on exceeded expectations,20.4 - set at the turn of the 20th century,)
+10 pts - LiT (spanish)
+5 pts - Oldies (1985)
+10 pts - Review

This book is on the Crazy Love list for a good reason. A man who loves a woman for over 50 years without ever touching her is well, touching. However the novel seemed to drag on and drag on, year by year, month by month week by week for the entire 50 years. Like his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, I found his style almost Faulkner –like. The terminable back stories that sally off on tangents and points and details that I found tiresome. I better tolerated it in One Hundred Years of Solitude because the book kept moving, from generation to generation with unforgettable characters whereas this took stagnated on me with the focus on this half century triangle and only from their part of view. Of course Marquez has the unexpected and weird experiences written in, but the land between these scenes was a desert.

I have another feeling about this author. I think his books have too much creepy sex. In One Hundred Years of Solitude it was the incest. In Love in the Time of Cholera, I found the sexual relationship between a fourteen year old girl and a man “seventy years older” revolting not to mention the fact that he became the girl’s guardian because of family ties. Picking her up from school to spend the weekend in bed made me cringe. The fact the girl killed herself because she was so in love with this decrepit , old man and wanted him so badly is really hard to swallow and sounds more like a fantasy that a real live fourteen year old. The author also gives a vignette of a lady who was grabbed from behind and thrown on the rocks of the jetty and harshly raped without ever seeing her attacker’s face yet he ended up being her one “true” love. Yech! The message he sends about women is that they are all nymphomaniacs that can be used, abused, abandoned and it’s all perfectly acceptable. The ending didn't bother me. At least the lovemaking was between two consenting adults! So anyway one star for me.

55 pts - Task Total
1150 pts - Grand Total

Carolyn wrote: "Task 20.9: Take the High Road

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker

I had high expectations for this book. The concept is undo..."

Thanks for that review. I was actually about to download that book from audiobooks. Too bad. Like you said the topic is fascinating.

10.5 Underrated

Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See by Bill Shapiro



I love true stories, especially when it's not precisely a "story"...more something that hints at a larger story that you have to fill in for yourself. I love Found Magazine with it's pictures and scraps of note that people find and send in; I love "The Moth" podcast with it's five-minute short stories; I love PostSecret with the often compelling secrets that anonymous senders from around the world submit. This book feeds right into that obsession. It's a compilation of love notes, break-up letters, cards, and memos that would normally never be seen by anyone other than the intended. It made me laugh and cry and made me grateful and jealous and, most of all, it made me happy to be alive. Quick, easy read (except for some of the handwriting...a little hard to decipher), rather enjoyed it.

+10 Task (808 ratings)
+10 Review

Task Total = 20

Grand Total = 850

I am sooo excited--I finished something!
CiV
15.10
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, 464 pages, originally published 1925

L-M, 461-500/861-900, 1917-1928

+85
+100 CiV completed

Previous total: 575
New Grand Total: 760

itpdx wrote: "I am sooo excited--I finished something!


+100 CiV completed"

Whoopee!

itpdx wrote: "I am sooo excited--I finished something!
CiV
15.10
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, 464 pages, originally published 1925

L-M, 461-500/861-900, 1917-1928

+85
+100 CiV completed

Pre..."

Congratulations!

10.10 - Group Reads

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

+10 Task
+15 Combo (20.4 – set 30 years in the future; 20.8 – the fictional Anorak’s Almanac plays big role; 20.11 – published in 2011)

Task Total = 25 points

15.2 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams, 167 p, pub in 1984 (A-B; 141-180/541-580; 1977-1988)

Task Total = 20 points

20.3 - Great Expectations

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

+20 Task (#15 on Exceeded Expectations list)
+15 Combo (10.6 – author’s name contains x; 20.4 – set more than 25 years in past; 20.8 – most of the plot centers on the book the main characters are writing)

Task Total = 35 points

20.6 - Bleak House

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

+20 Task (main character is a lawyer)
+10 Combo (10.6 – author’s name contains z; 20.10 – published in 2010)
+5 Jumbo (562 pages)

Task Total = 35 points


Posting Total = 115 points

Grand Total = 360 points

Task 20.5 - In honor of David Copperfield, the most autobiographical of Dickens’ works, read an autobiography

Then Again(2011) by Diane Keaton (Hardcover, 268 pages)
Review: Diane Keaton herself wrote this memoir. Her mother, Dorothy, had kept a journal throughout Diane’s life. The last few years of Dorothy’s life she had Alzhemier's disease. Almost half of the book is focused on Dorothy: her journal, her reactions to Diane, and her final decline and passing away. The rest of the book was verbal snapshots of events in Diane’s life. She describes how she created the “look” of Annie Hall in the landmark movie of the same name. Her big three loves (Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino) are present, but as cameos; if you read quickly you can miss them. She adopted two babies when she was in her 50s. The babies were cute and she likes being a mom. There, I’ve told you almost everything Diane does about her private life.

Overall, it was quick read. I would have liked more of Diane in the book than there was. Recommended for Diane Keaton fans and for those wishing to read about dealing with Alzhemier's disease.

Combo points 10.5: as of 02/09/12 @ 09:26 AM, Then Again had 979 ratings.


+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.5 underrated, 20.10 “2011”)
+10 Review

Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 = 40

Grand Total: 1070 + 40 = 1110

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "itpdx wrote: "I am sooo excited--I finished something!


+100 CiV completed"

Whoopee!"

Congratulations!

20.4 A Christmas Carol

The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt 3 stars

This is a true historical novel - all of the characters were real people. I freely admit I'd never heard of them. None of them are likely to come up in any conversation I might have either.

It is the world of mathematics in the early 20th Century at Trinity College, England. The Indian Clerk of the title is Ramanujan, who is described by G.H. Hardy, then a famous mathematician, as being "the greatest mathematician of the last 100 years, perhaps the last 500 years." There are formulas interspersed, which I had no problem skipping over and feel I didn't miss anything by doing so. It's an interesting story, but not compelling. I'm happy to have learned of these fellows and their world.

I picked this up in large part because it was nominated for the Pen/Faulkner, because the title attracted me, and because it has a beautiful photo on the cover. (I fall easily for good covers.) It is quite well written and I appreciate the time I spent with it. I won't recommend it, I think you have to be drawn to it and I think it has a small audience. However, it deserves a larger audience than the LGBT circle to which it has probably been relegated. There is one very brief, somewhat graphic, homosexual encounter, and the rest is only alluded to. That G.H. Hardy was gay is part of the story, but only a part.

+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.5, 478 ratings, 20.8 One Tuscan Summer was read by several characters and was on sale in bookstores)
+10 Review

Task Total = 40

Grand Total = 830

20.1 Charles Dickens

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Review:
Left penniless by the death of his father, Nicholas Nickleby comes to London with his mother and sister to ask for help from rich moneylending uncle Ralph Nickleby. But Ralph is a typical Dickensian villain with little time for poor relations. He sends Nicholas off to Yorkshire as a teaching assistant to Mr Squeers, the proprietor of Dotheboys Hall school, where boys are kept barely alive at a cost of £20 a year each, and finds Nicholas’s sister Kate a job as a dressmaker with one of his creditors. Nicholas escapes the school with the devoted ex-pupil Smike and is reunited with his mother and sister in London, where he soon incurs the wrath of his uncle.
One of Dickens’ best in my opinion. There’s comedy, tragedy, bad ends for the wicked and happiness for the good. Dotheboys Hall is a wonderful creation and although there are some odd digressions it turned into a real page-turner for me.

+20 Task (pub.1839)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.3 set London; 20.8 refers to fictional novel "The Lady Flabella")
+15 Oldie 1762-1861
+15 Jumbo 800+ (817 pages)

Task total = 70

20.7 Baby It's Cold Outside

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Lexile: 860

Review:
Todd has been brought up believing that he is the last-born of a recently-settled planet where all the men and animals can hear each other's thoughts as Noise, and all the women have died. Then a girl appears from the swamp, and she and Todd have to run for their lives.
I loved this book. It is so well written: the world is completely convincing and the characters are full of conflict. There's achievement and there's heartbreak. I have a lot of unanswered questions but there are two more books in the series ... and this one ends with a cliffhanger which is something that I normally hate in books, but in this case I didn't mind. Enough was resolved just before that, that it seemed like a reasonable place to stop. I'll definitely be reading the next one.

+20 Task (US author)
+10 Review

Task total = 30

Grand total = 1605

10.4 Love Is In The Air

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I grew up absolutely loving the movie. What kid who grew up in the 80's does not remember a time when they would quote incessantly "As you wish!" or "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Yet I wasn't sure if the book would be quite as perfect as the movie. This book is the movie...just with some added comedic scenes and information (like the Zoo of Death). Charming and action-packed, this book just flew by.

The only thing I didn't really care for was Buttercup's Baby...and this was because it was such a tiny fragment of the sequel that could possibly exist one day. There was barely even a scene to it so it was frustrating to be left with no resolution or continuation. I really hope Goldman can complete it one of these days.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.8, 20.3)
+5 Oldie

Task Total = 35

Grand Total = 300

20.3 Despised Book

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - 740L

I have to admit I saw the movie based on this book before I was able to read it. While the movie was fun, I was vastly disappointed with the mythological inaccuracies that were rife throughout. I have particularly come to be annoyed with the trend of making the God of the dead/underworld the villain. Hades, Anubis, etc.

I was so relieved when none of those same inaccuracies occurred in the book. Rather I could just sit back and enjoy the modernization of the Greco-Roman mythos. There were more monsters, more gods, more action--just more everything. The plot had greater complexity and the characters felt more realized. Overall I enjoyed the book so much more than the movie as I could actually appreciate the mythological cameos and therefore the overall book.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.9)

Task Total = 35

Grand Total = 335

20.8 Fictional Fiction

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This book is just downright exquisite and heartrending. I can count on one hand the books that have made me actually cry...and this is now among that small number. For the last half of the book I believe tears were just rolling down my face. The characters were witty, charming, realistic, and poignant. This book has stuck with me and it made me think realistically even about my own life. Green imbues this book with a very direct and honest, yet empathetic, view of the world.

At one point the main character Hazel describes trying to share her favorite book: "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal."

There is something about that hush of rareness to this book. It is hard to extract yourself from Hazel when the book comes to a close and I had this vague disappointment that it had actually concluded as I wanted to just continue reading and reading. However, the ending was so heartbreaking and perfect that I could never actually voice a complaint--it was too poignant and beautiful. An absolutely impressive work by Green.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.2 - Indianapolis/Amsterdam, 20.10)

Task Total = 40

Grand Total = 375