Bucket’s
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(group member since Feb 13, 2015)
Bucket’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 261-280 of 303
15.2 TDoSSing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Rated 5* by Sara Grace and Karen Michele Burns.
This is wonderfully-written and very lyrical. There are three characters whose perspectives we enter, and each voice is realistic and distinct. The balance created by having the voices of both Leonie and Jojo is the heart of the novel.
The theme of providing food (or hunger when food is not provided) as a metaphor for love is fascinating throughout. Leonie cannot provide either (love or food) for her kids in any way -- she can't think beyond her own needs -- and also withholds both to feel in control.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 25
Season total: 195
15.1 TDoSInvisible Man by Ralph Ellison (published 1952)
Rated 5* by Jama and Sara Grace.
Ellison captures the surreality of racism in a gut-punching way. This novel made me sit, as much as I can without living it, with the one-quarter humor and three-quarters utter despair required to survive in a completely unfair world.
Invisibility is weapon, symptom, safe haven, and punishment, all at once. Ellison shows over and over that there is no right answer, no success, when your skin is black. He deftly makes the reader feel it. To me, that's why this is such an important book.
+15 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post total: 25
Season total: 170
10.6 Page CountWhat is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (325 pages)
I so love Helen Oyeyemi. I feel like I'm barely holding on to reality when I read her work. It's smart and strange, modern and full of fairy tales, real and unreal. I can barely keep up with her twists and turns but I just can't stop reading either.
All of these stories (with several overlapping characters) hinge on keys and many are about books. All feature fluid interplay of gender, sexuality, and race. The first story, Books and Roses, is unforgettable. I also loved Is Your Blood as Red as This? and A Brief History of the Homely Wench Society.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Post Total: 15
Season Total: 145
10.2 Page CountSalvador by Joan Didion (112 pages, published 1983)
I only occasionally found a reading groove here. This reads like a New Yorker article (sprawling, reporting and literary at once) but it's not one of the timeless ones -- it's one of the current events/politics ones that is good reading when timely and less so later. And this is 40 years old.
For someone particularly interested in El Salvador and its recent history, though, then I think this would be a great choice. The writing is impeccable.
+10 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 130
10.1 Page Count The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (93 pages, pub 1943)
AND
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe (48 pages, pub 1844)
The Little Prince was a quick read, more fanciful nonsense than anything else. I found this to be more dated and less interesting, despite it's fun and zany ideas, than I expected. I was anticipating something a little more like Alice in Wonderland. But this is far less clever and somehow less sensical (as far as plot and character development).
The Purloined Letter isn’t as compelling as much of the rest of Poe’s work that I’ve read in the past. It was short enough to stay interesting, but it was a bit strange to me that this story never puts us in the action. It's all told second-hand, after the fact.
+10 Task (141 pages)
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 110
20.2 Riding the MetroEnduring Love by Ian McEwan
Set in London
Country: England
Continent: Europe
This is a great McEwan novel. He is so good here at taking a chance occurrence and teasing out it's life-changing psychological impact and complexity. There's a slow burn here on the truth, letting the reader believe and doubt the main character at once, and causing the mind (or at least mine!) to wonder if the distinction between fantasy and reality is as clear-cut as we think.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 25
Season total: 90
10.10 Page Count (500+)Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (630 pages, pub 1992)
Read this in college (about 2005) and finally got around to reading it again. I don't think I was quite as enamored this time, but it's still a great read.
Erasmus Kemp's intense awfulness struck me as more nuanced this time. I can see his lack of self-awareness, charisma, and self-love as the sources of his rage and self-centeredness. Before I just found him creepy and annoying.
Matthew Paris' story felt more tragic to me on first reading, but this time his arc felt very fitting. The way he talks about the success of his hopes (when ultimately that success was destroyed) makes it clear that he feels it fitting too.
+10 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post Total: 20
Season Total: 65
10.5 Page Count (250-299)Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers (256 pages, pub 1961)
Probably my least favorite McCullers, but this is a novel that takes place at a critical moment - the integration of the U.S. South. McCullers deftly captures the small town setting.
The characters here all struggle in their own ways and they all fall victim to their own coping mechanisms. Sherman finds a scapegoat for his (understandable) anger. Jester is too timid to be himself and seems doomed to follow in his father's footsteps. The judge either made me cringe or made me furious every time he opened his mouth. Malone is the most interesting, as he struggles to accept his diagnosis and what it means.
+10 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post total: 20
Season total: 45
20.1 Riding the MetroThe Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
Set in Cairo
Country: Egypt
Continent: Africa
I won't call this a fun read, but it was certainly an immersive and illuminating one. I found the events and language around gender frustrating and depressing, but not inaccurate. Moving from perspective to perspective was great here -- so many (all, really) of the stories were unhappy ones, so moving between them was a little less intense for the reader.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 25
Season total: 25
Woohoo! That's exactly what I was hoping! Thank you. :)Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Bucket wrote: "Thank you Elizabeth!
I think I'm running into the same thing again with Americana - looks like the MPE would be 454 pages, not 377 then, right?"
You've found another ..."
Thank you Elizabeth! I think I'm running into the same thing again with Americana - looks like the MPE would be 454 pages, not 377 then, right?
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Bucket wrote: "Another question - I'd like to use The Purloined Letter for task 10.1 but I'm not sure it works.
The MPE appears to be the English edition but the summary is in Frenc..."
Another question - I'd like to use The Purloined Letter for task 10.1 but I'm not sure it works. The MPE appears to be the English edition but the summary is in French. Can I plan to use it or should I look for something else?
For task 10.1, how do the style points work? Do all short works need to meet the style criteria to get the points or just 1? If I read 2 works that both were published before 1996 is that 10 style points or still 5?
15.7 Fabulous FirstsFooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
F-N
+15 Task
+5 Non-fiction
Task total = 20
Season total = 365
15.6 Fabulous FirstsReflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
C-R
+15 Task
Task total = 15
Season total = 345
20.2 Ann/eClose Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.3, 10.5, 20.9)
Task total = 35
Season total = 310
Going through the list, I also happened to notice that Liechtenstein has the same entry twice:Liechtenstein: History and Institutions of the Principality by Pierre Raton (Mary)
