Bucket’s Comments (group member since Feb 13, 2015)

Bucket’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.18 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: A A B C C D E F 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 5 so these remain: B D E F 2 4 6 6.

A1 (A=Setting, 1=North America)

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

+15 Task (set 100% in North America - mostly in Crosby, Maine)

Post total: 15
Season total: 220

15.17 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: A B C C D E F 1 2 3 3 4 5 5 so these remain: A B D E F 1 2 4 6 6.

B3 (B=Publish Date, 3=1951-1975)

Girl with Green Eyes by Edna O'Brien

+15 Task (1962)
+5 Old (1962)

Post total: 20
Season total: 205

15.16 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: A C C D E F 1 2 3 4 5 5 so these remain: A B B D E F 1 2 3 4 6 6.

C4 (C=Page Length, 4=250-350 pages)

Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life by Shigehiro Oishi

+15 Task (256 pages)

Post total: 15
Season total: 185

15.15 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: A C D E F 1 2 3 5 5 so these remain: A B B C D E F 1 2 3 4 4 6 6.

F1 (F=Translated from, 2=Russian/Czech/Polish/Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera

+15 Task (Czech)
+5 Old (1979)

Post total: 20
Season total: 170

15.4 Fall 2010 Reading Through Time

Task 15.10 1501-1550
Read a book originally published 1501-1550.

Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

+15 Task (1532)
+5 Old (1532)
+5 Big (712 pages)

Post total: 25
Season total: 150

Just claimed points for The Internationals by Sarah May in post 209. (See post: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

This book is set 100% in Macedonia and turns it green!

15.14 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: A C D E 2 3 5 5 so these remain: A B B C D E F F 1 1 2 3 4 4 6 6.

C2 (C=Page Length, 2=100-200 pages)

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

+15 Task (175 pages)
+5 Old (1960)

Post total: 20
Season total: 125

15.13 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: A D E 3 5 5 so these remain: A B B C C D E F F 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 6 6.

A3 (A=Setting, 3=Europe)

The Internationals by Sarah May

+15 Task (Set in Macedonia in SE Europe.)
Note: For the Countries of the World project, this book is set 100% in Macedonia.

Post total: 15
Season total: 105

15.12 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: D E 5 5 so these remain: A A B B C C D E F F 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 6 6.

D5 (D=Author, 5=Male 60+ or posthumous)

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

+15 Task (Jonathan Haidt was born in Oct 1963 so is 61 years old.)

Post total: 15
Season total: 90

15.11 Fall 2013 Pick ‘n’ Mix

For this challenge, there are 6 categories (A-F) each divided into 6 sub-categories (1-6). For each task, read a book that fits a sub-category. No letter and no number can be used more than twice. Used so far, including this task: E 5 so these remain: A A B B C C D D E F F 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 6 6.

E5 (E=Genre, 5=non-fiction, Dewey decimal 000-499)

Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz

+15 Task (Dewey decimal 306.81 Culture and Institutions – Marriage and marital status)

Post total: 15
Season total: 75

15.3 Fall 2010 Reading Through Time

Task 15.3 1851-1900
Read a book originally published 1851-1900.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs

+15 Task (1861)
+5 Old (1861)

Post total: 20
Season total: 60

15.2 Fall 2010 Reading Through Time

Task 15.2 1901-1950
Read a book originally published 1901-1950.

A Young Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov

+15 Task (1925)
+5 Old (1925)

Post total: 20
Season total: 40

15.1 Fall 2010 Reading Through Time

Task 15.1 1951-2000
Read a book originally published 1951-2000.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

+15 Task (1989)
+5 Old (1989)

Post total: 20
Season total: 20

Great! I'm excited to see Lesotho (and probably some others) turn green. I did notice one mistake when I was looking through the spreadsheet today. Central African Republic has 3 books, but is still orange.

I think I have a book for Macedonia I'll read this summer -- so more progress to come.

Anika wrote: "Bucket wrote: "I just claimed points for Singing Away the Hunger: The Autobiography of an African Woman by Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya in post #458.

It's set in Lesotho an..."

15.4 CYOA

Path: Classics - 301+ - Seeker - Island

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

+15 Task (set on a fictional Pacific island)

Task total =15
Season total = 565

15.3 CYOA

Path: Classics - 301+ - Seeker

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg

+15 Task (Smilla is trying to find out how her neighbor’s son died)

Task total =15
Season total = 550

15.2 CYOA

Path: Classics - 301+

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

+15 Task (518 pages)

Task total =15
Season total = 535

I just claimed points for Singing Away the Hunger: The Autobiography of an African Woman by Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya in post #458.

It's set in Lesotho and should turn that country green!

20.10 True/False

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant

Review: Fascinating, terrifying and depressing all at once.

The central message is that we're basically hurtling towards complete disaster, everyone with any power to change things knows it and yet barrels ahead with the status quo, and there's very little the vast majority of people can do because our small efforts to reduce our carbon footprint are barely a drop in the bucket.

We also get the full history of climate change research (and denial), the history and science of fire and climate at all levels (from Pangaea to today) and a look at many of the major forest fires of the last few decades.

The centerpiece of the book though, and what gives it narrative tension and a page-turnery feel, is a detailed description of the Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada in 2016. Vaillant tells the story from both a scientific and a human perspective -- it's very compelling, if a bit drawn out and repetitive at times. And it's the perfect choice given the extreme nature of the fire, its impact on the community and the fact that Fort McMurray exists as a vibrant town only because of the oil industry and it's extremes.

+20 Task (narrative nonfiction)
+10 Review
+10 Not a novel (narrative nonfiction)
+10 Combo (20.2 - Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction; 20.4 - MPG climate change)

Task total =50
Season total = 515

20.9 I Bless the Rains Down in Africa

Singing Away the Hunger: The Autobiography of an African Woman by Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya

Review: A quick read, and worth the time to see the world through someone else's eyes.This is the story of Mpho’s life in Lesotho, starting with a bit of her mother’s story and continuing up through when she’s telling the story as a grandmother. Mpho speaks 8 languages and is matriarch of a large family she loves deeply.

I appreciated that the story is Mpho's voice and story based on her memories alone, without heavy editing or clarification. I don't have the historical and political context to truly understand Mpho's story, but that's okay because the point here is her world view and her life. And she's a great storyteller.

+20 Task (born and lived in Lesotho)
+5 Bonus (I think this turns Lesotho green!)
+10 Review
+10 Not a novel (auto-bio)
+5 Oldies (pub’d 1996)
+5 Combo (10.1 - Mpho travels on foot between her mother’s house and her husband’s house repeatedly and it’s more than a day’s walk)

Task total =55
Season total = 465